Cao Wenzhao pondered for a moment and said, "It's hard to say about this matter. ”

"Then we must hurry up and exterminate them, while they haven't developed yet, otherwise it will be difficult to do it when they grow stronger! Commander Lin Du, you send someone to Zhangde Mansion to transfer the Hongyi cannon! ”

Lin Jianyue hurried to be.

In Lingchuan City, Mo Li saw Cao Wenzhao leading the army to retreat, and breathed a long sigh of relief.

At this time, some soldiers came to report, saying that they had just found a few arson spies in the city, but fortunately they were caught by Cao Commander and his troops, and the fire was extinguished in time, which did not cause chaos.

Mo Li was slightly stunned, but he was not surprised, these tricks can be used by himself, and others can also think of them.

However, Cao Bianjiao's performance made him feel a little gratified, after all, the commander of the imperial army outside was his own uncle, and it was normal for him to want to go out of the city to respond.

This made Mo Li feel a little scared while being relieved. Although he also secretly sent people to monitor Cao Bu just in case, if Cao Bianjiao really wanted to turn against the water, he was afraid that those people would not be able to stop him. But fortunately, all this is dangerous, and it turns out that Cao Bianjiao is indeed a man worthy of deep friendship, and his heart has fallen to the revival army.

Guan Feng, Cheng Qingzhu, Ba Laodao and others were directing the soldiers to sort out the city defense facilities and rescue the wounded soldiers together with those people and strong.

In this siege battle, although the city was successfully defended, the casualties of the soldiers of the Revival Army were also relatively large, and after the war, more than 700 people were killed, more than 300 people were seriously injured, and more than 600 people were lightly injured, and the casualty ratio was also heavy enough.

This also reflects the brave combat strength of Cao Wenzhao's subordinates, as well as the strength of the revival army itself is not strong enough, especially the training of recruits is still far behind, and many recruits who have just joined the army do not even aim and start firing.

Of course, the casualties of the officers and troops will not be less than this number, and will only be more, and both sides of the battle have paid a heavy price of casualties.

However, Mo Li is not worried about the current casualties, he believes that with the attitude of the imperial court, he will definitely not stop the army, and with Cao Wenzhao's ability to lead the troops, he will definitely not be helpless, maybe he will come up with some strategy to deal with himself.

Back at the county office, Cao Bianjiao had also returned with his subordinates, and reported to Moli in detail about the capture of Deng Hai and others, and then asked about the battle at the South City Gate.

Mo Li said: "This battle is very hard, but it is no problem for us to defend Lingchuan City." ”

Cao Bianjiao pondered for a moment and said: "My lord, there is something we should take precautions in advance, my uncle did not capture Lingchuan City this time, and he will definitely find another way, I estimate that they will mobilize Hongyi cannons to attack the city." ”

The first batch of Hongyi cannons purchased by Xu Guangqi from the Portuguese were naval guns on British shipwrecks for Ningyuan City and Beijing City, and then the Ming Dynasty government successively purchased various Western artillery from overseas.

The Hongyi cannon does have its advantages in design, its barrel is long, the tube wall is very thick, and it is gradually thickened from the muzzle to the tail of the gun, which is in line with the principle of high to low bore pressure when gunpowder is burned; There are cylindrical lugs on both sides of the center of gravity of the gun body, and the gun can adjust the firing angle with this axis and change the firing range according to the amount of gunpowder; It is equipped with a crosshair and a light gate, and the trajectory is calculated according to the parabola, which is very accurate.

Most of the Hongyi cannons are about 3 meters long, with a caliber of 110-130 mm and a weight of more than 2 tons.

The most prominent advantage of the Hongyi cannon is its range, which is an important part of the performance of heavy artillery, even today.

According to the data of the same type of artillery in the West at that time, the earliest batch of Hongyi cannons used in the Battle of Ningyuan had an effective firing range of about 500 meters, and the maximum firing range was less than 1.5 kilometers.

Later, it was continuously improved, so that the effective range reached 1500 meters, and the maximum range reached 2.5 kilometers.

The Hongyi cannon is a kind of recital front-loading smoothbore gun, and every time it is fired, it will seriously deviate from the original firing position. According to the normal operating procedure, it is necessary to go through the steps of resetting, reloading, and setting the direction angle and elevation angle again.

It is not possible to increase the rate of fire of a front-loading gun, because after a single fire, it must be filled with water, extinguished the fire star, stretched into the chamber with a dry cloth to dry, then filled with gunpowder, combustibles, stuffed the shell, and then lit again, these actions are quite slow and cumbersome, not including the correction of the gun position.

This is a common problem of front-loading artillery, it is good to be able to fire one shot in two minutes, but it is a pity that a running war horse can run a considerable distance in one minute, can it have time to fire a second shot? Therefore, the front-loading artillery is characterized by a slow rate of fire, but it is powerful, and there is no problem in bombarding the city wall, but it is a joke to deal with cavalry.

Of course, now the Fuxing Army is defending the city, and if Cao Wenzhao is transferred to the Hongyi cannon to attack the city, it is estimated that it will be difficult to defend it with the terrifying power of the Hongyi cannon.

However, sometimes the defense does not necessarily have to passively wait for the opponent to come to the door, if Cao Wenzhao really transferred the Hongyi cannon, then Mo Li will have to adjust the defensive strategy and take the initiative to attack.

Therefore, what Mo Li has to do now is how to repel Cao Wenzhao, and even better to subdue Cao Wenzhao's subordinates, no matter how bad they are, they can't have the time to use Hongyi cannons to attack the city.

In the county office, Mo Li, Du Geng, Guan Feng, Ma Jinzhong, Cheng Qingzhu, Cao Bianjiao and others discussed how to deal with the attack of the official army next while eating.

Mo Li looked at everyone, and first said: "Brothers, everyone knows that the commander of the imperial army on the opposite side is General Cao Wenzhao, the uncle of General Cao, and he admires General Cao from the bottom of his heart. ”

After a pause, Mo Li said again: "Although we are currently opposed to the official army, but to tell you the truth, I am not willing to fight with the official army like this, especially fighting with General Cao's subordinates, which is a loss of strength for both of us.

General Cao did not capture Lingchuan City this time, and it is likely that Hongyi cannons will be mobilized to attack the city, about Hongyi cannons, I think everyone knows that the general city wall can't withstand its bombardment, so what should we do in the future? I would like to hear from the brethren. ”

Ma Jinzhong thought for a while and said: "My lord, although General Cao's department is brave, I heard that this time the imperial army is composed of two parts, one of which is General Cao's Yansui soldiers and horses, and the other is the Beijing camp transferred from the Beijing Division, and this Beijing camp is not only weak and afraid to fight, but also seems to be a little different from General Cao's department.

Like today, General Cao's troops have all gone to attack the South City Gate, and most of our brothers have rushed to support the South City Gate, but the Beijing camp at the North City Gate does not dare to attack the North City Gate, otherwise I am afraid that it will be a little mysterious today. It can be seen that Jingying is actually not worried. ”

Mo Li nodded and said, "What does Commander Ma mean?" ”

"Take the initiative!"