Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 307 Defending the City
Teldun's artillery position.

The artillery firing intervals became longer and the accuracy worse. Hong Lingyu, who was supervising the battle, was very dissatisfied and did not hesitate to use his whip.

"Why the hell don't you understand!" The small-eyed slave in the smooth leather robe, after repeated explanations to no avail, angrily cursed Red Feather: "If it explodes, then everything is over!"

For a mere slave to be so disrespectful to a samurai, he must have taken some kind of medicine.

However, the man with small eyes had a rather special status; he was the fire-warmer's [household servant]. In other words, he was the fire-warmer's private property, and no one dared to kill him.

Red Feather's expression grew even more somber, and he turned to look at the interpreter.

The small-eyed slave glared and yelled at the interpreter, "Translate it for him!"

The gunners, wrapped in tattered uniforms, remained silent, watching the farce unfold with cold indifference.

Of the gunners, three were former followers, the rest were captured Platu soldiers.

The prisoners who were more compliant and had not tried to escape were selected by the fire-brooders and formed into a separate battalion. They were taught artillery by small-eyed slaves who had become "honorable Teldonians," and eventually, the current Teldon Artillery Corps came into being.

The little-eyed slave was once an ordinary artilleryman in the Fifth Legion, but now she is a trusted servant of the Fire-Bother, a meteoric rise indeed.

However, the Fire-Bother clearly did not fully trust his new slaves, and sent additional people to supervise the artillery battle.

The man standing in front of the [Honor Slave], Red Feather, is the second son of the previous war supervisor.

The previous supervising officer's left leg was broken below the knee by a shell, and he died soon after the bleeding stopped.

The translator, trembling, relayed the small-eyed slave's words to Red Feather, making sure to translate the profanities as well.

Red Feather flew into a rage and, disregarding everything else, lashed out with her whip at the small-eyed slave's face, knocking him to the ground.

The small-eyed slave saw stars and struggled to get up, only to have a boot slam heavily onto his chest.

Red Feather drew her scimitar, pressed it against the small-eyed slave's neck, and said a few fierce words.

The interpreter quickly translated: "The Khan tells you to fire the cannons, so just do it. If you dare to make excuses to refuse again, I'll chop off your head."

The desperate, small-eyed slave clutched at a straw: "Great Khan! I want to see the Great Khan! [Hard] Khan!"

Hong Lingyu understood the last word and patted the other person's cheek with her scimitar: "[Hede] You will not see the Great Khan! The Great Khan is not here at all."

……

Meanwhile, Mason, behind the city wall, was also inspecting the condition of the third-generation cannons.

“It’s ruined.” Although Mason was very reluctant, he still made the decisive decision: “Send it back to the workshop.”

“We can use it a few more times,” Demon Ons said calmly. “Other wooden cannons can’t shoot solid shot very far.”

Mason's attitude was firm: "No, the seam has already cracked. Send it back to the workshop for reforging."

The demon Ons fell silent and led his men to push away the wooden cannon.

The Teldun's artillery was far from sufficient to destroy the entire wall, so they bombarded Arrowhead Fortress on the west side of the wall.

The Arrowhead Fortress of Ghevordan is a triangular fortress that juts from the city wall into the moat, a primitive bastion structure that allows for flanking attacks on enemies entering the moat.

The new triangular bunkers are generally independent of the main fortress, so that even if the triangular bunker falls, it can continue to be defended by relying on the main fortress.

However, due to the tight construction schedule, Arrowhead Fortress and the city walls of Gervodam were built as a single unit.

Once Arrowhead Fort falls, the city walls will soon be breached as well.

The shelling, which lasted from dawn until afternoon, left Arrowhead Bunker battered and bruised, with its steep walls collapsing into gentle slopes.

The Teldun men were maneuvering within the trenches, and the swaying feathers could be faintly seen. They watched silently as the cannons unleashed their power, without launching an attack on the city walls.

Mason didn't mind if the enemy continued to bombard him like this.

The Teldun seemed to be hoping that the cannons could completely destroy Arrowhead Fortress, but as soon as it got dark, Mason would immediately send men to repair the walls.

Through continuous ricocheting shells, Mason successfully forced the Teldun's artillery to retreat to a distance of 200 meters. With the increased distance, the Teldun's artillery accuracy decreased.

Even the most unconfident militia members had to admit that it was skill, not luck.

