Chapter seven hundred and seventy-eight artillery battle
Yangwuyu is a very inconspicuous small village at the southeastern foot of Jinquan Mountain. Before the war, there were twenty or thirty families named Yang who lived and multiplied here, so it was named Yangwuyu.
In addition to the Elephant Trunk Ridge, which is more than seven miles long and is adjacent to the southeastern branch of Jinquan Mountain in the north, Yangwu Valley also stretches for more than twenty miles to the Changyuan Mountain in the south. This determines that the valley where Yangwu Valley is located starts from Jinquan Mountain.
The many valleys in the southern foothills are where shortcuts to the areas east of Jinquan Mountain are located.
The Taiyue camp army advanced to the front line of Jinquan Mountain and established a military camp here.
The main force of the Mongolian army needs to enter the northern part of Zezhou to support the withdrawal of more than ten soldiers and civilians from Jincheng to the north.
Seeing that Taiyue's marching army took the initiative to shrink to the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain to the west of Changyuan Mountain, and put up a formation to invite you to enter the urn, Wu Su Dashi, Xiao Yiqing did not take advantage of the plan and eat the Taiyue's marching army first.
They mainly wanted to keep Liang Jun's Taiyue Marching Camp in the area west of Changyuan Mountain while Jincheng's soldiers and civilians retreated north, so that they could devote their main energy to dealing with Liang Jun's First and Second Central Camps.
Like a maggot attached to a bone.
This determines that Yangwuyu and the two small villages on the south side of Changyuan Mountain must be captured before the main force of the Mongolian army marches south, and then used to build the Taiyue marching army that has shrunk to the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain and Gaoping City.
Strategic points of the line of defense.
Zhiguanxing was defeated miserably, and many generals of the Mongolian army were angry.
Due to climate reasons, the situation on the battlefield took a turn for the worse. As history has written, many generals of the Mongolian army still believed that the disastrous defeat at Ziguan was due to their bad luck.
They hoped that this battle would restore the supreme military power of the Mongol people.
The Nah clan was only officially merged into the Mongols thirty years ago. Over the years, countless Nah descendants have followed the Usu clan in the north and south, and they have long regarded themselves as a branch of the Mongols.
Over the years, the desert has been extremely cold. Countless cattle and horses freeze to death every cold season. Thousands of tribesmen have struggled to survive. Now that they have finally moved to the land of Jin with abundant water and grass and a mild climate, who would think of being driven out again?
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Nahe Yanzhen took over the task of capturing Yangwuyu and constructing a defensive line. On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, he and his brothers Yan Jiang, Yan Yun and others commanded more than 8,000 Yanyun Han troops and 4,000 of their own clan.
Before the remaining cavalry arrived at Yangwuyu, facing the fortifications built in advance by Liang Jun, the Yan, Yun and Han troops placed their double-layer cast iron shields horizontally on the chariots, surrounded them and advanced, launching waves like wild waves.
A surging charge.
Although the spring-arm bed crossbow has extremely strong penetrating power and can even knock a heavy cast iron shield into pieces from a distance of three hundred steps, its rate of fire is slow and it can only be placed in the front line.
Yan Zhen thought that if they placed more heavy shields in the front line and advanced with multiple columns and layers of shields, they could still effectively suppress the heavy fire of Liang Jun's heavy crossbows.
At this time, the sky and the earth were extremely cold, and the mountains were covered with ice and snow, which limited the effectiveness of the fire oil tanks fired by Liang Jun's Scorpion Crossbow.
Although it is inevitable to suffer certain casualties in the process of pressing Liang Jun's defense fortifications, as long as the generals can not be afraid of casualties and survive until the two armies engage in battle, or even engage in a melee, Liang Jun's so-called sophisticated war equipment will be effective.
be restricted to the greatest extent possible.
Yan Zhen was fully prepared for this. In addition to the heavy shields and shield vehicles equipped by the army, he also ordered the wooden doors of the houses in the left and right villages to be removed to strengthen the protection of the front line.
