The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Keep firing."

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Yu Dayou ordered lightly.

As his order was issued, the Ming army gunner quickly cleaned the barrel and prepared for the second loading operation.

On the opposite side of the Burmese city, the actual damage of the first round of shelling was limited. It seemed that no Burmese soldiers were killed by the shelling. However, the wall stacks collapsed and the flying stones injured several people. At this time, Wailing in pain on the city wall.

There is no doubt that this situation is the most demoralizing.

The enemy troops did not attack the city as expected, they just formed a formation in the city, and then when the cannon was fired, the soldiers who were waiting on their side were injured and fell to the ground.

What else is there to fight?

The Burmese army who had fled back a few days ago had blasted the Ming army's artillery fire. At that time, the Burmese army general in Bago City actually didn't take it seriously.

He had seen cannons and knew that they were very powerful, but the damage was average. However, the cannons pushed to the city by the Ming army seemed to be too big.

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

Because more than 2,000 young men were temporarily recruited from the city to join the army that defended the city. Although the soldiers were panicked at this time, they could barely keep their minds calm, but the same could not be said for the newly recruited people. They only knew how to panic there. Being confused and babbling makes people feel very annoyed.

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

"General, let's go down to the tower first. If Ming Gou continues 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?"

"There is a city wall for protection. As long as the time comes, we urge the soldiers to run faster."

"General, they are going to shoot again."

While the generals guarding the city were discussing how to deal with the Ming army's bombardment, sharp-eyed people saw that the Ming army's gunners seemed to have finished loading the shells, but they did not see that the two soldiers standing in front of the gun barrel had stepped back to give way to the firing range.

The two generals who were still arguing immediately shut up and looked outside the city. Then they stopped arguing and walked down the city tower with their swords in hand.

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

To the east of Europe, there are civilized countries, which are different from the primitive countries discovered by the Spanish, and the commercial exchanges between countries are also very frequent.

Therefore, except for some drastic actions in Africa, in Asia they mainly adopt a soft policy, proactively showing goodwill and expressing their desire for trade.

As for their arrival, most countries along the way are very open to welcoming them.

In fact, many of these countries are profiting from the linkage of east-west trade in Eurasia, and they do not like the arrival of the Portuguese, but when faced with their arrival in warships, most of them are not willing to cause unpleasant situations.

Therefore, in Myanmar, although there have been minor conflicts with them at the local level, there have not been any at the national level.

Naturally, places like Bago City have not experienced the baptism of modern firearms.

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

Just when they were at a loss, there was another rumble of cannon outside the city, and then there was another burst of debris flying from the tower.

After this bombardment, soldiers from the city went up to the city wall and took the injured soldiers down the city wall.

The Ming army's two consecutive rounds of shelling were not very destructive, but they scared the courage of the Burmese soldiers.

Originally, the remaining soldiers were not elite, and all the good soldiers were taken away by Mang Yinglong and killed.

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

But soon, there were bursts of miserable howls from under the city wall. It was the soldiers who were found to have escaped down the city wall privately, and were hung up with ropes for public display.

Now, no one dares to run down anymore.

With several rounds of shelling by the Ming army, the Burmese soldiers gradually discovered that the Ming army's artillery seemed to be hitting the city gate building. As long as they didn't run there, nothing would happen to other places.

The south gate tower of Bago City gradually began to collapse after being hit by dozens of cannonballs.

The Ming army gunners also gradually adjusted their muzzles after several shellings. Now most of the shells can hit the city squats on both sides of the city gate. The original battlements there have long since ceased to exist. They stood majestically before. The soldiers there would have fled there long ago.

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

The city squats were bombarded repeatedly, the bricks on the outside of the city wall were shattered, and several layers of stone slabs connecting the two city squats were exposed.

"this"

Seeing the stone slab inside, Yu Dayou immediately frowned slightly.

He thought that the city gates in Myanmar were made of stones spliced ​​into arches just like the Ming Dynasty. In the words of later generations, they used the mechanical principles of the arch structure to convert the vertical load into axial pressure, thereby dispersing it to the arch. Both ends achieve stability and load-bearing.

Because the gates of this structure are made of stones spliced ​​together into an arch shape, as long as one of the stones is broken, the gate will collapse.

Affected by this, the entire tower will collapse to varying degrees.

You should know that the bottom of the tower is often not solid. There are rooms underneath, which are usually used to garrison troops.

When the city tower collapses, the Ming army can enter the city through here. They only need to use artillery to cover and fire on both sides of the city wall to block attacks from the city wall.

But now we see that the Burmese actually put a big stone between the city gates, so there is little point in continuing to attack the city gates.

"Concentrate the artillery on those stone slabs."

Yu Dayou made up his mind in a flash. If he broke those ten slabs, as long as the load-bearing stones below were broken, the upper ones would fall down, and the whole city tower would collapse.

However, it was only the city gate hole that collapsed, and the impact on the entire city tower would not be great.

But it doesn't matter, as long as we continue to bombard the city tower, we can prevent the Burmese army from approaching the gap.

After nearly half an hour of artillery bombardment, the south gate of Pegu City was full of debris, and with the sound of "clicking and rumbling" stones breaking, the city tower completely collapsed.

During this half hour, the Ming army soldiers just watched the artillery show its power on the battlefield quietly. 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 of war. They were also curiously watching the cannons of the Ming army outside the city to see if they could break the city gate.

