Bringing the Railway to Daming

Seeing that the Ming mercenary camps were difficult to conquer, Berry thought it would be better to put them aside for now and attack Clermont first, then deal with the two camps. This shows that Berry lacked war experience and did not understand the importance of such military camps outside the city and the harm they posed to the attacking side.

However, the pro-war defenders of Clermont seemed quite resilient. Seeing that the attacking soldiers had occupied a small section of the city wall and were unable to expand their advantage, they were on the verge of being driven down.

This forced Berry to continue sending out troops from his side.

At this point, Berry only had 30,000 to 40,000 troops left with him—he had originally dispatched a detachment to the other side of Clermont to contain the enemy, where there was also a Ming mercenary camp.

In addition, in order to facilitate battlefield observation and timely command, during the siege, Berry's "central army" and "commander's flag," or command post, were constantly moved forward, and had reached a place less than a mile from Clermont City, and also less than a mile from the two Ming mercenary camps diagonally opposite.

At this moment, ten cannons that had been hidden for a long time were brought out from each of the two camps.

These twenty cannons, all bronze in color, were cast in bronze. They were over two meters long and shaped like spindles, narrow at the front and thick at the rear. They were bronze cannons made by the four princes, including the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Dai, based on the Shenwei Cannon. They called them General Cannons.

As for why they don't use steel like the Ming Dynasty, it's naturally because the current steel production and quality in Jin State don't meet the requirements for casting cannons.

Although bronze cannons are very expensive, the Jin princes and the Prince of Dai are not short of money these days.

The option of casting cannons from pig iron was completely abandoned by them—having witnessed the mighty steel cannons, they simply could not accept the equally cumbersome but shorter-lived cast iron cannons (the later Hongyi cannons).

In the previous siege, these twenty bronze general cannons, like the Ming army, were hidden in the underground bunkers they had dug and constructed in advance. The trenches and underground bunkers were originally methods devised by the Ming army to deal with enemy artillery fire (partly because Zhu Gang and others were inspired by war films and videos from later generations). Now they can also be used to deal with the bombardment of catapults.

After the twenty bronze general cannons were set up, professional gunners adjusted the firing angles using the rangefinding method.

At this moment, the officer in charge of command grinned and said, "We've suffered so many stones from those bastards before, now it's time for them to experience the power of artillery shells!"

"Fire on my command!"

With a command from the officer, the flags waved, and the ten bronze cannons in the western military camp immediately roared like thunder.

Boom boom boom...

Iron bullets were fired amidst the roar of the cannons, shooting out like meteors straight toward Berry's "central army".

After the cannons on the west side of the camp finished firing, the ten cannons on the east side of the camp also roared. For a moment, the sound of thunder continued outside Clermont. Both the French peace-loving soldiers attacking the city and the soldiers of the Duchy of Bourbon defending the city were frightened.

Berry's central army was completely unprepared for the artillery shells, or rather, did not expect that "slings" would be launched so far, so the soldiers' formation was quite dense.

The scene that would have been created when twenty iron bullets shot in at terrifying speeds is unimaginable.

Whether they were heavy infantrymen and noble knights in full armor or light infantrymen in simple leather or cloth armor, anyone hit in a vital area by an iron bullet died instantly, and even a glancing blow would leave them crippled.

The warhorses, unaccustomed to the bombardment of artillery shells, were also terrified and began to run around uncontrollably.

"What's going on?" Grand Duke Berry was also terrified, his eyes wide and mouth agape. "What the hell is this thing?!"

A sharp-eyed officer nearby shouted, "Your Excellency, I saw that it came from the Ming Dynasty mercenary camp; it's their weapon!"

Grand Duke Berry calmed down slightly and said, "I remember there was some intelligence before, which only said that the Ming army had a strange catapult that could launch pebbles, but its range was about the same as that of a medium or large catapult. How can it now launch such a far projectile, and it's a tumbling iron projectile?"

The officer said, "Your Excellency, there's no time to think about that now. The most important thing is to control the troops and make them disperse so they don't stand so densely together. Perhaps the second wave of iron bullets from the Ming mercenaries will arrive soon."

