Under the command of Chen Jiugao, the Ming army's artillery array on the hill has been deployed, and various large and small guns are being intensively debugged, calibrating the range and firing range, cleaning the gun bores, loading sub-charges and cannon balls, and other preparations.
According to the inherent tactics of the Shenji Battalion, these artillery pieces will be deployed behind a wall of tanks. They will be divided into several batches and fired in turn according to the range of each gun. They will then be used in conjunction with the firecrackers and rocket vehicles in the hands of the sergeants.
In this way, at appropriate distances, various types of artillery fire, such as cannons, rockets, etc., continued to fire, taking turns until the enemy's front army collapsed. The cavalry troops lined up behind the artillery array then rushed out intensively to drive away the remaining enemies.
Pursue to expand the victory.
This type of tactics was formed during Chengzu's Northern Expedition and has been passed down in the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years, so the tactics of the Shenji Battalion are still very mature.
However, at the end of each dynasty, many systems, tactics, etc. that were established in the past will collapse. The Shenji Battalion is one of them. Now the Shenji Battalion no longer has cavalry that can fight, but only hides in the battle.
Behind the car, there were frightened firemen firing cannons and cannons.
I saw several gunners waiting beside each of the artillery in the artillery formation, including observers, loaders, chamber cleaners and other soldiers.
Among these soldiers were the observers, whose armor was the most gorgeous and eye-catching. You could tell at a glance that they were descendants of distinguished nobles, because their speech and behavior were similar to those of Chen Jiugao and Fu Yingchong.
Since the Hongyi cannon was introduced to China during the Wanli period, it has cylindrical lugs on both sides of the center of gravity of the cannon body. The cannon can adjust the shooting angle based on this axis, change the range according to the amount of gunpowder, and is equipped with a front sight and a light.
The ballistic trajectory of the door was calculated based on a parabola, and the accuracy was very high. It was copied by Fujian Province at that time.
Later, due to frequent wars in Liaodong, in the second year of Tianqi, the artillery introduced from the Portuguese by the Western French Party led by Xu Guangqi through the church was called the Red Yi Cannon for the first time.
Since then, the process of large-scale imitation and improvement of Hongyi cannons has begun. The copper-iron composite version of Hongyi cannons imitated and improved by the Ming Dynasty was once mentioned in "Gunpowder" written by Tonio Andrade, a Portuguese-born East Asian historian.
Times", it was called "one of the best artillery pieces in the world in the seventeenth century."
Within the Ming Dynasty, it was also believed that the skills of sighting and shooting of the Hongyi cannon were actually military secrets and should not be known to the Northern and Eastern slaves, nor to the inland bandits. Therefore, only reliable nobles were allowed to practice them.
For practice.
Therefore, the gunners of the various battalions in the capital were mostly selected from the sons of nobles and the sons of the imperial guards.
The artillery array has just been deployed, and the remaining officers and soldiers of the Shenji Battalion, armed with sophisticated Lumi guns, are arrayed behind the chariots around the artillery array as guards. They are all brightly armored and majestic.
The large groups of cattle and horses that originally pulled the artillery carts were driven to the valleys and forests behind the hills and mountains, and were guarded by bargemen and cart drivers.
The sun slowly climbed up and the sunlight shone down. The observers from the Shenji Camp were holding telescopes and a square measuring ruler called a moment, nervously estimating the precise distance to the Empress Temple in the distance.
The Ming Dynasty called the square ware a square plate made of copper. The two sides of the plate, E, C, C and D, were divided into twelve equal parts, and then a connection was made from point A to each divided point, which is called
Degrees, each degree can be further subdivided according to the size of the moment.
In addition to many scales, there is also a pendant hanging under the square weapon. Using this with a telescope, the precise distance to the enemy's position can be measured.
These observers may have lacked combat experience and were a little nervous, or they may not have practiced diligently and their skills were a little rusty. For a long time, they could not calculate the distance between the wall of the Niangqing army and the artillery array of Niangniang Temple.
The Hongyi Cannon cannot actually be loaded with ammunition in advance, because you don’t know the distance of the target to be bombarded, and the gunpowder used is different at different distances, so it needs to be temporarily loaded based on the measurements on the battlefield. This will test the measurement level and proficiency of the gunners.
Looking at their appearance, Wei Zhice had a bit of disdain on his face. He had to calculate such a simple thing over and over again for a long time. Fortunately, it was not a time of fierce battle between the two sides, otherwise these gunners would have died countless times!
However, when Wei Zhice looked at the people in the Central Military Office in front of him, it was Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, who was waiting patiently there without showing any displeasure.
It can be seen that in the Ming Dynasty, no one paid too much attention to the artillery drill. Regardless of the officials and generals, they only superficially thought that they were mysterious and had powerful firepower.
However, few people have studied its principles and practices in depth. Therefore, they do not feel that these Shenji Battalion gunners and observers are so bad.
Just as the people at that time also respected literati, precisely because writing was not popular, it became even more mysterious. Even an inferior literati was like a saint among ordinary people.
After the observers of the Shenji Battalion completed their observations, they argued with each other for a while before finally determining the exact location of the enemy. The observer shouted loudly: "The artillery array of the Temple of the Thieves and Slaves is eight hundred and seventy-five steps away from me!"
Immediately, voices rose and fell: "Eight hundred and seventy-five steps away from me!"
"Gun high five points and four degrees!"
The gun adjusters began to use rounders, also known as gun gauges, to read the elevation angle of the gun barrel on the arc.
Immediately there was a forehand, and he tried his best to turn the spiral iron handle behind each gun, and quickly adjusted the elevation angle of the gun barrel.
"You are eight hundred and seventy-five steps away from me. The gun is five and four degrees high, and the medicine is five kilograms and one liang."
The gunners of the Shenji Battalion roared loudly and asked the loader, who had the lowest status in the artillery battalion, to quickly measure, charge, and load the ammunition. Their operations were quite fluid, which made the civilians and generals of the Chinese army look at them. I also became nervous.
Amidst the roar, each gunner's ammunition hand quickly took out the propellant packets from the ammunition cart and loaded them into the gun chamber one by one. These packets were all wrapped in cotton cloth, and each packet was marked with a number and the amount of powder. How much? When you need it, just look at the number and use it.
The loader used a thick rod to forcefully push the propellant package into the gun barrel, and then used a sharp iron awl to pierce the inside from the fire door to pierce the newly loaded propellant package, and then used Another tool is used to insert a lead made of paper and gunpowder through the fire door hole.
If this kind of artillery fuse has been pre-installed for a long time, it will definitely become hardened and the thread holes will be rough. If the fuse is poured in bulk, it will be easily blown away by the wind in strong winds, which is a real dilemma.
Finally, each loader picked up the heavy iron shells one by one, pushed them into the barrel of each gun, and pressed the protruding rod inward.
Each artillery piece was ready to fire one after another, and the artillery battalion of the Shenji Battalion was considered to be in a state of readiness. It entered real wartime and could fire at any time to bombard the enemy as ordered.
Under the strong sunlight, every artillery piece on the Shenji Camp position was shining brightly, facing the Qing army positions on West Shimen and Shimen Mountain.
Behind them, the central army of the Ming Dynasty's army was preparing to form a formation in the hilly wilderness, and there was solemnity between heaven and earth!