After hearing the report from the scouts, he did not pay much attention to the attack of a thousand people, but simply sent another 5,000 people to continue the siege.

But he obviously underestimated the strength of this group of Song troops.

What Li Yuanhao didn't know was that while the Song army was slowly advancing, Wang Shiyun in the rear also arrived at the battlefield with more than a dozen small cannons of his own.

The small cannon is relatively light. Even without a horse, two people can carry the weight of more than 100 pounds.

They were about four or five miles away and began to set up artillery positions.

In the Napoleonic era in the 18th century, the maximum range of the 12-pound Napoleon cannon could reach 2.5 to 3 kilometers without rifling.

By the beginning of the 19th century, with the invention of rifled cannons, the range was directly increased to 3 to 5 kilometers, or ten miles.

Today, Zhao Jun’s artillery pieces are all rifled, and the artillery pieces imitated by the Western Xia and Liao people also have rifling.

The two countries did not have the technology to smelt steel. Although the production method was not like the mold adopted by the Song Dynasty, it was also simple and crude, using the most primitive scraper method.

Their cannons weighed about one thousand to two thousand pounds, had a very large caliber, and fired at an elevated angle. With the help of rifling, the maximum range was about ten miles. If fired at a high altitude, the distance would be even longer.

The small steel cannon has a small caliber and a small amount of gunpowder.

Although they had the support of rifling, their range on flat ground was only four or five miles, so they had to rely on the protection of musketeers to advance.

Of course.

It's okay to flank the enemy artillery position.

Because the enemy's artillery has poor turning and maneuverability, it is difficult to threaten the small artillery positions.

But they couldn't withstand the enemy's cavalry attack.

Therefore, the musketeer positions were actually to protect the artillery positions.

The Xixia people on the periphery could already see about two thousand Song soldiers appearing behind them. As Li Yuanhao's military order was issued, thousands more cavalrymen gathered around them.

At this time, the small cannons were still being loaded in the rear, so Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu ordered their troops to stay where they were and use three-stage shooting to block the invading enemy.

The result was that enemies from all directions were killed one by one, and a large number of Xixia people were shot to death.

Many people also tried to shoot with bows and arrows, but the Xixia people were all cavalry and used cavalry bows, which had a terrible range compared to muskets.

For a while, the Xixia people in the rear were unable to break through the hail of bullets, and Wang Shiyun was under almost no pressure.

"alright!"

After about a few minutes, Wang Shiyun finally installed the small cannon.

He raised his head and looked at Zeng Yong and others who were guarding them not far away, and shouted angrily: "Fire all the shells, leaving no one behind, even if it means the barrel explodes!"

"yes!"

Dozens of gunners responded.

Although steel cannons are stronger than wrought iron cannons and bronze cannons, they are not immune to barrel explosion. If used frequently, they may explode.

But they couldn't take care of so many things at the moment. They had to go all out with their small number of troops against the 50,000-strong Xixia army.

The artillerymen quickly performed their duties, some loaded gunpowder, some loaded shells, and in just 6-7 seconds, everyone completed all the steps.

"emission!"

Wang Shiyun shouted.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Flames spurted from the muzzle.

The gun barrel seemed to be erupting like a volcano.

Smoke billowed.

A few seconds later, the Xixia position was several miles away.

Suddenly there was a loud noise.

More than a dozen howitzers exploded in their dense crowd, splashing dirt and stones.

"What's going on?"

Suddenly hearing a huge explosion behind him, Li Yuanhao quickly turned around to look.

But behind him were densely packed cavalry heads, making it impossible to see the situation clearly.

He glanced around and noticed a small slope about three or four meters high in front of him on the right, so he quickly rode his horse up.

It was not until he reached the top of the hill that he noticed that there was an artillery position far behind him, so far away that he could only see some small black dots.

Li Yuanhao was furious and shouted, "How did the enemy get behind us? Pass the message down, quickly clear out those artillery pieces!"

"yes!"

The messenger beside him immediately went to the rear to convey the military order.

However, at this time, the rear was in chaos.

The Song army was now using whatever artillery shells they had, speeding up the artillery fire, completely ignoring the danger of barrel explosions, and firing at full speed.

The quality of the steel produced by Zhao Jun was really good. While maintaining a firing rate of 8-10 rounds per minute, not a single cannon exploded. This was already a miracle.

After all, the so-called 8-10 rounds per minute can basically only last for 2-3 minutes. Under normal circumstances, 3-4 rounds per minute should be the best.

Under the fierce bombardment of the small cannons, the Xixia rear army was in disarray, and several legions were directly defeated and fled in all directions.

At this time, the troops mobilized by Li Yuanhao from the far west, beyond the range, finally arrived.

About 10,000 people surrounded the position from three directions.

But when they were about to break through, the 1,000-man musketeer army in front of them maintained a continuous shooting speed.

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu kept giving orders to fire, with more than 300 people firing bullets each time, forming a dense firepower network within 200 meters ahead, which almost no one could break through.

One by one, the Xixia soldiers felt an inexplicable pain in their chest, and then fell off their horses as if struck by lightning.

This scene obviously frightened the other Xixia soldiers. After several rounds, they lost thousands of people, but they did not advance to within a hundred steps of the enemy position.

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