Chapter 491: The Power of Firearms

After the end of the war, the victorious side will bury its own victims, as for the other side's dead, it will definitely not care, and the defeated side will not pay attention to this kind of thing because it is busy running, so the final result is often to let it rot or be taken away by wild beasts.

Chen Tao, a famous poet in the late Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem, "Poor riverside without fixed bones, like a person in a spring boudoir dream", these two sentences mean that after the war, corpses and bones can be seen everywhere.

In ancient times, it was easy to have major plagues after great wars and natural disasters, and the reason for this was caused by this.

It is very rare in the history of ancient warfare to intercede with the victor in order to collect the corpses of my own soldiers, and I secretly praised in my heart and said loudly: "Boyan, as a soldier, don't you know that these corpses are the trophies of our army?" ”

"Your Majesty, Boyan naturally knows."

There was a sudden flash in my eyes: "Boyan, you know that you can't do it, and you can be regarded as courageous." So, do you think I'll say yes? ”

Boyan's gaze did not show weakness, stared at me and said: "Your Majesty, God has the virtue of a good life, my Emperor Dayuan once said that at present, although the Yuan and Song Dynasty are hostile countries, but when I Dayuan dominates the world, the people everywhere are the people of Dayuan, Boyan heard that His Majesty takes the world as his own responsibility, and he will agree to Boyan's request." ”

"Haha." I laughed and said, "What a 'take the world as your own responsibility', a good Boyan, since you say so, I should promise myself." ”

Boyan was overjoyed: "Boyan thanked His Majesty the Emperor of the Song Dynasty. ”

The weather in June was very hot, and whatever the purpose of Boyan, it would be good for the environment, and even if they didn't deal with it, I would have ordered the bodies to be buried.

"Boyan, you send 2,000 soldiers here to bury the dead of your army. But remember, you can only carry digging tools, if our soldiers find that you are carrying bows, arrows, knives and guns, then our army will shoot themselves. ”

"Your Majesty, rest assured, Boyan will return to the camp to arrange, and about two hours later, I will bury the fallen soldiers of our army." Boyan shook his hands and thanked him again, "Your Majesty's great grace Boyan remembers it in my heart, Your Majesty, Mr. Yuan, Boyan farewell." ”

An hour later, I held a summary meeting with the participation of various generals in the big tent of the Chinese army in Guanzitan.

"See the Emperor."

"Excuse me, generals, everyone has worked hard in today's battle, please take a seat." I smiled and first asked, "Jiang Aiqing, what are the casualties of our army?" ”

Jiang Wanzai smiled and replied excitedly: "Your Majesty, after counting, our army has suffered a total of 1,246 casualties, of which only 287 were killed and 309 were seriously wounded, and most of the casualties were caused by the bows and arrows of the Yuan army. According to estimates, the number of Mongol soldiers killed in battle will not be less than 12,000, and the number of casualties on the other side will be at least 20,000 or more. This disparity in the proportion of casualties between the two warring sides was the first time in Lao Chen's decades-long military career. If you put it before, Lao Chen couldn't imagine it anyway, and the power of firearms is really amazing. ”

I nodded and said, "In this war, our army has won an overwhelming victory, which proves that firearms are the direction of development of future wars. For each battle, after victory, it is necessary to make a summary in a timely manner, from the strategy and tactics of the campaign to the performance of each soldier, the good ones must be maintained, and the bad ones must be reviewed and improved, so as not to commit another crime next time. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

I continued: "In this battle, our army used artillery, muskets, and even grenades, so to speak, all the secret weapons of our dynasty were used, but there were still thousands of casualties, and in the face of the heavy shields of the Yuan army at close range, only the grenades used for the first time in the war were effective, which shows that our army's firearms still need to be continuously improved." I won't say anything about the advantages of our army in this war, and your various armies will go down and summarize on their own, report to me and send a copy to the Military Affairs Yuan, and I will focus on the shortcomings below. ”

"First of all, in the setting of the large camp, the destructive power of the Yuan army's bows and arrows was obviously underestimated, so that the upper layer of the guardrail was repeatedly attacked by the archers of the opposing side, although it was protected by the officers and men of the 20th Army, but it also greatly affected the frequency of musket fire. Therefore, when setting up a large camp in the future, it is necessary to take into account how to ensure the normal rate of fire of the musketeers and the safety of the musketeers when the enemy archers are projectile. The second is about the choice of the timing of the musketeers' firing, today's battle, the Yuan army attacked five times in a row, and our army's muskets hardly paused, although our ammunition was quite sufficient, but the heat of the muskets was a big problem, which was the same as the situation of artillery, and for a long time, this weakness could not be improved. If Ah Shu knew this, and launched two more consecutive charges, then the musket would not be able to shoot normally due to the heat problem, and our army would have to return to the traditional way of fighting with cold weapons, although the combat effectiveness and morale of our army have increased rapidly, but the casualties will increase as a result, which is not what I want to see. ”

I attach great importance to the life of any soldier, and I know this point of view, whether the generals here understand it or not.

