Half a moment ago, Guo Ning patrolled various units to boost their morale, approaching the rear of the front line's horizontal formation. Zhang Lin was notified from a distance and trotted over from the car formation. Guo Ning waved his hand, indicating that he should continue to command and not be distracted.
As the size of the army increases and there are more and more types of arms, on the one hand, coordination becomes more and more complex, and on the other hand, the level of expertise in discovery, use, and command becomes higher and higher.
Guo Ning felt that he was still young and learned things quickly, but as the commander-in-chief of the entire army, he had to read more military books and conduct more command drills in order to be able to take charge of the overall situation.
As for some special arms or special ordnance, he occasionally patted his forehead when discussing with instructors and students at the military school and had an idea, but he did not need to do subsequent detailed deductions himself.
For example, in front of us, there are three rows of sixty large vehicles. Since Ge Qingshu discovered a young man named Lu Wusi in northern Xinjiang, Xuande Prefecture and Jinshan and other places began to set up large-scale wool spinning factories to produce felt. Because the felt had fine patterns, was warm and durable, it soon became a military force. An important financial resource for the government.
In order to transport large quantities of felt into the Central Plains, many merchants responded to the call of the military government and made great efforts to build carts that could carry more weight than the original ones.
The vehicles in front of me, with their thick axles and extremely strong appearance at first glance, are the results of the first batch of improvements. It is said that several large businessmen are joining forces to recruit skilled craftsmen to design large vehicles with four wheels and front wheels that can be steered.
Naturally, these carts were not filled with felt. After the thick oilcloth was lifted, what was revealed was a huge machine that had not yet been assembled.
Around each cart, more than thirty people were busy. First, they removed the heavy pile feet to fix the cart plate, and then erected the entire machine from the base.
Compared with when Guo Ning first saw it, this machine is much smaller and its structure has become much simpler.
After all, what they wanted to throw was no longer a boulder weighing tens or hundreds of kilograms, but an iron artillery piece weighing less than twenty kilograms.
But sixty counterweight stone machines are lined up in a row, with two or three feet long wood and heavy iron accessories intertwined. Between the rolling of the huge metal winch, the huge counterweight wrapped in cowhide slowly rises, still There is an intimidating aura.
Strictly speaking, this kind of machine was a failed product of the Tianjin Military Academy that frustrated many craftsmen and students.
What everyone wanted to make at that time was a weapon that could bombard enemy ships from a long distance on the sea and kill the sailors of the enemy ships for subsequent plunder. They were prepared to use it when they fell out with the Song Dynasty navy.
Since they wanted to attack from a distance, everyone subconsciously chose the already very mature catapult structure. In a certain textbook of the military academy, they found a record saying that there are big countries in the Western Regions that use anvils or boulders as counterweights to ensure the range. Unique means.
Unfortunately, a lot of materials were consumed in the end, and the finished product was not suitable for use at all. The shipbuilding industry of Dinghai Navy is far from producing results. Unless the deck of any existing ship has been specially modified, it will not be able to withstand the repeated pounding of the counterweight, even if the counterweight has been reduced to two hundred kilograms. The result is the same.
The advantage of stable range brought by counterweight is not worth mentioning under the conditions of sea waves and changing distances between ships.
What's even more troublesome is that the long rope that throws out the iron cannon often gets entangled with the dense sail ropes on the seagoing ship. During one training session, the iron cannon rolled straight up and down into the cabin, causing one death and six injuries after the explosion.
The deceased was also a highly trusted master craftsman in the shipyard. So at this moment, a large number of people in the military academy, including Guo Ning's old acquaintance Aduo, were all disgraced and started to think of new solutions based on the muskets used by the Song Dynasty people in the Southern Dynasties.
However, the trial product of this weighted stone-shooting machine was eliminated, but it gained the favor of Zhang Shengzhi, the Department of Ordnance.
At the same time, Zhang Lin, who witnessed the power of gunpowder weapons under Yidu City, also became very interested in this object.
Zhang Shengzhi has been in charge of the Ordnance Department for a long time and has been exposed to a lot of strange and new things. Although Zhang Lin is not known for his martial arts, he has always had his own small team that works among various forces and has extraordinary talents.
He was also very keen to participate in the military academy training organized by Ding Haijun, trying to make achievements on the battlefield, so he hit it off with Zhang Shengzhi there.
The resources these two people can use are much more than ordinary students in the military academy. As a result, there was a unit in the Ding Navy that used counterweight stone throwers to throw iron artillery.
More than ten days ago, Guo Ning led his troops to advance violently. Naturally, this team could not catch up. But Guo Ning set up camp in Chenliu for a few days, and they caught up with him.
Because of its ability to both attack cities and exert its power in field battles, it was immediately transferred to the front line.
"My lord, the projection calibration has been completed. I want to give the order to launch." Zhang Lin greeted Guo Ning with a smile on his face.
Guo Ning reached out and stroked the green horse's mane to prevent the good fellow from getting too excited. He smiled and said to Zhang Lin: "You can direct it yourself. It's none of my business at the moment. I just want to watch the excitement." Zhang Lin bowed and stepped back.
He returned to the center of the vehicle formation, boarded the specially elevated command vehicle, and looked down. Directly below him were the five gun groups that had previously fired five iron artillery pieces for calibration.
At this moment, there were seven or eight big men in each gun crew, dripping with sweat, who had just turned the winch to raise the counterweight.
