The Franc cannon in front of him had already completed firing, the tail of the gun door was smoking, and the same was true at the muzzle, the scene was filled with a strong smell of nitrate, and then looking at the middle of the river, the round shell fell into the river water, splashing a huge column of water.

The launch site was about 400 steps away from the river, less than 500 meters away, and judging from the splashing water column, the power was not small.

It seems that the range of this artillery was underestimated before, and it should be able to reach about 500 to 700 steps.

However, the best effective killing is mostly at a distance of about four or five hundred paces.

Shen Liang's expression looked extremely satisfied, as if some knot had been opened, as if he had fulfilled some kind of wish.

He walked up to Min Yuanqi, clasped his fists and arched his hand: "My lord, this is a medium-sized Franc machine, originally I didn't have a chance to touch it, only the Portuguese and a few people can use it, I use a small sample Franc machine, which can only shoot shotguns, I heard that this medium-sized and large-sized Franc machine is used to engage enemy ships at sea on the Xiyi ship, but now they don't use it." Today, I can fight this Franc Jun with the cannon, and I have fulfilled a wish, and I want to thank my lord. ”

It seems that Shen Liang was originally very greedy for the large Franc machine when he was in Dengzhou Town, but the small Franc machine is easy to cast, not much material, not precious, medium and large Franc machine is also a militaristic heavy weapon, except for the instructor and a few members of the artillery crew, most of them are placed at the head of Dengzhen City, and they will not be used often, and the opportunities to release are of course very few.

This is also an old problem of the Ming army, which always regards weapons as too precious, far more than the value of people.

But in Min Yuanqi's eyes, veterans who are good at handling artillery and have rich battlefield experience are not an exaggeration at all.

No matter how good the cannon is, it is a dead thing, just like the Ming army defeated the Portuguese ship at sea, and the capture of the Franc cannon can be imitated, but there are so many guns, how much crop does this artillery play?

However, the Hongyi artillery came from behind and made a lot of contributions in the battle of Ningjin.

The Qing army entered the customs several times, and never thought of storming the capital, in addition to the large number of soldiers and horses in the important town of Beijing and dozens of miles of thick and tall city walls, a large number of Hongyi cannons were placed at the head of the city, which also dispelled the ambition and delusion of Huang Taiji.

No matter how good a weapon is, it still has to be used in the right place and by the right people.

Min Yuanqi bowed his head lightly and said with a smile: "You used it very well, originally I was worried that no one would use it, and I had to find a way to get someone from other military towns who could make this artillery, but now I am much more relieved." ”

Shen Liang said: "This thing is extremely fast, much faster than the Hongyi cannon, and much faster than the firecracker." And the heat dissipation is fast, and the three guns keep changing the cannonballs, which can be completely non-stop. It is also right for adults to use more artillery crews, but from now on, it will take at least one or two or even three months to train and be able to continue firing on the battlefield. ”

The implication is that this war is afraid that it will not be needed.

"If you don't need it, you can't use it." What kind of person is Min Yuanqi, how can Shen Liangming say, and said with relief at the moment: "At the beginning, I thought about finding some people to help you get a cannon to shoot." Now that I think about it, firing a cannon has a bird's use, and you are overusing your firecracker. ”

Shen Liang smiled: "It's not appropriate for me to get this cannon myself, but the adult's thoughts are also good." The soldiers of Shandong Town have seen the power of artillery, and these guest soldiers must have followed Liu Zeqing to Henan around the fifteenth year of Chongzhen to relieve the siege of Feng. I heard that Liu Zeqing suffered a big loss at that time...... There are a lot of firearms in the hands of the rebels, and most of them also use Franc machines and various small artillery pieces of my Ming Dynasty. ”

"That's right." Min Yuanqi's eyes lit up, and he said with a smile: "After suffering a loss, you know that you are afraid, if you can get a few doors, even if you don't really kill, you can bluff people." ”

Shen Liang guessed that it was good, Li Chuang's camp did have a firearms battalion, but what he did was tinkering, and Li Chuangyi did not have this kind of strength, and he didn't have this kind of imminent idea.

The main reason is that the Ming army lacked field artillery, those small cannons, two general guns, and tiger squat guns, the range was not long enough in actual combat, and the power was not large enough, and the Ming army lacked training and tactics for artillery field use, and lacked levels and systems in use, which invisibly reduced the power of artillery.

Even so, after the Chuang army grew in Henan, a considerable number of second general guns and Franc machine guns were captured in Luoyang and other big cities.

Even if Li Zicheng doesn't pay attention to firearms, he still knows the role of these artillery, and since then there have been firearms in the army.

At least in Li Zicheng's many war examples, there are no examples of him using firearms on a large scale.

Like the Qing army, several large bandits have faced the long-term conquest and suppression of the Ming army, and they are more afraid of the Ming cavalry outside the Guan, those cavalry are brave and fierce, not to mention anything else, that is, the more than 1,000 cavalry led by Cao Wenzhao brought great trouble to the huge rogues.

Later, a number of rogues worked together to keep filling in with people's lives, and finally Cao Wenzhao was killed.

This impression is extremely impressive, coupled with the extremely poor quality of the Ming army's guns, Li Zicheng attaches great importance to archers, which is related to the long-standing bow and arrow tradition in Shaanxi.

When the Song and Xia Dynasty contended, the Northern Song Dynasty set up countless military villages in Shaanxi, in addition to the forbidden army and the box army, there were also a large number of bow and arrow societies established by the people.

