readx; The explosion suddenly broke out, the smoke of gunpowder rose into the air, and all the thieves were so frightened that they fled in all directions, and some of them even lay down directly, and the artillery they thought was hidden somewhere by the officers and soldiers opened fire again. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info but after waiting for a long time and not seeing any more movement, they realized that the situation just now was completely different from the shell bombardment.

The officers and troops in Shaanxi were not equipped with flowering cannons, and they fired solid shells. Although the power is amazing, it kills when touched, but the shell itself does not explode, and a loud noise comes from the muzzle. But just now, it was a series of explosions that were close in front of me, blowing up more than a dozen thieves into the air. Looking at the ground again, more than a dozen shallow craters were blown out, which was by no means the effect of artillery shells.

Although everyone was inexplicable and couldn't understand what was going on, they couldn't help but continue to run for their lives, so they hesitated for a moment and began to walk south along the path again. But he didn't go far when another explosion occurred, killing several thieves. Now everyone can see it clearly, there are no shells at all, and this explosion happened suddenly on the road!

"Could it be... Thunder on the ground?! An old thief from the border army said in a trembling voice.

"What do you mean by 'thunder in the ground'?" Gao Yingxiang asked nervously.

The thief hurriedly replied: "When the little one was on the border of Yulin, he once heard a general banner boast after drinking, saying that he had read a military book with many strange firearms drawn on it, and one of them was called 'Thunder from the Ground'. It is made of explosives in iron cylinders and buried in the ground, connected to the ground by a fuse. This fuse is tied to something, such as a knife or gun, as long as someone picks it up and pulls the fuse, it will detonate the explosive. But no one has ever seen the real thing, so I don't know if it's true or not. ”

Gao Yingxiang felt like listening to a book from heaven, how could this be possible? Even if this is really what the people say, how could it cause an explosion when no one was picking up something on the ground just now?

In fact, the thief really guessed correctly, and it was the latest firearm developed by the military factory that caused them heavy damage: landmines!

Landmines were a weapon that was common in previous lives. When Zhu Youzhen was very young, he was a fan of the old movie "Mine Warfare". Later, he also read reports that the US military laid millions of landmines in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and the Vietnamese have been clearing mines since then, and they have not been cleared up until now, and there are reports from time to time that landmines have killed people.

This kind of weapon is inexpensive and simple to manufacture, but it is extremely concealed and very lethal, and it is a sharp weapon to prevent the enemy's infiltration, so it is widely used. Although its use was later banned by international conventions, millions of new mines are planted each year.

Zhu Youzhen also wanted to make landmines for a long time. If a large number of mines can be planted in front of important passes such as Shanhaiguan, the difficulty of the Eighth Banner Army entering the customs will be greatly increased, and the cost of laying mines is much lower than that of building cities and garrisoning troops. As for what international conventions, in his eyes they are pure nonsense, the enemy is going to destroy your country and extinct your species, what kind of morality and conventions do you still tell him?

However, he did not understand the principle of landmines at all, and the production capacity and talent reserve of military factories were very limited, so he mainly focused on the large-scale production of mature firearms such as bird guns and rapid-fire guns, and invested relatively little in the research and development of new weapons.

However, the successful development of the string grenade gave great encouragement and confidence to Zhu Youzhen, Sun Yuanlong, Wei Zhen, and other military experts. Zhu Youzhen really believes it now, what the old man said is not wrong at all, and the wisdom of the people is infinite. As long as he proposes the concept of a new weapon, skilled craftsmen will certainly have a way to realize it, and it is nothing more than a matter of time, difficulty and cost.

Of course, things that are too advanced, such as airplanes and tanks, are too different in terms of relevant science and technology to be made now. But as soon as Zhu Youzhen mentioned such things as landmines, Wei Zhen pointed out that this kind of thing actually existed for a long time.

Zhu Youzhen still couldn't believe it, and Wei Zhen immediately found a Ming Dynasty military classic called "Fire Dragon Sutra". This book appeared in the Jiajing period, but it was not taken seriously by the people of the time. It wasn't until it was auctioned off by the Wuzhou Trading Company and sent to the military factory that Sun Yuanlong and Wei Zhen's master and apprentice saw it as if they had found a treasure and studied it all night.

Among them, there is such a paragraph: "The bombing is made of pig iron, on an empty stomach, with a pestle of medicine, into a small bamboo tube, with a fire line inside, and a long line through the fire groove outside." Choosing the only way to go, dozens of them were buried in the pit, the medicine trough was connected to the steel wheel, and the soil covered the thief did not know. Stepping on the engine, it shook up, the iron was like flying, and the flames soared into the sky. ”

Zhu Youzhen was overjoyed when he saw it, because it not only explained the principle of the explosion of landmines, but also the specific manufacturing methods and methods of use. It seems that this is the most widely used trigger mine in the previous life, and the principle is to complete the process of stepping on the mine, pulling the line of fire, and detonating the explosive through a simple mechanical device "steel wheel", which is somewhat similar to the string grenade.

In addition to this kind of mine, there is really a "thunder in the ground" that the thief said in the "Fire Dragon Sutra", which is actually a kind of thunder. Tricky thunder can induce the enemy to trigger, and it is easier to kill and injure the enemy than stepping on a mine, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but admire the wisdom of his ancestors.

However, the record on the "Fire Dragon Sutra" is only an idea, and turning the idea into a design, and then evolving from a design to a physical object, requires the hard work of military experts and craftsmen. The development of the mine was approved in early summer, and the trial production was successful, and the battle to defend the Beijing division was over. If the mines can be developed two or three months early and mass-produced, and when the Qing army withdraws from the customs, they will be buried in pieces at Xifengkou and other places, what kind of effect will it be!

When Zhu Yousong and Hong Chengchou rebelled, Zhu Youzhen thought that it was time for this new weapon to be tested in actual combat. At this time, mines were still in the development stage, and there was no large-scale production, and it was not suitable to lay mines in a densely populated and flat place like the Central Plains. Zhu Youzhen sent two truckloads of mines and four craftsmen who were specially responsible for laying mines to Tongguan for Sun Chuanting to use as he saw fit.

The mines on the trail were laid by Li Dingguo and these craftsmen. When the thief in front steps on the handle of the steel wheel buried in the soil, the handle drives the steel wheel to rotate rapidly, and the lead wire wrapped around the steel wheel is pulled quickly, and a spark bursts out and ignites the fuse. The explosives that ignite the fuse inside the mine immediately cause a violent explosion, and these mines are all strung together, and they all explode in one explosion, so the power is amazing.

After several mines, the devastated thief refused to go any further. Gao Yingxiang was helpless, so he had to order his subordinates to abandon the road and trek forward from the mountains on both sides of the road. In fact, Li Dingguo did not bury many mines, because the Communist Party was the only one. But the thieves did not know this, and would rather go through the mountains than risk the mines.

As a result, the thieves retreat more slowly. After another day and night, there were less than a thousand people left around Gao Yingxiang, and the rest were either left behind or took the opportunity to slip away. Fortunately, it finally crossed the Python Ridge, the terrain gradually calmed down, and Shangzhou City was already in sight.

All the thieves breathed a sigh of relief, endured extreme hunger and fatigue, and stumbled towards Shangzhou.

Unexpectedly, less than a mile away from the city, the north gate of Shangzhou City suddenly opened, and a team of cavalry suddenly rushed out, going straight to the thieves to kill, and at the same time shouted loudly: "Capture Gao Yingxiang alive!" ”