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Text Chapter 83 The Wanren Courtyard Pillar tilts southeast (2)

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    But behind the Mongolian army's tenacious and tenacious front, everything was in a mess.  The basic casualties of the Song Dynasty fell on the Mongolian rear row. Their matchlock gunners lined up in the gaps between the infantry squares to shoot at the Mongolian army formation behind. Although there were only six rows of formations, the Song army's musketeers were  The firepower was continuously causing damage. In view of the dense and large square formation of the Mongolian army, almost every bullet was not wasted.  Amid waves of musket fire, the Mongolian phalanx that rushed up from the rear to join the battle suffered heavy losses before engaging in the battle.  The more terrifying blow came from the firing of the Song Army's artillery. Generally speaking, if it were not for the mortars, or, according to the folk, the dwarf cannon, which could be ejected using a curved trajectory, ordinary muskets and artillery would usually only  It can be deployed in front of the army for direct shooting. This is because the trajectory of the artillery is straight and no obstacles can be set up in front of the muzzle.  But the Song people apparently used a new shooting method, tilting the muzzle upward at a certain angle, so that the shells could fly over the heads of their own infantry formation, form a shallow arc, and fall directly into the enemy formation on the opposite side.  Because its trajectory is more elegant than rough straight-line shooting or obscene curved shooting, the literati in Lin'an gave it a rather poetic name, "Rainbow Fall".  Although the name is beautiful, if ordinary solid artillery shells are used, Rainbow Fall will become a useless tactic, because iron projectiles can only achieve the best killing effect if they are fired flatly. Shooting techniques similar to Rainbow Fall can only be effective at most.  Making a big hole in the ground, if it cannot cause direct damage to the enemy, then its power will be very limited.  ¡°Obviously, the Song Dynasty did not invent such a shooting method just for the pursuit of aesthetics. They had a more practical need to give full play to the power of the new artillery shells.  The idea of ??using grenades in actual combat has been around almost since the emergence of artillery. However, over the past two decades, the Song Dynasty has continued to invest manpower and material resources in the development of grenades, but usually with little effect. The grenades developed are not insufficient in power.  It is difficult to apply it to current artillery.  But Zheng Yunming still stubbornly insisted on the development of this weapon. Insiders inside and outside the government regarded it as one of the rare failures of the wise and wise Xianggong Zheng. This was because the grenade envisioned by Zheng Yunming had to meet two contradictory conditions.  Firstly, the shell of the grenade must be strong enough to withstand the ultra-high pressure caused by the explosion of gunpowder in the barrel. Secondly, the shell of the shell must be fragile enough so that the explosive inside will immediately break into countless small fragments after exploding, increasing the lethality.  .  This seems to be a pair of irreconcilable contradictions. It is no wonder that even the emperor himself complained to his attendants during the chat: "If this can be done, wouldn't it be possible to put out the fire with salary and hold the ice to keep out the cold? Zheng Yunming has always been sensible, so how can this happen?  So confused? " Naturally, the research on grenades is not without any benefits. At least the research on grenades provides the trebuchet troops with an extremely effective siege ammunition, namely trebuchet grenades, also known as flower bombs.  Before this war, the Song Army in Yunnan had used trebuchets to throw explosive bombs in the Battle of Longshou Pass, and the effect was remarkable. Secondly, the research on grenades led to an incidental new invention, which was a hand-held grenade with a lead.  , grenades that need to be ignited and thrown by hand, quickly eliminated old-fashioned throwing firearms such as caltrops and ten thousand enemies with their huge lethality and shocking effect, and quickly gained popularity among the soldiers of the Song Dynasty.  The rapidly popular grenade has increasingly become a weapon used by the Song Army in close combat. Although the effect of this weapon is not as exaggerated as the folk boast, the soldiers on the front line even gave the grenade an unpleasant nickname: "  "Grenades that go and come back" are all because if the throwing time and the length of the fuse are not perfectly matched, the grenade will not explode immediately when thrown into the enemy's jungle. The enemy often builds unexploded grenades and throws them back hard, which in turn causes damage to our own side.  casualties.  Despite this, the emergence of hand grenades provides an extremely effective means for close combat and city offensive and defensive operations.  It is precisely because of the good performance of trebuchet grenades and hand grenades that the Ministry of War can tolerate Zheng Yunming's application to advance the project of artillery grenades despite throwing investment into the water again and again.  Now, twenty years of consistent persistence has finally paid off.  Although this result is not as perfect as Zheng Yunming expected, after all, the final result is inevitably the product of compromise. In order to launch grenades, all artillery can only reduce the propellant powder by two-thirds, and only use about 30% of the original propellant amount for firing.  , and the range is much closer than that of solid bullets. In order to ensure that the shell can withstand the huge gunpowder pressure in the chamber, the shell of the grenade has to be made thick, resulting in a limited amount of gunpowder that is not enough to break the iron shell.  , and at most it would just explode in half.  For a grenade, this is not even up to the minimum standard in Zheng Yunming's mind.  