Chapter 51: No Conscience Cannon

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After Yang Xi received Pang Zhong's report, he was a little disappointed.

What he hoped was that before the rebels found out, the army would drive to the city of Shaanxi County, and give a huge threat to the rebels in the city of Shaanxi County, so that they would panic, and immediately launch a siege war, taking advantage of the rebels' panic, to raise all their strength to break through the city of Shaanxi County, and create a myth in the history of war.

But when he did not arrive at the city of Shaanxi County, the whereabouts of the army were discovered by the rebels' reconnaissance cavalry, Yang Xi blamed the reason on the special training team did not clean up the rebels' reconnaissance cavalry, it seems that the fledgling "Tang Dynasty special forces", the combat strength is still a little worse.

However, Yang Xi didn't have too much to worry about, he knew that if his opponent discovered his whereabouts earlier, the rebels in the city of Shaanxi County would be fully prepared, and they would even send a force out of the city to block it, or set up an ambush in a dangerous place.

In that case, the advance of our army will certainly be hindered, and even heavy losses will not be necessary.

The Chinese army led by Yang Xi is only about fifteen miles away from the city of Shaanxi County, and if Pang Zhong's men and horses advance quickly on fast horses, it will only take about a quarter of an hour to reach the city of Shaanxi County, and the battle will begin in the night, Yang Xi's heart is full of pride, and he immediately ordered the Chinese soldiers and horses led by him to advance at full speed, so that the sergeants transporting firearms and improvised grenades will also move forward at the fastest speed.

At the same time, the Hou army Wang Sili was also ordered to march at the fastest speed they could achieve, and strive to reach the city of Shaanxi County as soon as possible and launch an attack.

Yang Xi's pre-war arrangement was to use the huge power of explosives to destroy the fighting spirit of the defenders at the head of the city, and take advantage of the chaos to enter the city.

After successfully landing the city, the people who ascended the city immediately opened the city gate, and the follow-up army quickly rushed into the city, taking the opportunity to occupy the entire Shaanxi county city.

After Yang Xi's order was issued, the army immediately became lively, everywhere was the sound of people shouting and neighing, all the horses were moving faster, and the sound of horses' hooves made the earth tremble slightly. Yang Xi also whipped and hurried, he wanted to rendezvous with Pang Zhong as quickly as possible and personally command the siege.

The effect of gunpowder being used for the first time in war, he had to observe it for himself.

When the Chinese army led by Yang Xi accelerated its march and marched at the fastest speed that the war horse could reach, the forward battalion of Pang Zhong's department had quickly marched to the west gate of Shaanxi County, and then the rest of the men and horses also arrived outside the west gate one after another, and immediately according to Pang Zhong's orders, the formation was completed and prepared to attack.

The strategic plan was formulated by Yang Xi himself, that is, to abandon the previous attack mode and use new weapons and explosives as the preferred weapon for siege. The destructive power of gunpowder weapons is amazing, and in later generations, various artillery used the power of gunpowder to the extreme, but now Yang Xi has not been able to develop artillery. In order to make artillery, it is necessary to improve in many aspects, and there must be a great improvement in the purity of gunpowder and smelting technology.

For the time being, it was not possible to make long-range and powerful artillery, but this did not prevent Yang Xi from putting gunpowder into the war.

Hundreds of explosive packs and thousands of improvised grenades have been crafted, which can be ignited and thrown onto the city by a catapult, and as long as the lead length is right, the explosive bag can explode when it is thrown at the top of the city or later.

Of course, Yang Xi has more powerful weapons in his hands.

He made many strong iron cylinders, and he was inspired by the "conscienceless cannon" made by the People's Liberation Army in the famous Huaihai Campaign. It is a very simple device, only need to fill a sufficient amount of gunpowder at the bottom of the iron cylinder, and after igniting the gunpowder of the tamponade, you can use the huge thrust generated by the gunpowder combustion and explosion to push out the explosive bag that is stacked in the iron cylinder, and it will ignite the explosive bag at the same time, which is amazingly powerful.

During the Huaihai Campaign, many ** soldiers were shocked to death by the shock wave generated when the explosive package exploded.

Of course, Yang Xi did not make the iron cylinder into such a terrifying diameter as the gasoline barrel used in the Huaihai Campaign, and each iron cylinder he ordered to make now was about one foot or more in diameter, about thirty or forty centimeters, and the diameter of the iron cylinder was longer, about three feet and about one meter. It can be stuffed with about 20 catties of gunpowder in the explosive bag, and the launch distance is about 3400 steps and 500 meters during the Tongguan test. In later generations, a 30-centimeter caliber cannon was already a giant cannon, and its power could scare people to death. It's a pity that Yang Xi is now making such a large-caliber "artillery" with the most primitive means, but the range is not far, and the power is not at all comparable with the howitzers of later generations, and even the power of portable infantry guns is not necessarily comparable.

However, the power of the explosion of twenty or thirty catties of gunpowder is still quite amazing, the thick city wall can blow up a large piece, the huge sound produced by the explosion can deaf people's ears, if there are people near the explosion point, they will almost be stunned by the shock wave generated by the explosion, or even shocked to death.

Just when Pang Zhongbu arrived outside the west gate of Shaanxi County, set up a formation, set up dozens of stone throwers, buried dozens of "unconscionable cannons", and was about to give the order to attack, Yang Xi arrived quickly.

Hearing Yang Xi arrive, Pang Zhong was slightly surprised, and immediately ran to Yang Xi and reported the situation loudly: "Report to the marshal, the last general has already set up the stone thrower and cannon, please give the marshal instructions!"

Hearing that Pang Zhong had set up the attack formation so quickly, and the men and horses who had ascended the city were also ready, Yang Xi was overjoyed, and quickly climbed a nearby hillside with Pang Zhong, took out the telescope he carried with him, and observed the situation at the head of the city of Shaanxi County.

I saw that the city was in a panic, and in the light of the torches, countless soldiers were rushing back and forth, and I didn't need to look carefully at Yang Xi to know that countless rebels had already taken bows and arrows in their hands, ready to meet the attacking Tang army. Soon Yang Xi also put down the binoculars, looked back at Pang Zhong, who was slightly nervous, and calmly gave an order: "General Pang, pass on the order, start attacking!"

"Yes, Marshal!" After Pang Zhong responded loudly, he immediately gave an order to attack a Lang general who was waiting beside him, "Start attacking the city!"

With the voice of the general's consent, several rocket-like objects rose into the air and exploded above the soldiers. As the rocket exploded, countless fire folds lit up, and then countless sparks burned in the night sky. "Put!" I don't know who is shouting the order, but as the sound of continuous "release" sounds, the sparkling explosives bag was thrown by the stone thrower, drawing a line of fire and flying towards the city. And a little later, a huge explosion also sounded, and those earthen "conscienceless cannons" also began to roar, and the huge noise produced when the gunpowder filled in the barrel burned and exploded made many war horses neigh in fright, and also made many soldiers tremble.

Neither man nor horse has ever experienced such a scene, and this is a completely different mode of operation from previous siege battles.

Whether it was Yang Xi or Pang Zhong, after the attack order was issued, they immediately raised the binoculars in their hands and looked nervously in the direction of the city.

No one knows what the effect of the explosives pack will be.