"Nope!" Goshha shook her head suspiciously: "I didn't see clearly, it seems that something is flying over our heads!" ”

Just as Amba was restless, there was a cry behind him, and he hurried to the inside of the city wall and looked into the city - a house was half overturned, the fire was rising, and a group of people were watching in astonishment, and several women were crying beside them. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 A thought flashed through his mind, and he quickly turned around and looked at the platform in the distance with disbelief.

On the platform, the gunners were quickly cleaning the chambers of the guns after firing, preparing for the next shot, and on the more than 20 fires under the platform, one solid iron bullet after another was burned red, and in the blink of an eye, the other two guns were also fired. The experienced Spanish gunners, who had been specially selected for the first shot, immediately adjusted their muzzles according to the deviation of the first shot, and the second shot hit the target, and the hot solid iron bullets hit the tower above the city gate, and the fire immediately rose.

There was already chaos on the tower, and the burned red solid iron ball broke one of the tower's pillars, and then plunged into the tower, setting fire to the grease that had been used to deal with the siege equipment, and the scattered debris knocked down several people, and these unlucky ghosts rolled on the ground and let out a miserable cry. But many more people stood there at a loss, and the sudden blow completely blinded them.

"Quick, get down, the barbarian has a red-coated cannon!" Amba shouted frantically, and he immediately recognized what it was after participating in the First Battle of Ningyuan, and the strange actions of the barbarians outside the city were revealed—they were building forts. With the artillery casting technology at that time, unless it was a large-caliber mortar or a specially cast large-caliber siege gun, most of the red-coated cannons in China at the end of the Ming Dynasty could not pose a threat to the city wall itself (the red-coated cannon was imitated according to the eighteen-pounder cannon of the British Navy at that time, even if it was a rammed earth city wall at that time, the thickness of the city wall would not be less than two zhang, if the red-coated cannon could directly destroy the city wall, and the defense of the sail warships at that time was nothing more than an oak plank, which was not much stronger than cardboard in front of the eighteen-pounder cannon). But the solid bullets fired by the red-coated cannon were enough to destroy the female wall and various defensive equipment on the city wall, causing a large number of casualties to the defenders above. After the fort was built, the besieging cannons could not only increase the range, but also overcome the problem of elevation angle and shoot directly at the defenders on the towers.

"My lord, be careful!" Suddenly there was a scream of Goshha behind him, Amba turned his head blankly, only to see a pillar smashed head-on towards him, he subconsciously threw himself to the side, and suddenly his eyes went black, and he fainted in pain.

Under the fort, the beggar charms fell silent at first, and these people who had lived in the forest all their lives were stunned by the great power of the artillery. A moment later, cheers thundered, along with the sound of drums, trumpets, flutes, whistles, and the beating of shields with weapons. Ecstatic people brandished weapons overhead and shouted cheers to the forts. For many years, they have been oppressed, attacked, and disadvantaged in the war with the Jurchens, and today feng shui takes turns, and it is finally their turn to take the advantage.

After several rounds of shelling, the hot solid shells had run out, and the tower of the city gate was already in a sea of fire, and although the defenders were still fighting the fire with water and sand, it was in vain - their commander was mortally wounded and unconscious, and the deadly shells were constantly flying, and the burnt columns and beams crackled and could collapse at any moment and bury everything around them. And hundreds of paces away, tens of thousands of barbarians were eager to rush into the city to vent their bloodthirsty desires and tear everything to shreds.

"Beat the drums and blow the trumpet!" Acton gave the order, and the guards behind him immediately blew two long trumpets, and a dozen leather drums under the platform also rumbled, and the sound of drums and horns caused tens of thousands of beggars to shout, whistle, trumpet, and all kinds of sounds, and they began to move forward slowly, and at the front was a new battering ram, three times the size of the previous one, which had been burned three times, and there were planks and animal skins on top of the battering ram to protect the people below.

