Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 83 Guided Shooting
"Long live, long live!"

Chongzhen was accepting the coming of all nations in his dream, when he was suddenly awakened by a voice.

Sitting up, he found that it was Wang Chengen: "Long Live Lord, Uncle Jingnan sent someone to report that Jiannu has new news."

"Understood." Chongzhen stroked his beard, and woke up Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong who were still sleeping beside him, and then came to Huang Dejun's admiral Xingyuan without thinking about breakfast.

"My lord, Jianu seems to be building a tower."

After paying homage to the temple, Huang Degong went on to say, "I don't know what to do with it."

"Go ahead and take a look first." Chongzhen immediately took Huang Degong and his two sons, surrounded by several eunuchs and a team of barbarians, to the northernmost point of the defense line.

This time I didn't ride a naval warship, but rode a horse.

After a while, a group of hundreds of people arrived at the ground.

"Kowtow to the Holy One." Tian Xiong stepped forward to pay respects.

"Aiqing is free of courtesy." Chongzhen waved his hand, "Tell me about the situation."

Tian Xiong responded, and said again: "Today, before the sky is clear, a group of descendants came over. There must be two or three thousand people, and they brought picks and other tools. After they came, they built a platform behind the slope protection. Now They are several feet high."

Chongzhen raised his head and looked forward, but it was a pity that there was a protective slope in the middle, so he couldn't see anything.

Immediately Chongzhen got off the gun platform, and followed the narrow passage reserved between the sharp wooden stakes and bamboo thorns to the back of the slope protection. The Ming army sentries had already set up ladders here for observation.

Seeing Chongzhen and his party coming, the sentry hurried down and saluted.

Patting the sentry on the shoulder, Chongzhen climbed up the ladder directly.

The total height from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the slope protection is only more than one foot. Chongzhen climbed up in two strokes, looked out over the top of the slope protection, and saw thousands of Jian slaves divided into more than a dozen groups, digging in the wilderness ahead obliquely. Soil, ramming, and the nearest earthen platform was less than thirty steps away.

Huang Degong, Tian Xiong, Zhu Cihong, and Zhu Cijiong also climbed up from other ladders.

"Father, what does Jiannu want to do?" Zhu Cijiong asked, "Follow Yuan Shao's practice in the Battle of Guandu, build a high platform and shoot arrows at our gun platform?"

"It should be firing a cannon." Zhu Cihong corrected.

"After all, bows and arrows don't shoot far and are not very powerful."

"Well, what Lang'er said is right." Chongzhen nodded and said, "Jiannu probably wants to build a row of forts, and then set up the Frang cannon to bombard our gun emplacements from above."

"This is a little troublesome." Huang Degong frowned and said, "Jiannu built the fort, and the slope protection became a decoration, and our gun emplacement was directly exposed to Jiannu's cannon."

Tian Xiong suddenly said: "Your Majesty, why don't we fight back and kill these Jian slaves?"

Chongzhen glanced back at Tian Xiong in some surprise. It seemed that the two victories yesterday, day and night, had given Tian Xiong a lot of encouragement, and he actually had the courage to take the initiative to go to the camp to fight in the field.

But Chongzhen also knew very well that Tian Xiong, a town soldier, did not have such strength at all.

Therefore, we must carefully protect the confidence of Tian Xiong and his town soldiers, and never waver easily.

"A counterattack is a counterattack, but no one is required." Chongzhen smiled slightly, "Counterattack with a tiger squat cannon."

"Huh? The tiger squats and shoots back?" Huang Degong, Tian Xiong, and Zhu Cihong were a little confused when they heard the words.

Zhu Cijiong was even more puzzled and asked a question: "Father, there is a slope protection, how can the tiger crouching cannon hit?"

Chongzhen smiled slightly and said: "Today, my father will personally teach you a lesson, how to make our tiger squatting cannon grow a pair of sharp eyes, and guide and shoot through the slope protection!"

Back at the Guntai, Chongzhen was not in a hurry to attend class.

Instead, he asked Tian Xiong to call all the gunners from the nearby gun platforms.

He asked Gao Qiqian to find a long plank one inch thick and cut it into dozens of small pieces.

In the Ming Dynasty, due to the lack of manufacturing technology, the accuracy of artillery was not very high, so there was no concept of guided shooting, and they all relied on the experience of the gunner to hit the big luck.

If you are lucky, let the enemy eat.

If you are unlucky, you will have dinner with your family.

But in fact, Ming Dynasty artillery can also guide shooting.

The howitzers of the later generations measure the shooting parameters first, and then carry out covering bombardment according to the measured shooting parameters. The tiger squatting guns, Flang machine guns and Hongyi cannons of the Ming Dynasty can also measure the shooting parameters first, but the accuracy is nothing more than poor What's more, it cannot be measured uniformly, but each gun must be measured separately.

A maximum of two cannons are placed together for measurement.

"First, let me tell you a few concepts."

"This small piece of wood is about an inch thick, and it is a scale."

Chongzhen picked up a small piece of cut wood and showed it to everyone.

Then he gestured to the left with fingers together, and then raised a finger.

"The meaning of this gesture is to say that the shooting circle is one tick to the left."

"It means to move the breech of the tiger squat gun to the opposite direction, that is, to the right by one inch, do you understand?"

