Brocade clothing as the country

Chapter 767 Cannon
Since the Ming army came out of Datong Town to kill Hukou and entered the grassland, the artillery carried by the Huwei Army artillery has played a huge role, but several artillery have never fired.

These three cannons have never been fired. Although they have not been fired, these three cannons are the most labor-intensive during transportation. Thanks to the method of connecting the pack horses with soft leather ropes, the Huwei Army can discharge many horses in a file. , a full sixteen strong horses.

Even an ordinary single-horse and two-wheeled cart can carry about [-] to [-] catties of goods, and the goods that can be towed by sixteen strong horses are even heavier.

Except for the horses that are used a lot, there are spare gun carriages and carriages carrying the three artillery pieces, which are specially dragged by several horses. The carriage carriages are nothing more than iron frames with large iron or wooden wheels There is one set of cannons, and each of the three cannons is actually equipped with two sets.

Traveling on the road is also troublesome. At this time, the weather is extremely cold, and the Northland is extremely dry. The road surface is hard and hard, but the wheels of the cannon cart have been crushed into deep ruts. A good wooden plank bedding, or pushed by manpower, fortunately, it also walked down this road.

After the Tartar prisoners were exhausted under the city of Guihua, the three cannons were dragged forward, and immediately became the focus of the entire Ming army, not to mention the troops from Jizhen and Datong, even the Huwei army's own soldiers. Soldiers are watching.

About 260 steps away from the city is the artillery position of the Huwei Army. The line of sixteen horses dragged by them is very long, and it is impossible for the horses to stand out too much.

So the artillery stopped in front of the position, and the soldiers began to push and drag. A group of people chanted and pushed the artillery towards the marked position.

Most of the artillerymen of the Huwei Army have already stood in front of their artillery positions and prepared. Many of the artillerymen here are from Jizhen. They are also full of enthusiasm and full of expectations. Such artillery is obviously the last to be brought out. Artillery, what kind of power does it have?

At this point in the battle, the soldiers of the Ming army were not nervous anymore, and there were still people chatting loudly during the cannon launch:
"This cannon must weigh ten thousand catties. There are almost a hundred brothers coming here!"

Some people pushed the cannon directly, and others tied the rope to the cannon body and dragged it. A more mature voice replied loudly:

"If you want ten thousand catties, sixteen horses may not be able to drag it. There are still a few thousand catties more. Tsk tsk, look at the artillery made by Tianjin Wei. It looks neat. Look at our cannons. It's just as simple as comparing them." Worse!"

"A few days ago, I helped move the shells, and the shells weighed more than ten catties!"

"Twelve catties, all the people in their forbidden army are called twelve catties cannons. It's really amazing. Our general cannons can only hit ten catties of shells."

"When can we have such artillery?"

"I heard from the adults above that when I go back to Ji Town this time, I have to buy a few cannons from Tianjin Wei!"

The artillery gradually fell into place, and the artillerymen of the Huwei Army began to clean the barrel and load the ammunition. The gunpowder loaded by the Huwei Army was wrapped in cotton cloth. The artillery of any caliber had a fixed amount. After cleaning the barrel, the cloth bag was directly stuffed in. Then load the shells and tamp them down with wooden sticks.

The muzzles of nearly thirty artillery pieces weighing more than six kilograms were all aimed at the city wall facing the trench filling just now, and the rest of the artillery pieces were ready to move at any time.

Behind the artillery position, the infantry of each army retreated a certain distance, the generals yelled for them to line up and stand by, the cavalry also avoided, and Wang Tong and the personal soldiers of generals at all levels rode across the teams, yelling for them to line up. Everyone plugged their ears when they fired the cannon, and the cavalry also got the order early on. The cavalry used cloth strips to plug the ears of their mounts, and their own ears were also plugged with cotton balls.

With such a long distance, what effect can the artillery hit on the city wall, not to mention that it is still winter, at most it will smash the outer wall bricks, the rammed earth is still solid, and the defenders on the city head are standing on the crenels one after another. After hiding.

Cannons weighing less than six catties have driven wooden wedges into the middle of the gun mounts to raise the muzzle, and if someone pays attention, they will find that the firing rate of the three catties guns has also increased a little.

Wang Tong checked the cloth strips on his mount's ears, and said:
"Yang Jin still doesn't believe that he can enter the city today, he will believe it later, pass the order! Fire!!"

Loudly ordered, and the soldiers around him waved the red flag to convey the message. Mu En and Zhang Wu kept looking at this side. When they saw the red flag falling, Mu En and Zhang Wu looked at each other. Mu En shouted loudly:
"Are all the guns ready?"

Starting from the periphery, the small flags of the gunner next to each gun began to report sequentially, and Mu En said loudly again:
"Remember to cover your ears, you won't be able to hear such a happy movement after you're deaf!"

