……

"Marshal Qiqi, the interior of Tucheng has been chaotic, and there is no enemy in sight at the head of the city, General Xia ordered his subordinates to ask, can you launch an offensive?"

"Reply to Xia Yu and tell him that without my military order, you must not act rashly!"

"Whoa!"

On the periphery of Tucheng, the Han army has already lined up and stood solemnly, and the three armies of Baiqi, Xia Yu and Tian Yan surrounded the four city gates in the east, south and north, leaving only the west gate without soldiers, in order to surround the three queyi and disintegrate the last trace of fighting spirit of the noble widow army in the city.

Bai Qi put down the speculum and said to Lu Yu on the side: "General Lu, you lead the people of your headquarters to take a detour to the west road to train and find a suitable ambush location.

In the event that the enemy breaks through through the West Gate, be sure to intercept it halfway again and wipe it out in one fell swoop. ”

"Whoa!"

Lu Yu roared, turned his horse, and led his three thousand five hundred horsemen to ride towards the west road.

Waiting for Lu Yu to leave, Bai Qi turned over and dismounted, and came to the front of the artillery battalion in front of the column and the front with great interest.

Looking at the thirteen cannons lined up, Bai Qi couldn't help but have a cruel smile on his face.

"What instructions does Bai Shuai have?"

The general in charge of the artillery battalion is named Dong Xuan, who seems to have an innate talent for the use of artillery, and has mastered a lot of ways in just one year after practicing such a sharp weapon of the country that has just come out.

With Dong Xuan's efforts, the artillery battalion had preliminary surveying and mapping tools, and even improved the scale calibration scheme proposed by Liu Ce, which made his artillery battalion's shooting accuracy qualitatively improved and greatly enhanced the deterrence of artillery.

Dong Xuan had a dream, hoping that one day he could personally lead a firearms unit with hundreds of artillery pieces to clear Liuhe for the Han Dynasty and pacify the world.

And Bai Qi also promised him that as long as the battle of the noble widow was over, he would be allowed to go to Chang'an with him, and he would personally talk to Liu Ce.

This made Dong Xuan even more high-spirited, and secretly vowed to show himself well in this battle.

Bai Qi inspected the artillery circle, and then asked, "General Dong, is there anything else you need help from this artillery battalion at the moment?" ”

Dong Xuan said with a smile: "Qi Yu Bai Shuai, right now, the artillery camp is full of bullets and gunpowder, and it is not a problem to hold out until the end of this battle.

I only hope that Bai Shuai will ask the court for more artillery in the future, after all, the number of artillery in this artillery battalion is still less.

If there were twenty or thirty pieces of artillery, an earthen city like the one in front of me would be able to collapse in one volley. ”

Bai Qi nodded, he also realized that the traditional cold weapon battlefield in the past, with the skillful application of a large number of firearms, is destined to gradually withdraw from the historical stage, and the future battlefield must be a new scene with firearms, artillery and strict military formations.

It's just that this cannon is not so easy to build.

Bai Qi knew that with such strict and meticulous supervision by the Ministry of Industry, the finished rate of artillery was only a pitiful forty percent, which was currently the highest pass rate.

And the iron needed to make artillery is an astronomical amount, but fortunately, with the support of the imperial court, the annual output of steel in the Far East alone has reached 110,000 tons.

Also, even if a qualified artillery is created, it is impossible to distribute it all to Bai Qi at once.

As soon as Huo Qing pacified the outside of the Saiwai, artillery must be needed, the defenders in the Far East also need artillery, and artillery must be needed everywhere in the Southern Army, not to mention the garrison of the Gongwei Beijing Division.

At present, the imperial court has only 120 or 30 artillery pieces in a year, and unless the scale of the Ministry of Industry Artillery Factory is increased, the scale of the artillery battalion in Dong Xuan's mouth will not be able to expand in a short time.

However, this does not mean that Bai Qi will give up, he will still fight for it.

And the best way to fight for it is to show a brilliant record, so that it can speak with weight in the DPRK and China.

So, he patted Dong Xuan on the shoulder and said, "General Dong, you don't have to worry about expanding the artillery battalion, didn't you promise you?"

When this war is over, you will enter Beijing with Ben Shuai, and you will personally tell Your Majesty that Your Majesty will definitely agree to your request.

It's just that you have to come up with some military merits, our Han army has always respected military merits, and if you want to ask for it in front of Your Majesty, the first point is to look at your military merits. ”

Dong Xuan immediately saluted with a sergeant: "Thank you Bai Shuai for cultivating, my subordinates must be fortunate not to disgrace their lives and not to embarrass the Western Regions Protectorate!" ”

"Well, that's how it should be, now, Ben Shuai orders you to aim the cannon at Tucheng, Ben Shuai wants to let this group of Hu people know that they can afford the price of offending the Han Empire!"

"Whoa!"

Dong Xuan received the order loudly, and then shouted loudly to the gunners: "The whole army listens to the order and aims the muzzle of the cannon at Tucheng." ”

When the gunner heard the order, he immediately aimed the muzzle of the artillery in the direction of Tucheng in accordance with Dong Xuan's order.

A gun is flanked by four operators, a rangefinder, and a main gunner.

After the rangefinder uses the gun scope to determine the bearing, he immediately asks the operator to calibrate the muzzle bearing, and then repeatedly measures the trajectory on which the shell may fall with the scale and gun scope.

After the general determination is made, the rangefinder immediately hands over the detection data to the main gunner.

According to the statistical data, the main gunner immediately ordered the operator to load the corresponding gunpowder.

This series of operations may seem complicated, but the whole process from ranging to determining the amount of gunpowder used takes less than a minute, and it is the result of rigorous training day after day, and has begun to take on the standards of modern armies.

"Counsellor Dong, the No. 1 gun position is ready."

"Gun emplacement No. 2 is ready!"

"Number 3 ......"

Soon, the thirteen artillery pieces were collectively in place, and they could "fire ten thousand cannons" just by waiting for Dong Xuan's order.

"Fire!"

Dong Xuan roared angrily, and his spit flew together.

Behind him, the flag bearer immediately held high the two-color flag in his hand, and the piercing swan whistle rose one after another in front of the artillery camp.

As the goose down lead was ignited, it slowly sank into the primer for a moment......

"Boom~Boom~Boom Boom~"

The heavens and the earth seemed to tremble, and thirteen cannons fired in unison, and the muzzles of the guns flashed dazzling fire.

Whistling solid cannonballs, wrapped in the shadow of death, pierced the sky above the earthen city and rained down on the dense crowds of the streets.

Rumble~

A two-pound shell landed on the dry and hard ground, raising a cloud of dust that filled the field.

Before the surrounding mob could figure out what was happening, the solid cannonball that landed on the ground bounced off and rampaged through the shocked crowd, sending a mist of blood.

Another cannon pierced through a wooden shop, and the two mobs who were still looting and looting inside did not have time to react before they were killed.

The moment one of them turned around, the cannonball exploded half of his head, and the cannonball continued to whizz back and forth in the room.

"Ah~~Oh my God, Lord~~"

When the companions on the side saw this bloody scene, they were directly frightened and incontinent, threw away the belongings in their hands, locked them in the corner and shouted in horror.

Outside the city, the mob on the street was completely frightened by this "punishment" that fell from the sky, and one by one desperately looked for cover, and then trembled their bodies, constantly praying silently for something.

In fact, this round of shelling killed and injured dozens of people, but its effect was obvious.

Fear, like a plague, began to spread throughout the city.