Ten circular archery targets were erected on the training ground, the diameter of which was about the same width as an adult's shoulder.
Ten soldiers of the First Army squatted a hundred steps in front of the target, motionless, with a bullet in the flintlock.
"Three shots per person, fire!" Yuan Chonghuan ordered softly.
There was a messy "pop" sound, and the target shook violently.
The audience was silent, except for the whirling gray smoke, the training ground was as silent as a desert.
Sun Chengzong nodded slowly: "The speed is slightly slower than Jianu's bow and arrow, but the range exceeds Jianu's bow and arrow." He turned around and said to the soldier behind him: "Check the target!"
The voice of the soldier soon came from the target: "My lord, there are a total of nineteen bullet holes on ten targets."
"Nineteen?" The soldiers fired a total of 30 bullets, and the hit rate had exceeded 60%. Ma Shilong's eyes showed envy: "General Yuan, can all the soldiers reach this level?"
"General Ma, these ten soldiers were just randomly selected." Yuan Chonghuan was calm.
"General Yuan, can this firearm be used by my soldiers after reorganization?" Ma Shilong looked at the flintlock in the soldier's hand with eyes, "General Yuan, can you lend me a flintlock?"
Yuan Chonghuan smiled faintly: "Zongbing Ma can't use it now. What's the use of flintlocks? Back to the capital, there are some of these flintlocks."
"General Yuan, I want to get acquainted with the flintlock first, and then I can teach soldiers to use it." Ma Shilong's gaze never left the soldier's hand.
Yuan Chonghuan slammed, a soldier handed the flintlock gun to Ma Shilong, and also briefly introduced the method of using the flintlock gun.
Ma Shilong took the flintlock and filled a bullet with the help of the soldiers.
"boom."
The bullet flew without a trace-missed the target.
He smiled slyly: "I'll go and have a look on the archery target!"
Seeing that the people didn't respond, he said to Sun Chengzong: "My lord, since General Yuan has arrived at Shanhaiguan, the subordinates will return to the capital as soon as possible according to your majesty's instructions. If General Yuan is here, the subordinates will feel relieved to return to Beijing. "
"Oh, then you go and prepare!" Sun Chengzong was still immersed in anticipation of flintlock.
Ma Shilong hurriedly left the training ground and went back to pack up his luggage, ready to leave Shanhaiguan and return to the capital as soon as possible.
"My lord, how is the situation of building slaves?" Yuan Chonghuan and Sun Chengzong left the training ground side by side. He had just arrived in Shanhaiguan and didn't know much about the current situation of building slaves.
"Hey! Jiannu sends out a hundred people's Niu Lu every day to come and squat." Sun Chengzong sighed, and his thoughts returned to Shanhaiguan. "But they can't afford it, so they usually don't attack and shoot. With a few arrows, frightened the soldiers in front of the village, and then left in a big swing."
"Then we..." Yuan Chonghuan knew that Sun Chengzong was good at defense, so he swallowed it again.
Sun Chengzong said with a calm face: "Jianu has been provoking in front of the village so frequently, but we can't get out of the city to meet the enemy, so we have to accept that Jianu is here to show off."
"My lord, my subordinates are requesting to take over Qiantun." Since he came to Shanhaiguan, Yuan Chonghuan planned to train his troops with slaves, the sooner the better.
Sun Chengzong stared closely at Yuan Chonghuan’s eyes: “Chonghuan, Qiantun is the gate of Shanhaiguan. The strategic value is extremely important and must not be lost. Are you sure?”
"My lord, don't worry. Before coming, your Majesty has repeatedly asked his subordinates not to take risks. Subordinates will not easily go out of the city to respond to the enemy, and they will never lose them."
"Yeah." Sun Chengzong promised that Yuan Chonghuan's new army must pass the Liaodong Battlefield to test its combat effectiveness. "But you have just arrived in Shanhaiguan. Let's rest for a few days! My soldiers can still stand it."
