A certain prince equipped all siege vehicle crew members with gas masks. To be precise, they can only protect against smoke, far from being gas-proof, but they are also the most high-tech protective equipment at the moment.
Since the raw materials used to make this product are very crude, it does not have efficient enough filtration capabilities, so it can barely survive the thick smoke without being easily knocked down.
But this is already an epoch-making product. It can at least give the crew members the ability to perform the difficult task of poaching Wang Pu.
Under the strict supervision of the two generals, the eighteen soldiers put on smoke masks and hurriedly began to pour water on the ground, then picked up their pickaxes and began to dig out the stones under their feet.
These stones of different sizes were not perfectly spaced when they were paved. In addition, some of them have been cracked due to years of trampling by carriages and horses. In some places, they have been rolled out of position and appear uneven, making it much easier to dig.
"Dig into the corner! The explosion will be more powerful!"
According to the previous training knowledge, light explosion on the ground may not cause much damage to the tower above the head. It is best to bury all the explosive bags in the foundation of the door opening.
The soldiers who received the order started to make fuss at the base of the wall. No matter how difficult it was to dig, they had to dig a big hole.
Everyone pushed the cart six or seven miles with flying arrows and bullets, almost exhausted, just to come and plant explosives. Once the tower was blown up, it would be a great achievement.
Everyone can receive one hundred taels of silver when they go back. Once they have money, drinking, eating meat, and playing with women will not be a problem. This is the driving force for the soldiers to dig the ground hard.
In the past, when you served as a soldier and ate the imperial rations, you could only receive one to two five cents of silver and half a stone of rice every month, and even these were withheld by your superiors. But now it is very different.
The prince not only increased the monthly salary for everyone, but also distributed it in full. If there was an opportunity to kill the enemy in battle, the reward would be even more, so everyone had no reason not to work hard.
At the beginning, everyone tried their best, but only a small piece of stone was lifted out. But it became much easier to get started, and they soon worked hard to widen the gap.
The doorway was like a construction site. Except for a section and a half of siege engines, the corners were piled with excavated stones, and the soil was even higher than the knees.
"No! Go deeper! At least deeper than the waist and abdomen! Dig diagonally!"
The hole in front of me is already one step wide and about two feet deep, but it is far from enough to place sixty explosive packets, and the deeper it is buried, the greater the damage to the tower will be.
The soldiers knew that they had to work quickly to retreat early, so they dug the ground with pickaxes and shoveled the soil frantically, and everyone was sweating profusely.
"Master! The thieves won't come out from the city gate, will they?"
The soldiers who were in charge of transporting earth seemed to hear some movement in the door. They were very worried about this and had to seek comfort from their superiors.
"Come out? Sir, let me lend him ten courages! If they dare to come out, it will save us trouble. The brothers outside can take down Datong in one fell swoop!"
At the moment, the army is still thinking about how to break the city. These turtles guarding the city really dare to come out and die regardless of their own capabilities. That will just help them, and no one will be able to go back alive.
Outside the doorway there was still heavy artillery fire, and the two sides were still shooting at each other across the river. Compared to the time when the two sides had just clashed, the firepower at the top of the city was obviously much weaker.
There were only twenty-four mortar trucks under Hu Dawei still fighting, but before that, more than three hundred explosive packets had been poured into the city.
However, it was completely unreasonable to blow up the defenders at the top of the city to pieces, making them cry for their fathers and mothers. The damage caused by the shrapnel was even greater than ten bullets from the Hongyi cannon.
A hundred iron beads are tied to each ammunition bag used as a grenade, which explodes in the target area. Everyone within ten steps will be affected, and there is no bunker. The armor you are wearing alone cannot block the high speed. Penetration of iron beads.
As long as the iron beads penetrate the armor and penetrate into the flesh, the defenders can instantly lose their combat effectiveness.
A man can still fight despite being hit by an iron ball.
Being hit by two iron balls is equivalent to a slightly injured disabled soldier.
If three or four bullets are inserted into it, it will almost look like a living dead.
And unlike direct-aiming artillery like the Hongyi Cannon, mortars are deflection weapons that can completely ignore city walls.
In addition, its shells cause detonation and splash damage, which can achieve area coverage, which is different from traditional kinetic energy penetrating bullets.
Whether it is an explosive pack dropped on the city head or inside the city, as long as there are defenders nearby, it can produce extremely powerful and terrifying killing effects.
Through the first few attacks, the mortar soldiers have basically mastered the length of the fuse required to launch the explosive package at this distance. The explosive package will explode within three seconds at most after it hits the ground, leaving the defenders no time to pull out the fuse.
