Even the pace of walking was a lot faster immediately; if we marched at such a speed, the distance could be increased to eighty miles per day, which would not be too much.

When the time reached that evening, another piece of good news came, and the morale of the Northern Expedition army skyrocketed again.

Why? Because after a long march, the vanguard of the army arrived outside the city of Daming Prefecture around noon.

By early two o'clock in the afternoon, the First Army and the First Artillery Division in front had basically all arrived outside this famous city.

For such an outer city, the circumference is 48 miles and 206 steps, with 17 gates, three gates on the south, and a wall of three and a half feet high.

Although the wall was still made of earth, it was covered with a layer of bricks. It could be said that the city was quite strong. Naturally, the Jin people had no reason to give up.

The city's defenders, composed of a thousand Jurchens and thirty thousand miscellaneous soldiers, had already prepared a large number of trebuchets, ballistas and other equipment.

We also prepared a lot of defensive materials such as wood, rolling stones, and gold juice, and even forcibly mobilized the people in the city to form a force of more than 20,000 people, who could top the city wall at all times.

Wanyan Wu Qimai and others naturally knew that it was impossible to use such a famous city to stop the Song Dynasty's Northern Expedition army.

However, based on their rich war experience, they reached a consensus:

There is sufficient food and grass in the city, and with the tall city wall and 40,000 cavalry roaming outside the city, it will take at least a month to delay the Song people before they can capture this place.

Although the new Song army was powerful, they should have suffered 20,000 to 30,000 casualties.

If it were replaced by other Song troops, it would be impossible to defeat them.

However, they soon realized that times were completely different.

Since the New Army of the Song Dynasty completed the complete weaponization of gunpowder, it was not just the field battle mode that changed, but the same was true for such siege warfare.

After the First Army arrived outside the city, Lao She, the commander of the army, had no idea that the whole army would rest for a night and then attack the city early tomorrow morning.

Immediately, he commanded a group of troops under his command and launched an attack on Daming City.

This is also the first time that the Northern Expedition army has conducted a siege battle. It can be regarded as a preliminary rehearsal for the future siege battle of Yanjing City...

After the battle began, the first thing the New Army took action was of course the First Artillery Division.

A total of 6 24-pound cannons, 24 12-pound cannons, 36 8-pound cannons, and 66 6-pound cannons were lined up outside the south gate of Daming City under the eyes of the defenders in the city.

There was no way! The defenders on top of the city, regardless of the trebuchets or ballistae in their hands, could not hit these Song people at all.

And near the artillery, there were many Song people's musket phalanxes guarding them. Since they did not dare to leave the city, what else could they do except watch helplessly?

After these artillery fire, the dense shells hit the wall and scattered debris.

The trebuchets, catapults, and human bodies were smashed to pieces, and the doomsday scene was as if the earth was shaking and the mountains were shaking. Many Jurchens supervising the battle at the top of the city were so scared that they peed their pants.

Not to mention the main force of the defenders, which was composed of the surrendered Song troops and the civilians captured by Jia Ding.

When many unlucky ones running around in great panic were knocked down by shells, flying masonry, and wood.

Those who survived squatted under the walls with their heads in their hands, praying that all this would end soon.

The war has begun, and morale has dropped to freezing point.

Of course, these people don't need to be so afraid, because even the Japanese field artillery during World War II would take a certain amount of time to blast through a city wall of this magnitude.

What's more, the current New Army of the Song Dynasty uses such an old-fashioned artillery that still uses black powder.

If you really want to bomb the city wall in this way, you will need to bombard it continuously for at least three to five days.

The problem is that Old Snake has never thought of relying on artillery to blast away such a majestic city; time is tight and the task is heavy, how can they have such leisure time.

When all the defenders at the top of the city were suppressed by artillery fire.

The suspension bridge here at the south gate was bombarded by ten artillery pieces. The iron chain that had been tightly pulled up suddenly came loose, causing the heavy suspension bridge to fall immediately.

Then, artillery, including three 24-pound guns, continued to greet the city gate.

Under the power of these shells, even the iron-clad city gate could not withstand ten minutes, and eventually fell down with dense holes.

Even now, the garrison at the top of the city has not completely collapsed.

Because Daming Castle is such a majestic city, the city gate has a structure of a 'barbican city'.

Specifically, even if you pass the first city gate, you still have to pass through an open area with a zigzag structure and open another city gate before you can officially enter the city.

During this process, the attackers were attacked condescendingly by the defenders from four directions, including front, rear, left, and right.

Fundamentally speaking, this is actually a trap.

But after blowing up the first city gate, Lao She didn't send a large army to rush in; instead, at his signal, hundreds of soldiers from the guard company were dispatched.

They carried large shields, carried two oversized 'coffins' respectively, and rushed into the city gate hole with a few arrows.

The next second later, these people escaped desperately; they only hated their parents for giving them a pair of less feet.

In fact, it is absolutely normal for them to have such a reaction.

Because the two so-called oversized ‘coffins’ were basically two wooden boxes each containing thousands of kilograms of black powder.

These people don't know exactly how powerful this thing is.

But they knew that the power of a ten-pound explosive bag alone was already terrifying.

So once a box with a charge of two to three hundred times more explosives explodes, its power can only be described as outrageous.

Before taking action, they were informed.

After the fuse is lit, it will detonate in about two minutes.

So if they don't run away now, as far as they want, have they had enough of living, and are they still waiting to be blown to pieces by these things?

In fact, just 115 seconds later, an explosion scene that even a modern man like Lao She was staggering appeared at the south gate of Daming City.

In short, after a huge burst of smoke and loud noise.

When everyone looked over in the smoke and dust that had calmed down a bit, they found that the entire city gate had collapsed, revealing a huge gap.

"Immediately, blow the charge horn" was immediately shouted out from the old snake's mouth,

Finally, with the sound of "tick tick tick~", the troops of the First Army swarmed in from the breach.

The resistance they encountered after entering the city can only be described as weak; in fact, because of such a low-dimensional blow, the defenders in the city almost lost all their will to fight.

In the evening, the entire Daming City was captured.

The old snake rode a war horse and swaggered into the city in the afterglow of landing. In front of him were surrendered soldiers kneeling down begging for mercy...
Chapter completed!