Chongzhen Ming Dynasty: Starting from Meishan Chapter 464 The Invincible Divine Power Dashun Cannon
"Urgent delivery to Qufu?" Dorgon's face changed slightly for a moment, and Hong Chengchou and others also had expressions of concentration.
He scratched the paint with a dagger, then took out the letter and read it hastily. Dorgon's good mood because the navy was about to arrive on the battlefield disappeared in an instant.
The Eight Banners of Mongolia were crippled.
"Master, what happened?"
Hong Chengchou asked Dorgon cautiously.
"Read it for yourselves." Dorgon handed the letter to Hong Chengchou.
Hong Chengchou took the letter, and Fan Wencheng, Ning Wan, and I also came to Hong Chengchou's side.
The three people read it quickly, with expressions of disbelief on their faces, obviously shocked.
Hou Fangyu took the letter from Hong Chengchou at this time. Dorgon didn't stop him when he saw this, which made Cao Eryu who was standing next to him very unconvinced.
Because Cao Eryu had no choice but to discover that the distance between him and Hou Fangyu was quickly widening.
Cao Eryu is still just a slave, but Hou Fangyu is evolving towards Hong Chengchou and others, and is becoming more and more valued by Dorgon. How can this be possible?
"Master, this matter is no small matter." Hou Fangyu said carefully.
"The Ming army only had 8,000 cavalry, and they were ambushed by 60,000 Qing cavalry. However, the final result was that the Ming army was completely victorious and our Qing cavalry was completely defeated!"
"If the reason is not clear,"
"I'm afraid it will inevitably happen again in the future."
"This is reasonable." Dorgon said solemnly, "Then why do you think our Qing army was defeated?"
Hong Chengchou said: "Judging from the report, there is nothing to criticize about the use of troops by the ten kings, and there is no problem with the choice of battlefield. After all, the Ming army was also ambushed."
"However, the final result was completely unexpected."
"The biggest reason for this is the Ming army's military formation."
"Heng Jiu, are you referring to the square formation that the Ming army's cavalry formed after dismounting?" Dorgon said thoughtfully, "What's so unique about this formation? It helped the Ming army achieve such incredible results.
?”
"Master, it's mainly because of the self-made firecrackers." Hou Fangyu said solemnly.
"Self-generated fire cannon? Self-generated fire cannon alone seems not enough to stop the cavalry attack, right?"
Dorgon recalled in his mind the Battle of Hetao between Qingshun and Han Dynasty. The Eight Banners Han Army also tried to use flintlock rifles to block the frontal charge of the puppet Shun cavalry, but in the end all failed without exception.
It must be admitted that the learning ability of the Jiannu people, a fishing and hunting people, is still very strong.
During the Lao Nu era, they completed their study of the sidecars of the Ming Army and then imitated bulky but sturdier carriages. These carriages played an important role in Lao Nu's war to seize Liaodong.
In the Huang Taiji era, he began to imitate Hongyi cannons and formed the first firearms unit-Wuzhen Chaoha.
This firearms unit played a decisive role in the wars between Jiannu and the Ming Dynasty, Chahar Mongolia and Korea. It was also from the Huang Taiji era that firearms began to become the mainstream on the battlefield.
Dorgon's learning ability is even higher than that of Nurhachi and Huang Taiji.
This can be seen by looking at his reform of the Eight Banners system.
"Master, I can't tell you clearly. It's best to ask the messenger of the Ten Kings."
Hou Fangyu actually couldn't figure out the secret. In fact, except for Chongzhen, no one in this world could figure out the secret. According to the historical trajectory of another time and space, it would take at least sixty years for the infantry hollow square to appear.
How could Hou Fangyu know the secret?
But Hou Fangyu's words also awakened Dorgon.
"Oh, yes." Dorgon asked Cao Eryu, "Where is the messenger of the Ten Kings?"
"Uh?" Cao Eryu said with a grimace, "I have asked him to go back to Qufu."
"Idiot, go and chase her back!" Dorgon said angrily, "If you can't chase me back, don't come back either."
"Hey!" Cao Eryu turned pale with fright, and hurriedly left the Chinese army tent to chase Duduo's messenger.
Fortunately, the messenger sent by Duduo had traveled two days and two nights, and both the man and the horse were very tired. In addition, it was a return journey, so he did not go far and was quickly chased back.
"Slave Mangtu, I'm going to see the emperor and the regent."
La Mangtu, in red armor with a white flag, flicked his sleeves and gave Dorgon a thousand dollars.
"No need." Dorgon waved his hand and asked, "Mangtu, were you present when the army of ten kings besieged the Ming army?"
"Returning to the words of the emperor and the regent, the servant was present at the time, and was right next to the ten kings." Mangtu nodded and said, "So he watched the entire battle process from beginning to end."
