"Boom!"

A heavy rocket flew out from a trench three or four hundred meters away, and the rocket landed at the front of the defensive position of the expeditionary force, accompanied by a huge indescribable roar, and a 'loess rain' fell within thirty or forty meters in front of the position.

The Spaniards kept bombarding the positions of the expeditionary force with rockets.

When this unique weapon became a 'universal weapon', the Spaniards began to use it frequently in warfare. And the rockets on both sides of China and the West have formed different styles from each other, the Spaniards' rockets seem to have a shorter range than Chen Han's, which should be some differences in appearance design, but the Spaniards are more ruthless, they have no light rockets in their hands at all, even the medium-sized ones don't seem to be much, they prefer heavy and super heavy.

According to the captured prisoners, the Spaniards' rockets were only A/B/C, three levels, and the smallest was seventy or eighty pounds, comparable to Chen Han's heavy rockets. The largest was one hundred and twenty pounds, and there were fifty or sixty pounds of explosives in it alone.

During the battle of the Colorado estuary, the Spaniards relied on surprise and after the inertia of the two armies' artillery groups bombarding each other day after day, they first launched a feint attack on the flank, pinning down the excess forces of the defenders, and then suddenly used rockets to drop 200 rockets to the frontal position of the bridgehead of the expeditionary force in a very short period of time. After that, the army poured in, and through brutal bayonet battles, the expeditionary force of the estuary defense had to choose to retreat, and was forced to drop a considerable part of the artillery.

Attention, it was lost and not blown up, and the time was of the essence.

But after that war, the rockets in the hands of the Spaniards, although still threatening, were no longer able to make a difference.

Because compared with the bombardment of this 'super cannon', the Chen Han military has long had a way to deal with it.

The fact that the Manchus had never been able to find a way to deal with this attack did not mean that Chen Ming could not think of a countermeasure. As a traverser standing on the shoulders of 'advanced wisdom', since Chen Ming knew that the rocket would leak sooner or later, and still used it in a different way, how could he not consider the countermeasures when he encountered the rocket in the future?

There is only one magic weapon - defense/combat in depth.

The range of rockets is limited, which means that their assault range is limited, artillery interception and rifle shooters are always an important means of containing rocket troops, and one, two, or three trenches are not enough, then four, five, and six trenches. At the same time, while focusing on defense, also pay attention to counterattacks, rocket units are not armored troops, they do not have superior protection, it is like a group of thin-skinned mages, as long as they are carried in front of them, they are a group of crappy musketeers.

However, the previous Fu Han Army and the National Defense Army never had the opportunity to verify the correctness of the emperor's idea, and the training ground was not a real battle after all. Although the drills provided a lot of help for Chen Han's tactical formulation.

And now in North America, the 'actual combat' has finally arrived, and this day has finally come.

After surviving the difficult defense of San Diego, the expeditionary force established a new defensive position, with a combination of multiple trenches on the front line, light firepower in front and heavy in the rear, and independent small positions in the large position, always ready to flank the enemy in the breakthrough position.

The set of combat forces developed by Chen Ming in this era is completely different from the Soviet army's theory of large-depth operations in history, and this is at most only a little scratch of the latter, because of the limitations of the times and the limitations of science and technology, this combat strategy is inherently incomplete.

It is only dealing with the appearance of rockets, a buggy weapon.

If it weren't for the fact that this kind of weapon was too lethal, the conventional way for both sides of the war in this era would still be to shoot and kill with a platoon.

But now, under the muzzle of rockets, a 'short-range heavy artillery', whoever dares to shoot with a platoon of guns is looking for death.

Chen Ming could imagine the private line advancing steadily under the bombardment of iron bullets, and he could also imagine the private line advancing steadily under the bombardment of flowering shells and shotguns, but he really could not imagine the private line that was still advancing steadily under the bombardment of rockets. That's not a human being can afford to hurt at all.

One rocket can reimburse half a company, and that is no longer a killing, but a massacre.

In Chen Ming's 'speculation', if both sides of the war have a large number of rockets, the battle between them can only be attrition.

The bombardment of rockets, the bombardment of artillery, the short-range sprint of the stragglers, and finally the brutal hand-to-hand combat.

There was absolutely no neat and slow line of soldiers, all the soldiers were scattered and rushed in front of each other at the fastest speed, the firing effect of the flintlock pistol was 'annihilated', and the bayonet battle became the main body between the soldier and the soldier.

