Number of People

  Chapter 1944 Guizi Juan crossing the sea and beheading long whales to fight in an all-out way, life and death are so difficult

   "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The projectile drew a not-so-straight arc in the air, and hit the city gate with huge and unparalleled potential energy, breaking through the city gate in an instant. Unable to resist the huge impact force from the gunpowder, a terrifying hole was formed in the city gate.

  The more than a dozen soldiers clustered behind the city gate were like rolling melon mud, **** and bloody, and their limbs were scattered all around. The screams, cries, and calls for help were endless, and it was extremely tragic.

At this time, not many people can take care of these at all. The follow-up shield vehicles in the city hurriedly pushed up, intending to block the broken city gate. Everyone knows that this is the most important place. Once it is broken, Then everything will be over.

But immediately after that, two more shells concentrated on the city gate, and five or six seemingly solid shield vehicles were instantly shattered and disintegrated under the impact of such projectiles that could not be resisted by manpower, and took away 20 or 30 soldiers by the way. His life, leaving a city gate hole like a gourd strung with blood.

You Shilu's eyes were cold, he took back the binoculars, and handed it to the soldiers around him, "Order the front army to prepare, and when the walls around the North City Gate are broken, they will start fighting. After half an hour, I want to see the North City The door is in our hands."

  The early contact battle in the old city was very difficult. You Shilu has been reprimanded by Sun Chengzong twice.

  You Shilu also has some problems here, the main reason is the lack of firearms troops, and the number of cavalry troops going south this time is even thinner, so he always feels constrained, which makes him very dissatisfied.

In Sun Shaozu's Datong Army, there were quite a few cavalry troops, and they cooperated with the Datong Army very tacitly. They adopted a steady wandering method in the north and west of Gucheng County. The army harassed from the flanks, making it difficult for the Jizhen army to gain an advantage, and then retreated steadily to Gucheng County in this way.

   For this reason, Sun Chengzong angrily reprimanded You Shilu for delaying the fighter plane in order to preserve his strength. He originally asked him to enter the old city within ten days, but it was delayed until 20 days. The two also clashed constantly in letters.

You Shilu also knew that if he couldn't perform well in the battle of the old city, he would be caught by Sun Chengzong in the future to say right and wrong, so he was annoyed and prepared to let go when the army finally approached the old city. wrestled.

More than a dozen bronze cannons were slowly pushed to the ground less than 300 steps away from the city gate. Soldiers continued to wring the winch to raise the muzzle, and there were two special auxiliary soldiers beside them to calculate the shooting angle and Distance, in order to be able to achieve the best shooting accuracy.

Jizhen should be the first batch to start reforming the artillery team. In addition to the innovation in the production process of copper cannons, Jizhen and Liaodong Town were recruited from Guangdong and Luzon almost at the same time. Several Xiyi missionaries and gunners, on the one hand, taught how to use the new copper cannon, and on the other hand began to learn the distance measurement and calculation of the new copper cannon.

Fortunately, after Feng Ziying let Duan Xigui start to learn and popularize the earliest new arithmetic and double-entry bookkeeping among merchant apprentices, a large number of the most basic students were trained, so when Liaodong Town and Ji Town Artillery Team realized this understanding When the students of arithmetic and distance calculation methods are very useful, they naturally become thirsty for talents. In addition to recruiting many people, they also began to actively train such soldiers.

I have to say that Feng Ziying's request to Duan Xigui in Linqing and Datong recruited a large number of children from distant branches of the Feng family and the Duan family to learn arithmetic and double-entry bookkeeping. This group of people studied for a year, Then he worked in Haitong Yinzhuang and the related Gyeonggi Coal, Iron and Military Industry Complex, which played the role of a seed. In Haitong Yinzhuang and Gyeonggi Coal, Iron and Military Industry Complex, this kind of training and teaching method is similar to that of night schools. A large number of apprentices who are proficient in calculation and double-entry bookkeeping, some of them were recruited into the artillery team of the army.

With a foundation in arithmetic, after being taught by Xiyi gunners, the new copper cannon even underwent two rounds of improvements, especially by adjusting the angle of the muzzle with a winch to quickly complete the aiming problem of the gun carriage in progress, which also made the original rather cumbersome and slow The effectiveness of the cannon cart has been greatly improved.

   "Ready! Put!"

   Another round of violent bombardment, more than a dozen bronze cannons roared one after another, spewing out huge projectiles, flying out along a sharp arc, and heading straight for the city gate.

Two of the projectiles hit the gate tower, one hit the pillar of the gate tower, and the other hit the eaves of the gate tower slightly higher. Amid the loud noise, the gate could no longer hold back With strength, it collapsed, crushed and injured many soldiers, the smoke and dust covered the sky, and the entire city gate was in chaos.

