One after another, the explosions enveloped the entire battlefield!

In the violent explosion, smoke columns and flames rose up on the Ming army's positions. For a moment, the red fireworks were like fireworks in a festival celebration, but this fireworks were deadly!

The Turks' artillery was extremely fierce, and they even first bombarded not field artillery or howitzers, but mortars. Their fire rate was faster and more powerful. In suppressing the rebellion and fighting against Christians, the Turks had long accumulated a set of artillery tactics. They were good at launching surprise attacks with mortars to try their best to kill and injure the enemy.

Even with the protection of trenches, shells that fell into the trenches from time to time still claimed the lives of many soldiers.

...

When the mortar cannon was fired, the Ottoman artillery troops entered the battlefield. Unlike European countries, the Ottomans who always took the initiative to attack the Christian country liked to use long cannons. The 12-pound field cannons were only appetizers. The 18-pound or even 24-pound long cannons were their mainstream in the field battlefield. The single-rail cannon mounts originated from China have improved the flexibility of these naval cannons. But even in the field battlefield, these long cannons were relatively difficult to move. However, with their extraordinary power, they could use their range advantage to deal with their counterattacks. However, they also needed to beware of the counterattack of enemy artillery. As in the past, their cannons were protected by earth cages.

After two rounds of fire of the mortar cannon, the Ottoman artillery's long cannons stretched out their muzzles from the middle of the earth cage. The well-trained gunners adjusted the firing angle of the cannon, aimed at the Chinese positions, lit the fuse, and waited for a few seconds. With the roar, the muzzles spewed out flames one after another!

Due to the undulating terrain, the Ottomans arranged their artillery above the slope. Although it was very conspicuous, they were protected by earth cages. The so-called earth cage was a cage full of soil woven with branches, with a height of about one meter and a diameter of about half a meter. It can well protect the cannons and soldiers from being damaged by artillery fire. It is not far from the Ming army's position, and the direct shooting distance is just over 1,000 meters. The Chinese rifled rifles cannot be so far, even if they are 12 pounds of field guns, the accuracy is extremely limited at this distance. The long cannon can fully utilize its own advantages at this distance. After all, the enemy's position is fixed and cannot run away. Just aim and attack!

But being able to fight does not mean being able to defeat!

Those chest walls piled up with earth trenches may seem simple, but unless they are directly hit by grenades, they may not cause much damage.

But the Ottoman seemed to care about this at all. They used field guns and howitzers to fire solid bullets at the Ming army's positions. Solid cast iron bullets were cheap. They fired these shells just to destroy the Ming army's chest wall.

Driven by gunpowder gas, cast iron shells flew out of the barrel and landed accurately on the Ming army's position! After these shells hit the chest wall directly, they immediately collapsed into a piece of flying soil. Apart from this, it did not seem to have any blow to the Ming army's position.

Some shells fell behind the ground, then jumped up suddenly, and flew over the chest wall. Of course, they also hit everything, because the infantry of the Ming army was curled up in the trench behind the chest wall. At most, the threat was that solid bullets that penetrated the chest wall fell into the trench, which might hurt a certain soldier.

That's all!

Ahmed and others didn't care about this at all. After all, they knew that cannon siege was a long process. If 12 artillery pieces were used, each fired 100 shells per day, it would take about 12 to 15 days to knock down a city wall. In other words, a total of 14,000 to 18,000 shells were used.

Fortunately, now it is just a chest wall that is blocking them. Each gun can open a large chest wall, but just a few rounds of artillery fire, the chest wall becomes riddled with holes. What is even more violent is the shells fired by mortars and howitzers.

The sound of hundreds of various types of mortar cannons and field cannons fired together was earth-shaking. Moreover, the sound of their explosion on the Ming army's positions was extremely scary. The sound of the artillery shells falling like raindrops on the positions was really shaking!

Seeing the frontier position completely enveloped by the Turks' artillery fire, Chen Sen frowned slightly. The Turks' offensive was so fierce that it was completely beyond his imagination.

