Father can be an enemy to the country

At the fourth watch of the next day, the Ming army buried pots to make rice and had a hearty meal.

At the same time, several channels were filled in the trench with sandbags and covered with iron plates.

At the fifth watch, everything was ready, and the Ming army soldiers began to pull and drag the cannons to the camp.

Originally, there were two main types of Ming army artillery. One was a bowl-mouth cannon weighing no more than 100 kilograms. This small artillery could fire small solid shells, lead or gravel. Its main function was to kill people and horses.

One type is the mortar with a short body and wide mouth. This is a large artillery with a short body and a thick caliber. It has a short range and powerful projectiles, and is mainly used to destroy solid fortifications. The Hongwu Iron Cannon, cast in the tenth year of Hongwu, has a caliber of 21 centimeters and a total length of three feet and three feet. It was the most powerful large-caliber city bomb in the world at that time.

But it has two problems. One is that it is too bulky. The naked cannon weighs 900 kilograms, and it is difficult for two horses to pull it. It is extremely inconvenient to transport. Another is that the cast iron gun body is easy to explode, taking away the gunner in a wave. Therefore, he was not welcomed by the Ming army.

Think about it, the Ming army in this era only attacked but did not defend. The attack was mainly based on cavalry pursuit. The Hongwu Iron Cannon was not born at the right time. Therefore, after its birth, Rong Gong did not create a few doors, and was gradually annihilated in another time and space.

Fortunately, Lao Liu was there this time, and his navy needed this kind of heavy artillery. Moreover, the wealthy King of Chu changed the cannon body from cast iron to cast copper.

In this era, the advantages of copper cannons are unmatched by iron cannons. It is easy to cast, not easy to explode, and there are no fragments in the explosion, so it will not cause harm to personnel. Therefore, the barrel of a copper cannon of the same caliber can be much thinner than that of an iron cannon, and the weight is naturally much lighter.

And it is not easy to rust, especially suitable for naval equipment.

Of course, copper cannons also have disadvantages, the main disadvantage being that they are expensive. In this era, copper was used to make money, but most people couldn't afford to use it to make cannon.

Fortunately, Lao Liu is not an ordinary person. His Prime Minister's Maritime Affairs Office has obtained huge profits through the maritime trade share of the Municipal Shipping Fleet and the customs revenue of the Municipal Shipping Department.

The proceeds from Zheng He's seven voyages to the West were enough for Lao Si to cast a forty-six-ton ​​bronze bell. Lao Liu also had the generosity of the wealthy families in Jiangnan. While building ships and cannons on a large scale, he was even able to build a garden for himself... Oh no, it was the sanatorium of Hai Zheng Yamen.

~~

The Hongwu bronze cannon that Wang Bi pulled from the ship weighed 700 kilograms. It was indeed 200 kilograms lighter than the iron cannon of the same caliber, but it was still extremely heavy.

Without animal power, a cannon required eight strong soldiers to pull it forward and push it back. An hour later, the first artillery was finally in position a hundred feet away from the stone wall... It sounded good, but in other words, it meant that they had advanced more than a hundred meters in two hours.

Of course, the three people would not sit idly by and watch. They kept sending death squads to harass, but they were all repelled by the Ming army who was waiting for them with fire blunderbuss and small bowl-mouth blunderbuss.

During this period, the three men also had a heated discussion on whether to send the main force to launch a general attack. However, due to their superstition of the national protector's sacred wall and lack of confidence in the Ming army, they finally gave up.

At noon, twenty Hongwu bronze cannons were finally in place. In fact, the effect is better if it is further forward, but the Japanese big bows and arrows have an extremely long range, and they shoot from a high position. If they are further forward, they will enter the range of the Japanese army.

"This is exactly half the range of yesterday. Let's try it here first." Wang Bi said solemnly: "Let's fire!"

"Fire!" Hu Bo shouted loudly, and the gunner who had been prepared immediately lit the fuse, covered his ears and hid aside. This was the habit they had developed when using iron cannons.

Amidst the deafening sound of the cannon, twenty fire snakes spurted out from the muzzle, and twenty large iron bullets roared into the opposite stone wall. Suddenly the earth shook and gravel flew...

When the thick smoke that shrouded the artillery position dissipated, the Ming army saw that shortening the range by half had immediate results. They saw large holes appearing on the stone wall opposite, and some of the holes even collapsed...

"Okay! Lower the muzzle and continue shooting!" Wang Bi happily patted the cannon and quickly raised it again. Damn it, it was really hot.

The gunner was also inspired and quickly refreshed the barrel and reloaded.

~~

One was happy and the other was sad, but the three of them were dumbfounded.

"Nani?!"

"Once it was rotten, how about another one?" They shed tears as they watched a round of shelling turn the National Protectorate into rubbish. This is not only a collapse of defense, but also a collapse of faith.

How could the stone walls that once protected the Mongols be so vulnerable? Could it be that Amaterasu no longer protects his people this time?

"Go and repair it!" They urged the ashigaru hysterically to carry stones and sandbags up the wall to fill holes.

However, just as the Japanese soldiers climbed onto the wall, the second round of shelling came again. The large iron bullet whizzed in with great force and hit the wall near the hole.

Suddenly the sky collapsed and the earth shattered, and rubble filled the sky. The flesh and blood of those Japanese soldiers were riddled with holes by the flying gravel, and almost no one survived.

Seeing this horrific scene, no one dared to go up and fill the hole with their own flesh and blood. The Japanese of this era had not yet been brainwashed by militarism. The Ashigaru went to the battlefield mainly to wave flags and shout for Taipingquan. How could they endure such a tragic scene?

No matter how the warrior drove him, he refused to move forward.

The three of them did not dare to push too hard, otherwise it would be counterproductive. These ashigaru, who were born as farmers, had no fighting will to begin with. Fortunately, this was to defend their hometown. If it had been another war, the birds and beasts would have dispersed with a roar.

The warriors were not afraid of death, but the three of them were reluctant to use their lives to fill the hole.

Seeing that the stone wall was riddled with holes after rounds of shelling by the Ming army, it continued to collapse, and soon the entire section would collapse.

"Retreat!" Young Master Laicheng made a difficult decision that went against his ancestors.

"The purpose of retreating is to better annihilate the enemy!" Dayou personally agreed: "We retreated a hundred steps to stand ready and resolutely block the Ming army rushing in from the gap!"

"This is the only way." Shimazu didn't object for a long time. If he only knew how to act recklessly, the Shimazu family would have been finished long ago.

~~

The original stone wall built by the jade accumulation method was indeed not very useful. After a few rounds of shelling, a section of it collapsed.

However, Wang Bi did not rush to attack, but ordered the artillery bombardment to continue, destroying as many sections of stone walls as possible to create more breakthroughs for the charging troops.

The shelling continued until the sun turned west, and a gap of more than ten feet wide was blasted out in the stone wall in front of him. Only then did Wang Bi give the order to attack.

The Ming army soldiers who had been waiting for a long time launched a charge towards the gap in the stone wall under the cover of the gunners.

The Japanese did not completely give up on the stone wall. Many archers emerged from both ends of the gap, facing the covering fire of the Ming army, and fired arrows at the charging Ming army.

Ahead, the three men had also reorganized their defense line inside the stone wall. In order to withstand the attack of the Ming army, they all spent a lot of money and sent out their elites to prepare for the attack.

A bloody battle is inevitable.