Again, when the conductor's shouting and questioning sounded in his ears, Wang Liangping was still thinking in his heart.

After each fire, the gun needs to be pushed back into position, reloaded, and ......

"How much, exactly!"

Xu Dayong, who was already a little unbearable, asked loudly again.

"You should be able to play four rounds of ...... at the earliest"

Wang Liangping, who was called, calculated in his heart and immediately replied.

"Report to the command, up to 96 rounds, if you can reload in advance, calculated from the ignition time, the second and third rounds do not adjust the angle of fire, it is estimated that you can play four or three and a half rounds!"

It is estimated that it can play four or three and a half rounds!

Wang Liangping's answer made Xu Dayong ponder for a moment, and then nodded vigorously and said.

"Enough! Counselor Wang! ”

Turning his face to stare at Wang Liangping, Xu Dayong said in a serious tone.

"Now, I order you to go to the artillery position in person and command them to shoot the shells with the fastest rate of fire, and all the grenades are scattered, is that okay?"

"Command, four miles is the maximum range of the nine-pound cannon!"

Wang Liangping replied bluntly.

"This distance can't be reached at all, and the wooden tube can only burn for ten seconds, and I think it's ...... when it's marked."

Originally, he wanted to say that when he felt that the ten seconds of the wooden signal tube was not necessarily enough, he only listened to the command.

"Ten seconds, almost, since it is not enough, that is, it is a matter of ten or twenty zhang, so that the cannonball explodes thousands of lead bullets and sweeps over, and the power is even greater! As for the range is not enough ......"

With a cold smile, Xu Dayong stared at the formation of the Qing army and said.

"You won't ......"

Although he is not an artillery officer, as a senior officer, Xu Dayong has the opportunity to participate in some special exercises, in addition to the artillery exercises in the army, he also has the opportunity to observe the test firing of artillery in the factory, compared with the army, the test firing in the factory is often to tap the maximum potential of the artillery as much as possible, and now, what he needs is to tap the potential of the artillery.

"What?"

Zhang Guoyan looked at Wang Liangping in front of him, he couldn't believe his ears.

"One minute, to the death, I can play two and a half rounds, fast can play three rounds, but, if I do this, the gun carriage is very likely to be unstable, and then it will be ......"

"When the time comes, I will naturally be responsible, you just need to obey!"

Wang Liangping, as a lieutenant, looked at Zhang Guoyan and said directly, if it was normal, maybe he would be polite to him, but now he can't.

Maybe he is the battalion commander of the field artillery battalion, and he is three levels higher than Wang Liangping according to his rank, but Wang Liangping is now coming to take over the command on behalf of the commander, and all he can do is obey, otherwise the army will arrest him at any time, and if he does not obey the army's orders, this is a capital crime!

"Okay, since this is the command's order, I obey!"

Although he didn't believe it, Zhang Guoyan still chose to obey, and after he gave the order, the two captains who received the order even asked again.

"Dig a two-degree slope at the tail of the gun mount? Sir, that's, that's right! ”

"That's right! It was the battalion commander's order! ”

At the gun position, in the face of the brothers' inquiries, Wei Gang, who was the gun commander, said again.

"What the hell are you still stunned about, why don't you hurry up and copy the guy, get busy......"

When the artillerymen dug a slope at the tail of the gun carriage, Xu Dayong's lips were slightly raised, and he increased the angle of fire by digging a pit at the tail of the gun carriage.

"Tuhai, do you think Lao Tzu's cannon can't beat it?"

Staring at Tuhai, who had been keeping a certain distance from him and was just outside the range of the nine-jin cannon, Xu Dayong sneered.

"When Lao Tzu hits you with a cannonball, you kid will wait and cry!"

Xu Dayong is really right!

The reason why Tuhai has always ordered the troops to keep a distance from the Ming army is because of his understanding of the 9-jin cannon, in fact, there are not many nine-jin cannons under his command, but only four, in fact, he captured no less than 20 guns from the Chu army, but they were all handed over to Shangguan, and he only left four in his own hands, but he left some gunners, and those gunners knew the nine-jin cannon.

Four miles!

This is the maximum range of the nine-pound cannon, as long as the distance of four miles is maintained, there is no need to worry about the artillery bombardment of the Ming army, and now, he has maintained a distance of four and a half miles, this distance, not only can the Ming army's guns not hit, but the cavalry charge takes about three minutes. It couldn't be safer.

But despite this, when Tu Hai saw the movement of the Ming artillery, he couldn't help but call Xie Peng and asked.

"Mr. Xie Qian, what do you think they are doing?"

Handed the telescope to Xie Peng, Tu Hai's tone seemed very close, this Xie Peng was the head of the Chu army artillery team that he captured, in order to envelop him, Tu Hai not only promoted him as the general manager, but also married a daughter-in-law for him, so as to get his gratitude.

