Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 263
Even if Yang Chao was killed, he couldn't figure out the complex political power ecology of the Manchus, which was transitioning from the slave tribal system to the feudal centralized system, because he didn't even know that Turg, the captive chieftain, had been forced by him to the point where he couldn't retreat. desperate situation.

Yang Chao is still holding on to the battle plan of letting the captive soldiers retreat in spite of difficulties.

Therefore, Yang Chao was also thinking about how to put a little pressure on the captive soldiers, make them completely desperate and then retreat, but he didn't know that the commander of the captive soldiers could not retreat precisely because he was cornered.

"Look, this is the Manchurian bow of the captive soldiers!"

On the city wall, Yang Chao led a group of officers, holding a gorgeously decorated Manchurian bow in his hand, the whole body was painted with thick red lacquer, and the huge bow was inlaid with gold rims. The general's bow was seized on the west wall that night.

Manchurian bows are also called Qing bows, which were introduced to the Central Plains with the entry of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Like Mongolian bows, this kind of bow is also a composite bow.However, the inheritance is different. The ancestry of the Qing Gong can be traced back to the Jin Dynasty established by the Jurchens. The Qing Gong and the Jin Gong are in the same line.

The Ming bow is inherited from the Mongolian bow. The Ming army’s standard bow and arrow is called the Kaiyuan bow, which originated from the Kaiyuan Guard established in the early Ming Dynasty. The officers and soldiers of this Kaiyuan Guard are all Semu officers and soldiers who surrendered, and they have Turkic blood. Therefore, the Ming bow also has a West Asian bow. style of.

Compared with Qing bows, Ming bows and Mongolian bows are purer hard bows.

During the Yuan Dynasty, Marco Polo never pulled back the hard bow of the Mongols.

Bows that are harder have greater strength. Ming bows and Mongolian bows generally have longer shooting ranges. The maximum power of Qing bows is generally [-] paces, while Ming bows and Mongolian bows are already very powerful at a distance of [-] paces.

But it does not mean that bows and Mongolian bows are superior to Qing bows. These are two different design ideas.

In particular, the bows and arrows of the Ming army are generally four feet short, and the bow is powerful, emphasizing the range and speed, and the accuracy is slightly poor. Obviously, the bows and arrows of the Ming army adopt the idea of ​​​​covering strikes. cover.

The bow body of the Qing bow is heavy, and the bow body can reach five feet. With the exaggerated bow point, the stability is strong. After keeping the bow open, it saves effort and is good for aiming. Obviously, the pursuit is efficiency. Shooting a light arrow is erratic.

The two situations are obviously inseparable from the combat methods of the two armies. When fighting against cavalry, the infantry bow of the Ming army is equivalent to fixed aiming. It is obviously difficult to aim when shooting a moving target, and the enemy will not give you much time to shoot. Therefore, it is advantageous to use high-speed coverage strikes.

However, the Qing army had the initiative when riding and shooting, and there was no time for the enemy to give the archery, so it was completely possible to aim at it calmly. However, the large bow body of the Qing bow was obviously not specially designed for riding and shooting, so the Eight Banners soldiers often used horses to approach. , and then dismounted from the horse and struck with heavy arrows at close range. Yang Chao had already seen this. The heavy arrows of the captive soldiers hiding behind the shield chariot could kill him without killing anyone.

As soon as Yang Chao said that, he pulled the bow in his hand away, maintaining the full moon state, looking very calm.

Yang Chao also practiced bow and arrow, but he admitted that he couldn't fully draw the Ming army's hard bow, but now he can easily draw the clear bow.

Although the Qing bow is softer than the Mongolian bow, and it takes a heavy and powerful way, it is not so easy to pull away. The real reason is that the bow is damp.

Yang Chao let go of his hand suddenly, and the arrow in his hand immediately left the string, but he looked listless, and fell limply down the city, not even hitting the moat less than fifty paces away.

"Even if the bow is fully drawn, it is only half powerful. If you try to increase the force, the bow arm will be broken!"

The power of damp is naturally weak. It has been verified during this period that although the compound bows of the soldiers have some moisture-proof measures, such as horns on the tip, and some bows have a paint layer, they are still inevitably damp.

And not all bows are painted, only the good bows of those generals will be carefully crafted, but even this kind of good bows can't exert half of their power.

