Zhou Yuji only had a wry smile. He knew that Wang Kun was hinting at him in every possible way, but he just pretended not to understand, which almost made Wang Kun's anxious throat stretch out his claws.
How could he, an upright official, have the money to bribe the eunuchs who were overseeing the army? I can only pretend to be dumbfounded.
Seeing that he was so stingy, Wang Kun was so angry that he probably wouldn't be able to catch a single hair in this trip. He spent the whole day thinking about finding fault with him, grabbing his pigtails, killing him, and letting him know about Lord Ma's three eyes.
At this point, the rebels finally began to attack.
The infantry at this time was very slow in arranging troops. It took the rebels an hour to surround the car camp from all sides before it was completed. At this time, five thousand infantry were dispatched on each side to attack.
This time was different from the time when they attacked the Haraqin Mongols. Zhou Yuji was mentally prepared. Because the Mongols have strong fighting skills, although they can fight, they have no firearms. However, the people they faced at this time were the frontier troops of Ji Town, and they had a large number of firearms.
You can despise that the firearms in their hands are all unsafe products made by the Ministry of Industry, but after all, the number is extremely huge. You have cannons and so do they. You have an arquebus and so do they. You have three-eyed guns, and they have more weapons than you.
The reason why Zhou Yuji devoted himself to building the fort for the past three days was because he knew the equipment situation of the frontier army.
He sandbags an interior wall after the steel plate. Trenches were also dug. A low wall was built with sandbags outside the rear gun emplacement of the sidecar, the same height as the car.
"Look, look, they also have cannons." Wang Kun screamed in a terrified voice.
The rebels on the opposite side launched French cannons and general cannons one after another from behind the shield vehicles and large tree trunk shields. The purpose of the mound they had piled up in the past three days in the distance of the main battlefield to the east was finally known. Yes.
The rebels removed the branch camouflage above, revealing three red cannons. This was removed from the city wall of Jizhou. The dark cannon body and black muzzle pointed at the car camp.
Don’t blame Wang Kun for screaming. The power of the red cannon is terrifying. According to historical data, it can be found that the longest range of Chao Hongyi cannon is about 1,500 meters, and the effective range is about 800 meters. The copper-fired cannon equipped in the car camp is actually a backward artillery. The maximum range is less than eight meters, and the actual effective range is only five hundred meters.
Yang Fan has a cast steel cannon in his hand. However, there is no plan to equip this army. He did not want to arouse the emperor's suspicion. At least these heavy artillery were traditional weapons, and their performance was within the emperor's knowledge.
If the rebels take advantage of the range and attack the car camp, at least in front of these three red cannons, the car camp will be passively beaten. After a full-scale engagement, in addition to fighting the rebel infantry, they also had to endure the bombardment of these long-range artillery at all times.
The steel plate walls of the car camp could not block the direct bombardment of these twenty-four-pound artillery shells.
After all, the Ming Dynasty's army was not Mongolian light cavalry. Their combat effectiveness is not good, but their firearms are indeed not too backward.
"General Zhou, what should I do? What should I do? They are going to fire." Wang Kun grabbed Zhou Yuji's clothes and screamed anxiously.
"Supervisor, please respect yourself. This is a battlefield. If you panic, you will shake the morale of the army." Zhou Yuji roared.
He was very irritable. He hated these eunuchs with duck voices. He didn't understand what good role these people could play in the front-line troops. He thought it would only cause more trouble for him.
Huang Hao has no objection to eunuchs. He had many contacts with them when he was in Su Wei's court. People in Yang Fan's system never discriminated against eunuchs. They can get along well with palace maids and eunuchs.
Huang Hao said: "Master, don't be nervous. We are on this high platform and the red cannon cannot reach us."
Huang Hao directly pointed out the key point, that is, we are safe.
Wang Kun immediately became quiet. Since the rebels' artillery shells can't hit our house, it doesn't matter.
Zhou Yuji's face was livid, he ignored Wang Kun and ordered: "Put down the outer steel plate immediately."
The semaphore soldiers immediately began to issue semaphore instructions.
As the order was given, the steel wall between the rows of two cars was lowered inward. The original iron barrel-like exterior wall no longer exists. Only the cars with their butts pointing outward encourage the existence.
Wang Kun immediately became anxious and asked loudly: "General Zhou, the rebels are about to attack. How can you destroy the Great Wall? Put up the wall immediately."
Zhou Yuji couldn't stand it anymore, so he turned around and glared at Wang Kun. He is tall, standing at 1.87 meters, while Wang Kun is only a little over 1.5 meters tall. Zhou Yuji had been on the battlefield for a long time at this time, and he was not angry and intimidated. In addition, the huge pressure brought by his height rushed towards him.
Wang Kun was so frightened that he took a step back, his legs went weak and he almost fell down.
"My lord, you are interfering with my command, so I will ask you to leave."
Although Wang Kun was frightened and backed away just now, he immediately realized that he was sent by His Majesty and was an envoy to supervise the army on behalf of His Majesty. This black guy actually dared to be rough with him.
"Zhou Yuji, you were in disarray before the battle and were very disobedient. I want to tell His Majesty where to sue you. Just wait until you are sent to prison."
Zhou Yuji sneered and said, "You are a coward, you act openly and aboveboard, you can sue me as you please."
At this time, the red cannon on the opposite side opened fire.
The deafening sound of cannons finally ended the quarrel between the two.
Wang Kun was so frightened that he covered his ears and screamed.
Three twenty-four-pound solid lead balls whizzed in.
One hit high and flew directly over the roof of the car camp's deflection car. Cross the car camp and finally land in the open space behind the car camp. Then he jumped several times and stopped on the ground.
One hit the right roof of a car that was veering off course. The powerful kinetic energy directly shattered the armored steel plates on the roof, wooden components, and the stress-bearing pillars at the corners of the carriage.
Because the car's butt was pointed outward, the car did not tip over. Instead, he jumped up and fell down again. The car body made a heavy and harsh creaking sound. There was also apparently damage to the structure.
The five-man gun crew in the car quickly covered their ears with their hands, lowered their heads, and opened their mouths. Protect vulnerable parts of the body. After a flurry of sawdust, the shell blew off the roof of the car, and part of the wall on the right collapsed.
Fortunately, they wore chainmail and helmets that allowed them to move easily. Greatly resists damage from wood thorns.
The other cannonball was aimed very accurately. Straight trajectory.
Because these more than 30 red cannons purchased from Macau in the late Ming Dynasty were actually salvaged from sunken British armed merchant ships. These artillery pieces are all twenty-four caliber cannons. Shooting is straight. The accuracy is also relatively good.
The shell flew through the gap between the two deflected vehicles and directly hit the sandbag wall behind. The straw bags were shattered by the spinning power of the shells, and sand flew into the sky. But the energy of the cannonball was exhausted by the sand and stopped moving forward.
At this time, Wang Kun was completely frightened. He had never been on the battlefield. Only before coming out this time, Chongzhen arranged for them to go to the Jingshan rear training ground to shoot several rounds of muskets, which was a bit of experience.
At this moment, he realized for the first time that the firing of the red cannon was so terrifying.
