Chapter 506 Bastion

Next is the last part of the armament technology tour in the second year of Yongle, which is the on-site inspection of the bastion.

To be honest, things like bastions are really amazing weapons as long as the firearms can keep up.

Especially in overseas colonies, if you build a bastion and supporting artillery group, hundreds or even thousands of people can defend the stronghold for several months or even a year, calmly waiting for the support of the fleet.

However, compared with traditional high-walled cities, bastions test the technical and tactical level and psychological quality of the defenders more.

There are many battle cases in ancient and modern times at home and abroad that can prove how much the high city walls add to the psychological advantage of the defender. The city wall is enough to allow the defenders to exert the same combat effectiveness as the attackers in many cases. But if this situation is Arriving at the relatively low bastion, the untrained civilians watched the enemy climb up the gentle slope. They were afraid that there would soon be a situation where "two groups were fighting and almost wanted to leave first".

But on the contrary, if the bastion is stationed with well-trained firearms troops and has standard configuration of muskets and artillery, then the bastion will be almost indestructible and even the most efficient when resisting the attacker. It is a killing machine, which is why in the Age of Discovery, Western colonists could easily rule vast areas with coastal strongholds. The indestructible bastion is the secret. In all recorded historical data, the record of the bastion being conquered can be described as It's one of a kind.

This has to mention the gold content of Zheng Chenggong. Although it is not easy to chew, the city of Relanja that Zheng Chenggong faces has a standard bastion group structure, with a circumference of 200 feet and a height of 30 feet. The outer city consists of three bastions. The inner city consists of four bastions with a total of 80 cannons. This Renaissance-style star-shaped fortress could only be relied on before the Vauban siege method (parallel trench advancement, that is, the civil engineering siege method) was popularized. Time ran out and Zheng Chenggong relied on the Half-Moon Fort to cover the artillery group. He managed to break through the outer city of the bastion and threatened to blow up the inner city with gunpowder, forcing the Dutch to surrender.

Looking at the earth and stone bastion in front of them, the princes seemed to see some clues, but they didn't seem to see anything.

Bastion, also known as "Star Castle", was invented by the Italians in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life in the late Renaissance. The main purpose was to change the traditional square city wall into a concave polygon and the circular tower into a prismatic fortress. The dead zone of firepower in the castle was eliminated, so that no matter where the city was attacked from, it would be covered by crossfire from two or more firepower points. The improved version of the bastion was made by the Dutch, which coincided with the 80th year of the Dutch's independence from Spain. During the war, after actual combat testing, the Dutch chose to lower the height of the fortress, thicken the walls, and then build an obtuse angle between the outer wall of the fortress and the ground. This not only prevented cannons, but also resisted gunpowder bombing the city.

As for the bastion modified by Jiang Xing Fire Demon, considering that there were no artillery in this era, he did not choose to significantly reduce the height of the wall or thicken the wall, because this kind of low and extremely thick wall is mainly used for To combat direct-aiming artillery, even in the Timurid Empire, there are no direct-aiming artillery, so it is enough to thicken it appropriately. More often, the outer walls are made angular and uneven, so that they are incomparable with the traditional flat ones. Compared with a straight city wall, the blind spot for shooting is almost completely eliminated. Enemies coming from either side will be hit by firepower from multiple angles and directions, turning the bastion into a killing machine.

This kind of bastion is basically similar to the early Italian bastion during the Renaissance, but it is better in terms of self-sufficiency. It is equivalent to an independent fortress group, with basements, warehouses, wells and other buildings, and logistics supplies. The standard is roughly one thousand men stationed for half a year under non-rationing system, or one year under rationing system.

First build a series of them in the Hexi Corridor in Gansu, and then the rest can be built at the northern border and overseas strongholds. The effect will definitely be better than the traditional square city.

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said, "Let's get on the hot air balloon and have a bird's eye view."

He actually hid something today just to give these people a surprise and let them see what war in the firearm age is.

The hidden hand must be in mid-air to see clearly.

There were two prepared hot air balloons tied next to them. Everyone was divided into two groups and boarded the hot air balloon. Then the hot air balloon slowly rose to a distance of about eight or nine feet above the ground. At this height, the entire scene could be easily observed. The structure of the bastion.

No one dares to go up any higher. The rope is very safe at this position. No one can say whether absolute safety can be guaranteed if it goes up any higher.

But the height cannot be too low, because artillery shells also have ballistics. If any gunner misses the shot, it will be funny if the entire Ming military leadership is brought to a boil. Although the probability of such a thing happening is rare, but what if? ?

