"Tommy, what are we training today? Is it a damn trench again? Phew! I was hoeing in the countryside, and when I was in the army, I was still digging the soil, and I dug more than when I was farming! A Sardinian soldier grumbled as he stomped his foot on the foot of a multi-purpose sapper shovel, and the steel sapper shovel immediately dug deep into the earth, and then he lifted it so hard that a large chunk of earth was thrown out of the trench.

"Rosie, stop complaining, keep going. Although it is fortunate, we must tell the truth, Lieutenant Colonel Neville is a good man, although he likes to toss people with those Americans, but when he gives us military pay, he gives us enough money. Unlike some of the chiefs, I've heard ......"

"Tommy, why do I see you chatting again? If you don't make it on time today, I'll whip you hard! A man who looked like a company commander roared loudly.

"What the hell!" Tommy shoveled up a shovel of dirt and threw it out. "Why does Captain Andy always only see me talking! Obviously you said it first! ”

"Haven't you heard of it? Our whip doesn't beat the broken, we don't beat the lazy, we only hit the ones who don't have eyes! Rosie looked around, saw Captain Andy turn his head that way, and quickly replied.

"Why didn't he come down and do it himself?" Tommy lowered his head and complained, "But to say, this American shovel is really a good thing, much better than our family, if only we could take it home when we retire in the future." ”

"If you can take it home, you don't have to buy shovels, kitchen knives, scissors, axes, saws, hoes, and frying pans. However, if you think about it, our military uniforms are still left behind after the retirement of our predecessors, and this thing will definitely stay in the army, and if you want to bring it back, it's just a dream! Rosie said as he lifted the sapper shovel in his hand and moved it vigorously in a certain part, and the sapper shovel bent over and turned into a hoe. Then Rosie lowered her head and hoeed with it.

"Brothers, dig deeper. We're going to have to finish this damn cobweb today! I tell you, tomorrow you're going to crouch down here and experience what shelling is like. ”

As in most countries, the artillery of the Kingdom of Sardinia usually trained very little with live ammunition, and could not fire two guns a year. But now, fools know that they are about to go to war with the Austrians, so the number of live-fire training of the artillerymen has increased considerably. The Kingdom of Sardinia even paid for the artillerymen to replace their cannons, and they bought some new 12-pounder guns from the French, and they were busy training in redressing.

The new 12-pounder gun was named after Napoleon III, who ruled France at the time, and was called the Napoleonic cannon. As a bronze smoothbore gun, its performance is also very good, so in the later Civil War, both sides used this kind of artillery in large quantities. However, with the advent of steel rifled guns, the glory of this kind of cannon was also short-lived, and soon declined. However, at this time, this cannon is definitely still among the advanced weapons.

The advisers of "Blackwater" felt that since the artillerymen had a rare opportunity to shoot live ammunition, it would be a waste to let them only use those 12-pound iron balls to hit targets. It would be better to simply put the target near the trench nets dug by the infantry, and by the way, let the army guys get acquainted with the feeling of shells flying over their heads.

……

There's a reason Captain Andy called this set of trenches "spider webs." If you climb the nearby hill and look down at the trenches, you will find that there are three trenches, each with a distance of more than 100 meters, and these three trenches are connected by several longitudinal communication trenches. The trenches looked like the warp threads on a spider's web, and the three jagged folded trenches looked like the wefts of a spider's web.

It's already the morning of the next day. Several targets of the artillery have been placed before the first trench, between the first and second trenches, and between the second and third trenches. The infantry also entered the trenches and were ready to experience the shelling.

"Tommy, you idiot! You haven't fired yet, why are you putting your head down so low and your ass pouting so high? Is it convenient for me to kick it? Captain Andy scolded viciously. Entering the trench and waiting for the artillery shells to fly over his head, he had also never experienced such a thing, so he was a little nervous.

"Captain, didn't you teach us to do a good job of concealment?" Tommy looked up and looked innocently at Captain Andy, and the soldiers around him burst into laughter.

"Tommy, the captain didn't tell you to pout your ass that high!"

"That's it, Tommy, your ass is out of the trenches!"

"Actually, there is nothing to be afraid of firing the cannonball, and it is too late to hide it after seeing the shells." Dale, the "Blackwater" adviser assigned to the company, said, "I saw it when I was fighting the Mexicans. ”

"What do the shells look like when they're flying?" Someone asked.

