The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 519

Today's Datong is no longer the Datong of the past. When Zhou Chu came to Datong, he brought with him the craftsmen of the Southern Garrison and countless mother-and-child cannons, most of which were left in Datong.

Datong was a crucial stronghold of the Ming Dynasty. Zhou Chu and the emperor left special people to guard the Datong armory. Their only order was that if Datong fell, the armory should be detonated immediately, leaving no cannons for the Mongols.

The Mongols have a precedent of seizing Ming Dynasty cannons for their own use, such as the Oirat Mongols decades ago. However, the Mongols do not have the ability or materials to manufacture firearms. The Mongols have been without tobacco and iron for many years. If it weren't for the Shanxi merchants who sent them supplies, they would have been crippled long ago, let alone firearms.

Even if they had cannons, they were left over from decades ago. Whether they could be used was another matter. Anda's army was on a rapid march, originally planning to catch Datong off guard, so it was impossible for them to bring those old and cumbersome firearms.

Just as they had broken through the horse trap, Anda's troops were once again met with a new round of artillery fire, which caught Anda off guard. In Anda's understanding, although the Ming Dynasty's artillery was powerful, it could only fire one salvo at a time, and then the cannon barrel had to be cooled for a long time before it could fire the next salvo, otherwise it would explode.

This is why Anda was so confident. However, Anda never expected that they would be met with a new round of artillery fire so soon.

I don't understand. How many cannons were there in Datong City? Enough to allow the Ming army to launch three or four rounds of crossfire?

Anda never imagined that the Ming Dynasty would have cannons like the mother-and-child cannon, which didn't need to cool down after firing; they could simply switch to the child cannon and start a new round of firing.

In fact, not only Anda, but anyone who has never seen a mother-and-child cannon cannot imagine how it is fired. It can be said that the appearance of the mother-and-child cannon directly changed the form of warfare.

Seeing that he had lost more than half of his men, Anda realized that continuing to charge would only cause greater losses and he had no choice but to order a retreat.

However, with cannons in front and horse traps behind, the soldiers lying in ambush in the horse traps were not to be trifled with. In addition to hook-and-sickle spears, they were also equipped with flintlock muskets. These soldiers poked their heads out and fired a shot at the retreating Mongol cavalry nearby.

Although the hit rate was destined to be low under these circumstances, it didn't need to be too high. The sound of these soldiers' gunfire and the Mongol soldiers being shot down one by one immediately threw the retreating Mongol cavalry into chaos.

The Mongol cavalry, who had been retreating in an orderly fashion, had completely lost their formation and were now fleeing in panic.

"Fire a signal flare."

Zhou Chu looked at Shen Lian behind him and said.

Upon hearing this, Shen Lian immediately lit the signal flare that he had prepared.

About ten miles outside Datong City, Yun Jin led the Xuanwu Army to hide there. When the battle at the gates of Datong City just began, all the Xuanwu Army soldiers were already prepared. Their mission was to harvest the fleeing Mongols.

"Brothers, follow me and charge!"

Yun Jin roared and spurred his horse to charge at the fleeing Mongols.

Seeing Yun Jin's appearance, Mu Yunping felt her blood boil and charged out, while the Xuanwu Army followed from both flanks to provide support.

The Xuanwu Army has long since switched to Mongolian horses, which are just as powerful and durable as the horses ridden by the Mongols. Dressed in full armor, Yun Jin was like a war god under the sun, charging into the Mongol ranks and defeating them without a single blow.

Yun Jin was followed by hundreds of Xuanwu Army soldiers, who, like a sharp knife, plunged straight into the Mongol camp, and were invincible wherever they went.

Anda's heart skipped a beat when he saw the cavalry that had suddenly appeared before him. He knew of the existence of the Tiger Legion, after all, he had fought against them before and almost died at their hands.