Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 243 A City Nukemned, Watching the Grand Fireworks

On September 16th of the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen reign, after receiving another batch of new supplies, Zhu Yuanzhang once again led his army eastward toward Shenyang.

The march was still not very fast, but the good news was that the snow had stopped.

Although the temperature was still very low, the vast expanse of the field of vision was a scene of ice and snow, with hardly any human habitation for miles around.

But once the snow stops falling, the snow thickness stops increasing, making driving less difficult.

Old Zhu didn't ride a horse this time; he rode in a carriage.

His carriage had been modified, with shock absorbers, insulation material, and a stove inside to keep the spacious cabin at around 20 degrees Celsius, making it very comfortable.

Occasionally, he would lift the carriage curtain and call in Zhu Di and some other ministers for a chat, or he would get off the carriage and ride with the entourage through the snow and ice.

For the majority of the rest of the time, he would sit there and communicate with people from all over the world via radio.

For example, ask Tang He in Sichuan how the governance of Sichuan is going. Also ask Xu Da in Changsha if Ji He told him about the current situation in Hongwu's territory when he came over.

The question I asked most often was about talking to Zhu Yunfeng.

The grandfather and grandson discussed whether they could return to Hongwu to celebrate the New Year this year, and whether, after saving the late Ming Dynasty and pacifying the chaotic world, they should retire in modern times and enjoy a peaceful and comfortable life.

They chatted along the way, and although they traveled slowly, covering only ten kilometers a day, they finally arrived in Shenyang in early October.

Outside Shenyang, there is a vast plain, and even the mountains are just low hills. The forests are lush and verdant, and there are many Han Chinese villages inhabiting the surrounding area.

Although covered by ice and snow, traces of field ridges and dikes can still be seen.

It is said that starting from the time of Huang Taiji, the Jurchens entered the pass many times, abducting a large number of Han people. In addition, they intermarried with the original Han people in Liaodong, which led to large-scale farming outside the pass.

Not only the Han people, but also the Jurchens who were not in the combat ranks followed the Han people in planting more than ten kinds of grains such as millet, wheat, barley, sorghum, and buckwheat, gradually evolving from a hunting and fishing civilization to an agricultural and hunting and fishing civilization.

In the later years of Huang Taiji's reign, the Jurchens gradually withdrew from agricultural production, and the work was basically handed over to captured Han Chinese slaves.

The estates outside and near Shenyang were actually official estates, imperial estates, or Manchu Eight Banners estates. Han people, as slaves, were not allowed to live in Shengjing City.

Only a very small number of people became bondservants of the Eight Banners, such as Han Eight Banner soldiers, who were qualified to be stationed in the city and do odd jobs for Manchu Eight Banner soldiers.

Therefore, these villages outside the city are mostly inhabited by Han Chinese.

By this time, the Han Chinese in the village had long been relocated by the Manchus.

Dorgon also regarded them as property, and under the pretext of needing Han slaves to transport supplies, he transferred hundreds of thousands of Han people away.

Currently, the only forces remaining in Shenyang are the Manchu Eight Banners, Mongol Eight Banners, Han Eight Banners, and some auxiliary troops from vassal states and tribes, totaling about 80,000 people.

When the Ming army marched to the plains more than ten miles away from Shenyang, the drone operators first took down the solar panels that were sunbathing on the vehicle, and then carefully stored the batteries.

The most important thing for drones when they are outdoors is their power supply. A few days ago, it snowed and the weather was gloomy. Without the sun, maintaining their power supply was a big challenge.

While drones are unlikely to be needed during peacetime, night vision devices and thermal imagers require electricity.

Furthermore, drones are needed to take to the air at all times to observe the surrounding situation and ensure that the troops will not be attacked during marches. Therefore, the stored power of the solar charging panels must be monitored at all times.

Even when there is electricity, you should charge it constantly to prevent power outages caused by prolonged cloudy weather.

However, thermal imaging cameras are really useful in the dead of winter. If you install one on a drone, not only people, but even a wild rabbit or a wild deer within a radius of several kilometers cannot escape the pursuit of the Ming army.

The soldiers of Hongwu would often hunt wild rabbits, deer, wild boars, roe deer, and other animals for a treat, living a comfortable and leisurely life, much more comfortable than eating marching rations every day.

