The rise of the prince

Chapter 624: Overnight Preparation + Afternoon Book

Yan Shen pushed the icy-barreled cannon cart and pushed it to the other side of the deck. He was braving the night with the soldiers to move the port side cannons of the eight troop carriers to the starboard deck and fix them. They didn't have torches, for fear of revealing their positions. , let the Liao army realize the fact that the rest of the people had disembarked.

Fortunately, on a summer night, the galaxy is so bright that it is clear under the starlight and moonlight without a torch. This was a decision he made after discussing with Di Zhi.

He has ordered the ships to be anchored on the south bank, so that there is river protection, and the Liao army cannot cause damage to the big ship, and after the big ship is anchored, it becomes a fort fixed on the south bank.

Then there are temporary changes according to the plan.

The battle will break out on the north bank tomorrow morning. Even if the two fireships at the front are not changed, they still have 24 guns facing the north bank. Tonight, the two guns on the port side will be installed on the starboard side, so that the firepower of the two fireships will be combined on the starboard side. Will reach a terrifying 26 guns.

Another eighteen gates were moved to land for use by land troops.

It could have been installed up to [-] guns, but considering that the deck is too crowded, it will affect the gunner's operation and reduce the shooting speed instead, so it was not added.

The eight troop carriers also need to be refitted, and all six guns on the port side will be installed on the starboard deck, so that the firepower of the eight troop carriers will reach 96 guns on the right side of each ship, which adds up to 26 guns, plus two gunships There are 120 guns on the starboard side, and there will be a total of [-] guns aimed at the north bank tomorrow morning. This is almost [-]% of the new army's current artillery.

The amount of this project is not small. Each cannon weighs several hundred kilograms, and it is very laborious to move and fix it. Fortunately, there are cannon carriages.

The other is the need to balance the weight. Although the Wangfu ship is large, if the twelve cannons are put aside, it weighs more than a thousand catties. The hull will inevitably tilt. Although it does not seem to affect the shooting, because the Wangfu ship is very large, such a tilt will not let the ship rollover.

We can tell them from training experience that when shooting, the recoil of the artillery will cause the hull in this state to shake violently, which greatly affects the shooting accuracy, so they also need to use sacks filled with gravel and pad them on the port side to balance hull.

This is a hard job. Each ship transports nearly a thousand pieces of sand and gravel, and it takes overnight. Moreover, the army has quietly disembarked on the north bank in the middle of the night to prepare for the battle. On the south bank, there are only their artillery and lower-level laborers.

The sacks were temporarily brought from the two supply ships behind and were used to hold grain and grass.

The river surface is very calm compared to the sea surface, especially in the section outside Nanjing City, where there are plains on both sides, no slope, and the water surface is very calm. There is basically no difference between the ship and the land, and the height of the deck of the big ship provides them with a good view and shooting angle , can clearly see the enemy in the distance, with the river as a barrier, their position is safe, and the stars are shining tonight, and tomorrow will be a sunny day. It can be said that the time, place and people are harmonious, and they are all on their side.

In the new army, Yan Shen's understanding of artillery is definitely second only to Zhao Si, because he was in charge of the first saltpeter workshop opened by the prince, and he is familiar with and fascinated by gunpowder.

After the formation of the new army, he was transferred from the commander of the palace guards to the new army by the prince. He was in charge of the artillery, which also made him more familiar with and love these cold, heavy guys with devastating power.

Zhao Si is his last person except the prince.

Although he was born as an ordinary commoner, he was originally just a carpenter, but he became obsessed with guns. His several improvements to the new army's guns and artillery can be said to have completely changed the appearance of the new army. It is no exaggeration to say that without Zhao Si There is no new army today.

Now Zhao Si is concentrating on researching his new artillery again, Yan Shen is also very curious, if he can go back this time, he may see new things
After working so hard until midnight, all the big ships were finally lowered and fixed, and everyone lay on the deck looking at the stars, panting from exhaustion.

"Okay, the sentry is on duty. The others should take the time to rest and cheer up. The Liao army is five miles away, so don't make any mistakes." Yan Shen said loudly.

Everyone was happy, the summer night was hot, and they just lay on the deck.

"Commander Yan, when will the fight start tomorrow?" asked the soldier lying beside him.

"I don't know, do the Liao people who are watching the dog's day have the guts? Why, are you afraid, kid?" Yan Shen said.

"Hey, I'm afraid, I can't wait!" someone interrupted.