"What do you think?"

He asked without looking back.

"The Turks' artillery fire is indeed very fierce!"

"Yes, counting it, we haven't fought such a tough battle in a long time..."

For a moment, everyone was talking and talking, as if they did not take the Turkish artillery fire seriously.

In fact, everyone knows very well that this seemingly violent artillery fire cannot bring too much substantial damage to the soldiers in the trench.

Sometimes, at most, I just listen to the sound and feel the shock of the earth shaking.

"Tell the artillery that you must not fight back unless there is an order!"

Artillery shall not fight back!

Of course, you can't fight back. If the firepower is exposed, how can you kill and injure the enemy's infantry as much as possible?

Without the cover of artillery, the Ming infantry on the front line could only silently endure the Turkish artillery bombardment in the trenches.

A violent explosion swept across the battlefield.

I don’t know how long the continuous artillery bombardment took place. Such fierce artillery bombardment should not have appeared in the field battlefield in this era. Even if the Turks used flowering artillery shells to destroy the rebels, such artillery shells rarely occur. After all, everyone is just lined up to be shot.

Queue to get shot?

After a few hours of being beaten, the infantry was not stupid and would stand there and be shelled.

However, when siege, artillery battles may last for more than ten days or even several months!

Even if Zhu Guoqiang's "invention" of the wooden flowering bullet spread to Europe and became widely popular, the damage caused to infantry by the flowering bullet is limited. It is not just because the power of black gunpowder is insufficient. One more important reason is who can stand there and let the flowering bullet blast for several hours?

To put it bluntly, the reason why the Turks are so thrilled is because of the fortifications of the Ming army. The Ming army did not play cards according to the rules, and did not stand up and line up with them to queuing up the guns and was shot. Instead, they hid in the trenches. This gave the Turks the opportunity to bombard.

In order to break through the Ming army's field defense fortifications, Ahmed concentrated a large number of artillery and carried out long bombardment. He completely regarded the Ming army's fortifications as cities and instead of directly using infantry to push them flat, this may be the place where he had unique vision. This is even a place where many military scholars in later generations are praised, and even think that he is a military strategist with epoch-making military thinking. Of course, this is just a praising by some people. After all, similar tactical names have been used for many years. There is nothing new at all.

Hundreds of flowering bullets were constantly exploding on the Ming army's positions. At this time, their positions were completely shrouded in black smoke. The choking smell of gunpowder filled the battlefield, making the soldiers in the trench breathless...

Compared with solid bullets, the shelling effect of firing flowering bullets is quite good, whether it is a mortar or howitzer, field gun, or cannon.

However, compared to solid bullets, what is the biggest problem with flower bullets?

It's expensive!

In fact, the price of gunpowder in Europe in this era was expensive. Before Chilean saltpeter was discovered, potassium nitrate in Europe was mainly collected by the nitrate field method. This led to its high cost. In the early 17th century, the price of gunpowder for firing a shell was even equivalent to the salary of an infantry soldier for a month. So when it comes to being a cannon bomb, it is actually a large-scale money-burning site.

Even ten years ago, cheap Chinese gunpowder poured into Europe, causing the price of gunpowder in Europe to plummet, but the price is still very expensive, and cheap is only relative. After all, China does not have any rich saltpeter mines. Unlike many people who take it for granted that there were large saltpeter mines in ancient China, the ancient Chinese salt-alkali area completely relied on manual extraction, the cave salt in the southern cave, the salt-alkali area of ​​Shandong, Henan, and northern Zhili every winter, after careful boiling and extraction, it turned into high-quality white salt, and its output was extremely high. The cave salt in only one province in Hunan in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.

The output is more than 300,000 jin, and as for Shandong, Hebei, and Hedi, the earth and nitrate production are even more than 10,000 tons. Sufficient earth and nitrate provide the Ming Dynasty's arsenal with sufficient and cheap potassium nitrate. As the Ming Dynasty continued to expand overseas trade, the granular gunpowder produced by the gunpowder factory was loaded on sailboats and sold to Europe. With its excellent performance and relatively low prices, it immediately brought unprecedented impact to European countries, and even led to the bankruptcy of many gunpowder factories. After all, everyone loves bargains, and the performance of that bargain is better than that of high-priced goods.

