November 15th, just after Shen Shi.
The noisy northwest battlefield of Seoul suddenly became very quiet. Rockets disappeared from the sky, and there were no roars of explosions on the ground. The village where the Qing and Qing armies were fighting had also become quiet, and the crackling gunshots were no longer heard. .
On the battlefield, there was an oppressive silence, and the air was filled with the unique tension before the war.
Two wooden watchtowers appeared on the tower of Heungju Mountain Fortress and on the wall next to the Donuimun Gate Tower in Seoul.
Next to a high-flying yellow dragon flag, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty had already climbed up to the watchtower on the mountain city of Xingzhou, holding a telescope produced by the glass factory of the Inner Court Manufacturing Office, scanning the Ming army's front.
The first line of the Ming army was more than ten miles long, extending from the foot of Zuduli Peak in Bukhan Mountain to near the embankment of the Han River. The Ming army guarding there had built an almost straight sheep-horse wall with straw and earth bags, and dug two shallow trenches in front of the sheep-horse wall. Of course, neither the sheep and horse wall nor the two shallow trenches are continuous. There are dozens of gaps and flat passages in between for soldiers and artillery to enter and exit. There are several villages about the same size as Gaoyangdong located near the first line of the Ming army, and they should have been occupied by the Ming army.
The Ming army on the front line was still under construction. You could see people digging soil, and someone carrying straw bales that looked like rice bags and piling them on the low straw bale wall.
It seems that they have to be busy until dinner before finishing the work, so their first wave of infantry attack should be launched after dinner and before dark.
If this wave of attacks fails to achieve a breakthrough, then the Ming army will either choose to fight at night - which is not conducive to their "sugar power" - or they will have to fight again after dawn tomorrow.
After seeing the general situation of the Ming army's front-line positions, Emperor Kangxi let out a deep breath and said to Gabra and Duolong, the ministers in charge of the bodyguard and internal affairs standing beside him: "Did you see it? Zhu Heji's front row layout and My front row layout is almost exactly the same, this is why heroes see the same thing!"
What he said was a bit unconfident, as if Zhu Heji's arrangements were similar to his, which would prove his correctness...
Gabra and Duolong looked at each other. They didn't know how to respond to Kangxi's flattery, so they had no choice but to say: "Your Majesty, your Majesty."
Kangxi also felt that he was becoming more and more wise, so he analyzed Zhu Heji's next move. He thought: "If I guessed correctly, he must have quietly deployed the long-barreled artillery to the front. Now They are probably still pulling the rocket launchers forward. Once the rebel rocket launchers are in place, it’s time to start bombarding! They should be bombarding my center or left wing...mostly the center!"
Kangxi is now considered to have experienced battles for a long time, and he is not the newbie who was bullied by Wu Sangui back then. Not only did he work out a set of tactics for the "Sugar Age" with a group of Nanshu ministers, imperial guards and foreign military advisers, but he also guessed Zhu Heji's next move.
At this time, Zhu Heji also boarded the watchtower next to the Dunyi Gate Tower, and was holding a telescope produced in Nanjing to observe the Qing army's position in the distance.
The Nanjing telescope he is holding and the manufacturing office telescope held by Kangxi were actually made by craftsmen from Yanshen Town, Yidu County, Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province.
The glass industry appeared in Yanshen Town from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Yuan Dynasty. By the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, it had become China's main glass production area. However, Yanshen Town mainly produced colored glassware, as well as transparent glass, but the output was not large and the quality was not very good. Until Zhu Heji came up with a crystal glass formula and invited craftsmen from Yanshen Town to set up a factory in Nanjing. The craftsmen of Yanshen Town have completely mastered the manufacturing method of high-transparency crystal glass.
However, this method soon spread back to Yanshen Town from the glass factory in Nanjing. Kangxi naturally had telescopes made of lenses polished with crystal glass produced in Yanshen Town... and from Zhu The technology that spread from Heji's side to Kang Mazi's side was obviously more than just a crystal glass.
