Kingdom of Heaven and Han

Chapter 460
Today is sunny and cloudless.The sun was shining brightly in the sky, and it was extremely hot.

On the school field, a small iron cannon stood there, and three gunners stood behind it.Beside the gunner, on one side are powders in jars, and on the other are shells in willow boxes.The shells are all iron bullets, and they don't look big.

Song Yan said: "These small iron cannons mainly fire shotguns. Shotguns can hurt people within a hundred paces, and they are most powerful at fifty paces. If you don't use shotguns, but use solid bullets, you can shoot two hundred paces."

Niu Gao, who just arrived today, asked, "What is shotgun? What is live ammunition?"

Song Yan said: "Shotgun bullets are many small iron bullets that are fired together. A live ammunition is one big iron bullet."

Niu Gao asked again: "What's the difference?"

Song Yan said: "Although each iron bullet is less powerful and has a shorter range, it can shoot a large area. Although the live ammunition has a longer range and greater power, there is only one bullet, so it can't control a large area."

Niu Gao and Shao Ling nodded together.

Seeing that everything was ready, Song Yan said to Wang Xiao: "Zhenfu, you are ready! We will shoot three kinds of cannons today. One is the small cannon, and the other is the medium cannon and the large cannon. And the cannons are only tested with live ammunition. First they bombard mounds, and then they bombard rows of stakes."

Wang Xiaolie said: "Okay. I asked you to replace the wooden stakes with wooden figures made of wooden boards. Have you changed them?"

Song Yan said: "It has already been changed. It is roughly made according to the appearance of a human being, but I don't know how effective it will be."

Wang Xiaolie nodded, but did not speak.There's no use being human.What Wang Xiaolie meant was to use wooden boards to imitate the human body so that their strength is similar to that of humans.This can test the power of the gun.I don't know if Song Huo understood what he meant.

Seeing that there was no objection from the crowd, Song Yan took out a whistle and blew it violently.Loudly said: "Try shotgun! Test fire a cannon!"

The three gunners over there obliged.The gunner in the middle took out his whistle and blew it sharply too.

The extensive use of whistles is something that happened after Wang Xiaolie reformed the military system.Commanders below the capital no longer use flags and drums, but copper whistles.The length of the whistle, even blowing several times, has a fixed meaning.Coupled with standardized military language, the command of the capital can be fully conveyed with the whistle.

The three gunners crouched down.One adds gunpowder to the gun, the other loads shells into the barrel, and the main gunner in the middle quickly adjusts the aim.After the gunner on the left loaded the gunpowder, he quickly picked up the red-hot iron bar behind him.

Song Yan said: "Small cannons are ignited by iron rods, unlike cannons and cannons, which need special fuses."

Several people nodded together.Except for Wang Xiaolie, the rest of them don't know what Song Yan's words mean, but it's hard to ask.

After adjusting the gun mount, the main gunner waved his hand violently.The gunner on the left stretched out a red-hot iron bar and inserted it into the ignition hole on the barrel.

There was a muffled sound, and thick black smoke came out of the barrel.In the black smoke, those iron bullets could not be seen clearly at all.I saw a hundred rows of wooden stakes near the hundred paces in front of the cannon, shaking and making noises.

When the gunpowder smoke cleared, Song Yan stepped forward and said, "I invite you all to watch from the front."

Wang Ruohai said: "The way it looked just now, it should be quite powerful a hundred paces away. This distance is stronger than a bow and crossbow."

While talking, several people walked to the stake.

The stakes are made of several boards joined together to imitate the appearance of the individual.The main purpose is to allow visitors to have an intuitive impression of what it would look like when these shells hit people.For professionals, it is useless.

There are three rows of stakes.Seventy-eight out of ten of the front row were pierced by iron bullets.In the second row, there are still a small half full of scars.

After looking at it carefully, Li Yanxian couldn't help but be speechless: "If you hit a person, how can you survive? Look at it like this, even wearing iron armor is useless. When the two armies are facing each other, there are several cannons in front. How can the enemy attack?" "

Wang Ruohai nodded: "What Du Tong said is true. After reading it today, I realized that the power of artillery is far beyond what we thought before."

Niu Gao said: "What Shicai said is very true. If there is a row of cannons in front of the formation, who can attack? Jin people are used to wearing heavy armor to charge the formation. Facing such artillery, what is the use of heavy armor?"

Wang Xiaolie said: "Although the power of artillery is great, it should not be overestimated. The first artillery is very expensive, and you can't make too many. Second, the artillery is even more expensive when the war starts. Gunpowder and projectiles are both expensive. Another one, after firing the first shot, you have to wait a while before you can fire the second shot. As long as you are not afraid of death, the enemy can always rush forward. Moreover, the artillery is different from the bow and crossbow. After that, it won’t work anymore.”

Li Yanxian said: "Is there still such a saying? How many cannons can you fire that day?"

Wang Xiaolie said: "There is no clear figure yet. Wait for Song Yan and others to try for a little longer, and there will always be rough figures."

How many shells can be continuously fired by the artillery is related to the rate of fire, cooling conditions, and weather conditions. It is difficult to get an accurate value all at once.It must be practiced to have approximate figures.

Everyone comes back.Li Yanxian said: "The smallest cannon is already so powerful, wouldn't the cannon be even more astonishing?"

Song Yan said: "Cannons can be used to attack cities, but their power is not comparable to that of small cannons."

Everyone discussed for a while.Over there, the small cannon was pulled down, the medium cannon was pulled over, and they were rearranged.

With an order, the middle cannon opened fire.The sound made the small cannon much louder, shaking several people's hearts.The damage to the stakes placed four hundred paces away was even more serious.One shot penetrated four rows, and both the fifth and sixth rows were damaged.

Looking at the stake, several people were silent.If the power of the small cannon shocked everyone just now, the middle cannon was not just shocked.No one spoke anymore, and silently returned to the original position, watching Song Yan direct the cannon.

After the cannon was reloaded, Wang Xiao said: "The sound of the cannon is too loud, everyone should plug your ears. Otherwise, the first time you hear it, you will inevitably have an earth-shattering feeling. If one is not good, you will not be able to hear the sound clearly for most of the day."

Li Yanxian said: "The sound of this cannon is always heard with your own ears. Plug your ears today, what should you do in the future?"

The rest of the people nodded together, agreeing with Li Yanxian.

Wang Xiaolie had no choice but to stop persuading everyone.

When the fuse was burned out, there was an earth-shattering sound.With the black smoke coming out, an iron bullet flew out.Standing behind, a few people could clearly watch the projectile move forward, as if unhappy.

At six hundred paces away, the projectile was already blurred and could not be seen clearly.It can be vaguely seen that the wooden stakes crackled and fell down.

Walking quickly to the wooden posts, all ten rows of wooden posts were pierced, and the iron bullets hit the mud behind.

Several people stood in front of the stake, stunned and speechless for a moment.

After a long time, Li Yanxian said: "With such great power, if one shot is fired, won't it penetrate the entire army formation?"

Wang Xiaolie nodded: "It's almost there."

Niu Gao said: "This - this, we have this kind of artillery, the enemy can't even form an array."

Wang Xiaolie said: "Why can't you form an array? It's just that in the past, to defend against arrows and crossbows, the array had to be one or two hundred paces away. Now to defend against artillery, the array has to be thousands of paces away. It's just that when fighting a battle, you have to walk a thousand paces forward. The play is different.”

The others nodded.I finally understood why Wang Xiaolie said that he would conduct a drill to test the usage of artillery.With artillery in the army, especially a certain number, the whole battlefield situation will change.

(End of this chapter)