What is artillery used for?

In Hamr's view, artillery is a device that fires a cannonball and then lets the cannonball destroy the target. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIn other words, shells that are completely disproportionate to the size of the gun are the main body of the artillery.

And what are the shells?

A cannonball is a disposable weapon that is used to kill or injure enemies, or to destroy enemy defenses. Solid shells are powered by propellants to be lethal, so they must be used in conjunction with artillery. The shrapnel needs to explode in mid-air to be effective, so it must also be used in conjunction with artillery.

But high-explosive shells are different. In terms of the nature of use, it is not much different from ordinary bombs, and it relies on the impact force generated by the explosion to cause damage. So, in essence, a high-explosive bomb is a bomb - and that's what Hamr thinks.

If you want to blast through the walls of Aihei Castle, the existing ammunition is too powerful to deal devastating damage to the walls. This makes it simpler, as the Imperial Army will be able to blast through the walls by increasing the power of the ammunition so that it can inflict devastating damage on the walls. When you think about it, it seems that creating a more powerful gun is the best choice.

However, designing a cannon that is powerful enough and reliable enough requires a lot of time and research costs. The Ordnance Bureau of the Scientific Research Department designs, discusses, finalizes, manufactures prototypes and shells, conducts several tests, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of new weapons, and improves them. If the current level of science and technology cannot achieve the predetermined goals, they also have to conduct scientific research in the corresponding field, which requires more time and research costs.

It was obviously not cost-effective for the Empire to spend so much time and resources and finally design a cannon that could only be used once. So Hamel didn't initially ask for help from the research department because he didn't think the investment was worth it.

But the "Kong Ming Lantern Bomb" is different. It has a simple structure, only needs an extra-large Kong Ming lantern, and then designs a bomb that is powerful enough and reliable enough. The Reich had already phased out the outdated powder canister bombs more than a dozen years ago in favor of fixed-charge bombs with metal shells. After the miniaturization of this bomb, it became the most primitive grenade, and many units are now equipped with this weapon.

In order to increase the power of explosives, the Scientific Research Department has been working on real explosives. It's a pity that the chemical technology of the New World is too backward, and Liu Xiu, a weak chicken with a score of 35 in the college entrance examination, can't help much, so the empire's chemical research can only start from scratch. Although the Byrons gave full support to the chemical research of the scientific department, they have not yet developed a real explosive.

Although explosives could not be developed, the Ordnance Bureau has sufficient experience in the research and development of explosives, and the same is true for the military industry. Therefore, it is not difficult for the empire to develop and produce a bomb that is powerful enough and reliable enough.

As for the extra-large Kong Ming lantern, Hamel could do it himself, but he still handed over the work to the scientific research department. Because the extra-large Kong Ming lantern is used with bombs, it is best to be able to develop it together. Liu Yuan originally wanted to call this weapon a "Kong Ming lantern bomb", but Liu Xiu insisted on calling it a "self-detonating hot air balloon". In the end, Liu Yuan couldn't resist his father, so "self-exploding hot air balloon" became the name of this weapon.

In order to reduce the amount of transportation and rationalize the overall production time, Liu Yuan sent the drawings of the self-detonating hot air balloon to Hamr, and asked the Assad Army to be responsible for the production of the "hot air balloon", and the bombs were produced by the imperial military factories and then secretly transported to the Assad Army.

So in the second month of the peaceful confrontation with the defenders of Xiangping City, the Assad army was busy. Officers and auxiliaries procured the materials needed to make the "hot air balloons" on the spot, and the sappers were divided into several departments to produce the parts of the hot air balloons, which were then assembled by a special assembly team.

The Assad Army's actions were seen well by the defenders of Sanghei Castle, who sent spies to gather intelligence and discovered that the Assad Army had recently procured large quantities of high-quality cloth, rope and wood, as well as a small amount of metal and an unknown amount of fuel. The generals of the Ira army believed that the Bashar army was building siege towers, and began to strengthen the defense of the city walls.

It makes sense that you need cloth, ropes, wood, and metal to build a siege tower, but what is the fuel used for? The generals of the Ira army couldn't think of a reason, as the besieging side of the Bashar army had artillery, as well as grenades, the firepower was already strong enough, they didn't need to use primitive incendiary materials like the Ira army, and besides, this thing didn't pose much of a threat to the defenders of Sohei Castle.

