It was originally safer to dig a tunnel outside the range of local arrows, gradually approach the city wall with the help of the cover of the tunnel, and wait for the city wall to be stuffed with black powder, prepare the lead, and use the collapse method to collapse the city wall.

Historically, this siege method was already very common in the late Ming Dynasty when the peasants revolted.

Zheng Chenggong used this method of warfare in 1652 when he attacked the Qing defense city of Zhangzhou and successfully captured the city.

Contemporaries Li Dingguo and Gao Yigong also used this method of explosives to break the city to attack Changsha City, but unfortunately, they did not succeed, and the reason for the failure may be caused by the insufficient amount of gunpowder and the unreasonable layout of the blasting.

However, everything is not a problem for William, the gunpowder he brought this time is very sufficient, more than 20 tons, as for the problem of the layout of the explosion, there is no need to worry, the Mercia soldiers in Coventry City because of the first encounter with the demolition siege strategy, there is no intention to go out of the city to stop, so the demolition troops can have enough time to plant explosives in the gap smashed by the trebuchet.

Get the lead ready, Roger. Morality. Montgomery and Richard. Morality. The two of Afranche escorted Baldwin. Morality. Brionne's demolition force slowly retreated until it reached a safe distance, and then arranged for his light cavalry to relay the news of the preparation to William.

"The whole army is ready for battle at once, and when I give the order, it will immediately rush into the city of Coventry." As soon as William received the news from the front, he immediately sent an order to the various departments.

The generals of the various departments were confused, they did not know how to rush into such a well-defended city, could it be that Coventry City had their spies who would open the city gates from inside and outside.

Despite the many doubts in their hearts, they would still obey William's arrangement and begin to order his soldiers to prepare for battle.

With William's order, a brightly colored red flag was unfurled in the wind under the wave of the strong standard-bearer, which was William's signal to the demolition troops under Coventry.

Get the signal, Baldwin. Morality. Brionne immediately sprang into action, ordering his demolition team to light the fuse and back away.

Baldwin instructed his lieutenant to bring the demolition force back to his camp, while he himself led the guards to break into Coventry with Roger and Richard, and he would not let go of such a rare opportunity for meritorious service.

.......

At this time, William, who was watching the battle in the rear, was also nervous, and whether he could break the city or not depends on whether these dozens of demolition group soldiers can succeed.

One by one, the fire ropes had already been ignited, and quickly burned towards the location where the gunpowder was stacked.

The gunpowder was not piled up in an open space, but in a gap at the foot of the city gate and the nearby city wall.

Previously, the Norman trebuchets bombarded the location of the city gate and the nearby city walls, not only destroying the gate tower and the city gate, but also making several huge gaps in the city gate.

And these gaps are where William is ready to blast.

After all, if you want to blow out a gap in the city wall, the difficulty is not small, it is not useful to put black powder directly at the foot of the city wall, the best is to dig tunnels to attack the city, but the Normans are pressed for time and have no time to dig tunnels, so they directly choose to dig tunnels and fill in the black powder at several inherent gaps in the city wall, so that although the effect will be worse, it is faster to do so, and it can save more time, and it is not a big problem to blow up the walls of Coventry City.

After all, although the city of Coventry was valued by the Duke of Leo Frick and invested a lot of resources in its construction, after all, the time was still short, and it did not have a wall more than ten meters thick like the city of Rome.

In addition, William sent dozens of people to place explosives in multiple gaps to carry out simultaneous blasting at multiple points, which can effectively ensure the blasting effect.

Before the soldiers who had carried out the blasting could run back, several loud noises were heard from the walls of Coventry City, hundreds of meters away, accompanied by huge noises and towering smoke and dust.

"It worked!" William couldn't help but cheer.

Although there was still a lot of smoke and dust at the blasting site, William could clearly see that a huge gap had been blown into the city wall.

Now is it: "Command the whole army, immediately attack, capture the breach!" ”

The Normans moved quickly, the first to capture the gap were Roger and Richard's heavy infantry regiment and Baron Baldwin's guard, who had previously escorted the demolition force, and they ran and rushed directly to the gap, while the Norman longbowmen continued their task of suppressing fire, throwing arrows at the walls.

The Heavy Infantry Regiment stormed Coventry, followed by Rodrigo's Second Legion, then the Third Legion, while William's Guards Regiment was responsible for pressing down on the formation and dealing with any contingencies.

Originally, the Mercia people in Coventry City should have reacted quickly to counterattack the Normans who attacked the city, but at this time, the Normans found that the enemy army on the city seemed to have a huge riot, not to mention the bombed city wall, the enemy army above must have died, and the Mercia soldiers on the city wall 100 meters away from the perimeter seemed to be stunned.

And when they saw the Norman army rushing towards the gap, they were immediately disorganized.

Some of them, led by aristocratic officers, rushed to the breach, trying to plug it, while others simply turned around and ran, trying to get out of the hell on earth of the city walls.

And if the first person takes the lead, then there will be a second, and if the junior noble officers of the army fail to stop this momentum in time, it will soon spread to the entire front.

So the soldiers of the Second Legion who rushed into the city saw a very spectacular scene, thousands of Mercia soldiers on the entire southern city wall rushed to flee the city wall, and many of them even shouted loudly that the city was broken, fleeing for their lives, and so on.

They did not collapse under the heavy trebuchet bombardment of the Normans and the suppression of the longbows, but showed signs of collapse in less than five minutes after the walls were blasted and the Guards Heavy Infantry Regiment and the Second Legion launched a charge.

Standing on the tower of the castle, Duke Leofrick looked at his own soldiers, who had completely collapsed and fled, and showed a look of despair.

At this time, Woolfstein, Bishop of Worcester, spoke: "Lord Duke, Coventry can no longer be held, the Normans have this terrible devil's weapon that can destroy the city walls in an instant, and it is only a matter of time before this monastery is breached.

We must withdraw our troops before the Normans surround the monastery. ”

"You're right, Bishop Woolstein. In Warwick, at Worcester, in Derby, we still have a lot of troops assembled, and in York, the Duke of Northumbria has also assembled troops, and as long as we can evacuate Coventry, there is still hope for a final victory! Duke Leofrick perked his spirits and encouraged the frightened nobles around him.