The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 418: Multi-faceted Attack
The Lafa mines fired one after another, and amidst the violent explosions, thick smoke rose from all sides of Linqing City. The exploding fireworks were like gorgeous flowers blooming in the dark night, instantly engulfing more than a thousand Ming soldiers approaching the city wall.

The sword and shield soldiers who were climbing the city wall were frightened by the thunder-like explosion in the distance. They grabbed the anchor hooks and climbed up desperately with their hands and feet. Some of the nimble ones were the first to reach the top of the city wall. They roared and showed their heads from behind the battlements.

A dense rain of arrows came towards them, and the Qi army archers who had been waiting for a long time hit the target one after another. The Ming army fell from the top of the city wall one after another, screaming and disappearing into the night.

The remaining 500 or so sword and shield soldiers had already climbed to the middle of the city wall. They were caught in a dilemma and had no choice but to continue climbing up.

"Charge forward, there aren't many of them!"

A captain under Huang Degong yelled at the top of his lungs. He climbed the rope with one hand, released the sword from his mouth, and pressed his feet hard on the uneven parts of the city wall, as if he was possessed by a monkey. In a moment, he had climbed to a position only three or four feet away from the top of the city wall.

The surrounding sword and shield soldiers were influenced by him and became angry, roaring and climbing faster. Hundreds of anchor hooks swayed gently along the city wall like gourd vines.

Suddenly, a sharp snapping sound of hinges rubbing against each other came from the top of the city wall. All the sword and shield soldiers stopped climbing at the same time and looked up in horror. The captain who had just shouted suddenly screamed:

"Wolf Fang Shoot!"

Before he could finish his words, more than a dozen black shadows rolled down from the top of the city wall. Wolf-fang bats weighing more than 300 kilograms fell rapidly from the highest point. The densely packed sharp iron nails on both sides shone coldly in the dark night, and rolled fatally over the heads of the sword and shield soldiers...
"what!"

In order to reach the city as quickly as possible, most of these sword and shield soldiers did not carry shields. Some even took off their cotton armor in advance, just to outrun their teammates and reach the city in advance...

But now, they will all pay the price for their reckless behavior.

It is five feet (1.57 meters) long, four feet and five inches (1.41 meters) wide, three inches (0.09 meters) thick, and is nailed with wolf-tooth iron nails that are five inches long and weigh six taels. There is a wolf-tooth hammer with a blade on each side. Under high-speed impact, anyone who is touched will either die or be injured. Many people were hit and became corpses in mid-air.

The sword and shield soldiers who were hit by the wolf-fang paddles let out screams that were not human voices. Many people were directly smashed into bloody gourds of flesh and blood. Some people were seriously injured in their hands and feet. They did not die for the time being. They hung on the anchor hook ropes and wailed until they were exhausted and fell from the four or five feet high city wall...
The Ming army soldiers who were waiting under the city wall to prepare for the second wave of climbing the city were also affected. Many of them were hit by their falling teammates before they could react. The soldiers who were already squeezed under the city wall had nowhere to retreat, and were then killed or injured by the detonated landmines.

In a moment, the Ming army within twenty steps in front of the Guangjimen city wall suffered heavy casualties. About two thousand soldiers and civilians died from bows and arrows, wolf-tooth bats and landmine explosions. More people were injured and fell to the ground, howling and struggling to escape, and ran head-on into the Ming army rushing from the opposite side, further aggravating the chaos of the attacking side.

The second wave of Ming troops consisted of about three to four thousand people. They only heard screams and explosions in front of them, and could not see the casualties of their teammates. They continued to rush forward out of inertia and herd mentality.

This wave of troops was greeted by the intensive roar of artillery fire from the top of the city wall.

After the wolf-fang baton was put down, the artillery hidden behind the battlement finally began to speak.

Amidst earth-shaking roars, hundreds of iron balls weighing three to ten pounds streaked across the night sky and slammed into the densely packed crowds on both sides of the moat. The Qi army's artillerymen had already calibrated the crowded areas in advance, so there was no need for calibration at this time. They could just load ammunition and fire.

