The first wave of attacks of the Houjin army came from the north, and Zhu Youzhen followed the sound to the north gate tower, and saw that Yuan Chonghuan was indeed here to supervise the battle. In addition to him, it was Zhu Mei, the deputy general in charge of defending the northern city wall.

Zhu Mei is in her fifties this year, and her temples are like frost. He was also born in the Li family, but he was a man of few words, so although he was an official to a deputy general, he was far less conspicuous than Zu Dashou, Wu Sangui and others. But he was able to take on the heavy responsibility of defending the north with the heaviest pressure, and the other generals had no objections, indicating that he must have something extraordinary.

Zhu Youzhen looked north from the head of the city, and saw a piece of Houjin infantry pressed by the black pressure in the distance, forming a phalanx, slowly pressing over, and couldn't help but say anxiously: "Lord Yuan, General Zhu, why don't you open artillery to bombard the enemy army?" ”

Yuan Chonghuan said with a smile: "Your Highness, the enemy army is still outside the firing range, and our army's artillery shells are limited, so we must use them sparingly." Moreover, these are the Han army flags of the Jianyu, and the combat effectiveness is average, so there is no need to rush to open fire. ”

It turned out that the Houjin army, which was responsible for the first wave of attacks, was indeed the Han army led by Tong Yangzhen with a yellow flag. This is also a common strategy of the Jurchens, first using the surrendered Han army to impact and consume the strength of the Ming army defending the city. The elite Jurchen cavalry, on the other hand, hid out of the range of the cannons. If the Han army breaks through the city wall, it will wait for an opportunity to charge.

Tong Yangzhen knew this, but he didn't dare to disobey his master. Anyway, he is just commanding from behind, and he doesn't have to charge into battle himself, and sending him to death is someone else's death. So he was at ease, and just strictly ordered the Han army to charge.

This first wave of attacks was only used by the Houjin army to test the combat effectiveness of the defenders, so Nurhachi was reluctant to let them use even the commonly used siege equipment, and simply equipped a few ladder trucks.

The ladder car of the Houjin Army is mainly composed of folding ladders, pulleys, ropes, winches, grappling hooks and other components, and there are four wheels under it, which can be pushed forward in peacetime. When encountering obstacles such as the city wall, you can turn the winch, rely on the transmission of pulleys and ropes to raise the folding ladder high, and the grappling hook at the front end of the ladder can grasp the city wall and firmly fix the ladder body. Soldiers climb up the ladder and take the city.

But there are advantages and disadvantages, and this kind of equipment itself is relatively cumbersome, and crossing the moat becomes a problem. It was often necessary to rely on soldiers to fill the moat with earth, first flatten the river, and then push the ladder cart over.

This is exactly how Tong Yangzhen's army attacked. In order to allow the ladder cart to cross the river, most of the soldiers did not carry weapons at all, but carried heavy sacks, which were filled with dirt. At this time, the spring is cold, the ground has not yet thawed, and it is extremely difficult to dig the soil. Since the middle of last night, many soldiers have been digging desperately with their hoes, and their palms have been broken, and they have only dug a small hole in the ground.

Tong Yangzhen didn't care about the life or death of the soldiers, he only desperately urged them to dig the soil, and if anyone moved a little slower, he couldn't help but say that it would be a whip.

And those Jurchen cavalry who supervised the battle were more direct, seeing who was not pleasing to the eye, rushing over was a knife. Overnight, before the battle was fought, the Han army was beheaded by more than a dozen people. These surrendered Han soldiers were all frightened, so they had to dig desperately to fill their pockets with dirt.

Zhu Youzhen watched from a distance as these "engineers" advanced, gradually entering the range of the Hongyi cannon, and said anxiously: "The enemy is getting closer and closer, let's open fire!" ”

The guard general Zhu Mei promised: "Obey!" But he still asked Yuan Chonghuan first. Yuan Chonghuan bowed slightly, signaling that he could open fire. Only then did Zhu Mei order the Hongyi cannon at the head of the city to prepare.

As soon as he gave the order, the gunners immediately got busy, first filling the propellant through the front muzzle, and then carefully putting the spherical iron cannonballs into it. Then rotate the barrel and empirically correct the angle of fire. By the time everything was ready, nearly three minutes had passed.

Yuan Chonghuan saw that Zhu Youzhen was waiting impatiently, and said to him with a smile: "Your Highness, it's going to be on fire soon, please plug your ears!" As he spoke, he plugged his ears first.

Zhu Youzhen had never seen the Hongyi cannon fire at close range, and he was also a little uneasy in his heart, so he hurriedly blocked his ears and watched with bated breath.

I saw that all the gunners scattered in all directions, and only one person stepped forward, lit the long fuse hanging outside the tail fire door, and quickly ran away.

Little by little, the flame approached the fire gate along the fuse, and the time seemed extraordinarily long.

Suddenly, the fire flashed at the head of the city, and there was a loud sound like a landslide cracking the ground, and the entire city wall was shaken. The Hongyi cannon finally erupted with angry flames, throwing the cannonballs far away.

Although Zhu Youzhen had been mentally prepared, he didn't expect that the power of this cannon was so huge, he was shocked and bounced, sat on the ground with his buttocks, and almost smashed his butt into eight petals!

Just as he was grinning, the Ming army at the head of the city let out a cheer: "Hit the enemy!" Hit the enemy! ”

Zhu Youzhen hurriedly endured the pain, grabbed the battlements of the city wall and looked out, and saw that the cannon really smashed into the enemy's ranks.

At this time, Tong Yangzhen's troops were trotting forward in a very dense formation, escorting the ladder truck. This cannonball, which weighed twenty pounds, fell from the sky, and it was really powerful, smashing a line of meat paste in the team! All the soldiers who were hit by shells were no longer simply "fractured", but were smashed to pieces, and they couldn't see the appearance of people at all!

