I want to be emperor

Chapter 493 The Chu army fighting while building roads

In August of this year, after his immediate boss, the commander of the third battalion, was transferred to a higher position, he was appreciated by his superiors to take over the position of commander of the third battalion, and his military rank was smoothly promoted to major.

And he was able to successfully expand the school-level threshold and become the battalion commander of the third battalion because his superiors felt that he was mature and stable, and he had a complete two-year military academy study experience, and he had practiced in the tenth division of the new first-class division. , is one of the few officers in the Fifth Division who knows how to organize and train new troops.

Ever since, the superiors specially vacated a position of battalion commander for him, and after he was promoted, he was asked to lead the third battalion to reorganize and reorganize.

As a result, Gan Xinrong's third battalion became the first battalion-level unit in the fifth division to receive a reorganization.

Now, after several months of reorganization and reorganization, the third battalion is ready, and the higher-ups also want to take this battalion out for a walk, and want to test the actual combat effectiveness of this new infantry battalion through actual combat, so as to prepare for the subsequent reorganization Provide more experience.

Then, Gan Xinrong received the task of attacking the checkpoint of the Ximing Army.

However, after seeing this battle, the top generals of the Fifth Division began to contact the rear one by one, and even sent their own letters to Jinling City, in order to obtain more quotas for flintlock guns and speed up the reorganization of the Fifth Division. plan.

At the same time, they also requested more [-]-pound light howitzers.

In this battle, the senior management of the fifth division, the deputy division commander and the chief of staff all came to the front to watch the battle in person, and recorded in detail the battle that lasted only one hour.

In fact, normal battles were quite satisfactory, and there were no eye-catching tactical applications. As a front-line commander, Gan Xinrong fought steadily as always, and did not adopt any risky tactics.

The entire offensive scene seemed to be written in a textbook. First, the artillery was prepared, then the front was pinned down, and the flanks were rounded.

Everything seemed to be logical, without any accidents, and then the defenders on the opposite side surrendered after more than a hundred casualties.

In the third battalion, two people were killed and no more than four were injured.

The number of casualties is only six people!
For a battle where nearly a thousand people participated in the attack and more than 600 people on the defensive side, the number of casualties was so small that it was almost unbelievable.

Even in the Chu army, such a low casualty rate is rare.

Behind such a smooth attack, what is reflected is the intensive firepower of the flintlock and the powerful firepower of the [-]-jin light howitzer.

At the beginning of the battle, the shelling of several two-and-a-half-pound field artillery seemed to be violent, but in fact it did not achieve much effect, because the terrain was complex, and the enemy's fortress was not on the plains, but in the mountains. Wide shooting range.

Many actual combats in the past have also proved that the two-and-a-half-pound field artillery, which fires small-caliber solid shells, has very limited actual combat effectiveness in fortified battles, and has almost no ability to destroy thick fortifications.

Whether it's a thick city wall, a temporarily dug trench, a civil fortress, etc., these solid shells that are only the size of a fist can't collapse.

The solid shells that can pose an effective threat to them must at least be shells fired by the five-pound field cannon.

And it's best to get a nine-pound long-barreled cannon or even a fourteen-pound cannon, so that it can have a relatively large destruction effect on this thick fortification.

But in a mountainous and densely forested area like Yunnan, not to mention these long-barreled cannons, even nine-pound field cannons can hardly be brought in. The powerful field cannons that the Fifth Division can obtain on weekdays usually have the largest firepower. Five catties field gun.

Even so, the Fifth Division had to go through a lot of hardships to pull the five-pound field artillery weighing several hundred kilograms into the mountains... because most of the places didn't even have roads for carriages.

Under such circumstances, the more daily use can only be a light-weight two-and-a-half catty field gun that can be disassembled for piggyback when necessary.

However, the attacking ability of this two-and-a-half-pound field artillery is really scumbag.

In a certain situation, the large-power field artillery is inconvenient to maneuver, and the two-and-a-half-pound field artillery is not powerful enough. This is also the main reason why the Chu army was a little unable to push when they pushed flat in the Yunnan-Guizhou area...

As for why you said that the Chu army insisted on flat pushing, instead of engaging in all kinds of messy tactics like many armies, playing interspersed, rushing and the like, most of the generals of the Chu army said: In mountainous areas without roads, you take A five-pound field gun that weighs several hundred kilograms, or even a nine-pound field gun that weighs one or two tons, rush to show me one?
What, you asked me to send infantry to carry out light raids without artillery...

You're crazy, I'm not crazy yet!

I obviously have so many artillery pieces that I don’t need, but I’m not insane if I want me to follow the example of those paupers and engage in infantry interspersed combat.

For most generals of the Chu army, it is unimaginable to fight without the support of powerful artillery.

