Of course, the electric cannon was fired at the Ming army.
Liu Chengzong's marshal's office couldn't even make enough of the standard firearms that were already in service, such as muskets and rifles.
Although he controls all the important handicraft towns in the northwest, compared with the ever-expanding army and the momentum of over-expansion in a short period of time, there is always a large equipment gap.
Therefore, it is even more impossible to waste manpower and build high-precision individual firearms such as lightning guns that are not in the field.
Of course, after Liu Chengzong got the electric gun last winter, he did have the idea of adding it to the Gongya building sequence, and gave a few to Shichengwo.
The answer I got was disappointing. It took less than half a year for the gunsmiths of the Marshal's Army to get it right, so they continued to improve it. It took another half a year, and it would take at least ten years before large-scale production.
Fortunately, Liu Chengzong was not that stubborn. It was an unexpected surprise that he got this thing.
This batch of electric guns came from Zhang Tianlin and Bai Guangen. They paid for more than a thousand guns in total. They are all brand-new and good items. It is said that the smell of oil on the gun bed was still there when they were received.
But Zhang Tianlin's battle was indeed difficult to fight at that time. A battalion of his men went deep into Gansu alone, with no supplies or support. The hinterland of Gansu was turned upside down, and it was impossible for Liu Shizi to steal the spoils from his men.
Even the so-called punishment was just for those horses to appease Guitutaiji who had been robbed of his equipment.
Liu Shizi would definitely not ask for such a good thing.
Therefore, the electric gun was always in Zhang Tianlin's hands until it entered Guanzhong last year.
Zhang Tianlin was first promoted to the rank of commander-in-chief of Tongguan. Later, he reformed the military system and established a garrison brigade. He was also appointed as the chief commander of the Guannei Road. One large battalion was expanded into the Guannei Brigade with four battalions.
There was a huge gap in his equipment, so when he was adjusting his armaments, he handed over the electric muskets as scrap in exchange for newly made heavy muskets, rifles and rocket vehicles.
The electric gun is a good thing, otherwise Zhang Tianlin would not have kept it in his hand for more than a year.
But in his hands, it was indeed no different from junk.
This is related to the history of Qingdian gun being born at the wrong time.
The person who created it was Zhao Shizhen, who invented it twenty-five years ago in Wanli.
At that time, during the Wanli War to aid the DPRK, Zhao Shizhen made great progress and handed over four new army firearms that he had imitated, researched, improved, and developed to the imperial court.
There are four types of weapons: Lumi gun, Western gun, lightning gun and thunder gun.
Among them, the Western musket is a light musket used by Western sailors. The long-barreled musket is lightly loaded with less powder. The bullet weighs eight cents and is loaded with one coin. The caliber is very small. It can shoot accurately and has low power. It can be easily used by southern infantry against unarmored enemies.
There were many imitations of this thing in the South at that time, and they were all called bird guns. People also used them for hunting. Because they had small ammunition and less medicine, they would not break the birds when they hit them.
The Lumi gun was imitated from the Ottoman matchlock gun. It had a long barrel and was heavier than the Western gun but lighter than the Japanese gun, making it easier to fight on foot.
The lightning gun is a Franco-type gun, used for rapid fire on the battlefield by elite soldiers, and can fire six rounds at the fastest speed.
The Thunder Gun has five tubes and a shield, and is an alternative upgrade to the Three-Eyed Gun.
Zhao Shizhen's introduction of equipment is very ambitious, because it is a series of equipment designs for the Firearms Team.
However, in the Ming Dynasty at that time, Zhang Juzheng was no longer around, Emperor Wanli had also lost his enthusiasm for pro-government, and military reform was not something that could be accomplished overnight.
However, it cannot be said that it is meaningless. At least it was recorded by the Ministry of Industry and a batch was produced and delivered to the Beijing camp.
On this basis, Zhao Shizhen created a weapon that was simpler to manufacture and had greater influence on later generations: the three-long gun.
However, compared to the three long blunderbuss, people at this time generally called it a bird blunderbuss.
The so-called three longs refer to the lightness and long range of the Western gun barrel, the speed of the Lumi gun machine combined with the fire door mechanism, and the stability of the Japanese gun bed, which combines the advantages of the three individual muskets.
The most important thing is that this improvement only lies in the shape design and will not take too much effort.
It became a cannon during the Chongzhen period.
As for the Thunderbolt Guns and Lightning Guns that have been changed in structure, it has always depended on the preferences of the governors in various places. Those who are interested in military weapons will build a batch, but they have not achieved any actual results.
After all, new weapons require specialized training in supporting tactics, and even supporting supporting weapons such as tanks and equipment.
Therefore, the real large-scale deployment of troops would have to wait until the Shandong New Army during the Tianqi Period.
But that new army later changed jobs.
The electric gun is indeed a good weapon, very targeted, and its designed enemy targets are Japanese and Northern captives.
What these two opponents have in common is that their armor is very poor.
