Outside the camp of the Ming army, five people wearing centipede suits, with braids on their heads scattered and draped behind their heads, knew at a glance that the guys who came down from the north were being inspected by the Ming army, so as not to carry weapons or poison on their bodies. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

After confirming that there were no weapons and dangerous items, a Ming army commander outside bowed his hand and apologized: "Shen Gongzi, I'm really sorry, it's also my duty to be humble, I don't dare to relax, I hope Gongzi will forgive me!" ”

"It's okay!" Shen Rui bowed his hand and saluted.

A Ming army general said: "Shen Gongzi, please go in with the lowly position!" ”

Wearing a short horse coat, Shen Rui, who looked like a caravan man, followed the commander of the Ming army into the camp of the Chinese army.

"Junior Shen Rui knocks to see the prince, knock to meet all the adults!" After Shen Rui saw Wang Xinyu and the others, he bowed respectfully.

"It's the prince of Xushun! Welcome, welcome! Wang Xinyu stroked his beard, smiled and nodded.

Wang Yuyou also looked at Shen Rui with a smile: "It's really gratifying that the son of the world can abandon the darkness and turn to the light!" ”

"It's over!" Shen Rui replied, "Abandoning the dark and turning to the light is not the intention of the younger generation, but the uncle wants to help Master Wang." The younger generation is a Han person, and he should serve the king! ”

While he was talking, Gong Xiaoda walked in from outside and saluted: "Marshal, military advisor, our army's heavy artillery is ready, and you can start bombarding the city!" ”

Wang Xinyu paused slightly and said: "Okay, let the gunners get ready, ready to open artillery to bombard the city!" ”

"No!" Gong Xiaoda arched his hand and retreated.

Wang Xinyu turned his head and looked at Shen Rui with a smile: "Shen Gongzi, our army is about to bombard Xiangyang City with a new artillery, and I also ask Gongzi to observe it and see the powerful power of our army's new artillery!" The Tartars in the city tried to use the mantis arm as a car, hmph, this clan will see how long they can resist! ”

Shen Rui was terrified when he heard this, and secretly prayed in his heart: Xiangyang City must not be bombarded by cannons! If the city is broken, our plan of surrender will be useless! However, he was still silent on the surface, and just arched his hand: "The younger generation has heard that Wang Shi's firearms are sharp for a long time, and they only heard his name, but they have not seen it with their own eyes, and now they can feast their eyes, and it is also the luck of the younger generation!" ”

"Shen Gongzi, please go outside!" Wang Xinyu gestured.

The group walked to a high platform outside, had a bird's-eye view of the ground, and saw that six of the most advanced 12-pounder front-loading smoothbore guns were placed on the artillery position, and the rest were still old-fashioned artillery, including 24 64-pounder mortars, 4 32-pounder naval guns, 24 12-pounder cannons, 48 6-pounder cannons, 24 6-pounder howitzers and other artillery pieces were laid out in a row, and the muzzles of the black hole were aimed at the Xiangyang city wall.

The Ming army did not completely surround Xiangyang, but left a gap in the north of the city.

"Is this a circumference of three missing one? But there is a lack of one of the three sieges, why is there no cavalry arranged in the north? Shen Rui asked strangely.

Wang Yuyou smiled slightly: "This siege is not to pursue and annihilate the northern army, but the marshal of our army is merciful and leaves a way for the northern army to retreat, so that they can abandon the city of Xiangyang, so as to avoid unreasonable casualties among the people in the city." If the Northern Army wants to go, let them go. ”

Yao Qisheng on the side added: "The north has long been out of food, but our army has not stopped the caravan from transporting grain to the north, but it can't bear to starve to death for the soldiers and civilians in the north. And the Western Hongyi is my Chinese henchman, so the handsome can't bear to harm people's lives. ”

Shen Rui pretended to sigh: "Dashuai is really benevolent!" I can't bear to harm the military and civilians in the north. ”

Wang Yuyou sneered in his heart: "Siege three is missing one, and Suke Saha does not dare to abandon the city and flee!" Even if he runs away, after he goes back, won't the old witch Bumu Butai take the opportunity to ask for his head? If the Tartars abandon the city, it will save us the cost of ammunition! As long as they abandon the city and flee, how many people can flee to Nanyang?

"The gunner is ready!" A personal soldier walked up from the audience and raised his head to salute the stage.

"Let's go, let's go down and take a look at the artillery position!" Wang Xinyu greeted.

On the artillery position, the shell boxes have been opened, even the old-fashioned front-loading guns have been replaced with new-type metal medicine tray fuse flowering shells, the use of this kind of shells of the old artillery, can also exert great power, the destructive power of the city wall and the killing effect on personnel is not lost to the new artillery.

"Prepare to reload ammunition, test fire of the first round of solid shells!" The petty officers on the artillery positions waved small flags and gave orders to the gunners.

The gunners were busy, according to the calculated distance, the elevation angle of the muzzle, filled the corresponding number of propellant packs, then stuffed a wooden board into the muzzle, compacted, and then pierced through the fire door with an awl, punctured the pack, inserted the fuse, and completed the loading. The cannon that had been loaded was aimed at the city wall of Xiangyang.

"Fire!" With an order, the gunners set fire to the artillery.

On the artillery position of the Ming army, puffs of white smoke rose up, the muzzles of the guns spewed fire, and rows of shells swept across the moat and smashed towards the head of Xiangyang City. Because of the first round of shooting, but the test was not high, the cannonballs swept across the moat 70 zhang wide, most of the cannonballs fell in the river, rising up a white column of water, and a considerable part of the cannonballs swept through the city wall and fell into the city, only a few cannonballs smashed on the city wall.

"This round of shelling is not very accurate." Shen Rui muttered softly.

Wang Yuyou said with a smile: "This is just a test shot, when you reload it again in a while, it will be adjusted, and after the adjustment, you will be able to hit accurately!" ”

After a round of test firing, several technical officers observed the effect with a telescope, then used tools such as compasses, triangles and rulers to calculate new data, and then sent the data to the gunner, who reloaded and adjusted the muzzle elevation angle according to the regained data.

Different types of artillery, the data are different, the mortar has the data of the mortar, the cannon has the data of the cannon, and the howitzer also has the data of the howitzer, all of which are carefully calculated.

At first, only a few Westerners mastered the method of calculating the elements of artillery, but now after the Qiongzhou Army opened its own artillery academy, it is divided into various specialties such as observation hands, data calculation, and artillery formation, and it is no longer just relying on the gunner's experience to load shells as before, and artillery officers who have undergone professional study can carefully calculate the most suitable data to make the shells accurately hit the target.

At the beginning of the second round of test firing, a cannon spewed fire, and the accuracy of this round of shelling was obviously much improved, almost one-third of the shells smashed on the city wall, smashing the city bricks and breaking the female wall, and the city head raised a burst of flying sand and stones.

The artillery officers were nervously busy, calculating the data on paper. The graphite pen is used to draw and calculate data, which is much better than the original brush, so that the calculation speed can be greatly improved.