And these flowering shells…
There is also a special fuse. Zhang Cheng's location is far away from the Shenji Battalion artillery array. Even though he has a telescope, he cannot see clearly the specific conditions of the fuse.
However, you can still vaguely see a long extra section outside. It can be seen that the fuze is not completely prefabricated, but needs to correspond to the calculated flight time of the cannonball and subtract the excess part.
This kind of fuze is different from ordinary fuzes. The preparation process of the military factory is very particular. It is necessary to ensure that the fuze is not extinguished when the cannon flies at high speed, but also to keep burning at a uniform speed, so that it can accurately land and explode.
After the gunner loaded the cannon and installed the delay fuse, he also installed the fuse on the fire door of the mountain-breaking torpedo cannon. In this way, all preparations for firing were completed.
…………
At this time, the fuzes used by the Ming Dynasty army were almost all hollow reed tubes with a built-in powder twist. Before loading, the fuzes were cut to the corresponding length based on the measured distance to the target.
This creates a problem. Depending on the quality of the shell and the quality of the fuze, the shell will explode early or delayed.
Moreover, looking through the telescope, the Shenji Battalion gunner put in a layer of wet soil after placing the blooming shells, and finally sealed the muzzle with wax, leaving only the shell fuse exposed.
Zhang Cheng knew that this was to prevent the flames and power generated by the propellant from causing the fuse of the shell to ignite quickly, causing the shell to explode in the chamber or explode prematurely. After all, unlike a solid iron ball, the outside of a blooming shell is only a thin layer Just iron sheets.
From this point of view, these blooming bombs made by the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty are nothing more than that. The technology is still immature, and the operation process is extremely cumbersome. The precision requirements are so high and dangerous. They bloom at the same time. The processing of artillery shells is more time-consuming and material-consuming.
No wonder, this powerful explosive bullet was not popular among the armies of the Ming Dynasty. All armies still commonly used solid iron bullets or stone bullets.
Zhang Cheng not only thought of the flying cannons in his own army, but also at the beginning, Shi Tiegen, Li Chengmao and others also used reed tube fuses, which also had the problem of premature explosion or delayed explosion.
Later, they successfully developed the wooden tube fuse and the wooden base of the bullet bottom that they proposed. After several months of test firings, they finally finalized the wooden tube fuse equipped with wooden brackets.
However, my own wooden support shells were developed and used based on flying cannons, and I don't know if they are suitable for use on these large-caliber mortars.
…………
Just as everyone was watching, the Shenji Battalion's first wave of mountain-breaking fire cannons was ready.
This wave of bombs were all poisonous smoke bombs. The bombs contained gunpowder, gravel, iron filings and other substances. In addition, they were also mixed with wolfsbane, asphalt, arsenic and other substances. When they exploded, iron filings, gravel and poisonous smoke were everywhere.
The technology of poisonous smoke bombs was already quite mature in the Ming Dynasty, and was widely used by Ming armies in various places. However, they mostly used it when defending cities, and rarely used cannons to shoot poisonous bombs.
Because the mortars fired poisonous smoke shells, the Shenji Battalion did not use the swan-tone trumpet sound to direct the volley.
Chen Jiugao, the commander of the front camp of Shenji Camp, took a deep breath again and shouted loudly to his general Chen Shihu: "Fire the mountain-breaking and ground-breaking fire cannon!"
After receiving the order loudly, Chen Shihu turned to the gunners of the twenty-five large-caliber mortars arranged in two rows in the distance and shouted: "Poison smoke bombs, fire!"
As the Chinese military command flag was waved and orders were passed, on the front artillery array, from left to right, two gunners nervously stepped forward next to each mortar.
One gunner stepped forward and quickly ignited the poisonous smoke bomb fuse at the muzzle, while the other gunner quickly ignited the powder fuse at the fire door of the mortar behind the gun emplacement.
"Hiss...hiss...hiss..."
Everyone in front of the Shenji Battalion's artillery formation was staring at the sparks flickering on each mortar, and the two fuses ignited almost at the same time. Especially the gunners responsible for firing the cannons were always worried about the poison. The fuse of the smoke bomb will burn out prematurely, causing the chamber to explode or explode prematurely.
“Tum…Tum…Tum…”
Amidst the slightly dull sounds, a large ball of fire flashed at the muzzle of each large-caliber mortar, and large plumes of dense smoke were spewed out.
The barrels of each mortar only vibrated violently, and the wheels of the gun frame also penetrated deeper into the soil. Poisonous smoke bombs flew out from the muzzle, flashing a string of fire, heading straight towards The artillery array at the Empress Temple of the Qing Army rushed towards them at great speed.
In the Chinese army formation, although Hong Chengchou, Zhang Cheng and others did not personally feel the tension when the poisonous smoke bombs were launched, at this moment, even without a telescope, they could see the flight path of the poisonous smoke bombs cutting through the sky.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Suddenly, several explosions were heard, and several huge fires appeared in the air, followed by large clouds of black, white, gray, and finally cyan smoke that quickly filled the air.
It turned out that several poisonous smoke cannonballs exploded in advance while flying in the air. In the sky in those places, several large clouds of dispersed green smoke were slowly falling, which looked quite strange.
"Oh...oh..."
On the artillery array of the Shenji Battalion, everyone from the soldiers to the officers and generals sighed in unison.
"Ah. Ouch!"
Seeing this scene, Chen Jiugao couldn't help but feel very annoyed. He patted his big fat legs vigorously and shouted to the gunners in front: "Next time you fire, leave the fuse of the poisonous smoke bomb longer for me!"
Zhang Cheng also saw that the poison smoke bomb launched by the Shenji Battalion exploded in advance in the air, and he couldn't help but sigh: The fuse of the explosive bomb is really better to be long than short.
After all, people at this time were naturally afraid of cannonballs. It was impossible for the fired cannonballs to be thrown back.
Of course, it is possible to run away before the shell explodes!
However, this also depends on the size of the position. If the position is small or fighting in a formation, it will be inconvenient for the enemy troops to run around, otherwise they will be completely defeated.
…………
At this time, many earthen walls on the Qing army's Empress Temple position had been bombarded and collapsed.
They took advantage of the lull in the Ming army's artillery fire to organize carrying earth and moving rocks, repairing the collapsed defense lines, or busy rescuing the wounded everywhere.
The Tianzhu Army, also under the command of Geng Zhongming, fired two rounds of artillery bombardment at the Ming army led by He Zhenxiong in Xuanzang Town. While they were busy firing artillery, they were also worried about the Ming army's artillery array firing again and bombarding them with artillery.
Fortunately, there was no movement on the Ming army's position for a long time, and they just breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, another rumbling sound of artillery was heard from the Ming Army's artillery array, and everyone exclaimed: "The Ming Army is firing artillery again!"
For a moment, everyone was in a commotion like ants on a hot pot. No matter how much the Shangguan yelled and scolded them, they remained unaware, screaming and running back and forth, trying to find a safer place to avoid the bombardment.
