In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

On September 2, at the end of the morning, the sky and the earth were vast.

Outside Lanzhou City, the wilderness was vast. On the distant western plains, countless dense black spots slowly moved towards the city.

The people living outside the city had already fled. Some fled south into the mountains with their families, some hurriedly hid in the city, and some simply left their homes and fled east into the territory of the Song Dynasty.

The Xixia people took advantage of the fact that the Song army was reorganizing internally and was busy with their own affairs. They also took advantage of the fact that Qingtang had been engaged in business for a long time and neglected military training, and wanted to take Lanzhou in one fell swoop, and then take Hehuang in the west.

Although the Song army sent 15,000 firearms to the northwest border, the news could not be sent out in a short time, and no Song army came to help.

But fortunately, two battalions of firearms were ordered to go to Huining, the northwest border of the Song Dynasty, and were pulled over by the local general Sun Guangyi when they passed Guwei Village.

They were originally stationed at the border to fight. When they heard that there was a war to be fought, Zeng Yong and Sun Guangyi, the two commanders of the Firearm Battalion, naturally came to help.

The Song Dynasty and Qingtang signed a strategic mutual assistance agreement between Song and Qingtang, and the court often said that it would help the Zunsiluo of Qingtang.

So everyone was eager to try.

In late autumn in September, the weather in the northern part of the Great Wall was slowly getting colder.

Although the grass had not yet turned yellow, the wilderness was already a mixture of brown and green.

Lanzhou City has always been a permanent residence for Tibetans, Uighurs and Han people. Many ethnic minorities here have learned to farm, and nomadic and farming coexist, becoming an extremely rare nomadic farming nation.

But at this moment, the farmland outside the city has long been uncultivated, and the village has also been empty for a few days, leaving only abandoned dogs barking wildly.

A large group of Xixia soldiers bypassed the village and headed towards the north of Lanzhou City from the wilderness in the north.

It's not that they have the quality not to destroy villages and trample farmland, but they are simply afraid of wasting time. It's better to take the main road than to walk through the village fields with obstacles, and go to the battlefield as soon as possible to line up.

But even so, many horses did not follow the team, and scattered into the wheat fields, chewing the newly planted winter wheat seedlings, causing heavy losses to the Hu and Han people living outside the city.

By the beginning of the Si hour, countless Xixia people had appeared in the north of Lanzhou City. The densely packed soldiers were divided into countless legions in the wilderness. The formation was very open, not the traditional formation, which was to prevent cannons.

They were about seven or eight miles away from Lanzhou City. As the Xixia generals continued to roar, forty cannons were pulled up.

These cannons were greatly different from the Song cannons. The most obvious thing was that there were iron hoops on them to prevent the barrels from exploding. Even if the Xixia people had good smelting technology and their armor was better than that of the Song people, wrought iron was wrought iron after all, and it was not as good as steel.

"Fire!"

The Xixia general shouted loudly in Tangut language.

"Bang bang bang bang bang!"

The cannon sent out huge sparks, and the lead bullets splashed out instantly, drawing an arc in the air and smashing towards Lanzhou City.

A moment later, there were huge noises everywhere on the city walls, towers and even inside the city.

The Lanzhou city wall was not to be outdone. The Tibetans did not know how to use cannons, but the Song soldiers did. They used the nine cannons they had captured to fight back and continued to fire at the outside of the city.

The two sides went back and forth, bombarding each other from a very long distance, even if the hit rate was pitifully low.

But as long as the Xixia people were lucky enough that any shell hit the north gate and broke the gate, they could completely rush into the city against the artillery fire on the city.

While both sides were fighting fiercely, in this chaos, no one noticed that on the hillside more than ten miles away in the east, there were a thousand cavalrymen, standing on the top of the hill, looking far away at the vast Xixia army in the west, which seemed to have no end at a glance.

Zhao Jun did not invent the telescope. In fact, the historical novels that Zhao Zhen read did mention how to make glass and then make telescopes.

