"Da da da, da da da."

Dense and repetitive sounds continued to sound, and with such sounds, several, or even dozens, of Spanish soldiers fell on the road of charge and never got up again.

It was September 1, 1625, ten days after Morris once again led nearly six divisions to attack the Jerusalem defense line again.

During these ten days, it was not that Morris did not work hard, but as Spanish soldiers who were only equipped with five-round magazine-type rifles and grenades, they also encountered the same problem as the Ming Dynasty soldiers who were under Manila: in order not to attack during the charge.

If the opponent's machine gun causes heavy casualties, the formation must be spread out. However, the density of troops has dropped, and the weakness of individual soldiers' lack of firepower has been completely exposed. The consequences of this are: if you rush forward, you cannot attack, and repeatedly

The charge is just a waste of soldiers' lives.

Of course, Spain has sea control and can continuously bring in heavy artillery and artillery shells to continue plowing the land inch by inch. But now there are more than 20,000 Spanish soldiers in Jerusalem who have cut off all supplies. How long can they last?

"Your Excellency, the casualties of our army were calculated yesterday."

"Read it."

"Yes, yesterday our 15th and 16th divisions attacked the enemy's defense line. A total of 1,236 soldiers were killed, 2,565 were injured, and 768 were missing."

"This means another infantry regiment is gone. What's the result?"

"We captured a small hill seven kilometers west of Jerusalem. Its relative altitude is 33 meters. Our artillery officer conducted field surveys and calculated that if a cannon is set up here, it can hit the rear of the opponent's trench.

Artillery position."

"Praise God, this is really the best news these days. Well, I won't say more. The military medical department is working hard to treat the wounded, and the logistics department is working hard to collect meat from the local area. In such a difficult battle, our soldiers must be

Eat well. Also, arrange for a guard, and I will go to the high ground to check it out in person tomorrow morning."

"yes!"

The adjutant turned around to carry out the order. Morris covered his head with his hands and fell into a long examination.

In fact, on August 12, when he led the 11th and 12th divisions to the outside of Jerusalem, and Richelieu had not yet completed the construction of the defensive line, he had a chance to win.

As an excellent commander who has been leading troops in combat since he was 17 years old, and in his military career of more than 40 years, he has spent almost 90% of his time fighting with fewer enemies and more enemies. Maurice is much better than Richelieu in terms of battlefield intuition and command on the spot.

.In the battle on the 12th, neither side had any formal fortifications, so they fought hard for a whole day. In the end, he led 30,000 people to beat Richelieu's 50,000 people back steadily.

When the advantage was greatest, it was already less than 500 meters away from the opponent's trench excavation site!

But at this moment, the heavy machine guns in the Spanish army went off almost simultaneously: the water-cooled heavy machine gun had no water in the cooling cylinder!

After all, he was an old-style officer who had not received formal training. When Morris was commanding the battle, he did not consider the problem that water-cooled machine guns like the Maxim heavy machine gun consumed a lot of water when fighting in summer desert areas. The battle on the 12th was extremely

It was fierce, and each machine gun fired a large number of projectiles, which naturally consumed a lot of water. As a result, at the end of the fight, the logistics support soldiers could not guarantee that every heavy machine gun could receive water in time!

As for the Ottoman side? Thanks to the fact that the time travelers here are specialized in materials, their heavy machine guns are air-cooled like the Hotchkiss heavy machine guns of later generations. The barrel is too hot and the metal sheet

If the heat dissipation fails to cool down, just replace the barrel with a new one.

Therefore, on the 12th, the battle reached a critical moment. Most of the Spanish machine guns misfired almost simultaneously, unable to provide fire support to the charging comrades. However, the opponent's machine guns could continue to fire... After fighting for a day,

The morale of the two Spanish divisions suddenly collapsed. If Morris had not commanded it properly, the entire army might have collapsed that day.

In short, in the battle on the 12th, the Spanish, who fell short, lost more than 3,000 people and injured even more. Morris had no choice but to retreat and rest in Gaza. After receiving support from the 12th to 15th divisions,

, and then organized the troops to advance again.

On the 18th, the 12th to 15th divisions arrived. On the 20th, according to Philip's order, Frederick transferred two more divisions from the Alexander front. So far, the Spanish had gathered eight divisions outside Jerusalem, with more than 110,000 soldiers.

people.

However, at this time, Richelieu had completed the excavation of the trenches outside Jerusalem. He was also continuing to improve the second circle of trenches.

