Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 306 Sweeping Jinling (End)

At an artillery position in the south of the city, the order for a test fire was issued. The gunner immediately poked the firing port with the ignition fork. The cannon made a loud bang, and the shell flew towards the southern wall of Jiankang with a trail of white smoke. The cannon also suddenly retreated.

However, because of the advance preparation of recoil stoppers, which were long triangular strips of wood placed behind the wheels of the gun carriage, the artillery was actually climbing a slope when it was recoiled, which was equivalent to using gravity resistance to offset part of the recoil force, greatly reducing the recoil distance of the artillery, and the recoil stopped after only retreating nearly two meters.

Then, under the gravitational potential energy guided by the wooden slope, the artillery automatically reset itself forward, and the wheels were blocked by the limiting earth ridge in front, allowing the artillery to stop at its initial firing position again.

This set of buffered recoil artillery technology that relied on gravity design greatly reduced the floor space required for artillery firing and also reduced the workload for building artillery positions, which made it possible to build 32 artillery positions in half a day.

The rumbling sound of the cannons, like thunder, also brought great shock to the defenders inside and outside the city, as well as the civil officials in the commander's office.

Especially the prisoners who were responsible for building the artillery positions, couldn't help but look sideways when they saw the cannons firing. They were defeated by this magical weapon that day. Some people still start to get scared reflexively when they hear the sound of cannons.

Fortunately, they are the ones with the cannons this time.
Some captives developed a blind worship of artillery weapons, thinking that the Shengwu Army had such divinely-punished weapons, which must have been sent by God to save them. As long as they joined the Shengwu Army and drove away the Tartars, their lives would get better and better in the future.

Lu Jin also set up a telescope on a high ground near Yuhuatai in the south of the city to observe the effect of the artillery bombardment. In the first round of test firing, the good effect was that it directly hit the parapet on the top of the city wall, instantly causing a nearly two-meter-long section of rammed earth parapet to collapse. Solid brick-like soil blocks flew everywhere, knocking down several nearby soldiers defending the city, but the injuries were not serious. Only those who were directly hit by the artillery shells would cause serious casualties.

Some of the shells missed the target, or hit the waist of the city wall directly and were bounced off by the thick rammed earth, or they were hit too high and the shells passed directly over the top of the city and fell somewhere in the city.

With the current level of technology in the muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon, it is simply a fantasy to want to use solid bullets or grenades to destroy the rammed earth walls. I wonder how much ammunition would be needed to achieve this effect.

This is also the reason why the development directions of artillery technology in China and the West diverged in the Middle Ages. Western artillery was originally developed for the purpose of siege. They used artillery to directly bombard city walls, while the Ming Dynasty developed the Tiger Crouching Cannon, an artillery that was mainly intended to kill enemy personnel.

Because most of the city walls in the West are made of brick and stone structures, and a single-layer brick and stone wall is at most one meter thick, a cannon can really knock down the city wall.

Most of China's city walls are made of rammed earth. Even the walls of ordinary county towns are about six meters thick, slightly narrower at the top. The walls of prefectural cities can even be more than ten meters thick, and the walls of capital cities can even be more than ten to twenty meters thick.

It is a large solid mound of earth, which is very effective in absorbing energy and is not sensitive to ordinary artillery fire.

According to the experience of building field fortifications in World War I and World War II, the headquarters had to be dug underground, with logs as pillars and ceilings, and covered with several meters of soil. Even a 152mm howitzer could not penetrate it, let alone the rammed earth walls of ancient China that were more than ten meters thick. If you hit them with solid bullets, the barrels of the guns might be destroyed, and the wall would only lose a layer of brick skin.
Therefore, when using muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons to attack ancient Chinese cities, the most effective method should be to focus on killing the defenders on the city walls, targeting people rather than competing with the rammed earth walls.

Therefore, Lu Jin's strategy was to build artillery positions at the corners of the city wall and fire solid bullets in the direction of the city wall, allowing the shells to ricochet in the direction of the city wall, mainly to kill the defenders. As for the gun positions perpendicular to the city wall, solid bullets were first used to destroy the parapet (the battlements that were not very thick) and the enemy's city defense equipment, and finally grenades were used to kill the defenders.

Boom boom boom boom boom————

After the first round of test firing and adjustment, the hit rate of the second round of artillery fire was significantly improved, causing the parapet on the city wall to collapse. Some defenders who were directly hit by the iron balls were directly beaten to pieces, scaring the Yuan army soldiers nearby to tremble in fear. Even with the parapet, it could not stop the shells, not to mention the shields in their hands.

With a loud bang, the 23-pound artillery shell directly destroyed the parapet and flew towards the Yuan army behind the parapet. A Yuan soldier holding a shield was directly smashed into pieces with his shield. Without a sound, he turned into a pile of parts and scattered all over the city wall.

The unlucky guy at the back was even more miserable. He was walking behind the shieldman during the bombardment and was hit in the hip by a cannonball. One of his thighs and buttocks was gone, and a huge gap was made in his waist by the cannonball. The internal organs in his torso flowed out, but he was still injured but not dead. He fell on the city wall and wailed for help from the defenders next to him.