Zhao Zhen went to experiment excitedly.

He was slapped in the face.

Damn it.

He found that many historical novels were fabricated.

It was useless to follow the methods in the novels.

It was not until I read a novel called "The Three Kingdoms" that I knew the reason.

It turned out that due to the limitations of firing technology and raw materials, the Chinese local glass firing method would cause the raw material sand to contain lead and barium, so the fired glass was lead-barium glass, not transparent sodium-calcium glass.

Many historical novels did not check the information at all, but wrote them directly on a whim. When they were actually doing it, they found that there were big problems in it.

According to the description in the novel, in order to burn soda-lime glass, you must use a special method to deal with the lead and barium in the sand, and then you can burn soda-lime glass normally.

The novel does record the method, which is to add sodium carbonate, that is, soda, during the production process.

It sounds simple.

However, before the Belgian Ernest Solvay invented the Solvay process in 1861, and later the famous Chinese chemist Mr. Hou Debang invented the Hou process, soda was almost impossible to make.

The novel only said that the protagonist would make the method, but the specific method was not specified, so Zhao Zhen was quite uncomfortable.

Another good opportunity to plagiarize ideas and leave a name in history was missed.

A series of titles such as famous thinkers, educators, biologists, agriculturalists, the father of modern genetics, reformist pioneers, the founder of the world hegemony of the Song Dynasty, and the pioneers of the dynasty's foundation, unfortunately, there is one less chemist.

Without telescopes, Zeng Yong and his men could only watch from a distance with their naked eyes. They saw a large number of Xixia Iron Harrier cavalry cruising on the periphery, which was obviously a threat to them.

"Go!"

Zeng Yong waved his hand, and the cavalry behind him galloped forward.

Zhang Wenwu was not to be outdone and also urged the horses.

A cavalry regiment of one thousand people was divided into left and right wings, and they ran forward in neat formations.

About a few minutes later, the Iron Harrier scouts at least ten miles away from the city quickly discovered them, and all kinds of horns and whistles sounded.

A scout quickly reported to Li Yuanhao, and learned that only about a thousand Song cavalry were attacking. He did not take it seriously and just sent three thousand Iron Harrier heavy cavalry to intercept them, and his eyes were still on the city in the distance.

Due to his advantage in artillery, Lanzhou City was obviously at a disadvantage at this time, and even the city tower was blown down. The defenders on it were already terrified, and the frequency of counterattacks was much less.

Zeng Yong and his men continued to move forward. They were about six miles away from the main Xixia army formation, and three thousand iron harriers surrounded them.

"Kill!"

They were all wearing heavy armor, holding scimitars in their hands, and making wolf-like howling sounds.

Neither side charged, but let the horses move forward slowly.

Because horses are good at short-distance explosive power, if they charge at the beginning, it will seriously waste horsepower, especially the Xixia heavy armored cavalry, which can't run a few hundred meters in a round of charge.

But what the Xixia people didn't expect was that the enemy suddenly stopped when they were only 200 steps away from them and looked at them from a distance.

Although they were a little confused, the Xixia people would not stop, and they continued to move forward slowly.

As long as they reached 100 steps, that is, about 140 meters, they would officially launch a charge, moving forward like a roaring iron army, crushing everything in front into powder.

"Raise the gun!"

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu both shouted loudly.

Almost all the Song soldiers took the muskets from their backs.

"Reload the bullets!"

They continued to shout.

The soldiers methodically stuffed the Minié bullets into the gun barrels.

At this time, the Xixia people were still more than 200 meters away from them.

"Ready!"

After ten seconds, the two commanders shouted again.

All the soldiers raised their guns.

"Fire!"

"Bang bang bang bang bang!"

White smoke instantly emerged from the barrels.

Countless tiny lead bullets, under the thrust of gunpowder and rifling, were fired at a very fast speed, tearing through the void and shooting towards the enemy formation.

