The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 5 Battle ([-])

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The three artillery pieces in the Qi army's formation fired again. The cavalry commander Ali Al-Jaburi subconsciously lowered his body and pressed tightly against the horse's back. He kept praying to the true God in his heart that the cannonballs would never fall on his head. superior.

Perhaps, the true god felt his infinite piety and gave him the protection of the gods. One of the cannonballs fired landed in the open space on the left side of the team, and the other two shells fell into the back half of the team. There were people shouting for horses. Hissing sound.

Speed ​​up, speed up, rush forward!
Ali Al Jabri knocked hard on the horse's belly with both feet, urging the horse to rush forward at a higher speed.

Close, closer!

There are still more than 100 meters left, and we are about to rush into the Qi army's formation.The soldiers of the Qi army on the opposite side only formed a thin horizontal formation in three rows, holding up muskets equipped with blunderbuss and swords, pointing diagonally upward in the distance, like a traditional spear formation, trying to block the impact of my more than [-] cavalry.

Oh, they were bombarded by the Qi army's artillery along the way, and there was probably no impact from the three hundred cavalry.But it doesn't matter. As long as more than a hundred cavalry can rush into the formation, they will definitely defeat the Qi army's artillery array. By then, the entire battlefield will fall into a melee. This is the best for the Omanis who have a military advantage. battlefield situation.

Ali Al Jabri gently raised his right hand and raised his scimitar with a fierce look on his face, ready to slash the Qi soldiers on the opposite side with his sword as soon as he charged into the formation.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Three more violent artillery roars rang out, and a metal storm blew over suddenly, involving the Omani cavalry who were charging into the formation. Countless fragments seemed to form a dense and wide barrage, and the Omani cavalry was rushing forward violently. The cavalry was blocked hundreds of meters in front of the Qi army's formation.

Qi Jun fired shotgun!
Shotgun can be called the last line of defense for artillery. Its purpose is to kill enemy personnel approaching the artillery or infantry array.The cannons and howitzers attached to the Qi Army can both fire shotgun shells, but the power of the latter is relatively weak.

The shotshells produced in Qi are generally made of thin cylindrical tin cans with the outermost layer made of iron, and the inside is wrapped with 50-200 bullets with a diameter of 10-50 mm and iron fragments.The moment the projectile left the barrel, there was a huge pressure difference between the inside and outside of the gun. The tin casing immediately broke, and the bullet burst out, forming a round pancake-shaped barrage in the space.

Obviously, such fire coverage will cause very terrible losses to the enemy in dense formations at close range, but the structure of the shotgun also causes it to cause greater damage to the gun bore during firing. The "Qi Royal Artillery Instruction Manual" points out, A brand new 55 mm cast iron cannon can withstand about 5000-5400 solid bullet shots, but can only withstand 200-230 shotgun shots.

Twenty years ago, the artillery of the State of Qi replaced the original lead bullets in shotguns with iron bullets. Iron bullets have strong rebound ability and are easy to cause ricochet, which effectively increases the killing effect.According to the size of the bullets, shotguns made in Qi can be divided into heavy shotguns and light shotguns: the former has fewer bullets and is heavier, and can achieve effective killing at longer distances; the latter has more bullets and is shorter-range. The internal effect is better, but the range is only two-thirds of the former.

Under normal circumstances, when artillery also enters the effective range of enemy musketeers, light shotgun shells can achieve the best killing effect.At very close ranges, gunners often load double shotgun shells or one shotshell plus one solid shot (with the solid shot at the back).Although this will seriously reduce the service life of the gun barrel, its killing effect will be greatly enhanced.In February of the 15th year of Taiping (1719), Qi State's artillery used a loading method of shotshells and solid bullets in the Battle of Kalmanwati, which effectively killed the Maratha Kingdom's cavalry troops and made it impossible for the opponent to align. The military array launched an effective attack.

Military experts from Qi State have conducted numerous scientific tests on the effectiveness of shotgun attacks and concluded that the spread diameter of shotshells is about one-tenth of its flight distance, and will eventually form a quadrilateral killing area similar to a bow.According to the "Artillery Technical Elements" of the Artillery Section of the Qi Army School, when a shotshell flies 90-100 meters, the spread diameter of its bullets will expand by about 9.5 meters.At a distance of 220 meters, the scattering diameter of shotgun bullets is 25 meters, and at a distance of 440 meters, the scattering diameter of shotgun bullets is 55 meters.If a 120-man company encounters artillery fire at a distance of 150 meters, a simple calculation can show that shotgun shells can almost completely cover it.