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

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

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

Yu Dayou spoke at this time.

The city gate had been opened, and the Ming army was still firing, but now they were firing at the rocks under the city gate, clearing a relatively smooth road for the Ming army to enter the city.

About two hundred bird gunners of the Ming army walked out of the queue, and there were about the same number of archers behind them. Under the protection of sword and shield soldiers, they moved towards the city gate.

The Burmese army seemed to have regained its vitality at this time. A cluster of arrows flew out from both sides of the city wall, but most of them fell in front of the Ming army.

Obviously, they had not noticed that because they were shooting from the side, they could not refer to the previously set bow and arrow range.

At this time, the Ming army finally started to move. They quickly approached the city gate and the formation was stretched into a long strip.

Just as the Burmese army was about to climb the tower tower under the urging of the generals, the Ming army in front of the city gate began to shoot a wave of arrows at the city wall.

The effect of the shooting was unknown, but for a period of time afterwards, no Burmese soldiers were seen on the tower tower.

"Boom boom boom"

There was another earth-shaking artillery bombardment. This time the artillery hit the two sides of the city wall, where the arrows just flew out.

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

Archers need strong arm strength to draw the bow. As long as they are injured, it is generally difficult to exert all their strength.

If the bow is not fully drawn, the 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 also appeared in the city gate. They were moving the slightly larger stones scattered on the ground, trying to simply block the road and slow down the attack speed of the Ming army.

"Bang bang bang"

A crisp sound of bird guns rang out, and there was a faint smoke in front of the position. There was no fairy-like charm, that was the scythe of the god of death waving.

The Burmese generals were not people who would sit back and wait for capture. While they organized people to climb the tower piers and attack the Ming army who intended to enter the city from a high position, they tried to pile up stones to block the city gate.

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

They did not have many domestic wars, most of which were foreign wars, and such wars mostly occurred in the border areas, and most of the time the Burmese were the main attackers and invaders.

A city like Pegu can almost be regarded as the internal mirror of Myanmar. There has been almost no war, so in the past few days, no houses were demolished to block the city gate.

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

According to the captives, the outer side of Pegu City is covered with bricks, and the inside is full of rammed earth, which cannot be knocked down.

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

Especially when the opponent has no cannons, it is even better.

After leaving some corpses, the Burmese army quickly withdrew from the city gate.

The slightly larger stones were broken after two artillery bombardments to clear the road, and there was not much left to pile up.

The Ming army had rushed to the city gate, and several tiger squat cannons were moved to the front of the city gate. They were quickly filled with gravel on the ground and fired at the city gate.

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

Sure enough, as the tiger squat cannon fired, a scream came from behind the city gate, and more than ten arrows flew out and nailed on the large shields held high by the Ming army.

In front of them was the tiger squat cannon, and behind them were erected shields. The Ming army began to enter the city gate.

"Boom boom boom."

There were several more cannon shots. This was the tiger squat cannon firing at the Burmese army formation outside the city gate.

The current bombardment fully demonstrated the terrifying lethality of the cannon, and the Burmese soldiers standing in front of the queue suffered heavy casualties.

"Charge in."

Standing behind the shield, Wang Shike saw that the bombardment had successfully disrupted the Burmese army's formation. The Burmese army in front of him was already showing a trend of defeat, so he immediately drew out his sword and waved it to give orders.

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

"Bang bang bang"

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

Most of the Ming army soldiers who used firearms and bows and arrows were soldiers of the Nanhai Navy. The remnants of the Feilong Kingdom who were incorporated into the army would not have such training. Most of them would only rush to the enemy with weapons and fight with them.

And now it was these people who rushed to the Burmese army.

There was no need to engage in a tragic ant siege. Just rushing in from the city gate, the Ming army also defeated the enemy's morale and the elite standing in front. Naturally, there was nothing to say about the next battle. Close combat was their strong point.

Wang Shike was standing under the tower at this time, commanding the Ming army's sword and shield soldiers and musketeers to go up the city wall, completely occupying a section of the city wall.

"Charge, hurry up."

Looking at the soldiers rushing in to chase the Burmese army and kill them, Wang Shike was full of joy. This first battle to capture the city was just around the corner.

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

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

At this time, the Burmese army on the city wall had retreated along the city wall, and the enemy could no longer be seen in a large area on both sides of the city gate.

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

After organizing forces to block the gate and being attacked by the Ming army's tiger squat cannon, 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 back desperately. The Ming army was now chasing and killing them.

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

With the help of the fire, the enemy either chose to continue to retreat or be burned to death inside, but no one would compete with you for one building after another.

Fortunately, the Burmese army did not seem to have the will to resist. The city had been in chaos these days. Most of the young and strong men who were forcibly conscripted chose to run while taking off their clothes and running towards their homes.

What I saw on the top of the city just now was too terrifying. The weapons of the Ming army could kill or maim people from a long distance. It was too brutal.

Pegu City was within reach. Wang Shike 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 200 cavalrymen waiting.

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

If the city could not be defended, the remnants would inevitably choose to flee to the north of Toungoo City. These 200 cavalrymen were enough to take on the responsibility of pursuit.

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

However, through this battle, the sharp siege methods of the Ming army would also spread among the Burmese army, and the subsequent battles would be easier to fight.

No one would be interested in a war with no hope of victory. The small cities along the road from Pegu to Toungoo would probably fall without a fight.

Yu Dayou thought.