Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 2993 The process determines the future

  Before the appearance of artillery, siege warfare gave the defender an advantage, and it was a huge advantage.

  Siege strategies are roughly divided into four types: storm, siege, lure, and attack.

  In the early days of the Chinese feudal dynasty, or even in ancient times, the army often hoped to directly destroy the city gates to achieve the purpose of attacking the enemy's city. It's just that during this period, due to the underdeveloped siege equipment and extremely backward siege tactics, there were very few successful battles by storm. Therefore, the emphasis in "Sun Tzu's Art of War" that "if you attack a city, you will be defeated" and "if you attack a city, the method of attacking a city is a last resort", which largely reflects this problem.

  According to historical documents, sometimes even if the attacking party has more than ten times the force of the defending party, they have to besiege the city for a long time, and finally defeat the opponent by eating, drinking, shit, and fart. Therefore, those who take advantage of the opponent's city are often publicized, such as Trojan horses, secret passages, digging a river, etc...

  But once the artillery was born, the gap between the offensive and defensive sides was narrowed.

   There is almost no need to emphasize this. After everyone has seen the artillery, they must understand this.

  The era of city walls collapsed after the emergence of artillery, just like feudal barriers, and will eventually disappear in the long river of history, submerged by the development of science and technology and become a piece of broken rubble at the bottom of the river.

  The soldiers under his command were making final preparations before the battle, and Tai Shici was not idle. He confirmed the specific steps to capture the royal city with several military lords. After saving the loss of the clinging attack, everyone is full of confidence in the battle directly into the king's city, so Tai Shici said that not only will the attack be captured, but also be fought well, smoothly and beautifully.

  If the artillery unit successfully opened the gap, and the follow-up infantry and cavalry were hit by bumps and bumps, they fell into street fighting and couldn't extricate themselves, wouldn't it be a slap in the face of their own face?

Based on the limited information gathered from the captured horse thieves, Tai Shici roughly divided the structure of the Muni City into three parts. One is naturally the core area of ​​the imperial palace, the other is the hoarding area of ​​commercial warehouses, and the last is the royal city. Residential quarters and so on. The importance is also arranged from front to back.

   But if you want to eat these three parts in a relatively complete way, of course you need a certain arrangement.

   It is not impossible to rush in with a swarm of swarms, but it may cause confusion in command. At that time, the jurisdiction of the area is unclear, the division is not clear enough, and it will be ugly to fish in troubled waters.

   Even if you control the pawns, you may not be able to control the local situation.

  After all, if the assignment of responsibilities is not clear, there may be a state of two or three, so how can it be called clean?

   If you want to fight, you must set a benchmark!

   Not only to reassure General Fei Qian of the Hussars, but also to set a benchmark for all the states in the Western Regions, so that they can all take a good look at it!

Therefore, Tai Shici divided the army into three parts, each with its own responsibilities, one part was to directly raid the city gates along the streets, and it was necessary to close all the city gates in a short time, so that the various areas of the Mud City could be divided for convenience. The surrounding soldiers and horses entered the city as quickly as possible to control all parts of the city.

  The second part is to surround the palace of the king city and clear the remaining enemy soldiers and horses on the streets at the same time.

  The third part is to occupy the storage area and close the residents' neighborhoods. At the same time, the troops of the three parts have their own main coverage areas, some overlap with each other, and some operate independently.

  Tai Shici will act as the core, dispatch and coordinate at the center, and any undecided must be reported in time. Tai Shici's requirements for all departments are to be brave and swift, not to disperse troops in secondary places, to focus on core tasks, and not to loot without authorization.

  Of course, these plans are all based on the artillery directly blasting through the city gates and walls. And for everyone including Tai Shici, after seeing the power of the artillery, they have full confidence in this.

  When Tai Shici and several military lords determined the order of entering the city, high-pitched shouts sounded from the artillery position in front, followed by continuous roars, which suppressed the voices again!

  In the artillery position, there was a deafening sound, and thick blue-gray, blue-white smoke diffused, covering the long front.

  In order to prevent the artillery from affecting each other in case of any problems, the artillery positions are almost side by side, occupying the front of the entire battlefield.

Amidst the roar, the artillery slammed back violently, and immediately the shells roared out of the muzzle and hit the muddy city wall, smashing the city wall near the city gate into dust, and there were big pieces of bricks and broken soil. The falling of the sky raised smoke and dust all over the sky!

  Even though there had been a martial arts performance before, such dense and loud sounds still made the horses in the rear row and on the periphery neigh, shake their heads, stomp their feet, and snort.

   The God of War, when he first set foot on the battlefield, showed an incomparably powerful force.

  The gunners of each gun immediately cleaned the gun bore with a stick wrapped in a wet wool felt blanket after firing. The dipped water should not be too much, otherwise it will soak the gunpowder for the next firing, but it should not be too dry, then the gunpowder residue that has not been completely burned will be deposited in the gun bore, which will affect the firing efficiency of the next artillery.

  The sound of water vapor evaporating came from the high-heat barrel, and the white smoke enveloped the soldiers faintly.

