"What's that?"

"An iron lump?"

"What are these Ming troops doing, what are they doing without ladders and with some iron bumps when attacking the city?"

"I don't know, but it's probably a kind of ritual unique to their Ming Sect, and they want to beg the heavenly gods for help?"

"Hahaha......"

In Pingjiang City, the defenders on the city wall looked at the iron bumps pushed over by the Ming army, and exchanged heads and talked about it.

"It's all quiet!"

Seeing that the soldiers were a little noisy, the general defending the city shouted.

"Yes!"

The soldiers were stunned.

"General, what do you see the Ming army pushing?"

The guard beside him asked curiously about the general guarding the city.

Looking at the cannon pushed out by the Ming army, the general defending the city was also a little puzzled, he thought that he had participated in a lot of battles, but he had never seen this strange weapon.

But as a general, how can he show his ignorance in front of his subordinates?

He stroked his long beard incomprehensibly and said, "What can it be, it's just some props used by the Ming army to do things, just look at it." ”

"I see!"

Seeing that the general defending the city was so determined, the guards were suddenly stunned.

At this moment, someone from the Ming army rode out.

"Listen, the people on the walls!"

The Ming soldiers on horseback shouted: "Our general is merciful and gives you a chance to surrender, and you are limited to open the city and surrender within the time of one pillar of incense, otherwise we will be unkind!"

"What?"

"He said he wanted us to surrender?"

"Hahaha, I'm laughing to death, is this Ming army general having a broken brain?"

"That's right, he actually wants us to surrender, why, just his dozen iron lumps?"

Hearing the words of the Ming soldiers, the defenders of the city all burst out laughing.

Even the generals who defended the city with a straight face shook their heads and smiled: "This Ming army general seems to be a straw bag, the art of war is cloudy, 'ten are surrounded, five are attacked, and multiple is divided', now we are the side defending the city, which is already more dominant, they are only four or five thousand people, and they want us to surrender, which really makes people laugh off their big teeth." ”

"General, do you want me to lead the army out to kill for a while?"

Seeing that the generals of the Ming army were incompetent, the guards under them moved and opened their mouths to ask for battle.

"Not necessarily. ”

The general defending the city thought for a while and said: "The information that the Ming army is attacking us has been transmitted to the rear, and there will be reinforcements in less than a day, we only need to defend the city now, and then we can wipe out all the Ming troops from inside and outside!"

"The general is wise!"

Hearing the analysis of the generals defending the city, his guards immediately gave a sycophancy.

Soon, a stick of incense passed.

The soldiers of the Ming army who shouted before came to the front of the battle again and asked, "Soldiers in the city, are you sure that you are going to open the city and surrender?"

"Hahaha!"

"Phew!"

"Go back, Grandpa surrender an egg!"

"Get out of here!"

There was a burst of shouting and scolding from the soldiers on the city wall, and some anxious soldiers even directly bent their bows and arrows and shot a few arrows at the Ming soldiers.

Seeing that he could not stay here for a long time, he shouted to the soldiers to immediately retreat into the formation.

Seeing him retreat, the soldiers on the walls laughed more and more unscrupulously.

However, at this moment, someone noticed that the iron lumps, which they regarded as ritual tools for doing things, were slightly pushed forward a few steps, and at the same time, someone on the side put a black round object into the iron lumps.

"What are they doing here?"

"That thing seems to be a weapon?"

"But they're more than a mile away from us, what weapon can hit so far?"

"Yes, I think they're still bluffing. ”

Just when the soldiers were talking, the general defending the city suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart, but he couldn't tell what it was.

"Be careful, everybody!"

The generals defending the city did not dare to be careless, but just gave such orders.

However, before he could finish speaking, he suddenly heard a deafening roar from the Ming army.

Rumble~~!

"What?"

The general defending the city subconsciously looked at the Ming army camp, and then, in his horrified eyes, he saw a black ball the size of an adult's head flying quickly towards the city wall.

Rumble~~!

As the iron ball smashed on the city wall, the defending generals could only hear a loud roar in their ears, and as the smoke rose, a large pit about two feet deep and three or four feet in diameter had already appeared on the city wall.

"That'...... What's that?"

Looking at the big pit in front of him, the general defending the city didn't react for a while.

However, before he could come back to his senses, a series of roars quickly sounded, and when he looked up, he saw more than a dozen iron balls that were the same as before roaring towards the city wall!

"It's not good, get out of the way!"

At this moment, the general defending the city finally reacted to what had just happened, and while he found a place to hide, he loudly ordered the other soldiers to quickly dodge.

Without his orders, seeing the huge power of the iron ball just now, the soldiers on the city wall had already dodged in a panic.

But no matter how fast they moved, some soldiers were still directly hit by the iron ball and died instantly.

"What the hell is this weapon?"

Hearing the constant roar outside the city, and the battlements on the city wall that let them dodge almost cared about the speed visible to the naked eye, the general who defended the city only felt that his brain was blank, as if he had entered a nightmare, and he did not want to wake up.

After a long time of bombardment, the originally intact wall had collapsed a corner, revealing a hole large enough for three or four people to enter side by side.

The soldiers defending the city were already covered by artillery fire and trembled with fright, not to mention defending the city, they didn't even dare to show their heads.

In this way, in less than half an hour, Pingjiang City was declared broken.

Pingjiang City is just a corner of the battlefield, and similar scenes are not only here, but also happening in several other cities at the same time.

......

Three days later.

"Sect Master, our army attacked Zhang Shicheng's department, and with the help of artillery, in just three days, it conquered fifteen cities, and now Zhang Shicheng only has one Gaoyou City left. ”

In the conference hall, many military generals were smiling.

Although they knew that the cannon was powerful, but how powerful it was, and how effective it was in actual combat, they really had no bottom, and it was only now that they finally realized that the artillery developed by the Five Elements Banner was simply the nemesis of siege.

No matter how high the walls of the city are, in the face of a round of artillery coverage, you can only obediently open the city and surrender.

If you haven't surrendered in one round, then do another one.

Zhang Shicheng's strength is not the strongest among the many anti-Yuan forces, but it is definitely not weak, but in the face of an epoch-making weapon like artillery, there is no second way to choose except for constantly retreating.

"Actually, it's not just the role of the cannon,"

Chang Yuchun said: "We must not ignore the gap between soldiers!"

"Not bad!"

Xu Da also echoed: "Although the artillery has made great contributions to us during the siege of the city, if it weren't for the strict training of the soldiers that the sect leader has insisted on in the past two years, our soldiers would not have shown a crushing posture in the face of Zhang Shicheng's troops." ”

The siege artillery of these three days undoubtedly played a decisive role, but during the pursuit and encounters, these generals had already discovered that the quality of the soldiers of the Ming army, whether in terms of military quality or tactical coordination, was not a little higher than that of Zhang Shicheng's troops.

Because of this, in the face of Zhang Shicheng's troops, who were frightened by the artillery, the Ming army was able to force Zhang Shicheng to retreat to Gaoyoucheng.

"After the city is broken, what is the military discipline of the soldiers, but can anyone do illegal things?"

Baizhu asked in a deep voice.

"Muslim master, no one in the whole army has broken the law!"

Leng Qian, who was in charge of military discipline, replied.

"Good!"

Baizhu still trusts Leng Qian very much, and said with a smile: "Mr. Leng, write down all the military exploits of the generals this time, and catch Zhang Shicheng in a few days, and then reward them together." ”

"Yes!"

Leng Qian nodded in agreement.

Next, Baizhu ordered some more things, and the meeting was dissolved.