In the evening, the scent of broth is already wafting from the siege camp.
The auxiliary soldiers who were digging trenches outside the city put down their shovels, wiped their sweat and looked to the west. The setting sun was shining brightly and slowly sinking into the mountains.
The sergeants in the south of the city were lining up, and the surrounding auxiliary soldiers looked at them with contentment.
People know that it is Commander Cao's artillery.
It’s time to fire off the fire again.
On the east and west sides, there were more than 200 people on each side forming two small square formations facing each other. They sat on the ground in the cracks in the front and stood in the cracks in the back.
Cao Yao stood in the middle, raising his hand and patting his precious red cannon: "Come on, today it's the left team's turn, and the right team is watching from the side."
The Liangshizhan auxiliary soldiers could not contain their excitement for a long time, and ran forward from left to right.
Later, Cao Yao scolded him again: "Damn it, grandma, how many times have I told you not to stand behind the cannon, stay away from the barrel where the gunpowder packets are placed, and don't go up to it!"
Cao Yao especially likes to quarrel with soldiers.
This will give him a sense of peace of mind and satisfaction.
It's like going back to 12 years ago, when the sky didn't fall and the earth didn't sink, he was still a top soldier being trained in the Beijing Army's firearms camp.
As time passed, he also became an artillery instructor.
"What are you afraid of? It's no different from the Pearl Cannon. Come on, load it."
The powder package was Liu Chengzong's idea. The gunpowder particles, wooden horses and cannonballs were wrapped in fabric in advance and stuffed directly into the barrel.
This thing doesn't make much sense in a short period of time. The necessary condition for customization to realize its significance is to set consistent specifications for the artillery.
Currently, they only have more than 70 large and small cannons, but they are divided into four types: Yongzhu, Tiger Crouching, Buddha Wolf Machine, and Hongyi. These four types are divided into sixteen different calibers.
That is to say, their artillery shells have been mixed and used by capturing them, otherwise they can discharge more than 30 kinds of gunpowder and loading methods of artillery shells.
Liu Chengzong thought for a while, and it was completely nonsense to install a drug in this situation. The side effects far outweighed the positive significance.
This was also the original intention of him asking the workers to make a batch of artillery in Shanxi and finalize the specifications.
Once the caliber is unified, regardless of whether it is three or four types, fixed charge packages can be used later to reduce problems in gunpowder transportation and allow artillery to reload faster.
The fixed charge brought out by the artillery this time was made of yellow gauze from Mr. Huo's curtains, and the red cloth used for the shells.
The red cloth looks good when shot out, but the cloth wrapping the cannonball cannot be burned out, so with a bang, the cannonball breaks through the smoke and is shot out. Then the smoke gradually dissipates, and a piece of red cloth falls from the sky.
In fact, when Liu Chengzong designed this, he especially thought of Luo Rucai.
Luo Rucai loves to collect fabrics, and everything on his body can be wrapped in cannonballs.
After catching Luo Rucai and pressing it next to the gunpowder barrel, it won’t take long for the answer to what kind of fabric is most suitable to come out.
The artillerymen successfully completed the process of checking the gun bore, stuffed the yellow gauze powder packet into the barrel, then used an awl to pierce the powder packet at the gun's fire door, and the igniter poured the gunpowder and stood on the side.
The charger and the igniter are both auxiliary soldiers, and they are aimed at combat soldiers.
Cao Yao said from the side: "This gun is very good. The barrel is very flat and straight. You must memorize the artillery tips I teach you carefully. If you don't memorize it, how will you know how far it can shoot?"
He knows a set of formulas for fixing the weight of the projectile and adjusting the projectile range with different angles and charges for various firearms.
However, recently he found that the artillery formula was outdated, because the current red barbarian cannon is a cannon with a long barrel, and the artillery formulas he used to memorize in the Beijing camp were all short-barreled cannons.
