Chapter 54: Silent Songming City
The main reason why Mu Ying chose these big guys was Linchong's attack methods. In his opinion, they were just enough to restrain the defenders of Songming.
Because the height of the Linchong giant cart he brought was almost level with Songming City, it could directly serve as a ladder.
When returning to Yingtian Prefecture, Mu Ying had been thinking about how to break through Songming City, because the defenders of Songming occupied the city wall and were able to look down from a high position, which allowed the power of the crossbow formation in the city to be brought into play to the extreme.
Mu Ying's Linchong giant chariot is exactly fifteen meters high and can be flush with the Songming city wall. In this way, as long as the Linchong giant chariot can approach the city wall, it can use the roof bridge to directly connect with the Songming city wall.
The defense of the Linchong chariot is also quite strong. It has eight wheels underneath to provide power. It is covered with iron sheets and tanned cowhide, which can not only resist fire attacks but also defend against arrows.
The officers and soldiers who pushed the Linchong giant chariot all moved on the first floor of the Linchong giant chariot, and were protected by heavy infantry on all sides, so it can be regarded as a prototype version of the combination of ancient infantry and tanks.
In this way, the Ming army would not have to worry about climbing the ladders while guarding against attacks from the Songming defenders, which would directly cause the defenders to lose the advantage of the height of the city walls.
Secondly, the Linchong Giant Chariot has multiple means of attack. Its roof can directly reach the city wall. The enemies in the city can easily focus their attention on the top of the Linchong Giant Chariot and ignore the bottom of the Linchong Giant Chariot.
The base area below the Linchong giant chariot is equipped with siege cones specially used to break through the city gate. Due to the cover of artillery and crossbows above, it attracts most of the attention of the defenders. When the siege situation on the upper level is unfavorable, the siege cone at the bottom can also easily attack the city gate.
In this way, on the chaotic battlefield, the Linchong chariot can attack the defenders all the way, and can also use the chariot to ram the city walls and gates. For the defenders, facing the advance of such a behemoth, the defenders' weak willpower will easily flee.
Chang Yuchun, the former war god of the Ming Dynasty, used this behemoth to attack Quzhou of the former Yuan Dynasty, causing great suffering to the former Yuan Mongolian army.
But no one could have imagined that Mu Ying's suppressive attack was actually just a test of Songming City's firepower configuration.
Before coming to Songming City, Mu Ying did have the idea of using the Linchong giant chariot to capture Songming City in one fell swoop.
However, after seeing that Songming City had built so many barbicans, he temporarily changed his mind and decided to test the waters with ten chariots and his own 20,000 heavily armored soldiers to see if Songming City had any other means of attack besides the crossbow formation.
At this time, on the three city walls, Pan Feng, Shangguan Wan'er and Liang Hongyu noticed the huge chariots approaching in the Ming army's formation. There was no fear on their faces, but instead a playful smile.
Shangguan Wan'er's eyes sparkled with excitement, "I've only heard of Linchong Lu Gongche, but I didn't expect to see it here. I wonder if it's reliable?"
Shangguan Wan'er raised her hand and gave the order, "All crossbow carts, replace the special quivers and prepare to welcome the guests!"
Following Shangguan Wan'er's order, the crossbowmen on the city wall quickly took action. They removed the quivers that had been installed on the giant crossbow and replaced them with red quivers.
"I've got them all in my sights. The ten-seater Linchong Lu buses are all ours. Don't leave them for Pan the Fool and the others!"
Upon hearing Shangguan Wan'er's request, the defenders on the city wall immediately showed mischievous and excited smiles on their faces. The giant crossbows that were originally arranged densely were immediately divided into ten square formations and aimed at their respective targets.
Mu Ying, who was in the Ming army at this time, didn't know why he said that, but he felt his eyelids twitching violently.
As the saying goes, if the left eye twitches, it means good fortune, and if the right eye twitches, it means disaster. But now both his eyes were twitching violently. He had no idea what was wrong or what it meant. But he could feel that something was about to happen, but he didn't know whether it was good or bad.
At this time, the Linchong giant chariot was less than a thousand steps away from the city wall, but the city wall was still quiet and there was no movement at all, which made Mu Ying very puzzled.
He didn't understand. This distance was clearly within the effective killing range of Songming City's crossbow array, so why had it remained so quiet until now? What were the people in Songming City waiting for? What was their conspiracy?
But seeing his heavy infantry, clustered with ten huge charging chariots, advancing another hundred steps, and the city still showing no reaction, he simply made up his mind and raised the command flag.
Seeing Mu Ying raise the command flag, the ten giant chariots suddenly began to turn, divided into three groups, and rushed towards the gates of the three city walls with great momentum.
In addition to the officers and soldiers pushing the ten giant carts of Linchong, Mu Ying also prepared a considerable amount of gunpowder. He also made preparations for both situations in this test attack. If Linchong could approach the city gate, the people on the first level of the giant carts of Linchong could place the gunpowder at the city gate.
By then, no matter whether the city gate is filled or not, relying on the huge explosive power of gunpowder, both the inner city and the main city wall will be reduced to nothing in an instant!
As Mu Ying watched Lin Chong getting closer and closer to the city wall, the uneasiness in his heart became more and more intense. He raised the command flag again, and the ten thousand elite cavalry behind him rushed forward.
These 10,000 elite cavalry were trained by Mu Ying himself. He wanted to prevent any accidents and provide a safety net for the siege troops in the front.
However, the attacking army advanced another hundred steps, and there was still no movement from the opposite city wall, which made Mu Ying even more puzzled.
He knew in his heart that with the defensive power of the Linchong chariot, arrows and crossbows would have basically no effect, unless the defenders of Songming City wanted to send troops out of the city.
Thinking of this, Mu Ying immediately gave the order, and ordered 10,000 cavalry to press forward, so that the cavalry and heavy infantry could maintain a distance where they could provide support in an instant.
But the siege army pushed forward another hundred steps, and there was still no movement in either the inner city or the main city wall. Mu Ying felt even more puzzled. Not only him, but Fu Youde, Zhu Di and Zhu Su also felt strange.
The attacking army was less than 700 steps away from the city. At this distance, under normal circumstances, if the defenders were unable to do anything to the attackers, they would definitely send troops out of the city.
But the problem is that there is no movement in Songming City now, and everyone can't help but wonder what the defenders of Songming City are up to?
Mu Ying watched his siege army getting closer and closer to Songming City, but the enemy remained motionless, and his inner uneasiness became more and more intense.
Seeing that the attacking army was less than 400 steps away from the city wall, and was about to reach the distance where the Ming army's powerful crossbows could reach the city wall, something unexpected happened...
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