The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

Cannon.

The Ming Dynasty has always had it.

The standard firearms in the Ming army can be roughly called the Hongwu Yongle series of firearms.

This is because the rebels led by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang used it the most, and made great contributions to the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, after the founding of the country, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang continued to take various effective measures to develop weapons manufacturing, standardize and unify the primary firearms created in the Yuan Dynasty, and develop them into the Hongwu series of firearms including three types of large, medium and small according to the needs of actual combat.

The first is a hand cannon equipped for individual use, the second is a medium-sized bowl-mouth cannon equipped on warships and pass guards, and the third is a large cannon specially used for city defense fortresses.

For example, when Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Pingjiang, which was known as the "first strong city", he ordered people to build a large wooden tower and sent firearms soldiers to bombard it with fire guns and Xiangyang cannons day and night. It is hard to imagine the scene in the cold weapon era. Zhang Shicheng's army was desperately defending the city. There were cannons bombarding from above and soldiers attacking from below. The whole city was shaking and thundering. After the war, the Ming army on the wooden tower came down. The whole city became a hell on earth. The advantage of firearms left a profound impact on the war.

Later, Emperor Taizong Yongle was severely hit by Sheng Yong with cannons during the Jingnan Campaign, and he deeply realized the power of firearms. So Zhu Di established the Shenjiying after he became emperor. In addition, Zhang Fu obtained the Annan firearms method after conquering Annan, and absorbed craftsmen such as Hu Yuancheng, and thus established the "Three Axe Combat System to Kill You".

The Shenji Battalion was composed of three battalions: chariots, infantry, and cavalry. Before the war began, the chariot battalion used artillery and long-range muskets to carry out full-coverage bombardment, and then the infantry battalion fired muskets with all their guns, suppressing the enemy with firepower. Finally, the cavalry battalion charged to the enemy with three-eyed muskets with a shorter range (in the early days, it was pure mace, and then the three-eyed musket was invented. After the three-eyed musket ran out of gunpowder, it was used as a mace) and fired fiercely, and then swung the mace to clean up the remaining enemies.

This was the earliest artillery and cavalry, infantry and artillery coordinated combat tactics in the world at that time, and the Shenji Battalion was also the world's first firearms special forces.

Emperor Taizong Wen relied on this tactic of the Shenji Battalion to conquer Mongolia five times, and beat the enemy to tears and scream, and fled in panic. From then on, firearms officially established their irreplaceable and important position in war.

However, after Hongwu and Yongle, the firearms of the Ming Dynasty did not develop. Instead, they fell into a stagnant stage due to the deliberate suppression of civil officials and gentry. The officers and soldiers were reluctant to use firearms in combat because the firearms were crudely made and easy to explode.

The firearms of the Ming Dynasty are divided into two categories. The first category is the fire guns and bird guns that are fired by hand. They are small in shape and caliber. Generally, the barrels are filled with lead bullets and iron bullets. The range is only tens of steps to two hundred steps; the second category is the cannons with large calibers and shapes installed on the mount. Most of the barrels are filled with stones, lead, iron, etc., commonly known as "solid bullets", and a few are filled with explosive balls. The range is generally hundreds of steps to two or three miles. They are mainly used for guarding and attacking cities, as well as field battles, water battles and naval battles.

This is the standard firearm used by Ming soldiers today.

The Beijing army soldiers only marched lightly during the expedition to Hetao this time, and did not carry heavy artillery, because it would be inconvenient to advance and retreat, which would greatly slow down the marching speed.

So in this first battle, An Guo only brought some easy-to-carry tiger squat cannons, as well as the Lumi guns and three-eyed guns he carried with him.

Because the iron smelting technology of the Ming Dynasty still had defects and was not very developed.

Therefore, the firearms craftsmen in the army could not produce heavy firearms such as cannons on a large scale. Zhongshan Hou Tang Hao could only settle for the second best and draw the drawings of the tiger squat cannon, and offer rewards to encourage the firearms craftsmen of the Shenjiying, finally making this light artillery come out ahead of time.