In contrast, the soldiers during the Chongzhen era had a much harder time.

They used to be combat soldiers, and auxiliary soldiers helped them with everything except fighting.

Now they've almost been relegated to auxiliary roles, spending most of their time pushing supplies and escorting food and ammunition.

But no one complained; in fact, they were all willing to do it.

Because Old Zhu made the noise.

Zhu plundered a large amount of silver from Jiangnan and also amassed a great deal of wealth in Beijing. Old Zhu possessed nearly 100 million taels of silver, although most of it remained in Beijing and was used by Zhu Yunfeng for governance.

However, even if they managed to squeeze out ten million taels of silver, it would be enough to drive these impoverished Ming border troops, whose eyes were practically glowing with greed, into a frenzy.

As the saying goes, "The Ming army is invincible when its pay is not full, but when it is fully paid."

After receiving their pay, the Ming Dynasty border troops would be more than willing to do auxiliary work; they would even be willing to serve as servants to the Hongwu Emperor's soldiers.

"Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz!~~"

Dozens of drones quickly took off, emitting a low buzzing sound, and then spread out in all directions.

After the snow stopped, the sun came out, but the temperature wasn't particularly high. Standing in the sun at midday, there was hardly any warmth, and the wind had subsided considerably.

Many drone pilots do not need to give orders; they can simply take off and observe the surrounding enemy situation.

Although the wind had subsided considerably, the cold winds at high altitudes were still strong, so the ascenders chose to fly at low altitudes, overlooking the surrounding terrain, mountains and rivers, and the distant city of Shenyang.

The situation in Shenyang was clearly visible from the drone's perspective.

Clearly, the Jurchens had already discovered their presence; drums and gongs were sounded throughout the city, and a large number of garrison troops surged onto the city walls.

The city walls were piled high with cannonballs, rolling stones, logs, lime, and other defensive equipment. Cannons were aimed at the direction from which the Ming army was coming, and the Jurchen army was ready for battle.

Old Zhu ordered them to rest on the spot, and then used the drone to observe the city. After seeing the scene in the city, he scanned the surrounding terrain and said to Jiang Huan, "Raise the drone a bit and find a high point outside the city."

"Yes."

Jiang Huan maneuvered the drone to continue ascending. Although it swayed slightly, its stability was excellent, and it could still barely hold on.

While stabilizing the drone, he asked, "Your Majesty, should we make a public announcement?"

"What are you shouting about?"

Old Zhu said in a deep voice: "I only shouted in Ningyuan because I saw that many innocent soldiers were deceived by Wu Sangui. What do ordinary soldiers know about national affairs? They just follow whoever gives them a signal. But the whole city of Shenyang is full of Jurchens. I want them all to die."

"Yes."

Jiang Huan understood the emperor's intention and immediately began operating the drone to find a high vantage point.

Soon he found a hilly slope about three miles away from his side, located in the southeast corner of Shenyang's southern city, about seven or eight miles from the city.

That small hill was actually not high, only about ten zhang (approximately 33 meters) high, less than forty meters.

But its advantage lies in the fact that the top of the slope is a huge flat area, where a large number of artillery pieces can be placed to form an artillery position.

Therefore, Jiang Huan immediately said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "Your Majesty, this is a good place. The artillery fire should be able to cover the entire city, and the slopes on top are large enough to accommodate all the cannons."

"Okay, let's go take a look first."

Instead of issuing the order immediately, Lao Zhu chose to conduct an on-site investigation first.

The main force of the Ming army immediately stopped and continued to set up camp, while Zhu Yuanzhang, under the protection of his personal guards, made his way to a distant hillside.

After climbing the small hill, he found that it was indeed a nice place. The surrounding forests must have been cut down by the nearby farms long ago. There were not many trees on the top of the hill, which was covered with snow and some withered yellow weeds were showing.

"good."

Seeing that the terrain was favorable, Zhu Di took out his walkie-talkie and said to Zhu Di, who was commanding his troops, "Come over here, set up camp, and move all the cannons up the mountain."

"it is good."

Zhu Di responded and immediately ordered the entire army to turn and head towards the distant hill.

Before long, the Ming army arrived at the foot of the hill and began to set up camp.

