As the artillery of the Ming army on the artillery array of Hongyi cannons, Buddha cannon and other artillery stopped bombardment, a larger number of large Huzun cannons and other mortars were pushed out, and there were four or five white doors!

Compared with the Hongyi cannon and the Franc cannon, these mortars are very lightweight, and some smaller caliber mortars can even be carried by soldiers and fired directly.

On the artillery array, four or five hundred mortars have been loaded, and these guns can fire both solid and "flowering shells".

At this time, while Liu Yan was amazed by the large number and variety of artillery equipment of various units of the Ming army, he was also very concerned about whether he would see the flowering shells of this era.

Thinking of the high efficiency of relying on fragments to kill the enemy after the explosion of the shells in later generations, Liu Yan's heart was hot, if the Ming artillery could use similar flowering shells on a large scale, then the results of the artillery bombardment just now would be several times greater, and it was even possible to directly defeat the Qing army!

However, Liu Yan was a little disappointed immediately, and Qian Yan next to him heard that Liu Yan asked about the flowering shell, so he said: "My lord doesn't know, almost no one uses flowering shells now, and the artillery in the rest of the town army is also solid shells." If nothing else, it is because the manufacture of flowering shells is too difficult, the cost is too high, and the rate of mute fire remains high, although the lethality is much higher than that of solid bullets, but it is difficult to popularize equipment. ”

"However, my subordinates had heard before the war that the battalion was equipped with some flowering bombs, which were specially allocated from the arsenal of the Beijing Division. However, the subordinates are not optimistic about the effect of these flowering bombs, and the specific lethality is geometric, so I don't know. ”

Liu Yan was stunned when he heard this, and said secretly in his heart: "I don't know if the Firearms Supervision Office can improve the manufacturing process of flowering bullets?" ”

At the same time, many gunners on the artillery array had already observed the range of the mortar and adjusted the projectile angle of the artillery, which was basically the same as firing the Hongyi cannon, but the elevation angle of the mortar was higher. Then the ammunition hand takes out a propellant bag and puts it in the chamber, and the next process is very different from that of the Hongyi cannon.

Because after the mortar cannon is added to the projectile pack, it needs to be filled with some soil, about one or two inches thick, before the flowering cannonball is put in.

Those Ming gunners took out some flowering shells, which were actually a special shells that needed a fuse, corresponding to the flight distance of the shells, and then exploded at the specified location.

At this time, the flowering bomb of the Ming Dynasty, the fuse used to detonate is a hollow reed tube with a built-in medicine twist, and the corresponding length is cut according to the target distance before loading. This creates a problem, depending on the quality of the shell, the quality of the fuse, the shell is very easy to advance, or delay the explosion, and thus cannot effectively kill or damage the enemy's forces.

Moreover, Liu Yan used a clairvoyant mirror to observe the artillery array in front of him, only to see that after those gunners put in the flowering shells, they separated another layer of wet soil, and finally sealed the muzzle of the cannon with wax, only the fuse of the shell was exposed.

Liu Yan guessed that this was to prevent the flame and power generated by the propellant, causing the shell to explode in the chamber or in advance, after all, it was no better than a solid iron ball, and the outside of the flowering cannon was just a thin layer of iron sheet. This makes the operation of firing flowering shells very troublesome, and it is also quite dangerous, and the processing of shells is more time-consuming and costly, no wonder flowering shells are not popular, and artillery battalions in various places generally use solid shells.

After a long time, in the eyes of everyone, the first wave of mortars in the artillery array was prepared, and this time it was a poisonous smoke bomb.

The so-called poisonous smoke bomb means that in addition to gunpowder, the inside of the flowering bomb is also loaded with wolf poison, asphalt, arsenic and other poisons, when the flowering bomb explodes, it will produce strong poisonous smoke, which can not only kill and injure the enemy with the help of the explosion, but also cause a lot of damage to the enemy.

"Launch!"

As one of the generals supervising the battle roared loudly, four or five hundred mortars immediately opened fire, and two gunners of each mortar stepped forward nervously, one first lit the fuze of the poisonous smoke bomb at the muzzle, and the other quickly lit the twist on the fire door.

Everyone looked at the two fuses of each cannon, especially the gunners, who were more worried that the fuses of the smoke bombs would burn out in advance, so that the smoke would cause harm to their own people.

With a dull roar, the four and five white mortar cannons opened fire in a very short time, spewing out large puffs of smoke and fire. The barrels of each cannon barely vibrate, and one after another poisonous smoke bombs flew out of the barrels and rushed towards the Qing army's position.

In the Ming army's large array, whether it was Hong Chengchou, Zhang Ruoqi, Ma Shaoyu, or Liu Yan, Wu Sangui and others, they all nervously looked at the white smoke of the cannonballs in the air, and there were a few booms, and several huge fires appeared in the air. A few shells exploded in advance in the air, and in the sky in those places, several strange clouds of green smoke filled the air.

At this time, on the position of the Qing army, most of the earthen walls and stone walls of the first line of defense have collapsed, and those Qing soldiers are taking advantage of the interval when the Ming army's artillery fire has stopped, and they are roaring and directing their followers or minions to pick up soil and stones, step up the repair of collapsed defense lines in various places, or are busy rescuing the wounded everywhere.

The dense crowd began to be busy like a large number of ants, and while they were busy, they were also worried that the Ming army would open fire again.

