"No!"

"Absolutely not!"

"Your Highness, please think twice."

Before Prince Zhu finished speaking, three virtuous veterans, Yuan Jixian, Qiu Yu, and Fang Gongyue, jumped up to remonstrate.

Wu Sanfu, who had always been obedient to Prince Zhu, was also stunned on the spot.

The cannon mounted on Fenghuang Mountain is not a three-pound regimental cannon, nor a 12-pound Hongyi cannon, but a 24-pound cannon that was shipped to Shanghai from the Bojialao Artillery Factory in Hao'ao in late June this year.

and a thirty-six-pounder cannon.

These two cannons were shipped as prototypes of fortress artillery and were given to the Artillery Section of the Nanjing Jiangwu Hall for several months. Zhu Cihong brought them with him during his Western Expedition this time and planned to use them to bombard Li Zicheng.

After arriving in Wuchang Fucheng, Feng Sizhong, the artillery regiment commander of the Model New Army, chose the Fenghuang Mountain highland in the north of Wuchang City to erect two giant cannons.

This Phoenix Mountain is the strategic location of Wuchang. There is a saying that if you want to conquer Wuchang, you must conquer Snake Mountain first. If you want to conquer Snake Mountain, you must conquer Phoenix first. Although it is not very high, about 14 to 50 feet, its geographical location is very important.

A "mountain in the city" in the north of Wuchang City is about two or three miles away from the Yangtze River. It is also about five miles away from the highland Guishan Mountain in Hanyang City on the other side of the Yangtze River. Twenty-four or thirty-six pounds are set up on Fenghuang Mountain.

The coastal defense cannon can barely reach Guishan on the other side of the Yangtze River.

But it is difficult for the cannon mounted on Fenghuang Mountain to hit the Hanyang Gate Pier because it is blocked by the city wall! Those two cannons are direct-firing cannons, not indirect-firing mortars and howitzers. They cannot be fired across the city wall!

"Master Qiansui," Wu Sanfu said, "the two giant cannons mounted on Phoenix Mountain cannot reach Hanyangmen Pier. They are blocked by city walls and towers."

"That's right, it's out of reach."

"It's better to appease him."

"Old minister, let's go. I'll go right away."

The three respected veterans were all very smart and quickly followed Wu Sanfu's words.

Wu Sanfu then said: "Master Chitose, please mobilize the three-pound cannon to Hanyang Gate! The three-pound cannon can shoot loose shells at close range, and one blast will cover a large area!"

This Wu Sanfu was quite capable of coming up with ideas. Now the three respected veterans immediately became impatient.

"What did you say, Duke?"

"You can't shoot loose bullets!"

"Those are the seeds of Huguang's study! You can't hit them with cannons!"

Zhu Cixiang saw the three veterans jumping up and interrupted quickly: "Who said we were going to bomb the Hanyang Gate? Don't I know the ballistics of the twenty-pound and thirty-six-pound long-barreled artillery? Those who teach the artillery department of Wutang

"Ballistics" is still the third assistant written by me. I want you to bombard Guishan in Hanyang! Aren't the group of scholars outside Hanyang Gate going to the Northern Expedition? Then let's do it! Go quickly and let Feng Sizhong fight.

Be accurate!"

"Here!" Wu Sanfu responded, turned around and went to deploy the artillery bombardment.

Yuan Jixian, Qiu Yu, Fang Gongyue and other three veteran ministers also got angry. Looking at Zhu Cixiang again, they saw the young Prince Fujun with a faint smile on his face. That's not right.

Aren't you harboring some bad ideas again?

Boom boom

When the twenty-four-pound and thirty-six-pound cannons started roaring, Emperor Dashun Li Zicheng was having lunch in his palace, which was the original Hanyang government office! There was no delicacy, just a few vegetarian dishes and a steamed Wuchang strip.

The fish is sandwiched with white flour steamed buns, and a large pot of mutton is stewed. A bite of white flour steamed buns filled with Wuchang fish, and a mouthful of mutton soup, what a beauty!

Because good news came from everywhere, Li Zicheng was in a good mood today and had a good appetite. When he was eating happily, the roar of cannons came.

Li Zicheng raised his head and looked at the open window. It was a beautiful day outside. It was obviously not thunder, but someone was firing artillery! Could it be that the artillery battalion on Guishan Fort was training?

Just when he was wondering, Liu Zongmin hurried over!

