Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3936 Thunderous Artillery Fire Destroys Strongholds and Breaks Through Fortifications; Earth-Shaking Armored Soldiers Advance to Conquer the Pass (Bonus Chapter)

For the soldiers of Cao Cao's army at Sishui Pass, they were able to fully appreciate the concept of relativity of time.

For them, this winter morning was almost the longest and most painful hell of their lives.

If you fall behind, you will be attacked.

Outdated systems lead to technological backwardness.

The inertia of the superstructure will endlessly exploit the people at the bottom in order to maintain its own rule.

This unambitious mindset led the powerful clans and local gentry of Shandong to be content with the false pleasure derived from land annexation, and this continued into the Ming and Qing dynasties...

Now, the cavalry has given them a little shock!
At the very beginning of the battle, some of Cao Cao's soldiers, who had previously seen artillery at Tongguan and Hedong, immediately began to seek cover when they saw the Flying Cavalry's cannons being pushed to the front lines. Meanwhile, the aristocratic sons and local militia soldiers who had been chosen as suicide soldiers were still watching in bewilderment...

Suddenly, ominous flames rose from behind the cavalry formation, accompanied by billowing gray-black smoke!

Immediately afterwards, a deafening roar, unlike anything these Shandong gentry youths had ever heard before, swept across the sky like rolling thunder, drowning out the sounds of war drums and horns in the battle formation!
Before they could even react to the enormous and unfamiliar roar, an even sharper and more piercing howl came from afar and arrived in an instant!

This kind of voice seems to be born faster, more direct, and more unreasonable!

It wasn't a whooshing sound, nor the heavy whistling of a catapult projectile cutting through the air, but rather like the shrill howl of death!

"Bang--!!!"

An indescribable explosion resounded below the enemy tower on the left side of the pass.

This is a pure, savage, and physically devastating sound!
A dark, heavy solid shot, moving at a speed too fast for the naked eye to detect, slammed into the brick-clad rammed earth wall!
The brick that was hit directly instantly turned into dust, and a large area of ​​rammed earth behind it was smashed inward as if by a giant's fist, suddenly caved in, cracked, and sprayed out!
The shattered bricks and clods of earth swept backward in a fan shape from the point of impact, like out-of-control shot!

Seven or eight Cao army archers standing near that area were swallowed up by the violent debris flow amidst screams...

Someone had half their head, along with their helmet, severed off, and blood and gore splattered on the parapet behind them...

Someone was struck in the chest and abdomen by a fist-sized brick, his armor visibly dented, and he coughed up blood as he fell backward...

Some people were hit by fine gravel and dirt, leaving their exposed faces and hands covered in grime, screaming in pain as they clutched their wounds...

And this is just the beginning!
More deaths followed in quick succession!

A bullet grazed the top edge of the crenellation, tearing off a large chunk of the foot-thick brickwork like a flaky pastry. The shattered bricks poured inward like a waterfall, knocking down several soldiers below who were about to draw their bows.

The other one slammed into the stone slabs of the city wall walkway. The hard stone slabs shattered and caved in like a spider web. The shell bounced back, carrying the remaining terrifying kinetic energy, and rolled and bounced forward along the walkway like an out-of-control iron plow!
Wherever it went, severed limbs flew everywhere, and screams of agony filled the air!
A leg, severed at the knee, flew into the air along with the boot...

A shield-bearer was sent flying through the air along with his shield, and when he landed, he was no longer a human figure...

The iron ball finally crashed into the inner wall, leaving a glaring dent in the flesh, before reluctantly stopping its rolling motion. Its surface was covered with a sticky red and white substance, still hissing and emitting pinkish smoke...

The gate tower and corner tower were the main targets of the shelling.

A bullet struck the second-floor support pillar of the gate tower squarely, snapping the thick wooden pillar in an instant. Wood chips flew everywhere, and the entire building emitted a tooth-grinding groan as it shook violently, with tiles crashing down.

The military commander and his guards in the gate tower were shaken and staggered, covered in dust, coughing repeatedly, and scurrying around like frightened rats.

