Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 746 A desperate move

"This this……"

In the Ming army formation, Zhu Di, Fei Ju, Zhang Dingbian, Yao Guangxiao and others looked at the Samarkand city wall in front of them with dumbfounded eyes, and their jaws almost dropped to the ground in shock.

The artillery fired by the Ming army was just a test firing. After all, although the martial arts in the Imperial College also taught some superficial artillery theory, the Ming Dynasty had insufficient practical experience in using artillery in combat, and the range-finding theory discussed by Zhu Su was not enough. It has not passed the practical test; secondly, the artillery shells are expensive to make. If the cannons are fired in the first round, the loss will be doubled if they are all blown away. Therefore, the cannon fired just now was actually just one shot first.

However, just one shot was enough to open people’s eyes:

I saw that the wall of Samarkand, which everyone thought was indestructible, had now been blasted with a crack. The city bricks at the crenels fell down, and the entire city wall seemed to be a lot crooked.

A rough estimate shows that at least three layers of city bricks were shattered.

You know, Samarkand is a stone city! These city bricks are not fired bricks, but actual quarried stone forts!

In other words, they are all made of solid hard stone! This cannon blasted open several floors with one shot!

"My dear!" Fei Ju, the dignified Hou of Pingliang, opened his mouth wide, as if his cerebellum had been shrunk by the bombardment: "This strength is probably not comparable to that of dozens of cannons working together!"

"This thing is so overbearing! Could it be that it can really corrupt you for ten miles?"

"Now that this thing is out, I'm afraid that all the strong cities in the world will no longer be able to rely on it!" Yao Guangxiao was also surprised, but his eyes were shining. "Now that we have this thing, I think we can blast open the city gate within a few days."

"Don't rush to blast away." Zhu Su said with a smile. "Simmer it slowly to make it thoroughly cooked. With the artillery in hand, it will not do us any good to rush to break the city."

He smiled calmly, but with a coldness. Letting the city continue to feel terror is the way to benefit Ming the most.

……

In the city, Timur was indeed frightened.

That day, Ming Dynasty took out the terrible weapon from the elephant's back and fired a cannon with a loud noise like a landslide.

Then the landslide really started under Timur's feet, and the cannon hit the city wall under his feet. The city wall began to shake in an instant, and all the defenders on the city were not stable. At that moment, Timur even thought that he was going to die. this. Until everything calmed down, although the city wall luckily did not collapse, when Timur leaned over to look, he saw a shocking large pit on the surface of the city wall.

That was bombarded by the latest Ming Dynasty Mighty General from the Baoyuan Bureau.

The Mighty General Cannon was originally the main gun used on treasure ships. In order to better attack enemy ships, its armor-breaking ability was specially enhanced, hoping to break through enemy ships. It's suitable for siege. Moreover, most of the city walls in Central Asia are made of rocks. They do not have a layer of rammed earth in the middle like the city walls in the Central Plains, which can well buffer the impact of catapults and artillery shells.

Therefore, although the city wall is thick, if it is hit with a cannon, the movement on the city wall will be particularly huge. Not only did it break several layers of rocks, it even tended to tilt.

Timur, who was inexplicably frightened, was immediately escorted off the city wall. The imperial army on the city was so frightened that two groups fought. Below the city, the Ming army was still in no hurry to attack the city. They set up a few more cannons, and every few hours, they would blast several rounds on the city wall. gun. Where the artillery shelled, the city wall that Timur's empire relied on as its last hope was cracked in many places, and even a section of it had collapsed in just a few days.

Ulugh Beg quickly asked people to pile up mountains of earth in the city, barely filling up the gap.

Timur no longer went to command the city defense. As wise as he is, he has already seen that the Ming army is now playing tricks on his empire, just like a cat playing with a mouse: it has clearly broken through the city wall, but it does not take advantage of the situation, which makes Timur feel satisfied. Full of humiliation.

This humiliation turned into hatred, and then into obsession, driving him to find a way to turn defeat into victory.

"The musket has not been developed yet?" Timur, who was almost crazy, came to the workshop in the city again. Nowadays, his beard and hair are messy, his eye sockets are sunken, and his eyes always reveal a sense of madness: He believes that if he wants to defeat the Ming army, the only hope now is to equip himself with the kind of muskets used by the Ming army, and then fight with the Ming army. The same sudden attack caught them off guard. To this end, Timur used an iron fist to confiscate almost all the craftsmen in the city and ordered them to imitate the Ming Dynasty's muskets.

Craftsmen originally had a high status in Timur's empire, and there were even many relatives of aristocrats and bureaucrats who were also craftsmen who were proficient in their crafts. Timur ignored this and packed these people into the firearms workshop and forced them to work with knives.

In order to collect materials, almost the entire city of Samarkand was looted, and all the resources were used in a desperate attempt to forge muskets.

"Su...Sultan!" A silversmith knelt down. "The materials used in Mingren's muskets seem to be different, and the craftsmanship is also very unique, which is difficult to imitate. Please give us some more time, the Sultan..." He cried sadly. This kind of musket has never been seen before, even if it can be made roughly. It looks like something, but what’s on the inside is not so easy to understand.

What's more, most of the craftsmen here only make gold and silver leather ornaments...

"...Time, I give you time, who will give this Sultan time?" Timur was furious and kicked the craftsman on the shoulder, but because the lame foot had no strength, he staggered. He almost fell down. The guards on the left and right hurriedly supported him, and just when he stood still, Timur roared again: "If you can't make a musket, what use is there for this Sultan to keep you?"

"Kill, kill them, hang them all and hang them at the door of the workshop, so that other craftsmen can see the consequences of slacking on this Sultan's orders!"

Now, he can only use this method of reign of terror to try to achieve his goals.

The craftsmen who were kneeling on the ground were so distraught that they quickly begged for mercy. Seeing Tamerlane's bodyguard approaching with a machete with an expressionless face, under the threat of death, a craftsman suddenly came to his senses and said quickly: "Sultan! Sultan, spare your life!"

"Actually, we have actually made a musket!"

"Oh?" Timur turned back suddenly, with a very piercing light bursting out of his eyes. "Where is it? Bring it to me!"

The craftsman had finished speaking, swallowed, went to the warehouse, and took out a musket.

As expected, most of these craftsmen started out as jewelry makers, but in terms of appearance, they are no different from the muskets that Timur took away from the Ming army. Timur was overjoyed when he saw this, and turned around and ordered: "Where are the projectiles? Go and get them quickly!"

"Let this Sultan take a test shot!"

(End of this chapter)