The First Corrupt Official of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 249 Master Ye’s skills are both toys and weapons for killing enemies. Zhu Yuanzhang is greedy for this, a childhood skill!
"Maximum range, eighty pounds, 'enemies of ten thousand people'!"

"Prepare!"

On this city wall that is nearly a kilometer long, ten ultra-long-range trebuchets modified from tower cranes are distributed about a hundred meters apart, and they all lower their arms that are longer than the height of the city wall.

Such a big movement had already caused Zhu Yuanzhang and his two men to head towards the city.

But along with the rough and tearing sound, the words "Ten Thousand Enemies" came from below the city wall, and the words "Ten Thousand Enemies" kept hitting the ears of Zhu Yuanzhang and Mao Xiang.

After hearing these three words, Zhu Yuanzhang and Mao Xiang instantly remembered this, a new long-range firearm that they had never seen in the arsenal.

I still remember that before the war, they came to see the modification process of a tower crane into a super long-range trebuchet, and saw the soldiers preparing an ammunition called "Ten Thousand Enemies".

But before they could ask clearly, General Li took him to the Jingbian Temple to watch Ye Qing worship Li Mu, Li Guang, Li Shimin, and Li Jing.

Thinking of the grandness with which Ye Qing worshiped them, they couldn't help but become curious.

But compared to this problem that I can't figure out for the time being, the "ten thousand enemies" in front of me can actually be understood by looking at it.

The two of them were lying on the female wall facing the city, looking at everything below.

The 'ground network' composed of three hundred small trebuchets was not far behind the ten ultra-long-range trebuchets, but there was still no movement from these three hundred small trebuchets.

The ones that are moving now are these ten super long-range trebuchets!

Two strong soldiers held a black ball that was dozens of times larger than a cannonball and similar to a giant cannonball, and placed it directly on the 'giant iron spoon' at the end of the force arm.

At the same time, a soldier directly poured a large gourd of fire oil on it, and ten trebuchets completed the preparation work almost at the same time.

"One thousand three hundred and thirty steps, super long-range trebuchet, launch!"

At both ends of the three-door corridor at the city gate, two observers shouted orders and at the same time fiercely waved down the black flags in their hands used to command the ultra-long-range trebuchet!

The next moment, the soldiers at the bottom of the city directly used torches to light up the 'giant cannonball', which in Zhu Yuanzhang's opinion was dozens of times larger than the cannonball.

At the same time, the operator located at the connection mechanism between the tower bracket and the force arm suddenly turned off the launch switch.

In everyone's eyes, the arm that was longer than the height of the city wall was instantly raised.

They looked like a giant arm holding a huge burning cannonball and throwing it out with all its strength.

The thick and long arm moved from bottom to top in the wind and snow, and the rough sound of breaking the wind was not comparable to Queen Ma's feather duster.

Zhu Yuanzhang listened to the rough sound of breaking wind and felt the wind and snow blowing in his face, and immediately had a very intuitive understanding of the power of this 'super long-range trebuchet'.

They only saw ten huge fireballs burning with raging fire, dragging thick and long black smoke, drawing magnificent parabolas in mid-air.

Compared with the hundreds of cannons fired at the East Gate battlefield nearly a month ago, these ten huge fiery red meteors seemed even more spectacular.

Although there are only ten in number, and each one is far apart from each other, this giant cannonball called 'Ten Thousand Enemies' not only throws it higher, but also moves faster.

Especially looking at the size, which was dozens of times larger than the cannonball, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but start to think about how powerful it would be if it exploded when it hit the ground.

Thinking of this, he immediately remembered what he had learned from the soldiers about the situation. It seemed that something fired without going through the barrel would really burn and explode.

Just as Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes widened with expectation,

Bei Yuan's front row of cavalry had just walked a distance of [-] steps outside the city. At the same time, they were ready to charge.

As long as the visual distance is almost [-] steps, they will charge!
But at this moment, they saw ten huge fireballs appearing diagonally above them!

"What firearm is this?"

"How can their cannons shoot so far?"

"There is no such big cannon, it's just a rolling stone fireball thrown by a trebuchet!"

"."

In the eyes of these Beiyuan heavy armored cavalry who still maintained their formation and advanced at a constant speed, these large fireballs were just rolling stone fireballs set up in ambush in the valley.

The so-called rolling stone fireball is nothing more than a rock wrapped in rattan and straw covered with kerosene. It is an early 'incendiary bomb' that existed during the Three Kingdoms period and has no explosive effect at all.

That is to say, it is really bad luck that you will be burned by such a fireball!
If it were summer and autumn and there was dry grass all over the place, they would still be worried, but in winter when the ground is covered with snow, this thing is just to scare the war horses.

Therefore, they just watched the ten fireballs coming at high speed, and then symbolically moved a few steps on horseback to avoid being hit directly.

But just when they were about to touch the ground, the cavalry general in front of the military formation suddenly felt that something was wrong.

If it were just an ordinary rolling stone fireball, Ye Qing wouldn't have to put in so much effort to come up with this kind of ultra-long-range throwing equipment.

Although he didn't know what the equipment was that could throw such a big fireball so far, he knew that it must be a new equipment made with great effort!
But if this wasn't a rolling stone fireball, he really couldn't figure out what it was!
Is it really such a huge cannonball?

Thinking of this, the Beiyuan cavalry general also immediately rejected this conjecture. If such a big cannonball really existed, it would be too terrifying!

"Boom!"

Just as the Beiyuan cavalry general was thinking this way, a series of loud explosions came from behind him.

What followed was the neighing of war horses and the screams of people!

