"kill!"

Seeing that the pontoon bridge was successfully built, the Eight Banners soldiers roared in unison!

They pushed the ladder with all their strength and rushed towards the pontoon bridge.

Once they crossed the pontoon bridge, the Ming army’s medium and larger firearms would no longer be able to hit them.

In their eyes, the Ming army without firearms was no different from ants.

In the battle of cold weapons, they are confident of victory.

Except for the firearms soldiers and archers who only wore one layer of armor, the rest of the Eight Banners soldiers who attacked the city wore double layers of armor, and some even wore three layers of armor.

The swords and sabers of the Ming army could not penetrate the defense!

As long as they climb the city wall, they can become a hereditary deputy commander, and there will be a thousand taels of silver waiting for them.

"Fire!" Zhang Feng, a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, gave the order, and various small and medium-sized artillery shells poured down.

Most of these projectiles hit the front of the ladder, a small number shot into the crowd, and a very small number fell into the river.

The front of the ladder is a huge wooden board, which is densely covered with copper nails and wrapped with five or six layers of cowhide. It can be said to be a large shield.

This kind of shield can defend against bird guns and arrows, but it is not enough against large-caliber artillery.

Snap!

The large bullets easily penetrated the shields and pierced the bodies of the Eight Banner soldiers hiding behind the shields. Roars, cries of grief, and screams were heard everywhere.

The bullets fired into the crowd caused great damage to a single individual, but the damage to the group was not significant. Each bullet could kill or injure two or three people at most, or one or two people at least, or even hit the ground and only caused psychological trauma to the Eight Banners soldiers.

The offensive of the ladder team suddenly slowed down under the attack of artillery fire.

However.

The Jiannu soldiers who attacked the city were all elite infantrymen, and they did not retreat a single step in the face of the Ming army's artillery fire.

They ran to the back of the ladder as fast as they could and continued to push the ladder towards the city wall.

While the Ming army opened fire, the Jiannu army, who were following the ladders to attack the city, also opened fire at full force.

The red cannons in the distance kept bombarding the city walls. As the artillerymen slowly adjusted the angle, the shells of the red cannons hit the battlements of the city walls accurately.

This is one of the classic siege tactics used by the Jiannu.

Bombard the battlements of the city wall.

Since there was no city wall behind the battlements to share the force of the cannonballs, it only took a few shots to bring them down.

Without the protection of the battlements, the defenders on the city had no cover and became sitting ducks in front of the archery-savvy Jiannu.

Secondly, since there were no battlements to block the attack, the defenders on the city walls could easily fall off the walls in the chaos, causing additional casualties.

at the same time.

The Jiannu's bird guns, fire guns, and various types of artillery kept firing at the city walls, forcing the Ming army to unable to raise their heads.

Especially the Jiannu archers, who were very accurate and had extremely fast shooting speeds. Just when the Ming army artillerymen fired at the city at a negative angle, a dense rain of arrows enveloped these artillerymen.

Those who were lucky were not injured, but those who were unlucky were shot with arrows in their bodies. More than a dozen people were shot with arrows in their faces and fell to the ground wailing.

"Use the Hundred Bullet Rapid Fire!" Yan Yingyuan shouted.

His previous idea was to let the Jiannu build a pontoon bridge and then fire artillery at the bridge.

As long as there are enough artillery, these ladders will not be able to pass through the pontoon bridge. He can use the Jiannu pontoon bridge as bait to attract the Jiannu who are attacking the city.

Finally, use the red cannon to harvest!

But Jiannu's shooting skills were too high, and the Ming army wearing cotton armor could not dodge at all. Artillery soldiers were scarce, and he could not afford this type of casualties.

In the blink of an eye, the casualties of the Ming army tended to exceed those of the Jiannu.

Yan Yingyuan drew his bow and shot the arrow, then shouted, "Throw all the medium-sized evil smoking mines outside the moat!"

The Ming army was overjoyed when they received the order, especially Ding Yi. He held the rattan shield in his left hand and pulled the box of grenades over with his right hand.

After asking the civilians who were assisting in the battle to light the grenade fuse, he threw it out with his right hand.

The grenade drew a beautiful curve and landed on the other side of the moat.

boom!

Most of the grenades exploded and disintegrated in the air, while a few of them exploded after falling to the ground for a while.

These wicked smoking mines were named by Yan Yingyuan, and they were all made by Jiao Xu. The grenades are filled with chili powder, arsenic, and croton powder. There is also the "thief nodding head" that Yan Yingyuan made with reference to "Wubei Zhi".

"Wubeizhi" records the method of using pepper to make "thief nodding head". This "thief nodding head" may be understood as the Ming Dynasty version of tear gas.

However, most people are reluctant to make "Zei Dian Tou", after all, pepper was a luxury in the Ming Dynasty.

During the Yongle period, a pound of pepper could be sold for ten or even twenty taels of silver. Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, even used pepper as silver to pay officials' salaries.

During the Wanli period, the price of pepper fell to five or six coins of silver per pound.

But in the eyes of ordinary people, this thing is still a luxury.

Compared with the millions of taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of shi of grain reserves in Xuanfu Town, these peppers are just a drop in the bucket.

Seeing that no Eight Banners soldier fell to the ground at the explosion site, Duoduo, who was watching the battle from a distance, narrowed his eyes and smiled.

"Hahaha! Yan Yingyuan, oh Yan Yingyuan, you really don't want to make progress! Chongzhen, oh Chongzhen, you don't have any new ideas at all."

The Ming army's grenades were no longer a secret in their eyes, and the information about the grenades had long been sent to Shengjing along with the secret letter.

It is called a grenade, but in fact it is just a large firecracker, filled with either lead bullets, stones, or chili powder and arsenic.

Before entering the country, he considered whether to imitate the grenade, but gave up the idea after testing.

First of all, put lead bullets inside. If the grenade is made too small, it will have no power, and if it is too big, it cannot be thrown up.

Secondly, they lacked chili powder, arsenic, croton powder and other things, and could not produce them in large quantities. Even if they were rich in supplies, these things would do more harm than good in siege.

If the grenade failed to explode the moment it was thrown onto the city wall, the Ming army would throw it down first, and they would be the ultimate victims.

Amid Duoduo's laughter, the Eight Banners soldiers who were enveloped by the smoke from the explosion took out wet cloths, wrapped them around their helmets, and covered their mouths and noses.

However, these Eight Banners soldiers underestimated the power of biological and chemical weapons and underestimated the frequency of their breathing.

After a long run and frequent bow and arrow shooting, their heartbeats and breathing quickened. The soldiers with their mouths and noses covered by wet cloth felt like they were suffocating, so they pulled off the wet cloth and breathed hard.

"No! The smoke is poisonous!" A captain risked his life to tear off the wet cloth and shouted angrily.

"No... No, we will suffocate to death..." Although Duoduo said that this kind of smoke would make people lose their combat effectiveness, these Eight Banners soldiers did not believe it at all.

Most people don't think there is a wall until they hit it.

“Cough cough cough!”

Before the Eight Banners soldiers could finish their words, they couldn't help coughing.

The lung tubes first feel hot and then painful, and the pain moves downward with every breath, deep into the lungs.

The chili powder and the smoke produced by the gunpowder explosion made the soldiers cough uncontrollably, and the sneezing caused by the pepper powder, these things mixed together made the proud Eight Banners soldiers see the secret weapon of the Ming army for the first time.

“Ahem! I’m…I’m going to die!”

“Water…water!”

Inspired by this, the Eight Banners soldiers jumped into the moat one after another, allowing the water to drown them.