On the sixth day of the fifth month of the ninth year of Yongli in the Ming Dynasty (the twelfth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty), a famous monk named Qilin from Guangdong Province sat in Yutai Temple. Before his death, he left a Zen saying, "If you don't go to the Western Paradise, you should go to the Avici Hell to relieve the suffering of the world."

After the death of Monk Qilin, Zhou Shi, a thousand households of Taiping Army of the Ming Dynasty, was buried with great honor in the Houshan Stele Forest, and all the monks praised him.

After the news of the death of monk Qilin came out, a young monk in the south of Xinhui City looked at Guifeng Mountain, gritted his teeth, and made a great wish, "The thieves who avenge their revenge in this life will not be a human being." After the oath, they will join the army in Guangzhou.

.........

With the support of Hujie Camp, the Guards camp escorted the grain team to Guifeng Mountain in the evening. Although the journey was hard, the road was extremely difficult. Fortunately, no civilians escaped, and no carriages were overturned.

After receiving the report, the Guards camp had arrived. Zhou Shixiang immediately sent an order to go down, and the Guards camp did not have to go up the mountain. They camped in the Qing army camp at the foot of the mountain, and the food and civilians were also placed in it. Hujie camp was responsible for the guards, and the rest immediately rested.

Later, Zhou Shixiang ordered officers above the general flag of each battalion to go to the Daxiong Hall of Yutai Temple to discuss the attack on Xinhui City.

Since Li Dingguo's army failed to attack Xinhui for a long time last year, the generals were not optimistic about capturing Xinhui, and Qin Zhisheng and others even suggested not to attack Xinhui City, but to find a way to collect ships across Tanjiang and go around the rear of Xinhui City.

Taking Tan Jiang by detour can avoid the losses caused by the strong attack on Xinhui. This is undoubtedly a wise choice for the Taiping Army, which has just experienced a great war, but how to collect ships is a troublesome. Not to mention whether there are ships on Tan Jiang for the Taiping Army to use, even if there are, the Taiping Army does not have time to collect enough ships to cross the river.

If he stayed in Xinhui for too long, the Taiping Army would fall into a situation where Xinhui City was strong in front and Qing army surrounded it later. As long as the guards of Xinhui City were not stupid, they should have sent a quick horse to Guangzhou for help at this time. Xu Erxian, the general of Zhaoqing in the rear, had probably figured out the intentions of the Taiping Army, and he might be convening troops to chase after him. When these two Qing army forces that Zhou Shixiang had been trying hard to avoid came here, it was really no way out of heaven and no way out of the ground.

"Everyone doesn't have to think about anything else. Xinhui City must be fought and taken down, otherwise the whole army will be dead!"

Zhou Shixiang reiterated his determination to attack Xinhui City.

"If Qianhu must set up a new city, then Huye has to remind Lord Qianhu that there are more than a dozen red-clothed generals on the wall of Xinhui."

The one who opened his mouth was Li Fuguo, a test household in the Guards' Bad. After being appointed as the test household in the Guards' Bad, he was also considered to be a due diligence. His performance in the process of following the Guards' Bad Master Qian, has made up for some details caused by the rough personality of the bald man Jiang He, and he cooperated with Lin Huasheng, another test household in the Guards' Bad. At least after going up the mountain, Jiang He did not secretly report to Zhou Shixiang what was wrong with Li Fuguo.

"The General's Cannon?"

Zhou Shixiang was a little surprised and didn't know what kind of cannon was. Shao Jiugong on the side hurriedly told him that the so-called red-clothed general's cannon was actually the red-branded cannon of the Ming Dynasty. However, because he avoided the word "Yi", Huang Taiji changed the red-branded cannon to the red-branded general's cannon.

"The Red Barbarian cannons were purchased from Macau during the Chongzhen period. After Kong Youde failed to rebel in Denglai, he led his troops to cross the sea to throw the Qing Dynasty. Because he captured many Ming artisans who made artillery in Denglai. So the Qing Dynasty asked him to build artillery for the Qing army. At that time, the cannons built by Kong Youde were imitating the Red Barbarian cannons. At this time, most of the people who controlled artillery among the Qing army were bastards who forgot their ancestors."

After Duke Xiang of Song said this, Zhou Shiqi understood when he was about to stand up. Li Fuguo was determined to show his own experience and followed Duke Xiang of Song, but he talked about the advantages and disadvantages of the Red Barbarian Cannon.

Combined with what Li Fuguo said and his own judgment, Zhou Shixiang could roughly confirm that the performance of the Red Barbarian Cannon was roughly the same as that of the Europeans at the same time, and both were front-loaded artillery. The disadvantage of front-loaded artillery is that the rate of fire is extremely slow. After firing once, water must be poured into the cannon chamber to extinguish the spark. Use a dry cloth to insert the cannon chamber into the cannon chamber to dry it, then fill in the gunpowder, ignition aids, stuff the shells, and then click to release them. These actions are quite slow and tedious, and do not include correcting the cannon position.

However, the advantage of the disadvantage is that the Red Barbarian Cannon has extremely lethality. Within a straight line, shells can cross dozens of people, and when they land and jump into the pit, they can even smash them with people and horses. Although they are not as powerful as the flowering bullets in later generations, the scene of the shells flying when the cannon sounds and the scene of the shells flying is really trembling.

Duke Xiang of Song said another thing, saying that the old Nunuerhaci was killed by the Red Cannon under Ningyuan City. After hearing this, Duke Shao Jiu and Li Fuguo were a little dissatisfied. They thought they had never heard of this.