The main tower has more beams and pillars, while the corner tower, which has relatively weaker support, fared even worse.

Two consecutive bullets struck its base, causing bricks and stones to crumble and the building to tilt noticeably. The ballistae and defenders inside screamed as they slid and fell along with the tilting floorboards...

Under the barrage of artillery fire from the cavalry, both the newly recruited soldiers and the veterans who had experienced the Battle of Tongguan and Hedong were screaming in terror and instinctively fleeing...

This power, which was beyond its time, brought them a sense of despair that they could neither escape nor defend against!

You can raise a shield to shoot arrows, and you can dodge stones in advance, but when faced with this iron lump that moves at an extreme speed, there is almost nothing you can do except pray that you will not stand in its path!
Although current artillery shells do not burn or explode, but simply use enormous kinetic energy to impact and crush, they are still something that flesh and blood cannot withstand!
While individual martial prowess does offer an advantage in small-scale, low-intensity battles, its effectiveness diminishes dramatically in large-scale troop operations. The larger the army, the less significant the individual's contribution becomes. Consequently, after the Three Kingdoms period, China largely abandoned the pursuit of individual martial prowess and began to shift towards team-based warfare.

For a long time in the West, knights were considered the most powerful...

After all, it's a village brawl; the kind where one tin can is enough to take on the whole village...

Now, the role of individual martial prowess in the cavalry has been further reduced!
Artillery shells don't discriminate between soldiers and generals; by the time you see one coming, it's often too late to react!

When you hear the whistling sound, death may have already come!
A soldier dies with a single shot, and a general dies with the same fate!

Cao's soldiers were screaming in agony, and the walls of Sishui Pass were groaning!
Each heavy impact caused the entire section of the wall to tremble slightly, dust fell in clumps, and smoke and dust flew everywhere.

The section of the city wall that was subjected to concentrated bombardment was already pitted and uneven, like a pockmarked face, and the rammed earth layers inside were constantly loosened and peeled off under repeated impacts.

After being hit by three cannonballs in succession, a section of the parapet finally gave way and collapsed inward along with several soldiers behind it, revealing a hideous gap and sending up a cloud of grayish-yellow dust.

The air was thick with the smells of dust, gunpowder, and the rapidly spreading, sweet, fishy odor of fresh blood.

The once orderly defensive formations on the city wall are now in complete disarray.

Severed limbs and broken pieces were scattered everywhere, here and there.

Some could still be roughly identified as belonging to certain parts of a limb, while others were just black, red, and pinkish-brown, steaming chunks of flesh...

The cries of the wounded, the screams of terror, and the shouts of officers trying to maintain order had just begun when they were quickly interrupted by the roar and shrieks!

Gate towers, corner towers, and city walls groan in agony under their unbearable burden.

Tiles, bricks, and clods of earth flew everywhere recklessly.

Many of Cao Cao's soldiers huddled behind the relatively intact battlements, trembling, their faces pale, their eyes vacant, and their hands gripping their weapons shaking uncontrollably.

Especially those aristocratic sons who were pushed to the front lines and acted as suicide soldiers...

In their imagination, war is beautiful, majestic, and spectacular...

They stood on high ground, raising their weapons and waving their flags, while behind them, a swarm of faceless rabble charged forward, shouting...

The sun will shine on them...

Their cloaks would flutter in the wind...

Now, this irresistible, destructive force, like divine punishment, has completely shattered the will of many.

Some aristocratic youths broke down on the spot, dropping their weapons, covering their heads, crying and shouting as they ran down the city wall, but were quickly and brutally cut down by the supervising soldiers and judges.

At this moment, the status of a noble family member and the knowledge of the classics in his mind were worthless.

Experienced veterans avoided the direct artillery fire, taking refuge in relatively secure corners, some crouching on the ground with their heads in their hands, others gritting their teeth and enduring the pain with pale faces, or muttering prayers for gods or their parents...

They didn't know how long the terrifying roar would last, or who the next shell would take away.

