prosperous age

Chapter 1095 1186 Breaking the City

"Keep firing."

Yu Dayou gave the order calmly.

As his order was given, the Ming army gunners quickly cleaned the gun barrels and prepared to load ammunition for the second time.

On the opposite side of the Burmese army's city wall, the actual killing power of the first round of artillery fire was limited, and it seemed that no Burmese soldier was killed by the artillery fire. However, the battlements of the city wall collapsed, and the flying rocks injured several people, who were now wailing in pain on the city wall.

This situation is undoubtedly the most demoralizing.

The enemy did not attack the city as expected, but simply formed a line outside the city. Then, when the cannons sounded, the soldiers on our side who were ready for battle were injured and fell to the ground.

What else is there to fight?

The Burmese troops that escaped back a few days ago blew up the Ming army's artillery fire for a while. At that time, the commander of the Burmese army in Pegu City did not take it seriously.

He had seen cannons before and knew they were very powerful but their killing power was average. However, the cannons that the Ming army pushed to the city seemed too big.

"Catch a few of the panicked ones and hang them up."

Because more than 2,000 young and strong men were forcibly conscripted from the city to join the army defending the city. Although the soldiers were panicked at this time, they could still barely keep their composure. However, the newly recruited people were not like that. They just stood there in panic and making a lot of noise, which was very annoying.

However, the most important thing is that their fear is contagious, and his soldiers are also infected and start to become afraid.

"General, let's go down the tower first. If the Ming dogs continue to fire like this, we will become living targets if we stay on the tower."

"No, what if the Ming army attacks the city at this time?"

"With the protection of the city walls, we just need to urge the soldiers to run faster."

"General, they are about to fire again."

Just as the generals defending the city were discussing how to deal with the Ming army's artillery fire, some sharp-eyed people had noticed that the Ming army's gunners seemed to have finished loading the shells, but they did not notice that the two soldiers standing in front of the gun barrel had retreated to get out of the firing range.

The two generals who were still arguing immediately shut up, looked outside the city, and then stopped arguing and walked down the city wall with swords slung over their shoulders.

Although the Portuguese had been in Myanmar for a long time, the direction of exploration they chose was not as good as that of the Spanish.

To the east of Europe, there are civilized countries, which are different from the primitive prototypes of the countries discovered by the indigenous peoples of America by the Spaniards, and there is also frequent trade between countries.

Therefore, except for some radical actions in Africa, they mainly adopted a conciliatory policy in Asia, actively showing goodwill and expressing the desire for trade.

Most countries along the way are very open and welcoming to their arrival.

In fact, many of these countries profited from the East-West trade linking Eurasia and did not like the arrival of the Portuguese. However, most of them did not want any unpleasant situations to occur when faced with their arrival in warships.

Therefore, although Myanmar has had minor conflicts with them at the local level, there have been no conflicts at the national level.

Places like Pegu have naturally not been exposed to the baptism of modern firearms.

They had no experience in how to deal with such a situation. At this time, the Burmese soldiers saw the generals hurriedly going down the city wall and hiding behind the city wall.

Just when they were at a loss, the sound of rumbling cannons was heard again outside the city, followed by a burst of flying debris from the city wall.

Only after the bombardment did the soldiers below the city go up to the city wall and carry the injured soldiers down from the wall.

The Ming army launched two consecutive rounds of artillery fire, which had little destructive power, but frightened the Burmese soldiers.

Originally, the soldiers who stayed behind were not elite, and the good soldiers were taken away by Mang Yinglong to attack Ming.

When such a scene appeared again, the frightened Burmese soldiers followed these people down the city wall.

But soon, bursts of miserable howling came from under the city wall. Those were the soldiers who were discovered to have escaped from the city wall secretly and were hung up with ropes for public display.

Now, no one dared to run down.

After several rounds of artillery bombardment by the Ming army, the Burmese soldiers gradually discovered that the Ming army's cannons seemed to be hitting the city gate tower. As long as they did not run there, there would be no problem elsewhere.

The south gate tower of Pegu City gradually began to crumble after being hit by dozens of artillery shells.

After several bombardments, the Ming army's artillerymen gradually adjusted the muzzles of their guns. Now most of the shells could hit the city walls on both sides of the city gate. The original battlements there no longer existed, and the soldiers who had stood there majestically before would no longer escape there.

The heavy city gate below, made of Burmese teak, was already riddled with holes and was on the verge of collapsing.

The city walls were bombarded repeatedly, the bricks on the outside of the city walls were broken, and several layers of stone slabs connecting the two city walls were also exposed.

"This"

When he saw the stone slab inside, Yu Dayou frowned slightly.