"Okay, then I have a few questions to ask you."
Dorgon thought for a while and asked: "What kind of formation was the Ming army putting up at that time?"
"It is a rectangular formation." Mangtu replied without thinking, "It is about two hundred steps long and one hundred steps wide. It is divided into three rows from the inside to the outside, each row contains less than 3,000 Ming troops."
After Dorgon heard this, he immediately began to calculate silently.
A rectangle with a length of 200 paces and a width of 100 paces has a perimeter of 600 paces.
There are three thousand Ming troops standing in each row, which means there are five Ming troops within one step.
"Mangtu, isn't this right?" Dorgon asked, "There are so many Ming troops?"
"Returning to the words of the Imperial Father and the Regent, there are indeed so many Ming troops, and there were still more than 100 of them at that time."
Mang Tu said with great certainty: "The Ming army's formation at that time was very neat and easy to count. There were more than 8,000 Ming troops in total, and each row had about 2,700 handicaps."
"Then the Ming army has to be close together, right?"
"Yes, that's the case. The Ming army was so close together that they even had to turn sideways."
"Especially when the two Ming armies at the front and back change, they need to turn completely sideways to pass through."
"Are they really close together?" A flash of lightning flashed across Dorgon's mind, and he suddenly realized, "Now that I understand, I understand, that's how it is."
"That's it." Hong Chengchou and others were also stunned.
Only Cao Eryu and Mangtu looked confused, thinking, "What do you all understand?"
Hong Chengchou said: "Master, this makes sense. With five musketeers standing at one step, the firepower of the same width can be increased by at least three times! In this way, it is indeed possible to block the cavalry."
Hou Fangyu's focus was on another thing: "What's going on with that bayonet?"
"Oh yes, there is also a bayonet." Dorgon woke up like a dream, "What does the Ming army's self-made bayonet look like?"
"Returning to the words of the Emperor Father and the Regent, the general shape of this thing is like this." Mangtu said, pulled out his sword and drew a sketch on the ground, and finally said, "This thing is a blunderbuss set on a self-generated fire blunderbuss.
It’s in charge.”
"It's awesome, it's really awesome." Hong Chengchou praised continuously, "Although this thing looks simple, it is extremely exquisite. It not only allows the musketeer to have the defense of the spearman, but it does not affect the shooting of the self-generated fire gun. It is really awesome.
The person who can create this thing is definitely a great talent, could he also be a Western missionary like Tang Ruowang?"
Mangtu shook his head and said, "It is said that Chongzhen came up with this thing."
"Chongzhen?" Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng and the other three people suddenly looked at each other.
This dog emperor still has this ability? Is it because of Meishan’s enlightenment?
Dorgon immediately ordered Mangtu to say: "Mangtu, you don't have to go back to Qufu. Go back to Beijing immediately and tell Tang Ruowang everything you know about self-generated fire guns and bayonets. Let Tang Ruowang also give me every self-made fire gun in the Qing Dynasty."
They are all equipped with bayonets, and then tell Tang Ruowang for me, asking him to continue to increase the production scale of self-made fire guns."
"Hey!" Mang Tu agreed, got up and hurriedly left the Chinese army's tent.
After watching Mang Tu leave, Dorgon turned back and asked Hong Chengchou, "What do you think, gentlemen?"
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Fan Wencheng sighed and said: "Master, this is a brand new firearms warfare method. I have a hunch that once this kind of warfare method is popularized, the role of cavalry will be greatly weakened."
"No, the cavalry still has its role." Hong Chengchou shook his head and said, "At least the cavalry's marching speed cannot be matched by the infantry, but from now on the cavalry will no longer be able to dominate the battlefield."
"Yes." Hou Fangyu said with deep understanding, "The era of infantry dominating the war has arrived."
"Infantry dominates the war?" Dorgon said thoughtfully, "Let's talk about the battle of Guting Town."
"If the Ten Kings commanded more than just the Eight Banners of Manchuria and the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and if the Eight Banners Han Army were also present at that time, could they have destroyed the square formation of the Ming Army?"
"Of course it is possible." Hong Chengchou said without hesitation, "Although the infantry phalanx of the Ming army can withstand the frontal charge of the Mongolian cavalry, it cannot withstand the bombardment of the red cannons. The Eight Banners Han army only needs to concentrate a few dozen red cannons."
After a few rounds of artillery fire, the infantry phalanx of the Ming army was shattered."
"Not really." Hou Fangyu questioned, "If there were no terrain restrictions, the infantry phalanx of the Ming Army was actually movable. Although the speed of marching in formation is relatively slow, it is definitely faster than the red cannon."
