Historically, Yang Xiuqing had an overview of the state affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, if it were not for the expansion of ambitions in the later period and a vain attempt to replace Hong Xiuquan, his achievements in life would not have been more than that. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

It is precisely because of this that Hong Xiuquan in the wilderness is extremely jealous of Yang Xiuqing. From the very beginning, Hong Xiuquan put Yang Xiuqing into the army, and did not let him interfere in the state affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at all.

However, founding doctrines, organizing sects, and playing with power, Hong Xiuquan is naturally a Chinese expert. But when it comes to governing national politics, Hong Xiuquan is a complete layman.

Therefore, the economic situation of the three counties under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not very good, and it all depends on Hong Xiuquan's personal prestige to maintain his rule.

The people under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lived in extreme poverty.

The country is easy to change, but the nature is difficult to change.

Although Hong Xiuquan is not as poor and extravagant as in his previous life, it is inevitable that he will enjoy it appropriately. In his previous life, he put forward the concept of "equalizing the world", but it was also completely abandoned.

Hong Xiuquan in this life is a complete supremacy of royal power.

……

Returning to the battlefield, Yang Xiuqing led his troops to launch the third onslaught on the Mulan Fortress.

On the battlefield, the smoke of gunpowder filled.

"Boom!"

Under the constant bombardment of artillery, the walls of Mulan Fortress withstood a great test.

The army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom South Road is not afraid of death. The soldiers wore iron shields, fearless of sacrifice, and swore to guard the four cannons, and were determined to blast out a big hole in the Mulan Fortress.

Ming Dynasty artillery, how easy is it?

In the rumble, a corner of the city wall on the east side was finally blasted out of a large pit.

"Aim for that crater and blow it through for me!"

The artillery commander, with an excited expression, was already seeing the dawn of victory.

As a result, four artillery pieces fired a salvo, one after another "thunderbolts", and bombarded the crater. The big pit of the city wall is getting bigger and deeper.

Due to the defects of the Ming Dynasty artillery, the accuracy of the artillery at this time was really unsatisfactory. One of the four shells hit the crater, which was extremely lucky.

During the Ming Dynasty, both muskets and artillery were widely used, but why did they not completely replace cold weapons with hot weapons like in the West?

There are four main reasons.

First, the artillery should be able to fire "flowering shells", that is, explosive shells.

Why? Because only explosive shells can turn artillery from a siege machine into a field weapon, which can kill and injure a large number of living targets; And if you can only fire solid iron balls, the lethality will naturally be limited.

A shell exploded and exploded into countless fragments, causing extensive damage.

The Ming Dynasty made the "poisonous fire flying fight", the cannon barrel is made of wrought iron, loaded with more than ten taels of gunpowder, the cannonball is cast by pig iron, the bullet is filled with "five taels of arsenic and sulfur poison", after ignition, the flying fight is hit 300 meters away, and it is broken and hurts people.

Unfortunately, this technology was not mature during the Ming Dynasty and was not applied on a large scale.

In the Qing Dynasty, not only did not improve this, but regressed, and replaced the cannonballs with solid iron lumps, and even stones, iron filings, etc.

Before the Westernization Movement, the power of artillery in the Qing Dynasty was naturally child's play.

In the seventies of the nineteenth century, Zuo Zongtang went out to the west, and found the "flowering cannonball" at the end of the Ming Dynasty in Fengxiang, Shaanxi, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "The sharp weapon has entered China for more than 300 years, so that some people paid attention to it at that time. ”

The Manchu Qing Dynasty's conservative ideology in weaponry and equipment caused the Qing army to pay a heavy price in the Opium War. Before the Westernization Movement, for more than 200 years in the Qing Dynasty, firearms technology was even more regressive than at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Compared with the Ming government's active improvement of firearms, it shows the ignorance of the Manchu rulers.

Second, the artillery must be quite mobile.

If the mobility of the artillery is not good, it is not conducive to a large number of concentrations, and the artillery of the Ming Dynasty, whether it is the Tiger Squat Cannon, the Franc Machine Gun or the later Hongyi Cannon, is not good in mobility.

Although the tiger squat cannon is not big, it must be nailed to the ground with a large iron nail before it is fired; The Hongyi cannon was originally a Portuguese naval cannon, weighing thousands of catties, and it was too cumbersome and only suitable for defending the city.

On the other hand, in the West, the caliber of the cannon is appropriate, and it is pulled by horses, which can quickly concentrate to form an artillery position in a short time, and the Ming army also has horse-drawn artillery carts, but the artillery on the vehicles is too powerful.

Just like the five artillery pieces that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom transported from Tianjing, it took a lot of effort along the way. Otherwise, the artillery that appeared on the battlefield would not be five, but ten, or even more.

Third, there must be a considerable number of musket troops.

Even arquebuses have a great advantage over bows and arrows, not to mention flintlock muskets with four or five rounds per minute. During the Warring States period of Japan, Oda Nobunaga's musket was fired in three stages, which was famous for a while.

Unfortunately, there was never a real musket unit in the Ming army.

There is no unified system for those large and small firearms, which causes a great burden on logistics; Some guns even require two people to operate on a bamboo frame, which is extremely inconvenient.

