Chapter 1082 In fact, the Ming army is also very powerful
Ryugyong is one of the two largest cities on the Koryo Peninsula, but it is actually equivalent to a medium-sized prefectural city in China. Before the war broke out, the permanent population here was about 10,000 to 20,000.
However, since King Hui led the remnant troops to settle here, the population has doubled to almost 40,000 people, and more than half of these 40,000 people are King Hui's remnant troops.
In addition, the young men in the city and nearby villages were all recruited by King Hui to build city defense facilities. If necessary, they were used as cannon fodder to consume the artillery shells and bullets of the Tang Army.
Using forcibly recruited young cannon fodder to consume the artillery shells and bullets of the puppet Tang rebel army was a valuable experience gained by the Ming army from many years of fighting against the Tang army.
For the Ming army generals who defended the city, these cannon fodder conscripts were worthless. They would also waste food when defending the city. They were used to consume the cannonballs and bullets of the puppet Tang rebels. This was definitely a measure that killed two birds with one stone.
Of course, this kind of measure can only play a certain role in specific situations. In key battles, the actual combat effect is often not very obvious!
Because the Army of the Tang Dynasty is an army that pays more attention to logistics and supplies than armies of other eras. Unless some secondary fronts cannot get enough supplies, otherwise, in some key battles, they will always
Hoarding a large amount of ammunition, and shooting out the ammunition as if it were free of charge. Even the enemy generals of the Ming Army couldn't help but feel heartbroken when they saw this method of fighting: Damn, that's all money!
However, even if the effect is not obvious, but it still has some effect, it is better than nothing!
Therefore, the Ming army, as always, recruited a large number of young and strong civilians to participate in the war. Before the war, they were used as labor force to build city defense facilities. After the battle broke out, they were put at the forefront to consume the ammunition and time of the puppet Tang rebel army.
It can save a lot of food, allowing the limited military rations to support the defenders for more time.
Although most of the time, they never survive the day when they run out of ammunition and food!
The generals under King Hui's command naturally continued to do the same thing after they came to the Goryeo Peninsula. Therefore, in addition to about 20,000 King Hui's remaining troops, there are also about 10,000 Goryeo youths in the city.
It can be said that the total strength of the army is 30,000, but it can be said that no one on either side of the battle has included these 10,000 young Koreans!
Kang Gaozhi used a telescope to observe the Ryukyong City ahead, and judged the strength of the city's defenses from some defense facilities outside the city and on top of the city. At the same time, other mid-level and senior officers and senior staff officers of the 15th Infantry Division,
They all held telescopes to observe, and recorded the key points they discovered while observing.
"There is no obvious artillery position in the city gate building in front. They should also know that the inner city building is a dangerous area, so they did not deploy artillery. However, there is an obvious artillery position about a hundred meters to the left of the city gate building. Visual inspection of three five-pound artillery pieces
.”
"The trench outside the city two hundred meters to the left of the city gate building has obvious undulations in the terrain. Defense facilities should be built. It is expected that there may be shotguns ambushed in it!"
"Directly in front of the city gate tower, about a hundred meters away from the city wall, there is a newly dug trench. It is not large in scale. It is estimated that there will be an ambush by a small group of dead soldiers!"
"There are a large number of sandbags on the battlements on the left and right sides of the city gate tower. This should be the enemy's central defensive focus. It is estimated that 500 musketeers can be deployed. At the same time, there are obvious shotgun emplacements on this section of the city wall.
, there are at least three shotguns!”
Many officers used telescopes to observe and record at the same time. After a while, everyone will integrate their observation records and then draw out the Ming army's city defense facilities on the city wall and outside the city wall. This compiled observation report,
It will become an important reference for subsequent troops to launch attacks.
Before launching an attack, the artillery unit will clear the above-mentioned defense facilities one by one, especially the enemy's artillery positions, which will become the focus of the artillery attack, striving to completely suppress the enemy's artillery power.
While the officers of the 15th Infantry Division were observing Liujing City, King Hui also boarded the city with a group of Ming army generals. At this time, King Hui also held a monocular telescope in his hand.
Observing the 15th Infantry Division outside the city.
On the telescope in his hand, you can also see obvious engraved writing: "Guangzhou Optical Manufacturing Factory, Xuanping 5th Year"
There is no doubt that this is a telescope produced by the Tang Empire, and it is also a standard army field telescope, because the Guangzhou Optical Manufacturing Factory is currently the only factory in China that can mass-produce telescopes.
Telescopes have become standard equipment for the army and navy. At the same time, because of the use of glass lenses, the price has become acceptable, instead of being the same as in previous years, telescopes can only be made with extremely expensive crystal lenses.
At the same time, this Guangzhou optical manufacturer, which belongs to the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and is one of dozens of key national defense enterprises, not only produces military telescopes, but also produces microscopes for scientific research and teaching, and high-magnification space telescopes.