……

……

The gray-black smoke, mixed with the orange-red flames from the cannons, instantly created a thick wall of smoke in front of the cavalry formation.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of sulfur and saltpeter, causing one's adrenaline to surge.

Fei Qian stood on a high platform slightly behind the central formation, gazing at the Sishui Pass trembling amidst the cannon fire... The Chinese nation has always been held back by certain people.

Otherwise, given the diligence and creativity of the Chinese nation, let alone unifying the world, even breaking out of the solar system wouldn't be a problem.

Once the knowledge and vision of a time traveler are combined with the gradually awakening potential of a vast empire, the energy released will snowball, becoming stronger and stronger!
After years of investment in workshops in Pingyang and Guanzhong, countless artisans' painstaking efforts in trial and error, and a rigorous, almost demanding, standardized production process, the bronze cannons and some cast iron cannons displayed in front of Sishui Pass can be said to have reached the limits of the era when muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons were combined with black powder.

The simple tracks facilitated transportation.

A sturdy gun mount can provide stable support.

By fine-tuning the shape of the chamber and the sabot, a relatively accurate shooting effect was achieved.

More refined and stable propellant firing processes, along with firing data tables that have undergone rigorous calculations and repeated live-fire calibrations—all of these combined to form the most terrifying battlefield firepower projection system of this era.

Advancing in the technology field requires a solid foundation.

In this process, the first thing to be liberated is human productivity!
Fei Qian knew that to advance to higher levels of chemical energy, and even to unlock more powerful thermal weapons, he needed more craftsmen, more researchers, and more specialized workshops, and then gradually build up and climb higher on the technology tree!
To achieve these goals, it is essential to first completely dismantle the old economic and social structure that has persisted in Shandong and the Central Plains for hundreds of years, which is centered on personal dependence and the closed nature of small-scale farming!
Only by liberating the countless hands and minds bound to the manors and fields, allowing knowledge to spread to the grassroots, and enabling artisans, farmers, and even merchants to gain true freedom of identity and financial incentives, can we provide a continuous supply of talent, markets, and resources for more advanced technological and industrial revolutions.

It's hard to imagine that someone from a poor family in a remote mountain village, who has never had any contact with the outside world, could suddenly learn several or even a dozen foreign languages ​​and then delve into the technical aspects of them...

Only through accumulation can one achieve great things...

That's right, without a foundation, you simply can't get it up.

This decisive battle at Sishui Pass was not only about unifying the Han Dynasty, but also about making a direct and brutal declaration against the old system and model!
Without sufficient pain, you can't wake someone who's pretending to be asleep...

The roar of artillery fire is the roar of the new regime's power!
Fei Qian's gaze fell upon the commander on the artillery position.

Artillery Captain Zhao Hong, Engineer Commander Chen Wu, and Chief Craftsman Huang Dou who accompanied the army.

Three cobblers...

The three of them had conducted a lengthy joint simulation...

Based on his accumulated experience in construction and his understanding of similar gate wall structures, Huang Dou was the first to mark the most likely structural weak points of the Sishui Pass city wall on the blueprints...

These are all results of theory and practice within the architectural system.

It could be a joint where the foundation was built at different times, a corner where the foundation bearing capacity is uneven, or an area through which the internal and external drainage structures pass...

However, it was clearly impossible for Huang Dou, at his advanced age, to go to the front line to conduct reconnaissance while still carrying a belly, so the engineering sergeant Chen Wu took on this responsibility.

Chen Wu led his engineers not only to survey and prepare the ground for the battle, but also to lead his experienced engineers to risk getting close to the site for reconnaissance on several occasions, and even to sneak out at night to dig test pits. They verified that the rammed earth layer at the bottom of a section of the city wall, which was about ten zhang long, was significantly looser than that in other places!

This data was eventually handed over to Zhao Hong, the artillery captain. Zhao Hong then considered the performance, range, and trajectory of the artillery and allocated the firepower accordingly. More than 60% of the first round of shells roared and crashed into the section of the city wall marked as "Area A3"!

The remaining firepower was used to suppress and destroy command nodes such as city gate towers and corner towers, as well as possible counter-attack fire points of Cao Cao's army!
The cannonballs, accompanied by a piercing whistling sound, crashed heavily into the ancient gate wall!