After fighting fiercely for half a day, Liang Jun, who was guarding Yangwuyu, finally could not withstand the Mongolian army's attack regardless of casualties, and was unwilling to fight a war of attrition in Yangwuyu, so he was forced to withdraw from Yangwuyu and retreat to the west four or five miles away.
In front of a low ridge, a new line of defense was reorganized.
After learning that Yan Zhen had successfully captured Yangwuyu, Xiao Yiqing rushed over immediately.
Whether a solid defense line can be established in Yangwuyu in the future is directly related to the safety of the flanks of the troops heading south.
"Don't have any illusions about luring the Liang army to the east of Changyuan Mountain and then attacking and annihilating it from two fronts. Even if the athletes of the He family are buried at the foot of Changyuan Mountain, they are not allowed to retreat even half a step from here..."
Xiao Yiqing was the military art teacher of Yan Zhen, Yan Jiang, Yan Yun and other He family members. He could not rule out the ominous premonition in his heart and warned the He family generals in a solemn tone.
Xiao Yiqing warned them not to be afraid of the severe cold and the frozen solid soil, and asked them to send more scouts to search the mountains on both sides to ensure that there were no gaps for Liang Jun to pass through. The terrain was not under their control; he asked them to be on the west side of the valley.
, don’t be afraid of hard work, dig more deep trenches, and the excavated soil can be piled high, cut fuel wood to melt the ice and snow, water it layer by layer, and freeze it into layers in this severe cold weather of ice and snow.
wall of ice.
Xiao Yiqing wanted Yan Zhen and the others to avoid connecting the deep trenches and ice walls, and deliberately leave some gaps in the middle for soldiers and horses to enter and exit.
In this case, Liang Jun launches an offensive from the west. Not only can they use these deep trenches, but the ice wall can delay Liang Jun's attack to the greatest extent, making it difficult for Liang Jun's war equipment to work. The defenders can also attack from the gaps at any time.
Continuously launch counterattacks instead of blindly passive defense.
After the Mongolian army almost took control of Changyuan Mountain in the southeast of Jinquan Mountain and established defenses, it was not until the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month that its main force of 70,000 was like a black tide, heading south from the gap between Jinquan Mountain and Ducheng Ridge.
Rush away.
It is only one hundred and ten miles from Jinquan Shandong to Jincheng.
Such a short distance, in normal times, a fast horse can run two or three times a day, and an elite infantry can cross it in a day. However, in the cold winter, the wilderness is covered with thick ice and snow, and it looks like a spacious post road.
With hundreds of thousands of old, weak, women and children rushing up together, it is bound to become extremely cramped and crowded, and movement is destined to become extremely slow.
In addition to the original 40,000 defenders of Jincheng, as the rear troops, they are responsible for holding back Liang Jun Han Donghu's troops (the first central battalion army), and deploying 10,000 cavalry to the east of Zelu Post Road to guard against Liang Jun crossing to the east.
Lingchuan County, outside of attacking their flanks, Wu Su Dashi and Xiao Yiqing personally led 60,000 infantry and cavalry into Gaoping County. At the same time, they stared at the Liang Army Kong Xirong Department (the First Central Central Battalion Army) in the southwest and the northwest
Some troops and horses of the Taiyue Marching Army.
This formed a safe passage from Jincheng to Huguan, which facilitated the evacuation of 100,000 Mongolian women and children stranded in Jincheng to the north.
It snowed heavily all day on the 9th, and the weather became increasingly cold, which made the retreat of Jincheng soldiers and civilians to the north slower. However, in the eyes of the Mongolian army, the same bad wind, snow and cold made the situation more favorable to them.
On the one hand, they are more adaptable to severe cold weather, and on the other hand, they have an absolute advantage in the size of the cavalry. Heavy snowy weather and thigh-deep snow will seriously hinder the main force of the Liang Army, which is mainly infantry, from south to north.
pursuit.
