Jin Guo experienced the power of artillery as early as when he competed with Zhao Ta for Liaoxijing, and naturally wanted to have this kind of large-scale killing weapon, but it was limited to the technology at that time, and they were in their heyday, and they were invincible against Western Xia and Khitan, so they did not make manufacturing and research and development artillery a top priority. After that, the Jin Kingdom went south twice to the Song Dynasty and plundered a large number of craftsmen, and obtained the method of making gunpowder and the method of making many firearms, thinking that with these they could compete with Zhao Ta's new army.

With Zhao Ta's ascension to the throne, after the comprehensive reorganization of the forbidden army, two large-scale wars broke out with the Jin State for Yanyun and aid to Goryeo, the Jin army was defeated, and the captured firearms could not compete with the artillery of the Song army, which made them realize that without the help of firearms, they would have to pay a heavy price if they wanted to defeat the new Song army. This also began to make them think of ways to get the firearms equipped by the Song army.

However, the road of developing firearms in the Jin Kingdom was a bumpy and difficult one, and they initially used guò theft, collection of weapons lost on the battlefield and captured weapons as a model for imitation of guns and artillery, and obtained a batch of goods that were only in their form and could not be used at all. So they used bribery, bribery and other means to recruit a few craftsmen from the Great Song Dynasty Arsenal Workshop, and under their guidance, they tried to make firearms, and really made a repeater gun and artillery similar to the standard weapons equipped by the Song army.

However, because Zhao Ta has always regarded the manufacture of firearms as the top secret of the Great Song Dynasty, especially the formula of gunpowder is in his own hands, so the Jin army faced the embarrassment of having guns without bullets, and the trial production of Lianzhu guns completely failed. They could only concentrate on the imitation of artillery, and finally created the simplest breech artillery, but they lacked professional personnel. It is impossible to understand the mystery, and the details of it are not clear. In particular, the ratio and dosage of propellant with stronger professional technology, and the use of gun gauges. The use of different long and short fuses and so on are confused, so that accidents continue in use, and the range and accuracy are very different from those of the Song army's artillery.

In the face of the Great Song Dynasty pressing step by step and the imminent war, the monarchs and ministers of the Jin State still couldn't wait to train the troops with this new type of weaponry, and they were personally given the title of 'Thunderbolt Army' and hid it as a secret weapon, and the manufacture of artillery and the training of the troops were strictly kept secret from the outside world, so that the intelligence network of the Great Song Dynasty only captured some clues. Therefore, this unit of the Jin army is only stored in the archives of the Great Song Intelligence Agency. It has not been possible to know the details of this force, let alone their equipment and combat effectiveness.

After the Northern Expedition of the Song Army, it was unstoppable to attack the city all the way, but it was reluctant to take out this treasure until the Song Army approached the Beijing Division and handed it over to Wanyan Yanying for dispatch. Originally, Wanyan Yanying arranged the 'Thunderbolt Army' at the ferry along the Mingtong River to prevent the Song army from crossing the river. However, Wushu insisted on fighting a battle in Zhaozhou, and because of Wanyan Yanying's tactics of surprise attack to eliminate the advance of the Song army, the artillery could not float across the river together and missed the first battle. After the pontoon bridge was erected, Wanyan Yanying transported the artillery to the north bank. I want to use it when raiding the camp of the Song army, so as to work wonders. But because of the change in the battle situation, it was not put into the battlefield, but it came in handy when withdrawing the army......

The Song army rolled in formation, crushing several golden generals who tried to intercept them on the way. Crossing the city of Zhaozhou, which had already burned the city in a sea of fire, he came to the river, and stopped five hundred steps before the Qingshan to form a formation. Zheng Ping urged the horse to the front of the battle, although there was no moon at night. But there is the small sun of Zhaozhou City illuminating, and the battlefield shape shì can be seen at a glance. I saw that the front of the sand beam was full of rejecting horses and foothills, and the slope leading to the sand beam was full of crossbowmen. At the top is the cavalry that wants to charge on horseback, and although it is impossible to see it behind, it is clear that there must be reinforcements behind.

The Jin army's formation was strictly organized, obviously it had been prepared for a long time, and Zheng Ping also understood that its intention to defend such a formation was not to attack. The obstacle in front of the formation is to stop the cavalry from charging or slow down the speed of the impact, and the crossbowmen on the slope can take the opportunity to shoot a dense rain of arrows to kill the Song cavalry, and if they still can't stop the impact, the cavalry on the top of the beam will condescendingly launch a counterattack, so as to thwart the enemy's charge and ensure that the army behind can cross the river along the river.

"Hmph, change the soup but not the medicine!" Zheng Ping saw the formation of the Jin army and snorted coldly and said, their formation seems to be strict and orderly, and there are no flaws, but they basically follow the set of tactics of defending the city, in fact, it is not easy to draw the ground into a prison, but it makes it impossible to give full play to the advantages of their strong troops. If you don't use this style of play even if you fight with your back, you will rely on the superiority of your strength to fight with the enemy, and even if you can't win, the enemy will lose the ability to attack again, and then cross the river safely.

