Song Dynasty: Yuan Dynasty, you didn't expect this, did you? I'm still alive.

Seeing this, Hojo Munenori turned ashen with rage, his beard trembling wildly. Pointing at the fleeing foot soldiers, he cursed, "Baka! What a bunch of useless cowards! It seems I can only rely on my loyal samurai!"

He drew his katana with a swift motion, the tip pointing directly at the Song army's position, and roared at the top of his lungs, "Armored warriors, follow me to the front!"

At his command, two thousand trusted samurai of the Hojo clan charged. These samurai wore magnificent and heavily armored suits, which focused on protecting their torsos and thighs, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen in the sunlight. They lowered their bamboo spears, their faces painted with ferocious red paint, shouting "Namu Hachiman Daibosatsu!" Their helmets were covered with shovel-shaped hilts, forming a dense, moving forest of steel.

"Mere tricks and gimmicks, their range is barely a hundred paces! Charge! Cut their heads off!" Hojo Munenori brandished his sword, his eyes filled with crazed confidence. The cavalry accelerated, the infantry following closely behind, the heavy footsteps causing the ground to tremble slightly.

Three hundred meters away.

"put!!!"

Chen Gang, the artillery captain of the Eastern Song Dynasty, suddenly waved down the red flag in his hand, the sound echoing across the battlefield.

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!!"

Forty deafening explosions erupted almost simultaneously. Without any fancy trajectories, forty enormous tongues of fire spewed from the artillery positions behind the earthen mound.

This is not a bullet; it is a dark cloud of death.

Four thousand lead bullets, like an impenetrable wall, slammed into the faces of the charging Japanese soldiers.

"Puff puff puff puff—!"

The sound was muffled and rapid, like someone stabbing a water-filled sack with a stick.

The samurai at the very front didn't even have time to scream. Their prized Ōmaru armor was torn apart instantly, like paper, by the high-density storm of lead bullets.

The vanguard of the entire wedge-shaped assault formation vanished in a second.

The originally orderly charging formation instantly turned into a huge, bloody breach.

The samurai behind lost their footing and crashed violently into the pile of corpses in front of them. They stared ahead in horror:

Some people lost half of their shoulder along with their protective gear;

Some people's faces were smashed, with only a few teeth hanging on the broken masks;

Some people were still tightly gripping knives, but their bodies had been severed in two, and blood was gushing out.

"What is that?!"

The surviving warriors trembled, their spears shaking. They weren't afraid of death, but they feared this unseen force that could destroy everything in an instant.

This is no longer war; this is divine punishment.

Even Hojo Munenobu's most loyal confidants, upon witnessing this scene, found their warhorses pawing and retreating uneasily. Fear spread rapidly like a plague.

The samurai, who had narrowly escaped the first volley of shotgun fire, continued charging forward, only to be mercilessly shot down by the dense barrage of arquebus bullets.

This is not war; it is a one-sided massacre.

Even Hojo Munenobu's confidants completely collapsed, turning their horses around and fleeing. The remaining infantrymen also threw down their weapons and scattered in all directions.

Hojo Munenobu roared from behind, but no one obeyed his orders. In a fit of rage, he killed two messengers who tried to escape, but to no avail; the fleeing crowd nearly knocked his horse over.

"You bunch of useless idiots!"

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Hojo Munenobu had no choice but to turn his horse around and flee in a sorry state toward Kyoto.

Upon seeing this, Luo He sneered and ordered, "Leave one thousand men to protect the artillery positions; the rest of the troops, pursue them!"

The Song infantry pursued the enemy while skillfully loading their matchlock muskets, their speed unaffected. Every few steps, a few shots rang out, and every few shots, a Japanese soldier fell.

Upon seeing this, the Japanese soldiers abandoned their armor and weapons, and in their panic, they trampled each other to death, resulting in countless casualties.

When Hojo Munenobu fled in utter disarray to the outskirts of Kyoto, he was left with only five thousand defeated soldiers.

"Useless! All of you are useless!" Hojo Munenori sat atop the castle tower, his face ashen, cursing incessantly. "My tactics were flawless, but my men failed to fight to the death, which led to this defeat!"

Upon hearing the news of the defeat, Hojo Hirotoki and Hojo Mototoki rushed over immediately. Looking at the dejected Hojo Munenori, they asked incredulously, "Why did this happen? Twenty thousand samurai plus twenty thousand foot soldiers, a total of forty thousand men. Even if they were forty thousand pigs, the Song army would have to capture them for three days, right? How could they have been defeated so quickly?"

"Stop talking!" Hojo Munenori interrupted angrily. "You're all a bunch of cowards who turn to jerk at the sound of cannons!"

Hojo Hirotoki and Hojo Mototoki exchanged glances, wondering to themselves: Could it be because of the commander? But they didn't dare to ask that question aloud, and instead cautiously inquired about their next course of action.

