Seeing the approaching torches on the periphery, although he had not yet received a report from the front of the covered traffic trench, Xiao Xuan also felt the seriousness of the situation. The opponent's adaptability still exceeded his pre-war imagination. After roughly guessing and thinking about it, I didn't think it was too strange. Although the Ming Dynasty at this time had many problems, especially the Beijing army, not to mention the rebellion in Jianzhou, after all, there was an incident many years ago, and the Mongols outside the Great Wall and even bandits from all walks of life gradually became less peaceful. Ordinary Ming army generals or generals may not have much mental thinking ability. But the chief military officer commands the scale of the team, and the right attendant of the military department is personally in charge, how can he be as a layman as he imagined?

"Let's shoot at the General Artillery Team!" In a five-fold telescope obtained from Pang Tianshou, Xiao Xuan saw that it seemed that the attacking Ming army began to try to lift many artillery positions into the earthen fence to launch close fire, and even set up more ladder boards as if to transport some heavier shield carts in. Learning the lessons of the day, Xiao Xuan didn't plan to fire preemptively. That would be bad for the gunner.

There were many actual measurements in the sand table tent near the Chinese army, which made Xiao Xuan feel that it was not necessarily very advantageous to deploy those short guns in various teams, especially the short guns that fired three catties or more. Only those light bullet long guns and guns that fire less than 10 taels of pellets are suitable for the base level. The reason is actually very simple: there is no radio in this era, and signal communication is actually the shortcoming of the team at this time. At most, the entire battalion can only carry out a dozen kinds of orders and tasks according to the temporary fireworks signals arranged in advance, and no more. In this case, it would be better to concentrate all the short guns that are conducive to curved fire rather than accurate direct fire in order to be more effective in strain. This also seems to be more in line with the principle of some kind of modern "ring fire line".

Therefore, many days ago, when the entire perimeter fortifications were still being built, the tests of various short guns began. Each gun emplacement on the central artillery position used a special wooden frame and wooden strips to mark the elevation angle and firing range of the gun, and recorded the charge standard when firing in different directions. Therefore, when the guns are fired, even at night when the object cannot be seen, it can accurately fire several pounds of lead bullets into the vicinity of the earthen fence line.

And after careful measurement, Xiao Xuan also found a place that could be used: in order to ensure the throwing degree, when the light short cannon fires, the muzzle velocity of the cannonball is roughly the level of the bow and crossbow, so even seven or eight catties of cannonballs can't penetrate the heavy earth encirclement. However, it can use the rebound of the high walls of the earthen fence to bounce back and attack the enemy forces that rush into the earthen fence without the protection of the bunker fortifications. In this way, the "sealing bullet" also has the role and significance of maximizing its effectiveness.

After rough deduction and calculation, just about 100 rounds of firing from about 100 short guns concentrated on the position of the central artillery group will inevitably be able to kill or wound about 1,000 people and an attacking enemy with a certain level of protection and a formation that is not densely formed.

Xiao Xuan was worried that if the fire was fully fired, it would scare away the enemy and cause him to not be able to give him the maximum attack in the enemy's night attack, so he only ordered the relatively poorly trained Mao team to deploy firepower.

Xiao Xuan's general estimate of the strength density of the ancient army comes from a military book called "Virtual Exercise", so it is judged that the average area of each soldier in the most evacuated situation is about 15 square meters. Considering the firepower error, it is calculated according to 20 square meters to be "lenient to the enemy"

However, this one, like the "Pingrong Wanquan Array", still overestimates the actual level of most armies in ancient times. At this time, in order to ensure the victory of the close battle and the courage of the men, as many as five or six thousand enemy troops poured into the defensive line of about two miles in a row, and tens of thousands of people gathered outside the earthen enclosure and were ready to reinforce the attack at any time.

But out of fear of sporadic projectiles and arrows in the night. The thousands of people who poured into the earthen enclosure only advanced a distance of less than ten zhang or so. Although these more elite soldiers still noticed that the night engagements should not be too dense in order to prevent projectile damage and avoid accidental damage, it was also the "not too dense" in the mediocre army of this era, and on the whole, they only kept a radius but only a short distance within the range of a short spear.