Zhu Di's original plan was to attack the city directly upon arrival, without setting up camp, and simply stay in the city for the night.

But Old Zhu's idea was to level the entire Shenyang and then build a new city, so we still had to stay outside the city tonight.

The Ming army got busy.

Two thousand soldiers from the Hongwu reign stood guard around the perimeter.

Wang Jiayan and other civil and military officials directed the soldiers to set up camp, while Zhu Di mobilized a portion of his troops to begin pushing cannons up the mountain.

The rapid-fire cannons weighed several hundred kilograms. Although they had rubber wheels, they could only be pushed with difficulty in the snow. It was a matter of manpower and horses pulling them up the mountain one by one, relying on the dry grass and wooden planks laid in the snow. The progress was not fast.

While the Ming army was busy at work, the Manchus on the city walls were constantly on guard against their movements.

On the south city wall, Jirhalang, Hauge, and others watched the Ming army from afar, while behind them, a large number of Han Eight Banners and other auxiliary troops were carrying supplies for the defense of the city.

Especially gunpowder.

During the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, firearms technology was poor, raw materials were not good, and corruption within the Ming army was severe. Firearms such as muskets and matchlock guns had a high rate of barrel explosions, so even the Shenji Battalion dared not use them.

However, artillery was the main weapon of both sides. Not only the Ming and the Qing dynasties, but even the bandit forces of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had a large number of artillery pieces captured from the Ming army.

In order to defend Shenyang, the Qing Dynasty brought out all its best artillery, with more than a thousand cannons of various types.

of course.

Most of them were small and medium-sized cannons such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon, Winged Tiger Cannon, Weiyuan Cannon, and Shenji Cannon, which were captured from the Ming army.

The slightly larger ones are the breech-loading cannons and the general's cannons, totaling more than two hundred.

There was only one truly deadly weapon among them—the Hongyi Cannon.

This was the Qing Dynasty's trump card. During the Battle of Songjin, the Qing Dynasty only had thirty-seven of these, and they were all deployed to the battle, significantly suppressing the Ming army's firepower.

Of the fifteen guns that the Ming army deployed in the Battle of Songjin, all but a few that were damaged were captured by the Manchus.

With the addition of more by the Qing Dynasty, there are now 63 such weapons. Their effective range is approximately two kilometers, with some records indicating a range of four to five kilometers. They are incredibly powerful and destructive, making them a formidable weapon of mass destruction for their time.

However, greater destructive power means a larger caliber, requiring a larger amount of gunpowder, hence the gunpowder reserves on the city walls were already piled up like mountains.

The Manchu soldiers carefully protected the gunpowder, not allowing any open flames to appear nearby.

At this moment, Jirhalanghauge and others stood on the city wall.

They saw that the Ming army had set up camp near a small hill in the distance, outside the range of their cannons.

Hauge scoffed, "I thought that Ming Taizu was really capable. After arriving, he still had to set up camp. I reckon they won't attack the city for a few days."

"Look at the sky."

Jirhalang frowned and pointed at the drones in the sky, saying, "Are those black things flying in the sky the messengers of the gods?"

"Why bother with all that? If any Ming people dare to come, let them die."

Haug said calmly.

Jirhalang looked up at the black dots hovering over Shenyang, and for some reason, he had a bad feeling.

It looked as if the Ming army in the distance was setting up camp, not at all like they were about to attack the city.

But he just felt that the Ming people would definitely attack the city.

Most importantly, because they were far away, they couldn't see clearly what the Ming people were doing on the distant hill.

But just looking at the dense black dots on the surface, it seemed that many people were moving something, which made Jirgalang, who was already familiar with artillery warfare, instinctively feel that the other side was setting up artillery.

It's just that it's too far away.

From seven or eight miles away, people could only be seen as tiny black dots, and their intentions were completely unknown, which made Jirhalang increasingly uneasy.

'Never mind, maybe I'm overthinking it.'

Jirhalang shook his head.

In his mind, how could there be artillery with such a long range in the world?
So he swallowed what he wanted to say and said to Hauge, "We should still be cautious. Even if the Ming people don't attack the city today, we still have to be careful that they don't launch a night attack."

"Ok, I know."

Haug nodded.

They then sped up preparations, bringing in more gunpowder in case of emergency.

at the same time.

