This short-barreled heavy howitzer, first used by the Tang Dynasty, was actually quite a waste of propellant. In order to ensure sufficient range, a large amount of propellant was needed, not to mention the charge in the shell.
One shot with this kind of artillery is enough for field artillery to fire more than a dozen shots. Cost-effectiveness has always been a huge issue. Only armies like the Tang Dynasty Army, which spends more than 20 million yuan a year on military expenditures, can use it without any scruples.
The Ming army has always lacked enough ammunition. This can't be helped, because China lacks sulfur and saltpeter. It's okay to get some of them, but there is no way to help sulfur. If it is used in large quantities, it basically needs to be imported.
This is why in recent years, sulfur has become an important export commodity of Fuso. Many famous people engaged in maritime trade in Fuso have found that knives, fans, etc. in the past can no longer be sold, but sulfur has become very popular.
I made a lot of money.
But Fuso's current maritime trade channels are basically monopolized by the Tang Dynasty!
The Tang Navy basically blocked the Chinese coast, and the Ming Dynasty originally rejected maritime trade, so the source of sulfur has always been very scarce.
Later, King Hui's troops secretly used the Tsushima Strait to conduct sulfur trade through Korea and Fuso, and then they obtained enough sulfur.
Otherwise, he still can't afford howitzers, which consume large quantities of gunpowder.
However, although they also have more than a dozen artillery pieces, including two howitzers, in terms of the artillery strength of both sides, the artillery of the 15th Infantry Division is still more than five times the number of artillery pieces of King Hui's remaining troops.
This gap in artillery strength was big enough to make King Hui despair!
After fighting for so many years, even the most stubborn Ming army generals now know that fighting these days cannot rely on swords and bows, but on cannons and muskets, especially artillery.
However, making cannons cannot be done in a hurry. The technical requirements are quite high. Without industrialized production, we can only rely on handcrafting, and not many cannons can be built.
In the past, when the Ming Dynasty still occupied a large area of the country, it was able to use a large number of manpower to build artillery regardless of the cost. This also made the Ming army in the early years, such as Zhang Yue's army and the 100,000-strong army led by Emperor Zhengde himself, possess
There are quite a few artillery pieces.
But now, there is not much population in Liaodong, and there are not many craftsmen who make cannons. Even if King Hui asks these craftsmen to build them day and night, they can't make many cannons!
How to fight if there are not enough artillery?
This is a very cruel question!
While both sides were observing each other, the first day passed peacefully. However, the next morning, the Ming army on top of the city discovered that the puppet Tang rebels outside the city began to move.
Moving forward, a large number of artillerymen pushed the artillery forward.
Ming army officers and soldiers with some experience all knew that the puppet Tang rebel army was about to start attacking the city!
Because when the puppet Tang rebels attacked a city, artillery almost always fired first, using the advantage of artillery to completely suppress artillery counterattacks in the city and other defensive forces on top of the city.
After the suppression is complete, their infantry will charge forward!
In fact, their guess was correct, Kang Gaozhi was indeed planning to start shelling!
Now that he has arrived at Liujing, he does not expect to besiege the city for several months and wait for the enemies in the city to starve to death. This is not in line with the empire's strategy. The bosses above did not give him a few months to slowly siege the city.
, but let him quickly open up the situation!
Why? Military spending is limited!
The army eats, drinks and chews money every day when they are out there!
At the same time, siege operations are not in line with the combat style of the Tang Army today.
Now when the Tang Dynasty army fights, it always attacks and attacks again. Even if it is a defensive battle, in the final stage, it will rush forward and fire a volley, and then charge with a bayonet!
The Army of the Tang Dynasty never relied on siege to attack a city. In fact, they were not good at this. They were better at blowing up the city walls with explosions, using artillery to suppress the defensive forces on the city, covering the infantry to launch a charge, and waiting for the infantry to rush to the city.
At that time, the city can basically be declared broken.
This battle mode is almost unfavorable to them who have absolute artillery superiority.
Today, it was no different. When dozens of artillery pieces started shelling one after another, the Ming artillerymen on the top of the city tried to fire back at first, but they soon misfired.
Because they soon discovered that fighting back while staring at the enemy's absolute artillery superiority was simply seeking death, so they rationally withdrew from the scheduled artillery position.
Soon, except for a few observers who stayed behind on the city, a large number of Ming soldiers withdrew from the city!
Many battles in the past told them that if they stayed on top of the city at this time, the probability of death or injury was very high, and besides being passively beaten, there was no way to fight back.
At this time, the best way is to hide!
After waiting for the enemy's infantry to start charging, it is not too late to go up to the top of the city to defend.
