Chapter 179 Tragedy
Amidst the wanton noise and curses of the defenders on the city, the bandits retreated dejectedly. On the way back to the camp, Fang Ge ordered the soldiers: "Take some of the women we captured and send them to the cannon."
Zhang Hu and others brought the remaining five cannons to an open area. Not long after, several half-dressed women were brought over. Facing the probing glances of Zhang Hu and Niu Youtian, Fang Ge said proudly: "I heard something in the Sichuan military camp. During the Bozhou Rebellion, Yang Yinglong used a move to defeat the dog army's cannons. Mute. Our cannon has been cursed. I think this trick can make the cannon mute, and maybe it will cause the curse to malfunction." As he spoke, he pointed at the ravaged women lying in front of the horse. People, "Take them naked for me! Give each of them a dustpan, cross their legs and fan me at the cannon, and break the monk's curse*!"
Amid the screams of women and the lewd laughter of the thieves, Fang Ge's soldiers tore off the rags that several women were wearing and stuffed several peasant baskets and dustpans into them. In their hands. A woman who collapsed threw her bamboo basket to the ground and cried loudly, cursing these thieves who had completely lost their humanity while crying. In just one or two breaths, the woman was chopped down in a pool of blood with knives. Stupid, cruel, and curious about the structure of the woman's body, like almost all female corpses, this corpse was immediately disemboweled... The other people were completely frightened. According to Fang Ge's instructions, while the bandits were laughing and joking, they came to the cannon, put the basket and dustpan under their crotches, and started fanning the cannon.
Seeing them slap thirty to fifty times, Fang Ge shouted: "That's enough. Fire a few shots to try!"
Smiles froze on the faces of the gun crew.
However, although it is not known whether the women have broken the spells of the monks, they are all very aware of the consequences of disobedience. Another "talent" has already gone to the West, and there is only one left who has ever touched a cannon. While this guy is dawdling with the other guys, he is trying his best to recall the gunner he saw a long time ago in his mind. All processes of gunnery.
"What the hell are you going to sing to me with all your moaning and groaning? Be sharper with your hands and feet!" As soon as Niu Youtian's scolding came into his ears, this guy was so beautiful that he almost jumped up - "Prepare thirty pieces of medicine for each gun. Every baby comes out eight taels*." Niu Youtian said "Come out", and he suddenly remembered this mantra in a hurry! That's right, half a pound of medicine! Oh my god, that guy stuffed a lot of pounds this morning, who else will I do if I don’t blow you up?
Loading powder, sealing mud, tamping, loading, tamping again, opening the fire door to pour primer, igniting the torch...
While the artillery crew was busy, Fang Ge gently pulled down the sleeves of Zhang Hu and Niu Youtian. The two understood and they quietly moved back further.
boom!
Iron bullets roared out. It flew far away under the watch of everyone. After a long time, a puff of smoke burst out from inside and outside.
"It's broken, the demon monk's spell is broken!" The thieves burst into cheers.
Boom, boom, boom.
Several other guns fired one after another, and all tests were successful.
Zhang Hu, who was overjoyed, shouted: "Kill them back! I will kill those monster monks alive!"
"Commander, wait a minute." Fang Ge stopped him, "We just broke Monk Fan's magic. I also know a way. I'll prepare it when I go back and set one up for them tomorrow!" Fang Ge smiled grimly. , the smile is so sinister. Looking at Fang Ge's ferocious face, Zhang Hu's heart tightened. There seemed to be a small insect on his back. From the waist up, a "swish" sound quickly jumped up to the back of his head. A chill arose in his heart, and he laughed twice. : "Okay, okay! Listen to Brother Fang."
Early the next morning, I saw the thieves coming from a distance again. The defenders, who were convinced that their side was blessed by gods and Buddhas, stood up from the wall easily and laughed, waiting for today's victory. The thieves approached. Zhang Jian rubbed his eyes and opened his mouth in surprise. He turned around and looked at the others, all with the same shocked expression.
Walking at the front was a group of thieves' auxiliary soldiers holding shovels. They stopped just a stone's throw away, lined up and started digging. This distance is the shooting limit of bows and arrows, and there will be no accuracy. Of course, these thieves and auxiliary soldiers are not worth wasting precious artillery shells and crossbows. Therefore, the defenders did not fire, and they all stared wide-eyed to see what the thieves were going to do today. What a mystery. After two or three sticks of incense, the thieves dug a small pit half as deep as a man, then stopped at the command of the team officer, and stood by the pit one by one with shovels.
