After a round of repairs, the Hu army was finally ready to attack.

The first to come out was 5,000 archers, all of whom wore helmets and leather armor, and were in groups of four, lined up in a bow formation of 1,000 columns, leaving only a large gap in the middle to facilitate the soldiers behind to attack the city.

Seeing this bow formation, everyone on the city wall suddenly became nervous.

After fighting the Hu people for so long, they had already seen the Hu people's continuous archery array sweeping the world.

The five thousand archers stood far beyond range, silently waiting for the signal to attack.

Behind them, another wave of Hu picked out 5,000 male civilians and brought their families with them.

The leader of the thousand people shouted to the five thousand men in stiff Chinese: "You slaves, listen well, if anyone can kill a Wei soldier in a pillar of incense, that person's family does not have to die, otherwise the whole family will die."

Also, if anyone dares to run away, not only will he die, but his family will also have to die with him. Did you hear it all? ”

As soon as the thousand-man commander finished speaking, a large group of Hu soldiers in charge of the threat immediately put their knives on the necks of the women and children.

The women and children screamed or cried out in fright, and the men who had been chosen to be the siege soldiers all looked pained when they saw their families like this.

In addition to the arrow array, the Hu people also came up with another killer feature: the cannons for defending the city that were folded from the city walls in various places added up to more than 30 pieces, more than four times more than the cannons on the head of Wanzhou City.

In order to reduce the weight of transportation, these cannons only took the barrel, not the base, and when used, they were erected on wooden shelves and operated by captured Wei artillerymen.

There are too many of these cannons that were originally used to defend the city, and this spread out makes people look terrifying.

With the sound of a long horn, the siege battle finally began.

It was the thirty or so cannons that launched the attack first.

Although they were reluctant to do so, the Wei artillerymen who had become prisoners could only continue to fire in the direction of the city according to the orders of the Hu people in order to save their lives.

For a time, the sound of artillery on the city of Wanzhou was constantly deafening.

In fact, in the absence of a stable base, these cannons mounted on simple wooden frames have a very low hit rate due to insufficient elevation angles, and many of them can only hit the wall, and there are not many that can really hit the city.

But if you can't stop the large number of them, even if it is a random bombardment, it can have a great deterrent effect on the soldiers defending the city.

Although the Wanzhou side also fired back, compared with the more than 30 guns of the Hu people, these counterattacks seemed so powerless.

As the cannon sounded, the five thousand archers also came to the bottom of the city wall, and then took turns shooting arrows in groups of thousand.

Although a large number of arrows also flew above the city, there was still a very obvious gap compared to the archery skills of the Hu people.

In the first round of arrow rain alone, hundreds of Wei soldiers were shot. On the other hand, on the Hu people's side, only a dozen people were hit by arrows.

In terms of mounted archery, the Hu people do have an absolute advantage.

Under the cover of the cannons, and through this round of continuous volleys, the Hu people, who were accurate in archery, quickly gained the upper hand after paying nearly 300 casualties, forcing the Wei soldiers at the head of the city to erect arrow shields.

This shield wall was erected, although it effectively blocked the continuous rain of arrows, but it also seriously hindered the shooting of their own archers, and soon turned into a unilateral attack by the Hu people.

After successfully suppressing the archers of the Wei army, the commander of the Hu people immediately ordered to go up the ladder.

Soon, hundreds of Hu people set up ladders on the city wall, and then used their shields to block arrows or falling rocks flying from above, while desperately guarding the ladders.

If it was usual, the siege soldiers of the Hu people were on at this time.

But the commander of the Hu people did not do this, but let the five thousand civilians go up.

"Up, on! Just kill a Wei soldier and your family will survive, on! Hurry up! Under the loud shouts of the thousands of Hu people, the five thousand men could only grit their teeth and rush forward.

They didn't even have a decent weapon in their hands, only a short, sharpened stick.

After finally rushing to the bottom of the city wall, they could only bite the short stick with their teeth like the Hu people, and then climb up the ladder like ants.

