When everyone heard Jiang Zhuo's explanation, they couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised. When Yang Ling ran out and saw this strange scene, he also found it very funny.
After a moment of commotion, the Tatar soldiers under the command of a high-ranking officer began to swarm over the cannon. Seeing this, Yang Ling immediately shouted, "Don't look anymore, take advantage of this good opportunity, Wang Daren quickly take some people to organize the commoners to leave the city. Quick, get a few people over here and quickly rescue Ma Yicheng and the injured soldiers. "
When Jiang Bin heard this, he also remembered that this was a matter of life and death. It wasn't the time to watch a show. He quickly turned around and shouted, "Where are the cannoneers? Is there anyone alive? Quickly set up our cannon, we're going to shoot down the Tatars' cannon. "
The people on the city wall immediately became busy. Fortunately, Lord Min had just been carried down from the second floor, otherwise he would have been killed by the cannon. At this moment, he could be considered the happiest person. As the supreme leader of Fowl Crying Post, he had charged into the enemy's ranks alone and beheaded the youngest son of the little prince Boyan Meng. Then, he had left a mess for others to clean up.
The Registrar Wang ordered his men to carry Magistrate Min, and a group of country gentlemen rushed down the city walls. Yang Ling and Patrol Inspector Liu called over a dozen soldiers to dig and dig, rescuing people from the rubble. After a while, they dragged out five or six people from the rubble. Other than one person who had been smashed to death, the others fortunately didn't have any life-threatening injuries.
However, Ma Yicheng, who had been standing at the entrance of the building and commanding the country gentlemen to retreat, didn't move an inch after his head was pulled out. When Yang Ling and the others cleaned up the rubble on his body, everyone couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air. An auxiliary beam had smashed into Ma Yicheng's lower abdomen. His lower body was a bloody mess, and he was already dead.
On the other side, Jiang Bin had managed to find a few people who knew how to use cannons. Unfortunately, out of the three main cannoneers, two had already lost their lives in the battle to defend the city wall. Only one was injured and had just been dug out from the rubbish pile. He had already been stabbed in the side, and now his head had been smashed by a brick. Jiang Bin couldn't care less and had people help him up the battery with his face covered in blood.
The cannoneers dizzily adjusted the angle of the cannon and fired. The shell exploded about thirty meters away from the cannon. Although it didn't cause any damage to the cannon, it killed more than a dozen Tartars. The Tartars who were hurriedly loading shells and explosives immediately panicked.
At that time, there was no sight for cannons. They had to rely on their experience to judge with their naked eyes to destroy the Tartars's chariots with one shot. This was all because the huge creature was very close and had used a level shot. But now, the enemy had set up the cannon three arrows away. Even if they had the highest level of skill, they might not be able to hit the enemy so accurately. Not to mention that the cannoneers were currently in a state where they were using a curved shot.
Jiang Bin didn't expect him to be able to destroy the enemy's cannon in one shot. He immediately ordered people to load all three cannons and wait to fire. Then he had people help the cannoneers to calibrate the cannons one by one. Another two shots were fired in succession. The result was that one shot was too close and wasted the shell. The other shot was fired too far and exploded in the midst of the Tartars.
Magistrate Huang, Yang Ling, Jiang Bin and the others stood at the lookout. They were so anxious that their hands were sweating, but they couldn't help at all. For the first time, Yang Ling hated his own profession. If he had been an artillery soldier … Alas, even if he was an artillery soldier, he probably wouldn't be able to use this kind of primitive cannon well!
By this time, the dozen or so men standing next to the Tartars' cannons suddenly leaped onto their horses and ran. Yang Ling and the others watched as the cannon's muzzle roared and spat out a stream of flame. At the same time, a large cloud of thick smoke rose from the ground. The cannon soared into the air amidst the smoke, and then fell heavily back down.
Yang Ling and the others only felt the ground beneath their feet shake with a loud noise, and then there was no more sound. Everyone looked at each other in astonishment, somewhat baffled: Where are the cannonballs? There was no explosion on top of the city wall, where did the cannonballs go?
Jiang Bin laughed dryly twice and said, "Even if the Tartars are stupid, they wouldn't forget to release the cannonballs, right?" Although he was joking, his heart was filled with an indescribable fear, so the smile on his face was very forced.
Before Yang Ling could reply, suddenly from below the city wall came a wave of noise, like a landslide or a tsunami. It was the Tartars' cheering. Looking down the city wall, they saw a dense mass of people with swords and spears raised like a forest.
Yang Ling sucked in a cold breath, his eyes suddenly met Jiang Bin's gaze. Both of their eyes flashed with coldness and fear. They cried out at the same time, "The city gate!"
The Tatars' cannons were fired horizontally, the wooden city gate was blown open. The broken and incomplete pair of city gate was half-open, with smoke still rising slowly from them. The people on top of the city wall were dumbstruck. Thousands of cavalry were swarming forward. Fowl Crying Post had fallen.
The earth-shattering battle cries covered up the shouts of the panicked soldiers and citizens on top of the city wall, who had completely lost their will to fight. Yang Ling silently turned his head around, his searching gaze met with a pair of sparkling eyes.
