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

Chapter 257: Jinshi Archway
Prefect Peng had lost his arrogance. He stared blankly at the increasingly dilapidated city gate. He took advantage of this opportunity to ask Jiang Bin to talk to him again.
"General, don't waste your time paying attention to him. The final result is that we will enter Shunde City anyway." Jiang Jiangong said directly to Jiang Bin, "We have already fired the cannon. Firing 100 rounds or 1,000 rounds will have the same result. The court officials will impeach us. I think His Majesty will prefer the result that we use the cannon to blast open the gate of Shunde City."

Jiang Jiangong's mind is now full of ideas on how to intimidate the local big families, so the suggestions he makes to Jiang Bin are relatively radical.
Jiang Bin looked at Jiang Jiangong in surprise. Although he didn't understand why Jiang Jiangong suddenly became so radical, he still listened to Jiang Jiangong's advice.

A new artillery position was built, and a new bombardment began. With the distance closer, the kinetic energy loss of the shells was smaller, and the damage to the city gate was greater.
The artillerymen fired hundreds of shells again. The city gate, which had endured hundreds of attacks, finally couldn't bear it anymore, and the hole on it became bigger and bigger.
It has to be said that the falconet is not suitable for attacking strongholds. After all, it is a field cannon mainly used to kill people and horses, and its air tightness is also poor. For attacking strongholds, red cannons are needed.
However, quantitative change is enough to cause qualitative change. After enduring nearly a thousand solid bullets, the north gate of Shunde Prefecture finally collapsed.

The new army soldiers who had been prepared for a long time rushed in and seized the city gate. The guards and able-bodied men all fled in all directions.
All this happened too quickly. From the start of the cannon fire to the blasting of the city gate, it took less than half an hour. It was no wonder that Governor Peng was slow to react.
As for Prefect Peng, he had already been carried to the government office by the yamen runners. He was pondering whether this was considered a loss of territory.
Jiang Bin and Jiang Jiangong didn't bother to pay attention to him, and led the soldiers directly to the Shen Mansion and Li Mansion in the city.
Every household in Shunde was shut up, and there was no one on the street. They all thought that Shunde was going to be ravaged by war.
The new army's military discipline was still very strict, and the full monthly salary also prevented them from having any thoughts of rebellion.
The Shen and Li residences were also in chaos. Master Shen sat in the study room in a daze. He stared blankly at the eight characters on the wall of the study room: "Farming and reading pass down the family tradition, poetry and books continue the world." He looked much older.
After the prefect's advisor came to report the news, he knew that everything had been exposed and that everything was irreversible.
He looked at the poisoned wine on the table and the three-foot-long white silk hanging from the beam, but he was too weak to muster the courage to commit suicide.
Most of the Shen family members were unaware of the situation and thought that the city had been hit by a war, so they closed the door of the house and issued some simple weapons to the men in the house.
When Jiang Bin and his companions arrived at the Shen Mansion, they saw the tightly closed gate. Two Jinshi archways stood on the street outside the gate.

The archway is 11 meters high and 6.6 meters wide. It is made of fine granite and carved into a wooden structure with four floors, four pillars and three eaves. There are four stone lions of the same size on both sides of each pillar. There is a diagonal support column in front of each of the four pillars. In the middle of the third floor is a vertical flower belly with the three characters "Jinshi Di" engraved in regular script on both sides, which is majestic and spectacular.

These two memorial archways for Jinshi degree holders are the foundation of the Shen family becoming the largest family in Shunde Prefecture.
Jiang Bin stared at the two exquisitely crafted Jinshi archways for a while, then glanced at the tightly closed door of the Shen Mansion, and asked, "Colonel Jiang, what do you think?"

Jiang Jiangong observed through a telescope for a while and said: "Since the Shen family dared to collude with the bandits, they must have something to rely on. We are not familiar with the terrain inside. If the brothers rush in rashly, there will definitely be casualties."

Jiang Bin nodded slowly, "These brothers have been with me for more than a year. I trained them little by little. They are all my good brothers. I would be sad if one of them died here."

Jiang Bin's voice was very loud, and Jiang Jiangong knew that he was trying to win over the hearts of the new army.
The new army soldiers also liked this trick, and all of them were excited.
"Push the cannon up and blow up the Shen residence!" Jiang Bin licked his lips and ordered. He already liked this new type of cannon.
Five Portuguese cannons were pushed up, and the ammunition and other supplies were loaded.
Jiang Jiangong looked at the artillery commander in the lead and nodded to him imperceptibly.
The artillery commander also nodded to Jiang Jiangong, and then he personally went down to adjust the angles of the five guns.
"fire!"

Five shells flew out of the barrel, three of which hit the Jinshi Archway, one archway was hit by two shells, and another was hit by one shell. Although the Jinshi Archway was made of stone, it could not be as thick as the city wall. After being hit by a solid bullet at such a close distance, three large holes immediately appeared on the archway. One shell even smashed the words "Jinshi Di" out.
"Stop!" Jiang Bin got anxious when he saw the result. Attacking the Shen Mansion was fine, but such a blatant attack on the Jinshi Archway would definitely make the civil servants furious. Fame was what they cared about most, and the Jinshi Archway was one of the symbols of fame.
Jiang Bin knew that the memorial archway could be slowly demolished after the Shen family was convicted, but if it was destroyed by a military commander like him, then whether he did it intentionally or unintentionally, the civil officials would regard it as a provocation and think that Jiang Bin did it on purpose.
Although Jiang Bin was not afraid of the civil servants, he did not want to provoke them because of this matter.
"How did you hit it? How did you hit the Jinshi Archway? The Jinshi Archway cannot be hit!" Jiang Bin said angrily.

"I know, I know! But the firing range is so limited. A slight deviation will lead to accidental injury." The artillery commander said aggrievedly.

Jiang Bin was speechless after hearing this. He regretted pulling up the artillery now. He had won over the hearts of the soldiers, and it was difficult for him to take back what he had just said.
"General, the situation is already like this. Both archways have been damaged. The result of being hit by one cannon is the same as being hit by ten cannons," Jiang Jiangong said to Jiang Bin.

Jiang Bin felt helpless after hearing this. He thought Jiang Jiangong was right. Hitting one cannon or hitting ten cannons were the same in the eyes of the civil officials. They were both provocations to them. If he backed down at this moment, his efforts to win people's hearts would have the opposite effect. Since he couldn't take one side, he had to take the other.
"Keep firing! Be careful not to hit those two archways!" Jiang Bin said helplessly.

The bombardment began again. This time the artillery commander was not so obvious. Only one or two shells out of ten hit the Jinshi Archway.
Facing the walls and gates of the Shen Mansion, the Portuguese cannon showed a very different power. It made a big hole with each hit, and the people in the Shen Mansion cried for their parents.
The syndrome of going back to work after a long vacation really affects my writing state. My writing state has not been very good these days.
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(End of this chapter)