Midnight.

Outside the north gate of Jinzhou.

Yue Chao, a scout of the Changsheng Army, lay motionless in the grass.

The southeastern sky flashed red, the thunderous sound of cannons kept coming, and even the smoke rising from the city walls could be seen in the moonlight......

Of course, that's not smoke.

It was the debris and dust that the giant cannonballs had stirred up when they shattered the women's wall.

Although the shelling continues, it means that the city walls have not been completely blasted, but it is only a matter of time before the city is blown away.

The rammed earth walls could not withstand the shells at all......

Although the European-style simple forts are also rammed earth, even those low-grade ones are not covered with bricks, in fact, the brick-covered forts are the luxury version, most of the fortresses that the Dutch originally consumed in Spain did not include, after all, they are almost a fort in a small town, how can there be so many manpower and financial resources to wrap bricks. As for the city of Geranza, which was a permanent fortress, as the strategic fulcrum of the East India Company in East Asia, the Dutch could be said to be costless, but most of their native fortresses against the Spaniards were mounds of earth.

But the bastion is not ordinarily thick.

The parapet wall usually has to be 20 meters high, at least more than 10 meters thick, and relatively low and low, it is difficult to collapse in large areas, and the ordinary Chinese city wall is a high wall with a width of more than ten meters at the bottom, six or seven meters wide at the top, and seven or eight meters high.

The thickest bottom is not as thick as the top of the bastion.

Even if Kaifeng is a top-level city wall, the width of the top is actually only more than three zhang.

It's okay to have a city brick wrap.

After all, the hardness of the bricks themselves can carry part of the attack.

In particular, Wang Yue is currently using granite shells, which have limited hardness points compared to green bricks, and such an impact will also shatter the shells.

This is also the reason why the Ming Dynasty began to cover all bricks.

It is because of the popularity of large trebuchets and primary artillery that the rammed earth city wall is no longer useful, and it is necessary to have this hard shell of bricks, and the pinnacle is the solid brick city of Nanjing, and the counterweight trebuchet and the primary artillery bombardment will not cause any actual damage to it. But in this era when even Kaifeng only partially covered the city wall with bricks, this large-caliber short-barreled artillery that fires heavy granite shells can already be said to be an indestructible weapon.

In the early days of Europe, granite shells were fired.

Including the Urban cannon, which in fact also fired granite shells.

Of course, when the city wall will be blasted open is not something that a small soldier like Yue Chao needs to think about, what he needs to think about now is how to save his life, because at this time, around him, a large number of Jurchen cavalry are searching, and even stabbing the grass below with a conical gun from time to time, and his body is covered with weeds camouflage, burying himself under the grass like a weed, and he is watching a cavalry walk towards him.

The latter was unaware of his existence.

On such a night, when he looked down on his horse, he saw him as a clump of weeds, and these cavalrymen had just come out of the city, and then swept through the wilderness outside the city as if they were pulling a net to hunt.

From time to time, lurking scouts are chased out......

Here's the Scout.

Because all the ministries were anxious to know whether the Jurchens abandoned the city and fled, those commanders each sent their own scouts to lurk outside the city, and Muhan could only flee from Jinzhou to the north, and then go north to Chengzhou via Yizhou, that is, the northwest of Fuxin, and then to Yizhou, that is, the area of Zhangwu. In this way, there is no need to cross the Daling River that is in the way, and this area is also their real control area, and there are grain reserves there, but it is not ruled out that he will go directly to Daning to meet with Lou Mulu and then go north to Linhuang.

In short, he must have gone north from Jinzhou.

So just wait in the north of Jinzhou City, and report back as soon as they leave the city.

Yue Chao also did this.

Even he knew that his commander had sent more than one scout, but he didn't know where the latter was lurking at the moment, because the Xiaoling River was swollen and could not wade through it on horseback, so they all swam directly to this side with their equipment in their skins.

But it's clear that Sticky Han knows this too.

He didn't have to guess to know that there must be countless such scouts lurking around him.

In the past, he just didn't need to care, but now he sent cavalry to clear the field, which means that he is most likely preparing to abandon the city and flee, but Yue Chao still has to lie on his stomach here, because he will be discovered if he moves now.

The cavalryman was soon within a foot of him.

While talking to his companions not far away, this guy poked the ground with a cone gun at random, Yue Chao watched his cone gun get closer and closer, and even he could hear the sound of the cone gun piercing into the dirt, he endured the panic and continued to lie motionless, and then the cavalry came to him, the cone gun was raised and was about to fall, he took a deep breath and waited like a cheetah attacking......

Suddenly, there was an exclamation in the distance.

The cavalry immediately turned his head.

In the grass more than a dozen paces away, a figure suddenly jumped up, and the iron cone in his hand instantly pierced into the ribs of the screaming Jurchen cavalry, and almost at the same time an arrow also reached the back of the figure, as if he didn't feel anything, let the arrow pierce his back, and at the same time pulled out the iron cone and threw it aside with great speed. The iron cone was in the middle of a cavalryman's war horse next to him, the horse was so painful that he stood up suddenly, and the cavalry on horseback scolded in panic, and the cavalry in front of Yue Chao immediately turned around to reinforce.

