As night falls, three red flares rise into the sky.
Twelve cruisers used high-explosive bombs to prepare for an hour's artillery fire on the Manila city wall. This was the first time in this time and space that infantry and artillery cooperated in a coordinated operation. It was also the first time that naval heavy artillery provided artillery support for a land attack.
The fifty-pound front-loading gun has a high-explosive warhead weighing forty kilograms and filled with chemical fertilizer explosives. Its power can reach 60% of TNT. It is already very terrifying in this era.
The cruisers lined up in a column and sailed past the side of the Royal City of Manila. The heavy guns in the gun warehouses opened fire one after another. Every ship, from bow to stern, violently sprayed flames from the gun windows across the ship's sides. In the dark night
, very eye-catching.
At a distance of one thousand meters, the projectiles landed near the city wall. Some of them directly hit the city wall. The Spanish musketeers guarding the city wall were blown away along with the crenellations of the city wall.
Yang Fan stood on the balcony, holding a telescope in his hand, observing the effects of the shelling.
The four of them, Xiao Niangpi, each had a telescope and followed the fun.
Lin Yueru and Xiao Niangpi were serious about learning the naval combat mode against land. Chen Xi was experiencing the relationship between artillery and ships from a technical perspective. Mei Xiang was purely watching it as fireworks.
"Master, master, look at the orange fireballs that rise after these shells explode. It's so beautiful. Even more beautiful than the fireworks during the New Year." Mei Xiang said carelessly.
"Well, it does look good. It's just too expensive." Yang Fan said with some pain.
When the cannon fires, gold is worth ten thousand taels. This one-hour preparation for the artillery fire costs fifteen thousand taels of silver.
Boom boom boom! Although most of the cannonballs fell on both sides of the city wall. Only about a hundred rounds hit the city wall. However, this was enough to cause huge damage to the city wall.
The Spaniards were completely stunned. They had never experienced such a horrific baptism of artillery fire.
The artillery of this era were mainly based on solid spherical bullets. Although siege guns included mortars. Large-caliber mortars were huge solid iron balls that fired mortar trajectories or exploding bullets filled with black powder.
None of these shells have such a violent explosion effect.
The explosive bombs of this era are actually the predecessors of grenades that we often call today. The reason why they are called grenades is because the projectile body looks like a pomegranate. The "granate" refers to "pomegranate", because grenades in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries
The shape and fragments are somewhat similar to pomegranates and pomegranate seeds, hence the name.
Although the shape of the grenade has changed in many ways later, such as having a long wooden handle and not containing pomegranate seed-like projectiles, the name has stuck.
Although the explosive power of the explosive shells in the first half of the seventeenth century was very impressive due to the large amount of powder in the mortar, it was far from the power of explosives like Yang Fan. The detonation rate of black powder was eight times worse than that of explosives.
The Spaniards are accustomed to placing heavy musketeers on the battlements during city defense battles. Because these muskets have a long range and are very powerful. They can easily destroy heavy armored cavalry at a distance of 100 meters. And for this round of artillery preparations, these muskets were placed in front of the city wall.
On the way, the musketeers preparing for the charge were destroyed along with the city wall.
In this era, Europeans were accustomed to piling up a large number of gunpowder barrels next to their artillery positions to facilitate the use of artillery. At this time, after high-explosive grenades hit the city wall, a large amount of ammunition was exploded, often exploding into huge fireballs.
The little girl admired the beauty of these fireworks. She didn't feel at all that each of these explosions caused a tragic scene of blood and flesh flying everywhere.
In the huge fireball rising, the long cannon and mortar were blown to pieces and even flew into the sky. The ladies who watched were exclaimed.
Ten heavy mortars were surrounded by powder barrels and cannonballs. Because these guns used a lot of propellant, manpower could not carry them at any time for use. Therefore, a large number of them were piled up around the gun positions.
Yang Fan knew very well that these heavy mortars were a greater threat than the 30-pound long guns.
These shells include both solid spherical shells and explosive shells. There are even grapeshot shells.
When using grape bullets, because the caliber reaches 800mm and the shell weight reaches about 700 kilograms, if grape bullets are used, it will have the effect of scattering flowers.
A grapeshot may contain 1,400 small lead balls weighing one pound. Coupled with a 600-meter range and ten heavy-duty mortars, the Spaniards could deliver 14,000 small lead balls at one time.
Carry out coverage strikes at a distance of 600 to 400 meters.
This is also the reason why Yang Fan wants to fight at night and prepare for a round of artillery fire first.
If these nasty mortars are not destroyed, these mortars, which fire much faster than long guns and keep throwing grapeshot, will definitely cause a lot of casualties to the attacking pirate group.
Because the offensive route must pass through an open area, it has been mapped out long ago.
As soon as the signal bomb took off, in the open land on the north and south sides of Manila City, two pirate groups carried temporary cut down trees and simple ladders nailed with steel nails, and rushed towards Manila City like a tsunami.
The one-hour artillery preparation just now destroyed seven mortars on the city walls and horses, and ten long cannons. A large number of heavy musketeers were killed. The city wall collapsed in more than a dozen places.
The sound of bugles resounded through the night sky, which was the signal for regiment and battalion-level attacks. The sound of whistles came and went, which was the signal for company- and platoon-level attacks.
Tonight is not a night with a full moon. It is pitch black everywhere. The soldiers attacking from below cannot be seen on the city wall. But there are fires everywhere on the city wall. The attacking party can clearly see the situation on the city wall.
After a brief period of confusion, the officers immediately drove the reserves back to the city wall.
Although they did not understand the barrage advance, they still knew that after the bombardment, the enemy's large forces were about to attack the city.
"Throw all the dead bodies down, carry the wounded down. Put up the heavy matchlock guns immediately. Hurry up." Captain Juan Carlos roared.
Half of his company was destroyed by artillery, and he was filled with rage. He had never fought such a useless battle.
"Hurry up and close the gaps. Move all the furniture to block these gaps." Major Simon shouted loudly.
There was a lot of noise on the city wall. Even though the shelling had stopped, there were still many people running around like headless flies, shouting and screaming. The shelling just now almost scared them crazy.
At this time, a group of soldiers in red clothes ran up the city wall. Each of them was carrying a Vulcan gun similar to a Japanese barrel gun. This thing was used by the Spaniards in this era on heavy matchlock guns and Spanish galleons.
In addition to the pinnacle of the Karak ship, there is another artifact that shocked Europe.
This is the grenade launcher. Yes, you read that right, as early as the 17th century, grenade launchers and rifle grenades appeared.
As the earliest grenade weapon, hand grenades first appeared in China and were introduced to Europe in the 15th century for prison and fortress defense. In the 17th century, antipersonnel grenades were mounted on the tail rod, inserted into the muzzle of the gun and fired with black powder. In the 18th century,
The British installed a launching tube on a flintlock musket to fire grenades.
The Spaniards used heavy arquebuses similar to large barrels, modified into special grenade launchers. These soldiers lined up in a sparse line, raised their muzzles at a 45-degree angle, and pointed at the open space ahead.
Rifle grenades were loaded into the muzzle of the gun and aimed at the attack route.
