Chapter 712 Cannibals can actually design a new artillery
Chapter 712: The Great Cannibal Can Actually Design a New Artillery
"Commander! The cannibal's tactics this time are not much different from before."
"But the battlefield decision-making ability is much better, and the equipment is also much better?"
"Our hand crossbows, Persian bows and arrows, and armor are no longer of much use against the cannibals,"
"Without the speed of the mounts, the horizontal swords in the hands of the soldiers would be difficult to deal with the heavy armor of the cannibal."
"Moreover, the Great Eaters also gave up their scimitars and switched to heavier weapons. This is very bad news for our soldiers."
The person who came back from the river bank to deliver the battle report was Xue Rengui. He reported some specific situations to Su Chen in detail.
Su Chen sighed and said: "The cannibals are not stupid. Their scimitars can't break through our defenses, so what's the use of them? All the bulky weapons can cause blunt injuries to us."
"Ma Shan, can the effectiveness of the spear against the heavy armor of the cannibal be discounted?"
Xue Rengui returned: "This is not obvious yet!"
Su Chen nodded. The cannibal's iron smelting technology has made rapid progress, but it is not considered perverted yet.
Su Chen was not in a hurry to go ashore. On the other side of the river, they were still transporting various supplies and livestock across the river. After the cannibals withdrew into Basra City, they did not come out again.
Both sides were summarizing the gains and losses in the morning's battle and assessing each other's combat capabilities. They were relatively calm for a while.
The next day, Su Chen ordered Cheng Wuting and Yuchi Baolin to set up camp again southwest of where they crossed the river yesterday.
The place by the river was too close to Basra, and the cannibals rushed out of the city without even having time to react.
After the camp was properly set up, Su Chen and Li Chengqian left the fleet and came to the land camp.
As soon as he entered the camp, Cheng Wuting reported bad news to Su Chen:
"The Great Cannibal set up cannons on the city wall?"
Cheng Wuting nodded: "The hot air balloon just returned from reconnaissance over Basra and reported that there are quite a few cannons on the walls of Basra, estimated to be hundreds."
Su Chen glared: "Hundreds of doors?"
"No wonder I didn't see the big cannon used by the cannon yesterday,"
"I thought that after Bushehr's experiment, the cannibal had a trance and abandoned the cannon!"
"It turns out they moved all the cannons to the city wall!"
When everyone heard the news, their faces suddenly turned bad.
"Commander, if this happens, we may not be able to capture Basra immediately,"
"The cannons were firing down on the city wall, and the infantry would suffer too many casualties if they approached the city wall."
Su Chen nodded: "If you can't win it quickly, then use it slowly!"
"The range of the Cannibal's cannon is not much different from ours. Let's push out all the field cannons and fire them at you and them. Even if they have the height of the city wall, they are no match for us."
Liu Rengui frowned and said, "Commander, we don't have much stock of artillery shells."
Su Chen said indifferently: "Now this primitive cannonball is just a solid iron ball, and there are no strict quality requirements. When it is used up, we will cast a new batch."
"Let's ask the Persians for a batch of pig iron, or directly entrust them to cast a batch. They should be able to help."
"As long as there is still enough gunpowder."
Liu Rengui nodded: "That's all we have to do."
"We brought plenty of gunpowder, it's enough for now."
The problem of artillery shells was easily solved, and everyone said nothing more and agreed to start shelling Basra tomorrow.
On the morning of the next day, Cheng Wuting first sent 2,000 men and 50 field guns to conduct a trial bombardment on the south gate of Basra.
As a result, the cannibal's counterattack shocked everyone!
"Hey, last time in Bushehr, wasn't their artillery range only eight or nine hundred meters?"
"Why did it suddenly grow so much this time?"
"This is at least 1,200 meters!"
Su Chen held up the binoculars and cursed when he saw the range of the cannon.
Liu Jingren said: "Last time we also carefully tested the captured Dashi artillery, and it was impossible to exceed 900 meters."
"Commander, could it be because of the height of the city wall..."
Su Chen glared at him: "You are so bad at mathematics, why do you come to join the navy?"
"Then a city wall less than two feet high can increase the range by a quarter?"
Liu Jingren said helplessly: "Is it possible that what we met last time was a defective product?
Just like the artillery forged by our Datang general."
Su Chen shook his head: "It's unlikely. If it's a defective product, Big Eater will destroy it directly. Do you think it's easy to transport such a bulky thing to Bushehr?"
Liu Rengui: "Whatever the reason is, fortunately it can't compare with the range of our artillery."
Xu Rengui said to Su Chen: "Commander, you want to fight against the Big Eater, and then rely on the range advantage to fire the Big Eater's artillery one by one, right?"
"At this distance, the cannonballs can fly thousands of meters away, and there is no accuracy at all. If we want to destroy the artillery on the city wall, I don't think it is reliable to send a hot air balloon."
Yuchi Baolin's eyes widened: "Ten bombs dropped from a hot air balloon may not even land on the city wall, let alone the chance of landing on the artillery."
Xue Rengui spread his hands: "I estimate that with these fifty field guns, five shells can fall on the city wall in one salvo. Who knows how long it will take to destroy a single cannon in the Great Eater?"
The test results were exactly as Xue Rengui said. After five salvoes of fifty field guns, not a single enemy artillery was destroyed.
It is simply unrealistic to rely on artillery with solid bullets at a distance of 1,300 meters to destroy the city wall!
It's impossible for a giant eater to just watch you keep bombarding them.
"Forget it, let's go back and think of another way!"
Su Chen ordered the troops to withdraw and return to camp.
If you don't leave, the big cannibal will rush over.
The hot air balloon in the sky has issued a warning, and the Great Eater has gathered troops at the other three city gates.
In fact, Su Chen still has many ways to deal with Basra.
The simplest one is to send hot air balloons to pour kerosene into the city one after another.
Just burn down Basra and that's it!
This method is just a bit of a loss.
But Basra is a military city, and there are basically no civilians in it.
Su Chen did this after preparing the next batch of Greek fire shipments.
After returning to the camp, Su Chen also figured out why the cannon's range suddenly became so far.
“There’s a talent among the big eaters!”
"He was able to redesign the caliber of the artillery, and he succeeded in designing it!"
Su Chen looked at a cannonball that was obviously smaller than the last one.
Even for this primitive artillery, the caliber cannot be changed casually.
Once the caliber is changed, the entire gun body must be modified accordingly.
That requires rich knowledge of mathematics and physics, and a lot of experiments.
It is not easy to design a successful artillery piece.
The problem is that the cannibals have only been exposed to things like artillery and gunpowder for only a few months.
Someone actually successfully redesigned a new artillery piece.