"Ah! Save me, save me, I don't want to die."

"Ahhhhh~~" The soldiers nearby were frightened crazy when they saw this horrifying scene. They screamed and ran towards the stairs at the back, but were hacked to death by the supervisors who came up.

Then, Darughachi Danidas also appeared on the top of the city wall, poking his head out from the stairs and shouting, "Keep low to avoid the bullets, and wait for the enemy soldiers to get close to the city wall before getting up to defend against them. Archers, be ready, and shoot arrows when the enemy soldiers get close!"

"Yes!" The archers gathered at the stairs behind the city wall responded one after another. Anyway, they would not be hit by artillery shells here, so it was none of their business how tragically people died up there.

What Danidas didn't expect was that the Holy Warrior Army's heavy artillery quickly changed the type of ammunition. Lying on the city wall could indeed effectively avoid the artillery fire, but the Holy Warrior Army began to use grenades from the third round.

These grenades are equipped with the most primitive time fuse. At the connection between the iron shell shell and the wooden cartridge case below, there are three circles of spirally coiled fuse like mosquito coils. The gunner can choose the appropriate ignition position according to different ranges.

For example, if the explosion is at 400 meters, keep the fuse shorter; if it is at 800 meters, keep the fuse longer.

Although very primitive, this design is very effective considering the current technological level. If used on the battlefield at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it would be a dimensionality reduction attack.

Unlike the previous artillery bombardment, this time the bomb did not directly kill the enemy or destroy the women's wall with kinetic energy. Instead, it flew over from the gap created by the previous artillery bombardment with a string of white smoke, and exploded in mid-air above the city wall. The iron shell bomb loaded with several kilograms of gunpowder exploded violently, and shrapnel flew all over the city wall. No matter whether the Yuan army on the city wall was lying or standing, they could not avoid being attacked by such shrapnel.

"Ah! My back!"

A Yuan soldier lying on the ground on the top of the city wall felt a pain in his back. He reached out to touch it and immediately saw blood on his hands. The shrapnel had directly pierced his back and his ears were dazed by the loud noise of the explosion. He only saw a comrade next to him shouting something at him at the top of his lungs, but he could hear nothing.

Someone pointed at his ears, and the Yuan soldier reached out to touch his face and found two lines of blood flowing out of his ears.
After this round of howitzer firing, the Yuan army on the top of the city no longer dared to stay in the bombardment position, and fled to the city section that was not bombarded. There were only 32 heavy howitzers participating in the bombardment, and they had to be divided into three directions: east, south, and north. Each wall was only assigned ten guns, and two were used to bombard the corners of the wall. In this way, there were only eight guns bombarding the front of the wall. Jiankang City was so large, and each wall was several miles long. Obviously, eight guns could not cover all the walls, so they could only pick some key positions to take care of, such as the location of the staircase, or the location where the city defense equipment was deployed.

Most of the other sections of the city wall that were not bombarded became a good place for the Yuan army to temporarily hide.

But the good times did not last long. After a while, the heavy artillery located at the corner of the city wall also opened fire. They fired solid iron bullets, which flew in an arc to the crowd of defenders on the top of the city, immediately causing heavy casualties to the defenders. Then they kept moving forward, bouncing on the top of the city four or five times in a row, and making the Yuan army that gathered on the top of the city to avoid the bombardment cry for their parents.

Wanzhebuhua and Bo Jianu were anxious when they saw that the artillery bombardment of the Shengwu Army was so effective, but there was nothing they could do. To send reinforcements to the top of the city at this time would be suicide, but they did not dare to withdraw all the defenders on the city, for fear that the Shengwu Army would take advantage of the artillery bombardment to launch an attack on the city.

After the fifth round of bombardment, each artillery position gradually got the hang of things. The shells became more and more accurate, and the defenders on the city wall were effectively suppressed. After seeing it through the telescope, Lu Jin immediately gave the order, "Begin the siege!"

On the south side of the city, Xu Da led a battalion of musketeers and rushed forward first. They formed a line under the city across the moat, and shouted orders while leading the soldiers forward.

"Quick, quick! Don't form a battle line. Form groups of three to guard the battlements. Shoot anyone who shows his head. No need to wait for a volley. Shoot as soon as he shows his head. Three people take turns shooting to suppress the defenders on the city wall!"

The musketeers quickly deployed beside the moat, aiming their guns at the battlements of the parapet. When the Yuan army discovered that the Shengwu Army was approaching the city wall, an archer immediately exposed half of his body and wanted to shoot an arrow. However, before the arrow was released, the muskets on the other side of the moat fired.

With a bang, five or six shotgun shells flew over and killed the archer on the spot. Seeing this, the other Yuan army archers behind him pulled the man's body over and found that there were several bloody holes on his face, neck and chest. They were immediately scared like grandsons and dared not show their heads through the gap in the parapet even if they were beaten to death.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to suppress the defenders on the city walls with muskets and artillery, other siege troops were also busy. A bridge-building team carried small fishing boats into the moat, put planks on the boats, tied ropes on both sides of the boats to the wooden piles that had just been driven into the shore, and several floating bridges were quickly built.