"It's like a big baseball flying over, and at first glance, it looks so slow that it seems to be able to catch it with your hands. (The shells at that time were all subsonic, the speed was very low, and it was indeed visible to the naked eye) Of course, it would be foolish if you really accepted it. I've seen with my own eyes a 12-pound shell pierce a Mexican marching column from head to end. The unlucky ones who were hit were smashed to pieces. Dale replied that when he said "torn apart", he made an exaggerated gesture of exploding.

"Okay, the red flag is waving again, they're ready to fire. Just waiting for us to wave the red flag. Captain Andy said, "Bunnies, are you ready, are you ready, I'm going to wave my flag and let the cannon be fired." ”

"Report to the Captain, are you all right?" Tommy replied.

"Why are you again! What else is going on with you? ”

"Report to the Captain, I want to pee." Tommy said.

"Hold on!" The captain said viciously, waving the flag in his hand vigorously.

The soldiers were still laughing at Tommy, but when they saw that the captain was waving the flag, they hurriedly squatted down one by one, afraid that they would be rubbed by the shells.

Captain Andy wanted to crouch down as well, but seeing that the Yankee named Dale was still in good shape, still showing his head outside the trench and holding a telescope to look at the artillery, he felt as if he was too embarrassed to crouch down. So Captain Andy had no choice but to hold his head out, and like the Yankee, he raised his binoculars and looked at the artilleryman, and at the same time scolded in his heart: "Damn Yankee! ”

Through the binoculars, Captain Andy saw that a gunner was sticking something into the gun, and then a puff of white smoke came out of the muzzle.

"It's fired!" Andy instinctively wanted to crouch down, but looking at Dale, he was still standing straight.

"Damn Yankees!" Andy struggled to curb his desire to crouch, he had never hated the Yankee so much as he did now.

Although I saw the white smoke coming out of the muzzle, the sound of the cannon did not come immediately. The artillery positions were about 1,500 meters away from them, and it took more than four seconds for the sound to come back. So most of the soldiers who put their heads in the trenches did not know that the artillery had already fired.

"Coward! They're all cowards who are afraid of death! Andy scolded, using this to ease his nerves. It wasn't until he finished scolding that the sound of cannon fire penetrated his ears. The sound of the cannon was low and dull, like the thunder of a thunderstorm from the distant clouds.

At this time, he also saw the kind of cannonball that Dale had depicted resembling a large baseball, flying far away, flying very slowly, and it did seem that it only needed a good pair of gloves to catch it.

"How powerful can this thing be?" Andy thought so.

The cannonball flew to the highest point and began to fall, in Andy's eyes it began to get faster and faster, and then fell heavily on the ground more than ten meters away from the target, and immediately smashed a cloud of dust on the ground, and then the cannonball jumped forward like a drift, easily chiseled a hole in the first target made of thick wood, and then pierced through the four or five targets behind, and then fell down again, and fell heavily on the mound in front of the first trench, which immediately stirred up a large amount of dust. At the same time, the shell jumped upwards, crossed the first trench, fell again twenty meters behind the trench, then rolled for more than twenty meters, then fell into a pit and stopped.

Andy has personally inspected these targets. The thick planks on each target were as thick as a palm, and the shell could pierce them like a few layers of paper at such a distance. If these shells fall in the queue, it will be a ......

The first shot hit the target accurately, which obviously excited the gunners on the opposite side. This can be seen from the fact that the cannon is firing faster and faster behind them. It's just that those shells that come out behind these gunners are not as accurate as the first shot. In the second group of targets, they fired five shots before they hit, and one of the shells hit directly at a little more than a meter away from Andy's trench, and when the shell fell with a strange scream, even the Yankee, who had been pretending to be cool, moved, and he jumped to the side of the corner of the trench with a single leap. Then the shell hit the ground a little in front of where he had just stood, stirred up a large pile of dust, jumped up again, crossed the trench, and fell behind. After a while, the stones and clods of earth fell, and Andy, who had just crouched down, was all over his hat and uniform.

After nearly 20 shots, the opposite side waved the flag to indicate that the battle was over. Andy began to check the losses of his troops.

"Report to the company commander, there are no casualties in our platoon." The platoon commander of the first platoon reported. Andy nodded in satisfaction.

"Report to the company commander, there are no casualties in our platoon." The platoon commander of the second platoon reported that Andy nodded again with satisfaction.

"Report to the company commander, one of our platoon was injured." The platoon commander of the third platoon reported.

"What's hurt? Is it strict? Andy was taken aback, because he remembered that not a single shell had fallen into the trench.

"It's Tommy, a rock from the cannonball landed on his hand, and there was some blood, but nothing was a big deal." The platoon commander replied.

"I knew it was this idiot!" Andy scolded.