I want to be emperor

Chapter 326 Assault on Fortress No. [-] ([-]-word chapter)

On the first day when the Chu army launched the Jiujiang Campaign, they successively captured 2000 small fortresses, killed and injured more than 30 Ming soldiers, and destroyed or captured more than [-] small and medium-sized old artillery pieces of the Ming army.

No chance or capture of field guns, though none of the large forts were captured.

But the results are still huge.

More importantly, through the first day of combat, the fourteen small forts captured by the Chu army have allowed the Chu army to advance to a place relatively close to the large fortress of the Ming army.

In the next step, the Chu army can launch an attack on the core fortresses of the Ming army outside the city walls, that is, those large fortresses.

Each of these large fortresses is not small. There are trenches around these barriers, and there are large pieces of sharp bamboo pieces, wooden stakes and other obstacles outside the trenches.

And the whole fortress is a hollow fortress formed without building walls. In fact, this thing is a solid fortress formed by relying on the original small hills and then repaired, which plays a condescending role.

On the top of the fortress, there is no thin breast wall, but a sandbag with a thickness of one or two meters is directly used as a cover, and the soldiers can shoot or release arrows outside the sandbag.

There are also two and a half catties of field guns deployed.

And between these field guns, there are ring-shaped sandbag fortifications.

At the same time, in the open space in the middle of the fortress, anti-gun fortifications were also excavated.

What is pursued is the defensive effect against solid shells and even mortars.

The reason why the Ming army made these fortifications so perverted, and paid great attention to artillery defense, and even ignored other aspects for the sake of artillery defense, was purely because the Chu army's artillery brought too much psychological pressure on them.

In actual combat, this series of fort defenses of the Ming army seemed to have a good anti-cannon effect, but in fact they were very poor in dealing with infantry attacks.

Previously in the battles of Linxiang, Changsha and now the first day of the battle of Jiujiang City.

Although the performance of the Chu army's artillery was restricted, it was only partly restricted. Relying on the focused shelling of a large number of intensive artillery, it was still possible to destroy these so-called fortresses.

At the same time, because the fortifications of the Ming army pursued anti-cannon performance too much, they were insufficient in defending against infantry attacks.

For example, in order to avoid the shelling, the Ming army dispersed the infantry and let the infantry hide in the anti-artillery fortifications. In this way, when the infantry of the Chu army rushed up, it was difficult for the Ming army to gather its troops in time to fight in formation. .

As for hiding in the trenches and shooting...

This will not be a battle, and the weapons in their hands are not repeating rifles or machine guns!

They don't even have flintlock guns... The weapons in their hands are just a few matchlock guns, plus a large number of short-range, limited-power muskets and cold weapons.

This also means that once the artillery of the Ming army cannot stop the infantry of the Chu army from advancing, it will be difficult for their infantry to organize effective firepower interception, and then they are forced to enter hand-to-hand combat.

Also because of the existence of trenches and the scattered deployment of troops, it is difficult for them to gather a large number of troops in a short period of time to form a dense formation to meet them. Eliminate them one by one with absolutely superior force and equipment performance.

This situation was more obvious in the second day's battle!

After the first day of brutal combat, the Ming army in the city probably couldn't accept the massive losses of the new standard army, and began to shrink the new standard army. The Ming army, which was conducting defensive operations in the fortresses outside the city, began to use battalion sentinels as their bases. host.

Although there are quite a few fighters in these battalion sentinels, their overall quality is still not as good as their new standard troops. In many fights, they don't even have the courage to fight at close range with the rushing Chu army. The army's intensive shelling began to waver after a few people were killed or injured, and then a rout occurred.

The few battalion sentry soldiers who intervened in the resistance were quickly annihilated by the superior Chu army that concentrated their breakthrough.

At noon the next day, several small forts outside the large fortress No. [-] outside the west gate of the Ming army were breached one by one, and the Chu army surrounded the large fortress from three sides.

In the afternoon, the Chu army began to launch a fierce attack on the No. [-] large fortress!

In order to conquer this small fortress, the Chu army dispatched two infantry regiments, the No.20 Third Infantry Regiment and the No.20 Fourth Infantry Regiment, and the artillery supporting these two regiments was even stronger!

