The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 486: Hot Air Balloon, Long Live Bomb, Han Jun Lord, Spare Me
Macun is located in the southeast of the Wei River, on the same side as Linqing City. The village is built on the southeast side of the Wei River and is the only high ground on the Wei River close to Linqing City.

However, this high ground is relative. It is located in the North China Plain and there are not many high mountains. Macun is at most four or five hundred meters high.

It is a pretty nice mountain plain in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi, but it is just a small hill in the North China Plain.

The Qing army operated around Macun for several years, digging a large number of trenches, building breastworks with rammed earth, and setting up cannons on the top of the mountain.

In order to build this fort, the Qing army dismantled the cannons on the city walls of Jinan and transported them here.

Yiletu is quite humble. The fact that he doesn't even want Jinan and wants to protect Linqing proves that he has some vision.

The vanguard officer of the Xing Tang Army was Wang Wuchu, the commander of the Xianwu Army of the Beijing Camp. He first set up camp two miles away from Macun, then raised his telescope to look around, and a very familiar feeling suddenly arose.

Then he touched his chin and thought for a moment, and suddenly realized that this was the formation his brother Wang Wubing had set up at the intersection during the Battle of Yuezhou.

It’s just that in the defense system set up by the Qing army in Macun, the breastwork made of rammed earth was thicker and had better defensive power.

"Huang Jincai, lift the hot air balloon and see how many cannons are on it and how the trenches are dug." Wang Wuchu shouted loudly.

Huang Jincai's original name was Huang Wangcai. He was the poor fellow from Huizhou who came overseas with only a stick. Now he has the rank of colonel and commands the main force of the Xianwu Army's Central Guard Reinforced Regiment, which has a total of 3,500 people.

Hearing the commander's order, Huang Jincai waved to the French big-nosed men and Chinese technicians behind him and said, "Lao Meng, you come and do the upgrade yourself. You must succeed."

The old Meng mentioned by Huang Jincai is a French man with a big nose. His name is Joseph Michel Montgolfier. He is the eldest of the Montgolfier brothers, the famous hot air balloon inventors in history.

The change in the brothers' fate is a typical example of Sino-French scientific and technological cooperation.

Originally, the Montgomery brothers were supposed to start inventing the hot air balloon next year in history, but in this time and space, they had already started this invention three years ago, and the inspiration came from Emperor Mo.

As for how Mo Zibu knew that the two brothers could make hot air balloons, it was very simple, because the word for balloon in French is their last name, Montgolfier. It was obvious.

And when Mo Zibu ordered Mo Zirong to find them, his younger brother Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier had already invented imitation parchment, which was also well-known in France.

Big Menggefei swallowed his saliva and began to prepare the hot air balloon. Although the inspiration came from the emperor, almost all the detailed work was done by him and the team he led. This hot air balloon was as important as his child.

Although it had been successfully launched more than a dozen times, Big Mengfei was still a little nervous because this was the first time it was used in military applications.

"Grandpa Jade Emperor, please bless me. When I get five hundred taels of silver, I will definitely make a golden statue for you."

The mechanic in charge of operating the hot air balloon muttered something and knelt on the ground to pray for a while.

Montgolfier also quickly prayed to God, because the emperor offered a reward of 20,000 taels of silver for the first successful military application of a hot air balloon.

As long as this is successful, each of the dozen or so people in their team can get at least 500 silver dollars, and as the person in charge, he will get at least 3,000 silver dollars.

So, amidst the sound of prayers, a huge hot air balloon with a big head of an ox or horse painted on its spherical surface rose up swayingly less than a kilometer away from Ma Village.

Wang Wuchu was terrified, fearing that a gust of wind would blow the hot air balloon down.

In addition to being wary of strong winds, the technicians on the hot air balloon were also working hard to keep the fire going.

That’s right, at that time, there were no efficient and perfect combustible materials like those in later generations. We could only rely on continuously burning things like straw with strong combustion power to maintain lift for a short period of time.

Therefore, this thing was discovered by the Qing army as soon as it was raised. With the thick smoke, it was difficult not to be discovered.

On the Macun hill, Baosheng was directing several Han army flag soldiers below to continue digging trenches.

