Ming Dynasty: Starting from Liaodong Jiangmen

Chapter 25 This cannon was fired for Chongzhen

Yongding Gate.

Dark clouds, lightning and thunder.

When we left Guangqumen, the newly lit sky was still a fish belly white.

When we arrived at Yongdingmen, it started to rain heavily.

It seems that even God is crying for the [-] loyal and brave men outside the city who are about to be destroyed!

Li Shunzu rushed to the city, and the blood stains on his armor had been washed away by the heavy rain.

"who!"

"The capital is under martial law in an important military area. No trespassing is allowed!"

A group of soldiers from the Beijing camp stationed in the inner city came forward, and the general leader blocked the group's path.

Before Li Shunzu could speak, a servant following behind him produced the transfer order document from the Fifth Army Commander's Office.

"Li Shunzu, the admiral of Guangqumen, is transferred to Yongdingmen!"

"The military situation is like fire, get out of the way!"

The servant threw the order to the gatekeeper and then pushed him away.

"I've delayed the military situation, so I'll take it from you!"

When the president was pushed away, he felt embarrassed at first, but after confirming that the official document was correct, he realized that this might be the future uncle Ning Yuan of the imperial court, so he quickly stepped aside with a smile and waved his hand to indicate that the soldiers in the Beijing camp would no longer stop him.

Seeing Li Shunzu and his party hurriedly walking up the city wall, Mr. Ba muttered.

"Isn't he just a little admiral? Why are you so pretentious?"

"If you are so capable, why don't you become a knight at 23?"

Li Shunzu did not hear the words of the soldiers in the Beijing camp here, but he could see from their disdainful eyes that his status here was not as good as Guangqumen.

But at this time, Mangui was fighting a bloody battle outside the city, and there was no room for thinking about this.

"boom!"

"boom!"

Before they could get to the city, they heard a muffled thunderous explosion.

Then there was a continuous roar of cannons and cannons, and the fire on top of the city soared into the sky, even lighting up the sky above Yongding Gate, but there were only a handful of screams from the slave riders outside the city.

Li Shunzu had long known about the problem of indiscriminate firing of cannons at Yongding Gate in this battle in history, and the reason why he came here was to solve this problem.

Now Li Shunzu could only do so much against the [-] soldiers outside the city.

When we climbed to the top of the city, we saw the battle scene outside the city at first glance.

Near the Marco Polo Bridge, about four miles in front of Yongding Gate, [-] Liao troops formed several square formations to guard the central military camp and firmly block all enemies who invaded the capital outside the Marco Polo Bridge.

The formations of both sides sometimes came into contact and sometimes separated. From time to time, small groups of cavalry rushed down from the mountains and continued to attack the Liao army's formation.

So far, although the Liao army has been raided, in Li Shunzu's view, the two sides are still fighting each other.

It is written in history that the entire Liao army was wiped out in this battle. What happened?

Li Shunzu increasingly felt that the problem might lie in the few records recorded in "Yongdingmen's guns and artillery were like rain and snow, and there were no casualties among the Jin soldiers"!

Outside the city, the Liao army was defending the capital and fighting a bloody battle with the Jin army. However, the censor patrolling the city was standing at the top of the city talking and laughing with Men Qianzong. Standing beside him was Sun Tingxun, the uncle of Yingcheng who was transferred to Yongding Gate today.

When the three of them saw Li Shunzu coming after a long journey, the censor of the city and Mr. Men Qian all showed surprised expressions on their faces, but Sun Tingxun seemed to have been prepared, smiled slightly, pointed in front of him and said.

"Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here. This is the eldest son of Li who robbed his own grain depot to feed the refugees in Guangqumen."

"It turns out that Commander Li has arrived!"

When the two saw this, they both became respectful.

"I have met Commander Li. I am serving as the imperial censor Shang Zizhen. I have been ordered to inspect the nine gates of the capital. I can be considered colleagues with Commander Li!"

"Zheng Liang, general manager of the humble sect, has seen Titai!"

Li Shunzu glanced coldly and walked up to the three of them. "The war situation is urgent, are you still in the mood to joke?"

"What happened to the cannon just now?"

