Chapter 51: The Conscience-Evaporating Mortar

Upon receiving Pang Zhong’s report, Yang Xi felt a tinge of disappointment.

He had hoped that the main army would reach the city walls of Shanzhou before the rebel forces discovered them, dealing a massive psychological blow to the defenders inside and throwing them into panic. He wanted to immediately launch an assault, utilizing the enemy's confusion to throw in all his forces and breach Shanzhou city, thereby creating a myth in the history of warfare.

However, before they even reached the city, the army’s movements had been exposed by rebel scouts. Yang Xi blamed this failure on the special operations unit for not thoroughly clearing out the enemy scouts, thinking that these newly minted "Tang Dynasty special forces" still fell a bit short in combat effectiveness.

Nevertheless, Yang Xi was not overly concerned. He knew that had they been exposed even earlier, the rebels inside Shanzhou would have made thorough preparations, perhaps even dispatching a detachment outside the city to intercept them or setting up ambushes at critical passes.

That would have inevitably stalled his army's advance and possibly inflicted heavy losses.

The central army commanded by Yang Xi was now only about fifteen $li$ away from Shanzhou city. If Pang Zhong’s men pushed forward rapidly on fast horses, they could reach the city walls in about a quarter of an hour. The battle would soon unfold in the dead of night, and Yang Xi’s heart was filled with fierce pride. He immediately ordered the central army under his direct command to advance at full speed and instructed the soldiers transporting the explosives and makeshift grenades to move as quickly as possible.

At the same time, he sent orders to the rear army commanded by Wang Sili to march at their maximum attainable speed, striving to reach the city walls of Shanzhou as soon as possible to launch the attack.

Yang Xi’s pre-battle strategy was to use the immense destructive power of explosives to shatter the morale of the defending garrison on the ramparts and scale the walls amidst the ensuing chaos.

Once the walls were successfully scaled, the assaulting troops would immediately open the gates, allowing the following main army to rush in swiftly and seize the entire city of Shanzhou in the confusion.

Following Yang Xi's orders, the army immediately bustled with activity. Shouts of men and neighing of horses echoed everywhere, and the marching speed of all units accelerated. The sound of hooves caused the earth to tremble slightly. Yang Xi also whipped his mount forward, eager to rendezvous with Pang Zhong at top speed and personally direct the siege.

He wanted to witness firsthand the effects of gunpowder being used in warfare for the very first time.

While the central army under Yang Xi accelerated, pushing forward at the maximum speed the horses could manage, Pang Zhong’s vanguard battalion quickly reached the western gate of Shanzhou, followed shortly by the remaining troops. Immediately obeying Pang Zhong’s instructions, they formed their battle lines and prepared for the assault.

The strategic plan for this operation had been personally devised by Yang Xi: to discard traditional attack formations and adopt new-style explosive weapons as the primary choice for breaching the city. Gunpowder weapons possessed terrifying destructive power. In later eras, various types of artillery pushed the power of gunpowder to its absolute limit, but Yang Xi did not yet have the capability to manufacture cannon barrels. Creating artillery required multi-faceted improvements, demanding significant advancements in gunpowder purity and metallurgy technology.

Though he could not temporarily manufacture long-range, high-powered artillery, this did not prevent Yang Xi from introducing gunpowder into warfare.

Already, hundreds of explosive charges and thousands of makeshift grenades had been manufactured. These explosive items could be ignited and hurled onto the city walls using catapults; as long as the fuse was of the appropriate length, the charges would detonate right as they landed on the ramparts or shortly thereafter.

Of course, Yang Xi possessed even more formidable weapons in his arsenal.

He had ordered the forging of many sturdy iron tubes, inspired by the "flying-powa mortar" used by the People's Liberation Army during the famous Huaihai Campaign of later history. This extremely simple device required only a sufficient amount of gunpowder loaded at the bottom of the iron tube. Upon igniting the packed gunpowder, the immense thrust generated by its combustion and explosion would propel the bundled explosive charges housed within the iron tube outward, while simultaneously igniting the charges with terrifying destructive force.

During the Huaihai Campaign, many enemy soldiers were shaken to death simply by the shockwaves generated by the detonation of these explosive charges.

Naturally, Yang Xi did not manufacture iron tubes with the terrifying diameter of the oil drums used in the Huaihai Campaign. The iron tubes he ordered now had a diameter of just over a foot—roughly thirty to forty centimeters—and were relatively long, about three feet, or nearly a meter. They could hold an explosive package containing about twenty jin of gunpowder. During tests at Tongguan, the firing range was approximately three to four hundred paces, or about five hundred meters. In later times, a thirty-centimeter caliber gun was already considered a heavy artillery piece with terrifying destructive power. Unfortunately, the large-caliber "artillery" Yang Xi produced using the most primitive methods had a short range, and its power could not compare to the howitzers of later generations, let alone match portable infantry guns.

Even so, the explosive power of twenty or thirty jin of gunpowder was quite astonishing. It could blast massive chunks out of thick city walls, and the deafening roar of the explosion could deafen people. Anyone standing near the blast zone would be nearly concussed or even killed outright by the shockwave.

Just as Pang Zhong’s forces arrived outside the western gate of Shanzhou, deployed their battle lines, set up dozens of catapults, and planted dozens of "flying-powa mortars" in preparation to order the attack, Yang Xi galloped up on his horse.

Hearing of Yang Xi's arrival, Pang Zhong was slightly startled. He immediately ran up to Yang Xi and reported in a loud voice, "Reporting to the Marshal, this subordinate has finished setting up the catapults and artillery. Awaiting your instructions, Marshal!"

Hearing that Pang Zhong had deployed the battle array so quickly and that the assault troops were ready, Yang Xi was overjoyed. He dismounted and walked briskly with Pang Zhong up a nearby hillside, pulling out his portable telescope to observe the situation on the ramparts of Shanzhou.

The city walls were in utter chaos. Amidst the glow of torches, countless soldiers were running back and forth. Without looking closely, Yang Xi knew that countless rebels already held bows and arrows in hand, ready to welcome the attacking Tang army. Soon, Yang Xi lowered his telescope, looked back at the slightly nervous Pang Zhong, and gave his orders in a calm, steady voice, "General Pang, convey my command: commence the attack!"

"Understood, Marshal!" Pang Zhong acknowledged in a booming voice, and immediately issued the attack order to a captain waiting nearby, "Begin the siege!"

Following the captain's acknowledgment, several items resembling signal rockets soared into the air and burst above the heads of the soldiers. With the explosion of the rockets, countless fire-staves were lit, and instantly, innumerable sparks burned brightly in the night sky. "Fire!" someone roared loudly. Following these successive shouts of "Fire!", sparking explosive charges were launched into the air by catapults, tracing trails of fire as they flew toward the city walls. A moment later, deafening explosions rang out. The crude "flying-powa mortars" also began to roar, and the tremendous noise generated by the burning and exploding gunpowder packed inside the barrels startled many horses into long neighs, making many soldiers tremble involuntarily.

Neither men nor horses had ever experienced such a spectacle; this was a completely different mode of combat from any previous siege warfare.

Both Yang Xi and Pang Zhong raised their telescopes immediately after issuing the attack order, anxiously watching the direction of the city walls.

No one knew what the actual combat effectiveness of the explosive charges would be.