Starting from 1618 of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 64, Battle 1

The air at the south gate of Jinan was as thick as a pot of overcooked paste. Although the gold molten metal and lime spilled last night had been washed away, the nauseating stench of burning had seeped into the cracks of the city bricks and wouldn't dissipate.

Before the morning mist had even dissipated, a deep rumbling sound came from outside the city.

Lu Yan stood in the shadow of the watchtower, holding a monocular telescope in his hand. It was a defective product that he had acquired from a Portuguese merchant in Macau half a year ago through the "Imperial Horse Control Line". After Zhao Tie re-polished the lens and calibrated the optical axis, although there was still some distortion at the edges, it was enough to see clearly the movements two miles away.

In the footage, dozens of enormous black shadows are slowly writhing in the hazy fog.

"A sidecar." Lu Yan put down his binoculars, his brows furrowing slightly. "Xu Hongru really went all out. It seems yesterday's 'bathwater' really angered him."

The so-called "side-mounted carts" were actually reinforced versions of shield carts. Thick hardwood planks covered with raw cowhide, and equipped with four or even six wheels, they could deflect arrows and withstand boiling water. In this chaotic world, the ability to produce dozens of such heavy siege vehicles indicates that the White Lotus Sect had highly skilled military commanders, or that they had raided the government army's armory.

"Boss, this thing is tough."

Zhao Changying stood to the side, his expression grave. He tightened his grip on his goose-feather saber, pointing at the approaching shadowy figure. "Hardwood and cowhide, at least two inches thick. Our crossbow bolts will be like toothpicks, they won't penetrate at all. Once they push it to the base of the city wall, those 'divine soldiers' will hide under the carts and dig at the wall's corners, or set up siege ladders, and our molten gold won't get through either."

This is a highly targeted tactical upgrade. Physical defenses have been increased, and chemical attacks have become ineffective.

The garrison soldiers on the city walls were clearly aware of this as well. The brief morale boost from yesterday's victory was rapidly cooling as the enormous monsters approached. Fear was spreading like a plague among the crowd.

"The Eternal Mother! The Vast Homeland! Invulnerable to swords and spears!"

The shouts from below the city walls rose again, this time even more fervent than yesterday. Behind the shield carts followed Xu Hongru's personal guard—the "Guardian Soldiers." Unlike the refugees, who were dressed in rags, they wore cotton armor stripped from the corpses of government troops, wielded long swords, and their eyes gleamed with bloodlust.

"Master, what should we do? Should we push all the reserve logs down?" Zhao Changying asked.

"Need not."

Lu Yan pulled out the hardcover notebook he always carried with him from his pocket, glanced at the wind speed and humidity recorded inside, and said, "If the physical defense has been enhanced, then we'll switch to a physical attack with a higher energy level."

He turned around and waved to the third squad, who had been on standby and hadn't even been called upon during the most critical moment yesterday.

"Uncle Zhao, let your 'renovation team' get to work."

Zhao Tie, squatting in the corner, grinned, revealing a set of teeth stained yellow from smoking. He slammed his pipe on the sole of his shoe, stood up, and roared, "Get your act together, all of you! All the meat you eat and the rewards you get every day will come down to this!"

Forty men stood up.

Unlike the other guards, they didn't carry swords or shields, nor did they carry crossbows. Instead, each of them carried a heavy, dark iron pipe. This was an improved flintlock musket, crafted by Zhao Tie and his artisans in a secret workshop on the western outskirts of Jinan, using rolled steel and drilled barrels.

Although the firing rate is limited to about 70% due to the spring steel manufacturing process, this can be compensated for by increasing the sample size (volley fire).

"Everyone, step back three paces and make way for the firearms team!"

At Zhao Changying's roar, the crossbowmen on the battlements quickly retreated. The forty musketeers were divided into three rows, their movements so synchronized they seemed to have been cut from the same mold.

The first row stepped forward, gun barrels resting on the ramparts. The dark muzzles looked particularly menacing in the gloomy morning.

One hundred and fifty steps. One hundred steps. Eighty steps.

The shield carts advanced to the optimal distance. The White Lotus Sect leader, hiding behind the carts, waved his command flag, thinking that this time he could once again charge to the city walls under the weak and ineffective rain of arrows from the government troops, just like always.

"Seventy paces," Lu Yan calmly reported the data. "At this distance, the kinetic energy of a lead bullet is enough to penetrate a two-inch-thick hardwood board."

He didn't shout like a general in a play; instead, he gently pressed his hand down like a commander.

"ignition."

Zhao Tie suddenly swung the small flag down.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A series of popping sounds, like popping beans, erupted on the city wall. White smoke instantly rose, obscuring the view, but the pungent smell of sulfur invigorated everyone.

