New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

However, now that he was on the battlefield where life and death were at stake, Niu Er didn't have time to think and immediately helped his teammates up.

"If you make another mistake, I won't hesitate to kick you off the city wall."

His teammate swallowed hard; he really hadn't heard Niu Er's instructions.

As they returned to their positions beside the catapults, the one-sided battle outside the city quickly drew to a close.

From the start of the charge to the explosion of the first batch of cloth bags, and now to the mess left behind, only a little over half an hour had passed, yet Wanyan Xie felt as if each day was an eternity.

Clearly, he was also mentally damaged by the cloth bag that Tang Qian threw out, and had no idea how to give orders.

Only when the battlefield was in complete chaos did he regain his senses amidst the desperate shouts of his personal guards.

A series of urgent gong sounds rang out, but they were drowned out by the explosions on the battlefield. All the soldiers seemed to be hallucinating from the explosions. They were all like headless flies, desperately dodging the flying iron nails while running for their lives, not knowing which direction to run in.

Eventually, some people ran in the right direction and felt that they had returned to a safe area. Only then did they wave the flag to summon their surviving comrades back to camp.

They arrived with overwhelming momentum, but left in utter defeat. Even though the veins on Wanyan Xie's body were bulging, he could not vent his anger. As the smoke in front of him slowly dissipated, revealing a hellish scene of corpses strewn across the land, he almost spat out a mouthful of blood and fell off his horse.

From the city tower, seeing that the Jin army below had all retreated, Tang Qian ordered the throwing to stop.

That airburst was indeed powerful. Explosives that land on the ground can at most kill or injure the enemy closest to the blast, but an explosion overhead is more than twice as lethal.

Unfortunately, he only saw an airburst grenade, and the environment was too chaotic at the time, so he didn't notice who threw it.

If we could figure out the throwing pattern so that all the explosive charges would explode in mid-air, it would save us a lot of trouble.

"All combat teams, report on ammunition depletion."

This was a routine procedure after a battle, to ensure that each group could replenish ammunition in time. Originally, no one paid much attention to it, but after hearing the data reported by Niu Er's group, Tang Qian exclaimed softly, "Why are the losses of the other groups about the same, but only their team has three extra explosive packs?"

Although Ye Zhao ordered free-throwing after the first round of attacks, the teams operating the catapults had all undergone uniform training, so their throwing speeds shouldn't vary too much. Therefore, the casualties should have been roughly the same.

When they heard that the city lord wanted to see their group, Niu Er and his teammates were all on edge. Could it be that their operation, which almost killed their own people, had been discovered and the city lord was going to punish them?

Trembling as he approached Tang Qian, Niu Er's teammates immediately knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, begging for their lives. However, Niu Er remained standing, displaying an arrogant and unruly demeanor.

Tang Qian frowned slightly. He had only felt that this small team was not very efficient in combat and was going to give them a few words of criticism, but he did not expect that they seemed to have made a mistake in the battle just now.

"Tell me carefully, what do you mean by almost causing a major disaster?"

Niu Er was unwilling, but he had no choice but to hold his head high and tell the whole story of what had just happened.

"It was because I lit the fuse and didn't inform you in time that a major disaster was almost caused. Do with me as you please."

"It was because the noise around me was too loud that I didn't hear the team leader's instructions clearly, which caused the throwing speed to be slow. It has nothing to do with the team leader."

"Old Chen, don't talk nonsense. It's clearly my fault for not speaking up loudly enough..."

"One should take responsibility for one's own actions. I caused this mess myself, why should you be punished for me?"

"I only have myself to eat, but you have a wife, children, and elderly parents at home. You absolutely cannot let anything happen to them!"

Upon hearing Niu Er's words, Chen Laosan was stunned. He had indeed made a mistake, but he managed to salvage the situation at the last moment and prevent the explosive charge from detonating on the city wall. Yet, he still had to pay with his life.

"Then can I let you die in vain for me?"

"Wait a minute, what are you two talking about all at once?" Tang Qian was amused by the argument between the two of them. "Who said I was going to kill you?"

"Not beheading?" Niu Er blinked his slightly empty bull eyes. "Then what does the city lord want us to do? Just tell me what punishments you want, and I, Niu Er, as the captain of the eleventh squad, will take them all on my own."

"Eleventh Bombardment Team? Where are your catapults located?"

Niu Er pointed to his left: "It's over there, the third group on the left."

Tang Qian turned his head to look in the direction he was pointing, then quickly went to the city wall to look at the location where the airburst bomb had just occurred, and suddenly laughed loudly: "That's right, you were the ones who just created the only airburst effect."

Ye Zhao's face also showed a hint of surprise. He had seen the scene of the airburst that killed more than a dozen Jin soldiers in an instant. If this bombing was not due to luck, but rather a pattern, the destructive power of the explosive charge would have been multiplied.

"Tell us in detail what you just did."

"Huh?" In a daze, facing the burning gazes of the city lord and the eldest son of the Ye family, Niu Er's Adam's apple bobbed, and then he began to recount everything that had happened during the battle.

To enhance the realism, Niu Er gestured as he spoke, and in the process, he kicked Chen Laosan again.

"I saw him looking around and completely forgetting to pull the trigger. In a moment of panic, I kicked Chen Laosan away and then threw the explosive charge."

"So, you paused for a moment after lighting the fuse before completing the throw?"

Niu Er nodded: "Later, I was so angry that I beat up Chen Laosan, which delayed the throwing and made me use more explosives than others."

“These aren’t the main points.” Tang Qian pondered for a moment. “Why don’t you two demonstrate again, showing the whole process once more?”

Niu Er and Chen Laosan exchanged a glance. Although they were very unwilling, they had no choice but to obey the city lord's order. As a result, Chen Laosan's waist was kicked again for no reason.

"So that means it needs to be delayed by five seconds before being thrown to produce an airburst effect?"

Since the fuses of the bombs made by Tang Xiaoqi are all the same length, the time from ignition to explosion will not differ much. In other words, only a five-second delay is needed to maximize the damage to the enemy.

"Very good." Tang Qian reached out and patted Niu Er heavily on the shoulder. "From now on, you are the captain of the catapult attack team. Now go and tell everyone how to launch airburst bombs."

Niu Er was stunned for a moment, then asked a question that left Tang Qian speechless: "Do we all have to kick Chen Laosan?"