The weapons Zhang Tianlin needs are exactly the opposite. His core weapons are rockets and war horses. What he needs to deal with is the enemy who is still standing after taking a round of rockets.
This kind of opponent either has good luck, or has average luck but has thick armor, shield, and chariot.
The former can be solved with a saber, while the latter requires a spear and a heavy musket to defeat.
The electric gun won't work.
It is essentially a gun-type Franco machine, and in Liu Chengzong's eyes, it is a very successful modification of the Franco machine.
Using the iconic tenon structure of the Foran machine, the tail of the female gun does not need to be sealed with screws. It is fixed to the tube on the gun bed with two pins at the front and back and two copper rings.
It is equipped with six five-inch long blunderbuss. On the surface, this thing is a bullet casing, but in fact it is a blunderbuss tube that actually carries the barrel pressure. More than half of the reason for the high cost is due to them.
There are protruding small mouths on the front and rear of the gun as latches. After preloading ammunition, the front small mouth is stuck into the tube, and the rear square small mouth is stuck in the latching groove at the end of the gun bed.
At the same time, there is a square hole at the tail of the sub-gun, and an external latch is used to pass through the gun bed and the sub-gun to fix it on the gun to prevent it from jumping back when shooting.
The two latches and bolts of the sub-gun fit perfectly, and a small copper plate with a rear sight is installed on the sub-gun.
This structure was the result of Zhao Shizhen's further improvements after he discovered the air leakage problem after presenting the newly made musket to the court.
But this copper plate is not designed to reduce air leakage, but to prevent air leakage from burning the shooter's eyes.
All muskets are more or less deflated, with match ropes installed in the front, and the fire holes in the flint hair are also deflated.
As long as it can be fired, the ammunition can be ejected, and the impact of deflation on power... there are good solutions.
It is not about reducing parts gaps and reducing air leakage regardless of cost.
At least in the pre-industrial era, the most cost-effective solution to the problem of air leakage in breech-loading guns was to install an extra three grams of gunpowder in the design.
A bird gun fired with three-cent bullets has a charge of three cents; while a power gun fired with two-cent bullets has a charge of two cents and five cents, so there is no need to worry about air leakage.
The advantage is that it is rapid fire. Its firing mechanism is neither a flintlock, a match rope, nor a fire door, but a powder line that is preloaded on the gun along with the ammunition. It is not afraid of bumps and does not need to scatter priming powder on the spot.
Therefore, it can fire six rounds when other guns fire two rounds, and it is easy to load and fire immediately.
As an individual firearm, except for the slightly less powerful two-coin bullet, it basically has no shortcomings.
But Zhang Tianlin wanted heavy weapons, and this light rapid-fire musket obviously couldn't meet his needs.
A wave of rockets exploded, and the remaining enemy troops had to be accurately aimed to hit them. Instead of holding a musket and fighting for a long time, it was better for the cavalry to rush over and kill them.
If the rocket misses, there is no need for Zhang Tianlin to shoot at him. She can just move to a safe place and wait for an opportunity to hit him with a wave of rockets.
This batch of electric muskets was of little use to Liu Shishi. The total number was around a thousand, which was not enough to be distributed to the entire army. Some of the muskets even needed to be remade and replenished.
The Yulin Cavalry just got a batch of Taimengwei specialties two years ago, and they were all having fun with their flintlock pistols, and they didn't want to change to long guns.
Therefore, Liu Chengzong selected 880 rods and allocated them to the wandering barracks of the first and second field brigade and four Han military divisions, each with 220 rods.
They first appeared on the battlefield as a marshal's weapon, and they made great achievements in the cavalry melee - this thing can hit farther than the three-eyed blunderbuss, and it can hit faster than the ordinary bird blunderbuss. The key is that the cavalry can change ammunition on the horse.
Changed the order of rules for cavalry confrontation, like cheating.
In the first battle, both sides invested a total of four to five hundred cavalry. Xu Yong's cavalry in the left town of the Ming army was beaten to a pulp. The cavalry fell off their horses in droves and ran around. Their mounts refused to obey orders and fled the battlefield with their masters.
It was not that people were hit, but that the marshal's cavalry aimed at big targets due to aiming problems, and fired every shot at the horses.
It is difficult for a small lead shot weighing two cents to kill a huge war horse in one shot, but it can make these large animals lose their combat effectiveness.
The Ming cavalry who lost their horses reacted quickly and formed a well-trained team. They used the fallen horses as cover to drag the wounded soldiers who were pressed by the fallen horses, and formed back-to-back formations to defend against the conflicting marshal's cavalry.
But the advantage on the battlefield was obviously not on their side, so the Ming cavalry who had been expelled to various places unanimously chose to move in groups. In the end, they simply rode their horses to the infantry formation, dismounted one after another, and just lay on the outside with their horses, forming a formation.
A small infantry formation of nearly a hundred people.
This is completely different from Zuo Liangyu's plan.
Xu Yong was even more shocked and sent two hundred cavalry to press forward. Zuo Liangyu didn't have time to stop him, and the cavalry that had been ready to go flew away in the air.
