Xinshun 1730

Chapter 192
The Swedish artillery Lietna, who was relied on by the Junggar tribe, looked at a strange big ball that flew into the sky on the opposite side, and he didn't know why.

The formation of the Han army on the opposite side also made him feel strange. It seemed that it was a bit too thin.

He's out of date.

When he was captured by the Russians, that was 1709, during the Battle of Poltava, he was almost able to escape to Turkey with the King of Sweden, but he was eventually captured by the Russians.

At that time, neither the Swedes nor the Russians used flintlock guns in large numbers.Still using matchlock guns as the main force.

Later, in 1716, he was captured by the Junggars, and it has been more than ten years now.

In the past ten years, tactics have undergone earth-shaking changes.

He had been training artillery for the Junggars and had no idea how the distant world had changed.

Fifteen four-pound guns, twenty ten-pound mortars, and eight eight-pound guns, this is the full strength of Junggar's most elite "Baoqin" artillery.

The styles of these cannons were all learned by him 30 years ago.

And what he learned 30 years ago was 50 years ago.

The casting material of the cannon is good, all of which are made of copper. There is a copper mine near Issyk-Kul Lake, and the Junggars mined it there, and he was in charge of the casting.

Before this battle, Renat received a promise from the Great Khan of the Zhunbu.

After this battle, he can go home.

The artillery team in Junggar is not very good, and Renat knows this very well.

Indeed, gunners can rely on experience without mathematics, but commanders must be proficient in mathematics, otherwise there is no way to command an artillery well.

In this era, those who can command five cannons at the same time can be called excellent artillery officers.And if you can command ten cannons at the same time, you can be called a famous artillery general.

Until decades later, Napoleon, who claimed to be very good at using artillery, also lamented: Ordinary artillery generals are nothing.However, a general like Drouot who can properly deploy, manage, and command thirty artillery pieces is worth mentioning.Generals who can command thirty artillery pieces are very rare.

This cannon refers to a cannon with a caliber above eight pounds.

Camel guns, swivel guns, tiger crouching guns and the like, real artillerymen will not recognize that they are called cannons, they will only call them "big muskets to strengthen infantry firepower".

Most of Renat's artillerymen were Uzbeks, or Bukharas.

The quasi-department didn't trust them very much.

Commanders and officers were either Swedes like Lenat or captured Orthodox Russians.

Orthodox Russians as officers.

The only one who knew mathematics was Renat, who knew some geometry.

The rest is all based on experience.

Renat commanded eight guns alone, which was extremely difficult.

The artillery of the Dashun Army is very powerful, Renat has heard about this, at least it was good before, because their artillery officers have to learn geometry and surveying and mapping.

The artillery in front of him should be even stronger. He heard about the general of this army fighting against Russia, and knew that an excellent siegeman must be a good artillery general.

Renat was worried that the eight eight-pound guns in his hand would not be able to counter the opponent's artillery positions.As for the smaller four-pound guns, according to the characteristics of the Swedish army, he suggested that Zhunbu Dahan attach these four-pound guns to infantry support.

As for the mortar with a shorter range, there is no need to deploy it at this time, because it cannot hit the opponent.

Fortunately, the terrain here is very suitable for artillery, the ground is very hard, and the shells can bounce on the ground.

Shouting for the Uzbeks under his hand to deploy the cannon, Renat once again looked up at the strange ball floating on the opponent's ground, and a shadow floated in his heart.

Lowering his head and looking at the infantry lined up opposite him, Renat aimed at the infantry line on the south side according to the order of Dace Lingdunduobu.

"Lower the muzzle! Lower the muzzle! Don't try to hit them directly. Let the shells fall in front of the formation and hurt them by bouncing."

With more than [-] years of artillery experience, he could tell at a glance that the muzzle of the cannon next to him was raised a little higher.

The Bukhara gunner hurriedly raised the breech of the gun, adjusted the slightly larger wooden wedge, chose a smaller one, and stuffed it in.

Quickly stuffing the gunpowder into the cannon, Renat visually measured the distance, and based on years of experience, decided to test fire first to see how much adjustment was needed.

At this moment, he saw a few streaks of gunpowder smoke flashing across the opposite position.

The sound of the cannon was much later than seeing the gunpowder smoke, and Lenart almost subconsciously jumped into a nearby pit.

call……

A few shells roared past and landed within a hundred steps of these cannons.There were no casualties, but Renat's face was pale.

The first test shot on the opposite side was within a hundred paces... Obviously, the artillery officer on the opposite side had discovered his position and was going to counter his artillery from the very beginning.