Li Shunzu was so concerned about the war situation that the smile on Shang Zizhen's face faltered. Isn't this a disguised way of saying that he, the patrolling censor, didn't care about the war situation?
"I ordered them to fire the cannon. What does Commander Li mean?"

A moment ago I was a lower official, but in the blink of an eye I became my official.

Li Shunzu ignored it and walked forward to a crenel.

Standing on this crenel is a pitch-black cannon.

If Li Shunzu was still a little worried just now, when he saw a series of artillery set up side by side at the top of the city, he no longer had any worries.

The original person must have some knowledge of firearms, because Li Shunzu knew what this artillery was when he saw it.

People at the time called this cannon the Great General Shenwei. Its predecessor was recast from a large copper cannon when Qi Jiguang was training troops in Jizhen. It was a heavy cannon with a total weight of [-] kilograms.

At that time, Li Rusong led the Liao army to fight against the Japanese and aid Korea, and brought more than 1000 Shenwei general cannons.

This heavy artillery was one of the most powerful artillery in the world at that time. The dwarf monkeys in Japan mostly used small bamboo cannons that could be embraced by one or two people. Who had ever seen this masterpiece of Chinese craftsmanship?

It is said that at that time, Xiao Benzi was directly stunned by the Ming army's artillery salvo, and retreated for dozens of miles in a hurry.

The Ming Dynasty's artillery has been developing.

The Shenwei general artillery was mainly used during the Wanli period, but at the end of the Tianqi period, the Ming Dynasty purchased and imitated a more powerful artillery from the West, which was the Hongyi heavy artillery used by Yuan Chonghuan in Ningyuan.

It is recorded in history that the heavy artillery of Hongyi was destroyed for several miles with one shot, and the pieces of meat were everywhere!

This is an exaggeration, but it still shows how powerful this artillery is today.

The reason why Li Shunzu was confident that he could use artillery to change the battle situation at Yongding Gate was precisely because the city of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty was well-defended. There were nearly a thousand general cannons mounted on the top of the city, as well as the largest number of Hongyi heavy artillery in the country.

Although the Shenwei General Cannon was produced 40 to [-] years ago, it is still one of the main cannons today, which shows that it has also undergone multiple forging and upgrades to meet today's needs for city defense and field assault.

Today's Shenwei General Cannon has nine iron hoops. The barrel is made of wrought iron, hammered and rolled, and is fixed with an external iron hoop. The wrought iron used in the gun body has been hammered into low carbon steel, and its performance far exceeds that of casting. Pig iron and copper cannons.

Li Shunzu had no doubt what effect such a heavy artillery would have on the battlefield.

Especially when thousands of doors are launched at the same time, it is simply devastating.

But why didn't these artillery play their due role in this battle in history?

"Bang bang bang-"

"Boom--"

On another section of the city wall ahead, another round of artillery fire was fired.

This time Li Shunzu could see clearly that these artillery pieces were not flying towards the Hou Jin Army camp or the Hou Jin Army at all.

They're firing cannons!

These artillery pieces are aimed at uninhabited wilderness in the distance.

In an instant, Li Shunzu knew why history recorded a salvo of artillery fire at Yongding Gate, but no slave cavalry was injured.

Some people don't want the Liao army to win this battle!
This cannon was fired for Chongzhen to listen to, not to support the Liao army!
For a moment, Li Shunzu was furious.

He took a few steps forward, walked to the gunners, grabbed one of them, and asked sternly: "Who told you to fire like this? Now point the muzzle of the cannon at the slave riders outside the city, and fire again!"

Although the gunner was panicked when he was caught, he did not do what Li Shunzu said.

Li Shunzu followed his evasive gaze and looked behind him, and understood everything immediately.

Shang Zizhen, the censor who patrolled the city, was colluding with Sun Tingxun, the uncle of Yingcheng, and looked at Li Shunzu anxiously with a sneer on his face.

Sun Tingxun looked at Li Shunzu this time, as if his eyes could kill someone.

"Commander Li, what kind of style is this?"

"Didn't we let go of the artillery? We have fulfilled our duty of support, why should we be so concerned?"

(End of this chapter)