Seeing that the pontoon bridge was built, Yu Tonghai, the commander-in-chief in the south, gave an order and immediately a team of assault soldiers wearing heavy armor and holding short weapons came forward with ladders, crossed the pontoon bridge, set up ladders under the city, and began to attack the city like ants.

At the front was a company commander of the 9th Regiment who had taken on the task of being the first to reach the summit. His name was Li Xu, and he was also a squad leader in one of the eight battalions near Chaohu Lake.

Since crossing the river, the Shengwu Army has fought very smoothly, captured tens of thousands of prisoners in succession, and expanded the army by 13 regiments. Many officers were promoted, especially Chang Yuchun's th Regiment, which was directly expanded into a division. The company commander under his command was directly promoted to battalion officer, and the battalion officer became the regiment commander. All of this was seen by everyone.

The 13th Regiment made great contributions by being the first to climb the river during the crossing. If they want to be promoted, they naturally have to make equal contributions. Therefore, everyone signed up enthusiastically for the mission of being the first to climb the river in this battle, and they almost fought for the first spot. Li Xu was the lucky one who got the mission.

Li Xu was wearing two layers of heavy armor, holding a captured small round shield in his left hand, a grenade with the moisture-proof paper torn off in his right hand, a smoldering fuse in his mouth, a throwing axe and a waist knife, grenades and an iron mace hanging on his waist, dressed like a heavily armed sword and shield soldier.

This guy climbed up the ladder very quickly and was about to reach the top of the city wall in a few steps. Just when he was about to reach the top, the Yuan army above was not stupid. When they saw the ladder on the top of the city wall, they immediately picked up a stone and ran over, trying to knock down the thief who was climbing up.

However, just when the Yuan soldier showed half of his body, a gunshot rang out from the moat below the city. The Yuan soldier was knocked back two steps and fell on his back on the top of the city wall.

Li Xu took advantage of this opportunity to light the grenade with the fuse in his mouth, preheated it for two seconds, and then threw it directly onto the city wall. There was a loud bang from above, followed by the screams of a group of people. He took this opportunity to climb up immediately, rushed to the top of the city wall in a few steps, pulled out his steel knife and shield, and killed the Yuan army, leaving a foothold for the soldiers who were climbing the city wall from behind.

As the second and third Shengwu Army soldiers climbed up to the top of the city wall, and with the support of grenades and muskets from below, the Ninth Regiment quickly seized a section of the city wall and killed the Yuan army on both sides. One team went to seize control of the stairs, and the other team went to capture the south gate.

At the South Gate, the other artillery companies of the artillery camp were not idle either. The light artillery was used to follow the main attack force into the city for support, the heavy artillery was used to suppress the city walls, and all the remaining field artillery was piled up at the gate, firing wildly at the gate with solid bullets. The iron bullets made the wooden gate full of holes, scaring the Yuan army in the city so much that they didn't dare to stay in the gate.

Zhang Desheng took the opportunity to have people build a pontoon bridge, and then sent people to push open the dilapidated city gate. A team of heavily armored spear and shield soldiers rushed into the gate, followed closely by a light howitzer loaded with shotgun shells.

When the Yuan army discovered that the city gate had been lost and the Shengwu Army had entered the gate, an officer immediately led his men to counterattack and drive the Shengwu Army out of the gate.

However, as soon as these people appeared, the spearmen and shield soldiers in front of the team automatically moved to the sides of the doorway to make room for the artillery behind them.

With a loud bang of the cannon, hundreds of grape-sized shotgun iron beads were sprayed out, filling the entire space of the gate. The Yuan army that had just rushed in to retake the city gate was immediately beaten into pieces by the shotgun, and the pieces stuck to the walls of the gate. The gate was also filled with white smoke.

"Kill!"

At this moment, the heavy infantry of the 17th Regiment rushed out from the smoke, took the opportunity to attack the city, and threw grenades at anyone they saw. The musketeers of the chariot camp led by Zhang Desheng also followed in, pushing five howitzers, and under the guidance of a guide, they charged towards Zhenhuai Bridge.

At the same time, in the main attack direction of the East Gate, under the suppression of muskets and artillery, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Liang's two trap camps were the first to climb onto the top of the city wall, and the city gate was blown open by field artillery. The main forces of the two imperial guards brigades, eight musket battalions and two trap camps rushed in all at once, with the help of 12 howitzers. The Eastern Assault Group, led by a guide, launched a rapid attack towards the West Gate. Any Yuan army they encountered along the way was immediately knocked down by a volley of muskets.

If the trend continues, it is only a matter of time before Jiankang City is cut off from the north and the south.

At Yuhuatai, Feng Guosheng saw this scene through a telescope, as well as the sound of cannons and white smoke coming from the city center in the distance, and he immediately became excited.

"General, the three armies have entered the city. This is victory!"

(End of this chapter)