Nanming Engineer

Chapter 425 Gunpowder
The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the city wall of Datong, reflecting this ancient city that has gone through hundreds of years of war in a bloody light. The densely packed potholes on the wall bricks are like ghost eyes hiding in the dark in the light and shadow. , silently staring at the barren land in front of him.

Wisps of green smoke rise, which are the afterglow left by the daytime siege. The skeleton of the shield car that was destroyed by the artillery is still standing there. Some green and yellow flames are still burning, and they are about to be extinguished. The corpses are lying on the ground. Holding the tattered shield in his hand, the soldier kept facing the city wall, his face was covered by the mud, and his expression before he died could not be seen.

The siege of the city, which seemed to be a routine, ended when it was getting late. The Qing army retreated like an ebb tide and slowly disappeared into the twilight, taking away some lives on the city wall and leaving some lives behind.

People both in and out of the city breathed a sigh of relief. Another day has passed, what will happen tomorrow?
Nobody thinks about it.

Jiang Yu stood in armor behind the crenel at the top of the city, and pressed his hands on the stone crenel. The crenel was riddled with arrow marks, and a piece of the corner was broken off. It should have been knocked off by an iron bullet, so he pressed his hand there, It was as if he was pressing a throbbing part deep in his chest.

The military flag with several holes on his head was fluttering. His eyes were looking into the distance, his gaze was deep, but there was also a hint of long-lost awe. He had been guarding the city for nearly half a year and had long been accustomed to death in blood and fire. The fear of anyone in the city was In fact, their hearts have long been numb, and nothing can surprise them. They fight every day just to survive for a few more days, but trapped in an isolated city, what is the actual difference between life and death?

Jiang Yan supervises the battle at the top of the city every day. He will appear wherever the most urgent situation is. During the gap after the war, he should stay below the city and seize the time before dinner to discuss the next day's response with his generals and check where the city walls are. There's danger again, and all that, and he's busy.

But he was here, looking at the mountains a few miles away, separated by three layers of ditches and wooden fences, where there was a camp of the Qing army.

The fluttering flags have been erected there for many days. White, red, yellow, blue and the above colors with red edges are fluttering in the wind. They are erected very high like a show off, and the flags are very big. Even though it was extremely far away and it was almost dusk, Jiang Yu could still be seen.

At this time, there was an extra color in the formation of flags. It was a bright yellow flag, which was a head taller than the other flags, and it was also bigger, making it stand out from the crowd.

"Dorgon...here it is again." The muscles on Jiang Tuan's face twitched, causing a scar at the corner of his mouth, and he blinked his eyes in pain, and then became gloomy again: "Are you going to work hard?" ?”

He smashed his fist on the stone, and the skin on his hand felt a solid coolness and hardness, which made his eyes change color, and then became a little melancholy.

Under the big banner in the distance, before nightfall, fires were already lit in the Qing camp. Teams of capable guards and warriors surrounded a large area of ​​the ground, prohibiting anyone from approaching, piercing guns The blade shone with a cold light, which was extremely dazzling under the reflection of the fire, so that people's eyes dared not look directly at it.

There were several fires, and a group of people were sitting in the firelight all around, and a man was kneeling in front of them.

This man's hands were bound, his face was ashen, and on the top of his hairless head, large beads of sweat dripped down. His strong body was restrained like a weak chicken, and the sweat flowed down his forehead and would hang by his ears. The two small braids of her hair got wet, and then flowed drop by drop to the ground, moistening the soil under her body.

Nikan, Prince of Jingjin County of the Qing Dynasty, faced the ground, not even having the strength to raise his head. He lowered his head, said nothing, half-closed his eyes as if dead, and listened quietly to the roar not far away.

"You goddamn slave, ten thousand warriors, ten thousand warriors! That's the wealth accumulated by Taizu over the years, and you lost it all in one battle! How many Niulu and Jiala are you? One battle and one defeat! One battle and one defeat!!!" Dorgon roared, and the sound waves could break through wooden walls hundreds of meters away. If the sound could kill, Nikan would have been killed countless times.

