The fierce and strong soldiers shocked the Song soldiers in the city. Led by the officers who also cursed the soldiers with mournful faces, they climbed up the tower in a funeral mood to prepare for battle.
For these Song soldiers, going to the tower to fight was tantamount to suicide.
For the Ming army, firing the second round of artillery shells was not a simple matter, especially for the large general cannon that was difficult to operate.
After a shell is fired, the gunners of the gun crew first need to use special tools to reset the gun and adjust the shooting angle according to the rear sight and front sight on the barrel.
Then they must use a hooked brush to hook out the incompletely burned things in the barrel, then use a water-soaked brush to insert into the barrel to clean and extinguish the sparks, and then use a dry cloth-wrapped barrel to insert into the barrel to dry it.
At this point, the gunners can refill the gunpowder and put in the shells. Sometimes they need to stuff something to fix it to increase the air tightness, and finally ignite the propellant, which in turn ignites the gunpowder in the barrel for a second launch.
In this process, as the number of shots increases, the gun barrel needs to be given some time to cool down. When the temperature of the gun barrel is very high later, it is even necessary to pour warm water to slowly cool down the gun barrel to maintain the firing state of the gun barrel. .
The longer the battle lasts, the more time it is necessary to give the gun barrel enough time to cool down to avoid problems such as chamber explosion and loss of life of the gun.
Because of such restrictions, the number of artillery shells fired every day was also limited. Su Yonglin ordered the Shenji Battalion that each general cannon should not fire more than twenty shells per day, and any additional rounds must be fired in rotation.
Therefore, when the Shenji Battalion uses the general cannon to fire, it must pay attention to the upper limit and conduct rotational firing.
In fact, the gunners will not fire 20 rounds of artillery shells every day before starting a rotation. Generally, they will start preparing for rotation when they have fired 10 or 15 rounds of artillery shells.
Gunners also need to prepare spare cannons during battle, and the process from the old cannon being retired to the new cannon being ready for firing requires considerable time to prepare.
This period of time is necessary for current artillery, and it is also one of the biggest weaknesses of general artillery.
However, it is very powerful and is the most powerful siege weapon in this era. Its advantages determine that the Ming army cannot abandon it and will only continue to improve it.
For example, a better way to fix the gun body can be developed to avoid the time-consuming procedures of resetting and adjusting the shooting angle.
If this procedure is eliminated, it can save the gun crew half the time.
Or it can enhance the strength of the gun body so that the gunners don't always have to worry about it exploding the barrel, eliminating the cooling time, which can also reduce a lot of trouble in firing the artillery.
The second round of shooting was just around the corner, and the twenty-five general cannons roared again.
Amidst the earth-shattering roar, twenty-five iron bullets were wrapped in scorching air and hit the Fancheng Tower again, once again causing horrific damage to the Fancheng Tower.
Before the Song Dynasty, the towers in Xiangyang and Fancheng were all earthen castles, built with layers of rammed earth, which were relatively strong and durable, but were not covered with bricks.
In the Song Dynasty, especially the Southern Song Dynasty, because of the important strategic positions of Xiangyang and Fancheng, the Southern Song Dynasty court spent a lot of money to cover the city walls with bricks.
The brick-burning business flourished in the Ming Dynasty, so the city walls in the Ming Dynasty were mostly brick-clad walls or even pure masonry walls. Before the Song Dynasty, they were mostly earth walls. Only some important towns used a technology similar to Sanhe Tu to make city walls, which was very Durable.
The brick-burning business appeared in the Song Dynasty, but it had not yet flourished. The cost of covering bricks was relatively high. Only important towns could afford this treatment, otherwise the court would not be able to afford it.
Su Yonglin vigorously developed the brick-burning industry in the Ming Dynasty, vigorously built brick-burning factories, and then improved the city walls of some important towns with bricks.
At present, important towns such as Zhongdu City, Liaoyang City, Datong City, Chang'an City, Luoyang City, Kaifeng City, etc. have been improved. The existence of clad bricks has greatly enhanced the defensive power of these cities.
For the Southern Song Dynasty, in addition to Lin'an City, Xiangyang and Fancheng had this brick-clad treatment, and the city walls were very strong.
