The next morning, the bright sun, which is rare in winter, hangs in the air, and the warmth of the earth is sprinkled to the earth.

The positions of the Sardinians outside the town of Bra, an important town south of Turin, were now covered in smoke of gunfire. Broken corpses, scattered parts, flying dirt, and various sounds mingled together to play a song of life. This is the battlefield, the meat grinder of life.

The Sardinians had a well-equipped fortification outside the town of Bura. Several deep trenches were constructed strongly. Holes were dug in the inner walls and solid planks were laid on the ground. Several barbed wire fences were pulled out of front of the position, and there were obvious traces of minefields. The support points and machine gun points are arranged in a way that is both concealed and reasonable, and is sufficient to play an important role.

The trench encircled Bra behind him like a half-crescent. Rigidly blocking the progress of the ** team of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

In the era when there were no armored forces, the best way to deal with trenches was to bombard them with heavy artillery, and bombarded them until they collapsed completely. It's a pity that Zhang Cheng doesn't have large-caliber heavy artillery in his hands now, and artillery with a caliber of more than 100 mm has been transferred to Liu Yue's side. He's there to be the main force.

Zhang Cheng himself had six of them distributed to the Third Regiment, as well as twenty-four 75-mm field guns that he bought out of his own pocket. In addition to Zhang Cheng's third regiment, there were seven regiments under Colonel Lian Qinglin. An infantry regiment of the regular Milanese garrison and six mercenary regiments, plus a number of auxiliary units. At the moment, there are about fifty artillery pieces that can still be used. During the battle the other day, the artillery of the Sardinians lost part of the bombardment.

At this moment, at Zhang Cheng's strong request, nearly eighty artillery pieces were concentrated and launched a brutal artillery bombardment of the positions of the Sardinians from the moment the sky was just brightened.

The artillerymen of other troops may just mean it, but the thirty guns under Zhang Cheng's own command are tilting the shells according to Zhang Cheng's order. It meant that all the shells on more than 100 trucks were gone.

This combat method, which did not care about the life of the body or the shells, made Colonel Lian Qinglin and the officers of the other troops stunned. This cannon is dozens of silver dollars!

The reason why the artillerymen of the other regiments did not support them vigorously was that each artillery piece was equipped with only two base shells in this operation. What can a two-base shell do? The battle is fierce, and it will soon be consumed. As for why the mighty Ming Empire only equipped its own army with two base shells? Even if it's just a mercenary force? For a variety of reasons, of course. The main reason is the simplest greed. Rot.

Well, in the colonies, the regulations are certainly not as strict as in the homeland. The reselling of military supplies is extremely rampant, and no one will be unable to get along with money. Those who hold real power keep the goods in the account books by making false accounts and other means, and the actual things have long been sold without knowing where they have been sold. It may even have gone into the hands of the Sardinians. The empire has been at peace for a long time, and this kind of thing is naturally unavoidable.

And when it came time to actually fight, those who were up and down were dumbfounded. The Army Command, far away on the mainland, ordered the allocation of weapons and ammunition on the basis of the data on the books, but in reality there were not so many at all. Not only artillery shells, but also rifles and other supplies were missing. The most obvious thing is that except for Zhang Cheng's third regiment, all the other mercenary regiments have a lot of unarmed soldiers.

Everybody understands these things. But no one will say more, not even Zhang Cheng can say anything. There are too many people doing this, and there are also many people who benefit from it. Whoever pokes it out is tantamount to offending the entire chain of interests.

In order to make up for the loopholes and not be discovered, the entire chain of interests has been moved. Painstakingly covered up. Even Zhang Cheng received a cover fee of 30,000 silver dollars. In everyone's opinion, all this can be declared over as long as the war is over, and even a lot of money can be made. As long as the war is won, you can reimburse as much loss as you want. The Army Command doesn't always send someone to count the shells, does it?

Of course, Zhang Cheng also accepted the money silently. Not to mention anything else, he first hopes that Daming can win. After all, it is its own nation and country. The second is that if this kind of thing is lost, then no one who is responsible should try to run away.

Because he had known for a long time that there would be such a thing, Zhang Cheng bought a large amount of equipment with his own money, and the equipment of bullets and shells was naturally the top priority. He brought with him more than 200 trucks, at least half of which were loaded with shells. On the battlefield, artillery is king, Zhang Cheng is very clear about this.

After Zhang Cheng learned that the artillery of other regiments had gradually ceased fire due to a lack of shells, he immediately sent someone to drive a truck to deliver the shells. "Boom to death, count as much as you want."

Dozens of artillery pieces bombarded indiscriminately for nearly two hours. Of course, it is not a constant fire, the rate of fire is also controlled in the middle, and water is poured to cool down. And it's still a cold winter, otherwise the artillery would have been finished if the rate of fire had been maintained for two hours.

Zhang Cheng knew that the seventy-five mm caliber artillery was not enough to destroy the trenches of the Sardinians, and the power of the shells was small. His main goal was to destroy minefields and barbed wire.

