Italian artillery, although there is no such strange weapon name in the weapon list of the Ming army in Zhejiang, but Zhang Gongyan knows very well what Chen Wen is referring to, because this thing only arrived in Guangxin Mansion yesterday, and in the plan of siege warfare, the expected effect of this weapon is also not small. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The staff officer gave the order to inquire whether the artillery was ready, and the standard-bearer waved the flag, and the Ming gunners in the trenches in the distance responded quickly after receiving the order.

"Marshal, the siege artillery team is ready."

In the direction of the fortress, the loading of the Ming and Qing armies was still in full swing. In the far trench, which had long been overlooked, four unusual-looking guns had just finished their preparations.

The caliber of these newly shipped guns from Zhejiang is terrifyingly large, and even those shells look very powerful. Without him, compared to the shells of other artillery, it is too big. Relatively speaking, the caliber is huge, and the disadvantage is that the gun body is extremely short, and the firing range is not too far. Especially in the eyes of the Ming artillerymen who are accustomed to using Hongyi artillery with large-caliber artillery, this short and thick body, even if it is larger than the caliber of those giant Hongyi guns of tens of thousands of catties, is seriously lacking the slender beauty of artillery in the traditional sense.

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, since Zhu Yuanzhang swept away the heroes and expelled the tyrants, firearms were the necessary weapons of the Ming army. At that time, artillery was not as it is now, but mostly in a short and thick form.

This kind of artillery is destined to have a lower range than the same caliber but a longer barrel, so with the improvement of artillery manufacturing technology and the introduction of foreign artillery, it gradually disappeared into the arsenal of the Ming army. Especially for the civilian officials who are in charge of the national strategy, range and power are the key, especially range, so that the word security can be associated in their minds.

On the artillery positions specially built for them in the trenches, the angles of the muzzles of these huge cannons were very large, so large that the Hongyi artillery could not have imagined.

"Let's shoot."

Looking from afar with a telescope, Chen Wen heard that the preparations were completed, so he gave the order to attack. As the flag waved, soon there was a loud sound of artillery in the direction of the artillery position.

This new type of artillery is no different from other artillery guns in terms of firing principle, in addition to the huge caliber, there is also a cylindrical medicine chamber inside, which is another special feature. The cannon commander's fuse was lit, the spark drilled into the medicine room, and the first cannon immediately erupted with flames and smoke, and the huge cannonball flew towards the Qing army's fortress at an angle of up to 60 degrees at a speed that did not match its own weight.

The cannonball streaked through an extremely large arc in the sky, and only began to turn and fall until a certain height, flying through a curve of extremely large arcs. The huge cannonballs were whizzing down, but the Qing army was still in full swing at this moment, but the officers of Liu Guangbi and Bu Shilong were the first to notice the sound of artillery in the distance.

"Get down!"

Liu Guangbi's personal soldiers threw it to the ground as they did just now, and after a moment, only heard the sound of "dong", the cannonball did not hit the fortress, and even the moat did not pass, but just now, when the cannonball fell to the ground, a huge vibration came along the ground, and in a trance, Liu Guangbi actually had the illusion that the vibration of this cannon on the fortress was not inferior to the shock caused by the artillery directly hitting the city wall just now.

After the first shot, the second, third, and even fourth shots followed. The shells fell one after another, and the second shot hit a place farther away from the main fort where the first cannon landed, and the shock to the main fort was slightly reduced. The other two cannons smashed directly into the moat, and the water of the moat splashed, and when they landed, the front wall of the main fort and a section of the protrusion on the right side of the main fort were poured into the heart, and even a barrel of gunpowder was wet, and it could not be used again for the time being.

Liu Guangbi and Bu Shilong glanced at each other with palpitations, solid cannonballs, according to the corresponding dosage, size, and weight, these often represent the power, and the moat is not visible, but the two huge cannonballs outside the moat seem to have a pair of invisible big hands that hold the eyes of many Qing troops on the main fort, and even the Ming army on the Half Moon Fort more than 100 meters away also appeared to stagnate in an instant.

A moment later, the artillery of the Qing army on the main fort was reloaded, and the more professional and frequent artillery training on the side of the Ming army, as well as the existence of the fixed charge medicine bag, were also reloaded at the same time.

