Luo Zhixue has always attached great importance to artillery. He firmly believed that artillery is an indispensable part of contemporary wars and an important weapon to change the war mode.

In the face of powerful artillery, many tactics that can be used in the era of traditional cold weapons and have very good results will no longer be applicable.

The mode of war will continue to change as the artillery continues to mature.

In contemporary times, this change has taken shape. In Shaanxi, the war between the Ming army and the rebel army in the Central Plains may not be obvious, but in the war between the Ming army and the Eastern Abduct in Jiliao, artillery has gradually become the protagonists of the war.

The Ming army relied on a large number of artillery to defend the city and conduct defensive operations, and this tactic was actually successful. This made the Ming army, which had low field capabilities and even lost the courage to fight with the East, could rely on artillery and strong cities to fight stubbornly, and this stubborn resistance continued until the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

The reason why Dongqi was able to enter the pass was not because the Dongqi was so powerful that he directly conquered Shanhaiguan, but because Wu Sangui chose to surrender to Dongqi to deal with Li Zicheng under various factors.

Dongkai was invited by Wu Sangui into the pass.

Similarly, Dongji was actively developing artillery, and after installing the Red Armored Cannon on a new two-wheeled cannon, it was directly used in field battles and played an important role in the Battle of Songjin. At the same time, Dongji had always tried to use artillery to attack the city, but to be honest, the effect was not good.

In the era when there were no flower bullets, the solid shells fired by smoothbore guns in front were actually of limited use for the eastern city walls, especially the walls of big cities.

Because the walls of the Eastern City seem to be made of bricks and stones, but in fact the inner layer is covered with rammed earth, and the outer layer is just bricks. What are the characteristics of this kind of city wall? What are the cheaper ones? It has no meaning to artillery.

What is really important is that this kind of wall is very thick!

The thickness of the bottom of the wall of a big city can often reach more than ten meters or even thicker, while the thickness of the top of the wall is often seven or eight meters or even ten meters.

With the smoothbore gun level of this thickness, it is basically impossible to collapse in the city walls these days. If they are to die, they will leave a pit inside...

If you take a step back, even if it collapses, the city wall will not disappear out of thin air, but will become a collapsed ruins and hills, which still have good defensive effects.

Not to mention the smoothbore guns from the 17th century, even the conventional field guns from World War I and World War II could not destroy these city walls. No matter how you attack, the mud and bricks that formed the city walls were there, but they would not disappear just because of a few shells coming. At most, they would change their external form.

Of course, the field artillery in later generations fired grenades, which focused on shrapnel killing and shock wave killing. The inability to destroy grenades does not mean that they cannot kill soldiers who conduct defensive operations on the garrison city wall.

When all the soldiers who were defending and fighting were dead, the city wall naturally lost its function. In defense of artillery, traditional city walls were far less effective than trenches. This is also why the East directly abandoned the city walls in later generations. It is not because the artillery technology can directly destroy the city walls, but because the city walls can no longer bear the heavy responsibility of protecting soldiers.

This is still the situation during World War I and World War II. In the seventeenth century, artillery fire did not have any flower bullets, only solid shells and shotguns.

This means that the best way to exert the performance of contemporary artillery is to fire at the dense array of enemies.

This is also because Dongkai likes to pull artillery on the battlefield for field battles, and it is also because the Ming army likes to deploy artillery on the city walls to defend the city.

Because the cannons have too strong killing against the living forces of dense arrays.

The same is true for Luo Zhixue. Before, he only knew that artillery was a good thing, but if you say that he knew why artillery was easy to use, and even how to use it specifically, he didn't have an accurate concept in his mind.

It was not until the two Battles of Songshan that Luo Zhixue could have figured out the elites who used artillery.

That is to fire at the dense array of enemies!

The previous two hundred kilograms of artillery and the captured one hundred kilograms were able to play a huge role in the Battle of Songshan. Luo Zhixue did not doubt the huge tactical role of the new two six hundred kilograms.

In order to successfully transport these two already-built artillery from Sanshui Village to Songshan Front, Baoxiang Camp directly mobilized dozens of people.

Instead of dragging the horse, it was directly used to resist people. A group of strong men, like carrying sedan chairs, worked together to carry the split gun barrels and the gun mounts with iron as the main structure.

It took seven or eight days to reach Songshan Village after climbing mountains and wading along the roads that were simply impossible to pass the carriage.

The difficulty of transporting these two artillery once again strengthened Luo Zhixue's choice to relocate the weapon workshop from Sanshui Village to Songshan Village.

The roads entering and leaving Sanshui Village are too difficult to walk, so it’s okay to have trouble transporting materials, but the artillery cannot be transferred under normal conditions.

So after Song Blacksmith and his friends arrived in Songshan Village with these two cannons, Luo Zhixue found Song Blacksmith: "The iron smelting furnace in Songshan Village has been built. Later, Master Song, you will continue to build weapons here, and you don't have to go back to Sanshui Village."

After hearing this, Song Blacksmith also showed joy: "This relationship is good. These are close to Songshan. If the cannon is built later, it will not be troublesome. You can directly pull Songshan down and use it."

When Song Blacksmith said this, he also thought that he might have a chance to escape from these thieves after coming to Songshan Village.