As a precaution, Sohei Castle made more castle-defending equipment, most of which were trebuchets. They are placed on the walls and can be used to throw incendiary objects at enemy troops. However, compared to the artillery of the Imperial Army, the range of the Ira's defense equipment was too short, and it was much more fragile than the artillery, and when the Bashar Army bombarded the Shohei Castle, the Ira Army lost a lot of defense equipment, most of which were damaged.

On September 3, 169 New Calendar, the first batch of bombs to be used in the "self-detonating hot air balloon" arrived at the Assad Army, a total of 60 bombs. By this time, Bashar's army had already built eighty-five hot air balloons, and in order not to reveal his tactical intentions, Hamr did not test the hot air balloons.

Although they had already seen such large bombs weighing 700 kilograms on the drawings, when they saw them with their own eyes, the soldiers of the Hamr and Bashar armies still gasped. This thing is so big that if you want to launch it, you have to use at least 80 centimeters of artillery, and you have to load it with enough propellant. It is almost impossible to transport it to the bottom of the city walls by manpower and detonate it.

Hamel asked the head of the engineer unit if the sappers could use the hole in the ground to deliver the bombs under the walls. The person in charge of the engineering unit shook his head with a wry smile, and he said that he could get it, but this is a big project, and I am afraid it will not work in a year and a half. Hamel grinned and said that we would have to use a "self-detonating hot air balloon".

The next day, Hamel arrives at a quarry with a group of horses and two hot air balloons that have not yet been assembled. He asked the sappers to assemble the balloon on the spot, and after the balloon was assembled, Hamr loaded the balloon with more than 700 kilograms of stones, and then let the balloon go for a test run. The hot air balloon successfully took off and went with the wind, and the sappers had already fixed the rope on the hot air balloon in advance, so that it would not fly away out of control. When the fuel ran low, the balloons began to fall and eventually crashed all.

Hamr asked the sappers to stay here for experiments, and asked them to calculate the time and amount of fuel it would take for the hot air balloon to take off from the Assad Army's camp and sail with the wind to hit the walls of Sohei Castle. During this time, Hart had not been of much help, and he thought that his arithmetic skills were good, so he volunteered to stay in the quarry to help the sappers do the calculations.

There was no danger in this kind of experiment, so Hamel left Hart in the quarry. Returning to the Assad camp, Hamr and the sappers began to study the fuses of the bombs. They tested the wires as required on the instructions, determined the rate at which the leads burned, and marked the leads with measurements so that they could be cut later as needed.

On 9 September, after smashing 16 hot air balloons, the quarry completed the task given to them by Hameer. Considering that the wind speed is unstable, the engineering unit gave three sets of data, namely "when you can let the flag fly", "when you can raise sand", and "when you can make a three-meter-high long pole shake significantly", the time and fuel required for a self-detonating hot air balloon to crash five kilometers away.

The self-detonating hot air balloon is a powerful weapon, and Hamel would rather not blow up the walls than let it fall into the city and blow up innocent people. In order to avoid self-detonating hot air balloons floating inside the city walls when the wind suddenly increases, Haml reduced these values.

On the night of September 12, the north wind was calm and steady, just enough for the flag to fly. Sensing that the time had come, Haml asked the sappers to assemble a self-detonating hot air balloon and prepare to attack tonight. Unexpectedly, as soon as the Assad Army assembled 30 self-detonating hot air balloons, it suddenly rained heavily in the area where Xiangping City was located.

The rain was getting heavier and the wind was blowing, and Ham's situation was out of control and he had to cancel the attack. The change in weather made Hamel very depressed, but Haml did not know that the Ira army was planning to carry out a night attack on the Assad army that night. In order to prepare for the attack, the Assad army neglected to monitor the castle, and they did not know that the surprise attack force of the Ira army had left the city.

