Chương 603: Bombardment of Beitian City

"I think it's a good idea," Zhao Yun nodded, putting away his gun.

"We just finished fighting the Northern Xiongnu, and the soldiers need to rest. The horses are all thin from all the running. Let's avoid fighting if we can reduce casualties and save ammunition."

"No way!" Cheng Yaojin was the first to object, stamping his feet in frustration.

"Why try to persuade us to surrender? Just open the cannons and blast open the city gates! It'll be so much more satisfying to rush in! I've heard there's a lot of wine, gold, and jewels hidden in the Kangju Palace. If we're too late, someone else will loot it all! I, Old Cheng, have been waiting for so many days, my hands are itching!"

"All you know how to do is steal!" Zhang Fei glared at him, his mustache bristling.

"If you ask me, forget about persuasion, just attack! I, Old Zhang, will be the first to rush in and chop off the King of Kangju's head to use as a chamber pot! That way we won't waste time talking to him!"

"Yide, Zhijie, don't fool around," Guan Yu said slowly, stroking his magnificent beard, without even lifting his eyelids.

"To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest form of skill. To first use courtesy before resorting to force is the way of a true king. We are the mighty army of the Han Dynasty, not bandits."

Li Jing smiled and said, "Yun Chang is right. Let's do as Mao Gong said. First, send an envoy to persuade them to surrender. If we can avoid fighting, we will. Weapons are instruments of death. If they don't surrender, at noon tomorrow, we'll bombard the city with cannons and leave no one alive. We mean what we say."

...

The envoy, accompanied by two attendants, rode to the walls of Beitian and shouted:

"I am an envoy from the Great Han! I have come to see your king on the orders of my commander! Open the city gates! Or we will retreat!"

The King of Kangju stood atop the city wall for a long time, hesitating for a long time, his hand gripping a brick from the wall...

Finally, he sighed and ordered the city gates to be opened to let the envoy in.

The envoy entered the palace with his head held high and his eyes straight ahead.

He relayed Li Jing's terms to the King of Kangju, neither servile nor arrogant: "Open the city gates and surrender, and I will save your entire family's lives and the safety of your people. If you do not surrender, when the city falls, not a single chicken or dog will be spared."

Upon hearing this, the King of Kangju's face turned pale and then red, and he was speechless for a long time, his lips trembling.

At this moment, a nobleman who advocated war jumped out, pointed at Qin Qiong, and cursed him:

"You Han people are bullying us! We Kangju have lived here for generations, why should we submit to you! Fight us if you want, we're not afraid! We'd rather die a glorious death than live a shameful life!"

As he spoke, he drew his sword and thrust it at the messenger; the sword flashed.

The envoy sneered and dodged to the side.

He drew his sword from his waist with a backhand stroke and cleaved the nobleman's sword in two with a single strike. The sound of metal breaking was crisp and piercing. The broken sword flew far away. Then he kicked the nobleman to the ground and stepped on his chest, immobilizing him.

"With your meager skills, you dare to be so insolent in front of me?" the envoy said coldly, his eyes like knives.

"My commander is giving you one day to consider. If you do not surrender after one day, our army will attack the city and we will all perish! Don't blame us then for not giving you a chance!"

After saying that, he turned and left, flicking his cloak, leaving the King of Kangju and a group of city lords looking at each other in bewilderment.

After the envoy left, the royal palace hall erupted in noise again, even more fiercely than before.

The pro-war and pro-surrender factions argued fiercely and almost came to blows; someone grabbed the other's collar.

The King of Kangju was so annoyed by the noise that his head was buzzing. Finally, he slammed his fist on the table, nearly causing it to fall apart.

"Stop arguing! I've made up my mind! We surrender! Or are we just waiting to be massacred if we don't?"

"Your Majesty! You mustn't!" the pro-war faction shouted.

The King of Kangju said firmly, his voice resolute: "I have made my decision. Prepare to surrender. Tomorrow morning, I will personally leave the city and surrender to the Han Dynasty."

