Nanming Engineer

Chapter 411
Cao Zhenyan buried his head so low that he couldn't see his head when looking over the front fender of the shield car. The fender of the shield car was reinforced, made of pine wood five inches thick, covered with A layer of cowhide soaked in water, even so, Cao Zhenyan was still worried, and added an iron plate looted from a blacksmith shop in an unknown village to the inner layer of the guard.

In this way, theoretically speaking, it is impossible for this shield car to be pierced by bullets and arrows. The distance is not as close as several feet, and the people hiding behind are safe, even if the bed crossbow It is also impossible to break through it.

But Cao Zhenyan was still very nervous. He was hanging like he was on the execution ground and couldn't fall to the ground. He was actually not afraid of death, but he was too aggrieved to be beaten to death by the cannon from a distance.

The scene of the big iron bomb that surged past just now, flying past and hitting the Mongolian cavalry group, has already planted roots in his heart. He knows very well that even if the shield car in his hand is replaced with iron, it cannot resist the shells bombardment.

"Speed ​​up! Faster, faster!" Cao Zhenyan roared, pushing the backs of the soldiers in front with his shoulders, helping the shield vehicle to move faster: "The cannon can't hit the moving target, the faster the chance of survival is, Great! If you don’t want to die here, hurry up!”

The soldiers mustered all their strength and pushed with all their strength. They also knew that as long as they were fast enough and got close before the shells missed them, they could survive.

In the distance, on the artillery formations on the two wings of the Ming army, several small red flags have been raised. Everyone understands that this is a precursor to firing, so the strength in their hands is a little bit stronger, pushing the shield car like flying as fast.

On the side of the Kuizhou army, Yan Mingde's eyes flashed a cold light, and he used crossfire to shoot at the moving target. The killing effect of the gun is maximized, which is an extremely test of the experience of the aimer.

"I wonder when the adults in the Hanzhong War Bureau will be able to trial-produce the explosive shells for the Shenwei Cannon. The cannons can be made, so the shells shouldn't be a big problem, right? After all, the Marquis has even drawn the sketches." Yan Mingde He muttered in a voice that he could only hear, and then slammed down his raised right hand, and the red flag tightly held in his hand fell down.

All preparations before firing were in place. Except for Yan Mingde and the gunner who fired the gun, everyone else stood several feet behind. This was the rule of the Kuizhou Army artillery team.

The igniter ignited the fuse with an iron rod, then stepped back immediately, inserted the iron rod into the ground, and covered his ears tightly with both hands.

Yan Mingde did the same. Although cotton was stuffed in his ears, it was not enough. Covering it with his hands could also reduce some damage to the eardrum.

The red flags fell one by one, and the first gunfire shook the sky.

boom!
The fired cannonball brought up smoke soaring into the sky, as if a thunder had exploded on the ground. The Thunder God threw the iron bullet in his hand, turning into a black shadow, screaming across the sky, and flew quickly into the wilderness. A group of shield vehicles approaching.

Boom boom boom!
Thunder exploded one after another, crossing and shooting forward from the two wings of the Ming army. From a distance, the trajectory of the iron bullets was like two sharp branches of a pair of scissors, stabbing fiercely at the shield car like a wooden wall , when approached, two streams of iron bullets converged and flew past, as if an invisible big hand had pulled down the scissors forcefully and clamped them together.

The iron bullets are so dense that some people worry that they will collide with each other in the air, but this situation did not happen after all. Every iron bullet staggered, and then hit the shield vehicles with a loud bang. Make a gap one by one.

Sawdust flew and blood spattered everywhere.

The shield chariot made of rough wood was like mud, and it seemed to have stepped on a landmine. It was torn apart and flew in all directions with the sound of "cracking". The iron bullets easily broke through the barrier formed by the wooden planks and thick animal skins. , tearing them into pieces, and then unrelentingly hit a human body hiding behind.

The Han soldiers all prayed secretly in their hearts, praying that the shells would not hit from their own route, but the horizontal row of shield vehicles was very obvious, with so many iron bullets, it was difficult not to hit them.

As a result, dozens of gaps appeared on the front of the shield vehicles advancing like a city wall. Accompanied by people's screams and cries of pain before death, internal organs and flesh and blood were flying in them. There were dozens of people hiding behind each shield vehicle. Due to the limitation of the width of the shield car, they marched in a row of four or five people with their waists hunched over. Those in front could still scream in surprise before they passed through the lookout on the shield car and turned into scattered limbs. , The people in the back row were beaten to ashes without seeing or knowing anything.

An iron bullet hit Cao Zhenyan from the left hand side, and the strong wind that passed by even scratched his face, turning the shield car on his left into a mass of wood fragments, creating a path of blood, and then Jumping forward, he knocked down several people behind a shield car on the left.

The wood of the shield car on the left was torn apart, a piece of wood thick as an arm flew over, and its sharp cut pierced into the head of a soldier in front of Cao Zhenyan. The soldier fell limply on Cao Zhenyan's chest without even groaning.

The spurted blood splashed Lao Gao from the soldier's head, sprayed Cao Zhenyan all over, and dyed his yellow armor with red borders into blood red.

Cao Zhenyan pushed the corpse aside, wiped the blood from his face, and shouted loudly with red eyes: "Keep pushing! Keep going! Don't stop! Whoever stops, I'll behead him!"

He took a step forward, took over the position of the dead soldier, pressed his shoulder against the shaft of the shield car, roared like a beast, and suddenly accelerated the speed of the shield car.

A wave of shelling crippled dozens of shield vehicles, turning them into piles of rotten wood scattered on the impact line. Corpses and flesh on the ground were scattered for a long distance behind, while the ferocious iron bullets continued. After bouncing around for a while, Fang Cai fell to the ground exhausted and stopped moving.

The surviving shield chariot seemed to be going crazy and moved a little faster. The threat of death made the Qing soldiers pushing the chariot work harder. No one knows when the next wave of shelling will come, as long as they can get close to the Ming army before this , can use the long knife and halberd in his hand to severely teach this group of cowards who can only shoot far.

The distance of five miles is only about two thousand steps. The land is flat, and the field that has been plowed for a long time in spring is not very soft. Although the shield cart is bumped, it is not very laborious. The Qing soldiers worked together and shouted to kill. keep getting closer.

After the stone ridge was closed, Wang Huan watched all this indifferently. Behind him, Ma Wannian and other personal guards cheered for the power of the cannon, but he frowned slightly.

"There was no stopping, no hesitation, no one even flinched. Is this still the Han army? They were a weak Ming army before." Wang Huan shook his head and sighed softly: "If they were the Ming army back then, they would be where they are today. Half as brave as Ming Dynasty, how can it be like this!"

(End of this chapter)