The fuzes provided by the Anmin Factory are all manufactured according to the maximum range of the mortar. During actual combat, the artillerymen will use scissors to cut them to the appropriate length based on the distance to the enemy target.
Range measurement is a science that few people can master, but it is much easier to measure it by test firing.
Every artilleryman learned to read the countdown silently, and judge whether the fuse was too long based on the time after the ammunition package flew out.
The actual error is no greater than three seconds, and peers in other nearby vehicles can shout to correct it.
The first few guys who have mastered the thumb distance measurement method feel that it is almost done, and they will notify others.
The distance they measure is relatively accurate, the error will not be more than fifty meters, and is generally within thirty meters.
After three rounds, the medicine pack can be sent to the designated area. If you are lucky, you can achieve "cannonball hitting the face"!
Being able to achieve such a level is inseparable from the strong support of a certain prince.
Each person in the mortar truck unit must fire fifty medicine packets every day, and then receive rewards based on personal performance.
Just like shooting with a gun, those who reach the 400th level can receive 4 taels of silver.
Those who change from three hundred to four hundred rings will receive half the reward, while those who switch from two hundred to three hundred rings will be considered qualified.
Those with levels from 200 to 100 must be warned, while idiots with levels below 100 will be removed from the unit.
Among the fifty-seven mortar trucks participating in the battle, there was really someone who could achieve a score of 400 rings.
I dare not say this every day, but I can receive four taels of silver in one or two days.
Playing mortar requires your own talent and learning ability, both are indispensable.
There were only three gunners who were able to meet the expectations of a certain prince. In ten days, each of them earned forty taels of silver.
By the time they followed Yang Wenyue's army on the expedition, they had already succeeded.
Under Datong City, except for the first few medicine bags, most of the rest will fall within a twenty-meter radius of the city tower.
In the end, less than twenty medicine packets were used to cut off more than half of the Wengcheng tower, and even scared the "Emperor Taizu of the former Jin Dynasty" into the main city tower...
The flagpole with the words "Qianjin" hanging on it was blown off on the spot. The broken flag lost its care and fell to the open space outside the city with the wind.
Under the continuous and indiscriminate bombardment by the counter-rebellion army, the morale of the defenders also dropped as the Wengcheng tower and the banner were bombed.
The area around the city tower became a forbidden area for everyone, because it was the area where the invading enemies would focus their fire.
No matter who it is, as long as they pass by, they may see the fuse of an explosive pack burning not far away.
When encountering this situation, anyone's first reaction is to turn around and run away, how dare they stay near the tower for a while.
Over time, let alone guerrillas, even if the generals and even deputy generals came to supervise the battle and used personal troops to force everyone to defend the city, the soldiers were still cowering.
If we were to shoot at each other through the crenels like before, everyone would grit their teeth and hold on, but if we can't fight back just by being bombed, then don't hold on.
Not even a single enemy could be killed, and dozens of our own were wounded and died miserably. The defenders near Heyangmen were unwilling to continue to obey their superiors' orders.
Looking up at the ruins of the city tower, and then at the distracted companions, it was a very unwise move to use flesh and blood to resist the powerful bullets coming from outside.
Everyone's silent hesitation gradually turned into a tacit resistance. If the generals continued to suppress, it might cause a large-scale mutiny.
In the minds of ordinary soldiers, defending the city and sending death are two different concepts.
When you, Wang Pu, are king and hegemon in Datong, no one will bother you.
But if you insist on letting everyone die, it will definitely not work.
Datong belongs to you, Wang Pu. If you hold it, you won't be rewarded with ten taels of silver.
If you can't keep it, at least save your life.
You, Wang Pu, have established yourself as king, and everyone can't lose their lives even if they don't get any benefits.
There will be soldiers according to what kind of generals there are, and the defenders are not righteous in the first place.
They were reluctant to go to resist the Donglu.
They were also a little afraid of betraying the imperial court.
Generally speaking, Wang Pu's troops are a group of bastards who don't want to fight, but want to receive reward money, and are also greedy for life and afraid of death.
Because Wang Pu was such a person, but he was more afraid of death than ordinary soldiers, so he rebelled against the order and even made himself king.
But from ancient times to the present, founding a country, becoming a king, and ascending to the throne have all depended on strength. Without strength, everything is just a joke.
The generals under Wang Pu also had doubts about whether they could escape the control of the imperial court. After all, it was difficult to support them with just 10,000 people.
The Emperor's Chicken is far away in the horizon, and there is no hope for him in the near future. Without foreign aid, he may not be able to survive the imperial conquest army.
Of course Wang Pu knew the general thoughts of everyone, but if he wanted to survive at the moment, other than leading his troops out of the border and defecting to Huang Taiji, this was the only way left.