"Pah pa pa pa pa!"

A large number of bullets shot through the Xixia people's iron armor, and suddenly a large number of Iron Harriers fell down.

"Hiss!"

The surviving Iron Harriers took a breath of cold air.

Because they didn't know what happened, they only knew that the Song people raised an inexplicable long tube and pointed it at them.

After a burst of "bang bang bang" sounds, the cavalry at the front of the team fell off their horses as if they were possessed by evil spirits. Most of the people on the ground did not die on the spot, but were still wailing in pain.

This made the rest of the Xixia cavalry hesitate for a while, and everyone couldn't help but pull the horse rope, afraid to move forward.

Seeing the front shrinking, a general in the rear cursed a few words in the Tangut language, and urged the soldiers to move forward again. As long as they reached a hundred steps, they could urge the horses to launch a charge that would kill the opponent!

But just over twenty seconds later, the deadly "bang bang bang" sound came again, and a large number of soldiers fell in front. Just one encounter, they lost hundreds of people.

"Ah!"

Finally, someone couldn't help it. After seeing the inexplicable death of his teammates in front of him, he couldn't help but scream, and then turned his horse's head and ran away.

This time, like dominoes, the remaining two thousand remaining iron harriers fled to the rear.

"Chase!"

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu shouted loudly.

Many Song cavalry immediately put away their guns and urged their horses to chase forward.

Their equipment was like this, wearing the autumn uniforms of the Song army, with a ring-headed straight knife hanging on the right waist.

There is a small bag hanging on the left waist, which contains three grenades.

There are also two large cloth bags hanging on both sides of the horse, with many small cloth bags in the bags, each of which contains a Minié bullet and a bag of gunpowder.

After each shooting, the soldiers have to spend at least twenty seconds to clean the gunpowder box and load the ammunition.

Therefore, the firing efficiency is still relatively low, and can only fire 2-3 rounds per minute, which is far less fast than the small steel cannon.

But the small steel cannon has four people working together, one person loads the fuse, two people load the ammunition, and the last person ignites the fuse to fire, and must be skilled in operation to achieve one round in about 6-7 seconds.

This is because the explosion rate of steel in the black powder era is relatively low, and the power of black powder is still not as good as yellow powder, and it is difficult to blow up the steel cannon with a higher structure and sturdiness.

If it is a wrought iron cannon, someone has to use a brush dipped in water to cool the barrel, and wait until the barrel is completely cooled before continuing to fire.

Moreover, 2-3 rounds per minute can only be used a few times in the early stage. Later, it must be maintained at 1 round per minute, or even 1 round per 2 minutes, otherwise it will explode.

Although the Song army's firearms are also made of steel, the explosion rate is also low, but the soldier needs to complete the three steps of cleaning the gunpowder box, loading gunpowder, and loading bullets by himself, which is naturally much slower than steel cannons.

Therefore, in terms of firing rate alone, muskets are still inferior to artillery. But in terms of close-range individual combat capabilities, muskets are far better than artillery.

The cavalry continued to press forward.

Soon, the Xixia army in the distance noticed that the Iron Harriers were defeated, and a scout reported to Li Yuanhao.

Li Yuanhao was eager for quick success at this time. After firing for 1-2 minutes in the early stage, he did not stop to wait for the barrel to cool down, which caused several cannons to explode and made him irritable.

Hearing the report from the scout, he did not pay much attention to the attack of a thousand people, but only sent another 5,000 people to continue the siege.

But he obviously underestimated the strength of this group of Song troops.

And what Li Yuanhao didn't know was that when these Song troops were advancing slowly, Wang Shiyun in the rear also arrived at the battlefield with his own more than ten small steel cannons.

The small steel cannon is still relatively light. Even without horses, the weight of more than 100 kilograms can be carried by two people.

They arrived about four or five miles away and began to set up the artillery.

In the Napoleonic era in the 18th century, without rifling, the maximum range of the 12-pound Napoleon cannon could reach 2.5 to 3 kilometers.