Everyone laughed in unison, Mu En took a deep breath, and shouted loudly:
"fire!!"

"Fire!!" "Fire!!!"

The sound was passed down one by one, and the artillerymen approached the fuse with a red-hot iron rod, and the fuse sizzled, and the world seemed to be quiet at this moment.

"Boom~~"

I don't know that the artillery next to that gun moved faster, I don't know which gun fired first, and the group of guns roared suddenly.

Even if you covered your ears and blocked your ears, you could still hear the shocking noise. The horses were shaken and ran wildly, neighing.

The ground seemed to be trembling and shaking, and some of the artillerymen in the artillery formation couldn't even control their balance, so they sat on the ground directly, covering their ears with their hands and dared not leave, falling very embarrassingly.

The infantry at the back, the cavalry cavalry approaching, and those in the front row all stared at the city wall in front of them with wide eyes, wanting to see the effect of such an astonishing shelling.

The gunpowder smoke filled the air, and nothing could be seen. Everyone's ears were buzzing, and they couldn't hear anything. They only felt that the battlefield was extremely quiet, and it took a while to recover.

There was wind on the battlefield, and the gunpowder smoke that filled the front of the city wall was quickly blown away by the wind. During this process, everyone also saw the appearance of the city wall that was bombarded.

Most of the upper half of the city wall was incomplete, as if some giant beast had bitten in mid-air. In fact, at such a height, the pawns could already climb and attack.

There was a burst of cheers from the Ming army formation, but Mu En, who was covering his ears, frowned. He stared at the direction of the city wall and said to himself:

"The position of the muzzle is wrong, the ammunition of the twelve-pound cannon has been reduced!!"

"The artillery suppressing the top of the city continues to fire. The twelve-pound cannon adds four or two ammunition, and the rest of the artillery prepares quickly. The second round of the heavy artillery is still a volley!!"

The cheers of the soldiers behind them, but the dilapidation of the city wall immediately boosted the morale of the artillerymen. They roared and rushed to reload the ammunition.

It is much easier to load the light cannons on the two wings of the artillery array. Their second round has already started. The range of the artillery was not enough, but the shells fell on the city bricks, and the debris was scattered everywhere, and no one dared to show up.

In fact, on the walls on both sides of the gap, there were not many people alive. The salvo of dozens of cannons caused the tremors on the walls to be extremely strong. Shock to death.

"fire!!!"

The roaring orders were issued one after another, and everyone hurriedly covered their ears. The ground was trembling again, and gunpowder smoke filled the air. When the gunpowder smoke that blocked the line of sight dissipated, the Ming army's array was quiet at first, and then burst into huge cheers, being bombarded. The wall of the city collapsed.

The collapsed city bricks and rammed earth formed an inclined plane. From the position of the Ming army, you can even see the buildings behind the city wall. At this time, you can attack the city. The Ming army soldiers are all gearing up to move forward. Mu En But he continued to urge his soldiers to load ammunition and prepare for the next round of shooting.

At this time, Wang Tong's personal soldiers rode over to deliver the order and shouted:
"The commander-in-chief ordered that the twelve-pound cannon and the nine-pound cannon fire three rounds into the gap, and the rest of the artillery continued to suppress the defenders on both sides of the gap. The muzzle was raised, and the army was ready to fill the trench!!"

Muen agreed loudly, and the artillerymen raised the muzzle with big mallets and wooden wedges, and then started shooting again. There were no guards exposed at the gap, and the muzzle of the dark artillery was facing directly. Who would dare to charge forward? court death.

But the opening of the city was opened, and the defenders must come up to block it, otherwise what is the meaning of the city? When the third round of artillery was about to be loaded, Tartar soldiers appeared at the gap, and the formation was very chaotic. Know whether to plug the gap or defend.

This immediately became the target of the heavy artillery. The loading of the three twelve-pound cannons was slow, but just at the moment when the defenders appeared, the artillery roared, and a piece of the defenders that had just appeared was immediately wiped out, and the heavy shells flew at high speed. However, everywhere he passed was blood and flesh, which was unstoppable.

It seems that those Tartar soldiers were driven behind, one wave went down, and another wave came up, but the rest of the heavy artillery shells fell on the edge of the gap, and the bricks and stones were blown up. The barrage, no one dared to come up again.

The shooting of the six-pound cannon, nine-pound cannon and twelve-pound cannon began to disperse. Their range is far, and they can hit the back of the city wall. Dumb fire, the place suppressed by light artillery, although there are no defenders at the top of the city, there are still sporadic stone bullets fired, but it has no effect.

"Fill the trench!!"

Wang Tong's order was issued again, the horses of the Tartars were captured, the carts of the Tartars were captured, filled with the earth, stone and debris that had just been dismantled, and they began to move towards the trench. The artillery had started to shoot sporadically, and the carts slowly came out. , heading towards the ditch.

(End of this chapter)