"So as long as it's raining, the captive soldiers won't attack us!"

From this, it can be concluded that the combat effectiveness of the captive soldiers has dropped sharply, and it is impossible to attack in the rain.

But some people were not convinced, Li Wuliu asked: "Not necessarily?"

Yang Chao couldn't help but glared at him. The reason why he often shared his analysis with the officers was to cultivate their thinking habit of drawing inferences from one instance, but these guys were still not used to using their brains.

"Fortunately, you are still a bow and arrow practitioner. Do you know how complicated it is to make a bow? A bow needs horns, tendons, and wood. It's hard to find good big horns, just the wood is dried in the shade. It will take more than half a year. It is more troublesome for the captive soldiers to make a bow than for us to make a bird gun. Do you think that with the financial resources of the Tartars, they will be willing to break their finely crafted bows and arrows?"

Li Wuliu stopped talking now. In fact, from his own point of view, he did not want the captive soldiers to give up the initiative to attack. After all, the captive soldiers attacked, so his gunners were the best counterattack force. This can highlight he.

If the captive soldiers don't come to attack, Yang Chao's soldiers can rest. But if they don't attack all the time, Yang Chao is also worried. If they defend for a long time, they will lose. If the captive soldiers don't come to attack, the two sides won't fight. However, it is easy to have problems in my heart, and the situation that Shanghai City is about to run out of food makes people worry.

"Let's talk about how we can fight the captive soldiers and boost morale!"

During this period of time, Yang Chao's army has not yet reached the point where morale is a problem, but the situation in the city is like a pool of stagnant water, which makes people feel extremely depressed. Sooner or later, problems will arise. There were voices of complaint, calling into question the hope of going back.

So a battle must be fought!
But when they go out to fight in the city, even the most assertive Wang Pu is not so aggressive now, and the officers don't speak for a while.

Yang Chao asked again: "Is it possible to go out of the city and attack the raiding squad of the captive soldiers!"

If you can successfully attack the captive soldiers and plunder the troops, it will not only boost your morale, but also allow the captive soldiers to not only go out to loot so blatantly in the future, but if you can't rob the guaranteed house, you will definitely not be able to continue to besiege Haizhou.

Lu Mo shook his head and sighed: "The captive soldiers are all cavalry. Even if the bow and arrow are useless, if we fight in the field, our army will be very disadvantaged!"

This is a flaw. Infantry attacking cavalry can't catch up if they win, and can't run away if they lose.

And so far, the soldiers of the captives are still dominant. If Yang Chao wants to go out in a field battle, he can only send out his own elite soldiers. Although those civilians are barely usable in defense, it is still useless to let them attack.

"Can you attack by force and destroy a large camp of captive soldiers, such as the West Camp?"

Yang Chao asked again, of course the southern battalion doesn't need to be considered, not only is the main battalion of the captive soldiers, its strength accounts for at least half of the total strength of the captive soldiers, but it is also halfway up the mountain, and the infantry is tired enough to climb up the mountain under heavy rain, and they still expect to attack, That would be death.

Dongying didn't need to think about it either. The Beiying had just joined forces with the Dongying and its strength was in full swing, but the West Ying could think about it.It's raining now, and the Qushan camp on the mountainside is not easy to support. The northern camp has just withdrawn, and the eastern camp is too far away to support them. At this time, it is the most favorable time to attack the western camp.

Lu Mo still shook his head: "There are at least a thousand soldiers in the west camp of the captive soldiers. Even if our army is dispatched, we have to cross the river to attack."

That's right, five hundred elite soldiers climbed down from the top of the city, then marched fifty feet in the rain, swam across the Qiangwei River, and then attacked the solid enemy camp.

Yang Chao sighed. He had been thinking about fighting the captive soldiers for the past few days, but there was no way out.

"Use a cannon!"

Li Wuliu spoke suddenly.

Everyone couldn't help but wonder. After the captive soldiers had suffered many losses, the distance between the camps was very far. Needless to say, even Franji and the general's cannons couldn't hit them. If they managed to hit them, the shells would not be enough Breaking through the opponent's camp wall, as can be seen from the last night battle in Haizhou, the camp of the captive soldiers is still very stable. Sandbags are piled behind the wooden wall, even if they are bombarded at close range, they will not be able to blast away for a while, let alone in a battle. Two miles away.

