Chongzhen was in his dream accepting the coming of all nations when he was suddenly woken up by a voice.
He sat up, only to find that it was Wang Chengen: "Long live my Lord, Uncle Jingnan has sent someone to report that there is new news about Jiannu."
"I know." Chongzhen stroked his beard and woke up Zhu Cixiang and Zhu Cijiong who were still sleeping soundly next to him. Then he ignored breakfast and came to Huang Dejun's residence as the admiral.
"Your Majesty, Jiannu seems to be building a high platform."
After Huang Degong paid homage to him, he continued, "I don't know what the purpose of cultivating it is."
"Let's go take a look at the front first." Chongzhen immediately took Huang Degong and his two sons, surrounded by several eunuchs and a group of Yiding, to the northernmost point of the defense line.
This time I didn't take a naval warship, I rode a horse.
After a while, a group of a hundred people arrived at the end of the field.
"Kowtow to the Holy One." Tian Xiong stepped forward to pay homage.
"I love you, no courtesy." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Tell me about the situation."
Tian Xiong responded, and said: "Today, before it gets bright, a group of surrender troops came over. There must be two to three thousand people, and they brought pickaxes and other tools. After they came, they built a platform behind the slope protection. Now
They are already several feet tall."
Chongzhen raised his head and looked forward, but unfortunately there was a slope in the middle blocking him and he couldn't see anything.
At that moment, Chongzhen got off the gun platform and followed the narrow passage reserved between the sharp wooden stakes and bamboo thorns to the back of the slope protection. The Ming army sentry had already set up a ladder here specifically for observation.
Seeing Chongzhen and his entourage approaching, the sentry quickly came down and saluted.
After patting the sentry on the shoulder, Chongzhen climbed up the ladder directly.
The total height from the bottom of the trench to the top of the slope protection was just over ten feet. Chongzhen climbed up in two seconds and looked over the top of the slope protection. He saw thousands of Jian slaves divided into dozens of groups, digging in the wilderness diagonally ahead.
The earth was pounded, and the nearest earth platform was less than thirty steps away.
Huang Degong, Tian Xiong, Zhu Cixiang and Zhu Cijiong also climbed up from other ladders.
"Father, what does Jiannu want to do?" Zhu Cijiong asked, "Imitate what Yuan Shao did in the Battle of Guandu, build a high platform and shoot arrows at our gun platform from a high position?"
"It should be firing off cannons." Zhu Cixiang corrected.
"After all, bows and arrows can't shoot far and are not very powerful."
"Well, Xun'er is right." Chongzhen nodded, "Jiannu probably wants to build a row of forts, and then set up Folan cannons to bombard our gun emplacements from above."
"This is a bit troublesome." Huang Degong frowned and said, "Jiannu built the fort, and the slope protection became a decoration. Our gun platform was directly exposed to the muzzle of Jiannu's cannon."
Tian Xiong suddenly said: "Your Majesty, how about we launch a counterattack and kill this group of slave builders?"
Chongzhen glanced back at Tian Xiong with some surprise. It seemed that the two victories during the day and night yesterday had given Tian Xiong a lot of encouragement, and he actually had the courage to take the initiative to go out to camp.
However, Chongzhen also knew very well that Tian Xiong, the suppressing soldier, did not have such strength at all.
Therefore, we must carefully protect Tian Xiong and his confidence as a suppressing soldier, and must not waste the battle easily.
"You have to fight back, but you don't need anyone to do it." Chongzhen smiled slightly, "Counterattack with the Crouching Tiger Cannon."
"Ah? Tiger squatting cannon counterattack?" Huang Degong, Tian Xiong and Zhu Cihong were all a little confused when they heard this.
Zhu Cijiong was even more puzzled and asked: "Father, how can the Crouching Tiger Cannon hit the target with the slope protecting it?"
Chongzhen smiled slightly and said: "Today, my father will personally teach you a lesson on how to make our Tiger Crouching Cannon grow a pair of sharp eyes and guide the shooting across the slope!"
Back at Guantai, Chongzhen was not in a hurry to go to class.
Instead, he asked Tian Xiong to call all the gunners from nearby gun stations.
He then asked Gao Qiqian to find a long wooden board one inch thick and cut it into dozens of small pieces.
In the Ming Dynasty, due to the lack of manufacturing technology, the accuracy of artillery was not very high, so there was no concept of guided shooting, and all relied on the gunner's experience to achieve good luck.
If you are lucky, you will let the enemy take advantage of you.
If you are unlucky, you will eat with your family.
But in fact, Ming Dynasty artillery can also be guided to fire.
The howitzers of later generations first measured the shooting elements, and then carried out covering bombardment based on the measured shooting elements. The Tiger Crouching Cannon, Folan Cannon and Hongyi Cannon of the Ming Dynasty could also measure the shooting elements first, but the accuracy was just poor.
Moreover, it cannot be measured uniformly, but each gun must be measured individually.
A maximum of two cannons can be placed together for measurement.
"First, let me tell you a few concepts."
"This small piece of wood is about an inch thick and is a scale."
Chongzhen picked up a small piece of wood and showed it to everyone.
Then he made a gesture to the left with his fingers together, and then raised another finger.
"The meaning of this gesture is to move the field of fire one tick to the left."
"That is to say, we need to move the tail of the Tiger Crouching Cannon in the opposite direction, that is, move one inch to the right. Do you understand?"
