Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 263: Power works miracles

Zuo Wuwei's idea was undoubtedly a great one. To fire a mortar, one must first ignite the fuse on the shrapnel shell and then ignite the propellant at the firing port. The timing coordination of the two ignitions is a difficult problem, and it is especially easy to make mistakes in a hurry in the tense environment of the battlefield.

Using the propellant gas to ignite the fuse can better solve this problem, but this still requires some technical improvements. The mortar development of the Construction Bureau Research Institute is still young, and this is just an idea at present.

In addition to the wooden spiral fuse, another aspect of the Ming Dynasty mortar that was more advanced than that of Europe was gunpowder.

Although propellant and its primer, shrapnel explosive and its primer are all black powder, they use four different formulas and have different manufacturing processes to achieve different deflagration effects.

The mortars of the Ministry of the Army adopt European design, but the fuses and gunpowder use Ming Dynasty technology. This is the so-called combination of Chinese and Western cultures, learning from each other's strengths and making up for each other's weaknesses. This is also the unique advantage of Huiyou Company.

After dusk fell, ten light mortars were deployed behind the artillery forts. These ten artillery forts were located in front of the third parallel trench, which was actually the trench dug by Zheng's army before, only 70 steps away from the east wall of Xiamen.

The moonlight was still clear that night. Lin Hai opened the telescope on the watchtower in front of the military camp and clearly saw the artillerymen using a ruler to calculate the distance to the city wall in order to determine the amount of propellant to be used.

In order to simplify the launching device, this type of ten-pound mortar adopts a fixed-angle launching method. The gun body is fixed on the base at an elevation of 45 degrees. The range is adjusted by the amount of propellant used.

This mode is completely unacceptable for direct firepower such as cannons and long guns. It can only be applied to high-trajectory indirect firepower such as mortars and their predecessors, mortars. Howitzers with a ballistic curve between these two are generally not used.

Although the artillery post had a simple firing table to guide the charging of explosives, the range in the firing table was only applicable to flat ground. Xiamen City was more than two meters high, and the firing table could only be used as a reference. In reality, more shots had to be fired for test firing.

After the first round of ammunition was loaded, the two gunners cooperated to ignite the fuse of the shrapnel shell and the cord of the mortar. Lin Hai clearly saw a flash of fire at the vent, and then a tongue of flame spurted out of the muzzle.

With a bang, the shrapnel flew out from the muzzle, and the burning fuse sprayed sparks out, drawing a bright and beautiful parabola in the night sky.

As the flying speed of the shell was very slow, Lin Hai could even vaguely see the shell with his naked eyes. The shell ultimately failed to fly over the city wall, crashed into the city wall and fell into the moat.

"Second team, add one pound of propellant and try another shot." Artillery sentry Jiang Yu gave the order in the third parallel trench.

"Yes, captain!" After receiving the order, the personal soldier trotted all the way to the second team to pass on the message.

As a result, the second shot was fired too high and flew directly into Xiamen City. Of course, this shot was not in vain. Mortars were not only used to suppress the top of the city, but also to harass the city.

This was done over ten times in succession, and finally a shrapnel bomb exploded on the top of the city wall, instantly killing several pirates who were repairing the battlements.

The hit rate was much higher afterwards, with about 30% of the shrapnel successfully hitting the top of the city wall. The pirates didn't even dare to go up to the city wall, let alone fight back.

If Lin Hai didn't have those 20 -jin cannons, he could have used the mortars to cover the siege, but who told him that he hadn't played all the cards in his hand yet? No one in the Ming Dynasty had ever fought a siege as rich as the Huiyou Company. "Pass on my order, the mortars stop firing, and the auxiliary soldiers take turns firing rockets in teams..."

That night, the Army Department fired hundreds of rockets at Xiamen City from time to time, and occasionally sent a dozen shrapnel shells. Although the number of pirates killed was extremely limited, the afterfire of the burning rockets and the huge explosion of the shrapnel shells caused great panic to Zheng's army.

Lin Hai wanted to see if he could force Zheng Zhilong out in this way. After all, he had no reinforcements, and it would be a waste of morale if he kept playing coward.

If this method doesn't work, Lin Hai will try to use a 600-jin cannon to blow down the city wall. That would be a huge loss for the cannon. After all, the barrel life of a long-barreled cannon in this era is generally only 1000 to rounds.

Three days later, Zheng Zhilong still did not leave the city. Tongan County Magistrate Cao Lutai could not stand it any longer and came to Lin Hai overnight to say: "There are still Tongan people in Xiamen City. This kind of fighting will hurt innocent people. This county asks Lin Yourong to start attacking the city immediately to save our people from the water and fire."

"I will not attack the city by force unless the enemy troops leave." Lin Hai made his attitude clear. He didn't know that the people in the city had been almost slaughtered, but he didn't want to affect the rhythm of the siege.

When Magistrate Cao saw that Lin Hai was not buying it, he immediately took on the airs of a civil servant who was superior to others and asked angrily, "The purpose of suppressing bandits is to keep the people safe. How is Lin Yourong's tactics any different from those of a bandit?"

"Your words make sense, I will learn from your advice." Lin Hai said as he picked up a command arrow. "Taiwan Governor Zhu has entrusted me with the task of suppressing the bandits. I will order you, County Magistrate Cao, to lead the Tongan Township soldiers to attack the city. How do you think?"

"That's great..." Cao Lutai stepped forward and prepared to take the order.

"Wait a minute!" Lin Hai took back the command arrow. He kicked the ball to County Magistrate Cao in the hope that he would give up. Who would have thought that this county magistrate, who had just been released from his post as an official two years ago, would be so aggressive...

It seems that Magistrate Cao is really different from those civil servants who fire blanks all day long. He really cares about the people in the city. Although his behavior on the battlefield is a bit too soft-hearted, as a parent official, his feelings are sympathetic.

Lin Hai decided not to let such a good official go to his death: "County Magistrate Cao, I will decide to use heavy artillery to bombard the city wall of Xiamen from tomorrow to see if it can be blown down. If not, the Tongan Township soldiers will attack the city again."

That night, Lin Hai ordered the widening of the third parallel trench, and at the same time built twenty closely arranged artillery batteries in front of the trench.

Twenty 20-jin cannons were pushed to a distance of steps from the east wall of Xiamen, with each cannon only three meters apart, about the same distance as on the gun deck. In this way, these cannons could focus their fire on the same section of the wall.

The next morning, the bombardment of the city walls finally began. Auxiliary troops transporting ammunition shuttled back and forth in the trenches, and the sound of artillery fire under the city continued day and night.

Due to the prominent heat dissipation problem caused by long-term continuous firing, these 15-jin cannons can only fire once every ten minutes. However, there are a total of twenty cannons, so on average there is a deafening cannon shot every half a minute.

The roar of artillery fire lasted for two days and two nights. On the morning of the third day, the east wall of Xiamen collapsed after being hit by more than 6,000 artillery shells. The length of the collapsed wall was about 15 or 16 meters.

(End of this chapter)