Insufficient balance

  Everyone listened to Jiang Ba's explanation and couldn't help but be surprised and delighted. Yang Ling ran out and saw this strange scene, and he also found it very amusing.

  After a while, the Tartar soldiers began to rush over under the command of a general to turn over the big cannon. Yang Ling saw this and immediately shouted: "Don't look anymore, take advantage of this opportunity, Lord Wang hurry up and lead people to organize the civilians to leave the city. Quick, come over a few people, quickly rescue Ma Yi and the injured soldiers."

  Jiang Bin suddenly realized that the situation was now a matter of life and death, not just a spectacle to watch. He hastily turned around and shouted loudly: "Where are the artillerymen? Are there any survivors? Quickly set up our cannons and blast away the enemy's cannons!"

  The castle tower was busy at the time, fortunately, Mr. Min had just been carried down from the second floor, otherwise he would have died in this cannon shot. At this time, he is the happiest person, as the highest leader of the Ji Ming Inn, riding alone into the enemy array, beheading the young son of Bao Yan Meng Ke with one knife, and then throwing a mess for others to clean up.

  Wang Zhubu had someone carry Min Zhi County, and a group of local gentry rushed down the city wall. Yang Ling and Liu Xun led more than ten soldiers to rescue people from the rubble. After a while, they pulled out five or six people from the broken bricks and tiles, except for one who was crushed to death, the others were fortunately not seriously injured.

  But the original Ma Yi, who was standing at the entrance of the building directing the villagers to evacuate, had his head pulled out and his shoulders dragged, but his body didn't move. When Yang Ling and others cleaned up the broken bricks on him, everyone couldn't help but take a cold breath. A beam had crushed Ma Yi's abdomen, his lower body was a mess of blood and flesh, and he had already stopped breathing.

  On the other side, Jiang Bin finally found a few people who knew how to use cannons from the remaining soldiers. Unfortunately, two of the three main cannon operators had already died in the previous battle, leaving only one wounded, who was just dug out from the garbage heap. He had been stabbed in the ribs and now his head was smashed by bricks. Jiang Bin didn't care about that anymore and ordered people to put him on the cannon platform, with blood all over his face.

  The gunner's deputy, dazed and confused, adjusted the angle of the large cannon. One shot was fired, and the shell exploded more than ten zhang away from the large cannon, causing no damage to it, but killing more than a dozen Tartars. Those Tartars who were busy loading cannons and explosives were also panicked.

  At that time, the cannons had not yet invented sighting devices, and they relied entirely on the gunner's experience and visual judgment to hit the enemy's war chariot with one shot. This was because the distance was already very close, and flat shooting was used. However, now the opponent has set up large cannons three li away, even if it is at its best level in peacetime, it may not be able to accurately hit the opponent, let alone the current state of the gunner, and the use of curved shooting.

  Jiang Bin originally didn't expect to blast away the enemy's big guns with one shot, so he immediately ordered people to load all three big guns and wait for firing, then had people help the gunners adjust them one by one. Two shots were fired in succession, but one shell fell short and wasted ammunition, while another shell flew too far and exploded among the Tartar troops.

  Huang Xian-cheng, Yang Ling and Jiang Bin stood at the observation post, getting so anxious that they could squeeze out sweat with their hands, but they couldn't help in any way. Yang Ling hated his safe job for the first time, if only he were an artilleryman... Alas, being an artilleryman might not be good at playing with this primitive big cannon either!

  At this time, the dozen or so people next to the large cannon set up by the Tartars suddenly jumped onto their horses and turned around to run. Yang Ling and others saw that the muzzle of the cannon was roaring with a burst of flames, and at the same time, a large cluster of thick smoke rose from the ground. The barrel of the gun rose into the air in the thick smoke, and then fell heavily to the ground again.

  Yang Ling and others only felt a slight vibration under their feet in the midst of the loud noise, and then there was no sound. Everyone looked at each other in surprise, wondering: Where's the shell? There wasn't an explosion anywhere on the city wall, so where did the shell go?

  Jiang Bing laughed twice and said, "The Tartars may be stupid, but they won't forget to drop the cannonballs, will they?" Although he was joking, his heart was filled with an inexplicable fear, so the smile on his face was quite forced.

  Yang Ling had not yet spoken, when suddenly a sound like thunder came from the foot of the city wall. It was the Huns' cheering. Looking down at the city wall, I saw that among the dense crowd, knives and guns were raised like forests.

  Yang Ling suddenly inhaled a cold breath, his eyes locked onto Jiang Bin's gaze, and both of their eyes flickered with chilliness and fear. They simultaneously cried out: "The city gate!"

  The cannonball blasted open the wooden city gate, leaving it broken and half-open, still emitting a faint wisp of smoke. The people on the city wall were stunned, while thousands of iron cavalrymen swarmed forward in a frenzy, and Chicken Inn was lost.

