Li Dingguo walked up to the ten steel behemoths with an expression of disbelief.

Knocked.

Clang! Clang!

The dull sound of metal, which seemed to be all iron except for the wooden shelves underneath.

Walking to the front of this thing, looking through the big black opening, it was so black that I couldn't see anything clearly.

But looking at the muzzle of the cannon, I'm afraid that it can be stuffed into something bigger than a person's head.

Pointing to the muzzle of the gun, Li Dingguo asked the old master of the Tiangong Academy who was following him:

"Old Master Tang, you said this thing uses gunpowder?"

Tang Fuzi, who was dressed in a capable short suit and looked like a thin little old man, hurriedly shook his head and said: "The general is too famous, the little old man is just a blacksmith, not a master." ”

Li Dingguo waved his hand indifferently and said: "The prince has already sent a letter saying that I will respect you as a teacher, and you will naturally be the master."

I'll talk about that later, but tell me first, is this really gunpowder? ”

When Tang Fuzi saw that he insisted, he could only admit it.

Hearing him ask, he hurriedly nodded and said, "This cannon is indeed making gunpowder!" ”

Li Dingguo thought for a while, and then asked, "Is it the kind of explosive bag we used to attack the city before?" ”

"It's different."

"What's the difference?"

Li Dingguo was puzzled, it was all gunpowder, what was the difference?

Old Master Tang said with a smile: "The gunpowder we used this time is spherical, or a solid iron ball. ”

"A solid iron ball?"

Li Dingguo's eyes widened, he hadn't used gunpowder, didn't that thing explode with a bang as soon as it ignited?

How do you fry with a solid iron ball?

Tang Fuzi nodded and affirmed: "That's right, it's a solid iron ball." ”

Looking at the expression on Li Dingguo's face, Tang Fuzi also guessed what he was thinking, and then explained: "The function of this cannon is to launch solid iron balls.

General Li, think about it, during the general's battle, the enemy and our side are constantly approaching in this battle formation, at this time, you shoot at a cannon from 300 steps away, and this stone projectile is directly smashed into the opponent's crowd, which is definitely death next to it, and injury when touched!

Even this practice bomb will ricochet if conditions permit. Inflict damage on the opponent again!

If this cannon goes down, dozens of people will have to die, to say the least! ”

Li Dingguo's eyes flashed, but he touched his chin and said:

"It sounds like a lot of power, but I don't think it's as lethal as a repeater.

Even our repeating crossbow, if it sends out thirty branches, it can also kill many people, that is, the range is limited. ”

Old Master Tang said confidently: "The repeater created by the prince is naturally powerful, and it is definitely not comparable to the frequency of attacks and lethality."

But the main goal of this thing was not to be used in the field. ”

"Oh? If it is not used in field warfare, is it possible that it is used to defend the city? ”

"That's right!"

Tang Fuzi clapped his hands violently and said excitedly: "What the general said is right, this is a sharp weapon to defend the city!"

General, you have fought so many battles and used so many siege equipment, which also brings a lot of advantages to the soldiers of our Yunzhou army.

Through those siege engines, many cities that were originally difficult to attack could not hold out in an instant.

But have you ever thought about defending the city? ”

Li Dingguo was taken aback, then shook his head and said: "The prince said that the best defense is to attack, as long as you kill all the enemies, you don't have to defend it." ”

Old Master Tang slapped himself in the face, looked at Li Dingguo with a blank face, and then sighed and said:

"The old man remembers that when we first took Nanli County, we used to defend the city for a period of time, and that time it was said that many soldiers were not good at defending the city, which caused a lot of casualties.

The prince is now in a small place, and if he doesn't defend it, he won't defend it, and the army can go over to support him at any time when he is nearby.

But General, have you ever thought about what if the General's territory is very large?

At this time, it is always necessary to defend the city, and it is impossible for the prince to have the energy to manage all the places.

And this is a weapon to defend the city! ”

As he spoke, Tang Fuzi patted the huge artillery barrel and continued: "General Li, think about it, how do you defend when someone pushes Lu Gongche, Crane Car, Cloud Ladder and other siege equipment to attack the city?"

If the opponent's siege equipment is bad, he can also cut the ladder with the knife in his hand.

But if the other party made the front part of the ladder out of iron like us, wouldn't the knife be useless?

And with this artillery it is different.

All you have to do is aim at those siege engines and bang them down!

In the blink of an eye, our artillery can directly destroy all their siege equipment!

Even relying on the advantage of firing range, taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the place, it is possible to directly crush the enemy's generals into powder with one shot! ”

"This ......"

Only then did Li Dingguo realize the usefulness of this artillery.

Indeed, as Tang Fuzi said, if there is artillery to defend the city, then there is no fear of others using siege equipment to attack the city.

And without siege equipment, the enemy wants to use the most primitive siege method to attack the city, which is an extremely difficult method.

In such a battle, it is normal for the battle loss ratio between the defender and the enemy to reach 10 to 1.

Seeing his abrupt expression, Old Master Tang hurriedly struck while the iron was hot and continued:

"That's not all, if this thing is used to siege the city, the effect will be even better.

Since his cannonballs are all solid cannonballs, this cannon will directly hit the opponent's city wall or city gate, even a slightly thinner city gate can directly break him into pieces, if it is not broken, then another cannon!

As for the city wall, as long as he is not built particularly tall and thick, he can directly bombard it, and after reaching the limit of the city wall, he can directly destroy it, which is simply a siege weapon. ”

"I will use catapults to siege the city." Li Dingguo muttered quietly.

But Tang Fuzi heard this, and immediately Tang Fuzi was dissatisfied: "General Li, the range of your catapult is only about 100 steps.

Our artillery has more than 300 steps!

And the power is huge, and the impact of a single shot is much greater than that of a catapult!

If you don't believe it, you stand in front of the cannon, and I will shoot you to let you feel the power for yourself, and you will know that I am not lying! ”

"What's that?!"

Li Dingguo's eyes widened.

Let me stand in front and let you shoot?

Am I crazy, or are you crazy?

Am I going to experiment myself because I am skeptical?

When I'm done experimenting, I'm afraid it's not me!

Looking at Li Dingguo's shocked expression, Tang Fuzi realized that he seemed to have said the wrong thing just now because he was too excited.

How could he let General Li stand and let himself shoot him?

If this is according to the prince's words, it is to carry out artillery execution for General Li.

Immediately scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, and hurriedly changed the topic: "By the way, although the current range of this artillery is only more than three hundred steps, we are improving it, and it will get farther and farther in the future."

This time, I will bother the general to use it more on the battlefield, and let me see if there are any problems in actual combat, and it would be better to improve it over there. ”

Li Dingguo has long heard that the group of craftsmen in the Tiangong Institute have been full of manufacturing things since they were awakened by the prince, and they don't have any emotional intelligence at all.

So he didn't continue to worry about Master Tang, nodded and agreed.

With a wave of his hand, he immediately let his subordinates pull the ten cannons towards his camp.

Tang Fuzi and the other artillery instructors and maintenance personnel also hurriedly followed.

……

(End of chapter)