The Tang Dynasty started from saving Empress Changsun

Chapter 426

After receiving the order, Duan Zhixuan went out and cupped his hands, saying: "Please retreat to the outside of the white line, the saint and everyone."

After everyone retreated to the white line 50 meters away, he said again: "Please open your mouth, or you will bear the consequences."

Now everyone is even more curious, what are you doing with your mouth open?Is it because we are afraid that we will be too surprised for a while and bite our tongues?
But no matter how confused they were, no one dared to give up at this time, and they all opened their mouths obediently.

After instructing everyone, Duan Zhixuan stood on the spot, turned around and waved a small flag, signaling the start of the exercise.

After receiving the order, a large group of big men in brown linen clothes came out from under the straw mat.

A group of ten of them quickly rolled up the straw mat, revealing thick and dark round iron pillars... or iron pipes.

Everyone counted, and there are thirty iron pillars like this.

what is this?What does it have to do with the Shenwei General Cannon?People who had never seen a cannon were angry and puzzled at the same time.

Those who had heard a little about the Shenwei Great General Pao had a 'unexpected' look in their eyes, followed by anticipation.

I don't know the power of this weapon that is boasted as invincible.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the artillery of the Xuanjia Army began to operate.

I saw them in a group of ten, some of them were cleaning the barrel with a mop, some were fixing the gun mount, some were aiming, and some were preparing fire starters...

Soon everything was ready, the flag bearer of the cannon position waved the flag again, and the surface was ready to start shelling.

Duan Zhixuan did not answer directly, but asked for instructions: "Saint, the gunners are ready, do you want to start shelling?"

Li Shimin was also very excited, and said in a slightly trembling voice: "Start."

"Here." After Duan Zhixuan took the order, he waved the flag to deliver the order.

Hearing this request, everyone fell silent and stared at the iron pillar position 50 meters away.

After receiving the order, the herald at the artillery position shouted loudly: "Fire."

Then I saw [-] igniters inserting the fiery red iron rod into the igniter, and a few seconds later...

"Boom..." "Boom..." "Boom..."

The deafening voices rang out one after another, even Fang Xuanling and the others who had been prepared for a long time were shocked.

Although they also knew about cannons, it was the first time they had watched them so closely.

What's more, thirty cannons fired in unison, which is even more shocking.

This was considered good, and many people behind were terrified and fell to the ground.

What's more, water stains appeared on the hem of some people's clothes, and after a while, a faint smell of urine permeated the crowd.

But at this time, no one cared about this issue anymore, and everyone was dumbfounded looking at the artillery position tens of meters away.

"Look...look, look at that city wall." Cheng Yaojin shouted mischievously at this time.

Everyone finally came back to their senses, looked in the direction of his finger, and saw the shocking scene again.

There were more than a dozen obvious impact marks on the city wall, and three stacks of female walls were destroyed.

Qin Qiong hesitated and said, "This is...a trebuchet?"

They are military leaders, so it is impossible not to know about cannons. The reason why they say this is just acting on purpose.

It is not only a deliberate reminder to the envoys of the vassal state, but also an opportunity for Li Shimin to show off.

Sure enough, after hearing what they said, Li Shimin said in high spirits: "No, this is a cannon, which can shoot iron pellets weighing four to five catties."

"The farthest range can reach more than ten miles, and the effective range is eight or nine miles. Today, it is placed at such a short distance for the convenience of everyone to watch."

"Hiss... more than ten miles?" Everyone gasped, and then their expressions were different.

The envoys of Xue Yantuo, Goguryeo and other forces had heavy expressions, while the envoys of Tie Le, Huihe and other forces were somewhat grateful...

And Lu Dongzan looked at all this in dismay, facing this kind of artifact, how can Tubo resist?
The natural barriers of the plateau can only stop Datang, but they cannot stop Tuyuhun, Bailanbu, and Dongnüguo.

Datang gave them a few cannons, and even said to send an artillery unit to assist in the battle. What's the use of Tubo's natural dangers and cities?

At this time, he realized more and more how big the difference in strength between Tubo and Datang was.

Chen Jingke's slightly humiliating words before came to mind again: What qualifications do you have for Tubo to be called a country of brothers with Datang?
Now he finally understood the true meaning of this sentence.

Ridiculous indeed.