  The deafening roar of killing covered the cries of some panicked and demoralized soldiers and militiamen on the city wall, Yang Ling silently turned his head back, and his searching gaze met a pair of sparkling eyes.

  Those eyes, full of infinite deep feelings and nostalgia. Yang Ling suddenly felt that these eyes were so familiar, as if a long, long time ago, there was such a pair of eyes gazing deeply at him. Perhaps this fleeting fate of his indeed had a predestined connection in the past life. What about the next life? Would they be able to meet again?

  Fleeting beautiful dream, why so heaven? Love to the depths of no complaints...... At this moment, his heart is filled with longing for life and fear of the unknown. However, his heart only has these feelings, but nothing can be thought of in time, consciousness has been suspended, and the brain is blank.

  Suddenly, a ferocious ghost face appeared in front of Yang Ling, blocking the figure of Yu Nang. The ghost face was stained with blood and had a big mouth open, making a sound like a bellows from its throat. It shook Yang Ling's shoulders frantically and laughed wildly: "It's here, haha, it's finally here, hahahaha..."

  What a great effort, Yang Ling was shaken to the point of almost vomiting, he suddenly pushed away the ghost face that was dancing with him, and the focus returned to normal distance. Only then did he see clearly that the face was Jiang Bin. Due to excitement, Jiang Bin's originally pale face turned blood red, and the muscles on his face twisted out of control.

  He was pushed away by Yang Ling, but he didn't show any signs of embarrassment. He continued to dance and laugh wildly: "Here comes, haha, good fortune will always find its way, General Yongning has arrived!"

  Yang Ling was stunned, and only then did he hear a dense burst of gunfire like stir-frying beans. As the county magistrate of Daiyin, he had dealt with so many administrative tasks that he naturally understood Jiang Bin's words. The Xuanhua border army set up one general, one deputy general, and seven lieutenant generals under its jurisdiction. The Yongning Lieutenant General was the general in charge of defending the Huai region.

  Extreme joy and sorrow made his vision blur, almost fainting, when he came to, Han Youniang was already in front of him, Yang Ling tightly hugged her in his arms, feeling so happy that his whole body trembled.

  Han Youniang supported him as he turned towards the city wall, his legs still trembling like he had drunk two kilograms of strong liquor. The Tartar soldiers below the city had already charged within a hundred paces, but from inside the city gate, a large number of government troops also surged out, with a group of musketeers at the front, their gunfire crackling like stir-fried beans, and in the midst of the smoke, a row of them fell down like cut wheat.

  At this time, the power of firearms was not yet great, and the shooting distance was not as far as that of bows and arrows. If the opponent wore a layer of armor, the lead bullets might not be able to penetrate. However, at this moment, the enemy soldiers were overjoyed and forgot their shape, galloping wildly on horseback, only thinking of rushing into the city first to plunder more gold, silver, and wealth, and to ravage more beautiful women. When the firearms were fired, they had already charged within half an arrow's distance, and most of the soldiers wore only ordinary cloth robes, instantly falling dead or wounded in a heap.

  Although the fire lance could not kill war horses, the horses that were hit felt pain and refused to charge forward again. As they fled in all directions and trampled each other, the number of dead and injured was almost equal to those killed by the fire lance.

  Yang Ling saw that the Ming army's musketeers were also in a state of confusion, he remembered watching some 17th-century foreign films where the musketeers formed three rows to fire, with the first row lying down, the second row kneeling on one knee, and the third row standing, firing in sequence. If they were advancing while shooting, they would form two rows, with the first row retreating after finishing their shot, and the second row moving forward, crossing shots, making up for the slow reloading of the muskets at that time.

  However, the Ming army at the foot of the city rushed forward in a swarm to shoot, and then hastily retreated. The cavalry that had just rushed out of the city flanked from both sides and attacked the Tartars. But the musketeers who failed to retreat in time were shot dead or wounded by the Tartar arrows.

  Isn't the Ming army still unaware of using formation tactics to make up for the shortcomings of traditional firearms? Yang Ling thought to himself, "I might as well ask Jiang and the others about it when I get back, this modern person might actually be able to show off a bit of knowledge".

  This three-shot method was actually used by General Mu Ying during the Hongwu period when he put down a rebellion, but later on, firearms were increasingly deployed in the military, however, the Ming dynasty never emphasized training for officers and soldiers, so these tactics were not widely disseminated, usually the Ming army would just fire a volley, then the enemy would charge right up to them, and the guns would immediately become useless.

  The main force of the Ming army was still rushing out of the city gate to impact the Tatars, although the deployment of the formation was not as fast as that of the Tatars. However, on the one hand, the Tatars were completely unprepared psychologically, and on the other hand, the previous round of gunfire had caused them a moment of chaos, which greatly favored the Ming army.

  Yang Ling clenched his fists, his blood boiling with excitement. Just then, a loud voice was heard from behind: "Yongning Huai comes to pay respects to General He, Military Counselor Ye, and Deputy Military Counselor Liu. Where is the Magistrate of Chicken Cry County and the military officers?"