stubborn thief

Liu Chengzong's new rocket is ready, each weighs ten catties, and contains 53 three-coin projectiles. According to the angle and length of the chute, it can reach two ranges of [-] steps to [-] steps.

The downside is...the spread is very wide.

Because the new rocket of the Marshal's Mansion does not have a balance bar.

It's not that Shi Cheng and Liu Guoneng didn't want to pretend, because the joining of the Hehuang officer made them very clear about the principle of the rocket's arrow shaft. The role of the arrow shaft is to counterweight and maintain stability.

There are seven catties of gunpowder, and six catties are used to propel the rocket to launch. The fuel that exceeds half the weight of the rocket will be consumed during the launch process, and the drill hole is in the middle of the hammered cartridge.

This means that the flame hole is small at the beginning, and gradually burns outwards. The thrust of the rocket is the smallest at the beginning, and the thrust is the largest at the end.

During this acceleration, the rocket's arrow will become increasingly top-heavy and easily overturned in mid-air.

The role of the balance bar is to add counterweight to the tail to ensure that the rocket is launched forward and will not be overturned by the burning gunpowder.

However, because Liu Chengzong set standards for the weight and range of the rocket, and used it as a light soldier without luggage, the design of the rocket became very difficult.

At the beginning, they designed a seven-pound rocket, which weighed eleven pounds and four ounces with the balance bar installed, ensuring stability, but the maximum range was only three hundred steps.

To reach [-] steps, you need a [-]-jin rocket and a [-]-jin balance bar, which exceeds Liu Chengzong's requirements.

If the balance bar is removed, the weight and maximum range can meet the requirements, but the rocket is prone to rollover, and the trajectory will become very outrageous.

In the end, they used a thin iron quiver, adding a one-and-a-half-pound cylindrical structure as a counterweight at the end of the arrow. The purpose was to ensure that the rocket’s balance would not be broken by the burning of the gunpowder within a few breaths after launch, increasing the safety distance to 150. step.

"Yes, Marshal, if it is 150 steps away, there is no guarantee that it will not roll over."

Heavenly Monkey carried a rectangular box to the west building of the Marshal's Mansion to report on his work. The box was tied up with ropes, the outside was round and the inside was round, and could be divided into two three-foot-long slides. rocket missile.

This rocket has fully absorbed Liu Chengzong's experience in enchanting flower bombs. There is a simple prefabricated fragment ring in the front quarter, which contains the rocket's warhead and 53 three-coin projectiles.

The Heavenly Monkey said: "This test of power is too difficult. There are two slots on the arrow box, a three-foot-long chute, just aimed at [-] paces. Three hundred steps."

"If you connect two slides and aim at [-] paces, then use the [-] paces in front as the center to strike in a radius of [-] paces."

Liu Chengzong thought about the spread distance in his heart, almost laughed out loud, and asked, "How big is the range it can hit when it explodes?"

Heavenly Monkey Liu Jiusi bowed his head and said, "I don't know, it should be thirty or fifty steps."

"do not know?"

"The commander-in-chief doesn't know how difficult it is to test this thing. I specially built a catapult and threw two catties of explosives a hundred steps away to test it."

The Heavenly Monkey sighed, and said: "Thirty or fifty of these things must be put together, otherwise the shot will not be accurate, but if you put thirty or fifty together, how do you know how far the iron pellets it explodes can hit, and the ground is full of eyes."

Liu Chengzong held the rocket in his hand and looked at it for a moment, thinking that this is not good. The purpose of building this thing was not to use it to kill the enemy from the very beginning, that is unrealistic.

It is to allow the light soldiers to suppress the artillery for a short period of time, so that the cavalry surrounding the enemy's formation can use rockets to launch and destroy the enemy.

But the coverage of this thing is so large, there is no way for your own cavalry to post it.

On the contrary, burning the city may be very effective. After all, a medium-sized city with a circumference of eight or nine miles, with four launch positions at the four corners, the diffusion surface basically covers the entire city.

The army array is much smaller than this, so I couldn't remember it a little bit, and let out [-] of them, but no one was hit.

"It's up to me to fight, but how can it be done by the sky?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head, but adding a balance pole would be fine if there were vehicles and horses to transport supplies in a normal war. It was impossible for his soldiers to carry two zhangba spears in this kind of battle over mountains.

He looked at the arrow tail and said: "Try it, change this place, divide the tail flame into three pieces, let it spin out and spin on its own, without the use of a balance bar, it will be more stable and reduce the spread."

As he said that, he drew a simple sketch with a brush, and asked the Monkey to compare it with it, and said, "If this is not easy to do, add arrow feathers to the buttocks, but don't use feathers, wood or thin iron will do."

In Liu Chengzong's view, the safe distance without rollover must be increased to 250 steps.

Otherwise, turn sideways at 150 steps and fly back backwards, wouldn't it still blow yourself up?

