On the 24th day of the second lunar month of the ninth year of Xiande, after several days of preparation, after building a sufficient number of chariots and packing a sufficient amount of black powder, Zhao Kuangyin issued an order to attack the city of Lanzhou on the morning of the same day.

With Zhao Kuangyin's order, two ballista battalions and a thunderbolt battalion (equipped with front-loading artillery that fired flowering shells) under the cover of four musket battalions, 2,000 crossbowmen, and 3,000 giant shields, spears, and sword and shield soldiers, went straight to the south gate of Lanzhou City, lined up 300 steps away from the city, and began to bombard the south gate of Lanzhou City and the city walls on both sides of more than 100 steps.

Although compared with the "Flying Dragon Army", the firearms of the "Divine Machine Army" are far from each other in terms of quantity, power, and accuracy, and they are not on the same level at all. Hundreds of ballistae and 30 thunderbolts can be gathered together to bombard the city wall no more than 200 steps long, and its lethality and psychological shock to the defenders of the city are still huge. Such a large-scale bombardment is rare even for the forbidden army in the capital, let alone a general like the Zhenning Army who has been guarding the place. The huge sound and powerful lethality can be imagined as the impact and shock of the Zhenning army, which has never been in contact with firearms. Not to mention the local youths who were civilians a few days ago and were temporarily recruited to participate in the defense of the city, not only had they not seen the power of firearms bombardment before, but they had never even seen what firearms looked like, or even heard of them. Now, on the first day of the war, such a fierce blow was experienced, and the results can be imagined. After the first gunpowder packs and flowering bombs landed on the city wall and exploded, the improvised young men immediately blew up the battalion. No matter how much their superiors tried to restrain and suppress them, they could not stop these recruits, who had only been in the army for a few days, from throwing away their weapons, howling wolves, and fleeing from the walls in a frenzy, as if they were being chased by a flood of beasts, and running for their lives away from the bombarded area.

In fact, not only these young men who have just been conscripted into the army, but even those regular soldiers who have been soldiers for several years or even more than ten years cannot withstand such a fierce bombardment. It's just that the habit of obeying orders cultivated over many years in the army made them hold out for a few minutes longer than the young men, and did not escape from the city wall at the beginning of the bombardment. Of course, they were a little bit stronger than those young and strong, and they persevered for a few minutes longer. As the second batch of gunpowder packs and flowering shells fell, these regular soldiers of the Zhenning Army fell into endless fear and panic like the young men, and then turned around desperately and rushed under the city wall, joining the ranks of the escape. The only difference is that most of these regular soldiers of the Zhenning Army still have weapons in their hands, not their bare hands like those who are young and strong - so that they can fight their way out of the crowd and the escape route is blocked.

As the regular soldiers of the Zhenning Army collapsed, their superiors either turned around or were coerced by the crowd and fled down the city wall with their men, looking for what they thought was safe to hide. As a result, after the bombardment began, it was only a cup of tea, and there was no longer a single defender on the two hundred or so pace-long city walls on the left side of the south gate of the city. All that's left is the rumbling explosions, and the billowing smoke.

Seeing that the south gate of the city had been completely swallowed up by thick smoke, and the city tower had been completely destroyed, turning into a pile of meaningless and useless broken bricks and tiles, Zhao Kuangyin, who had been watching the battle in the temporary watchtower, put down the monocular issued by the imperial court, and nodded slightly to the herald standing behind him. The herald behind him did not dare to slack off at all, and immediately waved the flag in his hand after receiving the order, instructing the attacking phalanx in front to carry out the next move according to Jihua.

Liu Guangyi, who was in charge of the command of the attacking phalanx, also did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and after seeing the flag order of the Chinese army in the rear, he immediately waved his hand forward and shouted: "Attack with a car, the death squad is ready to set off." ”

With Liu Guangyi's order, more than 200 chariots, driven by nearly 2,000 soldiers, slowly but firmly rumbled towards the south gate of Lanzhou City, and its momentum was also quite spectacular.

Although the accuracy of both ballistas and thunderbolts is limited, the closer you get to the south gate of the city, the more likely you are to be accidentally injured by your own fire. As a brave man who volunteered to participate, the soldiers of the Forbidden Army, who were responsible for pushing the cart forward and filling the gunpowder into the city gate cave, did not hesitate or stop at their feet, and still used all their liliang to push the cart forward step by step, inch by inch to approach their goal.

As Yi Yi gradually approached the south gate of Lanzhou City, Zhang Huaisheng, the eldest son of Zhang Yongde, who was in charge of the southern defense, gradually judged the purpose of the enemy army. Although Zhang Huaisheng had not been in contact with firearms for a long time, as the son of Zhang Yongde, who had been inspected in front of the front hall, he had also witnessed the drills of the "Shenji Army" and carefully read and studied some military books written by the generals in the army, especially the generals of the "Shenji Army," which were related to the characteristics, tactics, and examples of firearms. Therefore, in just a moment's work, Zhang Huaisheng recovered from the panic, fear and loss of consciousness caused by the firearm bombardment of the "Shenji Army" under the city, and quickly judged that the other party was about to adopt a similar tactic to his father and son that was used by the imperial army to conquer Shouzhou City in the south, and used gunpowder to blow up the city gate and then break the city.

The difference is that the firearm bombardment of Shouzhou City by the imperial court's southern expeditionary army was far more fierce than today, and the scope of the bombardment was much larger, so that the other party raised the flag and surrendered during the Zhou army's gunpowder bombing operation, so that the gate of Shouzhou City escaped a catastrophe. And today's imperial army's attack on the city of Shanzhou is obviously impossible to stop halfway like the original attack on Shouzhou, because his own family has been forced to a dead end, and there is no possibility of raising the flag to surrender, so he can only resist to the end. is the so-called "trapped beast still fighting", although he has realized that his side will not escape the failure of the rebellion and the end of the annihilation, but Zhang Huaisheng does not want to, or it is impossible to surrender without a fight, he still wants to do Zuihou's efforts and Zuihou's struggle.

Considering that most of the long-range weapons in his hands could not pose a threat to the enemy's artillery positions under the city, and in the face of the enemy infantry who were waiting for him, it was impossible to send men and horses out of the city to attack the enemy artillery. Therefore, Zhang Huaisheng's gaze fell on those slow moves and lacked the ability to fight back. The only way to do this now is to do everything possible to prevent those chariots from approaching the south gate of Lanzhou City, slow down the speed of the enemy's destruction of the city, and delay the time of their own destruction, so as to make this battle as long as possible. And hope that the situation in the world can change during this period, so as to bring a glimmer of opportunity for their family to get out of the predicament. Therefore, Zhang Huaisheng strictly ordered his generals to restrain their troops, and no soldiers were allowed to leave their posts and escape from the city wall unless he or his father Zhang Yongde ordered it. On the other hand, he commanded the crossbowmen of the Zhenning Army, who had not been affected by the bombardment of enemy firearms, a hundred paces away from the south gate of the city, to fire rockets at those who were approaching step by step with strong bows and crossbows, in order to ignite these wooden instruments and slow down the enemy's attack. In addition, Zhang Huaisheng also ordered a few bed crossbows on the city that could reach the required range to fire at the enemy's artillery positions, in order to interfere with the enemy's firearm bombardment and buy even a little respite for his soldiers.