After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 22 Siege (Part 1)

When Chu Yan, helped by his personal guards, put on his armor and walked out of the tent, the spring morning sun had not yet risen, the sky was just getting bright, and the camp was filled with the aroma of meat mixed with rice.

"Your Majesty!"

When the guards who were sitting around the door eating breakfast saw him come out, they all stood up, still holding their bowls and chopsticks in their hands, hurriedly wiped their mouths, and hid the bowls behind them.

Chu Yan glanced at them and said with a smile, "Just eat your food and sit down. I'll go to the camp gate for a walk."

"Your Majesty, don't you want breakfast?"

"It's okay, come back and eat."

"Then I'll go get you a horse!"

A personal guard put down the bowl, hurried to the nearby tent, and brought over King Qian's mount.

Chu Yan mounted his horse, took several personal guards with him, and walked through the camp filled with the aroma of food, and arrived at the camp gate.

After the morning dew had settled, the oilcloth covering the forty mighty cannons beneath the earthen wall had been lifted, and the gun barrels extended from the gaps in the wall, pointing towards the Shun Dynasty capital in the distance.

The air was filled with the smell of a mixture of rosin and oil, which was applied to the gun barrel to prevent rust.

There are several gunners doing the final inspection of each Shenwei cannon. Before the battle begins, a round of test firing will be carried out to ensure that the shells can hit the city wall during the siege.

"Give me the telescope."

Chu Yan gave the order, and his personal guard Sun Yunjing hurriedly took out a monocular telescope and handed it over.

Chu Yan took it, still riding on his horse, and looked into the distance through the telescope.

First, let’s look at the tallest arrow tower at the city gate. It is four stories high. From the windows of the arrow tower, you can see the figures of the Shun Dynasty soldiers inside. You can see them sticking their heads out of the windows and looking over here.

There were many cannons mounted on the city walls, in the inner city, and in the corner towers, but their power was naturally far inferior to the Shenwei cannon that he personally supervised the construction of.

There is a moat under the city wall, but it has not been dredged for many years, resulting in the originally wide river being only a few meters wide at its narrowest point.

The drawbridge has been raised, and two barbicans are facing the bridge. Soldiers attacking from here will be subject to the greatest enemy firepower.

Five days ago, Chu Yan selected two silt-filled areas in the moat, made arrangements, and prepared to fill the river.

While observing, he silently deduced and reviewed the strategy he had agreed upon with his subordinates last night to see if there were any omissions.

After looking for half a minute, Chu Yan put down the telescope.

"Your Highness."

Li Changjin rode up on horseback and bowed to him.

Chu Yan looked back and saw Wu Xin'an, Su Dingbian, Xu Zhiyi, Chang Neng, Wei Liang and the others had all arrived, so he asked with a smile, "Have you all had breakfast?"

"Your Majesty, we haven't eaten yet!"

Ma Ji, a short and stocky man, grinned and said, "We'll just wait until we get into the city and go to the palace to eat!"

All the soldiers laughed.

Chu Yan laughed and scolded: "You usually eat five meals a day, and you complain if you miss one. How can you endure not eating for five days?"

"It will take another five days to break this city?" Ma Ji said immediately, "The king will send me as the vanguard later. I promise to be the first to capture the city gate!"

"Okay, let's establish a military order."

Chu Yan said lightly.

"Uh!"

Ma Ji seemed to have someone strangled him by the throat, and he couldn't speak for a long time, so everyone started laughing again.

"Your Highness always makes conservative estimates," Xu Changjin said with a smile, "In my opinion, the city can be taken in three days. The first day is to scare them off, and the second day is to storm. Within three days, someone will surely come to act as an insider." Chu Yan smiled and said, "Whether there is an insider or not, we won't know until tonight. We have to fight, and first conduct a test firing of the Shenwei Cannon."

As soon as he gave the order, someone went to notify the commander of the forty cannons and convey Chu Yan's order.

For a moment, several people stood behind each cannon, including the main gunner, loader, and shell loader, and they all started to get busy.

Each main gunner used a quadrant to measure, recorded the relevant numbers on paper, and then performed calculations.

Chu Yan and his subordinates came to a Shenwei cannon and watched this group of gunners perform the procedural operations in person.

Li Changjin watched the gunners calculating fluently on paper and couldn't help but admire them. "When Your Highness began promoting new mathematics in the army five years ago, we didn't understand. Was such a trivial matter worthy of Your Highness personally teaching them? It wasn't until today that I realized Your Highness's foresight is far beyond the reach of mortals like us."

Everyone said yes again and again.

Chu Yan just smiled. He had worked hard to train so many mathematical talents, not just to calculate the trajectory of artillery shells on the battlefield.

After a while, the gunner stepped forward, saluted, and reported in a strong voice: "My lord, our team has completed the commissioning of this gun!"

Chu Yan nodded and said, "Well done."

After waiting for a while, the crews of the forty cannons all stood behind the cannons, completed debugging and loading, lit torches and waited for orders.

Chu Yan took out the Western pocket watch he had seized from Jiangnan and took a look at it. It was seven o'clock in the morning, and the soldiers from both the camp and the city had just finished breakfast.

Taking a deep breath, Chu Yan shouted at them, "Follow my command. Test fire before attacking the city. Get ready!!"

The sound was like thunder, and the soldiers around were both in awe and fear. Your Majesty really has the ability to break the Changban Bridge with his shout!
After forty Shenwei cannons, the igniter put down the torch and moved it close to the fuse.

"put!!"

Chu Yan shouted and raised the telescope.

The fuse was lit, and Li Changjin, Su Dingbian and others who were following nearby also raised their telescopes and looked at the city wall in the distance.

boom! ! boom! !
Forty Shenwei cannons were fired almost simultaneously. The huge iron shells flew over a distance of several miles, drew beautiful arcs in the air, and smashed into the city walls one after another.

Most of them hit the tallest corner tower of the city gate, and a few hit the city defense cannons hidden on the corner tower, smashing the gun barrels to the ground with a bang, and the wooden gun carriages shattered all over the ground.

Several more shells hit the windows of the arrow tower at tricky angles, killing several Shun Chao soldiers hiding behind them on the spot. The screams seemed to reach the camp.

Through the telescope, everyone saw the soldiers in the corner tower, on the city wall, and in the arrow tower dodging in panic. Some ran down the stairs, and some soldiers trembled and kowtowed on the city wall. The scene was once in chaos.

"That was a good volley."

Chu Yan was in a good mood and smiled at the gunners, "Those who hit the cannon or whose shells penetrated the windows will receive a big reward, and the rest will receive a small reward."

The members of the artillery crew thanked King Qian for his reward.

Chu Yan called Li Changjin and the others and said, "Follow me back to the camp for a final discussion."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The generals followed him back to make final arrangements for the siege.

Inside the city.

Only after confirming that the artillery shells had stopped and that Prince Qian's army had not yet officially attacked the city did Wang Ziteng climb up the city wall.

What I saw was a bleak scene.

The walls of the Dashun capital were extremely strong, and the iron shells failed to cause much damage. However, the shells hit the walls from several miles away and whistled down over everyone's heads. This trembling sense of fear always lingered in the hearts of every soldier.

In addition, most of the court officials were afraid of fighting, and there were more than 20,000 defeated soldiers defending the city. They had seen the combat effectiveness of Prince Qian's army, and word of mouth had spread, so the morale of the defenders became increasingly low.

At this moment, most of the soldiers Wang Ziteng saw had pale faces, dodging and hiding, not daring to show their heads to face Prince Qian's camp.

(End of this chapter)