Although Xiao Yiqing was beside Wusu Dashi, located in a village in the southeast corner of Gaoping County, his eyes were always fixed on the Taiyue Camp in the northern part of Gaoping County, at the southern foot of Jinquan Mountain, where the scouts also visited every half day.
We need to report the movement of the Taiyue army.
The thick snow will greatly delay the main force of the Liang Army, including the First and Second Central Camps, from moving north. If Yan Zhen and others can successfully block the 30,000 elite Taiyue Marching Army to the west of Changyuan Mountain, then they can
Successfully brought tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians from Jincheng to Luzhou and reorganized their positions in Luzhou.
Before nightfall on the 9th, Su Lie, Chen Yuanchen, and Wen Yuan's elite soldiers from the Taiyue camp braved the heavy snow and entered the defense line from the rear, which was almost parallel to Changyuan Mountain and only six or seven miles apart.
An attack group was aimed at Yangwu Valley and Yeren Peak on the south side of Changyuan Mountain.
In response to this situation, Wusu Dashi also mobilized five thousand cavalry from the southern front to approach Yeren Peak from the south, so that if necessary, he could interfere with the Liang army attacking Yeren Peak from the flanks.
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On the unknown low mountain to the west of Yangwuyu, generals such as Li Xiu, Chen Kun, Su Lie, etc. were all wearing a layer of fur robes to keep out the cold outside their armors. The cold wind blew over them like knives, and the faces of the generals were turned red by the cold.
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"Luqi is really cautious! He didn't even deliberately leave any loopholes to lure us to the east of Changyuan Mountain to encircle and annihilate us!" Su Lie frowned and said.
This place is only about six miles away from Yangwuyu. The sky is clear and the snow in the wilderness diffuses the dazzling snow light. They can clearly see the enemy defenses near Yangwuyu without the help of copper telescopes.
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Wen Yuan led his troops to assemble on the defense line seventeen or eight miles away in the south. It seemed that he was aiming his attack at the enemy troops on the Savage Peak line, but in fact he was assuming the role of covering the flanks.
The real main direction of attack in this battle is Yangwuyu.
In addition to tearing apart the enemy's defense line in Yangwuyu as quickly as possible, they also need to quickly pass through Yangwuyu and enter the open area east of Changyuan Mountain to assemble before the enemy can react, so as to form an effective
Defense can truly realize the action of "closing the door".
Su Lie and other generals have watched the test firing of artillery at close range and know that it is powerful. However, the artillery has not been put into actual combat on a large scale so far. They are not yet sure whether they can quickly capture Yangwuyu with the help of artillery.
They had expected the enemy to be more ambitious, hoping that the enemy would deliberately lead them to the east of Changyuan Mountain and then try to encircle and annihilate them. In this way, they could save the key to storming Yangwuyu and opening up the east side of Changyuan Mountain.
links.
Unexpectedly, the Mongol people became so cautious this time. From the beginning to the end, they really just wanted to pick up the soldiers and civilians of Jincheng. They left more than 20,000 elite infantrymen in Yangwuyu and the areas to the east.
They want to defeat the 20,000 elite infantry and cavalry before the enemy's main force retreats. Not to mention Su Lie, Li Yan and other generals, even Chen Kun and others who have organized more than 30 artillery salvo drills in the mountains upstream of the Yichuan River
People are not completely sure.
Of course, they also made many plans. If the enemy's main force retreated earlier than expected, the Taiyue Marching Army would aim to capture Yangwuyu.
Even if some enemy troops are eventually forced to escape, there is no other way. First, we must ensure that the overall strategic intention is achieved, and we cannot pursue excessively extreme results.
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The snow between the two sides' positions has long been compacted.
The weather is too cold, and the snow will not melt even if it is trampled by people and animals. Instead, it will freeze even harder, forming slippery ice slides among the bumps and bumps, and even need to use knives and axes to cut out ice edges or pave them.
