A large number of infantry began to assemble and slowly moved towards the city walls, and among the infantry, there were also a large number of siege equipment, a large number of very ordinary long ladders, there were also wooden mobile arrow towers, and then there were large shield carts.

These instruments are some siege equipment commonly used by the army in the era of traditional cold weapons, but they may be very useful in the era of cold weapons, but they are not so useful in the era of guns, because the Ming army on the head of the city has a large number of artillery, and even if the bowl cannons and general cannons equipped by the Ming army can also cause serious blows to these wooden equipment.

If you go down with one shot, it doesn't matter if it's an arrow tower or a big shield car, it's all going to be finished!

In these years, whether it is besieging or defending the city, in fact, the protagonist has become an artillery!

Especially after the puppet Tang thief army, the large-scale use of artillery also directly affected the Ming army to manufacture and use artillery!

Otherwise, how can it be said that Ji'an is a turtle shell, in addition to the city wall, it is also related to the large number of artillery on the city's head!

So, it will definitely not be the infantry who will launch the operation first, but the artillery!

The main role of these infantry formations is to protect more than 100 artillery pieces and prevent the Ming army in the city from rushing out, especially sending cavalry to rush out and attack the artillery position.

In order to protect these important artillery, not only was the main infantry phalanx lined up in front, but also on the edge of the artillery position, there was also an infantry phalanx belonging to the artillery itself.

That's right, in order to protect themselves, the artillery units in these years are often directly assigned to a certain number of musketeers, spearmen and other arms, although the number is not much, and the combat effectiveness is not good, because these musketeers, spearmen, sword and shield soldiers, etc., are actually transport troops in the artillery unit.

Taking the Fifth Artillery Regiment of the Fifth Infantry Division as an example, the entire artillery regiment has 54 artillery pieces, and the total number of gunners who control the artillery on the battlefield, including loaders and so on, is only five or six hundred, but in fact the strength of the Fifth Artillery Regiment has reached more than 1,500 people.

Because there are still nearly 1,000 people who are baggage soldiers and horsemen transporting artillery and ammunition.

The Fifth Artillery Regiment relies on itself for the transportation of artillery and ammunition, and does not depend on the Fifth Baggage Regiment to which the Fifth Infantry Division belongs, and the Fifth Baggage Regiment is tasked with undertaking the logistical transportation tasks of the entire Fifth Infantry Division, as well as emergency supplies on the battlefield.

After entering the battlefield, the horsemen in the artillery unit will take the horses away and manage the hundreds of horses in the artillery regiment, while some of the transports will continue to carry the shells, while the other part of the transporters will pick up spears and muskets, and line up in front and back of the artillery position, acting as the last line of defense of the artillery position, the main purpose is to prevent the enemy cavalry from raiding the artillery position.

And when the situation is urgent, the main general can also draw these transports to directly participate in the front-line battle, but since the formation of the Tang Dynasty Division, this kind of thing has only happened so many times, and the scale is not large, because although these transports can barely be regarded as infantry, but in fact, the combat effectiveness is not as good as the baggage troops, and the combat power is worrying.

Behind the defensive phalanx listed by these transporters is the field artillery position of the huge Fifth Infantry Regiment, which basically consists of an artillery team as a small position, an artillery battalion as an artillery group position, and an artillery group position as a large-scale artillery position.

When the order to open the cannon was given, these field guns began to fire one after another, firing solid shells!

When these field artillery began to bombard, a large number of Ming troops soon appeared on the city, especially those battlements, which also exposed many black cannon ports, and a large number of Ming artillery on the city wall could be vaguely seen carrying shells, they were ready to counterattack and prevent the infantry of the pseudo-Tang thief army from approaching the city.

At this time, Li Chunjing said with a smile: "The rats have already been dispatched, let the siege artillery fire!" ”

As his order was given, behind an anticline in the artillery position, there was a sudden loud noise, and at the same time as the huge white smoke rose, a shell weighing forty-eight pounds drew a curve in mid-air, and then smashed into the city wall!

This cannonball, even on a battlefield where the sound of cannons is already rumbling, is so extraordinary, because its huge cannon sound is far different from when other artillery guns are fired.

When this 48-pound shell was fired, the propellant used was even more than twice as much as that used in the 24-pound cannon, so that the shell could be shot out more than 500 meters with a relatively short barrel.

This loud noise made almost everyone involuntarily turn their eyes to the direction where the loud noise occurred, and then, they just saw a small black dot in the sky climbing!

