Change a kind of shell!

Replace it with a shell that can hit a time-delay fuse.

Of course, this kind of shell is certainly not a spherical projectile, and when the spherical projectile hits the ground, unless the soil is very soft, it will not burrow into the soil at all, and it is even more impossible to get into the internal explosion of the fortifications.

But new shells can be used.

"Got a new type of shell?"

Mei Chun asked with some surprise. Originally, he was shocked by this kind of "flowering shell" that exploded on touch, but he never thought that now there would be a new type of cannonball.

Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile.

"There are not only new shells, but also new artillery."

Four o'clock in the morning. With the help of the cover of the night before dawn, the mortar artillery battalion commanded by Zhao Kun quietly sent all 32 mortar guns to a position only 400 meters away from Gaizhou City by using the manpower carrying method of shoulder-carrying and hand-picking.

Yesterday, the officers and men of Huwei Town worked all night to open up several parallel trenches, and formed this trench where mortar artillery could be deployed between the parallel trenches.

Unlike normal field guns, mortars have a curved trajectory that allows them to fire from inside trenches, which is enough to avoid frontal attacks from enemy guns in fortresses, and can avoid or reduce casualties among your own gunners.

As soon as they arrived at the position, these artillerymen also began to get busy, they also used the same mortar cannons, these mortars looked nothing new, but if you get closer, you can see that these mortars are smaller in caliber, thicker in body, and there are still a few rifling wires in its breech.

"Rifled mortar!"

When the gunners were busy, Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile.

"The shells fired by these cannons are not spherical shells, but pointed conical shells, eighteen pounds of shells made of pig iron, with a time-delay fuse mounted on the tail of the shell, which is different from instantaneous shells, which can be smashed into a foot-thick brick of the city wall and then explode inside it......"

Zhu Guoqiang's expression was a little interesting, these rifled mortar cannons were his "invention", and they were specially prepared for "breaking the city". From the day Jiannu began to build the fortress, he was thinking about how to attack the fortress, and it was obviously unrealistic to bypass it all.

What's the most straightforward way to do this?

Siege artillery!

However, with the technology of this era, it is not easy to manufacture siege artillery, but the current siege artillery also does not need to penetrate half a meter or even a meter thick reinforced concrete, thinking about it, Zhu Guoqiang borrowed from the 19th century coastal defense mortar or siege gun, and pre-loaded, or rifled, this technology is not complicated, after all, in the mid-to-late 19th century, there are too many examples of smoothbore gun rifled transformation, and even 12-pounder Napoleon was changed to rifled gun, although the performance ratio is not a special rifled gun, But it's better than nothing!

However, for Zhu Guoqiang, what he needs is not these, what he needs is a cannonball that can blow up the city wall.

After several trials, the front-loading rifled mortar became the only weapon capable of achieving his goal—it was not heavy and could tear through walls.

These thirty-two front-loading rifled mortar cannons were the "killer weapon" he prepared to conquer the cities along the way, and Gaizhou City was the first time it was put into actual combat.

"Reload!"

At the roar of the officers, the gunners held heavy cylindrical shells with pre-engraved grooves at the tails, which they aligned with the rifling before stuffing the shells into the chambers, the shells were slightly exposed at the tip of the short-barreled rifled mortars, and the cast iron shells had a cold metallic sheen.

The ammunition loader carefully inserts the fuse into the pre-prepared shell...... After the gun was reloaded, the gun commander made a final inspection of the gun, and the gunner pierced through the fire door with an iron awl, punctured the linen cloth used to wrap the gunpowder, and inserted a goose feather fuse tube into the fire door. The gunners on the side carefully held the arquebus, waiting for the final order.

Taking out his pocket watch, Zhao Kun turned his head from time to time to look at his own position behind him. It wasn't until a few minutes later that a red flare rose in the sky. Without waiting for the flare to fall, he shouted an order to the various gun commanders:

"All gun emplacements, fire in turn!"