"That is, how many of our brothers were killed by the Liao people of the dog days. My brother followed Yang Dianshuai in the Northern Expedition. He is still alive and dead. The parents at home are worried, and there is no news after asking everywhere. When I left, my grandma was crying. He said he was afraid that my family would die."

"I heard that tens of thousands of forbidden soldiers died in Anding, Weizhou in the west. I have never seen such a scene of so many people dying since I was a child."

At this time, a veteran came over: "Hey, I don't know much!

When I followed the prince to fight the rebels in the south, tens of thousands of people died. Those dead people blocked the river and diverted it. Later, the prince said that he was afraid of attracting plague, so he piled up the corpses and burned them. He piled up a mountain several feet high. The stench can be smelled ten miles away. "

"Really or not?" Several recruits who were fighting for the first time were skeptical.

"No, you can ask the commander. The commander was there at the time, and General Di was also there. At that time, the main force was led by General Di, so now the prince is so relieved of him."

Everyone looked at Yan Shen, and Yan Shen said triumphantly, "That's right, we killed tens of thousands of rebels in that war!"

Surrounded by gasps of amazement, they cast admiring glances at him.

"Commander, tell us something!" Someone pulled his arm.

Yan Shen smiled and shook his head: "What to say, there is nothing to say, the prince is very powerful, and the enemy's every move is all in the prince's calculations. However, we also lost thousands of brothers, all of whom are heroes of Luzhou."

Yan Shen suddenly felt melancholy, and then thought of honest and honest, brave and invincible in the front line, Qi Rui was like a small iron tower, he often told Qi Rui that he would find an opportunity to compete, but in fact he knew in his heart that Qi Rui could beat him like this If there were three or five of them, I'm afraid Ji Chunsheng, the number one under Prince Xiao, was no match for him back then. It's not an exaggeration at all, but such people would have disappeared in the chaotic war. Now that I think about it, things are different.

The crowd also fell silent for a while. The commander was reminding them that people will die tomorrow. Thousands of people died in the south that time. How many people will die this time?
"Do you know why the prince called this ship the Valiant Admiral Qi Rui?" Di Zhi patted the deck below him.

Everyone shook their heads, looked at him expectantly, and waited for him to tell those legendary stories. In fact, they had heard Yan Shen said that the prince went straight to the enemy camp to break the deception of the world's great immortals, and used soldiers like gods to trick the rebels one after another. There are also how many enemies he killed, and how the fierce general Ji Chunsheng rushed into the city and killed hundreds of people in a row, etc.
But every time it is mentioned, everyone still listens with great interest and is very engrossed.

"Qi Rui is the number one hero in Luzhou. He joined the prince to fight against the rebels. He is the fiercest man I have ever seen. His arms are as thick as your thighs." He patted a thin soldier beside him, attracting a burst of excitement from the crowd. Laughing, the soldier who was being teased looked innocent.

"He led the prince's few cavalry, no one in the rebel army dared to confront him, and even a hundred or ten people couldn't get close."

"Then who is more powerful than General Ji?" someone asked.

"The two of them have never fought, but I guess Rui is better."

"What about others?" Everyone asked excitedly.

"died."

"died!"

Yan Shen sighed: "In the last battle, he led the cavalry too far, and there were too many enemies, so it was too late to turn back."

Everyone fell silent.

"We won the battle, but when we found him after the war, he had already died in the rebellious army. To commemorate him, the prince named the ship the Valiant Admiral Qi Rui." Yan Shen shook his head: "I I just want to tell you that no matter how powerful a person is, he can rely on his brothers when he goes to the battlefield. No matter how powerful a person is, there is always a limit.

Our artillery can be here, safely firing cannons nearly a mile across the main battlefield, and the river water stops the Liao people for us, because the brothers on the other side and the Liao people are desperate, and we can't let them down. "

"Don't worry, Commander, at this distance, I will never let go of the cannon tomorrow." The thin soldier who had just been teased promised with fists.

"Yeah, we hit a lot farther than this in practice."

"Never let the brothers on the other side down!"

"Labor and capital will definitely be able to hit the head of the Liao people. I promise, if you empty more than five cannons, you can ask me for my head!" Someone patted his chest and said.

Seeing how excited they were, Yan Shen laughed loudly: "I believe you idiots, whether you can hit or not depends on tomorrow, go to bed quickly, every few hours."

Only then did the deck slowly quiet down. Under the bright starlight, Yan Shen felt turmoil in his heart. Will he go to see Qi Rui this time?If they go, it's not a bad thing, at least they can compete.
The next day, the weather was still fine, and there was a little fog in the morning. Di Zhi was worried for a while, but when the sun came out and the fog cleared, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Sunny days are very important to the new army. As the artillery squad said, it is better to blow up than fail to fire.