Almost at the same time, Yue Chao jumped up, and the iron cone in his hand suddenly pierced into his lumbar spine.

The Jurchen cavalryman screamed and tried to turn around, but the connection between the lower half of his body and his brain had been severed, and this action could not be completed without the coordination of the lower half.

Yue Chao snatched his cone gun with his hand, and then dragged him off his horse, and got on the horse with great speed.

Because of the suddenness of the incident and the fact that the cavalry around him were rushing towards the previous man, there was no one nearby to stop him at this moment......

"Run!"

The man who had been shot yelled at him.

Immediately afterwards, this person snatched the cone spear of the cavalry beside him and threw it at the cavalry who was the first to react and rush towards Yue Chao.

The cone spear was in the middle of the cavalry's horse.

"Let's go, brother!"

Yue Chao shouted, and without hesitation, he urged the war horse to gallop south.

The nearby Jurchen cavalry immediately rushed towards him, and in the sound of sharp arrows breaking through the air behind his back, he suddenly leaned to the right side of the war horse and hung diagonally, and the cone spear in his hand stabbed head-on under the ribs of the Jurchen cavalry who arrived first, and then he turned back on his horse, and at the same time dragged the cone gun out of the latter's body. A Jurchen cavalryman in front of the left stopped to aim, he pulled the reins of the crotch and turned the horse, the latter's arrow also flew out, he tilted his body to dodge, the cavalry hurriedly drew his sword, but his cone gun arrived first.

The spear plunged into the cavalryman's throat in an instant.

But two arrows were behind his back at the same time, one passing by him and the other right in his shoulder, but the cloth armor on his body protected him.

Scouts, of course, can't wear reflective iron armor.

But the cloth armor solves this problem, and the arrow that pierced through the outer layer of cotton armor is hitting the iron plate inside, which is also the reason why the person was not injured before, but he will definitely not be able to escape when he is under siege, so he can only give Yue Chao the opportunity to escape.

Yue Chao, who had arrows on his back, continued to gallop forward, at this time he had left all the Jurchen cavalry behind, but the cloth armor on his body could not protect his horse, and then several arrows hit his horse at the same time, and the horse fell to the ground with a scream. Yue Chao reacted quickly, fell down and threw himself to the side, rolled his head a few times after landing, and then quickly got up, fortunately, there was a small ditch where he landed, and there was silt underneath, although he was covered in mud, but he was not really injured.

However, the Jurchen cavalry was still encircling.

Yue Chao looked at the dozens of Jurchen cavalry rushing in front of him, and then looked at the city gate behind them, where countless cavalry were surging out, rushing along the road to the north.

Sticky Han really abandoned the city and fled.

Yue Chao didn't run away, he immediately took out a copper pipe from his arms, and then pulled out the plugs at both ends with great speed, and at the same time as pulling out the plugs below, one of the fuses inside also hung down, he looked at the Jurchen cavalry who were getting closer and closer, and resolutely took out the fire fold and blew it......

The Jurchen cavalry looked at him blankly.

Yue Chao spat in disdain, it was obvious that these idiots didn't understand what this was at all.

He simply lit the fuse and stood there holding the brass pipe.

The nearest Jurchen cavalry on the opposite side was obviously enraged by his arrogance, and the arrow in his hand immediately shot out, although it hit him in the chest, but it was still blocked by the cloth armor, but at the same time, the fuse burned into the copper tube, and the next moment the flames under the copper tube erupted, and a rocket flew out of it, roaring into the sky.

The Jurchen cavalry instinctively stopped.

One by one, they looked up in amazement as the thing reached the top of their heads, and then exploded into a brilliant firework in the night sky.

While they were still enjoying the fireworks, Yue Chao threw away the copper pipe and picked up the cone gun, and rushed straight towards them with a loud roar......

At the same time, on the artillery position on the bank of the Xiaoling River, Wang Yue was looking at the eye-catching fireworks in the night sky with great interest......

"King, what is this?"

Yue Fei asked suspiciously.

"This is the last splendor of a Scout's life."

Wang Yue said.

"Command to cross the river!"

The next moment he suddenly stood up and said.

The attendant behind him immediately picked up the torch and walked over to a row of three brass pipes on the ground, and then quickly lit the fuse, and then three rockets took off into the air, exploding three spectacular fireworks in the night.

And at the same time, the twelve cannons let out a new round of roar, and twelve huge cannonballs roared across the river, hitting the Jinzhou city wall that had been unrecognizable, and the city wall that originally stood under the moonlight had a gap nearly ten zhang wide at this moment. The rammed earth wall, which had been continuously hit by fifty pounds of granite shells, completely collapsed on this gap, and the fallen rammed earth paved a slope outside, as if paving a red carpet to welcome the attackers outside.

The next moment, thousands of boats on the Xiaoling River competed.

The first wave of more than 50,000 troops, supporting countless hastily made rafts, began to advance towards the north bank, 300 meters away......

(2 shifts)