From the distant mountaintop, their actions were clearly seen by Lao Zhu and his men.

Time passed by minute by minute.

By the afternoon, thanks to the tireless efforts of nearly 10,000 Ming soldiers, over a thousand rapid-fire cannons were finally transported to the mountaintop.

Arranged in three rows from east to west, each row has more than three hundred doors, densely packed on the mountaintop.

"Father, the Jurchen gunpowder depot has been marked."

Zhu Di used a tablet computer to calculate coordinates and pinpoint the locations of all the gunpowder depots.

They lack information technology capabilities and GPS or BeiDou automatic positioning, so blasting relies entirely on manual adjustment of the blasting muzzle.

However, they have an advantage: they can use drones to observe enemy positions.

This allows experienced gunners to pinpoint coordinates and accurately strike the enemy with minimal error.

Hearing his son's words, Old Zhu nodded and said, "Yes, are the artillery positions all set up?"

"All artillery is in position and ready."

Zhu Di said.

"How about adjusting the muzzle?"

"Adjustments are being made now."

"Okay, hurry up."

Old Zhu responded.

Not long after, the messenger heard a voice on the walkie-talkie and reported, "Report, the cannon muzzles have all been adjusted."

"Hahahahahaha."

Old Zhu suddenly burst into laughter.

Zhu Di asked in bewilderment, "What is Father laughing at?"

"I'm thinking."

Old Zhu was very happy, and with a big smile he pointed to the city in the distance and said, "I was thinking, what a spectacular sight it would be if those hundreds of cannons went off, plus the mountains of gunpowder piled up inside the city."

"It must be spectacular."

Upon hearing his father's words, Zhu Di recalled that scene and immediately laughed.

"Yes, fourth brother."

Old Zhu couldn't stop smiling.

"The child is here."

"Give the order: Fire the cannons!"

"Yes!"

Zhu Di looked at the messenger not far away and shouted, "His Majesty has ordered the cannons to fire!"

"fire!"

The messenger, holding a walkie-talkie, shouted into the cannon, "His Majesty has ordered: Fire! Fire!"

"fire!"

The order was relayed to each artillery captain.

All the captains shouted to the artillerymen around them, "Fire!"

Shouts rose and fell across the position, and everyone heard the order.

In an instant, all two thousand Hongwu soldiers on the entire position moved in perfect unison.

A cannon is operated by two people: one person quickly inserts the cannon into the breech, while the other person pulls the breechblock directly.

With a "bang," the cannon fired.

But the soldiers didn't have time to see the results. As soon as one shell was fired, the soldier in charge of loading it pulled back the breech, removed the shell, and immediately put in the next shell.

The soldier in charge of firing pulled the breechblock again, and a new shell was launched immediately after the previous one. The whole process took only a few seconds.

Moreover, this speed continued, with a shell being fired almost every seven or eight seconds.

Countless shells rained down on Shenyang.

The Jurchen soldiers in the city were still watching the Ming army's movements from afar on the city wall when they suddenly heard countless loud explosions.

While they were still wondering what was going on, they suddenly heard a series of whooshing sounds as the air was being cut.

So everyone involuntarily looked up at the sky.

However, the shells were flying so fast that they only saw a blur streaking across the sky and could not see the shells at all.

Before they could figure out what was happening, they felt a huge impact around them, and everything went black before they lost consciousness.

“Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang”!
In an instant, thousands of explosions erupted inside and outside the city walls, flames rose everywhere on the walls, bricks and stones flew everywhere, and a large number of Jurchen soldiers were killed on the spot.

Smoke and dust billowed up, obscuring the entire city wall.

However, this was just the appetizer. A mere second or two later, an even more terrifying explosion struck.

The shells ignited the gunpowder depot stored in the city.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

With a series of loud bangs.

Three terrifying mushroom clouds appeared in the southern part of Shenyang.

Dust billowed, and even the Ming army camp, four or five kilometers away, could feel the ground tremble a few times.

The roaring sound continued, as the Ming army's artillery positions continued to bombard the area.

The city walls in the distance had long since collapsed, and thick smoke covered the entire city. Apart from the incessant explosions, there seemed to be no one in sight, even under the observation of drones.

The city of Shenyang was completely razed to the ground!
(End of this chapter)