It's dawn.

It was a gloomy morning, with clouds and clouds, and I didn't know if it would rain when.

Both the northern and southern armies marched to the preset positions in formation. If you look down from the top of the missionary heights, you can see countless blue and gray dragons, wriggling densely on the undulating and vast land. A faint shimmer of light flickered between the dragon's scales, the reflection of bayonets and bronze cannons.

Grant and Kwan Cheuk-fan's headquarters were located on a hill called "Orchard" opposite the main ridge of the missionary heights. The more open area between the Orchard Hills and the Missionary Heights was the first battleground of the battle.

Looking southeast from the Orchard Hills, the highest peak of the Missionary Heights, Lookout Mountain, loomed in the mist, where the left flank of the enemy army was attacked, by the 1st and Kuizi regiments of the Xuan Army and the 2nd Division.

The northern end of the missionary heights that the Sherman Division was responsible for attacking, could not be seen here.

In front of the Orchard Hills, on the left hand side were the 14th Corps of the Cumbran Corps, and on the right hand side were the 1st Yang Regiment of the Xuan Army, the German Regiment and the 2nd Division of the Lu Zi Regiment.

The artillery positions of the Northern Army were located at the front of the entire position. At a distance of less than two miles, the Northern Army erected a total of two hundred and fifty cannons, which is quite an impressive density. Of these, the Cumbran Regiment erected one hundred and sixty cannons; The Xuan army erected ninety cannons, and another artillery position of the Xuan army was set up on the right flank, with a total of thirty cannons.

The 2nd Yang Regiment and Jianzi Regiment of the 2nd Division, which were responsible for blocking the Longstreet Division of the Southern Army, took away the remaining 15 cannons.

The artillery in the Tennessee theater of operations was mainly located in the center, and the right flank was not well shelled because of the steep terrain. Artillery only served as an auxiliary.

The artillery of the Northern Army includes cannons, howitzers, mortars, etc. The main force was a 1857-pounder cannon codenamed M12. That is, commonly known as the "Napoleonic cannon". The name derives from its earliest inventor, the French military genius Emperor. This gun is cast in bronze and is a front-loading smoothbore gun, with a maximum firing range of 1480 meters at a low firing angle and a maximum firing range of 1911 meters at a high firing angle. Not only the main artillery of the Northern Army, but also the Southern Army.

Generally speaking, seven to eight guns can be organized into an artillery company, and the 135 cannons of the Xuan Army can be organized into more than a dozen artillery companies, which are nominally called artillery regiments, but in fact the scale is close to that of an artillery division.

The blue waves shook slightly in front of Guan Zhuofan's eyes. Sooner or later, at his command, the wrath of iron and fire would burst through the embankment, sweeping endless waves of death and destruction toward the other side.

The total strength of the Northern Army has reached nearly 100,000, which is the largest unit commanded by Guan Zhuofan in his lifetime.

His heart was beating a little faster, and he felt his adrenaline slowly rising. Why don't men bring Wu hooks, yes, what man can withstand such a temptation?

Looking at the position of the Southern Army opposite, the corners of Guan Zhuofan's mouth showed a subtle smile.

Telescope, on the ridge of the missionary heights. The cannon of the Southern Army was picked up from north to south, and it looked quite spectacular.

But that's just "looking". Kwan Cheuk-fan is not a professional surveyor. It can also be seen that the distance between the artillery positions of the Yugoslav Army is too loose, the height is uneven, and although the firepower network is wide, the firepower density is limited, and the strike effect is certainly not good. The Confederate army should have erected artillery wherever possible where gun emplacements were allowed, but it was still such a result, and Major Anderson's vision was extremely accurate, worthy of being an artillery instructor at West Point.

The Southern Army set up three defensive lines, one at the foot of the mountain, one on the mountainside, and one at the top of the mountain, all of which dug trenches. The fortifications were professionally built, but the problem was that there were too many soldiers on the line of defense - in the trenches, behind the obstacles - compared to the width of the line.

The density of soldiers is never better. This is not an attack marching in line to be shot. The density of soldiers is high, and the density of firepower will of course also increase, but the effect of crossfire and cascade fire, which are very important when defending, will be poor, and the probability of casualties, including accidental injuries by comrades, will also increase.