Ricochet shelling refers to a solid shell bouncing continuously after hitting the ground, much like skipping stones on a pond.

Although it looks somewhat comical, most of the shells eventually end up in the barbarians' gun emplacements by sheer coincidence.

When firing directly at a target, even slight differences in the firing angle, propellant load, and shell weight can cause severe deformation of the shell's trajectory.

Shells flying over the enemy's head cause no damage, while shells landing in front of the enemy may get stuck in the mud.

But when Mason aimed at the enemy a distance ahead and increased the explosive charge to lower the shell's trajectory, things subtly changed:
The soil is firm in winter, which allows shells that hit the ground at a small angle to be "deflected".
In this situation, as long as the shell lands in a certain area in front of the enemy, the bouncing shell can also cause damage.
Hitting an area in front of the enemy is far simpler than hitting the enemy directly.

Mason opened a new door... but the threshold was a bit of a tripping hurdle.

For an iron ball to bounce, the trajectory of the cannonball needs to be as straight as possible, meaning the cannonball needs to be fast.

Currently, the only way Mason knows to increase projectile velocity is to load more gunpowder.

As a result, after being used less than twenty times, the best quality third-generation wooden cannon was scrapped at a rate far exceeding Mason's expectations.

The demon Ons led his men to deliver the wooden cannon to a row of simple wooden sheds on the riverbank.

This is the weapons workshop in Gervodan. Although it is winter, there is no chill inside the workshop.

The blacksmiths, dressed only in thin clothes, were sweating profusely as they worked, the dull sound of their hammers never ceasing.

Ooka Tsuru, wearing a leather coat riddled with holes from burning iron filings, was forging a large, yellowish iron ingot on a water-powered forging hammer.

Seeing that their elder brother had already hammered the iron ingot into a flat cylinder, Da Gangcha's two younger brothers immediately raised chisel-like tools and fixed them directly above the iron cylinder.

With repeated heavy blows from the forging hammer, the iron pillar was pierced through from top to bottom. Then the chisel was removed and replaced with an iron rod to push it in.

The molten iron ingots were strung on iron rods and then forged into iron pipes.

The three Goncharov brothers remained silent throughout, yet their perfect teamwork was like that of a six-armed giant at work.

After the entire process was completed, Ooka Tsatsu sent an iron pipe, about one foot long and one inch thick, back to the furnace for reheating.

This iron pipe needs to be fused with three other iron pipes of the same size to finally obtain a cannon barrel with a length multiple of the diameter.

Upon seeing the demon Ons, Ogangcha asked directly, "What's wrong?"

“Cracked,” Demon Ons replied simply. “It’s ruined.”

With artillery fire raging in the front and forging iron in the rear, neither side had the energy for pleasantries.

"There's no other way." Da Gangcha gulped down a large jug of salt water, panting heavily: "The cannon barrel we pieced together is bound to break down sooner or later."

"What about the things Your Excellency the Tribunal asked you to prepare?" Demon Ons frowned and asked.

Ooka Tsuru's face turned pale: "We're ready... but who dares to use it?"

"None of your business," Demon Ons replied coldly.

...On the other side, at the Teldun's gun emplacement, the small-eyed slaves were forced to reload the cannons.

The small-eyed slave laboriously pushed the cannonball into the breech, while the other prisoners watched indifferently as the slave risked his life for his new master, with no one offering to help.

The prisoners merely pretended to be busy under the scolding and whipping, trying to stay as far away as possible.

The four long cannons of the Teldun tribe were purchased from the Chihe tribe. They were the same four cannons that Mason had used in the past, and they had all been nailed down and sunk in the river—truly second-hand daughters.

Nailing the cannon not only blocks the breech, but also causes imperceptible cracks and deformations in the barrel, necessitating secondary reinforcement with iron hoops.

The shell is rough when it enters the chamber; this is a dangerous sign.

The little-eyed slave inspected the cannon again and found that the high temperature had made the black paint sticky, and the iron rings that held the cannon in place had also developed tiny silver cracks.

"This cannon is no good." The small-eyed slave panicked completely, all his previous arrogance gone. He looked at Red Feather and pleaded, "This cannon really can't be used anymore!"

Although she couldn't understand what the little-eyed slave was saying, Red Feather could understand what the little-eyed slave meant.

Enraged, Red Feather slapped the small-eyed slave across the face, grabbed the ignition rod, and slammed it against the fire door.

