We have fought to the Arctic Circle, and you want me to inherit the throne?

The large mortar made a deafening roar and spewed out thick smoke from the muzzle.

Several huge shells shot straight into the sky and then fell rapidly under the action of gravity.

A Goryeo defender looked up, his pupils reflecting black arcs of death.

Then he crossed the city wall and headed straight behind it.

"Spread out! Quickly spread out!"

Jin Yihuan shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice was instantly drowned out by the whistling sound of artillery shells.

Boom——

Rumbling--

The first bullet to fall was a stone bullet.

The stone bullets slammed heavily into the defenders' formation, and the huge impact force created a deep pit in the ground, and the surrounding Goryeo soldiers were shaken and flew in all directions.

Immediately afterwards, the second shell exploded in the air, and scattered stones and iron pieces poured down like raindrops, covering an area of ​​dozens of steps in radius.

The soldiers had no time to dodge and were instantly hit by dense shrapnel, with screams rang out one after another.

Jin Yihuan couldn't make any sound and wanted to run towards the city, but he was held back by two of his personal soldiers. He could only watch the tragic scene below.

"boom!"

There was another loud bang, and a bomb fell straight into a house at the foot of the city wall.

The corners of Jin Yihuan's eyes twitched wildly. That house was exactly an ambush site for the crossbow team.

After a brief delay, the explosive pack exploded instantly, blazing flames shot up into the sky, and the air wave blew off the entire roof of the house.

In the thick smoke, broken limbs and debris flew everywhere, and blood dyed the ground red.

The crossbowmen fled in terror, but had nowhere to hide and were buried under the rubble.

Watching team after team of Goryeo soldiers reduced to ashes in the artillery fire, Jin Yihuan felt heartbroken.

However, the nightmare is not over yet.

More than a dozen large mortars were loaded with various ammunition, only a small portion of which fell into the open space.

Stone bombs, shotgun shells, and explosive packs fell one after another, turning the position behind the city wall into a living hell.

The sky of Anton City was dyed gray and black by gunpowder smoke, and the cold wind brought the smell of blood, which permeated every corner.

In contrast, the atmosphere at the Fengtian Army artillery positions was completely different.

Chen Gui put down his clairvoyance, took out a small notebook, and began to record frantically, muttering non-stop:

"The stone bomb is quite powerful, especially when it explodes in mid-air. It can hit a large area with one strike. Unfortunately, the timing of the explosion is too difficult to control."

"Stone bullets are fine for hitting buildings, but they're completely useless against scattered soldiers."

"The explosive pack is still powerful, but it consumes too much gunpowder, and the trajectory is a bit unpredictable."

"Zhu Zi, why the hell did you miss the target again?!"

Zhuzi looked at Chen Gui helplessly and said, "Master Chen, outsiders are not allowed to enter the five-step range of the artillery. Isn't this the rule you made?"

"Hey?!" Chen Gui's face darkened. "Boy, am I an outsider? I'm a soldier from the Dongfeng Battalion!"

"You're not participating in the shooting, but you're just pointing fingers from behind. It really affects my performance."

"You kid is rebelling against Tiangang!"

The gunner on the side listened to the two people bickering, lowered his head and tried to suppress his laughter, and his originally tense mood relaxed a lot.

As the first artillery unit in the Fengtian Army, the Dongfeng Battalion had strict selection procedures and the best treatment.

The soldiers were all young and strong men with sharp eyesight and strong physique. They wore cloth armor and worked in groups of five, each responsible for tasks such as loading, aiming, adjusting, and guarding.

The Dongfeng Battalion was the only unit in the Fengtian Army equipped with cloth armor.

Cloth armor is light, simple to make, and has a certain degree of protection. It is most suitable for artillerymen who do not need to engage in close combat with the enemy.

The artillerymen did not carry any weapons such as swords and guns. The short blades on their leggings were their only weapons.

If the battle situation becomes so dangerous that the Dongfeng Battalion has to engage in close combat with the enemy, defeat is inevitable, and it will no longer matter whether they are equipped with weapons or not.

The reason why they could shoot so accurately was that they had done hundreds of bullet-free exercises in the Gunpowder Department's testing ground.

We have conducted more than ten live-fire drills and are very familiar with every key point of the process, so we are very organized.

The design process was personally directed by Li Che. At that time, he had a girlfriend who worked at the Meteorological Bureau and taught him how to fire cannons after having fired them before.

As we all know, China’s largest air defense unit and the department with the most anti-aircraft guns is not the People’s Liberation Army, but the China Meteorological Administration!

China's meteorological department has thousands of anti-aircraft guns.

If there are only dark clouds but no rain, I will fire until it rains!

Li Che in the back shouted, "Alright, stop talking, just follow the previous direction and fire another round of artillery fire!"

Chen Gui looked at Li Che with a flattering smile and said tentatively, "Your Highness, we have already tested the power of the large-caliber mortar. I also want to try the medium-caliber and small-caliber ones."

"Why not have me lead the Dongfeng Battalion forward a little further? We'll be able to break through the city wall."

Hearing this, Li Che laughed and scolded, "Don't even think about it! Have you had enough of living?"

"With the range of a medium-sized mortar, if you can hit the city wall, the enemy's crossbows can hit you; the range of a small mortar is shorter, so even slightly better bows and crossbows can hit you."

"Use the large mortars and keep firing. Break the enemy's morale first!"

Without approval, Chen Gui could only continue to order the Dongfeng Battalion to prepare for the next round of artillery fire.

The soldiers had a clear division of labor: one was responsible for cleaning the barrel, and the other was responsible for injecting gunpowder into the bottom of the barrel.

The gunner then pushes the shell into the barrel and compacts it with a push rod to ensure close contact between the gunpowder and the shell.

The gunner adjusts the elevation and direction of the gun according to the distance and height of the target.

The gunner uses clairvoyance and visual inspection to ensure the muzzle is pointed at the target.

When everything was ready, the gunner ordered the firing.

Use a torch to light the fuse at the tail of the cannon. The fuse burns rapidly and detonates the gunpowder in the barrel.

With a loud bang, the shell flew out from the muzzle at high speed, cutting through the air and heading straight for the target.

boom! boom! boom!

Anping City was once again engulfed in flames, with debris, bricks, and Korean fragments falling recklessly.

. . . . . .

Jin Yihuan was pulled down from the city wall by his personal guards, and he formed a shield wall with his shields and huddled in the corner at the base of the wall.

The soldiers' miserable cries were heard everywhere, but were soon drowned out by the artillery fire.

After the second round of shelling, the lieutenant general stumbled over with a group of officers.

"General, how are you?" the deputy general asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, what are the casualties?"

The deputy general looked troubled. "The army is in chaos. The soldiers are terrified. The casualties are impossible to count. I'm afraid there are no fewer than a thousand."

At present, Feng State’s artillery was not enough to reach the level of carpet bombing in later generations. It caused little casualties to the living force, and mainly destroyed the city’s defenses and caused fear.

"We can't go on like this." Jin Yihuan's face showed determination. "A few more rounds, and our army's morale will collapse before the Fengtian Army even attacks the city."

"What should we do then?" asked the deputy general.

"The only solution now is to send a cavalry unit to attack proactively. Even if we can't destroy the Fengtian Army's siege equipment, we can't let them get too reckless."