One thing was quite unexpected by Guan Zhuofan - the southern army dug a lot of skirmish trenches between the defense line and the defense line, that is, on the hillside, and there were two or three soldiers in each skirmish. I haven't seen this yesterday, so I should have dug it overnight.

This idea is more avant-garde. Of course, the purpose of the Southern Army is that if the previous line of defense is broken, it can delay the process of the Northern Army's attack on the latter line of defense, but the enemy and I are mixed together, and the soldiers in the skirmish trenches are easy to be injured by the friendly troops in the rear line.

The reason for these strange phenomena, Guan Zhuofan thinks, comes down to one: after the southern army entered and occupied, it was found that the missionary heights were too small relative to the number of troops.

Move left and right, it's not appropriate, but it's too late to make big adjustments, so I have to plug it up.

Just as he had expected.

Prague and Longstreet were all generals, but they made such a mistake for granted, and there was only one reason, the main general did not personally survey the terrain in detail.

Longstreet is a guest army, but Prague has been soaked in Chattanooga, guilty of such confusion, hum, and contempt.

The biggest evidence supporting Guan Zhuofan's judgment is the arrangement before the first line of defense of the Southern Army: two divisions stood neatly.

It's an authentic offensive formation.

This was the "adjustment" that the Southern Army was forced to come out of: it was originally to attack from the north and defend from the south, and if the Southern Army held it, it would counterattack, but the part that could not be stuffed into the missionary heights would not be used to defend it—it would be changed from defense to attack, or to attack to defense. Although this is certainly not optimal, the correct course of action should be to divide the forces and attack or threaten the Northern Army from other directions, such as Longstreet; But it's not too bad, the question is that the arrangement of the artillery of the Yugoslav Army is mainly defensive, and now that it is attacking, who will provide artillery support?

The Southern Army quickly provided Guan Zhuofan with the answer: it was still these cannons.

The Confederates fired.

In the telescope, on the ridge, fire and white smoke came out from the muzzles of the cannons, and the burning trajectory drew a long arc of gray-black smoke, which swept under the low clouds and fell in the direction of the Northern Army. Then, the thunderous sound of cannon rolled across the sky, rumbling incessantly.

The second trail of smoke, the third trail ...... Soon, streaks of gray-black smoke filled the entire sky, and the sound of cannons was like countless flying giant ships, crushing through the air, the valley roared, and the heavens and the earth echoed, endlessly.

Guan Zhuofan's sweat seeped into his shirt, his ears buzzed, and for a while, he felt that he was grabbed by a big hand and couldn't move.

It was the first time that he and his Xuan army had withstood such a dense artillery fire.

The initial shock was lessened a little, and his mind began to work again, and soon he found that the results of the Southern artillery bombardment were really not good.

The preconceived goal of the Confederate artillery was the middle line between the two armies, the Northern attack, which was a suitable place for artillery volleys, and did not intend to attack the positions of the Northern Army directly, a distance that almost exceeded the maximum range of the 12-pounder Napoleon. The cannon's trajectory was low, and in order to carry out this new task, it was necessary to raise the angle of fire significantly in order to obtain a greater range, but in this case, there was no guarantee of accuracy.

The firepower was not dense enough, and the accuracy was insufficient, so the losses that could be inflicted on the Northern Army were very limited.

Of course, there are always some who hit the target, including Xuan Jun. A military horse was halted and beaten in two; A cannon was flipped to the ground, and one of the wheels flew into the air more than ten meters into the air; A solid bullet fell to the ground, and it jumped several times in succession, and four or five Xuan soldiers were brought to the ground, like papier-mâché, and shattered into several pieces.

Because of the height difference, some shells flew out of their theoretical maximum range and hit the rear of the Northern Army's positions, and even one or two flew into the city of Chattanooga. But the kinetic energy of this shell has faded and it is not able to cause substantial damage.

On the whole, as Major Anderson judged, "our army can bear it all."

Guan Zhuofan thought: It is said that "veterans are afraid of guns, and recruits are afraid of artillery", for this density of artillery fire, Xuan Jun can almost be regarded as "new soldiers", and sincerely thanks to the strange artillery fire settings of the Southern Army, which minimizes the pain of Xuan Jun's quenching.

After a round of artillery bombardment, the war drums of the Southern Army were beaten, and the troops that had entered the attack formation moved forward one by one.

Guan Zhuofan said: It's my turn.

*(To be continued......)