The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 390 It's up to you

The person in charge of commanding this artillery bombardment in the Northern Song army formation.

It was none other than the surrendered general Zhang Yong!

Zhang Yong, who studied at the army academy for several months, focused on artillery.

Why choose artillery?

Because it's far from the front lines!

Zhang Yong's martial arts skills were actually quite good; he could hold his own against Yue Fei for more than ten moves without dying, which was quite impressive. However, despite his high level of martial arts, he was cowardly and afraid of death his entire life.

In the original history, he surrendered to Yue Fei because he was afraid of death, and then surrendered to Zhang Jun... He switched sides repeatedly and became the most cowardly and opportunistic subordinate of Yue Fei.

Upon arriving at the military academy, he chose artillery without hesitation and became a student of Napoleon.

Who would have thought that such a cowardly choice would make him the brightest star on the battlefield?

Zhang Yong is now employing artillery tactics favored by Napoleon, gathering all the cannons in the army together to form a cannon group, and then concentrating firepower on a single point to bombard a section of the city wall.

Solid cannonballs flew towards the city wall one after another, relentlessly pounding it.

Shouchun City Wall: Damn it! Is nobody going to speak up for me?
Sorry, nobody's going to speak up for you!

The mud walls could not withstand such devastation. The walls were constantly collapsing. Every cannonball would loosen and slide a pile of mud, resulting in pieces sliding down one after another.

The puppet Qi soldiers on that section of the city wall no longer dared to stand on it and ran desperately to both sides.

Right before everyone's eyes, with a deafening roar, the city wall collapsed.

Dust and ash filled the air...

Wang Yanxian, a general of the puppet Qi state, roared at a crossbow unit: "Quick! Quickly set up crossbow formations in the houses behind that gap, hurry!"

The soldiers of the puppet Qi regime immediately sprang into action, rushing towards the houses behind the breach. Soon they were all in position, forming an ambush, waiting for the Northern Song army to break in from there.

However, they were disappointed.

The Northern Song army did not move an inch, not even a single step forward.

Zhang Yong simply waved his hand and pointed to another section of the city wall: "Let's begin. Attack here. Blow this place down too."

The artillerymen immediately began turning their guns around...

The entire artillery group tilted 32 degrees to the side, changed the section of the city wall, and began shelling again.

Wang Yanxian: "Holy shit!"

Zhang Jun: "Huh? You can do that?"

"Boom boom boom!"

A new round of shelling has begun.

The Northern Song army remained completely still, not advancing at all, and simply allowed the artillery to hold the line.

What followed was a one-sided performance by the cannons, one shell after another flying towards the walls of Shouchun. Another city might have been able to hold out for a day or two, but Shouchun's battered body could not withstand such humiliation.

Not long after, with a loud crash, another section of the city wall collapsed.

The defending general, Wang Yanxian, was trembling all over and didn't know what to do.

He was actually quite a formidable general, having led the puppet Qi army to capture Shouchun—a truly impressive feat. But faced with this kind of long-range attack, he couldn't even figure out how to retaliate. How could he possibly fight this battle? He had no idea!

A lieutenant leaned over and whispered, "General, there's another gap. Should we ambush another squad of archers behind it?"

Wang Yanxian: "Bury your mother? The enemy is clearly going to bombard us again. The city walls will be full of holes. Where are we going to find so many archers to ambush us?"

He is right!

There were already three holes in the city wall, but the Northern Song army was still not in a hurry. They actually started to move, and the entire army circled half of the city wall, moving from the east wall to the south wall. The artillery was deployed, and boom!

The pseudo-Qi army: "..."

Shouchun City Wall: NMB! What does that mean? Am I going to die today?
Amidst the thunderous roar of cannon fire, two more large breaches appeared in the southern city wall of Shouchun.

Wang Yanxian looked left and right, and saw that there were now five gaps in the city wall.

How to keep it?
Screw you!

"Retreat! Retreat!" Wang Yanxian roared. "Shouchun is a city we seized anyway, so it doesn't matter if we lose it. Survival is the priority. Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!"

The puppet Qi army opened the north gate and fled in disarray to the northwest.

Shouchun City erupted in chaos, then fell silent...

The Northern Song army began to slowly enter the city.

When Zhang Jun saw this, his mouth was agape, wide enough to fit a dinosaur egg.

Yue Wenxuan: "General Zhang saw it with his own eyes. Shouchun was taken back by our Northern Song Dynasty from the puppet Qi state. We will not return it to the Southern Song Dynasty."

Zhang Jun responded blankly, "Oh!"

After waiting for 3.2 seconds, he suddenly realized, "Oh no, my 'oh' was so rude! How could I be so disrespectful to this old man from the Northern Song Dynasty?"
He quickly turned around and performed a grand salute, saying, "This humble general has seen clearly!"

Yue Wenxuan: "General Zhang is a reasonable person. I like to be friends with reasonable people."

Zhang Jun was quickly calculating in his mind...

“Oh, we are all subjects of the Song Dynasty, of course we are friends.” Zhang Jun put on a fawning expression: “When the two Song Dynasties are unified in the future, we will still serve as subjects in the same palace.”

Yue Wenxuan feigned concern, saying, "Unifying the two Song dynasties would be difficult! Alas, last time your Southern Song sent someone surnamed Fu, I forget what his name was..."

Zhang Jun: "Fu Songqing."

Yue Wenxuan: "Ah, right, right, his name is Fu Songqing. As soon as this guy saw us, he cursed our emperor, saying that he was enthroned by a group of local gentry and that his ascension to the throne was illegitimate. He said that Zhao Gou was appointed by Empress Meng and that his ascension to the throne was the most legitimate."

Zhang Jun immediately retorted, "Nonsense! Our Great Song Emperor Taizu was also enthroned by a group of military generals who donned the yellow robe. If we're talking about legitimate access to the throne, then our Great Song princes should acquire the throne in this way to be considered legitimate. This is called inheriting the legacy of Taizu. The way the Ninth Prince acquired the throne is illegitimate. Hmph, a woman appointing the throne is ridiculous! When have a woman's words ever been counted? This is called interference in politics by the harem! Besides, the Ninth Prince already abdicated during the Miao-Liu Rebellion, and then he returned to the throne. What does that mean? I, Zhang Jun, am the first to disagree. From now on, I will only recognize the Seventeenth Prince!"

Yue Wenxuan: "General Zhang is the most reasonable one. That guy surnamed Fu is unreasonable. I sent someone to drag him out and exile him."

Zhang Jun: "Yes, yes, yes, this kind of unreasonable guy should be conscripted into the army and sent to his death."

Yue Wenxuan patted Zhang Jun on the shoulder: "General Zhang, you have many friends in the Southern Song Dynasty. We'll need you to put in more effort regarding which prince should inherit the throne in the future."

Zhang Jun patted his chest, making a gesture of willingness to serve: "Young Master Yue, rest assured, leave this matter to me, Zhang Jun. After I return, I will definitely contact those reasonable ministers in the court and have a good talk with them, so that they know who is the most suitable prince to inherit the rightful throne of our Great Song Dynasty."

Yue Wenxuan: "Oh my, General Zhang is indeed a fine general!"

The two chuckled for a while...

(End of this chapter)