Zhang Chen rode on the yellow horse that had accompanied him in many campaigns, and looked seriously at his subordinates who were already approaching two miles from the enemy camp. He saw that the chariot camp had separated the draft horses from the chariots and began to use the side carriages to form a battle array, so as to stabilize the army's position.

These sidecars, known as "cities with feet", were made of solid elm wood, which could easily withstand bullets and arrows. In order to withstand the rebels' artillery shells, the carriages were filled with wet sandbags.

However, the car camp was just a stage, and the main character this time was the artillery camp. I heard that the rebels' artillery was very powerful, and they had to rely on these red cannons to suppress them.

The lieutenant commander of the artillery camp urged loudly, and the twenty artillery vehicles that were lagging behind for a mile hurried forward, and at the same time changed from a column to a horizontal column, so that they could get into the artillery position as soon as possible!

Everything went smoothly.

But Zhang Chen was a little worried because he had not yet found the rebels' artillery positions. When the army charged, it was inevitable that they would suffer unexpected losses.

It was not until a row of fire flashed behind the rebel position that Zhang Chen realized with horror that the enemy's artillery position was right in front of him.

Zhang Chengyin was even more stunned. During his previous close reconnaissance, he had ignored the row of small wooden and thatched houses located a hundred meters behind the trench.

Those small houses are densely packed behind a twenty-mile-long defense line. Anyone would think they are front-line barracks!

Who would have thought that it was a disguised artillery position!

It happened so quickly. Amid the earth-shaking sound of artillery fire, the father and son stared in stunned silence at a small black dot in the sky flying towards them.

"Get down! Get down!" The officers screamed and the soldiers crawled to the ground in panic, sticking close to the ground, praying that the huge iron lumps would not fall on their heads.

The guards also quickly pulled the general and his son off their horses and hid behind their horses. The power of the shells was so terrible that even a single hit would break bones!

The soldiers' prayers seemed to have worked. The whistling shells passed over their heads without hurting anyone...

Just as everyone was about to get up, they heard a huge rumble and a hair-raising scream behind them.

Zhang Chen turned back in shock, and the scene he saw made his hands and feet go cold—

I saw that the shells actually fell on the artillery team that was moving slowly behind!

"It's more than three miles..." Zhang Chengyin roared in shock.

The gunner thought so too. At such a long distance, he could only hear a noise, so he should not be within the range at all.

However, the only absolute thing in this world is that nothing is absolute!

Hundreds of huge black iron balls smashed down on the entire artillery team, and death instantly enveloped the entire artillery team!

The kinetic energy of those heavy shells was so huge that when one of them landed, the heavy and solid elm wood body of the car instantly disintegrated like paper!

The shell's momentum did not slow down at all, and it bounced up like a marble, directly cutting off the head of a gunner, and piercing the chest of the man behind him. After landing, it also broke the leg of a gunner...

Another solid bullet grazed the back of a cow, instantly cutting off the strong spine. The blood and internal organs sprayed the driver into a bloody man!

The shells whistled and hit the gun again. Sparks flew everywhere, and the bronze gun barrel weighing more than a thousand pounds twisted and deformed like dough, breaking free from the iron hoop and rolling irregularly. Before the gunners pushing the carts around could react, they were swept away, their brains bursting, and their limbs and body parts flew into the sky!

The most lethal round hit the cart carrying the shells. The thick carriage shattered instantly, and hundreds of shells rolled everywhere. Although these large iron lumps were not fired by the cannon, they were not something that flesh and blood could withstand. They immediately broke the legs and feet of more than a dozen gunners.

The two oxen pulling the cart were frightened and they mooed as they dragged the unloaded cart and rushed through the crowd.

I don't know how many government troops were knocked down...

After only one round of shelling, the government army's artillery team was in chaos.

The rebels did not give them any chance to breathe or dodge. Then came the second and third rounds of bombardment!

~~

In order to shorten the shooting time, the 00 Institute had already changed the wrapping of the fixed artillery shells to silk.

It is not the cooked silk used to make satin, but the raw silk that has not come unglued.

Although it is costly to wrap gunpowder with raw silk, its advantages are outstanding!

The most important advantage is that after the shell is fired, the high temperature in the barrel will instantly turn the protein into ash, and it will not smolder in the barrel like paper or cloth.

This way, when firing rapidly, you can save the step of brushing the barrel with water, greatly increase the firing rate, and reduce the number of gunners. So this wave is not a loss...

Moreover, the raw silk is very thin and has a loose structure, which is conducive to the conduction of sparks when firing, effectively reducing the dud rate. It can also be regarded as increasing the firing rate from another angle!

In addition, after 20 years of continuous improvement, the large-caliber recoil cannon developed by the 00 Institute has a barrel directly connected to the gun carriage, and the gun wheels are fixed on a track. After the gun is fired, the recoil is transmitted to the gun carriage, and then the recoil mechanism and track on the gun carriage complete the recoil compensation and recoil, so there is no need to re-aim every time you fire.

Because this type of gun mount is too heavy, it is mainly used in naval guns and coastal defense guns.

