The day after Li Yan arrived in Luyi County, Li Zhong arrived in Zhecheng County with his troops. After Li Zhong arranged the troops, he took his own soldiers to Luyi County and met with Li Yan. The next day, Li Mu also rushed to Luyi County with his troops.

Li Zhong brought 6,000 soldiers, as well as 40 newly cast tiger squat cannons, and a lot of ammunition. He came over this time to see how Li Yan distributed these weapons.

And Li Mou only brought 3,000 men. The three counties in the east were late, and the measures had just begun to be implemented, so they needed more manpower, so he brought much fewer troops.

However, this is not bad, Zhecheng County has 6,000 troops, Luyi County has more than 5,000 troops, and Qixian troops have basically formed a line of defense to prevent the thieves from entering their territory north. Moreover, the troops of Li Zicheng and others are still separated from Guide Prefecture by Dancheng County and Taikang County, and they cannot come over at once.

Li Yan looked at the two new Tiger Squat Cannon brought by Li Zhong and found that there was no difference from the previous Tiger Squat Cannon. However, after a closer look, I found that the two tiger squat guns had a little fire hole in the tail of the cannon.

Li Zhong introduced: "These two are used to fire hollow shells. The hollow shell is much heavier than the original paper-shell flowering shell, and it must have good airtightness to fire farther, so it is fired by the method of ignition hole. ”

Li Yan asked with interest: "So how far is the range?" ”

"Between one hundred and fifty steps and one hundred and eighty steps." Li Zhong replied.

Li Mu asked, "How powerful is it?" How about a card-shell flowering bomb? ”

"This," Li Zhong said with some uncertainty, "It's hard to say." This hollow bomb has a good power when it explodes, but there are more or less fragments, and the lethality to the enemy may not be as good as that of paper shell bullets. ”

Li Yan thought for a moment and said with a smile: "This is easy to solve, as long as you make a prefabricated fragment inside." However, the specific specifications will need to be tested before they can be determined. ”

"Prefabricated fragments?" Li Mu asked suspiciously, "What is that?" ”

Li Yan explained: "It is to add raised vertical and horizontal lines to the sand mold of the inner layer, and the inside of the hollow bullet will be divided into pieces and pieces. In this way, the thickness of the interior is different, and when the gunpowder explodes, the thin areas are more likely to crack and form iron sheets. These pieces of iron are like lead bullets in paper shells, and they are used to kill and injure the surrounding people. ”

Li Zhong and Li Mu both suddenly realized, nodded and said, "This idea is very good!" ”

Li Yan said with a smile: "But it is not easy to test to find the right specifications." ”

"As long as you think of a way, the rest is not difficult." Li Zhong said.

"Fourth brother, let's shoot a cannonball and see how it works." Li Mu suggested.

Li Yan nodded and said, "Okay, then give it a try." ”

At this time, the scarecrow had been arranged in front, and there was a radius of fifty steps, and the straw men were two steps apart. There is no way, the accuracy of the Tiger Squat Cannon is too low, and if the range of the straw man is too small, the shells will not know where they go.

Two artillery crews were also ready. They were ten paces away from each other to prevent injury to the other crew in the event of an accident.

There is a cork log block at the bottom of the shell to keep the lead port in front of the shell. Both of them were wrapped in linen cloth to keep the lead port outside, and at the same time to ensure the airtightness of the shells. The propellant is still a packed quantitative medicine pack, large and small, which is used to adjust the launch distance.

The gunner first places the cartridge into the muzzle and then double-stabs it with the ejector lever to confirm that the cartridge is at the bottom of the barrel. At this time, the three gunners first pierced the medicine bag with a thin iron cone, and then put in the lead. After that, the first gunner ignited the long lead on the outside of the shell, and then put the shell into the muzzle, and the second gunner still used the bomb stick to poke the shell twice so that the bottom of the shell and the cartridge were in close contact. Finally, the igniter ignites the lead of the Tiger Squat Cannon.

With a "bang", the cannonball was launched with sparks, flying towards the phalanx of straw men at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The cannonball landed smoothly in the straw man phalanx, but there was no response.

"Blind?" Li Mu asked.

Li Yan took out the binoculars and looked among the straw men, and he found that there was still a faint smoke coming out, indicating that the lead was still burning.

"It should be that the lead is too long," Li Yan said, "wait and see." ”

After a while, an explosion suddenly exploded, a puff of smoke rose up, and the straw man next to him also fell.

"Gee, that's not bad either." Li Mu said with a smile: "When this bomb passes, the people around must have run away, so there will be no formation." ”

Li Yan frowned and thought, he ordered: "Let the second artillery group not fire first." ”

"What's wrong?" Li Zhong asked.

Li Yan said slowly: "This effect is not good. The launch is slow and dangerous, you look at those gunners, how nervous they are? In such a state, if they were to be fired after the line, the infantry in front would not be at ease. ”

Li Zhong nodded and said, "Fortunately, they got these two for experiments, and the others are still the same as before." ”

Li Yan thought for a while, came to the side of the artillery group, and ordered: "Cut off the lead of the cannonball and be flush with the cork rod." ”

Artillery Commander Ma Changqing hurriedly clenched his fists and said, "General, this is not good." If it's so short, who dares to order it, put it in the barrel and it will explode. ”

Li Yan said: "You don't need to ignite the lead of the shell, doesn't the propellant have a flame, see if you can ignite the lead." ”

Only then did the artillery commander reassure and nodded: "Yes, let's give it a try." ”

After everyone retreated, the gunner began to ask the gunners to prepare. The first gunner truncated the lead on the shell and then followed the process again, but this time without igniting the lead on the shell.

There was a "bang", accompanied by white smoke and fire from the muzzle, and the shells were fired. But the shells were still flying in the air, and they exploded with a "boom" in mid-air.

Everyone exclaimed, fortunately they had already flown far away before exploding, and if it exploded as soon as the muzzle of the cannon came out, they could have said that the gunners were in danger.

Li Yan stepped forward and ordered, "Okay, let's stop here today." After you go back, talk to Wang Renjie and Wang Renhui, and let them continue the experiment. ”

"My subordinates understand." The artillery commander clenched his fists in agreement.

Li Yan spoke again: "Today's test is more dangerous, in order to commend your loyalty and bravery, I will give each of you three buckets of new wheat." ”

"General Xie's reward." Everyone knelt down and thanked them with fists.

Although there is no longer a grain shortage in Qixian County, grain is still hard currency. People still have vivid memories of the days when there was a shortage of food, so food is still the best reward. The exchange price in the market is basically based on grain, and grain can already be used as currency at this time.

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