Beiyi Island is the first of the seven Shazhous in the Taijiang Inner Sea. It connects to the Luermen Waterway in the north and the Dayuan Waterway in the south. It is a narrow and long Shazhou. In later generations, Qishazhou had already been connected to the Taijiang Inner Sea to form a land area.●⌒,

At this time, this place is still a small island in Shazhou on the sea. There are no mountains or dense forests on the island, only low shrubs and grass, sand dunes and soil slopes.

On the Sicao Fortress in the middle of the island, Dahn looked nervously at the bottom. The not-so-large castle was completely surrounded by the Ming people. The soldiers on the castle looked at each other and were at a loss. They were all mercenaries from all over the world, from Europe, America, Africa, and East India. These people made a living by fighting, and each was brave and fierce.

In the past, they have also experienced many battles, fighting the indigenous people on the East Indies and fighting the pirates at sea. After they came to the senior officials, they also fought with the indigenous people in Taiwan. Every time, they moved forward bravely, and sometimes they were not afraid of facing ten times and twenty times the indigenous people.

But now, the castle is surrounded by hundreds of times that of the defenders in their castle.

The entire island was full of Ming troops, and these people were not natives holding simple weapons. These people were neatly dressed in brass-clad armor and steel helmets. The weapons in their hands were absolutely not simple, including muskets, bows and arrows, spears, and even many light cannons and cannons.

Watching these Ming soldiers who were siegeing in an orderly manner and preparing to attack, Dahn from the Netherlands felt his throat dry.

"There are at least five thousand people." Lucas from Germany said in despair. Such a number of elite soldiers could not defend even if they were relied on.

Daen was still carefully looking at the arrangement of the Ming army, and then he found a new team appeared from behind the Ming army. It seemed to be an artillery, including many white men with red and yellow hair, who were Spanish.

"Siege Cannon!" Dahn also pointed out the short cannons in despair.

In Europe, not only warships have developed leaps, but artillery has also entered a new era. As early as a hundred years ago, the British began to use blast furnace cast iron cannons. After casting, they also used machinery to drive the drill bit to pull holes, making the inner bore a consistent diameter and smooth, and improving the launching ability. Later, the Dutch and Spanish also mastered this technology. Cast iron cannons have become an important weapon on naval warships in various countries.

By the end of the 16th century, Britain, France, Spain and other countries began to carry out artillery reforms, regulating the types of artillery. For example, the British artillery reforms were classified according to their uses, and the British artillery was divided into sixteen types. After the reforms, the British artillery would be fired into three categories: field artillery, siege artillery, and shore defense fortress artillery.

To this day, the British's field guns are mainly 3 pounds, 6 pounds, 9 pounds, 12 pounds, 18 pounds, 32 pounds.

Field guns are divided into heavy, medium and light. The heavy city field gun is also called snake gun, weighing 1.75 tons, firing 15 pound shells, with a flat range of 400 meters, and a maximum range of 2,600 meters. Medium field guns are called half-snake guns, which fire 9 pound shells, and light battle field guns are also called duck guns, firing 0.75 to 5 pound shells, weighing about half to one ton.

The siege cannon is called the Royal Cannon and the cannon. The semi-cannon has a larger caliber, a larger weight, and a larger shell.

French human artillery has also been reformed, among which field artillery is mainly four pounds, eight pounds, twelve pounds, and Sweden has formed a unique system of three pounds, twelve pounds, twenty-four pounds.

The Spanish Diego Ufano systematically established an artillery system consisting of 48 pounds, 4 pounds, 1 pound and 6 pounds.

The artillery reforms of Western countries, especially in recent years, have made their army field guns lighter and more convenient to move, greatly increasing the army's combat capabilities. Their warships' naval gun barrels are longer, and the general use of 9 pounds, 18 pounds, 24 pounds, 32 pounds, long cannons with amazing power.

Compared with these Western countries, China's artillery has long been behind. Although it later obtained the Portuguese casting artillery technology, it is all out of date. Unlike the divisions of Western countries, China's artillery at this time was mainly divided into front-back and rear-mounted artillery and re-interpretation of artillery.

For example, the rear-loading cannons are generally called the Folang machine, the front-loading cannon is generally called the Red and Yi cannons, and then the weight of the cannon body is divided into 300 kilograms, 500 kilograms, 1,000 kilograms, 3,000 kilograms, etc. China's artillery casting has already taken a wrong path at this time.

Liu Jun's Nine-Headed Birds turned out that they were basically small cannons such as tiger squat cannons and Folang machines. They mainly used to fire scattered cannons and melee combat. The divine cannons designed and manufactured by Nine-Headed Birds themselves were actually just mortar cannons, which were somewhat similar to Western siege cannons.