Anti-slip on weeds.
Groups of Liang troops, surrounded by shield chariots and crossbow chariots, swarmed towards the west of Yangwuyu. The generals on the front line stopped and stood more than 500 steps away from the enemy's defense line, using chariots to form a simple and
Practical protection, the pawns were spread out one after another, like layers of fish scales.
The battle formations were assembled on the edges of the left and right wings, leaving a channel for artillery fire in the middle.
The blooming bullet is still in the experimental stage. The heavy front-loaded smoothbore gun fires solid bullets at as small an angle as possible and as close to a straight line as possible to prevent the impact of the solid bullet from being absorbed by the soil when it first hits the ground. Also
Only by shooting at a small tilt angle, solid bullets can achieve multiple jump hits within the enemy's formation, maximizing their power.
This requires the frontline soldiers and horses to leave a considerable gap in the firing route of the solid bullets.
From the perspective of the Mongolian army, they thought that Liang Jun formed a large conical formation on the left and right wings in front of the Yangwuyu defense line, leaving such a large gap in the middle, which must be convenient for heavy weapons such as the cyclone gun to push through.
Arrive in front of the formation and attack the stronghold.
Of course, the Mongolian army would not let Liang Jun get what they wanted. When they constructed the defense line, they left gaps between trenches and ice walls to facilitate the deployment of troops to counterattack Liang Jun's cyclone artillery positions.
Standing on the wall of Yangwuyu Village behind several trench walls, Na He Yanzhen also noticed the artillery position three miles away, but the black cast iron pipes made him think that these were newly made by Liang Jun, similar to spring-loaded giant crossbows or
War weapons such as cyclone cannons are thought to need to be pushed within 500 steps of the trench wall to be effective.
The range of five hundred steps is exactly the effective distance for cavalry to charge at high speed.
Even if we know that the casualties of a short-distance charge by the cavalry will not be small in the face of Liang Jun's heavy crossbow fire, but if we can attack Liang Jun's cyclone cannon and other war equipment positions and destroy Liang Jun's war equipment as much as possible, even a single charge will result in death.
A hundred elites are also sacrifices that must be made.
Of course, in order to reduce the casualties of the attacking cavalry, Na He Yanzhen would first arrange for some infantry to surround the shield chariot and charge out, trying to hold down Liang Jun on the front flank as much as possible, as if Liang Jun was launching a counterattack.
At this moment, Na He Yanzhen still didn't know what kind of bleak fate would await him.
When the front-loaded smoothbore artillery was fired, Na He Yanzhen first saw the cast iron pipes in Liang Jun's array ejecting clouds of fire. After about five breaths, he heard the deafening roar of the thunder ship, and
The vibrations of earthquakes and mountain shaking came from under my feet almost simultaneously.
After he regained his composure, he opened his eyes and saw that the two outermost walls of ice and earth made of melted snow and mixed earth had collapsed, and frozen broken earth splashed towards the wall like broken bricks.
Although most of the broken frozen land was blocked by the ice and earth wall behind them, there were hundreds of soldiers behind the first and second ice and earth walls who were preparing to counterattack. By this time, they had been swept away, and the scene was horrific.
what happened?
The weapons deployed by Liang Jun at 1,400 to 5,000 steps turned out to be so terrifying!
Na He Yanzhen felt that his hands and feet felt cold and his body felt weak.
These ice and earth walls are not high. When a soldier mounts a war horse, most of his body will be exposed. However, each ice and earth wall is nearly one foot thick. Under the severe cold that drips water and turns into ice, layers of melted water are poured on it.
Snow water, ice is solid.
In order to build ice and earth walls and trenches, he requisitioned all the old, weak, women and children who could be recruited by force, and he didn't know how many people were beaten alive with iron whips to complete what he thought was a fairly complete defense in such a short period of time.
system.
