Chapter 57 It’s so unfair
Seeing that there were only a few dozen steps left for Lin Chong's giant chariot to reach the battlements of the city wall, something strange happened.
Suddenly, loud shouts erupted one after another from within the walls of the three barbicans and the main city wall.
"Shoot, free fire, kill them all, leave no one alive..."
Almost at the same time as these shouts appeared, shooting holes suddenly appeared on the walls of the city wall and the main city wall.
Following closely, countless arrows were shot down like a torrential rain towards the Ming army that was approaching the city wall.
Following a series of "crackling" sounds like firecrackers, flames splashed under the city wall of Songming City.
When Mu Ying saw the explosion of fire under the city wall of Songming City, he was instantly enveloped by a chill.
He was a crossbowman from Songming City. How could he forget this? The other party no longer had explosive crossbow guns, but they might not be without explosive crossbow arrows!
The explosive crossbow arrow is a smaller version of the explosive crossbow rifle. Perhaps in terms of power, the explosive crossbow arrow cannot be compared with the explosive crossbow rifle, but it excels in quantity. Especially at this distance, the Ming army attacking the city is completely within the enemy's shooting range.
Countless exploding crossbow arrows shot in from the observation holes of the Linchong giant chariots, with almost the same results as the first round of attacks. The exploding crossbow arrows ignited the gunpowder inside the Linchong giant chariots, and each Linchong giant chariot instantly turned into a huge fireball.
The shock wave caused by the explosion poured down in all directions like a torrential downpour. The Ming army attacking the city, which was completely unprepared, was swept away in an instant like harvested ears of wheat.
Tens of thousands of Ming troops who had approached the city wall, along with twenty giant chariots, turned into a sea of fire. The enemy's shooting continued, and the Ming troops attacking the city had lost their fighting spirit.
"Run!" Finally, someone couldn't suppress the fear in his heart, turned around and ran away with his head in his hands.
With the first example, it was easy to cause a chain reaction. A large number of Ming soldiers saw that their comrades in the front had suffered heavy losses and all the huge chariots were destroyed. They lost all their will to fight and followed the retreating crowd and ran away madly.
In an instant, the battlefield was filled with fleeing Ming troops, and the volleys of gunfire from Songming City continued, which made the fleeing Ming troops even more panicked, and the entire battlefield fell into complete chaos.
"Hiss..." Fu Youde couldn't help but take a breath when he saw this scene. Songming City actually prepared so many backup plans.
There were hidden shooting holes in the city wall, and their own artillery shells had no killing effect on the city wall, while the enemy's crossbows were almost all explosive arrows. Under the dense barrage of arrows, the giant chariot was just a target.
Such an opponent is too terrifying. Fu Youde has fought for decades with Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and others, but has never seen such an opponent. How can he fight the next battle?
Not only Fu Youde, but also the two Ming princes Zhu Di and Zhu Su were stunned by the methods of Songming City.
Including the Ming army soldiers behind them, when they saw this scene, they all felt a chill running from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads.
With such a city and such defenders, can they really capture it with just these people and their siege weapons?
They couldn't even deal with the Linchong giant chariot, and Mu Ying's nearly 100,000 troops were defeated. If these people go up, can they still compete with them and take Songming City? That's not a joke!
"Damn it, damn it, stop running, stop!" Mu Ying was furious when he saw the defeated soldiers running around, and roared angrily, but no one listened to his roar, and they all kept running back.
Seeing this scene, Mu Ying felt infinite sadness in his heart. In fact, he already knew that he had underestimated his opponent. His people had tried their best. At this point in the battle, there was no suspense anymore and he had been defeated miserably.
In ancient wars, if the loss of troops on the battlefield reached 10% of the total number of troops, the army would begin to flee. If the casualties reached 15%, there might be even more dire consequences such as camp bombing.
At this time, Mu Ying's army must have suffered more than 10% casualties, but he was able to hold on for two rounds, which was considered a testament to his good leadership.
But in just a short time, tens of thousands of elite soldiers under his command were gone, and thirty huge Linchong carts that he had transported to Yunnan with great effort were also gone. Mu Ying was unwilling to accept this.
But even if they were unwilling to accept it, what could they do? Defeat was inevitable. Although they still had hundreds of thousands of troops at their side, their morale had already been affected. Moreover, Fu Youde and the others did not necessarily have better siege methods than Mu Ying.
"Sound the horn to call back the troops." Fu Youde was also giving face to Mu Ying. By sounding the horn to call back the troops at this time, the rout of his troops became a natural process for them to return to the camp.
Fu Youde didn't want to fight anymore at this moment. Mu Ying's test had given him too much shock, and the result also shocked him immensely.
The next step was to return to the camp to discuss military matters and see if we could come up with a way to break into the city.
After the troops withdrew back to the camp, in the tent of the Ming army commander, Fu Youde held the first seat high, and senior generals such as Mu Ying, Zhu Di and Zhu Su gathered on both sides. Everyone's face was filled with solemn expressions, but no one took the initiative to speak.
Seeing that no one spoke, Fu Youde smiled bitterly. To be honest, if he knew this battle would turn out like this, he would never have been the head coach! This is definitely a scapegoat!
But now that things have come to this, Fu Youde can only bite the bullet and continue the war. After all, he still has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, and he will have to explain himself if he doesn't continue fighting.
"My Lords, Marquis Xiping, Marquis Pingliang, I believe you have gained a preliminary understanding of the defenders of Songming City after our army's probing today. Now, I would like to hear your opinions on how our army should attack the city."
Hearing Fu Youde's words, Mu Ying instantly breathed a sigh of relief. He was worried that Fu Youde would use him as an accusation, but he didn't expect that he would just let it go so easily.
The crushing defeat turned into a test, and the nature of today's battle was different. Mu Ying certainly understood that Fu Youde had no choice but to take this action, and he obviously didn't know how to break the deadlock.
Therefore, he did not choose to punish Mu Ying at this time, in order to protect himself in the future.
After all, in this expedition, although Lao Fu was the commander-in-chief, the actual right to mobilize troops and horses was reserved for Zhu Di and Zhu Su, Mu Ying or Fei Ju, all of them had the right to make decisions on the spot.
In this case, Fu Youde must understand the meaning behind Zhu's arrangement. Isn't it just to prevent him from rebelling? Okay, I don't want military power, as long as I can share the credit if I win.
But the problem is that the war has become the current situation. Fu Youde sees that he will be the one to take the blame. Of course he won't accept it. Naturally, he needs to make the people in front of him express their opinions, otherwise it will be too unfair for him!
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