Please ask me to be the emperor

"Keep firing!" Following Sun Chuanting's order, the sound of rebel artillery resounded across the battlefield again.

The two battalions of the rebel army were equipped with a total of ten field cannons and ten golden cannons.

General artillery and prisoner-killing artillery are used as "auxiliary artillery" and are equipped according to the capture situation of each battalion. The number is arbitrary.

However, in order to prevent unexpected situations, the rebels still kept two cannons each to match the general cannon and the prisoner-killing cannon as backup. Only eight field cannons and eight golden cannons were actually put into combat.

The field artillery used by the rebels in the first salvo fired solid shells. As a result, the Ming army's formation was thin and the killing effect was very poor. Therefore, the rebels fired the golden cannon in the second salvo of the field artillery during the reloading interval.

Since the Golden Cannon has a lower caliber than a field cannon, its ballistic trajectory is between that of a mortar and a cannon. Although its caliber is larger, its actual range is no farther than that of a field cannon.

Eight larger cannonballs flew along an arc trajectory.

But this time, before it even touched the ground, it actually exploded in the air.

Most of the shells that exploded were split into two halves. Except for a few unlucky ones, the killing effect was not even as good as the previous salvo of field artillery.

However, the moment these shells exploded, white smoke directly enveloped the Ming army in front of them.

"What is this?" The Ming Army gunsmith looked up inexplicably, but unexpectedly, a small amount of powder got into his eyes.

"Ah~ What on earth is this? It hurts!" The musketeers who had their eyes opened subconsciously rubbed it, only to find that their eyeballs were on fire.

The huge pain spread all over the body instantly. How could those musketeers withstand it? He immediately dropped the gun in his hand and started rolling on the ground.

"Lime, this is quicklime!" the knowledgeable man suddenly exclaimed, "I'm going to go blind!"

That's right, this time the golden cannon fired grenades filled with lime.

When the rebels attacked Tongguan, they discovered that putting lime in "flowering bombs" had miraculous effects. Later, some people thought about loading the lime-filled flowering bombs into golden cannons with lower chamber pressures and firing them.

The Ming army had long mastered the artifact "Trojan", which could be used as a baffle to reduce the impact of the bore pressure on the "flowering bullets". Therefore, the rebels quickly found a way to stuff the "flowering bullets" into the golden cannon. This method of shooting resulted in this salvo of "lime bombs".

"What a vicious thief!" Zhu Xieyuan was also experienced in military affairs. When he heard that the "thief" used lime bombs, he couldn't help but cursed.

For a fire gunner, strength is not important, nor is agility. As long as he can load and shoot, he can exert his maximum effectiveness.

As a result, his eye was injured now. No matter how sharp the fire gun in his hand is, what's the use?

"I ordered the soldiers to come forward with oil. Wash your hands and eyes quickly for the fire gun!" No matter which army has to eat, since there will be cooking oil when eating.

Oil is still a relatively valuable item in this era, but compared to fighting, these are not important.

It's just that the Ming army has more than 10,000 people and only has two or three military doctors. Even if dozens of soldiers are temporarily deployed, how can it help?

Not to mention how Zhu Xieyuan, the commander-in-chief of the Left Army, and Wang Shiren, the commander-in-chief of Datong, and others jumped into action, how could one have expected that the rebels would have more than just these tricks?

"Boom, boom, boom!" The rebel field artillery sounded again, but this time the target was the Ming army artillery that had already entered about 150 feet.

Since the Ming Army's artillery organization was completely different from that of the Rebel Army, the Ming Army's artillery team advancing this time had general artillery as the core, supplemented by prisoner-killing artillery and Franchise machines.

That is to say, even if there are five prisoner-killing cannons and sixteen French guns near a general cannon, the firepower density is extremely powerful.

Once the rebel cavalry attacks the Ming army's artillery, both the barbarian-killing artillery and the Franchise machine will be fired, and heavy losses will definitely occur. This is the "secret skill" of the Ming army's frontier army specifically against the Tartars, who are mainly cavalry.

However, this "secret skill" encountered the sharp artillery tactics of the rebels and met its nemesis.

Sun Chuanting stood on horseback and saw from a distance that two artillery shells hit the Ming army's artillery group, and several pieces of severed limbs flew up immediately.

"Under the rebel artillery, the Ming army's artillery was still too large and too dense!" Sun Chuanting shook his head and continued to order.