Most of the main artillery of the Sixth Artillery Regiment, the Guards Artillery Regiment, and the First Mortar Artillery Regiment were all aimed at the No. [-] large fortress for wild bombardment.

Eighteen nine-pound field guns, 36 five-pound field cannons, and 52 48-pound mortars!
In addition, there are four fourteen-pound heavy cannons temporarily reinforced to the Guards Artillery Regiment.

A total of more than one hundred medium and large caliber artillery shelled this small No. [-] large fortress, and its shelling density far exceeded the limit that this fortress could withstand.

After three to 10 minutes of intensive shelling, the No. [-] large fortress was completely changed, most of the fortifications were completely destroyed, the smoke was filled, the smoke and dust billowed, and no one could be seen...

The four two-and-a-half-pound field guns deployed on the top of the fortress were completely destroyed before a single shot was fired. Even the extremely thick sandbag fortifications were gradually destroyed after being intensively bombarded by nine-pound and fourteen-pound artillery. destroy.

The shock waves and fragments produced by the densely exploded mortar shells swept across almost every inch of the ground of Fort No. Survive the shelling.

Even when the soldiers of the Ming army first fired the artillery in the Chu army, most of the soldiers of the Ming army had already huddled in the trenches, and some even hid in the artillery holes inside the trenches. However, under such a large-scale bombardment, the Ming army's The casualties will certainly not be so small.

"Such a spectacular bombardment can only be seen under such special circumstances!" Rao was the commander of the Sixth Division who personally planned and organized the bombardment, the former artillery director Zhang Malin, saw this scene Can't help but be amazed.

Xu Zhixian said: "The geographical location of Fort No. [-] is too important, and the terrain is also the highest on the entire western front battlefield, even higher than the gate tower of Jiujiang City."

"As long as this fortress is taken down, we can deploy a large number of artillery directly on the top of this fortress in the future. At that time, the entire western front battlefield will be covered by our firepower, and it will be accurately covered."

"Otherwise, we wouldn't have mobilized so many cannons and fired so many shells in one go."

"If you can fight like this in future battles, it will be easy!"
Hearing the cannonball, Major General Zhong Wenping, the executive deputy director of the Ordnance Department, said with a straight face: "Do you still want to fight like this in the future? This is absolutely impossible!"

"Building a fort will use up the amount of ammunition for a large-scale battle. Fortunately, you can figure it out. If there are more bombardments of this level, our ammunition reserves will be completely exhausted."

"After firing the cannonballs, when the time comes, you will take the cannons and fake guns and fight for the guns!"

Hearing what Zhong Wenping said, Xu Zhixian on the side laughed, but he was not angry.

This Zhong Wenping seemed to be speaking bluntly, but Xu Zhixian also knew his difficulties, and he might be suffocating, so there was no need to be as knowledgeable as him. ...

No, not only Xu Zhixian, but all senior generals in the entire army now know Zhong Wenping's difficulties...

It was originally expected that at least the ammunition reserves that would be used to take down Jinling City and even go to the seaside, but in the first two days of the war, [-]% of the ammunition was destroyed, which is almost a nightmare for the logistics department!
If it weren't for Xu Zhixian and Zhang Malin and other field generals, they almost patted their chests and said that at most, the ammunition consumption would be high in the first one or two days, and the ammunition consumption would decrease in the next few days. Yesterday, Zhong Wenping would have Forced reductions in ammunition supplies for artillery units.

During the strategic meeting before the imperial court last night, Xu Zhixian, Zhang Malin and others repeatedly emphasized the importance and necessity of attacking the No. [-] large fortress, and proposed to squeeze out a large amount of ammunition to implement a plan that far exceeds the city regulations on the No. [-] large fortress. shelling.

He even settled accounts with Zhong Wenping: through the consumption of ammunition far exceeding city regulations, by directly destroying and taking down the No. [-] large fortress, Jiujiang City can be taken early, and even several other large fortresses do not need to be fought. Waiting for death, there is not much food and grass reserves in those fortresses. Once Jiujiang City in the rear is captured by the Chu army, it is estimated that they will surrender or starve to death if they are besieged for half a month.

In this way, the total consumption of ammunition will be smaller.

Zhong Wenping naturally firmly opposed it!

Asking Lao Tzu for more ammunition under the banner of saving ammunition is simply nonsense!

