I want to be emperor

Chapter 325 The Cruel Jiujiang Offensive and Defensive Battle ([-] words combined)

The solid defense system of Jiujiang City is the most powerful defense system that the Chu army has encountered since the Southern and Northern Wars.

When the generals of the Chu army were conducting various investigations and collecting information, they even began to think about learning this defense system.

Not to mention, because the Chu army puts most of their energy on offense, they usually think about how to attack. Even if they are fighting defensively, they are more inclined to take the initiative to attack and intercept. In essence, they are actually fighting offensively.

As for the pure city defense system, to be honest, the tactical thinking of the Chu army is actually no different from that of the Ming army before. It is nothing more than relying on the city walls and artillery for defensive operations.

But the current defense system inside and outside Jiujiang City has given many senior generals of the Chu army, especially the staff department a lot of inspiration.
Many people have already started research, and then extracted the advantages, and then tried to combine the advantages and disadvantages of the Chu army to create a defense system of their own, and then used it on the northern line.

After all, the northern front is now in a strategic defensive situation, and it faces many main forces of the Ming army. The pressure has not been small, and most of the time it is mainly defensive operations.

Although the previous defensive operations were pretty good, it was the result of the Ming army not launching a large-scale attack at all, not to say that the Chu army's defense system was perfect.

Therefore, many generals in the staff department believed that it is still necessary to strengthen the defensive combat capabilities of the Chu army, and the fortification system and firepower layout inside and outside Jiujiang City are of great reference value.

Luo Zhixue was also very supportive of this, and even asked Xu Zhixian to set up a special team in the staff to study defensive operations.

Although the Chu army is now mainly attacking externally and expanding more, as the Chu army's control area becomes larger and larger, the strength of the Chu army will definitely become more and more tense by then.

When the area to be defended is large, it is unavoidable to make a choice, maintain the offensive in some areas, and maintain the defensive in some areas. Even in some areas and time, the Chu army is very likely to be besieged.

Therefore, it is very necessary to study defensive operations early.

An army must not only be able to attack, but also defend.

-

Although the defense system of Jiujiang City is very complete, even surpassing the Chu army's previous expectations, this did not hinder the Chu army's step-by-step preparations for attacking the city.

On August [-], after completing many preparations, the Chu army also officially launched the siege operation.

However, unlike traditional siege operations, the Chu army did not directly attack the city walls... let alone dispatched infantry as in movies and TV dramas, foolishly rushing up the city for a long time...

In fact, the Chu army had no way to directly send infantry to attack the city wall at the beginning of the siege.

The many trenches, fortresses, parapets and other fortifications built by the Ming army outside the city wall directly blocked the infantry of the Chu army.

If the Chu army wanted to attack and climb the top of the city, they could only conquer the many fortifications of the Ming army outside the city.

On the contrary, some artillery pieces of the Chu army will bombard the top of the city, but the location of the shelling is only limited to the part where the Ming army deployed artillery on the top of the city. The artillery units of the Chu army are trying to bombard the artillery positions of the Ming army on the top of the city. , thus suppressing the firepower of the heavy artillery at the head of the Ming army.

Unfortunately, the effect is not obvious.

The Ming army built a very perfect position on the artillery position at the head of the city. In order to build the artillery position and prevent the debris from being hit by the battlement from splashing and killing the surrounding gunners, the Ming army even dismantled the battlement in front of the artillery position. ...

Instead, thick, multi-layered sandbags.

Numerous actual combats have proved that when defending against solid bullet bombardment, thin masonry fortifications are useless at all, but will cause more damage to one's own side due to splashing.

On the contrary, fortifications made of sand and soil are more effective in defending against solid bullet shelling, which can avoid the sputtering of gravel and the bouncing refraction of solid bullets.

Of course, the premise is that the sandbags are thick enough, thin sandbag fortifications are useless...

The Chu army first used sandbags as artillery fortifications, and later the Ming army also learned it, and carried forward the sandbag fortifications, and piled up a large number of sandbags around each artillery.

Now the sandbag fortifications on the artillery positions of the Ming army on the head of Jiujiang City are several meters thick. Even if the solid shells of the nine-pound field artillery in the Chu army hit accurately, it would be difficult to directly destroy such fortifications with one shot. .