After he mentioned this matter to Liu Chengzong, the two of them decided to let the sergeant carry it like this for now. When they have time and have new cannons, they can recalculate a set of artillery tactics.
Such a simple and simple thing, but for them, it requires huge manpower, material resources and energy.
But now it's very good. This post city must be bombarded with artillery no matter what, and the distance is fixed at 200 steps. The angle of the artillery is continuous, which is very suitable for experiments with fixed charge packages.
The soldiers who were aiming had retreated to the side of the artillery. With an order, the igniter used a small sickle tied with a match rope to ignite the gunpowder.
Immediately, the cannonballs blasted out and hit the gate tower of Yicheng.
"Well done!"
Cao Yao turned around and praised, without even looking at the reaction from the city. When the smoke cleared and the auxiliary soldiers had finished cleaning the cannon barrel, he looked at the debris hooked out of the cannon barrel and nodded secretly: "This is not bad, the price is as good as the brocade.
Silk is about the same, not as expensive as Pingluo and Lu silk."
He has tried many materials in the past few days, including silk and satin, gauze and silk yarn, and ge velvet and brocade. There is almost nothing that they cannot grab.
The best and most expensive silk is Lu silk, which is thin, dense, and most importantly, flammable.
When burned, almost nothing will be left in the barrel. Even if there is a little bit left, it will come off just like ashes.
Fabric is cheap, but it cannot be burned. If you accidentally clean the gun barrel, it will be stored in it. If it is not cleaned properly, it will easily ignite the gunpowder during the next charge.
Raw silk is actually good, but it requires secondary processing.
But they don’t have much of those things.
Of course there is not much Lu silk.
But Lu silk is made of silk and satin made by Lu'an Mansion.
During the Wanli Year, there was excess production capacity and every household in Shanxi Province had Lu silk.
The place of production is right next door, which is very convenient.
After the shooting was completed, Cao Yao began to teach the artillerymen again, explaining his knowledge of firearms on the spot.
To put it simply, all firearms are the same. Regardless of whether it is a Yongle fire gun or a bird gun, a three-eye gun or a five-eye gun, a short gun or a long gun, a small gun or a cannon, they are all the same in his eyes. p>
It's just a tube with one side sealed. The only difference is the size.
If the tube is long and straight, the hit will be accurate; if the tube is thick, the hit will be harsh.
Nothing can change without departing from its roots.
To the west of the siege camp, Liu Chengzong was holding a telescope and looking deep into the valley, where a team was marching eastward.
The leader was wearing a helmet with the word "Yong" on his head, black satin narrow-legged cotton trousers, and a short open-armed sheepskin jacket. A clean cloth was bandaged from his neck to his navel. He walked with a sword on his shoulder and walked with a arrogant attitude. p>
Judging from the way she walks and the way she wears her clothes, it’s Luo Ru who is right.
This guy's high-spirited spirit shows that he was being chased like a rabbit just a few days ago.
Very energetic.
The people behind him were all riding horses, and Liu Chengzong knew that there were Sky Monkeys, Zhang Tianlin and Song Shouzhen among them.
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Zhuantianmao Academy has been open for half a year. Shanxi has gained so much, and there will be more in the future. People who are not literate really can’t figure it out.
So he asked Heavenly Monkey to go home and bring back the eighty thieving students.
Zhang Tianlin led his troops to protect them. As for Luo Rucai, Luo Rucai was picked up on the road.
This guy was also unlucky. He recruited more than a thousand new men. When he went out to do nothing, he bumped into Aimu's officers and soldiers. The recruits all ran away when they saw the officers and soldiers.
Just four hundred old thieves and habitual bandits, fighting and retreating all the way, can be considered capable if they can escape.
When they approached the siege camp, Liu Chengzong went out to meet Luo Rucai. As soon as he saw Luo Rucai, he fell to the ground and said, "General Liu, thank you for avenging me. This Aimu beat me so hard!"
