newbobooks Chapter 735: Bombarding Jiange
Chapter 735: Bombarding Jiange
In front of them was a narrow mountain road, which led down to between two mountains, and then there were steps going up, and above that was a majestic pass close to the side of the mountain.
Su Wuan sighed,
"It's hard to imagine that such a large pass was built on such a steep mountain with such a narrow mountain road. It was built by people carrying stones on their shoulders and hands. How much manpower and material resources must have been consumed.
It's truly admirable. Such a large pass is simply a miracle. I can't bear to blow it up with a cannon."
Wu Changge snorted coldly,
"I only saw a pass built with the blood and lives of countless people.
Such a huge project, I wonder how many people will die from forced labor. This Sichuan emperor is really a despicable person."
"You can't say that. They're also trying to defend their country."
"Where are you sitting? They are defending us. Now we are their enemies and they are going to attack us.
If you can't bear to give the order, let me do it, and I'll raze it to the ground."
Su Wuan didn't respond, but looked at the stairs and said,
"This mountain is twenty feet high from the ground to the top, and the steps are two miles long. These two miles of steps are too difficult. Our army cannot assemble at all, and we can't push the artillery up. We can only bombard the mountain from the foot.
Even if they bombarded that area, it would be difficult for our people to get up there. The mountain path is so narrow that our people would be exhausted if they went up there. They would just have to throw things down there."
Wu Changge suddenly looked down at his feet and said,
"What do you think? Can we set up artillery from this side and bombard Jiange?"
"It's unrealistic, isn't it? Can artillery fire that far? This is a full four or five miles."
"What about the maximum elevation angle? Let's try it. With such a huge sword pavilion, we can kill people wherever we hit it."
"Then... try it?"
The two smiled at each other, and then went back to find the Shenji Camp.
Their legion was equipped with twenty artillery pieces, and they were all brought here in one go.
Su Wuan said to the commander of the Shenji Camp,
"See that pass? Bomb it with all your might. Can you hit it?"
The commander of the Shenji Camp took a look through the telescope and said,
"I can hit it, but where it lands is up to chance. It's too far away, so I can only give it a rough estimate."
"As long as we can get into the interior, that's all."
"Okay, let me try."
……
Jiange.
Jiang Wei stood on the north city wall and looked towards the north.
According to intelligence, the Yan army has arrived at the hilltop in the north and is setting up camp. If nothing unexpected happens, they will probably attack tomorrow.
The ambush troops he sent out disappeared without a trace and were unable to stop the enemy for even a day. It was highly likely that they had all been killed.
Jiang Wei was also wondering in his heart, is the Yan army really so powerful and has such boundless magic?
Can you even detect ambushes?
At this moment, he suddenly saw many small black spots appearing in the northern sky. Before he could see them clearly, these black spots fell towards Jiange with a loud bang.
Boom boom boom!
In an instant, all the shells exploded.
Two missiles hit the city wall, more than a dozen missiles hit the inside of the pass, and several missiles missed the target and fell on the mountain.
For a moment, the earth shook!
The two shells that hit the city wall were not far from Jiang Wei. The violent explosion in an instant almost knocked everyone to the ground.
And from the city, the screams of many soldiers were heard directly.
Jiang Wei looked back in shock, only to see that the northern part of the interior was in ruins. Many buildings and tents had collapsed, and some soldiers were lying on the ground wailing in pain. Blood was spilled all over the ground, and there were even some broken limbs.
"Hurry up and save them! Carry the wounded to the south! Everyone else, hide under the city wall and put out the fire! Quick!"
Jiang Wei roared.
General Wei was horrified and murmured,
"Is this the Yan army's artillery? Rumor has it that the Yan army's artillery is unparalleled in the world and extremely powerful, but I didn't expect that it could hit us directly from across a mountain?
We haven’t even seen their figures clearly yet!"
"Stop talking nonsense! The next round is coming soon. Hurry down and get off the wall to avoid it!"
Jiang Wei shouted and led the soldiers on the top of the city wall down.
They hid under the city wall trembling, and sure enough, the next round of artillery bombardment came soon and fell inside the pass, and another round of screams was heard.
Fortunately, the Yan army was just testing, not attacking by force. After three rounds, they stopped bombing and dragged their artillery back.
Jiang Wei was still frightened when he saw the devastated situation inside the pass.
General Wei said anxiously,
"General, the Yan army's artillery is too powerful. It can hit us from across a mountain. We can't even see them. How can we fight them?"
"Yeah, how do we fight this? Even if we can't, we have to fight!"
Jiang Wei looked deep in his eyes and sighed,
"If we lose such a dangerous place as Jiange, then the journey south to Guangyuan, although not entirely smooth, will be much smoother. The Yan army will be able to directly put artillery in our faces. At that time, it will be even more difficult for these 50,000 old and weak people to resist."
"That's what you said."
General Wei sighed, then stood up and shouted at the army to clean up the battlefield.
On the Yan army side, Su Wuan and Wu Changge happily returned to the Yan army camp.
Wu Changge laughed and said,
"That's good now. We can defeat the enemy on our mountain. Let's not attack them first. Let's bombard them for a day, killing a lot of their manpower. Then we can defeat them. Wouldn't that make it easier?"
Hearing this, Su Wuan laughed and said,
"Ah, right, right, the enemy is just as clueless as you are, just standing there and letting you bombard them, right?
This is already the maximum elevation angle, and it can probably only reach the northern part of Jiange and the area on the city wall.
All they have to do is to move some of their troops to the city wall and withdraw the main force to the south, leaving you an open area to bomb at will. It depends on how many of your shells can withstand this.
We still have to attack. Tomorrow morning, leave ten cannons on top to fire at the city, and pull ten down below to fire at the city walls, to cover our army as we go up the mountain to attack the city."
"alright."
Wu Changge nodded and said nothing more.
……
The next morning, after the army finished their meal, they set out in a mighty procession down the mountain.
Because the place was relatively narrow, Su Wuan only brought 80,000 people this time, and most of these 80,000 people were still waiting on the hillside because there was not enough space below for them to deploy their troops.
The artillery went down first, and after it had reached the bottom with difficulty, the people of the Shenji Camp began to set up the artillery and aim it upwards.
Su Wuan pointed at the city gate and said,
"First, bombard the city walls twice, then knock down the city gate!"
"Marshal, are you trying to embarrass me?"
The commander of the Shenji Camp said in shock,
"This is a very steep elevation angle, and the city gate is inside the city gate arch, so you can't even see it. There's no way you can hit it from this angle!"