Speaking of the tiger squat cannon, we have to mention the national hero Qi Jiguang, the famous anti-Japanese general in the middle and late Ming Dynasty!

When Qi Jiguang was fighting against Japanese pirates on the southeast coast, he found that bird guns and Portuguese guns were not satisfactory when used. "Although bird guns are accurate, they are weak, difficult to defend against large groups, difficult to defend against obstacles, and difficult to show their might." "Portuguese guns are heavier and more difficult to carry." Therefore, Qi Jiguang prepared to make a firearm that is more powerful than bird guns and can defend against large groups of enemies. Finally, he made a light artillery, which is the famous "Tiger Crouching Cannon".

In order to facilitate shooting, the cannon was placed in a fixed posture, which looks like a tiger squatting, so the Tiger Crouching Cannon got its name.

The Tiger Crouching Cannon "is better than bird guns, one can be worth a hundred"; it is lighter than Portuguese guns, easier to carry, has strong mobility in field battles, and can control dangerous places for defense.

The Tiger Crouching Cannon is not powerful. To put it bluntly, it is an early mortar style. Because the cannon barrel is thin, the range is not far, about 500 meters, and it is a cannon that mainly fires indirect fire.

But the advantage of the Tiger Crouching Cannon lies in the word flexibility.

Its slender barrel makes it more suitable for mountain warfare. It is flexible and can be fired at a high angle and equipped in large numbers with grassroots troops. It is suitable for combat areas such as mountains, forests and paddy fields that hinder the mobility of artillery. Compared with the European mortars of the same period, it is more advanced and easy to carry, far better than those heavy artillery!

"Artillery ready!"

On the top of the city, An Guo shouted sternly.

Unlike the Wuliangha bastards.

To treat those bastards, they are killed as much as possible, there is nothing to say.

The hatred between the Wuliangha tribe and the Ming Dynasty is even deeper than that of the Tatar Wala.

Who made these bastards not obedient and repeatedly rebelled to act as the vanguard and guide of the Tatar Wala?

But these right-wing Mongols in front of them are different!

An Guo did not forget the task assigned by Zhongshan Hou.

We must fight and win.

But we must hurt the right-wing Mongols and make them clearly realize the strength of the Ming army. Only then can they regain their respect for the Ming Dynasty and sit down to discuss fighting against Dayan Khan together!

Then, using artillery is undoubtedly the best choice!

After receiving the order, the artillerymen on the top of the city took a deep breath.

After they observed the distance and adjusted the direction, they immediately fixed the gun body to the ground with a large iron nail to prevent the recoil from overturning the gun body.

This tiger squat cannon is simply the most simple mortar, like a large grenade launcher with a low depression angle.

It is precisely because the gun body is too light that it must be fixed to the ground with a large iron nail before firing.

Moreover, each time it is fired, it can be loaded with 100 small lead bullets or small stones weighing five cents, and a large lead bullet or large stone bullet weighing thirty taels is used to press the top. When fired, large and small bullets fly out together, making a thunderous sound, with great lethality and radiation range, which is especially suitable for field battles.

"Fire!"

"Bomb him for me!"

An Guo gave an order.

The artillery that had been prepared long ago fired quickly, and a row of thirty tiger squat cannons suddenly made a deafening volley of artillery, aiming directly at the right-wing Mongolian cavalry that was charging.

In an instant, stones and lead bullets shot out all over the sky, heading straight for the right-wing cavalry!

Thirty tiger squat cannons fired in volleys, and in an instant, the bullets in front of the battle array were dense like rain, and they shot over the sky.

"Not good!"

"Retreat quickly!"

Mandulai's face changed drastically, and he hurriedly gave orders.

He never thought that these Ming troops were so cunning!