But most of these civilians were peasants, and there were trained soldiers with nimble hands and feet. Not only did he climb slowly, but he was trembling with fear.

When they finally reached the top of the city, before they could figure out what to do, a spear pierced mercilessly through the cracks in the shield wall, and pierced them down the ladder one by one.

A fall from a wall a few feet high was enough to crush the people below to death.

Many people are like this, being stoned to death by a big living person who fell from the sky.

Not every man is willing to sacrifice himself for his family, and some men are so scared that they simply run away on their own.

But before they could run far, several of the Hu archers, who had only shot at the head of the city, suddenly changed direction and shot at the fleeing men, usually killing them with a single arrow.

"Whoever dares to flee will be killed! Climb up! Hu Daren, who was in charge of guarding the ladder, shouted.

Seeing that there was no hope of escaping, the remaining men could only continue to climb up with sad faces.

At this moment, a cannonball landed right on the eastern side of the city, and the solid cannonball not only broke through the two arrows and shields, but also knocked out a gap.

A civilian, who happened to be just below the gap, saw this and immediately climbed up the ladder.

"Don't kill me, I'm here to surrender, I'm a good citizen......" Before he could finish speaking, a Wei soldier who rushed over slashed him without saying a word and hacked him to death.

Seeing this, the other civilians knew that it was useless to beg for mercy, so they simply rushed over and wrestled with the soldiers.

They all thought that if they could kill a soldier, their families would be able to survive.

But they didn't think that in this kind of chaos, who would stare at you to see if you succeeded.

What the Hu people want is just to let them be consumables and substitute for the dead ghosts.

Sure enough, after the first batch of men were almost dead, the Hu people immediately sent a second group of civilians.

The second group of men, like the first, was forced to climb the walls.

But no matter how many people go up, where will these civilians be the opponents of regular soldiers, not to mention that they don't even have decent weapons in their hands, basically they go up and die one by one.

In addition to sending people to attack the city, the Hu people also sent a large number of civilians to carry logs to hit the city gates.

It is much safer to storm the gates than to act as siege soldiers.

Because the Wei soldiers at the head of the city have been completely suppressed by the cannons and arrow arrays of the Hu people, they can hardly even raise their heads, and they can't spare manpower to defend the city gates.

"Bang, bang, bang......" Many civilians carrying a huge log slammed into the city gate one after another, making a muffled sound.

Others were digging up the gates with hoes, shovels, and other tools in an attempt to break the gates.

For the sake of their own lives and the lives of their families, they can't care about so much.

For the Wei army defending the city, the destruction of the city gates by these civilians was far more dangerous than attacking the city.

In case the city gate is really knocked open, the Hu people can drive straight in, which has to be guarded against.

At this time, Xie Changping couldn't help but take the initiative to ask for battle: "Uncle, why don't we open the city gate and kill it."

My nephew had already calculated that there were only about 100,000 Hu people who came back this time, and the rest were all civilians driven by them.

We have more than 200,000 troops in our city, more than twice as many troops.

If we work together, we will win. ”

Xie Yuheng sneered: "Our dispatch of troops happened to fall for the tricks of the Hu people.

When the Hu people attacked Xuyang Mansion, there were more than 200,000 people besieging the city.

But now we only see 100,000 people here, so where did the rest of the 100,000 people go, have you ever wondered? ”

"You mean that the Hu people set up an ambush outside?"

"Eight or nine is not far from ten. Hu Ren swore to Wanzhou that he would win, how could there be no backhand.

Now they are using artillery and civilians to launch feints, just to drain our physical strength and morale.

As soon as our side becomes tired, the Hu people will launch a real siege battle.

There are clouds in the art of war, which can be shown but cannot be used, and it is not used to show it.

If the Hu people really only have 100,000 horses, when it is really time to attack the city in a big way, how will they act with these forces alone?

