The head and tail of the tiger squat cannon are about 2 feet long, and 7 iron hoops are added around the body, and the head of the cannon is erected by two iron claws, and there are iron stumbling, and the total weight is about 36 catties. Before firing, the cannon body must be fixed on the ground with a large iron nail, and 100 small lead or small stones weighing 5 yuan can be loaded each time it is fired, and a large lead bullet or large stone bullet weighing 30 taels is used to press the top, and the large and small bullets fly out together when fired, up to 500 meters away, which is especially suitable for bombarding the enemy's dense combat formation in the field, and effectively suppresses the offensive of its close charge.

This weapon was manufactured to strike at the enemy in the mountainous terrain of the southeast region and in the densely populated areas of paddy fields and rivers, and when Qi Jiguang was guarding Jizhou, he was equipped with this weapon according to the specification of equipping every 500 people with three tiger squat guns.

By the time of Chongzhen's era, the bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty had become conservative and ineffective. This was probably a common problem of the bureaucracy in the last years of every dynasty.

Qi Jiguang's military training method went to politics after he left Jizhen, but the weapons and equipment plan he formulated for the Jizhen army was still maintained under the self-operation of the stubborn bureaucratic system. All kinds of firearms allocated from the arsenal of the military headquarters in the capital to Jizhen are still transported to Jizhen on time according to the original amount.

Of course, in the process of manufacturing and transporting these firearms, the civilian officials of the Ministry of War and Jizhen have reaped a lot of benefits from it, which is why the practice has always existed.

Even if the tiger squat cannons that have been piled up in Jizhen over the past few decades minus the part that floated and were sent to the army, there are almost five or six thousand tiger squat cannons stored in the arsenal of Zunhua City, and there are more than 3,000 that can be used if some of them are too shoddy.

And the same is true, but the * of Jizhen is all self-made, cast into a spherical spike with a convex outer and hollow inside, put a pestle, insert a small bamboo tube, wear the fire line inside, and use a long line to penetrate the fire groove outside.

This early * technology is not very difficult, as long as there are raw materials, blacksmiths and * can be made, as the largest government-run iron factory in the north, Zunhua City, before the closure of the iron factory used to make this kind of * in large quantities. Of course, in addition to this kind of low technical difficulty*, there is also a kind of "steel wheel fire"* developed by Qi Jiguang when he was stationed in Jizhou, when the enemy passes through the tread machine, the steel wheel rotates and the flint is sharply rubbed and ignited, and it is detonated*.

Although the high technology of this steel wheel ignition is more concealed and effective than that of manual ignition*, whether it is a steel drum or a craftsman who makes a steel wheel, it requires a lot of resources to manufacture and cultivate.

When Qi Jiguang was stationed in Jizhou, Jizhen could still produce qualified "steel wheel fire"*, but after he left, Jizhen's military and political affairs continued to be abandoned, and the proportion of "steel wheel fire"* that could be used normally on the battlefield also dropped sharply. The officers and soldiers of Jizhen are aware of the cats behind these *, but Jizhen has not fought for decades, and these * may not come in handy when they are produced, so no one will point out this problem.

By the time the Houjin detour was broken this time, the speed of the attack was too fast, and these sharp weapons, which should have been buried in various communication arteries to hinder the enemy's advance, were now still lost in the warehouse and accumulated dust. Now, most of these* are lost in warehouses, except for some of them, which were transported to the city for the purpose of defending the city.

For Wednesday, these two weapons are well suited for such skirmishes. The main thing about the meat-cutting tactics adopted by the Later Jin army was that its forward troops were able to quickly break through the defensive line formed by the militia, and then divide and encircle them according to the streets and alleys.

Except for the houses near Ximen Avenue, most of the houses in other places were single-storey buildings, and the Ming people who were guarding had to expose most of their bodies to attack the Tartars' vanguard troops. With the exception of a few Ming soldiers armed with arquebuses, the three-eyed guns used by the militia were inferior in range to the Tartars' rifles.

