In this realistic war game, only I understand the course of the battle.

The instant the fuse was lit, twenty streaks of fire shot out from the cannon muzzle at the same time, and twenty stone projectiles, trailing plumes of smoke, crashed into the walls of Baojiaying.

The first salvo blast sent the rammed earth on the stockade wall flying in fragments, and the two crenellations were completely flattened.

The soldiers guarding the wall screamed in terror, and some rolled down the wall and fell into the mud inside the stockade.

Next up was the General's Cannon.

Ten large cannons were pushed to the front of the battle line. The cannon barrels were a whole circle thicker than those of a bowl-mouthed cannon, and they were filled with stone balls the size of a head.

The ten loud explosions occurred almost simultaneously, causing the ground beneath Shen Du's feet to tremble.

A stone ball struck the crack to the left of the west gate of Baojiaying, instantly widening it into a large opening, with loose soil falling down with a clatter.

The shelling stopped.

Zhu Neng's voice boomed amidst the echoes of artillery fire: "Breakthrough Battalion—Charge!"

Team C was the first to rush out.

The three pointed wooden donkeys started moving at the same time, their wooden wheels making a dull thud as they rolled over the frozen ground.

The obstacle-breaking team followed behind the pointed wooden donkey, hunched over and running. Zhao Laoliu carried a long-handled axe in one hand and the heavy wooden box in the other, panting heavily as he ran.

A few arrows shot down from the top of the wall a hundred paces away, striking the wet cowhide of the wooden donkey with a dull thud.

Shen Du pressed his hand on the hilt of his sword, lowered his body, and stared at the herd of deer antlers in front of him.

The antlers surrounding Baojia Camp had three layers, far exceeding those of previous training.

The outermost layer consists of sharpened wooden stakes planted diagonally in the ground, the middle layer is a chevaux-de-frise, and the innermost layer is the real deer antlers, a fence made of coarse vines, with the bottom buried in the soil and the top sharpened into spikes.

Fifty paces. Shen Du shouted, "Sound the gong!"

The pointed wooden donkey stopped, and the soldiers who broke through the barriers rushed out from both sides of the donkey, swinging their long-handled axes in a wide arc to chop down.

The first layer of wooden stakes was cut at an angle, the sound of wood shattering mingling with the occasional whistling of arrows.

The second layer of barricades was pushed down by several people working together. The third layer of antlers was the most difficult to work with. The vines were tough, and the axe would bounce off when it was chopped. You had to find the right angle and chop at the base.

"The deer antlers are cleared!" Zhao Laoliu roared.

"Fill the trench!"

The trench-filling soldiers, carrying sacks full of soil, rushed over the remains of the antlers, and threw the sacks forward at the edge of the trench. The soil poured into the trench, and the soldiers, without even checking whether the trench was filled, turned and ran back.

The second wave of soldiers rushed forward to fill the trench, four sacks at a time, and a two-step-wide passage was laid out in the trench.

"The wooden donkey with its pointed head—push it!"

Three pointed wooden donkeys rolled over the newly filled ditch and crashed straight into the west gate of Baojiaying.

The battering ram followed closely behind, its battering ram covered with iron tips that gleamed coldly in the sunlight.

Shen Du followed the second pointed wooden donkey, less than twenty steps from the west gate.

Shen Du could see clearly that the crack on the left side of the west gate had been blasted into a hole the size of a washbasin by artillery fire, and loose soil was still seeping out.

"Zhao Laoliu, now's the time!" Shen Du roared, "The clay pot!"

Zhao Laoliu rushed out from behind the pointed wooden donkey, carrying a wooden box, and ran to the bottom of the west gate hinge. He put the box on the ground, opened the lid, and found three pottery jars with mud-sealed mouths and flame symbols painted on the jars in black lacquer.

Zhao Laoliu's hand trembled slightly.

This is flammable oil.

However, it doesn't look like ordinary flammable oil; it's mixed with many other things.

The amount of three earthenware jars was enough to burn the entire door to ashes.

But Master Li said it wasn't for burning; he meant "frying."

