Desai was very angry, and the consequences were serious.

When anyone has a burst of anger in his heart, he needs to vent it in time. As an elegant noble, Duke Hruna usually does not imitate ordinary people when he loses his temper, either beat his feet and stamps his chest or curses. Therefore, General Desai, who is the supreme commander of the French army of 25,000, naturally vents the raging fire in his heart to the heads of the Evora military and civilians who are vowing to surrender to the death.

Lieutenant Colonel Kle received the combat mission transferred by the division commander in the early morning of the 28th. At that time, the artillery commander was sleeping soundly in the camp. He was asked to organize an artillery team immediately and bombard the damn British-Portugal coalition forces in the city of Evora with arson bombs.

Although Kerle had expected this in his heart, he was deeply surprised by the harsh words in the division commander's order. After deeply reviewing the artillery regiment, including his recent failure to offend the Supreme Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kerle humbly asked Major Mardan for advice, who only shrugged and said nothing. Through some temptation of interests, the adjutant said to the artillery regiment commander mysteriously, "Be careful, the duke will not be very happy today."

As for why he was unhappy, Mardan himself was not very clear. The only guards who knew the truth had received a harsh warning from Lieutenant Jacques, and each kept silent, refusing to disclose to anyone the embarrassing incidents about the Duke of Hruna in front of the battlefield hospital.

I couldn't figure it out, so I stopped thinking about it. After waking up, the artillery commander was no longer sleepy. He came out of the camp tent, kicked his messenger, and shouted loudly: "Damn lazy, hurry up and wake up Captain Dupen and tell his mortar company to prepare for battle. After dawn, Duke Hruna must hear the sound of our cannons echoing over Evora."

The mortar company under the Artillery Corps of the Division was urgently mobilized from the rear after arriving at the Badajos Fortress. The commander of the mortar company was Captain Dupen. The entire company had 86 officers and soldiers, including more than 20 pack horses that sent mortars and ammunition, and was responsible for the transportation, installation and operation of six new mortars with 24-pound mortars.

The caliber of these 24-pound mortars is 144 mm and the length of the barrel is only 406 mm. Like other old mortars, they are also made of bronze. They are also a weapon with short and thick gun barrels that are bending to fire projectiles to kill. If the base is not counted as thick pine wood boards at the bottom, the weight of the gun body is only about 75 kilograms (the overall weight does not exceed 150 kilograms), which is an extremely easy to deploy and move flexibly. Because of the extremely simple structure and light weight, the manufacturing cost of this kind of gun is not high, and it is even the same as the price of the Hruna-like 1810 rifle.

In addition, unlike the old-style design and the base cast, which can only be fired at a fixed angle of 45 degrees, this new 24-pound mortar can fire at any angle between 20 and 70 degrees. Of course, in most cases, it is still used to shoot at a large angle (between 45 degrees and 60 degrees). It is precisely because of its special ballistic characteristics that it cannot fire solid bullets like field guns, but can only fire grenades or combustion-bullets, which mainly rely on the chemical energy of the filler to cause damage.

Desai required the Ordnance to develop such new mortars and recruit a mortar company with high requirements for gunner firing technology. Naturally, it was not to bombard Evora's bastion fortress and solid city walls, but to use a special arson-bomb, a spherical shell with a diameter of 144 mm, filled with a solid rubber-like substance formed by a large amount of rubber, white phosphorus, and various combustion aids. In addition, the launch of arson-bomb also requires a black gunpowder launcher weighing up to 5 pounds (equivalent to 2.27 kg).

After a series of test shots at Badajos Fortress, after on-site calculations, when the shooting angle is 60 degrees, this new mortar can launch a 24-pound arson bomb to a place as far as 1,000 meters away. Of course, there is no need to consider too much in terms of accuracy.

On July 28, at 4 a.m. With the cover of the night before dawn, the mortar company commanded by Captain Du Peng used the manpower transport method of shoulder-carrying hands to quietly send all 6 24-pound mortars to only 800 meters away from the East City Fortress of Evora.

If the officers and soldiers of the artillery company had never dared to advance like this two days ago. They were not worried about the suppression of large-caliber artillery on the opposite enemy fortress, but were afraid of the pressure-sensitive mines buried by their engineers. All of this was thanks to the brave and stupid General Paul Coelo and the suicide squad he led for being able to sacrifice for lightning, detonating a large minefield on the east side of the city of Evora, forming a safe passage about 60 meters wide, clearing the biggest obstacle on the road ahead of the mortar cannon company.

When Captain Dupen accompanied the ambulance to transport wounded soldiers to the Evora coalition, he found that the mortar cannon company should be deployed on the east side of the fortress. Not only because the terrifying minefield was man-made clearance, but also in the center of the battlefield, 800 meters away from the city defense fortress, there was a bulging slope of 6 to 7 meters, more than 50 meters wide, which was enough to block the frontal attack of heavy shells fired by large-caliber artillery in the enemy fortress, and could avoid or reduce casualties of its own gunners.