Zhu Di and others boarded the hot air balloon. Looking from mid-air, the entire bastion looked like a starfish.

Subsequently, the core of the bastion was quickly observed by a few people with keen military sense. The entire "ridge" on the periphery of the bastion was constructed around the cannon. The previous turrets were always quadrilateral or circular. Now the bastion's turret is prismatic. The function of this turret structure is obvious, that is, it can easily shoot at the attacking infantry without blind spots.

“What are these ditches and gentle slopes used for?”

"trap."

Zhu Di hit the nail on the head. In fact, this thing is for the attacking infantry to climb on. It seems to be a smooth road to victory, but in fact it is a trap leading to hell.

What can be seen more clearly from the sky is that there is a low wall in the middle of the bastion for the gunmen to shoot. There is usually a concave fort in front of the low wall, which seems to prevent the enemy from quickly climbing.

In addition, there is a small triangular fort under the fort, which is shorter than the main fort. It should be designed to avoid accidental damage to friendly forces. In addition, the troop transport tunnels and Z-shaped horizontal walls can be seen from the air.

"Start?"

"let's start."

"Let's demonstrate."

The officer on the ground straightened up and gave an order to his subordinates.

"yes!"

The scarecrow infantrymen wearing armor were moved to the offensive position by a group of people. Seeing that there were nearly a thousand people, it was considered a saturation attack, not to mention lining up to be shot.

Subsequently, the artillery on the bastion began to fire at the imaginary enemy positions.

"Whoosh!"

There was a sharp whistling sound, and the shells came out of the barrel. The high-speed shells rubbed the air, forming a long white exhaust, and then landed in the target area.

"Boom! Boom boom boom!"

In an instant, with the explosion of fire and gunpowder smoke rising into the sky, the attacking scarecrow suddenly turned into debris all over the sky, flying down along with the soil.

"Why do cannonballs explode?"

Jiang Xinghuo, who was holding the edge of the hanging basket with Zhu Di, explained: "Blowing bombs!"

The flower bomb is actually a technological point without any technical content.

At first, Jiang Xinghuo thought wrongly. When he was studying the paper shells of firecrackers, he thought that cannons must also produce integral copper shells, just like modern artillery grenades. Later, he found that his thinking had changed. A dead end. Because he remembered that flower bombs appeared in the late Ming Dynasty!

What level of technology could there be in the late Ming Dynasty?

The technological products that could be produced in the late Ming Dynasty can definitely be produced by him now, so his thinking must be wrong.

Later, during the Chinese New Year, Jiang Xinghuo watched the children smashing snowballs, and suddenly thought that in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie he had seen before, it seemed that the cannonballs used by the pirates were round cannonballs like snowballs, and then artificially lit in the middle. A lead.

Then Jiang Xinghuo suddenly realized.

There is no need to think about high-end proximity fuzes or delayed fuzes. This is purely artificial. It is no different from the delayed explosion principle of the two-kicking kick. It is full of gunpowder and can explode after being launched. If we really have to talk about the difference between the explosive bomb and the two-kicker delayed explosion. What is the difference between the kicking kicks? That is, the second kicking kick causes the explosion of paper pieces, while the explosive bomb causes the explosion of iron pieces.

So, it’s really just a layer of window paper

In the past, solid shells were used, but now you can use blooming shells. It's as simple as that.

But the emperor and the princes did not know. When everyone saw this scene, they all gasped in unison. Although they knew that the artillery was very powerful, they did not expect that the artillery had developed to the point that it could destroy large areas. The level of infantry.

Although the previous solid artillery shells were very powerful, their damage effect on infantry was not obvious. The projectiles could only kill two or three people. But now in front of such artillery shells that can bloom and explode, how many infantrymen are sent up? Being slaughtered?

Looking at the scarecrow infantry whose armor was torn apart by artillery fire, they really didn't expect that the new artillery shells combined with the bastion turret could cause such amazing damage.

Then, the gunman on the low wall also fired.

When the smoke dissipated, the princes who got off the hot air balloon looked closely at the wreckage of the scarecrow infantry. Thinking of the scene they had just seen from the air, they couldn't help showing shocked expressions on their faces.

"Okay! Great!"

Zhu Di suddenly excitedly applauded: "What a bastion. With such artillery fire to support it, isn't it true that one man can guard the barrier and ten thousand people can't open it?"

Zhu Neng couldn't help but admired: "Good guy, with this thing out, people in the field may not rush to the gun muzzle, but it is impossible to defend the city!"

"Is this the national master's bastion? It's really powerful."