And whether it is an arquebus or a three-eyed gun, the rate of fire is far less fast than that of a Tartar bow and arrow. These tartars were made of large shields made of 2-inch thick pine wood in front of the group, and then the archers shot at the back.

Except for heavy arquebuses, which can shoot through these large shields at a distance of 30 paces, other firearms are basically powerless against these large shields, and once the Tartar is allowed to hold the large shield to cover the archers into the range of the bow and arrow, basically the Akito will not be able to raise his head and fight back.

The bows used by the Jianzhou Jurchens were mostly long bows, which were different from the small bows used by the Ming army to pursue the rate of fire and range, and the Jurchen bows pursued power and accuracy, which was also related to the Jurchens' habits of being a fishing and hunting people, and the power was more important than the range to deal with large beasts in the mountains and forests. When they faced the Ming army wearing armor, the heavy arrows that could have the ability to break armor were even more important to the Jurchens.

Most of the bow power used by the Jurchen step archers is between 80 catties and 120 catties, this kind of recurve compound bow made of cow tendons and horns is much more powerful than the shoddy bow and arrow of the Ming army, using 2 two arrows, you can do accurate shooting within 50 steps, and you can shoot effectively within 100 steps.

The shooting distance of the Jurchen bow and arrow is already on par with the light arquebus in the hands of the Ming army, but the archer can shoot seven arrows in one minute, which is not the fastest speed, and the best musketeer only shoots 2 rounds in a minute.

If the fire was unleashed, the Jurchen infantry archers could completely suppress the arquebusiers on the opposite side. Not to mention, now the Jurchens use large shields in front to cover the archers in the rear, and then play the trick of projectile coverage.

This is still in the narrow streets and alleys, and the Jurchen step archers cannot spread out the formation, so that the Ming people can rely on the support of the wall and the earthen fortress to resist it.

But by the time Wednesday was used by the Tiger Squat Cannon and *, the Houjin operation to attack the houses on the outskirts of Zunhua ran into great trouble.

The effective range of the Tiger Squat Cannon far exceeded that of the Jurchen archers, and the narrow alleys restricted the movement of the Jurchen attacking forces. At a distance of 300 paces, two or three Tiger squat cannons were fired at a time, basically covering the entire front of the street.

At this distance, even a 2-inch-thick pine plank could hardly resist the projectiles fired by the Tiger Squat Cannon, and the soldiers behind the big shield were either killed on the spot, but also lay on the ground with broken flesh and wailing.

In order to prevent the Ming from reloading*, the Jurchen soldiers in the rear could only quickly rush forward to drive away, and at this time, the * buried in the road in front of them was ignited, and in order to ensure the reliability of *, Wednesday abandoned the steel wheel ignition device, and only used the early manual ignition*.

The walls and houses on both sides of the street perfectly cover the whereabouts of the fire-starter, as long as the bamboo pipe of * is introduced into the houses on the side, and then the fire is lit according to the order.

On November 4, the Right Route Army, which was the main direction of the Houjin attack, fought for a day and destroyed 8 Niu Lu, and the result of this day was only to burn down a few houses, and the Houjin defense line was still firmly at yesterday's boundary.

In fact, after crippling more than 5 Niu Lu in the morning, the Niu Lu under the Right Route Army completely lost interest in the task of attacking the west city of Zunhua. Niu Lu, who was assigned to the offensive mission, looked cautious, as if he was crossing a swamp in the spring, and when he saw something wrong ahead, he turned around and fled, completely ignoring whether the myth of the invincibility of the Jurchens would be debunked.

Seeing the Niu Lu under the name of the Right Route Army, especially the performance of the two Red Flag Niu Lu in fear of the battle, the left wing Gushan Ezhen Yuetuo felt that his face was about to be red. Although the few cattle records with blue flags that were just assigned were also grinding foreign workers, there was no performance of these cattle records running away under the two red flags.

But at this time, Yue Tuo didn't dare to punish these Niu Lu, because this expedition changed the goal of the crusade halfway, and it was he who led the little Baylor to support Huang Taiji.

