At the foot of Baishan Mountain, arrows are like locusts.
Three to four thousand warriors in front of the tent, behind hundreds of carriages, listed ten square formations. Under the command of the generals of each battalion, they began to attack the Han warriors who were forty or fifty steps away in waves. Shoot feather arrows.
Guitutaiji, who was inserted into the Han tribe, also went to the front line, leading more than a thousand armored cavalry to escort more than 10,000 armed herdsmen, and used the Mongols' soft bows to weakly throw arrowheads to counterattack.
The arrows from both sides came and went, and they were almost as dense as raindrops. Soon, a large patch of white hair was planted in front of the formation of the two armies, which looked like a heavy snowfall.
Although the arrows shot like rain, the losses on both sides were not great. The lethality of bows and arrows cannot be compared with that of fire guns. The lead bullets shot by fire guns really penetrate into the flesh. In these days, it is almost impossible to survive!
And if arrowheads are stuck in the body, even if there is no iron armor to protect the body, it is not necessarily dead or disabled. Wearing a few layers of cowhide and sheepskin robes and placing wooden plaques on the vital parts of the body can still carry a few arrows alive.
Therefore, the herdsmen of the Han tribe, who had no armor and no good bows and arrows, were able to withstand the dense rain of arrows fired by the soldiers in front of the tent, and they were still able to fight back.
If you just look at the scene, you won’t be at any disadvantage if you join the Han tribe!
The condescending Lindan Batur finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this scene... He doesn't seek a big victory now. The idea of taking over Datong and the destruction of Yuanxing and Mingming are all lies to deceive the people below. How can he win from the Zhu family? The emperor collected hundreds of thousands of taels of market rewards every year, and he was content to be the "Western Khan" in Tumut River.
The battle at Baishan Mountain was, to put it bluntly, a battle for peace. No matter how the fight turns out, it will all be used as a bargaining chip to seek peace in the future! For Lindan Batur, it doesn't matter if he can't win, as long as he doesn't lose badly.
Because as long as he can fight evenly with the Emperor of Heaven, who is personally conquering the emperor, he will have the capital to ask for money... Because the Emperor of Heaven still has to fight against Hou Jin Tiancong Khan, it is impossible to stay in Datong for a long time!
So with the fight like this, Lindan Batur felt that he still had a bargaining chip in his hand...unless the Ming Emperor could beat him away from Baishan Mountain in three strikes, five divisions and two.
And this is impossible!
Even if Zhu Youjian, the young emperor, learns the Jianzhou Jurchen's Chariot Chariot tactics, it is unlikely that he can break his Gulieyan defense. After all, Zhu Youjian has only a few soldiers, only 20,000 to 30,000.
"Okay, it's over here! This seat is good...here comes someone!" Zhu Youjian moved forward another hundred or dozens of steps at this time, and was already twenty or thirty steps behind the carriage line. Then he looked around, nodded, and started yelling.
It's not very safe here. From time to time, exhausted arrowheads are falling from the air. The two bodyguard leaders, Wu Sangui and Hei Wentao, are already looking at the falling arrows from time to time, with beads of sweat on their foreheads.
Although Zhu Youjian is wearing heavy armor that is impossible for arrows to shoot through, his "dragon face" is smooth and he is not wearing a face shield. If there is a feather arrow that can be shot at the right time, he will shoot an arrow. Face-piercing... Because the two of them were concerned about Zhu Youjian's safety, they didn't hear the young emperor's call. Zhu Youjian roared again before the two of them reacted.
"Long live the Lord, are you going to use black guns again?"
"Long live my lord... don't take action yourself, let me and your uncle teach the Tatars a lesson for you!"
Both of them were afraid that Zhu Youjian would be hot-headed and get into the rain of arrows to shoot black guns!
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Zhu Youjian was not happy, "What does it mean to use a black gun? I am the emperor and I have always been upright and upright!"
Yes, can the emperor secretly shoot a gun and call it a black gun?
Wu Sangui and Hei Wentao knew they had made a mistake and hurriedly wanted to dismount and kowtow to apologize, but were stopped by Zhu Youjian. "Hurry up and send the order and bring all the generals and artillery to me!"
Wu Sangui and Hei Wentao said to themselves while receiving the order: The emperor really stopped using black cannons and instead used black artillery. This is to kill the tiger and the rabbit Dun Khan!
