Luodian, more than 15,000 British and French troops lined up one after another neat formation and slowly advanced, forming an attack width of about three kilometers, and in the rear of a large number of infantry phalanxes, there were still many artillery pieces that were slowly being pushed forward by the artillerymen!

At this moment, the distance between the two sides is less than two thousand meters!

Shi Qingxuan looked at the Anglo-French army slowly approaching, but there was no trace of nervousness and apprehension in his heart, whether it was good or bad, it wouldn't take long to see it, and now what Shi Qingxuan has to do is to command this battle in his own way.

At eleven o'clock in the morning, the heavy Allied guns that had been removed from the warships, such as large-caliber mortars and 12 or even 18-pounder cannons, arrived at the front one after another.

As in all modern battles, due to the limited range of their artillery, they always entered the battlefield ahead of the infantry and then carried out artillery bombardments, and while the infantry continued to adjust their formation, these guns had already reached a distance of only about 1,500 meters from the Sixth Army.

This distance is also the standard range for shelling by contemporary artillery!

But they haven't arrived yet, and the artillery of the Sixth Army of the Chinese Army in front is the first to fire!

The two divisional artillery regiments of the Sixth Army of the Chinese Army had a total of six 12-pounder front-loading rifled artillery batteries, two six-pounder front-loading smoothbore cavalry guns, two 32-pounder mortar batteries, and two 64-pounder mortar batteries.

The 12-pound front-loading rifled gun, developed and produced by the Linde Machinery Factory and licensed to the Jinling Arsenal, was produced at this distance, using an improved cast iron barrel provided by the Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant, a subsidiary of the Jiangnan Mining Company. Fired a specially developed conical grenade with a shell weighing twelve pounds. It was designated as the 1857 Twelve-pounder Field Gun.

The rate of fire of this gun was not faster than that of the front-loading smoothbore gun, but compared to the Napoleonic twelve-pounder front-loading bronze smoothbore gun, which was commonly used today. Its biggest advantage is accuracy, and the increase in accuracy increases the angle of the muzzle, thereby increasing the firing range.

When the different types of light twelve-pounder field guns used by the armies of the contemporary world, including the Chinese army, that is, the 'Napoleonic cannon' commonly known to later generations, actually fought, most of the maximum firing distance was 1,500 meters, and at a distance of 1,500 meters, Napoleon artillery could hit a target the size of a house.

Beyond this distance, the hit rate is quite low, which means that a twelve-pounder smoothbore gun is not impossible to hit farther. The angle of the muzzle of any artillery is raised to a sufficient angle, and the firing range will be greatly increased, well, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was not that they lied about the range of the artillery, but that they could really fight so far, but this made no sense, because after exceeding the effective range, the hit rate would drop to an unbearable level, and it would not have actual combat value at all.

If a twelve-pound Napoleonic cannon could accurately hit a house at a distance of fifteen hundred meters. Then a twelve-pounder field gun of the 1857 model was able to hit the gate of a house at a distance of about nineteen hundred meters!

The improvement of accuracy has greatly improved the effective range of this gun, and the muzzle angle can be adjusted high during actual combat to carry out shelling at a longer distance.

The current military firing standard for the 1857 Twelve-pounder field gun is: The effective firing range in real combat is two thousand meters.

And this time the artillery units of the Sixth Army opened fire strictly from this distance, and at this time the artillery positions of the Sixth Army were several hundred meters away from the front line than the infantry, so when the enemy's artillery entered about 1,500 meters from the infantry line of the Sixth Army. The artillery units of the Sixth Army were nearly 1,800 to 1,900 meters away from the enemy's artillery units.

At this distance, if it is replaced with the old twelve-pounder front-loading smoothbore gun. It is simply impossible to accurately shell the enemy, even if it is barely possible to hit it so far. But the hit rate will also be outrageously low.

As the front-loading rifled guns of the Chinese army took the lead in firing, Ergin and other coalition generals on the opposite side were stunned, what is going on?

Why did they fire so early?

The artillery positions chosen by the coalition forces were carefully calculated, in order to be able to effectively bombard the opposing Chinese infantry positions to provide support for their own infantry's attacks, and at the same time to avoid being counter-shelled by enemy artillery, so they chose to be about 1,300 to 1,500 meters away from the Chinese army's infantry positions, and at this time the distance from the Chinese army's artillery positions was at least 1,600 meters or more, and some were even more than 1,900 meters away.

But at this distance, the artillery of the Chinese army on the opposite side actually opened fire.

This can be said to be beyond their imagination, how could they fire at such a distance, is it because there are so many shells that they are wasted?

However, just when Count Ergin and others thought that the artillery of the Chinese army was wasting shells, those shells accurately landed on the artillery positions of the allied forces, and explosions were heard one after another, and bursts of white smoke rose from them.

At this time, Ergin and the others were stunned.

How is this possible? How could their artillery hit so far? Did they move out all those large-caliber naval guns or shore defense guns?

It is not that there are no artillery with a range of more than three or four kilometers, such as those large-caliber naval guns or coastal defense guns, which can shoot at this range.