Previously, the army easily broke through the pass, and the Ming army in the fortresses and fortresses everywhere was vulnerable, so that the Houjin banners looted a large amount of property, so everyone felt that the Great Khan was wise, and Yue Tuo's insight was far beyond that of others.

If they hadn't changed their goal to attack the Ming Kingdom, even if Lin Dan Khan had been defeated, those Mongols would have nothing to rob except for their stinky leather jackets and cattle and sheep.

The Ming people were much richer than the Mongols on the steppe, and even more cowardly than the Mongols, as long as they broke through the city wall, they would obediently give away their belongings and women, so the middle and lower classes of the Eight Banners were very happy to plunder, and naturally they were more willing to obey the orders of the Great Khan.

After the Houjin Third Route Army arrived at the city of Zunhua, the Ming people adopted a different method of defending the city than before, and also mobilized the civilians in the city. If these civilians still can't do any harm to the Houjin soldiers when they are organized, then no one in the Jurchens of the Houjin banners will care about this change in the Ming people.

But once the new tactics of the Ming people caused damage to the soldiers of the banners, the Jurchen nobles who were opposed to this war naturally began to complain in private, believing that this war against the Ming Dynasty was a wrong decision.

Such a Zunhua City, before it officially started, had already caused nearly 20 Niulu to lose their combat effectiveness, and the loss of armored soldiers exceeded 300 people. This loss is several times higher than the attrition that has occurred in the fighting since the entry of this pass.

Although the Houjin expedition was close to 30,000 people, in addition to the 5,000 cavalry of the Horqin Division, the core force was 5,000 cavalry of the Eight Banners and armor soldiers, and more than 2,000 cavalry of the tooth soldiers selected from each Niulu, followed by the unarmored soldiers and miscellaneous servants of each Niulu, as well as the left and right battalions composed of various Mongolian vassal tribes.

The armored soldiers of each Niu Lu are still half peasants and half soldiers, so the tooth swinging soldiers are already professional soldiers who are completely out of production, which is only similar to the elite force of the Houjin Standing Army, which has not yet been regularized, but is only used as a guard around the Eight Banners Banner Lord, and is used as an assault force in the event of a decisive victory.

Although the fighting power of the soldiers was extremely strong, Jin's national strength in the future only raised about 3,000 people. Therefore, as the backbone of Houjin on the battlefield, he is still an armored soldier with a total of less than 20,000 people in each of the Eight Banners.

Whether it is the Mongols or the unarmored people, no matter how many losses these people make, the Eight Banners Banner Masters can continue to replenish from the Mongols on the steppe and the wild Jurchens in the mountains and forests of the Northeast, but as the backbone of the Eight Banners, every loss will make these Jurchen relatives and nobles feel distressed.

Most of the more than 300 armored soldiers lost now are from the Right Route Army, of which about two-thirds belong to the armored soldiers of the two red flags. Even if Yue Tuo's prestige in the two red flags is now rising, he has also received a lot of complaints.

In particular, the soldiers of the two red flags were still haunted by the blue flag yesterday and burned their back roads, but Yue Tuo did not fight for them in front of the Great Khan, so there were many complaints.

At this moment, if Yue Tuo punished them again, I am afraid that he would completely lose the trust of the two red flags in him. In the case of the frustration of the attack on Zunhua, the personnel who supported Fa Ming at the beginning would naturally be condemned by Dai Shan and Mang Gurtai.

They can't directly blame Huang Taiji, so they will naturally point the finger at him. Even if Dai Shan is his father, he has always been dissatisfied with him, especially after he fought for Huang Taiji for the control of the two red flags, the rift between father and son is even deeper.

The more at this time, the more Yue Tuo needed the support of the two red flags to avoid becoming the person responsible for the disadvantage of the siege. whereas

The change in the tactics of the Ming army was also felt in the north of the Central Route Army. Huang Taiji was much more astute than Yue Tuoke, and almost at the first setback, he replaced the two yellow flags, and let Arzin arrive with the blue flag, and really observed the new tactics of the Ming army.

At 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 4th, Huang Taiji stopped the attack and ordered Yue Tuo and Zilharang to go to the camp of the Middle Route Army to discuss the siege.