However, apart from rockets, Heavenly Monkey has also created a small thing that can be used in actual combat and is safe.

In fact, it is a three-foot-long forged pipe. It is supported obliquely on the ground by two iron rod legs. There is a counterweight disc at the end. The mouth of the gun is fired with a five-inch-long cylindrical flying cannonball.

The ammunition is packed in a three-inch iron box with four rounds connected in parallel, and the loaded iron box is inserted vertically into the iron pipe. The shell uses an easy-to-ignite fuse, which is basically a large second kicker filled with iron pellets.

When the first one is blown out, due to gravity, the iron box will slide down and be stuck by the second shell. At the same time, it is ignited by the tail flame of the first shell, and the four loaded iron boxes can be released one after another.

But the shooting range is slightly shorter than that of the Flying Cannon, and it can only shoot fifty to seventy steps. Fortunately, it is easy to operate, light and easy to carry. The four-packed shell has 120 small iron pellets, and it has good power when fired.

Its range is just right for the distance of musket fire under normal circumstances, and it exceeds the width of most moats. The arc-shaped ballistic has a chance to pass over shields and simple fortifications, which is equivalent to a burst grenade.

The only shortcoming is that its magazine cannot be made bigger, because putting four in a row will cause the barrel to overheat, and it is possible to ignite the shells outside at the same time.

Liu Chengzong is very interested in this stuff, he said to Shangtian Monkey: "This, make it into six packs or five packs, six two rows and eleven packs, similar to the form of a hundred tigers rushing together chariot, do a few preliminaries. For the aiming angle, each [-]-corps team will have one plane, with six ammunition ready."

The 44-pack of this thing can throw 1000 cylindrical cartridges into the enemy's formation in a short time at a suitable distance, and more than [-] iron pellets will explode randomly, which is enough for the infantry column to overwhelm the enemy's formation.

Liu Jiusi never expected that Liu Chengzong was wilder than he thought, and he wanted to get on the chariot directly. He spread his hands and said, "Marshal, if it is loaded on the chariot, the light soldiers who have crossed Qilian Mountain will be useless."

"The light soldiers still have to use rockets. The range is too short. If the light soldiers can't blow up the enemy in one shot, they will be overwhelmed."

He still has great expectations for the rocket. The rocket can not only be used this time, but as long as it is designed this time, it can be used in the future, and even in the future they can equip their new rockets with chariots.

If the problem of the tail and spin can be properly solved this time, then there will be no problem that can restrain the rocket at a distance of two or even three miles in the future.

This thing will become their field weapon.

"Go back and tell Master Master that rocket launchers, flying cannons, and cannons specially designed to open flower shells are the main targets of new weapons manufactured by the arsenal in the next two years. "

Cannons with a long barrel like Hongyi are not effective for opening flower bombs. The bullet speed is too fast and it is easy to misfire; they need to develop a cannon with a shorter barrel to open the flower shells with a parabolic trajectory, and the range does not need to be too far , The shell does not have to be too heavy to avoid misfiring as much as possible.

As soon as Liu Chengzong's words fell, he saw a figure stop outside the door, and the guard said: "Marshal, someone from the east is sending a message."

Hearing this, Shangtian Hou packed up his arrow box and bid farewell to Liu Chengzong.

As soon as he left here, the guards over there led Chengyun's cronies back into the west building, and after saluting, he said, "Show handsome, the general of the Lanzhou division will send someone into Hehuang to inform that Shaanxi has sent a support army to march towards Lanzhou. There are more than four thousand troops."

He came back and said: "The general in charge of the division said that if the commander-in-chief wants to sneak up and ambush them, he can scout out their marching route for them."

"Four thousand troops, which one will lead the troops?"

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly to this number: "Is it practicing state affairs, Zhang Yingchang or You Shilu?"

"Back to the commander-in-chief, it's not them. Zhang Yingchang was stationed in Qinzhou for state affairs, and Zhang Yingchang was transferred to Henan. You Shilu was seriously ill and asked to resign and go home." After returning, he told the movements of the three governor generals who led the army in Shaanxi. Cautiously reported: "The leader of the army is Yang Yanchang, the general of Yan'an Prefecture."

When I came back, I was a little afraid that Liu Chengzong would be furious when he heard the name.

The two brothers who returned from victory were originally from the Songpan Guard Banner Army. They knew a little about things in northern Shaanxi, but not much.

Chengyun didn't go into details with them both, but he had a strange face when he heard the name Yang Yanchang, so when he came back, he privately asked the Shaanxi soldiers stationed in the Dongguan Garrison who this Yang Yanchang was.

Jiang Bing didn't know much about it, and it was just right, and the answer was simple: The handsome man was beaten several times by this man named Yang Yanchang in Yan'an Mansion in his early years.