Because what Zhu Heji saw now was an army that was very similar to his own Ming Army... Although their armor and uniforms were still the same color as the traditional Eight Banners soldiers, and the flags they used were also straight yellow, bordered yellow, There are eight colors: pure white, bordered white, pure red, bordered red, pure blue, bordered blue, etc. However, their current tactics and equipment are obviously imitating the Ming army.
It seems that Emperor Kangxi's learning ability is much better than that of his unsatisfactory descendants!
Thinking of this, Zhu Heji put down his telescope and said to Yu Xiaoqian beside him: "It seems that Kang Mazi has learned a lot of real skills from us in the past two years, and he is becoming more and more good at fighting. Wu Sangui's son is a real treasure. If you encounter him, you probably won't be able to defeat him."
Yu Xiaoqian smiled and said: "But he became the king... As a student, he is obviously not yet a scholar, so he cannot be your opponent."
Zhu Heji said with a smile: "He doesn't have that much sugar... We own 90% of the world's sugar, and Wu Zhou holds another 10%. It's a pity that no one discovered in the early years that sugar can also be used to prepare gunpowder. , otherwise there is no danger of Qian Ming’s collapse?”
In fact, low-density sugar can also be used to produce sugar medicine, but it is less powerful.
As for white sugar with higher purity, in the 17th century, only the Chinese could produce it... There are twenty or thirty steps from squeezing the sugar cane to producing white sugar!
The Europeans can't produce it now, and it will be a few decades before they start industrializing and it won't be difficult.
However, the Ming Dynasty in history held the most powerful explosives before the industrial era, but only used them for food. It is really a pity...
Zhu Heji sighed and asked: "Are the rocket launchers in place?"
"It's in place!" Yu Xiaoqian nodded, "The shooting started at the second quarter of the day. The shooting ended an hour later, and the first assault wave of infantry went into attack."
"good!"
Zhu Heji nodded, "The Gu family is waiting for the good news of their victory!"
...
The commander-in-chief of the Ming Army's artillery group is Qiu Hu, an artilleryman from the Palace Army Department. He is Qiu Hui's youngest son, who is just in his early twenties this year.
Despite his young age, he was one of Zhu Heji's earliest "apprentices", and he was also one of the first pharmacists to learn the "Black Sesame Jue" and "Sugar Water Jue" - Zhu Heji still took great care of his brother-in-law.
In the eight years after becoming a pharmacist, Qiu Hu continued to travel between the army and the military academy, completed all the Army Military Academy courses, and even learned a little calculus from Leibtzny - this guy also turned out to have a high IQ. The academic master!
Qiu Xueba was already at the front of Gaoyang Cave. His rocket launcher cluster was placed in the southeast of Gaoyang Cave.
In addition, eight other long artillery leaders also squeezed into Gaoyang Cave, or quietly arranged themselves in the woods near Gaoyang Cave, waiting for Qiu Hu's order.
At this time, Qiu Hu just looked at the pocket watch in his hand. This was a Chinese pocket watch produced in Guangzhou. It didn't have twelve hours on it, but twelve hours plus eight quarters. The hour hand had already been pointed at the Chinese character "Shen", and when I saw it, the hour hand was about to point to the Chinese character "二". He strode back to his command position - this is the highest point of Gaoyang Cave, where the red background gold sun and moon flag is inserted. He saw Qiu Hu pull down the big flag, wave it vigorously a few times, and at the same time shout: "Fire! Fire!"
Several artillery groups consisting of eighty five-pound long-barreled cannons roared first, with fire spitting out first, followed by thunderous cannon sounds. Then, the forty rocket launchers also began to show their power, and the strange cry of "Jie Jie Jie" sounded. More than 200 rockets soared into the sky, roaring towards the Qing army's position in front.
In the blink of an eye, pillars of smoke, earth and rocks rose up from the middle of the Qing army's frontline position!
