Da Ming Tai Shi

Chapter 375
When Chang Mao left Beijing to go north, apart from dozens of soldiers, he only brought his own brother Chang Sheng with him.

Liaodong has gathered 20 troops and inexhaustible logistical supplies. Now, all that is missing is him as the coach.

"Brother, are you confident?"

"We must win."

It is impossible for Chang Mao to know that Chen Yunfu has prepared for the worst, but this does not prevent him from repaying the same determination with all his might.

The Chang family also had to win this war.

Stepping on the tail of spring and March, Chang Mao and his party arrived in Weihai. After arriving in Liaodong by sea, they rushed to Dandongwei. Here, Wang Bi, the deputy commander of the 20 army and the former commander of the Liaodong capital, had been waiting for a long time.

After this battle is over, Wang Bi will return to Beijing to report on his duties. Next time, his identity will be to go to the Northern Expedition with Lan Yu to pursue the Mengzhou foundation that exists in the dream.

"The North Korean side has already noticed and is on guard. Li Chenggui sent an envoy to question why we have assembled a large army on the border."

"question?"

Chang Mao paused, and then sneered: "Do I need to inform him about what I am going to do in Tianchao?"

"The envoy is in the camp, Chang Shuai, do you want to see him?"

"No, drive him away."

With a big wave of his hand, Chang Mao said: "Tell him, this commander was ordered by the Grand Master and the Military and Political Yuan to enter the court to help Li Chenggui wipe out the remnants of the former Koryo royal family. There is no need for him to thank you in person."

Wang Bi wanted to laugh, but he held back, nodded and let the soldiers around him go down to make arrangements, while he followed Chang Mao into the tent of the Chinese army commander.

In the commander's tent, a huge North Korean sand table has been prepared.

"After the beginning of spring, the coldness of the Yalu River has disappeared, and the boats and boats have been prepared. Our army of 20 will be divided into 170 parts and spread across [-] miles."

"Has the defense situation on the other side of the river been verified?"

"Li Fangyuan, the son of Li Chenggui, personally supervised the commander, a total of [-] troops."

Hearing this number, Chang Mao frowned.

In this way, the first battle of crossing the river into the DPRK was very difficult.

"Li Fangyuan is familiar with the art of war. He built more than 70 docks along the Yalu River on the other side of the river. These docks are more than one foot high and twenty feet square. It can be said that if these docks cannot be pulled out, our troops crossing the river will become living targets."

"Can you try hitting it with a trebuchet?"

"It's useless." Wang Bi shook his head and said, "These docks are all made of huge bluestones, which cannot be smashed by trebuchets, and kerosene cannot burn stones."

After a pause, Wang Bi looked at Chang Mao and said: "In the year of Hongwu, the Military Weapons Bureau of the Ministry of Industry had artillery. This time, Chang Shuai came, why didn't he ask the grand master to send dozens of cannons? If there are cannons, It's much easier to pull out these docks."

Chang Mao shook his head: "The artillery is heavy, transportation is extremely difficult, and there is always a risk of bombing. Right now, the Institute of National Defense Engineering, which was established by the merger of the Military Bureau and the Ordnance Bureau, is working hard to improve it. Before the improvement is successful, we are not Count on artillery support."

Artillery technology in the early Ming Dynasty was still relatively backward, and ten cannons could explode half of the chamber, so artillery was never used in several Northern Expeditions during the Hongwu period, which was almost like a decoration.

The period when artillery and firecrackers really developed was the Yongle Year in the original time and space. Zhu Di set up a magic machine camp, and the militarization and specialization of firearms began to progress rapidly.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Shenji Battalion of the Ming Dynasty even began to be equipped with an organized artillery battalion.

Each artillery battalion is even equipped with up to eight [-]mm caliber General Cannons, which can fire fifteen catties of lead or iron bullets.

According to the records of the Ministry of War's military preparations in the "Huangming Jingshiwenbian", by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the proportion of the Ming army's firearms troops had even reached nearly half.

Taking Sun Chengzong's department alone, there are a total of 160 Flang machine guns and the red general guns, which is the establishment of [-] artillery battalions.

There are nearly 5000 specialized artillery plus auxiliary soldiers.

Coupled with the [-] guns, blunderbusses and other firearms in Sun Chengzong's department, the ratio of hot weapons in the late Ming Dynasty was even stronger than that of the Huai Army and Hunan Army when they were used to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the late Qing Dynasty.

This kind of configuration can't beat the Jianzhou Jurchen Heavy Cavalry Infantry Regiment. It can only show that Mo's corruption and military corruption have reached the point of no cure. Coupled with the abysmal central finance, Chongzhen can't help but hang on to the southeast branch.

Right now, the Ming Dynasty has not yet established the Shenji Battalion, and naturally there is no formally formed hot weapon army, and Chen Yunfu is urging on technical issues.