Luo Rucai paid his respects sincerely. He had indeed been bullied too hard. He had never experienced such a battle since the uprising.
No matter how brutal or violent you are, no matter how you respond, you will never be able to fight back.
No one has many people; no one has good soldiers; no one can defeat them; they cannot escape if they run.
He was originally injured and was sent to a mountain village to recuperate. He became the king of the mountain. When he heard that Liu Chengzong had surrounded Ai Mu in Wen'an Yi, he had to come over.
Liu Chengzong was also very curious about this matter. He helped Luo Rucai up and asked: "They are all riding horses, how can you come here?"
Luo Rucai got better, stood up slowly, turned around and patted his butt: "I asked the officers and soldiers to shoot me with an arrow. I can't sit still."
Liu Chengzong smiled, bowed his hands to everyone one by one, and then ushered them into the siege camp.
Zhang Tianlin followed him into the camp, looking in both directions as he walked, first at Liu Chengzong's camp, and then at the post city where Aimu was besieged, and secretly sighed in his heart.
Liu Chengzong's camp cannot be said to be very exquisite, it is quite satisfactory, but it is very impressive.
The Wen'an Post was surrounded in three directions from the west, south and east in the shape of a crescent moon. A second trench was being dug, and a hill of earth as high as the post city was built, in an attempt to surround the army.
Looking back at Yicheng, the soldiers at the top of the city were so densely packed that they neither fired artillery nor broke out, which made Zhang Tianlin confused.
He asked: "Lion, how many officers and soldiers are there in Wen'an Yi?"
Liu Chengzong smiled and raised two fingers: "Originally, there were one thousand and two, but in the past two days, more than 600 people were let in."
"Put in six hundred people?"
Liu Chengzong nodded and asked Zhong Bao to set up camp for Zhang Tianlin's people, and then led a few people to his Chinese army tent.
After entering the Chinese army's tent, he explained in detail: "I haven't fought since I came here. Aimu has three sentries and horses to guard the west. There are one sentry in the north and south mountains, and there is another sentry in the village to the west outside the city."
"I came quickly and blocked the sentry in the village into the city, and then surrounded and attacked the southern sentry. However, by the time I attacked the northern one, they had already set up camp and it was difficult to break through, so I surrounded this side first."<
/p>
Speaking of this, he smiled: "Two days ago, the army from the mountains to the north attacked. As soon as we retreated to the west, they wanted to enter the city, so they only intercepted the baggage and left the people alone."
Zhang Tianlin asked: "Do you want to starve them to death?"
"It's not that cruel, just surrender when you are hungry."
His understatement made Zhang Tianlin secretly speechless.
The tactics are very ordinary, even a bit dull, just surround and prevent people from running away.
But in this era of northern Shaanxi, no one can sustain such a battle with the army.
"There are two thousand officers and soldiers. I think you have four thousand, right? There are also mules, horses and livestock." Zhang Tianlin looked at his relaxed expression and calculated: "You consume twice as much food as him every day."<
/p>
"Come around, why don't you eat food?"
Liu Chengzong's Lion Battalion was greatly inspired by Zhang Tianlin, and the framework of the current military auxiliary army was all learned from Zhang Tianlin.
But he is an enlarged version of Zhang Tianlin. Zhang Tianlin only has more than a hundred veterans of the frontier army, while he has more than a thousand veterans of the frontier army.
And the biggest difference between the Lion Camp and others is that it has a logistics outpost.
Speaking of food and grass, Liu Chengzong could not hide his pride and said: "I fought several battles in Shanxi and defeated 4,000 officers and soldiers. They are all from Shanxi and have family members in the garrison. There are not many who are willing to follow me. Net profit
."
Isn't the mouth the most difficult thing to feed these days?
The flag troops of Fenzhou Guard and Pingyang Guard came over with grain and fodder, and they were beaten and beaten, and the grain and fodder were left behind, as well as the dead horses and mules.