You Shilu looked away from the binoculars in satisfaction, and smiled: "Very good, this round was played well, but the Datong Army is not an idler, I didn't expect that Sun Shaozu didn't think there was anything amazing about it. However, they trained this group of soldiers to be quite fierce, and under such a fierce attack, they still haven't lost their positions,..."

"My lord, this old city is a key part of the iron triangle on the northern line. If we lose the old city, the flank of Dezhou will be completely exposed to us, and the canal will be easily cut off by us. It is impossible for Sun Shaozu not to understand this. , he must put his elite here, and if he loses it here, the leader of the army may have to sacrifice his head when he goes back."

The one who answered was You Shilu's confidant Li Sanwang, who has rhubarb teeth, a lion's head nose, and a beard. He looks even ferocious, but he is a good fighter, especially when he charges into battle and fights with a hand-to-hand blade. enemy.

"Well, it's no wonder that this group of people risked their lives to counterattack. The power of this kind of artillery can actually be resisted by manpower. Those shield vehicles are very useful against the artillery team, but in front of the artillery team, they are like chickens and dogs. , crashed with one blow, it is useless at all.”

   Speaking of this, You Shilu was a little shocked by the scene he saw in the binoculars just now.

Although the artillery bombardment was actually used in the drill, it was a drill after all, and in view of the life of the gun barrel, it was very rare to be able to fire two rounds for the soldiers under him to see and see, but today he is considered I really saw what it means to be destroyed and what it means to be invincible.

Originally, I always thought that with the intensive shooting of the firecrackers and the change of formation at any angle, even in the face of cavalry, as long as you choose a suitable position, you can be fearless. You Shilu has already felt the power of this hot weapon more and more. , but after seeing the power of the artillery team today, he has already made up his mind. After this battle, he must ask his brother to transfer the other two artillery teams to him. This is really useful for the siege battle.

There was another round of bangs. You Shilu, who leaned forward while thinking, subconsciously raised the binoculars to observe again. This round of shelling obviously lowered the height, and almost all of them poured on the line of the city wall centered on the city gate. On the ground, the bricks and stones of the city wall continued to collapse, and then became crumbling. Finally, when a projectile hit the upper end of a crack in the middle of the city wall, the city wall less than five steps away from the city gate collapsed. .

"Nice job!" You Shilu waved his hand violently, his face flushed, and roared excitedly: "This time the city is broken, and the artillery team will take the lead. I will ask the court for their credit and order The firecracker team immediately followed up and opened the gap!"

The flag bearer on the high place behind You Shilu immediately started waving the red, black, and white tricolor flags in his hands, using the flag to instruct the firecrackers in front to start attacking, and the observers who had been keeping an eye, saw the command transmitted by the flag, And convey the order to the commander who led the firecracker team.

The firecracker team that had already lined up at the back was accompanied by a stern whistle, one long and three short, and the firecrackers began to move forward silently with their guns, and the formation was slightly enlarged compared to the previous assembly. So that the pace can be doubled.

And the spearmen swarming from both sides and the sword shield players who are partially covered by diarrhea also began to spread out. Their speed is slightly faster than the gunners, because they have to provide two wings for the gunners who are about to strike. protection, in order to maximize the advantage of firepower.

You Shilu's firecracker team does not have heavy firecrackers like turtledoves. Almost all of his equipment is light firecrackers, mainly matchlock guns. Among them, there are a small amount of self-generated firecrackers as his personal soldiers, or as The reserve team has less than 300 people.

   But the equipment of this bodyguard team was all he painstakingly obtained from Feng Ziying through his relationship with the consortium, and the money has not been paid yet.

The price of matchlock guns is much cheaper than that of self-generated firecrackers, but the steps to use are much more complicated. However, for big soldiers, they practice all day long, so this is not a big problem. It is better than becoming a skilled gunner. Archers don't know how much easier it is.

As the firecracker team approached, the entire city wall and the Datong army that was crazily blocking the gap also poured out from the gap. They knew very well that if they didn't disrupt these firecracker teams when they assembled and formed, then they could only become Survive the target, and no one will be spared around this gap.

Seeing hundreds of people pouring out of the gap, the whistle of the experienced officer became short and fierce, and the spear team suddenly accelerated like a pair of pokers piercing and closing in the middle, firmly withstood the enemy who wanted to charge, and The blunderbuss team, who had been at their leisure, began to raise their guns in an orderly manner, aiming. Their target was not the assault camp in front, but the crossbowmen on the city wall who were still guarding the city.

   First of all, deal with these people and completely eliminate their threat. Then these infantry lose their support, and they can only wait to die.

   It's getting better, let's make it up slowly. A new volume, a new beginning.

  (end of this chapter)