After recovering from the shock, the officials of the Tang Dynasty showed joyful expressions, and looked at the vassal state with more condescending eyes than before.

When everyone was shocked by the terrifying power of the cannon, the gunners were not idle, and started the next round of operation according to the steps.

Cleaning the barrel, cleaning the barrel, prepping the ammunition, prepping the ammunition...

A soldier representing the loader puts an iron rod into the groove reserved at the tail of the cannon, and after turning it a few times, the tail will be opened.

A five-centimeter-thick circular grooved copper pillar fell out of the gun barrel.

Then the loader first inserts a conical shell into the barrel, and then inserts a charge bag.

Insert the copper pad again, and close the iron bolt at the end.

A well-cooperated and skillful loading work was completed, and a round of launch was completed with an order.

Neither the gunner nor the group watching from a distance knew what rear loading meant.

Which came first, muzzle-loading or breech-loading?Many people think that the front-loading gun appeared first, and the breech-loading gun did not appear until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In fact, this is wrong.

Front-loaded guns and breech-loaded guns appeared at about the same time. For a long time, breech-loaded guns were used in Europe, but later they were changed to front-loaded guns.

Someone has to ask, why?

The reason is very simple. The sealing technology is not good enough for the breech gun to leak air. In order to reduce energy waste, the tail has to be cast into one body and the breech gun is used.

It was not until a man named Armstrong invented the screw breech block that this problem was solved, and the breech gun gradually became the mainstream.

But even so, the front-loading gun has not been eliminated, but it is decided according to the actual situation whether to use the front or the breech.

For example, the barrel of a mortar is relatively short, and it is more convenient to use the front bore technology.

Cannons with relatively long barrels such as cannons and howitzers use breech-loading guns that are more convenient to load.

Of course, breech-loading guns still have advanced features, such as easier to describe rifling.

For the same type of cannon, the range, power, and accuracy of breech-loaded guns exceed that of front-loaded guns.

As a traverser, Chen Jingke naturally took out the most mature breech-loading cannon-the Armstrong cannon in one step.

Why is he so familiar with this kind of artillery? It is also a national tragedy to say the least - the first time this kind of artillery was used in actual combat on a large scale was when the British and French allied forces invaded the Qing Dynasty.

With this gun, the British and French allied forces captured the Tianjin Dagu Fort, which used an old-fashioned front-loading smoothbore gun.

Seng Gelinqin's [-] Mongolian Eight Banners cavalry were defeated by the Armstrong field artillery of the British and French allied forces at Baliqiao.

In stark contrast, only five British and French soldiers were killed and 47 wounded in this battle.

When Chen Jingke saw the data of this period of history, he only had resentment and sadness in his heart, so he remembered the name Armstrong Cannon.

Later, when I searched for this name on the Internet, I learned about the development history of artillery by the way.

He hated the invaders but not this cannon, not to mention that now that he is a traverser, he can use this cannon to benefit the Chinese civilization hundreds of years in advance.

Therefore, the Armstrong cannon was produced in one step.

Of course, this kind of cannon is now called the Shenwei General Cannon.

And on this basis, Chen Jingke also deliberately added a recoil reduction structure.

To put it bluntly, two rows of symmetrical exhaust holes are reserved at the muzzle position.

Don't underestimate these holes, which can greatly reduce the recoil.

However, the Armstrong gun also has shortcomings, that is, the quality of the breech block and the weight of the lock.

The thrust generated at the moment of the gunpowder explosion can easily shatter the breech block.

The size and weight of the lock bolt is directly proportional to the artillery itself. The larger the artillery bolt, the heavier it is. A bolt of tens of kilograms requires one or two strong men to operate.

Therefore, in the original history, it took another 20 years to improve the technology of breech-loading guns to replace front-loading guns.

However, it is not a problem for Chen Jingke. Firstly, the steel produced in the blast furnace can meet this requirement.

Second, the breech block can be designed as a replaceable part, which can be replaced directly if it breaks.

Thirdly, the round copper pillar that fell out of the barrel, although it is inconspicuous, can withstand the first wave of gunpowder impact and reduce the loss of the breech block.

The problem of the weight of the lock bolt is not intolerable, after all, the largest cannon that Datang can manufacture now is three to four tons.

Most of them are cannons of about one ton, and the weight of the lock bolt looks like thirty to fifty catties, so it is enough to be equipped with two people to operate it.