They had already considered that the Ming army would use trebuchets to attack the city, so they upgraded the city wall defense and wrapped the city wall with high-quality blue bricks. Ordinary trebuchet strikes could not damage the wall.
However, the Ming army's artillery bombarded directly, which was completely different from the projectile of the trebuchet. The kinetic energy of the gunpowder explosion far exceeded the mechanical kinetic energy of the trebuchet. It can be said that one hit a hole after another.
All the shells that hit the wall basically shattered the brick-covered part. After a few more rounds, the earthen wall behind the brick-covered wall was directly exposed.
After the brick-clad part is knocked off, the rammed earth city wall inside actually has considerable defensive power, and the wall is quite thick. The thickness of the rammed earth city wall often exceeds its height, making it difficult to destroy.
However, as long as it is bombarded by artillery beyond a certain limit, it cannot be said that this thick rammed earth city wall will not collapse. After all, it is still earth. Under the bombardment of firearms, no one can guarantee that there will be no problems.
Even if it is as powerful as Helianbo Longque City in Daxia, what can it do?
The heavy blows from the artillery shells caused huge damage to the Fancheng tower. The Fancheng tower continued to shake, and the defenders on the city wall were stunned by the shells and were completely unable to fight back for a while.
Zhou Benyuan left the tower under the protection of his subordinates and hid in a safe place. It took him a while to recover.
After he recovered, Zhou Benyuan felt that he could not continue like this.
To fight back, we must fight back. We cannot sit back and watch the Ming army bombard them with new firearms without them fighting back.
He noticed that there would be a long period of time after each bombardment by the Ming army. In his opinion, this period of time was an opportunity to counterattack.
He took advantage of the break to climb the city wall to watch the Ming army's formation, and found that the Ming army did not take advantage of the interval between shelling to attack the city, and there was no sign of approaching.
Do you want to use new firearms to destroy the city wall?
Zhou Benyuan didn't know, but fighting back was necessary.
His subordinates told him that it was very difficult to fight back because the Ming army was too far away, nearly five hundred steps away from the city wall, and their trebuchets and crossbows might not be able to reach the Ming army.
"Whether it is enough or not is one thing, but whether to fight back or not is another matter. Being beaten passively will greatly destroy the morale of the military. We must fight back! We must boost the morale of the military!"
Zhou Benyuan quickly asked the bed crossbow crew that could still fire to launch the bed crossbow and use the bed crossbow to counterattack the Ming army. After firing an arrow, each bed crossbow crew member was rewarded with 500 coins.
Then he asked the trebuchet crews on the city tower and inside the city to fire huge boulders to counterattack, and each member of the trebuchet crew was given five hundred cents for each boulder fired.
At the same time, he also knew that such empty words could not give the soldiers enough stimulation, so he promised to have someone count them and wait beside the crew with truckloads of copper coins. He would pay them as soon as they were finished and pay on the spot without any delay!
It is said that there must be brave men under heavy rewards. Ordinary soldiers of the Song Army originally joined the army to fight for money. As soon as they heard that they had money to take, they had to pay on the spot without delay. Many people immediately became excited.
There is a possibility that the soldiers' pay will be hacked by the superiors, and they are exploited at all levels. If they can get four or five achievements in their hands, it is considered that the officers love their soldiers like their own children. The majority of officers and soldiers feel deeply depressed about this.
But this time, payment is done on the spot, without any delay!
They are no longer afraid of the terrorist threat of artillery.
The death threats on the city walls are also questionable.
Although their calves were still a little weak, when they saw the boxes of yellow copper coins, the soldiers' calves were no longer so soft and their hands became stronger.
They chanted [five hundred pennies, five hundred pennies] with all their heart, and they seemed to be able to extract strength from the bottom of their hearts immediately. This strength was enough to support them to withstand the fear of the Ming army's firearms and attack the city.
As long as one round is fired, it is the income of the people of Lin'an for five days. After six rounds, it is the income of the people of Lin'an City, which has the highest living standard and highest salary in the Song Dynasty, for one month. It is basically a month's expenses for a family.
For the big-headed soldiers, this temptation is irresistible.
How long will that amount of money cover as military pay?
Should we let such a good opportunity pass?
Fight! Why not fight?
So the Song army in the city began to counterattack.
