On July 11 of the second year of the Great Song Dynasty.

This was an epoch-making day in the history of human warfare, and artillery appeared on the big stage of history for the first time as a field weapon.

Just after noon, after a full meal, the fifth general of the Youzhou Army and the first artillery department drove out of Lushun Fucheng. The first to appear was the cavalry battalion subordinate to the fifth general, about 500 knights armed with bows and arrows and horse guns, dressed in half-armor, deployed in groups (equivalent to platoons, about 40 people) to control the open flat land outside the north gate of Arthur Province. After a brief encounter with them, the cavalry units of the Bohai Great Palace's army quickly withdrew and retreated to their main position.

The battle between the cavalry of the two sides was very short, and it was not very fierce, but the cavalry of the Youzhou army easily crushed the opponent. Under the rule of the Liao State, the Bohai people had long since become an agricultural nation that farmed the land, and only a few children with the right surname still had a little immediate effort. However, their horse kung fu and the war horses under their crotch were not enough to see in front of the cavalry of the Youzhou army. So as soon as the two sides played each other, the winner was immediately decided.

Gao Yongchang didn't expect his cavalry to be able to confront the Youzhou Iron Cavalry, he just wanted to use the cavalry to delay a little. Seeing that his knights were beaten to pieces, he hurriedly withdrew his troops and withdrew the remaining cavalry from the main position.

After clearing the cavalry of the Bohai people, the cavalry of the Youzhou army did not take advantage of the situation to attack the large array of the Bohai people. Because they had already found that the Bohai people had many carts in front of the battle, and in front of the carts were placed to reject horses. What a posture of strict defense!

After the cavalry took control of the battlefield, the pikemen, sword and shield soldiers and crossbowmen of the fifth general of the Youzhou Army also came out in a row.

In the midst of the golden drum horns and the unique whistle sound of the Youzhou army, the well-trained infantry quickly took their own positions and formed a long phalanx. Don't look at the military science of the Youzhou Army becoming more and more complicated, but the formation they use to fight the war is very simple. It is the three basic formations (formations) of phalanx, horizontal formation, and vertical formation. After going to the battlefield, according to the terrain, three basic formations (formations) are combined and changed with each other, and they are flexibly used.

The battlefield where the two armies are fighting today is not very open. It is from the beach in the west to Montenegro in the east, less than ten miles from east to west, and less than four miles from north to south.

There is no room for outflanking at all, so you can only put a hard fight. Therefore, the array is also simple, that is, a large horizontal formation composed of multiple pure team battalion horizontal formations (that is, battalion-level horizontal formations composed of a single army). In the center are pikemen, with swords and shields on either wing. There was a passage between the pikemen and the sword and shield men for the cavalry, crossbowmen, and artillerymen to enter and exit.

And the cavalry retracted after the completion of the large horizontal array. After the cavalry retreated, the crossbowmen poured out of the passage, and then formed a dense three-column horizontal formation, which was placed in front of the pikemen. Then 27 1,500-pound bronze cannons were pulled out by sturdy horses, and a door was placed in front of the big horizontal array. It is not evenly scattered in front of the Great Horizontal Formation, but in front of the Sword and Shield Soldiers distributed on both wings of the Great Horizontal Formation. There are 13 doors on one side and 14 doors on the other.

The last to appear were today's commander-in-chief Luo Gang, the fifth general's general Chai Fang, and the two of their staff, heralds and guards.

A large group of men ran to the front of the center of the large horizontal formation, and set up a small makeshift command post in the open space between the crossbowmen and the pikemen. Because Rogan and Chai Fang and the others were on horses, they could get a good line of sight from the sky above the crossbowmen's heads.

Chai Fang looked at the position of the Bohai people in front of him, frowned, and said, "The Bohai people have built a breast wall with carts and sandbags...... Move fast enough! ”

"It's really fast...... Luo Gang held up the telescope and looked at it for a while, then suddenly shook his head, "No, that's not a sandbag, that's a grain bag!" If it's a bag of sand, where does the soil come from? I don't see a trench. ”

"Grain bags? How much food did these Bohai people bring? ”

"Hehe, it's a time to live for a while!" Luo Gang put away the telescope, waved his hand and said, "Let's start!" ”

There were heralds with small flags of various colors beside him, who took out the red flags and waved them violently.

The artillery commanders on the artillery positions on both sides saw the red flag waving and immediately waved their hands heavily: "Release!" ”

The 27 1,500-pound bronze cannons had already been loaded with shells and aimed at the center of the Bohai naval battle array.

The artillery position of the Youzhou Army was very close to the center of the Bohai people's battle formation, and the direct firing distance was less than two and a half miles. The opponent's crossbow was no longer a threat at this distance. However, a solid bullet shot from a direct point can gain good power. As for the accuracy, there is no need to worry, because the target of the bombardment is too large, at least tens of thousands of battle formations, boundless, and it is difficult to hit!