Perhaps because of his good name, Baosheng rolled out of the pile of dead bodies in Jinchuan and Dajinchuan, and escaped from the guns of Xingtang Army in Beihe.

This experience of escaping death so many times in a row made Baosheng extremely superstitious. Even among the superstitious Bannermen, Baosheng was the most superstitious one.

While cursing, he suddenly heard a cry of surprise. Baosheng thought that some disobedient recruit was fighting again, so he raised his head impatiently, ready to catch two typical examples to make an example of them.

As a result, when he looked up, Baosheng was almost scared to pee.

I saw a huge horse-faced man rising into the sky from the foot of the mountain in the distance. It was emitting billowing black smoke with flickering flames in the black smoke. The terrifying face appeared and disappeared in the smoke.

"Ghost!" Baosheng let out a very miserable howl, his mind was completely confused.

He had no idea what he was doing, but instinct drove his legs to swing wildly, leaving afterimages.

With Baosheng's cry of "ghost", the Qing soldiers in the front were frightened. Some of them turned around and ran away following Baosheng, while others kowtowed and bowed to beg the Ox-Head and Horse-Face not to take them away.

Of course, there were some who were really brave. They picked up their muskets and shot them into the sky, and some shot bows and arrows.

This frightened the technician on the hot air balloon, and he flew two or three hundred meters high, fearing he might be hit. So he lit a few bombs to test whether they were feasible, and then dropped them down.

At this moment, bombs were falling from all over the world. They certainly couldn't hit the Qing army, but they would explode in the air.

Many Eight Banners soldiers who had never experienced the Battle of Beihe and were just farmers who had been in and out of the banners thought that it was the Ox-Head and Horse-Face floating in the sky casting a spell, and were even more frightened.

It's normal to be afraid of something you've never seen before. In history, when a hot air balloon was released in the suburbs of Paris, residents of big cities still didn't recognize it and were so scared that they ran to the church to ask the priest to punish the devil. As a result, the priest ran away first.

Wang Wuchu swallowed his saliva. He was often in contact with hot air balloons, but he didn't realize that this thing was the devil of hell in the eyes of outsiders. As a result, he missed a good opportunity.

If we had arranged a wave of elite attack just now, we might have already captured the lowest position.

However, it was not too bad. The two hot air balloons in front and behind had already mapped out the locations of all the artillery positions and trench distribution on the Macun Hill.

Of course, after all this trouble, it was already night time, because at this time the hot air balloon had no problem rising or falling, but the direction could not be controlled.

The two hot air balloons were shaking and were finally fished out of the Wei River, which wasted a lot of time.

"The arrangement is still very appropriate. I guess this is the last essence of the anti-Qing forces, the thousands of Eight Banners soldiers who escaped from Beihe." Wang Wuchu took the map obtained by hot air balloon reconnaissance and began to explain it to the officers.

"Look, these cannons are basically what the Qing Dynasty called city defense cannons weighing more than 3,000 jin. They are powerful, but it is inconvenient to adjust the angle, so they can only be placed in advance.

The northeast and southeast sides protrude outward, shaped like bastions, which can form cross-fire. Attacking from here will definitely result in heavy casualties.

On the due north side, although there were not many artillery pieces deployed, they dug through the slope, forming a cliff six or seven meters high, which was not conducive to attack.

The northwest is close to the Wei River, making it impossible to gather troops.

The only possible attack direction is due south, but the dense breastworks, the large number of musketeers are stationed there, and the trenches are crisscrossed, which greatly limits the power of the artillery."

After hearing what Wang Wuchu said, Huang Jincai pursed his lips and said, "That's it. In order to limit our attack from the southeast and northeast, the heavy artillery has been transferred over there.

There were many breastworks and trenches on the south side, but the firepower density of relying solely on muskets, bows and arrows, and a small number of mountain-splitting cannons and nine-section cannons was completely insufficient.

Hearing Huang Jincai's words, another captain nodded and said, "That's true, but this is the only solution.

The Qing army had too few elite troops to fight a war using only firearms. They also knew nothing about new weapons.”

The new weapon that the regimental captain mentioned was the Flying General 1777 rifled flintlock rifle equipped with the Banzai bullet, which had been proven by the navy in the Indian Ocean.