The fire and iron of the new era make the bricks and rammed earth of the old era tremble incessantly!
Solid shot carved huge craters into the hard walls and rammed earth, and shattered bricks and clods of earth shot out like a fountain!
Thick smoke and dust completely enveloped that section of the city wall...

The first round of artillery fire is about to cease.

Fei Qian turned his attention to the front lines.

After the artillery barrage, Huang Cheng led his heavily armed troops forward.

At the forefront of the heavily armed soldiers' attack sequence, the squad leader, Niu Dalang, gripped his sword tightly, his eyes fixed intently on the front.

He could feel the heart-pounding tremors coming from the ground beneath his feet, and he could smell the increasingly strong smell of gunpowder. He felt his heart pounding wildly, and his blood was almost about to be pumped out of his head!
Niu Dalang swallowed hard and subconsciously glanced at Julius, who was not far away beside him.

This man from the Western Regions was clearly even more nervous than Niu Dalang; even amidst the cannon fire, his heavy breathing could be heard beneath his mask…

It was panting like a cow.

"Relax!"

Niu Dalang pushed off his mask and shouted at Julius.

"ah?"

Julius was somewhat slow to react.

Julius was also a squad leader, and behind him were about a hundred foreign heavy infantrymen, composed of Parthians and Qin people.

These guys were generally quite tall and burly...

This is not some kind of racial talent, but rather that those who can travel thousands of miles, cross the sands and wars of the Western Regions, and arrive in Guanzhong alive are already physically strong individuals who have been eliminated time and time again. People with slightly weaker bodies simply cannot survive to reach Guanzhong!

Although they wore the same armor as the cavalry, the weapons they carried were slightly different.

Perhaps it was out of habit, or perhaps for some other reason, but most of them carried spears and battle axes, rather than choosing the more agile and skill-intensive swords.

"How deep is the mud?!" Julius pushed up his mask and shouted at Niu Dalang, "Deeper!"

"Relax! Relax!"

Niu Dalang emphasized that he was worried that the guy would be too nervous and cause his movements to become distorted, thus dragging down the overall line.

Julius paused for a moment, then asked sharply, "Wait a minute, buddy, pull the cannon, halt, center! Center Larry?"

"What?"

The cannon fire was so loud that at first Niu Dalang couldn't understand what Julius was saying in his strange tone. But with Julius's gestures and shouts, Niu Dalang was able to guess what he was saying.

Niu Dalang tried to explain it to Julius, but it was clear that Julius couldn't understand it very well either...

When Julius pointed again to the smoke-filled distance and asked, "Larry, stop," Niu Dalang finally lost his temper. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "You follow me! I charge, you charge! I stop, you stop! Understand?!"

Julius was taken aback by Niu Dalang's shout. He blinked his blue-gray eyes, seemingly understanding the simplest and most direct command. He then grinned, patted his breastplate, gave Niu Dalang a thumbs up, and turned to roar a few words at his men. The foreign soldiers responded by either striking their shields or letting out low growls.

Just then, the first round of intense shelling abruptly stopped.

The gunfire ceased, and a brief silence fell over the entire battlefield!
The silence was so intense that it even caused tinnitus in people's ears...

Immediately afterwards, the sharp, piercing sound of brass whistles rang out almost simultaneously throughout the entire heavily armored infantry line!

"Forward! Forward!"

Niu Dalang roared with all his might and leaped forward.

"Keep up! Keep up! Forward! Forward!"

The Han soldiers shouted in unison and surged forward like a torrent of steel bursting its banks.

"For Caesar...no, for the General! Forward!"

Julius also let out a strange war cry, leading his foreign phalanx, close to the flank of Niu Dalang's tribe, and began to advance...

Thousands of heavily armored infantrymen, amidst the lingering smoke and dust, transformed into several black arrows, advancing towards the ancient pass that had just endured an unprecedented baptism of fire!
Like a torrent of steel, it surges forward with the thunderous power of the new era!
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