On the contrary, because people didn't want to follow him, the number of mouths to eat didn't increase.
"So even though we didn't collect much food, we still have plenty of food for the troops, enough to starve the people in the city to breakout... That's right."
Liu Chengzong was halfway through speaking, then raised his hand and quickly pointed in the south and north directions: "In fact, all I have been eating these days is food from the two sentries outside Aimu."
Aimu in the city will be furious to death when he hears this.
When the six hundred officers and soldiers in Huoshuogou called for the door, Ai Mu was very reluctant to open the door.
Why do you come here so well?
I am honestly stationed in Huoshaogou. Anyway, I have my own food and built a camp. It will not be broken for a while. If I really need to break out, I can just set a fire in the sky.
Good thing now, there are more than 600 more mouths, which makes the already poor food supply even worse.
Zhang Tianlin laughed out loud, raised her hand and said to Liu Chengzong: "You have figured out how to play the bandit."
He felt that Liu Chengzong was really a bandit, and a bandit who was more organized than anyone else in northern Shaanxi.
The whole person jumps around to attract firepower, and the more he jumps, the fatter he gets.
Moreover, under his wings, he cultivated a large group of bandits near Yan'an Prefecture.
There were hundreds of bandit leaders like them, but when they arrived in Yan'an Fucheng, they couldn't move and became sitting bandits.
"How is Wangzhuang? It's almost time to harvest the wheat?" Liu Chengzong asked: "I saw a wheat field in Yanchuan, and it was very short."
Zhang Tianlin nodded when she heard this and said: "Yes, we will harvest next month. When the spring freeze begins, we will be on the banks of Xingzi River, Panlong River, and Yan River. We don't need a sickle to harvest the wheat this year. We have to pull it out by hand."
Pulling wheat, Liu Chengzong shook his head when he heard it.
As the saying goes, an aunt is most afraid of raising children, and a good man is most afraid of pulling wheat.
There are two reasons for pulling wheat. One is that the wheat does not grow well and is short, making it difficult to harvest with a sickle; the other is that the wheat straw can be used as firewood.
This is the most tiring thing.
"By the way, Lion, I have to tell you something. You and Chengzu first fought against King Qin Zhuangzi." Zhang Tianlin said, seeing Liu Chengzong nodding, she said: "I heard Chengzu said that the land there is very good, I want to
Then take it, do you think it’s okay?”
"Why are you so polite? You can take over the Xichuan River. But it depends on whether the dam is still there. If the dam can be opened, it would be better to open it so that more people can survive... and it will last another year."
Zhang Tianlin was very happy when she heard that he didn't mind, and immediately asked: "If you wait for another year, what do you want to do next year?"
"In July and August, I built a fort in Shanxi. The fort was full of corn. I took it back as seeds and tried planting some."
In another memory of Liu Chengzong, one acre of wheat could be harvested 700 to 800 pounds, which was so outrageous that he wished that the person in his mind was a farmer.
Their kind of wheat has fallen down and suffered disasters. It is normal to harvest thirty or forty kilograms from one acre of land.
The harvest of eighty or ninety pounds not only met expectations but also went smoothly.
When it reaches 200 kilograms, it can no longer be simply described as a bumper harvest.
Then you have to ask your ancestors to show their spirits.
Liu Chengzong scratched his neck. There was nothing he could do about it. He knew that production would be reduced, but he still had to farm.
He shook his head and stopped thinking about agriculture. The military was the most important thing. If the military did not solve the problem, there would be no chance of farming.
Liu Chengzong took a deep breath: "I'm just taking a gamble now to see whether Ai Mu will break through first or Du Wenhuan's reinforcements will come first."
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Note:
In 1952, my country's average wheat yield per mu was 48.8 kilograms.
In 1950, the wheat yield in North China reached 250 kilograms per mu, which was the highest among high yields and was featured in the People's Daily.