Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 202 Artillery Battle ([-])

As soon as Fukang'an's voice fell, he took a three-foot-long red triangular command flag from Xiaoqi who was keeping the command flag beside him, waved it a few times, and shouted loudly: "Drum!"

Four warriors with big arms and round waists stood in front of a big drum under the commander's platform, waving the drum hammers together.As the general drums sounded, the military drums in each battalion echoed, and then the war drums in each team also began to sound.The slow and heavy sound of the drum resounded through the wilderness like thunder sweeping across the land in autumn.

"The commander-in-chief has orders! General Wu Cheng Yonggu fired a round of gunfire at the enemy formation! After that, the formation will move forward a hundred steps!"

(Military musical instruments of the army in the Qing Dynasty were mainly realized in four forms: drums, gold, horns, and suona. The main function of the golden drum was to release and convey signals in the army; suona and horns were mainly used for honor guards in the army. Drums alone can be divided into general drums, army drums, and war drums; and the official term for gold should be called "gong". Gongs and Jinggongs; as for the Conch, both the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion are equipped with equipment, and the Eight Banners troops pay special attention to it. The main function of the Conch is to arrange camps and gather soldiers. Officials below the command of each banner must prepare their own.

According to the "Military Order", a Manchu-Han bibliographer issued during the Qianlong period, those who are in charge of applauding, beating drums, and ringing gold will do as soon as they hear the order, and stop when they hear the order.Those who violated the order in ordinary times were punished with forty lashes by the soldiers of the Manchu and Mongolian soldiers, and thirty sticks by the soldiers of the Green Battalion.Those who disobey the order during the battle will be beheaded. )
In the trenches on the southern front, Ding Guofeng, Sheng Haizhou and Hepingtai heard the sound of drums and knew that the Qing army was about to attack, so they ordered to increase their vigilance.

The piercing whistle sounded on the ground, and more than 600 soldiers from the two battalions were lying in the trenches and getting ready for battle.They clutched the rifles in their hands nervously, not daring to breathe.At the artillery position 500 meters behind them, all preparations are ready, just waiting for Zhao Xin's order.

Because the first cannon was a trial shot, the first to fire was a general Wucheng Yonggu cannon located between the first and second lines of the Qing army's formation, near the middle (this cannon is located outside the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, if you are interested You can go and see).

This kind of copper cannon is the largest heavy artillery in the Qing army's field battles. The cannon body weighs five thousand catties. It is placed on a reinforced four-wheeled cart and can only be pulled by seven horses.When the artillery is fired, the charge is ten catties, and the cast iron shell weighs twenty catties, which is 22 pounds when converted to the Western standard of the same period.

Although it took too long to cast this kind of heavy artillery, and it was very inconvenient to transport from Ningguta to Fuerdan City, Fukangan still gritted his teeth and carried twenty.Last year's disastrous defeat had caused too much psychological shadow on him, and he still thinks these twenty are too few; if it weren't for Qianlong's secret order to urge the soldiers, he would like to bring more.

Thanks to Anthony's help, all the large-scale artillery made shooting tables; and the gunners of the Qing army only needed to estimate the distance, and then they could adjust the height of the tail ball of the gun body according to the shooting table.

"嗵~!!" With a loud noise, the five-meter-long artillery cart slammed backwards, and a [-]-jin iron bullet whizzed out, flashed through the air, and smashed into the front of the trench in Beihai Town. Ten meters away, smoke and dust mixed with snow and black soil splashed more than three meters high. After landing, the shells rolled forward and flew up again. After bouncing a few meters away, they hit the ground weakly.

Ding Guofeng laughed loudly and said, "Missed! Shit cannon!" As soon as he said this, everyone on the battlefield burst into laughter.

Zhao Xin, who was calculating the coordinates, hurriedly picked up the binoculars to check after hearing the sound of the cannon.When he saw the point of impact, he yelled in his heart: "Damn it! It can hit so far! It's almost 2000 meters!"

He knew that there would be cannons in the Qing army formation opposite, but he didn't take it seriously at all.In Zhao Xin's impression, the heavy artillery of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties were generally set up on the city walls or seaside forts, mainly for defense.But he never expected that Fukang'an would bring such a heavy artillery!

"Ding Guofeng! Let me release the drone! See how many heavy artillery the Qing army has! Over!"

"Received! Finished!"

"Notify everyone, including the heavy machine gun positions and anti-aircraft artillery positions, to pay attention to concealment when the Qing army fires! It's over!"

Zhao Xin must hold back the tens of thousands of Qing troops in front of him, and not let them be defeated prematurely, so as to allow time for Wang Yuanfang to occupy Karen, Mongolia.The defeat of the Qing army on the Eastern Front was completely beyond his expectations. He didn't expect that dozens of shells would kill thousands of people and there was no news.It would be fine if they were completely beaten away, but if they stopped running away, they would pack up their horses and kill the carbine, and the rest of the matter would be long-winded.