But all this is enough for today's decisive battle. Mongolia imitated the large square formation formed by the Song Dynasty, even if it was a grenade that exploded in half?, it can also cause terrible damage to dense crowds. As for the only problem, it is because the accuracy of transcendental shooting is too poor to cause such damage frequently.  But grenades falling from the sky exploded around them from time to time, which in itself was a blow to morale. For those recruits who had just been recruited, seeing red-hot iron pieces flying across the crowd of fellow soldiers beat people to the bone.  Broken tendons are not something that can be taken lightly.  Even if hundreds of Mongolian households were in custody, someone would not be able to secretly drop their weapons and escape.  Although the loss of these newcomers does not bother Li Hub very much, as long as the territory is there, he can recruit as many young men as he wants. The most barren place in Han Dynasty is far more populous than Mobei.  But what really makes him heartbroken is the loss of the elite cavalry. In order to ensure the stability of the front line, the Mongolian army must constantly use cavalry to outflank the two wings in order to involve the Song Army's infantry attack and pose a flank threat to the Song Army. In the past, the Mongolian army  This tactic was often used when the army only used cavalry. With the extensive use of firearms, after infantry became the protagonist of the battlefield again, this tactic almost became the standard equipment of the Mongolian army.  But it is also obvious that the cavalry's flanking is becoming less and less able to advance and retreat as freely as before.  The light cavalry wearing leather armor or simple iron armor rushed forward in a swarm regardless of their formation. This was the traditional tactic of Han cavalry. However, such tactics encountered difficulties when facing the well-prepared infantry of the Shenwu New Army.  Layers of strict fire interception, first the direct interception of grape bullets from the Tiger Cannon, knocked down a group of brave men who rushed in front, and then came the volley of musketry from the musketry team. Although these veterans followed Li Hub through life and death,  He had participated in the expeditions to conquer Goryeo and Lingbei, but when he faced the unprecedented firepower, it was the first time he saw the corpses piled up all the way but could not get close to the enemy's formation. In the face of such heavy casualties,  These veterans still mustered up the courage to carry out second and third attacks desperately, which is a commendable thing in itself. However, with such successive charges, huge casualties are naturally unavoidable.  There was no expression on Alihan's face, and he asked coldly: "How many people have died?" Li Hub said anxiously: "The battle only lasted less than an hour, and more than 2,000 people have been killed and injured!" "  Very good." Marshal Alihan responded expressionlessly: "Tell me after you die at five thousand!" Li Hub suddenly changed his color, and shouted loudly, trembling all over: "Bring me a knife!" A soldier came to bring it!  Li Hu picked up his weapon, put on his helmet, got on his horse, and shouted: "Follow me, all the men!" He immediately went up to kill him with his followers.  On the other hand, Zhang Sheng was also surprised that the Mongolian army risked their lives to fight. Normally, the fighting will of the Mongolian Han soldiers was not as high as that of their own troops. Although several Han soldiers and their elite troops  The combat effectiveness is not weaker than that of the elites of the Mongolian main force, but the combat effectiveness and morale of these conscripts are usually not high. It is unprecedented for them to risk their lives to fight like today.  Fortunately, Zheng Xianggong was determined to win this battle. Before the battle, he issued an order to the entire army: "If one person leaves the team, the general will be killed. If the general of the team dies in battle, the entire team will be killed! Although we are defeated today,  Living in vain and being a slave of a foreign race, life is worse than death! If you win today, the treasures will be multiplied, and the world will be at a loss! Go forward with all your strength and gain eternal glory!" Under such encouragement, the Song army pushed forward regardless of life and death.  Step by step, the enemy who was fighting desperately was pushed back.  But why did the Mongols fight so hard?  What Alihan wanted to fight for, regardless of casualties, was not space, but time.  While death and blood were piled up in front, thousands of civilians were struggling to drag the heavy beast forward on the avenue behind, inch by inch.  The existence of the Shenwu Cannon has become one of the spiritual pillars of the Mongolian army. Seeing that the firearms that the Song people were proud of in the past became their own nightmare and turned into powder in the fierce artillery fire, everyone in the Mongolian army felt proud and proud.  Even the Ezhou city wall made of stones and bricks turned into powder in front of the Shenwu cannon. Are all Zheng Yunming's men indestructible?  With this new year in mind, Ali Hancai ordered Li Hub to lead his army to fight to the death to buy time for the transfer of the Shenwu cannon.  Of course, he still had a hidden agenda after all, letting the Han people serve as cannon fodder in the backstage, while keeping the elite proton army in his hands to preserve his strength.  It should be noted that these hostages are not only the young nobles of the Mongolian tribe, but also the children of the powerful families in the Western Regions and the powerful children of the Han Dynasty. The value of these people is far more than dying on the battlefield, or in other words, it is useless to spend their lives on the battlefield at will.  A waste, they will become seeds, sown in the vast Jiangnan and Nanyang lands that are about to be conquered, take root and sprout, grow into towering giant trees, and forever protect these lands flowing with gold and jade for the Mongolian Empire.
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