After recruiting and training a group of technical personnel, the weapons and equipment of the 'Revolutionary Army' had made great progress. Flintlock guns, longsong cannons, high-horsepower steam engines, and thousand-ton warships were all quickly appearing. The classic rocket as a long-range weapon had also developed to the second generation. Not only had the launching method changed from a slide rail to a directional tube, but even the types of bullets had also become diversified.
When Zhou Qingfeng ordered a marine brigade to deal with Gao Hongzhong, he had a headache on how to break through the fortified camp. Gao Hongzhong was a bit like the Xiang Army in the late Qing Dynasty. The tactic was to form a strong stronghold and fight a slow battle. To break through the defense, it was still difficult to rely on heavy artillery.
In the face of this difficulty, the staff team under Zhou Qingfeng quickly suggested to launch rockets at the enemy camp at sea and choose a special warhead. The ordinary warhead was a grenade. The warhead had been improved from a bag of explosives in the early stage to a prefabricated fragment to increase the lethality. Special warhead …
It was an arson poisonous smoke warhead. It contained a small amount of black powder and refined coal tar.
Coal tar was a by-product of coal coking. Song Yingxing didn't know why, but he especially liked to study this toxic and flammable industrial by-product. Before the development of the oil industry, coal tar was an important raw material for the chemical industry.
With a ready-made industrial manual, Song Yingxing made a large number of simple chemical equipment. The early industrial equipment was actually very simple, and the technical content was really not high. He had extracted the dye urgently needed by the textile industry from coal tar, and now he simply used its flammable and explosive characteristics to make arson bombs.
Arson bombs were cotton strips dipped in coal tar and sealed in the warhead. When the cotton strips exploded, they would automatically ignite and fly all over the sky. A warhead could ignite hundreds of square meters, and the burning coal tar would also emit strong poisonous smoke.
Song Yingxing even used spring steel to make the simplest spring time fuse. Before firing, it was pre-timed according to the range, and it could produce an air explosion effect over the target. Although the reliability of this simplest mechanical fuse was less than 50%, and it couldn't withstand the impact of the acceleration of the artillery, it was very suitable for slow flying rockets. Its appearance doubled the power of the arson bomb.
When the two transport barges on the sea launched rockets, Gao Hongzhong, who stayed in his camp, could only be stunned. As a general of the old Ming Army, he had never thought that he would one day face this kind of firepower from the sky. Even though he was now part of the Brainwashing Sect, the strong sense of danger in that instant made him break free from the shackles of his thoughts and return to his instincts … Hide!
When Gao Hongzhong turned around, many of his subordinates immediately followed suit. The camp was built according to Tessie's method, and there were a lot of parapets. He jumped down from the tall observation tower, and in the blink of an eye, he hid behind one of the parapets, and then poked his head out …
The distance from the boat to the shore and the camp was about two thousand meters. The cannoneers in the camp could barely see the silhouette of the ships on the sea with their naked eyes. The cannons could not hit the ships floating on the sea at all. However, the fire arrows from the two ships could hit the huge camp of the Blessed Army.
He used the fixed scale on the telescope to refer to the height and then convert the distance. It was a very simple trigonometric problem. The jewelry craftsmen recruited by the Revolutionary Army finally broke through this technical difficulty. The first batch of twelve fire arrows soared into the sky, and after flying in the sky for nearly half a minute, they plunged down.
Most of the soldiers in the camp were stunned, and even a few cannons that were firing stopped firing. The cannoneers raised their heads and looked at the rapidly falling rockets. According to the standard, the spring time fuse should make the rocket explode at a height of about twenty meters from the ground. However, the fuse in one of the rockets was obviously prematurely, and it exploded at a height of 100 meters.
With a bang, a ball of fire exploded in the sky. The soldiers in the camp all shivered in fear, and their necks shrank as they squatted down. After the rocket above their heads exploded, dozens of balls of fire scattered and drifted down.
The other rockets accelerated and fell down, exploding along the way. Bang, bang, bang! Explosions sounded one after another, and the balls of fire almost covered the whole camp. The accuracy of the fire arrows was not high, and the scattering was very serious, but it was nothing for such a big camp. The twelve fire arrows, one in the east and one in the west, all hit the target.
The exploded balls of fire floated down from the sky and fell to the ground with a clatter. As they burned, pungent black smoke came out. Some of the soldiers in the camp were curious, and saw that what fell was like a burning cloth, sticky. The shaman priests were alert, and they shouted for the fire to be extinguished, and the Han slaves were mobilized.
Gao Hongzhong, who was hiding behind the parapet, witnessed the whole process of the rocket attack. He felt that the ammunition looked scary, but in fact, it was not much. The falling flames were scattered all over the camp, but they did not cause much damage. After all, people could move, and they would not just stand there when they saw the fire falling. Occasionally, some places were lit, but there were tens of thousands of people in the camp, and the speed of extinguishing the fire …
The twelve rockets had just landed, and the artillery observer on the two ships held the binoculars and stared at it. He slightly adjusted according to the landing point, and then shouted: "Hit half the base, fire quickly."
The two transport barges were separately loaded with a rocket artillery battery, and one rocket was a squad. According to the allocated capacity of the company, half the base was 30 rounds of ammunition. In order to attack the middle part of Gao Hongzhong, which only had simple protection, the entire company used the arson rockets.
The order to fire quickly was issued, and every ten seconds, a rocket was inserted into the guide tube and fired. Because this kind of ancient rocket did not have much recoil, the rocket mount rarely moved during firing, and the firing speed was extremely fast. Basically, after a rocket was inserted, it would ignite, and with a whoosh, a rocket would fly into the sky, and then another rocket would be inserted into the guide tube.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, the rockets continuously rose into the sky, and the smoke in the sky became thick and dense, and in a short while, it covered half the sky. After waiting for half the base to be fired, in three minutes, 360 rockets were fired at the enemy's camp in one go. The rockets that flew up rotated slightly in the sky, and after flying for more than two thousand meters, they plunged down.
