Chen Xiaoshu, who was on duty at Wangdou, quickly noticed the panicked herdsmen. He climbed down from the mast and reported the situation to the temporary captain Chen Zhijian.
"Don't be nervous. We will definitely encounter Mongolian interceptions when we go to the grassland. Let's do whatever we have to do. Even if we have to fight, it will be tomorrow morning." Mo Zui was a little angry when he was called out.
He thought it was something great.
It turned out that I just met the herdsmen camping here. Mo Zhui followed the master to many battles, and he had a clear understanding of the situation on the battlefield.
If you don’t know how to fight in the middle of the night, you will have to fight tomorrow morning.
Because it was too dark to see clearly, I couldn't fight.
Moreover, it takes time to gather manpower, and the Mongols have always lived scattered.
If there is no interception at noon tomorrow, there will be no chance. The boat arrived in Toronto at noon.
"Everyone who should sleep should go to bed and have a good rest. I will have enough energy to play with them tomorrow." Mo Zui yawned after saying that and turned around to go back to sleep.
"What's there to be nervous about? This is in the water, and the Mongols can't get up."
When everyone heard this, they immediately became less nervous. After all, Mo Zhu is the only one here who has been fighting for a long time. Looking at his nonchalant look, I knew it would be okay tonight.
Immediately, everyone dispersed and went back to sleep.
News of a strange ship coming up the Luan River was quickly reported to Khan Ahai.
Khan Ahai received this news in the morning when he was having breakfast with the slave girl serving him.
His slender eyes shone like poisonous snakes, flashing constantly.
During this period, more than a month of siege, the earthen city remained motionless.
The Mongols lacked artillery. The grasslands also lacked trees to make siege weapons.
When we all formed an alliance, we took it for granted that as long as we gathered enough people, we wouldn't have to worry about anything. They would flatten their crops with horse hooves and steal their cattle and sheep.
As it turned out, the fight here was completely different.
The castle on the east bank of the river is made of stone!
They actually transported granite from more than a hundred miles away.
Khan Ahai didn't know that water transportation was possible here.
There are not only stones but also many trees in the mountains more than a hundred miles away. The stones can be transported out by putting them on rafts. Mining with fertilizers and explosives is also easy. Just use a steel drill to drill holes and then fill them with explosives.
That castle was a Mongolian nightmare.
The outer wall is more than 20 meters high, and the Mongolians' crude ladders cannot reach the top of the wall.
The walls are made of granite and cement and are so strong that they cannot be smashed with a hammer.
And those shooting ports are still spitting out flames. Kill the approaching Mongols.
The towers are all cylindrical in shape, with half of them exposed outside the wall. There are no blind spots, and you can be hit wherever you hide.
In the past month, three to four hundred corpses have been thrown under the castle, but no progress has been made. The Mongols have turned to attack Duolun City. After all, they are more familiar with rammed earth city walls. The city walls of the Ming Dynasty all looked like this. They attacked with ease.
Only a few troops were left here to monitor and maintain the siege.
Khan Ahai did not expect that this blue-black castle actually had so many firearms. Although they were all small cannons and cannons, they had no problem hitting three to four hundred meters.
For this distance too much exceeds the range of a bow. It’s such a disadvantage for shooting.
They are located high up and have a good view, overlooking the whole city on the other side of the river.
Those tall towers make the best watchtowers.
On the vast grassland, there was no secret in the Mongols' actions, and they were discovered by telescopes on high towers from a distance.
The Mongols soon discovered that every time they launched an attack on Duolun City, it seemed that the people in the city knew their number, weapons, and direction of attack.
Troops have already been concentrated and supplies are waiting there.
This battle was very difficult.
"Is there only one boat?" Khan Ahai asked.
"Replying to the Khan, I only saw one boat, but this boat can go upstream. There are two chimneys smoking, and it seems that there is a fire on the boat."
"Make a fire, are they cooking on the boat?"
Khan Ahai didn't want to worry about it anymore. It was just a boat. If we caught them all, we would understand. It wasn't worth the trouble.
They must not be allowed to successfully reach Doron, and he knew that this would give the people in the city great confidence.
The purpose of siege is to trap them to death and make them despair in their hearts. If it can't be sealed off, what's the point of calling it a siege? It's just a joke.
"Let Oshika attack them, don't let them come here."
As expected, a large number of Mongolians came in the morning.
Mo Zhui stood on the driving platform and looked at the large group of cavalry galloping in the distance. He shouted into the microphone, "Everyone is ready, the Mongols are coming."
A black tide surged in the distance. Under the trampling of countless horse hooves, the earth shook and ripples appeared on the water surface.
"Don't you want to experiment with weapons? Now is your chance. From here to the distance we can see, there are Mongols on both sides of the strait." Mo Zhui said to Lao Liu.