Seeing this scene, many people didn't understand, because they were very sure that this small black dot in the sky was definitely a cannonball, but the trajectory of this cannonball was too strange.

You can't blame them for being strange, because the artillery of these years is basically aimed at straight at the artillery, and the trajectory is relatively straight, even if there is a curve, but the curve is very small.

But the cannonball in their sight was as if it was shooting directly into the sky!

I think there is another wish, that is, the movement of this cannon when it is fired is too big, and even if this shell looks like a small black dot now, the black dot is so obvious that people with a little battlefield experience can see that this shell is definitely bigger than those common five-catty, seven-catty, and even the heavy artillery nine-catty cannon in the pseudo-Tang thief army, and it is much bigger!

And what does such a large shell represent?

It represents a huge power!

At this moment, many Ming troops on the city wall, especially an officer in the artillery unit of the Ming army, had a very bad feeling in their hearts, when did these pseudo-Tang thieves come up with such a big heavy artillery?

According to this momentum, the weight of this cannon alone is probably seven or eight thousand!

If you exaggerate, it's okay to say that it's 10,000 pounds of heavy artillery!

Of course, they don't know that this kind of 48-pound howitzer has a very short barrel, and if the base is not counted, the weight of the gun body is less than 1,500 catties, and its weight is not even as heavy as a nine-pound field gun, and it is only slightly heavier than a seven-pound field gun, and as for the smaller 24-pound heavy short-barreled howitzer, its weight is only more than 800 catties, which is roughly equivalent to a five-pound field gun.

And this is because the cannon cast with iron causes the weight to be heavier, and if the material technology and cannon casting technology of the Tang Dynasty pass the test, this weight can even be further reduced.

This primitive ultra-short-barreled howitzer, although it sounds scary in caliber and weight, is actually far from comparable in weight with cannons of the same caliber or howitzers with long barrels.

Now, though, they were amazed at the loud rumble and the weight of the shell, but by the time the shell landed on the wall, their mouths were closed!

Because, after they saw the head of the city where the shell was, there was a violent explosion in that section of the city wall!

Is it the explosion of ammunition?

Or did something else unexpected?

For a moment, they did not think that this was the explosion of a falling shell.

Although they all already knew that the puppet Tang thief army was equipped with flowering shells that could be thrown by hand, and even the craftsmen of the Ming army copied some and equipped them, but they could fire flowering shells with artillery, they didn't even think about it.

This cannonball is loaded into the cannonball, and they are not afraid of exploding directly when the cannon is fired?

Well, their worries are very reasonable, and the Datang Army has also paid a certain price for this.

But under the temptation of the huge power of short-barreled howitzers, even if it is dancing with death, they would rather grit their teeth and use it!

And now, this short-barreled heavy howitzer is a manifestation of its enormous power, and the violent explosion almost overturned everything in the explosion range of the city.

A Ming artillery group at the center of the explosion was directly reimbursed on the spot, and even the impact of the explosion was so that the five-pound artillery fell from the city!

This power is so terrifying!

This is what many people think at this time, even Li Chunjing showed a hint of surprise, but he quickly regained his composure, and then said: "Let the heavy artillery battalion take your time, don't worry!" ”

The power of this shell explosion is too great, he can imagine it, once the operation is mistaken, I am afraid that the entire artillery crew will be directly reimbursed.

At the same time, it is also fortunate that these heavy howitzers were scattered and deployed before, and the distance between them is relatively large, so that even if they are blown up, they will not hurt other artillery groups.

As soon as Li Chunjing's words fell, several loud noises were heard in the heavy artillery position behind the anti-slope, and at this time, three 48-pound short-barreled howitzers had already begun to shoot continuously at a certain frequency.

At the same time, more slightly smaller cannon sounds also sounded, this is nine twenty-four-pound short-barreled howitzers are firing!

A total of twelve medium and large-caliber mortars, even if the rate of fire is slowed down for safety, because of the difficulty of operation, even the backbone of the old artillery can not accurately hit the target, but the huge power of the shells makes up for all these shortcomings.

Every time a cannonball lands on the top of the city, or flies over the top of the city and lands inside the city, it explodes violently and then rises up a huge column of smoke.

This kind of shelling almost made the Ming army on the head of the city unable to adapt, they finally got used to those artillery that fired solid bullets, and knew that as long as they hid behind the city wall, as long as they were not super unlucky and hit by the stone fragments hit by the solid bullets, then the safety of hiding behind the city wall was still guaranteed.

But now, they found it unsafe to hide behind the walls!

War has changed and they are becoming more and more incomprehensible!