Chapter 562

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“Boom, boom, boom…”

The roar of the field cannons broke the battlefield’s silence.

After the artillery commander proposed using cannons to destroy the enemy’s cannons, Ye Qingyun decisively adopted this method.

Because it was located on a flat plain, Tongzhou City had no natural defenses on all four sides. At this time, the area where Ye Qingyun was located was a freshly harvested rice field, and looking out, the view was very wide.

Deploying his soldiers at a distance of only five hundred meters from Tongzhou City, Ye Qingyun ordered the bombardment.

More than thirty cannons fired simultaneously, their shells slamming fiercely against the city wall of Tongzhou City.

On the front city wall, Tongzhou City had deployed ten cannons. These cannons were originally intended to guard against Japanese pirate troubles along the coast, but now they became the first line of defense for Tongzhou City against the Dengzhou Army.

However, what the Prince of Wei and other vassal kings would not have expected was that Xiao Ming had held back a trick from the very beginning.

The Tongzhou soldiers, who were originally preparing to use cannons to attack the Dengzhou Army, were greatly alarmed. The Dengzhou Army’s cannons seemed to have eyes; each time they fired, their shells would land beside the artillerymen. In an instant, the Tongzhou artillery suffered heavy casualties, and the cannons on the city wall were also knocked off their positions by the shells.

Moreover, Tongzhou’s city wall was far less sturdy than that of a military stronghold like Pengzhou. The front city wall was quickly shattered into pieces, and the soldiers defending Tongzhou City fell into chaos.

“Advance!” Having dealt with the cannons on the city wall, Ye Qingyun ordered his soldiers to approach Tongzhou City.

The soldiers stopped at a distance of two hundred meters from the city. The artillery reloaded at this point and fiercely bombarded the front city gate. The wooden city gate was completely unable to withstand the attack of the twelve-pounder cannons and quickly collapsed entirely under the bombardment.

At this point, Ye Qingyun led his soldiers to continue approaching the city wall. Upon reaching ninety meters, he ordered the soldiers to fire.

At the same time, the Tongzhou soldiers also began to return fire with bows and arrows, but compared to the more than ten thousand soldiers using firearms, the Tongzhou archers on the city wall were utterly insignificant.

Under the fierce firing, the Tongzhou soldiers on the city wall were unable to even lift their heads, and at this moment, a thousand-man unit charged into Tongzhou.

The battlefield was filled with the roar of cannons and firearms. The Tongzhou City soldiers had never seen a war of such magnitude. The city gate, which used to resist enemy forces, was now vulnerable before the cannons.

Outside the battlefield, the common people watched everything numbly. They had watched Tongzhou City in the same way when the Japanese pirates attacked, and now they were still watching Tongzhou City in the same way.

For them, it didn’t matter who ruled Tongzhou City, because in their eyes, Tongzhou City was a place where powerful families and nobles lived, and it had nothing to do with them. In their hearts, they only cared about their own families.

Ye Qingyun noticed this situation. Just outside the battlefield, the common people watched the two sides fight as if watching a play, and not a single common person raised their arm in a cry for help to defend Tongzhou City.

He suddenly felt a wave of sadness. Hadn’t Qingzhou been like this before? But now, the people of Qingzhou were gradually awakening to the national and ethnic consciousness deliberately promoted in the newspapers.

The phrase, “Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the nation,” was no longer exclusive to the powerful families and gentry. The common people gradually understood the profound meaning of this statement.

And “What does the nation have to do with me?” Such words of national demise were also cast into the dung heap, becoming words of depravity scorned by all. All who uttered such words harbored ulterior motives.

“Charge!”

The common people observing outside the city suddenly made Ye Qingyun realize Tongzhou’s current situation. If the Tongzhou officials and generals had won the hearts of the people, how could these common people be so indifferent?

Presumably, these common people must have lived hard lives and had long harbored deep hatred for the officials and powerful families in the city.

With such public sentiment, the combat effectiveness of Tongzhou City’s army was imaginable. Coupled with instances of generals fleeing after Japanese pirates landed, Ye Qingyun’s confidence greatly increased.

The charge bugle sounded throughout Tongzhou City at this moment.

After the thousand-man unit entered the city, Ye Qingyun led the other soldiers and immediately charged into the city.

From generals to soldiers, the Tongzhou army was terrified by the Dengzhou army’s fearless demeanor. Enduring the arrows from the city wall, the Dengzhou army, dressed in dark green long robes, was like tigers entering a flock of sheep. Upon seeing the Tongzhou army soldiers coming to meet them, the Dengzhou army soldiers stood firm for a volley, then fixed bayonets, formed a tight formation, and charged at the enemy.

“For Qingzhou! For the bounty!” Ye Qingyun shouted the slogans.

These words further stimulated the soldiers’ ferocity. “For Qingzhou” meant loyalty, and “for the bounty” was for a prosperous life. Before coming to Tongzhou, they had already heard about the Southern Expedition Army.

This time, the spoils of war collected by the Southern Expedition Army after taking Pengzhou City totaled three million taels of silver, of which three hundred thousand taels of silver were distributed as rewards to the soldiers. Excluding a slightly larger share for the generals, each soldier basically received twelve taels of silver.

Just this one battle was equivalent to two years of military salary.

At this moment, whether for honor and loyalty or for money, they were determined to take Tongzhou City.

“Kill!” At this moment, the Dengzhou Army fully demonstrated the advantage of combining hot and cold weapons.

Facing the enemy from a distance, the Dengzhou Army would stand and fire. At close range, a volley followed by a bayonet charge. The Tongzhou Army initially tried to prevent the Dengzhou Army from entering the city by relying on their numerical superiority.

However, facing the Dengzhou Army’s combined long-range and close-quarters tactics, the Tongzhou Army suffered heavy casualties and quickly disintegrated. To save their lives, the soldiers lost their will to fight and fled in disarray. In an instant, Tongzhou City fell into chaos.

In the chaotic situation, the Dengzhou Army advanced like a broken bamboo, fighting from the north city gate all the way to the south city gate. After a day and a night of fierce fighting, the Dengzhou Army completely occupied Tongzhou City.

Having formally taken military control of Tongzhou City, Ye Qingyun organized his soldiers overnight to repair the city walls and city gates. This time, their attack on Tongzhou took advantage of the element of surprise, and thanks to the advantage of cannons, they were able to quickly enter the city, leaving many Tongzhou soldiers unaware of what had happened.

However, Tongzhou was an important port in Wei’s territory. At this time, over a thousand merchant ships of various sizes were docked in the port, and all of them were now under Yue Yun’s control.

The Prince of Wei would surely be furious at the loss of Tongzhou, as this effectively cut off the very foundation of the Prince of Wei’s maritime trade. The distance from Jinling City to Tongzhou was about four hundred li, and Ye Qingyun believed that the Prince of Wei would definitely send a large army to retake the city.

Therefore, he had to repair the city defenses in advance and have Yue Yun transport the naval cannons from the warships into the city. This way, Tongzhou City would become an impregnable fortress.

Moreover, Tongzhou City was built by the sea, and with Yue Yun’s warships providing support from the sea, he was not worried about his supplies being cut off.

Tongzhou City could provide supplies, and of course, they could also transport supplies there. According to Xiao Ming’s order, he had to build Tongzhou City into a bridgehead for attacking Jinling City.

After issuing numerous orders, Ye Qingyun immediately dispatched soldiers to relay the battle report from Tongzhou to Qingzhou and report the details of the Tongzhou campaign to Xiao Ming.