He thought that the city gates of Myanmar were made of stones spliced ​​into arches like those of the Ming Dynasty. In the words of later generations, it was to utilize the mechanical principles of the arch structure, converting the vertical load into axial pressure, which was then dispersed to both ends of the arch to achieve stability and load-bearing.

This type of city gate structure is made of stones joined together into an arch shape, so if one of the stones is broken, the city gate will collapse.

As a result, the entire city wall will collapse to varying degrees.

You should know that the bottom of the city tower is often not solid, there will be houses underneath, which are usually used for garrison.

When the city tower collapsed, the Ming army could enter the city through it. They only needed to direct their artillery fire at both sides of the city wall to block the attack from the city wall.

But now we see that the Burmese have built a city gate with large stones between the city walls, so there is little point in continuing to attack the city gate walls.

"Concentrate your artillery fire on those slabs."

Yu Dayou made up his mind in a flash. He decided to break those ten pieces. As long as the load-bearing stones below were broken, the ones above would fall down and the entire city wall would collapse.

However, only the city gate collapsed, and the impact on the entire city tower would not be significant.

But it doesn’t matter. As long as we continue to bombard the city wall, we can prevent the Burmese army from getting close to the gap.

After nearly half an hour of artillery bombardment, the south gate of Pegu City was covered in debris. With the sound of "cracking and rumbling" of stones breaking, the city wall collapsed completely.

During this half hour, the Ming army soldiers just watched quietly as the artillery fired its power on the battlefield. Although it was a bit slow, the effect was obvious.

The Burmese soldiers on the city wall seemed to have gradually lost their worries about the coming war. They were also curiously watching the Ming army's cannons outside the city to see if they could break down the city gates.

However, after the city gate was completely destroyed, they realized that the Ming army was about to attack.

As the war drums sounded, the Ming army soldiers who were originally sitting on the ground to rest stood up and packed up their weapons.

"Order Wang Shike to attack the city according to the strategy we discussed."

Yu Dayou spoke at this time.

The city gates were already open, and the Ming army was still firing, but now their shells were hitting the rocks below the city gates, clearing a fairly smooth path for the Ming army to enter the city.

About two hundred Ming army musketeers walked out of the ranks, and behind them were a similar number of archers. Under the protection of sword and shield soldiers, they advanced towards the city gate.

The Burmese army seemed to have regained their vitality at this time, and a rain of arrows flew out from both sides of the city wall, but most of them fell in front of the Ming army. Apparently, they had not yet noticed that because they were shooting from the side, they could not use the previously set bow and arrow range as a reference.

At this time, teams of Ming troops finally started moving. They quickly approached the city gate and their formation was stretched into a long strip.

Just as the Burmese troops were preparing to climb up the tower tower under the urging of their generals, the Ming troops in front of the city gate began to shoot a wave of arrows at the city wall.

The effectiveness of the shooting was unknown, but for some time afterwards, no Burmese soldiers were seen on the pier.

"Boom boom boom"

There was another earth-shaking bombardment, and this time the artillery hit both sides of the city wall, where the arrows had just flown.

Obviously, that was the position of the Burmese archers. If the shells hit those battlements, the flying stones would be enough to kill the archers.

An archer needs very strong arm strength to draw a bow. If he gets injured, it is generally difficult for him to exert his full strength.

If the bow is not fully drawn, its range and lethality will be affected to some extent.

The long-range attack of artillery is the best weapon to deal with archers. It is much stronger than the bird gun which has a slow loading speed and a low range.

At this time, the Ming army had approached the city gate, and Burmese soldiers appeared in the city gate. They were moving the larger stones scattered on the ground, trying to simply block the road and slow down the Ming army's attack speed.

"bang bang bang"

A clear sound of bird gunfire was heard, and there was a faint smoke in front of the battlefield. There was no fairy-like charm, but the scythe of the god of death was waving.

The Burmese generals were not ones to sit back and wait for their turn. On the one hand, they organized their men to climb up the city walls and attack the Ming army that intended to enter the city from above, and on the other hand, they tried to pile up stones to block the city gates.

In fact, from the low city walls of Myanmar, we can see that they do not have much experience in city attack and defense, otherwise the city walls would not be built so low.

They do not have many domestic wars, but mostly foreign wars, and such wars often take place in border areas. Moreover, most of the time, the Burmese are the main attackers and the invaders.

A city like Bago can almost be considered an endoscope of Myanmar, with almost no wars having ever occurred there. Therefore, in the past few days, no houses were demolished to block the city gates.

Of course, this is also the reason why the Ming army decided to attack the city gate after observation.

According to the captives, the outside of Pegu City is covered with bricks and the inside is filled with rammed earth, so it cannot be destroyed.

