Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chen Gu wrote the last eight letters to Yunhua, asking Yunhua to make a certain inclination towards Guangdong when Zhang Haomin divided the military equipment.

At the same time, Chen Jue also asked Scar and Roadblock to apply for rockets from Chongqing.

Facts have proved that Chen Gu's worries were unnecessary. There is no need for Yunhua to step forward at all. When Scar's memorial was sent to Chongqing urgently, Wu Qing'er agreed to Scar's request for a large number of rockets without hesitation.

Because Chen Gu's faked death caused great panic among China's high-ranking officials who were unaware of the situation, and they were wary that the Qing court would take this opportunity to counterattack, China's armament manufacturing and new army training were expanded on a large scale.

When Chen Gu was in power, in order to ensure absolute financial security, the silver in the bank was basically not used. The method of fighting to support the war was adopted. In addition, the development of people's livelihood came from taxes from various places.

Today, large amounts of silver are being withdrawn from banks across China to expand armaments and the army. As for matters concerning people's livelihood such as building bridges and roads, they have to be put aside for the time being.

Therefore, China's military equipment was actually very sufficient at that time and was supposed to be distributed to all directions. Not to mention the military equipment requested by Scar, even the military equipment requested by Lao Piao was also met.

This made Lao Piao, who had received the armaments and 20,000 main reinforcements, a little confused about how to make military plans.

Twenty thousand main reinforcements, plus sufficient armaments, were enough to capture Nanjing, but Chongqing wanted him to maintain the status quo for the time being, as there would be reinforcements later, and they had to make sure everything was foolproof before launching an attack.

Moreover, Chen Gu did not want him to continue to capture cities. It was not that Chen Gu was afraid that he could not win, but because China did not have enough officials, so he adopted a steady and cautious strategy.

But even though they had enough strength and sufficient armaments, they still left Nanjing unattacked. Lao Piao was a little itchy, but thinking of Chen Gu's instructions, Lao Piao finally chose to keep his troops in place and planned to wait until Chen Gu solved the problem in Guangdong before attacking Nanjing.

More than a month after Lao Piao received the arms, Chen Gu received the rockets shipped from Chongqing.

The first generation of rockets were made of simple bamboo poles, similar to a large firework, with a flying distance of only about one kilometer. Moreover, due to the irregularity of the bamboo poles, where the first generation of rockets flew depended entirely on luck, and there was no accuracy at all.

The second generation of rockets was changed into a round wooden barrel, which was made of eight small wooden boards assembled into a cylindrical shape. Due to its regular shape, its accuracy was greatly improved. At the suggestion of Chen Gu, a tail fin was added, which allowed it to fly farther.

Lao Piao used the second generation of rockets when attacking Jingzhou.

Today's rockets have developed to the third generation, which is made of ceramic warheads and wooden cylinders. At the same time, the amount of explosives has been improved, so they can fly farther, have higher accuracy, and have stronger explosive power.

There was a rocket on the ground that was two meters long and ten centimeters in diameter. Scar walked around the rocket and asked, "Can this thing really fly ten miles?"

"It should be possible!" Chen Gu said uncertainly.

A range of 5,000 meters is nothing. Everyone knows about rockets with a range of 5,000 kilometers. However, in this era, being able to fly 5,000 meters and hit the enemy is really amazing. It is simply an unstoppable weapon.

If there are enough of these things, attacking cities and capturing strongholds will become a piece of cake.

Of course, the number could not be too large. Only two hundred rockets were transported this time. It was definitely enough to blow up the city wall of Luoding City, but it was far from enough to cover the entire city, let alone directly kill all of Rong An’s 10,000 main forces.

After all, no matter how powerful your weapon is, people will still dodge it.

Weapons are not omnipotent, let alone this batch of rockets. Even the more powerful weapons in later generations cannot be omnipotent.

Wars ultimately require people to drive them. Compared to weapons, the soft power of the army, such as morale, training, and faith, is more important. Especially faith, an army with faith can do many incredible things.

The Manchu army, which was rife with corruption, had long lost its faith. In comparison, the Chinese army absolutely had faith. Chen Kuang's executioner was their faith, having enough food and clothing was also their faith, and fighting against a Han dynasty so that everyone would no longer be enslaved, and many other things were their faith.

"Do we really need to conduct a test fire in advance?" The roadblock finally confirmed with Chen Gu while holding a small hammer.

"We must do a test launch first!" Chen Gu nodded.

The stumbling block did not hesitate. He ordered his guards to move the rocket to the launch pad, and then hit the tail of the rocket with the hammer in his hand.

This is a waterproof design achieved by Wu Hua. The first and second generation rockets were all ignition-launched. Considering that ignition would be greatly affected on rainy days, the third generation rocket chose percussion ignition. It only required a mechanism with a flint to be installed at the tail.

After the rocket was fired, red and green flames immediately emerged from the tail. With a sharp "whoosh" sound, the rocket flew out instantly. In about two or three seconds, the rocket hit the distant hilltop.

"Boom~!"

After an explosion, a ball of fire with a diameter of four or five meters emerged, followed by a thick smoke rising up, and occasionally gravel and branches could be seen flying everywhere.

"It's so powerful!" Scar murmured in amazement.

The roadblock was also very surprised and said: "The description in the internal military newspaper is not so powerful!"

Chen Gu thought for a moment and said, "I think Wu Hua must have made some improvements. Especially with such a big fire, gasoline must have been added."

Unfortunately, the rocket only came with a simple instruction manual, but no detailed instructions on how to manufacture the rocket.

Chen Ke only had the detailed manufacturing instructions for the second-generation rockets, and he had no idea about the specific details of the third-generation rockets.

"How about it? Do you have the confidence to take over Luoding City?" asked Chen Gu.

"Of course there must be!" Scar said with a smile.

The roadblock nodded and said, "With rockets of this magnitude, wouldn't it be easy to take over Luoding City?"

"Don't be careless. Although rockets are powerful, they are not omnipotent. If you can't defeat the enemy, you can hide. If you get into a street fight, even if you win, the losses will inevitably be huge. So, it is better to make a good battle plan first.

We must maximize the power of this rocket and destroy as much of the enemy's combat power as possible, so that we can suffer less losses in the next battle.

Winning a war is not important, the most important thing is how to reduce your losses. "Chen Gu reminded.

(End of this chapter)