In an artillery battle, both sides want to suppress each other in order to compete for the initiative on the battlefield. The artillery of the pen & fun & pavilion www.biquge.info Yuan Army is also equipped with a variety of stone throwing machines, which are configured in echelons to form a three-layer firepower network of far, medium and near, and they are equipped with a wealth of ammunition, including traditional solid stone shells, gold juice cannons, and newly developed hollow stone flowering shells. At the same time, the mechanically powered stone thrower can also use a variety of firing methods like a ballista, which can fire large stone bullets alone, and can be loaded with small stones to shoot to form a shotgun effect.

However, the catapult also has unavoidable defects, it is difficult to grasp the unified strength due to the manual drag lever, and the lack of aiming mechanism also makes the catapult can only shoot probabilitarily, and it is difficult to ensure the hit rate. In addition, the firing rate is low, and the larger the stone thrower, the slower the speed, and the entry and exit from the position are slow, and it is easy to be hit.

Of course, Zhao Yu spent so much money and energy to create a metal barreled artillery, although there are many shortcomings, but it also has incomparable advantages over the original projectile weapons. In terms of range, penetration, lethality and hit rate, and mobility are stronger than the opponent, of course, whether it is the manufacturing cost or the use cost is much higher, this is also unavoidable.

At present, the large and small stone throwing machines of the Yuan army are full of firepower, pouring stones, explosives and oil canisters into the position of the Song army, which can be said to be shaking the ground and shaking the mountains, if in terms of momentum alone, they have already won; On the other hand, the Song army's side was extremely calm at this time, and to destroy the enemy, it was natural to save themselves first, and the Weiyuan artillery position arranged outside the range of the Yuan army's stone thrower seemed to be slow, but it was also clear-sighted.

"Target: 400 steps away enemy heavy stone thrower, the first one on the south side, load the flower shell, set fire and shoot!" The 3rd Artillery Battalion was equipped with eight Weiyuan guns, and under the orders of the commander, each gun began to be loaded in an orderly manner.

"The chamber is cleared!" First, an artilleryman cleaned the chamber with a brush dipped in water, so as to extinguish the sparks left after the launch and the residue left after the gunpowder burned, and at the same time reduce the temperature of the gun.

"The package is complete!" An artilleryman then stuffed two packets into the chamber and pushed the packets to the bottom of the chamber with a strip to report. Zhao Yu changed the way of directly filling loose gunpowder in the past, and divided the gunpowder into powder bags with uniform weight according to the caliber of the artillery, and then filled different powder bags according to the firing range, which can not only avoid scattering during loading, but also improve the speed of reloading, which is also a big improvement.

"The bezel is loaded!" Then a wooden baffle, slightly larger than the caliber, was pressed into the chamber to increase the tightness and prevent the pressure from escaping after the explosion.

"Projectile reloaded!" The ammunition man wrapped a circle of sackcloth around the shell and filled it into the chamber of the cannon, tamped it with a pressure rod, and then reported.

"Aim!" After measuring with a gun ruler, the sightman slightly adjusted the bearing and pitch angle of the lower gun with the help of everyone.

"One shot is ready!" When the gunners received the report, the gunners immediately reported loudly upwards.

"The second artillery is ready!"

"The three cannons are ready!" ……

"Launch!" After receiving the reports from the various gun positions, the commander waved down the red flag.

"Launch!" When the artillery commanders saw the red flag falling, they also waved the command flag almost simultaneously.

"Launch!" The aimer hears the command and inserts the igniter into the ignition hole at the end of the gun, and responds with a few steps back and a pull on the cannon. This kind of firecracker is actually an improved version of the ignition mechanism on the musket, don't look at this change, but it can avoid the accidental misfire that occurred when using the direct ignition of the fire rope in the past, and can also reduce the impact of wind and rain on the operation and improve the ignition rate.

At this time, the others had retreated to a safe distance on both sides of the cannon body, squatted down, covered their ears, and opened their mouths wide to prepare for protection, when they heard a bang, the cannon body shook, the dust on the ground bounced, and with the flames and smoke from the muzzle, the projectiles flew out. The gunners didn't have time to see if they hit, but hurriedly reset the gun body that had been displaced by the recoil, cleaned the gun chamber, and prepared it for the next fire.