In the past, using these cannons to deal with bandits who lack long-range firepower was naturally very sharp, but if they were dealing with the Red Barbarians who had long-range or even heavy firepower, they would definitely suffer.

The last time he occupied the chicken cage and then won the Penghu sea battle, Liu Jun not only obtained many Western gunners, but also many Western army field artillery.

Liu Jun used those Western gunners and European guns to add a group of nine-headed bird gunners to imitate Western artillery organization to establish a new artillery unit.

This artillery was organized into a regiment and had six artillery companies under it.

Each company has four four-pound cannons, four siege cannons, and some other lightweight Flang machine cannons. Each field cannon and siege cannons are equipped with a carriage and a coachman. Each company also has several ammunition carriages.

Each company has 300 soldiers, including some infantry guarding artillery, and the entire regiment has 2,000 people. However, the six artillery companies under this artillery regiment are generally divided into units to assist in the battle.

This time when attacking the island of the north line, Liu Jun drew a new artillery company to assist in attacking the fortress.

At this time, what Dahn saw was a Western artillery unit. The cannons they pushed out made Dahn full of despair. Because he knew that among the cannons dragged by the artillery, there were actually several cannons that were obviously more than twenty-four pounds.

According to the artillery division of Western countries at this time, cannons below 24 pounds are field cannons, because they exceed this level, the cannons are too heavy and are not suitable for field combat.

"That was obviously a thirty-two-pound long cannon, which was moved from the warship!" Lucas said.

"And there is also a mortar, which is at least twenty-four pounds. It's over, we can't hold on."

Under the city, Wang Qian led a group of officers to look at this artillery company that combines Chinese and Western styles. Compared with the original Jiutou Bird's baggage van carrying cannons, the firepower of this artillery company is astonishing.

Four four-pound field guns, two eight-pound field guns, one twelve-pound cannon siege cannon, four twenty-four-pound mortar cannons, and nine thousand-pound folang machines. There are twenty cannons, and they are all cannons.

Wang Qian looked at the cannons and sighed, "It's all good things. Unfortunately, it's just a little heavier. Otherwise, if you drag these cannons during the war, who will be the opponent?"

"It's better to have our divine cannon. Look at our improved divine cannon, in the words of the Red Haired. We are loading twenty-four-pound shells, just like their 24-pound siege cannons, but our divine cannon body is less than 200 kilograms, which is the focus of the wooden base, but it can be transported separately."

The artillery company commander from Sweden retorted, "I admit that your magical cannon is very good, but his range is too short and the accuracy of this cannon is poor. Our 24-pound siege cannon has a very long range and is relatively high."

"But your cannon is flat, and our mortar cannon is curved. It can directly bombard the enemies inside the city wall, and it can also bombard the city head. You can only hit the city wall."

"Your gun accuracy is too poor."

Wang Qian listened to the dispute between Chinese and Western gunners and waved his hand, "Just talk but not practice the mouth-like style, you can just compete. This is the Dutch bastion in front of it. Now you can compete together to see who can hit it hard."

Anderson, the Swedish artillery company commander, hurriedly said, "This is not fair. They have four mortars. We only have one siege cannon."

"But you still have 32-pound cannons." Lu Fang, deputy company commander of the artillery company, retorted that in addition to bringing the standard twelve-pound cannons, these red barbarians also dragged a 32-pound long cannon on board.

Wang Qian stopped the two of them, "So. This Anderson, you bring thirty-two pounds of siege cannons plus one of your twelve pounds, two eight pounds, four four pound field cannons, and Lu Fang, you bring four twenty-four pounds of mortar cannons, and nine Franchises. It's OK now. One of you hits the South Fortress and the other hits the North Fortress."

"Just compete. If I win, I will be the commander of this artillery company."

The translator told Anderson that Lu Fang said, and Anderson lifted the hat on his head and shouted, "Okay, if you lose, you will be my deputy company commander from now on."

"One word is determined."

Wang Qian watched the two artillery company commanders compete, but didn't say anything, just laughed.

When the two of them went down and greeted their gunners, the officer beside Wang Qian asked, "Sir, wouldn't it be better to let the artillery bombard one?"

"It's okay, just try the power of these cannons. In addition, there are only a hundred people in the city. If we go to both sides, they have to guard both sides. I look at this bastion, and I always feel like I have nowhere to talk. Let the artillery fight for a while first, and then we will find an opportunity. Don't rush to get on."