When the continuous sound of artillery rang out, most of the officers and men of the Fifth Army Battalion who rushed to the front knew how to quickly raise their shields above their heads to prevent the killing and injury of the shotguns, and they paused as much as possible. However, the rain of small buckshot bullets in the imaginary night did not fall, and the shells kept hitting the inside of the earthen wall and bouncing and rolling over. Although most of the twenty solid shells fired in the first round did not effectively hit the crowd queue, they still killed and wounded forty or fifty people at once.

The panic and shouting of the people in the dark night made many people feel a little uneasy, and most of the troops of the five military battalions who attacked the earth siege only suffered about one percent of the casualties in an instant, but they would subconsciously retreat to the rear.

Just when the officers and the overseers at the head of the wall had stabilized their positions a little, the second round of continuous artillery fire rang out, and the thousands of people crowded under the earthen wall suffered hundreds of casualties in front of 20 shells weighing several pounds, many of which were still seriously killed or maimed. This round of blows also completely knocked out the courage to continue to move forward in the enclosed land.

After all, Wei Yingjia and the others did not expect that these people could shoot such dense and accurate shells at night, and they were a little confused for a while, so they had to order the team to retreat.

Fortunately, the light artillery fire that had been demarcated in advance in the direction of the firing boundary and gun position did not extend outward, and the rear of the five army battalions outside the earthen wall was not chaotic, and because the earth wall had blocked it, there was no chain reaction of the rout in the night battle, and most of them withdrew from the bridge lined up with ladders under the pressure of the officers' families.

A young man beside Xiao Xuan used a temporary bamboo pole to climb high in the night sky and look into the distance, and when he saw that the enemy troops on the periphery had not shown signs of retreating, he quickly ordered the shelling to stop. Such an order to give up the dominance of the engagement made many young officers around him puzzled, but at this time, Xiao Xuan still did not give up the plan to lure the enemy into the depths again.

Xiao Xuan believed that since the middle and rear teams outside the Tuwei had not yet shown signs of retreating, a new round of offensive would always be launched, and the enemy would also realize this unique night battle and the advantage of using their own unique firepower. The plan of investing a large number of troops and taking it step by step is probably not as stressful as just investing in a surprise attack of a few hundred elite soldiers.

After paying nearly 200 casualties and having to retreat, Wei Yingjia also understood the truth that "the drums cannot be leaked", and when he ordered all teams to give up the safe passage for shelling, he also began to let the artillery that had been deployed long ago launch a fierce shelling at night, and mostly used sealed live ammunition. The rumbling sound of his own cannon calmed the morale of the soldiers, who seemed to have begun to be restless, although the sound of the cannon did not seem as fierce as usual.

At this time, the standard artillery system with the "second general artillery" as the core of the Ming army was actually not much stronger than the light artillery of the Huzun cannon specifications, and most of the light artillery guns fired at the top and bottom of the 100-pound body barrel were about seven or eight pounds of projectiles, and the purpose was also to not hit too far, and it was more convenient to bypass the car shield and throw the enemy formation. In the case that the farthest projectile range may not be about one mile, it is still easy to shoot artillery shells into the Yumajian Tuwei position within a radius of about 200 paces from all directions, without causing too much risk of accidental injury. Of course, how to accurately suppress the central direction of the opponent's artillery fire can only rely on the gunner's feeling.

In order to prevent the bore, the gunners often dodged far after lighting the gun fuse, which also made the rate of fire standard practically less than one round per minute, even for light guns that were very good for loading. The shelling continued one after another for an hour or so, and more than 3,000 shells weighing seven or eight pounds were fired from more than 100 artillery pieces dominated by the second general's guns.

Although the continuous shelling was inefficient, those seven or eight pounds of lead bullets that fell from a height of more than 100 meters were indeed able to destroy many simple layers in the position. A total of 50 or 60 people, from auxiliaries to soldiers, were killed and wounded one after another in this continuous shelling, and a large proportion of them were killed in battle. Xiao Xuan and the gunners around him took refuge in the cliff hole under Xiao Xuan's strict orders, and there seemed to be sporadic casualties, but after all, they still didn't cause much danger. However, the pressure of the continuous shelling still unsettled the vast majority of young people who were new to the battle.