"What else can we do? Defend the city!" Hojo Munenori took a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm. "Immediately order all daimyo to come to the aid of the emperor. The Song army has come from afar, their logistics must be inadequate. As long as we hold our ground and hold out for a few days, they will naturally retreat."

Hojo Hirotoki and Hojo Mototoki nodded, agreeing that while the plan wasn't brilliant, it was the only option at the moment. Surely the Song army couldn't possibly breach the impregnable capital in just a few days?

However, they underestimated the strength of the Eastern Song Dynasty.

Luo He led the vanguard to the city of Kyoto, but did not launch an attack immediately. Instead, he set up camp and waited for two hours until the artillery troops slowly arrived.

He raised his telescope and coldly surveyed the majestic Japanese-style castle tower, his eyes filled with disdain.

"Divine Might Artillery Team, advance to 400 meters!"

The dull, rhythmic sound of footsteps rang out. The twelve Divine Might General Cannons were pushed to the forefront by two-wheeled cannon carriages. These long, slender, gleaming black steel behemoths reflected a chilling light in the morning sun, their muzzles slightly raised, like monsters ready to devour their prey.

The artillerymen skillfully adjusted the gun mounts, turned the screws, and aimed the cannons at the main gate of Kyoto.

"Target: Center of the city gate tower! Load solid shot!"

As the command flag was waved, twelve loaders filled the cannon with specially made burlap bags of gunpowder from the muzzle, then pushed the heavy solid iron bullets into the breech and tamped them down with a tamping stick.

On the city wall, Luo He arrived too quickly; the Japanese commander was unaware of the power of the Song army's artillery. Looking at the "long pipes" below, he sneered, "They're just iron pipes; do you think they can throw stones? Fire arrows! Shoot them all!"

A sparse rain of arrows fell, landing in the open ground two hundred meters away from the artillery, posing no threat whatsoever.

"Ignite—Fire!!!"

Without any warning, twelve huge orange-red tongues of fire suddenly spewed from the muzzles of the cannons.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The sounds weren't continuous, but rather overlapping deafening roars, like thunder exploding directly on the ground. The massive shockwave sent dust billowing several meters high, and the twelve artillerymen were propelled backward half a meter by the immense recoil, their faces filled with excitement.

Twelve dark iron bullets, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound, drew an almost straight black line in the air, instantly traversing a distance of four hundred meters.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The violent impact sounded like a giant hammer slamming into a wooden door, deafeningly loud.

When the smoke cleared, the Japanese soldiers on the city wall were stunned.

The heavy wooden door, though not yet collapsed, was completely mangled. In the very center, three huge dents had been smashed into it, and the outer sheet metal was curled up like paper, revealing the broken wood fragments inside, with wood chips flying everywhere.

One of the shells even penetrated the wooden door, breaking a thick oak bolt behind it.

"Load! Load quickly!"

The Eastern Song artillerymen operated with frenzied efficiency. Cleaning the cannon barrels, pouring gunpowder, loading shells, and igniting them—their movements were fluid and perfectly coordinated.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The second salvo.

This time, they aimed at the lower edge of the city gate.

The iron pellets slammed into the bottom of the wooden door, sending wood chips flying and producing a teeth-grinding cracking sound. The immense kinetic energy caused the entire city gate to shake violently, and the iron hinges connecting the gate and the city wall creaked under the strain, sparks flying everywhere.

The Japanese troops on the city wall were completely devastated. They had never seen such terrifying weapons. The sound of the shells whistling in was like the screams of demons, and there was no way to escape.

"It's lightning! Lightning has struck!"

Several warriors, terrified, dropped their bows and arrows and turned to run back into the city, only to be cut down by the defending general with a single stroke: "Don't retreat! You'll die anyway! Hold them off!"

But no sooner had the defender finished speaking than the third volley of shots came.

All twelve shots hit their mark.

Twelve iron bullets simultaneously struck the already crumbling wooden door.

"Snap—!!!"

A loud cracking sound.

The last few bolts and hinges supporting the city gate broke at the same time.

The massive door, weighing several tons, collapsed inwards like a toppled block under the impact of the enormous kinetic energy.

The dust that rose up blotted out the sky and even blocked out the sunlight.

The Japanese samurai behind the door, along with several oxcarts that were trying to hold the door open, were instantly crushed into a bloody pulp by the collapsing door panels, their screams buried under the rubble.

The smoke and dust had not completely dissipated.

Luo He put down the telescope he was holding, drew the long sword from his waist, the tip of the blade pointing directly towards the capital, his voice cold and authoritative:

"The city gates have been breached! Musketeers, advance!"

The Eastern Song infantry, who had been poised for battle, formed neat square formations and marched in unison through the still-smoking ruins and amidst the swirling dust, slowly entering the ancient Japanese capital.