As long as the difficulty that the gunpowder chamber is easy to explode can be solved, it is only a matter of time before large-scale production of armed forces enters the army.

"Without artillery, wouldn't this battle be over?"

Chang Mao couldn't get used to Wang Bi's constant spitting, so he led the way out of the Chinese army's tent and jumped on his horse.

"Where is Chang Shuai going?"

"Big camp by the river."

Along the way, he arrived at the Yalu River at a fast speed. Chang Maogao sat on the horse and took out a wooden tube from his arms. It was the telescope that Chen Yunfu had bought from Guangzhou Zhongyi Company.

Chang Mao lifted it up and put it in front of his eyes, which made Wang Bi very curious.

"What is this thing for?"

"telescope."

Responding to the previous sentence, Chang Mao continued to observe, and saw several fortresses scattered in a patchwork pattern on the other side of the river, which was hundreds of feet wide.

Pulling the silk rein, Chang Mao began to gallop along the bank of the Yalu River, and stopped to continue observing after a mile. In this way, Chang Mao galloped back and forth for sixty or seventy miles to see the situation of the fort built by Li Fangyuan's army on the other side of the river. Read a rough idea.

The brows were tightly wrinkled.

It's tricky.

"Li Fangyuan not only prepared a catapult, but also a trebuchet. This is a half-way attack. Let our son go to the sea to feed the fish."

With an idea in mind, Chang Mao said: "The Liannuji is easy to deal with. Inform Yu Yifeng and ask him to organize handcraftsmen to build oar shields for several days and wrap them with iron sheets, which can be used to resist the Liannuji when it is on the bow. When the catapult hits, the ship is destroyed in an instant."

"Yes."

Chang Mao paced back and forth in the tent with his hands behind his back, his eyes inadvertently glanced at the big banner outside the tent, looked at the fluttering military flags, and said suddenly.

"wind."

"wind?"

"Now the southeast wind is blowing here, and our army is crossing the Yalu River in the south. The weather is not advantageous."

Chang Mao strode out of the tent and looked up at the sky: "If the northwest wind blows, our army can sail south along the direction of the wind, ride the wind and break the waves, and the speed can be [-]% faster."

"At the end of March, the rainy season starts here in mid-April, and the north wind will blow for a few days after the rainy season."

Wang Biyan said that he had been in Liaodong for a long time, so he naturally knew the sky here, but he still frowned: "Even if the north wind blows, our army's speed will increase, but this will also give Li Fangyuan on the other side more time to prepare, and he can rush to make more preparations." Many trebuchets were deployed in the army, and at that time the stones were raining down, and the boats could not escape the danger of overturning."

I thought Chang Mao would be worried, but Clinker smiled confidently.

"Serial boat!"

Wang Bi's eyes widened immediately, and the Chibi Water Battle and Poyang Lake Water Battle popped into his mind.

The former was Zhou Yu who burned Chibi and defeated Cao Cao, and the latter was Taizu who burned Poyang Lake and defeated Chen Youliang.

These two losers were both defeated on a serial boat.

"Chang Shuai, if there is a change in the sky at that time, if the wind blows from the southeast, Li Fangyuan will attack with fire, our army. Our army will be wiped out."

"The Yalu River is not the Yangtze River, let alone Poyang Lake."

Chang Mao pointed to the direction of the Yalu River: "The Yalu River is only so wide. When the north wind blows, our army sails southward, and it doesn't take a while to reach the opposite bank with the wind.

Ben Shuai doesn't believe that the wind can change from north wind to southeast wind in an instant. "

When Cao Cao crossed the Yangtze River from Chibikou to the south, the river was five miles wide, and the chain ships were already slow. In addition, Cao Cao built large ships connected by platforms to make them look like land, so that the boats could sail easily. It takes nearly an hour to cross the Yangtze River.

For two hours, if the sky changes occasionally, it is because the sky is not helping Cao.

Not to mention Poyang Lake, the place where Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang fought was dozens of miles wide. A water battle lasted for dozens of days before and after, and it is normal for the sky to change.

"Warrior, adjust measures according to the local conditions. Since then, our army has crossed south, and all of them are small boats. The width of the river is less than one mile, and the most sections are only a hundred feet. Under the wind, it takes less than half an hour to reach the opposite bank. Half an hour If they can change the celestial phenomena, it will be my eternal glory.”

Chang Mao waved his hand: "This matter is so settled. Immediately notify Yu Jinglue and ask him to supervise the construction of oar shields and iron rings. This commander will come to a chain boat to cross the south of the Yangtze River!"

Hundreds of boats are connected together, and strong oar shields are erected outside. Even if they are hit by huge rocks, the boats will not capsize and people will die.

Mighty and mighty, crushing across the river with unrivaled momentum!

Chang Mao was the coach, and Wang Bi didn't want to persuade him too much, so he responded immediately with a clasped fist.

Just looking up at the sky when leaving the camp.

On that day, this celestial phenomenon must not change!
(End of this chapter)