...

That evening, the pro-war city lords gathered to discuss the matter, each one gritting their teeth.

They were unwilling to surrender so easily, feeling it was too shameful.

After some discussion, they decided to take the risk and immediately led their troops into the palace, captured the King of Kangju, and forced him to retract his order.

The King of Kangju refused, so they went all the way and beheaded him.

They then elected another hardliner as their temporary leader, preparing to fight the Han army to the bitter end.

They also sent people to reinforce the city walls, prepared rolling logs and stones, and mobilized men, women, and children of all ages in the city to defend the city, causing chaos and disorder.

The next day, Li Jing and his men saw that the city gates of Beitian were not open, and that Kangju soldiers on the city walls were on high alert, with their swords and spears drawn, and they knew that something had happened.

Li Jing sneered, his eyes so cold they could freeze a person to death:

"If they won't listen to reason, they'll have to suffer the consequences. Since they don't know what's good for them, don't blame me for being impolite."

Five hundred "Divine Might General" cannons were then arranged and positioned, with the gunners in place to load ammunition.

He ordered all 500 "Divine General" cannons to fire simultaneously.

The moment the order was given, the battlefield fell silent for a moment, so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat.

The gunners used long-handled pushers to ram solid shot into the breech, packed the propellant bag tightly, and brought the fuse close to the touch hole...

Then, the command flag was lowered.

Five hundred fire ropes simultaneously touched the fire gate.

Five hundred mushroom-shaped plumes of white smoke exploded from the breech of the cannon almost simultaneously, followed by—BOOM—!

That wasn't a sound.

Five hundred thunderbolts were forced into the same instant and exploded, the sound waves sweeping out from the position like a solid wall, as if the air itself was being torn apart.

Everything on the empty Gobi Desert in front of Beitian City—withered grass, sand, and even a startled eagle—was pressed into the ground by this shockwave and vanished instantly.

Five hundred tongues of fire spewed from the cannon muzzle, and five hundred solid iron projectiles soared into the air with astonishing initial velocities, drawing five hundred low, fierce, almost straight arcs that sliced through the thin winds of the clear Central Asian sky...

As they fell, the western wall of Beitian City remained silent in the sunlight.

Then...

The first volley of iron projectiles struck the battlements.

That wasn't an explosion.

The mighty general's artillery fire wasn't targeting exploding shells, but rather the sheer power of kinetic energy itself.

A solid iron ball struck a rammed earth and mud-covered battlement at a speed of hundreds of meters per second, and the result was only one sentence: It no longer exists.

At the crenellation, the entire breastwork burst inward, and large chunks of adobe bricks, broken wood, shed boards, and the Kangju garrison soldiers standing on them all turned into a cloud of yellowish-gray dust that sprayed upward.

Before the person could even react, they had already disappeared.

There are no shrapnels, and shrapnels are not needed.

The inertia of the iron bullet itself turns everything it touches into shrapnel.

Human bodies, shields, logs, and rammed earth layers were all swallowed by that scorching dark sphere and then spat out in fragments.

One, two, three... dozens of bullets hit the base of the city gate tower at the same time.

The main gate tower of Beitian City, facing west, collapsed with a roar, sending dust billowing into the sky like a mushroom cloud.

The fourth volley of bullets struck along the base of the city wall.

The rammed earth city wall could withstand swords and axes, fire attacks, and even stones thrown by catapults for hundreds of years, but it could not withstand repeated bombardment by cannonballs.

Each hit carved a deep dent the size of a bowl into the wall, causing the rammed earth surface to crack and peel off in large chunks, revealing the grayish-white cross-section and embedded gravel inside—a shocking sight.

Five hundred cannons meant that it was impossible for only one hit to be achieved...

After being hit repeatedly, a section of the city wall finally collapsed with a dull thud, tilting inwards from the middle and forming a sloping gap, with rubble piled up all over the ground.