After the gunner quickly cleaned the barrel, after waiting for a while, seeing that the water at the mouth of the barrel was about to dry up, it was the loader who filled the gunpowder pack into the barrel again, while another gunner covered it with a half-wet cloth It is above the fire door to prevent the torch or any kindling object from accidentally falling into the fire door and ignite the gunpowder in advance.

   After the charge hand, it is the task of the charge hand.

  Two people hold the round iron bullet, lift it up, and fill it into the muzzle. After loading, a third person is required to hold a special egg press...well, it is a long rod with a top surface to press the iron bullet onto the gunpowder.

   So far, the pre-launch preparations have been completed.

  As for the minor adjustments of the secondary launch, the modification of the target trajectory, at this moment, it does not exist yet...

  Even such a simple step will often make mistakes at the beginning, but those who make mistakes will often not make mistakes next time, because most mistakes are fatal.

  The next round of shelling soon roared out again.

  The smog that filled the battlefield, layer by layer, spread out.

Although gunpowder is already the third or fourth generation formula, the purification work and granule packaging are gradually being carried out, just like the gunpowder of this time, the quantity is determined in advance, and then the special powder is used Bamboo paper is used for packaging, so as to avoid the situation of being nervous when loading gunpowder, filling too little or too much.

  The burning of the black powder brought out a strong sulphurized atmosphere, as if a gap had opened in hell, and the smell of death was diffused.

The old monk Busen in the rear array was completely in a state of sluggishness. He was trembling all over his body, like a dehydrated fish, and his mouth was unconsciously drooling, tick-tock He landed on the ground, his eyes were dull and lifeless...

   Layers of gunpowder smoke filled Busen's sight, and his mouth and nose were filled with a strong smell of sulfide, making Busen almost think he had fallen into hell.

"devil! the devil! ”Bu Sen shouted heart-piercingly, tears streaming down his face. Although he didn't see the situation of Mud City on the opposite side of the gunpowder, he could already imagine...

  When the new era comes, all the old things, no matter how brilliant and gorgeous they were before, will be as humble as an ant.

  扜The sound of bricks and stones collapsing and collapsing continuously came from up and down the mud city, mixed with many screams and panic. In front of the artillery, the self-proclaimed strong and solid city wall is like a layer of eggshells. In the face of gunpowder, personal bravery is suppressed. When smokeless gunpowder is born and rapid-fire weapons appear, personal force will be completely worthless.

  After three rounds, the artillery position fell silent.

  In order to prolong the life of the artillery, after three rounds, it will stop and wait for cooling. Although on the surface it does not seem that there are any major changes, in fact, because of the metallurgical technology, the alloy technology is not up to the standard, whether it is bronze or black iron used in the artillery, it will produce slight deformation after continuous firing. In the area behind the bore, the explosively burning powder acts not only on the shell, but also on the bore.

  Continuous firing will cause the original pouring or forging gap in the gun bore to expand, increase metal stress, and shorten the life of the gun.

   Simply put, it costs money.

At present, within an hour, the artillery can fire six to nine times. After three consecutive shots, it needs to wait for the gun body to cool down. Even so, the life of the artillery is very short, and it can only guarantee a hundred times. The first launch is safe, and the chamber may explode at any time afterwards. Therefore, the use of artillery is basically limited to a hundred shots before it needs to be scrapped.

  Scrapped artillery cannot be melted down and reused to be poured into artillery again. Because with the current metallurgical technology, there is no way to completely remove sulfide carbide and other impurities from the metal, and it can only be used as a secondary demand, such as making agricultural tools or something...

  Therefore, these cannons are not only used as a sharp weapon for siege, but also the raw materials for copper and iron farm tools for the subsequent development of the Western Regions. It can be regarded as barely killing two birds with one stone.

   While waiting for cooling, the smoke slowly dissipated.

  The devastated Junicheng is like a man and woman who indulged too much and stayed up all night. Their robes were torn off, revealing a broken face and body, completely without the gorgeous appearance before.

  The yellow rammed earth city wall has almost no immunity to shells. Under the artillery fire, many cracks are almost visible to the naked eye, like land that has been dry for a long time, and the black cracks are bottomless. The battlements on the city wall are also somewhat incomplete. I don't know if they were knocked down or knocked down...

Tong Geluojia, the king of Shanshan who was originally on the city wall, has long since disappeared, and the remaining soldiers of Shanshan are like walking corpses, moving almost instinctively, as if they are still proving to themselves and others that they are still alive …

   Half a quarter of an hour later, the artillery roared again.

  The morale of the Shanshan defenders on the front wall has dropped to freezing point under the sound of the artillery again.

Tai Shici couldn't help but look back. As a top-notch military general, he has a deeper understanding of the horror of artillery than ordinary soldiers. Fortunately, the firing rate of artillery is slow, and the firing is cumbersome, and the cost is not small. if not…

  Thinking about it, Tai Shici couldn't help but shuddered, and felt a chill down his back, but soon he was glad that he was now on the side with the artillery. Then I thought of what Huqi said before, the big man must always be ahead, at least 30 years beyond the surrounding area, whether it is military force, or civilization and culture. At first, Tai Shici was still ignorant and did not have a clear cognition, but all this before him made Tai Shici completely understand the meaning of the word "leading".