Facing the Donglu who escaped from the battle, he was to be killed according to the law. Guessing that the court wanted to settle accounts after the fall, Wang Pucai changed his mind halfway and decided to live one more day, regardless of the imperial edict of the prince.
"boom……"
However, the continuous explosions made Wang Pu sometimes sober and sometimes confused. Even he was stunned by the powerful firepower of the invading enemy.
Wang Pu couldn't help but wonder whether Datong City could be saved. Being able to repel Yang Wenyue's siege troops was already a blessing from God.
Wang Pu originally thought that the opponent had just arrived and would only attack one side just to test, and would not launch a strong attack that could break the city.
But now it seems that if we wait until the city head is leveled and the defenders are defeated, then we can set up a ladder to climb up, then we can easily capture the Wengcheng.
"Quick! Send more soldiers! We must defend the city!"
Thinking of this terrible result, Wang Pu immediately told his men that the enemy must not be allowed to capture the city at any cost.
If Yang Wenyue really only attacks Heyangmen, then no matter how strong the momentum is, he can still block the opponent's front.
The blame is that he was arrogant in the past. If he launched a four-way attack, he would have no way to support him.
Wang Pu was still a little happy, secretly laughing that Yang Wenyue didn't understand the art of war and acted blindly.
"boom……"
At this moment, an extremely violent explosion occurred in the direction of Heyang Gate. The originally solid city tower seemed to be bulged from bottom to top in the blink of an eye. It expanded rapidly outward, almost deformed, and then suddenly inward. shrink.
Wang Pu, who was a hundred steps away, even felt the ground shaking, forcing himself to stand unsteadily. Waves of air swept past his face, raising a cloud of dust. In addition to being inexplicably surprised, he had no idea what was happening.
After waving away the soldiers who were protecting him, Wang Pu hurriedly got up from the ground, cleaned the dust off his armor, and looked eastward, only to find that the Heyang Gate seemed to be a little wider than usual.
"Damn it! It didn't collapse!"
The man who dug the hole in the doorway ran to a place outside the moat and took a closer look. He found that the explosion situation was a bit disappointing. The main part of the tower was still there, and the expected results did not occur.
This is equivalent to blowing up a normally standing person and bending him down, and the siege crew wanted to blow it down directly, or flatten it, so they concentrated a total of 90 bags of explosives loaded in three vehicles. .
Now the Heyangmen building is collapsing from both sides to the middle in the direction of the explosion. Its shape is like a V, but its height has dropped sharply from fourteen meters to less than eight meters.
If the infantry drove over and set up a ladder, they could easily climb to the top of the city. The defenders were so frightened by the big explosion that they abandoned their positions long ago and began to flee towards the main city.
In fact, there is no need for a ladder. You can climb directly to the top of the city along the slope formed by the rubble. For the infantry, this is an opportunity that cannot be missed.
Compared with climbing a ladder and being greeted by rolling wood, thunder, rocks or even hot oil, this route to the city is simply too convenient. The infantry behind a dozen shield cars immediately drove across the bridge quickly and arrived outside the collapsed Heyang Gate.
"Come on! Take Datong! Capture Wang Pu alive!"
Seeing that the city tower was blown down, the morale of the officers and soldiers was greatly boosted. After a while, they climbed to the top of the city, pulled down the broken "Former Jin" flag and threw it at the bottom of the city, and erected the big flag with the word "Ming" printed on it.
Because the ammunition was exhausted, the mortar truck troops withdrew. They completed the fire support mission and destroyed the rebels' will to persevere. This battle was considered to be the greatest contribution.
"Take back the Wengcheng! Reward 10,000 taels of silver! Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed!"
Seeing that the situation was not good, Wang Pu urgently ordered his men to regain the lost position.
If the Heyang Gate is lost and the Wengcheng is lost, the main city of Datong will be in danger.
This is the foundation of the "Former Jin Empire" and we must not give up easily.
As long as we still have the strength to fight back, we must repel the invading enemies and stick to Datong for a long time.
The soldiers who ran back were forced by the soldiers to return the same way, but they only did it perfunctorily and had no intention of fighting at all.
As more and more siege troops descended on the city, the rebels realized that Wang Pu was gone.
But the enemy in front of him couldn't get rid of him, and he would be cut down by the opponent when he turned around. He could only struggle to parry and wait for an opportunity to run away.
All talk about getting promoted and getting rich is bullshit. The world is big and life is the most important. If you don't run away, you will die with Wang Pu.
Everyone thought this way, but in the end not only did they fail to recapture the lost Heyang Gate, but they were also killed by the enemies who boarded the city and were forced to retreat.