As for hitting the same spot multiple times, it depends too much on the gunner skills of the Chu army and the hit rate performance of the nine-pound field artillery in the Chu army.

It is already very lucky to be able to hit a shot from a few hundred meters away, and it has hit the same part accurately many times. With this ability, the Chu army would have gone to the sky long ago. What kind of battle is there with the Ming army...

The field artillery can't make merit in a short time, and the shelling effect of the mortar is not very effective.

The hit rate of the mortars these days is still too bad, even if the Chu army has ventured through the trenches, deployed a batch of 48-jin mortars close by, and even spent a lot of effort to get eight [-]-jin mortars.

However, when bombarded at a distance of three to four hundred meters, the hit rate is still very impressive.

When the hit rate is limited, it is difficult for the shells of the mortar to directly hit the gun position.

At the same time, the anti-artillery fortifications in the artillery positions of the Ming army are too thick, all of which are ring-shaped sandbag fortifications. This ring-shaped fortification can effectively defend against the impact and fragments produced by the mortar shells falling on the surrounding area.

What's even more disgusting is that there are thick roof fortifications on the top of the fortifications of these heavy artillery.

This kind of roof fortification can effectively defend against the fragments of the volley explosion.

During the bombardment that morning, the Chu army launched a fierce bombardment on the Ming army's heavy artillery position on the top of the city, but the effect was not great. Until the afternoon, the dozens of heavy artillery on the top of the Ming army's city were still leisurely and unhurriedly. Continued fire to counterattack.

Of course, the Ming army's heavy artillery counterattack did not have much success.

The infantry of the Chu army did not form a dense formation to charge at all, but deployed sporadically, and with the cooperation of artillery units, they attacked the trench fortress of the Ming army outside the city, and most of the time they attacked in the trenches.

Chu Jun would never run out foolishly to be a target for Ming Jun.

The Chu army used some mortars and field artillery to shell the Ming army's heavy artillery at the top of the city, and the more than ten heavy artillery of the Ming army on the top of the city also had no results.

Apart from wasting ammunition, the two sides fought alone.

However, this is only limited to the shelling operations around the heavy artillery units at the head of the Ming army.

But in other directions, especially the battles in the trenches and forts outside the city, the battles were extremely cruel and bloody!

In the morning of August [-]th, although the Chu army mobilized some artillery to bombard the heavy artillery units of the Ming army at the head of the city, more artillery and a large number of infantrymen still launched a fierce attack on the defensive positions of the Ming army outside the city.

Outside the west gate of Jiujiang City, the Ming army built a complex fortification with four large forts as the core, more than ten small forts and many trenches.

And these fortresses, without exception, are built with extremely thick sand and soil, which can defend against solid bullets and even mortar shells to a certain extent.

There are also special anti-blasting holes in many trenches.

More importantly, artillery is basically deployed in these fortresses!
Two and a half catties of field guns were deployed in the four large forts, and the terrain was condescending. With the cooperation of the four large forts, the firepower of the two and a half catties of field guns deployed on them could almost cover the entire battlefield outside the west city.

If the Chu army wanted to launch an attack from the west city gate, they had to pull out these four large fortresses first anyway.

As for detours to attack from the direction of other city gates, they are actually similar. The Ming army built dense fortifications and trenches in almost all directions of the four city gates.

Otherwise, Luo Zhixue would not think that there is a hedgehog in Jiujiang City, which makes it difficult for people to attack.

Facing the Jiujiang city defense like a hedgehog, what did the Chu army do?

What else can I do...

Bombard with more artillery!
No matter how thick these fortifications are, it is impossible to resist the continuous shelling of nine-pound, five-pound field artillery, and 48-pound mortars.

As long as there are enough cannons and enough shells fired, these fortresses can always be blasted to pieces.

As for playing sneak attack, night attack, let the elite infantry play all kinds of exquisite assaults... Sorry, this is not what the Chu army is good at. If you really do this, you may be found by the Ming army on the opposite side Chance to fight back.

