On September 2, at the end of the morning, the heavens and the earth were vast.

The wilderness outside Lanzhou is vast, and on the distant western plains, countless dense black spots are slowly marching towards the city.

The people living outside the city had long since fled, some dragged their families and fled south into the mountains, some hurriedly hid in the city, and some simply left their hometowns and fled east into the territory of the Song Kingdom.

The Tangut people took advantage of the Song army's internal rectification and took care of themselves. He also took advantage of Qingtang's long-term business experience and neglected military training, wanting to take Lanzhou in one fell swoop, and then take Hehuang in the west.

Although the Song army sent 15,000 firearms troops to the northwest border, the news could not be sent out in a short time, and no Song army had yet come to help.

But fortunately, there happened to be two battalions of firearms troops who were ordered to go to Huining, the northwestern border line of the Great Song Dynasty, to station, and when they passed by Guwei Village, they were pulled over by the local general Sun Guangyi.

They had originally come to the border to garrison and fight, and when they heard that there was a battle to be fought, the two commanders of the firearms battalion, Zeng Yong and Sun Guangyi, naturally wanted to come over to help the field.

Between the Great Song Dynasty and Qingtang, however, the Song and Qing strategic mutual assistance contracts were signed, and the imperial court often said that they would help Qingtang's swaggers.

So everyone jumped to try.

In late autumn and September, the weather in northern Cyprus is already slowly getting colder.

Although the grass has not yet turned yellow, the wilderness is already brown and green.

The city of Lanzhou has always been home to the Tibetans, Uighurs and Han Chinese, and many ethnic minorities here have learned to farm, and nomadism and farming coexist, making it a very rare nomadic people.

But now the farmland outside the city has long been uncultivated, and the village has been empty for a few days, except for the barking of abandoned dogs.

A large group of Western Xia soldiers bypassed the village and headed from the wilderness to the north in the direction of the north of the city of Lanzhou.

It's not that they have the quality, they don't destroy the village, they don't trample on the farmland, it's just that they are afraid of losing time. It is better to walk the village and field with obstacles than to take the main road and go to the battlefield as soon as possible.

But even so, many horses did not follow the procession, and scattered into the wheat fields, munching on the winter wheat seedlings that had just been planted, causing heavy losses to the Hu and Han people who lived outside the city.

At the beginning of the time, countless Xixia people had already appeared in the north of Lanzhou City, and the dense soldiers were divided into an unknown number of legions in the wilderness, and the formation was very open, not a traditional array, which was to prevent artillery.

They were about seven or eight miles away from the city of Lanzhou, and as the Western Xia generals continued to roar, forty cannons were pulled up.

There is a huge difference between these cannons and the cannons of the Song people, the most significant thing is that there are iron hoops on them to prevent explosions, even if the smelting technology of the Western Xia people is good, the battle armor is better than the Song people's battle armor, but wrought iron is wrought iron after all, not as good as steel.

"Launch!"

The generals commanded by the Western Xia shouted loudly in party language.

"Bang bang!"

The cannon emitted huge sparks, and the lead bullets flew out in an instant, cutting an arc in the air and smashing towards Lanzhou City.

A moment later, there was a loud noise everywhere in the city walls, towers, and even inside the city.

Not to be outdone, the Tubo people would not use cannons, but the Song soldiers would, so they used the captured nine cannons to fight back, and they also continued to fire artillery fire outside the city.

The two sides go back and forth, bombarding each other from a long distance, even if the hit rate is pitifully low.

But as long as the Tangut people are lucky enough to hit the north gate of the city and break through the city gate, then they can completely resist the cannon fire of the city and rush all the way to the city.

And just when the two sides were in full swing, in this chaos, no one paid attention to the fact that on the hillside more than ten miles away in the east, there were a thousand cavalry, on the top of the hills, looking at the mighty west from a distance, as if there was no end in sight of the Western Xia army.

Zhao Jun did not invent the telescope, in fact, in the history that Zhao Zhen saw, there was a mention of how to make glass and then make a telescope.

