"Worship the cannon, worship the position of the Holy Prophet Confucius...... One kowtow! 100 shots! ”

With the shouting of Niu Lu, a Hongyi cannon of the Red Banner Han Army, Kong Youde, the king of Gongshun of the Great Qing Dynasty, Shang Kexi, the king of Zhishun, Bai Guangen, the general soldier, and some other generals of the Red Banner Han Army, the Han Army with the Blue Banner and the Green Battalion of Henan, all knelt down together, and bowed respectfully to the twenty Hongyi cannons lined up in front of them and the position of Confucius, the holy ancestor placed in the middle of the cannons. In front of the cannons and tablets, there are also incense burners, candles and various tributes.

Kong Youde, who was kneeling in front of everyone, kowtowed, and at the same time chanted a word: "Grandfather of the cannon god blesses, ancestors bless...... It's a good shot! ”

A group of people behind him, led by Shang Kexi, also shouted together: "Saint Kong bless...... It's a good shot! ”

"Two kowtows...... Artillery peace! Niu Lu, the Red Banner Han Army, shouted again.

Kong Youde, Shang Kexi and others kowtowed again...... Then they shouted together: "Sage Kong bless...... The cannon is safe! ”

"Three prostrations...... Gun fire! ”

The big guy once again kowtowed to the cannon and the tablet of Confucius, and then shouted, "Saint Confucius, bless...... It's time to fire! ”

"Rite over!"

When his head was finally finished, Shang Kexi stood up with a heavy heart, walked to Kong Youde, the No. 1 Hongyi cannon expert in the Qing Dynasty, and asked in a low voice: "Ruitu, why is there still a matter of Confucius now?" Does it work? ”

It turned out that what had just been carried out was the salute of the artillery team of the Qing Dynasty - this is not unique to the artillery team of the Qing Dynasty, and the artillery team of the Ming army also had to worship, but not before every battle, just bow when the artillery is delivered, ask the artillery to help, don't blow up the bore......

And Kong Youde's Red Banner Han Army artillery team is particularly pious in the matter of worshipping artillery, and every time before the start of the war, he has to bow down. And his salute is still improving, and recently he has been on the tablet of Confucius to worship together.

"Why doesn't it work?" Kong Youde glanced at Shang Kexi, "Confucius, that's our ancestor, take care of everything, didn't Brother Yuanji hear that Qufu shouted 'Saint Kong's blessing, invulnerable'?" ”

Because of his surname Kong, Kong Youde attached himself to Confucius as an ancestor, but the Confucian family in Qufu did not recognize it. However, after becoming a prince, he not only offered Confucius's tablet in the palace, but also invited Mr. Baoyi (Zhenghongqi's Baoyi minion) to teach him to read and learn characters, and now he can recite the "Analects".

And after hearing about Confucius's "latest use method" in Qufu, he immediately asked people to prepare the tablet of Confucius and use it when worshipping cannons - since Confucius is "invulnerable", can't he care about "100 shots and 100 hits" and "safe artillery"?

Shang Kexi frowned, and thought: Qufu is to defend Kong Lin and defend the famous religion. Of course, Confucius wants to manifest and bless, let's follow the Tartars as traitors, can Confucius still bless? Don't backfire, blow up the breech! I'll have to stay away when the cannon hits later!

"Ritu," Shang Kexi asked again, "what now?" Do you want to open fire? ”

"Wait," Kong Youde said, "the auspicious time has not yet arrived." ”

Shang Kexi thought: It's quite exquisite! I don't know if I can demolish Fengyang City?

Just as he was thinking, a rapid sound of horses' hooves came, and Shang Kexi looked back, and it turned out to be Mele Zhang Jingshuo Zhan of Manchuria who was the red flag and brought someone over.

Monk Kong Youde is a prince, Shuo Zhan is just a Meler Zhangjing, and the world is a Niu Lu Zhangjing. But the family is the authentic Uncle of the Eight Banners, whose old surname is Fucha, who is subordinate to the Manchurian Zhenghong Banner, and is also ordered to supervise the war. The two water-injected princes didn't dare to stand at the front end of the house, they all stood respectfully to greet each other - their heads couldn't go down, and it didn't look like the two princes kowtowed to Melle Zhangjing!

However, Bai Guangen is not a prince, he honestly gave Shuo Zhan a thousand words, and he should stand behind Kong Youde with his hands and shoulders.

