stubborn thief

The roar of heavy artillery in Gulang Gorge shook Feng Rou's soul out of his body.

His soul seemed to float to the top of the clouds on the top of Qilian Mountain, looking down at the battlefield, seeing the future amidst the fragmentation of the Ming army camp.

A quarter of an hour is enough for three heavy cannons to be fired ninety times, while a mighty general can only be fired three times, but every time the shells are fired, they are as powerful as thunder, piercing through the car plate as if there is nothing.

Even if the gunpowder is halved, using only the ten catty gunpowder bag prepared by Liu Chengzong, the chariot can still be blasted through at a distance of four hundred steps. It was not until one third of the seven catty charge was used that Feng Rou finally saw the imaginary heavy artillery bombarding the chariot camp. Scene—The shells knock over the chariot.

Within a moment, they fired a total of 93 cannons, not counting the rain of bullets fired by the Mielu Cannon in the middle of the battlefield. Among them, the one with the least charge was the one that actually caused damage to the tank, but it was enough to make the Ming army's chariot battalion tremble with fear.

Soon, the chariot battalion from Liangzhou released more than [-] cavalry from behind, and formed cavalry scattered formations in front of the two wings of the chariot camp, covering the chariot camp to retreat in an orderly manner.

The main reason for Ding Shaoyin's retreat was three heavy cannons fired alternately. The mighty general who fired only three cannonballs in a quarter of an hour was indeed terrifying, but it was not so conspicuous when it was mixed with ninety seven-jin cannonballs jumping all over the ground. .

Ding Shaoyin also knew the gunners of the Marshal's Army. This group of artillerymen had much more training than the Liangzhouwei gunners. They fired more accurately and reloaded faster, especially when operating their own artillery. It can hit the rate of fire of two jack-of-all-trades.

Only this mighty general, the loading is really slow.

During the long shooting intervals of the mighty general, Ding Shaoyin even thought that the heavy artillery of the marshal's army had blown up in the formation, otherwise why didn't he shoot for so long?

Ding Shaoyin had to retreat, not because too many of his soldiers were killed by shelling, or because the morale of the soldiers was depressed by heavy artillery.

The three-day pecking at each other by the two battalions was a good psychological exercise for the soldiers on both sides. They couldn't break through each other's defenses and fought back and forth, only a few unlucky ghosts who were wounded or killed by stray bullets.

The soldiers' fear of the huge threat of the cannon plummeted, and those who were really killed could not complain anyway.

However, the car battalion carried a large number of livestock, and these big guys couldn't develop excellent psychological qualities. Several seven-pound cannons jumped in the formation, jumped over layers of wooden fences to repel horses, fell into the middle of the livestock enclosure, and were crushed to death. Injuring a few animals shocked the entire herd.

The frightened big animals bumped their heads around in the formation, and no barriers could stop them. Ding Shaoyin had no choice but to retreat temporarily.

Originally, this was nothing to Ding Shaoyin, he just retreated to Gulang Fort and reorganized his formation. He never expected that he had just gathered his formation and retreated in an orderly manner, and the two behind him went straight away.

Chai Shihua and Bai Guangen, as if they had discussed it long ago, the first time they saw the retreat of the car camp, the two camps, with 7000 people, jumped out of the camp one after the other, winding towards the mountain road of Gulang Gorge behind them.

Seeing that Ding Shaoyin was furious, you guys were so fucking prepared!No wonder Cao Wenzhao can't trust you two!
In fact, this is really not Bai Guangen's fault, it's just because of his nature. Ever since Zhang Tianlin used Liu Guoneng to reimburse an elite battalion, Bai Guangen always considered the retreat route and made full preparations every time he sent troops.

But he really didn't intend to withdraw directly at the beginning.

It was because Chai Shihua behind him saw that Ding Shaoyin's car camp could not resist, so he left the camp directly. Bai Guangen thought that someone as fierce as Cao Wenzhao would leave without saying a word. Chai Shihua, a good bastard, seemed to know something. , They are both gone, so let me go too.

Then he patted his ass and gave the order to retreat.

Chai Shihua didn't know anything, he wanted to leave a long time ago, but he guessed that the soldiers would not listen to him, so he stood on the battlefield bravely. Now that Ding Shaoyin is withdrawing, he doesn't care about your order, anyway, this will be issued Soldiers must obey the retreat order, and they will retreat if they can.

Feng Lu on the other side didn't even react, and was still wondering in the camp, my fucking mighty general's ammunition hasn't been loaded yet, so why is there no one there when I look up and swish?
He approached Wei Qian'er and asked, "Is this chasing or not?"

"Can't you chase after me?"

Wei Qian'er was also stunned. He opened his mouth slightly and looked at the back of the Ming army who was slowly retreating at the end of the canyon. He shook his head vigorously and said, "They cooperated so tacitly. It's probably a fraud. Did they plant a mine? Or the canyon?" Set up an ambush?"