There are 300,000 troops on the front line of Jiliao, of which 100,000 are stationed at the Jizhou rear defense and 200,000 are stationed at the front of Shanhaiguan. Among the 200,000 troops in Shanhaiguan, the commander-in-chief Ma Shilong had one hundred thousand troops, and Sun Chengzong himself commanded one hundred thousand troops.
However, Sun Chengzong is governor of Ji Liao, and the 30-man army is controlled by him.
"What does the lord say?" Yuan Chonghuan almost kowtowed. "The army under him is also an army of the adults. The subordinate hopes to take over Qiantun tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? Your soldiers have just arrived, so let's rest for a few days. Let's talk about the situation in Shanhaiguan!"
rest for few days? The Second Army and even the Third Army are here, and it might be possible to defend the frontiers by that time.
Yuan Chonghuan was anxious: "My sire, my soldiers have war horses, and they can't go anywhere. After today's rest, their physical strength will definitely recover. Besides, three thousand people are enough to guard the front. Whole army action."
"Then... Okay!" Sun Chengzong knew Yuan Chonghuan's character, so he wouldn't let him go to Qiantun for fear that he would not sleep well, so what else would he talk about rest? "Chonghuan, be careful, you've seen the fighting power of Jiannu."
"Yes, sir, the subordinates will definitely do it carefully." Yuan Chonghuan really dare not take risks now, not because of the warnings from Zhu Youjian and Sun Chengzong.
It’s the first time that the Flintlock Flintlock is on the battlefield. No one knows its true power. It must be tested on the battlefield to know it. If the Flintlock is not effective on the battlefield and the soldiers don’t have armor protection, the loss But it's big.
At the hour of the second day, Yuan Chonghuan took Li Xing's first brigade with more than 3,000 soldiers into Qiantun early, and the original defenders of Qiantun retreated to Shanhaiguan.
Outside Shanhaiguan, on the left is the lofty mountains and the remnants of the Great Wall of Liaodong. There is no way to go. On the right is the Bohai Sea, with only a narrow passage in the middle.
Qiantun guarded this passage and blocked Jiannu from outside the pass.
If we talk about the difficulties and dangers of the terrain and the importance of strategic location, Qiantun is more than Shanhaiguan, and it is the north gate of Shanhaiguan. It is just that Qiantun is too small to deploy a large number of troops.
Jiannu did not expect to take down Shanhaiguan, so there was no large-scale offensive, and most of them were harassed by small groups of troops, trying to exhaust the Ming army as much as possible.
Sun Chengzong was an advocate of the "active defense" policy. He organized death squads, and when the number of slaves was small, he often went out to make surprise attacks. Although the results were not great, it was annoying to build slaves.
After Jiannu suffered several losses, he no longer harassed the Ming army with a small army, but used the entire Niu Lu to provoke him. He came once or twice almost every day.
The number of building slaves increased, and the fighting power was very strong. The Ming army was unable to fight the building of slaves in the wild, so Sun Chengzong had to close the exit channel and rely on the advantage of the city wall to hold fast to the front.
After noon, a group of more than a hundred Jian slaves rushed forward.
Only a hundred people, dare to come to pass and show off! Yuan Chonghuan was furious. Now that he has a flintlock, his confidence is hardened.
"I personally directed thousands of soldiers to shoot at the head of the city, Li Xing, you order five hundred soldiers and prepare the best horses. When the slaves are retreating, go out of the city to chase down the disabled enemy, and be sure to wipe them out."
"Military seat, the city head is not safe..." Li Xing felt that Yuan Chonghuan's command at the city head himself was too dangerous. He said that Jian slaves' bows and arrows were powerful.
"Stop talking nonsense, you are more dangerous when you go out of the city to chase the enemy, so protect yourself!" Yuan Chonghuan waved at Li Xing and let him go down.
"Yes, army seat." Li Xingzi went to select soldiers and horses.
The flintlock can't aim at the moment, so if you want to get out of the city and wipe out the enemy, you still have to rely on sabers and horses.
Jiannu slowed down and walked forward slowly. They were used to the Ming army huddling inside the city wall. As long as they did not enter the range of Ming army bows and muskets, they were safe.