Looking at the cumbersome procedure of this set of guns, in fact, the strictly trained gunners can complete it in only three or two minutes with the cooperation of each other, although generally speaking, it is not as good as the breech guns of modern times, but it is much faster than the catapult. And in order to improve the hit rate, they also adopted the method of concentrated fire used when firing muskets, striving to destroy the target at one time.

"Weiyuan Cannon has played a good round this time!" Zhao Hao, who was watching the battle, saw several shells explode around the enemy's catapult through the telescope, and at least three of them hit directly, which was enough to meet the excellent standard. Then the tall catapult slowly fell to the ground under the double destruction of the blast and the impact force, and the gunner who operated the cannon also suffered heavy casualties in the explosion, and it was difficult to participate in the battle nine times out of ten, he praised loudly.

In fact, the stone throwing machine has existed in ancient times, and it is not an unprecedented advanced weapon, plus the word "giant", it is nothing more than that this kind of stone throwing machine is powerful and can throw larger stone projectiles, but in terms of key technologies, there is no breakthrough innovation. The larger the stone projectile, the greater the deterrent effect on the enemy, but the larger the stone projectile, the higher the requirements for the launcher, so that this giant stone throwing machine may be heavier, more difficult to carry, and less frequent.

Therefore, Zhao Yu knows that the stone thrower is large to a certain extent, and there will inevitably be technical bottlenecks and will lose its advantages. Think about how to move the huge device to the right position in the absence of modern lifting machinery, where to find these giant stone bullets, how to transport these giant stone bullets, how to install the giant stone bullets on the machine, will consume too much manpower, and each shell needs many soldiers to work hard to carry, which will inevitably reduce the efficiency of the use of this weapon, not to mention, once this weapon is destroyed, it is not possible to complete it in a short time.

Of course, the power of the heavy catapult is amazing, and the range is long, not only threatening the safety of the soldiers at the front, but also destroying the artillery deployed at the front, and seriously damaging the morale of the enemy. At this moment, the heavy stone throwers of the Yuan army were very embarrassed, they desperately wanted to counterattack, but the rate of fire and range were unattainable, and if they wanted to evacuate the position, they could only withdraw if they wanted to, so they could only watch as if they were used as targets, and they turned into piles of waste wood under the volley of the Song army.

"Your Majesty, the enemy can't hold back!" Chen Dun pointed to the battlefield.

"They're smart." Zhao Hao shook the smoke and dust on his body, picked up the binoculars and looked at it.

"How so? They are not afraid of being blown to pieces! Chen Dun looked unconvinced.

"You see, at the moment, the enemy's heavy trebuchets have suppressed the artillery positions on our positions, and attracted long-range artillery fire, and once the heavy trebuchets are lost, they will be able to free up their hands to clean them up......," Zhao Yu said as he observed, at this time the Yuan army had begun to charge forward, but it was not a cavalry army, but an infantry army.

"Oh, I see!" Before Zhao Yu finished speaking, Chen Dun interrupted, "At this time, their stone throwers suppressed the defenders on the front line of our fortification, and the rapid-fire artillery also withdrew from the position in order to avoid the artillery, forming a firepower blank area in front of the most fortification, which is the best time to attack." ”

"Hehe, that's pretty smart!" Zhao Hao's eyes did not leave the battlefield as he spoke, at this moment, the large and small stone throwers of the Yuan army opened fire with all their might, and the oil canisters that were thrown down ignited a raging fire in front of the position, and the stone bullets smashed down like hailstones, and the weak places on the fortifications were already showing signs of collapse. Obviously, his opponent is also an experienced warrior, who dares to give up those precious trebuchets to win the opportunity to attack, and if he is himself, he will definitely seize this short opportunity to attack.

"Crazy, crazy, so close, they don't stop shelling!" Chen Dun saw that the Yuan army was approaching to build a fortress, but their stone throwers still did not stop, and the attacking soldiers were willing to risk being injured by mistake and still stepped forward, he couldn't help shouting.

"There is nothing strange about it, it is no accident that the Yuan army can run rampant in the world!" Zhao Yu clenched his fists and said, but he didn't notice that his palms were also full of sweat.

"Hurry up and attack, the enemy will rush to the fortifications later!" Chen Dun, who was watching the battle, was more nervous than the fighter, and stomped his feet and shouted.

"Calm down, how can you be so anxious?" Looking at Chen Dun, who was like a scalded buttocks, Zhao Yu glanced at him and said.

"I'm anxious for them...... Chen Dun said with a blank face, but his voice was drowned out by a series of passwords.

