I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 341 Artillery Group
King Altudai was at the back of the charge. With red eyes, he watched the warriors of the Khorchin tribe being killed by cheap lead bullets. His heart was bleeding, but he knew that this was the price he had to pay. He knew that the tiger squat cannon took a long time to reload, and in this chaotic situation, he only had one chance to fire.
As long as he and the Mongolian cavalry behind him can continue to charge into the Ming army's formation, they will be able to achieve final victory!

Finally, some Mongolian cavalry rushed into the army formation, but they were killed in the blink of an eye. However, this gradually tore a hole in the army formation. The thunderous sound of horse hooves and the densely packed charging troops had already made the soldiers of the Datong Army terrified. Now, the extremely cruel close combat with the Mongols with blood and flesh flying everywhere has dealt a huge blow to their spirits.
Moreover, the Mongolian cavalry did not just charge into the battle formation. Many of them galloped directly in front of the battle formation, shooting in the face with a five-step range. Some even dismounted in front of the battle formation and shot at the face with their bows. While the Mongols suffered huge casualties, the casualties of the Datong army were also rising sharply.

Seeing that the Ming army was beginning to waver, King Altudai rushed in with his most elite cavalry. He rode on his horse and stared at his target, a young man who looked relatively immature. His face was filled with fear and he seemed to be about to collapse in the next moment.
King Altuda laughed cruelly, picked up his spear and prepared to strike the young man in the neck.
At this moment, a louder noise overwhelmed the sound of the Mongolian charging horses.
The next moment, hundreds of iron bullets flew over the heads of the Datong Army and fell from the sky, smashing hard into the charging Mongolian troops...

The charging Mongolian cavalry were knocked off their horses and their offensive was stagnate...

Just when the Mongols were confused about the situation, more iron bombs fell from the sky...

The Mongolian cavalry's charge path became a living hell...

"Fire rapidly! Don't stop! Don't stop until the barrel turns red!" Jiang Jiangong shouted.

The only response he got was the continuous sound of artillery fire...

An artillery position suddenly appeared behind the Datong Army formation. This artillery position gathered all the Portuguese cannons of the New Army, a total of 500 guns...

This is the suggestion Jiang Jiangong made yesterday. He suggested concentrating all the Portuguese cannons to form a mobile support force to deal with possible large-scale charges by the Mongols.

Don't be scared by the number of 500 guns. The Portuguese cannon finally finalized by the Royal Group weighs only 500 kilograms. It is specially produced for field battles and is equipped with a well-designed gun carriage. It is light and flexible. A simple horse or two civilians can pull the gun carriage on a march, and five artillerymen can operate a gun.

So although the number of 500 guns seems exaggerated, it is actually only the basic configuration of the new army. According to the ratio of numbers, more than ninety new soldiers can get the support of one Portuguese cannon.

However, the new army was also equipped with a larger number of lighter cannons such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon to deal with various situations.

The reason why the Portuguese gun could become a supporting artillery is that it has the longest range among all field artillery, exceeding 1500m.

However, the recommended range of the Portuguese cannon is within 500 meters, and it should be used by direct fire to attack densely packed enemies in front of the formation.

However, over the past few days, these numerous Portuguese cannons had basically not been fired, because it was too wasteful to use such cannons to attack the harassing Mongolian cavalry, and they might not even hit the target.

Faced with the possibility that the Mongols might launch a large-scale attack on the Datong army, Jiang Jiangong suggested simply gathering all these Portuguese cannons to form a mobile support force.

The Ming army's formation was not densely packed with the front, back, left, right and center armies. The front, back, left, right armies surrounded the center army in the center, and the center army and the other four armies kept a distance of 200 meters. The mobile support force maneuvered in this 200-meter gap, and would pack up the artillery carts and rush to the direction where the Mongolian cavalry attacked in large numbers, and set up artillery positions behind the army formation.

Because the Datong Army was most likely to be attacked by the Mongols, this mobile support force stayed behind the Datong Army by default. They established an artillery position 150 meters behind the formation.

Of course, in this case, direct fire is not possible, only indirect fire support is available.

The recommended range of the Portuguese cannon is 500 meters. This does not mean that the shells it fires will lose their lethality beyond 500 meters. This recommended range is determined based on the accuracy of the cannon. Beyond this range, the accuracy will become poorer.

But facing the massive charging Mongolian cavalry, what kind of accuracy is needed? A rough accuracy will be enough.

Every Portuguese cannon equipped by the new army was accompanied by a gun table when it left the factory. This gun table was made by a special person one shot at a time before leaving the factory. It recorded the elevation angle that needed to be adjusted when the gun fired various shells directly or indirectly at a certain distance.

In fact, there are some slight differences in each gun table, which is caused by the lack of uniformity in precision when casting the guns.

Although the Datong army had more than 20,000 soldiers, the thickness of the army formation was only about 70 to 80 meters, which gave the artillerymen behind them room to fire indirect fire.

More than 2500 Portuguese cannons require more than artillerymen, and these artillerymen are definitely the most educated soldiers in the new army. If they don’t know some mathematics, they will definitely not be able to operate this kind of cannon.

Most of them were recruited into the new army from the Royal Group. They allocated their respective attack distances according to their respective artillery tables. One row attacked at 500 meters, and that row attacked at 600 meters, in order to better distribute the damage evenly.

After all, it would be a waste for so many shells to fall at almost the same distance.

The shells fired by the Portuguese cannon are called round iron shells, with a diameter of 13.42 cm (many people may have no idea about this diameter, as the length of an iPhone 15 is 14.76 cm), a weight of 20 kilograms, and are solid bullets.

Although indirect solid bullets cannot penetrate several people in a dense formation like direct solid bullets, leaving a bloody alley with one shot, their power is still considerable. After all, it is not about attacking an enemy, but about killing combatants.

The kinetic energy it carries can instantly carry away a person or horse, and then bounce again, injuring several more people or horses.
Even if some shells were fired too far and their horizontal kinetic energy was completely consumed, these shells had already been fired dozens of meters into the air, and the kinetic energy in the vertical direction converted from their kinetic potential energy during the fall was enough to kill a person.
The most important thing is that the Portuguese cannon has a very fast firing rate. The first three shots can be fired within 20 seconds, and the speed of the following shots can be maintained at more than 20 seconds per shot. The five sub-guns of the Portuguese cannon can make its loading speed faster and also make its heat dissipation ability better.

So under Jiang Jiangong's command, all the artillerymen moved frantically. They did not pursue salvo fire, but only wanted to fire the shells as quickly as possible. Each time they fired a shot, they simply adjusted the firing parameters, as long as they did not hit the Datong Army's formation.
The entire artillery position was constantly flashing and was shrouded in thick white smoke. The temperature of the entire position suddenly rose several degrees as the firing progressed.
The endless artillery shells poured into the dense charging team of the Mongolian cavalry.
(End of this chapter)