The Banzai bullet is the Minié bullet in history.

With the bonus of the Banzai bomb, the Flying General 1777 can achieve precise strikes at a distance of meters. When firing in volleys, it can even cause damage to the enemy at a distance of meters.

Of course, due to the limitations of human vision, this is only a theoretical data. In fact, aiming with the naked eye at a distance of 350 meters is not something that ordinary people can do. Probably only a few out of 10,000 people can do it.

Emperor Mo didn't know that the Wansui bomb played a huge role in the naval battle, and it was also the first time it was used on land.

But this epoch-making product is destined to become a powerful weapon for the Chinese Empire in the coming decades.

Because the Minié bullet was born at the wrong time in history, it was replaced by the breech-loading Dreiser needle-fired gun only twenty years after its birth, so it was not widely used.

But in the late 18th century, the emergence of the Minié bullet solved the problem of extremely slow loading of rifled guns, which could not guarantee one shot per minute on the battlefield, and increased the range and accuracy.

The only drawback is that compared to lead bullets that soldiers can make themselves using melted lead blocks, soldiers can no longer make bullets themselves because they need to be equipped with metal shells and cork bases. They must be made by arsenals, which increases transportation costs and greatly increases the cost of bullets.

In general, the Banzai bomb that appeared at this time was a very powerful epoch-making weapon that only countries of the size of China, Britain and France could afford.

"Then ignore everything else and just attack from the south. Send out the hunters first and use the hunter formation to spread out so that their cannons can't hit them." Wang Wubing waved his hand easily.

"Increase the intensity on them and let them know that the battle is no longer fought in the same way as before."

Dayu's Beijing Camp Army was modeled after the Twelve Camps of the Ming Dynasty's capital, and was divided into four military camps: Fen, Yao, Lian, and Xian; four brave camps: Gan, Guo, Xiao, and Gu; and four powerful camps: Li, Shen, Yang, and Zhen.

This reform greatly avoided the phenomenon of the main force of the Xingtang Army being too regionalized and forming groups. In the past, in order to maintain combat effectiveness, they used names such as the Hakka Group, the Republican Group, and the Hexian Group.

However, after the name of the 12th Regiment Camp was adopted, this situation was greatly alleviated.

For example, the Xianwu Army, although its core veterans were originally the first and second regiments of the Republic, that is, the sons of An Dai's vassal states and the soldiers of the agricultural cooperative.

Most of the remaining soldiers were recruited from Wenzhou, Taizhou and Chuzhou in eastern Zhejiang, and the source was quite single.

But the regional specificity is not obvious, at least people will not be able to react to where they are from when they hear the name Xianwu Army.

Early in the morning of the second day, as the sky was slightly bright, the core Left Guard Regiment of the Xianwu Army, which had received the order, began to move out.

Four hundred hunting soldiers armed with rifles and muskets with Banzai bullets attacked directly from the south under the cover of artillery fire.

Baosheng's butt still hurts a little. He took the lead in running yesterday and was whipped. If he hadn't been required to fight today, he would definitely have been beaten so badly that he couldn't get up.

However, Baosheng was still a little scared, even though he was a veteran and a graduate of the Jianrui Battalion's Vanguard School, and his combat effectiveness was not weak.

But because of this, Baosheng knew better than anyone how strong the Xing Tang army was.

The scene of General Agui's death in battle caused great psychological trauma to Baosheng.

He could never understand how the invincible General Agui and his four thousand strong and elite brothers, whose arms could run horses and fists could stand up people, were defeated.

What does this resemble? It's a bit like the feeling after Liu Jing and Liu Dadao died in battle, when the morale of the Ming army soldiers was low, they were in panic, and they felt that their worldview was shattered.

However, the Ming army in history always found it unbelievable, but Baosheng found the reason. He rubbed his sore buttocks and said to the captain next to him:
"We, the Bannermen, came from the deep mountains and dense forests outside the Great Wall. Before we entered the Central Plains, we didn't know about the Ten Kings of Hell, the Judges, the Ghost Messengers, the Ox-Headed and Horse-Faced Demons, etc.

I think it is not that we don’t know about these things, but they have existed for a long time. It is estimated that these are all the ghosts of the underworld who were transformed after the death of the Han people.