This brings us to the third question, how to get the most out of muskets, for example, whether musketeers and archers can be combined. Although our archers are not as good as the Mongols' mounted archers, as a supplement to the muskets, I think it should still be possible to try. ”

Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered the small steel cannon used by the Japanese devils in the war of aggression against China, but I immediately dispelled this idea, because it was impossible to develop it with the current level of science and technology. I took a big sip of tea and continued: "At present, our artillery is only suitable for long-range bombardment, and cannot achieve long-range flat fire, in order to make up for this, I have decided to use the flamethrower developed by the Gunpowder Supervision in actual combat as soon as possible, and then improve it in use. Gongsun Xiaochen asked Lu Xiufu of Yingzhou to inform the Gunpowder Administration that when the ammunition and projectiles were delivered next time, the test samples of the flamethrower would be brought together by the way. ”

Gongsun Xiaochen got up and said, "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

"Well, sit down. I am very satisfied with all the officers and men of our army in today's battle, but the only thing I want to praise is the loyal army, although it is the first time to participate in the battle, the combat effectiveness and spirit of the loyal army are enough to make me proud, no one would have thought that this team has only been formed for less than ten days. Although I was a little naïve, from them, I felt the heroic appearance of Meng Shuai back then. Hehe, Meng Tianya. ”

"The end will be."

"You must remember that only through the baptism of war can you become a truly invincible army. In terms of individual combat strength, you are not under the Broken Army, but more than a dozen people have been killed, which you need to summarize. ”

Meng Tianya blushed a little and said, "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

"Meng Tianya, I will personally go to the Zhongshun Army to inspect in a while."

Meng Tianya said happily: "Thank the emperor for his love." ”

Towards the end of the meeting, the herald came to report: "Your Majesty, the general of the Yuan army, Boyan, personally led two thousand soldiers, has arrived in front of my camp, and according to the emperor's instructions, they are digging a pit to bury the bodies of his fallen soldiers. ”

"Okay, let them do it."

"Your Majesty, there is another matter, Na Boyan gave the emperor a war horse, saying that it was a little show of his heart to thank the emperor for his kindness."

"Really?"

"Exactly, that war horse is already in front of the big camp, under the care of Brigade Commander He Quchen, and Brigade Commander He asked the little one to ask the emperor, do you accept it?"

"Accept, of course." I smiled and said, "General Xie, you and General Zhao Huai and General Zhang Shijie went to the guardrail to supervise Boyan, if there is any misconduct, you can shoot, by the way, look at this war horse sent by Boyan, it must be a good horse." ”

"Yes, the last will obey."

"Okay, the rest of the congregation will obey."

"The end will be."

"You first comfort the wounded in your own army, do a good job of pacifying them, and then make a summary. Jiang Wanzai, you and Concubine Lingniang went to the Songhepo Field Hospital on behalf of me to comfort the seriously wounded soldiers of our army, and convey them to let them recuperate with peace of mind. ”

When Fang Ling heard that there was also her task, he immediately said happily: "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

I finally said to Yuan Jian and Zhang Quan, who were standing behind me: "Sir, Quanyi, you accompany me to the Zhongshun Army garrison. ”

The battle of Guanzitan ended with a complete victory for the Song army, and the ratio of casualties on both sides was extremely unbalanced, although Ah Shu, Boyan and others had been prepared, but such a big disparity still made them feel uneasy, and even unacceptable. After this battle, in the hearts of all the Yuan troops who participated in the battle, the shadow of firearms could no longer be eliminated. On the contrary, the morale of the soldiers of the Song army was high, and as soldiers, although they must always be ready to sacrifice, such a low death rate naturally made all the soldiers feel at ease.

Where there is war, there will be sacrifice, but wouldn't it be better to win without sacrifice?

Just like the United States sent troops to Iraq, the low casualty rate has to be admired.

At the same time, the Song army in Fancheng was in a bitter battle.

Early in the morning, the Yuan army's eight return guns and hundreds of stone throwers and five guns of the defenders of the north gate of Fancheng launched a firefight, about two quarters of an hour later, three back guns and eight stone throwers were destroyed by artillery, and one of the Song army's artillery was hit by the stone thrower and could not be used normally.

As the number of shots increased, the rate of fire of the gun decreased significantly, while the catapult was less affected and could still fire stones continuously.

Ali Hague, who was standing in the culvert outside Fancheng, saw that the frequency of the Song army's artillery firing was getting lower and lower, and immediately ordered the siege to begin.