i have special reading skills

Chapter 221
One year later.

"what is that?"

"An iron lump?"

"What are these Ming troops doing? They don't bring ladders when they attack the city, but what do they do with some iron lumps?"

"I don't know, but it's probably a ritual unique to their Ming religion, and they want to beg the gods in the sky for help?"

"Hahaha……"

In Pingjiang City, the defenders on the city wall looked at the iron lumps pushed over by the Ming army and whispered to each other.

"Everything is quiet!"

Seeing that the soldiers were making some noise, the general guarding the city gave a loud shout.

"Yes!"

The soldiers suddenly became solemn.

"General, do you see what Ming Jun is pushing?"

The guard beside him asked curiously about the guarding general.

Looking at the cannon launched by the Ming army, the city guard general was also a little puzzled. He thought he had participated in many battles, but he had never seen such a strange weapon.

But how could a general reveal his ignorance in front of his subordinates?
He stroked his long beard inexplicably and said: "What it could be, it's just some props used by the Ming army to perform rituals. Just take a look."

"I see!"

Seeing the general who was guarding the city so determined, the guards suddenly understood.

At this moment, someone from the Ming army came out on horseback.

"People on the wall listen up!"

The soldier of the Ming army on horseback shouted: "Our general is merciful, and we will give you a chance to surrender. You have only one stick of incense to surrender as soon as possible, otherwise we will not be polite!"

"what?"

"He said he wanted us to surrender?"

"Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter, is this Ming army general out of his mind?"

"That's right, he actually wants us to surrender. Why, just rely on his dozen iron bumps?"

Hearing the words of the Ming army soldiers, all the defenders on the city laughed.

Even the stern-faced general defending the city shook his head and smiled: "This general of the Ming army seems to be an idiot. There is a saying in the art of war that 'encircle if ten times, attack if five times, and divide if twice as many', right now we are defending the city. The other party already has the advantage, and they only have 5000 people, and they want us to surrender, which makes people laugh out loud."

"General, do you want me to lead the army out to fight for a while?"

Seeing that the generals of the Ming army were incompetent, the guards under his command were moved and asked for a fight.

"No need."

The general defending the city thought for a while, and said: "The information that the Ming army is attacking us has been sent to the rear, and reinforcements will arrive in less than a day. We only need to defend the city now, and then we will be able to cooperate with the inside and outside to wipe out the Ming army!"

"General wise!"

After hearing the analysis of the general who defended the city, his guards immediately gave him a flattery.

Soon, a stick of incense time passed.

The soldiers of the Ming army who shouted before came to the front again and asked, "Soldiers in the city, are you sure you want to open the city and surrender?"

"Hahaha!"

"Pooh!"

"Go back, grandpa surrender an egg!"

"Get out now!"

There was a burst of shouting and cursing from the soldiers on the city wall, and some anxious soldiers even bent their bows and set up arrows and shot a few arrows at the soldiers of the Ming army.

Seeing that they couldn't stay here for long, the shouting soldiers immediately retreated to the formation.

Seeing him retreat, the soldiers on the city wall laughed even more unscrupulously.

However, at this moment, someone noticed that the iron lumps that they regarded as magic tools for doing things were pushed forward a few steps, and at the same time, someone put a dark round object into it Inside the lump of iron.

"What are they doing?"

"That thing seems to be a weapon?"

"But they are more than a mile away from us. What kind of weapon can hit so far?"

"Yeah, I think they're still bluffing."

While the soldiers were talking about it, the general guarding the city suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart, but he couldn't tell what it was exactly.

"Everyone be careful!"

The generals defending the city didn't dare to be careless, they just ordered so.

However, before he finished speaking, he suddenly heard a deafening roar from the Ming army formation.

Boom~~!

"what?"

The general who defended the city subconsciously looked towards the Ming army camp, and then, in his horrified eyes, he saw a black ball the size of an adult's head flying rapidly towards the city wall.

Boom~~!

As the iron ball hit the city wall, the defending general heard a loud roar in his ears. As the smoke rose, a large hole about two feet deep and three or four feet in diameter appeared on the city wall.

"Then... what is that?"

Looking at the big pit in front of him, the generals defending the city didn't react for a while.

However, before he could recover, a series of roars quickly sounded. Looking up, he saw more than ten iron balls like before roaring towards the city wall!

"Not good, run away!"

Now the general defending the city finally realized what happened just now, he found a place to hide, and at the same time loudly ordered other soldiers to dodge quickly.

Without his instructions, seeing the huge power of the iron ball just now, the soldiers on the city wall had already fled in panic.

But no matter how fast they moved, some soldiers were hit directly by the iron ball and died instantly.

"What kind of weapon is this?"

Hearing the constant roar from outside the city, and the battlements on the city wall for them to hide from collapsed almost at a speed visible to the naked eye, the generals defending the city only felt that their brains went blank, as if they had entered a nightmare, and they did not want to wake up.

After a full incense stick of bombing, a corner of the originally intact city wall had collapsed, revealing a hole big enough for three or four people to enter side by side.

The soldiers defending the city were already trembling with fear from the artillery fire, not to mention defending the city, they didn't even dare to show their heads.

Just like that, in less than half an hour, Pingjiang City was declared destroyed.

Pingjiang City is just a corner of the battlefield. Similar scenes are happening not only here, but also in several other cities at the same time.

……

three days later.

"Master, our army attacked Zhang Shicheng's troops. With the help of cannons, they conquered fifteen cities in just three days. Now Zhang Shicheng has only one Gaoyou city left."

In the meeting hall, many military generals were smiling.

Although they knew the power of cannons before, they really had no idea how powerful they were and how effective they would be in actual combat. It was not until now that they finally realized that the artillery developed by the Five Elements Banner is simply a siege weapon. nemesis.

No matter how high the walls are, if you face a round of artillery cover, you can only open the city and surrender.

If one round has not surrendered, then another round.

Zhang Shicheng's strength is not the strongest among the many anti-Yuan forces, but he is definitely not weak. However, when facing such an epoch-making weapon as the cannon, there is no other way to choose except to keep retreating.

"It's not just the cannon that does it,"

Chang Yuchun said seriously: "We must not ignore the gap between soldiers!"

"Not bad!"

Xu Da also echoed: "It is true that the cannon made great contributions to us during the siege, but if the leader had not insisted on the strict training of the soldiers for the past two years, our soldiers would not have shown any signs of failure when facing Zhang Shicheng's troops. A crushing situation."

The cannons of the three-day siege battle undoubtedly played a decisive role, but during the pursuit and encounter battles, these generals had already discovered that the quality of the soldiers of the Ming army, whether in terms of military literacy or tactical coordination, was superior to that of Ming soldiers. Zhang Shicheng's troops are not a little bit superior.

Because of this, when facing Zhang Shicheng's troops who were panicked by the cannons, the Ming army was able to force Zhang Shicheng to retreat to Gaoyou City like a broken bamboo.

"After the city was broken, what was the discipline of the soldiers? Did anyone do anything illegal?"

Bai Shu asked in a deep voice.

"Master of Islam, there is no one in the whole army breaking the law!"

Leng Qian, who was in charge of military discipline, answered.

"it is good!"

Bai Shu still trusted Leng Qian very much, and said with a smile: "Mr. Leng, write down all the military achievements of the generals this time, and reward Zhang Shicheng together after a few days later."

"Yes!"

Leng Qian nodded in agreement.

Next, Bai Shu gave some orders and the meeting was dissolved.

(End of this chapter)