Grand Duke Berry feigned composure, "No, even the most sophisticated catapult and the best-trained slingers would need a considerable amount of time to launch a second round of projectiles."

No sooner had Grand Duke Berry finished speaking than the western camp erupted in another thunderous roar! Berry's central army was already in disarray, and now, with the third round of artillery fire so quickly, they were on the verge of collapse.

At the same time, the thunderous sound of horses' hooves came from both sides!
The officer with good eyesight cried out in alarm, "Your Excellency, it's cavalry! There are many cavalry charging towards us from both sides!"

"How can there be so many cavalry?" Although the cavalry were still quite far away, Berry could tell from his experience that there were several thousand cavalry on both the left and right flanks, and possibly even tens of thousands!
In the Kingdom of France, apart from the royal family, other nobles, even those in the Duchy of Burgundy, would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to muster tens of thousands of cavalry.

Therefore, Berry could hardly imagine how the Archduke of Bourbon had managed to muster so many cavalry reinforcements.

Not only did the peace-loving commanders spot the cavalry charging from the left and right, but the soldiers did as well. As a result, Berry's central army completely collapsed. Many nobles, based on their own assessment of the battlefield and their fear, fled with their private armies.

This directly and completely triggered the collapse of Berry's central army!

"Kill!"

The cavalry on the left and right flanks, led by their respective officers, charged forward shouting in Chinese.

These cavalrymen were either guards of Ming princes, or attendants recruited from the Xihai Commandery, or cavalrymen of the Pingyi Guard of the Jin Kingdom. In short, they had been Sinicized for several years, and they all shouted "Kill!" with great fluency.

John, standing beside Grand Duke Berry, was dumbfounded. Looking at his own collapsing army and the charging Ming troops, he rode his white horse in circles, trembling and muttering to himself, "I knew it, I knew it, these troops from the Ming Empire were up to no good..."

On the walls of Clermont.

Although Louis II did not know what the thunderous firearms used by the Ming mercenaries were, nor why so many cavalry reinforcements had arrived, he could see that the pro-war army had collapsed.

Recalling the near-capture of the city, Louis II, now in his fifties or sixties, shouted with fervor, "Soldiers, the time for revenge has come! Hear my command, counterattack! Counterattack!"

"Uh-huh!"

The pro-war defenders also displayed immense fighting spirit, shouting and first surrounding and killing the panicked pro-war soldiers on the city walls. Then they opened the city gates and charged towards the routing pro-war army outside…

···
The Battle of Clermont, which would later become famous in history, ended in less than a morning. To be precise, the entire battle lasted only two or three hours, and most of that time was spent by the pro-war army chasing and capturing the fleeing nobles and soldiers of the pro-peace faction.

Because the Ming mercenaries had too many cavalry, and the pro-peace faction was suddenly attacked, their army was in chaos, so most of the noble officers in the army were captured.

As for ordinary soldiers, even more were captured.

By noon, the battlefield statistics were sent to the temporary command of the four princes' mercenary army, which consisted of Prince Zhu Gui, Zhu Yan, Zhu Zhi, and Zhu Quan.

Because Zhu Yan and the other two princes agreed to help Zhu Gui attempt to establish a vassal state in France, the mercenary army of the four princes was now under Zhu Gui's command. However, the other three princes had the right to make suggestions, and if they felt that Zhu Gui's military orders were too absurd, they could refuse to accept them.

As for the Jin army, it was different in nature. It was equivalent to being employed by Zhu Gui at the same time, but it had considerable autonomy.

Zhu Gui was already somewhat arrogant, and after this great victory, he grinned and laughed with joy when he saw the post-battle statistics.

"Excellent! This time, nearly 50,000 people have been captured, including the Grand Duke Berry, the marshal of the French peace army!"

"Oh, and there's also Prince John, the eldest son of Philip II. He's been captured again. It seems we're destined to meet!"

"In addition, we have captured more than 8,000 warhorses, and 30,000 to 40,000 other inferior horses and livestock, as well as countless grain and supplies—you three should take a look too."

After speaking, Zhu Gui handed the post-war statistical documents to Zhu Yan. (End of Chapter)