That pair of eyes contained infinite affection and reluctance to leave. Yang Ling suddenly felt that those eyes were very familiar, as if a long, long time ago, there was such a pair of eyes gazing at him with deep affection. Perhaps this hurried fate of his really did have a predestined fate from a previous life. Then what about the next life, would they meet again?
A hurried beautiful dream, but the heavens, love to the depths without resentment … At this moment, his heart was filled with longing for life and fear of the unknown. However, there was only these feelings in his heart, there was no time to think about anything else. His consciousness had already come to a halt, his mind a blank.
Suddenly, a ferocious ghost face appeared in front of Yang Ling, blocking Young-niang's figure. The ghost face was stained with specks of blood, and its mouth was wide open, its throat emitting a sound like bellows. It shook Yang Ling's shoulder with all its might, laughing maniacally. "He's here, haha, he's finally here, hahahaha …"
What great strength! Yang Ling was about to vomit from the shaking. He abruptly pushed away the ghost face that was dancing face to face with him, his focus returning to a normal distance. Only then did he clearly see that the face was Jiang Bin's. Due to his excitement, Jiang Bin's originally fair face had swollen to a blood-red color, the muscles on his face twitching uncontrollably.
Even after being pushed away by Yang Ling, he did not show any signs of displeasure. Instead, he was still waving his hands and laughing maniacally. "He's here, hahaha, heaven helps the worthy, General Yongning has arrived!"
Yang Ling was startled. Only then did he hear a burst of concentrated gunfire. Having handled government affairs for so long on behalf of Min County Magistrate, he naturally understood Jiang Bin's words. The Xuanhua Border Army had a commander-in-chief, a deputy commander-in-chief, and seven generals under them. General Yongning was the general responsible for the defense of the Huailai region.
The rapid ups and downs of great joy and great sorrow made his vision darken, and he almost fainted. At some point, Han Youniang had already run in front of him. Yang Ling pulled her into his embrace, his entire body trembling with happiness.
When Han Youniang helped him turn towards the city wall, his legs were still swaying, as if he had drunk two catties of Lao Bai Gan. The Tatar soldiers below the city wall had already charged within a stone's throw of the city wall, but a large number of officers and soldiers had also swarmed out of the city gate. At the very front was a group of musketeers. The sound of gunfire was like frying beans. In the midst of the smoke, the soldiers in front fell like wheat being cut down.
At this time, the power of the musketeers was not great enough. The firing distance was not as far as the distance of a bow and arrow. If the enemy was wearing a layer of armor, even a lead shot might not be able to penetrate it. But right now, the Tatar soldiers had lost their sense of measure. They galloped madly on their horses, only wanting to be the first to enter the city, plunder as much gold and silver as they could, and defile as many beautiful women as they could. By the time the musketeers were fired, they had already charged halfway into the city. In addition, most of the soldiers were only wearing ordinary cloth gowns.
Although the musketeers could not kill the warhorses, the warhorses that were hit were in pain and refused to charge forward. They ran in all directions, trampling each other. The number of casualties was almost equal to the number of people hit by the musketeers.
Yang Ling saw that the Ming army's gunners were also in a state of confusion. He remembered when he watched some seventeenth century foreign films, when the gunners were shooting on the spot, they would form into three lines. The first line would lie down, the second line would kneel on one knee, the third line would stand up, and they would shoot and reload in sequence. If they were shooting while marching, they would form into two lines, the first line would retreat after shooting, the second line would advance and fire in a crisscross pattern. It made up for the time when the musketeers were slow to reload after shooting.
However, the Ming army below the city wall rushed forward like a swarm of bees to shoot, and then hastily retreated. The cavalry that had just rushed out of the city wall would flank the Tatars and attack from both sides. But the gunners at the very front who could not retreat in time were shot dead and injured by the Tatars' arrows.
Could it be that the Ming army did not know how to use the formation method to make up for the defect of the old style musketeers? Yang Ling thought, "There is no harm in going back and asking Jiang Zongzong and the others. Perhaps I, as a modern man, can show off a little bit of knowledge."
Actually, this kind of three-section shooting method had been used as early as during the Hongwu period when the great general Mu Ying was putting down a rebellion. It's just that later on firearms were used more and more in the army. However, the Ming Dynasty had never paid much attention to the training of officers and soldiers, so the use of these tactics was not popularized. When the Ming army used firearms, they would usually fire in unison. By the time the enemy had already rushed to their front, the musketeers would immediately be reduced to fire-sticks.
The main force of the Ming army was still charging out of the city gate to attack the Tatars. Although their formation was not as fast as the Tatars, first of all, the Tatars were completely unprepared. Second of all, the previous volley of musketeers had created confusion among them. The situation was very favorable to the Ming army.
Yang Ling clenched his fists tightly, his blood was boiling as he watched. Right this moment, he heard a loud voice from behind, "Yongning Huailai Canjiang He Daren, Military Supervisor Ye Daren, Deputy Military Supervisor Liu Gonggong have arrived. Where are the Jiming County Magistrate and the garrison officer?"
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