To be honest, if there were no Chen Shuren, Li Zicheng's army's tactics of rushing to build Lu Gong's chariot to attack the city would still be very correct and sudden.
The production speed of heavy equipment like Lu Gong's car is very slow. Most people would never think that a three or four-day truce could be enough to build such a big thing.
If it were the Lu Gong chariot needed to attack a fortified city like Kaifeng, it might not be built well for most of the month, because once the chariot becomes taller, the difficulty of the project will increase exponentially——
The simplest thing is to build a two-foot-high Lu Gong car and cut down some trees to ensure that the length of the thick and hard part of the wood trunk is more than two feet, so the wood can be straightened without splicing loss. If it is five or six
If it is 10 feet high, it may require splicing three pieces of wood. The difficulty, weight, process complexity, and stability can all increase by more than ten times.
Therefore, the defenders were really caught off guard by this unexpected equipment at first.
Although Shen Shuren could sit in command, he could only control Beicheng, which he personally supervised, and Huang Degong could only be responsible for the east part of the city at most.
As for the defense of the walls on the southwestern side, which is left without a major general, it depends on the understanding of the garrison-level officers.
On the Beicheng side, the Ming army was the most effective in responding. Under the direct command of Shen Shuren, the officers and soldiers put the bandit's Lu Gong's car within fifty steps, and Shen Shuren lifted the ban on firing.
Prior to this, the Ming army was nothing more than shooting with bows, crossbows and muskets, and the crossbowmen were very disciplined in providing covering firepower for the enemy, as well as a few exposed soldiers who were responsible for lookouts and steering carts. They were not invulnerable.
Lu Gong's car was a waste of firepower.
This further strengthened the arrogant mentality of the bandits. Several brigades under Tian Jianxiu who rushed forward to supervise the battle hid behind the car and shouted for encouragement:
"Hurry up and push hard! The cannons of the army must be fixed on the side emplacements! They can't hit us at all! The officers and soldiers don't even have the courage to shoot at the car! When they are pushed to the position, just lower the baffle.
Just rush forward and prepare to fight hand-to-hand with the officers and soldiers!
After the first row of Tomahawks opened the gap to make room, the second row of spearmen advanced in formation on the wall after standing firm!"
The tactics used by these bandit brigades to command orders are quite in line with the actual needs of the battlefield.
Anyone who has played the "Mount and Blade" siege game knows that even if they prepare to advance with spears on the top of the wall, the first echelon still cannot mount their spears because they have to climb over the parapets to form the formation.
During the process, it is still possible to be pushed down by the swarming defenders and unable to deploy their troops. At this time, it is very important for the tomahawk soldiers to organize expendable death squads and clear the initial foothold first.
It's a pity that all these plans are perfect, but they are destined to fail to be implemented.
The Ming army received the order to lift the ban when the vehicle advanced to fifty steps away from the wall, and spent some time completing the final inspection and preparations for firing. When Lu Gong's vehicle approached more than thirty steps away from the wall, the first round of aiming and firing was completed.
Erupted.
"Boom, boom, boom", on the wall of the North City, on the six sides of the four horse faces (the sides with the horse faces on the two sides facing outwards do not need to fire, because there is no shooting angle for Lu Gong's chariot), there are at least twenty or so francs.
The machine fires together,
The cannonballs flew out, and a small fraction of them hit the target in an instant - don't be disdainful of the low hit rate. In the era of spherical cannonballs, only a small percentage of them could hit a large target of more than two feet in size at a distance of two to three hundred steps.
Not bad. When hitting smaller targets such as ladders or trench trucks, the hit rate is less than 20%.
The bandit army immediately erupted into screams.
Lu Gong's car was penetrated, and some of the soldiers hiding in it were directly penetrated by the shells, but they were killed directly. The ones who screamed mainly suffered from missing arms and legs from the ejected fragments, or were hit by broken wooden boards and wooden pillars.
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Solid bullets originally had little damage to personnel, thanks to the large amount of "wooden shrapnel" provided by Lu Gong's car itself after it shattered.
Even a brigade commander hiding behind the vehicle was injured by shrapnel, causing several nearby vehicles to lose their unified command. A few panicked soldiers even ran around, escaping from Lu Gong's vehicle, but were instead attacked by the Ming army.
Shots and stones killed.
In the end, the bandit officers fought hard to suppress it, killed a few deserters, and shouted frantically before they temporarily stabilized themselves: "Don't be afraid! At most, the car will get a hole in it from the shells! It won't collapse! Keep charging!"
Chen Shuren at the top of the city couldn't help but frown when he saw this scene.
Indeed, he somewhat overestimated the damage effect of solid bullets of this era on wooden structures.