Facts have proved that Chen Ming's speculation is still reliable.

The Spaniards did not dare to let the soldiers line up the entire phalanx at all, and two heavy rockets fell into it, and the entire phalanx could be reimbursed.

As for the expeditionary force, it is even more aware of the power of rockets, and it has always been dominated by stragglers. Even in the trenches, they did not dare to let the soldiers gather and stay together.

At the same time, the trenches of the two armies were dug deeper and deeper. The depth of the trenches on the Chen Han side has generally exceeded two meters, divided into two layers, and there is a set aside step in the middle, which is only half a meter wide.

Standing at the bottom of the tunnel, you can use the steps as a small platform on which you can eat, maintain your guns, and arrange your bayonets; And when it's time to fight, you can stand on the platform and stick your upper body out of the trench and shoot outside.

If a rocket hits, as long as the reaction is timely, the person can roll to the bottom of the trench, as for whether he can save his life, it depends on luck.

Many trenches have shelters, built with logs, topped with loess, compacted and then covered with logs, and then covered with loess, layer by layer, at least three layers, which look very strong. The soldier could eat, rest, and take shelter from the wind and rain in it on weekdays, and fight the dampness and mosquitoes, but when the battle was raging, it did not provide a safe shelter for the soldier's flesh and blood. It is difficult to guarantee that it will be impregnable under the blow of a super-heavy rocket. However, the anti-artillery holes, which are usually disliked by soldiers, are more reliable.

The trenches were not apartments, they were rudimentary, and the shelter for habitation was underground, so damp mosquitoes were inevitable! Of course, the northern part of Mexico is in a tropical desert climate [coastal San Diego has a Mediterranean climate], warm, dry and little rain, compared to the cat ear piercing that Chinese soldiers stayed in the eighties of the 20th century.

Moreover, the Spanish trenches were all parallel and straight, and these inexperienced people could not think of the Z-shaped trenches. The trenches on the Chen and Han sides were 'Z'-shaped, and the trenches were connected by communication trenches. Warning posts and firing points have also long been incorporated into the trench system. In addition to the main trenches, even the communication trenches have evolved into a zigzag structure, which can not only reduce the damage of the enemy's artillery fire, but also concentrate more fire to attack the enemy.

The entire defense line is composed of a number of trench positions, each of which is composed of the front area, the combat area, and the rear area, and the most basic three-layer structure. The trenches are also equipped with various living facilities, such as dormitories, toilets, temporary hospitals, etc.

Compared to the expeditionary forces, which had 'rich' experience in this area, Spain was still a baby who had just learned to walk.

Ordinary life in the trenches was extremely boring, and while maintaining the vigilance of the soldiers, "how to pass the time" became a very important topic. Of course, when there are tense battles, the soldiers simply do not have time to be "bored", and even in relatively calm periods, small-scale attacks are commonplace. Moreover, the opponent's fire will often bombard the more exposed places.

Especially on Chen Han's side, don't forget that they also have hot air balloons, and those 'eyes' are much farther than the Spaniards.

Therefore, in trench life, even though there is no formal combat action, soldiers must always be on the lookout for death.

In addition, the harsh environment makes it impossible for the blood to be completely cleaned up even if the corpse is contained in a timely manner, which attracts a large number of mosquitoes and flies, and non-combat attrition caused by the epidemic of various diseases is very common.

Fortunately, Chen Han has been prepared for this, clean drinking water and sufficient diet, absolutely enough clean water, strict toilet hygiene regulations, greatly reduce the breeding of bacteria in the trenches, it rarely rains here, and the lack of stagnant water is also a big reason.

However, the Spaniards, who had suddenly jumped from 'shooting in platoons' to 'trench warfare', were very unaccustomed to this kind of life, and were not adequately prepared in terms of food, drinking water, and toilet sanitation, so that many Spanish soldiers did not die under bullets and bayonets, but fell under the claws of disease.

Moreover, when encountering major combat missions, some soldiers have become insane due to excessive tension for several days in a row.

The average quality of the Spanish colonial army was not high, and the mental pressure of rockets, a weapon of mass destruction, was extremely high.

After the First World War in the original plane of time and space, many convalescent soldiers in various European countries suffered from health or mental problems or even collapse due to the war. It's the same now. And once there is a large-scale operation on the battlefield, then the scene of "hell on earth" will also come.