The relatively cheap Chinese gunpowder has further popularized gunpowder weapons and also provided prerequisites for the popularization of flowering bullets. But one thing that is certain is that this kind of cheapness means turning a month's salary into a half month's salary, which is still... very expensive!

A soldier.

Two soldiers.

One thousand,

Two thousand...

This is not a shell, but a silver coins. What is blown out is not a smoke from gunpowder, but... a flower of gold and silver!

Honeysuckle...well, it's not medicine, it's gunpowder!

Through the telescope in his hand, Ahmed Copruil couldn't help but sigh that the money was not spent in vain... Last year, Türkiye imported 20,000 barrels of gunpowder from China!

A full two million kilograms!

That cost a lot of money... It seems that half of it is in Istanbul. Thinking of this, blood immediately dripped from Ahmed's heart. Will the Chinese stay those gunpowder?

That's worth millions of taels of silver!

But I have to say that China’s gunpowder is indeed very powerful!

In the violent explosion, their chest walls were blown to the sky, and even the wood fortifications was blown to the sky. Sometimes people's limbs could be vaguely seen lifting into the air!

"What would they think if the Chinese knew that the gunpowder that blows them away was made in China?"

Ahmed murmured to himself.

"I guess I hate those profiteers!"

Those mortars of various types bombarded the entire hour. How many shells were fired? How many thousands or tens of thousands?

One thing that is certain is that without the introduction of Chinese gunpowder, they would definitely not be so luxurious.

No need to save, no need to save, just let the artillery bombardment...

The shelling lasted for a full hour, and it was not until the sun came out that the sound of cannons on the front line suddenly stopped. When the cannons stopped, through the smoke of gunpowder, it was clear that the Chinese positions had completely changed, quiet, and it seemed impossible for anyone to survive such cannons.

Dozens of officers Azap who led the team to attack all walked to the front of the team. They drew out their scimitars, pointed forward, and shouted:

"The Prophet is Great!"

"The Prophet is Great!"

Cheers immediately rang out on the battlefield!

Only those Martoro infantrymen prayed silently in their hearts, "Blessing of Heavenly Father".

Subsequently, more than 20,000 Azap infantrymen formed dozens of horizontal teams in battalions, arranged in an open space half an inside and outside the Ming army's position. With a command, the horizontal teams began to surge forward with the sound of drums.

The undulating land in front of them blocked their view, and also blocked the Ming army's view. The Ming army's position behind the slope was still shrouded in choking smoke. The officers and soldiers' yellow uniforms were covered with a thick layer of gray soil. The earth-colored military uniforms were combined with the ash soil, which made them and the earth-colored earth-colored military uniforms merged with the earth, and it was even difficult to tell what they looked like.

"Phhhh..."

While spitting out the ashes in his mouth, Zhao Dongzhe shouted loudly.

"He's what a Turkish guy, this shot is like you don't have any money."

"Why don't you want money? Haven't you heard that we have seized tens of thousands of barrels of gunpowder in Constantinople. What do you think it says?"

“What is it written?”

"The Ming Dynasty Jinling Arsenal!"

...

It's because of my own gunpowder.

Zhao Dongzhe spitted out dirt and ashes, rubbed his eyes, and cursed the unscrupulous businessmen in his heart to ruin the country, but the man stood up with his waist and lay on the wall of the blown chest and looked at the opposite side.

Although the thick smoke blocked his vision and could not see anything clearly, he could vaguely feel danger.

Why do you feel this way?

Sometimes the intuition of the soldiers is sensitive, and before he can figure out what is going on, he can only hear the shouts of the officers coming from behind.

"Everyone is ready, everyone is ready, the Turks are coming!"
Chapter completed!