Zhao Zhen rushed to the experiment.

As a result, he was slapped in the face.

TM's.

He found that there was a lot of history made up.

It doesn't work at all to follow the method.

It wasn't until later that I read a book called "The Three Kingdoms" that I knew the reason.

Originally, limited by the firing technology and raw materials, China's local glass firing method would make the raw sand contain lead and barium, so the lead barium glass was burned instead of transparent soda-lime glass.

A lot of history doesn't check the information at all, and just pat the head and write it, only to find that there are big problems in it.

According to the description, in order to burn soda-lime glass, it is necessary to dispose of the lead and barium in the sand in a special way, and then the soda-lime glass can be fired normally.

However, the method is documented, and that is to add sodium carbonate, that is, soda, to the production process.

Sounds like a no-brainer.

However, in 1861, before the Belgian Ernest Solvay invented the Solvay alkali method, and later the famous Chinese chemist Mr. Hou Debang invented the Hou alkali method, soda was almost impossible to make.

In that book, it was only said that the protagonist would make the method, but the specific method was not written, so Zhao Zhen was quite uncomfortable.

Another missed opportunity to plagiarize ideas and leave a name in history.

Famous thinker, educator, biologist, agriculturist, father of modern genetics, pioneer of reform, founder of the world hegemony of the Great Song Dynasty, pioneer of the foundation of the dynasty and a series of titles, unfortunately there is one less chemist.

In the absence of binoculars, Zeng Yong and the others could only watch from a distance with the naked eye, and they saw a large number of Western Xia Iron Harrier cavalry roaming around the periphery, which was obviously also a threat to them.

"Let's go!"

Zeng Yong waved his hand, and the cavalry behind him suddenly galloped forward.

Not to be outdone, Zhang Wenwu also urged the horses.

The cavalry regiment of 1,000 men divided into two wings, left and right, and ran forward in a neat formation.

After less than a few minutes, the Iron Harrier scouts, who were at least ten miles away from the city, quickly spotted them, and all kinds of horns and whistles continued to sound.

A scout quickly reported to Li Yuanhao and learned that it was only about a thousand Song cavalry attacking, he didn't take it to heart, just sent three thousand iron harrier heavy cavalry to intercept it, and his eyes were still on the city in the distance.

Due to the superiority of his artillery, Lanzhou City obviously fell to the upper hand at this time, and even the city tower was collapsed, and the defenders above were already frightened, and the frequency of counterattacks was much less.

And here Zeng Yong and the others continued to move forward, and there were still about six miles away from the headquarters of the Tangut army, surrounded by three thousand iron harriers.

"Kill!"

They were all dressed in heavy armor, with scimitars in their hands and wolf-like sounds coming from their mouths.

Neither side charged, just let the horses move slowly.

Because horses are good at short-distance explosiveness, if they charge at the beginning, it will seriously waste horsepower, especially the Western Xia heavy armored cavalry, a round of charging can not actually run a few hundred meters.

But what the Tanguts didn't expect was that only two hundred steps away from them, the enemy suddenly stopped and looked at them from a distance.

Although there were some doubts, the Tangut people would not stop, and they continued to walk forward slowly.

As soon as they reached a hundred paces, that is, about one hundred and forty meters, they would officially charge, and forward like a roaring army of steel, crushing everything in front of them into powder.

"Raise your gun!"

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu both shouted loudly.

Almost all the Song soldiers took their muskets from their backs.

"Reload!"

They continued to shout.

The soldiers methodically stuffed the mini into the chamber of the gun.

At this time, the Tanguts were still more than 200 meters away from them.

"Ready!"

After ten seconds, the two commanders shouted again.

All the soldiers raised their guns.

"Launch!"

"Bang bang!"

White smoke came out of the barrel of the gun instantly.

Countless tiny lead bullets, thrusted by gunpowder and rifling, were discharged at a rapid speed, tearing through the void and shooting at the enemy line.

"Bang bang bang!"

A large number of bullets pierced the iron armor of the Tanguts, and suddenly pieces of iron harriers fell.