As for the future... future problems will naturally be solved by specialized talents, so don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients.

People in the Tang Dynasty had never seen artillery before, let alone what was called a front-loaded gun or a breech-loaded gun.

When I saw the gunner opening the barrel from the tail to fill the ammunition, I only thought that the cannon was like this.

In fact, what they don't know is that without Chen Jingke, a traverser, just a screw breech breech can plague human beings for hundreds of years.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the gunners quickly completed the loading work and fired again.

With the buffer just now, although everyone was still trembling from the sound of the cannon, they were able to restrain their fear and carefully observe the situation of the shelling.

With the sound of "boom, boom", thirty large iron balls hit the city wall, and brick fragments were seen flying everywhere.

If there are people on the top of the city, the scene is unimaginable.

Li Shimin intended to show force to deter everyone, and did not order to stop the shelling, but let the cannon fire round after round.

And after that, he even let people use flowering bullets to shoot. The power of this kind of shells made everyone chill.

If it exploded in the crowd, the casualties would be too great.

The shelling lasted for half an hour before stopping, but it had to be stopped because the gun barrel was too hot, otherwise Li Shimin would have been able to play for a few more hours.

But even so, it was enough to shock everyone—the city wall that was built one-to-one was directly cut down by more than a foot.

In fact, only part of the women's wall and the city gate tower were cut off, and the damage to the wall was not great.

This is because the outer layer of the ancient city wall is made of green bricks, and the inside is made of composite clay, and even rice soup is used as an adhesive for reinforcement.

Even during World War II, this kind of city wall was still an important military fortress.

It is unrealistic for black powder weapons to cut down the city wall.

But the others didn't know this, and they were all trembling with fright.

Fang Xuanling was the first to stand up and congratulate him: "Congratulations to the sage, congratulations to the sage, I will have no worries in the Tang Dynasty after getting this sharp weapon."

Others also reacted and said one after another: Congratulations to the saint, congratulations to the saint, from now on I don't have to worry about being invaded by foreign enemies.

"Haha..." Li Shimin laughed loudly: "It's over, everyone's words are over."

"Utensils are dead after all and need to be manipulated by people. The long-term stability of my Tang Dynasty depends not on mere external objects, but on the concerted efforts of you and my monarch and ministers."

Gao Shilian bowed deeply and shouted: "The sage's words are very kind, and I am sincerely convinced."

"Sages are holy." Many civil servants saluted with joy on their faces.

People are the most important thing in governing a country. Only people can have a future. Weapons alone are useless.

They were really afraid that with the cannon Li Shimin would become self-willed, and they were very happy to see him sober.

A performance show that shocked the world just came to an end, and everyone left with their own thoughts.

Not long after, a messenger set off from Chang'an and rushed to all parts of the world.

Zixiao Temple, after Wu Shu heard about this incident, he was very puzzled and said:
"Such a magical weapon, it would be better to suddenly take it out when facing the enemy, and catch the opponent by surprise. Why did the saint be exposed in advance?"

Chen Jingke hugged the tiger-headed eleven, and explained: "The Tang Dynasty has conquered the world, and there is no need to use this petty method to count people."

"Take it out directly to deter the vassal states so that they don't dare to give birth to dissent. The effect is the best."

"Then my Tang Dynasty can develop calmly, and then wipe out the dissatisfied forces one by one."

"Besides, so what if they see it? Do they have a way to deal with it?"

Didn't Zeng Gelinqin know the artillery of the British and French coalition forces?
But when the situation developed to that point, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and rush upwards.

In the end, [-] elites were wiped out, and only seven returned to the team.

What the Tang Dynasty lacked most were generals with explosive force values. They had plenty of ways to force the opponent to face the artillery head-on.

Besides, with Datang's combat power, artillery is just icing on the cake, and nothing can dominate East and Central Asia.

Although Wu Shu is smart, sometimes he is really not generous enough, always thinking of playing tricks.

This kind of personality is very useful in housekeeping and business, but it is too big a problem to use it to govern the country.

This was the case in her previous life. After she came to power, the land conquered by the two generations of the Tang Dynasty began to be lost in large areas.

Even the exterminated Eastern Turks have returned to their country, which is commonly known as the post-Turks.

But now none of this will happen again, and I don't know when China will have a real female monarch again.

(End of this chapter)