"Back to the master, it must be at the end of the gun to build a slope, so that when the gun is fired, the gun carriage retreats, the tail of the gun hits the slope, and when the force is exhausted, it will slide down the slope, so that the effort of pushing the gun is saved, which is also the reason why the artillery of the Loyal Army is the best at rapid fire."

When Xie Peng shouted to his master, he did not feel the slightest discomfort, he was no stranger to the artillery of the Loyal and Righteous Army, after all, before the Northern Expedition, the Loyal and Righteous Army had sent officers to train the gunners of the Chu Army, and he naturally had also received training from the artillery of the Loyal and Righteous Army.

"They are building a slope now, they must use it as a line of defense, and they will not advance anymore, otherwise it will never be like this."

"Oh?"

Taking the binoculars, Tu Hai's brows furrowed slightly.

"You mean, they're going to be nailed there?"

"It's possible!"

Of course, there is no such possibility, for the loyal army that has always advocated that attack is the best defense, it is naturally impossible to enter the passive defense, when Tuhai and others only thought that the loyal army was ready to defend on the spot, the artillery commanders on the artillery position constantly measured the slope pit with an angle ruler, and then tamped the other end of the soil slope at the tail of the gun mount, so that the gun mount could slide down when it rushed back.

It took about ten minutes for the gunners to deploy their artillery positions, and then the gunners began to stuff the shells into the bronze barrels, the shells of the loyal and righteous army were all fully loaded, and the iron-cast grenade line was fixed to the upper end of the wooden butt, and the lower end of the butt was a two-pound gun in a tarpaulin bag. Unlike the usual shear fuze setting time, this time, they did not have a timing, and the distance of four miles did not require a shear fuse at all.

"Good son, you have to be accurate this time......"

Sitting on the gun mount, Wei Gang's eyes were staring at the ruler stuck in the gun mount, aiming at the Qing army four miles away, whether he could hit it or not, he didn't know, all he needed was to hit the cannonballs. As for the rest, I'll leave it to God......

When the aim was complete, he stretched his hand behind him,

"Goose feather tube!"

A white goose feather tube was sent to him, and at the same time, the 3 gunners had already inserted an iron drill into the fire hole at the end of the gun, which pierced the powder bag, and then the goose feather tube was loaded into the fire hole, and the goose feather tube was filled with gunpowder, which was faster than the ignition rope.

"Perfect ...... in one shot"

"Second Artillery Complete ......"

Whenever a gun is ready to fire, the gun commanders will raise their hands and report loudly, at this time, the six gunners are divided on both sides of the gun according to the regulations, and when the order is given, they will ignite the fire pipe and fire at the enemy.

When the artillery commanders turned their eyes to the battalion commander in the distance, Wang Liangping, who was riding on a horse, turned his head to look behind him, his eyes fixed on the commander, and the commander was observing with a telescope.

"Sir, the artillery is ready!"

"Hmm!"

Silently responded, Xu Dayong nodded.

"Let's shoot!"

There was a sound of zero here, and the standard-bearer over there waved his arm and issued a flag of fire.

"Fire!"

At the moment when the order was given, Wei Gang, who had been staring at the battalion commander, immediately picked up the fuse rod and put the burning arquebus end of the fuse rod to the end of the gun.

"Hereby ......"

With a burst of white smoke, a flame erupted, and in the next moment, a fierce cannon sound sounded in the ears, and at the same time as the cannon sounded, the crisp sound of the "ding bang" cannon barrel only shocked Wei Gang and his comrades' eyes with a tingling pain, which was the unique sound of the bronze cannon, the sound of the cannonball scraping the barrel, like a copper bell, the sound was piercing and sharp. Since it was after the cannon was discharged and the tail of the cannon was retreated, this strong and sharp "ding-bang" sound still echoed in the air, and these piercing sounds caused the gunners to suffer deeply, and even from time to time the gunners would bleed from their ears.

However, at this time, the gunners couldn't care so much, almost at the moment when the gun carriage retreated, the two gunners with shells and chambers in their hands had rushed to the front of the guns, and when the guns had not been completely reset, the third and fourth gunners were still pushing the guns that had not been completely stabilized to reset, and the second gunners had already wiped the wool bullets stained with water into the gun chamber, and the water on the bullet wiped out the sparks in the chamber, which also cooled down the gun chamber, almost at the moment when the gun was reset, another shell had been stuffed in. At the same time, the second gunner had already switched the shell and stabbed the shell into the chamber with the other end.

Even when they finished loading, the first round of shells had not yet flown to their destination, and were still flying in the air, and at this time, the Qing army, when they saw the clouds of white smoke shot out by the artillery of the Loyal and Righteous Army, were mostly at a loss, and even Tuhai himself was also confused.

"Mr. Xie Qian, it's okay to be so far away, right?"

After seeing the white smoke when the Ming artillery fired, Tu Hai asked again.

"Back to the master, four and a half miles, even if the cannon has legs, it can't be beaten!"

Xie Peng's tone was extremely confident, and he was riding on a horse, and he didn't move to look at the cannon flying from the air.

"Master, don't worry when you're old!"