She Song

Chapter 307
When the Forbidden Army raised its troops and began to charge, the breech artillery battalion commanded by Yue Fei took the lead in opening fire, with twenty guns on the front and fifteen on the left and right.

As the top secret of Tsinghua University, the percussion gunpowder has been developed for half a year. With the repeated improvement of machine tools, Han Xiaoyao completed the replacement of the guard more than a month ago.

Among them, the revolutionary change is undoubtedly the breech-loading cannon and breech-loading rifle. Only the firing pin strikes the primer. After the strong gunpowder in the projectile explodes, the pointed warhead is stably launched through the rifling to [-] steps away.

According to data from tests and live-fire exercises, a well-trained gunner can fire twice as fast as the Korean King Artillery in the same time. Not only is the accuracy higher, but the killing power of the explosive shell covers a radius of thirty steps.

In fact, in the 500-man Guards Artillery Battalion, in addition to the 150 gunners, auxiliary gunners and loaders, the remaining 350 people are basically "porters" because the ammunition is too heavy.

A basic amount of ammunition for a breech-loading gun is four boxes of sixteen shells, and a box of shells weighs forty kilograms. This time Han Xiaoyao directly approved two basic quantities of ammunition, and the ammunition boxes were piled into a hill.

When the imperial army charged from [-] paces away, it was just suitable for the breech-loading guns to play. As Yue Fei blew the whistle, fifty gunners suddenly pulled the running bolt.

"Boom, boom, boom!" A dense roar accompanied by a roaring sound echoed through the artillery position.

After only three or four breaths, he saw puffs of gunpowder smoke and bright and dazzling sparks suddenly rising from the cavalry array on the opposite side. Many cavalrymen were hit and fell to the ground in the gunpowder smoke.

Seeing the exploding shrapnel harvesting human lives, the originally loose and leisurely Forbidden Army cavalry suddenly became nervous. Many people quietly increased their horse speed. After all, as long as they rushed within two hundred steps, the artillery lost its effect. As for the continuous crossbow, even if it penetrated the armor, it would not work. It will penetrate the meat too deep.

However, they soon discovered that the cannonballs fired from the opposite side were one after another, making them unable to breathe. Once the cavalry picked up speed, they could only rush forward and crush the enemy.

On the hill, the generals around Zhao Kai were stunned.

According to their experience, this kind of intensive firepower and lethality is enough to equal a hundred artillery pieces, but there are only fifty artillery pieces. How did they do it?
Zhong Shidao twisted his beard for a long time before guessing: "They did not load ammunition from the muzzle. They should have improved the artillery. Your Highness, this will cause too much damage to the cavalry!"

Zhao Kai is like a gambler, he loses more than [-]% in a few rounds of shelling. It really hurts, but as long as he rushes over, he can still win.

"The infantry and artillery move forward and bring all the opponent's positions within the artillery range!"

Zhongshidao could only follow the order. A total of [-] infantry followed the cavalry and rushed forward. The Forbidden Army's artillery force, a total of [-] artillery pieces, also moved forward.

In fear, the Forbidden Army cavalry no longer cared about their horse power, and stamped on their spurs to rush towards the Guards' position!

Rush!
Hurry up!
One thousand steps, five hundred steps, three hundred steps...

The cannonball passed over the heads of the front cavalry and fell to the back. Just when they were about to take a breath, they suddenly saw the middle army and the left and right cavalry holding up a long wooden pole at the same time.

what are they doing?
"First row, fire!" Jiang Queer pulled out his command knife and pointed at the swarming cavalry.

Six hundred breechloader gunners pulled the triggers, walked consciously behind the last comrade in the smoke of gunpowder, began to remove cartridge cases, load bullets, and waited for orders from their superiors.

"Second row, fire!" Jiang Queer ordered again, and everything was repeated just like the first row.

"Third row, fire!" "Fourth row, fire!" "Fifth row..."