Na Heyanzhen had done experiments before.
Using a cyclone cannon to throw stone projectiles weighing hundreds of kilograms from a distance of three hundred steps can crack the ice and earth wall, but if you want to collapse an ice and earth wall, it will only take one or two hundred hits.
Of course, the accuracy of the cyclone cannon is still somewhat unsatisfactory. Even if the trebuchet gunners trained skillfully by Liang Jun can smash a ten-foot-high city wall at 400 steps, it is already quite remarkable if they can hit one of three.
And looking at the black, iron-like projectiles, except for a few that passed over the head, almost nine out of ten hit the first and second ice and earth walls with great accuracy, destroying the two ice and earth walls with devastating force.
, the flying and splashing hard clods of earth also became a deadly blade for the generals who made the ice and earth wall stand by.
However, the iron bullets that passed over their heads fell into the village, destroying several mud houses like ice-wind bombs. One soldier was directly hit by the iron bullet, and his body was torn into pieces along with his armor.
The atmosphere on the battlefield fell into a deathly silence for a while.
Most of the generals of the Liang Army were also a little frightened. Previously, some of the artillery was dragged to various camps for test firing to make the generals adapt.
Mounting a smoothbore cannon and firing a salvo are two completely different concepts, okay?
Fortunately, several groups of cavalry were deployed far away in advance. If the horses hadn't screamed, it wouldn't have been so easy to control them.
As for the Mongol garrison soldiers within the defense line of Yangwuyu, everyone was thinking about a question. Is this the newly built war weapon by Liang Jun? Did the Mongol people offend the gods? Ask Liang Jun to take it out.
Such a powerful weapon to punish them?
There were even some soldiers who knelt down and prayed to the sky at this moment.
As a general, Heyan was much calmer than most of his generals. He immediately treated the casualties, counted the casualties, and even had someone pick up an iron bullet in front of him.
He found that the iron bullets fired by Liang Jun's new war equipment were much smaller and heavier than the stone bullets fired by the cyclone cannon. Each one weighed at most twenty kilograms, which was only equivalent to a medium-sized loose stone bullet from the cyclone cannon.
the weight of.
However, when it comes to power, such an iron bullet is ten times more powerful than a large stone bullet weighing hundreds of kilograms and fired by a traditional cyclone cannon.
Taking into account the terrifying accuracy, wouldn't Liang Jun's new weapon be worth twenty or thirty traditional cyclone cannons?
Of course, what made Na Heyan even more desperate was the terrifying range.
If Liang Jun's war equipment was four or five hundred steps away, he might have considered killing through the elite Liang Jun's interception regardless of casualties, forcibly assaulting it, and destroying Liang Jun's war equipment. But now Liang Jun's new war equipment is at 1,450 meters.
A hundred steps away, there are thousands of Liang Jun on both wings who can fill the empty barrier zone in the middle at any time, forming several or even dozens of interception arrays like copper walls and iron arms. How can they attack Liang Jun's weapon position?
Where?
Na He Yan really regretted that he did not pull his troops out of Yangwuyu before the battle and put up a decisive battle with Liang Jun. In that case, he could use the cavalry to attack Liang Jun's array from three directions instead of being surrounded by two sides now.
Restricted by the mountain, only a narrow assault passage more than 300 paces wide remained in the middle.
"Boom!" There was another thunderous explosion, and the already broken ice and earth walls on the periphery collapsed one after another, and the broken hard soil splashed everywhere.
Fortunately, the soldiers on the front side were all experienced soldiers. They had learned from the experience of being bombarded for the first time. The soldiers behind the outer wall of ice and earth all withdrew back, and they also knew how to use heavy shields to resist the flying debris. The casualties this time were not as tragic as the first wave.
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However, two iron bullets flew over the head and landed in the middle of the village. After landing, they bounced up again. After hitting the wall of the Middle East Village four or five times, they were embedded in the rammed earth wall. These two iron bullets passed by, and almost a dozen people or horses passed by.