He had just finished talking to Ding Guofeng when Liu Sheng started calling him again.Fortunately, he let Zhang Bo set up a signal tower in the city, otherwise Zhao Xin would have to stick to the headquarters.

"Zhao Xin, the Qing army on the western front has started dispatching again! It's over!"

"What? Speak clearly! Over!"

"A large group of cavalry came out, but they were far away, about three or four miles away! Over!"

"Don't attack, shrink the defense! If you get closer to one kilometer, let the anti-aircraft guns speak! Over!"

"I said, can you give us some artillery support? Over!"

"Brother, we only have five artillery groups, and I have to destroy the heavy artillery of the Qing army. You have to bear with it. If you can't do it, you can use the drone to monitor it. It's over!"

After knowing that Fukang'an led the army to arrive, Duerjia on the western front finally sent troops under the persuasion of Na Yangui.If it were someone else, even with Fukang'an's token, Du Erjia would not ignore him; because his surname is Aixinjueluo!

More than one-third of his men and horses were lost, the Firearms Battalion was completely disabled, more than 1000 Mongolian cavalrymen of the Eight Banners died in battle, and half of the retreating barbarians were killed or injured. Du Erjia was no longer able to fight anymore.But Na Yangui is Agui's grandson!Even if Duerjia looked down on that Yangui, he didn't dare to offend his grandfather; the old man is still sitting in Ningguta!
Instead of looking at the face of the monk and the face of the Buddha, Du Erjia could only grit his teeth and reluctantly took out 5000 taels of silver, plus the appointment of an official to make a wish.Under the so-called heavy reward, there must be a brave man. A Mongolian deputy commander of the Eight Banners came out to ask for orders, and finally gathered 100 Mongolian cavalry from the Eight Banners, plus more than [-] musket cavalry.As a result, when these people were more than three miles away from the defense line, they said nothing and left.He was already frightened by the anti-aircraft guns in Beihai Town, and he didn't dare to approach him at all.

The problem is that Liu Sheng doesn't know what's going on here!He saw that the enemy was dispatched again, and there were thousands of soldiers and horses in the dark.So the entire Western Front was ordered to enter the battle state.

Ten minutes later, the heavy artillery of the Qing army on the southern front began firing again.This time, twenty artillery pieces fired in salvo, accompanied by the beating of war drums like raindrops, and thunderstorms swept across the ground; amidst the billowing gunpowder smoke, twenty large iron balls weighing ten catties flew from the formation of the Qing army. Come out and hit the southern front position.At the same time, the formation of the Qing army began to move!
Zhao Xin saw that it was a bad dish!Fukang'an actually brought so many heavy artillery.

From the perspective of battlefield command experience and military capabilities, the current Zhao Xin is not worthy of Fukang's shoes!As for Liu Sheng and the others, no matter how strong individual soldier skills are, they are not qualified generals.

Even though Zhao Xin has a bunch of modern weapons, even the best weapons have to be displayed through people.He was able to defeat Fukang'an, Durga and Ushhada before, relying on surprise, using the power of modern weapons to catch the opponent by surprise.Speaking of last year, Fukang'an was also stunned by the rate of fire and firepower of modern weapons, which made Zhao Xin take advantage of it.

After Fukang'an knew that Duerjia was defeated, he adjusted his attack plan in time.He intends to use the cover of heavy artillery to destroy the defensive forces within range, and at the same time, the entire formation advances, step by step, and fight steadily.The heavy and light artillery complement each other, and the musketeers cover the light artillery, and after approaching the enemy's line, they launch a layer-by-layer attack.

Fukang'an's style of play is actually based on the tactics used to attack Jinchuan and Jinchuan back then.

In the 36th year of Qianlong's reign, during the second crusade against Jinchuan and Jinchuan, the Qing army absorbed previous experience and lessons, and began to use large-scale artillery to fight fortified battles.

In this battle, the Qing army did not only use heavy artillery to attack remotely as in the past.Because of this, the enemy would be given the opportunity to repair the fortifications within a longer launch interval; therefore, the Qing army used heavy artillery for cover, and light artillery fired forward.First use heavy artillery to open the enemy's gap, and then use light artillery to prevent the defenders from filling the gap.If the enemy army continued to use the roots, cellars and trenches to resist stubbornly after the fortifications at high places were destroyed, then the Qing army would raise the fort to attack the enemy in the low-lying places.

If it is an upright battle, and at the same time with the same weapon generation gap, Zhao Xin and the others will not be able to beat Fukang'an anyway.