The second batch that came up turned out to be a group of more than a hundred thieves with swords and shields, each of them holding a woman who had been mutilated to the point of being almost inhuman shape! The women were all naked. Over the past few days, experiences far more tragic than falling into hell had turned them into zombies - they had struggled, they had begged, they had even tried their best to beg to die... However, their All efforts were in vain. Over the past few days, ever since they fell into the hands of thieves, they had suffered endless ravages from the thieves day after day, until they became more terrifying than the evil ghosts in the Temple of Yama. , can no longer attract the interest of those devils. At this moment, they no longer have any shame, no resistance, no nostalgia for this world - they walk numbly and submissively, towards the end of life and the end of suffering.
A shrill whistle sounded like a ghost, and the thieves' soldiers dug their butcher knives into their chests, and then together with the auxiliary soldiers, they threw the corpses into the pit, with their private parts facing the Western Wall of Kaifeng*.
The defenders on the wall were filled with jealousy - admittedly, they were not all gentlemen, and many of them were convicts who had been exiled from the army. The generals of the Ming Dynasty had all kinds of superstitions. They killed chickens for divination before battle, smeared weapons with black dog blood, and even stabbed small people. There were all kinds of tricks, including Qi Jiguang. For example, Qi Junshen insisted, The musketeers belong to fire, so the flag should be red, and the wolf corps belongs to wood, so they must carry the green flag. If you use it wrongly, you will lose the battle! However, after all, they are serious officers and soldiers, and no one has ever heard of such cruel and evil methods. Some people began to vomit, and many officials such as Ji Shu and Zhang Jian shed tears. They turned their backs and couldn't bear to watch anymore. Jiang Shide, with eyes burning, strode to the artillery team officer Lu Ping and pointed with his finger: "Give it to me." Blast those stupid beasts!"
"Commander..." Lu Ping hesitated to speak. On the one hand, he really couldn't bear to waste precious artillery shells on a few ordinary thieves: crashing a car, launching a car, or even using a ladder, the target is easy to hit. As long as it is hit, the collateral damage will achieve considerable results. On the one hand, due to the varying levels of manufacturing technology, although the Ming Army's new artillery often adopts the extreme test method of "double the charge and double the ammunition" before installation*, passing the acceptance test does not mean that there will be no accidents in the future. The artillery will explode. It happens from time to time, so the artillery team has the most superstitions and taboos - the team keeps several black dogs, just to break the enemy's victory-weary technique. Seeing the thieves resorting to this poisonous trick, having just killed two of them and drenching the cannon with dog blood, I still don't know if it can withstand it. At this moment, Mr. Lu Qian, who was firing the cannon, was really a little scared.
"Asshole! Beat me!" Marshal Jiang was so angry that the veins on his forehead popped out, and his hand was already on the handle of the knife.
"Commander, please calm down. I will fire immediately." Lu Ping stammered and gave the order to fire.
As Lu Ping expected, only two of the six cannons fired, and neither of them hit the thief. The shells passed over the thief's head and hit the open space, splashing up a large cloud of soil - Lu was very worried. Of course Mr. Qian didn't know that a lot of the dog's blood that had just been spilled flowed into the fire door and soaked in the cracks, soaking the gunpowder poured in. When the torch was pressed, it only caused a burst of sparks at the fire door.
The thieves outside the wall burst into earth-shattering cheers, and Fang Ge looked even more proud. Niu Youtian, who was overjoyed, looked towards Zhang Hu. Unexpectedly, the joy on Brother Hu's face disappeared in a flash. For a moment, his face turned frighteningly gloomy. He noticed that he was looking over and grinned. Niu Youtian was a little confused, but his attention was immediately attracted by the strange behavior of the defenders on the wall... They were actually firing cannons! This "cannon fire" is not a normal cannon fire, but a real beating, with a military stick - like a soldier who has violated military regulations!
With so many cannons malfunctioning at the same time, it can only be because the thieves' evil methods took effect! This is not just Lu Ping's own thoughts, but the thoughts of everyone on the wall. Commander-in-Chief Jiang Shide was also startled, but his usually all-powerful temperament made Marshal Jiang make a ridiculous decision to kill himself: "Artillery is a sacred object. If you don't use evil tactics when encountering the enemy, you will be cowardly. Gu Niang is the first offender." , come here, those who didn’t make any sound, give me forty military sticks each!”
