Chapter 065
It is now October 11th of the fourth year of Chongzhen. Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, received news from Daling River City fourteen days ago, that is, September 27th.
Supervisor Zhang Chun led 40,000 infantry and cavalry to support Daling River City. To be fair, the preparations for this support were not sufficient. The 9,000 white-armed soldiers of the Shimen Sichuan Army that were originally planned to be mobilized were not in place, and they were also ordered to support Daling River City. The Denglai New Army in Linghe, plus the Dongjiang Army Kong Youde, Li Jiucheng, and Geng Zhongming, totaling more than 8,500 troops, have not been deployed in place.
However, on September 19th, Zhang Chun, a businessman who claimed to have escaped from the Daling River appeared in Jinzhou City. His name was Zhang Yifu. He was not a real businessman, but a slave-builder. He spread the news in the city: "Daling River has been besieged for forty-eight days, and the city has long been out of food. The horses in the city were first killed and their meat eaten, and almost all the horses were killed. , started cannibalism, of course first eating the unarmed civilians who built the city, and also the soldiers who starved to death. Only a few high-ranking officials only had one or two liters of rice!"
As the rumors spread more and more, businessmen, vendors, civilians, and Guan Ning's troops who had relatives in Daling River City all forced Zhang Chun to send troops. Under pressure from rumors, Zhang Chun had no choice but to send troops.
However, the problem is that this is actually Huang Taiji's conspiracy, which can also be said to be a conspiracy. It is true that the city of Daling River is surrounded, and it is true that the city is starved of food. Even this detailed work is what he saw with his own eyes in the Daling River. He Out of fear of being cooked and killed, he escaped, met Jiannu, and was deliberately released.
Precisely because of this, Zhang Chun could only send troops alone without waiting for the Denglai New Army and Shimen Sichuan Army. In fact, if Zhang Chun had waited for Sun Yuanhua's troops with sophisticated firearms, it is hard to say how the Battle of Daling River would have ended.
After all, the Denglai New Army under Sun Yuanhua has more than 80 large-caliber artillery pieces. If you include bowl-mouth guns and tiger squatting cannons, the number of large and small artillery is as many as two to three hundred. In terms of firepower strike capabilities, the Denglai New Army has Definitely the strongest in Ming Dynasty.
It's just a pity that there are not so many ifs in the world.
When Sun Yuanhua received the news, he almost went berserk. On the one hand, he dispatched navy to Cheng Shijie, and on the other hand, he prepared the army to set off to support Liaodong by sea.
Of course Cheng Shijie also knew that Sun Yuanhua encountered a storm when he went to sea this time and suffered heavy losses. He could only order Kong Youde's troops to support Liaodong from overland.
Then, when Kong Youde was in Wuqiao, he rebelled because of a chicken.
Calculating the time, there is still more than a month.
"Lord Guard, if we make two hundred crossbows every day, we must stop Zhuge Liannu!"
"Zhuge Liannu?"
Seeing Cheng Shijie's doubts, Zhou Yandong took Cheng Shijie to another factory area. There were dozens of tools in this factory area, and they were busy working.
"Although our Shansang Crossbow is powerful, its shooting speed is slow. If we make a bow, but train archers, it won't take a year or two to train it!"
Zhou Yandong picked up a Zhuge Liannu, handed it to Cheng Shijie and said, "Master Guard, this Zhuge Liannu can hold ten arrows in a box, and it only takes five or six breaths (seconds) to shoot them all."
Cheng Shijie tried the Zhuge Liannu. Although this kind of crossbow can shoot as far as seventy steps, it can effectively kill the group at thirty to fifty steps. It can shoot ten arrows in six seconds. This rate of fire is almost as fast as that of later generations. semi-automatic rifle.
"This thing is good. When Qin Wu came, if we had this guy, the battle would have been much easier!" Cheng Shijie turned around and said: "Zhuge can't stop his crossbows. Can we recruit more refugee craftsmen?"
"You can recruit them, but food is getting more and more expensive now!"
Zhou Yandong smiled bitterly and said: "Food prices have been rising, one price per day, and there is still a price but no market... If we hire more people, we have to buy more food!"
"Buy it, you have food in your hands and don't panic in your heart!"
Cheng Shijie said: "The silver seized from Ning Haijun was more than 80,000 taels, and we collected more than 39,000 taels in protection fees. The two sums added together totaled 120,000 taels, all of which were used to buy grain. In addition, Next spring, we need to buy grain seeds, you have to pay attention to this."
At 120,000 taels of silver, one stone of grain is now exactly half as expensive as it was three months ago. It costs seven cents and five cents per stone, which means that 120,000 taels of silver could buy 240,000 stone of grain three months ago. , now I can only buy 160,000 shi, which is a full 80,000 taels of silver.
After leaving the Armored Crossbow Bureau, Cheng Shijie came to the Guns and Artillery Bureau.
"How's the progress now?"
"The artillery is making slow progress now, but the thunder cannon has been successful!"
Cheng Shijie watched as the craftsmen pushed a two-wheeled cart over. There was a huge disc on it, with thirty-two millimeter gun barrels on it.
"this……"
Cheng Shijie looked at the Thunderbolt gun tube in surprise: "How many gun tubes have you installed?"
"Thirty!"
The craftsman explained excitedly: "The thunderbolts they made are too slow to load. We calculated that it would take a quarter of an hour to load the eighteen gun tubes at the fastest!"