His previous practical experience in this type of combat came from the Dongting Lake battle between Shen Lian and Li Yu and Liu Wenxiu a few months ago. Because it was a water battle, the enemy ship sank directly because it penetrated the bottom of the ship with overhead shots.
It gave Chen Shuren a big hint, thinking that it would be easy for solid bullets to destroy giant wooden structures.
But what we are facing now is a car, not a boat. The car won't sink even if it hits a hole. As long as the main structure does not collapse, at most the internal stairs will break some steps, or a few holes will be made, splattering wood and killing people, but the car
It can still be used.
"The morale of Li Zicheng's soldiers is good, but they still continue to charge after smashing a hole? How careless. It seems that in order to completely destroy the giant siege machine, we must either rely on the cannonballs to break the load-bearing main beams, or we have to wait for the invention of explosive ammunition, otherwise
We can only make some holes and kill some people."
Shen Shuren was also open-minded and good at accepting new things. After two or three rounds of shelling caused certain obstacles to the enemy, he recognized the practical difficulties.
At the same time, a strange thought naturally emerged in his mind - he had played many naval battles and navigation games in his previous life, especially "The Age of Discovery". He knew that Western artillery in this era had already been used in naval battles.
China has developed "chain bullets" as ammunition.
To put it bluntly, chain bullets are also a variant of solid bullets. They are nothing more than loading two single-ended bullets in the barrel at one time, and there is an iron chain connecting the two single-ended bullets. After they are fired, they will follow the meteor.
It was flying and spinning in the air like a hammer.
The biggest role of this kind of chain bomb in naval battles is to break the masts and booms of enemy ships, causing the enemy ships to lose power. Because of the superstructures of these wooden pole structures, the target is too small, making it difficult for ordinary solid bullets to aim.
With the use of chain bombs, the sweep coverage during the spinning process is relatively large. Once the chain is entangled with the mast, the kinetic energy of the cannonball can be transmitted as much as possible, and it can be easily cut off.
The Chenshu people immediately thought of this kind of ammunition, which is very useful for destroying the superstructure of wooden-hulled ships, as being used to destroy heavy and large-volume siege weapons. What they need is to destroy the load-bearing structure, not to drill a hole.
Water, principles and professions are completely compatible.
"After this battle is over, we must go back to Zheng Chenggong and the Spanish instructors and advisors to bring over the ready-made chain bomb technology, secretly make a batch and put them away first, so that we are prepared!"
Chen Shuren was already thinking about the future in advance. It can be seen that although there was a slight accident, he was still very confident and knew that the situation was controllable.
For the Ming army, the Folangji could not directly blow up Lu Gong's car, and it was indeed just a small episode.
Because of the use of new fixed ammunition, the Ming army's gunners could fire far faster than their counterparts. Even though some of the bandit soldiers had seen it a few days ago, most of them had seen it for the first time and were still overwhelmed by the continuous bombardment.
I couldn't hold my head up, and my morale plummeted.
In particular, the firing angle of the Ming army's artillery was very consistent with the lateral lines of the horse wall. The closer the thieves got to the outer two sides of the horse wall that had just been stacked into a pentagon, the more soldiers crowded into the firing line of the artillery.
After all, the body of Lu Gong's car is only that big and can't hide many people. More soldiers need to line up and hide behind the car. After the soldiers in the front climb up the ladder in the car to climb to the city, the talents from behind continue to pour into the car from the back door.
, boarded the city one by one.
The thieves finally pushed the car to the wall, but the Ming army's artillery began to fire horizontally at the rear edge of Lu Gong's car. The soldiers crowded behind the car were unable to rely on the cover of the car body.
"Swish, swish, swish -" After discovering that he was switching to fixed targets, Shen Shuren also gave up solid ammunition and asked the troops to use shrapnel shells instead. This kind of ammunition finally ushered in actual combat for the first time.
The cannonball flew over a distance of two hundred steps. About halfway through the flight, the bullet holder fell off due to wind resistance in mid-air, and dozens of lead beads the size of grapes were left flying out, immediately arousing clouds of blood mist among the crowd.
.
Chen Shuren asked Song Yingxing to make this kind of shrapnel. The tube in front of the bullet holder is filled with seven lead beads in each layer in a honeycomb shape, which is just enough to ensure that the plug is tight and the gaps will not be too large.
In this way, the diameter of the lead ball is only slightly less than one-third of the barrel. In order to ensure that the cartridge is long cylindrical, it is natural to install at least three layers of lead balls in the longitudinal direction.
In fact, Shen Shuren had people install it in five layers to ensure that the aerodynamic shape of the cannonball during flight was optimized as much as possible, so each shrapnel shell was composed of 5735 grape shot balls, each weighing more than one or two, and the total weight of the barrel
Three kilograms - this is the standard when using a thousand-jin Folang machine. If it is a small Folang machine of three to five hundred kilograms, it will be reduced in proportion. Each shot put is only the size of a pecan and weighs half a liang.