"So what if it's a camel revolving gun?" Dorgon said, "It should be able to keep up with the Ming army's infantry phalanx, right?"
"Of course the camel swivel cannon is possible." Hou Fangyu replied, "And the camel swivel cannon is enough to destroy the Ming army's infantry phalanx. It can be called the nemesis of the Ming army's infantry phalanx."
When Dorgon heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief. It would be great if there was a way to solve it.
"It seems that it is necessary for the Khalkha Mongolia to pay tribute to camels as soon as possible."
"Moreover, let Tang Ruowang build five hundred more red cannons."
…
Needless to say, Jiannu's firearms technology and firearms tactics are advancing rapidly.
In comparison, Dashun's progress in firearms was slightly slower than that of Jiannu.
However, with the push of Li Yan and Gao Yigong, Dashun was not left behind too much.
Especially after the defeat in Hetao, Gao Yigong and Li Yan learned the hard way and realized the power of Jiannu's own firecrackers and Hongyi cannons, so they also began to increase their efforts to imitate firearms.
After nearly five months of exploration, the first batch of camel swivel guns were finally successfully imitated.
This batch of camel revolving cannons was supervised by Song Xiance. After Niu Jinxing was executed, Song Xiance succeeded Niu Jinxing as the Right Prime Minister of the Dashun Kingdom, but the Left Prime Minister was still vacant for the time being.
Today is an auspicious day for the first batch of Camel swivel cannon test firings.
In order to observe the test firing of the camel revolving gun, Li Zicheng even postponed his trip to Hanzhong Mansion.
Otherwise, Li Zicheng should have led the Dashun Army into Hanzhong Mansion at this time.
In addition to Li Zicheng, Tian Jianxiu, Liu Fangliang, Ma Weixing, Liu Zongmin and Gu Junen and other senior officials of the Dashun Army were basically all present. By the way, Liu Zongmin's status in the Dashun Dynasty was not as good as before.
His previous defeat in Kaifeng Mansion and his capture by Jiannu severely damaged his prestige.
In addition, Li Zicheng also spent a lot of effort to rectify the government affairs during this period.
Nowadays, the administration of officials in the Dashun Dynasty is relatively clear, and the burden on the people is not heavy.
"Your Majesty, the auspicious time has come. It's time to test the cannon." Song Xiance stood up and bowed.
"Okay, let's get started." Li Zicheng nodded happily.
It can be seen that Li Zicheng is still very interested.
Song Xiance immediately walked to the general stand with an order flag and waved it twice vigorously.
I saw twenty camels standing in front of the general station, each carrying a revolving cannon on its back.
After receiving Song Xiance's order, Luo Shou immediately ordered the camel to kneel on the ground, and then several gunners began to nervously operate the cannon and load ammunition.
After a while, the ammunition was loaded.
Then the gunner inserted the red-hot iron drill into the gun door.
Along with the continuous loud noises, the general ordering platform was shaking slightly.
When Li Zicheng, Tian Jianxiu and other senior Dashun army officials looked up and looked forward, they saw dozens of sidecars as targets being smashed to pieces in an instant, hundreds of steps ahead.
Looking at the broken wood and rotten boards flying in the sky, there was a moment of silence on the stage.
But soon, there was another huge cheer, and Li Zicheng was also very happy.
"Right Prime Minister! You have done an excellent job on this job." Li Zicheng said happily, "From now on, I will be promoted to the next level, and I will be promoted from Chengyi Bo to Chengyi Marquis. In addition, I will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver."
"I thank you, Your Majesty." Song Xiance was overjoyed when he heard this.
But Song Xiance did not forget Li Yan and Gao Yigong.
"Your Majesty, this matter is also due to the contribution of the right military advisor and the rear general."
"I know this well and don't need you to say anything." Li Zicheng nodded and said, "You only need to run your own errands. The next step is to imitate Jiannu's self-generated fire weapon as soon as possible."
"According to the decree, I must imitate the self-made fire gun as soon as possible."
Song Xiance sighed inwardly, "Commander You, I can only help you up to this point."
Li Zicheng said happily: "Also, these 20 camel cannons are going to Hanzhong Mansion with me, just in time to test their power against Zhang Xianzhong, a treacherous villain."
At this time, Gu Junen said: "Your Majesty, the name of the Camel Swirling Cannon is not good-sounding. Should we change it to a name that is both powerful and good-sounding, so that it can be worthy of such power?"
"Yes, I should change my name."
"After all, this is our Dashun's own cannon."
Li Zicheng pondered and said: "The Invincible Divine Power Dashun Cannon?"
"Holy Master Mingjian, this name is both majestic and catchy, and it is most appropriate." Song Xiance, Gu Junen and other ministers of the Great Shun Dynasty immediately flooded with flattery.