"Target, 270 meters, load the second round of grapeshot!" the gunners shouted loudly.
The artillerymen hurriedly changed their ammunition and loaded the second round of grapeshot.
First, a gunner uses a wooden stick wrapped in sponge, dips the sponge head into a bucket to soak it, then twists it until it is no longer dripping but wet, and then pokes it into the gun barrel.
This is done to extinguish the sparks that were not completely burned out during previous launches.
If there are sparks in the barrel, the second silk cartridge will be ignited as soon as it is filled.
Because the distance was close, I only put two medicine bags in, and then filled them with grapeshot tied with a linen bag. Then I used a ramrod to solidify them.
The third gunner immediately inserted an awl through the fire door, pierced the powder bag, and spilled the gunpowder into the fire door. Then he inserted a pull-fire firing tube into the fire door. He grasped the pull rope tightly with his hand and waited for the gunner commander's order.
"Ready, fire!" the gunners roared one after another.
The third gunner immediately pulled the rope, and the ignition tube exploded.
The propellant pack was ignited, and flames and thick smoke burst out from the muzzle.
Then the entire gun body recoiled violently.
Although the gun mount rubbed against the ground, it still recoiled about three meters.
As soon as the gun stopped, all the gunners immediately stepped forward to push the gun and return the gun to its original firing position.
The Heshuote cavalry had just reached a distance of 250 meters when the second wave of grape bullets hit them all over the place.
This time, because the distance was closer, the grape bullets were more densely packed, and fewer steel balls flew away.
Two hundred and fifty meters away, a disastrous scene occurred.
These grapeshots come from the 75mm-caliber small guns installed on the sides of naval cruisers. They are specially used to deal with approaching small boats and swimming water ghosts.
The dense rain of grapeshot and shotgun shells can increase the killing area.
Make sure these sneak attackers are killed in the water.
At this distance, most of the steel balls hit the cavalry group.
Puff puff puff! The sound of steel balls smashing knights and horses was heard. Flesh and blood cannot withstand these one-fifth-pound steel balls. The hardness of steel balls is far greater than that of lead balls.
In addition to being heavy, lead balls are actually very soft, especially after the barrel is heated.
Orqitu Khan watched in shock as the entire first four and five rows of the cavalry group were beaten and disappeared. A bloody mist floated in front of them, and broken limbs and broken flesh and bone fragments were flying in the sky.
The momentum of the entire cavalry group's overwhelming impact instantly stagnated, as if they had been hit hard by a huge sledgehammer.
This time all the knights were frightened.
Centurion Tuge only felt that there was a blur in front of his eyes, and there was a bright red mist in front of him.
Then the man and the war horse fell to the ground with a clatter, and the front was suddenly empty.
He was originally near the middle, but he actually directly saw the Ming army's position in the distance.
In panic, his heart almost stopped, as if being grasped by a big hand.
Immediately, he raised his sword and shouted loudly: "Speed up and rush over, don't slow down!"
He knew that there was only one option now, and that was to accelerate as hard as he could.
The key to reducing casualties is the speed of engaging the enemy.
The more confusion and procrastination there is, the more casualties they will suffer.
After only three rounds of shooting, they almost collapsed.
At this time, the ordinary cavalry had long since collapsed. The Heshuote people have been in the Western Regions for more than a hundred years. Their arrogance is still there, and their bloody spirit is still there.
From extreme panic, they burst into anger.
They raised their scimitars one after another and roared loudly!
"Hoola! Hoola!"
When Yang Fan saw this scene, he couldn't help but admired: "Among all the Mongolians, the Mongolian Mongols have retained the most temperament of the Mongol Empire. This courage and momentum to move forward are really heartbreaking."
"Master, at this time, even if you admire them, you still cannot be kind to women. Only by completely breaking their backbone will they surrender to you. At this time, you must not be soft-hearted." Xiao Niangpi said firmly.
Yang Fan nodded in agreement.
He plans to integrate the nomadic peoples in the entire grassland belt, but that must be done by conquering them. Only by completely defeating them can he do this.
Before that, don't be lenient.
Even though all he loses is his future strength, he still has to defeat them resolutely.
"Let's change the shotgun in front, we can still get two rounds." Yang Fan said.
Bang bang bang! Three red signals are coming up.
The gunners at the front immediately saw the new order. They shouted loudly: "Replace ammunition immediately, change shotshells. Quick."
At this time, there were many ammunition boxes piled up next to the gun emplacement.
The red wooden box contained shotgun shells. Unlike grape shot, the shotgun shells were not bundled in linen bags, but packed in thin iron buckets.
It is full of small steel balls with a diameter of three to five millimeters. These things are collected from scraps by idiots.
Many of these rusty little steel balls are damaged.
But it does not affect their use as shotguns at all.
Rust further increases the risk of paralysis and tetanus for those who are shot.
The Han people are one of the few human beings who are naturally capable of resisting tetanus. No other ethnic group has this ability.
A Han man was pricked in the foot by a rusty iron nail. The wound was treated cleanly at the time, and he was generally fine.
But this is not the case for other races and ethnic groups, as they are very susceptible to tetanus.
Boom boom boom! More than 400 artillery pieces fired again, with flames and thick smoke spurting out. Each cannon sprayed out a hundred small steel balls.
More than 40,000 small steel balls were sprayed like a dense rainstorm towards the group of Heshuote cavalry that rushed forward.
At this time, they had reached one hundred and fifty meters.
Dense rain of steel hit their array.
This time, the casualties exceeded the previous three times because the bullet rain was so dense that it was almost airtight.
There is no cavalry in this world that can withstand such a blow.
The three cavalry groups collapsed almost at the same time. The men and horses fell down one after another.
The clouds of steel balls fired by these three-pounders directly destroyed all the parts in front of them.
Looking from the sky, the three cavalry groups all turned into a zigzag shape. Under each semicircular gap, there were fragments of war horses and knights.
They were almost driven crazy. No one could bear this kind of loss.
But they were blinded and didn't react at all.
The war horse under its buttocks was still charging forward.
"Flintlock gun fire!" Yang Fan held the binoculars and said expressionlessly.
One hundred and two meters, it has entered the effective range of the flintlock gun. The flintlock gun equipped by Yang Fan can fire at 150 meters. It exceeds the effective range of the Lumi gun of 100 meters.
Yang Fan calculated in his mind that according to his estimation, thirty meters was the maximum distance that these cavalry could approach. Within 100 meters to 30 meters, the cavalry would be a meat grinder.
They will bleed dry over this distance.
It was destroyed by a three-pounder that fired five rounds in two minutes and a three-stage flintlock gun that fired five rounds in one minute.
Especially flintlock rifles, three rows of them can fire fifteen rounds per minute.
This was an obstacle that the cavalry could not overcome.
Because, just fifty years ago, the Nagashino War broke out in Japan.
The matchlocks completely defeated Japan's largest cavalry unit. Actual combat has proved that when the muskets are concentrated to a certain extent, the cavalry can catch up.
But now on this battlefield, although the Heshuote cavalry is superior and stronger, Yang Fan's muskets cannot be compared to the matchlocks.