"The artillery army moves forward, destroys the obstacle in front of the sand beam, kills and injures the crossbowmen on the beam, and disrupts the enemy ambush formation behind the sand beam!" Zheng Ping ordered, he even went through the boundary trench that they fortified much tighter than this, why not be afraid of this sand hill, but this also greatly messed up his plan to take advantage of the chaos to attack the whole line to drive the Jin army down the river, "Li Gong, after the artillery opens the way, you will quickly break through the enemy's defense line with one part, defeat the defenders on the sand beam, take advantage of the enemy's confusion to break into the river beach and divide the enemy into two parts, and drive them to the east and west; Zhang Shengkui and Jiang Wei, you each led your troops to spread out at both ends of Shaliang to encircle and annihilate the fleeing enemy army; The Kryu infantry quickly followed up after the dragoons opened the breach, and after consolidating the breach, they advanced to both sides to capture Shaliang. ”

Concentrated artillery for fire assault before the offensive has now become the standard tactic of the Song army, and commanders at all levels can skillfully use it. The artillery battalions of the three armies immediately spread out a hundred steps forward, and with a command, rapid-fire guns fired the first round of fire with solid shells and mortar guns with flowering shells to break the barriers, and under their combined attack, these seemingly solid obstacles instantly disappeared into piles of broken wood.

......When the Song army's artillery broke through the obstacle and finished shooting, when the firing angle was adjusted to prepare for extended shooting, the fire on the sand beam suddenly flashed, making a thunderous explosion, and even overshadowed the salvo of the Song army's artillery just now, and more than a dozen cup-sized iron balls fell in front of the Song army's artillery position, fortunately this is sandy land, and the shells did not bounce and jump, otherwise they would have smashed into the feet of the Song soldiers.

"The Jin Army also has artillery?!" Although the enemy's artillery fire did not hit, but the shock to the Song army was not small, they always thought that only their own army had this kind of big killing weapon, and was proud of it, but they did not expect that today the enemy also has, then their own firepower advantage will be gone.

"Quickly identify the location of the enemy's artillery, suppress and destroy it!" Zheng Ping was a veteran of the battlefield in the end, and after being surprised, he quickly calmed down and gave an order.

'Bang, bang...... several mortars fired several flares into the air one after another, and the situation on the sand beam was visible at a glance under a strong light.

"Heavy artillery?!" Deng Fei, who was in charge of commanding the artillery of the three armies in the Dading Pacification Division, saw clearly the enemy's artillery on Shaliang by the light of the flares, and startled him.

"I joined the army, forty-five enemy artillery, arranged at twenty paces intervals, breech charge, caliber unknown!" The artillery observer quickly reported the observed situation to Deng Fei.

"...... to join the army"

"What's the matter, say, dumb!" When the second round of enemy artillery fire was fired, the observer was halfway through his words, and Deng Fei asked urgently.

"When you join the army, you can judge that it should be heavy artillery by listening to the sound of artillery and external features, but the firing range of the enemy's artillery seems to be only about 200 paces, and it is impossible to determine the type of artillery." The observer was also confused by the situation before him, and did not know how to respond.

"The rapid-fire guns fired continuously to suppress the enemy artillery, and the mortar guns fired flowering shells to cover the shooting, closely monitoring the enemy's positions." Deng Fei didn't care to think about it, he knew that the biggest weakness of the breech artillery was that the loading procedure was cumbersome, the firing speed was slow, and he could only use them as heavy artillery without knowing the specific power of the enemy's artillery, so he had to suppress them before the enemy's second round of artillery fire fell.

"The target enemy artillery group, at a distance of two hundred paces, at an angle of forty, rapid-fire guns of each battalion, in teams, solid shells, five rapid shots suppressed fire; Mortar cannons, flowering shells, carry out cover shooting, kill and injure enemy gunners! "After receiving the order, each artillery battalion quickly adjusted the firing elements according to the divided range and prepared to shoot.

"The artillery battalion directly under the Krup Army has completed the preparation for firing and requests a test firing!" Guantong whistle guò the flag from the other party reported to the commander Deng Fei.

"Permission to shoot." Deng Fei ordered, and then the other two battalions also reported that the shooting preparations were completed, and soon the rumbling cannon sound became the main theme of the battlefield again, and the Great Song artillery conducted the world's first hot weapon confrontation without preparation and combat experience......

"Jiang Wei, the enemy situation is unknown now, but the enemy artillery poses a great threat to our army, you order the infantry to step forward and launch an attack to seize the enemy's artillery position and open the way." Zheng Ping looked at the battlefield filled with artillery fire and gunpowder smoke and said, he knew that artillery had great lethality to the cavalry in the charge, and even if the assault was successful, it would pay great casualties, so without knowing the enemy's artillery army, he decided to attack with infantry first.

"Yes, I personally led the team to seize the enemy's artillery position." Jiang Wei perked up, he also wanted to see what Jin Jun's cannon looked like.

"Marshal, our hussars can also seize the enemy's artillery positions, why give way to the army?" The first attack mission was snatched away before his eyes, Li Gong said unconvinced.

"The enemy has changed, and now the artillery is suppressing the enemy artillery, and there is no time to take care of those crossbowmen, so you just rush up and don't become a hedgehog." Zheng said with a flat face.

"Little brother, listen to the words of the big handsome, when we give you the way, you can go again!" Zheng Ping smiled and patted Li Gong's shoulder with a smile and smiled. He then transferred the 5th Brigade and quickly assigned the task, and the troops could be deployed, and under the cover of machine guns, they lined up a skirmish line and launched an assault on Shaliang...... (To be continued......)