"Fire, fire!" The artillery commander of the castle in Monaco has given the order to open fire no longer than he knows, but he has always skillfully used this good thing to bring new weapons from hell and inflict huge casualties on the Lombard army hundreds of meters ahead.

At the order of the artillery commander, the four guns on the makeshift battery of the castle of Monaco let out a deafening roar, and as the muzzles of the guns flashed bright flames and the acrid smoke of gunpowder, four huge projectiles weighing 12 pounds went straight to the Lombard army two hundred meters away.

Four black phantoms flashed in the sky, and then the four 12-pound iron cannonballs smashed into the ground, splashing seven or eight meters of dirt, they passed through the crowd, plowing out scarlet blood ** gullies in a very short time, and everywhere they passed were soldiers with missing arms and legs, falling to the ground and wailing.

The brave Lombards were also stunned by the power of the artillery, and many saw with their own eyes that the black cannonballs passed through them and were sticky to death, and even if they survived, most of them were taken away and confiscated, and suddenly curled up on the ground and wailed.

Fearing the power of artillery, the Lombards thwarted their attack on the castle of Monaco, giving the soldiers in the castle more time to prepare.

"One more round, artillerymen! Reload! ”

On the orders of the artillery commander, the artillerymen on the castle of Monaco fired another salvo, and the four shells also achieved no less results than the first shot.

Because the eight guns on the castle of Monaco were divided into two waves of four guns each, they were able to fire again in a very short time after the first round.

After all eight guns were fired, the counterweight trebuchets, bed crossbows and other projectile weapons that were placed on the castle of Monaco also began to shoot, these weapons can give the Lombards the damage is actually not as huge as everyone imagined, after this round of shooting, the casualties of the Lombards did not exceed five hundred, but the blow to the morale of these weapons is extremely huge, the Norman artillery and trebuchets can attack them, and the weapons in the hands of the Lombards are powerless against the Normans on the castle of Monaco, What helplessness and despair this is.

Fortunately, the Lombards were not all intimidated by the power of the new artillery, especially the Lombard nobles, who shouted with their soldiers to form a new offensive again.

Standing on the conning tower of the Monaco Castle and in charge of the defense of the Monaco Castle was Baldwin, Earl of Hereford and Commander of the Ninth Legion. Morality. Brionne.

Among the Norman aristocratic generals under William, Earl Baldwin's military ability can at least rank in the top five, although it cannot be compared with Duke Hubert, but it is not much different, and Duke Rodrigo is presumably, but it is only inferior. William's ability to entrust him with the task of garrisoning the castle of Monaco, the most important strategic stronghold on the battlefield, speaks volumes about his military prowess.

"Although the new weapon is a powerful weapon and has a long range, it is too slow to reload, it takes a lot of time, and after several shots, it needs to be stopped and cooled with a damp cloth, which is so cumbersome to handle compared to a counterweight trebuchet." Baldwin. Morality. The Count of Brionne commented on the eight guns placed on the battery not far away.

The previous performance of these eight guns was very impressive, but their flaws were also obvious, they were too slow to reload, they needed to stop to cool down after several fires, the projectile was complex and expensive to make, and at the same time, they also needed to be careful when manipulating the artillery, otherwise it would be easy to explode.

Fortunately, Count Baldwin was not a man of the old, and he was not averse to the new weapons of artillery, cannons, and muskets, which had shortcomings of one kind or another, but they were powerful enough for him to ignore them, and at the same time had more possibilities for improvement than the mature counterweight trebuchets, ballistas, longbows, and crossbows.

As a wise commander, Earl Baldwin, knowing this, would not be foolish enough to refuse these powerful new weapons.

Of course, the power of artillery is immense, but Earl Baldwin still believes in the performance of Norman longbowmen, after all, compared to the Norman longbowmen, who have repeatedly performed miraculous achievements in several wars, the achievements of artillery are indeed a little bleak.

"Lord Count, the Lombards have already approached the city walls with sixteen siege towers and two siege carts, please instruct!" A knight reported to Earl Baldwin.

Hearing this, Count Baldwin raised the telescope in his hand and looked out of the field, and sure enough, the Lombards were pushing sixteen siege towers towards the city walls, and the rest of the Lombard soldiers followed behind these siege towers, using the cover of the siege towers to guard against arrows fired by Norman longbowmen and crossbowmen.

"On my command, all artillery, trebuchets, and bed crossbows are to fire all at the siege towers, and be sure to destroy them before they approach the walls.

Order all longbowmen and crossbowmen to fire with all their might, creating barrage fire and holding back the enemy's advance.

Order the soldiers on the city walls, get ready for rolling wood and stones, fire oil, good weapons, and prepare for white-knuckle combat! ”

Earl Baldwin observed for a moment, then put away his binoculars and ordered to the herald.

"Yes." Everyone responded one after another, and they all received the command.

As Count Baldwin's order was conveyed to the soldiers on the walls of the castle of Monaco, countless twelve-pound cannonballs, stone bullets the size of millstones, ballistae the size of basketballs, huge arm-thick ballistas, and one-meter-long arrows suddenly appeared on the city, and countless projectile arrows poured down on the Lombard soldiers below the city without reservation.

The battle-seasoned Normans were familiar with how to use siege towers and how to deal with them, and they knew that whether it was a ballista projectile, a bed crossbow or a longbow rocket, the damage to the siege tower was not great, because the siege tower was covered with damp cowhide enough to absorb the damage of these projectile weapons, and even nailed iron sheets to the siege tower, which made it even more difficult to deal with.

Of course, these defenses can withstand the less powerful ballista arrows, but they can't withstand the twelve-pounder shells fired by the more powerful guns and the grinding disc large stone projectiles fired by the counterweight trebuchet, these weapons have extremely powerful kinetic energy, just the moment they touch the siege towers, these shells and stone projectiles penetrate the defenses of several siege towers, and three siege towers were destroyed on the spot in this wave of attacks.

The collapsed siege towers crushed the hundreds of soldiers who had fallen too low to flee, but could not prevent the Lombards from approaching the walls, because their duke, Albert Ezzo II, had already given the order of death and they had to take the castle of Monaco.