Most of the gunners nodded to show that they understood, Chongzhen stopped talking, and let the gunners who already understood go back and teach the companions who didn't understand.

Chongzhen then made three sets of gestures to the right, up and down.

"These three gestures mean that the shooting circle is adjusted to the right, up or down to adjust the corresponding scale. One finger means to adjust one scale, and two fingers are two scales."

"Left and right adjustments only need to move the breech."

"Adjusting the firing angle up and down means raising or lowering the breech of the gun."

"Finally, when the calibration is completed, just make this gesture."

After finishing speaking, Chongzhen stretched out his left and right hands at the same time and gave a thumbs up.

Most gunners get it, and it doesn't sound too difficult to understand.

Chongzhen randomly called out one of the more than one hundred gunners, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Return to the Holy Lord, the villain is big, and the big one is Niu Manzhi." The artilleryman blushed with excitement.

Chongzhen smiled and said: "Niu Da, right? Now I will provide you with the parameters, and you can adjust the shooting angle."

"Yes!" Niu Da responded, and immediately walked up to a tiger squatting and squatted down.

Chongzhen put his fingers together and pointed to the ground, tapped twice and then raised a finger towards Niu Da.

After a little thought, Niu immediately grabbed a small wooden block and put it on the tail of the tiger squat gun, and then fixed it, correct!

Chongzhen then reported three sets of parameters, which were to adjust the parameters to the left, to the right and upwards. As a result, Niu mostly made correct adjustments to the shooting range and shooting angle of the tiger squatting gun.

"That's it." Chongzhen said happily.

"You guys go back now, and each send an observer to hide behind the slope protection to observe."

"Then the tiger squatting cannon was tested many times. The charge of the test and the official shooting must be the same. Otherwise, it means that there is no test." Speaking of this, Chongzhen suddenly remembered a question, and asked Niu Da , "By the way, Niu Da, do you have a fixed amount of gunpowder every time you fire a cannon?"

"Yes." Niu Da hurriedly said, "There is a measuring bucket. There are three scales inside the measuring bucket, which are full, half full, and half full. When firing the cannon, the range is about 300 steps, 200 steps, and 100 steps."

[Note: 1 step in Ming Dynasty = 5 feet = 1.6 meters]

"Okay, from now on, all the medicines will be fully loaded." Chongzhen said.

"The ammunition is unified as a joint ammo plus 50 semi-double lead or stone ammunition."

"Each gun is tested first. After the test is completed, the observer observes the impact point of the shell. After the observer finds the impact point of the shell, he adjusts the parameters according to the distance and direction between the impact point and the target until the final shell Until the target is accurately hit, the parameters are finally calibrated!"

"Do you understand everything?"

"Understood!"

……

Gaudí was sitting overseeing the work.

"Master, eat watermelon."

A servant came to Gaudi with a watermelon as big as a bowl.

"Where did you find the watermelon?" Gao Di's eyes lit up, it was a pleasure to eat a piece of watermelon in this hot weather.

The servant said: "I found a piece of wild watermelon vine when I went out to patrol yesterday. I thought it might bear fruit. I went to look for it today and found that there really was one. It's a pity that it only produced such a watermelon."

"Cut it, cut it quickly." Gaudi couldn't wait.

The servant put the watermelon on the ground, and then pulled out his waist knife to cut it open.

After cutting it open, it was found that it was not yet ripe, and the flesh was only slightly red.

Gaudi didn't dislike it at all, it would be nice to have watermelon to eat.

While eating, I suddenly heard a "boom" in front of me.

"Fire? Where is the fire?" Gaudi was taken aback and stood up hastily.

"It seems to be the gun platform of the Ming army." Jia Ding pointed to the front, "It should be."

"Oh, that's all right." Gaudí sat down on the saddle that served as a stool again.

"There is a slope protection in the middle, and the gunners of the Ming army can't see it at all, so they just hit blindly."

As if to verify Gaudí's words, just as he finished speaking, a puff of smoke and dust suddenly rose from the wasteland thirty steps ahead to the right, and mud and sand were mixed with broken grass.

"Look!" Gao Xiao laughed, "Isn't this just beating?"

"The Ming army probably has nothing to do." Jia Ding echoed with a smile, "When we build the fort and put the Franji cannon on it, the Ming army can only surrender obediently."

"Yes." Gaodi agreed deeply, "The only way for the Ming army is to surrender."

While the two were talking, there was another bang in the direction of the Ming army gun platform in front of them.

"Come again?" Gaudi said angrily, "What do you think you're going to do so hard for?"

But the servant pointed to Gaodi's right side and said, "Master, it seems to be closer this time."

"What's closer?" Gaudy turned his head blankly, and then saw at a glance that less than ten steps away on the right, there was an extra large earthen pit, and it was steaming out.

what's going on?Was it fired by the Ming army's tiger squatting cannon?
After a while, there was another bang in the direction of the Ming army gun platform in front.

Immediately Gaudí heard a scream, as if something passed over his head.

The next moment, screams suddenly sounded from behind him. Looking back anxiously, Gaudi was extremely surprised to see that a few of the dozens of soldiers who were busy building the fort had already lay down, and the rest also fled in all directions.

what's going on?What's the situation?Gaudi was completely dumbfounded.

Could it be possible that the tiger squatting guns of the Ming army had grown eyes?How could he be so accurate?
(End of this chapter)