As soon as he returned to the camp, the company commander of the mortar cannon immediately requested Lieutenant Colonel Kle, hoping that the commander could negotiate with the commander of the engineer Lieutenant Colonel Ultrasle, and persuade the latter to limit the minefield area to within 800 meters from the enemy fortress to facilitate the transport and deployment of the next six mortar cannons. Afterwards, the mine engineer company also did the same.

The night sky before dawn is the darkest and the sky after dawn is the most gorgeous. But above Evora on July 28, 1810, this gorgeousness requires gunpowder and life to embellish.

At around 5 a.m., when the sun was still under the horizon before sunrise, the mortar cannon company was ready. Twenty minutes ago, the gunners firmly fixed the six short and thick mortar cannon tubes to the bottom base made of thick pine wood boards.

With the help of the faint light in the sky, the six gunners carefully checked the guns they were responsible for. They used a metal needle to check whether the fire door located at the tail of the gun barrel was unobstructed, and shook the gun body hard to see if the bolts on the base at the bottom were firm...

After receiving the instructions of the gunman, the observer adjusted the barrel of the mortar to 60 degrees according to the preset, and then fixed the barrel with wooden wedges. Then, the ammunition filling hand put the firing gunpowder wrapped in linen into the barrel, and then used a round wooden block to install a push rod made of a long handle to compact the medicine bag slightly.

After completing the loading of the launching medicine, the gunman inspected the appearance of the fuse and confirmed that there was no damage. They made inquiries gestures to the company commander.

In the need of concealment, no one can talk in words before firing the shells. Captain Du Peng immediately raised two fingers and told him that the leads for only 20 seconds should be inserted. Because of the large shooting angle, the shells fired by the mortar must first fly upwards at a very high altitude before falling to the ground. Therefore, in order to avoid the accident that the shells explode in the air, the gunners usually install the grenades of the mortars with a long explosion delay (sometimes up to 1 minute).

However, the arson bombs filled this time do not require too long leads. On the contrary, the arson bombs need to explode over Evora so that the burning solidified body can fully disperse, attach and ignite more urban buildings.

With the instructions of the captain and the gunman, the ammunition loader carefully inserted the fuse into the pre-prepared shell... After the loading was completed, the gunman conducted the last inspection of the cannon. The ammunition loader used a long awl to penetrate the fire door, pierced the linen used to wrap the gunpowder, and then inserted a long fuse into the fire door. On the side, the firinger had taken out the white phosphorus match from the backpack and carefully stripped off the flame retardant surface covering the above.

All the work before the launch was completed, waiting for Captain Du Peng's final order. The artillery company commander took out his pocket watch and turned his head from time to time to look at his own position behind him. Until a few minutes later, a red signal flare rose in the sky. Before the signal flare fell, Captain Du Peng shouted at the various gun captains: "All gun positions, fire in turn!"

When the mortar was fired, Desai was standing on the lookout on the side of the chest wall. In the distance, there were a few loud noises. After a stunning loud noise, white smoke columns rose up on the plain. Soon, the burning fuses sprayed sparks outwards and the arson bomb slowly emerged from the smoke column, like a meteor dragging the flame tail, flying over the city of Evora.

About 15 to 20 seconds later, six artillery shells exploded one after another in the sky. With a series of dull sounds, light flashed out. Dozens of burning solid flames began to sprinkle outwards in each cracked bullet body, just like gorgeous fireworks blooming during the festival. The colorful flowers are fascinating and pleasant, and the whole scene is spectacular. Soon, these devil flames dispersed and fell into all corners of the city of Evora, which will bring hell and death greetings to more than 70,000 guarding soldiers and civilians.

When all the shells were launched, amid the supervision of Captain Du Peng and the gunman, the hidden gunners who hid on the side of the grass slope returned to their positions. They worked in an orderly manner, extinguished the spark inside the gun body, cleaned the residual gunpowder inside the gun bore, recalibrated the orientation and angle, filled the ammunition again, inserted the leads, and prepared for the second and third launch.

On the other end, the coalition fortress was also very rapid. Before the French gunners could fire the third round of arson shells (about two minutes), several solid bullets of 24-pound or 12-pound bullets were whistling and hit hard. Three of the shells quickly passed over the gunners' heads and rolled down into the grass 200 meters behind them. The other two solid bullets crashed straight into the slope soil that covered the mortar gun company. After the huge roar, a large amount of soil and turf splashed, and no one in the entire mortar gun company was injured or killed.

Thanks to the powerful deterrence of the 800-meter minefield, the fortress defenders did not dare to send infantry out of the city to block the attack; and with the cover of the grass slope, the many solid bullets that came in waves did not cause any substantial damage to the gunners of the mortar company. After the fifth round of arson bomb was launched, Captain Du Peng ordered the mortar company to suspend shooting and wait for the next instructions of his own signal flares.

...
Chapter completed!