"Shhh

The living Iron Harriers gasped.

Because they didn't know what was going on, they only knew that the Song people raised an inexplicable long pipe and aimed it at them.

After a "thump, thump, thump" sound, the cavalrymen at the front of the line fell from their horses as if they had fallen into an evil spirit, and most of the people on the ground did not die on the spot, but were still wailing in pain.

This made the rest of the Western Xia cavalry hesitate for a while, and they couldn't help but pull the horse rope and move forward in fear.

A general in the rear cowered when he saw the front, cursed a few words in party words, and urged the soldiers to move forward again, as long as they reached a hundred paces, they could urge their horses to launch a charge that would kill their opponents!

But just over twenty seconds later, the sound of death hit again, and a large number of soldiers fell in front of them, and they lost hundreds of people in just one shot.

"Ahh

Finally, someone couldn't help it, and after seeing the inexplicable tragic death of his teammate in front of him, he couldn't help but scream, and then turned his horse's head and ran away.

This time was like dominoes, and the remaining 2,000 remaining iron harriers fled to the rear.

"Chase!"

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu shouted loudly.

Many Song cavalry immediately collected their guns and urged their horses to pursue forward.

Their equipment is like this, wearing the autumn military uniform of the Song Army, with a straight sword hanging from the right waist.

On the left side of the waist hangs a small bag with three grenades.

There were also two large cloth bags hanging from the sides of the horses, and there were many small cloth bags in the cloth bags, each with a mini bullet and a bag of rationed gunpowder.

At the end of each shot, the soldiers had to spend at least twenty seconds or so clearing the powder magazines and reloading the ammunition.

Therefore, the firing efficiency is still relatively low, and only 2-3 rounds per minute can be fired, which is far less fast than the small steel cannon.

However, there are four people working together in the small steel cannon, one person loads the arquebus, two people reloads the ammunition, and the last person lights the arquebus and fires, and must be skillfully operated to achieve a round in about 6-7 seconds.

This is because the explosion rate of steel in the era of black powder is relatively low, and the power of black powder is still not as good as yellow powder, and it is difficult to blast steel cannons with higher structure and strength.

In the case of wrought iron cannons, someone has to cool the barrel with a brush soaked in water, and wait until the barrel is completely cooled before continuing to fire.

Moreover, 2-3 shells per minute can only be used a few times in the initial stage, and in the later part it must be kept 1 round per minute, or even 1 round every 2 minutes, otherwise it will be blown up.

Although the guns of the Song army are also made of steel, the explosion rate is also low, but the soldiers need to complete the three steps of cleaning the gunpowder magazine, loading gunpowder, and filling bullets, and the efficiency is naturally much slower than that of steel cannons.

Therefore, in terms of rate of fire alone, muskets are still inferior to artillery. But in terms of the ability to fight at close range, the musket threw off the artillery several streets.

The cavalry continued to press forward in a mighty manner.

Soon the Western Xia legions in the distance noticed that the Iron Harrier army had been defeated, and a scout reported to Li Yuanhao.

At this time, Li Yuanhao was in a hurry for quick success, and after firing for 1-2 minutes in the initial stage, he did not stop to wait for the barrel to cool down, causing several cannons to explode and be irritable.

When he heard the news from the scout, he didn't care too much about the attack of 1,000 people, but sent another 5,000 people to continue the siege.

But he obviously underestimated the strength of this group of Song troops.

And what Li Yuanhao didn't know was that when these Song troops were slowly advancing, Wang Shiyun in the rear also arrived at the battlefield with more than a dozen small steel cannons of his own.

The small steel cannon is still relatively light, even if you don't use a horse, the weight of more than 100 catties can be carried by two people.

When they were about four or five miles away, they began to set up the forts.

In the 18th century, in the Napoleonic era, the maximum range of a 12-pounder Napoleonic gun was 2.5 to 3 kilometers without rifling.

By the beginning of the 19th century, with the advent of rifled guns, this firing range was directly increased to 3 to 5 kilometers, that is, a distance of ten miles.

