Annihilating and inflicting heavy damage on the enemy's forces and accomplishing the strategic goal are completely different things, and no matter how much you kill or injure the enemy, if you fail to achieve the strategic goal, the war will still be a defeat at all, at least in the short term. When the numerical superiority in the population is enough to compensate for the qualitative superiority, no amount of damage to the enemy will help.

The purpose of war is to achieve strategic objectives and provide sufficient bargaining chips for one's own political negotiations, and if there are no bargaining chips in negotiations, no matter how many enemies die, there is little political significance.

The Xian army was counting on the 50,000 people who landed to consolidate the beachhead, and if there was no beachhead, the subsequent landing would not be possible at all, and even with the addition of artillery, it would be difficult for the Xian army to organize another crossing of the river in a short period of time.

In such a delay, the Zhi army will enter the country before the Xian army, and at that time the political general will be extremely passive. Even if two or three hundred thousand of the guards were killed, what was the use, the 50,000 people lost by the Xian army cost no less than the guards.

At the same time, the tragic casualties of the guards also exerted tremendous pressure on Du Ruixun, who launched four consecutive offensives and dispatched more than 30,000 people, all of which were repulsed, but less than 8,000 people finally returned alive.

"General Du, the brothers died too miserably, the firearms of the Xian army are not afraid of wind and rain and are extremely powerful, but those who are injured are either dead or seriously injured, more than half of the brothers are killed by the firearms of the Xian army, and the death is unbearable......

Qin Shuo, the governor of the right capital, cried, his left arm was gone, and he was only barely wearing a blood-penetrating bandage and crying, at this time, the escort Wang Xie presented a single-barreled short-barreled shotgun that he had grabbed and handed it to Du Ruixun:

"General Du, this is the firearm that the soldiers took from the hands of the Xian army at the risk of death, and the tip of the gun is inserted at the front end of the firearm, which is the gunpowder used by the soldiers of the Xian army, and it is packed in this kind of small cylinder, and some soldiers have seen that the Xian army is loaded into this small cylinder from behind the firearm, and it is very convenient to fire.

In addition, the Xian army was also armed with longer firearms, also equipped with gun tips, and then stood in a dense queue to fire a volley, which was very powerful. ”

After Wang Xie finished speaking, Du Ruixun took the short-barreled cartridge shotgun and looked at it carefully, it can be seen that the production is extremely well-made, and he has been fiddling for a long time and does not know how to use it, but the expression on his face is becoming more and more gloomy at the moment.

Combined with his previous observations, he was convinced that the Xian army was equipped with a very powerful firearm, and its performance was far higher than that of the rope cap gun and the flat hand cannon, so he estimated that the combat strength of the 50,000 people of the Xian army was at least 200,000 guards, and it would be even more disadvantageous to the guards if they continued to be consumed.

After thinking for a long time, he asked Wang Xie in a deep voice:

"How many such firearms have been seized?"

"General Qiqi, there are seven pieces in total, and there are three styles. Among them is also a double-barreled firearm, which can be fired twice. ”

Du Ruixun clenched his old fist and said sternly:

"The Xian army contracted its strength with the intention of concentrating more firearms, and ordered the Huwei River Army to avoid a frontal attack, and to shoot it with bed crossbows, and to attack the southwest corner of the Xian Army along the river with bows and arrows and shields, and to attack and kill it at any cost before the time."

"The last general obeys!"

The southwest and northwest are just the junction of the Xian Army and the Sishui River, the width of the force is the smallest, and the hot weapon cannot be projectile, so the output of firepower within the width of the unit is limited, once it is assaulted by the infantry in front of it, and falls into hand-to-hand combat, its own firepower will not be able to continue to output, and then the whole line falls into hand-to-hand combat, and the firearm that can only be loaded with a single shot has become a spear, and it is difficult to continue to fire, let alone in the rainy night.

The range of the bed crossbow is mostly 300 steps away, or even 400 steps, Du Ruixun marched from Swordfish Beach to Hukou Bay, the bed crossbow is inconvenient to carry, but the Huwei River Guards have bed crossbows, and it is very convenient to transport them to Hukou Bay.

Although heavy rain has an effect on the bow crossbow, the bed crossbow is an exception, most of the current bed crossbow bow body is not a composite of horn wood and fish maw glue, but a metal bow arm composite soaked in tung oil solid wood, or even simply an all-metal bow arm, in order to enhance the tension, the use of brown silk as a bowstring, so the impact on the rain is not great.

The reason why it is different from the production process of the bow is largely due to the fact that the width of the bow body of the bed crossbow is larger and the length is longer, and if the bed crossbow is produced in the same manufacturing process as the bow is made, the cost and cycle will be very long. The bow making cycle of the traditional process is long and expensive, and the bed crossbow is a strong bow, and the widened and lengthened bow body increases the manufacturing cycle.

And the essence of war is manpower, and manpower needs more weapons, if it takes a year to make a bow body for a bed crossbow, a hundred or ten sets is a hundred and ten years, even if the manpower is increased to pile up production, it will also increase the cost.

Therefore, the result of the compromise is to simplify the process and materials of the bed crossbow, thereby reducing the production cost and manufacturing cycle, and thus the material determines that the bed crossbow is more resistant to rainwater immersion than the bow crossbow.

Du Ruixun clearly realized that the only tactic that could defeat the Xian army and avoid greater casualties was to attack the joint of the two wings of the Xian army, and at the same time suppress the Xian army from the front with bed crossbow overlord cannons.

In the second half of the night, the rain was heavier, and the rate of firearms dropped significantly, and the lowest time was less than 30%, and the defenders attacked from both flanks, which caught Bailiyan off guard.

