Wars have always been decided by people, not by weapons. People are the ultimate users of weapons, and the emergence of a new weapon may subtly change the rules of war, but the essence of war will not change because of the emergence of a new weapon.

The new annexed army is like a frightened bird, compared to yesterday's retreat, today is already a head of the rat in embarrassment.

The artillery fire on the east bank did not stop at all, and the trebuchet was judged to be superior in comparison, and the efficiency of the artillery team of more than 400 people, 46 rounds of several hundred catties of pig iron in a few minutes, made more than 700 people and six large trebuchets unreachable.

Looking at the fleeing new annex army in the West Bank, Mooney's face showed unprecedented joy:

"Norungaard, order the bridge building team to speed up the construction of the pontoon bridge, and must reach the west bank before dusk!"

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

Norengar recovered from a serious illness in March, and his lost left hand was now fitted with an iron hook, like a murderous executioner.

After explaining to Norenga, Mooney rode back to the camp, where Master Lodgenaka was examining the soldiers' shoulder-mounted flames.

"Master Lodgenaka, can you use it in the afternoon!" Mooney asked.

"Yes, as long as it's not raining or dehydration, it's fine. However, please forgive your subordinates for saying more, the earth-shaking fire used by the soldiers is relatively heavy, and if you cross the river to fight, your subordinates are worried that the flooding will fail. ”

"Master can rest assured, as long as the master teaches the soldiers to use the Heaven-Shaking Fire, I have my own way to prevent the Sky-Shaking Fire from being soaked in water."

"Then the subordinates will be relieved."

Jin Xuedi people are equipped with shoulder-mounted individual fire, the caliber is one inch, more than 30 millimeters, the wall thickness reaches half an inch, the whole body is cast in copper, three feet long, less than one meter, and weighs more than 30 catties.

There is a one-piece grip at one-fifth of the length of the barrel from the muzzle, and when used, kneel on one knee, just like firing an RPG, but it requires two people to operate, one person kneels on the ground, and one person ignites in the back, and the operation is very novel and funny.

The number of cannons was scarce, but the Po Song Provincial College still cast more than 14,000 of these shoulder-mounted sky-shaking fires for emergency use, of which 6,000 were allocated to Mooney and Timir, and the rest were sent to the front with 80 guns.

Around six o'clock in the afternoon, Sikong Nan hurried to the camp, and the earth-shattering artillery fire made this battle-hardened veteran tremble:

"General, what kind of weapon is this, it is so powerful!"

"Artillery, also called cannons. These projectiles are stuffed into iron or copper pipes, and gunpowder is added to shoot them into the distance. Because it is loaded from the front muzzle, it is also called a breech gun. Covered by its artillery and trebuchets, our troops were unable to counterattack and had to retreat to avoid casualties. ”

"That means there's no way to fight back?"

"Right now. They're building bridges, it's probably a tough battle today, how are your 50,000 cavalry doing? ”

"There has been great progress, and the 20,000 that the last general will bring will be slightly higher in combat power. If you can experience the tactics of war in time, you will definitely be able to take charge of the situation on your own. ”

"Good. You immediately check the terrain with Jiao Muhua, their cavalry has been assembled on the opposite bank, and once the pontoon bridge is assumed, the second wave will be the cavalry. ”

"The last general obeys!"

There are only 15,000 new infantry troops guarding the river section here, and to put it mildly, they have never seen anything in the world, they have not fought a hard battle, and they are frightened when they see the magic skills that open their eyes. At this time, it was too late to draw the main infantry from other places to rush to help.

Prior to this, Bailiyan did not regard this section of the river as a key defense area, because it was only a little more than 120 steps from the narrowest point of the forty miles south of here, and it was more logical to erect a pontoon bridge from there, but it was within the range of the coalition army's improvised stone artillery vehicles.

Mooney chose to force his way here, most likely because he was afraid that the Allied stone artillery trucks would fire burning oil and cause a gunpowder explosion, so he chose to launch a surprise attack on the section of the river where the Allied stone artillery trucks were out of reach and within the range of their smallest caliber artillery.

By this time the pontoon bridge had been repaired two-thirds of the way to the river, less than eighty paces from the west bank.

