We learned that the Chushan Mountains in Xiangcheng and the Centipede River and Yingshui River north of Zhaoling had been in confrontation with the enemy forces in the west of Beijing for nearly a month, which greatly weakened the enemy's ability to carry out long-term offensive operations. We do not worry about the enemy forces in the west of the capital returning this winter.
Being able to blockade and besiege Xiangcheng, Zhaoling and other places at close range, Zhu Hang breathed a sigh of relief and asked about the situation of Zuo Xiaosheng's army in Ruzhou:
"What's the situation in Ruzhou at this time?"
After the battle of Guangchengyi, Yang Lin, forced by the lack of strength of Zuo Xiaosheng's army, decided to give up his plan to keep the enemy out of Ruzhou, and withdrew his limited troops to Songxian, Ruyang, Liangxian and other cities to hold on.
Tens of thousands of Heluo enemy troops were driven straight into Ruzhou.
In addition, due to the trough-shaped basin terrain between two mountains and a river in Ruzhou, after the Heluo enemy forces, which had an absolute advantage in military strength, forcefully penetrated into the area east of Guangchengze, Liangxian and Chushan contacted Ruyang in the upper reaches of the North Shuishui River.
, it becomes extremely dangerous and difficult.
Xu Huai was in Xiangcheng, which was only two hundred miles away from Ruyang, but it often took five or six days to learn about the current situation of the garrison in Ruyang and Song County.
After Xu Huai discovered that Yue Hailou had put the Western Region stone cannon into the battlefield at the Centipede River battlefield, he urgently copied the drawings of the Western Region stone cannon to various places. Of course, he would not miss Ruzhou, which is closely related to Chushan; but before that, Xu Huai
It has been six consecutive days without timely news of Yang Lin's defense in Ruyang.
After Wang Jun was ordered to rush to Liang County to meet Yang Qiye with Xu Huai's autographed letter and the drawings of the stone cannons from the Western Regions, Yang Qiye arranged for dead soldiers to risk their way through the enemy's blockade in Heluo and deliver the drawings and Xu Huai's autographed letter.
Sent to Ruyang, he also brought back the shocking current situation of Ruyang.
In Ruyang, Yang Lin was not prepared for the Heluo enemy army to use the Western Region Stone Cannon with a longer range and more powerful force. It failed to support the battle against the city. After the defenders completely withdrew into the city, the city wall on the northeast side of Ruyang was destroyed by the Western Region Stone Cannon.
Under the attack of cannons, large sections collapsed within a few days.
The enemy and we are engaged in a desperate struggle around the gap in the city wall in the northeast corner, causing heavy casualties among Ruyang soldiers and civilians.
Cao Shixiong was not satisfied with this, and also moved the position of the Western Region Stone Cannon to the southeast corner of Ruyang.
Judging from the fierce and cruel war going on in Ruyang, Cao Shixiong is bound to win against Ruyang this winter.
If Ruyang fails, Song County, located in the upper reaches of Yiluo, will be completely reduced to an isolated city and cannot be defended alone, and the western part of Ruzhou will fall into the hands of Heluo enemy forces.
"I have also seen the drawings of stone cannons from the Western Regions, but the actual ones have not been built yet. Why are they so powerful?" Wang Fan asked thoughtfully.
In Xu Huai's view, there is no essential difference between the Western Region stone cannons and traditional trebuchets, and it is extremely convenient to modify them. After receiving the drawings drawn by Xu Huai himself, the Ordnance Supervisor immediately organized engineers and craftsmen to come up with
A batch of trebuchets underwent experimental modifications, and everything went quickly and smoothly.
However, Xu Huai overlooked one point.
Under the auspices and promotion of him, Ding Chong, Yu Chengzhen, Zhuang Shouxin and others, Chushan's craftsmanship and craftsmanship have actually reached the pinnacle level of the world, and even slightly surpassed it, and also cultivated Shen Lian, Zhuang Shouxin and others.
Yong and a group of key workers.
