Chapter 498: Artillery Battle across the River (End)

As a shell landed not far from the artillery formation of the Shenji Battalion, it only stopped for a long time, and the deafening sound of the artillery formation of the Wuzhenha Chaoying Battalion roared, and a wave of big iron balls seemed to be overwhelmingly smashing towards the artillery array of the Shenji Battalion. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ,!

More than 30 of their Shenwei generals first fired a cannon in unison, and then every dozen or so artillery pieces were fired round by round to relieve the heat dissipation pressure of the artillery.

The heavy solid iron balls bounced inside and outside the artillery array, smoke and dust, sandwiched with blood light, and the roaring cannons made the gunners of the Shenji Battalion unable to raise their heads.

Such a fierce artillery fire in the Qing camp surprised many people, and from time to time there were soldiers of the Shenji Battalion covering their ears and screaming.

Others rolled down in pools of blood, screaming terribly, and beside them, some broken limbs remained.

No matter how densely the earthen carts and sacks are placed in the artillery array, if the artillery hits the position, it will still roll and bounce somewhat, because there is always a place for people to move. When the cannonball flies and bounces, it seems to be very slow, but in fact, the angular velocity of the cannonball is only seen with the naked eye, but in fact, the speed is very fast, and the human body often has too late to react.

Fu Yingchong got up with a disgraced face, and a large iron ball weighing more than ten catties shot on the left side of the circle, and the retainer made of thick sacks collapsed.

The sack chips shattered by the artillery, as well as a large area of stirred up soil, flew on his head and chest, and the smoke of the artillery, so that Fu Yingchong changed from a glamorous deputy general of the Shenji Battalion to a migrant worker in a black sand kiln.

Frightened, he roared for the artillery to return fire.

However, at this time, only a few guns in the artillery array were turned, and when the remaining gunners were busy, they were already in chaos when they were shelling on the opposite side.

At such a long distance, although it was difficult for the Qing artillery to directly hit the artillery of the Shenji Battalion, the shells flew indiscriminately, even if some of the bombarded shells were quite far away from the earthen bag parapet in front of the guns, it still made many gunners frightened.

Some of the unlucky soldiers in the formation who were brought down by the cannon and wailed added strong psychological pressure to them.

And to be honest, the gunners of the Shenji Battalion are much inferior to the gunners of the Wuzhenha Chao Battalion of the Han Eight Banners in terms of loading speed, accuracy of shelling, and observation distance measurement.

At this time, the artillery played a more important role, or to hit the morale of the other side, increase psychological pressure on them from time to time, or bring casualties to their gunners.

Wuzhenha super artillery array, but thirty Shenwei General cannons, has put the Shenji Battalion in a situation where they can't fight back just by being beaten.

What's even worse is that the follow-up artillery of the Qing army has been continuously pulled, and the number of their Shenwei general cannons has gradually increased, from 30 to 40 to 50...... Seventy Gate ......

Their round after round of artillery bombardment increased from more than ten to more than 30, and the round firing made the heat dissipation distance of their artillery shorter, and it seemed that the bombardment was continuous, and the shells rained down on the front and back of the Shenji Battalion artillery array, or in the center.

Some of the artillery also hit the rocket positions next to the artillery array, the Franco's machine gun positions, which were helpless in the face of the enemy artillery, and their morale became more and more depressed in panic.

As Kong Youde's follow-up artillery was delivered, they also began to bombard the artillery array of the Jingbian Army.

It seems that the artillery array of the Shenji Battalion is not to be worried, except for the 20 Shenwei generals and the remaining 70 general heavy artillery, Kong Youde ordered to face the side of the Jingbian Army artillery array, and vent his anger with his stomach and face to that side with the firing of the artillery.

Because the artillery array was very close to the side of the Jingbian Army, many of their artillery did not even need to move as a whole, only some strong soldiers pushed the wooden poles on the grinding plate gun carriage vigorously, and the turning of the artillery was quickly completed in the sound of quack.

Although such an artillery attack may easily cause damage to some parts of the interior, it is needless to say that the flexibility on the battlefield is not to mention.

The loud noise of more than 100 Shenwei generals on both sides alarmed the armies on both sides of the Daughter River, and it seemed that the eyes of the entire battlefield were looking towards that side.

