With the improvement of productivity, the primitive industry of mankind accumulated until the seventeenth century, and the artillery array composed of multiple artillery pieces has appeared on the battlefield on a regular basis. In Europe, whether it is the ongoing thirty years of land wars or large-scale naval battles that have appeared on the sea many times before, platoon artillery is nothing new for European soldiers.

But for the ancient and backward Ming people, this earth-shattering scene is a kind of subversion—it subverts the worldview of the Ming people, making them realize that there is an unprecedented power in this world that they seem to be familiar with. And power is the driving force of all change.

Although the two battleships had also fired on the waters of Macao before, it was an unexpected situation after all, and there were not many Ming fishermen who were lucky enough to see the live broadcast. Today's artillery bombardment, on the other hand, is a close-range strike fired from land under the gaze of thousands of pairs of eyes, and the effect is completely different.

The shelling was indeed shocking, even for those from later generations, because it was the first live land artillery swarm fire in the Far East.

The sense of scene brought by the smoke of gunpowder and the huge air shock is not something that can be felt by watching the Huaihai Battle on a TV screen. Therefore, the people who eat melons in the city tower, including Cao Zongbing himself, were quite excited in the process of the first round of ten rapid fire in the artillery array.

"What a battle! Ashamed and ashamed, the old man was unguarded for a while, which made everyone laugh. ”

It was a white and chubby gentry who spoke. This person's surname is Pan, he is a social leader in Zengcheng County, and his family has a restaurant, and his dim sum is famous far and wide. Master Pan was also one of the first people to have a relationship with the Cao family, so he was fortunate to have a hand in the corner of the city tower today.

However, in the process of rapid fire from the artillery array just now, Master Pan, a Taiping scholar, did not withstand the test of the revolution, and trembled in the deafening sound of artillery fire, and finally after a frightened scream, he covered his ears and fell to the ground with his chair.

Fortunately, Master Pan was surrounded by people, so he was helped up by his hands and feet as soon as he fell. Bai Juren, who came from Zengcheng together, also urgently came to wet towels to wipe Master Pan's face, which relieved the old man.

"Oops, this artillery burst is really earth-shattering, don't blame Master Pan for losing his temper, I am also shaken by the students!"

After Mr. Bai played a round for a while, when he saw that the sound of the cannon had stopped for a while, he put on a military uniform on the side, and specially sent a miscellaneous orderly soldier to ask for a military iron kettle painted with green paint and a flat shape, and poured two sips of tea into it.

Not to mention the melon-eating merchant gentry who were shocked by their own family's artillery fire, and said that the phalanx of generals in the middle of the city tower.

Although it had been expected in advance, and no one made a fool of himself, the generals still showed the shock in their faces. After all, everyone has seen the Furlong machine and a few cannons firing on weekdays, how have you ever seen this kind of battle?

The outspoken General Ma Shen was still standing behind the telescope at the moment, his expression was very dull, his mouth was wide open, looking at the artillery position in front of him that was like a fairyland of billowing white smoke, and muttered in his mouth, "My lord, relying on such a sharp weapon, must be invincible in the world!" ”

"It's not unexpected, it's just that everyone is leading the way."

Cao Zongbing had already returned to his soul at this time. Seeing that someone was complimenting, he looked confident, and seized the opportunity to show the strategic vision that a wave of marshals should have: "Nowadays, China has frequent exchanges with foreign countries overseas, and all kinds of weapons preparation methods are interoperable, and it depends on this, and the power of firearms is getting worse day by day. ”

"The current battle is just the beginning, a group of lonely soldiers are fighting at the doorstep, and the time and place are not there. However, it is difficult to say in the future, the territory is vast, and there will be a time when you will meet with the opponent's army one day. ”

Speaking of this, Cao Zongbing changed his expression to a strict teacher: "Everyone, the way of the world has changed. Those of us who are in the army are no longer relying on swords and spears to fight the enemy. Those who sit on the tower of this city today are all good and fierce generals. After this battle, everyone must learn to broaden their horizons, and they must not hold on to the defects, and keep the little road passed down by the ancestors to eat! ”

As the saying goes, whoever has the biggest fist has the right to speak. Hearing Deputy Commander Cao's half-preachy words, coupled with the rumbling cannons under the city tower, the rest of the generals present except for Commander He bowed down and clenched their fists: "The last general will be taught!" ”

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It is said that the rumbling cannon sound heard on the city tower at this moment was actually not fired by the artillery position below. The first round of ten rapid fire here has been fired, and what is still roaring is the sound of counterattack artillery on the St. Paul's Fort.

In fact, from the third round of rapid fire, the St. Paulault battery began to return fire. The Portuguese waited for so long, and after determining that the opponent was officially firing on a large scale, they immediately ordered the artillery position to return fire.

However, the results of the Portuguese shelling were not good: the sound of the artillery was sparse, the damage effect was poor, and it can be said that in the initial artillery battle, the Portuguese were completely defeated.

There are many reasons for this.