This time, facing the charge of more than 150 Omani cavalry, Qi's artillery closed the distance to about 50 meters, and then adopted the attack mode of loading double shotguns, forming a [-]-meter-wide diameter in front of the position. Domi's barrage immediately caused the charging Omani cavalry to flip over and fall down.

However, the penetrating power of shotgun shells is far inferior to that of solid bullets, and the killing effect on columns is naturally slightly inferior.However, the corpses of men and horses that fell to the ground in front blocked the cavalry who were following behind, and their galloping speed instantly slowed down.

"preparation!"

"put!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!..." Company Commander Yu Yuanbin swung down the command knife in his hand, and more than a hundred officers and soldiers of the Second Company of the [-]rd Mixed Battalion immediately pulled the trigger mechanically, and dense projectiles were instantly fired into the cluster. Omani cavalry.

"Dragoons attack!"

More than a hundred Qi dragoons rushed out from the gaps on both sides of the phalanx and rushed towards the Omani cavalry, which was already in chaos.

The formation of the Qi Dragoons was relatively late compared to several major European military powers.In the seventh year of the Han Dynasty (1677), after the Qi State defeated the Mughal Empire, in view of the insufficient mobility of the line infantry and the inability to achieve rapid deployment and maneuvering on the battlefield, it began to form dragoons.

However, although the dragoons of Qi are called cavalry, their equipment and training have been based on infantry standards for a long time.You should know that the regular cavalry regiments of Qi are equipped with more expensive cavalry short guns or flintlock pistols, as well as breastplates and sabers, while the dragoons are equipped with infantry long guns. Their military uniforms and cavalry uniforms are also very different. The infantry is almost the same, except that the shoes and socks are replaced by boot spurs.Their organization is still infantry, with companies as the basic organization.

Because dragoons do not need to fight on horseback, only officers have a flintlock pistol. In addition to muskets, soldiers only have an infantry dagger for protection.It is worth mentioning that among their equipment was a small pickaxe, which was used to hook the reins when riding to prevent falling from the horse.As for the mounts used, they are usually short, cheap horses, which are not as good as the tall horses of Qi's official cavalry.The most important training subjects of the cavalry are charging, chasing, fighting on horseback, and shooting. The dragoons cannot train them. The dragoons cannot even be equipped with the saber of the orthodox cavalry.

Because dragoons often fight on foot in skirmish lines, in order to enhance their firepower output, the muskets they are equipped with are rifled sniper rifles (i.e. miniguns) with longer range and stable ballistics, which can effectively improve the effectiveness of their skirmishing operations.

However, in the Qi Army, many senior generals have proposed that dragoons be equipped with sabers and other cold weapons, and then they can be used as light cavalry to launch mounted charges in conjunction with regular cavalry regiments to enhance the "cost-effectiveness" of this unit.

However, this move was either overtly or covertly opposed by the cavalry generals.Are you kidding me? Training dragoons to light cavalry standards would take away our cavalry's work and overshadow our limelight.

In this case, why not abolish the dragoons, invest the limited army resources into our cavalry corps, and directly expand the types and scale of our cavalry. We can also develop and train light cavalry that can dismount for infantry combat and mount for charge.

Qi's dragoon combat methods are basically similar to those in European countries, that is, they use classic semi-rotational tactics to attack the enemy. The operation method is "charge-shoot-turn-load-charge again."

Ali Al Jabri, the cavalry commander of the Omani army, faced the fierce firepower of the Qi army. Although he was shot in the leg, his horse was killed, and he fell to the ground, he miraculously escaped the stampede of the cavalry from behind. and the volleys of musketry from the line infantry of Qi were undoubtedly selflessly protected by the True God.

When he stood up unsteadily, he saw two groups of Qi's cavalry rushing out from the formation, and he couldn't help but turn pale with horror.After several rounds of attacks, the Omani cavalry has fewer than a hundred cavalry, and is still in chaos. How can it block the thunderous attack of the Qi cavalry?
In an emergency, Jabri turned around and went to find a rideable horse, preparing to lead his men to escape from this place.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

Unexpectedly, the expected cavalry attack did not come, but a hail of bullets ushered in. Jabri felt a heavy blow on his back. Immediately, he felt a heartbreaking pain, and he fell to the ground in pain. Curl up into a ball.

"kill!"

"kill!"

As his consciousness gradually fell into blur, he vaguely heard a burst of shouts from the Qi army array, as if like a boiling flood, gushing out in all directions.

(End of this chapter)