There is a city wall on the mountain of Diaoyu City that extends to the river. This wall, called a one-word wall, can not only restrict the movement of enemies under the city, but also protect the naval docks. Wang Li took Ouyang Xuan and Huang Dagen along the one-word wall to the edge of the mountain. To enter the city on the top of the mountain, you still need to pass through a long and winding mountain road. This mountain path is a path carved out of the cliff. It is dangerous and narrow and can only allow one person to pass through. It is also completely exposed to the firepower of the defenders above the path. There are corner forts and stone hills at the dangerous points and corners of the trail. It is no lie that "one man can guard the pass and ten thousand men cannot open it".
After passing a corner fort halfway up the mountain, the road ahead suddenly stopped, and there was a cliff more than a hundred meters deep below. However, the road reappeared in front of the corner fort dozens of meters away. Just when Ouyang Xuan was wondering how to overcome this natural danger, he saw Wang Li clapping his hands rhythmically towards the opposite side. A group of soldiers immediately appeared in the fort on the opposite corner, holding logs as thick as a bowl and about one meter long. These logs were stuffed into the holes on the cliff one by one, and thick wooden boards were laid on top, and soon it became a wooden plank road. Wang Li led the two of them to continue walking, explaining as they walked. It turns out that when this section of the cliff was built, roads were deliberately not dug. Instead, holes were dug into the cliff wall, and temporary plank roads were laid when needed, and then removed as soon as they were accessible. The advantage of this design is that even if the Mongols try their best to attack halfway, they will have to retreat in the face of this insurmountable natural danger. The more Ouyang Xuan walked into the city, the more he was amazed. The defensive design of Diaoyu City was so exquisite. Compared with it, Hengyuan Fort was far inferior.
Arriving at the government office in the city on the top of the mountain, Wang Li introduced Ouyang Xuan to Zhang Jue and reported the Pili army's annihilation of the Mongolian fleet. When Zhang Jue first heard that Ouyang Xuan was the magistrate of Yongkang County, he didn't take it seriously, but when he heard that the Pili Army destroyed more than 30 Mongolian warships with less than ten ships, he couldn't help but be surprised. At that moment, Ouyang Xuan gave a brief introduction to the past battles between the Perak Army and the Mongols, but Zhang Jue returned to a nonchalant look. After all, the results from Ouyang Xuan were too shocking, and they were too similar to the results Yu Xing reported to the court. . What's more important is that he has never heard of the name of the Thunderbolt Army before, he only thought that Ouyang Xuan was bragging. In Zhang Jue's view, although this young county magistrate, who was several years younger than him, had extraordinary speech and behavior and had a firm determination to fight against Mongolia, he was a bit frivolous after all. Therefore, when Ouyang Xuan said that this trip was specifically to deliver sharp weapons for defending the Diaoyu City, Zhang Jue just laughed in return, saying that he was exaggerating again.
Ouyang Xuan saw that Zhang Jue was unable to comment and knew that he did not believe what he said, so he was speechless for a moment. At this moment, his hand accidentally touched the musket on his waist. Before following Wang Li into the city, he and Huang Dagen had handed over the daggers they carried and even took off their armor, but they forgot to take off their muskets. Wang Li and the Diaoyu City soldiers did not recognize the muskets, so they unintentionally brought the muskets into the city. This musket is still used by the elite scouts of the Perak Army. It is short but powerful. Since the gun body parts and the brass bullets used need to be made by hand, the cost is very high, and the production quantity is not large. During this trip, Li Shuang ordered the arsenal to provide him and Huang Dagen with one gun and fifty rounds of ammunition each. When he was in Xuzhou, Ouyang Xuan used this gun to shoot a water bandit who rushed into the cabin directly into the head.