Fu Laoliu nodded and led his disciples to the bow fort. He decided to do the cannon work himself.
Mo table brought a general flag and fifty fusilier infantry, and immediately ran to both sides, opened the shooting port, and started loading.
The sailors on the ship also began to load the Franco cannons on both sides.
Mo Zhui, Chen Zhijian and others were on the bridge, hurriedly putting down the tiled steel plates on the ceiling to prevent the leakage from shooting towards the bridge.
The corrugated steel plates on the four sides of the driver's platform can be retracted and retracted. When they are lowered, there is a louver-like gap, which can not only block arrows, but also allow observation outside.
The speed of the cavalry was very fast. On the river banks on both sides of the ship, a large number of cavalry were cruising, looking at this strange ship wrapped in iron sheets on all sides and not knowing what to say.
Because the Newcomen steam engine was not very powerful, it was not very fast and the cavalry could easily keep up. The depth of the river here is about three to four meters, and the cavalry cannot get close.
small book booth
Oshika stood on a hill not far away, looking at this lonely black steamer with some doubts.
There was a sail, but it was not raised, and the wind was not in the right direction to support them going upstream.
The five large oars on each side of the ship were not in the water at this time. They were stretched out like centipede claws. They were obviously not driven by oars.
Seeing the two large chimneys at the back of the ship billowing black smoke, and the two huge water wheels behind it rowing water, although he didn't understand the principle, he also understood that this ship used fireworks and paddle wheels. Driven.
Regardless of their eccentricities, the Khan's orders must be carried out.
Obihua waved his hand, and suddenly the desolate horn sound sounded.
The next moment, countless cavalrymen bent their bows and set arrows, and fired them intensively. The arrows rose into the sky like black clouds, and then half of the raindrops fell on the ship.
With the boat as the center, raindrops of arrows covered this section of the river.
The sound of chopping sounded throughout the hull and the corrugated steel plates on the top. These steel plates are very thin because they are riveted to the steel brackets, and they are constantly vibrating under the impact of the arrow rain.
Chen Xi raised his little head and carefully observed the tile steel plate. There are small pits and depressions in some places. But fine, no breakdown.
The next moment, the flintlock rifles of twenty-five infantrymen on each side rang out. These people were from the Jia Ding Regiment. They were well-trained and counterattacked immediately after the arrow rain fell.
A plume of smoke rose from the steel firing hole on the side of the ship. A dozen cavalrymen were immediately felled on both sides of the river. The river is not very wide. It looks like seventy or eighty meters.
Fifty rounds of bullets knocked down a dozen cavalrymen, which was a pretty good result.
After all, the accuracy of long-range flintlock guns in this era was very poor. This is an enemy that shoots intensively. If you hit a single enemy, it is difficult to hit it at about 100 meters.
The projectile range of the riding bows was about two hundred meters, and they kept projecting about fifty meters away from the river bank. The musket cannot be fired accurately at this distance.
Oshika had seen that these Han people had firearms during the siege, and the number was shocking.
He guessed that the boat might also have firearms, so he did not let the cavalry get too close. This confirmed his suspicion.
The Mongols chased the ship upstream, constantly firing arrows, while the black ship fired a round of muskets every ten seconds. From time to time Mongols were defeated.
"Accelerate and move closer to Duolun City as soon as possible to prevent them from intercepting them upstream." Mo Zuo ordered. There is a bend in the river ahead. The speed of the ship will slow down, and there are many shoals over there. We need to prevent the Mongols from rushing up.
The Mongols are not fools. The water upstream is shallow and they can wade closer, or they can throw things into the water to block the boat.
Half an hour later, the steamboat arrived at the bend of the river under the rain of Mongolian arrows. A large number of Mongolians had gathered here in advance. They dismounted one after another, holding scimitars, and swarmed onto the sandbank. Many of them were waist deep. Pushing the raft in the water, he was ready to rush up and fight hand-to-hand.
After half an hour of high-speed sailing, the sound of kaka suddenly came from behind the boat. Chen Xi quickly ran over to check. After some searching, I found that the noise was coming from the gearbox.
"Xiao Wu, you two open the gearbox casing. Hurry, something seems to be wrong,"
Before Chen Xi could instruct the two students to take apart the gearbox casing, they heard a jamming sound. The gearbox was stuck, and then with a loud bang, the casing was blown away.
With quick eyes and quick hands, Xiao Wu pushed Chen Xi away, and the broken shell flew out, punching a big hole in the two-millimeter steel curtain wall, and then fell into the river.
Chen Xi clearly saw the situation outside. Many Mongolians were gathering on a sandbank not far away, looking at it eagerly.
Then, the paddle wheel at the stern seemed to suddenly lose its strength, its speed dropped sharply, and then slowly stopped.
Grinding the table on the bridge, I felt a vibration under my feet and the ship stopped.