The two of you looked at me and I looked at you, and finally decided to let the cavalry go to have a look. They occupied the fort first.

Feng Ru couldn't take care of anything at the moment, and wrote a letter to Liu Chengzong while lying beside the chariot with a pen.

He knew Liu Chengzong very well, he was an ancient fierce general, proficient in all eighteen martial arts, but there were no guns in the eighteen martial arts, and Liu Chengzong had never systematically studied, trained, or used guns.

The two people who know the most about guns in the Marshal's Mansion, Cao Yao and Huang Shengxiao are both based in Ganzhou. Feng Ruo's experience in the Beijing Army's firearms battalion made him the closest gunner to Liu Chengzong, so the guns fell into his hands.

Feng Fu has always felt that Liu Chengzong has a very magical ability, that is, as the leader of the army, he can endlessly summarize and propose new attempts.

He obviously didn't understand guns, but he was able to come up with the design of carrying guns and artillery, and built such a heavy gun of [-] kilograms, and asked them to try different charge ratios.

When Feng Ru's letter was delivered outside Liangzhou City, Liu Chengzong already had three other newly cast mighty generals in his hands, but the funny thing was that the cannon had been cast, but the cannon cart hadn't been built yet.

Anyway, after casting a cannon, Liu Chengzong scolded Hong Chengchou in his heart.

Because Hong Chengchou cut down all the trees on the Liangzhou oasis and demolished the houses, the wood used for their artillery vehicles had to be collected from Shandan and Yongchang Erwei. The wood was not like iron and could not be cut into small pieces for transportation. It is very troublesome to build the cannon carriage.

Liu Chengzong looked at the letter written by Feng Ru outside the city, enjoying himself while reading it, and Feng Ru almost wrote him an operation manual for the mighty general.

From the different power and rate of fire brought by different charges, to the suitable environment for use, he explained the reasons to him in detail, and also put forward his own conjectures. There are some things he knows, and there are indeed some things he doesn't know.

Feng Ru is the user, and Liu Chengzong is the designer. The user has the experience of the user, and the designer also has the fun of the designer. Liu Chengzong found himself a little obsessed with casting cannons.

Especially after he personally designed and cast a heavy gun, he found that he had a thorough understanding of the modulus, which is very simple.

A gun uses a fixed modulus and multiple diameters, and only the caliber and multiple diameters are unknown. Once the caliber changes, the size and thickness of the gun body will change. If you know the diameter, you can know the size and thickness of the gun body even with your eyes closed.

If the inner diameter of the muzzle is determined to be three inches, then the outer diameter of the muzzle is twice the diameter, and the outer diameter of the fire door is three times the diameter. The length of the gun bore depends on the double diameter. The form is calculated.

In addition, another variable is the material. If the material is good, the thickness can be appropriately reduced. If the material is poor, the thickness must be increased appropriately. On top of this, different multiple diameters will derive different charges and powers.

The smaller the multiple diameter is, the less the maximum charge is, because the short gun barrel gunpowder burns and smokes in the chamber, the shorter the distance, no matter how much gunpowder is loaded, it is too late to burn. The shell has already been fired, and the excess gunpowder can only smoke. Got mad.

Conversely, the larger the multiple diameter, the longer the barrel, the longer the time before the shell is pushed out of the barrel, the larger the charge that can be used, and the faster the shell ejects, but the same is the pressure on the barrel. .

For Liu Chengzong, the knowledge gained from practice means that the artillery design concept of the Marshal's Mansion has reached a new level. The artillery they are currently installing will become the old system, and the lion cannon and jack cannon used in field battles will produce more Excellent form.

But he doesn't plan to cast cannons in the city of Liangzhou anymore, because Cao Yao sent him a letter from Ganzhou. In the letter, the old thief Cao congratulated Liu Chengzong for overcoming the technical difficulties of casting cannons on the battlefield, and at the same time told him a bad news. If the cannons are cast like this, before the heavy artillery blows Liangzhou away, Gansu will not be able to hold it.

Gansu has a large amount of mineral resources, and there are a large number of proven iron ore, copper ore, and lead ore. However, Gansu in this era is not a normal province. Seventy to eighty percent of the middle-aged men are soldiers, and the practitioners of mining Many have a military background.

Under such circumstances, the output of natural resources is appallingly low. In the whole of Gansu, only 10,000+ catties of iron are mined and smelted a year. Liu Chengzong made more than 4 catties under the city of Liangzhou in less than half a month.

To be honest, Liu Chengzong never considered the possibility of insufficient materials before this.

Because in his consciousness, on the land of Daming, there is no shortage of iron if there is a lack of anything. The iron tax of a county in Shanxi is 50 yuan, and [-] catties can be handed over to the court a year. This is also the production capacity of Daming Iron and Steel. miniature.