This wasn't a hail of bullets flying everywhere, but a volley from forty guns.

The lead bullets, carrying enormous kinetic energy, traced invisible death trails in the air.

The sight below the city stunned everyone.

The shield vehicle at the very front, whose seemingly indestructible leather and wooden planks had been breached, suddenly erupted in a shower of sawdust. The rapidly spinning lead bullets ignored this so-called "absolute defense," piercing through the wooden planks and embedding themselves in the chest of the shouting leader behind them.

The leader didn't even utter a sound before a bowl-sized hole exploded in his chest. He flew backward as if he had been hit by a sledgehammer, knocking down the two swordsmen and shieldmen behind him.

"Second row, move in!"

Before the White Lotus followers could react, the first row of gunmen had already retreated to clear their gun barrels, and the second row quickly took their place.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Another salvo.

The target this time is not people, but the structural points of the shield vehicles.

The penetrating power of lead bullets at a distance of seventy paces is terrifying. The wooden wheels of several shield carts were shattered, and the heavy carts tilted and overturned with a crash, crushing the seven or eight cultists hiding behind them. The "divine soldiers," now exposed in the open, were riddled with holes by the third volley of lead bullets before they could even finish their protective incantations.

"Third row, advance!"

This kind of continuous firepower output is simply a game-changer in this era.

The matchlock guns carried by the Ming Dynasty garrison soldiers required a lot of fiddling and a match cord to light a single shot, and even if they fired, the gun would often fly off into the distance. But Lu Yan's "renovation team" used a standardized loading procedure that was ingrained in their very being: bite through the pre-loaded paper cartridge, pour the powder, tamp it down with a cleaning rod, and raise the gun.

The whole process was as smooth as an assembly line.

"What kind of sorcery is this?!"

Below the city walls, a White Lotus sect leader watched his prized elite troops fall like wheat being harvested, and cried out in despair, "Didn't they say the government soldiers' muskets wouldn't fire? This is like the Thunder God descending to earth!"

"Retreat! Retreat now!"

Panic is contagious. When the "invulnerable" shield vehicle is shattered into pieces with a few sharp sounds, when a companion next to you is inexplicably blown open in the chest, all that remains is a primal fear of the unknown force.

As the enemy receded like a tide, the garrison soldiers on the city wall gaped, forgetting even to cheer.

As they watched the Lu family guards calmly cleaning their gun barrels, their faces smeared with gunpowder and soot, their initial disdain turned to deep awe. These weren't just local militia; they were clearly a group of fiery demons wielding thunder and fire!

Lu Yan gently waved away the smoke in front of him, showing little joy of victory.

He pulled out a small notebook from his pocket and, using the morning light, wrote down a line of data:

"May 19th, morning. Combat testing. The improved flintlock musket fired more than eight out of ten rounds in the first volley. In the second volley, due to overheating and carbon buildup in the barrel, the rate dropped to 65%. One out of twenty-five rounds was damp. It killed or wounded approximately seventy elite enemy soldiers and destroyed twelve shield carts. Ammunition consumption was acceptable, but the barrel cooling problem urgently needs to be addressed."

He closed the notebook and turned to look at the pale-faced Jinan prefect behind him.

"Your Excellency," Lu Yan said calmly, "are you satisfied with this?"

Prefect Wang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, looking at Lu Yan's unwavering eyes. He suddenly felt that compared to Xu Hongru outside the city, this young man seemed even more unfathomable.

"I'm...very satisfied! Extremely satisfied!" Prefect Wang stammered, a fawning smile plastered on his face. "Scholar Lu...Scholar Lu is truly a genius! I will...I will immediately write a report of victory to the court and request commendation for you!"

"I'm not in a hurry to claim credit."

Lu Yan smiled slightly, a professional, fake smile that comes from a client seeing a satisfactory acceptance report.

"However, the consumption of gunpowder and lead is quite high. The little stock left in the treasury may not be enough for the next round. I wonder if Your Excellency could issue some more permits to have the firecracker workshops and tinware shops in the city cooperate?"

"Approve! Approve them all!" At this point, Prefect Wang dared not utter a word of dissent. "You can have whatever you want from the whole city! As long as Scholar Lu can defend this south gate, even if we have to tear down the main beam of the prefectural government office to burn it, I will have no objection!"

Lu Yan nodded and turned to look at the devastated battlefield outside the city.

"Zhao Changying, take some men down to clean up the battlefield. Remember, I need all the arrowheads, armor, and... all the good timber from those shield carts. Take it back and burn it. We're a small business, we need to know how to recycle."

"yes!"

Under the morning sun, the large banner bearing the character "Lu" on the city wall of Jinan stood tall for the first time in a truly meaningful way. It was no longer a weak scholar's title, but a symbol of deterrence forged with gunpowder and steel.