The cannon roared on the newly opened school ground, and the target of the bombardment was not the earth mountain or earthen wall that Yuan Keli imagined, but a wooden plank wall drawn by two horse-drawn carriages about two minutes thick that was directly operated by people two or three hundred steps away, and slowly moved in the direction of the artillery group from a distance of one mile. When the cannon fired, the cannonballs flew out at a speed far beyond the speed of a powerful crossbow, either hitting a round hole in the wall of the plank or splashing in front of the wall like an explosion. The large general's cannon was fired with a double standard charge, and the rear seat of the gun also allowed the entire gun carriage to be ejected several meters backwards when the gun was fired. Several gunners, who were no longer thin and as tall as adults, quickly tried their best to reset the guns, perhaps because there was a depression near the wheels where the guns were located, and this reset also appeared to be much faster than expected.

At a distance of about a mile, the hit rate is not high. It took almost seven or eight shells to hit the wooden wall, but at a distance of about two hundred paces, almost one of every shell hit the wooden wall. And there is no doubt about it: if it were in real combat, a shell that missed a little further would also fall into the enemy group. Not to mention the shells that rebounded from close misses. At a distance of about one hundred and forty paces, almost two-thirds of the shells either hit the wooden wall, or hit the wooden wall after a violent rebound.

Yuan Keli, who has served in the military department for a long time and has also been in charge of side affairs, also understands some of the key points: When shooting targets in peacetime, as long as the distance has been measured a long time ago, or even the first test firing, then of course good achievements will be achieved when the firearm is test-fired. However, when it comes to actual combat, it is difficult to fire firearms because the distance between the target often changes. Shooting wooden wall targets that change from far to near, even if they have been prepared for a long time, achieving such a hit rate and efficiency at a distance beyond the reach of bows and arrows is something that Yuan Li did not expect before. Even the selected artillery team is amazing to reach such a level.

However, this kind of test firing did not end immediately, and each artillery team basically only fired twice, and the 50 guns of the entire Guards Battalion actually took turns firing, and in less than a stick of incense, a total of about 100 rounds of artillery fire were launched, and the law of the hit rate during this period was basically that most of the hit rate could be achieved at a distance of 145 paces, and more than a third of the hit rate could be achieved at a distance of 200 paces. And it can be seen that the power of these cannonballs is far from the ordinary four-hundred-pound general cannon can be compared, but it is a bit like those thousand catties of imitation Western copper cannons can only be shot, especially when hitting the shield car sporadically made behind the wall target, the tall and thick from the side with a clairvoyant mirror carefully observed, at least a few inches thick wooden board thickness of the shield car was completely overturned to the ground under the rapid power of the cannonball. Although the cannonballs often lost their previous power after passing through the shield cart, they still rolled dozens of steps before they stopped.

From time to time, when the shelling unfolded, there were kite-like "kite targets" dragged by horses passing around the side of the firing position, as if they were light horses speeding by, and the distance was only about fifty or sixty paces, which was very inconvenient for heavy artillery to fire. At this time, the two-man artillery team began to fire in coordination. Usually, the five guns are aimed in one direction of the target at a certain forked angle, and spread out at a weak angle, and when the fire is deployed, nearly 100 or so shotguns sprayed together can basically effectively cover the target dozens of paces away. Occasionally, a lost shotgun hits an unprotected horse, and it can knock the horse to the ground in almost a short time.

This kind of cannon lifting is not a performance by selected individual gunners, but by the gunners of each team taking turns. Immediately afterwards, the archers among the young officers and soldiers began to perform a series of performances of melee shooting targets close to the standards of actual combat. At this time, Yuan Keli really felt a shock, and somehow, there seemed to be tears in his eyes.

"I didn't expect that today's Ming Dynasty also has such a strong army that can fight against Jiannu... Yuan Keli sighed.

Xiao Xuan didn't have any intention of going around the bend, and said bluntly: "You can finally understand what I mean." In fact, one day before, you weren't the only ones who came to watch the show. I know that the loss of troops and defeats in the past ten years has made many people in the north lose confidence and fear, and even have the idea that Jiannu outside the gate may have a chance to enter the world. And I want those people to know that the Ming can have a strong team that can have a chance to compete and even defeat the opponent. ”

When he said this, Xiao Xuan paused for a moment, and the tone of his words changed, and he suddenly said, "Let the Dongjiang Army withdraw." Liao salary was originally a big burden for the imperial court. I checked the accounts, and in the seventh year of the Apocalypse last year, the imperial court transported 370,000 stone of grain and more than 600,000 taels of silver to the Dongjiang River. The cost of my two battalions is only slightly more than that. I thought to myself that I might be sure to deal with more than 10,000 Manchu troops with similar strength, but at that position on the Dongjiang River, it would also be a great adventure to carry out so-called guerrilla raids. I heard that Liu Zuoxing is back now. I'm afraid that the kind of opportunity I had in the early years of the Apocalypse will never be there again. It is better to withdraw than to let hundreds of thousands of taels of silver fall into the hands of some forces or even Jiannu every year, or let Mao Wenlong and others use it as capital to appease the Manchu army and not attack and destroy him. . . ”

Xiao Xuan, who has learned a lot of things these days, does not have much trust in Mao Wenlong and the others. Not counting drifting, Dongjiang Town, which receives 400,000 taels of silver every year and a large amount of grain, still sells to the imperial court and cries poor, what does this mean? It shows that there is a huge amount of money and food that is missing. The Dongjiang Army advocated in "Stealing Ming" is probably not the White Lotus. Xiao Xuan also hoped to be able to identify whether this person was reliable through Yuan Keli's attitude towards this issue this time.

Seeing that the emperor directly picked out this matter without the intention of blaming, Yuan Keli was also deeply moved and said: "Mao Wenlong's ministers also understand the matter of colluding with the enemy in disguise, thank you for your trust and tolerance!" It's just that at this moment, the Dongjiang Army is afraid... ”

"I'm afraid I'll become a warlord who doesn't listen to propaganda, right? I intend to appoint you as the governor of Liaodong, and have an overview of Liaodong affairs, including the Guanning Army and Dongjiang Town, and I hope you can handle this matter seriously... Xiao Xuan finally said to Yuan Keli at this time.

In fact, another choice for the person in charge of Liaodong was Sun Chengzong, but Xiao Xuan believed that the defense of the Gyeonggi area was also very important after careful analysis. In the future, there will actually be two main battlefields in Jianju, Liaodi and Gyeonggi. Let Sun Chengzong, Yuan Keli, and other figures who are not too controversial in later generations replace the suspicious Mao Wenlong and Yuan Chonghuan and others, and perhaps the basket will be minimized.

(End of chapter)