Su He and Zhang Yuliang came to the firearms factory and saw the heavy artillery that had been successfully cast after many improvements.
It is 6 meters long and has a caliber of 150 millimeters. There are nine iron hoops on the barrel that tightly hold the gun body.
These iron hoops were to prevent the cannon from exploding.
Logistics soldiers are using a simple human crane to hoist heavy artillery onto a transport vehicle.
This transport truck is also specially made, and the load-bearing parts are reinforced with steel.
The cannon weighs 5,000 kilograms. To prevent the wheels from sinking into the road, extra-wide wheels half a meter wide were directly used.
This kind of heavy artillery is the god of land warfare, and no pass can stop it.
Su He touched the shining barrel of the heavy cannon. It would definitely be able to smash through the city wall of Dashan Pass.
"Zhang Yuliang, do you think the 150 heavy artillery can defeat Dashan Pass?" Su He asked.
The types of cannons are gradually increasing. For convenience and practicality, Suhe adopts the method of naming calibers.
"I think there is no problem. Except for places where heavy artillery cannot be transported, there is no pass that can block it." Zhang Yuliang responded confidently.
The firearms factory only casts this 150-meter heavy gun.
In order to transport it, the horse's pulling power was not enough, so some strong mules were specially found.
There were six mules pulling the cart, and three mules were lined up side by side, pulling the cart in two rows.
The soldiers of the artillery battalion carefully fixed the heavy artillery, and they drove towards the military camp.
As the mule cart walked on the gravel road, the wheels of the cart sank slightly.
Zhang Yuliang saw that the mule cart was moving normally without sinking. The road was in good repair.
He lamented: “I didn’t expect that it only took six days for the villagers to build this road.
The road is only wide enough for three mules. If it were six mules wide, it would be much easier to pull the cart."
"Most of the manpower is concentrated on this road. It is only a few miles long. Of course, with so many people, it can be repaired very quickly.
We pay wages directly, not as corvees in the past, so farmers are highly motivated to work.
To double the width of the road, the road construction time will need to be extended several times. We must capture Dasan Pass as soon as possible.
If we cannot defeat Da San Pass, if we are surrounded and suppressed by the Shaanxi army, we will have no way out."
The mule cart pulled the cannon to the military camp not far from the village entrance, where soldiers from the first and third regiments were waiting.
"Let's set off and attack Dashan Pass."
Su He gave the order and the army began to set off.
…
Dashan Pass guard Sun Rujun was drinking wine in his mansion.
His confidants came to report: "Sir, a group of thieves in yellow are coming and are probably going to attack us."
Sun Rujun glared: "What are you afraid of? I am the most powerful city in the world, and if I rebel against my siege ability, what can I do to us?"
You think this is a small county town and you can conquer it by setting up a ladder.
Don't worry, there are more than ten cannons on the city tower and we have more than 2,000 archers. No one can capture us.
There is enough food in the city, and if there is a shortage of soldiers, we can go to Hanzhong to recruit, and Dashan Pass is as stable as Mount Tai."
Sun Rujun was full of confidence. He knew that only strong soldiers had power. He was one of the few unpaid officers in the army, and the quality of his soldiers ranked among the best in the northwest.
It's just a rebellion, how can it be possible to break through Xiongguan.
"Sir, I heard that the rebels had cannons, and they used them to capture the county seat."
Sun Rujun smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, the rebels may capture the cannon of the guard station.
The cannons we use are already top-notch red cannons. There are more than ten of them. We can shoot farther from a high position.
Rebellious traitors can only be beaten, but we will win.
If the rebels dare to attack the city, we also have some small artillery to shoot them with shotguns."
"Gather the soldiers and horses, and let's go guard the city wall and let the rebels see how powerful we are."
…
Su He looked at the pass ahead. The six-meter-high Guancheng stood on the edge of the Qingjiang River.
There are eight red cannons at the head of the northern city wall of Dashan Pass, and thousands of soldiers holding bows stand at the head of the city.
Without heavy engineering equipment, this city cannot be filled with human lives alone.
The army set up a formation eight miles away from Dashan Pass, and the artillery battalion built artillery positions in the rear.