The Chu army obviously has hundreds of artillery pieces, and the shells are piled up like a mountain. Even a little bit of grinding can wear down these fortresses. Why do the soldiers have to take risks with unpredictable consequences?
It's okay to win, but if the sneak attack fails, the loss of a large number of elite infantry Luo Zhixue will also be heartbreaking.

After all, those who can be sent out to carry out this kind of assault mission are all elite infantry in the Chu army, and it is not easy to train these elite infantry. It is much more precious, and there is no need to use these elite infantry as cannon fodder unless it is a last resort.

So the Chu army's attack on the first day, just from the sound, it was absolutely massive!

Hundreds of artillery pieces continued to fire, coupled with the Ming army's artillery counterattack, the rumbling sound of the artillery did not stop from the morning until the afternoon.

But if you look at the scene, you can basically see the dense crowd except for the thick gunpowder smoke and explosion flames.

Because the soldiers on both sides hid in the trenches most of the time and never showed their faces!
Only when the infantry of the Chu army launched a final assault on a certain section of the trenches or forts of the Ming army, would the soldiers of both sides appear on the ground and engage in melee.

However, the scale of this kind of battle is generally very small, basically concentrated on the scale of about a hundred people, and even a battalion-level battle of five or six hundred people has never occurred.

however!
This seemingly small-scale battle is very bloody and frequent!
Outside the west gate of Jiujiang, in a Chu army position closest to the Yangtze River in the north!

Hundreds of soldiers of the Chu Army wearing gray full-body cloth face armor, holding knives, spears, or muskets are standing quietly in the trench!
A young officer who was also wearing armor but with a captain's epaulette on his shoulder was staring at several flags on the left rear.

That is the banner of their No.20 Fourth Infantry Regiment!

After the semaphore signal fell, a sergeant next to the young captain said: "Report to the captain, the regiment headquarters will report that in 5 minutes our artillery unit will conduct intensive bombardment of the enemy's No. [-] fortress in front of our troops. After the rapid-fire bombardment, my assault post immediately launched an attack to capture the small fort No. [-] to open the gap, so as to cooperate with the main force of the regiment and the division assault battalion to capture the large fort No. [-]."
The captain immediately nodded slightly: "Reply, our whistle will launch an attack after the shelling is over!"

Then he took two steps and walked up to a young lieutenant who was also wearing armor: "Lieutenant Li, immediately check the preparations of the brothers."

Lieutenant Li immediately asked: "Song Shao, is this going to attack?"

Captain Song nodded slightly: "Well, the regiment commander has ordered us to launch a charge after the shelling is over, and capture the No. [-] small fort on the opposite side to open a gap for the main force to conquer the No. [-] large fort."

After Lieutenant Li heard this, the young face under the helmet showed a trace of caution, and said at the same time: "I'll go right away!"

Captain Song gave a 'hmm', and then went to the side of an [-]-jin mortar gun position, and said to one of the sergeants: "Zhao Laoer, there will be shelling attacking the place in front of you later, you should pay attention to it." See if there are any fish that slip through the net, especially artillery that is relatively threatening, if there are, don't ask for instructions, just open fire."

As he said that, Captain Song paused for a moment: "We will charge up later with more than 100 brothers. If you kill a few more people, we can recover a few lives. Be more accurate."

About 30 years old, short, strong, and dark-faced, Zhao Lao Er was not wearing full-body armor like other soldiers. At this time, he was wearing a gray cloth military uniform, only wearing a helmet, and was holding a gun in his mouth. Grassroots.

After hearing Captain Song's words, Zhao Laoer grinned and showed a mouth full of chipped yellow teeth: "Master Song, don't worry, I, Zhao Laoer, have been playing with guns for several years, and I have been playing with this [-]-jin mortar for more than half a year." , I dare not say it is far away, but now it is more than ten feet away, so it must be where to hit!"

"Don't worry, my [-]-pound cannon will definitely kill those fish that slip through the net for you!"

Captain Song stretched out his hand and patted him on the shoulder, nodded and did not speak again.

Time passed little by little, and soon, as the regiment headquarters reported, there was a sudden burst of intensive artillery fire from behind, and immediately after that, many black spots could be seen flying over the top of the position.

Just hearing the sound of the cannon, Captain Song couldn't help showing a hint of joy.