Fortunately, in the position of the Ming army, there was no movement for a long time, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. At this moment, there was another rumbling cannon sound from the Ming army's position, and in the defense line, whether it was Manchurian soldiers or Korean soldiers, or the soldiers and horses of the Han army, they suddenly became a mess, and they all found hidden places to avoid the shells.

At this time, the number of shells fired was hundreds, except for some shells that exploded in the air in advance, most of the shells successfully fell into the defense line of the Qing army, whether it was the Eight Banners Manchuria, the Eight Banners Han Army, or those North Korean soldiers, they were all screaming in fright at this time.

However, then everyone found out with trepidation that the cannonballs fired by the Ming army did not have the power of the previous cannons, although they fell high from the air, they did not smash many fortifications, and there were not many people killed, of course, there were many unlucky ghosts, who were directly hit, so it was a matter of course.

At the same time, there were many Qing soldiers who looked at those cannons and felt that they were very different from the round solid cannonballs before, many people were curious, and some even wanted to go up and watch closely.

Suddenly, someone saw that the fuse on the shell was burning, and the well-informed exclaimed: "It's a poisonous smoke bomb!" ”

"It's a gray bullet, big guy, run!"

Rumble!

In an instant, explosions sounded one after another on the Qing army's position, and thick smoke could be seen everywhere on the defensive line, either gray-white, or turquoise, or even pure black, all caused by different formulas of poisonous smoke bombs.

The smoke spread out, choking the Qing soldiers and coughing, and many of them even vomited directly, and then fell unconscious.

Most of the Qing soldiers who inhaled the smoke felt dizzy and had splitting headaches. Then I felt shortness of breath in horror and felt like I was suffocating. They desperately stretched out their hands to ask for help. Then I wanted to speak, but I found that I couldn't speak, only a sound came out of my mouth, and my whole body twitched violently.

After inhaling the poisonous smoke, some people found that their vision was difficult, and they ran around in fear and howled, vomiting and vomiting as they went, and vomited dirt all over their bodies. There are more people running at the same time, in the nose and in the mouth. From time to time, black blood flowed from time to time, which added to their fear.

Immediately after that, there was another loud noise, and hundreds of mortars in the Ming artillery array fired a second round, and the shells continued to whistle and fell in front and behind the Qing army's position.

A large puff of poisonous smoke, after exploding, diffused all over the position, and with the increasingly scorching rising sun, it made people feel so uncomfortable.

Although the launch of poisonous smoke was not as bloody and tragic as the solid iron ball of the Hongyi cannon, the chaos caused was even worse.

A lot of poisonous smoke fell in front of the main wall of the trench, because the wind happened to blow to the top of the mountain, so a large area of poisonous smoke continued to drift to the wall, drifting to the back of the mountain.

Those Qing soldiers almost coughed out their lungs, vomiting blood and abounding, and everyone looked at the thick smoke everywhere in horror, only to feel that they had no way to hide, and shouted in despair. m.

The generals of the Qing army also worked hard to maintain the integrity of the defense line, constantly killing deserters everywhere, and killing many people one after another, but the entire defense line still became shaky.

"Cover your mouth and nose with a damp cloth!"

I don't know who shouted, and almost all the Qing soldiers began to rummage through the water bladders, tearing cloth everywhere, and covering their mouths and noses wet.

Suddenly, a poisonous smoke bomb was shot at the pier of Niangniang Temple, on which four huge Hongyi cannons of the Qing army were arranged, and there were many Qing gunners and archers, bird gunners, etc. gathered at the battlement.

Everyone watched as a huge cannonball fell on the platform, and the eyes of all the Qing soldiers froze, and then everyone scattered and fled.

With a loud bang, the cannonball exploded when it was half a foot away from the pier, and the dense fire and smoke rose, and then the choking poisonous smoke filled the pier. All the battlement defenders were running away in a blink of an eye, and they scrambled to flee under the pier.

This pier platform is relatively simple, there is no building door on the upper floor to block the spread of poisonous smoke, and then gather on the pier platform, it is a dead end.

And in the pier platform, Jialazhang Jingyanzha, who had been hiding here, had a pale face, and looked at not far away, bursts of smoke were constantly drifting towards his arrow window with the direction of the wind, getting closer and closer.

Standing beside Yan Zha, the Han army was under the white flag of Lazhangjing, as well as the leader of the Korean army, and some of the Niu Lu Zhangjing of various flags, who were also gulping and swallowing saliva. Although their mouths and noses were covered with wet cloths, they were still very afraid of the poisonous smoke that kept drifting in.

The green tendons on Yan Zha's forehead beat violently, and he wanted to leave the pier platform of Niangniang Temple temporarily, but he couldn't open his face.

At this moment, a group of people shouted and ran down from upstairs, all of them shouting: "Poisonous smoke, poisonous smoke!" ”

Everyone was startled, and saw that there were clouds of strangely colored smoke on the stairs, constantly drifting down the stairs.

Seeing this, Yan Zha gritted his teeth and roared loudly: "Go!" Go down to the ridge, anyway, the Ming army didn't come up! ”

With Yan Zha's leadership, all the Qing soldiers and horses in the pier platform ran out.

As soon as everyone ran out of the pier, they heard the whistling sound of cannonballs, and several huge round shells fell, and one of them happened to explode above everyone's heads.

In a burst of firelight and green smoke, there was a unique choking smell spreading, and a large burst of white powder was sprinkled down. Several Qing soldiers shrouded in white powder immediately covered their eyes and howled bitterly, all covering their eyes and wailing.

These are all gray bullets fired by the Ming army!

Some people died, but not completely......