Therefore, the current Navy's standard for assessing the rate of fire of gunners is one round per minute. Back then, one round per minute and a half was considered excellent...

Because the expensive bronze cannons that are not resistant to high temperatures have basically been retired, the group generally uses steel cannons cast by the inner mold water-cooling casting method. Steel cannons are cheap and sufficient, and there is no need to worry about the problem of overheating of the barrel. They will definitely remain strong before the gunner is exhausted.

~~

Although the gunners of the Tangshan garrison have not yet reached the navy's standards, their firing rate of one round every one and a half minutes is amazing enough!

Within five minutes, three rounds of rapid fire and more than five hundred shells rained down, loosening the ground a hundred feet wide.

Zhang Chen watched helplessly as the twenty red cannons that he valued as his life were destroyed just like that...

Twenty artillery carts were either disintegrated or overturned, with wheels scattered all over the ground. The thick bronze gun barrels were either twisted like twists or directly broken and cracked. Some were stuck straight into the mud.

The ground was littered with broken limbs, internal organs and brains of humans and animals... and there were also seriously injured people and cattle lying on the ground wailing and screaming.

The gunner who had managed to escape with his life lay far to the side, holding his head in fear, not daring to approach this hell that was like a grinding wheel of blood...

As for the lieutenant commander of the artillery battalion, only half of his body was left in the second round of shelling.

~~

On the No. 7 watchtower behind the trench, Cai Liang fixed his eyes on the eight-fold artillery telescope mounted on a bracket, examining the effect of the shelling.

This scissor-shaped mirror, commonly known as the "crab eye", can not only observe the battlefield like a telescope, but also measure the distance, height and direction of the target. It is the eyes of the artillery commander.

Cai Liang was not surprised or proud of such a result. He just fixed the crosshairs on the front of the chariot formation and counted in a deep voice: "Distance 1026 to 1121 meters, direction left 0 to 20."

Several artillery staff officers immediately found the corresponding area on the map, and quickly filled in the table by comparing the densely packed shooting elements on the wall.

Each staff officer was responsible for calibrating the parameters of thirty guns. Such a watchtower could control one hundred to one hundred and fifty guns. It could be said to be the first generation of human fire control calculation system.

After filling out a form, a messenger would run down with it to inform each artillery position of the firing parameters for the next round of shelling.

The gunner quickly followed the order, rotating the screw handle to adjust it to the corresponding scale, and the muzzle lowered its elevation angle accordingly.

After the gunners finished reloading, each gunner held the pull rope and waited for the whistle to blow.

The messenger held a copper whistle in his mouth and looked up at the watchtower, but he never saw the red flag to fire.

Because Cai Liang did not order the artillery to fire, he had no interest in a one-sided killing and hoped that the other side would see the gap and retreat.

Soon, the government troops stopped fighting and began to retreat. They pushed and pulled the side carriages and retreated to the left rear like a tide.

This made Cai Liang a little disappointed. The enemy was not a rubbish garrison army, but an elite battalion of soldiers trained by Qi Jiguang and led by Zhang Chen. Their fighting spirit should not be so weak...

However, he soon discovered that the enemy was not retreating, but preparing to attack in another direction.

Faced with more than a hundred artillery pieces, separated by barbed wire and trenches, no matter how brave Zhang Chen is, he cannot let his subordinates die in vain!

He quickly calmed down from the shock of the annihilation of the artillery battalion and ordered his troops to move three miles south.

Zhang Chen reflected on his last attack and realized that he might have rashly attacked from the main road, which led to him running head-on into the opponent's main defense position.

If we attack from another place, the pressure will be much less. At least the rebels won't be able to move their artillery here in a short period of time, right?

Even though it looks like there are simple wooden sheds like that everywhere, they can't be filled with cannons, right?

Impossible, absolutely impossible! How can a city like Tangshan have so many cannons?

It must be a trick of confusing the enemy with false information!

I don't believe that I can run into more than a hundred guns head-on this time...

"That's right." Cai Liang adjusted his glasses and smiled knowingly. Then he shouted, "Go to post number nine!"

He went downstairs, mounted his horse, and ran to another watchtower a thousand meters away...

The staff officers continued to stay on guard just in case.

~~

Half an hour later, the government troops re-formed themselves three miles away.

Zhang Chen personally beat the war drum to boost the morale of the soldiers!

The soldiers also shouted loudly to encourage themselves! Then the soldiers in the chariot camp pushed the chariots to clear the way.

The rest of the infantry bent their bodies, formed a long column, followed the chariots, and slowly approached the enemy formation. This was also the Ming version of infantry-tank coordination.

But everyone still prayed together, please don’t fire, please don’t fire…

However, the opposite happened. When the tank convoy approached to a distance of 400 feet, the terrifying rumbling sound of artillery fire was heard again from the enemy position!

"Oh my god, they are all cannons!" Zhang Chengyin felt like he was suffocating as he watched the small wooden houses being knocked down and flames burst out.

There is no other way, this is the passive nature of the defense. The attacking side can choose any point to break through, but the defending side can only be comprehensive and honestly deploy artillery everywhere...

The defense of the Iron City is so plain and passive.

Okay, let me say it for you - have you heard what people say?