Zhao Laoliu took a deep breath and stuffed the three earthenware jars one by one into the hole in the wall that had been blasted open by the cannon, with the mouths of the jars facing outwards, and filled the gaps with broken soil.

Then he took out the coil from his pocket, inserted one end into the seal of the middle pottery jar, and pulled out the other end, extending it along the base of the wall to the side.

"ignition!"

Zhao Laoliu lit the fuse with a flint and steel, watching the sparks hiss and fly into the hole in the wall. Then he turned and ran to the left. He took a few steps and collapsed to the ground, clutching his head.

The fuse burned into the hole in the wall.

Then, a deafening roar erupted between heaven and earth.

The explosion was piercing and sharp, like the roar of a giant beast.

The entire west gate was blown off its hinges, splinters of wood were sent flying into the air, and a huge crack was blasted into the rammed earth of the stockade wall, stretching from the base of the wall all the way to the top.

The two door panels tumbled through the air like pieces of paper before crashing heavily onto the ground inside the village, raising a cloud of dust.

A large number of the guards on the wall were knocked down by the shockwave. The two crenellations closest to the gate were completely destroyed. Several Southern Army soldiers were thrown out by the blast wave and fell into the street inside the village with screams.

Zhao Laoliu lay on the ground, his ears ringing, his mouth full of dirt.

He looked up and saw that the door was gone. The door frame was still burning, flames licking up the rammed earth wall, and thick black smoke billowing into the sky.

The scale of the explosion far exceeded everyone's expectations on the battlefield.

"Damn it..." Zhao Laoliu muttered, "How could Master Li possibly be able to make something like this?"

The materials for homemade explosives are not difficult to find; however, the proportions are limited by various precision requirements and require experimentation.

Shen Du tested it all day yesterday, but still felt the quality wasn't stable enough.

"Get up the wall!" Shen Du's voice pierced through the echoes of the explosion.

Zheng Biao was the first to climb onto the top of the pointed wooden donkey and scale the village wall.

Before the smoke and dust from the explosion had even cleared, the soldiers guarding the wall were dazed and confused. Some lay on the ground unable to get up, while others ran around covering their bleeding ears.

Zheng Biao raised his baton above his head to block a spear thrust from a garrison soldier struggling to his feet on his left. He then rolled sideways over the crenellation, his throwing axe flying out of his hand and embedding itself in the chest of an archer directly in front of him.

The second and third climbers followed closely behind.

Eight people stood back to back in a crescent shape amidst the smoke and dust, their shields protecting the outer sides, their waist knives gleaming coldly in the smoke.

"Spearmen! Charge!"

Two spearmen scaled the wall, their spears protruding through the gaps in the barricades. One spear pierced the defender charging at them head-on, while the second spear forced a captain charging from the side back three steps.

Gu Zhang was the ninth person to go up.

As he vaulted over the ramparts, his left foot hadn't even touched the ground before he drew his sword. With a diagonal slash, he struck a guard in the neck, who groaned and fell to the ground.

"Push south!" Gu Zhang roared, "Hold the trench line! Now!"

Gu Zhang led his thirty-odd men forward along the south wall, cutting down seven or eight defenders who tried to counterattack along the way.

When they reached the entrance to the trench, the first batch of reinforcements from Xiajiaying had already poured out. The two armies clashed against the south wall, the sound of swords and spears clashing so densely it was like a torrential downpour hitting sheet metal.

Gu Zhang stood at the front, hacking away with his sword. He was shot in the left arm, and blood flowed down his arm guard, but he and the people behind him did not retreat.

"Listen up, Team C!" Gu Zhang's voice echoed from the south wall. "One incense stick's time! At least one incense stick's time!"

Shen Du heard this, but did not turn back to the south wall.

Shen Du knew that his more important task was the West Gate—the watchtower.

That was the command center of Baojiaying.

A command flag hung on the tower, where the garrison commander was stationed.

Taking the watchtower not only allowed them to control the entire camp from a high vantage point, but also cut off Baojia Camp from its connection with other fortified villages.