Guo Yinqiao's cannon didn't fire either. Among all the artillery crews, this group of people was the most eye-catching. Jiang Shide came over and stared at them. Military orders are like mountains, and if the commander says to fight, just fight. Marshal Jiang was staring in front of him. Lao Guo thought of the fat beating he received from Zhang Youyi, and he felt angry, so he beat him even harder. After counting the rounds one by one, the small crack on the belly of the cannon was gone. It was shattered into a crack. "Give me another shot!" Jiang Shide yelled and ordered.
The propellant and projectiles were loaded and left untouched. The fire door was a piece of burnt dregs. Lao Guo poked at the bottom with a wooden stick a few times, pulled out some damp igniting powder, poured a lot more in, and lit the fire. Just as the soldier was about to press the torch, Jiang Shide roared again: "Wait a minute, I'll take some!" He grabbed the torch and pressed it, with a loud "boom", the cannon finally lived up to its promise and exploded. chamber, blowing up most of the artillery crew members and the commander-in-chief Jiang Marshal for a long time*.
*In real history, Yang Yinglong did use this trick. He firmly believed that as long as he did this, the Ming army's cannons would not be able to fire. Li Hualong, the governor of Liaodong, had read the books of sages and was well versed in the method of "defeating magic with magic." In order to prevent his evil plan from succeeding, "my soldiers will pour dog blood on him" and then fire! Guess what? Thief Yang's spell failed, and the army's cannons fired. The whole army, who had been fearful just now, burst into joy! Well, of course you can say that Thief Yang's tricks are useless, and the cannon will go off regardless of whether he splashes blood or not... The problem is, from Mr. Li to the auxiliary soldiers, no one believes you! If you don't throw blood, you are sent by the hostile forces of Yang Thief. If you don't throw blood, you don't love Ming Dynasty.
*About the Tiger Crouching Cannon. Since the military system of the Ming Dynasty was characterized by generals leading their own armies, they could lead them as they pleased. Therefore, each military town not only had different organizational structures, composition of arms, and number of soldiers, but also the types and names of weapons. Take artillery as an example. Many of them were made by the generals themselves (the same was true until the Opium War of the Qing Dynasty in later generations. Lin Zexu, Qishan, and Guan Tianpei all made artillery of different sizes when preparing for war). The names of generals and masters were also imaginative. . Qi Jiguang's own military book "Records of Military Training" records two types of artillery with very different shapes: one is a modified "bowl mouth gun" with the barrel extended to more than three feet, and the other is the "tiger poison" originally equipped by the Ming army. "Cannon", add claws to the body of the cannon that are nailed to the ground to overcome the rear seat during combat, and strengthen the barrel with front and rear hoops - Lao Qi called them all Tiger Crouching Cannons. There is also a "Saigong gun" in "Real Records". Judging from the size, charge, range, etc., it is no different from the above-mentioned artillery. There are many real objects that exist in the world, and their appearance and size are also different. For the convenience of writing and understanding, the Tiger Crouching Cannon here has a barrel of about three feet, a straight barrel, an internal diameter of 2-3 inches, and a weight of about fifty kilograms. It is between a bowl-mouth cannon and a medium-sized Folang machine. A portable artillery piece.
*This part was extremely difficult to write. Ignorance, cruelty, anger... I deeply feel that these words are far from describing such atrocities that deserve heaven's condemnation and the inner feelings when I wrote this. However, in real history, such a tragedy really happened - Zhang Xianzhong did it. It is also our duty to let as many readers as possible know what kind of ignorance and cruelty happened in this land. Zhang Motou has a nickname called "Huang Hu", which is also the origin of Zhang Hu's name.
*In addition to the artillery of the Ming army manufactured by the Ministry of Industry, it is also common for each military town to cast its own cannon. Because the quality is really uncertain, extreme methods will be used during testing: first a half-charge test fire, then a normal launch, and finally double the charge and double the ammunition - at this time, a small trachoma on the gun body may Cause a tragedy.
*I did not make up this magical scene out of thin air. "Pi Hai Ji Yu" records: "Liu Guoxuan was about to attack Quan County, but Long Ji refused to move, and he was forced to attack him, but when he struck, it did not burn. Guoxuan was so angry that his eighty stick exploded like powder with one strike." Liu Guoxuan wanted to attack Quanzhou, but the cannon was very heavy and could not be dragged. He thought that it was because he was timid and "unwilling to move", and because the gunpowder could not catch fire due to moisture, it was because he was being petty. So he got angry and whipped him with a stick, which cracked his barrel. , and then exploded.