Lieutenant Li, the deputy chief of post on the side, said directly: "In addition to the five-pound cannon and the eighteen-pound mortar, there are also nine-pound field cannon and 48-pound mortar. what!"

Turn your gaze to the Ming army's position on the opposite side!
Many solid shells from the five-pound or nine-pound field guns fell directly on the small fort No. [-], and the huge kinetic energy of the shells directly smashed this humble small fort to pieces.

At the same time, several 48-jin or [-]-jin mortar shells also fell to the ground and exploded one after another, and there was a burst of howling from the Ming army's position opposite.

Even though it was three to forty meters away, Captain Song was shocked by the destructive effect of this violent shelling!
This thing is simply not something that human beings can resist.

And the shelling has not stopped!

Not long after, another round of field artillery and mortar shells flew to the No. [-] Ming Army Fortress.

For such a small fortress where the Ming army's garrison strength is estimated to be no more than a hundred people and only two short cannons are deployed, the Chu army used four nine-pound field cannons, eight five-pound field cannons, six eighteen-pound mortar cannons, four 48 catties mortar!
After a violent rapid-fire bombardment, these artillery began to slow down the shelling density, and began to extend the shelling towards both sides and the rear of the front.

At this time, Captain Song also raised his command knife and pointed forward, calmly and resolutely issued a combat order: "Full sentry assault!"

In the next moment, the sound of copper whistles sounded in this small position one after another. The soldiers of the assault posts belonging to the No. 20 Fourth Infantry Regiment, wearing heavy armor, began to climb out of the trenches, and then moved forward with various weapons. The Ming Army No. [-] small fortress in ruins rushed over!
At the same time, Zhao Lao Er poked his head out and squinted his eyes to look at the No. [-] small fortress that was still filled with gunpowder smoke and dust. Soon he saw a few figures moving more than ten meters away from the side of the fortress. They were pushing a small cannon and trying to point the muzzle forward.

Seeing this, Zhao Lao Er immediately adjusted the [-]-jin mortar that had already been loaded, and only two seconds later, Zhao Lao Er fired himself.

While a cloud of gunpowder smoke rose from the trench mortar position, an 40-jin mortar also flew over a short distance of about [-] meters, and then landed near a short artillery of the Ming army, although it did not hit directly , but the shock and shell fragments produced after the explosion still swept through this small Ming army short artillery battery.

Captain Song saw that the soldiers of his assault post had climbed out of the trench one after another, and he himself immediately climbed out of the trench with a steel waist knife, and then walked forward together with his soldiers.

The soldiers of these assault posts did not form a scattered formation. On the contrary, their formation was relatively dense, and they formed combat groups of more than ten people.

In the combat team, there are spearmen, shieldmen, and musketeers.

This kind of combat team with more than ten people and all kinds of arms is a formation that the assault troops and reconnaissance troops in the Chu army like to use very much. It was born out of the mandarin duck formation of the Qi family army, and it is very suitable for small-scale melee battles in complex terrain. .

They trotted forward, and soon crossed half of the distance. At this time, some Ming troops reacted and began to fire sporadic musket fire at them, and even short artillery shelled them.

It was inevitable that this commando suffered some casualties, but they still continued to make great strides forward.

And some musketeers took out grenades and threw them towards the ruined trenches ahead.

These musketeers are not pure musketeers, but a new unit in the Chu army: grenadiers!
These grenadiers are often incorporated into assault units and fight in conjunction with other arms.

After the explosion of a hand grenade, five or sixty people suddenly appeared in the trenches of the Ming army that seemed to have been turned into ruins in front of them, and there were not a few figures.

However, these Ming troops did not launch a counterattack against the charging Chu army, but rushed to the rear one by one.

Their No. 80 small fortress had only 30 to [-] soldiers at the beginning, and they were all sentinels. He was also taken aback.

Now seeing hundreds of soldiers in heavy armor and closely cooperating with the Chu Army commando coming to kill them, these sentinels of the Ming army camp did not have any courage to resist at all, so they turned around and ran away.

And this scene made a battalion officer in the Ming Army Anlu Xinbiao Army wearing a green robe of a civil servant in the large fortress No. [-] not far away couldn't help but cursed: "I knew they were unreliable..."