Rujun, Minister of the Ministry of War, obviously didn't understand. After hearing what they said, he couldn't help frowning and said: "The cannon is really sharp, and it will shatter the armor of everyone when it hits it, but this bastion is shorter, thicker and more complex than an ordinary city. It’s just a few things, I really don’t know what the secret is.”

Zhu Di smiled and said: "Uncle Zhongzhong, you don't understand. You have never seen the attack on Dezhou. If there had been such 'crossfire' at that time, we might not even have thought about attacking the city."

This means that laymen watch the fun, while experts watch the door.

Although Rujun is an earl, and although he sits in the position of Minister of War, he is still essentially a civil servant who has never been on the battlefield. The most terrifying thing about the bastion is not actually the explosive shells, even if it is a solid projectile, or there is no artillery at all. It is a fire gun or a powerful crossbow. The effect is the same. The key lies in killing without blind spots.

It's just that the artillery equipped with explosive shells magnified this point infinitely.

Zhu Di pulled Ru Ru forward and continued to watch carefully along the gentle slope. When he saw three black muzzles on the bastion pointing at him at the same time, Ru Ru was horrified.

Just now, he was in the sky, his eyes were dim, and he could only watch the excitement on the ground. Now he climbed up these gentle slopes and canals towards the bastion, only to discover the subtlety of this firepower design.

"This is still made of rammed earth and masonry. If reinforced concrete is used, even gunpowder will not be afraid of blowing up the city."

As soon as Jiang Xinghuo finished speaking, Qiu Fu asked, "How much does this reinforced concrete cost?"

"Reinforced steel is definitely expensive, and concrete needs to be experimented before it can be produced, but it is definitely cheaper than glutinous rice slurry and strips of stone."

Hearing this, Qiu Fu was a little disappointed. Obviously, if the reinforced concrete structure wants to be built on a large scale, it is not feasible in terms of cost. However, since it is cheaper than the cost of glutinous rice paste and strips of stone, it can be used in key cities or fortresses. Not a problem. "

"The wall of this bastion is actually repaired according to the traditional city wall model. Look at its battlements and walls. If reinforced concrete is used, it can be improved, and it can even be constructed into a curved surface. It is not difficult."

Traditional city walls are generally flat due to their masonry structure, because once they are constructed into a curved surface, the stress will be very uneven. In order to offset this uneven stress, the curvature must be smoothed and the thickness must be increased. The most obvious structure of this kind of building is the urn city structure. Almost all urn cities are very thick and gentle. Although they look like a semicircle from the inside, the curvature is extremely unobvious when viewed from the outside.

Reinforced concrete structures can achieve many more breakthroughs in construction than masonry structures. The most typical example is dams. Dams made of reinforced concrete can achieve quite perfect curvature, thereby offsetting a large number of The high pressure caused by the water storage.

"Curved surface, wouldn't it mean that you can't even mount a ladder?" Xu Jingchang suddenly realized this.

"It's not that arcane."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled. Since basically all the scientific research results of the first year of Yongle were shown to them today, the effect was obvious. Their first reaction was to believe whatever Jiang Xinghuo said.

Cotton-steel composite armor, steel cannons, paper-cased fixed-loading ammunition, explosive bombs, and bastions, what revolutionary military technologies are there? There doesn't seem to be one, but the combination of these has quietly advanced military technology for two centuries. When the Ming army possesses these, it is equivalent to having equipment and technology that would normally only be available two hundred years later.

And this is the real generation difference.

Zhu Di's interest remained undiminished and he led everyone to the fortress.

"When will Liu Sheng come back?" Zhu Di suddenly asked as he walked.

Zhu Neng was startled for a moment, and then replied: "About this month, I will come back with Cao Guogong."

On the Annan Kingdom side, the Ming Dynasty's garrison has actually been withdrawing into the country. The Ming Dynasty has no intention of staying away. It can fight back at any time. It doesn't make much difference where the troops are garrisoned. As long as they control the contract port of Thanh Hoa Port. That's it.

The reason why troops are stationed in Annan is really what Chen Tianping strongly requested.

The Annan Kingdom had just ended the war, and the north was ceded to the Ming Dynasty. The entire country was in chaos. A large number of defeated soldiers armed with armor, swords, guns, and bows and crossbows occupied the mountains and became kings. Bandits were rampant in various places and needed to be eradicated.

In fact, if it were just a public security issue, it would be okay to just send troops to suppress bandits. The most serious problem is that Chen Tianping's basic base is too unstable, and what he does can be said to be boiling with public dissatisfaction.

These local powerful people who were affected by Hu's New Deal began to launch a massive counterattack after Hu's fall. They were pulling each other against Chen Tianping, but Chen Tianping had no good solution.