   Meaning written in blood and iron.

  Among the artillery fire, the city gate that was the focus of attention was not blasted. Instead, a section of the city wall near the city gate collapsed with a tooth-piercing sound, revealing a big gap!

  『Order! ”Tai Shici shouted in a deep voice, “Attack! 』

  In the wilderness, the war drum roared, as if taking over the loud voice of the artillery, and began to sing the next song Xintianyou from Dahan Pass.

  According to the original plan, all the arrays moved, crossed the artillery line, and approached the mud city.

  The resistance on the muddy wall that was bombarded in the front was almost equal to zero.

Because the respective tasks have been assigned and confirmed in advance, the soldiers under the hussars basically did not stop at all, not even blocking or colliding with each other, just like flowing water, flowing from a distance They came here, and then naturally merged together, mixed into the smoke and dust, as if they were here originally, and have always been here.

The formation of the first team rushed to the gap in the city wall smoothly, and erected simple ladders. In some places, even ladders were not used, because the collapsed bricks and broken soil had already paved a path that was not so steep. corridor. The commanding military academy in the front row ordered loudly, and immediately the vertical array was divided into two teams, and then divided into combat teams. Quickly climb up the wall.

   When these soldiers had climbed to the city wall, it seemed that the Shanshan soldiers reacted in panic and confusion, shaking their heads and bodies, and rushed forward in a scattered manner.

   I have to say that under such circumstances, those who can still maintain their fighting spirit may be regarded as very good warriors...

   It's a pity, that's all.

  Whether it is morale, equipment, or even formations, they all lag behind the soldiers of the hussars. Even if these Shanshan warriors mustered their remaining courage to resist, how much effect would they have?

The hussars cooperated smoothly. When the first column climbed into the city, the second column waited below the city, and when the second column climbed up, Li Long was in the third column, standing in the city. The following team.

   When Li Long led his men up, the Shanshan soldiers in other directions of Muni City tried to come to block the gap in the city wall.

   Unfortunately, it was too late.

If it is said that the array can be established at the first time, and then attack and suppress the fragile link of the hussar pawns climbing with more attacks and less, it may be possible to persist for a while, but when the hussar pawns have climbed up After the two queues were deployed left and right, even if these Shanshan soldiers reorganized the array, it would not have much effect.

The hussars moved forward while fighting, and when they occupied a certain amount of the city wall, they began to build positions, and the follow-up soldiers either supplemented the left line, supported the right side, or advanced towards Li Long according to the plan. Follow up the direction, the direction is clear, there is no hesitation, no delay, no confusion and congestion.

However, the soldiers in Shanshan King City didn't know what they were going to do at all. Hearing this person shouting for support for a while, and hearing another person shouting for being broken by the Han people for a while, it felt like he was in a trap. In the heavy siege of the Han people, there are loopholes everywhere, and there is no way to guard against it.

  Li Long led the people and ran straight along the street. Their purpose is very simple, that is, to grab the gate of the city before the opponent can react, then open the gate, and then stay on duty. As for other things, it has nothing to do with him!

   After rushing forward for a certain distance, the smoke and dust gradually thinned.

  A group of Shanshan people rushed forward, the team leader in front gave orders loudly, and immediately there were soldiers with crossbows standing still, holding the crossbow arrows and shooting them face to face without saying a word!

   The Shanshan soldiers who rushed to the front were shot to the ground on the spot, some died directly, and some rolled on the ground screaming.

The Shanshan soldiers who rushed behind were either startled by the death in front of them, and their movements were deformed, or they had to dodge because they wanted to avoid their compatriots rolling on the ground and screaming. The queue is bad.

Li Long and the others did not stop at all. After the crossbowmen finished shooting, they stepped aside and continued to load new crossbow bolts, while the soldiers with shields and guns rushed forward to cover each other. He defeated and killed all the Shanshan people in the chaotic queue, and opened up the way to move forward.

"continue! keep going! Don't stay! 』

  Li Long roared loudly, "Leave the enemy behind to the people behind!" 』

  This kind of tactics is completely incredible in the eyes of Shanshan people. They don't even know whether they should chase the previous team or face the next team that is coming.

  In fact, this method of warfare is an infantry strategy evolved from cavalry tactics.

  After all, when the cavalry is confronting each other, there is no way to say that it is like a TV movie. In the huge army column, a wide area is specially opened up, so that the protagonists and supporting roles can fight each other, and the others need to applaud on one side.

Most of the time, cavalry hedges, and there is only one chance to fight. No matter whether you can kill the opponent or not, you must face the next opponent immediately. In the next battle, Li Long and the others, who are used to cavalry tactics, will naturally cooperate with each other tacitly now, like a sharp knife, piercing straight into the belly of Mud City...

  (end of this chapter)