However, in the end, Xu Zhixian and Zhang Malin's battle plan was approved by Luo Zhixue!

Luo Zhixue felt that long-term pain is worse than short-term pain. If you have to spend so much ammunition every day after so long, it is better to hit the opponent once and ruthlessly, and then quickly take down Jiujiang City, so as to avoid the long-term impact of the war. In the overall situation, the cost will even be even greater at that time.

Ever since, Zhong Wenping could only reluctantly agree.

Then he led a group of logistics officers overnight to adjust the ammunition supply plan. The ammunition supply is planned. Not only is the ammunition reserve limited, but the capacity is also limited. Now suddenly a large amount of extra ammunition has to be squeezed out to fight the No. [-] large fortress.

The logistics department almost had to adjust the entire ammunition supply plan, such as transporting more ammunition from Ruichang City to the front line of Jiujiang in advance.

After deploying more carriages and civilians to transport shells, the transport capacity originally scheduled to transport food and other military supplies will be squeezed out, so the logistics department has to find a way to increase transport capacity.

This is pulling one hair and moving the whole body, Zhong Wenping cannot tolerate the slightest carelessness!

For this reason, Zhong Wenping sent someone to rush back to Dawuchang early in the morning, and reported the relevant news to Yu Xiujie, the head of the logistics department of Jinling City, and urged his own head to send another batch of ammunition as soon as possible.

The head of the logistics department, Yu Xiujie, who is in charge of the various logistics supplies of the entire imperial army, naturally cannot leave easily. He needs to sit in Wuchang, the capital, to coordinate the continuous supply of various materials to the front line.

As the No. [-] person with real power in the logistics department, Major General Zhong Wenping, the executive deputy director of the logistics department, accompanied the Eastern Expedition and was responsible for the logistics of the Eastern Expedition.

From the point of view of power, Zhong Wenping was in charge of the ammunition supply of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, which seemed to be of high authority.

But it is precisely because the ammunition of the entire army is under his control, so the responsibility is extremely huge. If there is no ammunition in this fight, who will His Majesty hold accountable?

It must be for Zhong Wenping.

At that time, no one will remember that the frontline generals in the early stage used large tracts of ammunition without money, and these generals will probably fight back in the end: You are stupid, if I just say a few words, you can give me the ammunition... I I still want your wife, will you give it?
It is the responsibility of the logistics department to limit the ammunition consumption of the troops, ensure the safety of the overall ammunition supply, coordinate the ammunition supply of various ministries, and focus on supporting priority troops, etc.

Therefore, once the frontline ammunition is not available, the responsibility will be on him, Zhong Wenping, and not on those field generals who have made extravagant battle plans.

Xu Zhixian is also very aware of this, so he can understand Zhong Wenping's resentment, and naturally he will not use the name of Minister of Counselor to suppress him at this time.

When Xu Zhixian and other courtiers were discussing, Luo Zhixue was also observing the battlefield with a telescope!

In the sight of some gray binoculars, the large fort No. [-] has been reduced to ruins. At the same time, the distant part of the No. [-] fort has also begun to be bombarded by the artillery of the Chu army.

Including a nearby large fort marked as Fort No. [-] by the Chu army. The No. [-] large fort is also a large multi-faceted fort just like the No. [-] large fort.

At this time, the artillery of the Chu army had already begun to bombard the No. [-] large fort to prevent the Ming army from sending troops to rescue the No. [-] large fort.

At the same time, the back of the No. [-] large fortress, that is, the direction of the city wall, was also bombarded by the Chu army.

The artillery of the Chu army has already begun to extend, and the extended shelling of the rear and south of the No. [-] large fort is naturally aimed at blocking the reinforcements of the Ming army.

To better cover the attack of your own infantry!
Because at this time, the two regiments of the No. 12 Brigade under the Sixth Division have officially launched an offensive!
The elite assault posts belonging to the two infantry regiments were the first to rush up. These two assault posts all listed a typical mandarin duck formation, with spearmen, musketeers, and sword and shield hands.

Following the assault sentry is the sword and shield sentry of each battalion. The tactics of the sword and shield sentry of each battalion are actually the same as that of the assault troops. No formation, just a melee!
Two assault posts, plus six knife and shield posts!