Even the heavily armored war horse under his crotch was frightened by the loud explosion. He quickly stabilized the horse and turned around, and then he saw a scene that was completely unexpected to him.

Ten things that they thought were just rolling rocks and fireballs exploded into thousands of small fireballs the moment they hit the ground, splashing everywhere.

You must know that most of the Beiyuan cavalry have flammable leather armor, and even the heavy armored cavalry are not completely iron armor.And these thousands of small fireballs splashing are not fireballs in the true sense, and some are even shaped like burning darts.

The heavy armored cavalry at a close distance were blown to pieces, their limbs flying everywhere, and hot blood splattering everywhere.

The heavy armored cavalry who were far away were also injured by those small flying fireballs!
Penetrating wounds and burns occurred together, and instantly the cavalry was wailing and the horses were neighing!
In fact, the so-called "enemies of ten thousand people" can basically be understood as giant artillery shells. The real people killed by the bombs are the unlucky ones near the impact point of the shells.

But the number of people injured by the fragments, whether they were missing arms or legs, or bleeding from the belly, was far more than the number of people killed by the bombing!
After the smoke cleared, the heavy-armored formation-breaking cavalry, which was originally five hundred horizontally and four vertically, was reduced by half.

These heavy armored cavalry who finally managed to stabilize their horses immediately discovered a problem, that is, the brothers who had been saying that this was just a rolling stone and fireball were either torn apart or lying on the snow full of blood and wailing. more than.

"how can that be?"

"There is absolutely no such big cannon in the world. How could a cannon explode without a shell fired from the barrel?"

"."

Not only the heavy armored cavalry who had been stunned by the explosion, but also the light armored cavalry behind them, and even the infantry further back, all looked horrified.

There is no other reason,

Just because they are very likely to follow in the footsteps of heavy armored cavalry!
In fact, being blown to death at once is not the most terrifying thing, but more people being blown to death is what scares the soldiers behind them the most.

The wails of people and the neighing of war horses have long covered up the roar of vultures.

The visual and auditory horrors constantly impacted the eyes and ears of the cavalry army behind them, so much so that they couldn't help but tremble!
above the city walls,

In the eyes of the soldiers guarding the middle gate, billowing black smoke was still rising from the white sky and the earth.

When they heard the extremely clear screams and neighs, they immediately felt like they were no longer cold, and they felt that the blood all over their bodies was warm.

Looking at the scene in front of them, they also instantly remembered the wise words of their Lord Ye.

"Lord Ye is right, even a swearing-in ceremony with a flower cannot compare to the screams of the enemy!"

"Only the enemy's screams can truly boost your morale!"

"The harder the enemy screams, the more morale our army will have!"

Below the city gate tower, General Li was beside Zhu Yuanzhang and Mao Xiang, clasping his hands behind his back and saying Ye Qing's wise words.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard such wise words, he also deeply recognized them, but these words were somewhat inhumane.

Thinking of this, a truth that he didn't want to admit suddenly appeared in his mind: "This Ye Qing is not a human being. He is really a bit like me, and even surpasses me."

Then, he focused his attention on the distance again. He looked at the ten "black smoke pillars" in front of him and listened to the screams and neighs of the men and horses echoing in the valley.

Even breathing the cold air feels so comfortable and smooth.

"This ultra-long-range trebuchet and the enemy of ten thousand people really surpass the new Hongwu cannon!"

"General Li, how did these ten thousand enemies explode when they hit the ground without being fired through the barrel?"

General Li didn't say anything. He just took out a box, then took out a small paper ball and handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "General Guo, try throwing it on the ground as hard as you can."

Zhu Yuanzhang felt baffled when he looked at such a paper ball the size of a little finger.

But he still followed General Li's approach, picked it up and smashed it on the ground. The moment the small paper ball hit the ground, it exploded with a loud noise.

"exploded?"

"It is launched without ignition and explodes when hit?"

General Li also took out one, threw it away and said, "Actually, you don't need to use so much force to hit it and it will explode."

"This is a thing that Mr. Ye made two years ago for the maids to play with and listen to. It's called a cannon!"

“During the Chinese New Year last year, we were given some to each of us who have children at home. They are of no use other than listening to the music and playing with it!”

"But if you use this technology on thousands of enemies, it will be different!"

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang finally understood the principle behind the explosion of the 'enemy of ten thousand people' when it touched the ground.

Zhu Yuanzhang said rigorously: "General Li means that inside this burning cortex is a large cannon?"

General Li nodded and said: "Basically, it can be understood this way, but after all, one is a child's toy and the other is a weapon for killing enemies. After all, there will be some differences."

"It's just that the specific difference is not something I, the leader of the army, can know."

"But whether it's this toy slingshot or this ten-thousand-man enemy that scares the enemy, it's Master Ye's masterpiece!"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his eyes kept wandering between the black smoke column in the distance and the remnants of the cannon in front of him.

It was really hard for him to imagine that the same technology, with just a slight modification, would have two effects on one day and one place in front of him.

While Mao Xiang behind him was shocked, he also saw the word 'greedy' in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

He is greedy for the technology that can be regarded as a child's toy, but can also be used as a weapon to kill enemies, and he is also jealous of the people who possess this technology!
　At the time of Zhuge Liang's fifth Northern Expedition, which was about to set in Wuzhangyuan, Li Heng, as a time traveler, promptly presented him with a bottle of [Cough Syrup] and began to transform Ji Han.

　　He transformed a bureaucratic group into a capital group and began economic export and strategic fraud to Wu and Wei.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)