On May 5 of the third year of Chongzhen, a few days earlier than in history, the Ming army began to launch a campaign to recover the four cities in Guannei, the Ming army participated in the battle with nearly 100,000 troops, in addition to the main force of Luanzhou, there was Liu Kexun a Sichuan army to attack Zunhua, Zhu Mei a Guanning army feint to attack Qian'an, Sun Chengzong's army He Kegang contained Yongping.

Luanzhou city under the Ming army's home sentry cavalry whistling back and forth, occupy the battlefield, the people in the camp shouted horse neighing, the sound of drums and trumpets is endless, after the army has eaten early in the morning, a large number of infantry will be the siege equipment out of the camp, placed in the departure area a mile away.

The slaves on the city wall of Luanzhou were waiting for them, and they shouted loudly, directing some Qian'an people to carry earth, stones, and wood.

A mile away from the west city wall, all the infantry of the Wendeng battalion sat on the ground, and the assembly place of the Wendeng battalion was just opposite the west gatehouse, although the emperor asked the Wendeng battalion to guard the artillery, but Sun Chengzong was not a civil official who was stupid to carry out the order, he thought that it was impossible for Jiannu to capture the Hongyi cannon under such circumstances, and acquiesced to Chen Xin's team to attack the city, but when arranging, put the Wendeng battalion and the Hongyi cannon together to complete a literal escort, and did an official article. After Chen Xin comprehended it, he also asked Ma Shilong for the task of vanguard assault.

In order to cope with the street fighting, the Wenden battalion has been reorganized into more flexible combat groups, each group consists of a team of killers and a team of firearms, with the captain of the killer team as the command, each game is divided into five battle groups, each battle group can also be split into two groups by the command, each group is composed of a team of musketeers and a team of killers.

The captains of the flags are seizing the time to make a final operational briefing, emphasizing the use of the combat group after entering the city.

The camp was flanked by soldiers from all over the country, who had pushed out all kinds of engineering equipment, the most numerous of which were the carts and the pointed wooden donkeys, which were to be used to fill the trenches and dig the walls, followed by the trench carts, and behind these were the ladder carts.

Ma Shilong's one-foot six-foot red flag was in the northerly position, and the cavalry of each general army was partially transferred, which would be used for the pursuit after the retreat of Jiannu.

Liu Minyou followed the Chinese army, listening to the endless trumpets and drums around him, he was inevitably nervous, he was the first time to see ancient warfare, or a tough battle. Zhang Erhui, who was with Liu Min, looked at the wall, his eyes were full of hatred, he lost his home because of Jiannu at a few years, and his hatred for Jiannu was no worse than that of Dongjiang refugees.

Chen Xin smiled and said to the two: "Jiannu also wants to defend the city with a few bows and arrows? ”

Liu Minyou withdrew his gaze from the wall and turned to the place fifty steps in front of the Wendeng camp array, where dozens of No. 2 Hongyi small cannons were lined up, and in the place facing the city tower were ten Hongyi cannons of 2,700 catties, and a Guangdong soldier and a Beijing battalion soldier were busy deploying positions, digging some holes in the ground, or putting wooden squares under the gun wheels.

Some of the Cantonese officers who knew how to speak official were explaining to the soldiers of the Beijing battalion, they were holding a booklet to inspect the medicine bags and iron bullets everywhere, and instructing the gunners to reload, and the methods they used were far beyond Chen Xin's original understanding, he thought that it would be a long time before there would be a fixed gun propellant bag, but he did not know that it had already begun to be used, and they were all propellants wrapped in cotton cloth, and each package had a number (Note 1), and after being loaded, the medicine bag was pierced from the fire door with an iron cone, and then the primer was poured on it, and then a gunner covered the fire door with his hand or cloth. Prevent primers from being blown away by the wind.

In addition, there is a group of red-haired and blue-eyed Francophone people, they are busier than Guangdong officers, constantly comparing and calculating with tools, these people are the mercenaries recruited by Lu Ruohan from Macao, in the original history, these people later became the instructors of the Dengzhou Kong Youde Department, and Kong Youde therefore had the capital to be a traitor.

Liu Min observed carefully, those Francois people used a total of four tools, the first is a copper board, the board is painted with many scales, and there is a pendant hanging below, which is used with both hands in front of his eyes, the second is a thing that looks a bit like a vernier caliper, and there is also a pendant, which is inserted in the muzzle of the gun when used, the third is like an ordinary ruler, and the fourth is a monocular.

Liu Minyou asked Chen Xin in a low voice what those things were, Chen Xin also shook his head, he just inquired roughly, only knew that the names were called degree plates, telescopes, gauges and rulers, and the artillerymen could use these tools to observe and sight, as for how to use them, Chen Xin didn't quite understand, he arranged for Huang Side to dig people up after he came down, and he always had to find a few experts.

At this time, Xu Guangqi, who served as the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, gave Chongzhen a note, and when it came to the use of Hongyi cannons, he especially emphasized that the art of observing and aiming at Hongyi cannons is a secret technique of the military state, and it is best to let the reliable sons of nobles practice it. There were many people in the military department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate who opposed letting the Dahongyi cannon out of the city, worried that it would fall into the hands of Jiannu, so Chongzhen personally arranged for the Wendeng camp to guard.

