When the thousands of arrows flew out, their numbers were like a swarm of locusts that covered the sky. When they landed between the walls and ruins controlled by the rebels, the two cannons that had been firing all this time actually stopped.
On the lookout car behind the formation, Liu Gu couldn't help but laugh out loud. He felt that the rebels must have been suppressed by the arrows and even suffered heavy casualties, unable to open fire. In his eyes, the Zhejiang soldiers hundreds of meters in front of him quickly exerted their strength. In one breath, thousands of people surged forward, densely packed as they charged towards the gap in the wall.
Behind the Zhejiang soldiers, Liu Zhaosun led hundreds of Liu cavalry and galloped out. He thought that the rebels' heavy cannons must be like the Ming Army's cannons, their barrels boiling and unable to fire. How could he miss such a good opportunity?
The cavalry couldn't attack the city, but the ruins of the opposite wall weren't that high. The horses were extremely fast and could reach the gap before anyone else. They could even rush in directly. But when Liu Zhaosun led the charge, the first trouble they encountered wasn't the rebels, but the trenches dug by the rebels.
Outside the artillery position, there was a circle of ordinary trenches dug within a hundred meters. Because it wasn't wide or deep, the amount of work wasn't large. Using the people in the city as labor, it was completed in a few days. These trenches were specially used to stop the enemy cavalry from approaching quickly. The Imperial Guard were already very familiar with them.
Liu Zhaosun had noticed these trenches when he was scouting. He didn't think they were very useful. After all, it wasn't convenient for horses to pass through, but people could jump over. It wasn't much of a hindrance. When he personally arrived in front of these trenches, he found that from the periphery to the inside, there were such trenches everywhere. He immediately ordered the cavalry to dismount and charge on foot with their sabers.
It was only a hundred meters, how big of a deal could it be?
In the end, after charging through a few shallow trenches, he found a relatively deep trench about thirty meters away. Suddenly, a hundred female firearms soldiers stood up in this trench.
Seeing these female soldiers, Liu Zhaosun shuddered. He immediately lay down on the ground and rolled into the trench. He had long heard that the rebellious female soldiers looked weak but were actually fierce. Even the old monsters in the palace had suffered a great loss at the hands of these female soldiers. The sharpness of the gun was unparalleled in the world. Only a fool would stand there and take a beating.
Liu Zhaosun lay prone in the trench and heard the sound of a volley of gunshots coming from the direction of the female soldiers. The cavalrymen who dismounted with him screamed in pain. After all, not many people could be as vigilant as him. Just like that, dozens of people were killed or injured by the female soldiers who suddenly appeared at close range.
A corpse fell to the ground beside Liu Zhaosun. Warm blood spurted out and splashed onto his face. He took a closer look and saw that it was one of his personal guards who had followed him for many years who was killed on the spot. This bodyguard was not young, and his cultivation was not low. He was definitely not a weakling. However, he still couldn't survive a single hit from the cannon.
Seeing his bodyguard die in battle, Liu Zhaosun was shocked and frightened. He immediately thought of the saying, 'Firearms can only be used once in a battle'. He immediately jumped up and prepared to continue charging forward. In reality, he had no choice but to do so because the trench dug by the rebels was too shallow. It was only used to prevent horses from charging. Even if he were to crawl in, he wouldn't be able to hide. Even if he buried his head, his buttocks would still be outside.
This volley of gunfire was so fierce that all the cavalrymen who dismounted to charge stopped in their tracks. Liu Zhaosun jumped out and was about to shout encouragement and reorganize the attack. But he focused his eyes and saw that the female soldiers who were firing were hiding in the trench again. The female soldiers in the front row disappeared, and another hundred female soldiers with muskets emerged from the trench behind.
"Shit …" Liu Zhaosun, who had just climbed up, immediately fell to the ground again with a cry and rolled into the shallow trench. The volley of gunfire sounded again. The hundreds of cavalrymen who dismounted with him were swept by the rain of bullets again, and dozens of people were injured or killed.
Vicious, too vicious!
Liu Zhaosun cursed in the trench with his buttocks up. After this volley of gunfire, he learned not to jump up immediately. Instead, he waited for a while before sticking his head out to observe. Behind the second row of female soldiers, a third row of female soldiers appeared — another volley of gunfire. This time, the Liu family's servants and cavalrymen were completely defeated.
They couldn't advance or retreat. The cavalrymen who were still alive followed suit and lay down on the ground like Liu Zhaosun. In order to avoid the volley of gunfire, they were not willing to get up easily.
After three rounds of gunfire, there was no more movement from the other side. Liu Zhaosun raised his head and looked left and right. He knew that the muskets needed some time to reload after firing, but he didn't know if the female soldiers with muskets had a fourth or fifth row. While he was hesitating, the Zhejiang soldiers behind him had already rushed up. They were puzzled to see Liu Zhaosun and the other cavalrymen all lying on the ground.
But the Zhejiang soldiers didn't hesitate. They had more people coming up, and many of them were also armed with muskets. These Zhejiang soldiers opened fire as soon as they got close. They were neither orderly nor uniform, and the messy sound was quite frightening. They crossed the shallow trenches, passed the kneeling cavalrymen, and charged toward the deep trench where the female soldiers were hiding.
Seeing that the Zhejiang soldiers had come up, Liu Zhaosun was too embarrassed to continue lying down. He confirmed that the female soldiers in front of him were still reloading, so he quickly jumped up and was about to use his movement technique to rush up and take the credit of "being the first to reach". But just as he was about to move, he heard an ear-piercing suona sound from the other side. The sound was sharp and piercing, and had a certain rhythm to it. It was used to transmit information.