Mason, behind the city wall, saw two plumes of white smoke rising from the enemy's artillery positions in the distance. The shells flew only a short distance before falling limply to the ground, and he could faintly hear screams coming from behind.

"Sir, what's wrong with the barbarians?" a militiaman asked, puzzled.

"It might be a barrel explosion." Mason frowned slightly.

The Teldun's artillery positions were filled with smoke, and both the gunners and the Teldun soldiers supervising the battle were all dizzy from the shockwaves.

A huge gash appeared in the barrel of the cannon that had exploded, and fragments flew out like lead bullets.

The largest fragment made direct contact with Red Feather's forehead, denting his skull before disappearing without a trace.

The barrel explosion was like a clarion call, sending messages in all directions by light cavalry, and Teldun's army began to move.

With the drums of war thundering, four shield wagons, having removed their camouflage, each pushed by six or seven men, advanced side by side toward the collapsed triangular fortress.

Behind the large shield wagon were several small handcarts loaded with soil, and the Teldun archers inside the trench also leaned out and fired arrows at the city wall.

"Beat the drums!" Mason ordered. "All men, ascend the city walls!"

The small drum sounded, and the militiamen hurriedly ran out of their shelters and climbed onto the wooden scaffold behind the city wall.

As the barbarians suddenly bared their fangs, and foul-smelling blood dripped from their sharp teeth, the militiamen, who had just gotten used to low-intensity artillery fire and were now all smiles and laughter, were instantly overwhelmed and unable to breathe.

The city walls were silent. The militiamen, their mouths dry, stared wide-eyed as the Teldun men approached.

After listening to Mason's explanation of the tactics, the militia captains realized that in the end, the barbarians still used their best skills.

The Teldun used their available resources to employ a "hybrid" siege tactic: approaching with trenches, concentrating their limited artillery fire to breach the walls, and then using their usual tactics—shields, filling the trenches, and scaling the walls.

"Dumbfounded? What are you afraid of? Do you think war is a game?" Mason surveyed Arrowhead Fortress, sternly rebuking the silent militia: "Even if you stand on a hundred-meter-high wall, you can't escape this life-or-death struggle! From now on, all of you are dead! Only the winners have the right to live!"

The Teldun's shield wagons moved thirty meters in, and the two wooden cannons on Arrowhead Fort roared.

The small iron pellets wrapped in parchment left the cannon barrel and scattered in mid-air.

Most of the shot was blocked by the shields, with a small portion passing through the gap between the two shields.

As soon as a Teltonian cried out in pain and released his hands from the cart, another pair of hands immediately took over.

"[Herd] By the gods!" roared the red-feathered [Tahei] who was commanding the shield wagon. "[Herd] The two-legged man's thunder is gone! Hurry!"

Hearing the barbarians roar "Woo-ka-ha!" in unison, the militia behind the city wall suddenly accelerated their advance and charged towards the city wall.

Suddenly, a militiaman covered his eyes and screamed, staggered back a few steps and fell off the wooden frame, an arrow shaft stuck between his fingers.

The stretcher team rushed over to carry away the militiaman who had been shot by an arrow, but he had already died.

Several more bowstrings twanged, and the armored soldiers on the shield wagons unleashed their arrows without fail, mercilessly killing the Zhevodan militiamen who were peering out in disbelief.

"Damn it! Idiots!" The tall, thin, and silent Captain Ivan suddenly erupted, cursing and slapping a militiaman standing dumbfounded next to him across the face: "What the hell are you all doing? Waiting to be slaughtered? Attack him!"

There was no time for the new recruits to adjust to the bloody scene; those who came to their senses gradually began to fight back.

Just a quarter of an hour earlier, the militiamen were laughing at Mason, hiding in their bunkers listening to the cannon fire, and many thought that "war is nothing more than this."
The next quarter of an hour, when the militiamen thought they had gotten used to fighting, they witnessed the true brutality of war, and many people were already dead.

Arrows and lead bullets flew through the air, gunshots and cries of agony rose and fell, but the siege was far from reaching its most brutal stage.

"What are you doing here?!" Mason stormed up Arrowhead Fortress and yelled at the gunners who were loading the guns: "Take the guns and move! Fire from the flank!"

Two groups of gunners hurriedly carried the wooden cannons to the sides of Arrowhead Fort, while the shield wagons had already reached the edge of the trench.

The two sides were less than six meters apart, separated only by a trench, and could even see the tips of each other's trembling beards.

