Chapter 115: The Power of Artillery

For Yeli's departure, the generals of the Xia army were not surprised, for them it was not who they were with, the main thing was that their tribe should be able to survive, be annexed by others or annexed by others, around them, they were all things that happened from time to time, this is the status quo, a phenomenon determined by their special social structure.

The Western Xia itself was composed of many nomadic tribes, including the strength of the party, which was a matter of integrating many tribes, so they had a very strong tribal consciousness and formed a "concentric circle" political identity concept: their loyalty objects always expanded in the direction of "family-tribe-tribal alliance-state", and the further they went, the worse their loyalty and the more indifferent their feelings became. This kind of sectarianism and tribalism is embodied in political life, which on the one hand can easily lead to family politics, cronyism and crony capitalism; On the other hand, it is also easy to cause those in power to be hostile and distrustful of other tribes and sects, and show no mercy in suppressing the resistance of other tribes and sects.

In the minds of these people, "the winner wins, the loser loses", and if those in power give up power, it can mean the loss of everything they have, even their lives, so there is rarely a mutual compromise or political win-win situation between the two sides of the fight. The change of power, in these tribes, seems to be a violent conflict of life and death, they would rather fight to the death than give up power, because everyone understands that once they lose power, they will be 'settled after the autumn', and the end will be their wives and daughters become the playthings of others, and their own people will become slaves of others!

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On May 21, Li Jifeng personally came to the front of Yamato Village to supervise the battle, he concentrated more than 5,000 people of the four military supervisors to take turns to go into battle, holding a shield under the cover of the strong crossbow army, each carrying a bag of soil forward, after dumping the soil in the trench, immediately retreated, this method worked very well, although from time to time someone was shot dead and wounded, but the trench was still filled in most of it, and the strong crossbow army followed forward, shooting out an overwhelming rain of arrows, the Song army was like growing a forest of arrows in front of the formation!

Under the attack of fearless death, the trench was filled in little by little, and the Song army gradually could not withstand it, although there was still a collapse, but it continued to retreat into the city. Li Jifeng looked at the scene in front of him and was very happy, diluting the troubles of Yeli leaving the army without permission, with a wave of the horse whip in his hand, the herald ordered the soldiers to swing the flag, the negative soldiers withdrew, the gate of the formation was wide open, and a team of brave soldiers wearing leather armor and holding various weapons lined up in front of the formation.

The Western Xia established the country with bows and horses, and Li Yuanhao formed a multi-arm tiger and wolf division composed of infantry and cavalry, supplemented by the 'Splash Xi Army', 'Strong Crossbow Army', 'Capture Army', 'Sailors', 'Crashing Linglang' and other armies. In addition to organizing the 'clan soldiers' composed of party Xiang Qiang, this Lang Ling also added 'clan soldiers'. The so-called non-clan soldiers refer to the selection of brave and good fighters from among the captured Han people to form an army, named 'Bang Linglang', so that they can charge in front, which can reduce the casualties of the party's army, to put it bluntly, it is cannon fodder. This can be seen from the weapons in their hands, iron is a scarce material in Western Xia, in order to make up for the shortage, there are even copper, porcelain, wooden weapons, look at the copper javelin, bronze medal, porcelain thistle, wooden oar, wooden deed in their hands to know their position in the army.

"There is an order for the unified army, and the first person to set foot on the city will be turned into the regular army, and will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver, two horses, and two camels. A group of herald cavalry rushed out of the middle army, shouting orders as they ran. There must be brave men under the heavy reward, and Lang Ling is the lowest soldier in the Xia army, and even the negative soldier whose status is not as good as that of the miscellaneous service, and it is a step to the sky to be able to turn positive.

"Roar, roar...", the Bang Lang Lings expressed their excitement with their hoarse roars, and at this time, the fierce drums sounded, and the cannon fodder formed a team of 100 people, forming a phalanx and walking slowly into a fast walk, and then becoming a trot, rushing forward towards the 'ideal', and the formation changed again, becoming a sharp arrow formation. …,

When he was still three hundred steps away from the city gate, he suddenly found that an earthen wall in front of the city wall was pushed open, followed by a loud sound of firelight, a small black dot flew towards his queue, and the small black dot became bigger and bigger in his eyes, but there was no time for him to distinguish what it was, so he heard a string of screams, he turned his head and saw that the head of his companion was gone, and the people behind him lay down in a row, some of their chests and abdomen were pierced, and some covered their arms and legs and lay on the ground screaming, but the culprit of all this-- A cup-sized iron ball stumbled forward a few times before sinking into the dirt.

"What is this?" Before he could wake up from the shock, he heard a loud bang again, and he only had time to subconsciously raise the shield to protect his head, face and chest, and felt a strong impact on the shield, and the hardwood shield that could resist the strong arrow seemed to turn into a piece of paper, and it became fragments in an instant, and then he clearly heard the shattering sound of his arm bones and sternum, and his eyes were dark, and his body fell on the frozen ground that had just melted...

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"Mortar artillery team, target Xia Army bow and crossbow team, three hundred steps away, flowering bullets!" Zhao Xiao observed the situation of Xia Jun, and he didn't know whether Lu Dao was excited about the first battle or because of nervousness, and his voice trembled slightly.