Such a sophisticated weapon killed the crowd of thieves into a pool of flesh and blood. Hundreds of soldiers fell down in a matter of seconds, screaming in agony.
The few who relied on Lu Gong's chariot to rush up to the city wall were unable to follow up. Some of the soldiers with long-handled battle axes barely managed to kill and injure one or two Ming army guards. However, they found that their comrades behind them could not keep up. It was not the ladder in Lu Gong's chariot that was blocked.
It was interrupted and it was difficult to rush forward quickly because the follow-up troops were blocked by artillery fire.
In the absence of backup, a few warriors and dead soldiers were stabbed back by the Ming army's random spears and stabbings, and died covered in blood.
In other directions of Shangcaicheng, the situation may be better than that where Shen Shuren and Huang Degong are personally in charge, but the difference is not big.
Chen Shuren took Shen Lian and Li Yu, two "firearms generals" who participated in the Dongting Lake War, with him, and today he just let them guard one side of the city gate. Although they have no strategic decision-making ability, they cannot execute firearm defense tactics.
In Hanhu, in front of the extremely efficient artillery array, the bandits' offensives were disintegrated one after another, leaving heavy casualties in vain.
Even Li Zicheng personally participated in today's battle supervision. At the beginning, he was at the north gate. Seeing that Chen Shuren was well-defended and had little chance, he hurriedly rode to other sides to see if there were any weak links.
However, Chen Shuren only relied on more than 60 flexible Fo Lang machines to guard sixteen horse faces. Each of them only had four doors, but they made a strong impression with at least a dozen or even dozens of doors per building.
With the blessing of new gun mounts, all artillery can be dispatched quickly and shoot wherever the pressure is high. They always concentrate their superior firepower and attack the most vicious positions. The bandit generals almost thought that they were being attacked by dozens of people.
The cannon was fired, where could the so-called "flaw" be found?
The siege battle only lasted less than half an hour. As most of Lu Gong's chariots collapsed and shattered one after another under repeated shelling, and the soldiers were killed or wounded, the bandit side finally got rid of the dilemma of "retreating but being reluctant to retreat".
The tide generally collapses and retreats.
What depressed Li Zicheng the most was that on the battlefield in the east of the city, when Liu Fangliang, who was in charge of the attack, retreated, the Ming army actually opened the city gate. Huang Degong personally led more than a thousand cavalry and went out of the city to launch a counterattack.
The fleeing Liu Fangliang's men were killed horribly, and thousands of additional casualties and routs were added. Liu Fangliang himself also abandoned his armor and all the distinctive armor and stomach that could prove his identity, and escaped Huang Degong's pursuit.
Killing him really dampened the spirit of the bandit.
…
After Li Zicheng returned, he learned that all the troops had failed to attack the city. Liu Fangliang had suffered particularly heavy losses, and he was very angry.
The five main forces under his command, Tian Jianxiu and Liu Fangliang, were severely beaten by Huang Degong one after another, and they had already lost a lot of face.
The morale of the troops may not support the continued attack on Shangcai.
But if he doesn't attack, will it be wasted like this? Li Zicheng was caught in a dilemma.
"Who said a few days ago that the official army was not something to be afraid of? A mere 30,000 people could attack the city easily! I tried different methods twice but still the same, so many people died in vain! Tell me what the next step should be!"
At the summary military meeting that night, Li Zicheng rarely got angry.
This kind of thing can never happen again if you fail to attack and fight back. Losing so miserably twice and losing in different ways is something that no one can bear.
Song Xiance, who had previously suggested an all-out attack, was now so silent that he didn't even dare to fart.
Yuan Zongdi, who had been critical of Song Xiance four days ago, jumped out. He didn't have any intention of criticizing Song Xiance. He just made indirect remarks about Sang and Huai, crying about today's casualty figures, trying to stimulate Li Zicheng's nerves in various ways.
"Your Majesty, you are absolutely right! The general was in the west of the city today and he lost no less than two to three thousand people! If the general hadn't seen the cannon fire, he would have given up on the two Lu Gong chariots at the back without pushing them up. I'm afraid it would have been
There will be more casualties. General Tian, General Liu, you are attacking with all your might, so the losses must be greater than mine!"
When Tian Jianxiu and Liu Fangliang were asked, they could only sigh and tell the truth. They each lost between three and five thousand men, and now the camp is full of wounded soldiers.
Even if there are hundreds of thousands of thieves in the army, human lives are not valuable, so it is not good to throw them away like this.