As someone said in the last plane, the development of industrial technology has made infantry vulnerable to automatic weapons, and the infantry's charge against trenches equipped with machine guns has become a kind of folly tantamount to collective suicide. A machine gun caught in a trench can sometimes knock out even 1000 soldiers. The large number of railways and the narrow territory of Europe also made it difficult for the attacking side to outperform the defenders in strategic mobility. Taken together, the trench warfare finally became a form of warfare that lasted throughout the war.

What about trench warfare in this era? The offensive means of both sides is still infantry charge, not because the commanders on both sides have stiff brains and stubbornly defend tactically, but because there are no tanks at all in the war of this era, and the trench warfare itself restricts the offensive of the cavalry, and the offensive means of each side can only rely on the infantry.

The only change was that the infantry array changed from a uniform phalanx line to a 'rabble'-like skirmish.

What does not change is still death, the death of soldiers on both sides.

No matter how scattered the ranks of the soldiers were, it was impossible for the Spaniards to behave like a group of defeated soldiers who had lost their armor, and Chen Han's side also had the restrictions of infantry offensive tactics, so every rocket and shotgun could harvest a lot of lives.

The war has really come to a stage of 'attrition'.

This put the expeditionary force under considerable pressure, and the frontal battlefield had to decide the winner, and the casualties were too great for both sides to bear. The Spaniards did not dare to take the initiative to attack, and the expeditionary force did not dare to take the initiative to send them to death, so to turn the tide of the war, they could only continue to divide their troops to disturb and assault the attack, on the contrary, the Spaniards were also using this trick to counterattack the expeditionary force, so that the overall horizontal width of the battlefield continued to increase, and then increased.

The loud roar shook people's ears numb, and they spoke loudly, but they couldn't even hear what they were saying.

Huge columns of smoke simply disappeared into the position. The C-class rockets of the Spaniards are very tasteful, and the super-heavy rockets of the expeditionary force are not simple. Both sides were forty or fifty pounds of explosive charge, which was far more powerful than all other weapons.

"Boom!"

The wind and sand swept away, and large pieces of broken concrete were swept away by the storm like confetti in the wind. The brick and wood buildings, more than a foot thick, were as fragile as castles made of sand in the face of rockets.

In the early morning of October 17, 1782, another wave of Spanish offensive warfare began.

The battle had been going on for less than an hour, and already two battalions of Spanish colonial troops had suffered heavy casualties in the attack. The commander of the Spanish Colonial Army, Rivera, could no longer suppress the anger in his chest, and severely reprimanded the front-line commander, Major General Rubio Marc Calderón, of the 5th Division of the Spanish Colonial Army, "Why don't you order the rocket troops to advance?" ”

"Press them ahead with bayonets, and I will send rockets to the second line of defense of the Chinese."

"Cowardice at this time is a crime against the Kingdom of Spain. How many heroic soldiers have already fallen under the counterattack of the Chinese? ”

"As rocketeers, they have to be brave. Whoever wants to go back is the sinner of Spain. I allow you to execute him on the spot. ”

Major General Calderon was so ashamed that he could only apologize to Dryvilla again and again, promising to break through the first line of defense of the expeditionary force as soon as possible.

But the obstruction of the offensive is the obstruction of the offensive, and even if they advance the rocket forces, the offensive is still blocked.

In another hour, the two regiments of the Fifth Division had suffered heavy casualties and had to withdraw from the battle, casting a dark shadow over the prospects of the offensive for Diveira.

Now, accompanied by a large number of staff officers, Diveera went to an underground bunker only five or six miles from the front line, and observed the battlefield with a telescope. The vast wilderness was shrouded in smoke and fire, and it was impossible to see clearly. The artillery positions violently spewed artillery fire into the Chinese positions, and every time the rockets exploded, Diveira's heart trembled once, and he felt the power of heavenly punishment.

After two hours of firepower, the Spaniards launched three assaults of 1,000 men, and on one occasion they rushed to the positions of the expeditionary force, but the capture of the first line of trenches was not a result at all, and they were soon counterattacked by the follow-up troops of the expeditionary force.

In the telescope, the once again defeated Spanish soldiers filled the wilderness illuminated by the firelight, but there were still explosions in their midst, and each explosion of flowers and rockets would take the lives of several or dozens of Spanish soldiers, and Rivera couldn't help but curse again.