The old Jiangbing came back with a hint: "Be careful when you report this to the handsome man, the enemy is very jealous when they meet."

So I was always on tenterhooks when I came back.

As soon as he said Yang Yanchang's name, he saw Liu Chengzong's expression was also extremely strange, so frightened that he bowed his head and dared not look directly.

Liu Chengzong stared in disbelief and said, "Who sent him here?"

"Master Hui, it seems to be Chen Qiyu, governor of Yansui."

"Chen Qiyu, Master Chen." Liu Chengzong nodded slowly with a sarcasm: "It's not okay to send someone here, but send Yang Shen to come... why are you so afraid when you come back?"

Returning cowardly, he said: "I heard that he and the handsome man are old rivals."

"Tch... old opponent, we are indeed old acquaintances." Looking at his appearance, Liu Chengzong knew that Chengyun hadn't explained it clearly to him, so he waved his hand with a smile and said, "Go back and tell Chengyun, I heard the joke, let him tell the teacher Xiang, don't stop me."

Chengyun knew the relationship between Yang Yanchang and them best, and when he came back to report to Shuaifu Yamen, he just wanted him to listen to a joke.

Liu Chengzong said emphatically to the return: "But let him inquire about it for me. This Yang Yanchang has [-] troops under his command. Send someone to send over the list of generals above the general as soon as possible."

After all, he himself was happy.

In fact, what he wanted to know most was whether Ren Quan'er had come.

To be honest, he was not very reassured about Yang Yanchang and Ren Quan'er.

They are all generals of the imperial court. If he is still in northern Shaanxi, it is needless to say that they are monolithic under the common interests, but after all, they have not had much contact in the past few years.

Without common interests, small things may not have much impact, but in a life-or-death matter like war, if Chen Qiyu wants to send Yang Yanchang to guard Lanzhou, it will be a big problem.

It's not that Yang Yanchang has no family and no mouth. Ren Quan'er's method of controlling Yang Yanchang earlier was to let him have children in the Acropolis all the time, and it was impossible to bring his wife and children with him when he sent troops to fight.

If he insists on fighting Lanzhou, I am afraid that the conflict will not be reconciled. Yang Yanchang will not risk his wife and children being killed to vote for him, nor will he bet on the risk of being killed by the court to hand over Lanzhou.

Not to mention that Yang Yanchang may not be able to have one heart with him, the officers and soldiers under Yang Yanchang's command will not be one hearted with him.

Liu Shizi shook his head, Chen Qiyu is quite annoying, he can't send someone here, he actually sent Yang Yanchang!
Isn't this obviously difficult to do?
But compared to this matter, Liu Chengzong was more curious, why Yang Yanchang was sent here... Xie Erhu captured Zhuanglang Weicheng, but the imperial court was not willing to send a governor to Lanzhou. What is the purpose of stationing in Qinzhou for state affairs?
Liu Chengzong tore down the map hanging on the wall, spread it on the table, and placed Lian Guoshi and Zhang Yingchang's troops in their proper positions one by one. In addition, Yang Yanchang's troops who were marching towards Lanzhou could easily detect that the imperial army's The direction of defense is not Lanzhou.

Northern Shaanxi seems to be safe for the imperial court, otherwise Yang Yanchang would not have been transferred from Yan'an Mansion, and their troops were defending Hanzhong, Xingzhou and Huguang.

The troops that would appear in those directions at this time were obviously Gao Yingxiang and the anti-kings from all walks of life.

Liu Chengzong didn't want to tear himself apart with Yang Yanchang, so he had to give up attacking Lanzhou, but if he gave up attacking Lanzhou, he would lose the good opportunity to be strategically connected with Gao Yingxiang and others at this time.

Thinking about it, Liu Shizi's eyes lit up.

Yang Yanchang's mission is to defend Lanzhou, so how can he not let his mission fail and obtain Lanzhou?

Then let this mission end before it started, and seize Lanzhou before Yang Yanchang led his army to station in Lanzhou.

Liu Chengzong looked at the map and thought about the possibility of doing so and the chain reaction it would cause. If Lintao fell, Lian Guo would definitely move to the northwest and leave Qinzhou, leaving Hanzhong empty and beneficial to Gao Yingxiang.

The net of Hong Chengchou in Gansu will be broken because of this, and most of them will have to drive south to fight him in the Zhuanglang River Valley. Wang Ziyong will be able to sneak back to Gansu to do his work, and better support Zhang Tianlin.

On the other hand, Yang Yanchang, who failed to settle in Lanzhou, would most likely join Lian Guoshi, who presumably would rely heavily on this Shaanxi army.

That's the end of practicing state affairs. He is not Lanzhou. Yang Yanchang doesn't need to take any risks to sell him. He only needs to defeat Liu Chengzong once again like in the past.

High-end enemies often appear in the form of teammates.