Southern Ming Rebel Army

In the Qian army camp, Lin Shiqi looked calm when he learned that Shache City refused to surrender and was actively preparing for war. Lin Shiqi knew that his conditions were harsh, but he still had to use such harsh conditions to reject the Yarkand people's request for peace.

The longer Lin Shiqi stayed in the Western Regions, the more he felt how weak the Central Plains power was in this place. If he made peace with the Yarkand people, even if various restrictions were set up, the Yarkand Khanate would still exist. Now that the Qian Dynasty was a time of national strength, it was naturally not afraid that the Yarkand people would relapse, but what about the future!

Therefore, Lin Shiqi hoped to accomplish his goal in one fell swoop and completely destroy the Yarkand Khanate. By then, immigrants from the Central Plains would settle in the border areas, and the Western Regions would become the same as the provinces in the Central Plains.

Lin Shiqi then summoned all the generals and began to deploy the siege plan: "The Yarkand people are resisting stubbornly, so let them know the fate of trying to stop a chariot with a mantis arm. Send an order to build an artillery array immediately and bombard the city day and night. After the city collapses, immediately launch a general attack! We must take Shache City in one fell swoop!"

After the construction of the artillery array was completed, on the second day after the main force arrived at Shache City, the ready artillery positions instantly let out an earth-shaking roar. Cannons spewed flames, and huge shells streaked across the sky like meteors, whistling towards Shache City.

This was a war of the new era. Although the upper-level rulers of the Yarkand Khanate knew that firearms could change the situation on the battlefield, ordinary soldiers had basically never come into contact with firearms. Even those defeated soldiers had never experienced such a massive and prolonged artillery bombardment.

The shells slammed heavily on the walls of Shache with a sharp whistle, and the exploded brick and stone fragments flew everywhere. After the Qian army seized the firearms purchased by Junggar, the number of artillery pieces under Shache City had exceeded 120.

The Qian army divided these artillery arrays into three waves, with forty artillery pieces in each wave firing simultaneously. When the gun barrels became hot and needed to be cooled, the second wave would start, and this cycle would repeat. The continuous sound of artillery pieces exploded in the city of Shache.

At the beginning, the defenders were still holding on, taking their positions on the city walls, ready to attack the melee infantry after the Qian army's artillery bombardment ended. This was also what Abdu had repeatedly advocated, to kill more Qian army infantry.

However, as shell after shell fell continuously and time passed, the defenders of Shache were under the bombardment of the Qian army on the top of the city, but there was no sign of the infantry attacking the city. Abdu waited and waited, but still did not see any movement from the Qian army camp.

After two hours of bombardment, some artillery pieces in the Qian army's artillery formation began to use firing shells. Some exploded on the city walls, some exploded on the top of the city walls, knocking over many Yarkand defenders, and some shells flew over the top of the city walls and fell into the city.

At this time, many buildings in the city were hit by shrapnel and caught fire. Thick smoke quickly spread in the city, making it difficult for people to breathe.

Chu Zhangyin, who was standing behind the battlefield, watched this scene and said to Lin Shiqi happily, "General, it seems that taking Shache will be a piece of cake. After this battle, the Western Expedition Army can return to the capital!"

Lin Shiqi held a telescope and looked at the tragic situation on the top of Shache City. He hummed and said, "The Yarkand people lack firearms. Facing our army's artillery, they have no ability to counterattack. In addition, the city is not strong. In my opinion, the city wall will collapse in less than three days."

After finishing speaking, Lin Shiqi put down his telescope and suddenly said with some emotion: "When I was in the Guanning Army in the past, I never thought that one day I would be able to lead 100,000 brave soldiers, galloping through the Western Regions, conquering every battle and winning every battle. The name of me, Lin Shiqi, will be recorded in the annals of history for thousands of years!"

When Chu Zhangyin heard Lin Shiqi's words, he couldn't help but think of the situation more than ten years ago. He sighed and said, "The Marshal's life is truly legendary. He joined the Guanning Army when he was young, fought against the Tatars, and killed the Jurchens. Unfortunately, the north was in chaos, and the Marshal also fled with the others, all the way south, all the way to the south of the Yangtze River, where he met Your Majesty."

Hearing this, Lin Shiqi laughed and said, "Old Chu, you are making it too simple. The chaos in the north and the retreat of the people are all because I took the lead and stopped eating the food of the Zhu family. We had no choice but to go to the south. At that time, the north was extremely poor. If we didn't go to the south, I and my friends would have been taken away by dogs."

The two were still chatting, lamenting the difficult times in the past, while Abdu in Shache City was already in a state of panic. The Qian army's artillery shells were like free of charge, and it had been more than two hours, and the artillery had not stopped.

Originally, Abdu was still on the top of the city wall supervising the battle, but the shells kept hitting him. Later, Abdu became a little scared and came to the foot of the city wall with his guards to avoid the shells.

Many people saw Abdu running down the city wall, and some simply turned around and ran down the city wall as well. The impact of the rout showed signs of expanding. In particular, one person was frightened by the shrapnel and even shouted in fear as he ran: "Run! Run!"

For a moment, there was chaos in the city and outside the city, and the defeated soldiers pushed and shoved each other. Seeing this scene, Abdu was extremely anxious. The Qian army had not yet attacked the city, but the morale in the city was about to collapse. Once the army's morale was in chaos, Shache would no longer have a chance to hold on.

Then, Abdu drew the long sword from his waist and shouted, "Stop! Anyone who dares to retreat will be killed without mercy!"

His eyes were red and wide open, like an angry lion. However, the panicked fleeing soldiers had no time to pay attention to his warnings and continued to flee desperately.

Abdu waved his hand, signaling his personal guards to go forward and kill the fleeing soldiers. The personal guards swung their long swords, and wherever the swords flashed, there were screams. Several fleeing soldiers fell under the swords, but this did not completely stop the retreat, and many people still rushed to the city regardless of everything.

Before the Qian army officially attacked the city, Shache City was almost collapsed by the bombardment. In fact, if the Qian army launched a large-scale attack at this time, they could also capture Shache, but it was not necessary. Lin Shiqi still cherished the lives of his soldiers. It was better to solve the problem with artillery than to use human lives to fill the city.

After Abdu killed dozens of fleeing soldiers, those soldiers who were still hesitating were shocked by his determination and stopped.

Abdu saw that the retreat had stopped, but he also knew that if he forced the soldiers to go up to the city again, it would only be a matter of time before they would retreat again. So Abdu ordered the defenders on the city wall to withdraw to the foot of the city, leaving only a small number of soldiers on the top of the city to monitor the movements of the Qian army outside the city. Once the Qian army showed signs of a large-scale attack on the city, the soldiers would go up to the city to defend.

However, the shelling outside the city continued. It seemed that the Qian army did not care that there were not many people left on the city wall, and they just used artillery to attack the morale of the defenders.

Abdu knew that this was only a temporary respite and a greater crisis was still to come, but he had no choice at the moment and could only try his best to hold on to this shaky line of defense.