Anti-Ba was awakened by the heavy sound of knocking on the door, and as soon as he woke up, he felt that he was in great pain all over his body, he subconsciously screamed, and then heard the surprised voice of his own soldiers: "My lord, you are awake!" ”

Amba gritted his teeth and just nodded, so as not to let his subordinates see how bad his current situation was. He tried his best to stand up, but a stabbing pain from his right leg made him scream, and the soldiers next to him hurriedly held him up: "My lord, your right leg has been broken!" ”

Amba looked at his right leg, which, as the soldier had said, had twisted into a strange shape, and the doctor was trying to correct it back to its normal shape, and then put on the splint. Amba was about to turn his head away from him, but a loud bang at the city gate drew his attention. He didn't care about the sharp pain in his legs, grabbed his own soldiers, and shouted, "What's wrong with the city gate?"

"It's a barbarian's battering ram!"

"Damn it, you rushed to the city!" Amba looked at the city: "Doesn't anyone care?" Just let them do nonsense? ”

"My lord, the city is on fire, and there are barbarian artillery!"

"Bastard!" Amba gave the soldier a hard punch: "Fire and cannonballs can kill, but can't the axes and bows of the barbarians kill after the city gate is breached?" Help me up! ”

The soldiers got up from the ground and spit out two teeth, the weight of Amba's old fist was not light, several soldiers half helped him up and half picked him up, he picked up a spear as a crutch, and led a dozen people to climb up the tower.

The city tower was already full of fire, and the scorching heat wave was coming, and Amba subconsciously stretched out his hand to block it, and suddenly asked for a scorching smell - the hair on his temples was already a little yellow. He didn't care so much, and walked to a ruined section of the female wall, and looked down, only to see a huge battering ram below, the planks and animal skins on it made this ugly huge machine look a little like a giant turtle, the shell of the turtle was sparkling with arrows, and the guards on the protruding walls on both sides of the gate were still making futile efforts, and they kept firing arrows, spears, and stones at the battering ram, but they were all kept out by planks and furs. Amba knew that under the planks and hides, dozens of strong men were pushing desperately, holding their shoulders against them and pushing the ground with their feet, so that the pointed stakes would hit the thick gates at once, and when the gates were knocked open, they would turn their ropes into axes and chop everything in front of them into pieces. You have to do something to stop them, bows and arrows and throwing stones are useless, only oil, right to boiling oil, where is the boiling oil? Amba subconsciously searched around, but there was already a sea of fire on the city tower, and his gaze suddenly stopped on an abandoned iron axe.

"Quick, use this!" Amba pointed to the iron axe and shouted: "Loosen the female wall sled and smash the barbarian's battering ram!" ”

The soldiers rushed up, and they quickly pierced the cracks in the bricks with their weapons, digging out the lime that bound the bricks inside, and then loosened the sled with force, and finally they put their shoulders against the bricks and pushed them down the city. Under the effect of gravity, the heavy half of the female wall smashed the battering ram, and the turtle shield made of animal skins and wooden planks was easily shattered like cardboard, and the half of the battering ram that was hit was broken and deformed, and it was impossible to recognize. Blood poured from beneath the shards, and the surviving beggars poured out from the remnant and scrambled to flee, the Jurchen soldiers on the walls on either side of the gate aiming and shooting at them to make them run faster.

"We've won, we've won, my lord!" The soldiers cheered, and the ecstatic people, forgetting the difference in identity and the wounds on Amba's body, lifted it up, until Antiba's pain could not bear the severe pain and let out a miserable scream, they came to their senses and carefully put it down.

"Get me a drink, and go and strengthen the city gates!" Exhausted, Amba half-leaned on the ground and poured a sip of wine, this thing really worked, at least he could forget about the injured leg for a while. At this time, he suddenly felt that death was not so terrible, at least then he would not have to endure this leg.