Seeing that the artillery array of the Jingbian Army was rampant for a while, it was so suppressed that he couldn't raise his head, Kong Youde was satisfied, and laughed loudly: "Good fight!" ”

His voice was drowned out in the deafening sound of cannonballs, the shells screamed, and the billowing smoke drowned out Kong Youde's figure, and the gunner of the Wuzhenha Chao Battalion beside him desperately brushed his chamber and reloaded his ammunition after the shelling.

They also have perfect observers, loaders, and rippers, and they also use cotton medicine packs.

They observe their hands, and they also have clairvoyant mirrors, although they are few, and there are also a series of complete sets of square and round tools, and many of them are skillful. After all, Sun Yuanhua back then, I don't know how much time and energy was spent on this artillery team.

These Han gunners, knowing that this was the capital to make a fortune, all of them worked very hard, especially those Portuguese gunners, who fought quickly and accurately.

Regardless of the number of artillery, it is the level of training of both sides, and the gunners of the Shenji Battalion are not their opponents.

And the artillery position of the Jingbian Army, because of the insufficient range of the artillery, could only watch them shell.

The water vapor of the brush was sizzling, and in Kong Youde's laughter, another round of more than 20 artillery pieces, with the sound of the thunderbolt, spewed out blazing flames in front of them in turn, and the billowing white smoke quickly filled the Wuzhenha super artillery array again.

……

Nearly 100 guns with more than 10 catties, the bombardment of General Shenwei brought a really amazing momentum,

Shells rained down, and the vibration of the heavy solid iron ball seemed to tear people's hearts and lungs.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

Hearing the deafening roar on the other side, the artillery array on that side raised a large puff of white smoke, Zhao Xuan and some officers and generals of the artillery battalion hurriedly hid their bodies tightly behind the bamboo basket, while shouting to call the soldiers of the other artillery battalion to hide.

At this time, Zhao Xuan's artillery array had 23 Hongyi six-pounder guns, 25 Hongyi 3-pounder guns, 25 general Franc machine guns, and the remaining artillery of the artillery battalion were arranged in the small artillery array on the left side of the small pontoon bridge, and those small and medium-sized Franc machines supported Yang Xingling in the battle.

These artillery, except for the Hongyi six-pounder cannon, can hit more than two miles, and the rest of the artillery can only hit more than one mile, so they can only watch the other party fight*, and there is no power to fight back, which makes Zhao Xuan feel aggrieved.

His artillery emplacements spread out along some of the uplifted slopes of the riverbank, forming a long column. In general, the general's Franc cannon was at the forefront, the Hongyi three-pounder gun was in the middle, the Hongyi six-pounder gun was at the end, and some of the highlands were at the top, forming a cannon array of considerable length and depth.

To the left and right of these cannons, they used bamboo baskets of the kind that were taller than wooden barrels, filled with earth for cover. This is Zhao Xuan's discovery, the tall bamboo basket filled with soil can withstand a greater impact of the Hongyi cannon than a sack full of soil.

Of course, if the bamboo basket is hit, the flying bamboo fragments may bring no small lethality, so outside these bamboo baskets, a layer of soil bags is piled up as a buffer.

In fact, it is best to use rattan baskets to hold soil, but at this time there is no rattan in the north, and even Qi Jiguang's long knife rattan soldiers at that time need to use balsa wood instead of rattan cards, and they can only use bamboo baskets.

Although the probability is small, in order to prevent the shells from hitting the artillery directly, or some shells from jumping over, causing damage to the artillery and the gunner, some sacks are piled up in front of each artillery, and the height is not at the muzzle, and the artillery bombardment is not affected at the same time.

Zhao Xuan was hiding behind a bamboo basket next to a six-pounder cannon, only listening to the sharp whistling sound of the cannonballs, and the heavy cannons fell in the artillery array, constantly flying sideways and bouncing. They bring a strong sense of threat, and no matter how brave you are, if you are hit or swept by a cannonball, it will be the result of instant casualties.

Zhao Xuan covered his ears and opened his mouth, and when the cannonball landed, it seemed to bring a huge shocking force, especially when it fell not far from him, making people's ears buzz, and he felt as if his internal organs were about to burst.