The magic weapon yesterday was filled with smoke and could fire guns and cannons. It must have been invited by the Han people from the underworld and controlled by the underworld gods.

They are all Han Chinese, so naturally they want to help their own people. When we were in Beihe, we must have been defeated by these underworld spirits who came to the mortal world."

"Ah?" The captain was greatly shocked. He really didn't expect that Baosheng, this kid, would still have such wild imagination after being beaten.

Then, the captain saw that the soldiers around him also had sympathetic expressions on their faces, and many of them were nodding, seemingly believing it.

The captain was furious. He stood up and pointed at Baosheng, about to scold him for disrupting the morale of the army, but at this moment, there was a crackling sound, and a Wansui bullet with visible white smoke was shot from a distance with a biu sound.

Blood splattered on the captain's left temple, his head jerked back, his cervical vertebrae crackled, and he fell straight to the ground. This sudden scene frightened an Eight Banners soldier, who jumped up and tried to run.

But it just happened that just as he popped his head out from behind the breastwork, a Wansui bullet flew over again. A flower of blood appeared on the back of the Eight Banners soldier. He staggered a few times and then fell to the ground without a sound.

Four hundred hunters spread out and fired continuously at a distance of more than two hundred to three hundred meters.

At such a long distance, it is naturally impossible to aim accurately, but you can fire at the distant breastwork, and it all depends on probability.

The result was actually quite good. More than ten unlucky Eight Banners men were killed as soon as they appeared from behind the breastwork.

Then they advanced to about 170 or 180 meters and immediately began to disperse and shoot accurately.

Baosheng looked at the distance nervously. The captain was killed. A cavalry captain was in charge of commanding them.

Under the loud command of the cavalry captain, the Eight Banners cavalrymen behind the breastwork had no choice but to reload their muskets and then stick their heads out to shoot.

However, this exposure was like a death horn. If there was no breastwork, it would most likely hit other places. But with the breastwork, a direct hit would result in a headshot.

The more the fighting went on, the greater the casualties. Soon, all six or seven of Baosheng's cavalrymen with muskets were killed.

"Boom!" A burst of artillery sounded, and the Eight Banners soldiers cheered. It was their artillery on the top of Macun Mountain.

Baosheng also felt a little hope. He quietly went around to the side and observed, praying in his heart, as if to give himself courage.

But he was soon disappointed. The whistling shells slammed into the ground and bounced around, but hit almost no one. They only temporarily suppressed the opponent's accurate shooting.

Solid bullets are so outrageous that they can only hit a vertical line when fired and cannot cause explosive damage.

So it's okay to attack slow-moving infantry phalanxes, but not skirmishers. Elite skirmishers can even move quickly to avoid the shells when they are about to fall.

"All the brave cavalrymen from the Archery Camp are going to fight, and those who can shoot arrows should follow too!" A loud roar was heard. It turned out that it was the assistant commander of this hillside who was giving the order.

Two or three hundred archers quickly gathered, and Baosheng reflexively picked up his bow and stood with his comrades.

"Let these Han people see the strong bows and crossbows of us bannermen!" The burly assistant commander roared, and was the first to go out from the breastwork and pounce on the hunters of the Xing Tang army.

They look heroic, but from the title you can tell that the morale of the Bannermen has declined.

Because their name for the Han people gradually changed from "One-cent Han" - "Han dog" - "thief Han" to now "Han people" and "Han army".

The brave cavalrymen armed with bows and arrows moved very quickly. This kind of fighting, which was like a group brawl, was what they were best at.

The sound of the bowstring vibrating came one after another, and the arrow that left the bowstring trembled violently in the air due to air resistance, as if it came alive.

These last elite members of the Bannermen were indeed quite accomplished in the art of archery, and their shooting skills were quite accurate.

The Xianwu Army hunters in the front were caught off guard and fell to the ground one after another, but gunshots rang out immediately and the Qing archers also fell down one after another.

Baosheng was mixed in the crowd. Although he stood out, he didn't dare to step forward to fight, so he kept mixing at the back of the crowd.

Next to him, a sturdy bearded cavalry captain from the Archery Battalion roared and shot three arrows rapidly to the front left.