Shen Gouguan is so vicious. Every time he lets the thieves see the hope and opportunity, he makes a big bet, and then flips the table and eats him. It is really despicable and shameless!
"Okay! Now is not the time to complain!" Li Zicheng also found that the atmosphere was a bit too much, so Duanhe stopped the complaining and steered the topic on the right path.
He knew that his subordinates did not dare to speak at this time, so he acted arbitrarily and came up with an idea: "There is no need to investigate the responsibility for the attack on Shangcai. I was the one who made the decision in the first place. I will not blame you. The most important thing now is What’s the next step?
Gu decided to give up the idea of seizing the city from Chen Shuren and let the troops continue to block the city. As long as Chen Shuren was not allowed to advance to Kaifeng City and the grain was transported into Kaifeng to rescue Chen Yongfu, it would be fine.
As for our army, which is also short of food, we have to gradually divide our forces to get food. You can work together to solve the problem. If it doesn't work, let Ye County pick the weak persimmons and beat Zuo Liangyu to grab the food.
Or we can force Zuo Liangyu to hand over part of the grain reserves that Yang Sichang left in Nanyang during his lifetime, and threaten to beat him if he doesn't hand it over. That's okay, what do you think would be more appropriate?"
All the generals looked at each other, and no one dared to take the initiative to persuade the king to give in. They could only use Chelulu's words to prevaricate, saying that the king's decision must be wise, and we will do whatever the king said.
Li Zicheng was also depressed and helpless, but he had no choice but to take the blame himself, and from then on he did not dare to face the city that attacked Chen Shuren.
…
In Shangcai City, Shen Shuren's side still did not relax their guard after the Chuang army suffered a disastrous defeat in their second attack on the city.
Because the "bastion-style pentagonal horse face" was very useful and had been tested in actual combat, after the battle, Shen Shuren continued to supervise the soldiers to repair the city defense and optimize the structure.
With more time and experience from the last time, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty became more and more adept at repairing fortifications, which they had learned in actual combat.
As for how to build chain bombs to ensure that when encountering giant siege equipment in the future, they can cause structural damage to load-bearing beams and columns, this matter was also immediately raised by Shen Shuren.
Anyway, chain bombs were a mature technology that had been used by Western navies for a long time. It was not difficult. Just find two blacksmiths and weld two ordinary cast iron shells together with iron chains, so they were produced in just two or three days. sample.
And Huang Degong was standing by, watching Shen Futai being able to "sum up actual combat experience and lessons" so quickly. A few days ago, he couldn't think of how to blow up Lu Gong's car, but now he has come up with countermeasures.
After it was built, Shen Shuren also conducted a rigorous live-fire test. He did not ask anyone to build Lu Gong's car specially. He just dragged a few enemy vehicles that had been damaged a few days ago but did not collapse and bombarded them. Sure enough, this It collapsed within a few shots.
Chen Shuren still felt uneasy, so he asked people to try the sentry towers and arrow towers built with log structures. He found that the log pillars could be broken easily, and the arrow towers and sentry towers would also collapse quickly. He was very satisfied.
In this way, even if we don't encounter heavy siege engines in the future, this kind of ammunition has some other multi-functional uses. When attacking enemy camps in the future, we can easily use chain bombs to instantly kill the wooden pillars and arrow towers.
"Sir, you are really amazing. You just saw a little bit of the enemy's new tactics on the battlefield, and you were able to figure out how to solve it in a few days. I have been in the army for twenty years, and I have never seen you with such a quick mind!"
When Huang Degong saw the test results, his admiration was like a surging river, out of control.
However, Chen Shuren still had the same calm expression: "It's nothing. I have read thousands of books and traveled thousands of miles. I just came from a wealthy family, and I have seen a lot since I was a kid.
This kind of chain ammunition is available in the Red Maoyi navy, and is specially used to hit masts. I used it to hit wooden pillars and towers. It was a good opportunity and I made the best use of it.
By the way, there has been no news about Li Zicheng these days? Did he really give up completely after withdrawing from the army? "
Huang Degong quickly cheered up and replied: "That's true. The general has been very careful in the past few days. Since yesterday, he has also sent out a large group of cavalry scouts to explore the road.
The Chuang army has indeed given up the plan to attack Shangcai, probably because the casualties were too heavy. I have estimated that the Chuang army has lost tens of thousands of people since Li Zicheng came to confront you, sir."
Chen Shuren then sneered: "If Li Zicheng doesn't come, then it's time for us to take some action."
——
ps: The comments are still not restored... Today’s update is actually a lot of words, more than 5,000 words, which is no different from the two updates of 3,000 words.
Let's wait and see again. It happened that my son vomited several times last night, so I took him to see a doctor today. Today and tomorrow will be a 5,000-word chapter, and I will resume two updates on Friday.