Li Zicheng greeted with a smile: "Jixuan, you're here just in time, let's have some steamed buns with fish, it's so delicious!"

"Your Majesty!" Liu Zongmin kowtowed quickly, and then hurriedly reported: "The red thieves' cannons are blasting our Guishan Fort!"

Li Zicheng smiled nonchalantly: "Well, just treat it like it's no big deal and call him back!"

Liu Zongmin shook his head: "You can't fight back!"

"Why?" Li Zicheng was stunned.

Liu Zongmin said: "Because the two cannons that bombarded Guishan were not mounted on the tower of Hanyang Gate, but on Phoenix Mountain!"

"How far is it on Phoenix Mountain?"

"Yes, it's five or six miles away! The Hongyi cannon on Guishan Mountain is very difficult to reach. Even if you can barely reach it, you won't be able to get it right."

Li Zicheng let out a breath and laughed: "Don't panic then. If our Hongyi cannon can't hit, their Hongyi cannon will definitely not be able to hit either."

Liu Zongmin shook his head: "Your Majesty, their cannons can hit the cannon camp. The brothers have already picked up the shells they fired. They are one or two rounds bigger than the shells fired by our Hongyi cannon!"

"How big are the shells of the Hongyi cannon?" Li Zicheng didn't react for a moment.

Liu Zongmin said: "Your Majesty, their cannons are bigger than ours!"

"Ah" Li Zicheng touched his forehead, he was really confused! Zhu Cihong occupied the southeastern treasure land and could trade with the Red Yi Kingdom in the west, so he could naturally buy huge cannons.

"Then we have to fight back!" Li Zicheng said calmly, "Now is the moment when the two armies are confronting each other, and we cannot lose our prestige."

"But our cannons can't hit Phoenix Mountain!"

Li Zicheng thought for a while, put down the half-eaten "fish clip steamed bun", and stood up: "Let's go and have a look at the Chao Zongmen."

Chaozongmen is the east gate of Hanyang City, at the foot of Guishan Mountain and on the edge of the Yangtze River. Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin quietly climbed up the city wall near Chaozongmen without daring to make a big fuss or even go up to the city tower. When Lao Li was attacking Beijing, he

He used the Hongyi cannon to plot against Zhu Cixi, and now of course he has learned a lot from the experience.

So he went up to the city wall next to the tower, looked around with a telescope, and found that it was very lively outside the Hanyang Gate opposite. There were a lot of noisy people, most of whom were Confucian scholars, and they were holding many tattered flags.

, don’t know what you want to do?

"It's right there! A place where many people are crowded." Li Zicheng put down his telescope and raised his hand to point. "What's the name of that city gate?"

"It's called Hanyang Gate." Someone from the left and right answered.

"Hit! Just shoot Hanyang Gate!"

"I hit it, I hit it"

Outside Hanyang Gate, a group of talented people were cheering!

They were not cheering for what they had hit, but they were cheering for the cannon on Phoenix Mountain to hit Guishan. Although they didn’t know whether they had killed the evil bandit, they listened to the roar of the cannon and watched the flying sand stirred up by the cannonballs.

They felt unspeakably happy!

Peng Ziqin also shouted "I got it, I got it", just like he shouted when he won the national examination. When he was getting excited, he saw several clouds of smoke suddenly coming out of the turtle mountain opposite, and then several black people.

Diandian flew towards him at an extremely fast speed. In just the blink of an eye, two loud "bang bang" sounds came from behind him, followed by the sound of screams.

Peng Ziqin quickly looked back and saw two big holes in the outer wall of the Hanyang Gate Tower! There was a mess under the big holes. How many people dressed as scholars were running around holding their heads, and there were a few with hair full of hair.

Their faces were covered in blood. They were injured by city bricks falling from the tower of Hanyang Gate.

It turns out that the Hanyang Gate Tower is a traditional straight brick wall. Once it is bombarded, even if the thick city wall is not penetrated, a lot of bricks on the wall will be broken, and then scattered down like exploding bombs.

It can cover a large area. The people standing below will suffer a disaster, and they will definitely be smashed to the head and bleeding.

Bang bang

Two more 12-pound stone bullets hit the Hanyang Gate Tower. Broken bricks fell down, leaving a group of troublemaking scholars with no place to hide.

Now everyone knew that it was the bandits on the opposite side who were firing cannons at Hanyang Gate!
Chapter completed!