A round ball of iron was sprayed out of the muzzle by the power of the gunpowder explosion, and the huge recoil would push the cannon backwards. The surrounding artillerymen began to do a lot of work, using long hooks and dry and wet wool brushes to clean the chamber, filling the cartridges, filling the iron bullets, pressing them with the ramming rods, piercing the cartridges with the iron cones through the fire door, and then the artillerymen would work together to reset the cannons, aim, jam the cannon's wheels with special wooden tools, load the gunpowder, and then ignite the ...... There were more than 10 processes in total, and it took seven well-trained gunners to work for a long time to complete a reload. If there is a timer in the afterlife to look at the time, it will take about 5 minutes.

Of course, this reloading speed cannot be compared with the artillery of the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe. After all, artillery has only just appeared on the stage of war now, and to be able to reach this level, it is really necessary to admire the genius of Rogon's generation of artillery officers. Of course, Wu Haogu also gave them a lot of ideas......

It takes 5 minutes to complete a reload, and the actual rate of fire is even slower. Because the barrel will be hot after a few shots, it needs to be poured with water to cool down (Wu Haogu does not know the vinegar cooling method), so there is another process.

But even this slow rate of fire of firing every few minutes still far exceeded the capacity of the Bohai people on the other side. They formed a dense formation and stood there as targets! The 27 cannons were densely arranged again, and the bombardment was concentrated on a little. Every few minutes, 27 hot iron balls fall hard! It's so fast that it's hard to catch with the naked eye, let alone dodge. Whoever is hit by these iron balls will die, and if you are lucky, you will die before you can scream. Bad luck broke his hand and foot, and he had to struggle for a while before he died......

And the most terrifying thing is not this smash, but the rebound of the iron ball after hitting the ground. Sometimes it was played higher and flew over the heads of the Bohai warriors. Sometimes if you bounce lower, it's pretty powerful, sweeping straight over a bunch of people's heads. That's a cannonball! No matter what kind of helmet and hood, it will be smashed for you!

After a few rounds of salvo fire, the place where the center of the Bohai Soldiers' large array was bombarded was completely chaotic. Human flesh, brains, and stumps are flying everywhere!

But if you really have to carefully calculate the number of people killed, it's actually not too much. A total of 27 cannons were firing, and several salvos were fired, that is, more than a hundred shells, neither flowering shells nor shotguns, how many people could be killed?

But the problem is that the firepower is concentrated, 27 cannons are aimed at a point bombardment, and more than 100 shells have all fallen on the head of a commander of the Bohai Navy, who has only more than 1,000 people. If more than 100 rounds of flowering shells or shotguns were fired, this commander of the Bohai Navy should have been completely destroyed.

The bombardment, of course, was completely collapsed and chaotic, and everyone from the officers to the non-commissioned officers seemed to be crazy, screaming and fleeing, and in a panic, they rushed out of the friendly formations on the left, right, and rear.

And the Bohai people, who did not suffer from the shells, were also stunned. What's going on? Why is there such a big movement with a bang? There was chaos in their own formation, and the screams and exclamations rang out. In the center of the battlefield, smoke rose, and fire flashed from time to time in front of the opponent's formation...... Is this a legendary demon?

Bohai people all believe in Buddhism, and since there is Buddhism, of course there should also be demon law. Now the demon law on the side of the Youzhou army is very powerful, so what about the Buddhism on the side of Daliao? When will it also be revealed?

Just when the big guy was thinking about when the Dharma would manifest, the continuous cannon fire on the opposite position suddenly stopped.

Why don't you fire a gun?

After the Bohai naval formation, when the cannon sounded, Gao Yongchang flipped off his horse and hid behind a breastwork wall made of grain bags. He had collusion with the Youzhou Army, and of course he knew that there was a firearm called a cannon in the Wuhao Ancient Army, which could use gunpowder and the like to launch iron balls, which were indestructible and indestructible. So this time, when Gao Yongchang was pushed out by the Khitans as a consumable, he did not forget to ask his subordinates to build a very strong chest wall for himself, and when he saw that the signs were wrong, he immediately hid.

So when he heard the sudden cessation of the cannon, he still had the heart to ponder. However, the other party did not give him much time to think, and the cannon rang out again. It's just that this time the object of the shelling was replaced by the two wings of the Bohai Navy.

At the same time, under the cover of the smoke of gunpowder that had not yet dissipated from the battlefield, the crossbowmen and pikemen in the center of the Youzhou army's position began to pounce at a brisk pace towards the center of the Bohai naval formation, which had not yet recovered from the bombardment, accompanied by the sound of military drums.

According to the tactics drawn by Luo Gang after organizing many artillery and infantry exercises. The crossbowmen belonging to the fifth general of the Youzhou Army will rush to the front of the center of the Bohai naval battle formation 20 paces away as fast as possible after the artillery fire has been transferred, send a round of crossbow arrows, and then quickly retreat, giving up the passage of the assault to the pikemen responsible for the final blow...... And the onslaught of pikemen will end today's battle!