Gao Hongzhong originally stood up from behind the parapet, and was ready to show his bravery and fearlessness. But when he saw the rockets that covered the sky whistling towards him, he immediately retreated behind the parapet in fear. This time, he felt a strong wave of anger from the void, and attacked his brain — those who retreat before battle, die!
"Ah …!"
Gao Hongzhong held his head and screamed, and he had to stand up and command his subordinates. Meanwhile, in Shenyang, thousands of miles away, Nurhachi, who was sitting upright and reading the memorials to the throne, was also filled with anger. He clenched his fist and slammed it on the table. The birch table immediately shattered, and the few servants who accompanied him fell silently and died on the spot.
This' Pope 'felt that there were more chaotic emotions in his mind, and they disturbed his peace. Scenes of chaotic battles kept flashing in his mind, and his calm mood instantly turned into rage. He didn't know where this scene was happening, but he subconsciously shouted in his mind.
All the believers of the Jurchen Brainwashing Sect heard the 'decree' from the Pope, and most of them were confused. Gao Hongzhong, who was outside Shanhai Pass, knew that this was referring to him. He suppressed his discomfort and stood up to shout at his subordinates, "What are you panicking for? Hide behind the parapet first, quickly hide behind the parapet."
The rockets in the sky kept diving down, exploding, and scattering balls of fire that fell to the ground, igniting many fire spots. The number of 360 rockets was an order of magnitude more than the previous ones, and the exploding fire spots instantly covered half of the campsite. When the fire spots were sparse, the soldiers in the campsite could still find a place to hide, but this time, the fire spots were so dense that the soldiers had nowhere to hide when they looked up at the sky.
A single rocket could explode at least 50 or more fire spots, and 360 rockets would be equivalent to tens of thousands of fire spots raining down from the sky. The fire spots that fell on the ground emitted pungent and thick poisonous smoke; the fire spots that fell on tents and vehicles would quickly burn; and the fire spots that fell on people and horses would cause great chaos.
"Put out the fire, put out the fire!" Gao Hongzhong saw that it was impossible to just hide, so he hurriedly grabbed a few generals who were hiding with him to organize the soldiers to put out the fire. A ball of burning cloth fell in front of him, and he was startled and subconsciously stepped on it. However, not only did it not extinguish the fire, but the soles of his shoes also caught fire.
"Ouch …" Feeling the unbearable pain from the soles of his feet, Gao Hongzhong realized that the fire was not easy to extinguish. He yelled as he took off his official boots, and the soles of his feet were so hot that they looked like blisters were about to form. He then shouted to the people around him, "This fire is strange, don't step on it, bury it with soil."
The sudden appearance of the 'Heavenly Fire' caused a small part of the Blessed Army's campsite to fall into chaos. The shaman priests used the power of faith to constantly drive the soldiers and servants to extinguish the fire. Although they could mobilize people by force, they could not immediately teach the soldiers how to extinguish the fire — they did not have enough knowledge!
This fire could not be easily extinguished. It could not even be splashed with water, and it would continue to burn. They had to bury it with soil. However, it was not easy to dig in this cold weather. Moreover, there were many flammable objects in the campsite that had been ignited, and the fire instantly spread under the northern wind.
The poisonous smoke was blown everywhere, and the soldiers who were at a disadvantage not only could not extinguish the fire, but they also had to run away. When more people ran away, even the shaman priests could not control them.
The chaotic emotions instantly increased by an order of magnitude. Far away in Shenyang, Nurhachi was not only angry, but soon his face turned red. His expression instantly became extremely distorted.
Nurhachi had absorbed the spiritual power provided by millions of believers, and he could not tell which part of it was chaotic. Using his cultivation base to forcibly activate the spiritual power, he shouted in his mind in exasperation, "Control those slaves. Kill those who can't control them, quickly kill them. Don't let them shout, make them shut up. "
The pope's power spread in all directions through the void, and all the believers in Liaodong were trembling. In a corner of Shenyang, Giulio Alvarez, who lived a simple life, was praying. Suddenly, his body shook, and he slowly looked up at the statue of the Holy Mother holding the Holy Infant, and he whispered, "Father in Heaven, please warn this sinner who has lost his way. He tried to steal the glory that belongs to you, and he will be devoured. "
Nurhachi's roar came from the void, making Gao Hongzhong extremely painful. He had to shout to his guards, "Quickly go and kill those who disturb our morale, and those who shout, don't leave a single one alive."
The guards who supervised the battle rushed out like wolves and tigers, and immediately killed any soldiers in the camp who did not listen to the order. Such a brutal action produced immediate results. After killing hundreds of people, Nurhachi, who was far away in Shenyang, felt much better.
On the sea, the two transport barges stopped shooting after shooting half of the base number. The artillery observer put down his binoculars on a specially erected mast, shook his head and shouted to the artillery soldier below, "I can't see clearly, the opposite camp is full of smoke. We can get closer and shoot another wave of fire. "
The 'Revolutionary Army' troops coming out of Shanhaiguan were quickly approaching the camp in the middle of Gao Hongzhong, and a brigade carried by the transport fleet on the sea was also putting down a simple trestle, preparing to release the troops.
Flat Hair was flying everywhere, monitoring the battlefield from the air. From time to time, he would land on Zhou Qingfeng's shoulder to report the situation. "It takes a day for a ship to release a brigade."
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