Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 762 - 631: The Power of Geometry (Big - Asking for Monthly Tickets!)_1

Chapter 762: Chapter 631: The Power of Geometry (Big Chapter Asking for Monthly Tickets!)_1

At the command post, Li Xuan was the first to notice movements across from him.

As the 270,000 Pishi Army Iron Cavalry advanced, the ground shook and the skies clouded ominously, their momentum as powerful as an earthquake or a storm at sea.

In front of the Pishi Army Iron Cavalry was an army of over three hundred thousand various ghostly spirits and Evil Corpse, which at that moment, under the urging of the Empress of Liao’s Divine Consciousness, pressed forward again.

They formed a wall that slowly advanced. Resembling a moving black forest, they covered the sky and the earth.

Upon seeing this, Shang Hong closed his mouth, knowing that his persuasion would be fruitless at this time. Changing formations on the eve of battle would be a suicide mission.

Li Xuan also shifted his attention to the front, a cold light flickering in his eyes.

Zhang Yue thought Li Xuan would include the great ghostly army in his assault, but when the two armies came within approximately eight miles of one another, Li Xuan had already issued a command.

"All four-inch breechloader cannons and Hongyi Cannons fire. Aim accurately. Use solid shot, pay attention to shooting speed, control the barrel temperature."

If the firing rate of cannons and muskets exceeds a certain limit, it could cause a rapid rise in the temperature of the cannon barrel or the barrel of the musket.

If it surpasses a certain limit, it could result not only in burning the cannon crew, but also in difficulties in loading the cannons.

It was not yet the most effective killing distance, Li Xuan certainly did not want to result in an unavailability of cannons due to excessive firing when they badly needed it.

In the valley ahead, the roar of cannons echoed again. However, these roars were far from being as urgent as before.

All the cannon crews perfectly understood Li Xuan’s intentions. The field four-inch breechloader cannons were fired every eighty breaths, and the Hongyi Cannons, which had slightly inferior heat dissipation performance, were fired every hundred breaths, with horse urine being sprinkled on the barrels in between, to keep the temperature down.

This slow firing speed also allowed all cannon crews to adjust their aim. Each of their shots hit the densest areas of the opposing army, causing heavy casualties!

The Corpse Army only managed to reach an area five miles away from the mouth of their valley after suffering nearly five thousand casualties and fatalities, moving further deep into the crossfire covering the two flanks of the hill.

Li Xuan immediately ordered: "All four-inch breechloader cannons, change to chain shells! All personnel of the Shenji right and left camps, start taking your medicine."

The high-speed rotating chain shells immediately stirred up a storm of death within the enemy’s formation, tearing bizarre undead into pieces.

It was at this time that these ghost soldiers suddenly accelerated, changing from a slow advance to a charging momentum.

The 270,000 Pishi Army Iron Cavalry behind them also let go of their reins.

Just in an instant, the sound of horse hooves trampling on the battlefield doubled!

The one hundred and sixty-four-inch breechloader cannons and numerous Hongyi Cannons, though they delivered a large number of casualties to the enemy and destroyed tens of thousands of Evil Spirit Corpses in a very short time, they could not stop the charge of this vast ghostly army.

The distance between the two sides quickly closed to two miles.

With a hand on his waist sword, Li Xuan said calmly: "Order the Shenji left and right camps to adopt the Line Column Formation three-stage shooting, commence firing immediately! All hudun cannons are free to fire! All cannons fire at full speed!"

For this battle in Chengde, Li Xuan also brought nearly four hundred hudun cannons, all of which were installed on the walls of the three camps.

The hudun cannon is a type of indirect-fire weapon that can be considered an ancient mortar. In exceptional circumstances, it can also be fired directly.

During the Ming Dynasty, a hudun cannon weighed only about forty to seventy jin (approximately 50-88 lbs), and it could hold one hundred small lead or stone bullets weighing five qian (approximately 19 grams), with a lead bullet weighing three liang (approximately 113 grams) used for the shell.

Its range is about a mile, and when fired, all the small bullets fly out at once, causing a powerful explosion, making the cannon extremely destructive and its fallout radius wide. It is particularly suitable for field battles, having almost no disadvantages aside from its slow firing speed.

The hudun cannons of the Jin Dynasty typically weigh between three hundred to four hundred jin (approximately 400-500 lbs) — in the second stage of firing, their effective range reaches up to two miles!

Amid this dense cannon fire, the over ten thousand flintlock musket rifles of the Shenji left and right camps on the left and right wings also sprayed out firelight and produced deafening roars at the same time.

In terms of killing efficiency, the two-stage firing of the musket line formation has the advantage. The three-stage firing is more powerful in resisting the enemy.

The continuous firing formed an uninterrupted hail of bullets, sealing off every piece of land on the battlefield, making the opposing ghostly army seem like it had encountered an invisible wall.

They took a full hundred breaths to advance about one hundred yards further.

During this hundred-breath time span, all soldiers of the Shenji left and right camps can fire their thirty-seven thousand muskets in fifteen rounds collectively. A portion of soldiers from the left camp who’d had longer training and were more elite could even reach more than eighteen rounds.

And the one hundred and sixty field breechloader cannons could fire five chain shells each.

—These concentrated showers of bullets harvested at least fifty thousand Evil Spirit Corpses within this short distance of one hundred yards. The original dense wall of corpses was already less than three quarters of its thickness.

In normal cases, these Evil Spirit Corpses would have already dispersed. But under the intimidating power of the former Empress of Liao, Shulv Ping, they still kept charging forward numbly.

Shang Hong silently observed. He thought that the Marquis of Guanjun did have a thorough understanding of military tactics.

The late Empress of Liao had made a calculated trial before, so Li Xuan deliberately let the opposing ghostly army come closer before attacking.

This time, seeing that the other side intended to decide the victory in one fell swoop, Li Xuan started to unleash the cannon fire with full force right from the start.

At that moment, Li Xuan made a slight movement, looking towards the south. His Tao-protecting Eyes saw a dark cloud spreading from underground towards the left hill.