In the rumbling cannon, Lin Zhe wore a double-breasted dark blue officer's uniform, rode a war horse to a small hill in the camp, and went with him to many other middle and senior officers of the Yuyao County Yong Battalion, including Shi Qingxuan, assistant director of the Supervision and Training Office, Major Lin Anfei, commander of the Second Infantry Regiment, and Wang Luyun, captain of the personal guard.

In addition, it is inevitable that Hunter William, a foreigner with a special status in the Yongying camp in Yuyao County, is inevitable.

Everyone was on horseback, all wearing dark blue double-breasted officers' uniforms, and if you didn't look at the braid dragged behind everyone's heads, outsiders would think that this was a foreigner's army.

"Look, they're about to start, but they've fought with us twice and still haven't grown at all, and they're still charging with this old-fashioned infantry, and they don't even know how to disperse!" Wang Luyun on the side said with a big grin, but although he said it easily, he saw a trace of nervousness from his expression.

Also, when we count all the logistical personnel, there are only 1,700 people, including more than 300 baggage soldiers, and in addition to artillery and cavalry, there are only two regiments of infantry that really participate in the front-line battle, a little more than 1,200 people.

But as for the Taiping army on the opposite side, the total strength is more than 6,000 people, and the Taiping army on the opposite side obviously did not establish a modern logistics force like the Yongying in Yuyao County, and they are all soldiers.

In the face of an enemy who was several times his own under black pressure, Rao is Wang Luyun, a fierce general who dared to lead his troops to charge into battle, also felt his scalp tingle.

However, Shi Qingxuan on the side looked relaxed: "These thieves know how to fight, they only know how to rush, and when they get close to three hundred steps, they will know the power of our army's muskets!" ”

However, unlike them, Hunter William, who was standing beside Lin Zhe, looked at the Taiping army formation opposite, but he frowned, and then whispered to Lin Zhe in English:

"General, it seems that they want to attack with columns, once they attack with columns, then our firepower coverage will drop sharply, and then their chances of rushing up will be greatly increased!"

Without being reminded by Hunter William, Lin Zhe had already seen that the Taiping army on the opposite side was changing formations, from the previous dense phalanx to a one-line column.

And he also saw that the Taiping soldiers lined up in front of him all raised their thick shields!

These Taiping troops on the opposite side did not make any progress as the other officers of the Yuyao County Yong Battalion thought, on the contrary, they must have carefully studied their own Yuyao County Yong Battalion, otherwise they would not have made this kind of column attack and equipped with thick shields.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the French army was very fond of using columns to break through, close to quickly change formations to horizontal formations to fight, and the reason why columns were used during the march was very simple, that is, columns could effectively reduce the area hit by enemy artillery and long-range rifles.

Of course, there are also disadvantages, that is, once the column is hit by the enemy's live shells, a shell can kill the enemy from head to tail, instead of being hit by a horizontal team with at most a few dead and wounded.

In addition to the column rushing, the shield in the hands of the Taiping army on the opposite side was also beyond Lin Zhe's expectations, although the distance was a little far, but with the use of monoculars, Lin Zhe could still see that the shield in the hands of the Taiping army on the opposite side was not their standard equipment, but should be temporarily built.

Each shield is one meter five high and half a meter wide, made of thick wooden planks, and the outer layer is also covered with wet quilts and even some covered with iron sheets.

In modern warfare, it is very difficult to block muskets, traditional shields, rattan shields and the like can't even block the arquebuses commonly installed in the Qing army, let alone the firing smoothbore guns commonly equipped by contemporary powers.

As for the Mini Infantry gun equipped by the Yongying Battalion in Yuyao County, it is the pinnacle of the front-loading infantry gun, and its lethality is not much worse than that of the later mature rear-loading single-shot metal infantry gun, and the effective killing distance is as high as more than 900 meters, and the effective firing range of 500 yards in people's mouths does not mean that the Mini Infantry Gun can only shoot so far, and this distance of 500 yards refers to the effective hit in terms of accuracy.

Theoretically, the Mini rifle can start to play a salvo at a distance of 900 meters, and the accuracy of hitting is already very high at about 500 meters.

Whether these thick wooden shields made by the Taiping Army can block the Mini Bu's guns and bullets in the Yongying camp in Yuyao County remains to be tested in actual combat for the time being.

Lin Zhe put down the binoculars, pondering in his mind how to fight today's battle, it is obvious that this Taiping army is still prepared, and it is more prepared than he imagined.

Just as Lin Zhe was pondering, Hunter William on the side gave full play to the role of chief of staff and said:

"General, it's time for the artillery company to open fire on the enemy's column!"

Lin Zhe nodded, and then said to the herald who followed him: "The second artillery company has been sent to aim at the enemy's infantry column and fire!" ”

In fact, there was no need for Lin Zhe to give an order, Fu Linyang, the company commander of the Second Artillery Company at the back, had already begun to command his six men to fire at the column of the Taiping Army that was slowly moving forward.

Fu Linyang, like the other officers in the Yongying camp in Yuyao County, was originally a child, but unlike most of the other officers and soldiers in the Yongying camp in Yuyao County, most of them were from Yuyao County, he was from Shangyu County next door.