"My God, the artillery on the other side is too fast."

…………

None of the artillerymen of the Qingzhou Army has 30 years of experience like Renat, and most of them have only touched cannons for three to five years.

However, the overall quality of artillery is a luxury in the entire world at this time.

The gunner of each cannon has a foundation in geometry and surveying and mapping, and the officer who centrally commands a three-cannon crew has learned more in-depth geometry in the past five years and more. table, learned to calculate simple parabolas.

The cannons of the Qingzhou Army used the momentum pendulum to try to measure the exit velocity of the shells. Although the error was large, at least they tried.

The officers followed Liu Yu to learn parabolic calculations for two full years. Although it takes longer to learn some advanced mathematics, and Liu Yu has limited energy and can only teach a small number of people, it is enough.

The theoretical quality and mathematics level of Dashun Artillery Officers will be caught up in Austria 10 years later, and they should be the best now.

The engineers selected artillery positions from various places yesterday, and dug dozens of artillery positions in total, which can be moved at any time.

These emplacements are pretty standard.

The engineers dug holes, cut down trees, and made earth barriers for artillery.

After the earth was built, the felled fir trees were paved, and the engineer carpenters scraped the planks.

This prevents the cannon from sinking into the mud and makes it easier to reset after firing.

The French twelve-pounder was heavy, but far more accurate than the eight-pounder made by Renat.

Screw jacks replaced the wooden wedges for height adjustment, and smaller screw adjustments were also installed on the modified gun carriages.

The four-wheeled cannon cart allows the weight of the cannon to rest on the wheels instead of the horse, making it easier to pull.

The hot air balloon rose very early, and the observers on it had already set their sights on the artillery of the quasi-headquarters.The landmarks that had been marked yesterday were easily recognizable, and the drawn artillery positions were drawn on the map, and the messenger delivered the map to the artillery commander.

The artillery staff officers sat next to the artillery carts, using powder kegs as tables, and calculated the allocation positions of the artillery groups of these cannons, deployed them to different artillery positions, and strived to destroy the artillery of the quasi-headquarters as soon as possible.

The cannons in a group of three were assigned different tasks. The gunners trained on Liugong Island with gunpowder that seemed to cost no money didn't know much about geometry or parabolas, but they could understand officers. The command.

According to the officer's order, adjust the angle of the muzzle.

The battle at the northern foot of the Altai Mountains was started by the artillery of the Qingzhou Army.

Fifteen twelve-pound guns were divided into five battery groups and deployed in several artillery positions on the southern front.

After the first test firing, the artillery crew members took off their military uniforms and put them on their shoulders, lifted the tail of the cannon with a wooden pole, and the rest of them pushed the heavy cannon.

Fortunately, the engineers dug a good hole, and the wood they paved was smooth. The planks carved by the carpenters among the engineers were far from those carved by the coffin shop owner, but they could still be used.

"One, two, three! Go hard!"

The officer yelled, and the bare-chested artilleryman pushed the cannon back to its original position, quickly cooled down and stuffed the paper-wrapped ration of gunpowder into it again.

According to the situation of the test firing just now, the gunner quickly dug out the test firing table that he had written, and fine-tuned the angle of the muzzle according to the above data.

"put!"

With a cry, the gunner who ignited stood by the side of the cannon, and the rest covered their ears, waiting for the next loading.

The packhorse hiding in the dug pit next to him did not know how many times he heard the roaring cannons on Liugong Island, nor did he know how many times he smelled the smell of burning gunpowder. He was not afraid, and concentrated on licking the ground there A Bit Of Oats.This kind of crop is grown a lot in Inner Mongolia today. Although the yield is low, it is more suitable for the local environment, and horses prefer to eat it.

The sound of bang bang guns kept ringing, and the gun positions were already filled with gunpowder smoke.The wind is not very strong today, and the smoke from the gun emplacements is a little slow to dissipate.

The gunpowder smoke gradually dissipated, and the artillerymen stared at the Junggar artillerymen in the distance and cheered.

…………

Renat looked at the shattered bronze cannon next to him, and knew in his heart that his artillery was finished this time, and the artillery of the Junggar was no match for the artillery of the Dashun Army.

One test shot, one correction, and two consecutive rapid-fires, three of the eight bronze cannons had been destroyed.

For the remaining five, many of the horses pulling the cannon were killed, and the Uzbek gunners panicked.

From the gunpowder smoke from the opposite side, you can see the position of the Dashun artillery. At this time, you should adjust quickly, but the gunners are all dumbfounded.