First of all, the distance between the gun emplacements of the two sides was about 1200 meters. This distance was deliberately chosen by the Army. At this distance, the Traveler's refined iron cannon produced by hammer forging + drilling, whether it is an 8-pounder or a 24-pounder gun, can send shells into enemy batteries...... It is not required to be accurate to the meter (in fact, it is impossible to do it), as long as you can enter the fort that looks like a small city, it is considered qualified.

And the Portuguese artillery will not work. Although the casting process of the Bugarao Gun Factory was the most advanced in this era, it was after all the original casting technology of the 17th century, so the cannon with a smaller caliber could not hit a distance of 1,200 meters.

The remaining heavy artillery that could be fired also had problems with heat dissipation and structural strength: all the cannons of the aborigines of this era could not fire continuously, otherwise they would explode.

In addition, the gap between black powder and millet powder, as well as the purity of gunpowder, as well as the specialization of artillery on both sides, morale, sighting, logistics and other factors, accumulated to create the final result.

The outcome of the first round of artillery battles was very clear: one side could shoot ten rounds in a row, and the large and small shells rained down on the crows, and although the other side occupied the altitude advantage, the artillery fire that came over was soft and not in batches, and the damage effect was not satisfactory.

Yu Mingjie, who stayed at the command post, saw the entire process of the first round of shelling through a telescope.

On the position at this moment, white smoke is filled, and figures are looming, which seems a little deserted. This is because except for a few wounded and corpses who were hit by iron eggs and had to be rushed to the rear, the remaining soldiers who had completed the shelling had already followed the orders from the command and all hid behind the bunkers.

After all, there are casualties in war. Although the Portuguese shelling was messy, there were still lucky bombs that were hoisted into the bunker surrounded by sandbags. Although some of them did not hit anyone, most of the soldiers who were hit were killed on the spot.

The wounded who are now being sent back are actually considered lucky. Most of these people were scraped to their limbs, or they were injured by debris thrown by shells.

Yu Mingjie turned a blind eye to the medic who hurried past the telescope, and the wounded had no pressure on the formally trained medics. What he cares about is the overall situation of the position, although there is no problem with the visual inspection, he still has to wait for the first-hand report.

Soon, 5 minutes after the artillery stopped, the strong wind weather that had been deliberately waited for before came into play: a strong southeasterly style blew out the smoke on the position, and everything was clear. At the same time, the heralds kept running into the tents to update them on the situation on the ground.

In this round of shelling, the Ming side killed 3 people, injured 7 people, and a small number of equipment and bunkers were damaged.

And the losses on the part of the Portuguese were not small. After the observation of a number of telescopes, astronomical scopes and artillery mirrors, it was found that at least two gun emplacements of the Portuguese were smashed, and the artillery was dumped and people were killed and wounded. In addition, the main body of the fort, as well as a number of tooth walls and bunkers, were also damaged.

When Yu Mingjie summarized all aspects of intelligence and evaluated the effect of the first round of shelling, he nodded with satisfaction and said to the herald beside him: "Order, all artillery crews check the status of artillery, replenish ammunition and materials in time, and launch a second round of rapid fire in 5 minutes." ”

"Yes!"

The herald repeated the order aloud and hurried out of the tent.

As mentioned above, in order to cope with the situation of comprehensive rollout and lack of imported materials in the future, the troops are now "de-importing materials" as much as possible, whether it is combat or training.

Walkie-talkies are now limited to private chats between traversers, and troops have reverted to the "regular" way of relying on manpower and horses and mules to run and give orders.

The herald quickly brought the order to several artillery company commanders.

The artillery positions, having received orders, suddenly became busy. The soldiers began to shuttle between the ammunition truck and the gun emplacement, piling up the supplies needed for the next round of rapid fire in advance in the storage compartment reserved behind the gun emplacement.

Immediately after, the next round of rapid fire began.

This round of blows completely blinded the Portuguese, and they couldn't even fight back this time - all the cannons were still in a state of cooldown and could not be used to fire.

The short and ferocious "Bo Bo Flow" shelling method continued like this. From morning to afternoon, every half an hour, the Ming artillery array would surely fire hundreds of iron bullets of different calibers. These shells smashed like locusts on every inch of the St. Paulo's Fort, causing heavy casualties and heavy losses to the Portuguese army.

Even the advantages of rudimentary industrialization are gaps that indigenous people cannot bridge. A cart of solid iron bullets that were silver in the eyes of the Ming people smashed into the opposite side without hesitation, endlessly, as if they didn't want money.

At the beginning, the Portuguese were still fighting back. However, when the number accumulated to a certain extent, the losses of the Portuguese were too great to be compensated: in each round, there was always a lucky cannonball that passed through the gap in front of the gun emplacement, and accurately drilled into the gun emplacement, killing and wounding the soldiers and equipment inside.

Although they could not comprehend the endless shells and barrels that did not seem to need to be cooled, the Portuguese finally made the right choice under this most brainless, bold and countermeasureless blow: all the personnel hid inside the battery and abandoned the gun position above.