And strong artillery support requires good roads to provide support. Whether it is the mobility of the artillery itself or the subsequent supply of ammunition, roads are needed to provide support.

Once encountering a mountainous area with no roads, the advance speed of the Chu army often drops rapidly. In order to attack a place, they often have to repair the road first... Otherwise, the artillery and the carriages transporting the luggage will not be able to pass.

In other words, many people in the mountainous areas expressed their gratitude to the Chu army for building roads while fighting. As long as the main force of the Chu army has come, even deep mountains and old forests will often leave you with a road that is sufficient for carriages.

Even if this road is just a temporary dirt road, maybe after the next rainy season there will be a landslide blockage and the road will become muddy.

But anyway, there is a road that can be passed by carriages, which is much better than those paths that can only be passed on foot.

Generally speaking, for fighting in mountainous areas, the Chu army is more inclined to take their time, build a road, and then pull the artillery over to fight.

Anyway, the enemy can't run, and they can't fight.

As for throwing down the cannons, and then foolishly leading the infantry into the mountains, the bows and arrows and all kinds of old-style earthen cannons in the hands of the Ximing army and chieftain soldiers are fake...

Therefore, at the very least, the Chu army will also fight with two and a half catties of field artillery.

It's just that the two-and-a-half catty field artillery is not very effective in the offensive operations. This defect was once again fully reflected in the offensive operations of the third battalion.

It was the [-]-pound light howitzer that really provided fire support to the third battalion.

These four [-]-pound light howitzers are not actually the fixed artillery of the Fifth Division, but the temporary Fifth Howitzer Battalion under the command of the Yungui Campaign Command.

This howitzer battalion is also the first time that the Great Chu Empire Army has deployed an [-]-pound light howitzer on the Yunnan battlefield.

Before the Great Chu Empire, several [-]-pound light howitzer battalions had been formed into the army one after another. The previous three were all deployed on the northwest battlefield. The fourth howitzer battalion participated in the Sichuan operation before and is currently preparing to transfer to Guizhou.

The provisional formation of the Fifth Howitzer Battalion was the first time that the Chu army deployed this new type of artillery in Yungui, and it was dismantled upon arrival, and then transported to the front line to support the operations of the Fifth Division.

To be precise, this battle was the first time this new type of artillery was used on the Yunnan battlefield.

Although this new type of artillery has been around for nearly a year, there is no way that the battlefield effect of this new type of artillery is too good. As soon as it came out, it became the most valued artillery in the army of the Great Chu Empire. It gave priority to supplying the northwest line and the northeast. Wire.

As for the Yunnan-Guizhou battlefield, the Chu army seems to be progressing slowly in this place, and it is not easy to fight, but the remnants of the Ximing army and the local chieftains in this place are not able to launch any counterattacks and bring any real threat to the Great Chu Empire. .

The Ximing threat in this place is not as good as the Ximing threat in Sichuan. At least there are thousands of new standard troops there, and Qin Liangyu's chieftain soldiers are not bad.

Under such circumstances, it took more than half a year before the support of the new howitzer was received on the Yunnan battlefield.

And for the first time on the battlefield, this new howitzer produced huge results.

Four [-]-pound light howitzers fired more than a dozen rounds of shelling, and basically stunned the defenders on the opposite side.

Taking advantage of the strong firepower cover, the third battalion successfully detoured step by step, occupied favorable terrain, and used the intensive firepower of the flintlock guns to carry out covering rifle firepower strikes against the enemy infantry.

Faced with such powerful firepower, the remnants of the Ximing Army couldn't defend at all, and they couldn't even think of resisting. They wanted to break out of the encirclement, but they intercepted the third battalion.

So in the end they could only raise the white flag and surrender.

After seeing this battle, the senior generals of the Fifth Division strengthened their determination to reorganize and reorganize more infantry battalions, and at the same time wanted to obtain more reinforcements of [-]-pound light howitzers.

They believe that this kind of artillery can play a greater role in mountainous areas with complex terrain, lack of formed roads, complex battlefield conditions, and lack of direct sight environment, compared with five-pound field artillery and nine-pound field artillery.

It has excellent maneuverability, and can be disassembled for transport when necessary. It has a large-angle curved trajectory, and its accuracy is far superior to that of mortars. It is only slightly inferior to field artillery, and its rate of fire is comparable to that of field artillery.

Then the power of the 150mm grenade is not small.

All of this makes this artillery almost born for mountain combat.

However, the up and down activities of the fifth division did not bring them more support from the [-]-jin light howitzer.

This artillery is not only valued by the Fifth Division, but also by other friendly troops, especially the frontier troops on the northern front who are fighting against the Dongren. Count on getting too many of these guns in a short amount of time.

However, instead of giving them [-]-pound light howitzers, they sent them a batch of [-]-pound light howitzers.

(End of this chapter)