After the fall of Bianliang, tens of thousands of workers and craftsmen in Bianliang were kidnapped by the Red Husbands and sent to Taiyuan, Jizhou, Yunzhou and other places. In addition to Chushan, other places in Dayue, including handicraft workshops, were more active.
In Jingchu, Jianghuai and other places, the overall level of craftsmanship has actually seriously declined.
Chushan was able to imitate stone cannons from the Western Regions in a relatively simple way. Wang Fan obtained the drawings copied by Xu Huai. The engineers and craftsmen under the deployment department of Jinghu North Road were unable to transform the real thing in a short period of time.
Therefore, Wang Fan had no intuitive impression of the advantages and disadvantages of stone cannons from the Western Regions.
"The stone cannons from the Western Regions have been renovated here in Luoshan. Military and civilian drills are being organized at this time. Zhu Hang and Wang Fanlang took a short rest after entering the city. They will use them early before going to the school grounds to have a look!" Xu Huai looked at what he had just seen!
The sun climbed up to the treetops, above the gray-blue sky, as thin as a paper cut, without any sense of warmth and warmth. Zhu Hang and Wang Fan were invited to enter the city.
"We took a nap at Wusheng Pass, so we were not too busy to rest." Zhu Hang was also eager to see the actual stone cannons from the Western Regions and said.
Xu Huai then selected the generals of the vanguard army to clear the way. He accompanied Zhu Hang and Wang Fan and ran directly to the school grounds.
In Xu Huai's view, if the stone cannons from the Western Regions were just imitated, there would be nothing complicated about them, but it was not a simple matter to form combat effectiveness.
If the enemy army can rely on the navy to ensure a safe retreat, its main force will no longer retreat easily after crossing the Huaihe River, and the military pressure that the two cities of Luoshan and Xinyang will bear will increase sharply.
Therefore, Xu Huai made the Ordnance Supervisor give priority to dispatching a group of engineers and craftsmen to Luoshan and Xinyang to initially transform a batch of Western Region artillery for training. At the same time, during the military and civilian training process, he further explored the Western Region artillery.
manufacturing details.
Luoshan New City is located in Jiuli Pass, north of Wusheng Pass, and is built next to Gushui (Luorui River), the main river in Luoshan County.
The upper reaches of the valley have dense bamboo forests along the valley slopes. During the flood season, the river water surges, and a large number of bamboo rafts are cut down from the mountains and flowed down the river. The locals also call it the Bamboo Cane River.
When the valley water flows out of the hills between Huaiyang Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, there are numerous dangerous shoals and reefs, and the current is steep and dangerous. The terrain of Luoshan New City, which is built facing the river and with mountains on its back, is also extremely dangerous. Only the terrain in the north is relatively flat.
The city wall of Luoshan New City was built according to the landscape of the mountains and rivers. The city is shaped like a gourd, separated by a city wall in the middle, and divided into the south city and the north city.
The school ground is located in the more open Beicheng. Currently, two modified Western Region stone cannons are set up on the school ground for military and civilian exercises.
War weapons such as stone cannons are used to defend the city, and Zhou Bingxiang Yong is mainly responsible for operating them. However, in the early stage, it is necessary to accumulate experience in manufacturing stone cannons in the Western Regions and adjust many details to further improve the manufacturing level of stone cannons in the Western Regions. The drill here in Luoshan
, drills, work officers and craftsmen from the Ordnance Supervision also participated.
On the one hand, the space in the north city is narrow, and on the other hand, the imitation of stone cannons has just begun, and the conditions are still very immature in all aspects. A rammed target wall is built across the stone cannon position a hundred steps away.
It is not technically difficult to change the traditional trebuchet traction launch to a suspended box counterweight launch. Chushan has long used iron hoists (pulleys) and winches to lift heavy loads in construction projects such as weir dams and city repairs.
objects; the projection distance of the stone cannon is mainly directly related to the counterweight of the suspension box.