"Bo Luo died on the battlefield, which is considered decent. Although he is incompetent, at least he knows that he dare not survive. It's good that you slave, you dare to come back! Are you really not afraid of my Qing Dynasty's military law?"

After scolding for a while, he was still not relieved, picked up the leather whip on the ground, and ran over in a few strides, lashing at Nikan, and the shadow of the whip fell on Nikan like raindrops. , The crackling sound is palpitating.

Nikan gritted his teeth and lowered his head to bear it without making a sound.

The dignitaries sitting on the horses on both sides had no expression on their faces and no one made a sound. Nikan returned home without a feather, defeating [-] Banner soldiers and tens of thousands of Han and Mongolian troops. He came out.

The few Han generals sitting at the bottom, with a bit of paleness in their dignified faces, were obviously extremely afraid of this kind of public whipping of a prince.

Even if the prince is like this, if he is the one who fails, what will happen to him...

"Oh!"

The handle of the whip could not be used like this, and it broke into two pieces after a vigorous swing. Dorgon paused in his furious movements, and then smashed the remaining wooden handle in his hand onto Nikan's bloody head.

He yelled in his mouth: "Drag it on, look! Wait until this dog is wiped out, and then ask him about his crime!"

Someone ran up to him and held Nikan down, who seemed to have lost his will but was still kneeling.

Dorgon's face was so gloomy that he could have a hailstorm. He strode back to his seat, flipped up his robe, sat down, and looked at the direction Nikan was being dragged away with cold eyes, as cold as a sharp knife, as if he was about to Cut him alive across the space.

After he took a few deep breaths, Azig, who was sitting beside him, turned his head and said solemnly: "Nikan came back, but he said something about the Minggou team at Shiling Pass."

"This king knows, isn't it Wang Huan?" Dorgon snorted: "Meng Qiaofang mentioned it the year before last, and I heard that there are some famous tricks and sharp firearms?"

"It is very sharp, and Nikan was defeated by Ming Gou's firearm. Its cannon can shoot for about ten miles, and it is like a thunderbolt, and all who hit it are destroyed; there is also a tiger squatting cannon as big as a millstone, which does not shoot loose iron pellets, but Gunpowder packets can shake dozens of feet in radius after landing. Within the explosion range, the internal organs of men and horses burst to death. There are even more firearms such as birds and rockets. If they are fired in a salvo, they can sound like a sudden thunderstorm. Everyone is frightened." Azig said slowly, while looking at Dorgon's face with his peripheral vision.

Dorgon's face slowly changed from flushed with rage to normal. The hero, after all, is not a hot-headed reckless man. He just aroused the anger in his heart because of Nikan's incompetence. After venting a little, he immediately recovered. True color, after Azig finished speaking in just a few words, Dorgon was already sitting upright, entering the state of discussing affairs in the army.

"Has it been confirmed?" he asked.

Azige nodded, reached out and took out a bamboo tube from his side, handed it to Dorgon, and said: "This is one of the firearms that I snatched from the battlefield at that time. There are two in total. We tried to blow up one. It is indeed amazingly powerful, we have questioned the defeated soldiers separately, what Nikan said is the truth."

Dorgon took the bamboo tube, looked at it suspiciously, then turned it over to look at the bottom, narrowed his eyes seriously and stared at the small hole on the top for a while, then looked at Azig again.

Azige understood the meaning in Dorgon's eyes, and immediately explained: "The bamboo tube itself is not terrible, what is terrible is the gunpowder inside."

He took out another paper bag, opened it carefully, and spread it on the ground in front of Dorgon. Inside the paper bag was a handful of black powder.

"Our craftsmen have never seen this kind of gunpowder. When it blows up, it will destroy the world. It is hundreds of times stronger than the usual gunpowder. There are five ounces of gunpowder in the bamboo tube. With iron nails and gravel, it can kill or injure a hundred people." Azig said, although his tone was calm, there was a slight trembling that was faintly visible.

Dorgon's eyes narrowed, becoming serious and cold.

(End of this chapter)