"Oh, I'm talking about our red cannon!"

Seeing everyone's doubts, Li Wuliu immediately knew that everyone had forgotten about the red cannon.

Only then did Yang Chao realize, yes, he still has a cannon in red.

This kind of gun has a range of four to five miles. Although the accuracy is a bit poor, it can hit far and powerful!

It's just because there is only one cannon, whether it is loading or moving, it is too laborious, so it has been placed in the warehouse before, and it has never been pulled out to use. It is the General Cannon and the Franc Cannon.

Now these cannons are useless, and Yang Chao is eager to fight a dozen captive soldiers, so this red cannon is still useful.

Although it is impossible to cause any battle results, as long as one fight is meaningful, it means that Haizhou City can still fight captive soldiers.

"Okay, prepare immediately and pull the red cannon to the city wall."

Yang Chao immediately ordered.

Li Wuliu was overjoyed and asked, "Do you want to hit Xiying?"

Just now I thought about attacking the West Camp, hoping to break through the big camp, but it is obviously impossible to do this if only the red cannons are used, so the bombardment of the West Camp is not very meaningful.

Yang Chao thought for a while and said, "No, pull to the head of Nancheng and attack the main camp of Qushan!"

Speaking of this, Yang Chao couldn't help but glanced at the barracks camp on Qu Mountain, sitting there through the rain curtain, it was unusually calm, as if he had fallen asleep.

Although the Qushan camp of the captive soldiers is halfway up the mountain, although Qushan is not too high, it is still more than 200 meters high. The halfway up the mountain is also much higher than Haizhou City. Neither the Franc machine gun nor the general cannon can hit there, but the red cannon Don't take it too easy when shooting them two miles away with a range of more than ten miles.

The captive soldiers dare not come to attack the city, but Haizhou can bombard their main camp, which is of great significance.

"Also, when the time comes, send everyone to the city to have a look, and watch us fight captive soldiers!"

Yang Chao wanted the soldiers to see that the captive soldiers could not fight back, and the effect was good.

Li Wuliu took the order and left.

Pulling the cannon down to the top of the city will not be completed in a short while, because this kind of heavy cannon weighing [-] jin must build a special fort.

Then Yang Chao led the officers to inspect the city wall. At this time, there were only a few soldiers patrolling the city wall. They held long guns and wore coir raincoats. A dozen or so soldiers and thirty civilians were recruited.

Yang Chao quickly walked to the north city wall, and suddenly saw a figure in a horse stance, with a spear in his hand, motionless. On the iron skirt, flowing over the icy armor, ticking down on the city wall, his whole body remained motionless, like a statue.

"Xie Fei?"

Yang Chao recognized this person at a glance. This is the apprentice appointed by Lao Jin. After receiving Lao Jin's guidance, he picked up the style he practiced since he was a child. Whether in Nanjing or in Haizhou, he still insists on Unremittingly put on airs, even if it is raining heavily, never give up.

It's just that other people are patrolling, and he is standing here practicing, which seems to be suspected of being lazy.

But Yang Chao pretended not to see it, and walked past him quietly without disturbing him.

To be honest, this Xie Fei is pretty good. Relying on his childhood background, he is now the undisputed number one master in the army. He can defeat Wang Pu within ten moves.

Xie Fei's combat performance has also been good. In the last night battle, he was under the command of Song Kun. Although Song Kun had not been able to directly confront the captive soldiers because he had not broken the wooden wall of the captive soldiers, but later he chose to forcibly turn over. After crossing the wooden wall, this Xie Fei was the first person to climb up the wooden wall, but what he saw at that time were the fragmented corpses of captive soldiers beaten by tiger squat cannons.

Just imagine, if Yang Chao hadn't blasted open the wooden wall of the captive soldiers with cannons, this Xie Fei would have been killed by now by climbing over the wooden wall alone and entering the infantry formation. His style of work was very encouraging. Anyway, after the war, although Song Kun did nothing to plead guilty to Yang Chao, he recommended Xie Fei instead.

Xie Fei had made a lot of contributions before, gained a lot, and had already been promoted to team leader. After this battle, Yang Chao planned to promote him to be the banner chief.

