Ming Empire

Chapter 111 The Massacre Begins

(Thanks to Qinhuang@汉武、时间新人书友 for their rewards)
The Mongols may have been used to the artillery attacks of the Ming army for a long time. Facing the intensive artillery fire, they didn't seem to be touched too much. They spread out at a very fast speed to avoid the artillery's damage, and then continued to the north gate of Datong Attack comes.

After a round of shelling, the city of Datong quickly quieted down. The artillerymen were busy cooling down the barrel, cleaning up the sundries in the barrel, and preparing for the second round of shooting.Modern artillery of later generations can shoot continuously, but there are intervals between the two shots, and the barrel needs to be replaced after a long time.During the Ming Dynasty, the manufacturing level was low, and the barrel of the artillery was easy to explode. In addition, the quality of the gunpowder was not good enough, and the performance was not good. If the cleaning was not thorough, it was very easy to cause accidents.For this point, Cao Yue has no good way to improve it, and he can't even think of how to improve it.

After seeing a round of artillery fire from the Ming army on the top of the city, there was no further sound. The Mongolian soldiers who had dispersed quickly began to gather slowly again, and rushed towards the city wall quickly.

During the training, Cao Yue had already taught the commanders at all levels the simple method of distance measurement using the eyes and fingers used by later generations of artillery. Cao Jie, who commanded the first battalion, was also using this method to measure distance. Combined with my own experience, I can roughly estimate how far the enemy army is from the city wall.

This method commonly used in early artillery training in later generations is really convenient and practical, and the estimated distance is not much different from the actual one.

"Jiannu Tartars will enter the shooting range immediately, everyone is there, get ready!" Cao Jie calmly gave the order to prepare to shoot.

The speed of the Mongols' attack began to accelerate, and they rushed towards the moat like a group of mice.

Cao Yue roughly estimated in his own way, and when the distance reached two hundred steps or about 500 meters, his right hand, which was originally hanging down, began to lift.At this time, the Mongols had already entered the effective range of the muskets, but at this distance, the power of the muskets was not very great, and if they got closer, the lethality would double.

At a distance of two hundred steps, no matter how good a shooter is, he can't shoot his bow and arrow so far. The powerful bed crossbow can reach it, but the Jiannu who attacked the city were not equipped with such a large shooting weapon.

Because Cao Yue had a strict order, he had to give the order for the first round of shooting himself. After Cao Jie gave the order to prepare to shoot, he had been paying full attention to Cao Yue's gestures.

The shouts of the Mongols below the city became louder and louder, and the eardrums of the soldiers of the Ming army on the shaking city buzzed.But Cao Yue remained calm, without any tension.

Standing aside, Sun Chuanting couldn't help admiring the calmness and composure of this young general. How good a mental quality must it be to be able to do this?You know, what everyone is facing now will be a life-and-death killing, and the overwhelming ones are bloodthirsty demons. Not to mention Cao Yue, who is only about [-] years old, even other generals who have experienced battles will see this Every scene, there will be panic.

"Start shooting!" After Cao Yue roared out the command to fire, he swung his raised right hand down.

"Shoot!" Cao Jie yelled hoarsely when he saw Cao Yue's right hand suddenly swung down. He raised the red flag in his hand high and swung it down with all his strength.

Following Cao Jie's order, clusters of dazzling red lights immediately flashed on the top of the city, followed by violent gunshots, and bursts of black smoke rose from the top of the city at the same time.

Following the shooting of the soldiers of the first battalion of the Ming army on the top of the city, the Mongols who rushed towards the city wall quickly fell down a large area.

At this time, the Mongols who attacked the city were only a hundred steps away from the city wall. The first round of fire by the Ming army's musketeers was loaded with shotguns. Falling down howling.However, most of the fallen Mongols were only injured, and only a few unlucky ones lost their lives.There are also some more unlucky people who were trampled to death by their companions swarming behind after being shot and injured.

And just as the Mongols continued to charge forward with howling and roaring, dense bullets were fired from the top of the city again, and in the puffs of gunpowder smoke, scorching lead bullets whizzed along with screams, so At a short distance, it is easy to shoot through the armor worn by the Mongols.With screams again and again, more Mongolians fell head-on.

But the Mongols behind, still ignoring the tragedy on the battlefield, held up their sabers and ladders, and rushed towards the city wall as if desperately.

The third round of shooting on the top of the city began without any hesitation, and more Mongols fell under the lead bullets. At this time, the Mongols also started shooting, but the place where they drew their bows was still a hundred steps away from the city wall. The distance, and because of the shooting at an elevation angle, the falling arrow is at least dozens of steps away from the city wall.

The Mongols' suicide attacks continued, and at this time the sergeant who fired in the fourth round had already retreated, and the sergeant who had loaded the ammunition retreated after the first round of shooting, and under the command of the commander of the battle, he stepped forward quickly. Ready to shoot.Another wave of bullets whistled like mountains and seas, and countless bullets penetrated into the strong body of the Mongolian.No matter how strong the Mongols are, the arrows may not be able to penetrate deep into their muscles, but the bullets mercilessly hit the depths of their bodies, severely wounding them, and even directly killing them.

The Mongols, who were still alive and murderous just now, were like a group of lambs waiting to be slaughtered in the face of the secret letter of the Ming army defending the city. They had no resistance at all, and finally collapsed limply on the ground far from the moat. It became a bloody corpse.The Mongolian who was lucky enough to survive was lying in a pool of blood and wailing in pain.

Sun Chuanting, who was checking the situation on the battlefield with a telescope, was completely stunned. He had never seen such a war.

It's not that he has never seen musket shooting, but this is the first time he has seen the power of muskets being used to such an extreme. Each round of firing a thousand muskets, and there is almost no interval in between. It is impossible for many uninjured enemies to rush forward unless they kill enough people to exceed the number of bullets fired, or attack from a place beyond the range of musket fire.

The Mongols have always been very ferocious in fighting, but today their ferocity has no place to play. Under the intensive shooting of the soldiers of the first battalion of the Ming army, these powerful Mongolian soldiers fell down in pieces.In a period of at most 10 minutes, the corpses of Mongols were already piled up outside the north gate of Datong. At least [-] Mongols became the souls of the Ming army's guns, or were seriously injured and unable to move.

The strong smell of blood was mixed with gunpowder smoke and floated towards the top of the city. Facing such a fierce battlefield situation, the Mongolian commander who commanded the siege had already lost his mind. They had no way out, only one way forward. The Mongols continued to charge forward brandishing their sabers.The Ming army musketeers on the top of the city continued to shoot in rotation in an orderly manner, shooting fiery bullets into the bodies of the Mongols.

Sun Chuanting, who was standing beside Cao Yue, looked at everything on the battlefield dumbfounded, and muttered to himself: "Massacre, this is a one-sided massacre!"

(End of this chapter)