This terrifying production capacity is projected to the military, which means that an army of Ming Dynasty may be short of everything. They may be short of money, food, soldiers, or even maintenance costs, but artillery, gunpowder and iron , never enough.

When it was Liu Shizi's turn, he was caught off guard by the lack of iron for making cannons.

In addition, Cao Yao also brought good news and bad news to Liu Chengzong.

The bad news is that after planning, the forage soybeans in the two oases in Suzhou, Ganzhou are not enough to feed the huge mules and horses of the expeditionary force in winter.

The good news is that the harvested autumn grain on the Gansu oasis also cannot satisfy the 1 field troops and the [-] city defenders.

So the problem was easily solved. The solution proposed by the Gansu Governor's Mansion was to slaughter [-] donkeys and mules and [-] war horses to solve the two problems of human rations and horse rations together.

Liu Chengzong had expected the issue of food for soldiers. They had more horses, donkeys and mules in Gansu than soldiers who fought, and soldiers who fought were more than ordinary people farming. The lack of food and grass was an inevitable result.

But the solution Cao Yao came up with still made Liu Chengzong give him a thumbs up in his heart. This bird man is really a genius for solving problems-he was sure that Liu Shishi was stingy and urged the army to advance.

Killing horses will treat the symptoms but not the root cause. Annihilate the Ming army in the Zhuanglang River Valley, and the problem of man and horse food will be solved directly from the root.

But how to attack the Zhuanglang River Valley, Liu Chengzong had no choice but to hold a military meeting under the city of Liangzhou, called Yang Yao, Yang Qi, Gao Yingdeng and others, and asked them: "I want to wipe out the Zhuanglang River Valley as soon as possible." In order to connect Subei Hehuang into one piece, but there is Liangzhou City in the back and Gulang Gorge in front, what good way do you have?"

When the generals heard this question, they all bowed their heads and remained silent for a while. Seeing that no one else was speaking, Yang Qi opened his mouth and said, "Commander, the Gulang Gorge is full of narrow mountain roads that are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and heavy weapons and luggage cannot be transported." To go up, you can only divide into small groups and attack from all sides along the ridge and canyon, and it is inevitable that the few will defeat the many in a hard attack."

"Besides, there is no way to tell how many people are going to attack Gulang Gorge right now." Yang Qi wondered, "Liangzhou City is big and strong. Even if we dig a 1-mile-long trench to besiege, we must keep enough troops. After all, There are more than [-] troops, unless Liangzhou City is captured first, the soldiers will not be able to leave."

Liu Chengzong shook his head slowly, without saying a word.

This was exactly what he thought, as if he hadn't said it.

"Marshal." At this moment, Gao Yingdeng raised his head and asked, "We won't besiege Liangzhou City anymore, okay?"

"Not surrounded?" Liu Chengzong asked: "Why not surrounded?"

"Withdraw all the soldiers, leave 2000 people in the west of the city, and watch them not go out of the city to trample on the crops."

Gao Yingdeng said: "I will go to the south to fight Gulang Gorge. If the soldiers in Liangzhou City come out, our troops outside the city will retreat westward to Yongchang, or at worst to Shandanwei or even Ganzhou. They are the ones who are afraid.”

After all, he seemed to feel that his words were not credible, and added another sentence: "I forgive them for not daring to come out."

Liu Chengzong began to feel that Gao Yingdeng's words were a bit ridiculous, but after careful consideration, it seemed to be quite reasonable: "They are in the city, we don't fight, not because we can't take this city, but because the price paid for taking Liangzhou is higher than possible." The amount of food and grass obtained... makes sense, eh, what you said makes sense."

Liu Chengzong took a few steps out of the tent, turned around and said, "Even if I withdraw all the troops, if Li Hongsi dares to go out of the city, he will only step on my crops if he dies, so he won't dare to go out of Liangzhou for ten miles."

"The commander-in-chief is right!" Gao Yingdeng got Liu Chengzong's acknowledgment and said excitedly: "That's what the last general meant. It would be better if he dared to go ten miles. I immediately brought troops back from the south and wiped him out. A group of remnants were defeated. .”

"remarkably brave!"

Liu Chengzong smiled and praised, and then asked Yang Qi: "Gulangxia can't transport heavy artillery, can horses run, and cars can walk?"

"Of course it can. There are several post stations in the middle, and the traffic is important." Yang Qi thought for a while and said: "It is nothing more than the throat of Gansu, and there are several dangerous places."

Hearing what he said, Liu Chengzong was convinced: "I'm not afraid of the mountains. I, Liu Shizi, came out of northern Shaanxi and went up and down the plateau... If we can't beat the Zhuanglang River, we will kill [-] mules and horses in autumn. I think that even if the horses are going to die, they should die on the battlefield, as long as the horses can run on this road, we will overturn them even if we rush!"

good evening!