He also knew very well that the defense of the junction between the two wings and the river bank of the Xian army was the weakest, but he could not draw troops to encircle from the periphery, and once the troops were encircled from the periphery, they would first turn their backs to the guards, and at the same time, they would also be counter-surrounded by the guards and fall into hand-to-hand combat.

"Adjutant Marshal, the western front of the Guards threatens with bed crossbows, attacking our positions on the southwest and northwest flanks, and if we continue to fight like this, our army's firearms advantage will be lost, and it will be broken by the Guards before dawn. It was suggested that the navy should drive the guards back with artillery support as soon as possible. ”

"Absolutely not." Bai Liyan refused, and then said: "The guards' main formation is less than two hundred and fifty paces away from the front of our army, and the naval artillery fire may fall on our own heads at any time. Moreover, you see, the guards raised fire in the front formation, but did not raise fire after the front formation, and only set up a large fire two miles behind the main formation, which is clearly intended to mislead our artillery fire.

If our army fires artillery, either far or close, if it shoots close, it will fall on our own family, not to mention that the defenders are now avoiding the front of our army and attacking the flank, and the power of the artillery is greatly weakened. ”

Even in the early days of rifled guns, the dispersion rate of falling shells aimed directly at a single gun was still dispersed in circles with a diameter of 10 to 50 meters, and the dispersion rate of indirect fire from howitzers was calculated in 100 meters.

Therefore, before the advent of guided munitions and modern computerized ballistic fire control systems, whether breech guns or rear-loading guns, but whenever fragmentation grenades were fired, the shelling needed to be covered by a group of shots, so as to make up for the lack of accuracy with quantity and cross-kill radius.

Although the casting accuracy of the artillery of the Xianjun army is high, it is still a breech gun, and the gap between the projectile and the wall of the tube and the recoil of the artillery are attracted, resulting in the dispersion rate of the projectile fired directly within two miles exceeding the radius of 100 meters, and the dispersion radius rate of indirect shooting outside the two miles is more than 200 meters, and the diameter is 400 meters.

Taking the Type 645 72-pound gun as an example, the radius dispersion rate of the extreme range of 20 miles is more than 1 mile, and if solid shells are used, there is no possibility of hitting small fixed targets at all. In the case of shipborne guns, the dispersion rate of artillery is much higher than that of infantry military guns.

The guards stopped in front of the Xianjun formation, which was only two hundred and fifty steps away from the Xian army, more than four miles away from the river, and about five miles away from the Xian army's naval guns.

With the current field of vision and meteorological conditions, there are no conditions for opening artillery at all, as long as a grenade falls on one's own head, it is enough to kill dozens or hundreds of people and collapse a regiment. What's more, hundreds of artillery pieces are firing together on the river with the waves crashing on the shore, and it is hard to imagine what the consequences of dozens of shells on their heads after each fire are fired.

Du Ruixun, on the other hand, has been fighting on the Western Front for a long time, has experience in artillery battles with his eldest grandson, and is well versed in the shortcomings of breech guns. But as long as it is a breech gun, no matter how high your processing accuracy is, the accuracy of the projectile will never be guaranteed, not to mention that the breech gun cannot be directly aimed at three or four miles away, and can only be shelled indirectly.

It placed the main formation outside the grenade launchers of the Xian army, and at the same time took advantage of the night and heavy rain, as well as the shortcomings of the lack of accuracy of the Xian army's artillery, to carry out a bold assault, and also extinguished the fire behind the front formation, so that the rest of the guards were hidden in the night, perhaps behind the front formation, or had been evacuated in a roundabout, and could not observe the enemy situation with the naked eye, and ignited the fire behind the large formation to guide and point out the direction of arrival and retreat, which shows that the combat quality and tactics of the guards have been skillful.

According to the situation reported by the officers who returned from the eldest grandson before, both the Wei army and the Changsun army used firearms frequently, and both sides summed up a set of tactics, but in the hands of the Wei army, it was obviously more useful than the eldest grandson.

In the face of such huge casualties, the defenders were still fearless of death, and even the commanders were able to withstand the danger and not be chaotic, so as to respond to all changes without change, make full use of the shortcomings exposed by the enemy in wartime and their own rich experience, and flexibly apply and adjust tactics by exploiting their strengths and avoiding weaknesses.

Xue Sheng's suggestion was dismissed, the defenses were readjusted, grenade fire was reduced to conserve ammunition, and the threat of the approaching Overlord Artillery of the Guards approaching to the west was concentrated, while firing more flares to provide visibility.

In addition, grenadiers were drawn from the reserve and the third line of defense to provide cover for the defensive line, and grenades were used to carry out cluster bombardment on the junction of the southwest and northwest corners, and on the guards 30 meters away from the defensive line, so as to block the onslaught of the defenders.

Soon after the appearance of the lead-drawn fire tube grenade, the Xian army once abolished the grenadiers and changed them to be available to everyone, and then Bailiyan found that this effect was extremely poor.

The recruits and veterans threw far and close, and they all threw a few at will, and the result was that the effect of wasting ammunition was very poor. The battle was extremely fierce, and when the veterans still missed and blew up their own people, the recruits blew up their own people under nervousness, and even threw them into the pile of people behind them with too much force.

To this end, Bailiyan readjusted the organization, each platoon was equipped with one grenadier carrying five grenades, and the rest of the infantry carried two rounds, and the grenadiers were responsible for dropping bombs during the battle, and the rest of the infantry were responsible for supplying ammunition.

The grenadiers were replaced by the captain, who was killed or injured or could not get out, and the team members threw on their own. In addition, those who have been in the army for more than two years are exempt from this restriction, and the grenadier commander agrees not to be subject to this restriction, but grenades are used by grenadiers first.

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