The shells rolled and spun, mercilessly hitting the Liberation Army's array. In the Liberation Army's array, they plowed out blank spaces, and blood and broken limbs were everywhere.
There was a fierce artillery battle between the two sides, the artillery of the Liberation Army was firing, and the Spanish artillery was also roaring!
The battlefield was filled with smoke and shells were flying.
Judging from the scene, the artillery of the Liberation Army had the upper hand in the artillery battle.
The number of artillery pieces on both sides is about the same.
The Liberation Army has more than thirty Napoleon six-pound cannons, which were named Guangfu-1 field guns by Zhu Hongyu.
The Spanish side has about forty field artillery pieces!
However, although the number of artillery pieces is not much different, the difference in performance is huge.
The rate of fire of the Guangfu-1 field gun reaches one round per minute, and the effective range of solid bullets reaches about 500 meters.
However, the rate of fire of Spanish artillery was nearly twice as slow as that of the Liberation Army's imitation Napoleonic cannon, and even its range was only two-thirds of that of the Liberation Army's field artillery.
In this artillery battle, the only advantage the Spaniards had was the quality of the gunners!
The Spanish gunners were experienced. After all, Europe had just finished the Thirty Years' War, and there were many veterans in their army.
But the gunners of the Liberation Army were all fed by Zhu Hongyu with gunpowder and cannonballs!
The artillerymen of the Liberation Army underwent very intense daily training, and were even trained with live ammunition.
Therefore, although the artillerymen of the Liberation Army did not have much war experience.
But the overall quality gap between the two sides' gunners is not that big.
Besides, the quality of the gunner cannot change the gap in artillery performance!
Therefore, the scene on the battlefield now is that the artillery of the Liberation Army is unilaterally attacking Spain!
Although the Spanish artillery was also firing back, it was obviously not as powerful as the Liberation Army's artillery!
"fire!"
"fire!"
"fire!"
"..."
The gunners of the Liberation Army did not stop for a moment, quickly loaded the artillery, and then fired it.
Amidst the rumble of cannons, shells flew across everything.
Zhu Hongyu commanded the battle calmly, directed the artillery of the Liberation Army to adjust and shoot at Zhu Yuan, and then waved his hand and gave the order.
"Send the order to the sharpshooters and let them shoot freely to kill the Spanish officers!"
The Liberation Army now only has ten rifled guns, and these ten rifled guns are equipped to the ten Liberation Army soldiers with the best marksmanship.
These ten soldiers of the Liberation Army held loaded rifles, took a deep breath, and then aimed in the direction of the Spanish array.
They are the sharpshooters of the Liberation Army, the best of the best. They come to the battlefield to bring fear to the enemy.
At this time, amid the rumbling shelling, the infantry arrays on both sides were less than 200 steps apart.
In the inverted Spanish formation, the two phalanxes of natives and mercenaries in front could no longer hold back and were ready to attack at any time.
Just then.
Bang! Bang!
After a burst of gunfire, seven or eight people in the Spanish formation fell to the ground, one of whom was a low-level officer who was directing the battle.
Instantly, there was a commotion in the Spanish formation.
"Damn it, the distance is still 200 meters, why did they open fire?"
"How did you hit this distance?"
"..."
In the midst of the discussion, the Spanish musketeers could not withstand the pressure caused by the sound of cannons and gunfire on the battlefield, and wanted to fire back.
But after all, the Spanish soldiers were not a mob, and they forcibly suppressed their restlessness.
The marksmen of the Liberation Army completed their reloading and started the next round of shooting!
Bang! Bang!
After a burst of fierce gunfire, seven or eight more people in the Spanish formation fell to the ground.
Among them were two officers!
The fierce battle between the two sides continues!
As the flag was rolled up, the native servants and mercenaries of the Spanish army rushed up like a tide!
Countless people roared and charged, waving steel knives, divided into two formations on the left and right, and launched an attack on the flank of the Liberation Army.
Zhu Hongyu ordered.
"Change to defensive formation, musketeers are ready to shoot, sword and shield soldiers are ready to engage the enemy, and grenadiers are ready!"
The Liberation Army, which was advancing in formation, quickly gathered its formation.
From the offensive infantry array, it was transformed into a defensive circular array in an orderly manner.
At this time, the effectiveness of the Liberation Army's daily training of marching in formation became apparent. The soldiers had long been accustomed to it and acted in accordance with military orders.
After the military order was issued, even on the battlefield, they completed the formation change without any confusion!
Except for the head-on confrontation with the Spanish musketeers, the Liberation Army still maintained their formation and prepared to shoot at the Spanish musketeers.
The Liberation Army on the flanks has quickly transformed into a circular formation to cope with the charge of the indigenous servants and mercenaries!
As the Spanish attacked across the board, the situation on the battlefield changed rapidly!
The deputy general next to Ma Xin asked.
"Admiral, are we going to take action?"
Ma Xin shook his head and said.
"There is no need to be anxious. Although the Liberation Army switched from offensive to defensive, their formation changes were not chaotic at all and they showed no signs of fatigue. Besides, there is no fighting yet."
"When the Liberation Army and the red-haired ghosts fight, it won't be too late for us to take action!"
Although Ma Xin and Zhu Hongyu have a fairly good relationship, he still protects the idea of preserving his strength.
This is an old tradition of these armies in the late Ming Dynasty!
When moving in front of the formation, it is as fast as the wind, when reinforcements are made to friendly forces, it is as slow as a forest, when teammates are in trouble, they are as motionless as a mountain, and when they compete for credit, they are like thunder.
The deputy general nodded silently and agreed with Ma Xin's words.
…
On the battlefield, the battle begins!
Before the native servants and mercenaries rushed to the front of the Liberation Army, there was still more than a hundred meters between the musketeers on both sides.
Under the fierce shelling of the Liberation Army and the precise roll call of rifled guns, the Spanish musketeers were already unable to restrain themselves and started to fire!
Finally, when the two sides' arrays were still nearly 140 meters apart, the Spanish commander shouted.
"shooting!"
Three rows of Spanish musketeers fired volleys, and three thousand guns fired in unison.
In an instant, the entire battlefield was filled with the sound of neat musketry.
The sound of three thousand muskets firing together even suppressed the sound of the shelling.
In just an instant, gunpowder smoke filled the entire battlefield!
The lead bullets, mixed with fire and gunpowder smoke, ejected from the muzzle and headed towards the formation of the Liberation Army.
In an instant, even though all the Liberation Army soldiers were wearing breastplates, a large number of them fell to the ground!
Instantly, screams and wails sounded!
At this moment, there were at least hundreds of casualties.
Many of them were shot in the head by lead bullets, and their heads exploded on the spot, with blood and brains spraying everywhere.
There was no possibility of treatment for these unlucky Liberation Army soldiers, and they died on the spot!
There were soldiers of the Liberation Army who were hit by lead bullets in their limbs. First they felt a heavy blow to their limbs, and then they felt heart-piercing pain.
However, due to the protection of the breastplate, many Liberation Army soldiers were hit in the chest by lead bullets, but it was not a big deal.
Although the terrifying kinetic energy caused by the lead bullets made the soldiers of the Liberation Army look painful, the distance was too far and the plate armor was very thick, so the lead bullets could not break through the armor.
Either after hitting the plate armor, it was bounced off the front of the arc-shaped plate armor, or the projectile deformed and was embedded in the plate armor.
A volley from the Spanish caused chaos in the formation of the Liberation Army.
Many recruits could not stand the pressure and wanted to shoot back.
At the critical moment, Zhu Hongyu stood up again and said.