Relying on the absence of the coalition navy, the Jinxuedi people used pontoon boats to build bridges, put the boats across the river, and directly laid wooden planks to fix them, and also used air floats made of leather towels to line both sides of the planks to keep the cushioning and stability of the pontoon bridge.

The shelling lasted a whole day, and there was still no intention of stopping, and the inclined projectiles exceeded 3,500, which was far superior to trebuchets in terms of efficiency, dispersal area, and manpower.

At dusk, the pontoon bridge is repaired to more than ten meters on the west bank, and almost all of them can wash up to the shore. At this time, the enemy soldiers who were repairing the bridge suddenly withdrew to the center of the river, and from the east bank, hundreds of small boats were successively drawn into the river, and the three of them took a boat and quickly rowed to the west bank.

It is not surprising that one of the three had a brass pipe on his shoulder, a torch and a rowing boat. Hundreds of small boats were gathered close together, connected by cables, and lined up on the north and south wings of the pontoon.

Seeing this, the well-informed Bailiyan was also confused:

"Obediently, this is a handle, so advanced!"

Bailiyan is very clear, Chu Jin Xuedi people are carrying some kind of musket used by individual soldiers on their shoulders, and the firearms used by individual soldiers in the early days are all bronze or copper monolithically casting, with large caliber, thick pipe walls, and full weight.

At least during the Yuan Dynasty, bronze casting firearms of the early meaning of single-eyed, double-eyed, and three-eyed firearms appeared, but the length was only more than a foot, and they were used by holding them together. But I have never seen a primitive firearm nearly a meter long, like using a bazooka, carried on the shoulder. It's like going from a poor primitive society to an upstart overnight, in addition to anger, it is still anger.

At this time, not only Bailiyan was dizzy, but Jiang Jie, Sikong Nan and others also had straight eyes, and they were busy asking strategies:

"My lord, how can the people of Jin Xuedi carry a small cannon on their shoulders, and there are so many of them, if they can also fight a mile of land, our army will have to be wiped out."

"Don't panic, it's not that easy, if this thing can hit a mile of land, the pig can go up the tree. Go, pass the order Jiao Muhua, within one hundred and fifty steps on the shore is the blind spot of his artillery shells, transfer two hundred new attached troops with thick wooden shields, swing out and advance to the river, one hundred steps ahead, no general's order, no approach! ”

"No!"

The artillery all tilted the projectiles on the north and south flanks of the battalion, and the distance between the shore and the battalion was the beachhead, and the artillery set aside this distance just right, apparently to facilitate the landing of its infantry and cavalry, and at the same time to be within the cover range of individual firearms.

Of course, a crossbow can also be used, but after the coalition forces are generally equipped with pot helmets, the pouring force of the crossbow cannot pierce the pot helmet, but firearms can.

However, Bai Liyan highly doubted that the power of this kind of individual shoulder-mounted firearm might be okay, but the range would never be too far.

Even in the middle and late stages, the cutting barrel after deep hole processing was used, and the effective killing of the breech gun loaded with lead bullets was only 150 to 200 meters, and the stray bullets could fly 3 or 400 meters, but the power was greatly reduced.

If iron bullets and copper bullets are used, the range will undoubtedly be increased, but the lethality will be weakened, and the effective distance of the breech gun projectile is farther, and the accuracy of two hundred meters away can only be blessed by God, and the target rate will not be higher than buying lottery tickets.

This kind of long-barreled shoulder-mounted firearm, with a caliber of more than 30 millimeters, and no matter how much it is charged, it can only be loaded with shotguns, and the range is not too far, and most of them are between light bows and hard bows, and even inferior to bows and arrows.

Due to technical reasons, the early musket was not as practical as the bow and arrow, and even less than the crossbow, and the final replacement of the bow and crossbow was not the practicality of firearms, but the lethality of the projectile.

With the advancement and perfection of armor technology, it is increasingly difficult for the bow and crossbow to penetrate the armor and penetrate the human body to cause fatal damage. [Note 1]

But as long as it is hit by a bullet, no matter how thick the iron armor is, it can be easily penetrated, and at the same time, the lack of medical development, the damage of metal projectiles often causes fatal injuries.

In particular, lead bullets were widely used in firearms in various periods, and after the lead bullet hit the armor and the human body, it quickly deformed into the body, and was attached to the flesh and bones, making it difficult to take out, and even if it did not die from blood loss and purulent infection caused by the projectile, it would die from lead poisoning, causing long-term pain to the injured.