When the traitor army landed, there was a great chaos, and some soldiers threw down the sacks, turned around and ran. It's no wonder that these people may have some courage in the event of a knife-to-knife or gun-to-gun fight with enemy sabers. But this big iron lump that fell from the sky was unavoidable, and it was death and death, who was not afraid?

Tong Yangzhen saw it really clearly in the back, and he was so anxious that he yelled: "No one is allowed to mess up, let General Ben continue to move forward!" Those who take a step back without permission will be killed! ”

He didn't say this to scare anyone. There were more than a dozen soldiers at the back of the team, and as soon as they turned around, Tong Yangzhen waved his hand, and the team immediately fired arrows in unison, shooting these dozen people into a hornet's nest.

Tong Yangzhen personally stepped forward, slashed at these soldiers who were hit by arrows, raised the chopped heads high, and shouted hoarsely: "This is the end of escaping!" ”

Although the soldiers in front had already greeted Tong Yangzhen's ancestor eight generations countless times in their hearts, under the pressure of the supervising team, no one dared to run away anymore, so they had to continue to advance.

Zhu Youzhen saw it really at the head of the city, and when he saw this cannon, he reimbursed at least twenty or thirty enemy soldiers, and it was really a cannon everywhere, all of which were rotten, and he shouted excitedly and laughed: "Good fight!" Keep beating me hard! ”

But he shouted for a long time, but he didn't see the Hongyi cannon firing again, so he had to ask Zhu Mei in surprise: "General Zhu, why don't you continue to open fire?" ”

Zhu Mei bowed and saluted: "Your Highness, the Hongyi cannon has a lot of charges, and the power is huge, and after it is fired, the cannon body is hot." Therefore, it is necessary to wipe out the embers in the barrel with a dipped sheepskin, and wait for the barrel to return to normal temperature before firing again. Otherwise, it may explode, which is very dangerous. ”

Zhu Youzhen's face turned red, thinking that he had traveled from modern times in vain, but he didn't know anything about firearms, and he was not as good as the ancients. I had to laugh awkwardly: "I see." But I don't know how long the interval needs between the two shots of the Hongyi cannon? ”

"If the gunner* is skillful, he can fire twenty times in an hour." Zhu Mei replied.

Zhu Youzhen calculated silently in his heart that an hour is two hours, that is, one hundred and twenty minutes. According to this calculation, it takes six minutes to fire a shot!

He suddenly became anxious, thinking to himself that no matter how powerful the Hongyi cannon was, how much would the enemy have to advance in six minutes! By the time you let the cannon cool, the enemy may rush to the base of the wall!

"It's too slow! Can you think of a way to speed up the shot? ”

After listening to Zhu Youzhen's question, Zhu Mei and the others all looked at each other, thinking that if there was a way, they would have used it a long time ago, and they still used you?

Zhu Youzhen saw that everyone was helpless, and he also twisted his eyebrows and thought hard. Suddenly, he had an idea and said, "Isn't it just to cool down the cannon body faster?" Is it okay to just pour water into the barrel? You can splash water outside! The heat conduction of the metal is very fast, and the heat capacity of the water is large, and the inside and outside are attacked, and it will not be hot for a while! ”

Zhu Mei and the others were dumbfounded. First, they didn't understand what the professional terms "heat conduction" and "heat capacity" meant, and secondly, since the introduction of the Hongyi cannon, they have been following the method taught by the Francophile to wipe the barrel of the cannon with sheepskin, and no one has thought of directly using water to extinguish the fire and cool down.

Seeing that everyone didn't answer, Zhu Youzhen said anxiously: "You can give it a try!" No more! ”

Zhu Mei couldn't resist Zhu Youzhen, so she had to order the gunner to use this Hongyi cannon that had just been fired to do experiments. I thought that if this method didn't work, this cannon would be scrapped if it didn't work.

The gunners had no choice but to take the order, pouring cold water into the barrel of the cannon and pouring water on the cannon at the same time. I saw that the Hongyi cannon was suddenly shrouded in a mist, and the water sizzled.

After a while, one of the gunners shouted in surprise: "Lord Adjutanté, the cannon body is cold, you can open the gun!" ”

Zhu Youzhen estimated that more than a minute had passed, and he was overjoyed, thinking that he was not useless, but he finally came up with an idea!

Zhu Mei was also overjoyed, and immediately ordered the gunner to open fire. This time, instead of using only one cannon, all four mobile cannons were put in, plus four cannons at the two corners of the city wall, and eight cannons were ignited at the same time!

At this time, Tong Yangzhen was also loudly urging his soldiers: "Hurry up and rush me!" Before the opponent's cannon could be fired, quickly fill in the moat! ”

But before he could finish speaking, the Hongyi cannon let out an earth-shattering roar again. Eight shells smashed into the Houjin array, and this time the lethality was even more amazing, killing hundreds of foot soldiers at one time.

This time, the traitor troops were completely frightened, and they didn't care about the overseers behind them, so they threw down the sack and ran away. Tong Yangzhen was still angry and stopped the troops, but who had the kung fu to pay attention to him at this time?

In the Houjin Dazhai in the distance, Nurha stared at the battlefield with an expressionless face, and felt a little surprised in his heart, thinking about how the Hongyi cannon of the Ming army could fire faster than in the past.

Seeing that the casualties of the Eight Banners of the Han Army were too large, he finally spit out a few words: "Let them withdraw first." ”

At the same time, waves of cheers erupted from the head of Ningyuan City: "His Royal Highness King Xin, Qianqiantose!" ”