Now in Annan, politically, Chen Tianping has to rely on these traditional nobles and local powerful men; economically, in addition to being the comprador of the Ming Dynasty and accepting blood transfusions, Chen Tianping has to bite the bullet and collect taxes from the local area; militarily, surrendering to his The loyalty of the army is very low, and military discipline is even worse. Only the Ming army is reliable.

Therefore, the army clashed with local powerful men every day, and the conflict of interests between different factions in the temple gave Chen Tianping a headache. What else could he do without relying on the Ming Dynasty?

However, the Ming Dynasty's military center of gravity is now moving north, and it is definitely impossible to help Chen Tianping here every day to suppress local security wars. Therefore, the Ming army is returning home one after another. Those who can help Chen Tianping secure the throne are to transport supplies through Thanh Hoa Port. As well as leaving a capable army and reorganizing and training Chen Tianping's own armed forces.

This matter was handed over to Zhang Fu, who performed well during the conquest of Annan. When Li Jinglong, Liu Sheng and others returned home, the Ming army stationed in Annan would be commanded by Zhang Fu.

Considering Zhang Yu's status in the Yan army, although Zhang Fu is only an earl now, he will definitely be promoted to a marquis in the future, and then legitimately inherit Zhang Yu's dukedom.

In fact, if Zhang Fu wanted to, he could follow Xu Jingchang's example and directly ask the emperor to let him attack the Duke. Zhu Di also had this idea before, but Zhang Fu himself refused. He wanted to stand out by his own ability.

"When Liu Sheng comes back, let him set up the two guards of Shenji Camp."

When he came to the bastion and looked at the barrel of the artillery, Qiu Fu asked a soul question.

"How is the artillery aimed?"

This time Jiang Xinghuo took it upon himself to demonstrate it to him.

But unlike before when he was dismissive in the military academy, this time the old general knelt down and looked at it carefully.

Li Jinglong, a five-star general in Annan, commented: "I used to sneer at this, but now I can't wait to learn it frame by frame. It's not that catapults can't be used, but artillery is more cost-effective."

The firing of artillery definitely does not rely on the gunner's feeling.

In fact, through the guidance of Jiang Xinghuo's several artillery books, coupled with the exploration of Liu Sheng and others, the Ming army's artillery has come up with relatively standardized operating guidelines, as well as supporting artillery sighting equipment.

"This is a gun gauge, used to measure the angle of elevation."

This thing is a bit like a fishing rod. You have to put the rod into the muzzle of the artillery first, and then judge and obtain the elevation angle of the gun body based on the area where the hanging weight line coincides with the gun gauge. Jiang Xinghuo remembers that the artillery seems to be able to measure data from the rear. , but he didn't know how to do it, so he could only use this relatively primitive measurement method for the time being.

"This is a gun ruler, used to measure the filling amount of gunpowder bags."

The function of the gun ruler is to measure the amount of gunpowder that should be filled in the artillery. This is related to the caliber of the artillery and the size of the projectiles. The best choice is definitely to completely burn out the gunpowder to be filled, so that the cannonball can be pushed out of the barrel, but In fact, it is generally better to load more than less, because if you load too much, the barrel will not explode immediately, but if you load too little, it will be very dangerous if the shells cannot be fired. Solid shells can still be poured out if they cannot be fired, and they will bloom. Wouldn't it just blow up the inside?

Therefore, in order to have a specific standard, gunners will refer to this scale when loading gunpowder, which is the gun ruler.

But in fact, just like only novice chefs can put seasonings according to grams, experienced chefs are all about "appropriate amount" and "a little". They can know the approximate amount at a glance and usually don't look at this stuff.

"This is a metric board, a tool used to measure lengths and angles. We have always had it in China. It used to be mainly used for astronomical stargazing. This simplified version is used to guide artillery shooting. First calculate the elevation angle, and then When the gunpowder charge and the shell weight are constant, the range is basically fixed, so you can achieve the effect of hitting the target more accurately by adjusting the up, down, left, and right of the artillery."

"If a string of repairs were made dotted around the Hexi Corridor, Timur's old cripple would bite them one by one, and his teeth would probably break."

"Ha ha ha ha!"

With Zhu Di's hearty laughter, at this moment, many people present realized what a great invention this seemingly simple but full of technological fortress was!

You know, the Timur Empire's expedition has always made Zhu Di feel a thorn in his back. Even if it can't be said to be a shadow, it still makes people uncomfortable. And Zhu Di has only witnessed it once, and he can say such things, which is undoubtedly for the bastion. Very confident in his defensive capabilities.