When the Industrial Revolution followed the technological leap, firearms became practical, and it became possible to popularize and replace bows and crossbows on a large scale.

The shoulder-carrying firearms of the Jin Xuedi people in front of them were far from practical, at best they were only rudimentary jet devices, and their range was still limited, and even their role was to rely on gunpowder to spew flames to make noises and scare the uninformed natives.

Jiao Muhua dispatched troops to organize 200 people with heavy wooden shields in their hands, and pushed forward to the shore 100 steps, about 150 meters. After a moment of confrontation, there was no fire, and Bailiyan already had a bottom in his heart, this kind of seemingly "tall and violent" firearm had a range that was not as good as a strong crossbow.

"Jiang Jie, order Jiao Muhua, continue to advance twenty steps!"

"No!"

Jiao Muhua received the order, and the two hundred men continued to advance, and advanced to 120 meters without firing, so they advanced another ten paces, but still did not fire.

At this time, Mooney stood on the high platform on the east bank, looked at the west bank with a telescope, and suddenly became suspicious when he saw this scene:

"Master Lodgenaka, how far can Xiaokou Earthquake Fire shoot?"

"It depends on the size of the troll, whether the troll is too big or too small, it can't be launched far, only the troll is not big or small, and it can fly more than a hundred steps away. But more than a hundred paces away, there is not much power, so the best firing distance is fifty paces. It can easily penetrate the best gold and iron armor of our army now and kill people, and it can even penetrate the brick wall half a finger deep, if it is sixty steps, it will be seriously injured if it does not die. ”

"Then now the northerners are seventy steps away from our army, holding thickened wooden energy, can they penetrate it?"

"I'm afraid not, we should get closer, and the grasp will be greater."

Seventy steps is about more than 100 meters, and the imitation of the Jin Xuedi people uses a small mouth to shake the sky, and they can't use medium-sized projectiles to effectively penetrate the solid wooden shield a hundred meters away, but Changsun Guo's can. Even at this distance, it is not possible to penetrate a thickened wooden shield, but compared to a strong bow, the firearm projectile is still much more powerful than a strong bow.

Thinking of this, Mooney didn't intend to wait, and decisively ordered:

"Norunga, give the order to get angry!"

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

By this time it was getting dark, and the herald rode to the westernmost point of the pontoon bridge:

"The Legion Commander has an order, get angry!"

The igniter invariably inserted the fuse into the fire door at the tail of the earth-shattering fire, and the torch was lowered close to the fire door, and a choking smoke suddenly rose.

In more than ten seconds, there was a thunderstorm, and the earth-shattering fire spewed out a rumbling sound with tongues of fire, and the huge recoil force made the shooter who was kneeling on one knee in front of him suddenly fall backwards, but it was exactly against the ignitionist's leg.

[Note 1] Firearms eventually replaced bows and crossbows, and in addition to the fact that early firearms were far more powerful than bows and crossbows, there were also machining technologies that appeared in the middle period, which made firearms more convenient and physically economical. At the same time, the development of armor, especially the emergence of plate armor, zaga, and double-woven chain mail, as well as the heavy cavalry and heavy infantry with outer plate armor and inner chain mail, made the bow and crossbow appear to be overstretched, and individual firearms thus had a living space.

At the same time, it takes more than two years to train a qualified archer, while the production cycle of bows is longer, while firearms can be standardized and mass-produced. In addition, the firing of bows and crossbows requires the strings to be opened, which consumes a lot of physical strength. A heavy archer, in a battle, can often only fire more than fifteen to twenty arrows in a row, and about forty light bows, which is basically the number of arrows carried.

However, the loading of the musket does not require so much physical strength, as long as the ammunition tube is sufficient, the theoretical one-day firepower output is far greater than that of the bow and crossbow, and even more so after the appearance of the third stage. At the same time, muskets are still shot at direct aim, bows and arrows are mostly fired at elevation angles and projectiles, and direct aim is not used much. Therefore, firearms began to crush the bow and crossbow in full swing in the middle period. Even if the accuracy is a little worse, the efficiency and density, as well as the shortening of the soldier's training cycle, completely crush the advantage of the bow and arrow.