The Terdun warriors' heavy bows and arrows were incredibly accurate at this distance; some of the Jevodan militiamen were even pierced by an arrow the moment they showed only half of their bow-wielding hands at the crenellations.

Seeing the militia on Arrowhead Fort being suppressed, Mason shoved and kicked those who were hiding behind the walls, too afraid to raise their heads: "Stand up! Go to the gunners' positions! Go to the flanks! Go!"

With the cover of shield wagons and archers, the Teldun used wheelbarrows to continuously dump soil and firewood into the trench.

There were also Telden men carrying pickaxes who silently descended to the bottom of the trench using ropes.

"The barbarians are pulling up the stakes!" a sentry on the side of the triangular fort shouted at the top of his lungs. "They're digging into the wall!"

"Liquid fire!" Mason roared, "Ons!"

Upon hearing the sound of the small military drums used to ascend the city walls, the demon Ons, who had rushed back to Arrowhead Fortress from the workshop, immediately led his men to carry out boxes of pottery jars from the bunker.

At the forefront, the centurion of Teldun, [Tahei], saw black objects being thrown out from behind the city walls one after another. The black objects shattered upon landing, like pottery.

A skilled archer shot an arrow through the air, hitting a pottery jar and spilling liquid from inside.

Realizing what the other party was about to do, Tahei was so terrified that his face contorted with rage. He rushed out of the shield wagon and cried out in despair, "[Herd] Get on!"

It was too late. Several torches were thrown into the trench, and a layer of blue flames spread at the bottom of the trench.

Bundles of hay were thrown into the moat, burning even more fiercely than ordinary hay, turning the moat into a sea of ​​fire in an instant.

Richard Mason picked up bundles of hay wrapped in gunpowder and threw them out of the city until thick smoke billowed and the stench of burning filled the air.

The inhuman screams of the dying soon ceased, and the advance of the Teldun was temporarily halted by the fire, but they did not retreat as the defenders had anticipated.

The Teldun men held their ground at the edge of the moat, using heavily armored archers to keep the militia on the city walls from raising their heads, and refused to retreat.

With the thick smoke obscuring his vision, Mason moved to the side of the arrow and finally saw what the Teldens were doing—under the cover of the smoke and the shield wagons, they were digging a trench along the moat.

At the same time, a plume of smoke rose into the sky—from the old town on the north bank.

[This chapter is Tuesday's update]
[Sorry, it's still cut short... I originally wanted to finish writing this part of the plot in one go, creating a long chapter of over 10,000 words, but I failed...]
[Therefore, the main chapter will be postponed to today (Thursday)]
[Again, I apologize.][Also, I haven't had time to transcribe the acknowledgments recently; I'll add them when I have time.]
[A very interesting record about the tactic of breaching walls to attack a city comes from the late Ming Dynasty book "Complete Book of War and Defense"]
[Shen Hongzhi said: In the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, Nurhaci, a barbarian, attacked Ningyuan City in Liaodong. Yuan Chonghuan, the Ningqian Circuit Intendant, used Western cannons to attack the city from the outer wall and the corner towers. The enemy dared not approach the city body and instead attacked the corner towers. They leaned the shields against the wall and men dug holes in the wall from under the shields. The cannons could not reach them. In a short time, a hole as large as a city gate was dug in the city. If it weren't for the Vice Prefect Jin Qizong using ten thousand men to burn it, the city would have collapsed. Thus, it is known that the corner towers should be angled and long. A long tower can protect the city body, and an angled tower can protect the corner towers.]

[Corner fortresses refer to the four corners of a city; moon fortresses refer to the smaller fortresses outside the main city that protect the city gates; in addition, there are "horse-faced fortresses," which refer to the protruding parts of the city wall. All three can be square or round, but all have the disadvantage of having blind spots.]

The evolution of the Later Jin's siege tactics is also quite interesting. The Jurchen tribes themselves were adept at building fortified villages, so they were no strangers to siege tactics. The Later Jin's methods evolved from "using shield carts and siege ladders to approach" (in the chaotic battles among the Jurchen tribes), to "spies breaching city gates" (in Fushun), then to "digging up the city walls" (in the Battle of Qinghe, where they dug up the walls and then used corpses to scale them), and finally to relying heavily on "artillery" (in Dalinghe and Songjin). This is practically a classic example of the diffusion and impact of military technology.

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(End of this chapter)