However, as a commander, Zhao Xin is pretty good at battlefield perception and improvised decision-making.Compared with Fukang'an, he was quite ruthless at critical moments, and he didn't make any big mistakes in his impromptu judgment; for example, he fought the Saga clan in Nagasaki.Besides, he still has a drone.

The line of sight turned to the trenches on the southern front.Amidst the yelling of the crowd at the head of Fuldan City, twenty large iron balls crashed into the front and back of the trench.

Ding Guofeng was lying in the trench with his ass pouted at this time, holding the control panel of the drone in his hand; Sheng Haizhou, Pingtai and most of the soldiers of the two battalions were also like this.On the several heavy machine gun positions behind the trenches, all the shooters and deputy shooters jumped into the traffic trenches to hide after receiving orders to evade.

It is said that Beihai Town has not encountered large-scale shelling since it became an army.Fortunately, the shells of the Qing army would not explode, otherwise there would be casualties.

"Ready for battle!" After the bombardment, a sharp whistle sounded in the trench, and everyone popped up again and returned to their positions.More than a dozen large black iron balls were scattered in front of and behind the formation, and one of them completely smashed the sandbag bunker in front of a machine gun position.

At this time, the conch horn sounded for the first time in the large formation of the Qing army, and the musketeers in the front row crossed the shield chariots and advanced forward carrying antlers. , Xiao cavalry and fowling cavalry also began to move forward.On the second line, the cavalry formation of the vanguard battalion and the archers of the retreating barbarian army advanced accordingly.

When advancing to one hundred steps, the bronze gong in the army sounded, the whole army stopped, and the conch horn sounded for the second time.Antlers and shield chariots began to be deployed, and the Qing army stood in formation.The thirty magical general guns of each battalion were adjusted to the maximum elevation angle, and with the sound of drums, they began to shoot.

Shengong General Cannon, cast in copper, weighs a thousand catties, and each cannon is equipped with a three-wheeled cannon carriage.The whole gun is 2.37 meters long, with a caliber of 90 mm and 26 times the diameter.When shooting, the powder weighed 1.75 catties, and the shell weighed three and a half catties; according to the European artillery standards of the same period, it was 3.85 pounds.

At this time, the first line of the Qing army was still more than 1000 meters away from Beihai Town, and the maximum range of the three- and four-pound guns was only 700-800 meters. At this distance, there was nothing wrong with Beihai Town!

After watching the shooting of heavy and light artillery, Zhao Xin decided that the heavy artillery of the Qing army should not be allowed to fire again.If these weapons are broken, I can still buy them again, but if I lose them, I will feel distressed to death.

It is said that these artillerymen and heavy machine gun shooters were all cultivated by him and Liu Sheng in more than a year.Everyone must not only be literate, but also learn basic mathematics, and be able to remember the meanings of various symbols on weapons; any one of them is a treasure for the current Beihai Town.

He first contacted Ding Guofeng, quickly determined the area where the Qing army's heavy artillery was located, and then used a walkie-talkie to connect to the rear artillery position, and ordered five artillery groups to suppress the area where the Qing army's heavy artillery was located.

The artillery company commander at the other end was still in the state of firing several rounds in a hurry, so he asked, "My lord, how many rounds should we fire?"

"Half a base number!" Zhao Xin didn't even think about it, he just opened his mouth and said it, it's just nonsense!

(The so-called ammunition base, different types and different calibers of artillery have different ammunition base standards. As far as the 122 howitzer is concerned, a standard base is 80 rounds.)
The simplest way to say firepower suppression is to bombard the sky with densely packed shells, so that the bombed enemy troops cannot fight back and their actions are restricted. The maximum firing rate of the D30 is 6-8 rounds per minute. For the artillery team in Beihai Town, they can fire up to 4 rounds.Because each round of 122 high-explosive warheads weighs more than 40 kilograms, it is very difficult for one person to carry these ammunition, and two people must carry it, which delays time.

Zhao Xin didn't want to blow up the "emoji package" to death. If he could be captured alive, he felt that he could extort a lot from Qianlong;You can ask for less silver, but the more gold, antique calligraphy and paintings, the better.

Because of Zhao Xin's attitude, the "emoji package" is quite safe on the handsome platform for the time being.He was very satisfied when he saw the shooting effect of General Wu Cheng Yonggu's cannon.The next bombardment should be able to destroy the opponent's rapid-fire iron cannons.

The footsteps of "dengdengdeng" came, and his personal soldiers ran up from under the commander's platform.The soldier was full of panic, leaned in front of Fukang'an, and reported in a low voice: "Marshal, Ush Hada and the others have lost! The person who reported the letter said that the entire army has collapsed, and the whereabouts of Wujunmen are unknown."

The order flag that Fukang'an was about to raise suddenly stopped, his eyes were wide open, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, he grabbed the skirt of the soldier's clothes furiously, and said sharply: "You fart!"

(End of this chapter)