I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 256 Broken City
Jiang Bin knew very well what he was doing. He knew Zhu Houzhao very well. If Zhu Houzhao knew that he was bombarding Shunde City for this reason, he would only praise him.

If he was fooled by the prefect's words and then foolishly wrote a memorial to Zhu Houzhao asking what to do, he would definitely be labeled as incompetent and even lose the emperor's favor, so he had to report this matter to his superiors.

Fortunately, Shunde Prefecture is located inland and has been peaceful for a long time. The defense is not strict and the city gates are not blocked. Most importantly, the prefect of Shunde Prefecture could never have imagined that their army of a thousand people would actually dare to attack the prefectural city in such a cruel way.

"Pass my order, brothers, pull all the cannons over here! It just so happens that these cannons have not been used yet, so let's make good use of them today!" Jiang Bin continued.

He knew that after he bombarded Shunde City, he would be impeached by the court officials, but he was like a lice that would not itch if there were too many lice. The court officials had impeached him many times before, so he didn't care anymore. Anyway, as long as he could keep the emperor's favor, he could continue to be rich and powerful.
"Bring more gunpowder and bullets!" Jiang Jiangong added.

"Staff Officer Jiang is really thoughtful!" Jiang Bin said with a smile, "Order everyone to disband the battle formation and rest on the spot."

Peng Jie, the governor of Shunde, who was standing on the city wall, smiled as he looked at the new troops outside the city.

"Boss, today you strictly refused His Majesty's favored general Jiang Bin from entering the city. This will surely draw praise from the court and the public. Boss will surely be known as a loyal and upright person!" said a man dressed as a legal advisor.

"Hmph! Without the written orders from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice, you can't enter the city even if you say it to the sky. Besides, the people will suffer after these soldiers enter the city," Peng Jie sneered and said with some complacency.

"But the imperial edict is real." Peng Jie's face darkened. "What on earth did the Shen and Li families commit that caused His Majesty to issue an edict to arrest them by name, and even bypass the cabinet and the six ministries."

"I don't know, but I think it has something to do with the salt issue," the lawyer guessed carefully.

Peng Jie nodded silently. He suddenly beckoned to the master, motioning him to lean closer to his ear. He lowered his voice and said, "Send someone you trust to the Shen and Li residences to give them a heads-up."

The master understood and immediately said, "I'll go there."

"I'll feel relieved if the master goes there in person," said Peng Jie.

As the prefect of Shunde Prefecture, Peng Jie naturally had a lot of dealings with the local big families in Shunde Prefecture and had a lot of exchanges of interests. The sudden incident of the Shen and Li families gave him an ominous premonition.
And he suddenly remembered that he had sent yamen runners to help the Shen family block the door of the Royal Group Shunde City branch a while ago, and suddenly a trace of haze appeared in his heart.
An hour later, thirty Portuguese cannons were pulled over, along with a lot of shells and gunpowder.

Thirty guns were slowly pushed to a place 500 steps away from the city gate.
"Closer!" Jiang Jiangong had been looking at the top of the city wall with a telescope. He only saw strong men standing on the city wall looking at them with blank eyes. He didn't see any city defense weapons that could pose a threat to the artillery.

Thirty cannons were pushed to three hundred steps away from the city gate, and Jiang Jiangong then signaled to stop building the artillery positions.

More than 200 artillerymen quickly set up the artillery carriages, and the 30 guns formed a circle with the center of the circle being the north gate of Shunde City. Then they began to adjust the angle and load gunpowder and shells into the sub-guns. When the artillerymen finished their preparations, Jiang Bin rode his horse close to the city wall and shouted, "Will Governor Peng reconsider and let our troops enter the city?"

"Sir Jiang, the court has its own laws. I will not open the city without an official order. Please don't make a mistake. It will be too late once you make a big mistake," Peng Jie shouted without showing any weakness.

He had a strong city behind him, and he felt that he was in the right. Jiang Bin's troops were not numerous, so he was not afraid at all.
As for those dozens of cannons, he felt that they were just for intimidation and did not think that they could cause any damage to the city of Shunde.

Jiang Bin's face darkened. He ran back to the main camp without saying a word and ordered, "Let's start!"

After receiving the order, the artillerymen immediately shouted: "One shot for calibration!"

A cannon was immediately ignited, and after a loud bang, a cannonball was fired, hitting the city wall directly, with bricks and stones flying everywhere. Prefect Peng on the city wall lay on the ground and asked an attendant to take a look. Only a shallow pit was left on the city wall, which made Prefect Peng feel much more relieved.

"Don't use stone bullets and lead bullets, use steel bullets!" Jiang Jiangong evaluated the damage caused by the lead bullets. Even solid bullets are made of several materials to suit different situations. The lead bullets just fired were too soft.
The artillerymen listened to the order silently, and all the artillery adjusted the angles according to the results of the previous shooting.

At this distance the artillery was already able to fire very accurately. After two rounds of calibration firing, all the artillery began to fire in unison.

Round steel bullets flew through the air rapidly, rubbing against the air and producing a series of wind-breaking sounds.
Most of the shells hit the north gate of Shunde Prefecture. The wooden iron-clad gate groaned in pain, leaving craters, some of which were embedded in the gate.
"Very good! Just fight like this, not too fast, and pay attention to heat dissipation!" Jiang Jiangong gave orders while observing the city gate.

Prefect Peng on the city wall immediately understood the new army's intention and quickly ordered, "Quickly send someone to block the city gate."

His order was correct, but he encountered a big problem in its execution. The yamen runners and able-bodied men on the city wall were frightened by the violent bombardment, and no one was willing to take the risk of going down to the city gate to block the door.

Moreover, the mental pressure on the city gate was enormous. Steel bullets kept hitting the city gate, and the city gate kept shaking and groaning. It was about to fall down at any moment. The sound of impact kept echoing in the city gate, getting louder and louder.
Under the temptation of the generous reward from Governor Peng, a team of strong men finally accepted the task of blocking the gate. As soon as they pushed their things to the city gate, a cannonball broke a corner of the city gate, which scared away the courage that the team of strong men had finally mustered.
The falconet cannon was famous for its firing rate. In less than ten minutes, each cannon had fired fifteen shells. The new army fully demonstrated the level of their usual training, but this was no different from usual training.

I have to say that the quality of Shunde Prefecture's city gate is still very good. It has not fallen down after withstanding more than 300 artillery shells.

The artillery position was already covered in thick smoke from the ignition of gunpowder.

Jiang Jiangong immediately ordered the artillery positions to move forward to a position 200 steps away from the city gate, while also dissipating the heat from the gun barrels.
(End of this chapter)