It happened that at this time, there was a gap between the Ming army's third round of artillery launches. The Song army at the head of the city seized this opportunity and began to counterattack.
They chanted slogans, exhausted all their strength to load the three-bow bed crossbow, and then smashed it down with a sledgehammer, firing the bed crossbow, and huge crossbow arrows roared out.
It was the same with the trebuchet crew. A group of people shouted in unison with all their might, pulling down on the ropes and throwing heavy stones or ignited firearms, letting them fly freely in the air.
The crossbows fired large arrows, the trebuchets threw huge stones and ignited firearms, and the Song army's counterattack seemed powerful.
As they fought back bravely, Zhou Benyuan also began to fulfill his promise. After completing a shooting, he was given five hundred coins directly. He counted the money to you on the spot without any delay.
After receiving the money, the soldiers immediately put it away, their faces flushed with excitement, and immediately began to prepare for the next shooting. Everyone was as happy as the children who received a large red envelope of lucky money during the New Year. They were extremely happy.
Because they were happy, they moved very quickly, very quickly, and their efficiency was greatly improved. When the Ming army was preparing to shoot, they were already ready to fire again.
Then they roared together and fired big arrows and stones.
Then he looked intensely at the clerks who were counting money, staring at the money in their hands. His eyes and mind were all about money, and nothing else.
Because of this incentive, the Song Army's counterattack began to become sharper, but it was of no use.
There was no way the trebuchet could throw the stones and ignited fireballs to the location of the Ming army. It just fell halfway, which was meaningless.
The bed crossbow is a bit interesting, it flies quite far from a high position.
But the problem is that the bed crossbow cannot aim at all, and whether it can hit the target depends entirely on luck. Therefore, its main purpose is to shoot at the city wall and nail it on the city wall to provide a foothold for the soldiers who climb the city. Its secondary use is long-range strike.
Seven or eight large arrows more than two meters long roared out, and then continued to deviate from their original directions in the air. Finally, they did approach the direction of the Ming army, but they had already deflected to grandma's house. Finally, they flew at a very low altitude and crashed to the ground.
Not to mention it is meaningless, it can also be regarded as a waste of effort.
However, this is still of some significance to the Ming army.
The Ming Army discovered the long-range firepower of the Song Army through this shooting, and found that the Song Army was counterattacking at the top of the city. Therefore, the artillery crew observers kept observing with clairvoyants, and at the same time made simple mathematical calculations.
The artillery position is about 150 feet away from the Fancheng wall...
The walls of Fancheng are about two feet high...
The city wall is about two feet wide...
The muzzle of the general's cannon fires from a flat position and the muzzle is raised once to approximately increase the range...
In order to increase the accuracy of artillery shooting and make the mathematical model of ballistic calculation more accurate, Su Yonglin introduced the concepts of angles and coordinate systems. While imparting the knowledge of coordinate systems to planners, he also made a protractor himself.
He described the existence of angles with a mathematical calculation method that he could still vaguely remember, and taught this concept to the planners in the DPRK. Later, the planners brought the angles and coordinate systems into the mathematical calculation model of artillery shooting. .
The planners felt like they had found a treasure, and felt that they had gained insight into the mystery of artillery shooting.
They measured and recorded a series of data on artillery launches at the experimental base in Zhongdu.
A large number of calculations have also been made on the relationship between the weight of fired gunpowder and the range of the cannonball.
A large number of calculations and records were also made on the changes in firing range caused by muzzle elevation.
The data related to the entire artillery launch were summarized and recorded into a set of tables. After a large number of test firings and data recording calculations, as well as the introduction of the concepts of rear sights and crosshairs, the Ming Army artillery crew gradually developed a scientific concept of artillery launches.
Even the weight of gunpowder required for different types of artillery and shells of different weights was calculated. Therefore, the gunpowder for Ming army artillery was custom-made in professional workshops, weighed by dedicated personnel to minimize errors, and sent directly to the gunpowder. In the hands of the artillery crew.