"Your Majesty," Hei Wentao volunteered, "I also learned how to shoot artillery when I was in Shanhaiguan. How about I come to command for you..."
Zhu Youjian glared at Hei Wentao: "What do you know about cannon shooting? Do you know what range measurement is? What is the shooting angle? What is ballistics? How much gunpowder should be loaded for what kind of cannonball to hit the target at what distance?"
ah? What's the meaning?
Hei Wentao was dumbfounded... It was just a quickie. Is it that complicated? What are all the long live masters talking about?
Zhu Youjian saw that he couldn't answer, so he asked again: "Then can you build a fort?"
"I know a little bit..." Hei Wentao replied, "I just dig the soil and pile up the fortress..."
Zhu Youjian nodded, "Then you go to Man Gui's place to ask for camp soldiers. Bring shovels and come over to dig the soil and build the base."
Yes, he is a good general, but he has become a country master.
Wu Sangui and Hei Wentao did not dare to persuade them any more, so they had to receive Zhu Youjian's general order to mobilize artillery and personnel. After about half an hour, the "black cannons" were pushed up one after another by the gunners under the jurisdiction of Datong Zhenbiao.
These "black cannons" are the so-called general cannons. They are actually smoothbore cannons, either front-loaded or rear-loaded (like Lang cannons). Most of the guns weigh between one and two thousand kilograms. When fighting in the field, these cannons are usually placed on a three-wheeled gun mount called a rolling carriage - this is really an imaginative design! Because the gun mount has three wheels, the recoil generated by each shot can push the cannon back a long way. In order to offset this recoil, the cannon had to be fixed to the ground with iron claws, iron hoops, and other things. At the same time, earth was piled behind the cannon to build a fortress to block the cannon.
In addition, the earth barrier piled behind the cannon can also protect the gunner from being injured by the explosion of the cannon...
In addition to the two shortcomings of unreasonable gun mount design and perfunctory cannon casting technology, the poor quality of the Ming army's artillery was the third reason why their cannons could not exert their power.
Masturbation is a technical job!
Measuring distance, calculating ballistics, calculating angle of attack, calculating charge... and even preparing propellant are all knowledge.
However, few people studied this knowledge in the Ming Dynasty. Civil servants did not understand it, and military generals did not care about it. It was left to the artillerymen below to play with it. If it's okay to fight every day, I'm afraid that if the peace lasts for a long time, the art of gunplay will be lost.
Fortunately, Zhu Youjian is knowledgeable. Of course, he has no practical experience, but he still knows some knowledge from books. So now he can personally command more than a dozen general cannons pulled out from Datong Town... Seeing these cannons, Zhu Youjian couldn't help but frown!
Needless to say, they are crudely made, and they are of different sizes, and of course the bullet weight is also different. What's worse is that the shells used by these cannons are also different. Some are iron bullets, some are stone bullets, and some are iron sand.
Zhu Youjian called together the cannon heads of each cannon and asked. Basically, everyone did not know the correct amount of charge, and the gunpowder they used didn't look quite right. There is probably something wrong with the formula (it's not that I don't know the formula, but I'm trying to cut corners), and most of the sulfur and fire salt used have not been refined. So Zhu Youjian had no choice but to let people conduct on-site tests - use a general cannon weighing about 1,000 kilograms to load and test fire in front of Zhu Youjian. First load a little less powder, and then gradually increase it. After working for a long time, I finally estimated the difference between the gunpowder used in Datong Town and the standard black powder, and thus calculated a more accurate charge.
Zhu Youjian then selected twelve relatively reliable bronze cannons from the eighteen general cannons brought from Datong Town - they all looked very old and should be antiques left over from Zhang Juzheng's reign. , although it is a bit older, the Ming Dynasty at that time was relatively wealthy and caring, so the bronze cannons cast should not be too bad.
However, these twelve bronze cannons were of different sizes, and the cannonballs used were iron and stone, so Zhu Youjian had to calculate the amount of gunpowder one by one, and test-fire one by one to find out the shooting angle. I kept busy until around lunch and finally managed to serve all twelve "black cannons".
At this time, the archers in front had changed several batches, and there were more than ten or two hundred thousand arrows fired.
Looking at the "white hair" in front of him, Zhu Youjian smiled and ordered: "Let the knight in front of the tent step back thirty steps. Now it's time to see my general's cannon show its power!"
