New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

Yelü Yilie's bizarre actions not only shocked Wanyan Xieye, but also left the Song army on the city wall speechless.

Ye Zhao only recovered from her shock after Wanyan Xieye's figure disappeared into the army formation.

"Since our matchlock guns can kill people within a hundred feet, why didn't we just take Wanyan Xieye's life?"

Tang Qian turned his head and glanced at his brother-in-law: "If I could really kill someone from a hundred feet away without them even noticing, why would I bother talking so much nonsense to that old guy?"

After a period of secret experimentation, Yelü Yilie actually figured out the optimal ratio of matchlock ammunition. Unfortunately, the production requirements for gun barrels are too high. At least with the current technology, being able to roll out a qualified finished product in two days is already considered high output.

So far, Tang Qian only has about ten matchlock guns, and their accuracy is not high at all. They cannot make accurate shots even within fifty zhang, let alone a hundred zhang. This is why Yelü Yilie only fired after the enemy general got close.

He wasn't trying to show off; he was just unsure of himself.

"We can't yet equip every soldier with a matchlock gun, but it will be the standard issue for the garrison of Guangling in the future. However, our top priority now is to drive out the Jin army. We must improve the manufacturing process in the future, and the gun barrels must be mass-produced by mechanization."

Firearms are undoubtedly a powerful weapon of war in this era. Tang Qian does not intend to invade other countries, but deterrence is necessary. Only with firearms at his disposal can he stand tall.

“I think I understand now. You just sent Yelü Yilie to provoke the Jin camp and openly told them that we have assassination methods, in order to make the Jin army withdraw as soon as possible.”

Tang Qian reached out and patted Ye Zhao on the shoulder: "Looks like you're not too stupid after all."

After several failed sieges, the two Grand Marshals of the Jin army must have realized that Guangling's defenses were impregnable, and the Jin army had two options.

First, one death depleted all the explosives in Guangling City. Once the city was without defensive weapons, taking Guangling City would be as easy as taking candy from a baby for the Jin army.

But the explosives inside the city seemed inexhaustible. They had already lost a life, yet the attack from the city walls showed no signs of abating.

The 70,000 men brought by Wanyan Zonghan were all elite troops of the Jin Dynasty. If they all died outside Guangling City, even if they captured Guangling, the strength of the Jin Dynasty would be greatly reduced, and it is possible that it would never recover.

It's not a worthwhile deal to gamble the fate of the Jin Dynasty on a small place like Guangling.

Secondly, it was a strategy that both sides had already considered: to surround but not attack.

Once the Jin army surrounds Guangling City and runs out of food, the city will naturally fall without a fight.

Tang Qian could certainly use night raids and harassment tactics to gradually whittle down the Jin army, but if the Jin camp made sufficient preparations, the effect of this move would definitely not be as amazing as it was the first time it was used.

Therefore, Tang Qian deliberately exposed the new weapon, the Vulcan gun, in order to make Wanyan Xie back down and absolutely prevent the Jin army from confronting him outside the city.

"But judging from his tone just now, he seems to have been provoked. It seems we have to go through another baptism of fire. This should be the last time."

What did Wanyan Xie just say? "To perish together with the enemy"? We'll see if you, old scoundrel, have the ability to do that.

The two were still chatting about the battle situation when they heard another bugle call sound outside the city, signaling the Jin army to launch an attack.

"Rong'er, Xiao Li, Chu Xia, Ling'er, take your young lady back. Xiao Qi, instruct the residents of the city to dismantle all the mud and sand that were prepared earlier. This time, all the people in the city must be prepared for battle. The Jin army's great weapon is coming."

Hearing Tang Qian's serious words, the maids led by Rong'er immediately sprang into action. The three ladies of the Tang family and the eldest daughter, Tang Jing, hurriedly descended the city wall with their help. Tang Xiaoqi, upon receiving the order, also relayed Tang Qian's command as quickly as possible.

Just before he went downstairs, he didn't forget to reach out and give Chu Xia a gentle pat on the head, a gesture that drew a blush from Chu Xia and a look of disdain from her three sisters.

They're flirting even when their lives are at stake; it's utterly immoral and disgusting. I spit on them.

Ye Zhao placed his hands on the city wall and looked into the distance. Sure enough, he saw that the Jin army had started another round of attacks in the distance. However, this time their attack method was completely different from before. They did not intend to use ladders to climb the city wall, but instead wanted to bring dozens of catapults closer to the north gate.

"The Jin army plans a long-range attack!"

Ye Zhao shouted, his tone revealing not a trace of fear, but rather the excitement of anticipating the enemy's move.

As is well known, Guangling City is located on the Jianghuai Plain. There are few mountains, let alone small mounds. Without mountains, there are no boulders. The Jin army could not use local materials to launch long-range attacks with catapults. They had to rely on manpower to transport stones. But now they were just pushing the catapults forward. There were no stones to use as cannonballs.

Without projectiles, so many catapults are useless; no matter how impressive they are, what's so scary about them?

Tang Qian's expression was very serious: "We must not be careless. The Jin army has no stones, so what they are throwing must be something else. We absolutely cannot let their catapults move to their attack positions."

"Niu Er, destroy all the catapults below!"

With Ye Zhao's roar, Niu Er shouted, "Release!"

More than twenty explosive charges flew out of the city wall at the same time, whistling toward their respective targets.

The explosive charges were powerful, but their accuracy was also low. This attack only destroyed three catapults of the Jin army. Taking advantage of the smoke from the explosion, the Jin army's long-range attack force moved forward several more feet.

On the other side, behind the Jin army's rear, Wanyan Zonghan's face turned ashen as he witnessed three catapults being blown to pieces.

The number of catapults was not large. If the Song army's attack continued without pause, they might all be destroyed before they even reached their attack positions. However, now was definitely not the time to retreat. The battle had progressed to this point, and he was already in a bloodthirsty frenzy.

Even if he had to bite with his teeth, he would still manage to bite off a piece of flesh from Tang Qian's neck.

"Five vehicles. If just five vehicles can reach the throwing position, our army can turn the tide and win."

Therefore, all you warriors of Dajin, you must hold on! For the glory of Dajin, you must never retreat!

Amidst the continuous explosions, a messenger rushed from the front of the battlefield: "Reporting to the Marshal, catapults have reached their attack positions."

"Sound the horn immediately! I, the commander, will make the entire Guangling vanish into thin air!"

Immediately, the Jin army changed its attack horn, and the catapults that had reached their attack positions began preparing to launch their attacks.

"Tang Qian, now you can really experience what it's like to have a city engulfed in flames."