Chen Xiaoshu, who was on duty at Wangdou, quickly noticed the panicked herdsmen. He climbed down from the mast and reported the situation to the temporary captain Chen Zhijian.
"Don't be nervous. We will definitely be intercepted by the Mongols when we go to the grassland. Let's do whatever we have to do. Even if we have to fight, it will be tomorrow morning." Mo Zui was a little angry when he was called out.
He thought it was something great.
It turned out that I just met the herdsmen who were camping here. Mo Zhui followed the master into battle, and he had a clear understanding of the situation on the battlefield.
If you don't know how to take the shot in the middle of the night, you will have to take the shot tomorrow morning.
It was too dark to see clearly, so I couldn't fight.
Moreover, it takes time to gather manpower, and the Mongols always live scattered.
If it is not intercepted at noon tomorrow, there will be no chance. The ship will arrive in Toronto at noon.
"Everyone who should sleep should go to bed and have a good rest. I will have enough energy to play with them tomorrow." After Mo Zui finished speaking, he yawned and turned around to go back to sleep.
"What's there to be nervous about? This is in the water, and the Mongols can't get up."
When everyone heard this, they immediately became less nervous. After all, the only one here was Mo Desi, who had been fighting for a long time. Looking at his nonchalant look, they understood that tonight would be fine.
Immediately, everyone dispersed and went back to sleep.
News of a strange boat coming up the Luan River was quickly reported to Khan Ahai.
In the morning, Khan Ahai was having breakfast with the slave girl serving him when he received this message.
His slender eyes shone like poisonous snakes, flashing constantly.
During this period, more than a month of siege, the earthen city remained motionless.
The Mongols lacked artillery. There was also a lack of trees on the grasslands to make siege weapons.
When we all formed an alliance, we took it for granted that as long as we gathered enough people, we wouldn't have to worry about anything. We would just flatten their crops with horse hooves and steal their cattle and sheep.
As it turned out, the fight here was completely different.
The castle on the east bank of the river is made of stone!
They actually transported granite from more than a hundred miles away.
Khan Ahai did not know that water transportation was possible here.
There are not only stones but also many trees in the mountains more than a hundred miles away. The stones can be transported out by placing them on wooden rafts. It is also easy to mine them with chemical fertilizers and explosives. Just use a steel drill to drill holes and then fill them with explosives.
alright.
That castle was a Mongolian nightmare.
The outer wall is more than 20 meters high, and the Mongolians' crude ladders cannot reach the top of the wall.
The walls are made of granite and cement and are so strong that they cannot be smashed with a hammer.
Moreover, those shooting ports were still spitting out flames, killing all the Mongols who were approaching.
The towers are all cylindrical in shape, with half of them exposed outside the wall. There are no blind spots, and you can be hit wherever you hide.
In the past month, three to four hundred corpses have been thrown under the castle, but no progress has been made. The Mongols have turned to attack Duolun City. After all, they are more familiar with the rammed earth city walls. The walls of the Ming Dynasty are all like this. They are also familiar with the attack.
.
Only a few troops are left here to monitor and maintain the siege.
Khan Ahai did not expect that this blue-black castle actually had so many firearms. Although they were all small Franco cannons and propeller cannons, they had no problem hitting three to four hundred meters.
This distance is too far beyond the range of the bow and arrow. It is too disadvantageous for cross-shooting.
They are located high up and have a good view, overlooking the whole city on the other side of the river.
Those tall towers are the best watchtowers.
On the vast grassland, there was no secret in the Mongols' actions, and they were discovered by telescopes on high towers from a distance.
The Mongols soon discovered that every time they launched an attack on Duolun City, it seemed that the people in the city knew their numbers, weapons, and attack direction very well.
Troops have already been concentrated and supplies are waiting there.
This battle was very painful.
"Is there only one boat?" Khan Ahai asked.
"In response to what the Khan said, I only saw one boat, but this boat can go upstream. There are two chimneys smoking, and it seems that there is a fire on the boat."
"Make a fire, do they cook on the boat?"
Khan Ahai doesn't want to worry about it anymore. It's just a boat. If you catch them all, you'll understand. It's not worth the trouble.
They must not be allowed to successfully reach Toronto. He knew that this would give the people in the city great confidence.
The purpose of siege is to trap them to death and make them despair in their hearts. If they can't be sealed off, then what's the point of calling it siege? It's just a joke.
"Let Oshika attack them, don't let them come here."
As expected, a large number of Mongolians arrived in the morning.
Mo Zhui stood on the driving platform, looking at the large group of cavalry galloping in the distance. He shouted into the microphone, "Everyone is ready, the Mongols are coming."
A black tide surged in the distance. Under the trampling of countless horse hooves, the earth shook and ripples appeared on the water surface.
"Don't you want to experiment with weapons? Now is your chance. From here to the distance we can see, there are Mongols on both sides of the strait." Mo Zhui said to Lao Liu.
