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Chapter 688: God fails to fulfill his wishes

"It's bad...it's going to rain! Hurry up and inform the soldiers to pack up the ammunition and prepare for a rain battle. Oh, yes, the enemy may come during the rain, so don't hold back this time, use all the artillery!"

But the first thing that arrived was not the reinforcements, but the cool night breeze. Just when the officers and soldiers were feeling refreshed, Hong Tao stood on the roof of the car with his hands raised high, and after a moment, with a serious face, he announced a bad news.

Praying for good luck doesn't work, but saying bad luck is a sure thing. In less than half an hour, not a single star could be seen in the night sky, the gentle breeze turned into a gust of sand and rocks, and thunder rolled from the sky. At this time, you don't need any life experience to know that it is going to rain.

"Beep, beep, beep...beep, beep...enemy attack, enemy attack...pa pa pa...pa pa pa..." Just after the first batch of raindrops had made close contact with the earth, the south of Xinghe City, which had been shrouded in wind and rain, suddenly woke up with the sound of shrill whistles, shouts and explosions.

"Boom boom boom... Boom boom boom..." This was followed by a series of thunder explosions. Dozens of field guns spewed out tongues of fire more than two meters long, and shouted out the depression of the past two days.

At the same time, burning fireballs were sprayed two hundred meters away, and exploded instantly after landing, turning the ground within a radius of four or five meters into a sea of ​​fire, in which there were also struggling figures wrapped in flames.

"Alas... It's worth the trouble and expense I put into raising them!"

Seeing this scene, Hong Tao, who was still standing in the van in the rain, couldn't help but express his emotion. However, the content of his emotion was rather shameless, with more than half praising himself and less than half praising his students.

Ding Shun was worthy of being the Army Chief of Staff. After an unexpected incident that no one had ever encountered, he did not hesitate at all and immediately followed the night combat rules written in the Army Manual and lit up the battlefield with incendiary bombs.

That's right, this batch of incendiary bombs were not fired to defend against the enemy, but to provide soldiers with a shooting field of view. The Army Manual contains content about fighting in the rain, and it is also used as a basic skill assessment in daily training.

Although the flintlock rifle has been continuously improved for six or seven years, it is still not waterproof due to the characteristics of the flintlock device. But the fact that the gun is not waterproof does not mean that the army cannot fight in the rain. After all, the gun is dead, and the man is alive.

According to the requirements of the Army Manual, soldiers must perform targeted operations in foggy, high humidity and rainy weather to ensure that guns can be fired normally.

For example, if it is raining, if it is just a light rain, the soldiers only need to use the cap to cover the muzzle and flintlock to prevent them from being wetted by raindrops when loading and firing. The success rate of ignition will basically not be affected too much, and the shooting frequency may be slightly reduced.

If it was moderate rain or above, mixed with crosswinds, the difficulty of completing the shooting would be doubled. If most soldiers had not undergone many trainings, it would be difficult to complete it.

At this time, every two soldiers were in a group, using the rainproof cloaks they carried with them to shield themselves from the rain. One was responsible for loading and the other for firing. As long as the priming powder pool was not wetted by rain and continuous firing was maintained, even if rain entered the barrel it would not affect normal firing.

The heat from the burning gunpowder would quickly evaporate a small amount of rainwater, and the fixed projectiles wrapped in silk were soaked in whale oil and paraffin, making them waterproof for a short time.

The firing of artillery is a little more troublesome, after all, the barrel is large in caliber and has to be fixed at a fixed angle, so it cannot be moved at any time. But it is not impossible to prevent rain. The simplest way is to build a sleeping tent, and load and fire inside the tent. No matter how effective the method is, rain will still reduce the firing frequency exponentially. Fortunately, it does not affect the shooting accuracy and power too much. In addition, the sudden addition of dozens of artillery pieces made the enemy a little confused for a while, and barely withstood the first wave of attacks.

"Let the first line of defense retreat, move the third line of defense forward, and send the reserve troops forward as well! Zhang Ran, take your people to the south to join the battle, and don't embarrass me."

Hong Tao had been standing on the roof of the van, watching the battle. Although the enemy had been repelled, he was not relieved. He looked up at the sky, reached out his hand outside the umbrella to feel the density of the rain, and predicted that this rain, which was not heavy or urgent, would not stop soon.

The addition of artillery can only panic the enemy for a short time, but cannot completely defeat them. Now the whole army must be pressed forward to make a desperate struggle. If they can hold out until the rain stops, they will win, but if they can't hold out, they will be completely wiped out. Close combat is not the army's strong point, let alone winning with fewer troops.

"Your Majesty, send a signal to urge Sun Chengzong."

The situation was not very favorable, and even Wang Chengen, who knew little about military affairs, saw it. At this time, he no longer cared about whether it was an overstepping of authority or not, and quickly reminded the emperor that there was a friendly force nearby.

"Shut up! I will kill anyone who dares to disturb the morale of the army. Don't worry, the rain on the grassland comes and goes quickly. Don't waste time here. Go down and fight with the soldiers. Tell them what I said. The reinforcements have arrived. If we can repel the enemy twice more, we will win a great victory!"

Wang Chengen's voice was not loud, and almost no one could hear it except the messenger next to him. But Hong Tao still glared at him, which was rare, and shouted him away. Then he called Ding Shun, Du Wenhuan and other senior generals over, and spread the news that Sun Chengzong's army was coming as a boost.

Now he had no other choice but to win a moral victory. He had planned everything well, but who would have thought that the dry and rainless Great Wall would have a heavy rain at this time? As the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes. Even the most capable person cannot completely rule out the element of luck.

Sending fireworks to summon Sun Chengzong's troops to come to the rescue was a stupid move. They were all land forces. If our forces were not able to exert their power due to the rain, they would not be much better. Could we let the land forces wield engineer shovels and fight the Mongols in close combat, turning a war of annihilation into a lose-lose situation?

This is the best scenario to test the quality of soldiers. No matter how well they are trained on weekdays, if they cannot control their inner fear when the situation is unfavorable, everything they have done before will be equal to zero.

Fortunately, the army vanguard had intercepted the elite Jurchens with a small force against a larger one at Tashan Fort, and the psychological qualities of most soldiers had been tempered. After drinking a bowl of poisonous chicken soup prepared by the emperor, they were able to barely block another enemy charge.

The night battle lasted for more than an hour before the rain gradually subsided, but it was still drizzling and unwilling to stop. With the reduction of the shooting frequency and the enemy's desperate attacks, several trenches were finally breached.

At first, the army soldiers were able to use pistols to drive back a small number of enemies, but after a few shots, the medicine tanks of many pistols were wet by the rain, and there was no time to dry them before the second wave of enemies came up.

(End of this chapter)