However, on the Marshal's side, the cavalry had no intention of continuing the wheel battle.
The Han soldiers and cavalrymen holding electric muskets gathered to discuss a few words, and then shouted peace on the battlefield. Soon people aimed their muskets at the horses outside the Ming army's formation and fired their muskets. The Mongolian cavalrymen also approached and fired in circling formations.
arrow.
There was a burst of muskets, and arrows rained down, injuring and killing many of the horses.
Then there was a whistle, and the Mongolian cavalry used hooks, sickles, and spears to pick up the fallen horses. The cavalry retreated calmly towards their own army formation before the enemy cavalry arrived on the battlefield.
On the other side of the battlefield, Ma Ke waved his hand, and the other four cavalry teams that had been prepared came out in formation. Once again, like the previous change of formation, they formed a team of four cavalry and spread out to face the enemy cavalry.
And go.
The previous cavalry retreated back to the camp. The reason was not complicated. Marco could guess it at a glance.
Their electric musket only had six bullets, and they had to be reloaded after firing six rounds. The cavalry fighting environment was difficult to cope with reloading, so naturally they had to find a way to retreat.
A very funny scene suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
At first, the Ming Army's supporting cavalry walked toward the battlefield aggressively, and the Marshal's Army cavalry withdrew from the battlefield. But when the Marshal's Army's supporting cavalry also ran toward them aggressively, they didn't even care about the dismounted cavalry left on the battlefield, and turned around.
Retreat to the main formation.
On the contrary, Zhou Shifeng, the commander-in-chief of Zuozhen, who was taking a roundabout route in the northeast, waved his flag and sent his five hundred cavalry toward the battlefield in a mighty manner.
Ma Ke hurriedly shouted gold in the formation and called for the cavalry to return. Some of Zhou Shifeng's cavalry followed closely and drove them away; the other part went to rescue the friendly troops and tried to rescue nearly a hundred dismounted cavalry.
As a result, as soon as they entered the firing range, rockets rose from Ouyang Gun's formation.
The six rockets lifted into the sky with tail flames, and drew parabolas of varying heights amidst the screams. They quickly crossed the battlefield, twisted and turned in the second half of the journey, and hit the dismounted cavalry phalanx within a radius of 200 meters.
within step range.
Zhou Shifeng's cavalry were scattered widely, but a rocket still landed on the heads of five cavalry who were marching in groups. The iron pieces exploded in mid-air, killing two people on the spot, wounding one person, and injuring two horses.
.
The captain of this cavalry team was very lucky. The rocket exploded directly above his head, and the iron shell of the projectile flew to the ground in front of his eyes. Not even the man or the horse was injured by any iron pellet, but he was frightened.
His face turned pale and his heart was still frightened.
The war horse was frightened by the explosion and stood up, carrying him twenty steps away. He was still groping back and forth on the horse's cloth mask and bowl, trying to find the iron hole that did not exist.
Although the actual results caused by six rockets may not be as loud as six muskets, the attack method falling from the sky and the erratic ballistic shooting still caused a great psychological shock to the cavalry.
Even the soldiers of Zhou Shifeng's main camp two miles away from the explosion site spread out a little further without realizing it.
Just when everyone's attention was attracted to the battlefield, on the ridge of the embroidered building of the village mansion ten miles away to the west.
Liu Chengzong was looking down at the battlefield with a straight face and a telescope.
The leading troops of the main force of the corps were still seven miles away. The first brigade Tangqi occupied this village fort on the banks of the Kushui River half an hour ago.
In the next half hour, the Tang cavalry continued to spread towards the battlefield, and gradually engaged the reconnaissance cavalry released by Zuo Liangyu. At the same time, five to six hundred cavalry were stationed inside and outside the fort to serve as a guard.
Liu Chengzong brought a small number of guards with him, and the third group entered Zhuangzi.
As soon as he entered Zhuangzi, he did two things.
First, he ordered his followers to take out some silver to buy food from the people in the village, and to hire women to make fires, set up stoves, and fetch water and chop wood.
The second is to climb up the tallest embroidered building in the east with a telescope, and muttered: "I want to see which fool got into a fight with someone!"
Previously, Ren Quan'er had fired artillery to lure the enemy, which he could understand, but now the sound of artillery over there had stopped, and Tang Qi reported that he heard crackling gunfire and even saw the sound of rockets flying, which filled Liu Shizi with excitement.
Confuse.
It doesn't matter at first glance.
Even with a telescope, Liu Shishi couldn't see who was who on the chaotic battlefield. He couldn't even tell which of the several camps was the Ming army and which was his subordinates.
But he could see that there was a camp only five or six miles away from him. Inside the camp was a white tiger flag and a very eye-catching Chinese army curtain.
He put down the binoculars and turned his head.
The Marshal's Army has no such curtain.
"Zhang Yong, five hundred riders, one man and two horses, do you dare to rush over and kick the curtain down for me?"