"Order the Golden Cannon to fire 'poisonous smoke bombs' at the Fire Gunman and order the Fei Biao Gun to move forward and prepare to shoot!"

Yes, in addition to the "lime bombs" invented by the rebels themselves, after research, the rebels also "resurrected" the "poison smoke bombs" that were almost eliminated by the regular Ming army.

Before the artillery of the Ming Army was largely replaced by "Hongyi-type" cannons, their respective mortars such as bowl-mouthed blunderbuss, thunderbolt cannons, and flying cannons often fired various "flying fires" containing arsenic, croton, sulfur, etc., "Poison smoke" type shells.

It's just that these artillery are dangerous to operate and have weak lethality. Soon after the introduction of the Hongyi artillery, they gradually faded out of the Ming army's equipment list, and only a large number of them remained in the city defenders and local militia groups and young men.

But it was not the case for the rebels. After Zhang Shun tasted the benefits of "flying cannons", he has always been fond of explosive shells.

Later, after careful consideration, he came up with the idea of ​​using the Feizhen cannon with less charge to train mortar gunners, and using large-caliber artillery such as the Golden Cannon and the Feibiao Gun to fire "standard explosive shells", so that the shells that had been "eliminated" could be used The old trees are blooming.

The Rebel Army's new "Poison Smoke Bomb" is based on the Ming Army's "Poison Mist Smoke Cannon". It removes other messy properties, adds a spicy and irritating formula, and specializes in the "poison smoke" property.

This object is different from the lime bombs that need to bloom at a height above the enemy's head. Even if it explodes and burns after landing, it can still cause great trouble to the enemy.

Therefore, once it appeared, it was very popular among mortar gunners.

Sure enough, when the golden cannon shooters heard the gunner's order, they couldn't help but feel happy, and they all said: "This time, leave the fuse a little longer, and prepare to launch the 'poison smoke bomb'."

Why?

It turns out that the lime splashes downward, but the poisonous smoke rises upward, so the fuse of the lime bomb is slightly longer than that of the poisonous smoke bomb.

Since the quality of the fuse cannot remain stable in this era, once it burns too fast, it is likely to explode at the muzzle or even in the barrel.

If the fuse burns slowly and the lime bomb blooms after it hits the ground, the damage caused will be almost negligible.

This is not the case with poisonous smoke bombs. The lead can be left with a certain margin.

Even if it explodes in the air, the burning material that produces poisonous smoke can still burn for a period of time, and it can still continue to smoke the enemy after landing.

Sure enough, as soon as Sun Chuanting's military order was issued, eight poisonous smoke bombs flew up and then exploded in the Ming army's gun array, releasing thick and pungent billowing smoke.

"Superintendent, it's no longer possible. Our artillerymen can't continue to advance, otherwise they will be violently attacked by the thieves!" Wang Shiren, the commander-in-chief of Datong, watched for a long time and couldn't help but comment.

Zhu Xieyuan frowned, but he actually realized the seriousness of the matter.

In fact, the actual damage caused by these rounds of shelling is not that great. The key is that the capabilities displayed by the "thieves" are worrying.

Lime bombs and poison smoke bombs showed the lethality of "thieves" against soldiers arrayed at long distances.

The solid bullets fired into the Ming army's artillery positions showed the precise lethality of the "thief"'s long-range shooting.

If the Ming army's artillery continues to advance, I am afraid that after suffering the next few rounds of shooting, the Ming army will not suffer the current losses.

"People often say that 'the artillery of obedient thieves is the most poisonous and powerful', but now we know it!" Zhu Xieyuan, the left governor, couldn't help but look up to the sky and sighed, and ordered.

"The artillery team set up the artillery on the spot and fired, the gunners continued to advance forward, the cavalry guard left and right, and the killer team prepared to attack."

"Since there are no tricks, we can only do this head-on!"

Wang Shiren, the commander-in-chief of Datong, his face darkened when he heard this, and he knew in his heart that this time, although the Ming army was outnumbered, it was actually at a disadvantage.

In the art of military use, there are thousands of chapters and thousands of sentences that aim at causing others but not harming them.

The Ming army fought against the "thieves" several times, but was unable to achieve its goals and had to confront the enemy head-on.

Before even engaging in the battle, he had already lost half the battle!