Chapter 307 Seven is serious

Day was coming soon, but no window was open, no door was ajar, it was dawn, but not yet awakening.The troops at the end of Machang Street opposite the barricade had withdrawn and, as we have mentioned, it appeared to have been cleared and opened to passers-by in ominous silence.The Rue Saint-Denis was as silent as the Avenue of the Sphinxes in Thebes.There was no pedestrian at the sunlit intersection.Nothing could be more desolate than a deserted street on such a sunny day. People can't see anything, but they can hear it.A mysterious activity is going on in the distance.To be sure, the big juncture is coming.Just as the sentries retreated last night, all of them have now been evacuated.

The barricade was stronger than it had been the first time it was attacked, and when the five men had left it was raised a little higher. According to the sentinel who had scouted the vegetable market area, Enjolras made an important decision in case he was attacked from behind.He blocked the alley of Monddu, which is still open today.For this purpose paving stones several rooms long were dug.This barricade now blocks three intersections: Machang Street in front, Swan Street and Xiaohuazi Nest on the left, and Mondedu Street on the right. This is indeed not easy to break through, but everyone is sealed inside. up.It faces enemies on three sides and has no way out.Courfeyrac said with a smile: "This is indeed a fortress, but it is also like a mousetrap."

Enjolras piled more than thirty stones at the entrance of the tavern, and Bossuet said, "It's a bit too much digging." There was great silence on the side that was about to attack, so Enjolras ordered everyone to return to their posts. Each person is assigned a certain amount of soju. There's nothing quite as amazing as a barricade ready to charge.Everyone chooses their position like watching a drama, next to each other, elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder.Some people stack stones to form a seat.Wherever the corner is in the way, leave some, find a protruding part that can be used as a defense, and hide inside. Left-handed people are even more valuable, and they go to places that others find difficult.Many people arranged positions where they could sit and fight.Everyone is willing to kill the enemy freely or die comfortably.One of the insurgents in the pitched battle of June 1848 was a ferocious gunner who set up a Voltaire-style armchair and fought on a roof terrace while a machine-gun bullet Hit him there.

When the leader gave the command to prepare for battle, all the messy actions stopped immediately.No more pulling each other, no more gossiping, no more gathering together in groups here and there, all of them are concentrated, waiting for the attacker.A barricade is chaos before its crisis, and discipline in its hour of crisis; crisis creates order. As soon as Enjolras took up his double-gun, and stood before his ready guns, no one spoke.Then there was a crisp clicking sound along the stone wall, and it was the guns being loaded. In addition, their combat posture is more courageous and full of confidence; a high degree of sacrifice makes them very firm. They have no hope, but some of them are disappointed.Disappointment, the weapon of last resort, sometimes brings victory, Virgil once said.The greatest determination produces the highest wisdom.Aboard the ship of death may escape the danger of capsizing; a coffin lid can be a lifeline.

As on the previous night, all attention was turned, or rather fixed, to the end of the street, now illuminated and clearly visible. The wait was not long.The commotion had apparently begun on the St. Lena side, but this time was not like the first attack.The rattling of chains, the jolt of a disquieting mass, the thrashing of metal on paving stones, a gigantic rumbling, heralding the advancing of a terrible iron thing, shook these quiet places. The heart of the old streets, which were originally built for the smooth flow of ideas and economic interests, not for the giant wheels of huge chariots.

All the eyes staring at the end of the street became fierce and abnormal. A cannon appeared. The artillerymen pushed the cannon carriage, the cannon was already loaded, and the cart towing the cannon in front had separated. Two men supported the carriage, four walked beside the wheels, and the rest followed the bullet cart.Smoke was seen from the lit fuse. "Shoot!" Enjolras ordered. The whole barricade opened fire, and in a terrible explosion poured out a great mass of smoke, which drowned the guns and men, and after a moment the smoke cleared, and again the guns and men; Push the cannon across the barricade.Not a single person was hit.The gunner pressed down hard on the rear of the gun, raised the muzzle, and aimed it as carefully as an astronomer adjusts a telescope.

"Well done, artillerymen!" cried Bossuet. Everyone in the barricades applauds. A moment later, the cannon was positioned exactly in the middle of the street, straddling the ditch, ready to fire.A formidable cannon was aimed at the barricade. "Well, come!" said Courfeyrac, "here comes the rough fellow, first with his fingers, now with his fists. The army stretches out its great paws to us. The barricades will be shaken violently." One click. The guns lead the way, the cannons attack." "It is a new type of copper eight-pounder," went on Combeferre, "a gun of this type which explodes when tin is more than ten per cent. .Sometimes there will be sand holes in the barrel.To avoid this danger and increase the weight of explosives, perhaps go back to the method of the fourteenth century, that is to add hoops outside the barrel from the breech to the ear Plus a series of seamless steel rings. At present, the only way to repair the defects is to use a cannon inspector to look for sand hole gaps in the barrel, but there is another better method, which is to use Gribeauval's meteor to go Visitation."

"In the sixteenth century there were rifling wires in the barrels," Bossuet pointed out. "Yes," replied Combeferre, "that would increase the power of the ballistic trajectory, but reduce the accuracy of aiming. Besides, at short ranges, the trajectory cannot achieve the steep slope required, and the parabola is too large. The trajectory is not straight enough, and it is difficult to hit all the targets in its way, and this is strictly required in combat; this is all the more important as the enemy approaches and fires rapidly. The lack of tension of the shells of this sixteenth-century rifled gun is due to the explosive force of the gun. The power is small. For this type of gun, the lack of explosive power is limited by shell science, such as keeping the gun mount stable. In short, the cannon is a tyrant, it can't do whatever it wants, and power is a big weakness. One shell per hour The speed of light is 600 leagues, but the speed of light is 70,000 leagues per second. This shows that Jesus is much smarter than Napoleon."

"Reload!" said Enjolras. How will the walls of the barricade withstand the shells?Will a gap be opened?This is a problem.While the insurgents were reloading, the artillerymen were reloading. In the bastion there is anxiety. The cannon was fired, and there was a sudden boom. "Here!" exclaimed a joyful voice. When the shell hit the barricade, Gavroche also jumped in. He came in from the side of Swan Street, and he stepped over the side barricade on the side of Xiaohuazi's Nest inclined alley with ease. The entry of Gavroche had a greater effect on the barricade than the cannonball.

The shell disappeared in a jumble of broken bricks, smashing at most a wheel of the stagecoach and destroying Ansel's old car.Seeing all this, the barricades burst into laughter. "Again," Bossuet called to the artillerymen.