Seeing Zhang Jue's disapproval, Ouyang Xuan decided to show him his true skills. At that moment, he pulled out his pistol and said to Zhang Jue: "Master Zhang, the artillery is a hundred times more powerful than this musket. Please let me try it first." After that, he turned around and walked to the courtyard of the government office. Zhang Jue and others didn't know what Ouyang Xuan wanted, so they had to follow him to the courtyard. It was early November, the weather was already cold, and a large group of crows were making their cries on the top of the big tree in the courtyard. Ouyang Xuan loaded the bullets and raised his gun to shoot. After a loud noise, a crow fell to the ground along with the leaves. To say that he was able to shoot down a crow without aiming, it can only be said that he was lucky, or that there were too many crows in the tree.
This shot surprised Zhang Jue and Wang Li, but it was not because it hit the crow - there were many people in the Song army who were good at using crossbows, and the two of them were the leaders among them, but because of the huge sound of the musket. Seeing that the two were very interested, Ouyang Xuan asked Wang Li to get an abandoned iron helmet. After the gunfire, the iron helmet was penetrated without any suspense. You must know that ordinary swords and arrows cannot penetrate an iron helmet at all, only a large bed crossbow can. Looking at the musket with smoke curling up in Ouyang Xuan's hand, Zhang and Wang were stunned. This small thing could be so powerful. If the cannon was a hundred times more powerful, wouldn't it shake the earth? At that moment, I had the urge to gain insights. It's just that it's already sunset, so I have to decide to try again tomorrow. Before going to the guest house to rest, Ouyang Xuan gave the musket and the remaining forty copper bullets to Zhang Jue. Upon seeing this, Huang Dagen also gave his musket and ammunition to Wang Li. The two of them were naturally overjoyed.
In the early morning of the next day, when Ouyang Xuan followed Zhang Jue to the city wall near the Navy Pier, Huang Dagen and Wang Li had been waiting for a long time. At this time, a large open space has been cleared under the city wall. The two fortress guns brought by the Perak Army have set up their gun positions and can fire just after an order. In order to prevent accidental injury and leakage of secrets, there are no other people around.
Seeing that Ouyang Xuan and Zhang Jue had already stood still, Huang Dagen waved his flag and fired two cannons one after another, targeting the woods and rocks three miles ahead. The first gun was loaded with shotgun shells. After the sound of the cannon, a large group of trees in the front row were blown by a strong wind, and their heads were shaved off. The second gun fired solid bullets, which knocked down the trees on the way forward. After destroying them all, the remaining force was still there, and a large piece of rock was shattered. The earth-shaking loud noise and power of these two cannons not only shocked the defenders of Diaoyu City who participated in the test, but also made Zhang Jue and Wang Li completely believe Ouyang Xuan's words. This test of artillery was also the beginning of the story of the three men's subsequent attack on Mongolia.
In the next few days, everyone in the Pili Army guided the Diaoyu City defenders in the placement and drill of artillery. These two fortress cannons were selected by Ouyang Xuan from the newly made cannons. The surface of the cannon body was smooth and the inner wall of the barrel was carefully polished. There are two barrel manufacturing technologies: mold casting method and boring and milling method. Currently, due to power and machine tool constraints, the Pili Army uses a mold casting method with simple technology and low cost. The quality of the barrel produced by this method is poor. The main reason is that the molten iron cast will produce bubbles and form blisters of varying sizes, and even pits in the barrel. However, the two cannons sent to Diaoyu City had very few blisters, and their quality had reached the ceiling of the cannon casting method.
Although these two cannons have been lightweighted and are as light as possible while ensuring their power, each one still weighs more than a thousand kilograms. It took dozens of strong men a whole day to install them on the gun emplacement east of Diaoyu City, overlooking the only access to land from Diaoyu Mountain. After the cannon was installed, Huang Dagen led others to teach the daily maintenance and combat methods of the cannon, and also preset the shooting elements for combat. Artillery is a technical branch. In addition to being familiar with the performance of artillery, it also requires a certain understanding of factors such as gunpowder types, ballistic firing range, target distance measurement, wind deflection and other factors to maximize the effectiveness of artillery. This cannot be completed in a short period of training. . Therefore, Huang Dagen tested the various elements of shooting and copied them down. During wartime, the artillerymen of Diaoyu City only had to choose according to the on-site conditions.