These bow and arrow societies have made a lot of contributions to the defense of the sneak attack of Western Xia, the folk customs of Shaanxi are simple and martial, the bow and arrow and the skill of guns and knives have not been left behind, there are still villages in the names of various places, most of them are the descendants left by the soldiers and horses stationed at the beginning, and it is not surprising that they do not have heavy firearms, heavy bows, knives and guns, and cavalry.

"I'll leave it to you." Min Yuanqi said to Shen Liang: "Get some clever ones, and place them on several earthen cities and on the right wing sentry tower, and when the enemy attacks and engages our army, they will be released separately to strengthen the prestige of our army." When the time comes, just fire it, tell them to let go of the cannon, they won't aim and adjust the angle of fire, don't hit the cannonball in their own army, then they will be fucking laughed to death. ”

Everyone laughed when they heard this, although the big war was imminent, but under the drive and influence of Min Yuanqi, at least the military attachés were in a good mood, and they looked extremely relaxed on the surface.

Shen Liang was not resistant to the errand in front of him, and was even quite interested.

But he did not rush to leave, because the ship was still unloading.

Boxes of shells were carried down, including shotguns for the Petit Franco's cannon, slightly larger than the gun.

More than half a catty to about a catty of shells, that is a serious cannonball for the big Buddha Lang machine, many people are still seeing it for the first time, many military attachés stepped forward to open the lid of the box, and the cannonball in their hands to weigh and play.

"If this is bombarded, this cannonball will hit people......"

Min Yuanjin put the pound-heavy cannonball on his chest, gestured a few times, and then thought about the power of the cannonball in the river just now, and his face changed.

"This thing can't be prevented, can't be hidden!" Min Yuanzhi's proud family face is not very good, he is sharp, one is that he is excellent in martial arts, quite talented, and the rapid progress in the past few months has made many people stunned.

People who progress quickly are also arrogant, and it is difficult to say that except for Min Yuanqi, everyone in Min Yuanzhi's eyes has nothing to do with him and make him respectful.

At this moment, the leader of the proud cavalry in the army showed a rare solemn look on his face, and even faintly fearful.

The cavalry was fast, moved fast, and to be honest, the firecrackers were very little of a threat to the cavalry.

After all, arquebuses of this era did not have rifling, fired with a breech charge, had low kinetic energy, a short firing range and a slow rate of fire.

The Europeans used square arrays to line up and shoot to solve these technical deficiencies.

The two groups of soldiers marched forward with each other to the sound of drums and trumpets, and when they came into range, they faced the muzzles of the muskets on the opposite side.

How much effort does it take to train and form a legacy for soldiers and formations that can not collapse and flee under such a threat?

At least in this era, the Ming army is definitely not good, Europe has just evolved from the Duanshi phalanx to the Spanish phalanx, or a combination of cold and heat, soldiers, and weapons, and there is still time and distance from the pure musket phalanx.

By the time of Napoleon, it was the peak of standing in line to be shot.

The French and British armies were two contemporaneous leaders, the strongest of which was, of course, the British.

Looking at each other, the military formation slowly approached each other, raised their guns in unison, took aim, and then fired.

There were cavalry cruising around waiting for opportunities and orders, and behind them there was the roar of artillery, and all around were the bullets of their partners, their heads shattered, their brains bursting, or their chests, abdomen, vital points, and intestines flowing.

Screams, the smell of sulfur, the roar of cannons, the smell of blood, human organs.

In such a scene, if you don't tremble, throw down your musket and turn away, you have to stand in the array and wait for the military order to raise your gun and aim together, and only after the military order is issued can you fire at the other side......

In comparison, those soldiers of the Daming Fire Battalion Shenji Battalion, what kind of thing is that?

The best British soldiers in the queue to shoot tactics could keep moving forward to the beat of the drums, endure several rounds of fire from the opponent, and then fire at the closest distance when the musket was most powerful.

A single round of fire can often break the enemy, and even if it doesn't, the British are good at walking and fighting at close range, and then launch a white-knuckle attack.

During the Opium and Chip Wars, almost all of the British troops launched a white-knuckle charge against the Qing army, and later generations always thought that the Qing army's crushing defeat in the Opium and Chip War was due to the sharp firearms, which was only a small part of the reason, and the Qing army's fiasco was defeated by the British army's white-knuckle attacks many times.

Morale, training, overall quality, mobilization, organization, logistics, and command are all crushed by all-round backwardness.

But even the best-trained soldiers, armed with arquebuses or even flintlock muskets, were still at a disadvantage to cavalry.

The French cuirassiers performed many miraculous feats, and the army could only defend in hollow phalanxes, and the infantry wanted to open the array and defeat the formed cavalry head-on, which was still an arduous and almost impossible task.

Before the advent of machine guns, the greatest threat to cavalry was only artillery.

Fast and powerful, formed cavalry can raid artillery positions, but if they are bombarded by artillery in positional warfare, the risk of collapse is extremely high, and the losses are also great.

At least at this moment, Min Yuanzhi's heart was full of vigilance and even fear, even if what he saw in front of him was the artillery that Da Ming had discarded, it still gave this proud son of heaven enough a sense of threat.

In addition to artillery shells, there was more than enough gunpowder.

The gunpowder is made according to the method in Qi Jiguang's new book, and it can be regarded as the most powerful and effective gunpowder in this era.

Then there is the boring machine, which Min Yuanqi is obviously more interested in than artillery and gunpowder shells.

This is the product of early industrialization, the front is heavy and the back is light, each boring machine weighs about three or four hundred catties, and can not be disassembled, can only be a dozen people through the rope, with several long bars together, and then trembling from the ship to carry down.