Although the total production quantity of the latter two high-precision microscopes and telescopes is not large, they are expensive and cannot be purchased anywhere else except here. Therefore, even a powerful scientific research and education institution like the Royal Institute of Technology
, but also had to buy these optical equipment at high prices for research.
Of course, their current most profitable business is not these high-precision microscopes, space telescopes, or military telescopes with huge orders, but civilian telescopes.
In these days of navigation, there is a serious lack of observation methods. Those captains floating on the sea are naturally inseparable from telescopes. At first, the military was worried that telescope technology would be leaked and the enemy would use it.
But then I figured it out!
Why did you figure it out?
Because the principle of the telescope is too simple, the most difficult part is not the principle or the casing, but the manufacturing of the lens.
However, the manufacture of this kind of lenses is naturally more difficult if you want to mass-produce them industrially. However, the most sophisticated lenses these days are actually not produced by machines, but polished by hand.
And who can polish lenses? An eyeglass craftsman!
In other words, as long as you find a skilled eyeglass craftsman, he can polish high-precision optical lenses for you.
A few years ago, the Army of the Tang Dynasty discovered that a few generals of the Puppet Ming Army also used telescopes. Only the captains of the private sector directly went to private eyeglass craftsmen to polish their telescopes.
The technology of this telescope cannot be blocked at all, so later the empire simply approved the civilian use policy of the telescope, allowing domestic optical companies to produce and sell civilian telescopes. At the same time, the Import and Export Committee also approved the export license for the telescope.
As a result, a large number of captains quickly started using telescopes, but these civilian telescopes were generally limited to navigation telescopes. As for the miniaturized high-precision telescopes used by the army, civilian use was still not allowed.
The telescope in King Hui's hand was a standard field telescope used by middle and senior officers of the Tang Army. It had an observation power of four times, which was not high, but it was far clearer than an ordinary telescope. At the same time, it was of excellent quality, both in size and weight.
It's not big and can be carried anywhere.
It was naturally impossible for King Hui to obtain this telescope through any normal means, but the people under his command did not know what means they used to find this telescope and present it to him.
Through the telescope, King Hui could clearly see the 15th Infantry Division outside the city. He was considered to be a veteran of the battlefield. He only took a brief look at it, and did not even see it all. However, after passing a row of puppet Tang rebels outside the city
From the neatly arranged artillery, he could tell that the puppet Tang rebel army coming here should be a main infantry division, and it was his old rival, the 15th Infantry Division.
After fighting against the puppet Tang rebels for so many years, the Ming army was already familiar with some of the fixed formations of the Tang Army. They knew what an infantry division was and what a reserve division was.
But the more he knew about the organization and strength of the Tang Army, the darker King Hui's face became!
The 15th Infantry Division is not easy to deal with!
He knew very well that there were reportedly only a dozen or so main infantry divisions on the side of the Puppet Tang thief army, and the 15th Infantry Division was one of them. During the Liaodong Campaign last year, this infantry division fought with other Puppet Tang thief armies.
Together they launched the Battle of Shanhaiguan, then the Battle of Guangning, and then the Battle of Phoenix City.
These three major battles are the record of the battle between the Liaodong Allied Forces and the 15th Infantry Division. There is no doubt that the outcome was a disastrous defeat for the Liaodong Ming Army.
Otherwise, the 15th Infantry Division would not have appeared outside Ryugyong City today, and King Hye would not have had to flee to this miserable place on the Koryo Peninsula.
Today, they are here again!
And the person who came here is evil!
The 15th Infantry Division of the Puppet Tang Dynasty had more than fifty field guns alone, in addition to more than ten howitzers, and dozens of shotguns.
The artillery power alone is almost five times that of the defenders in the city!
However, when they entered the Korean Peninsula before, King Hui was proud of his artillery troops, because it was with these artillery that they almost effortlessly crushed the resistance of the local indigenous people.
In fact, the Ming Army in recent years is completely different from the Ming Army a few years ago. At least, except for the Tang Dynasty King Division, there is really no army that can compete with the Ming Army in terms of quantity and quality of artillery these days.
It is a pity that their enemy is the Tang Dynasty King Division, and the Datang King Division has more artillery and better quality.
The remnants of King Hui's troops in the city currently only have a dozen field guns in total. The only thing worth mentioning is that they also have howitzers, no more, no less, exactly two.
These two howitzers were also made by themselves. The technology of this short-barreled howitzer is actually very simple. Just make the barrel thicker. As for the grenades, they directly use matchlock fuses, which is even less technical.
The reason why the Ming army did not use it on a large scale before was not that they could not build it, but that they could not afford to use it.
Although this thing is powerful, it requires very high quality of the gunner. It is very important to grasp the timing of the fuze. If it is not done correctly, the barrel will explode, or the shell will just fly out, and then it has not yet flown to the enemy's head.