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"Commander Qi, there is chaos inside Tucheng, and there are no enemy troops at the top of the city. General Xia ordered his subordinates to ask if we can launch an offensive?"
"Reply to Xia Yu and tell him not to act rashly without my military order!"
"Here!"
Outside Tucheng, the Han army had already stood in formation. The three armies of Bai Qi, Xia Yu and Tian Yan surrounded the east, south and north gates, leaving only the west gate unguarded in order to surround the three gates. , disintegrating the last remaining fighting spirit of the noble widow army in the city.
Bai Qi put down the spyglass and said to Lu Yu who was standing beside him: "General Lu, take your troops and make a detour to the West Road to find a suitable ambush location.
If the enemy breaks out from the west gate, they must be intercepted halfway and wiped out in one fell swoop. "
"Here!"
Lu Yu roared, turned his horse, and led his 3,500 horsemen to ride towards the west.
After Lu Yu left, Bai Qi dismounted and came to the artillery battalion lined up in front with great interest.
Looking at the thirteen artillery pieces lined up, Bai Qi couldn't help but have a cruel smile on his face.
"What are your instructions from Commander Bai?"
The general in charge of the artillery battalion was named Dong Xuan. He seemed to have an innate talent for the use of artillery. He had mastered a lot of skills in such a weapon of the country that had just come out. He only practiced for a year.
With Dong Xuan's efforts, the artillery camp had preliminary surveying and mapping tools, and it also improved the scale calibration plan proposed by Liu Ce, which qualitatively improved the shooting accuracy of his artillery camp and greatly improved the deterrence of the artillery. .
Dong Xuan had a dream, hoping that one day he could personally lead a firearms unit with hundreds of artillery pieces to clean up the world for the Han Dynasty and pacify the world.
And Bai Qi also promised him that as long as the Guiwi Battle is over, he would be allowed to go to Chang'an with him, and he would talk to Liu Ce in person.
This made Dong Xuan even more energetic and secretly vowed to perform well in this battle.
Bai Qi inspected a circle of artillery, and then asked: "General Dong, is there anything else your artillery battalion needs my help with right now?"
Dong Xuan smiled and said: "Commander Bai, now that the artillery camp has all the bullets and gunpowder, it will not be a problem to last until the end of this battle.
I just hope that Bai Shuai will ask the court for more artillery in the future. After all, the number of artillery in this artillery camp is still a little small.
If there were twenty or thirty artillery pieces, an earthen city like the one in front of us could be destroyed by a single salvo. "
Bai Qi nodded. He also realized that the traditional cold weapon battlefield in the past, with the proficient application of a large number of firearms, is destined to gradually withdraw from the stage of history. The future battlefield must be based on firecrackers, artillery and strict military formations. A new scene of cooperation.
However, this artillery is not that easy to build.
Bai Qi knew that with such strict and meticulous supervision by the Ministry of Works, the artillery production rate was only a pitiful 40%, which was currently the highest pass rate.
Moreover, the amount of iron required to make cannons was astronomical. Fortunately, with the imperial court's unwavering support, the annual steel production in the Far East alone had reached 110,000 tons.
Also, even if qualified artillery is built, it is impossible to get all of it into Bai Qi's hands at once.
Huo Qing has just pacified the outside of the Great Wall, so he will definitely need artillery. The Far East defenders will also need artillery. The Southern Army will also need artillery everywhere, not to mention the garrison guarding the capital.
At present, the imperial court's annual mass production of artillery is only 123 pieces. Unless the scale of the Ministry of Industry's artillery factory is increased, the size of the artillery camp mentioned by Dong Xuan may not be expanded in a short time.
However, this does not mean that Bai Qi will give up. He will still fight for what he should fight for.
The best way to fight for it is to show impressive achievements, so that you can have a strong voice in the court.
So, he patted Dong Xuan on the shoulder and said: "General Dong, you don't have to worry about expanding the artillery camp. Didn't I promise you?
When this war is over, you will go to Beijing with me and tell your Majesty in person. I believe that His Majesty will definitely agree to your request.
However, you have to show some military merits. Our Han army has always respected military merits. If I want to ask Your Majesty for it, the first point is to look at the number of your military merits. "
Dong Xuan immediately gave a sergeant salute: "Thank you so much for your training, Commander Bai. I will definitely live up to my command and not embarrass the Protectorate of the Western Regions!"
"Well, that's how it should be. Now, I order you to aim your guns at Tucheng. I want these barbarians to know whether they can afford the price of offending the Han Empire!"
"Here!"
Dong Xuan received the order loudly, and then shouted to the gunner: "The whole army obeys the order and aims the muzzle of the gun at Tucheng."
Upon hearing the order, the gunner immediately followed Dong Xuan's order and pointed the muzzle of the artillery in the direction of Tucheng.
A gun is flanked by four operators, a rangefinder, and a main gunner.
After the rangefinder uses the gun mirror to determine the position, he immediately asks the operator to calibrate the muzzle position, and then uses the scale and gun mirror to repeatedly measure the possible trajectory of the cannonball.
After being roughly determined, the rangefinder immediately handed over the detection data to the main gunner.
The main gunner then immediately ordered the operator to load the corresponding gunpowder based on the statistical data.
This series of operations may seem complicated, but from measuring the distance to determining the amount of gunpowder, the whole process takes less than a minute. This is the result of rigorous training day after day, and has begun to take shape in the standards of the modern army.
"Informing General Dong, gun position No. 1 is ready."
"No. 2 gun position is ready!"
"No. 3..."
Soon, the thirteen artillery pieces were collectively in position, and they could fire "thousands of artillery pieces at once" as soon as Dong Xuan gave the order.
"fire!"
Dong Xuan roared angrily, spitting flying.
The flag player behind him immediately raised the two-color flag in his hand, and the piercing swan whistle sounded one after another in front of the artillery camp.
As the goose down lead was ignited, it slowly sank into the lead port for a moment...
"Boom~boom boom boom boom boom~"
The world seemed to be trembling, thirteen artillery pieces fired in unison, and the muzzles flashed with dazzling fire.
The whistling solid artillery shells, carrying the shadow of death, passed through the sky above Tucheng and fell into the dense crowd on the streets.
Boom~
A two-pound cannonball landed on the dry and hard ground, sending up a cloud of dust that filled the surrounding area.
Before the surrounding mob could figure out what was going on, the solid cannonball that landed on the ground immediately bounced back into the air, rushing through the shocked crowd and sending up a cloud of blood mist.
Another artillery piece directly penetrated a wooden shop, and the two thugs who were still looting and looting inside had no time to react before they suffered an unreasonable disaster.
The moment one of them turned around, half of his head was blown open by a bounced shell. However, the shells continued to roar back and forth in the house unabated.
"Ah~~God, Lord~~"
When the companions on the side saw this bloody scene, they were so frightened that they lost control of their bowels, threw away their belongings, and locked themselves in a corner and screamed in horror.
Outside the city, the mob on the street was completely frightened by this "punishment" that fell from the sky. They were desperately looking for cover one by one, and then they were trembling and silently praying for something.
In fact, this round of shelling only killed and injured dozens of people, but its effect was obvious.
Fear, like a plague, began to spread wantonly in the city.