So it seems that the city gate is the only weak point that can be attacked.

It would be even better if the opponent doesn't have a cannon.

Leaving behind some corpses, the Burmese army quickly retreated from the city gate.

The larger stones had been broken up after two artillery bombardments to clear the road, and there wasn't much left to pile up.

The Ming army had already rushed to the city gate. Several tiger squat cannons were moved to the front of the city gate. They were quickly loaded with local materials using gravel on the ground, and then a round of artillery fire was launched at the city gate.

Regardless of whether there were Burmese troops lined up at the city gate to block the attack, the Ming army chose to fire a few shots inside to test the waters.

Sure enough, as the tiger squat cannon unleashed its power, screams were heard from behind the city gate, and more than ten arrows flew out and hit the large shields held high by the Ming army.

With tiger crouching cannons in front and upright shields behind, the Ming army began to enter the city gate.

"Boom boom boom."

There were a few more cannon shots. These were the Tiger Crouching Cannon firing at the Burmese army formation outside the city gate.

The current shelling fully demonstrated the terrifying destructive power of the artillery, and the Burmese troops standing at the front of the queue suffered heavy casualties.

"Come in."

Wang Shike, who was standing behind the shield, saw that the bombardment had successfully disrupted the Burmese army's formation and the Burmese army was already on the verge of defeat. He immediately drew out his sword, waved it and gave orders.

The Ming army, which had been advancing slowly just now, suddenly began to accelerate and rushed towards the Burmese army on the opposite side that was trying to re-form a formation.

"bang bang bang"

There was only a row of Ming army musketeers in front, and they automatically stepped aside after firing their guns to make way.

Most of these Ming troops using firearms and bows and arrows were soldiers from the South China Sea Navy. The remnants of the Feilong Kingdom who were incorporated into the army did not receive such training. Most of them would only rush to the enemy with weapons and fight with them.

And it is these people who are now rushing towards the Burmese army.

There was no need to engage in a brutal siege. The Ming army simply rushed in through the city gate and destroyed the enemy's morale, as well as the elite troops standing in the front. The following battle was naturally nothing to say, as close combat was their strong point.

Wang Shike was standing at the foot of the city wall at this time, commanding the Ming army's sword and shield soldiers and bird gun soldiers to go up to the city wall and completely occupy a section of the city wall.

"Go, hurry up."

Looking at the soldiers rushing in and chasing and killing the Burmese army, Wang Shike was filled with joy. The first battle to capture the city was just around the corner.

He kept urging the troops coming in from behind to catch up, and when a personal soldier reported that the city gate tower had been occupied, he immediately hurried up the city wall.

He first looked at both sides of the city wall, then called on the soldiers to wave flags, asking the gunners outside the city to stop firing.

At this time, the Burmese troops on the city wall had already retreated along the wall, and there was no trace of the enemy troops in a large area on both sides of the city gate.

In the direction of the city, the Burmese army's resistance had been broken.

After organizing their forces to prepare for a battle to block the gate, they were suddenly attacked by the Ming army's tiger squat cannons. The young and strong soldiers who dared to fight had fallen to the ground and became corpses. The rest chose to survive, that is, to run backwards desperately. The Ming army was now chasing them and killing them.

There was no such thing as brutal urban street fighting in this era. Once encountering resistance in the city, the attackers would set fire to the houses without hesitation, regardless of whether there were still residents inside.

With the help of the fire, the enemy can either choose to continue retreating or be burned to death inside, but no one will compete with you for each building.

Fortunately, the Burmese army seemed to have no will to resist. The city had been in chaos enough these days, and most of the young and strong men who were forcibly conscripted chose to take off their clothes while running towards their homes.

Everything I saw on the city wall just now was too horrifying. The Ming army's weapons could kill or maim people from a long distance. It was too brutal.

The city of Pegu was within reach, and Wang Shike, who was standing on the top of the city, directly sent a signal to the outside of the city.

Outside the city, behind Yu Dayou, there were about two hundred cavalrymen waiting.

After Yu Dayou gave the order, they urged their horses to go around one side and head towards the west gate of Pegu City.

If the city cannot be defended, the defeated soldiers will inevitably choose to flee to the Toungoo City in the north. These 200 cavalrymen are more than enough to take on the responsibility of pursuing them.

In this battle, apart from the consumption of some gunpowder, the Ming army did not suffer much loss.

However, through this battle, the Ming army's sharp siege tactics will also spread among the Burmese army, making subsequent battles easier to fight.

No one would be interested in a war with no hope of winning. The several small cities along the way from Pegu to Toungoo would probably fall on their own.

Yu Dayou was thinking.