The artillery crew is also equipped with professional observers, holding clairvoyants, who will measure various data before the war, make rough estimates, and guide the launch, which greatly improves the shooting accuracy of the artillery.
After each launch, they will also observe the shooting results, and then adjust the launch position and launch angle for the next launch.
Other members of the gun crew are responsible for adjusting the gun to what the observer thinks is the best position and then firing it.
After this series of processes, it can be said that it is quite scientific, and it can be regarded as reaching the pinnacle of the scientific process of muzzle-loading gun firing in the smoothbore era.
At the beginning, even the craftsmen who made artillery only thought that gunners were a branch of arms that required courage. As long as you have courage, you can become a gunner.
But later everyone discovered that gunners need not only courage, but also mathematical knowledge.
A person who does not understand mathematics cannot be a good gunner. Even a gun crew member responsible for igniting the propellant must have a certain reserve of mathematical knowledge. Otherwise, what if the observer hand is suddenly injured and cannot guide the launch?
In fact, the training of Ming army gunners is developing in this direction.
The Ming Army's gunner training strategy has progressed to the point where a more systematic mathematical education is required for the gunners. A series of currently known mathematical knowledge about artillery must be taught to the gunners, and they must take exams.
If you fail the exam, you cannot become a gunner.
The results of spending a lot of effort and money to train gunners are also obvious.
On the current Xiangfan battlefield, after each firing, the professional observers of the artillery team will slightly adjust the shooting angle and shooting position through observation and calculation, so that the next shooting can destroy the Song Army's city wall more accurately.
When the Song army counterattacked on the city wall, the observers could also adjust the shooting angle and direction through calculation, and attack the bed crossbows and trebuchets on the city wall that could still attack.
It's not that it can be really accurate, it can only be said that within the effective range, the shooting accuracy should be improved as much as possible.
The introduction of mathematical concepts gave the Ming Army's artillery crews a scientific concept that transcended the times. For artillery launches, it was no longer a matter of where they hit. Instead, they tried their best to control the direction of artillery launches and increase the war value of each shell.
The artillery team armed with such a concept is indeed a nightmare for a fixed city.
So the third round of shelling began.
Amidst the roar, the Song Army commanders were horrified to find that the Ming Army's artillery shells hit the city floor with great precision, causing a terrible blow to the crossbow unit and trebuchet unit that were shooting on the city floor.
An iron bullet suddenly fell, smashing the trebuchet and bed crossbow. It also smashed the Song army soldiers into minced meat. Blood and flesh flew everywhere on the city floor. The soldiers howled in horror, everywhere. Run for cover.
Some were so frightened that they didn't choose their way out, climbed over the city wall, fell from the seven or eight meter high tower, and died instantly.
There was chaos on the city tower. Many soldiers of the Song Army were smashed to death and knocked away. The city floor was in a mess. Suddenly, there were not a few lucky ones who could still stand.
This round of bombardment dealt a huge blow to the Song army. Zhou Benyuan continued to order higher rewards. Anyone who dared to fight back would be rewarded directly.
The amount of the reward was increased from 500 to 1,000 coins, which was the same amount of money, but still no one was willing to go up. Zhou Benyuan was anxious, didn't care about anything, and started to kill immediately.
His current image can be described as holding a machete in one hand and copper coins in the other, chopping off his head while scattering coins.
"Those who go up to the tower to attack will be rewarded! Those who retreat and dare not attack will be killed!"
He ordered his soldiers to kill more than thirty deserters who collapsed, and moved out boxes of copper coins, forcing the rest of the Song army to go up to the tower to launch a counterattack.
The soldiers of the Song Army could only go up to the tower while crying, and were forced to move towards their own destiny.
The soldiers of the Song Army under the city tower were not relaxed either, because others' present was their future, they just hadn't had their turn yet.
Moods of grief and fear spread among the troops.
But they can't do anything about it, because they are just big soldiers, the lowest people, and those who force them are generals and officers, who can decide their life or death.