"First row, keep firing!" After all five rows finished shooting, the first row was once again at the front of the array.

The firing range of the box-type repeating crossbow is basically within 120 steps, and the lethality will decrease sharply beyond the distance. Therefore, after entering [-] steps, as the shells landed behind them, the Forbidden Army cavalry felt that they were safe.

But they seemed to hear a sound like "fried beans", and then saw their comrades or horses falling down inexplicably, and some people screamed in pain.

This is a distance of three hundred steps. A normal crossbow arrow cannot shoot this far!

However, their nightmare is not over yet.At the same time, Yue Fei ordered: "Three hundred steps, shotgun, fire!"

The loader quickly loaded the blue-headed cannonball, closed the gun door, and pulled the gun bolt.

"Oh!"

The hundreds of steel balls contained in each artillery shell scattered out like a fan, just like a steel whirlwind. The imperial cavalry who was the first to enter the [-]-step area was almost destroyed by the impact of thousands of high-speed steel balls. Swept away.

In just one bombardment, almost five to six hundred cavalry were killed.

However, Yue Fei continued to order: "250 steps, shotgun, fire!"

"Oh!"

"Second row, fire!"

As Jiang Queer and Yue Fei gave orders one after another, the menacing cavalry vanguard was frightened by the opponent's ferocity.

The area between two hundred and three hundred steps was already covered with the corpses of men and horses, and neither the opponent's artillery nor the smoking "guns" showed any signs of stopping.

Forty to five thousand people have already died, and they can’t even get close!
"Run!" Under the unknown terror and fear of death, many Forbidden Army cavalry slowed down, and some even began to move sideways and backwards.

Qin Huizhi was speechless as he watched it on the gate tower. This kind of artillery with a back door was so magical. It could switch between long and short distances without any hindrance, and its power was terrifying.

Compared with the area of ​​​​destruction of artillery, against scattered individual targets, the "five-row shooting" of the spearmen was also terrifying. The cavalry who luckily escaped the massacre by the artillery were killed on the hundred-step line without landing.

When the vanguard cavalry finally fled in a large area, Han Xiaoyao's guards did not pursue them one after another. They just laughed loudly and then packed up their equipment and supplies and returned to the city in an orderly manner.

Zhao Kai was dumbfounded, looking at the battlefield with corpses strewn all over the field, at the soldiers running around with their heads in their arms.

"This this…"

For a moment, he couldn't find the right words to express his inner shock, confusion or confusion.

And all the generals also shut their mouths knowingly. The cavalry vanguard was not incompetent, and they might not be much better when they went up to command. But such an elite cavalry was lost under the attack of dozens of artillery and special weapons from the opponent. Sixty-seven thousand men and horses, nearly one-third were lost in the battle.

Seeing the overwhelming defeat, Zhong Shidao could only make a suggestion: "Your Highness, we will temporarily withdraw our troops and return to camp today, and wait until tomorrow to reorganize our troops and fight again."

Zhao Kai had no choice but to disagree, so Ming Jin withdrew his troops, and those infantry and artillery who were about to follow up were surrounded by the retreating cavalry and retreated.

In King Yun's military tent, the generals analyzed and analyzed, and seemed to find a good reason. The Military Intelligence Department did not do their job well and failed to detect that Yanjing had such a magical weapon, so they suffered a big loss today.

Qi Ziyan glanced at Zhao Kai, but didn't make any distinctions. This was just a bureaucratic routine for the leadership to take the blame.

When Zhong Fu, who was in charge of the rearguard, arrived, Zhao Kai even bluntly said that the opponent's artillery not only hit far, fast and powerful, but the density of short-range firepower was also frightening, like a hedgehog that was hard to swallow. !
"General Zhong, our army is now like a tiger riding a tiger, how can we resolve it?"

Just as Zhong Fuchang was about to speak, he saw Qin Huizhi hurriedly entered the military tent, causing a commotion among everyone.

(End of this chapter)