Fourth, artillery should have considerable fire control capabilities.

The so-called fire control ability is specifically the use of instruments such as gun gauges, gun rulers, and moments, as well as the mastery of ammunition and charging skills. Without this, the hit rate of firearms is a joke.

A good gunner, before firing artillery, must estimate how far the enemy is. Although the distance can be guessed from the size of the human figure seen in the telescope, the distance can be accurately measured if the moment is used.

In the early years of Chongzhen, the Ming army's imitation of the Hongyi artillery had entered the stage of mass production, but the operation method of using instruments to improve the aiming accuracy of the artillery in the West had always been a blind spot for many Ming gunners at that time.

Hong Xiuquan obtained the "Ming Dynasty Artillery Manufacturing Technology Manual", so naturally he did not have the ability to improve the artillery of the Ming Dynasty. It is not easy to produce it as it is in the manual.

Therefore, the four guns of the Southern Route Army, on the front sight, can be seen.

The four artillery pieces bombarded all morning, but only eight shells accurately hit the crater in the city wall, and all the other shells missed.

When Yang Xiuqing saw this, her face turned blue with anger, but she couldn't attack again.

In one morning, the Southern Route Army lost more than 6,000 people. Calculated, the Southern Route Army has lost more than 30,000 people, but there is no progress.

Thinking of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan's strongly-worded reply, Yang Xiuqing's face became more and more ugly, and he ordered the whole army to hold on, not to collapse the city wall, and never to withdraw to rest.

……

On the wall of Mulan Fortress, Bai Qi's expression was also unprecedentedly dignified.

The enemy's artillery, although it had not yet worked, brought too much shock to Bai.

As a general from the Warring States period, Bai Qi is really unfamiliar with firearms. Seeing that the huge iron monster pushed out by the enemy army was able to blast through the city wall several meters thick, how could Bai Qi not be surprised?

Bai Qi immediately realized that with the appearance of artillery, there will be a change in the future battlefield.

As a god general, Bai Qi will never be satisfied with the status quo and give up learning and progress. After this battle, it is time to brush up on the knowledge of firearms.

In this way, it was only a matter of time before the walls were blown through.

Bai Qi immediately ordered to mobilize ten Saimen knife carts to stand by near the city wall of the northern bombardment.

The Saimen knife cart is a city defense device used to block the city gate when it is breached. Twenty-four steel knives are mounted on the front knife wall, which can be used to push the cart to the gap in the city gate, which can not only kill and injure the enemy, but also block the enemy's arrows and stones. In this way, it is difficult for the other party to climb and form a barrier to activity.

Therefore, the Saimen knife car is the most useful emergency weapon when the city is broken.

At the beginning of the design of the Mulan Fortress, the city gate was intricately designed. Not only were two continuous urn cities designed, but the main city gate was blocked by huge stones, and the stone gate could only be lifted through instruments.

This set of equipment was deliberately improved after the Mo family settled in.

Therefore, for the Southern Route Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, if they want to break through the gate of Mulan Fortress, it is better to directly bombard the city wall, which is simpler and simpler.

The only drawback of Mulan Fortress is that it does not have a moat.

Now that the enemy army wants to bombard the city wall, Bai Qi can only mobilize the Saimen knife cart to organize the defense.

In addition, Bai Qi also sent a fierce general to the evil and asked him to lead two mountain barbarian hoplite brigades of the Third Division to stand by near the city wall of the northern bombardment.

Once the walls are pierced, a bloody battle is bound to take place at the mouth of the cave bombarded in the north.

Whether or not we can block the enemy's attack and hold the gap to the death is the key to this battle. At this time, Bai Qi naturally had to mobilize the most elite troops to participate in the defense.

In the entire Shanhai City army, there are no more mountain barbarian hoplites, and this leader is more suitable.

Everything was arranged, and Bai Qi breathed a sigh of relief, he had prepared for the worst.

……

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the entire battle situation ushered in the biggest turning point.

"Boom!"

With an iron cannonball, it accurately hit the previous big pit, and with a "bang", this section of the city wall on the east side was finally collapsed by artillery, blasting out a huge hole.

Suddenly, the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom South Road let out a heaven-shattering cheer, as if it had won.

Yang Xiuqing's face also improved slightly. He knew that morale was available at this time. Don't wait until tomorrow, immediately give the order, use the hole in the city wall as a breakthrough, and launch the most fierce charge against the Mulan Fortress.

Be sure to win the battle.

At the forefront is Li Xiucheng.

"Kill!"

The young general Li Xiucheng, who led the vanguard troops and was also the most elite infantry under his command, went to the big hole for the first time, his eyes were red, and he looked at death as if he were home.

And at the first moment when the city wall was collapsed, the soldiers of Shanhai City cleaned up the collapsed stones as quickly as possible, and pushed the two Saimen knife carts to the mouth of the hole accurately.

Evil Lai led the mountain barbarian hoplite brigade, behind the knife cart, and waited for the battle. The Rakshasa who sat down in the evil came out with a burst of roars, and he couldn't wait to rush into the battlefield.

One of the most difficult offensive and defensive battles is about to unfold in the narrow hole. (To be continued.) )