The counterattack that Li Daoxuan had expected did not happen.
There was only a group of Han soldiers with yellow flags. Even the Manzhou masters had been wiped out, and even Yide had been hung on the city wall. How could a bunch of cannon fodder dare to counterattack? As for Li Daoxuan, he was not interested in attacking either. Although he had easily taken Ningyuan, the Ming army had also lost nearly 200 people. This cavalry was his true confidant. The successive victories had already made these soldiers blindly worship him. Such people were very loyal and could be used as seeds. They all needed to be protected as much as possible. There was no need to waste them on a small target that was not worth mentioning.
Similarly, the Qing army in Lianshan did not go south.
About 200 Qing soldiers who had escaped from Ningyuan had gone to the north. They had probably spread his legend in Lianshan. Ai Duli, who was stationed in Jinzhou, was probably still confused.
Moreover, there were not many soldiers in Jinzhou.
Dorgon was preparing to lead his army west, like last time, to attack Beijing with Li Zicheng. Or, he could kill two birds with one stone when the Ming army and Li Zicheng were both injured. He probably wouldn't even know that Li Zicheng had taken Beijing. At this time, the speed of information transmission was very slow, and he might not even know that he had taken Ning Yuan. In short, the second day after he seized Ningyuan, everything was calm. Deputy General Chen conscientiously led his subordinates to count the supplies in the city and arrange the city defense. Although this general was not very good at fighting, he was a very good assistant type talent. At least, Li Daoxuan was very satisfied with his performance these days.
"How do I use this thing?"
He sat on an armchair on the top of the city wall and curiously looked at a soldier fiddling with a musket.
He did not find many cannons in Ningyuan City. The original cannons here were all taken away by Wu Sangui. When the Qing army came, they only brought four copper cannons that should be considered red cannons. There were also four Flang machines that were loaded in the breech, but there were plenty of muskets. There were hundreds of them. In fact, including his 10,000 infantrymen who were rushing over, nearly half of them were ancient muskets. At this time, whether it was the Qing army or the Ming army, the proportion of firearms was shocking.
"Quick, show it to His Majesty!"
An officer hurriedly said.
The soldier quickly took out a small bamboo tube from his waist, pulled out the stopper, and carefully poured the gunpowder into the barrel. Then, he took out a lead ball from the box on his waist and put it in the barrel. He then took out the rod under the barrel and poked it hard. He opened the fire door cover and took out another small pot from his waist. He poured some gunpowder into the medicine pool on the fire door and shook the gun body a few times, probably letting the gunpowder leak out. Then, he pulled out a matchstick from his waist and clamped it on the clip of the matchstick. He took out a lighter and blew on it. He first lit the matchstick before raising his gun and aiming forward.
"So troublesome?"
Li Daoxuan said speechlessly.
"Your Majesty, muskets are all like this. However, during a war, three or five rows take turns to shoot. This way, the interval between firing is very short.”
the officer said.
"How far can we fight? Tell me the truth, I'm not bragging."
Li Daoxuan asked.
"It's hard to say. If it can't pierce through the armor, it should be able to hurt people within 300 feet. However, if it can pierce through the cotton armor, it will be less than 100 feet. If it's thicker, it will be good if it can hurt people within 50 feet. If it's like Your Majesty wearing a thick cotton armor nailed with iron plates, two layers of chain mail, and a circle of mountain pattern armor, even if it can pierce through, it will only hurt a little. If there's a shield cart in front, it will be useless. Moreover, because the people from the Ministry of Works made this thing crudely, it often exploded. In my opinion, it would be better to use a hard bow than this. It's just that ordinary people can't pull a hard bow!”
the officer said.
Li Daoxuan nodded.
He had experienced this very well. Yesterday, he had taken more than 30 bullets, and the deepest ones in his legs had only penetrated a centimeter into his flesh. Before he could even receive special treatment, they were directly pushed out by his healed muscles. In the end, he took off his armor and shook the lead balls all over the ground. He was quite speechless.
"Then why do you think this musket can't hit far?”
Li Daoxuan asked.
Before the officer could think of anything, the soldier who was demonstrating hesitated.
"Tell me."
Li Daoxuan pointed at him.
"Your Majesty, I, I feel that this pellet is not good enough. The barrel is so thick, and there is a big gap between the pellet and the barrel, just like a bellows. If the gap on both sides is big, it will definitely leak air.”
The soldier said as he lay on the ground.
"Well said, I'll reward you with a thousand households. However, remember this first and then give it to you in the future!”
Li Daoxuan said with satisfaction.
The soldier excitedly knelt on the ground and thanked him.
"But if the bullets are made big, it's not easy to put them in. The thickness of the gun barrel actually varies. Because it's made in a rough way, some gun barrels are not even the same thickness from the front to the back. If the bullets are made too well, they won't be able to fit in more than half of the time. Therefore, we can only make them smaller for easier loading.”
the officer said.