Baosheng, who had good eyesight, clearly saw two of the three arrows accurately hit the Han musketeer, and one of the arrows even hit the musketeer's head.

But the musketeer did not die immediately. It was more than a hundred meters away, and the soft hat had a certain blocking effect, so the bow and arrow was not enough to cause fatal damage.

Sure enough, the next second Baosheng saw the Han man covering his head and limping away.

The cavalry captain of the bearded arrow camp wanted to fire another arrow, but a flash of fire appeared on the opposite side, and a Wansui bullet flew over with a hum, and a flower of blood burst out on the bearded man's chest.

Baosheng looked at the bearded man in horror, and the bearded man also looked at Baosheng. He stretched out his hand and waved at Baosheng twice, as if asking Baosheng to save him, but when he opened his mouth, blood dripped from his mouth first.

Such a strong warrior, Baosheng believed that ten people would not be his match in fighting, but on the battlefield, a small bullet took his life.

As for the Han musketeer, Baosheng could imagine what kind of treatment he would receive. It was very likely that he would not die but would be injured and retire.

Because of his military merits, after retiring he would either become a yamen runner or a local inspector. If he was willing to go to Southeast Asia, he could probably become a small vassal.

But there are only so many people here. If you die, you die. There is no compensation at all. If there is, you will be asked to return to the border.

But in Baosheng's opinion, his hometown outside the Great Wall was covered with ice and snow and overgrown with trees, making it impossible to go back.

Only a fool like Fu Kang'an would think that the Bannermen who had lived in Beijing for more than a hundred years could survive by returning to the jungle outside the Great Wall.

The fierce exchange of fire continued, with people falling on both sides. Baosheng also shot several arrows, but they were basically random shots.

He hid in the crowd, not even daring to move forward, relying solely on muscle memory to draw the bow and release the bowstring.

Suddenly, a cheer rang out. Baosheng opened his eyes wide and looked carefully, only to find that the musketeers on the opposite side had retreated. They had repelled the enemy.

However, amidst these cheers, there is always a bit of fear and a sense of survival.

There may be sixty or seventy people on the opposite side who have fallen, and less than fifty people on our side have been lost.

It looked like they had indeed won the battle, but unfortunately the bow and arrow were not powerful enough to kill with one arrow from over a hundred meters away, but the musket could do that.

Therefore, the Han army suffered very few deaths and many wounded, while the Qing army suffered a great number of deaths and very few wounded.

More importantly, among their three or four thousand people, they can only muster about three hundred relatively powerful archers, but it is not difficult for the Han army on the opposite side to easily pull out five thousand or even ten thousand musketeers.

Sure enough, not long after the cheers stopped, hundreds of musketeers emerged from the Han people on the opposite side who could shoot accurately at a distance of more than one hundred to two hundred steps.

The assistant commander who had just led the archers to charge the battle formation had no choice but to summon the archers to fight again.

A quarter of an hour later, the Han musketeers on the opposite side retreated, and dozens of people fell on both sides.

However, unlike the last time, the casualties on both sides were basically the same this time, because there were fewer archers available to go on the expedition, and because the last shooting match consumed a lot of physical strength, the speed and accuracy of bow drawing were greatly reduced.

Half an hour later, the third group of Xianwu Army hunters launched another attack. The Qing army did not dare to fight at all. The commander of Macun, the former general of Xi'an, Fuxing, ordered not to fight and the entire army retreated behind the breastwork.

Wang Wuchu saw it clearly through the telescope, and while laughing, he said to Huang Jincai, "Add five more twelve-pound mortars and throw explosive bombs in.

The vanguard regiment sent out a company of grenadiers, which, under the cover of chasseurs, threw bombs behind the parapet.

First, we should make the Qing army panic, and then when the main force arrives, we can capture them in one fell swoop."

The intermittent harassment continued until dark. The Qing army was helpless and could not defeat the riflemen equipped with Wansui bullets.

Hiding behind the breastwork would expose you to indirect fire from mortars, and the constantly falling bombs would also be a considerable threat.

The next day, Baosheng was awakened by gunshots just after dawn. Yesterday, they retreated more than 50 meters before they could barely gain a foothold, and three or four breastworks were lost.

