The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

At this time, the practice on the battlefield was artillery battle. The French army with M1841 Little Napoleon had enough confidence in its own firepower. After all, they had the best artillery in the world.

The M1841 field gun is made of bronze and has the following technical parameters:

Caliber: 93mm

Barrel length: 1.52 meters (16.3 times the diameter)

Gun weight: about 389 kg

Maximum range: approximately 1500 yards (1371 meters is just a theoretical range.)

Ammunition types: Can fire solid bullets, explosive bullets, shotgun shells and shrapnel shells.

Later generations often commented on its advantages in terms of ease of transportation and operation. In particular, the Civil War Club in the United States said that its maneuverability and speed made Robert E. Lee successful.

But in fact, both Robert Lee himself and other Confederate generals scorned this artillery.

In the mid-19th century, military experts were more amazed by its exaggerated rate of fire and accuracy, which gave the French army an advantage in artillery battles.

But this time they miscalculated. In fact, when the French army's Little Napoleon six-pounder field gun shined in the colonial war, military observers from various countries realized the shortcomings and limitations of this artillery.

The intensity and intensity of the war on the European continent was much higher than that in other parts of the world at this time. The power and range of the six-pounder gun in the colonies could almost be described as a god descending from the earth.

然而在欧洲大陆上这种优势并没有那么明显，虽然M1841依然是一款设计优秀的火炮，但是各国的要塞炮几乎都是8磅炮、10磅炮、12磅炮、甚至是24磅炮。

(It was a chaotic era at that time. There was no unified standard. Every country wanted to promote its own standards, so the calibers of artillery were also varied.)

The technology was not enough, and it was the practice at the time to make up for the size. Facing these big guys that often weighed several tons, or even tens of tons, the little Napoleon seemed a little unable to do what he wanted.

The Austrian military attaches great importance to this, especially after they have money, they are like a group of nouveau riche who have never seen the world. They must spend their money to be happy.

Franz felt that they would most likely start studying the 12-pounder field gun like the mainstream European countries in history, but in the end the military approved the -pounder gun plan.

As for why it was fifteen pounds, Franz didn't know. Most likely, he just wanted to overpower Britain, France and Russia.

The range, power, and accuracy of this artillery are all excellent, and all data are almost twice that of the French army's main field gun, the Little Napoleon.

But the problem is also huge. It’s not that the Austrian steel is not up to standard, nor is the cannon casting technology bad, but that it’s too heavy!

The French M1841 six-pound bronze field gun only requires two horses to pull it around, while the Austrian M1848 fifteen-pound steel field gun requires eight draft horses and six spare horses.

In addition, it also requires a special supply and loading team consisting of three carriages, twelve horses, and eight soldiers.

In other words, an M1848 fifteen-pound steel field gun requires a total of twenty-six horses and sixteen soldiers.

If it weren't for railroads and canals, it would have taken Franz a month just to transport these things to the battlefield.

Franz's messenger deliberately delayed time, but in fact he was also buying time for the preparation of these artillery pieces.

Of course these efforts are worth it.

Including Bono de Cullen, almost all French soldiers have no doubt that France's artillery is the best in the world.

Although he didn't know whether Franz Joseph was a product of God-making or a true genius, judging from the fact that the latter was preparing for an artillery battle, he knew that the other party was either overconfident or a complete fool.

This can be regarded as giving some psychological comfort to Bono de Cullen, whose battlefield map was completely dark. After all, if the opponent's commander was an idiot, it would have helped him a lot.

The commander's relaxed mood was quickly transmitted to the soldiers, as if the endless Austrian legion in front of them did not exist.

In fact, compared to the officers, the soldiers were not that nervous because they could only see part of the battlefield. Ten thousand people, one hundred thousand people, and two hundred thousand people all looked the same to them. A French artilleryman pushed the heavy solid bullet into the barrel of the gun and pushed it in with the push rod.

"The Austrians are so stupid. What can they do at such a long distance? When they come into our range, we will attack them hard!"

The artillery colonel with a mustache said while pulling his beard.

In fact, there were many stereotypes in this era that are now considered extremely wrong. One of them is that traditional artillery believes that solid bullets can hit farther than blooming bullets.

In fact, this had a lot to do with the artillery design and artillery level at the time. The internal structure of the early explosive shells was messy, resulting in uneven weight distribution and poor flight stability in the air.

At the same time, although the external design is also spherical, in fact the shape of the explosive bombs is usually irregular, and the collision fuze technology of this era is not mature. Many explosive bombs actually have fuses burning on them, so artillery Known as technical arms.

Moreover, in order to prevent the explosive ammunition from exploding prematurely due to excessive pressure in the air, or even directly exploding the barrel, the artillery will intentionally reduce the amount of propellant powder when launching the explosive ammunition.

Many of the above reasons combined led to the fact that the range of the blooming bullets at this time was inferior to the solid bullets, so this experienced artillery officer asked the soldiers to fill the solid bullets.

The French artillery fully expected the Austrian artillery to enter its range. As the defender, they could fire one more round or even several rounds, which would give them a huge psychological and tactical advantage in subsequent battles.

"Look what those idiots are doing? Are they building a house?"

A French artillery staff member laughed so hard that he burst into tears. The artillery colonel with a mustache also noticed all this through his telescope.

"Idiot! That's not building a house, that's a simple crane!"

I saw a dozen Austrian soldiers using the crane's pulley to lift the gun barrel with difficulty, and then carefully lowered it onto the gun mount.

A dozen people in Austria need tools to pull a cannon, but two French guys can lift a cannon.

"What a bunch of slackers! You need a crane to install a cannon."

However, the laughter suddenly stopped, and the artillery colonel with two mustaches immediately realized something.

"Damn! Inform General Bono de Cullen! Either attack immediately or retreat immediately!"

The staff officer on the side asked with some confusion.

"Shouldn't we teach the Austrians a lesson?"

"Damn it! Do you want us to use field artillery and siege artillery to shoot at each other?"

Before the colonel with the mustache could finish speaking, the roar of the God of War covered everything.