The place where the gunpowder smoke came out was not one place, but several places at the same time, and it was impossible to know which direction to bombard.

Renat looked through the binoculars, a little desperate.

The cannons on the opposite side were all hidden in the dug emplacements, and there were piles of wood and a thick layer of soil outside, so it was difficult to blast away even if they counterattacked.

With four shots, three of his own cannons were blasted. Renat knew that the artillery on the opposite side was much stronger than the group of people under him.

Although they knew that Dashun's artillery was slightly stronger, they never expected it to be this strong.Even Sweden and Russia, Lenat thought, absolutely did not have such artillery.

"Pull the cannons away! Pull the cannons away, don't fight back! You can't fight back their cannons, back up, back up!"

Brandishing his saber, Renat shouted, trying to cheer up the Bukhara gunners.The scattered corpses frightened the Bukhara gunners. They never thought of such accurate shelling.

At Renat's order, the Bukhara gunner praised Allah is great, the Russian captive gunner made the sign of the sign of the cross and shouted the Virgin Mary, and hurriedly pulled the horse over to prepare to leave.

Renat jumped on his horse and galloped to the rear of Dace Lingdun Doubna, shouting: "Our cannons can't beat them. If this continues, they will soon turn all the cannons back." Baoqin 'Let's withdraw, we can't confront them anymore."

Da Ce Ling Dunduobu looked at the gunpowder smoke coming from the opposite side, and asked, "Is the Han army's artillery so powerful?"

"They have more cannons, and their shots are more accurate. Their general is good at attacking cities, he is a very good artillery general, and he is very powerful. They can shoot farther and more accurately."

Lenat didn't want to die on the gun emplacement. After this battle, he could return to Sweden, where he had been away for nearly 30 years. He didn't want to die here.

Little Ce Lingdun Duobu shouted: "Without guns, can we not fight wars? Did Genghis Khan use guns? Our warriors are all wearing armor. Our armor is very good. If the arrow can shoot through it, it will be cut." Kill the artisans. Just go straight ahead, let those Bukharas retreat, they are all cowards."

While speaking, there was another burst of gunfire from the opposite side.After looking around for a while, two more cannons were bombarded, and the Bukhara gunners who were still busy had already scattered away.The supervisor team of the Zhunbu rushed over, hacked two of them to death with a knife, and whipped the rest back with a whip, shouting: "Go back, go back!"

Renat was convinced that the gap in artillery was too great, and his artillery had an advantage in the previous wars with the Kazakhs.Fighting with the Russians, the Russians don't have much guns here.

Da Ce Ling Dunduobu looked at Renat and said with relief: "It's not your fault. The cannons of the Han army have always been very good. They have more craftsmen and more money. Then, the remaining small cannons and mortars What about the cannons? Are they going to be scattered in front of the formation? Or are they going to be used together with the camel cannons?"

Renat didn't know what to do. He fought the Kazakhs before, but the Kazakhs didn't have such strong artillery, so his artillery always had the upper hand.

Now that we have no power to fight back, after thinking about it, we said: "We Swedes always distribute the small artillery to the battalion for support when we fight. Let's separate it. The remaining eight-pound artillery retreats to the back and waits for the opportunity to use it again. "

Da Ce Ling Dunduobu knew that if the bombardment continued, this point of artillery would be lost, so he agreed with Lenat's opinion.

"Then retreat. Wait until a while when I storm the Chinese army, and then look for an opportunity to bombard it. Without cannons, we can fight. The Han army doesn't even have armor, they only have muskets, and they don't even have spearmen to cover them. We shoot at each other for a while, and we should be able to rush away with a single charge."

boom……

Another round of artillery bombardment, this time the artillery did not bombard the artillery who retreated, but bombarded the arquebus lined up on the south side.

Twelve-pound shells can directly penetrate seven or eight people, and a camel carrying a swivel cannon was directly blasted to pieces.

Before the cannonball stopped, it rolled on the ground twice and was blocked by a stone. It jumped up and smashed a path of blood.

Daceling Dunduobu didn't have any doubts. According to his experience, cannons can't kill too many people in field battles, and the Zhunbu doesn't have the dense array of spears like Dashun. It seems that he doesn't have to worry too much about the shells.

It looks scary and bloody, but in fact, not many people die at a time, but the blow to morale is bigger.

"Let the musketeers in the south go forward and shoot at them. The warriors in armor wait a moment and charge to the south after shooting for a while. Let their central army go south to support."

Dace Ling Dundob still insisted on his own tactics.

(End of this chapter)