After confirming that all five artillery groups were ready, Zhang Lin waved the two triangular command flags in his hand. As the command flags waved, next to each stone-shooting machine, there was a sign indicating that the gunner was lighting the iron cannon with a torch, followed by the sound of dozens of thick leather ropes swinging violently in the air.
The next moment, sixty iron artillery pieces formed a huge fan shape in the air and flew out.
Iron artillery is not a new thing, and although the counterweighted stone machine is unprecedented, in the eyes of countless craftsmen in the Central Plains, it is not an ingenious thing.
The only difficulty with the entire machine is the stability of transporting it with the vehicle and then quickly assembling it. But the significance of this machine in war cannot be underestimated.
If we say that the war with the Mongolian Qixue Army in the north of the Triangle Lake was the first time that the Ding Navy used gunpowder weapons on a large scale to defeat the enemy.
At this moment, it was the first time that the Ding Navy had the ability to project gunpowder weapons on a large scale. Iron artillery soared in the air, and many knights who had seen the drill reached out to cover their own ears, while some more experienced ones turned to cover their horses' ears.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The firelight was not so conspicuous in the sunlight, but thick smoke billowed up in the ranks of the Jin Army. Smoke was everywhere, and soon mixed with the blood mist.
Many depressions appeared in the dense queue of the Jin Army. They were so broken that they could no longer recognize their original appearance. The limbs, long strips of flying internal organs, and screaming people fell from the air one after another, and smashed into the depressions. All around.
The two armies were so close that most of the Jin army soldiers held up their shields to guard against missing arrows. But the attack of iron artillery cannot be stopped by any shield.
Wherever the explosion went, it easily killed a large number of people and caused injuries that were multiple times the number of dead.
The soldiers of the Thirteen Captains of Kaifeng Prefecture were the troops that King Sui had high hopes for. They had gone through arduous training that the Jurchens had not experienced for a long time. They also went south to the Song Dynasty and fought with several times the Song army. The outcome was indistinguishable. Strong troops.
They had indeed suffered heavy losses and were forced into a desperate situation of imminent destruction, but their generals believed that this situation just inspired the savagery and ferocity in the Jurchens' bones, allowing them to make a last stand.
It's a pity that the Jurchens have been pampered for too long, and their wildness is really inferior to the Mongols. The Mongolian troops could not bear the blow, and they could not bear it even more.
The roar and explosion quickly weakened the last courage of these Jurchens. Many people relied on instinct and staggered dizzy on the battlefield, stepping on the dead with broken bones and limp bodies, stepping on the land that looked pink in the sun due to the rapid absorption of blood, and stepping on the people who were wailing in pain. wounded.
Then they couldn't go any further, they sat down on the ground and looked around blankly. Only less than a third of them, with their superior ferocity, were still waving their weapons forward.
But because sixty iron artillery fans covered the thirty steps in front of the horizontal formation, these people's movements would always be slower and they would not be able to reach the front where the two armies were fighting in time.
As a result, the Jin army at the forefront was suddenly overwhelmed. Jia Guze's cousin, Fan Laoseng, was the most famous warrior in the Anping Captain's army. Therefore, when Jia Guze went to Lincaiguan to discuss the army, Fan Laoseng was left to lead the headquarters.
After another member of the Qianhu clan was killed by Wanyan Congtan, Old Monk Fan became furious and felt that it was disgusting that a Jurchen noble like Wanyan Congtan did not take Han'er seriously.
The way he chose to deal with it was the same as that of the Han generals of the Great Jin Kingdom for hundreds of years, that is, to fight with the enemy ten times as ferociously as to prove it to the Jurchens.
Previously, he led a few warriors to collide and forced a gap in Ding Haijun's horizontal formation. In order to maintain the gap, he held a broadsword in both hands and swung it like a windmill, forcing away the approaching sword and shield wielders one after another, and even cut off four or five spears.
But this explosive dance could not last long. After dancing for a while, Fan LaoSeng felt out of breath and lost his temper.
He quickly shouted: "Come up and help me! Come up and help me!" The battle on the battlefield is not a matter of one person. Cooperation with each other is more important than anything else. Fan LaoSeng dared to take the lead because he had already arranged for hundreds of soldiers to fight. After that, you can take turns attacking and covering at any time.
But he shouted twice and didn't wait for the rear team to catch up. It seemed that after experiencing that violent roar in the rear, there was no one left alive.
Old Monk Fan really couldn't hold on, and his movement of swinging the sword was inevitably a little slow. Immediately, soldiers from the Ding Navy rushed up and hit him in the face with a sword.
Fortunately, there was a nose guard extending downwards on the edge of the iron helmet. Although his flesh and blood were broken, he was not seriously injured.
Old monk Fan roared angrily, trying to speed up the swing of his sword again, and then slowly withdrew from Ding Haijun's queue.
But he was really out of breath. Not only was there a lake in front of him, but it even started to turn red. He narrowed his eyes subconsciously, and a spear was pointed at his face.
The tip of the gun popped out his eyeballs, penetrated his skull from the eye socket, and then pushed the back of the helmet outwards, possibly penetrating the skull.
At the same time that his skull was being penetrated, someone else used the shield to lean over and get closer to Old Monk Fan. The man suddenly stood up from a squat and slashed his right leg with a straight knife.
