Chapter 1136: Fierce Firepower

"This is Sa City; it truly is a beautiful city."

The Ashuer Tribe was plunged into panic upon the arrival of the Great Song army.

Ma Han and Dian Zhang arrived outside Sa City.

Ever since departing from Songyang Pass, they had traveled all the way west.

As the altitude grew higher and higher, they gradually felt the air thinning, and at the same time, the temperature continuously dropped.

At this moment, the value of their long-term high-altitude training manifested.

Aside from their marching speed slowing down slightly, they were not affected in any other way.

However, to them, the reduction in marching speed would not affect this operation of theirs.

Because the Tubo Gao Yuan was too desolate, one could say it was a thousand miles without a human trace.

Aside from hiding in Sa City, the Ashuer Tribe could not possibly have anywhere else to go.

This was also the reason why they did not let the Gun Cavalry go first, but rather had the infantry and cavalry advance toward Sa City together.

The infantrymen were, after all, pulling the baggage train and provisions.

"Soon, this city will belong to Great Song." Dian Zhang looked toward Sa City, squinting his eyes.

At this time, heads could be vaguely seen moving on the walls of Sa City.

Clearly, just as they had anticipated, Ashuer was prepared to defend Sa City to the death.

Of course, they were not worried about Ashuer leading his troops to flee.

Before departing, they had sent orders to the White Tiger Army generals on the northern Grassland, telling them to deploy defenses along the line of Tianzhu.

Once the tracks of the Ashuer Tribe were discovered, they were to be annihilated immediately.

As for the direction of Tianzhu, after the local kings pledged loyalty to Great Song, Guan Tong had ordered them to keep an eye on the roads between Tibet and Tianzhu.

Further west, that was the territory of Chen Hu's Western Regions Protectorate.

In short, this Ashuer was now a turtle in a jar; this time, they had him cornered.

"Prepare to attack the city." Ma Han was somewhat impatient.

It was already late autumn in Great Song, and on this Tubo Gao Yuan, it was even colder, like winter.

They did not want to continue freezing in the wilderness.

"Yes, General." Dian Zhang shouted, white vapor exhaling from his mouth.

Passing the order down, eighteen thousand infantrymen immediately surrounded Sa City.

The artillerymen also aimed their Artillery at the city walls.

For this battle, they had allocated thirty-six Rifled Cannons and seventy-two Howitzers.

They had even brought one hundred and eight Machine Guns,

all to use their powerful firepower to destroy the Ashuer Tribe's will to resist.

Everything was ready, and at Ma Han's command, the Artillery began to bombard Sa City.

Cannonball after cannonball whistled across the sky, landing on the city walls, and huge Flames instantly bloomed on the gray-white walls.

At this time, Ma Han and Dian Zhang observed the city walls.

Once they discovered the enemy's Smoothbore Cannon counterattacking, they would order the artillerymen to destroy it.

"Ashuer is truly at the end of his rope; he doesn't even have many Smoothbore Cannons left to fire Solid Shot." Another Smoothbore Cannon on the wall went silent, and Dian Zhang sneered.

"That is only natural. In the Battle of Yongzhou, Ashuer lost almost all of his original capital. Now, most of his army is made up of forcibly conscripted Tibetans; there aren't many real Northern Di soldiers left. As for firearms and Artillery, Britain itself doesn't have many, so it's impossible for them to support him much," Ma Han said, pondering.

Dian Zhang nodded, "This battle seems like it will be easier than we imagined."

While the two were discussing the battlefield situation, the Artillery on the walls of Sa City went silent one by one.

Within the span of an hour, they were unable to fight back and could only endure the bombardment in vain.

Seeing this, Ma Han had the Machine Gun Team press forward, using their firepower to suppress the Ashuer Tribe soldiers on the walls.

At the same time, he ordered the infantry to prepare Scaling Ladders, readying to storm the city.

"Da-da-da..."

Before long, the sound of machine-gun fire rang out from all four sides of the city walls.

The machine gunners stared at the walls, and as long as any Ashuer Tribe soldier showed their head, it was a burst of fierce shooting, beating them down so they could not lift their heads.

Taking advantage of the enemy being suppressed by the Machine Guns, the infantry launched a charge under the sound of the bugle.

Gu Kun carried a Scaling Ladder and closed in on the walls of Sa City.

"Kill..."

Outside the city, the sounds of killing were incessant, while inside the city, the Ashuer Tribe's generals and soldiers were completely panicked.

The vast majority of these soldiers were conscripted from young, able-bodied Tibetans after Ashuer's defeat at Yongzhou; they were all new recruits.

They had never been on a battlefield or seen blood.

Furthermore, Tibet was a very isolated place.

When Ashuer conquered Tibet, it was still under a serf system.

Most Tibetans had never seen guns or cannons in their entire lives.

Precisely because of this, Ashuer had been able to easily seize Tibet using his own guns and cannons.

But now, compared to the firearms and Artillery of the Great Song army outside the city, Ashuer's firearms and Artillery were simply worlds apart.

The explosive Cannonballs scared the souls right out of them.

After leaving a pile of corpses on the city walls, the new recruits composed of Tibetans were no longer willing to climb the walls.

"Great King, the Great Song army's firearms and Artillery are too powerful; to go up on the city walls is to die."

The Great Song soldiers outside the city were about to capture the walls, while the soldiers inside the city refused to climb up to defend them; a commander was both anxious and helpless.