The Sardinian armies were trained by French instructors, and their defenses were very well developed. It would be a crime to let the infantry attack without destroying the minefields and barbed wire. The previous regiments took turns attacking but suffered heavy losses, and in the end they gained nothing. It was because their artillery bombardment was too small to completely destroy the defenders' defenses.

"Heavy machine guns into position." In the forward headquarters, Zhang Cheng, who was holding a telescope, calmly ordered, "Don't be afraid of losses, no one is allowed to retreat without an order." ”

"Yes!" Du Feng, who had gradually replaced Zhang Tao's work, raised his hand and saluted, turned to leave. As for the original regiment deputy Zhang Tao, he has already gone to the rear to coordinate materials at this moment.

Hundreds of soldiers wearing standard steel helmets, carrying sapper shovels, ammunition clips on their chests, and long-handled grenades stuck in their waists, armed with Thompson submachine guns and Winchester M1897s, quietly crowded into the starting position. Most of the soldiers were smoking and chatting, and quite a few were checking their equipment.

Most of these soldiers were veterans recruited by Zhang Cheng himself, and they focused on practicing trench assault tactics during the three-week intensive training. Although it is a grinding gun, it is still useful after all.

The reason why Zhang Cheng bought submachine guns and shotguns through Zhang's family was to deal with the trench defense that made people scratch their heads. As for the tactics, Zhang Cheng directly copied the tactics of the Storm Commando. To put it simply, it is a crack infiltration tactic.

In the traditional sense, a sea of people is suicide in the face of barbed wire and heavy machine guns. Zhang Cheng didn't think that the five thousand soldiers under his command would last long. If you want to break through the enemy's position, you will naturally use proven and effective tactics.

Glancing at the hands on his watch, Zhang Cheng narrowed his eyes, "Begin." ”

The brutal shelling of the Sardinian trenches, which had been repeatedly ravaged, suddenly began to stretch back and block the road for reinforcements. As soon as the artillery fire shifted, the Sardinians who were hiding in the anti-artillery holes quickly began to move into their respective positions. These well-trained defenders knew that the extension of artillery fire meant that the enemy offensive was about to begin.

As has already been said, the Sardinians are very poor. But how much economic power can a small country with a population of more than 4 million have? How much money do they have to equip themselves with heavy weapons after they have used their strength to arm tens of thousands of regular troops? What's more, the defenders guarding here are not yet the main regular army.

The defenders' only artillery had been destroyed in the previous days' fire. The only heavy weapon in their hands was the heavy machine gun. The previous two-hour shelling had also destroyed some of the heavy machine guns, and the defenders in the first line of trenches did not have many heavy weapons at the moment.

'Knock knock~~~~' The defenders who entered the position were horrified to find that dozens of heavy machine guns suddenly appeared on the position of the Ming army on the opposite side!

The muzzles of these heavy machine guns erupted long tongues of fire, pouring water-like bullets onto the defenders' positions, and the dense rain of bullets suppressed the defenders' heads. Especially the heavy machine guns that reveal their positions, which are the biggest nightmare for the attackers. Zhang Cheng's idea was to blockade reinforcements with artillery fire, suppress fire with heavy machine guns, and assault on the trenches.

As the officer blew the whistle, hundreds of soldiers of the Third Regiment suddenly rushed out from the starting position. Scattered towards the defenders' positions.

"Huh?" Colonel Lian Qinglin, who was also observing the battlefield, was very surprised to hold up the binoculars, and he saw an army whose combat tactics were completely different from what he had known. The soldiers of the 3rd Mercenary Regiment were very divided and did not advance very quickly, and from time to time they would crawl on the ground with the help of the cover of various bunker craters. This made Colonel Lian Qinglin very surprised.

Storm commando tactics are, to put it bluntly, the assault soldiers alternately cover and leap forward. Submachine guns open the way, and heavy machine guns provide fire support. Release smoke grenades at long distances and throw grenades at close range. The tactic of quickly clearing barbed wire and other obstacles, and then using close-quarters combat weapons to clear the defenders of the trench and capture the trench.

In the years when there were no armored forces, this was the best tactic.

Hundreds of Ming soldiers jumped and jumped, hunched and run, constantly approaching the defenders' trenches. Behind them, thousands of soldiers with rifles lay on the ground, waiting for the order to charge.

And the defenders, who were suppressed by the dense fire of dozens of heavy machine guns, could not care about anything else, and could only resist the bullets of heavy machine guns to stop the assault team.

More than 1,000 defenders in the first-line trenches shot desperately, especially the more than 20 Makqins who were spitting long tongues of fire violently. In the face of the fierce resistance of the defenders, the assault team's offensive suddenly stopped, and dozens of soldiers who rushed to the front fell to the ground. The other soldiers all fell to the ground.

Zhang Cheng clenched his fists, pursed the corners of his mouth and said nothing. The battlefield is like this, life and death are just a line between life.

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