But these are twenty-four-pound or even forty-eight-pound, sixty-four-pound large-caliber cannons, and there are simply no such large-caliber guns in the army.

If it is not a naval gun, could it be that the Chinese army on the opposite side has successfully put the technology of rear-loading rifled guns into practical use, so that the army can also use rear-loading rifled guns on a large scale?

But look at the rate of fire is not like ah, the rear loading artillery and the rear loading rifle, its biggest feature is not the range and accuracy, but the rate of fire, look at the shelling speed of the Chinese army on the opposite side is not faster than the smoothbore gun.

Count Ergin also knew a little about rear-loading rifled guns, and as far as he knew, Britain was very interested in Sir Armsnent's rear-loading rifled gun design last year.

And this year, it officially purchased the design patent rights of the Armslant gun, and at the same time saw the great potential of this design, and even legislated a ban on the export of this gun.

But even what. The British army has not been able to say that it will be equipped with this gun on a large scale, and it is still being designed and tested. It will take a few years before it can be officially put into service.

It's just that to Count Ergin's surprise, it was at the time of the Battle of Wusong. He found that some of the coastal defense guns of the Chinese army were breech-loading rifled guns, and their rate of fire and accuracy were far superior to those of traditional smoothbore guns, for which the British Navy's artillery fleet suffered a lot of losses.

Therefore, Count Ergin knew that there were breech-loading rifled guns in the Chinese army, although he did not know how the Chinese came up with them, and did not know that in fact, the technical source of the rear rifled guns of the Chinese army was the British Armstrong gun, which was a semi-finished product purchased in the early years and then perfected and designed by himself, although there were some slight technical differences between the two, but the basic structure and principle were still similar.

After taking a closer look with a telescope. Count Ergin quickly came to a conclusion, that is, the Chinese army on the opposite side did not use rear-loading rifled guns that represented the most advanced technology of contemporary times, but traditional front-loading guns, and looking at this accuracy and range, it can basically be concluded that the opposite side used rifled guns.

They used front-loading rifled guns!

Not only Count Ergin can see it, but most of the other coalition generals can also guess it, after all, they are all experienced generals in battle, and they are very clear about some contemporary military technology developments.

This battle was more difficult than expected.

This is the common idea in the minds of many coalition generals now.

Their shore defense guns used breech-loading rifled guns. Their army uses front-loading smoothbore guns, and no matter what kind of artillery is better than their own!

This made it difficult for many people in the Anglo-French alliance to accept,

One of them is the world's boss and boasts of being at the forefront of military development technology. One is the self-proclaimed army boss, with the best army in the world, but when they are still using front-loading smoothbore guns. But it was discovered that a China in the Far East had already entered service with rifled artillery in batches.

Could it be that this is the true strength of this ancient and huge Eastern Empire?

Wrong. If they were really that strong, why more than a decade ago during the first Sino-British war. Why are they so vulnerable?

Count Ergin was now a little confused, so much so that he doubted his basic impression of China!

No matter how puzzled Count Ergin and the others were, the battle had already begun, and there was no reason to stop because the other side had used one or two new weapons.

No matter how difficult the road ahead may be, they must continue until the final victory.

Under the shelling of the Chinese army, the artillery of the coalition forces braved the constantly falling shells to carry out artillery bombardment, but unfortunately, except for a few ship-borne cannons of more than 18 pounds removed from the ship that could fire back at the artillery positions of the Chinese army, most of the artillery, that is, those 12-pound guns, could only carry out intensive artillery bombardment of the predetermined infantry positions of the Chinese army.

For a time, the artillery units on both sides were constantly firing and loading, and the rumbling sound was accompanied by continuous explosions and smoke, making the entire already small battlefield extremely lively, as if the sound of firecrackers during the Chinese New Year was non-stop.

Seeing that his artillery was constantly killed and injured by falling shells, Count Ergin knew that he could not delay it for too long, after all, his artillery units were now in a state of being beaten, and the casualties of the artillery would be very heavy in the long run, and after his own artillery suffered heavy casualties, there would be no way to provide sufficient artillery support for the infantry attack in the future.

"We must attack now!"

The Earl of Ergin made a quick decision, and when his order was handed down, many Anglo-French soldiers quickly entered the battlefield in close phalanxes.

When the Anglo-French infantry entered the battlefield, their artillery positions fell much less shells, but at the same time, the allied infantry who had just entered the battlefield suffered a large and intensive shelling.

Shells constantly fell into the infantry phalanx and exploded, including grenades and grenades, and the explosion of each shell could always bring death and injury to a few or even a dozen or more soldiers.

But the allied infantry has fully proved what modern infantry is, especially those drawn from the mainland or from Central Asia, these soldiers straightened their waists and walked forward step by step with firm steps, not caring at all about the shells falling in front of them and behind them, let alone the screams of their fallen comrades.

They are the best line infantry of our time, they have their own pride, and it is their duty to attack in the face of enemy fire! (To be continued......)