An eight outpost is the beginning of the Chu army's attack on the No. [-] large fort this time. They need to open the passage for the main infantry in the rear and clear obstacles. No. [-] large fortress, and engage in dogfights with the enemy.

As for the large number of spear posts and musketeers of the two infantry regiments, they are all marching in line at this time. Because the distance is relatively short, they are listed as a horizontal line to move forward from the beginning.

In this tough battle, the tactics of the No.12 Brigade of the Sixth Division of the Chu Army were very simple. They used elite assault posts, sword and shield posts in each battalion, and a relatively scattered mandarin duck formation to lead the battle, and carried some [-]-jin mortars or even two catties. Semi-field artillery, destroying the obstacles in front of the enemy's fortress, and even rushing to the fortress for melee.

The main infantry is one step behind, advancing quickly in a dense formation, providing fire cover for the skirmishers, and more importantly, preventing the enemy's reserve forces from launching a counterattack.

Because at this moment, the front troops such as the assault sentry and the sword and shield sentry seem to have some mandarin duck formations, but in fact, for a real dense formation, this mandarin duck formation is no different from no formation...seriously lacking formation thickness and density.

If the enemy army gathers a large number of troops at this time to launch a sudden counterattack in a dense formation, they will be blown up in minutes...

At this time, these skirmishers need to retreat to the two sides in time, so that the main infantry formation behind can meet them.

War is interlocking, and the various arms and troops can cooperate with each other to fight. It is impossible to fight with only one arm and one tactic.

The Chu army used a large number of troops to launch a fierce attack!
The gray soldiers almost covered the hill!
Luo Zhixue saw this scene through the binoculars in his hand, but it was a bit blurry...

Immediately, Luo Zhixue put down the binoculars in his hand, and looked at the battlefield ahead, which became much clearer.

Alas, this telescope is still unreliable. Although the multiplier has been enlarged, the clarity is too poor. At most, it can be seen roughly. It seems that we will need to find a group of glasses craftsmen to make better telescopes!
Luo Zhixue was thinking while putting away the binoculars.

The telescope in his hand was not produced by the Great Chu Empire itself, but dug out from the warehouse of Chu Palace.

As for why this kind of typical military equipment is not in the hands of the general, but has been dusted in the warehouse of the palace.

The hell knows.

Anyway, after Luo Zhixue saw the "telescope" from the statistical curios list, he asked people to bring it over, and later sent an order to find all the seized telescopes, and then distributed them to the generals for use.

It's just that the captured binoculars are not very good in Luo Zhixue's opinion. Although they can see farther away, they are still a little blurry. If the distance is not too far, it is better to see directly with the naked eye.

There is also a large monocular that can see farther, but that thing is too big, it is very suitable as a shipboard telescope, but it is not very reliable for army generals.

Thinking of this, Luo Zhixue simply ordered a waiter next to him: "Send a message to the Ministry of Industry and ask them to gather a group of glasses craftsmen to build a group of high-precision telescopes, um, that is, binoculars and more." It is used by the generals to detect the enemy's situation."

Telescopes are nothing new. They were introduced to China from Europe during the reign of Apocalypse. It was just that they were relatively expensive at the beginning. Most of them were treasured playthings for the rich and powerful, and their military applications were limited to a few. Senior generals still have a huge distance from popularization.

Luo Zhixue didn't think about giving the low-ranking officers a telescope, but at least let the generals above the head of the regiment have one.

But even so, the demand for telescopes is very large, and there are not so many captured and purchased alone, so calling craftsmen to produce them by themselves is the only solution.

-

Just as Luo Zhixue led a group of senior civil and military officials to watch the battle in the No. [-] large fortress, Shi Kefa also risked being bombarded and went up to the west city wall.

He didn't dare to take people to the more conspicuous gate tower of the west city, nor did he go to the area around the artillery position that was always under the heavy care of the Chu army's artillery. Instead, he looked at the city wall from an inconspicuous section near the gate tower outside.

The No. 60 large fortress is about [-] feet away from the city wall, and it is farther away from the part of the city wall where Shi Kefa is at the moment, about eighty or ninety feet away.

Because of the breeze, the gunpowder smoke and dust on the fort had gradually dissipated, allowing Shi Kefa to have a preliminary look at the situation of the No. [-] large fort.

