Chapter 23—Blood Stains the Earth (4)

In this era, although there are all kinds of unscientific guys, those guys have not had a greater impact on the direction of the world. This can be deduced by a very simple comparison, and a rifle can be made in a very short time. And it takes decades to train a master. This master, who has spent decades training, actually can't last long in front of the platoon gun.

Therefore, in the Europe of this world, those so-called supernatural and master generally do not charge into battle like mud legs, they are more active in the secret front and the political and economic fields. Even during the two Opium Wars, those Europeans rarely met a master who could carry a bullet forward like Zhang Decheng.

After suffering such a big loss outside Tianjin, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army (which will be referred to as the Eight-Nation Coalition Army in the future, in fact, it looks like Belgium or something, it is really difficult for people to count it as a great power) is already a frightened bird, and a considerable part of the troops are used to protect their heavy equipment and baggage. How do you know that what you encounter in Langfang is not an old-fashioned army composed of masters, but an army armed with guns?

But it doesn't matter, even if a considerable amount of troops are divided to protect the back road, but the Eight-Nation Alliance already has an advantage in troops. It is often said in the books that "there are tens of thousands of people, and there are no boundaries," and now there are more than 40,000 troops in the front line of the Eight-Nation Alliance. These 40,000 people, if fully deployed, can control a front tens of kilometers long.

But what happens after it unfolds? If they wanted to get around, the Black Dragon Club could only control ten kilometers near the station, and they could get around it with a little effort. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was no such thing as highways in China, and without the railway line, it was basically a dirt road paved with mud. Light infantry can easily walk with some dry rations and bullets, but a slightly heavier artillery will not.

After the lessons of the Battle of Tianjin, all the officers in the coalition army reached a rare consensus that "do not fight without artillery". They were really scared by the Boxers who were strapped to explosives and played death assault.

However, although it is not possible to bypass the key point of Langfang, it is still possible to deploy troops to flank from several directions. There are a lot of them anyway. Nearly 10,000 coalition soldiers marched out in a majestic manner, lined up in a neat phalanx, and marched forward in unison with the fire support of the accompanying field artillery.

In a world where there is no shadow of a world war and five years before even the Russo-Japanese War can be competed, the progress of science and technology has surpassed the development of military tactics. At a time when rifles and cannons were firing faster and longer, the armies of the world's most powerful powers were still using tactics inherited from the Napoleonic era, with only a slight modification at best, which made the originally tight human wall much thinner.

So in this day and age, shrapnel is very popular. If a shell explodes on an infantry phalanx, it can basically kill half of the people. When the French later designed the "Miss 75", they also continued the idea of this kind of shrapnel. In a word, their idea was to shoot the attacking enemy (basically the Germans) with a frenzied rate of fire that her mother didn't even know. Of course, everyone knows what happened next. The French, who had been caught in trench warfare, were overwhelmed by the Germans' heavy and incomparably large caliber cannons, and the French would have been shot to death had the British not dragged more large pipes over. This also illustrates a truth, the bigger the caliber, the more just. If justice is not served, it must be that the caliber and quantity are not enough.

The field artillery of the Eight-Nation Coalition fired all kinds of shells, including solid shells, shotguns, and grenades, bombarded the positions dug into spider webs, and in addition to making the already pitted positions a little chaotic, the lethal effect was almost negligible. In the previous battle, the casualties on the side of the black collar were basically paid in the white-knuckle battle, followed by the shooting of the platoon guns, and the casualties of the artillery bombardment were ranked last. This is very much in line with the appetite of the Russians. Anyway, don't they keep shouting that "bullets are stupid, bayonets are heroes, and cannons can strengthen courage"?

The casualties on this position are very supportive of the military technology lit up by the Russians, so this time the coalition forces are ready to play a big game. The first wave pressed 10,000 people, and a few follow-up troops of several thousand people were prepared in the back, waiting for the troops in front to open the scene and press them together.

According to their previous experience, as long as they can rush to the position, most of these barbarians will not be able to stop them.

Amid the melodious sound of Scottish bagpipes, the infantry phalanx began to advance.

"What are these foreign devils doing?" A soldier of the Black Dragon Society couldn't help but mutter. This soldier is a native of Langfang, and after only three months of enlistment, he learned to put a gun and listen to the squad leader. To his ears, it was so stupid for these foreign devils to play drums and music when they were fighting, and they should blow whistles and military horns when they were fighting.

"Shut up!" His squad leader was a glorious Black Dragon Society veteran with a red bar on his shoulder. The squad leader kicked him on the ass and scolded angrily: "You don't care if he is a foreign devil or a funeral, wait for the order to release the gun!" ”

"Yes, yes." The soldier wasn't annoyed, but he just kicked his feet. When my dad was angry at home, he picked up the big stick and hit it directly, and when he was training in the barracks, those instructors also drove without saying a word, no, it was a little wrong, and those instructors just pumped up with their big mouths. The squad leader's kick was like a drizzle to him.

The soldier was very curious about those foreign devils, and thought that he would rush up and cut off a few heads later, so that he could make a great achievement, and maybe he would be able to get a non-commissioned officer to do it after the war. Originally, he was still a little afraid of foreigners, but in the two battles just now, those foreign devils died on the ground, and there were few of them on their side. This kind of huge exchange of enemies dying on the ground and only a little dead and wounded on his side has raised the morale of his family.

There is nothing great about foreign devils, and then everyone goes up to cut off the heads of foreign devils. He looked at it, and the heads of those foreign devils were no different, not as big as the big pig's head that the old Wang's family in the village used to make offerings during the New Year.

However, the soldier's dream was soon shattered, and the roar of the two heroes in this narrow land turned all the infantry who dared to charge in a group into a tragedy.