Shuo Zhan is the "second generation of flags", with a short figure, but he is very stocky, with a dark face, and a big beard that reaches his chest, and he can fight at a glance. He got off the horse, squinted his eyes and glanced at the tablets, incense cases, and offerings of the worship cannon, and said coldly: "Finished worshipping?" ”

"I'm done worshipping ......," Kong Youde smiled.

"When can I start?" Shuo Zhan said, "Prince Su just sent someone to urge ...... Just give us three days! ”

"Three days?" Kong Youde was stunned, "Wasn't it seven days before?" ”

"Lord Su is now saying that three days is three days!" Shuo Zhan pointed to the dilapidated city wall more than three miles away, "It's such a broken city, and you can't take it down in three days?" ”

"Take it, take it!" How dare Kong Youde say nothing? Hurriedly turned around and shouted to Niu Lu Zhangjing, the artillery team under his command: "The auspicious time has come, fire the cannon, fire the cannon......"

That Niu Lu Zhangjing is also Kong Youde's godson, named Kong Sixi, in his early Chinese New Year's Eve, only ten years younger than Kong Youde. In Kong Youde's team, he is a sideways existence! Even if he is a real Manchurian uncle, if he dares to give Kong Youde face, he is polite to him. Because he is a gunner trained by the Portuguese gunners himself! There are only a few numbers left in the entire Great Qing Kingdom, and he is still the one with the highest level among them, who can master the ranging and observation methods of Westerners.

The reason why the artillery team of the Red Banner Han Army is so powerful is because of him!

Hearing his godfather's voice, Kong Sixi immediately ordered loudly: "The prince has an order, test the cannon immediately!" ”

With an order, more than a dozen shirtless men with braids coiled over their heads immediately ran over and pushed one of the Hongyi cannons forward—the so-called test cannon is a test shot.

Kong Youde's artillery team is the only one in Kong Sixi who has really mastered the art of observation and sighting, and he also knows the truth that the apprentices of the church starve to death of the master, and the real skills will not be taught to the outside world. Therefore, Kong Youde's artillery team adopted the method of centralized artillery and unified observation and sighting, and Kong Sixi, a master, was in charge.

And today, Kong Youde and Shang Kexi have concentrated the 20 Hongyi cannons of the two Han army Hongyi cannons Niu Lu, all of which are in charge of Kong Sixi.

The first to be pushed into the gun position was a Hongyi cannon weighing more than 3,000 catties, which was cast in bronze and mounted on a particularly heavy gun carriage, which was very bulky. More than a dozen gunners pushed it with considerable difficulty.

When the gunner pushed the cannon into place, Kong Sixi had already measured the approximate distance, and then ordered in a loud voice: "The gun gauge is six points higher!" ”

The two gunners then began to hammer the triangular wedge between the barrel and the turret with their hammers, causing the barrel to be raised.

The gun gauge is a tool used to measure the angle of ejection, and the long handle attached to the gun gauge is usually engraved with a gun ruler. The ruler was about a foot long, not flattened, but a cuboid with many scales engraved on all three sides of the cuboid, as well as Latin and Arabic numerals—designed to make it easier for the gunner to quickly determine the required amount of charge when using shells of different materials (iron, stone, lead) according to the angle of fire. Most of the gunners of the Ming army and the Qing army didn't know how to use the gun gauge and the gun ruler, but Kong Sixi really understood it.

He measured the angle of fire with the gun gauge, and then shouted according to the data on the gun ruler: "Stone-filling bombs, use two catties and eight taels of medicine!" ”

The ruler he used was Portuguese original, marked with foreign characters and Arabic numerals, and the unit of weight used was pounds. However, Kong Sixi's arithmetic is very good, and he converted pounds into catties with a mental arithmetic.

This kind of ability is unique in the Qing Army! Therefore, even if others crack the "secret" of Arabic numerals, they will not be able to use this gauge......

The gunpowder was packed in a porcelain jar, and it was dug out with a spoon and spoon, one spoon was half a catty, and two catties and eight taels had to be dug up with five spoonfuls, all of which were poured into the barrel. A gunner used a pestle to poke gunpowder into the bottom of the barrel, and then someone inserted a paper and gunpowder twisted fuse into the fire door, while the gunpowder had been compacted, and a wooden yard was stuffed into the muzzle, and then a hammered stone bullet was inserted......