Suddenly, with a roar, clouds of white smoke rose from the artillery position, and a lot of gunpowder was wasted because the barrel was so short that it didn't have time to burn sufficiently, but it was quite impressive in terms of momentum.

The huge sound of this one after another, a column of white smoke rose up in the trench, the white smoke instantly enveloped the entire position, the gunpowder that could not be burned out in the white smoke was like a New Year's fireflower, spewing out countless sparks in the air, dazzling sparks and even charming, and more charming is probably the cannonballs that flew out of the white smoke, the tail fuses of those cannonballs spewed out sparks, these cannonballs were like meteors dragging their dazzling tails, whistling towards Gaizhou City.

At the same time, under the urging of the commanders, the gunners once again worked in an orderly manner, first using water-soaked cotton cannons to scrub off the sparks inside and outside the bore, cleaning the gunpowder residue inside the bore, recalibrating the orientation and angle, reloading the ammunition, inserting the goose feather fuse tube, and preparing for the next launch.

At this time, the shells pierced the sky in the early hours of the morning and whistled towards the city, a little different from the dull sound of the spherical cannonballs, which were a little sharper and, of course, faster.

"The Ming army has opened fire!"

Jiannu, who was hiding in the mud basket "fortress" on the city wall, had been vigilantly staring at the Ming army all night yesterday, vigilantly staring at the trench that was getting closer and closer, and of course they had fired a few shots vigilantly when the Ming army was digging a trench, but it was useless.

Originally, they thought that the Ming army would attack the city through the long trench, but they never thought that the Ming army would mount the cannon into the long trench.

In the early hours of the morning, the salvo of dozens of mortars close at hand was extremely alarming, accompanied by a violent cannon fire

After seeing the smoke rising from a distance, they were all stunned by the spectacular scene in front of them, and they watched in astonishment at the deafening sound of cannonballs.

It took a long time for them to react.

"Get down!"

They all fell to the ground and shouted loudly, and as soon as their roar fell, the sound of shells breaking through the air reached their ears, which was too close.

It was almost equivalent to firing a cannon under their noses, but the cannonballs flew in between breaths, and the Jiannu on the city wall were all squatting next to the earthen baskets in a panic to avoid the shelling of the Ming army, and with yesterday's experience, they believed that they could save their lives by doing so.

For those Jiannu who were still asleep, they had just been woken up at best.

But they weren't worried, because yesterday's shelling had made them confident. The earth-wood hut made of several feet of thick soil and thick logs could completely withstand the artillery bombardment of the Ming army.

After yesterday, no one will doubt it anymore. It is precisely because of this that TV, when they hear the deafening sound of artillery outside, they can at most curse. He seems to be annoyed that his sleep has been disturbed.

"Shh......h

After the 18-pound destructive bomb that flew with a whistling sound hit the civil hut of Jiannu, it did not explode immediately because of the delay, and the sharp shell easily passed through the two-foot-thick covering soil like an awl, and then directly smashed the wooden beam with thick legs.

The once seemingly impregnable earthen shed was easily torn open like tissue paper in front of sharp shells.

Those who were still scolding and scolding, because their good dreams were interrupted, could almost hear the impact sound of the wooden beams being hit and deformed after the cannonball penetrated the soil layer.

In the darkness, their eyes widened in astonishment as they watched the shells that were constantly spitting flames in the darkness.

They didn't even have to wait to figure out what was going on.

"Boom!" There was a loud bang, and the entire room was engulfed in the smoke and flames of the explosion.

There were several dull explosions, and shells that had pierced through the thick layers of earth exploded inside the earthen shed.

The earthen shed, which seemed to be impregnable under the shelling of the grenade, changed its appearance in an instant.

The dirt and beams were tossed into the air by a violent explosion from within, and then collapsed heavily. Before the names of the Jiannu in the bunker could be reacted, they were buried in these earthen sheds.