Hearing that Yuyao was recruiting students from the camp school, he was born in a poor family and gritted his teeth and put down his books, and then went to Yuyao to apply for the school, and was one of the more than ten students in the first phase, and became the company commander of the first artillery company after graduation.

Later, the Second Artillery Company was formed, and he was transferred to the Second Artillery Company as a company commander, because the First Artillery Company had only three small-caliber guns, while the newly formed Second Artillery Company had six twelve-pounder guns, and it was clear at a glance which of the First Artillery Company and the Second Artillery Company was more important than the other.

In addition, his rank was not just a lieutenant like the commanders of infantry companies, but the rank of captain, the same rank as the deputy commander of an infantry regiment.

Although a few months ago he was just a traditional scholar who could only read four books and five classics, but after playing with artillery for many months, his ability to command artillery was probably not as good as those veteran artillery officers of the great powers, but he was the first person in the Yongying Battalion in Yuyao County.

At this time, he was directing the Second Artillery Company to attack the Taiping infantry phalanx in a tight column formation, and this attack had actually begun before Lin Zhe's order arrived.

In modern warfare, the power of the commander of an artillery company is very great, and basically as long as the superior of the artillery company gives an order, the commander of the artillery company has the power to decide on the target and the method of attack, and is usually not interfered with.

Because artillery is a veritable high-tech branch of the army in contemporary times, and the management is quite difficult, it is often difficult for officers of other branches of the army to meddle in the detailed management and operational affairs of the artillery company, even the supreme commander of this army, Lin Zhe.

He can only give Fu Linyang a strategic goal, that is, to attack the enemy's infantry phalanx, as for the detailed attack on the enemy's phalanx, what way to choose to strike, Fu Linyang will be fully decided.

As the 12-pounder guns of the 2nd Artillery Company fired again one after another, the live shells intermittently crossed the sky and then landed in the Taiping army formation opposite.

This time and the previous hit rate was very low, this time it was two more shells accurately landed in the two Taiping infantry phalanxes, the first shell fell in front of a Taiping army formation near the right, the shell that fell from mid-air was bounced up by the hard ground, and then visible to the naked eye, it seemed to be very slow, only a hand to catch the speed that can be stopped directly rushed directly to the Taiping army in front.

The first to come into contact with this cannonball were the soldiers at the front with heavy shields, they only felt a huge force coming from the shield in front of them, but before they could react, the shield in their hands was instantly torn apart, and then his eyes were dark, and he could no longer feel the pain or the harsh sunlight.

After the cannonball broke through the shield soldiers in front of it, its speed seemed to have not slowed down at all, and it still rolled forward with a seemingly slow but deadly speed, and in an instant, the flesh in the phalanx flew sideways, and the red blood rain was like a drizzle in the Qingming season, endlessly.

The shell pierced almost half of the column, broken hands and feet were everywhere, the soldiers who were missing arms and legs fell to the ground, let out a howl of pain, and one soldier who was only half of his body was not immediately dead, but crawled with his hands while making painful noises under the stimulation of adrenal hormones, and his internal organs mixed with blood continued to flow out.

After a few breaths, the man stopped crawling, and there was no ** sound, he died!

Another shell landed at the back of one of the Taiping formations, and although the damage was not as horrific as the first shell, it still took the lives of at least ten Taiping soldiers.

Later, Fu Linyang saw that there was finally an obvious result, and immediately clenched his fists excitedly: "Good fight, I will definitely ask the adults for the brothers when I turn around!" ”

A lieutenant artillery platoon commander not far away laughed loudly: "Brother Fu, I remember very well, those two guns just now were fired by our brothers!" ”

The shell accurately hit the enemy, Fu Linyang and a group of officers of the artillery company were excited, and Lin Zhe and other senior officers were naturally in a good mood when they watched the enemy's phalanx being bombarded by their own artillery unscrupulously, and Shi Qingxuan on the side said: "I'm afraid the thief army is going to retreat!" ”

Yes, it is impossible for anyone's army to be bombarded with such heavy artillery fire, and there is no corresponding artillery to fight back.

However, to the surprise of Lin Zhe and others, although the Taiping troops on the opposite side were shelled intermittently, their advance did not stop, from 1,500 meters, to 1,000 meters, to 800 meters, to 700 meters, they advanced step by step, and the artillery fire that seemed to constantly cause them casualties did not seem to exist.

Seeing that the enemy's infantry column phalanx had advanced to six hundred meters, Lin Zhe once again gave the order: "Let the 1st Artillery Company fire!" ”

As the five small-caliber guns of the 1st Artillery Company also opened fire, the casualties of the Taiping soldiers on the opposite side became more obvious, but they continued to advance.

At the same time, the artillery of the Taiping army on the opposite side that followed forward was also pushed out and set up, and then fired at the Yongying camp in Yuyao County, which was also five or six hundred meters away.

Although their infantry had fortifications such as breastworks as cover, they still suffered a small number of casualties.

Looking at the infantry of the Taiping Army, which had suffered huge casualties and still steadily advanced, as well as the enemy artillery that had ventured to deploy forward, Lin Zhe finally frowned!