Today, Zhao Jun's artillery is rifled artillery, and the artillery imitated by the Western Xia and Liao people is also rifled.

There is no process of smelting steel in the two countries, and although the production method is not like the mold adopted by the Song Kingdom, it is also simple and crude, and the most primitive scraper method is used.

Their cannons all weigh about 1,000 to 2,000 catties, the caliber is very large, and when fired at elevation angles, with the blessing of rifling, the maximum firing range is about 10 miles, and if it is at a high place, the distance is even farther.

The small steel cannon has a small caliber, and the amount of gunpowder loaded is also small.

Although they were rifled, they had a range of four or five miles on flat ground, so they had to rely on the protection of musketeers to advance.

Of course.

It's okay to lean over from the flanks of enemy artillery positions.

Because the steering and maneuverability of people's artillery are too poor, it is difficult to threaten the small steel cannon position.

can't stand the cavalry raid of others.

So the positions of the musketeer corps, in fact, were meant to protect the artillery positions.

The Western Xia people on the periphery could already see that more than 2,000 Song troops appeared behind them, and with Li Yuanhao's military order, thousands more cavalry surrounded them.

At this time, the rear was still loading small steel cannons, so Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu ordered to stay in place and block the incoming enemy by firing in three stages.

As a result, enemies from all sides came to die one by one, and a large number of Tangut people were shot to the ground.

Many people also tried to shoot with bows and arrows, but the Tanguts were all cavalry, and the cavalry bows they used, the range of which was more miserable than that of muskets.

For a while, the Xixia people in the rear could not break through the rain of bullets at all, and Wang Shiyun had almost no pressure on his side.

"That's it!"

After about a few minutes, Wang Shiyun finally installed the small steel cannon.

He raised his head and looked at Zeng Yong and the others who were guarding them not far away, and shouted angrily: "Shoot all the shells for me, not a single one will be left, even if it is blown up!" ”

"Yes!"

Dozens of gunners replied.

Although the steel cannon is stronger than the wrought iron cannon and the bronze cannon, it is not without a bore, and if it is used at a high frequency, it may also explode.

But they can't take care of so much at the moment, they have to go all out to deal with the 50,000 troops of the Western Xia with a small number of troops.

The shellers quickly performed their duties, filling the gunpowder for the gunpowder and the shells for the cannonballs, and in just 6-7 seconds, everyone completed all the steps.

"Launch!"

Wang Shiyun shouted.

"Bang bang bang!"

Flames erupted from the muzzle.

The chamber of the gun is like a volcanic eruption.

Smoke is rising.

A few seconds later, the Tangut positions were miles away.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise.

More than a dozen howitzers exploded in their dense crowd, mud splattered and stones shot everywhere.

"What's going on?"

Suddenly hearing a huge explosion behind him, Li Yuanhao hurriedly turned his head to look.

But behind him were dense cavalry heads, and he couldn't see the situation clearly.

He glanced around and noticed a small slope three or four meters high in front of him, so he hurriedly went up.

It was only when he was on the small slope that he noticed that there was an artillery position in the far back, so far away that he could only see some small black dots.

Li Yuanhao said angrily: "How can you let the enemy touch behind you, pass it down, go and clear those artillery!" ”

"Yes!"

The heralds around him immediately went to the rear to convey the military order.

However, by this time there was a great chaos in the rear.

The Song army is now using what shells and what to use, speeding up the rate, completely ignoring the danger of exploding, and firing artillery at full power.

The quality of the steel produced by Zhao Jun is really good, and it is a miracle that not a single steel cannon has been blown up at a rate of 8-10 rounds per minute.

After all, the so-called 8-10 rounds per minute can basically last for 2-3 minutes, and under normal circumstances, it should be 3-4 rounds per minute.

Under the indiscriminate bombardment of the small steel artillery, the rear army of the Tanguts collapsed, and several legions were directly routed and fled.

At this time, from the far west, beyond the shooting range, Li Yuanhao's mobilization of men and horses was late.

