Traveling through time and space and becoming a deposed prince, he just wants to survive!

Chapter 185: Water Spring Pass Cannon Test

Zhao Long and Zhao Sheng, with their respective guards and transport carriages, headed towards Shuiquan Fortress.

Cheng Jicheng knew that the team coming had 50,000 people. Although his side only had 10,000 people, fortunately they were well-equipped.

Especially the walls of the fortress, which were all built with a mixture of fired solid bricks and cement. The Xianbei army had no chance of capturing the fortress in a short time.

"Report... The enemy is approaching the fortress, about two miles away."

"Nonsense! You still need to report from such a close distance? I can see everything. Don't you have any valuable information?"

"Report..." Another soldier came and saluted Cheng Jicheng when he saw him.

"Well, if you don't have anything important to report, I'll ask you to clean the toilet today." Cheng Jicheng said maliciously.

"General, I wonder if it's important that the commander-in-chief has arrived?" the messenger asked, trying to suppress his laughter.

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier? I have to go down to welcome the commander-in-chief." Cheng Jicheng muttered, and led a group of people down the city wall. He saw Zhao Long riding a horse from a distance.

"This humble general pays homage to the Commander-in-Chief. I wonder..."

"Ah, you should pay your respects to the Prince Consort first, and then..." Zhao Long interrupted Cheng Jicheng and pointed to the carriage behind before he could finish.

"Okay, forget about the formalities. Let's move the equipment to the city wall first." Zhao Sheng's voice came from the carriage behind, stopping Zhao Long's tricks.

The transport carriage then entered the pass, and together with the people brought by Cheng Jicheng, they carried the supplies on the carriage to the city wall.

"What kind of weapon is this? These are such thick round tubes."

"There's a handle at the back, but you can't load it. Do you have to go in from the front?"

"Matchlock gun?...!"

Wang Gang and others accompanied Cheng Jicheng downstairs to greet them, and saw the movers taking out the mortar from the carriage. As they did not know what it was, they began to talk about it.

"This is a mortar, a type of artillery that is convenient for marching and fighting." A sergeant who was carrying the goods came forward to explain.

"Which ones? The ones with the barrels all together in a circle on top?"

"I don't know either. I heard it's a weapon that can fire continuously."

"Continuous shooting?" Wu Youfa said in unison.

"Don't make a fuss. This is a Gatling gun. I used it for experimenting." Zhao Sheng saw several people gathered in front of the weapon. After listening to a few words, he explained.

"Your Majesty, who will these weapons be allocated to?" asked the regiment commander Wang Gang excitedly.

"Whoever needs it will be given it!" Zhao Sheng looked at Wang Gang in surprise, then turned to Cheng Jicheng and asked, "Jicheng! What happened to your soldiers?"

Cheng Jicheng, who was asked, looked embarrassed and hurriedly explained: "A few days ago, following orders, we went out to ambush and transferred all the rifles and other long-range weapons of the first regiment to the other two regiments, so..."

"So, the Glorious Regiment is short of weapons?" asked Zhao Sheng.

"Yes!" Wang Gang nodded. "Prince Consort, are these weapons for our regiment? The governor said that next time all the weapons will be given to our regiment."

"Which regiment is the three-bow crossbow in?" Zhao Sheng asked.

"Report to the Prince Consort, he is in our regiment!" Wang Gang said, straightening his body.

"Very good. Mortars need to consider long-range parabolas. It makes sense for those with experience with crossbows to get these weapons first."

Song Zeming understood from the side that the parabola was also a requirement for their bows and crossbows, so he stepped forward and said, "Prince Consort, we also pay attention to the parabola in our daily training."

These words made Zhao Sheng embarrassed.

"Zhao Long, you take charge of this matter!"

Zhao Sheng waved his hand, meaning that he had done his best.

Zhao Long was not stupid. It would be embarrassing to handle such a small matter by himself, so he said to Cheng Jicheng, "You should arrange the affairs of your own team. Don't try to make us the bad guys."

"Alas! It's good to be a high-ranking official." Cheng Jicheng sighed in his heart and walked away with the three regiment commanders.

Looking at the quarreling people, Zhao Sheng smiled and said to Zhao Long, "I guess you guys have made a lot of promises to others."

"I don't want to commit, but there's nothing I can do."

"Alright, go up to the tower, set up the Gatling gun, and see how it works."

Surrounded by several people, I came to the top of the city wall and saw the Yuwen Xianbei people building siege ladders in the distance.

"You guys leave the Gatling gun here first. I'll go to the main building in the back and see how the mortar is installed."

After giving instructions to the technical staff who came with him, Mr. Zhao walked to the back accompanied by Zhao Long.

The other captains found Gatling quite unusual, so they did not join Zhao Sheng and the others, but just stared at Gatling.

Indeed, the Gatling gun not only has many barrels, but also has complex-looking components, especially the soft chain feed with a long bullet dragging behind it, which is full of mystery.

"Look at the ladders in the distance. Find one for each gun. When we debug later, teach the brothers from the Second Division!"

"Yes! Prince Consort!" The debugging staff responded in unison.

The Duke of Fuma of the Great Zhou was of the fifth rank, and strictly speaking, his position was not as high as that of the prefect.

However, the title of the Imperial Concubine's Commander was not a real position; it represented the royal status. Li Shuya was a princess, and her husband naturally represented the status of a marquis.

"The debugging of gun position No. 3 has been completed, request for test firing!" Then an order came into Zhao Sheng's ears.

"Stand by!" the artillery commander said, then came to Zhao Sheng and asked: "The number three gun position has been debugged, requesting a test fire."

"There's a rangefinder for shooting parameters. It's the same principle as the staring method before, just more accurate. Teach them the windage correction on the dial below as well."

Zhao Sheng said to the reporting commander.

The commander who received the order waved to a group of people who were studying, spread out a piece of paper, and explained using an instrument.

"Report, the number one gun position has been debugged, requesting a test fire!"

"Report, gun position number five..."

As more and more gun positions were debugged, the commander asked them to stand by.

When the explanation is almost done.

"Go to your respective gun positions and do some hands-on work, especially with wind direction and charge placement. Strive for precision at long range."

"Yes!" The students who gathered together dispersed to their artillery positions.

If you have experience in shooting with a bow and crossbow, and basic knowledge such as wind direction, elevation angle, and distance measurement, you can quickly master it after learning it.

As for loading bullets and hanging explosives, fortunately there is a professional reference value, so just follow it.

Zhao Sheng made all of these into modular ones so that they could learn them as quickly as possible and then put them into practice on the battlefield.

"Aiming complete, one test round ready...fire!"

The shell goes into the barrel, not fired directly out.

The later Bashipo had this function and was fired by a firing pin.

This is how the mortars at the Luancheng Arsenal were fired.

"emission!"

As the command was given, the firing pin made a light click, the barrel of the gun made a loud "bang", followed by a sound of breaking through the air, and the shell whizzed down into the sky above the Xianbei ladder.

"Whoosh..." The sound came from far away and exploded among the soldiers building the ladders.

"Boom..." The wood flew off the ground and flew towards the people around.

The wood mixed with stones and other objects killed and injured several people.

Then, another sound of breaking through the air came from far away, and a roar was heard, and another ladder was blown up.

Cries of pain, wailing, and crying for parents came one after another.

However, the explosions showed no signs of stopping.

The camp of Yuwen Zhou and Hu Shanzhong was more than a mile away from where the ladders were set up, and they watched as the ladders were blown up.