After inspecting the city defense, Yang Chao went back and asked Li Wuliu to go to the artillery formation. In Yang Chao's plan, Li Wuliu would be the commander-in-chief of the firearms unit from now on. It was necessary for him to get in touch with cannons to accumulate experience in advance. .

But setting up the red cannon is not as simple as talking about it.

The "Wubei Yaolue" written by the Ming Dynasty described the red-clothed cannon as saying: There are three cannons, the first one is one foot long, the muzzle is slightly raised, and can reach sixteen miles; the second one is eight feet long, the muzzle is slightly raised, It can reach twelve miles; the No. [-] one is six feet long, with a slightly raised muzzle, and can reach eight miles.

Yang Chao's red-clothed cannon is eight feet long and weighs four thousand catties. It is considered a medium-sized red-clothed cannon. Although I dare not say that it can hit twelve miles, it can still cover the entire top of Qushan Mountain. Don't take it easy in the camp of captive soldiers.

However, the ultra-long range corresponds to a huge recoil force, so it cannot be fired with sandbags like other cannons. The red cannon must have a decent turret or cannon carriage.

It is too troublesome to make the cannon carriage, so we can only temporarily build the fort. Although there is no need to use steel-concrete structures like later generations, there must be a solid site, preferably built with huge stones.

After two days of busy work, Li Wuliu notified Yang Chao that the cannon was ready!

Only then did Yang Chao gather his troops, put on the iron armor himself, and put a coir raincoat on the outer door, and then stepped into the city.

The city is on the left side of the middle of the South City, more than 50 feet to the west of the city tower, there is a rough shed.

Four standing trees support the roof truss, and the top is covered with thatch, covered with mud, and covered with tiles. Strips of silk rain flow down both sides to form a row of bead curtains.

In the middle of the shed, there is a stone platform with grooves on it, and a stone in the middle with grooves on the stone, just enough to put the ear of the gun in, and to ensure that the cannon forms an elevation angle.

The other parts of the gun body, especially the tail, are stuck in the groove of the fort, and there are some wooden locking structures on both sides to firmly fix the cannon on the fort. Eight iron hoops are temporarily added to the gun body to hold the gun The body is connected with the stone below.

It takes two days to build such a fort. I have to say that the craftsmen in Haizhou City are very dedicated to fighting the captive soldiers. Everyone hopes to kill these robbers quickly, and then everyone will return to the previous days. After all, Haizhou is a wealthy place. Although the population is small, it can be regarded as the middle class in the whole of Daming. No one wants to be disturbed by others.

When Yang Chao stepped onto the city wall, the gunner had already finished loading.

The operation of the red cannon is quite primitive. The muzzle elevation angle is not large, and it is basically fixed. The range is completely controlled by the amount of charge. If you want to shoot farther, you need to charge more charge.

This requires a lot of experience to be able to operate. Fortunately, Shi Kefa did not perfunctory Yang Chao. The gunners transferred to Yang Chao are all of a certain level. Compared with the gunners in Liaodong, they may be worse, but they can barely play the red cannon. of.

At this time, the red cannon was aimed at the Qushan camp of the captive soldiers.

The gunner asked Yang Chao if he wanted to fire. Yang Chao looked at the situation and found that there were still soldiers marching on the city, so he asked the gunner to wait.

Yang Chao looked at the barracks along the muzzle of the cannon.

Qushan mountain road goes up, there is a flat land halfway up the mountain, and there is a dense forest at the top, so the captive soldiers chose this place.

Daying camps were cut down on the mountain. The logs on the mountain were closely arranged in rows, and each log was at least three or two feet high, and the thickness of a person was thick. It is estimated that the logs alone may not be broken by shells.

Behind the wooden wall, only half of the barracks can be seen, with Mongolian-style domes, cloth tents, and conical bark tents.

On Haizhou City, soldiers walked up to the top of the city one by one, and even the strong men lined up, standing on the city in the rain, looking at the cannon curiously.

Only then did Yang Chao raise his hand: "Fire!"

The gunner first politely told Yang Chao to stay away, then plugged his ears, and then lit the gunpowder in the fire pool.

Yang Chao knew why the gunner kept him away. The huge roar directly made Yang Chao's ears ringing, and the vibration made his chest and abdomen feel dull.

This is power!
Yang Chao couldn't help looking at the barracks camp, but found that the shot was skewed, flew past the barracks, and went into the forest.

(End of this chapter)