Meanwhile, after destroying the Goto navy, the Punishment Fleet slowly approached Jiangchuan City and dropped anchor a hundred meters away from the pier, with no intention of docking.
The reason why they didn't go to the shore was that they didn't know the water conditions and were afraid of running aground. If such a large warship ran aground, it would be a big trouble.
The other thing is to keep a safe distance. If you get too close to the shore, the Japanese may suddenly attack you and cause any damage. The former Qi family soldiers have seen that the Japanese bows and arrows are very powerful. As long as the distance is more than 100 meters, neither their "iron cannons" nor bows and arrows can cause any damage. The three emperor cannons and even the Portuguese cannons of the coast guard can easily kill people and animals 200 meters away. It's just that good.
Wang Rulong folded his arms and looked indifferently at the Japanese elderly, weak, women and children who were scattered in panic in the villages and towns outside the city.
The space and resources in Jiangchuan City were limited. In order to reduce the burden, only men were allowed to enter the city to defend it. At most, some young and strong women were accepted to cook for the defenders and serve as porters. The old, weak, women and children who were regarded as burdens could only flee to the mountains and hide, praying that the battle would end soon. Otherwise, they would all starve to death and freeze to death in the mountains.
In fact, he could order the artillery to kill these women and children, but firstly, the battle was still long and he had to save ammunition. Secondly, both General Qi and Master Zhao strictly prohibited the indiscriminate killing of women and children, believing that it would make the army lose its humanity - a beast army would eventually turn against its master.
The young master is even worse than the commander-in-chief. The commander-in-chief never shows mercy to the young and strong men who are the pirates and the bandits, but the young master hopes to capture as many prisoners as possible, then sentence them to lifelong hard labor for the Jiangnan Group. Perhaps this is the difference between a pure soldier and...
He found that he had no idea what the young master was. A businessman? A strategist? A scientist? A man who wanted to be the Pirate King?
Wang Rulong smiled bitterly and shook his head. Forget it. Don’t think about it anymore. Just follow the young master’s footsteps.
~~
At this time, the suspension bridge in Jiangchuan City slowly rose, indicating that everyone who should enter the city had entered. Wang Rulong waved his hand and ordered the city gate to be destroyed first.
Jiangchuan City is 300 meters away from the fleet. The Hongxi cannon has a short range and the Xuande cannon is too small, so the Yongle cannon is the most appropriate.
On the 203 ship facing Jiangchuan City, the ten Yongle cannons on the starboard side fired a salvo, all of which hit the stone walls of the city, but not a single shell hit the suspension bridge.
There was laughter coming from the neighboring ship, which made the captain of Ship 202, Rong Sheng, so angry that his face turned cold. The gunners on the starboard side felt as if they were in an ice box and their whole bodies were cold.
"Come again!" He crossed his arms and glared at these useless people. "It's only 300 meters. If you can't hit me, I'll punish you!"
The gunners were all terrified. Demerits were terrible. One demerit meant the end of the year's promotion, two demerits meant demotion, and three demerits meant the ship had to leave!
In the second round of artillery fire, everyone aimed carefully. No one dared to fire recklessly or launch a massive salvo.
In fact, the guns were equipped with simple sights, so you can just aim and shoot from this distance. It's just that the deck shakes, which makes the muzzle shake up and down. Although the amplitude is not large, it will make a big difference if the shell flies a few hundred meters.
Just now, it was affected by the waves, and everything was raised...
This time they fired one after another, and the hit rate was much better, with five out of ten shots hitting the target.
The Yongle cannon was so powerful that a cannonball hit the suspension bridge, creating a big hole in it. After five shots, the suspension bridge broke into pieces and fell into the moat outside the city.
"What?" Uku Junyao on the castle tower was stunned. Isn't the most critical part of a siege battle to fight for the city gate? The Ming people blew up the suspension bridge, so how could they attack the city? Swim across the water?
The foot soldiers who were busy moving the city defense equipment also stopped. Even a fool could see that the Ming people were not going to attack the city directly, so what was the point of bringing a bunch of rolling stones and wooden beams?
"Could it be that they want to surround us?" Yu Jiu Xuan Ya guessed, "Because they have too few troops, they have no choice but to resort to this desperate measure?"
"It's possible." The young head of the family nodded and said to the elders, "Count the supplies and see how long we can hold out."
Before he finished speaking, he heard a series of shrill noises coming from outside.
"They are going to release the Fire Bird and attack the city with fire!" Yu Jiu Xuan Ya heard the voice and said with trembling legs: "The Ming Dynasty people used this kind of monster to burn our warships!"
"Ah?" Yuji Junyao looked outside and couldn't help laughing. It turned out that none of the divine fire crows released by the Ming Dynasty people could fly into the castle. Some hit the stone wall, and some fell into the water moat.
“Hahaha, what kind of firebird? It’s just a fake bird made of straw. It can’t fly very high!” Chun Yao’s tail was so proud that it was about to fly to the sky.
~~
The captains on the opposite side all looked unhappy. The Divine Fire Crow was still too stupid to do anything about such a tall castle.
"Change rockets!" The captains gave the order in a deep voice. The Marines responsible for releasing the firearms quickly put all the Fire Crows into iron boxes in accordance with safety regulations, carried them off the deck, and brought back oilcloth bags one by one.