The shouts of cannon fire rang out at the same time between the main fort and the Half Moon Fort, and the cannonballs whizzed in the direction pointed by the officers of both sides, but they were only two hundred yards away, and almost as soon as the shells flew out, they hit the opponent's fortifications.

Compared with just now, the Qing army's shooting hit rate has been significantly improved, most of the shells hit the area around the Half Moon Fort, and several auxiliaries who were further digging and reinforcing the fortifications in order to connect the Ming army's zigzag trench system with the Half Moon Fort became victims. The casualties came suddenly, although the cannon just now was not without casualties, but the Qing army had already made it clear that they were going to bombard Half Moon Fort, which made the auxiliary soldiers hesitate.

This round of artillery bombardment, the attack on the Half Moon Fort was significantly improved, fortunately, the fortifications in front of the artillery position of the Ming army were also constantly reinforced, the front was fine, and the two sides due to the slow progress of the reinforcement speed, it did cause several casualties of the Ming army, of varying severity.

At the same time, the artillery of the Ming army also blossomed on the main fort of the Qing army, and after the last round of test firing, the effect of this round of shooting was even more amazing, and the shells that hit the side all opened a flesh mill on the main fort, and even the frontal shooting led to more casualties of the Qing army.

"In the siege of Ata, the French cannon's ricochet shot can cause hundreds of casualties to the defenders in the fortress every day, and now the place where our army fires the cannon is closer than the French army, but the artillery has also undergone strict training and battlefield baptism, even if the artillery is inferior, but at this distance, as long as it does not fly, the effect of ricochet shooting will never be bad."

Carrying the telescope, Chen Wen's brain was running rapidly, but before long, he suddenly remembered those "Italian cannons" again.

"Tell them there's no need to rush, we have time."

The "Italian artillery" in Chen Wen's mouth is actually a mortar cannon, which has existed since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, but it was gradually replaced by those direct-fire cannons and disappeared into the armament sequence of the Ming army.

Since he was forced to withdraw his troops under the city of Guangxin Mansion last year, Chen Wen had this idea, and ordered the Military Industry Department to carry out research and development, increase the caliber, adjust the internal structure, and use more scientific aiming technology to enhance the hit rate, which has officially come in handy today. It was this first round of shooting that did not make a good start, which made the soldiers of those artillery groups ashamed.

After removing the slag from the chamber, the loader reloaded, and even the shell was gently put in by the gunner and the two gunners, and then readjusted the angle in order to increase the range by a certain amount.

"Fire!"

Lighting the fuse, the members of the artillery crew immediately covered their ears. The cannonball shot out of the muzzle as scheduled, still with that large arc curve, but this time the landing point did not miss like the last time!

The huge cannonball smashed down on the slope of the dirt hill at the bottom of the fortress, and did not hit the fort wall, but the strength of the vibration was also felt more deeply for the Qing army, so that at this moment, everyone's movements came to a momentary halt as if time had stopped.

However, the shock of the first cannon had not yet dissipated, and the second cannon followed, directly hitting the walls of the main fort. With a loud bang, the sturdy stone walls outside the rammed earth main fort were torn to pieces like paper, and the flying stones not only splashed the moat, but also knocked the survivors who were originally on the Half Moon Fort but were forced to climb down the wall.

The screams of crying sounded, and the third and fourth guns smashed down on the fort wall in turn, especially the fourth gun, which bombarded a small corner of the protrusion on the left side of the Qing army.

The destructive power of the mortar cannon on the city wall not only stunned the Qing army on the main fort at this moment, but even the Ming army on the Half Moon Fort swallowed a mouthful of spit.

The direct fire of the Ming artillery had already caused a lot of damage to the Qing army, but with the number of troops and artillery compared to the small Half Moon Fort, the blow to the morale of the Qing army was not small, but it was not enough to cause a significant drop in its morale for the time being. According to Chen Wen's estimate, there will be a few more rounds of flesh and blood alleys, and when the Qing army finds that the casualties will only be greater if they shoot like this, they will begin to be timid.