Although they had firearms and artillery, they had never used them. They deliberately showed weakness to lure them into the trap and launched a desperate attack!

Those damn Wuliangha bastards were probably wiped out!

And he himself might follow in their footsteps!

Mandulai discovered the Ming army's plan in time!

But he was still a step too late.

Tang Hao had the most say in the power of the tiger squat cannon, which was better than the crossbow in terms of range.

Although the tiger squat cannon did not fire the kind of shells that could explode in later generations, hundreds of lead bullets exploded, which was actually no different from the explosion of shells, and the lethality was equally amazing.

On the battlefield, facing the dense locust-like projectiles that were shooting all over the sky, the right wing cavalry did not even have time to react, and was directly shot into a sieve and fell in a pool of blood.

The right-wing cavalry had never thought that the Ming army's firearms were so fierce. At the beginning, they formed a dense charge formation, so that they could not even turn around under the huge inertia. They could only rush forward and rush towards the Ming army's artillery and firearms, and instantly became a rare good target!

The artillery fired the tiger squat cannon, and the musketeers were not idle either.

After a long period of training, they were already familiar with the firing steps and could fire the muskets with their eyes closed.

After the front row of musketeers finished firing, they quickly retreated to the back, and the second row of musketeers took over. When they finished firing, it was the third row, and so on and so forth, which greatly improved the efficiency of musket firing.

However, in the blink of an eye, the right-wing cavalry that had been howling and charging before was now wailing all over the field, with internal organs flying, limbs scattered all over the ground, countless people with broken hands and feet, and those who rushed to the front were even shot into sieves.

Their fall caused the right wing cavalry formation to be in chaos, but the dense lead bullets kept shooting at them, giving them no chance to resist. One after another, the right wing cavalry fell in a pool of blood, either dying on the spot or being trampled into meat paste by the horses behind them.

Because the distance was too close, the right wing cavalry could not stop charging at all, and there was no room for buffering. They could only keep moving forward and face the rain of bullets from the Ming army!

After the artillery soldiers finished firing, they continued to load the second round of ammunition, while the fire gun soldiers filled this time gap, and according to the three-stage shooting trained on weekdays, they madly poured the lead bullets in the fire guns at these Mongolian barbarians.

In just a blink of an eye, the right wing cavalry, which was originally invincible, was instantly beaten and wailed all over the field, with broken limbs and arms everywhere, and blood flowers flying all over the sky, but not a single complete person could be seen.

Even Mandu Lai was almost hit by the lead bullets fired by the tiger squat cannon, but fortunately his personal guards threw him off the horse in time, so he escaped and saved his life.

But his personal guards died because of this. The lead bullet weighed thirty taels, and the kinetic energy of the gunpowder burst directly penetrated the personal guards in the waist, turning them into "two people".

The upper body of the personal guard fell to the ground, and the warhorse continued to attack with his lower body on its back.

Mandulai never figured out how the firearms could be so powerful!

As an old man in the army, he had used firearms before. After all, the Mongols had fought with the Ming army for so many years, and they always had some captured firearms and were used to this kind of battlefield weapon that made a lot of noise.

But that thing was easy to explode, and it couldn't hit the enemy, so it had long been abandoned by the Mongolian warriors.

Especially for the Mongolian cavalry, the firearms were useless.

Compared with these fire guns, the Mongolian warriors believed more in the scimitars and bows in their hands!

Even if the enemy controlled the firearms, at most they would charge for a while, sacrifice the front-line cavalry, and wait until the enemy was silent, and then they would just charge over and chop them all down, and they would never give them a chance to resist.

However, in today's battle, he witnessed with his own eyes the correct way to use firearms, and also personally experienced the terrifying lethality of firearms!

However, the price he paid for this was fatal.

The 5,000 elite cavalry that Mandulai brought with him were killed or wounded in the blink of an eye!

And he, the great lord of the right wing of Mongolia, was directly captured by the Ming army!