Chapter 156: Breaching the Walls!
Our Discord Server: .gg/PazjBDkTmW
A faint haze of smoke drifted through the air, heavy with the pungent smell of gunpowder.
Luo Xin, who had been standing right in front of the cannon, flinched the moment it fired. Though he managed not to fall flat on his backside, everyone could see his legs trembling.
Niu Ben and Lu Fei both looked pale—they hadn’t covered their ears. As commanding officers, they had to maintain their dignity in front of the troops, so they stood their ground during the shot, feigning calm.
Now, Niu Ben cast a grateful look at Xiao Ming. Good thing I wasn’t still on my horse, he thought. Or I’d be on the ground by now.
Looking over at the soldiers scrambling after the panicked horses, Niu Ben turned back to the cannon—his eyes now filled with new respect.
If this cannon were used in the field, the barbarian cavalry’s horses would scatter in fear.
“Your Highness… why is this thing so loud?” Luo Xin asked as he turned around, trying to act nonchalant despite still recovering from the blast.
“If it weren’t loud, it wouldn’t be called a cannon,” Xiao Ming said as he stepped up to inspect it.
The cannon had shifted slightly from the recoil. Next time, it would need to be repositioned before firing again. Clearly, the base needed to be heavier to absorb the shock.
Looking up at the Liu family’s Wubao Fortress, Xiao Ming saw that the gate had been cracked open by the cannonball.
Cannons were designed for linear damage and precise targeting—this was why they were so devastating on the battlefield. A well-aimed shot could cut through a dense enemy formation like skewering sugar hawthorn candies on a stick.