Yuan Chonghuan hid most of the soldiers behind the parapet wall, only a hundred soldiers secretly showed their faces from the crenellation, exactly the same as the previous Ming army.
If Jiannu's observations were careful enough, they would find that the soldiers who appeared at the head of the city today did not have a metallic bright armor, but a dark gray commoner.
The Ming army filled the flintlock with the first bullet.
The banner of building slaves has clearly fallen into Yuan Chonghuan's eyes.
The five-pointed square flag is blood-red in the middle and pale on the periphery. The yellow dragon head in the middle of the flag is facing back, but the tail points toward the city wall.
"It turned out to be a subordinate of Yue Tuo, who was inlaid with a red flag." Yuan Chonghuan had fought in Liaodong for many years, and he knew the flags and the owners of the slaves clearly.
"Military seat, building a slave has already entered one hundred and fifty steps."
"Don't worry, get closer and fight." The closer Jiannu is, the higher the flintlock hit rate will be. With the thick city wall as protection, Yuan Chonghuan doesn't have to worry about Jiannu breaking the city.
"Military seat, Jianu entered a hundred steps, it is already the range of the flintlock."
"Be prepared, no fire is allowed without my order."
Yuan Chonghuan was surrounded by soldiers from the First Brigade of Li Xing. They were all old men from Fenwu Camp, who had experienced the extermination of Japanese in Shandong and the suppression of bandits in Shaanxi.
There is no fear in their eyes, only expectation.
"Military seat, Jiannu has entered sixty steps, and is about to enter the range of the bow and arrow."
Yuan Chonghuan secretly looked down at the city from the crenellation, Jian slaves drew arrows from behind one after another, and some of them had begun to lay on their bows.
"Shoot, shoot the leader first."
"boom."
"boom."
"boom."
…
Thousands of flintlocks were divided into three batches. The first batch of soldiers fired 400 rounds, then squatted down and began to reload.
The second group of 300 people began to shoot. After shooting, they quickly squatted down and gave the crenellation to the third group of soldiers.
A thousand flintlocks only completed one round of shooting, and has not yet waited for the second round.
Most of the more than 100 slave-building soldiers have fallen off their horses, and only a dozen slave-building soldiers remain on horseback.
Jiannu on the horse was stunned, wondering why the comrades jumped off the horse one by one. Could it be that Niu Lu'e really gave some order, but they didn't hear it
Perhaps the gunshots just covered the orders given by Ezhen. The Ming army's muskets were very annoying. They had a range of only 30 or 40 steps and were not a threat to them, but the loud sound seriously affected the communication between them.
Two slave soldiers were about to jump off their horses and ask what happened.
But they did not find their true self. After the first batch of four hundred soldiers of the Ming army fired, their foreheads fell off the horse early, with more than ten bullets in their bodies.
One round of shooting takes only one minute.
The undead Jian slave soldiers on the ground began to roll all over the floor. Behind them was dragged red blood lines, like the long tails behind their heads. The blood lines were again ravaged and blurred by the rolling soldier’s leather armor. Unclear.
At this moment, the wounded soldiers screamed desperately. The screams were like tiger roars, ape crying, wolf roars. The Jurchens were rugged, and even the screams were not as sad as the Han people.
Horses were not the focus of the gunmen's shooting, but many horses were injured. The seriously injured horses were already lying on the ground, craned their necks and neighed to the sky. The stern voice almost covered all the screams of the Jurchen soldiers. The war horses with slight injuries can barely stand, and the red blood line drags from the wound to the ground. They are shaking the muscles near the wound one by one, maybe the muscles are spasm.
The few remaining slave soldiers on horseback seemed to understand what had happened, but their foreheads really did not send out a message of retreat, and they began to shoot arrows at the city.
On the head of the city, the first batch of four hundred soldiers who fired has been filled with ammunition.
"boom."
"boom."
"boom."
…
Four hundred bullets poured out, and there were no more slave soldiers on horseback.