Therefore, the Hu people must have laid an ambush in order to lead us out of the city to pursue, and then take the opportunity to encircle and annihilate us. ”

"I didn't expect Hu Ren to be so treacherous, uncle, then what should we do?"

"We just have to keep things the same.

After these civilians and shells were exhausted, the Hu people who were in ambush could only go into battle in person, and then the real war began. ”

"But if it goes on like this, I'm afraid the city gate won't be able to hold on."

"Don't worry, I have my own way."

Although Xie Yuheng had the heart to receive the hole cards at the end, seeing that Hu Ren's continuous archery array was so powerful, and Hu Ren had so many cannons to help, he could only take out his secret weapon in advance.

With his order, the archers who had been standing at the head of the city retreated one after another, and in their place were more than 1,500 soldiers armed with "iron rods".

At this time, the city was full of people as there were shieldmen who were in charge of holding shields and spearmen who wielded spears.

These soldiers, armed with "iron rods", were crowded in groups of three among the spearmen, and almost the entire city was crowded.

"Uncle, are these people holding the firecracker developed by the Ministry of Industry?" Xie Changping asked in surprise and joy.

Xie Yuheng said a little proudly: "That's right, it's Huojiao." As long as there is this thing, let alone the Hu people, even if it is against the Northwest Army of the Shangning family, we will not be afraid.

Long wind, you come to order. ”

"Yes, father."

Xie Changfeng, who had been training in secret, was waiting for this day, walked behind all the firecrackers and ordered loudly: "Listen to the order of the firecracker battalion, the first row of ropes!" ”

The firecrackers immediately lit the firerope inserted in the medicine room with the incense stick in their hands, and then quickly aimed the guns at the Hu archers below in a very short time when the firerope burned.

"Smack...... Bang bang... Syllable...... As the arquebuses burned out, the dull sound of gunfire rang out like scattered firecrackers, and puffs ......of smoke rose one after another.

The reason for this scattered situation is that each rope has a different length and thickness, which leads to a different time for igniting gunpowder, and it is difficult to shoot almost simultaneously like the muskets in the northwest.

In other words, these guns are not fired by pulling the trigger, but by igniting the fire rope, hence the call point rope, not fire.

But even with such a backward firearm, because the Hu archers were very concentrated, this round of 500 buckshot shot over, and also hit 50 or 60 Hu archers, and the hit rate was about 1/10.

The leather armor on those Hu people that could have blocked most of the arrows could not stop the penetration of lead bullets at all, and all the Hu people who were hit had terrible wounds on their bodies, and they could hardly get up again.

Seeing such power, not only Xie Yuheng and the other Xie family members were excited, but the other subordinate generals were also surprised.

"The first row is back, and the second row is ready." Xie Changfeng's password was almost copied from the Ning family's Shenji Battalion.

The musketeers, who had just finished the first shot, immediately retreated to the back to give up their position to the men in the second row, and then hurried to reload their ammunition.

Judging from the matter of reloading ammunition, another difference can be seen from the musketeers of the Shenji Battalion.

I saw that each firecracker took out a copper kettle containing gunpowder from his waist, and then carefully poured the gunpowder on a piece of yellow paper to estimate the amount of gunpowder.

Feeling that the amount was moderate, he poured the gunpowder into the gun tube, and then used the push rod to push the lead bullet to the end of the gun tube.

Finally, a fire rope cut to about the same length is carefully stuffed into the medicine room, and this is a complete loading.

The reason why it is so troublesome is that the musket was designed with a completely different idea from the musket.

In order to prevent the musket from exploding, Chi Fei's idea was to let the musket accommodate the gunpowder.

In other words, all muskets were reloaded with the same amount of gunpowder.

If the chamber is blown up in the case of a uniform amount of gunpowder, then the musket is not up to par and needs to be rebuilt or even destroyed directly.

Moreover, in order to facilitate the loading, the gunpowder used for each loading will be wrapped in oiled paper in advance, and when it is used, the gunner can pour it directly as long as he tears the oiled paper, so there is no need to worry about pouring too much gunpowder.