Acton sat in his chair with no expression on his face, his right hand on his cheek, his left hand tapping lightly on the handle of the chair, and below him stood twelve chiefs. This is very rare among the beggars - for those who live in the boundless jungle and have not yet had time to be corrupted by the hierarchical ideas of civilized society, the equality between men is self-evident. In these tribes, every man who passed the rite of passage was a descendant of the same ancestor, and the affairs of the tribe had to be decided by a general assembly composed of all the men of the tribe, and in the time of peace, everyone was on an equal footing, and the chiefs had no right to leave power to their descendants. It was only in times of war and hunting that the chieftain had the power to give orders - not because the chieftain was superior to the rest of the tribe, but simply because of the special needs of hunting and war, which was revoked when the war and hunting were over. (Weber is rambling here, and many readers think that barbarians are more hierarchical and "servile" than civilized people, but this is a mistake.) The idea of hierarchy arose gradually with the entry of human beings into civilized society, and in primitive tribes, all male adult members of the tribe were equal. Some traces of this can be found in the newly civilized peoples, such as the ancient Romans, who had to perform a ceremony to temporarily renounce their citizenship when they joined the army, because all ancient Roman citizens could not be punished without trial. However, in the army, the superiors were free to punish their subordinates, so the Romans who joined the army had to first voluntarily renounce their citizenship. In the early citizen armies of the ancient Greek city-states, the ancient Germanic army, the position of the commander was not in the rear, but in the first row of the phalanx, and he was in the ranks on an equal footing with his compatriots, and did not have any privileges. If you are interested in this area, you can take a look at Morgan's "Ancient Society", which has a wonderful discussion on the ancient sociology of mankind. ）

"Before attacking here, each of us swore in front of the gods that we would never retreat unless we killed every Jurchen in the city!" Acton's voice was not loud, but full of power: "Whoever breaks his oath will cut off his limbs and throw them into the forest, and let the wild beasts devour his body, and his soul will forever wander in the wilderness, endure the cold wind, and I am not wrong, right?" ”

The chiefs' faces turned pale, they exchanged glances with each other, and after a few minutes one of them replied, "Acton, you are right, but the city has been smashed with huge boulders, and even the battering ram protected by tortoiseshells has been smashed—"

"You want me to be lenient, don't you?" Acton interrupted, and a smile appeared on the chief's face, and he hurriedly replied, "Exactly, if so, those people will surely appreciate your kindness." ”

"My mercy?" Acton had a smile on his face, like a faint ray of sunlight in winter, fleeting: "But I have been tolerant once, and I have not punished anyone after the first defeat," and with that, he stood up and took two steps forward, stopping until he was almost close to the chief's face, "But what about the result?" They fled again, and you said you wanted me to be merciful, but is it so that they can run back again? ”

Under Acton's questioning, the chief was embarrassed, and he opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't. Acton turned to the rest of the chiefs and said in a loud voice, "I know, you will say that the enemy hit them with large stones from the towers, and even the battering ram was broken, so they retreated. But to retreat is to retreat, yes, under the city gate you can be killed by boulders, but the enemy on the tower can also be burned to death by fire, killed by cannonballs, why didn't they run away? When we swore together before the gods, attacked Ningguta together, and took revenge on the Jurchens. Every one of you says that the Jurchens are nothing remarkable, and that their only strength is that they have better weapons, and if they have the same weapons, each of them can deal with a dozen Jurchens. But now? The same danger, the Jurchens did not retreat, and you turned around and fled, please tell me what is going on? ”

Each of the chiefs bowed their heads in shame and was speechless. Acton was silent for a moment, then continued in a high-pitched voice: "There is no doubt that if I had treated these deserters mercifully this time, they would have appreciated me. But what's the use of this gratitude? Let these cowards save their lives so that the next time they meet the Jurchens, turn around and run away, and make a mess of everything? No, I'd rather let them hate me, let their families curse me, and let those who survive fear me. I don't care about that, a general is derelict in his duty if he can't make his soldiers fear himself more than he fears the enemy! Throw the escapees onto the platform, cut off their hands and feet, and throw them down so everyone can see what happens when they retreat! (To be continued.) )