They were crushed to death on the spot, and their bones were too horrible to look at. Or their arms were beaten to pieces and they were severely injured and left to die.
"How many breaths have passed since the first wave of bombardment?" Na He Yanzhen asked the soldiers around him. He wanted to find out the launch frequency and time interval of Liang Jun's new weapons, which would directly determine the tactical arrangements and rhythm of the assault.
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"One hundred and forty breaths!" Junjun replied.
The gap time is not much longer than that of firing a scorpion crossbow or a spring-arm bed crossbow. This is really chilling news. It means that Liang Jun cannot intercept in front of the formation, and the infantry and cavalry charge together to reach Liang Jun's war equipment position.
, it is very likely that it will have to withstand two bombardments.
In addition to the twenty-four large iron pipes, Na He Yanzhen noticed that there were also smaller cast iron pipes that were almost double the size on both wings of Liang Jun's war weapon array.
This is most likely a small new type of war weapon with a shorter range by Liang Jun.
Na He Yanzhen secretly estimated that if the infantry and cavalry coordinated the charge and were hit by a wave of volleys, if they were unlucky, they might kill or injure two hundred people at once. More importantly, the charge array would be torn into pieces and it would be difficult to break through Liang Jun's interception.
array, the only feasible combat plan is to send troops out to entangle the soldiers and horses on both wings of Liang Jun's front array and fight!
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As Na He Yanzhen expected, the range of the light front-loading smoothbore cannon was smaller than that of the heavy front-loading smoothbore cannon, but it definitely exceeded the distance between the artillery position and the Yangwuyu West Wall.
The reason why there are currently no more than twice as many light front-loading smoothbore cannons is fired, mainly because the light smoothbore cannons have a small charge, fire solid bullets, and have limited damage to ice and earth walls and rammed earth walls; except for the two firing accuracy
Outside the shell, forty-eight bottles of light smoothbore cannon were always on standby.
When the Mongolian troops in the Yangwu Valley massed their infantry and cavalry on a large scale and showed signs of coming out from behind the defense line to attack the defense lines on both sides of their forward line, the forty-eight-loaded light smoothbore cannon was finally given the opportunity to show off.
The light smoothbore cannon had limited destructive power against ice and earth walls and rammed earth walls at a distance of 1,500 steps, but its lethality against the flesh-and-blood Mongolian soldiers and horses was still terrifying.
Luoyang College has continued the development of new learning by Han Qian twenty years ago, and has long formed a strict new learning development system. The smoothbore cannon developed by Luoyang College has been put into actual combat, and its technology is already quite mature.
The cast iron bore tube and solid bullet have extremely high accuracy and ensure a considerable degree of air tightness. The recoil buffer and reset device effectively ensure the stability of the ballistic trajectory.
Supplemented by sights and gunners who spent half a year training and practicing in actual combat, the forty-eight 12-pound solid bullets fired in one salvo not only accurately fell into the enemy's dense array as they fought their way out of Yangwuyu in nine out of ten cases.
In the middle, a large proportion of them trigger ricochet, sweeping down a large area of enemy troops like a harvester.
Although the direct casualties were probably only one-tenth of the number of men and horses killed from Yangwuyu, the tall and strong horses were directly pierced by iron bullets that were only slightly larger than a fist. Even three or four horses in a row were hit by an iron bullet.
The bullets penetrated continuously. Even if the Mongol people were known for their fierceness and ruthlessness, how many soldiers were left who still had the fighting spirit and courage to continue fighting?
Not only were the enemy's assault array directly dispersed, but some soldiers fled in horror. There were even quite a few enemy soldiers standing on the battlefield in fear and confusion. Some even knelt on the ground and prayed to God. However, what greeted them was the crossbow arrows fired by the Liang army on both sides of the forward line, which were as dense as a swarm of locusts...