When everything was ready, Su He gave the order.
"fire."
The ordering soldier raised the flag for firing.
Zhang Yuliang saw the flag and gave the order to fire, and the artillery battalion lit the match of the 150-weight cannon.
The heavy artillery roared, and the shells flew over the city wall of Dashanguan and hit the inside of the pass.
Zhang Yuliang saw the cannonball miss and immediately adjusted the angle of the cannon.
The cannon hit the north wall of Dashanguan Pass directly.
When Sun Rujun saw the cannon coming, he gave the command with a normal expression.
"The rebels only have one cannon. We have eight cannons on the north wall. Fire back quickly."
The artillerymen on the Dashanguan wall immediately fired back.
Su He watched the artillerymen at the top of Dashanguan City firing their cannons and using ladders to attack the city. These eight cannons could use shotgun shells to cause great damage to the soldiers.
Dashanguan's artillery towered over the enemy, but their cannons had limited range.
For cannons with the same range, Dasanguan will definitely have an advantage if it is located high up.
Su He saw that the cannonball landed three miles in front of the army, and continued to roll forward for more than a mile before stopping.
Sun Rujun saw that the cannon had reached its range limit and was still far away from the rebels.
He was horrified and said: "How can the anti-thief artillery fire so far? We are in big trouble."
The cannonballs hit the city wall, causing the entire city wall to tremble, and some soldiers were scratched by flying stones.
After Li Fengming saw it, he smiled and said: "The overall situation has been decided."
Heavy artillery continued to bombard the north wall of Dashanguan, and cracks appeared in the places hit by the shells.
The Ming Dynasty defenders had no way to counterattack, and their morale was on the verge of collapse.
Sun Rujun saw that cracks as thick as a thumb had appeared on the city wall. Within half an hour, the Dashanguan wall would surely collapse.
He now only has two choices, go out of the city and attack or escape.
Sun Rujun looked at the dense artillery in front of the rebel formation and shouted loudly:
"We can't sit still and wait for death. We can open the city gates and rush forward."
His confidants immediately hugged him and begged: "Sir, we cannot go looking for death.
The rebels were well prepared, and they also had artillery.
If we rush out, we will be a living target."
Sun Rujun just wanted to show his attitude. He was not really stupid and used infantry to attack the artillery that had set up a position.
He issued an order: "Pack up the food and grass. Let's go to Hanzhong Mansion and burn the remaining food and grass.
We cannot leave food and grass to the rebels."
Sun Rujun left the artillery behind and continued to pretend to fight back.
He directly destroyed the lifting machinery of the North City Gate. Without this machinery, the thick city wall would not be able to be raised at all.
Even if the people in the city wanted to surrender after he left, the rebel army could not quickly enter the city.
Sun Rujun sent people to set fire to the granary, and escaped from the south gate with the army and some of the officers' families.
…
Su He saw that the wall of Dashanguan was very strong and had not collapsed even after being attacked by heavy artillery for a long time.
“The walls of Dashanguan Pass are very strong.”
Li Fengming replied: "It should be that we are too far away and the cannon is not powerful enough."
Su He pointed at the dense artillery at Dashan Pass and said: "There is no way, there is only one cannon, which cannot suppress the firepower of the city wall.
We can't use ladders to attack the city, we can only stay away from the artillery range of Dashanguan Pass."
Su He saw thick smoke rising from Dashan Pass.
The place where the thick smoke is concentrated, the place where serious business and detailed reports are made at the granary of Sanguan.
"No, the defenders of Dashan Pass are trying to escape. They are burning the granary."
"Send the order to the whole army to attack."
The army took the ladders and immediately rushed to Dashan Pass.
However, they discovered that when the soldiers charged, the Dashan Pass defenders actually stopped shelling.
The soldiers pushed the ladder and leaned it against the city wall, and the army quickly climbed up the city wall.
However, they found that there were only a few hundred artillerymen left on the city wall, none of them took up weapons, and they were captured without mercy.
More and more soldiers climbed up the city wall to control the situation.
The crane repaired the city gate, the heavy city gate was raised, and the army all entered Dashan Pass.