Chapter 773: An Eye for an Eye!

"Heh heh, this Changqi is truly something; the intelligence from the Four Courts must be accurate, it is a wealthy city."

While advancing toward Changqi City, Pan Zhang divided his thirty thousand troops into four parts.

Among them, ten thousand troops were deployed at the front, the south city, ten thousand at the north city, and five thousand at each of the east and west city gates, surrounding Changqi City completely.

This time, they were not using the tactic of surrounding three sides and leaving one open; they intended to teach the Eastern Japanese a harsh lesson.

The north-south deployment was intended to prevent the Eastern Japanese from being able to support one another.

Once the various units were in position, the artillerymen built artillery positions and constructed Forts using sandbags.

Pan Zhang looked toward the gate tower of the south gate at this moment.

Unlike the cities of the Great Song, which also had gate towers, those only had two levels.

But the Eastern Japanese gate towers were very tall and large, reaching five or six levels.

The corridors of each level of the gate tower were currently filled with soldiers holding flintlocks.

This type of gate tower served both the purpose of defending against enemies and as a watchtower.

However, this type of gate tower was clearly a relic of the cold weapon era.

Because to them, these gate towers were of no use at all.

Putting away his Telescope, he said to the artillery commander, "This gate tower is too much of an eyesore, blow it up!"

Acknowledging the order, the artillery commander left and returned to the artillery position.

This time, they had built their artillery position at a distance of five hundred meters from Changqi City.

Relying on the Eastern Japanese artillery, their cannons could not destroy the sandbag walls built by the artillerymen.

Meanwhile, the Marine artillerymen could see clearly and destroy their targets with precision.

Then, a Rifled Field Gun adjusted its elevation, aiming its muzzle at the gate tower.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, the Rifled Cannon's Cannonball flew straight toward the Changqi gate tower.

Another "Boom" followed as the Explosive Shell detonated on the gate tower; wood chips splattered instantly, and flames and smoke rose up.

At this moment, Masho Naoto was observing the entire battlefield from the top floor of the gate tower, and the explosion occurred on the fifth level.

The sudden shelling scared him so much that he sat down on the floor.

Although he was a feudal lord, ever since Watanabe An unified Dongying, feudal lords were no longer regional princes, but civil officials managing various domains.

Moreover, Changqi City had never before suffered an attack from an external force.

Facing war for the first time, he was naturally at a loss.

The others were no better off.

With the explosion occurring at such a close distance, they were all startled, their legs turning weak.

But this was only the beginning, after the first cannon blast.

The artillery on the Yanzhou artillery position roared as if awakened, the booming sounds continuous.

Before Masho Naoto and the officers beside him could recover from the first round of explosions, they saw over a dozen black dots flying toward the gate tower like lightning.

He wanted to flee, but his legs would not obey him.

Just then, these black dots landed in different parts of the gate tower.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The explosions followed one after another.

The entire gate tower felt as if an earthquake had occurred.

Masho Naoto was terrified to the point of despair; he felt as if the gate tower were about to collapse.

The instinct for survival made him use all his strength to crawl up and run downward, but suddenly, he was tripped.

It turned out a Cannonball had pierced through the floor from below, exposing half of its shell and blocking his path.

Seeing this, Masho Naoto froze for a moment, but in that instant of hesitation, the Cannonball suddenly exploded, and flames completely swallowed him.

It also seemed that because of this explosion, the entire Changqi gate tower emitted a "creak, creak" sound, and then collapsed with a crash.

The dust from the collapsing gate tower almost covered the entire south wall.

"Not very sturdy," Pan Zhang curled his lip.

He kept the words Zhou Yi had spoken to him firmly in mind.

Over these years, the Eastern Japanese had committed many atrocities along the coast of the Great Song, slaughtering coastal people, looting their property, and not even sparing infants only a few months old, let alone the women who were abducted and subjected to humiliation.

"Take advantage of this, strike hard!" Thinking of this, Pan Zhang's face turned cold as frost, and he issued the order for a full-scale attack.

He could tell that the Eastern Japanese in the gate tower held high status in Changqi, and were likely the highest-ranking officials and officers of Changqi City.

At this moment, even if they were not dead, they would be buried under the gate tower, unable to command the battle.

With the group leaderless, this Changqi City would be even more vulnerable.

Under his command, the Rifled Cannons and Howitzers roared in unison.

The Howitzers launched Lime Bombs one after another onto the city wall.

The south city, already covered in dust, was instantly shrouded as if by clouds and mist.

After launching a wave of Lime Bombs, the Howitzers then fired Shrapnel Shells.

Amidst the white smoke, there was a flash of fire.

As they launched their attack, the Eastern Japanese artillery also began to return fire.

Only, perhaps because their vision was obstructed, the Eastern Japanese artillery fire appeared scattered and disorganized, without targets.

It could not cause any damage to the soldiers deployed in a Skirmish Line.

The facts were exactly as Pan Zhang had anticipated.

At this moment, the situation for the Eastern Japanese soldiers in the south city was extremely miserable.

The collapse of the gate tower had already crushed some of the Eastern Japanese soldiers.

The Lime Bombs had also injured the eyes of many soldiers, causing them to lose their combat effectiveness.

The shrapnel shells caused a large number of casualties among the remaining soldiers.

Moreover, the entire city wall was shrouded in fog, making it impossible to launch a counterattack.

All over the city wall, there were the screams of Dongying soldiers.

And at the same time the cannons sounded at Nan Cheng, the other three sides of the city wall were also attacked.

The Dongying soldiers on the other city walls were unable to come to support, which made the situation at Nan Cheng increasingly difficult.

"Attack the city!" The disorganized shelling by the Dongying soldiers made Pan Zhang realize that the time for the assault had come, and he immediately gave the order.

At this moment, the soldiers fired toward the top of the city wall, covering the first batch of the Grenadier Squad as they charged out.

Upon reaching the foot of Nan Cheng, the soldiers of the Grenadier Squad threw hand grenades onto the city wall one after another.

Continuous explosion sounds rang out, and the flames produced by the explosions enveloped the South City Wall.

Having thrown all the hand grenades they carried, the Grenadier Squad withdrew.

At this time, the soldiers fixed their bayonets, shouldered the scaling ladders, and charged toward the city wall.

"Kill!"

The scaling ladders were placed against the wall, and the Marine soldiers yelled as they climbed up the city wall.

By this time, the smoke on the city wall had gradually dissipated.

Upon boarding the city wall, they leveled their bayonets and jumped down, preparing for hand-to-hand combat with the Dongying soldiers.

They saw that the city wall was covered in the corpses of Dongying soldiers, with white lime and dust from the collapsed city towers covering the bodies.

This scene did not shake the soldiers' will to fight; they stepped over the corpses of the Dongying soldiers, preparing to occupy the city wall and open the city gate at the same time.

"Shine!" As the Marine soldiers were advancing, the corpses of the Dongying soldiers on the wall suddenly rolled, and some Dongying soldiers who had originally been pinned underneath crawled up and charged at the Marine soldiers.

It turned out that these Dongying soldiers had used their companions' corpses as human shields, escaping the explosions of the howitzers.

Although the Marine soldiers did not belong to the Prince's Personal Army, the two armies often exchanged battlefield experience.

The Prince's Personal Army had experienced plenty of such situations.

Therefore, they remained vigilant at all times.

As soon as the Dongying soldiers rushed over, their bayonets thrust forward.

The remaining Dongying soldiers were quickly cleared away.

At this moment, the soldiers looked toward the interior of Changqi City, their gazes like torches.