More than 10,000 people, the position was surrounded from three directions.

But when they were about to break through, the musketeers of a thousand men in front maintained a continuous rate of fire.

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu constantly ordered the launch, and each time more than 300 people fired bullets, forming a dense network of firepower within 200 meters ahead, and almost no one was able to break through.

One by one, the Western Xia soldiers inexplicably felt a pain in their chests, and then they fell off their horses as if they had been struck by lightning.

This scene apparently frightened the other Western Xia soldiers, and after a few rounds, they had lost thousands of men, but they did not advance to the local position within a hundred paces.

Even when the horses were galloping, there were many war horses who were frightened by the sound of huge guns and cannons, and they could not organize an effective charging formation at all.

For a time, the positions in the northeast of the Western Xia rear were in chaos, and at least 10,000 or 20,000 people were fired by muskets and artillery, and they were almost crushed.

Soon this situation swept the entire army of the Tanguts, and a large number of fleeing soldiers scattered part of the military formation, causing the rear defense line of the Tangut army to collapse and completely unable to form an army.

If you look down from a high altitude, you will see that in the northeast rear corner of the Western Xia army, a small position of the Song army formed by artillerymen and musketeers, and carried out a fierce attack on part of the army in the northeast corner of the Western Xia army.

The number of this part of the army was actually more than 10,000 people, but it couldn't withstand the firepower of the Song army at all, and the horses and horses were so frightened that they ran around in a panic.

Howitzers are not as powerful as solid shells, but they can work wonders against cavalry.

Because it exploded when it landed, it produced a loud sound, and the horses did not listen to the knight's command like a fryer when they heard it, so that in just two or three minutes, the place fell.

Immediately after that, it began to rewind the entire Western Xia army.

In an instant, the army was defeated.

Li Yuanhao stood on the hillside and looked out, and saw that his troops had inexplicably broken and fled, and the entire army was impacted, and then suffered a great defeat.

He was stunned for a while, and hurriedly ordered: "Quick, Mingjin retreats, Mingjin retreats!" ”

But before he could knock on the bronze cymbal, the gate of Lanzhou in the distance was wide open.

All the Tibetan soldiers were killed.

Then the Song army in the rear also launched a charge, chasing like a hunter driving his prey.

Li Yuanhao had no time to gather his troops, and all the 50,000 troops scattered and fled for their lives, with no formation at all, and many people were even trampled to death in the crowd, falling off their horses and falling to their deaths.

At this time, Li Yuanhao had no way to control the people, and he was also coerced and had to flee westward.

Wang Shiyun in the rear looked at the defeated Western Xia army, looked at Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu, they put away their spears, pulled out the ring-headed straight knife from their waists and rushed up, the corners of their mouths grinned, and said disdainfully: "Vulnerable!" ”

"Bang!"

The next moment, a small steel cannon more than thirty meters away from him on the right was finally overwhelmed and exploded, and a loud sound erupted.

A friend said that the range of the cannon was wrong, and it is estimated that this friend missed it, and the cannons in the book are all rifled guns, and the range is twice as far as that of smoothbore guns. Some people have said before that rifling cannot be made by hand, but in fact rifling has been made in the 15th century, and there are many ways to build it by hand.

The range and rate of fire of the firearm are also different from the original flintlock pistol, because the mini bullet was directly engaged, and after the mini bullet was used, it changed from a flintlock smoothbore gun to a flintlock rifled gun, and the rate of fire and range were not different?

The rate of fire of the small steel cannon is also reasonable, 10 rounds per minute is the highest rate of fire, and in the 18th century the Anglo-French War recorded that the bronze smoothbore small-caliber gun could reach 7-8 rounds per minute at the fastest, but it would be easy to explode.

If it is made of steel, the explosion rate is low, and it is normal to increase the rate of fire.

Mini bullets and rifling are not products of the industrial age, and they were basically available in Britain and France around the 18th century, so the data in the book are basically reasonable, please rest assured.

(End of chapter)