However, the fire gun designed by the Ministry of Industry is a completely opposite way of thinking, that is, to let gunpowder accommodate the fire gun.

In other words, the amount of gunpowder used is exactly the same when reloading different masses of firearms.

The reason for this phenomenon is that due to the different craftsmanship and proficiency of each craftsman, each firebolt will often lead to the phenomenon of uneven quality in the same batch of firecrackers.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry of the Wei Dynasty did not manufacture muskets in batches through a standardized division of labor and cooperation like Chi Fei's arsenal, and each musket was basically made from beginning to end by one or two craftsmen, so the production of each musket was extremely time-consuming.

It takes several months to complete a firecrackle even if it is a skilled hand, and it is even more common for a novice to spend a year and a half.

If, according to Chi Fei's practice, once the prepared musket exploded on the uniform amount of gunpowder, it would have to be rebuilt, which was unthinkable for those officials of the Ministry of Industry.

In addition, the Xie family constantly urged and threatened the Ministry of Industry to speed up, where did those officials of the Ministry of Industry dare to engage in slow work and meticulous work, just to speed up shipments, how much to build, and then raise the quantity first.

In this situation of desperately rushing for goods day and night, the quality of the fire gun itself is even more difficult to say.

The same amount of gunpowder may work on one gun, but it is likely to explode on another gun.

In order to solve the problem of easy exploding, the officials of the Ministry of Industry finally came up with a bad idea after meditating and thinking hard.

That is, each batch of guns of different quality is filled with different amounts of gunpowder, so that they will not be easily exploded.

As for how to determine how much gunpowder should be put in each firebolt, the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry have found some basic rules through continuous testing.

For example, the larger the inner diameter of the gun, the thinner the wall of the gun, and if too much gunpowder is put in, it is easy to explode, so it is necessary to put less.

For example, the sound of gunpowder when the gunpowder is drawn can roughly determine the amount of gunpowder that the gun tube can withstand.

Through these and other methods, the craftsmen divided all the already made firecrackers into three types: "more, middle and less".

"More" means that you can put more gunpowder, "less" means less gunpowder, and "medium" is somewhere in between.

After sorting the types, the people of the Ministry of Engineering will engrave the amount of gunpowder on the handle of the gun, so that the firecrackers can know what to do when loading.

Although this method saved the people of the Ministry of Industry from punishment, it suffered many firecrackers who used these problematic products.

Although the amount of gunpowder is engraved on the handle, it is extremely troublesome to operate.

In order to be able to quickly pour out the amount of gunpowder used by themselves in actual combat, in addition to practicing how to shoot, the gunpowder soldiers also need to practice how to estimate the amount of gunpowder in their hands by pouring gunpowder on yellow paper.

In particular, the soldiers who were assigned those inferior quality and easy to explode were to be extremely careful when loading ammunition, so as not to damage these expensive guns, which was a great crime to lose their heads at any time.

Because in the eyes of the Xie family, these firecrackers are far more important than the soldiers who use them.

Of course, no matter where you are, there are always smart people.

Among the thousands of musketeers, a few nimble soldiers have figured out the idea of wrapping the gunpowder each time it is to be loaded in paper separately, which should avoid the problem of adding too much or too little gunpowder.

Every time you use it, just pour the separately wrapped gunpowder directly into the gun, so that it will not explode.

This idea is very close to the quantitative filling method practiced by Chifei, and it is a good way.

However, no matter how good the method is, it depends on the implementation environment.

Because the Xie family was too nervous about this batch of firecrackers that they had high hopes for, they demanded that all firecrackers must strictly follow the operating procedures, and no changes were allowed in the slightest, so as not to damage these precious firearms.

Anyone who does not follow the rules will be punished with punishment or death.

In such a harsh and ruthless atmosphere, what soldier would dare to try other methods without fear of death?

In this way, a new method that could have greatly improved the reloading efficiency was stillborn, and Chi Fei couldn't help but rejoice after learning about it afterwards.