The surprise attack troops had not gone far out of the city before the pouring rain poured down. The commander of the surprise attack force tried to attack in the rain, but the rain became heavier and heavier, and the wind blew, and the surprise attack force struggled every step forward. In desperation, the commander of the surprise attack force could only abandon the operation and withdraw to Xianghei Castle. The next night, the Ira army tried to launch another surprise attack, but this time they were discovered by the sentries of the Assad army, and the surprise attack failed.

When Hamr interrogated the captured officers, he learned about the failure of the Ira army's surprise attack last night, and he learned that the heavy rain last night had saved the Assad army. If the surprise attack force of the Ira Army at that time had come in, the Assad Army would definitely have suffered heavy losses. At that time, even if he can capture Xiangping City, Haml will have to blame himself for this incident for the rest of his life.

On the night of September 15, the north wind was calm, just enough for the flag to fly. At midnight, the soldiers who were keeping vigil on the walls of Sohei Castle saw dozens of points of light drifting from a distance. They quickly reported the situation to the officers of the night watch, and by the time the officers of the night watch ran up the walls, the points of light had become much larger. They were apparently floating in the air, much higher than the city walls. The officers who kept vigil had never seen such a phenomenon before, so they had to go to their superiors and hope that they would report the matter to the generals.

By the time the generals arrived at the city wall, the self-detonating hot air balloon was less than a kilometer away from the city wall. The point of light grew larger and larger, and seemed to be located inside the body of some huge object. It was too strange for the defenders to be scared, but they couldn't help but want to see it all.

Some people noticed that the points of light seemed to be falling at a uniform speed. When they get closer, people with good eyesight can see the outline of the self-detonating hot air balloon. This shape has never been seen before in the New World, and from a distance it looks like a flying creature with a large head and a small body. The reason why the defenders consider them to be creatures is because there are no flying machines in the New World. When they get closer, people see the thin lines connecting the "head" and the "body".

What kind of monster is this?

When the defenders saw the full picture of the self-detonating hot air balloon, everyone present was stunned. What kind of flying creature is this, this is obviously a flying machine! At such a time, the man-made machinery that floated from the camp of the Assad army was built by them to attack the city!

But what's the use of knowing what they are? Even though the Irajun gathered their crossbowmen as fast as they could, and got the defense equipment ready, the first self-detonating hot air balloon hit the wall. The fuse of the bomb burned out more than two seconds late, but it was just enough for the bomb to explode at the base of the wall. With a loud "boom", the city wall and the earth shook together. No one could stand on the walls, and many people even broke their legs and fell to the ground wailing.

The loud explosion caused many people to lose hearing for a while and woke the entire city from their sleep. King Yongsan, who was sleeping with his favorite concubine in his arms in the palace, was awakened and fell out of bed, and the concubine he held in his arms let out a piercing scream.

That night, the Assad army used all 60 self-detonating hot air balloons, of which 53 exploded after hitting the city walls, and only 7 exploded outside the city. Of the 53 self-detonating balloons that hit the wall, 46 exploded at the base of the wall, six exploded in the middle and upper part of the wall, and one exploded just at the top of the wall, almost emptying the defenders of the wall.

Hamr did not rush to send siege troops, and the night battle was not good for the Ira's army, but it was also bad for the Assad army. Moreover, the Assad army did not achieve its operational goal at all, although the attacked city wall was widely damaged, and huge cracks appeared in the wall, but if it wanted to collapse completely, at least a wave of self-detonating hot air balloon attacks would be required.

The performance of the self-detonating hot air balloon did not please Hamr, but Bashar's army finally had the means to blow up the walls. The next day, King Yongsan, who had been severely frightened during the attack, sent an envoy to sue for peace, and Hamr demanded that King Yongsan's army go out of the city and disarm and obey the arrangements of Bashar's army. At first, King Nagayama did not want to agree to Hamr's demands, but Hamr directly threatened King Nagayama, saying that if he did not surrender as he demanded, he would launch another self-detonating hot air balloon attack soon after.

Hamr also said that if Bashar's army had conquered Sanghei Castle by force, he would have raided the house of King Yongsan and left him with nothing. When the king of Yongshan heard this, he immediately relented. Beginning on September 21, 169 of the new calendar, the defenders of Xiangping Castle left the city in batches and surrendered. On October 7, the Assad Army officially took over the city, and the siege of the city ended.