In this era, Chinese firearms were still in a state of preliminary development. At this time, the so-called "cannons" of the Ming Dynasty mostly referred to "mortars" cast from large pieces of wrought iron. Its characteristics are short barrel, short range and low initial velocity. Its main purpose is to use the thrust of the gunpowder explosion to throw the large iron pellets in the barrel and "smash" the defenses built by the enemy.
Yes, "smashed." It relies on "smashing" rather than "exploding". In Zhu Su's opinion, this thing cannot be called a "cannon" at all.
At most, it's just a more powerful "catapult". The range is still thousands of miles away from the catapult.
But in the eyes of Fujiwara, who was born in Japan, the so-called "cannon" is a terrifying weapon that only the powerful Celestial Empire can possess. At that time, cannons had not been introduced to the Japanese country, so Fujiwara was still a little curious about this so-called "general's invincible cannon".
"The name of this thing is so deceptive. Could it be that it really has terrible power? In this case, why didn't His Highness King Wu use it to destroy Mr. Ojida and Mr. Zhang outside the city... Is it really the same as these two? The soldiers said the same thing, is it because Ming Dynasty adheres to 'Benevolence'?" Fujiwara thought in his heart.
"And, this distance..." He raised his eyes and glanced at the distance between the cannon and the target. The cannon was set up on a low hill in the military camp, and the target... was simply set up on a mountain far outside the military camp. If it weren't for the red flag on the target, Fujiwara would have been almost out of sight.
"Maybe it's because those artillerymen angered the young His Highness..."
After all, the emperor of the past once forced a low-level samurai to shoot down the stars in the sky with a bow and arrow. If he fails to ejaculate, he will commit suicide by committing seppuku. In the final analysis, it was just because the samurai dared to look up at the emperor's face rudely, which made the emperor unhappy, so he found an excuse to let him die.
I think that His Highness used the same trick. It is natural for a noble person to manipulate the life and death of others at will... "If you can attack from such a distance, it is no longer a weapon, but a miracle." Fujiwara cursed in his heart.
"It's time to fire up! Silence!" A soldier saw an artilleryman from the artillery battalion holding a torch coming to the vicinity of the cannon, and he spoke to remind his companions who were still chatting. Fujiwara also held his breath: he had never seen such a noble thing as a cannon, which is only available in China. Today is a good time to gain some knowledge...
Then, Fujiwara saw the great general's invincible cannon emitting a terrible flame, and something seemed to fly directly from the muzzle.
But that’s it. As for the target on the mountain in the distance, it remained motionless.
"Huh? That's it?"
"The weapons that the Celestial Empire is proud of are just a little louder. It seems that they are still warriors from the Japanese country..."
He finally regained a little bit of confidence as a Japanese, but unexpectedly, a rumbling sound like thunder suddenly exploded in his ears. Fujiwara sat down on the ground in surprise: he saw the target in the distance. The mountain has exploded into a sea of fire like Mount Fuji erupted! The dazzling firelight blinded Fujiwara's eyes!
Not to mention the target, the top of the mountain was almost blown away!
"This... this... this..." Fujiwara was dumbfounded, his ears buzzing from the deafening sound, and he pointed at the mountain in horror.
Celestial cannon! So scary!
terrible! This is simply a miracle! If His Highness King Wu had fired a cannon directly outside the city a few days ago...
Hiss, Fujiwara can’t even think about it!
"Look, this barbarian was so frightened that he sat on the ground. It was just a shell from the general's cannon, so what?" a soldier laughed.
"Tsk, this ignorant guy is really shameful. Just like this, he still talks about what kind of high official he is every day."
"Haha, if you are a minister of a barbarian, isn't that a barbarian? Even if he is a barbarian, he still doesn't have as much knowledge as our common people!"
"That's right..."
A group of soldiers sneered at Fujiwara. Fujiwara's face turned red with embarrassment.
He turned back to look at the mountain, and what was reflected in his eyes was the raging fire and the falling gravel on the top of the mountain. There is also the fear and fanaticism that is deeply rooted in my heart at this moment!
…
"Lao Wu, what's the origin of your cannon! It's so powerful!" In a tent over there, Zhu Di looked at the flames burning on the mountain, felt the faint tremor coming from the soles of his feet, and asked Zhu Su excitedly . "I heard that you once worked with Brother Muying to improve firearms...could this be a new type of artillery?"
"Fourth brother, please wake up." Zhu Su was speechless when Zhu Di insisted on following him to watch the fun. "The one in the camp is just an ordinary big iron cannon, it's not that powerful."
"This old-fashioned iron lump has a range of no more than one mile and a range of no more than three feet. How could it make such a big noise? I asked the soldiers to bury gunpowder in the mountains in advance. When the gunfire was heard, the soldiers on the mountain They took advantage of the situation and ignited a large amount of gunpowder..."
There is a lot of gunpowder stored in the Suzhou treasury. Beijing has begun mass production of new black gunpowder. This old gunpowder was originally going to be eliminated. So this time Zhu Su simply asked Wei Guan to empty the treasury and bury all the gunpowder in the mountains.
The original intention was to blow up this stone mountain so that the stones could be collected and used to build a dam in Taihu Lake. After all, although there is no danger of flooding in Taihu Lake for the time being, if the embankments are not repaired, sooner or later the people will be flooded. Even though we are here, we might as well urge Suzhou to build the dams, which will also benefit the whole country.
It happened that Fujiwara had been begging to meet him again. Zhu Su thought about it and simply took advantage of the situation to scare him, so he fabricated a "general's invincible cannon" and took advantage of the opportunity of blowing up mountains and quarrying rocks. Such a "big cannon blast on the mountain" is intended to show off the "muscles" of the Ming Dynasty and make this ignorant Japanese even more afraid of the Ming Dynasty...
Even Zhu Su himself did not expect that these old-style gunpowders would cause such a terrifying momentum when the quantity was large enough. I don’t know if the “extra actors” around Fujiwara were frightened, but they did a good job in carrying out their performances and lines...
"It turns out that gunpowder was buried in advance..." Zhu Di looked at the fire in the distance, feeling a little disappointed. "I thought you really made such a terrifying weapon!"
"If my Ming Dynasty really has such a powerful weapon, Wang Baobao or Emperor Yuan Shun, just give him a shot, and I will lead the Ming army to be invincible in the world..." Zhu Laosi fell into a sweet dream.
Zhu Su couldn't help but laugh. After thinking about it, he saw that there was no one else nearby, so he smiled and said to Zhu Di: "If there is no one now, it doesn't mean there will be no one in the future."
"Fourth brother, have you forgotten where I am from?"
"You mean?" Zhu Di's eyes lit up. "Lao Wu, can you really make such a powerful firearm?"
"It's not certain whether it can be done or not, but I can definitely tell you, Fourth Brother, that there will indeed be weapons with such exaggerated power in the future," Zhu Su said. What's the point of flattening a mountain with one cannon? In the future, nuclear weapons can even directly blow a certain country to a nuclear level... Ancient Chinese research on firearms was very biased. Telling Zhu Di in advance about the future potential of firearms would only have advantages and no disadvantages.
"By the way, fourth brother, you were able to conquer Mobei five times in history and made Beiyuan flee in panic. The 'Shenji Battalion' whose main equipment was firearms was indispensable."
"Shenji Camp!" This was the first time Zhu Di heard the name of the army he would lead in the future. He couldn't help but look solemn, and his whole body was full of enthusiasm. "What a mighty name! It turns out that what I, Zhu Di, am best at is firearms!"
"Lao Wu, I remember!"
(End of chapter)