Lu Fang strode back to the cannon company and immediately asked his subordinates to pull up the four mortar cannons and nine mortars, and follow him to the outside of the castle to the south.

"What's so proud of these red-haired fans? This time we will let them see how powerful our divine cannon is."

Lu Fang was originally an officer of the logistics battalion and was a gunner with good experience. Now that he has newly established a gun regiment and transferred him over, he said that the artillery company commander was equivalent to a general manager, and he was quite happy, and he was promoted to another level. After he came, he realized that he was just a deputy company. If the deputy company was not talking about it, his boss was still a red-haired and red-bearded red-bearded red-bearded man. Now he was unhappy.

The newly established artillery company is all cannons, and the lightest cannon is four-pound field cannons. This kind of cannon is less than 600 kilograms, and only two horses can be pulled and run. The nine-gate Folang aircraft are all thousand-pound Folang aircraft, mainly to fire shotguns and protect artillery positions. The eight-pound cannon barrel is nearly 1,200 kilograms, and as for the 32-pound naval cannon that was temporarily pulled, it is more than 7,000 kilograms.

However, Lu Fang still felt that his cannons were good. Those red cannons that could move thousands of pounds were too bulky. If it weren't for the seaside, the cannon wouldn't be able to pull it up at all.

boom!

As soon as Lu Fang pulled the cannon to the south fortress, he heard a loud noise from the other side.

Anderson was much faster than Lu Fang. Before he was ready, he had quickly completed the preparations before launch. Then eight cannons sprayed fireworks at the same time, and several huge iron bullets roared out of the borehole, smashing hard on the castle of the city wall, smashing pieces of bricks.

With this attack, even Wang Qian felt the vibration under his feet.

After Anderson's round of gunfires, he immediately began to observe the point of the shell and then remeasure the angle and distance. Wang Qian saw that the red barbarian took out several very novel tools to measure.

"Prepare to shoot!" Anderson ordered again.

The gunners quickly became busy. Compared to the four-pound cannon, only two gunners could be used. This 32-bulk cannon brought from the warship not only had a longer barrel than an ordinary field cannon, but also required more gunners. A 32-pound cannon requires the tacit cooperation of seventeen gunners.

call out!

The thirty-two-pound cannon roared again, and the nearly twenty-eight-pound large iron ball roared and smashed over like a meteorite, hitting the castle wall again.

Dahn squatted on the battlements of the castle, feeling the shaking under his feet, his face looking ugly.

"It's really a thirty-two cannon or a long-barrel cannon. At most one day, our castle will be destroyed." Lucasdaen shouted.

At this time, Lu Fang, who was under the castle in the south, was also anxious. The red-haired man on the opposite side fired two shots, but he still didn't fire a single shot. Wouldn't he be at a disadvantage?

"Come on, fire!"

The gunner Zhao Donghan just checked whether the fire door at the tail of the gun was unobstructed. The other gunners also adjusted the gun barrel into place, and then used wooden wedges to fix the gun barrel.

After hearing the order to fire the gun, a gunman quickly put the launching medicine cannon wrapped in silk into the medicine tube, and then slightly compacted the medicine bag with a push rod.

After checking that the fuse was not damaged, another gunner judged the length of the fuse according to the gunman's request and loaded the shells, then sent the shells to the gunman's hand. He hooked the shells with an iron pliers and slowly loaded them into the barrel. After completing the loading, the gunman checked the cannon again. Finally, he stabbed the fire door with a long awl, stabbed the gunpowder bag, and then inserted a long fuse into the fire door.

After everything was ready, the fuse was lit.

With a loud bang, the twenty-four pound bomb flew into the high sky and then fell into the castle.

When the shell fell in the air, the burning fuse sprayed sparks outwards, making the shell look like a meteor dragging its tail flame.

This shell, Anderson and others on the other side, could see clearly.

"These people have a big appetite for mortars to load explosive bombs, but the explosion time of the bomb is the most difficult to grasp. The sound of this shell is amazing, but it is definitely impossible to explode at the right time. Either they set off fireworks in the air or directly hit the ground like a big iron ball."

As soon as Anderson finished speaking, the bomb had already fallen into the castle, and then a violent explosion came, mixed with many screams.

In the screams, there were continuous explosions.

Fires surged into the sky in the castle.

Anderson looked in disbelief.

A German mercenary next to him asked, "The Ming people actually invented such a powerful bomb, my god!"

Anderson looked at him like an idiot, "Idiot, how could there be such a powerful bomb in the world? It was just that Ming people were lucky enough to have a bomb hit the gunpowder barrel in the city." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!