"Six hundred steps ahead, salvo!" The rocket launchers arranged at the rear of the position were also ready to launch at this moment, and at the command of the officer, the launchers raised the elevation angle and fired at the enemy's small and medium-sized catapults arranged in front of them.

'Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...... If the power is still this high, the rockets soared into the air with tail flames, and the smoke of gunpowder instantly enveloped the entire firing position, which was much more spectacular than the artillery launches, and the rockets rose to a high altitude and turned downwards and plunged into the enemy formation. The explosion sounded, and a flurry of shampling shrapnel shot out, and the shock wave hit the mountain wall and then rose upward, rising like a monster had been born.

Zhao Yu is still helpless about the hit rate of the rocket, he has improved the tail nozzle, added three tail fins, and added two ventral wings, but there is still no fundamental improvement. Therefore, he no longer expects rockets to carry out precision strikes like missiles, and still uses them as long-range support weapons, but instead increases the charge and increases the power, in order to expand the coverage and increase the lethality.

'Ahem cough ......' Zhao Hao although far away from the battlefield, but still choked on the smoke of gunpowder that came and coughed, because the smoke in the valley for a while before dispersing, Zhao Hao took out his ears that were tickled by the shock, and then picked up the telescope and looked ahead, but saw that the front of the enemy army was a mess, and what was even more wonderful was that a fire was also ignited, spreading everywhere along the stream, no need to ask if it was caused by the leakage of the exploding oil tank, not only did not extinguish the water, but burned more and more.

"What a waste!" Zhao Hao looked at the fire flow and said very distressedly.

Zhao Yuke knows that the preciousness of this fire oil is much more difficult in this era than in modern times. In the early years, he also wanted to try to make the legendary naval weapon of the Byzantine Empire, the Greek Fire, but the biggest problem at first was not the formula but oil, and without this basic ingredient, everything would be useless. And he also knows that China's waters are rich in oil reserves, but just think about it, and he doesn't dare to dream of extravagance. However, the Song army has a long history of using fire oil, but it comes from artesian wells in northern Shaanxi, and it is still not available to them.

Later, Zhao Yu still got some through the merchants, even the friendship price made him staggering, it is said that this business has always been controlled by the old Wading family who are in charge of the 'Return to the Marshal of the Gunner's Mansion', and others can't interfere at all. It wasn't until he learned that the oil in the Southern Song Dynasty came from the tribute of Champa that he found a channel to get a large amount of oil, which was of course relative.

With the raw materials, Zhao Yu devoted himself to the research work, but he also had no clue, this is because the 'Greek fire' is related to the fortune of the country, the Byzantines not only kept the formula of the Greek fire extremely secret, but also in order to prevent the enemy from snooping on the relevant secrets, and even rarely used it in the war, they would rather sacrifice the soldiers, and not show people weapons unless they were in an emergency. Therefore, some scholars believe that this secrecy was so carried out that centuries later, even the Byzantines themselves no longer knew the exact recipe for Greek fire.

Later generations have tried to restore it based on legends and historical records, but no one has been able to achieve the power of legend. However, Zhao Yu still guided the craftsmen to carry out trial production based on his knowledge and current materials, and after two years, he failed to achieve the legendary effect of burning when exposed to water, but it can also achieve the effect of burning on the water surface and not being contaminated. As for the method of launch, he designed a device, but it was kept secret and put into combat as a secret weapon.

The indiscriminate bombardment of rockets instantly suppressed the enemy's wildly firing stone throwers, and at this time, the Song soldiers hidden in the trenches also quickly entered the city, but the Yuan soldiers had already destroyed the obstacles in front of the city, and some of them had already crossed the trench and set up ladders to prepare to go to the city. Ordinary city defenses can only throw rolling wood or hot oil to drive the enemy away when they are in a dead end, but they are often injured by enemy archers. However, the star-shaped fortress does not have a blind spot for shooting, and can rely on mutual fire support to destroy the enemy.

After 'bangbang......' the Song soldiers entered the city and immediately entered their respective positions and fired at the enemy soldiers close to the city barrier, but the weakness of the slow loading of muskets was revealed, and after several rounds of continuous firing, it was difficult to stop the enemy attack that was swarming in front of them. At the same time, the enemy archers had already rushed to the front, firing arrows into the city to suppress their own firepower and cover the arrival of foot soldiers. The Song army, which was short of firepower, also began to suffer casualties, and some soldiers even equipped bayonets and prepared for close combat......