Total War: Restoration of the Ming Dynasty in Luzon

Chapter 39 Coffin Breaks Through the Door

November 22nd was destined to be an extraordinary day for the Manila garrison.

After breakfast, the Ming army's battle drums beat and horns blared. Squads of soldiers marched out of their camps in an orderly fashion, carrying out various siege weapons and arranging themselves in preparation for the attack.

Almost simultaneously, the Allied forces outside the other three gates also made a show of attacking the city. The alarm bells at each gate rang loudly, waking up Governor Juan and a group of members of parliament, and also making the Chinese in the Palian district eager to try.

Outside the Parian Gate, the Ming army's artillery fortress was once again engaged in battle. Sixteen falcon cannons roared in succession, and cannonballs rained down on the Parian Gate and the damaged walls on both sides, sending bricks and stones flying and filling the air with dust.

The defenders were prepared. Upon hearing the cannon fire, they instinctively took cover behind relatively safe bunkers. However, they also noticed that the Ming army was beginning to march out of their camp and form ranks.

In an instant, shouts of the Ming army announcing the formal attack on the city rang out from all over the city walls, and the defending soldiers immediately tensed up.

During a brief lull in the artillery fire, they peered out and saw dozens of heavy shield wagons being pushed forward by the Ming army, followed by numerous auxiliary soldiers carrying ladders, and the Ilocos native warriors shouting and fighting fiercely.

What they didn't see was that behind one of the armored wagons, several Ilock warriors were carrying heavy coffins filled with gunpowder. They were fearless and were the suicide squads selected by Makandon.

"The enemy has attacked the city!"

"Get to your posts! Get to your posts! Don't panic! Prepare to fight back!"

"Load ammunition! Aim at the enemy behind the bulletproof plate and fire!"

The guards shouted loudly. Some worked together to push the cannons they had hidden in advance into their positions and quickly loaded them. Others hid behind the battlements to load their matchlock guns and crossbows, but their faces were filled with panic and their hands trembled uncontrollably.

boom!

Soon, the city's defensive cannons roared, firing light solid shot that whistled as it struck the Ming army, creating a crater in the ground in front of the shield wagons. The shot then bounced up and landed on the shield wagons, causing the soldiers pushing them to stagger.

But the shield wagon continued to advance resolutely, and more garrison muskets began to fire. Lead bullets crackled as they hit the thick wooden planks, or flew over the shield wagon and hit the auxiliary soldiers behind them. Occasionally, an auxiliary soldier would scream and fall to the ground, and someone else would immediately take his place, carrying the ladder and continuing to advance.

Under the Ming army's continuous bombardment, the defenders' firepower at the Parian Gate was weakened. In addition, the attacking forces were protected by heavy shield wagons, and the defenders quickly approached the city walls.

Immediately, the Ming musketeers who followed the shield wagons began to return fire on the defenders on the city wall. Gunfire filled the air, and the skirmishers marching in skirmish lines also sniped anyone who looked like an officer or someone giving orders.

The defenders' firepower was thus suppressed. An officer roared and ordered his men to peek out and fire, but the next second, he was hit in the neck by a stray bullet from who-knows-where. He couldn't even scream and slowly collapsed, clutching his bleeding wound.

"Quickly! Get the gunpowder over there!"

Wearing captured Spanish plate armor, Makandon hid behind one of the armored wagons and shouted loudly at the Iroquois assassins carrying coffins.

Ignoring the stray bullets and arrows flying overhead, he would have even tried to help carry the coffin if it hadn't been for the real danger and his clansmen's desperate attempts to stop him.

Urged on by Makandon, the Ilok assassins, carrying heavy gunpowder coffins, charged out along with the surrounding ladders, rushing towards the city gate with all their might.

Shells, stray bullets, and arrows kept flying by, and people were hit and fell to the ground from time to time. The defenders quickly noticed this unusual object. They recognized it at a glance as a coffin used for Chinese burials, but no one knew what the Chinese wanted to do by pushing the coffin up at this time.

The less they knew about the purpose of the coffin, the more vigilant they had to be. Amidst their uncertainty, the defenders still concentrated their firepower in an attempt to shoot down the enemy carrying the coffin.

An Iloc warrior was shot in the shoulder by a musket and staggered to the ground, a corner of the coffin crashing heavily to the ground. But he gritted his teeth and, with the help of his companion, used his other shoulder to lift the coffin again and continue forward.

"Hurry! Hurry up!" Ma Kandong shouted anxiously from behind the shield truck, his eyes red with worry.

Finally, after paying the price of several lives, the coffin was successfully pushed to the gates of Palian. The defenders on the city walls became even more frenzied, throwing down oil canisters and even burning bundles of firewood in an attempt to ignite the suspicious object.

The coffin bearers were covered in blood. One of them was splattered with burning grease on his leg and instantly became a human torch. He roared and threw himself on the coffin, trying to extinguish the flames and buy time for his companions!

"ignition!"

The last remaining assassin used the flames burning on his body to ignite the specially made extended fuse, then laughed and stumbled backward a few steps before being shot down by a stray bullet.

The fuse burned rapidly amidst flames and thick smoke, piercing through the oil-soaked ground and reaching the inside of the coffin. The city guards watched in horror as the rapidly shortening sparks were consumed by a sense of impending doom.

"No! That's not good!"

"Run!"

Some soldiers who realized what was happening screamed and turned to run, but it was too late. A flash of fire appeared under the city gate, and then the whole earth trembled violently.

In an instant, the deafening explosion nearly shattered the eardrums of the surrounding soldiers. The flames from the explosion engulfed everything in their path, and the shockwave, like an invisible hammer, overturned and tore apart several shield wagons near the city gate. Ma Kandong and many soldiers were thrown backward and fell heavily to the ground, dazed and disoriented.

Amidst the terrifying explosion, the wall above the city gate collapsed, shattered, and poured inward in large sections, like a cookie smashed by a giant's punch. The heavy oak city gate, along with the reinforced barriers behind it, was completely torn apart!

Smoke, dust, gravel, and wood chips mixed with flames obscured everyone's vision. When the smoke and dust cleared up a little, a huge gap, several meters wide and covered with charred bricks and fragments, appeared on the original site of the Palian Gate!

After a brief silence, there was a deafening cheer from the Ming army and the desperate wails of the defenders.

"The city gates are open! The city gates are open!"

"The Ming army has achieved a great victory! They have stormed into the city!"

"God! We're doomed—"

woo-

"kill!"

The bugle call signaling the attack sounded at the opportune moment, and the Ming soldiers and Ilock warriors, who could no longer contain themselves, surged toward the breach like a raging torrent that had burst its banks, roaring with earth-shattering force.

Leading the charge were the fearless Ilock warriors, wielding swords and shields. Led by Makandon, they charged into the smoke-filled breach, shouting as they ignored the still-burning wreckage and scorching rocks.

Many more soldiers climbed the already erected ladders with agile movements, like monkeys.

Behind them were Ming infantrymen with gleaming bayonets, maintaining a neat formation like a moving wall of flesh and blood, leaping together into the breach.