Guan Ning Army also has its own Hongyi artillery, Ningyuan soldiers Sun Yuanhua handed over the artillery team to General Huang Long, all the way with oxen pulled, rushed to Luanzhou, this unit by Sun Yuanhua personally taught them how to shoot, a few people also received the first batch of Franco instructor training in the third year of the Apocalypse, Peng Qigu, who commanded Ningyuan artillery, was one of them. Therefore, the operation level of Ma Shilong and Zu Dashou's Hongyi cannons is relatively high.

Liu Minyou still needs to ask again, Ma Shilong's Chinese army made a golden sound, and the rangers under the city retreated one after another, and then there was a sudden loud noise in front, and a big red cannon retreated sharply, and a black iron bullet flashed in the air, smashing on the edge of the moat under the city wall, stirring up a cloud of smoke and dust.

Chen Xindao: "It's time to start testing the gun." ”

Then a small Hongyi cannon was fired once. It hit the city wall, and a small flower of stone and dust exploded on the wall, and a loud exclamation of Kennu was heard from the top of the wall.

The second killer flag team was listening to Huang Yuan's assignment, and as soon as the cannon was fired, they all turned their heads to see the excitement, but who knew that the cannon stopped again, and Huang Yuan said loudly: "Don't look at it, everyone turns around." This wall is not something that can be broken down in a moment. ”

Zhou Shao'er and the others had to reluctantly turn around, so many Hongyi cannons were fighting, they had never seen them before,

Huang Yuan continued: "The task of our 1,000th headquarters is to intersperse along the small streets, and close the north gate after arriving at the location of the north gate. The 20000 headquarters will attack north along the city wall with one division, and the 30000 headquarters will cut off the main passage after reaching the center of the city along the cross street. After the third part of our sequence of entering the city, after entering the city, our bureau turned north, let go of Ximen Street and let the brothers behind enter, everyone always remember to take the North City Tower as a reference, and must not deviate from the direction. Our bureau is organized into five combat groups, with each killer captain as the team leader, and the firearms captain is the leader of a group after the battle group is split into groups. When fighting on the big streets, the combat group is divided into two armies on the left and right, and when fighting on the small streets, the killers are formed into three small formations, and when the firearms are fired, they come forward to fight. The Jiannu banner at the head of the West Wall has a blue flag, a yellow flag, and maybe some Mongolian tribesmen, we are not afraid of him, and when we need assistance, the team leader blows a bamboo whistle to echo ......"

Chen Ying listened while grinding the dagger, after he put the dagger away, he reached out and touched the waist card, rubbing the three marks on it with his fingers, that were the three Jiannu he killed in Gu'an, only two away from his family's seven people, remembering that a family of seven people looked at his eyes before going out, Chen Ying's eyes were slightly red, and he could never forget that scene.

Huang Yuan had already finished talking about the precautions at this time, glanced at the comrades around him, and finally emphasized: "Everyone remembers, our goal is to control the North Gate Urn City with the 2000th Headquarters, and everything else is a trivial place, and it is not necessary to fight, and it is not allowed to pursue the rout in other directions." Do you understand?"

All the soldiers shouted: "Understood! ”

The soldiers were doing a briefing, Chen Xin was not idle, he and the four thousand total finally confirmed the line, he was still focused on closing the north gate, anyway, Sun Chengzong did not stipulate the line, since it could not be blocked from the outside of the city, it was encircled from inside the city, the Ming army's attack plan was very rough, the attack boundary was divided by the city wall, and there was no specific plan for the action after entering the city.

Therefore, Chen Xin planned to use the third part to control the central cross street, divide the Jiannu forces, the first part closed the north gate, and the second part attacked the north gate along the city wall, but the city wall was difficult to deploy troops, he only invested in the second division of a division, and the remaining division was controlled by Chen Xin himself, and then entered Ximen Street after the aforementioned forces were deployed, and supported the north gate and the intersection of the cross street at any time. How many Jiannu can be blocked depends on the speed of the Wendeng battalion's action, and Chen Xin's requirements for all departments are to be brave and swift, and not to disperse troops in secondary places. As for the cavalry, Chen Xin asked Zhu Guobin to stay outside the city and decide the timing of the attack at his own discretion, but asked not to go outside the north gate unless Ma Shilong dispatched him, because Sun Chengzong said in front of many people at the conference, how could Chen Xin dare to offend the military order.

The premise of these plans is to conquer the West Gate, Chen Xin does not know how powerful the Hongyi cannon is on the city wall, it is best to collapse part of the city wall of the urn city, Luanzhou has a total of more than 1,000 Jiannu, the four city walls are divided, there are only a few hundred on one side, and hundreds of Jiannu can never stop the infantry of the Wendeng camp, and there are street restrictions in the city, and Jiannu's ability to ride a horse is not needed, such an environment is a good time to kill Jiannu, once released, Chen Xin himself has no confidence, not to mention those friendly troops.

The artillery position in front of a loud trumpet, the gunners raised their ignition forks and sticks in their hands, several Guangdong officers rushed back to the artillery position from Ma Shilong's Chinese army, Chen Xin saw this, knew that it was about to start, sent the three chief officers back to the queue, and he was waiting in the Chinese army to watch the performance of the Hongyi artillery. －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

Note 1: The kit and classification number of the fixed cannon are not high-tech, and the "Soldiers" and "Western Law Divine Machine" have recorded this...... First use an iron nail into the fire door, and then use the fire door medicine ......".

Xu Guangqi's recital mentions the Hongyi artillery observation method, mentioning the use of telescopes, and it can be inferred that the Francophone or Ming artillerymen should have been using telescopes.