Liu Zhaosun stopped where he was, trying to make a judgment. But before he led the charge, the artillery position in the city had changed slightly. The Ming Army's rockets seemed to be densely packed, but most of them were blocked by the city wall. The few arrows that leaked in only needed a roof to block the rain. As the enemy rushed within two hundred meters, the platoon commander commanding the artillery gave the order to change the type of bullets again. "Change to canister shells."
The canister canister was a paper cylinder with about two hundred hard iron pellets inside. Because they only needed to shoot at close range, the number of bullets fired was less, and the firing rate was higher.
The two cannons needed to cool down after firing continuously, so the female soldiers in the trenches in front came out to block and fire, controlling the speed of the enemy's approach. When the Zhejiang soldiers and the cavalrymen came up to within a hundred meters, the two heavy cannons were loaded. The artillery commander gave the order to blow the suona, reminding the female soldiers in front to hide in the trenches, cover their ears, and not stick their heads out.
A few seconds later …
The two cannons boomed almost simultaneously. What came out of the hot muzzle was no longer a shell, but a canister. The paper shell of the shell was torn apart by the airflow after leaving the muzzle, and the more than two hundred iron bullets inside immediately dispersed under the impact. After flying out a hundred meters, they had already enveloped a huge area.
The bullets rained down, destroying everything in their path.
The Zhejiang soldiers who rushed up were hit by the two heavy cannons. At this moment, thousands of people were not an advantage in terms of military strength. Instead, they were the best targets for the bullets to kill. The dozens of people who rushed toward the gap were almost all hit. Their bodies were instantly penetrated by the bullets, torn apart, and smashed into meat paste.
The canister shells specially used iron bullets. They were harder than lead bullets and would not deform easily. After penetrating one target, they would continue to move forward and only stop after penetrating two or even three targets. Those who were hit by them would not be spared. They would fall instantly and die without a doubt.
After the cannons were fired, it was as if a strong airwave was blowing in front of the muzzle, and the targets hit by the airwave would fall almost immediately. And this was just the beginning. The canister shells used less propellant and heated up slowly. They had the fastest rate of fire among the front cannons, and could fire four shots per minute. In other words, they could fire one shot every fifteen seconds.
After the first shot, the cannons rolled down the slope. Without waiting for the cannons to stabilize, the gunners who were cleaning the cannons would stab the wet brush into the cannons to clean them. After a few brushes, the gunners in charge of loading would immediately stuff the propellant packs and ammunition into the cannons, and then plug them tightly with strips. At this time, the artillery commander would give the order to fire immediately. There was no need to aim. What was the point of aiming with canister shells?
The outside was full of targets. They just had to fire!
At this time, they had to be fast. They had to fire as many shots as possible in the shortest time possible and pour more bullets at the enemies nearby. They suffered heavy casualties and were dumbfounded. Their morale collapsed, and they turned around and ran away. They did not dare to charge up again. They did not even dare to look straight at the cannons until they were too hot to use.
The cannons roared, and the Zhejiang soldiers who charged up were directly subjected to this round of violent firepower. The skirmishers who were charging quickly retreated from dozens of meters to 200 meters away from the cannons. It wasn't that they retreated by themselves, but that everyone within this range had been blasted to death, blown to smithereens.
Three minutes of rapid fire. Seven or eight shots were fired in one shot. The cannons were faintly red and shockingly hot. Smoke filled the air in front of the cannons, mixed with the smell of burnt meat. The female soldiers who were hiding in the trenches just now poked their heads out to take aim, but there was not a single target standing 200 meters in front of them.
At least 300 of the Zhejiang soldiers who had charged up were killed by this round of canister shells. The bravest, the most capable, and the most daring to fight had charged at the front, but they were all annihilated. Under the cannons, the other Zhejiang soldiers howled and ran away from the front line, running around like crazy. The rain of bullets they endured was something they had never experienced before. It was practically a hell of steel.
Zhou Yiming, who was commanding the Zhejiang soldiers at the rear, was stunned. He did not expect the rebels' cannons to be so powerful that they could sweep through everything. Liu Gu, who was watching the battle from the rear, was also stunned. He saw his foster son charge up with his own eyes, and saw him being drowned by the volley of cannons and cannons. This kind of might was unprecedented and dazzling.
Two cannons perfectly demonstrated what it meant to be the "God of War".
As a veteran, Liu Gu could not help but tremble slightly in the rumbling cannons. This was the first time he had seen such fierce cannon fire. Compared to this kind of firepower, ninth-level spells were nothing. Human strength was sometimes limited. For the first time, he was surpassed by the power of technology.
Liu Zhaosun was not dead yet, but he felt that he would rather die than live. He was still trembling in the shallow trench. The moment the cannons started, he felt that he was in great danger. The violent metal storm swept over. Not only did it clear away the standing Zhejiang soldiers, but it also covered many of the cavalrymen and retainers who were lying on the ground. Many of them lay down and never got up again.
At this moment, Liu Zhaosun, who had always thought of himself as brave, felt that he was nothing. What was the use of being brave? They could kill you with one shot. Because of this, he cried bitterly and wailed endlessly. His twenty to thirty years of hard training was like a joke. He could not fight, and he could not retreat. Only now did he realize how wronged those infantrymen who ran away from the cannons and were executed by him …
In the distance, Liu Gu calmed his emotions. He was the commander of tens of thousands of soldiers. Three hundred casualties was nothing. He ordered the Franco cannons to fire again. He ordered his retainers to regroup. At the same time, he ordered the people in the city who were pretending to attack to step up their attacks. "The rebels are brave, we should be even braver. Today, even if we have to use a pile of corpses and tens of thousands of men and horses to destroy these rebels. "
The drums of the Ming Army rumbled, urging people to fight.
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