Cheng Shijie turned to the back of Thunder Cannon and found that a huge disc appeared behind it.
Seeing this scene, he really underestimated the wisdom of ancient craftsmen.
This huge disc can be regarded as the gunpowder disc of the rotating blaster gun. The principle is basically the same. There are thirty medicine chambers on this disk. Gunpowder can be poured in first, lead bullets can be installed, and then the disk can be buckled behind thirty gun tubes.
The craftsman explained: "The little old man saw the wedge-type device of the Folan machine gun, and he thought that the artillery is an enlarged firecracker. If the artillery can be made like this, our firecrackers can too!"
As he spoke, the craftsman began to operate a thunder gun. I saw him take off the big wheel and put the disc in along the guide rail. Under the action of the guide rail, the gunpowder chamber and gun tube of the disc were accurately connected. As the wedge is pressed down, the disc becomes tightly connected to the barrel.
It only took twenty breaths before and after, and the reloading speed was not much slower than the reloading speed of later heavy machine guns.
"How powerful is it?"
"Master Guard, please look!"
The craftsman began to operate the firing device. The only drawback was that this thunderbolt was fired in the same way as a matchlock. As the match was ignited, the craftsman began to pull the trigger. As the trigger hits the match, the match begins to ignite the powder chambers above the disc.
"Bang bang bang bang..."
A huge explosion sounded, lead bullets flew across the sky, and sawdust flew from the target in the distance. Not long after, the thirty rounds of discs were fired, and the gun target in the distance was in a mess, and the three-inch-thick target was smashed into pieces.
"What's the range?"
"Three layers of iron armor can be broken within 220 steps, a single layer of iron armor can be broken within 270 steps, and an unarmored target can be killed within 320 steps. Any further away..."
Cheng Shijie silently calculated that within 367 meters, even the white-armored soldiers of Jiannu would have to kneel and call daddy. The range is enough. Of course, if the gunpowder is improved, the power can be increased.
"You are such a talent!"
Cheng Shijie patted the craftsman on the shoulder and said, "What's your name?"
"Reporting to the Lord Guard, this young man's surname is Huang, and his name is Lidong."
It can be seen from the name that Huang Lidong was born on the day of Beginning of Winter.
"Huang Lidong, you have done a very good job. I will reward you for your invention and creation of the Thunder Gun for defense. I will reward you with one hundred, no, one thousand taels of silver!"
Cheng Shijie originally wanted to reward Huang Lidong one hundred taels of silver, but he soon remembered the key to bringing Hansteel Group back to life, which was the successful invention of the internally numbered A1065 special alloy. Of course, the person responsible for this project was rewarded. A three-bedroom apartment, plus a bonus of one million. That was one million in 2004.
At that time, the house price in Beijing was more than 3,000 square meters per square meter, and you could buy a commercial residence of almost 300 square meters in Beijing, and it was within the Third Ring Road.
It is precisely because of this purchase of horse bones that a large sum of money instantly triggered an upsurge of independent innovation within the Hansteel Group.
Cheng Shijie immediately changed his mind and increased the reward.
"One thousand taels of silver?"
Huang Lidong was stunned at that time.
"Why don't you thank the Lord Guard quickly!"
"Thank you, Lord Guard!"
Huang Lidong knelt down directly to Cheng Shijie.
"This is what you deserve. In addition to the reward of one thousand taels of silver, I will give you an additional two hundred acres of land!"
Huang Lidong was dumbfounded, and Zhou Yandong was also dumbfounded.
"This is too much!"
"not much!"
Cheng Shijie pointed at this devil's modified version of the Thunder Gun and said: "With this change of yours, it only takes twenty breaths to reload a bomb from a quarter of an hour. Do you know what saving this quarter of an hour means on the battlefield?" ?”
"What?"
"It means that our brothers Ning Haijun will die a lot less, and those who die will die countless more."
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "With such a sharp weapon, if we place dozens or hundreds of vehicles in front of the formation, will the enemy still be able to rush over?"
"Can't rush over!"
"Isn't this right?"
Cheng Shijie asked: "How many Thunder Guns have you made?"
"Twenty-one bodies!"
"How many can you build in one day?"
"You can build five bodies in three days!"
"Huang Lidong, I will add more people to this defense for you. Before the end of the month, that is, within nineteen days, we will build at least sixty pieces for this defense!"
"Master Guards, it's actually not difficult to make a thunderbolt. The hard part is the turntable!"
"In addition, I would like to give you a piece of advice. Three discs for each thunder gun are too few. You need to prepare at least seven!"
Cheng Shijie used this big disc as a bullet clip. During each battle, he had six clips with 180 rounds ready.
Seven discs and 210 rounds of lead bullets can basically meet the consumption.
Here comes the problem. Ning Haijun does not have the Thunder Gun Soldiers. If other soldiers are allowed to operate this equipment, then the skills these soldiers have previously trained will be wasted.
"It seems that Ning Haijun is expanding his army again!"
Cheng Shijie secretly thought that a Thunder Gun requires two soldiers to operate and two soldiers can push it forward, but a team of twelve soldiers cannot equip six Thunder Gun vehicles.
A team can be equipped with up to two Thunder Guns, and other personnel are responsible for loading large discs, which are bullet clips.
In this way, it is estimated that the sixty vehicles will require thirty teams, four hundred and twenty people, plus eight artillery pieces, which will increase the recruitment by at least five hundred people.