From time to time, bamboo baskets were hit, or projectiles were hit by cannons, and splashes of earth covered them, scattered behind them to hide from the gunners' helmets, and soon they were disgraced.

Some Qing artillery shells bombarded the river in front of the artillery array, stirring up a large column of water.

Or shoot into the open space in front of the artillery emplacement, and bring up a large stream of rubble to fly. From time to time, there are also cannons that fall behind the bamboo baskets, bounce up hard, and happen to rush to the back row of earththen carts, hitting the earththen carts that shake themselves, and the dust falls.

Or the solid iron ball directly passes over the dirt cart and rushes back again.

The Qing artillery was in waves, the ground seemed to be shaking, the sound of bombardment shells landing was endless, and many solid iron balls were jumping and rolling between the earthen carts and bamboo baskets, and they also shot at the artillery battalion behind the slope.

Although the gunners were closely behind the earthen baskets or earthen cart sacks, the large number of iron balls that jumped and rolled still caused them casualties.

A young artillery battalion soldier hugged his calf tightly and said nothing, but on his forehead, beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down, and his body trembled from time to time.

The accident came suddenly, probably the Tartar cannonball, which happened to shoot at the bulging dirt bag not far ahead, and then rolled back, taking his right little foot with him.

He sat on the ground, blood flowing from his wounds, staining the ground beneath him red. He still has childishness on his face, as an artillery apprentice, when he was in the army, he was full of longing for the future, but this unexpected disability made him spend the rest of his life in disability.

In a pool of blood, the soldier's eyes were full of pain, physical, and more psychological, everything he dreamed of was over.

Although the general will take care of his future life, this is not what he wants.

There are many such accidents in the artillery array, and luck is really important in battles.

The artillery of the Qing army did not target a certain artillery of the Jingbian Army, but the entire artillery array. The cannons they fired rained down into the artillery array, and even if the blind cat ran into a dead mouse, it also brought casualties to the gunners of the Jingbian Army.

This is still the result of the gunners not yet fighting, all of them hiding next to the bamboo baskets and earththen carts, if the two sides fire at each other during the battle, the gunners come and go, this kind of casualties will be more. Sacks and earthen baskets can only alleviate the casualties of soldiers, but cannot be completely avoided.

A solid iron ball crossed the earthen basket and smashed the ground not far behind Zhao Xuan, which startled Zhao Xuan, he gritted his teeth, he was too aggrieved, he couldn't fight back after being beaten, and he was completely in a disadvantaged situation, which he had never had since he joined the Jingbian Army.

And seeing that the Tartar artillery array on the opposite bank seemed to be constantly sounding, they divided the artillery into several rounds of bombardment, even if each cannon had to dissipate heat for a quarter of an hour after three or five cannons, but after many rounds, when it was the turn again, the previous artillery had already finished dissipating heat, and they could fire again, causing their artillery waves to continue.

The training of these Tartar gunners was also surprising.

He hated and said: "I, Zhao Xuan, have been in the Ming Dynasty for many years...... Oh, I have been with the general for many years, and I have never been so cowardly. The hateful two tartars, dare to stand still far away, there is a kind of pull up, master, I will make them look good! ”

The officer of the battalion headquarters praised the painting, at this time scattered the earthen baskets to avoid the artillery, in the smoke of gunpowder, the artillery battalion Yang Qian, who had a copper bell and big eyes, leaned close to the bamboo basket not far from him, he sat on the ground, and heard the words "um".

Zhao Xuan was dissatisfied: "Lao Yang, you haven't eaten, you are weak." ”

His eyes lit up: "Okay, the infantry of the two Tartars is coming, they are going to cross the bridge, hmph, their artillery is concentrated on this side, we will pull those Franc machines up, just near the pontoon bridge, give those two Tartars some powerful colors!" ”

Mr. Yang Qian said: "Yes, I want to give those second ...... Two tartars a little color ......"

His voice was intermittent, and Mr. Yang Qian had always had a loud voice, but Zhao Xuan was quite careless and did not find Mr. Yang Qian's abnormality.

In the sound of cannons and drums, the army of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty began to cross the river, and at the same time, the sound of killing on Yang Xingling's side shook the sky, and the roar of Hongyi cannons continued to come. (To be continued.)