The early cold in the air was quickly dispelled by the morning light, the river was sparkling, and the weeds were dense beside the desk. There was a forest on the northwest side, and the weeds were deep on the river bank facing the Liao Kingdom, at least up to the knee. Good for them.

On such a river bank, the actions of the cavalry of the Liao Kingdom will be hindered to a certain extent. After breakfast, many soldiers quickly lined up on the north bank of Lugou.

They took advantage of the darkness to disembark last night and slept overnight by the river. Soldiers in the new army can bring their own bedding. Sleeping in the open is very simple, and summer nights are not cold at all.

The reason why Di Zhi chose this place was that there was a slight slope here, which ensured that the soldiers behind could also shoot, which was beneficial to them. Second, the river bank had enough water to nourish and the thatch was lush on the bank, which was not good for the cavalry.

The most important point is that this place is only two or three hundred steps away from the river bank, and Yan Shen has already ordered the two supply ships to retreat overnight, and at the same time installed the port side artillery of the eight troop carriers to the starboard deck, and dropped anchor on the south bank, if necessary You can also change the position with the battlefield.

130 The two starboard cannons will serve as fire support in the Huoli River. This is their important force, and the most important point is that the Liao people will not be on guard. They probably don't know the horror of these ships and just treat them as ordinary ships.

This is also one of the reasons why Di Zhi wanted to shoot more than 300 prisoners of war and not release any of them. If they didn't leak the news, they would be able to catch the Liao army by surprise.

At that time, the fleet will attack from the side, they will attack from the front, and the cross-fire net will be enough for the Liao army to drink a pot.

If the Liao army knew, they might try to stay away from the shore and outflank their right flank. At that time, they would retreat to the river and line up with their backs. Multiple guns can form a high and low firepower network.

He had told all the officers above the head of the two plans in advance that he would need to direct them on the spot which one to implement before the time came.

The formation this time is not the traditional three-stage formation, because they only have 5000 people. Excluding artillery, logistics troops, and [-] cavalry, there are actually less than [-] musketeers on the frontal battlefield.

And the Liao army has at least [-], and most of them are cavalry, which means that they are destined to be surrounded!

Di Zhi had thought of this situation from the very beginning, so they had to adopt another formation. The prince called it a hollow formation. It was a formation specially used by the new army for anti-cavalry after countless drills.

This formation requires the soldiers of each battalion to form a square formation inlaid inside and outside, leaving the middle empty. The soldiers in the outermost circle carry bayonets and are responsible for resisting the cavalry who are caught by the enemy. The soldiers in the inner three circles form a three-stage shooting formation facing all sides , A mound was built in the middle of the open space, and artillery was stationed.

Such a phalanx formed a battalion every [-] steps, and the phalanx of eight battalions of soldiers supported each other, so that even if he was surrounded by cavalry due to lack of mobility, he could fight back from all directions.

Once the enemy cavalry approached, they would face shooting from at least three phalanxes. If they dared to rush into the open space in the formation, they would face firepower from all directions.

This time, because of the flat terrain, the new army got up early in the morning, piled up mounds where they were arrayed, and placed the cannons transported from the ship overnight on the middle high ground. There were two cannons in the middle of each phalanx. Fire support is handed over to the fleet on the river.

When the sky was completely bright, the soldiers of the Eighth Battalion had already lined up. Eight square hollow formations were lined up on the bank of the river to form a larger square formation. There were two cannons on the high ground in the middle of each hollow formation. More than 4000 people, close to [-] people.

The logistics supply army retreated to two supply ships on the river. There were more than 800 artillerymen, most of whom were on ten ships on the south bank, while [-] light cavalry followed Di Zhi and were responsible for delivering orders.

After everything was ready, Di Zhi directly sent people to the Liao army camp to fight
In fact, he understands that even if he doesn't fight, more than 2 Liao people will definitely take the initiative to attack when they see that three to 4000 of them dare to disembark, and they are all infantry. The reason for the fight is to make the Liao people more arrogant Some, more negligent, he will not let go of any details that can increase the chances of winning.

Di Zhi was standing on a small high ground in the middle of the eight phalanxes on horseback. He had already seen the Liao Army camp getting busy in the distance. All kinds of banners were indistinctly flying, and people and horses were running around. He took a deep breath, life and death were at stake. The big battle is coming
(End of this chapter)