The auxiliary soldiers pushed the artillery cart forward slowly. The Qing army's Hongyi artillery could shoot within a mile and a half to ensure accuracy and avoid being concentrated by the Ming army's firepower because the distance was too close. Although this was only

It is within the normal scope of a front-loaded smoothbore gun, but its caliber, range, and especially its scale really make people feel terrified when they look at it.

The artillery of the Qing army slowly advanced, and this time their target was the north fortress of the Lufeng Twin Fortresses. They concentrated their firepower and destroyed it a little bit. With the assistance of Xu Degong and Lien Decheng, two trusted commanders who had experienced battles for a long time, Geng Jimao

There won't be any big mistakes in decision-making.

Arriving at the designated artillery position, the auxiliary soldiers stopped the artillery carriage under the order of the gunner commander. Next, fixing, aiming, loading, and correction were all carried out step by step, while the Ming army was still deathly silent.

, if it weren’t for the fact that the Ming army could still be seen from the Half-Moon Fort and the Main Fort, they might have had some daydreams about the empty city strategy.

The operation of the Hongyi cannon was cumbersome. After struggling for a while, the red cannons one after another were loaded. There was still no movement from the Ming army. It seemed that the range of the artillery was not enough to cause an effective impact on the Qing artillery.

threaten.

I learned from the Qing army who participated in the previous battle that the artillery range of the Ming army's fortress could not reach such a long distance. The Qing army's artillery was confident and had done everything. They only waited for an order from the artillery officer.

The fuses of the artillery were lit in sequence.

"Dong...dong...dong...dong..."

The artillerymen of the Qing army covered their ears tightly, and the seventy-three red cannons fired one after another. The speeding shells broke through the curtain of fire and gunpowder smoke at a speed invisible to the naked eye.

The sight of the Qing army narrowed rapidly. But while the Qing army's sight shrank rapidly, the Ming army's sight grew rapidly. The Qing army's artillery shells roared in, and only the first shot hit the impact in front of the moat.

On the slope, the impact immediately stirred up a patch of mud on the slope, leaving a horrific crater.

The crater was still smoking, but the shells from behind came one after another. The huge kinetic energy of the instantaneous burning of the gunpowder not only fired the shells out, but also made them contain huge kinetic energy, which could only compete with the Ming army's defenses.

At the slightest contact, large amounts of plaster, river water, and even fragments of bricks, stones, rammed earth, and smoke were blown up on the impact slope, on the banks of the moat, and even on the walls of the Half-Moon Fort.

The first round of shooting seemed to last for a long time. The ears of the Qing army and the sight of the Ming army were completely overwhelmed by the roar of artillery fire and the smoke and vibration when the artillery shells came into contact with the ground, river water and protective walls.

Geng Jimao was still quite a distance away, but wherever he could see, the Qing army's artillery shells covered the Ming army's impact slope, moat, and even the Half-Moon Fort wall like a rain curtain. Although the actual damage was almost zero, but so

The magnificent momentum can already have an excellent effect just on boosting morale.

The momentum of the bombardment is so high. Next, readjust the artillery, re-aim, and fire again to hit the target more accurately. Once you think about the continuous bombardment, the outer wall of the castle will be destroyed bit by bit, and the Ming people who defend the city will be destroyed.

The soldiers were bombarded to death and were stunned on and off the fort wall. Then they rushed in and killed all the undead. They rushed across the pontoon and entered the troubled land where war had not affected the place for several years.

"This is just the beginning!"

Geng Jimao sneered, and the Qing army's artillery crew had already begun to prepare for the next round of shooting. The Hongyi artillery is a removable front-loading smoothbore cannon. Every time it is fired, it will seriously deviate from the original shooting position. The Qing army

The first thing the artillery crew did after the first firing was to reset the artillery and restore it to its original firing position.

This work requires the joint efforts of gunners and auxiliary soldiers, because the weight of red barbarian cannons of the caliber of the Qing army, which should be twelve or eighteen pounds according to British calculations, is unimaginable.

The Qing army worked hard to restore the artillery to the position and general direction when it was fired. Then, the cleaners first used a hook to pull out the remaining cloth, and then used a brush dipped in water to penetrate the muzzle of the gun to extinguish the unburned material inside.

Gunpowder residue. After the gunpowder residue is completely extinguished, the residue will be brushed out by a brush, and the cleaner will use the barrel wrapped in dry cloth to wipe the inside of the muzzle dry.

After the artillery fire, the gun body is already hot, so wiping it with a dry cloth combined with the evaporation caused by the self-heating of the gunfire makes this task much easier.

Next, use a wooden shovel to scoop out the gunpowder from the gunpowder barrel, aim it at the muzzle and send it down. After a few shovels, it is estimated that the amount is enough, then compact it, and then wrap the cannonball with cloth to slow it down.

Slowly go in. At this time, the gunner has also used his eyes, arms, and fingers to constantly adjust, or use various tools to re-estimate the required angle and direction, and the gunners will follow the gunner's orders to move the gun

Make final adjustments.

Unlike the rear-loaded Folan cannon and various front-loaded guns produced and improved in China, this kind of artillery is powerful and has an amazing range, but each shelling takes too much time, even for the most skilled in this era.

It also took British gunners up to two minutes to complete a reload. In this time, the cavalry was enough to kill all the artillery crews, and the infantry was long enough to line up far away from the direction where their last shot was aimed, even as far away as France.

The machine guns, not to mention the four muskets, even if there were 14 or 24 muskets, they would have been used up long ago.

The slow reloading speed is a great test of the endurance of the gun crew members, because normally they reload during a duel, but this time the firing ranges of the two sides are very unequal, and they seem to be taking a leisurely stroll.

.

I don’t know how much time passed, but the reloading work was finally over. The gunners of each artillery had already adjusted the shooting angles. Generally speaking, they wanted to move the aiming target forward to avoid all the shells like last time.

Hit the impact slope and moat in completely useless places.

The Qing army is about to fire artillery again, and the officers of the artillery team are already waiting for reports on the completion of loading and aiming of each gun battery. Ten guns, nine guns, eight guns, there are fewer and fewer gun batteries that have not been completely completed, and as this process

, the intervals are getting shorter and shorter.

"Four doors...three doors...two doors..."

There is only one last gun left, and the officer is already a little impatient, but this type of artillery requires extremely complicated steps, and no mistakes can be made in any step, otherwise all previous efforts may be wasted, or even unnecessary casualties may be caused.

In fact, this is normal. There is nothing new about such a powerful weapon. It is dangerous. It is nothing more than making it perfect, which means spending more time. Anyway, now it is also a one-sided bombardment, and the opponent can only stare at it.

With.

As far as the officer could see, the gun group was actually not too far away, and he could still see its general movement. Now, it was basically done. All that was left was the final adjustment of the angle, and even this had been done.
Chapter completed!