Although Songshan Village is considered to be the hinterland of Funiu Mountain, you can contact the outside world after crossing Songshan, which can also obtain more materials from the outside world.

While this material transportation is more convenient, it also means that Song Blacksmith can take his family out of the mountains more easily.

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Although Song Blacksmith tried his best to help Luo Zhixue and others build guns and cannons during this period, he was very active.

But Song Blacksmith will not forget that Luo Zhixue and others were a group of thieves who forcibly captured his family from Lushan County to Funiu Mountain.

After arriving in Sanshui Village, he also realized the reality. In order to ensure the lives of the whole family, Song Blacksmith did his best and built guns and cannons for these thieves without any hiding their own personalities.

But if he had the chance, he would still have to take his family away.

You can't just think of yourself as a thief after you get to the thief's den.

Luo Zhixue actually didn't care much about Song Blacksmith's ideas, because now Song Blacksmith's family is not the only one who can build guns and cannons in the weapons workshop.

In the past few months, Luo Zhixue has sent many clever people to follow Song Blacksmith and his son to become apprentices.

Song Blacksmith didn't even have the chance to hide his own private life, and he didn't dare, because Luo Zhixue had said before that after building the first batch of guns and cannons, at least one apprentice must master the complete cannon making technology, and one apprentice must master the complete cannon making technology.

If even an apprentice has not mastered the relevant technology in a few months, Luo Zhixue will determine that Song Blacksmith and his son have kept their own personal information and did not teach them carefully, and the board will hit Song Blacksmith's butt.

Luo Zhixue didn't say it very clearly at that time, but Song Blacksmith was not a fool, so he naturally realized the threat, so he was still more attentive when teaching.

In this way, one person has already mastered the entire artillery making process among the apprentices led by Song Blacksmith, and two others have mastered the artillery making process.

In addition, there are two other people who are learning to build cold weapons, and they are now quite good.

Therefore, even if Song Blacksmith and his son escaped, it would not affect the operation of the weapons workshop. It would be just that the time to increase the output would have to be refused for a few months.

Of course, even so, Luo Zhixue still didn't want Song Blacksmith to leave.

The three father and son are all craftsmen with excellent skills. In this era, they are all high-tech talents, so Luo Zhixue would not let it go easily.

So after Song Blacksmith arrived in Songshan Village, Luo Zhixue promoted Song Blacksmith to him and made him the manager of the weapon workshop.

In the past, there was nothing in charge of the weapons workshop, and Luo Zhixue was directly managed. However, now Luo Zhixue is a general and has a lot of things on hand. It is impossible for him to personally manage many affairs in the weapons workshop. Someone has to take charge of the weapons workshop.

Song Blacksmith is a relatively suitable person. He has excellent skills and is quite steady but flexible.

The first thing that happened when the weapon workshop moved to Songshan Village was to start the casting preparations for the second batch of artillery and prepare for the large-scale construction of improved bird guns.

Before mass production of the second batch of artillery and muskets, the first batch of two 600-pound cannons and nearly ten bird guns must be tested to ensure improvements in the subsequent mass production process.

After Luo Zhixue saw the two 600-pound cannons that had been assembled, he ran over and observed them carefully for a long time.

This cannon looks quite primitive, which is a bit different from the modern smoothbore cannons in some movies and TV dramas he remembers, but it doesn't matter, as long as the tube is enough.

For gun mounts, they use pure iron gun mounts, which are different from gun mounts shared by two hundred kilograms of light guns and wood.

The main reason is that the recoil of the 600-pound cannon is greater. At the same time, Luo Zhixue requires that after the cannon is maneuvered, he must directly enter the battle after it is put down.

This requires no low strength of the cannon stand.

After consideration, Song Blacksmith and others simply used iron to build cannon stands.

After Luo Zhixue carefully looked at these two cannons, he also tried to push the cannons to maneuver, and found that he could still push...

If several artillery soldiers push together, this kind of artillery can be transferred quickly on the battlefield for a short distance.

This is mobility sufficient.

Later, horses were used to drag the entire gun group in full state, including artillery and ammunition trucks, for maneuver testing. The entire gun group used eight horses to pull the guns and ammunition trucks and marched continuously on the uneven country roads.

The whole maneuver test is perfect!

The lighter weight, wide double wheels and front guide wheel design allow this kind of artillery to maneuver on dirt roads, and even if it encounters some steeper ramps, it can pass with the help of artillery soldiers.

There was no surprise when the live ammunition test was later, and both the effective range and power met the original design standards.

This cannon is almost everywhere with benefits, the only problem is that it is expensive!

It is not that the artillery itself is expensive, but that the artillery troops that maintain such artillery are expensive.

To make this thing work, in addition to the artillery itself, an additional carriage must be added as an ammunition chariot. The artillery and ammunition chariot must be matched with at least eight horses.

The food rations of horses are about four times that of people. Eight horses are almost equivalent to the food and grass expenses of more than 30 people, plus the food expenses of more than ten gun team members.

In other words, the daily food and grass expenses of just a cannon are equivalent to infantry squads of about fifty people.

Now the daily food and grass expenses for these two 600-pound cannons are equivalent to the food and grass expenses for an infantry post.

This maintenance cost is not low!

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Today's condition is a bit bad, I'm sorry for the update.

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