Xu Huai, Xu Wuqi, Shi Zhen, Wang Ju, Xu Xin'an and others accompanied Zhu Hang and Wang Fan to the school grounds. They briefly explained the principles of the Western Regions stone cannons to the work officers who were most familiar with the Western Regions stone cannons and were familiar with the drills.
, the craftsman is responsible for operating the test firing.
Zhu Hang saw the live test firing and said with emotion: "The stone cannons in the Western Regions are really powerful offensive and defensive weapons, but they don't want the Hulu to learn this method first. What a great misfortune for the court!"
Zhu Hang didn't have a particularly deep understanding of military affairs, but he also knew that a traditional trebuchet usually requires forty or fifty well-trained generals and civilians to coordinate operations in order to continuously throw stone bombs into the enemy's formation.
middle.
At this time, they saw a medium-sized Western Region stone cannon that only required seven or eight people to operate smoothly. Zhu Hang and Wang Fan both looked worried.
At that time, the cities were relatively narrow, and the county and military villages were five or six hundred paces square or seven or eight hundred paces square.
If the defenders deploy heavy trebuchets on the back side of the city wall, the trebuchets will need to demolish the houses to create a traction launch space one to two hundred steps deep.
A city six to seven hundred paces square can hold up to the sky a dozen heavy trebuchets. The key is to organize two to three thousand well-trained village soldiers and warriors to operate these trebuchets.
For a city that is six to seven hundred paces square, how many people are there to defend it?
If the city defenders replaced all traditional heavy trebuchets with Western Region stone cannons, not only could they deploy three times more troops, but the required soldiers and bravery would also be significantly reduced to one-third of the previous number.
How big the gap is here can be understood by tapping your toes.
For the siege party, the same principle applies.
Zhu Hang and Wang Fan wanted to understand the truth behind this, and they were deeply worried about the cities such as Shouchun and Ruyang that were besieged by enemy armies. It was unimaginable that the enemy troops deployed hundreds of heavy Westerners at once outside Shouchun City.
How will the defenders feel when the stone cannon is fired?
Xu Huai also explained in detail the traditional trebuchet. No matter how well-trained the soldiers are in operating the trebuchet, it is impossible to be absolutely uniform when pulling and firing. This will inevitably lead to the scattering and deviation of the pulling force, making the accuracy difficult to control.
Strength can restrain this disadvantage to the greatest extent.
Of course, whether it is a traditional trebuchet or a Western Region gun, the most technical part is the tip rod and the horizontal axis that supports the tip rod for firing.
The suspension box supporting the counterweight of up to 10,000 kilograms suddenly sank, and the stone bullet weighing hundreds of kilograms on the other side had to be rotated and thrown out. The strength of the tip rod and the support shaft was extremely high. Currently, only traditional methods can be used.
It was made using craftsmanship, and no actual objects were captured from the enemy, and it is not clear whether the enemy has made any new breakthroughs.
"It seems that the reinforcements entering Huainan should come sooner rather than later. The DPRK is still a little slack..." Zhu Hang said worriedly.
Before rushing to Chushan, Zhu Hang and everyone in the court, including Privy Councilor Hu Kai and others, considered that the captive troops would have naval forces to rely on this winter and that the main force would not retreat easily after crossing the Huaihe River.
Implemented a long-term siege and attack on Shouchun and other cities.
However, even if Xu Huai copied the drawings of the stone cannons from the Western Regions to Jianye, everyone in the court considered that the Huai Palace Army had been operating in Shouchun for two years.
The young and strong can be recruited to help defend the city. If Shouchun guards for three to five months, it doesn't look like there will be any problems.
Therefore, Zhu Hang had the same idea as everyone in the court. They did not advocate that the reinforcements rush northward. They were all worried that the reinforcements would collide with the main force of the captive cavalry in the Pingchuan area north of Luzhou and south of Shouzhou. There was really no way to do this.
A good chance of winning.
However, after seeing the live test firing of the Western Region stone cannon, Zhu Hang deeply realized that the DPRK and China did not really attach importance to the power of the Western Region stone cannon. The crisis Shouchun faced and the critical situation were more critical than he thought when he set out from Jianye.