"After the concrete is finished, we will build dozens or twenty of them in the Hexi Corridor in Gansu!"

"Okay, but the cost is the price," Xu Jingchang said cautiously.

You can repair a hundred repairs, but the question is how to calculate the money?

"According to the Fifth Army Commander's Office's account."

"But the bastion must have sufficient supplies and equipped with enough firearms. It must be prepared to hold on for a long time. If there are no firearms, the bastion will not be able to exert its maximum effect."

When designing the bastion, Jiang Xinghuo did not intend to use the bastion as the main force of the Ming Dynasty's homeland defense, because the cost of a complete bastion or bastion group was not cheap. In addition, the bastion not only It requires sophisticated firearms, and it needs to be equipped with enough elite soldiers. After all, firearms and bastions complement each other. Without gunners who can skillfully operate cannons, the bastion cannot exert this power.

But even so, Zhu Di still plans to spend a huge amount of money to build a bastion group in the Hexi Corridor within his ability. This is not only a matter of money, but also the security of the entire Ming Dynasty.

After all, no one knows when the war will break out. Although Tamerlane's expeditionary force needs to go a long way, the road always has an end. It may not appear when it will appear in the northwest. If it can defend early, it will definitely be necessary. Plan ahead.

Therefore, since Zhu Di decided to build a bastion group, he had no intention of sparing money.

"All expenses must be reported to the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion. Regarding the Hexi Corridor bastion group, priority must be given to investing manpower and material resources. The required reinforced concrete, artillery, muskets, and ammunition will all be arranged according to the highest standards."

"Another point."

Jiang Xinghuo added: "The construction of bastions must also be adapted to local conditions and cannot be copied mechanically, so there must be a process of training engineers in advance."

In fact, according to the different terrain requirements of each bastion, the construction specifications are also strictly limited, including the flexible combination of shooting boundaries, pediments, and half-moon walls, which require engineers to first learn and master various technical skills. Knowledge.

All in all, if you want to build a bastion, you first need to have a top engineering team, and this team must have outstanding engineers who are competent enough and proficient in mathematical geometry and architecture. These happen to be what the Ming Dynasty lacks now. You can urgently cultivate a batch of tops first.

And although a brand new bastion appeared in everyone's sight soon, this does not mean that the bastion can be built quickly, because building a bastion near Nanjing and building it on the northwest border A bastion is subject to restrictions on transportation, raw materials and other conditions, and the speed will definitely be different, so a large lead time must be reserved.

Thinking about the worst, although the bastion was improved by Jiang Xinghuo and was built according to the mature bastion, it is a new thing after all, and many of the internal structures of a new thing like the bastion have not yet been developed. After testing, something may break out somewhere, and once the internal structure is damaged, things will become a lot more troublesome. If it is not strong enough, it will not sound good. In the northwest, you can only rely on demolishing the east wall to make up for the west. The wall is used to ensure operation, and nothing can be transported in during a heavy siege.

In other words, once a war breaks out, the troops stationed in these bastions will be dead soldiers, cannon fodder used to consume the Timur Empire's soldiers and fighting will, and will hardly receive any support.

"But if there is a real war, if the bastion is captured, wouldn't the artillery and musketry inside fall into the hands of the enemy?" Ru Yu suddenly thought of a question at this time.

Yao Guangxiao, who had been silent for the whole time, said lightly: "Even if you give it to him, Timur can't imitate it even if he travels thousands of miles across the country. Even if it is imitated in the future, Ming Dynasty has more advanced weapons. If you are really worried, you can also imitate them on the northwest border." Use copper cannons and relatively backward firecrackers in the bastion, and equip yourself with more crossbows, and the effect will be the same."

In fact, let alone the Timurids, even if a team of craftsmen like the Mongols came, it would be impossible to temporarily build a cannon in the Gobi Desert where raw materials and equipment were lacking.

According to the current progress of the Ming army's weapon research and development, the next generation of flintlock guns and large-caliber smoothbore cannons are on the schedule. Even if something like the Battle of Talas really caused the technology to leak, the Timurid Empire really copied it. Well, when the Timurid Empire can mass-produce them, Ming Dynasty's new weapons will still have to be replaced.

"Just give it your all."

Everyone nodded one after another. People who have no long-term worries must have immediate worries. In this situation, who among the people present dares to guarantee that no war will come to them in the future?

"Just do what you decided just now."

Zhu Di said: "But there is no need to be too hasty in this matter. Prepare what needs to be prepared first, and then figure out the terrain suitable for building a bastion in Gansu, and then design the bastion based on the actual situation."

"According to the order." Xu Jingchang bowed and accepted the order.