"Blossom bomb, three hundred steps!" The leaders of the various artillery groups of the mortar artillery who received the order loudly repeated the captain's order.

"Reloaded!" One of the ammunition men stuffed a powder bag tightly wrapped in linen into the chamber of the pot-bellied gun, blocking a thin wooden board of similar caliber to the chamber, and the other ammunition man quickly wrapped a shell tightly in linen, inserted a letter tube into the chamber, and then reported in a loud voice.

"Reloaded!" The team leader inserted the fuse into the ignition hole at the end of the gun, and the pointed letter tube pierced through the cloth bag containing the gunpowder, and he reported loudly to the team leader.

"Put!" Zhao Xiao waved the red flag in his hand and roared, and the igniters on each gun position quickly stepped forward, and the torches in their hands burned on the letter tube inserted in the tail of the gun, and the letter tube spewed out sparks, and everyone immediately covered their ears and opened their mouths, squatting on the ground and burying their heads. After the explosion, they did not care to observe the results of the battle, the ripper immediately stepped forward and stabbed the barrel a few times with a brush dipped in water, and the other immediately wiped the chamber dry with a dry cloth, in order to extinguish the sparks in the chamber and clean up the residue of the burning gunpowder, although tedious, but essential.

Although the mortar cannon has a slow rate of fire, it is powerful, it can fire a projectile of ten catties at a distance of four hundred paces, in the roar, a cannonball the size of a football soars into the air, the gunpowder in the letter tube is ignited by the propellant, and the fire flies up more than ten zhang high and then falls into a parabola, exploding at a height of one or two feet from the ground, the broken shrapnel, the broken iron filings filled in the projectile are scattered under the stimulation of gunpowder, and the Xia army crossbowmen within ten steps around the explosion point are not divided into tall and short dead and wounded, and those who are not dead are also frightened by the loud noise and the tragic situation in front of them. Immediately, several huge holes appeared in the phalanx.

Zhao Xiao commanded the mortar artillery detachment to suppress the enemy's archers, and Zhao Xiao took over part of the command and commanded the rapid-fire artillery detachment to intercept and fire at the advancing Bang Lang Order. Although solid bullets are powerful and penetrating, they also have the disadvantage of having a narrow attack surface. The Bang Lang Commanders were frightened and wanted to turn around, but behind them were the warlords armed with bows and crossbows, and those who retreated were immediately shot, advancing to death, and retreating to death, forcing them to keep moving forward.

"Target infantry, shotgun, two hundred steps!" As an operational staff officer, Zhao Yan still knew about this, observed the enemy situation and gave orders, and the herald quickly conveyed the orders to each gun position. The gunners immediately replaced the shotgun cartridges, this guy was charged two and a half pounds, and inside was more than 200 iron pellets the size of soybeans, which could form a fan of 40 paces from 200 paces away from the muzzle, which could effectively stop the attacking infantry. …,

"Boom..." The five rapid-fire cannons fired one after another, and the deafening sound of the cannons covered up the screams of the Xia soldiers, but it could be clearly seen that the Xia army was put down in pieces, just like the wheat fields blown by the wind during the summer harvest, and the sharp arrow array immediately concave and turned into a glaive array.

After the silence, after the 'rumbling' cannon on the battlefield, the camps of both sides suddenly fell into a dead silence, the power of the artillery fire shook the whole audience, the soldiers of the Xia army stood stunned in place, and the wounded soldiers seemed to be unable to accept the reality of missing arms and legs; the gunners of the Xiangyi army who opened the cannon were also a little distracted, it was too terrifying, and a lot of artillery training was put out, and it was the first time that it was used to hit people, and after a few rounds of artillery fire, the smoke of gunpowder dissipated, and the ground was covered with torn bodies, and half of the remaining ones could still stand.

Imagine that no matter how strong a bow is in front of the two armies, it is only one arrow and two holes, but in front of the artillery that can shatter people with a single shell, it is like an old and weak old man standing side by side with a fierce butcher. The ramming orders were hazy with greedy tears in the fragmentation, but the companions who could trust life and death were scattered in a blink of an eye, and understood the true meaning of 'cannon fodder' from the broken bones. This made everyone feel terrified, and even the generals of the Song army defending the city secretly rejoiced, fortunately, this terrifying weapon was in the hands of their own people!

After the shock, there was an outburst of exhaustion, the spirit of the Bang Lang Commanders collapsed, desperately turned around and retreated, where was there any order, only panic and instinct remained, this fear exceeded the bows and broadswords in the hands of the overseers behind them, they shouted a roar that was not like a human voice, just thinking about escaping from this blood-red hell, all those who stood in front of them, whether they were brothers or the overseers who were usually afraid of tigers, would be killed and trampled by them without appreciation....

"Those who retreat from the battle will be killed!" Ye Li looked at the scene in front of him and said coldly, he knew very well in his heart that these people were useless, and they no longer had the courage to pick up swords and guns to fight, but would only infect everyone with terror and mess up the morale of the army. Following Yeli's order, a team of crossbowmen stepped forward and fired several rounds of arrows at the retreating Raiders, and those who escaped back to the team were immediately beheaded by the Overseers, and a gust of wind blew, and a disgusting and fishy wind drifted to every corner.

#c