Most of the gunners nodded to show that they understood, so Chongzhen stopped talking and asked the gunners who already understood to go back and teach the companions who didn't understand.
Chongzhen then made three sets of gestures to the right, up and down.
"These three gestures mean to shoot to the right and adjust the corresponding scale up or down. One finger means adjusting one scale, and two fingers means adjusting two scales."
"To adjust left and right, you only need to move the gun tail."
"To adjust the firing angle up or down, you need to raise or lower the gun tail."
"Finally, when the calibration is completed, this gesture is made."
After speaking, Chongzhen stretched out his left and right hands at the same time and gave a thumbs up.
Most gunners understand it, and it doesn't sound difficult to understand.
Chongzhen randomly called out one of the more than a hundred gunners and asked: "What is your name?"
"Go back to your Majesty, the little man is as big as the cow, and the big one is called Niu Manzhi." The artilleryman's face flushed with excitement.
Chongzhen said with a smile: "You are great, right? Now I will provide you with the parameters, and you can adjust the shooting angle."
"Yes!" Niu Da responded, and immediately walked up to a tiger crouching behind and squatted down.
Chongzhen put his fingers together and pointed at the ground, clicked twice and then raised another finger towards Niu Da.
After thinking about it briefly, Niu immediately grabbed a small piece of wood and placed it on the tail of the Tiger Crouching Cannon, then fixed it, correct!
Chongzhen then reported three sets of parameters, which were to adjust the parameters to the left, right and upward. As a result, most of Niu made correct adjustments to the firing range and angle of the Tiger Crouching Cannon.
"That's it." Chongzhen said happily.
"You should go back now and each send an observer to hide behind the slope protection to observe."
"Then the Tiger Crouching Cannon conducts multiple test firings. The test firings must be consistent with the official firing charges. Otherwise, the test firing means there is no test firing." At this point, Chongzhen suddenly thought of a question and asked Niu Da again.
, "By the way Niu Da, do you have a certain amount of gunpowder you load every time you fire?"
"Yes." Niu said hurriedly, "There is a measuring bucket. There are three scales in the measuring bucket, which are fully full, half full, and half full. When firing, the range is about 300 steps, 200 steps, and 100 steps."
[Note: 1 step = 5 feet = 1.6 meters in the Ming Dynasty]
"Okay, from now on the charges will be fully filled." Chongzhen said.
"The ammunition loading is uniformly composed of closed-mouth bullets plus 50 and a half heavy lead or stone bullets."
"Each gun is tested first. After the test is completed, the observer observes the impact point of the cannonball. After the observer discovers the impact point of the cannonball, he adjusts the parameters according to the distance and orientation between the impact point and the target until the final cannonball.
Until we can accurately hit the target, we will finally calibrate the parameters!”
"Do you understand everything?"
"Understood!"
…
Gaudi was sitting and supervising the work.
"Master, eat watermelon."
A servant came to Gaudi holding a watermelon as big as a bowl.
"Where did you find the watermelon?" Gao Di's eyes lit up. It was such a pleasure to eat a piece of watermelon on this hot day.
The servant said: "Yesterday when I was out patrolling, I found a wild watermelon vine. I thought it might bear fruit. I went to look for it today and found that there was indeed one. It's a pity that it only produced one watermelon."
"Cut it, cut it quickly." Gaudi couldn't wait.
The servant put the watermelon on the ground, then took out his knife and cut it into pieces.
After cutting it open, I found that it was not yet ripe and the flesh was only slightly red.
Gaudi didn't dislike it at all. It would be nice to have watermelon to eat.
While I was eating, Leng Buding heard a "boom" in front of me.
"Cannon shooting? Where is the cannon shooting?" Gao Di was startled and stood up hurriedly.
"It seems to be the Ming army's blunderbuss." The servant pointed to the front, "That should be it."
"Oh, that's okay." Gaudi sat down on the saddle that served as a stool again.
"There was a slope protection in the middle. The Ming army's artillerymen couldn't see it at all, so they fired blindly."
As if to verify Gaudi's words, as soon as he finished speaking, a plume of smoke and dust suddenly rose from the wasteland thirty steps ahead to the right, and sand and sand were mixed with broken grass flying.
"Look!" Gao Xiao laughed, "Isn't this just a blind fight?"
"The Ming army probably has nothing left to do." The servant agreed with a smile, "When we build the fort and mount the Folang machine gun on the fort, the Ming army will have no choice but to surrender obediently."
"Yes." Gao Di agreed, "The Ming army has only one way to surrender."
While the two were talking, there was another bang from the direction of the Ming army's gun platform in front of them.
"You're still here?" Gaudi said angrily, "Why do you want to go to all this trouble?"
But the servant pointed to Gao Di's right side and said: "Master, it seems to be closer this time."
"What's closer?" Gaudi turned his head blankly, and then he saw at a glance that less than ten steps away on the right side, there was a pit as big as a bowl, and steam was coming out.
What is going on? Was it the Ming Army's Crouching Tiger Artillery?
Not long after, there was another bang from the direction of the Ming army's gun platform ahead.
Then Gaudi heard a scream, as if something passed over his head.
The next moment, there was a sudden scream behind him. Looking back quickly, Gaudi was extremely surprised to see that some of the dozens of soldiers who were busy building the fort had already laid down, and the rest had fled in all directions.
What is this? What is this? Gaudi was completely confused.
Did the Ming army's squatting tiger cannon have eyes? How could it shoot so accurately?