"Then why don't you wrap it with a layer of something? For example, linen, especially linen, would make the pellet bigger by wrapping it with this? Then, he would soak it in oil. Even if it was slightly bigger, because the linen was soft and soaked in oil, it would still be easily stuffed in. However, it could seal the air leakage. Wouldn't that increase the range when he fired again? Of course, it didn't have to be linen. Soft leather would work too, such as deerskin.”
Li Daoxuan said.
"Long live the sage, we have been enlightened!”
The officer hurriedly flattered.
"I'll leave this matter to you. I'll reward you with the position of assistant minister of the Ministry of Works first. If you do it well for me, I'll really give you the title of Earl!”
Li Daoxuan patted him on the shoulder.
This was all he could do now. Moreover, this wasn't something that he could count on in a short period of time. After all, neither Li Zicheng nor Dorgon would give him time to upgrade his technology. If he really wanted to defend Ning Yuan, he had no other choice but to fight with real weapons. In the end, the mace in his hand was the most reliable.
But the problem was that he was useless alone!
No matter how good he was at fighting, he couldn't stop thousands of soldiers. If the Ming army had arrived half an hour later last night, he would have been exhausted to death. His ability was only to deal with a battle of a hundred people. Once he reached the level of a thousand people, he would be exhausted to death. Therefore, he needed an army, an army that could at least dare to fight, let alone fight.
There was actually no problem for the Ming army to fight.
They had everything the Qing army had.
There was no need to talk about armors. Both sides mainly used cotton armor. Other types of mail and chain mail were also common items. There was no difference in weapons. Even a large portion of the Qing army's weapons were seized from the Ming army. The cold weapons were all the same, nothing more than knives, spears, bows, and arrows. As for the Qing army's firearms, they were developed by traitors like Kong Youde. Both sides had the same front cannon and matchlock. In other words, both sides were of the same level in terms of equipment.
As for the quality of the soldiers.
He understood that the Qing army had a higher individual combat strength, but this did not mean that the Ming army was weak. At least, the Ming army under his command was not. These people were also well-trained and their decapitation speed was not inferior to the Qing army. Infantry in the wild was indeed not enough to deal with the Qing cavalry, but there was absolutely no problem in hiding in the castle. It was nothing more than shooting arrows and smashing down with wolf fang bats. There was no need to face the flood of cavalry or the forest of spears. The Qing army was only relying on the Red Cannon to attack the city. He did not believe that the 18-pound cannon could destroy a castle of the level of Shanhaiguan in Ningyuan. To be honest, it would be good if it could destroy the arrow pile with one shot, and that was after deducting the tragic accuracy.
In the end, the Ming army lacked the courage to fight. If they really turned around and ran like yesterday, it would be a fantasy to win.
"You need courage!"
He sat on the armchair and looked at the green land outside the city as he muttered to himself.
"Tartar!"
A sudden scream woke him up.
Li Daoxuan hurriedly raised his head and looked into the distance. There was almost a group of Manzhou soldiers with yellow flags coming from the north. They were obviously coming from Lianshan. There were also Qing troops stationed there, but they were not here to counterattack Ning Yuan. It was impossible for them to attack the city with such a small number of people. Such a short period of time was not enough for Ai Duli to react, so they could only come to scout. After all, they needed to know the specific situation in Ning Yuan.
"Go, invite Ilder over!"
Li Daoxuan waved to an officer beside him.
The latter immediately smiled wickedly and called a few soldiers to leave. Just as the Qing army was about a mile away from the Weiyuan Gate, these guys carried Eld's corpse over and waved it in the sky like a flag. The Qing soldiers outside did not see clearly at first, but they obviously guessed something. They urged their horses to continue approaching the city wall. When they were close enough to see clearly, they all rushed over like crazy. At the same time, they scattered and raised their bows and arrows to shoot at the city wall.
Li Daoxuan immediately ran to the back of a cannon, took the ignition rod from a soldier, and carefully aimed at the back. Then, without hesitation, he inserted the matchstick into the ignition hole.
An earth-shattering cannon sound suddenly rang out. From the fierce backseat of the cannon, a cannonball whistled and flew out. In an instant, Niu Lu's entire upper body was shot off. Moreover, the kinetic energy of this cannonball had not been exhausted. It immediately hit another Qing soldier in the same line and also shot his upper body into a cloud of blood mist. Then, it hit a rock in front of him. Under the impact, it quickly rebounded and sent the leg of the third Qing soldier flying. The crushed stones also hit a Qing soldier until half of his face was gone.
"F * ck, this thing suits my status!”
Li Daoxuan said in satisfaction under the dumbfounded gazes of the crowd.
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