"Chu thief turned around and ran away as soon as he came up, so bold and courageous!"

"Decapitate them all for justice!"

When the battalion officer in seventh-rank civilian uniform yelled and scolded, Captain Song looked happy!
The enemy ran away directly, so there was no need for a brutal melee fight.

Although he is very confident in his assault post, these soldiers are all elites drawn from the entire 24th Infantry Regiment, but there will inevitably be casualties in the melee.

This death or injury would make his heart ache!
Now that the enemy army is voluntarily fleeing, it just saves trouble.

The distance between the starting position of the Chu army and the No. 40 small fortress of the Ming army was 20 meters. Under the rapid charge of the assault post of the No. [-] Fourth Infantry Regiment, which initiated the charge, it didn't take long to cross this distance.

At this time, in this small fort No. [-], the dust and gunpowder smoke caused by the explosion of the mortar shells had not yet dissipated.

In this regard, Captain Song was not polite, and directly led people to seize the No. [-] small fortress and a nearby trench.

But before Captain Song and the others took a breather, a group of soldiers from the Ming army appeared in the ditch on the left, that is, the south, and came to kill them.

These soldiers of the Ming army wanted to retake the small fort No. [-], so as to prevent the Chu army from opening a gap here, and then threatened the large fort No. [-] from the side.

Captain Song fixed his eyes and knew that the visitor was not good.

The Ming army rushing to counterattack has a total of two to three hundred people, and they are all new standard troops.

The new standard troops in the Ming army are easy to identify, because their weapons and equipment are very different from the traditional battalion sentinels, and they can be seen from a distance.

After a little judgment of the enemy's strength and direction, Captain Song quickly commanded his troops to intercept.

The two sides fought and fought repeatedly around the No. [-] small fortress and the surrounding trenches.

In the end, it was the assault post of the No. 20 Fourth Infantry Regiment. With more elite soldiers, better equipment, and especially the advantages of heavy armor for all members, it directly repelled the counterattack of the Ming army and left the Ming army with 100 soldiers. Many casualties.

However, the loss of the assault post itself was not small. More than 20 people were killed or injured in this melee, plus several people who were intercepted by the firepower of the Ming army in the previous full process. More than 20 people were killed or injured.

But the Ming army was even worse, with more than 200 casualties, most of whom were regarded as the absolute main force by Shi Kefa.

It was just a small-scale battle where the two sides participated in the battle with only a few hundred people, but it caused more than 200 casualties. The tragedy of the melee can be seen.

More importantly, this kind of small-scale battle has broken out on many fronts today.

Each battle seems to be a small-scale battle, but after summing up, the casualties are very large, especially for the Ming army.

That night, after Shi Kefa received the casualty reports compiled by various ministries, he almost couldn't believe his eyes.

Just one day!
Just one day!
More than 2000 people were killed or injured by the Ming army deployed in the fortifications outside the city, and more than [-] people were Anlu's new standard troops who were regarded by Shi Kefa as the cornerstone of defending the city!

Although various ministries reported that they killed at least 5000 Chu thieves, Shi Kefa had no eyesight. The total number of infantry that Chu thieves dispatched to launch assaults today did not add up to 5000...

It would be nice if the Chu thief killed or injured a thousand people.

The actual casualties of the Chu army were even smaller than Shi Kefa expected. In fact, on the first day of the war, the Chu army had only more than 400 casualties, and many of the wounded were treated. It is estimated that the final death toll was less than 200.

This comparison of casualties is almost completely unacceptable to generals of the Ming army such as Shi Kefa.

According to this way of fighting, in just a few days, all the Anlu new standard troops under his hands will be wiped out. Without the new standard troops as the core backbone, Jiujiang City will still be guarding a fart by then!
When Shi Kefa was frightened by the huge casualties that night, in the camp of the Chu army outside the city, the executive deputy director of the logistics department who accompanied the army was also frowning.

He approached Luo Zhixue and said, "Your Majesty, we must save ammo, the ammunition consumed by this style of play is too high now."

"According to this way of fighting, the ammunition in reserve will not be able to reach the seaside. Can this last until the end of Anqing's fight..."

(End of this chapter)