However, when the mortar began to exert its power, the fortress walls, which had been strengthened to resist direct shelling, were useless in the face of the curved guns. And when the fort walls, which they had seen with their own eyes that could greatly reduce the damage of shells, became like ordinary city walls, the Qing army, which had always been very conscious of being nothing more than flesh and blood, began to put down more and more loading work and pay more attention to the artillery bombardment of the Ming army, especially the loading progress of the mortar artillery in the distance, so as to find some shelter at the beginning of the shelling.

The defenders behaved like this, Liu Guangbi and Bu Shilong were helpless, and no matter how much they drank the order, they couldn't make these Qing troops refocus on the shooting, but the rhythm of the Ming army on the Half Moon Fort did not change because of this, and the shooting in this area southeast of the fortress soon became a one-man show of the Ming army.

During this period, the Qing army occasionally made one or two noises, but the hit rate of the shooting was not as good as before, probably patronizing to observe the Ming army's shooting, but fortunately to find a hiding place before the shelling, and the work of aiming and resetting also coped with the errands.

For a whole afternoon, after suppressing the artillery of the Qing army, although the Ming army reduced the frequency of fire to protect the artillery, the initiative changed hands, and the wall of the Qing army on that side was already full of holes. The only thing that made Liu Guangbi and them feel strange was that the Ming army did not take advantage of the situation to attack the city, but only continued to shell there, consuming the vitality and remaining morale of the Qing army. It wasn't until after dark that it was over.

Breaking through Hong Chengchou, Chen Wen's troops were still not many, and the fortress was even more restrained by nearly half, so that during this period, his strategy for Jiangxi was only limited to Nanchang, Jiujiang and Fuzhou, and even Raozhou Mansion was not involved. Because he knew that the fleeing Liu Fangming, Hu Quancai, and Li Benshen would not leave him with an intact Raozhou Mansion, and instead of wasting a limited number of troops in this direction, it was better to take advantage of the situation to take down a few other points first.

The fortress has contained the troops, which is a helpless thing, whether it is impossible, but it is also difficult to capture as quickly as Guangxin Mansion City. In addition to the fact that the mortars had just arrived, the speed of the excavation was also an issue.

The excavation work has been carried out for a few days before the current situation has been reached, the guys are not smooth, the number of professional sappers is relatively small, and the courage of those auxiliary soldiers at the beginning is also very small, and they have opened the tunneling route in four directions in one go, which inevitably affects the excavation speed. Fortunately, with this experience, the next time will definitely be better.

The large-scale war has come to an end for the time being, and if the Qing army wants to make a move, why should it be seen in the autumn. Therefore, if there is too much delay in agricultural production, Chen Wen, an auxiliary soldier recruited from Zhejiang, has been transferred back, and he will naturally be disbanded directly when he arrives in his respective county. And those captured Qing army auxiliaries, after the past few days of screening, some of the Qing army's forced conscription has been distributed to dry food for their return home, anyway, he doesn't plan to waste food anymore.

Jiangxi has suffered great population losses in recent years, and this is a large province with a large population that is not inferior to Jiangsu and Zhejiang in terms of population, but now it is a deserted place at every turn, so that these forcibly recruited auxiliaries are not limited to Guangxin Mansion at all, but from several neighboring provinces, and some of them have died before being captured by the Ming army.

To prevent them from returning home, on the one hand, it is to save grain and grass, and on the other hand, there are often many old and weak women and children behind these strong men, and without them to farm at home, in such an era, the chances of survival will be greatly reduced.

Zhuang Ding continues to return to their hometowns, and they will also bring back to their hometowns what they have seen and heard in these days, thinking that the strength of the Ming army will soon spread throughout these neighboring prefectures, and Chen Wen has a happy attitude towards this.

After nightfall, torches were lit throughout the zigzag trench system, as had been done in previous days, and the Ming army was stationed under improvised fortifications, while patrolling the area at night. The Ming army on the Half Moon Fort also took advantage of the night to rotate with the follow-up troops, and has now returned to the big camp in the city to rest.

Today, their performance is excellent, and the reward of big fish and meat is naturally indispensable, and each person can even have a bowl of wine, happy and happy.

A few hours later, late at night, Chen Wen didn't sleep, always thinking that something would happen tonight. Unexpectedly, when he got up to inspect the camp, he saw the direction of the zigzag trench, and a flag flower rose into the air, and after rising to the top, it exploded in brilliant colors.

"The dog jumped over the wall, I said it." (To be continued.) )