Zhou Shixiang didn't care whether the old slave called the Red Barbarian Cannon to death. What he cared about was how to deal with the dozen or so red barbarian cannons and small cannons with a number of no less than this. He had heard a famous saying in his previous life that the cannon was the king of war. Although the king of war was constantly replaced by new weapons in the future, such as tanks, before the new weapons appeared, the power of the cannon was indeed the big brother among the weapons of the same period, especially in China in the 17th century. In this era when cold weapons were still dominated by cold weapons, the impact of cannons on war was absolutely huge.

The most intuitive thing is that when our soldiers rushed towards the city wall, we kept firing artillery shells on the city to harvest lives, but our side could only be beaten and could not repay them. This completely passive battle is a huge casualty, and the blow to our side's morale is also huge.

Zhou Shixiang must come up with a way to deal with artillery, otherwise when the cannon sounds, nine out of ten soldiers, who have never heard of the cannon, nor have they seen artillery artillery, would be helpless with Xinhui City.

After contemplating, Zhou Shixiang raised a question he urgently needs to know.

"How many miles can the Red Barbarian Cannon hit the farthest?"

"this?"

Not many officers had seen the Red Barbarian Cannon, but they didn't know how far the shell could be. Duke Xiang of Song had never seen it with his own eyes. However, Qin Zhisheng, Shao Jiugong and Li Fuguo had seen it, but the answers given by the three of them were different as to how far the Red Barbarian Cannon could be hit.

Qin Zhisheng said that the Red Barbarian Cannon could hit seven or eight miles, but Shao Jiugong said that it was not that far, only two or three miles away. The number given by Li Fuguo was only about a mile.

Zhou Shixiang could not judge which one was right, and everyone couldn't tell.

"Qianhu asked what this is doing?"

Duke Xiang of Song did not guess which of the three of them was right. What he cared about was what Zhou Shixiang wanted to do.

"This time our army attacked Xinhui City. As early as Gaoyao, I discussed this matter with Tiebaihu. At that time, I was determined to blow up the Xinhui City Wall by blasting, and then the entire army broke into it through the gap. Now I still don't change my decision. We don't attack Xinhui City, and we don't have the capital to attack Xinhui City. Even the tens of thousands of troops of the King of Xining could not take Xinhui City. Our Taiping Army could take it with just two thousand troops? Therefore, we can only blast it!"

After a brief tone, Zhou Shixiang explained again: "But before this, we must figure out how far the Qing army's artillery can be used, so that we can dig tunnels outside the range of their artillery to bury the gunpowder under the city wall, otherwise the gunpowder will not be sent in. Besides, we cannot be called to the Qing army's artillery to explode as a target."

"blasting?"

Among the officers, Li Fuguo had never heard of this term. He didn't know what it meant for a while. Lin Zaisheng next to him explained a few words to him, and then he suddenly realized it, but then he looked suspicious.

In Li Fuguo's understanding, in the battles of the city seized, the city walls were often bombarded by gunpowder, but Zhou Shixiang had to use gunpowder to explode the city walls. He had not heard of this method, and subconsciously felt that this method was probably inappropriate, or it was unlikely to achieve the goal. Then could the city walls easily be called gunpowder to blow up?

"Qianhu, is the method of blasting really useful? Can Tiebaihu and others really explode Xinhui City?"

Li Fuguo asked skeptically, after all, he had never seen Zhou Shixiang perform a blasting test in Luodingzhou City, nor did he know the power of the granular gunpowder.

Zhou Shixiang nodded affirmatively: "Yes! You follow me."

After saying that, he stood up and walked towards the camp with everyone. Tieyi already knew what Lord Qianhu was going to do, so he ordered people to carry out the two large coffins in the camp.

Seeing the two large coffins reinforced, Li Fuguo was really stunned. After hearing Tieyi talk about the purpose of these two coffins, he stared at them for a long time before shook his head, and said to Zhou Shixiang with some concern: "These two large coffins are too big. The Qing army in Xinhui City is not blind, so how can they settle under the city wall? If they are transported by manpower, they are afraid that they will be hit by artillery on the city or their muskets. Wouldn't that be in vain?"

What Li Fuguo said is the truth. Although so many portions of gunpowder piled in two coffins, the power is amazing, but even if it can blow up the walls of Xinhui City, who can guarantee that they will not be hit by the Qing army during the transportation process. Gunpowder is not a joke, it will explode when it hits Mars. If it explodes before it is delivered to the wall, it will really kill a group of people.

Zhou Shixiang smiled softly: "So we must figure out how many miles the cannons on Xinhui City can hit. Only by knowing the range of their cannons can we safely dig tunnels and send the coffin under the city wall."

"How many miles of authentic tunnels do you have to dig to achieve it?" Li Fuguo looked gloomy.

Zhou Shixiang looked at Tie Yi with his eyes and said, "Don't forget that Tiebaihu and his brothers are both from mines. What they are best at is digging holes."

"Last year, the old thief... When the Xining King's army besieged the city, the Qing army set up large tanks everywhere to monitor the city, and digging tunnels in the camp. The Qing army would not have noticed it. If the defenders found out that we were digging tunnels, wouldn't it be useless?" Li Fuguo judged this method based on his own experience.

This time, there was no need for Zhou Shixiang to answer, but Tie Yi laughed and said, "We either dig tunnels to lead to his city, or they were monitored by them!"

Zhou Shixiang's face suddenly became sober: "Tieyi, are you sure about authentic things?"

"Don't worry, the brothers from our mine don't know anything else. Digging holes is the best choice. I promise to send these two big coffins into it and ignite it and blow up the city wall of Xinhui. If the wrong generals are broken, the thousand households don't need to ask anyone to do it. I will wipe my neck by myself, so that Qianhu and everyone can scold the mother of the wrong generals!" (To be continued)
Chapter completed!