Starting from the 22nd, Morris deployed all eight divisions and began to attack the opponent's defense line. However, the Spanish army, which lacked submachine guns and light machine guns that allowed individual soldiers to carry fast-moving high-power weapons, was still unable to completely break through the opponent's defense line.

.

After nearly ten days of brutal fighting, more than 20,000 Spanish soldiers had been killed before and after, and no less than 10,000 were seriously injured. As for those with minor injuries, there were more than 20,000. In addition, there was something more that made the commanders feel...

What worries me most is the missing people: nearly 7,000 missing people. Except for those who were directly beaten to pieces by heavy artillery during the charge, and those who died near the enemy's trenches before they could evacuate their bodies in time. The rest may have been captured or were killed in the enemy's position.

surrendered before.

In any case, there are more than 115,000 troops. After excluding artillery and logistics personnel, the real combatants are only 106,700. After ten days, the casualty rate has reached nearly 50%! That is

Because the battlefield is so large, except for senior commanders, middle and lower-level officers and ordinary soldiers cannot see the overall situation, otherwise this army would have rebelled long ago.

However, it is no longer possible to continue like this. Because the casualty rate is really too high. So that all the military camps and soldiers in each division began to realize something: this generation of Castilian people will indeed fight. But at least they are obeying

In terms of character, they are far inferior to the Japanese soldiers in the early 20th century - those idiots were still able to continue their long-awaited charge despite a death rate of over 90% under Port Arthur!

"Your Excellency, although it is the unshirkable responsibility of every believer in the Lord to recover the Holy City. Those who fall on the charge to recover the Holy City will surely go to heaven to be received by the Lord in the future. But I still can't help but say that those in Jerusalem

The commanders of the 19th and 20th divisions are really bastards. We were fighting so hard outside, why didn't they cooperate from the inside and rush out to attack us from both sides? In these ten days,

I didn’t see any noise inside the encirclement!”

"Yes, Your Excellency. We all see your hard work. In order to reduce the casualties of soldiers as much as possible, you have done everything you can. However, many times, the Lord's tests for our believers are so severe that

It’s so strict that we really can’t complete it!”

"Your Excellency, on the way to the meeting today, I was stopped by several soldiers for questioning. No, that attitude was not questioning at all, but forced questioning. They asked me if Commander, Your Excellency, was prepared to use their lives as a stepping stone.

So that I can get a higher title. malditasea! What did His Highness Rudolf instill in these soldiers during his lifetime!"

"..." After a long silence, looking at the officers below who expressed their war-weariness in various ways and languages, Morris sighed helplessly: "Send an order to the entire army to temporarily stop the attack for three days.

.The whole army has entered rest and recuperation, and we must pay close attention to the treatment of the wounded."

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Excellency!"

"Your Excellency, you really love your soldiers as much as your sons!"

"Advance and retreat freely, Your Excellency, you are indeed the most outstanding commander of this era!"

When Maurice reluctantly announced the suspension of the attack, a group of Ottoman officers sat around in a canyon six kilometers south of Jerusalem, and under the auspices of Richelieu, they conducted a summary of the war.

"Your Excellency, in the past ten days of fighting, as well as the fighting on the 12th, our army has lost 7,326 people killed in action, and there are still 1,586 seriously injured people at the military hospital.

There are 3,253 lightly wounded people. In addition, there are more than 4,000 prisoners of war in our prison camp."

"The casualties are still a bit high."

"Your Excellency." A bearded pasha stood up: "Our army's casualties are indeed not small, but we roughly estimate that the opponent's number of casualties is at least 20,000, and the wounded will only be more!"

"Yes, Your Excellency. I feel so happy when I see those Spaniards who foolishly rushed up to our Hotchkiss to die!"

"Yes, praise be to Allah."

"Praise be to Allah, praise the Grand Vizier, and praise the wise Secretary of Civil Affairs!"

Looking at the group of senior officers and pashas below who were not very convinced of him at first, but have become more and more convinced in recent days, Richelieu's mood also improved: "After such a hard battle, our soldiers

No complaints, right?"

"It's very good, Your Excellency. Except for the fact that the Spaniards always attack and make them unable to pray on time, which makes them feel very annoyed, everything else is very good."

"That's good." Richelieu stood up: "Everyone, the population of the empire is only one-fifth of the European Union, and we don't have vast colonies like the Americas and Africa. In terms of manpower, we cannot bear the same burden as the other side.

losses. If we cannot achieve a casualty ratio of more than five to one, our battle will be a failure. Therefore, in the next battle, everyone must continue to work hard to achieve a higher exchange ratio. Let the Spaniards in this millstone,
Chapter completed!