By the beginning of the 19th century, with the emergence of rifled cannons, the range was directly increased to 3 to 5 kilometers, or a distance of ten miles.

Today, Zhao Jun's cannons are all rifled cannons, and the cannons imitated by the Western Xia and Liao people also have rifling.

The two countries did not have the technology to smelt steel. Although the production method was not like the mold adopted by the Song Dynasty, it was also simple and crude, using the most primitive scraper method.

Their cannons weighed about 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, with a very large caliber. When shooting at an elevated angle, with the support of rifling, the maximum range was about 10 miles. If it was at a high altitude, the distance would be even farther.

The small steel cannon had a small caliber and a small amount of gunpowder loaded.

Although it had rifling support, the range on flat ground was only four or five miles, so they had to rely on the protection of musketeers to advance forward.

Of course.

It was okay to approach from the flank of the enemy's artillery position.

Because the turning and mobility of their cannons were too poor, it was difficult to threaten the small steel cannon position.

But they could not withstand the raid of their cavalry.

Therefore, the musket army position was actually to protect the artillery position.

The Xixia people on the periphery could already see about 2,000 Song troops appearing behind them. As Li Yuanhao issued the military order, thousands of cavalrymen gathered around them.

At this time, the rear was still loading small steel cannons, and Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu ordered to stay in place and block the invading enemy with three-stage shooting.

The result was that enemies from all directions died one by one, and a large number of Xixia people were shot to death.

Many people also tried to shoot with bows and arrows, but the Xixia people were all cavalry, using cavalry bows, and the range was horrible compared to muskets.

For a while, the Xixia people in the rear could not break through the rain of bullets, and Wang Shiyun had almost no pressure.

"Okay!"

After about a few minutes, Wang Shiyun finally loaded the small steel cannon.

He looked up at Zeng Yong and others who were guarding them not far away, and shouted angrily: "Fire all the shells, leave no one behind, even if the barrel explodes!"

"Yes!"

Dozens of gunners responded.

Although steel cannons are stronger than wrought iron cannons and bronze cannons, they are not immune to barrel explosions. If they are used frequently, barrel explosions may also occur.

But they can't care about so much at the moment. They have to go all out to deal with the 50,000-strong Xixia army with a small number of troops.

The gunners quickly performed their duties, those who loaded gunpowder loaded gunpowder, and those who loaded shells loaded shells. In just 6-7 seconds, everyone completed all the steps.

"Fire!"

Wang Shiyun shouted.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Flames spewed out of the muzzle.

The barrel was like a volcanic eruption.

Smoke rose straight up.

A few seconds later, the Xixia position several miles away.

Suddenly, a huge noise broke out.

More than a dozen howitzers exploded in their dense crowd, and mud splashed and stones flew everywhere.

"What's going on?"

Suddenly, he heard a huge explosion from behind, and Li Yuanhao turned his head to look.

But behind him were densely packed cavalry heads, and he couldn't see the situation clearly.

He looked around and noticed a small slope three or four meters high in front of the right, so he rode up quickly.

When he got to the small slope, he noticed that there was an artillery position in the far distance behind him, so far that he could only see some small black dots.

Li Yuanhao was furious and said, "How did the enemy get behind us? Send a message to clear out those artillery!"

"Yes!"

The messenger beside him immediately went to the rear to convey the military order.

However, the rear was already in chaos at this time.

The Song army now used whatever shells they had, speeding up the speed, completely ignoring the danger of bursting the barrel, and firing at full speed.

It was also because the quality of the steel made by Zhao Jun was really good. At a rate of 8-10 rounds per minute, not a single steel cannon burst, which was already a miracle.

After all, the so-called 8-10 rounds per minute can basically only last for 2-3 minutes. Under normal circumstances, 3-4 rounds per minute should be the best.

Under the bombardment of the small steel cannons, the rear army of the Xixia people was defeated, and several legions were directly defeated and fled.

