A chilling atmosphere permeated the battlefield. The confrontation between the Busan City garrison and the Great Yu Empire army seemed to freeze the very air.
As the Swede and the British man were speaking, a robust middle-aged man wearing a black tricorn hat, a red tailcoat military uniform, white breeches, and black leather boots ascended the city wall.
The middle-aged man had brown hair, blue eyes, and a ruddy complexion indicating his fondness for wine.
“Robert, how are you feeling now?” Philip yelled rudely. He was Portuguese, and this mercenary army was under his command.
“Terrible. You’ve sent us to hell this time. God grant that we can still leave here alive,” the Swede, called Robert, complained.
Philip looked at the Great Yu Empire army that had appeared outside the city, and his face gradually turned grim. This army stood five hundred meters from Busan City. Each soldier wore a green high-collared tunic, and their gleaming black leather boots were even prettier than his favorite boots.
Most importantly, there were thirty-six field cannons positioned in front of the army. They had never seen such cannons in any Asian country.
“This is indeed a bit difficult. However, Japan is paying us a high price. As long as we complete this mission, we can go home and enjoy ourselves,” Philip encouraged his companion. “Guys, hold on! Gru, we’ll bombard them fiercely with our cannons later. Japan’s cannons are simply too terrible.”
Having said this, Philip revealed the wild glint of a gambler.
Outside the city, Ye Qingyun and Wang Xuan’s conversation had ended. After informing Ye Qingyun about the mercenaries inside the city, Wang Xuan departed for Haigucheng.
There, he would continue to be responsible for gathering intelligence on Japan and the West.
After seeing off the secret guard personnel, Ye Qingyun and Qu Dong exchanged glances. He said, “These mercenaries have their own firearms. Their firearms are probably much better than Japan’s. This time, we need to be careful and try to avoid casualties. Also, we need to let these Westerners taste our might.”
Qu Dong nodded confidently. Although Busan City was considered a large city in Goryeo, the difference between a large city here and a large city in the Great Yu Empire was immense. Busan City’s walls were only five meters high. Moreover, they currently didn’t care about the city walls or the city gate.
Ye Qingyun spoke, and the authority for battlefield deployment was given to him. At this point, he ordered the artillery to switch to fuzed shells. As was customary, they would first eliminate the cannons on the city wall.
At the same time, he ordered Li Cheng-jae to prepare ladders for scaling the city. This time, he decided to adopt a completely new tactic: Li Cheng-jae’s Goryeo troops would be the main attackers, while his soldiers would serve as a skirmish line to assist Li Cheng-jae in battle.
He knew very well that these mercenaries were all battle-hardened veterans. If they used their old methods, the casualties would undoubtedly be considerable.
All preparations complete, Qu Dong pointed at the main city wall and shouted, “Fire!”
“Boom, boom, boom…”
Thirty-six field cannons roared. Cannonballs shot straight towards the top of Busan City’s walls.
The moment the cannons fired, the mercenaries instinctively hid behind the battlements. They had expected solid shot to impact the wall, but the shells exploded immediately after hitting the city wall.
Under the immense power, the battlements shattered like tofu. Some soldiers, who hadn’t managed to dodge in time, were struck by flying shell fragments. Their bodies were sent soaring through the air, falling into pools of blood.
“Damn it! Damn it! How are they using explosive shells?” Robert shouted, his ears ringing, almost deaf.
Philip was also in a terrible state. Now he finally understood why the Japanese had hired them at such an absurdly high price.
“Stop complaining! Return fire immediately! I don’t want to die here!” Philip shouted, continuously pulling artillerymen up from the ground. “Take out their artillery position!”
Seizing the gap while the Great Yu Empire army was reloading, the artillerymen immediately rushed to their cannons. These twelve cannons were brought to Busan City with their ships. They were British-made cast iron cannons with a range of three li.
Loading their shells, they aimed at the Great Yu Empire artillery position below the city. The shells from the twelve cannons whizzed away.
At this moment, Qu Dong was in front of the artillery position. He had been observing the situation on the city wall. Seeing a group of Westerners returning fire with cannons, he immediately shouted, “Attention!”
No sooner had his voice fallen than black solid shot, like lightning, rushed towards them. The shells left twelve impact points in front of the artillery position, with two of them almost hitting their field cannons.
At the same time, Japan’s cannons also began to roar, but their shells’ range was too short, posing almost no threat as they rolled in front of them.
“Cunning Westerners!” Qu Dong frowned deeply. The Western mercenaries did not concentrate their twelve cannons together but dispersed them among the Japanese cannons. This made it difficult for their artillery to return fire.
“Sharpshooters!” Qu Dong shouted loudly. For him, there was now a cheaper way to counterattack.
Under his command, ten sharpshooters moved beyond the artillery position, forming a skirmish line and approaching the city wall. At three hundred meters from the city wall, they used the terrain as cover to fire.
A mercenary soldier, who was reloading a cannon, was completely unaware. As they continued to aim, a bullet suddenly struck his chest.
At the same time, several other artillerymen were also wounded.
Philip grew even more terrified. He saw what the enemy had just done. “That’s three hundred meters! Damn it, how did they do that?”
Robert was also stunned at this moment. He said, “Even our rifled firearms only have a range of over two hundred meters, Philip, you’re going to get us killed this time.”
Despite saying that, Robert still commanded his soldiers to counterattack, because they understood the cost of failure. Now, they could only fight desperately.
Artillery continued to roar on the battlefield. The Great Yu Empire’s artillery grew fiercer and fiercer. Every bombardment of the city wall took the lives of mercenaries.
Some battlements on the city wall collapsed with a roar amidst the explosions, leaving that section of the wall bare. However, the exchange of fire between the two sides did not stop.
“Watch out!”
Under another round of mercenary artillery fire, Qu Dong suddenly pushed the artilleryman in front of him aside. Just then, a solid shot squarely hit the wheel of a field cannon.
With a “boom,” the field cannon’s wheel deformed under the impact of the shell.
Looking at the unbalanced field cannon, Qu Dong angrily said, “Switch to lime bombs! Have Li Cheng-jae attack the city!”
After more than a dozen rounds of bombardment, Busan City’s walls were already riddled with holes. The mercenaries lost seven or eight cannons, and many personnel died, while Japanese soldiers suffered even heavier casualties.
For him, now was the time to attack the city.
On the city wall, the mercenaries cheered for hitting a Great Yu Empire cannon. Just then, they saw another flash of cannon fire.
Instinctively, they scrambled to hide, only hearing the dull thud of the cannonball. This sound was clearly different from previous times.
Raising his head in surprise, he saw the city wall covered in white powder. Philip, being an veteran soldier, instantly realized what it was: a lime bomb.