The high-speed falling iron ball plowed a trail of blood in the crowd of three to four thousand people, causing even more serious casualties to the subsequent Ming army.

As the iron balls landed and ricocheted, a shower of blood sprayed across the sky above the battlefield. Broken limbs and remains flew through the air before finally landing, viscera and intestines splattering everywhere. Over three hundred Ming archers, following in their wake, quickly closed in within fifty paces of the city wall, raising their bows and hurling arrows at the Qi troops. Sparse, silent showers of arrows rained down from the sky, piercing the walls of the city walls. Both the artillery and musketeers suffered minor casualties, and soon a dozen were killed or wounded by the arrows.

The musketeers squatting on the city wall estimated the position of the Ming army archers and launched a counterattack against the enemy fifty steps away. The Type 25 flintlock rifle had an overwhelming advantage against bows and arrows within fifty steps. This new flintlock rifle had a faster firing rate and greatly improved accuracy. A skilled musketeer could hit the target with a single shot at fifty steps away, so that later each of the fourteen guards had its own ace sniper.

However, in a dimly lit night battle environment, no matter how sharp the flintlock rifle is, it has no advantage, because the bow and arrow only make sound when fired, which can perfectly conceal the archer in the dark. Every time the flintlock rifle is fired, a large flame will be ejected from the muzzle, and the flame will expose the position of the musketeer and become a target for the enemy.

Fortunately, the city walls provided some protection, offsetting the musketeers' disadvantage to a certain extent. Casualties were minimal. Fearing the risk of stepping on mines, the archers dared not approach further, firing only lightly from fifty paces away. The musketeers on the city walls could only fire haphazardly. The two sides exchanged fire, but their accuracy was low.

The cannons on the Guangji Gate were still roaring, and the Divine Fire Flying Crows on the main city behind also joined the battle. More than a dozen rockets streaked across the night sky, exploding and burning above the heads of the dense enemy groups, illuminating half of the battlefield. The banks of the moat were densely packed with Ming army corpses, and many people were actually trampled to death.

In the chaos, Huang Degong's troops, who were already close to the city wall, tried desperately to escape back to their positions and leave this horrific battlefield. However, Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing's troops, who were surging towards them, thought that the city was about to fall and were anxious to rush up to get a piece of the pie.

Just because Huang Degong is incompetent doesn’t mean that Marshal Zuo and General Liu are incompetent. It’s like a siege, people on the battlefield want to rush out, while people outside the battlefield are eager to come in and die.

The dense mines and rocket explosions around exacerbated the chaos. Finally, the three groups of people in the four towns of Jiangbei (Zuo Liangyu, Liu Zeqing and Huang Degong) were all mixed together.

The organized troops during the attack were completely disrupted at this time. Almost no one around them was their own camp. Many people threw away their torches while running. It was so dark that they could not tell each other apart. They could only rely on sound to determine whether the other side was their own people.

"Hello, is this Ermao?"

"Big Head, is that you?"

"Feel your face for pockmarks, damn it! You're not Zhang Mazi! Get out of here!"

·····
In the end, everyone was no longer differentiated, and they formed groups of a dozen or dozens of people. When they encountered someone who blocked their way, they would draw their swords against him no matter who he was.

Of the more than 10,000 Ming troops who rushed into the city, only 5,000 were left in just one hour after the joint attack from multiple parties.

~~~~~~~
Zuo Liangyu sat down in the central army camp and no longer had any thoughts about being intimate with Chen Yuanyuan. He stared blankly at the battlefield in the distance where shouts and killings were heard, feeling extremely annoyed.

"Master, let the brothers retreat quickly, otherwise they will be killed in there."

Just half an hour ago, he lost his mind and threw all his elite servants and two thousand soldiers who could fight at night into the battle, hoping to get ahead of Liu Zeqing and others and bring back more silver and food. He took out all his family assets, hoping to make a desperate effort and realize his dream of becoming the Minister of War.

As the team slowly approached the city wall, everything seemed to be going smoothly, but I didn't expect it to turn out like this in the blink of an eye.

(End of this chapter)