When the oilcloth bag was opened, it was a rocket with a length of more than 5 feet and attached to a gunpowder cartridge. This was also a long-range firearm that Qi's army equipped in large quantities, and the Japanese pirates were frightened by it.
The Marines placed the rockets on a special iron rack, aimed them at Jiangchuan City, and lit the fuses. Rockets whizzed and flew into the city.
"Fuck, Congreve rocket!" On the flagship, Master Zhao, who saw this scene, couldn't help but yelled and slapped his nephew's thigh hard.
"What do you mean by 'carrying a beautiful woman'?" the eldest nephew asked with a grin.
"It's okay, I said Sanskrit, which means this rocket is very sad." Master Zhao responded to his nephew, and then he remembered that the prototype of the famous Congreve rocket was the rocket invented in the Song Dynasty, right?
Although the Ming rockets were obviously not as powerful as the Congreve rockets of the early 19th century, they were not comparable to the Japanese rockets that were shot out from a bow with oilcloth wrapped around the arrowhead and lit, and could not fly more than a few dozen meters.
This is propelled by gunpowder, and its aerodynamic shape is much stronger than the Divine Fire Crow. In such a short distance, the Ming rocket can easily pass over the stone wall. Although most of the rockets flew to nowhere, only a small part of them landed in the city, which was enough to cause a fire!
Who made Japan like to build houses with wood? Although the castle is well fireproof outside, the inside is all wooden structures, and there are piles of food and grass everywhere... They were just transported in from outside the city.
Soon, thick black smoke rose from Jiangchuan City. The city lord had no time to look at the new things outside the city, and fanned himself and shouted to put out the fire quickly.
Seeing the fire in the city, the Marines were greatly encouraged. They could finally hold their heads high and let those gunners who looked down on others open their eyes. They continued to release rockets, and the whizzing sound of rockets breaking through the air continued. More and more rockets flew into Jiangchuan City, causing fires everywhere.
Many rockets fell on the villages and towns outside the city, and the Japanese wooden houses caught fire at the slightest touch, turning into a sea of fire in a blink of an eye.
Seeing the "useless passengers" so arrogant, the gunners naturally did not want to fall behind. They raised the muzzles of their guns and bombarded Jiangchuan City with red-hot bullets.
Since Chu Liuxiang became famous for his red-hot bullets, the gunners' fear of this "red-burnt iron ball" has greatly decreased. In addition, the furnace and iron tongs have been improved and become safer. More and more gunners have begun to choose to use this killing weapon to attack.
The iron stoves responsible for heating the iron balls are beginning to be in short supply.
Red-hot iron bullets were fired one after another, directly smashing the castle tower and roofs, falling into the buildings and causing fires everywhere.
Finally, it was not known whether it was a rocket or a red fire bomb that ignited the barn in the city. The fire shot up into the sky and could no longer be extinguished. It was a dry season with strong west winds, and the fire spread rapidly, turning the entire Jiangchuan City into a big fire basin.
In the flames, thick smoke and ashes rolled up into the sky and drifted to the east...
~~
Jiangchuan City had turned into a hell on earth, with people covered in flames and screaming everywhere. The remaining people were all terrified and dared not stay in the city. They quickly fled from the only city gate and then stopped abruptly.
The suspension bridge is broken, how to cross the river?
Some people shouted loudly, raised the white flag and knelt down to surrender.
But the order had been issued before the war. This was a war to establish authority, to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, and no prisoners should be taken!
Therefore, the 203 ship artillery facing the city gate opened fire mercilessly, and several shells hit the Japanese pirates rushing out, directly hitting a string of candied haws. One shot killed more than ten people!
The Japanese pirates either waited to be burned to death in the city, or rushed to the city gates and were killed by cannons. Their desperate cries even drowned out the roar of the cannons and reached the ears of the coast guards.
Yet no one will pity them.
Since the Japanese invasion of the Jiajing period, these Japanese navy pirates have frequently invaded the Ming Dynasty, from Liaodong to Fujian, they have invaded. Especially in the Jiangnan region where the Japanese invasion was most serious, almost every household had someone killed by the Japanese pirates. Over the past 20 years, they have committed countless crimes of burning, killing, plundering, and looting! To pity them is to betray our ancestors and be an accomplice to their crimes!
In the end, the entire Egawa Castle collapsed in a raging fire. The head of the Uku family, Uku Junyao, his younger brother Uku Genma, and more than a dozen family elders collectively committed seppuku in the castle tower, once again perfectly interpreting the spirit of Bushido.
How painful it is to be burned to death, but how easy it is to commit suicide, just cut it with a fan, painless, without feeling anything, it's over in an instant...
In the end, out of more than 2,000 people in the city, only a hundred or so were lucky enough to escape. They dodged the artillery fire, swam across the waterway, and stumbled into the mountains.
Since Wang Rulong did not order a pursuit, let them serve as voluntary propagandists and spread the mighty power of the Ming Dynasty Coast Guard throughout the whole Kyushu!
From today on, the blood-stained Goto navy will be wiped out. The Uku family, one of the backers of the Japanese pirates, will be removed from the list!