At this time, from the far west, out of range, the troops mobilized by Li Yuanhao finally arrived.

About 10,000 people surrounded the position from three directions.

But when they were about to break through, the 1,000-man musket army in front maintained a continuous shooting speed.

Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu kept giving orders to fire, and more than 300 people fired bullets each time, forming a dense firepower network within 200 meters in front, which almost no one could break through.

One by one, the Xixia soldiers felt a pain in their chests for no apparent reason, and then they fell off their horses as if struck by lightning.

This scene obviously shocked the other Xixia soldiers. After a few rounds, they lost thousands of people, but they did not advance to a hundred steps from the local positions.

Even when galloping on horses, many war horses were frightened by the huge sound of guns and cannons and ran around in disorder, and it was impossible to organize an effective charge formation.

For a time, the positions in the northeast direction of the Xixia rear were in chaos, and at least 10,000 or 20,000 people were hit by muskets and cannons and ran around everywhere, almost in disarray.

Soon this situation swept the entire Xixia army, and a large number of fleeing soldiers broke up part of the army formation, causing the rear defense line of the Xixia army to collapse and completely unable to form an army.

If you look down from the sky, you will see that in the northeast rear corner of the Xixia army, a small Song army position composed of artillery and musketeers launched a fierce attack on some of the corps in the northeast corner of the Xixia army.

This part of the army actually has only more than 10,000 people, but they can't withstand the firepower of the Song army at all. The horses were frightened and ran around everywhere.

Howitzers are not as powerful as solid bullets, but they are really effective against cavalry.

Because they will explode after landing, making a huge sound, the horses will not listen to the knight's command at all after hearing it, resulting in the fall of this place in just two or three minutes.

Then the entire Xixia army began to roll back.

In an instant, the army was defeated like a mountain.

Li Yuanhao stood on the hillside and looked out, and saw that his troops inexplicably fled, and the entire corps was hit and then defeated.

For a moment, he was stunned and hurriedly ordered: "Quick, call back the troops, call back the troops!"

But before he could ring the bronze bell, the gate of Lanzhou in the distance opened wide.

All the Tibetan soldiers rushed out.

Then the Song army in the rear also launched a charge, chasing like a hunter driving prey.

Li Yuanhao had no time to gather his troops. All 50,000 soldiers fled in all directions, without any formation. Many people were even trampled to death in the crowd, fell off their horses and died.

At this time, Li Yuanhao had no way to control his men and horses, and he was forced to flee westward on his horse.

Wang Shiyun in the rear looked at the defeated Xixia army, Zeng Yong and Zhang Wenwu who put away their spears, drew their ring-headed straight knives from their waists and rushed forward with a shout. He grinned and said disdainfully: "Unbearable!"

"Bang!"

The next moment, a small steel cannon more than 30 meters away from him on the right finally exploded under the heavy load, and a huge noise broke out.

A friend said that the range of the cannon was wrong. I guess this friend missed it. The cannons in the book are all rifled cannons, and the range is twice as long as that of smoothbore cannons. Some people have said before that rifling cannot be made by hand, but in fact, rifling existed in the 15th century. There are many ways to make it by hand. The information found not only includes molds, knife carving, but also primitive lathe making.

The range and rate of firearms are also different from the original flintlock rifles, because Minié bullets were directly used. After Minié bullets were used, the flintlock smoothbore rifles became flintlock rifles. Wouldn’t the rate of fire and range be different?

The rate of fire of small steel cannons is also reasonable. 10 rounds per minute is the highest rate of fire. There are records of bronze smoothbore small-caliber cannons that can reach 7-8 rounds per minute in the 18th century British-French War, but it is easy to explode.

If it is made of steel, the rate of explosion is low, and it is normal to increase the rate of fire.

Minié bullets and rifling are not products of the industrial age. They were basically available in Britain and France around the 18th century, so the data in the book are basically reasonable, please rest assured.