Sure enough, an hour later, the Ming army observing soldiers at the top of the city discovered that the intensity of the enemy's artillery bombardment had significantly weakened, and that there were still about 3,000 soldiers from the puppet Tang rebel army approaching, apparently wanting to attack the city.
As a result, behind the city wall, a large number of Ming soldiers were urged by the officers to run up the city again, waiting for the possible infantry charge.
But at this time, the infantry of the Pseudo-Tang rebel army outside the city stopped. Immediately afterwards, there was a dense rumble of artillery fire outside the city, dozens of solid artillery shells, and more than a dozen huge cannonballs.
The howitzer flew towards the city at the same time!
Especially the dozen or so howitzers, more than half of which landed on the top of the city or exploded in the sky above the city!
Such a violent explosion immediately caused heavy casualties to the Ming troops who had just arrived at the city and were preparing to meet the enemy!
Seeing this scene, King Hui, who personally supervised the battle, couldn't help but curse in a low voice: "Damn it!"
But other than swearing to die, he did not give any order for the soldiers to withdraw again, because although the three thousand soldiers of the puppet Tang rebel army outside the city stopped, they were still about two hundred meters away.
You can charge at any time.
"Pull up the artillery and hit their infantry!" At this time, some Ming army generals also reacted!
Their artillery is weak, so it would be nonsense to fight against the artillery of the puppet Tang rebel army. However, if it is used to attack the infantry of the puppet Tang rebel army, the effect will naturally be excellent.
But the soldiers of the Tang Army outside the city were obviously not stupid. As soon as they saw the black holes emerging from the city, a colonel immediately waved his saber and shouted: "Everyone turn back and run in unison, we retreat."
!”
"Disperse the formation, quickly!"
Only a fool would stand two hundred meters away and let the enemy take aim.
So, when the Ming army's artillery was finally pulled up, loaded and ready to fire, the three thousand Tang army soldiers had already ran more than 400 meters away, and their formation was extremely loose.
At this distance, there is basically no need to worry too much about being accurately hit by the enemy's artillery. Even if there are artillery shells flying over, but with their current loose formation that specializes in preventing artillery attacks, one artillery shell can only kill two people if it hits them.
It’s just three people, don’t expect more.
What's more, they naturally have something to rely on when they take the risk.
That's their artillery brothers!
When the Ming army pulled out the artillery, the artillery troops had already carried out a new round of loading, and then each aimed at the predetermined target, the enemy's artillery position!
They had planned in advance, and naturally prepared more quickly than the Ming army's artillery that hurriedly attacked. Therefore, when the Ming army was well prepared, the artillery shells actually fell on their positions one after another!
One of the howitzers made a great contribution today!
This 48-pound howitzer almost produced the best theoretical explosion effect. It exploded just above the head of an artillery position of the Ming Army. After the shell exploded, the shrapnel thrown out almost covered the entire artillery position.
!
As a result, the three artillery pieces of this artillery position had just been pulled out, and before they had time to fire a single shot, more than half of their dozens of gunners fell in a pool of blood!
Such a tragic situation almost petrified the surviving gunners, and then they all ran to the rear. They wanted to escape from this hell on earth and hide under the city wall!
No one stopped their retreat, because the Ming commander of this artillery position also died under the shelling!
This is just a small microcosm of the artillery battle. After repeated artillery battles, less than half of the more than ten artillery pieces of the Ming army could still be used!
This is not to say that the artillery fire of the Tang Army directly destroyed their artillery. Those artillery were big and thick. It was really difficult to destroy them directly. At most, the gun mount was damaged.
The main reason was that the gunners' casualties were too heavy.
This is also the tragedy of the Ming Army's artillery units. From a few years ago to now, they are almost exactly the same. At the beginning of every battle, the Ming Army's artillerymen are the most unlucky arms, because the Tang Army in order to suppress the Ming Army
The main target of the early artillery bombardment was the Ming Army's artillery units, and the main target was to kill and injure their gunners.
The Ming Army did not have many skilled gunners to begin with, and with such a high casualty rate, not many people were willing to serve as such artillerymen. Therefore, the Ming Army sometimes had artillery, but could not find enough skilled gunners to wait until the battle.
In the middle and later stages of the war, ordinary soldiers were often directly used as gunners.
At that time, there was basically no need to count on any hit rate, and even explosions were common!
It's the same now. The gap in strength caused all the confidence of King Hui's remnants to resist before the war to instantly collapse!
When repeated shelling for two days left almost the entire city of Liujing with craters, and with an earth-shattering explosion, a gap of more than ten meters was blown out of the city wall of Liujing, the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty launched the
The final attack!
The moment the soldiers of the assault battalion rushed to the top of the city despite their casualties, it was announced that the entire Ryugyong City defense line had been torn apart!