This made things even more troublesome, as the Han army could use the breastwork they had built as cover to continue advancing.

"Fuck you bastard, die!" Baosheng was so scared when he heard the roar that he ran to the side without even opening his eyes.

Sure enough, after this curse, three or four gunners operating a nine-section cannon pulled the barrel to the gap in a section of the breastwork and fired a shot at the bottom.

The shot was quite accurate. A Han grenadier who was about to throw a grenade was hit directly. The huge bullet destroyed half of the warrior's body.

But then angry roars were rang out, and a few bullets were fired first, and a ninth-section gunner who was a step slower was killed on the spot.

Then there was a whistling sound, and two twelve-pound mortars fired two explosive bombs in.

"Boom! Boom!" Two explosions sounded in succession, and the explosive bombs, filled with porcelain fragments, iron nails, and other objects, whistled and scattered everywhere, causing the surrounding Qing soldiers to scream in pain.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" The ninth-section gunner who was cursing the Han dog just now was pierced in the eye by two iron nails. He fell to the ground, covering his right eye with both hands, rolling back and forth with a shrill scream.

'Boom!' Another brilliant burst of fire erupted; it was an explosive bomb thrown in by the grenadiers.

The bomb did not contain any nails or other things, but relied entirely on refined white sugar and potassium chlorate to "add fuel" to the black powder. The explosion damage was extremely terrifying, and it instantly blew off half of a Qing soldier's head on the spot.

Immediately afterwards, several figures flashed out from the breastwork, holding a special musket with a muzzle like a trumpet.

This thing was originally used for boarding battles at sea. It has a short range but can be loaded with shotgun shells, and can fire seventeen or eighteen bullets with one shot. Now it is also particularly suitable for trench warfare.

"You thieves, prepare to die!" A guard officer discovered these Xing Tang soldiers. He shouted and rushed over with a big knife in hand.

Maybe he wanted to give himself courage, or maybe he couldn't help himself. He should never have made any sound. It could have been a sneak attack, but by shouting like that, it was like he was showing his cards.

A captain of the Xingtang Army looked at the rushing guard schoolmaster as if he were a fool. He raised his hand and more than a dozen lead bullets flew out from the muzzle of his musket.

With a clang, the big knife in the guard captain's hand fell to the ground, and he fell down, his face was hit like a lotus pod.

The guard captain screamed "Ah, Ah" and his hands scratched the ground like chicken claws, leaving bloody marks, but this still could not relieve his pain.

When the Xing Tang army came up and saw the guard captain like this, they cruelly kicked his sword away and let the guy continue to suffer torture on the ground.

Baosheng completely collapsed. This guard school had run back from Beihe with him, and his fighting ability was far superior to his.

At this moment, the scene of General Agui being killed in Beihe once again filled Baosheng's mind.

This bannerman, who had rolled among the dead several times, threw away his weapon with a clang, knelt on the ground and cried.

"Grandpa Han, please spare my life! Grandpa Han, please spare my life!"

As Baosheng cried, several bannermen around him followed suit, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing to beg for mercy.

In the sky, the hot air balloon rose again, showing the Qing Dynasty's arrangements in Macun clearly, especially the winding trenches, which were more detailed.

"How long will it take for the main force to arrive?"

"Before four o'clock tomorrow afternoon."

Wang Wuchu nodded and said, "Draw one hundred copies of the trench's exact route, select one thousand elite soldiers, and give ten of them a copy each. They must memorize them.

We will launch a night raid tonight. Each person will be equipped with a trumpet, a pistol, and three bombs, and will sneak up from the trench.

Tomorrow morning I want to see that all the outposts outside Macun are eliminated, trapping these Qing troops on the top of the mountain."

Wang Wuchu smiled cruelly. They were advancing lightly and did not have many heavy weapons, but the main force coming behind was not.

The main force will transport 36-pound and 48-pound mortars. As long as the Qing army concentrates on the top of the mountain, it will be great. Being bombarded by such giant mortars and dying without a complete body will be a relief.

　Yesterday was Tiger's wife's birthday and Tiger drank too much, so this two-in-one chapter counts as today's. I will make up for the missing chapter from yesterday tonight.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)