Fu Laoliu nodded and took his apprentices to the bow fort. He decided to operate the cannon himself.
Mo table brought a general flag and fifty fusilier infantry, and immediately ran to both sides, opened the shooting port, and began to load ammunition.
The sailors on the ship also began to load the Franco cannons on both sides.
Mo Zhui, Chen Zhijian and others were on the bridge, hurriedly putting down the tiled steel plates on the ceiling to prevent the leakage from shooting towards the bridge.
The corrugated steel plates on the four sides of the driving platform can be retracted and retracted. When they are lowered, there is a louver-like gap, which can not only block arrows, but also allow observation outside.
The speed of the cavalry was very fast. On the river banks on both sides of the ship, a large number of cavalry were cruising, looking at this strange ship wrapped in iron sheets on all sides and not knowing what to say.
Because the Newcomen steam engine is not very powerful, it is not very fast and the cavalry can easily keep up. The depth of the river here is about three to four meters, and the cavalry cannot get close.
Oshika stood on a hill not far away, looking at this lonely black steamer with some doubts.
There was a sail, but it was not raised, and the current wind direction was not right, so it could not support them going upstream.
The five large oars on each side of the ship were not in the water at this time. They were stretched out like centipede claws. They were obviously not driven by oars.
Seeing the two large chimneys at the back of the ship billowing black smoke, and the two huge water wheels behind it rowing water, although he didn't understand the principle, he could see clearly that this ship used fireworks and paddle wheels.
Driven.
No matter what eccentricities they have, the Khan's orders must be carried out.
Obihua waved his hand, and suddenly the desolate horn sound sounded.
The next moment, countless cavalrymen bent their bows and set up arrows, and fired them intensively. The arrows soared into the sky like black clouds, and then half of the raindrops fell on the ship.
With the boat as the center, raindrops of arrows covered this section of the river.
The sound of chopping echoed throughout the hull and the corrugated steel plates on the top. These steel plates were very thin because they were riveted to the steel brackets, and they kept vibrating under the impact of the arrow rain.
Chen Xi raised his little head and carefully observed the tile steel plate. There were small pits and dents in some places. But it was fine and there was no breakdown.
The next moment, the flintlock rifles of twenty-five infantrymen on each side rang out. These people were from the Jia Ding Regiment. They were well-trained and counterattacked immediately after the rain of arrows fell.
A cloud of smoke rose from the shooting hole in the steel plate on the side of the ship. A dozen cavalrymen fell down immediately on both sides of the river. The river was not very wide, about seventy or eighty meters.
Fifty rounds of bullets knocked down a dozen cavalrymen, which was a pretty good result.
After all, the accuracy of long-distance flintlock guns in this era is very poor. This means that enemies are shooting intensively, and it is difficult to hit a single enemy within a hundred meters.
The projectile range of the cavalry bow was about two hundred meters, and they kept projecting about fifty meters away from the river bank. At this distance, the muskets were inaccurate.
During the siege, Oshihua saw that these Han people had firearms, and the number was shocking.
He guessed that there might be firearms on the boat, so he didn't let the cavalry get too close. This confirmed his suspicion.
The Mongols chased the boat upstream and kept firing arrows. The black boat fired a round of muskets every ten seconds. From time to time, some Mongolians were defeated.
"Accelerate and get closer to Duolun City as soon as possible to prevent them from blocking upstream." Mo Zhui ordered. There is a bend in the river ahead. The boat speed will slow down, and there are many shoals there, so we must prevent the Mongols from rushing up.
The Mongols are not fools. The water upstream is shallow and they can wade to get closer, or they can throw things into the water to block the boat.
Half an hour later, the steamboat arrived at the bend of the river under the rain of Mongolian arrows. A large number of Mongolians had already gathered here in advance. They dismounted one after another, holding scimitars, and swarmed onto the sandbank. Many of them were waist deep.
Pushing the raft into the water, he was ready to rush up and fight hand-to-hand.
After half an hour of high-speed sailing, a squeaking sound suddenly came from behind the boat. Chen Xi hurried over to check. After searching, he found that the sound was coming from the gearbox.
"Xiao Wu, you two open the gearbox casing. Hurry, something seems to be wrong."
Before Chen Xi could instruct the two students to dismantle the gearbox casing, they heard a jamming sound. The gearbox was stuck, and then with a loud bang, the casing was blown away.
With quick eyes and quick hands, Xiao Wu pushed Chen Xi away, and the broken shell flew out, punching a big hole in the two-millimeter steel curtain wall, and then fell into the river.
Chen Xi clearly saw the situation outside. Many Mongolians were gathering on a sandbank not far away, looking at it eagerly.
Then, the paddle wheel at the stern seemed to suddenly lose its strength, its speed dropped sharply, and then it slowly stopped.
The grinding table was on the bridge, and I felt a vibration under my feet, and the ship stopped.
