During the Ming and Qing dynasties, red-coated cannons and muskets were prone to explosions because the guns and cannons at the time were made of wrought iron, which was far less hard than steel.
Now that we have steel, we can directly make steel guns and cannons, which greatly improves stability.
So the Song army is not only making super cannons weighing more than 2,000 pounds and capable of firing over a distance of more than ten miles, but also small cannons of that kind.
Among them is a kind called Weiyuan Cannon, which is two feet and eight inches high, five inches high from the bottom to the vent, three inches and two points high from the vent to the belly, the caliber of the cannon is over two inches and two points, and it weighs one hundred and twenty pounds.
The weight of the cannon in the Song Dynasty was 120 jin, which is equivalent to 150 jin in later times. In other words, the total weight of the cannon was the same as that of a person, and two or three people could carry it.
Guwei Village is not a new army and is not qualified to be equipped with super-powerful artillery.
However, as a border army that could fight the Western Xia at close range at any time, the imperial court gave priority to supplying a large number of these small cannons similar to mortars. There were thirty of them in Guweizhai, ten of which were in Wang Shiyun's hands.
However, the power of this kind of cannon is definitely not comparable to that of a large artillery piece, and its range is only about three or four miles. It is not like the cannons of today that weigh more than 2,000 kilograms, which can fire a shot more than ten miles away.
Therefore, Wang Shiyun planned to seize the commanding heights, gain a wider field of vision from the high position, and increase the range to give Xixia a big surprise.
Soon Wang Shiyun returned to the Song army camp outside the east city and ordered more than 2,000 soldiers to start climbing up the mountain with ten small cannons and hundreds of large and small ammunition.
At the same time, the Western Xia army, more than ten miles away, was slowly getting closer from densely packed small black dots.
About half an hour later, they finally slowly walked to the outside of Lanzhou City and began to prepare for the siege under the command of the Xixia generals.
However, unexpectedly, they did not rush forward directly.
Instead, they began to form a battle array four or five miles away.
Immediately afterwards, more than ten cannons were slowly pulled out from the Western Xia army, with their pitch-black muzzles aimed at the city wall!
Wang Shiyun, who was watching on the mountain, couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
The Xixia people actually built cannons quietly. What happened?
Fortunately, they did not install cannons on the top of the city. Their cannons could shoot more than ten miles away, but their small cannons could only shoot three or four miles away, which was a huge disadvantage in range. If he had not chosen to go up the mountain, he would probably be in danger.
Just as they were stunned, the Xixia people's cannons suddenly began firing.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
Flames suddenly burst out from the muzzles of more than ten cannons.
The black ammunition drew an arc in the sky and slammed heavily into the gate of Lanzhou City. Most of the shells missed the target and hit the city wall, but the wall remained motionless.
However, a cannonball miraculously hit the city gate, and the gate burst open.
"Damn it, the Western bandits also have cannons!"
Wang Shiyun cursed inwardly, then shouted, "Have you loaded the cannon?"
"It's ready."
the gunner shouted.
"Aim at their artillery and fire!"
"yes!"
"Wait, use the shrapnel!"
Wang Shiyun shouted.
The Song army has developed shrapnel bombs.
Although the actual killing power is not as good as live ammunition, it is still very useful to attack this kind of artillery array.
Even if the enemy's cannon cannot be destroyed, the gunners around the cannon can be killed and injured, preventing the enemy from firing again.
The ten gunners immediately adjusted the muzzles of their guns, measured the crosshairs and heights, and based on their experience, they fired their cannons one after another.
Then, more than ten loud noises suddenly erupted from the cliff halfway up Gaolan Mountain, at least ten miles away from the city.
Immediately afterwards, ten black shadows also cut through the void and flew out of the city.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
Ten shrapnel bombs exploded in an instant.
Some failed to control the timing of the gunpowder fuse and exploded in mid-air.
Some of them did not fall into the enemy camp at all and exploded between the two armies. Others had their muzzles raised too high, and although they hit the enemy, they did not hit the enemy artillery formation.
This kind of ultra-long-range artillery firing requires too high a level of precision from the gunner. Unless it is a blanket bombing, it is impossible to be so accurate.
However, the huge noise of the shrapnel still frightened the Xixia people, and the entire army immediately fell into chaos.
“Come again!”
Seeing the effect, Wang Shiyun immediately ordered to continue.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
It was the second round of cannon fire, and by taking advantage of the commanding heights, the range was greatly increased.
Moreover, the Song army's small cannons had an extremely fast firing rate, almost reaching ten rounds per minute, which was much faster than the large cannons that could only fire three or four rounds per minute.
The Western Xia army was still reloading its ammunition when the second round of artillery fire from the Song army came.
During a round of bombing, a shell happened to fall on the enemy's artillery formation. Although it did not hit the enemy's cannon, it killed several gunners and loaders nearby.
Now the Western Xia army was completely panicked.
Then a few seconds later, a third round of artillery fire came.
The shrapnel exploded violently in the crowd, sending dirt and dust flying everywhere, and even some people were blown high into the air.
This had a great impact on the Xixia people.
Especially those soldiers from other tribes who had never seen the power of firearms. Even though Li Yuanhao controlled their tribes, some of them were unable to resist and were even on the verge of defeat.
“Kill!”
After several more rounds of artillery fire, Li Yuanhao's vanguard army could no longer hold on and began to disintegrate.
An Ziluo in the city was overjoyed when he saw this and actually shouted, "Kill them!"
“Kill!”
The morale of the more than 5,000 Tibetan soldiers in the city was also greatly boosted. They opened the city gates and rushed forward on horseback.
However, the Xixia people originally wanted to use long-range cannons to blast open their city gates before launching a surprise attack, so the distance was a bit far and they were unable to catch up for a while.
However, there were still more than ten cannons left on the position, but they were seized by An Ziruo.
On the mountain, Wang Shiyun wiped the sweat from his forehead and laughed loudly, saying, "The Western bandits are just so-so. They have cannons, and I have small cannons, but they are still not as good as us. Hahahahaha!"
He had very few shrapnel shells left, only a few dozen. Fortunately, the enemy had collapsed, otherwise he would have had little luck in destroying the enemy's cannons with just solid bullets.
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