And when Shi Kefa saw the situation of the No. [-] large fortress, he almost failed to stand still!

The No. [-] large fortress that was originally thought to be indestructible, even more difficult to destroy than the city wall itself, has been completely reduced to ruins, and one corner of the fortress has even collapsed.

The many sandbag fortifications on the top of the fortress are still there, but the fortifications on the side facing the Chu army have collapsed, and the top fortifications directly submerged the artillery.

Moreover, many dead and wounded and gravel and sand were covered in the ruins.

The ditches around the fort look better, but there are still many dead and wounded lying inside.

Many obstacles such as horses and wooden piles in front of the fort were also destroyed in large numbers.

Even though no report has been received yet, just looking at it this way, Shi Kefa knows that the casualties must be serious, and the most important thing is that a large number of artillery deployed in it were destroyed.

In front of the No. [-] large fortress, there is a cloud of gray thieves rushing up.

The remnants and defeated generals who survived only by the large fortress No. [-] must be doomed.

Shi Kefa stabilized his footsteps, took several deep breaths and said, "Let Zhao Qianshi lead the new standard army to launch a counterattack!"

"Absolutely don't let the thieves come here, otherwise the west city wall will be hard to protect, and Jiujiang will be in danger!"

When Shi Kefa made the arrangements, one of the front troops of the No.12 Brigade, the No.20 Fourth Infantry Regiment's assault post, that is, the assault post led by Captain Song, had already reached the front of the No. [-] large fortress.

They didn't destroy those obstacles, that was the task of the follow-up knife and shield guards. As a commando, their task was to kill them at the first time, break through the trench defense line of the Ming army, and then kill the inside of the fortress.

The surviving Ming army in the fort was in chaos at this time. If it weren’t for the more than 1000 Ming troops stationed in this large fort, there was a battalion with about 500 new standard troops as the backbone. , These Ming soldiers probably ran away long ago.

Even so, they also suffered heavy casualties, and were frightened and morale plummeted after being violently shelled, so it was difficult to stop organized resistance, which could only be sporadic resistance fighting independently.

In this regard, Captain Song didn't hesitate at all, and he didn't even wait for the follow-up knife and shield sentry to support him, and directly ordered the assault.

Not long after, Captain Song accompanied his soldiers into the northern trench outside the fortress.

At this time, the trench was in a mess, and there were many dead and injured of the Ming army who were killed and injured by mortars, still lying in the trench, including destroyed wooden boxes, dumped cannons and so on.

There are still some Ming troops who reacted and tried to resist!

But they couldn't stop the wolf-like commando at all. After a while, after more than a dozen people were killed or injured, the remaining dozens of Ming soldiers scattered and ran towards the rear.

Captain Song lifted his knife and looked around, seeing a knife and shield whistle behind him following up, he immediately ordered: "Assault team, continue to attack with this officer, rush up to seize the fortress!"

When Captain Song took the lead and rushed to the core of the fortress, the three knife and shield posts under the No. 20 Fourth Infantry Regiment also entered the battlefield from the trench on the north side one after another. While continuing to fight on both sides of the trench, they followed Take the pace of the Assault Post to support the Assault Post at any time.

At this time, the Ming army rushed out from the nearby No. 300 large fortress, and at the same time more than [-] people rushed out from the No. [-] fortress.

These nearly one thousand Ming soldiers were armed with muskets and spears, and they could be seen as the new standard army at a glance!

They also listed the standard line formation that the Chu army is very familiar with: spears in the middle, musketeers on both sides, and two and a half catties of field artillery.

They wanted to rely on a dense formation to directly launch a counterattack against the skirmishers of the Chu army attacking the No. [-] large fortress.

However, when the Ming army tried to attack the skirmishers, the No. 20 Third Infantry Regiment of the Chu Army also rushed towards them quickly.

Facing the attack of the main force of the Chu army, this new standard army had to stop, and then lined up facing the Chu army.

Not surprisingly, this new standard army of the Ming army will have a standard line duel with the No.20 Third Infantry Regiment.

Since the Ming court compiled the new standard army, many new standard troops have fought against the Chu army one after another. However, this time, it is the first time that the Ming new standard army has used a line formation to fight the Chu army!
(End of this chapter)