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The general on the walls, already in a state of panic, watched as several small black dots aimed at their position.
Some soldiers had already sensed that they were about to be directly hit near the city gates. They abandoned their longbows and scrambled to the sides, fearing they might be obliterated along with the flying debris.
"Boom—"
"Bang—Bang!"
Six or seven shells struck in quick succession, hitting the walls and towers with extreme precision. Several spots of the wall collapsed, visibly caving in like bread being pressed down.
It hit—again!
The tremendous shockwave sent some soldiers tumbling through the air, screaming helplessly.
Bricks and stones began to fall like a torrential downpour, with the destruction of the supporting points causing other stones to crumble as well, leading to a chaotic collapse of the wall’s structure.
"General—this is impossible to hold! We can't avoid these attacks!"
"General, run! The wall is about to collapse, if we don't run now, it'll be too late!"
"Wait!" the general shouted. "Shoot arrows! No one is allowed to run! Shoot—arrows!"
As the order was given, a long line of archers stretched out their arms and released their arrows.
However, the arrows couldn't travel that far, and the shockwaves from the artillery caused the arrows to veer off course, falling to the ground like sparrows with broken wings.
"Shoot—shoot again!"
"Hey—Da Vinci! Are you really testing firearms in a place like this?!" Luris, having just finished counting the third battalion’s numbers, heard the commotion and quickly ran back to the frontcamp. He shouted angrily, "Didn't I tell you to go to the side? If you blow the cannons and burn down the tents, are you going to pay for it?!"
Hedy pointed to the crumbling wall, her eyes filled with sympathy. "It seems like we can tell the Fourth Battalion they don’t need to bother setting up the tents anymore."
"What?!" Luris spun around to look at the wall, and at that very moment, a long section of the high wall suddenly collapsed, creating a clear gap.
Many of the defenders didn't have time to escape and fell like ants beneath the rubble, subsequently being crushed under the stones.
As this happened, more defenders scattered, abandoning the general’s frantic curses.
"How about... we just pack up and move into the city?" Da Vinci gave a sincere smile. "I think this battle is over."
He had only instructed the soldiers to adjust their sights. The good ammunition in their inventory hadn’t even had its fuses lit yet.
While they were talking, a flash of bright color appeared on the distant wall.
Someone had raised a white robe high, waving it like a flag to signal surrender.
— They had barely set camp for a day and a half, hadn’t even seen the city gates clearly, and it was already over?!
"Really a bunch of cowards," Fabio muttered. "They deserve to spend their lives with coal."
La Spezia had truly surrendered.
They had no way out— even if they had opened the city gates and sent cavalry to fight, the situation would have been no better.
That cannon, which seemed to be enchanted, could turn stone the size of an arm into powder; how could human bodies and horses possibly withstand it?!
At first, when someone waved a white flag on the city wall, Hedy had ordered her men not to act hastily, as she feared it might be a trap.
So Luris personally fired two cannon shots at the city gates, directly collapsing most of the wall.
