Chapter 1442 The Portuguese who copied the Tang Dynasty
It can be said that the process and even the result of the Malacca Battle were always under the control of the high-ranking military generals of the Tang Dynasty.
From declaring war to organizing a landing force, then launching an attack on Malacca's coastal defense forts and the Portuguese fleet, and then landing and conducting an artillery battle on the city of Malacca.
These changes have always been firmly controlled by Ding Chenzhen and other senior sea and land generals in this battle.
Of course, this does not mean that there are no accidents. At least after landing in Malacca, we were hit by heavy rains. This was expected. You must know that before departure, the meteorological experts swore that there would be no such thing in this season.
It rained heavily. As a result, the unpredictable Nanyang climate slapped them in the face, causing the troops to advance extremely slowly after landing, and the overall combat time was forced to be postponed for several days.
When it came to the artillery battle, the process went relatively smoothly, but it cannot be said to be smooth sailing, because although they conducted an extremely violent bombardment of Malacca City, and on the surface they completely suppressed the Portuguese artillery fire, in fact, they failed
Completely destroy the Portuguese artillery force.
Although the Portuguese artillery suffered heavy casualties, some artillerymen still survived and controlled the artillery to launch a fierce counterattack in today's general offensive.
After the 57th Infantry Regiment launched the attack, they encountered a fierce counterattack by the Portuguese. They used artillery, especially shotguns and even matchlocks represented by numerous Franco machines, to defeat the attacking troops of the 57th Infantry Regiment.
After approaching a distance of about 100 meters, they opened fire violently.
And caused considerable losses to the 57th Infantry Regiment!
The Second Grenadier Corps, which was originally used as a vanguard force to conquer the protruding fort, consisted of nearly 240 people. They lost nearly a hundred people in the first wave of attacks, but they failed to enter the fort.
The captain of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment, Shi Enli, led his troops to fight fiercely for nearly twenty minutes. After nearly twenty minutes, his troops were completely suppressed and finally had to suspend the offensive.
Lieutenant Colonel Dong Qiankun, the temporary commander of the 57th Infantry Regiment, saw that the assault troops were suppressed. On the one hand, he ordered them to slow down the offensive and gather the troops. At the same time, he ordered the First Grenadier Group and the Third Grenadier Group.
The remaining troops reinforced the 2nd Grenadier Corps.
After receiving reinforcements, the grenadiers crossed the Portuguese fire blockade through a desperate charge, and destroyed the Portuguese resistance in the fort by throwing grenades into the fort.
After suppressing the firepower of the fort, the remaining more than 300 grenadiers began to climb the long ladder and finally entered the interior of the fort!
After conquering this protruding fort, Captain Shi Enli discovered that there were only more than a hundred enemies defending this protruding fort, and most of them were Portuguese militia, and at least a few were their local professional soldiers.
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This made Captain Shi Enli extremely angry!
Just like this, the Portuguese who were ordinary sailors or simply ordinary people more than a hundred and a half months ago, under the leadership of more than 20 Portuguese local soldiers, actually blocked his troops for nearly half an hour, and more importantly
Unfortunately, it also caused hundreds of casualties to his troops.
The dead and wounded soldiers were all the most elite grenadiers!
Most of the grenadiers who were killed or injured did not die in close combat with the enemy, but died of suffocation on the way to the charge, being hit by enemy shells and bullets.
However, these damn Portuguese were hiding safely in this fort from beginning to end, shooting at their soldiers through small muzzles and muzzles.
Shi Enli was very angry, but felt helpless!
If we talk about normal field operations, he is confident that he can defeat them all with a single charge. However, facing a solid fortress like a fort, his grenadiers seem helpless.
And this means that the defense function of contemporary bastions is very powerful!
For example, the Battle of Metz fought between Henry of France and Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire a few years ago is a classic battle of contemporary European bastion offensive and defensive battles.
Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire used a total of more than 45,000 troops, but the defenders only had 5,800 troops.
The siege troops of the Holy Roman Empire fired more than 7,000 artillery shells at the city of Metz in one day. As a result, the city's defenses were still generally intact.
Subsequently, the Holy Roman Empire carried out several more forceful attacks, all of which ended in heavy casualties.
This battle made the bastion famous on the European continent!
In the east, the Tang Dynasty military also began to use bastions in its early years. Wandan City and Luzon City, the two coastal port cities in overseas territories, were the earliest bastion fortresses in the Tang Empire, and they had resisted many times.
Attack by pirates or natives.
On the northern border, the Tang Army also built many bastions. For example, the Hetao Defense Line, which played an important role in the battle with the Tatars in the early years, was actually a defense line connected by more than 20 large and small bastions.
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A small fortress may only have one battalion in it, but it can easily resist an attack by thousands or even more Tatars.
As for those big cities, the Tatars were so daunted that they didn't even dare to think of attacking.
Although Datang applied bastions later, it is worth noting that Datang's bastion city defense system has been developing and improving.
Especially after the Datang military popularized the use of grenades on a large scale, in order to prevent heavy artillery bombardment and grenade bombardment, the bastions built by the Datang military gradually improved and developed on the traditional bastion anti-artillery fortifications.
A fortress-like artillery defense fortification emerged.
In fact, it is very simple to say, it is just to add a roof to the artillery defense fortification. The thick city wall on the front is used to resist solid bullets, and the top fortification is used to protect against grenade bombardment.
Shoot outward through the small cannon hole and the muzzle at the same time!
This also constitutes a relatively special anti-gun fortification, and at present, this kind of fortification is basically only done by the Tang Dynasty military itself, because the Datang military has a deep understanding of the power of grenades.
Although grenades these days have basically no penetrating power, because the shell's body is not strong enough to withstand pressure, and the fuze is not very reliable. If the body deforms, it will most likely become a dud.
Therefore, they either use artillery with a relatively short barrel to fire. Even if the Tang Army uses a large number of artillery with a caliber of more than 20 times, it often uses less propellant when launching grenades.
This also results in that when a grenade is launched, its trajectory is relatively curved, the projectile body is relatively thin, and its penetrating power is not good. The grenade can only explode on the surface of the fortification.
It is actually very easy to prevent this kind of grenade. Just add a slightly thicker top cover to the top.
The Ming Army had already done this when facing the Tang Army's grenades more than ten years ago!
Later, when the Tang Army was building fortifications, it also paid more attention to top defense, so it often added a top fortification to the anti-gun fortifications.
The bastion built by the Portuguese in Malacca was largely copied from the Tang Dynasty bastion. Although its main body was a traditional bastion, in some special parts, it was modeled after the Tang Dynasty bastion, building a roof to defend against grenades.
Build fortifications.
This prominent fort is a typical example!
Adding a roof to the top of the fort to prevent shelling from grenades and shrapnel shells was a standard design of the Tang Dynasty military when building permanent fortresses.
The Portuguese in Malacca obviously learned this trick!
The only thing that reassured the Tang army generals who were attacking the city was that the Portuguese obviously did not intend to copy the Tang army's bastion design in everything, but only designed it in these protruding forts, and the main building of the bastion, especially
The forts on the city wall are still the same as traditional bastions.
In addition, the frontal defense capabilities of these vacant fortifications that are used to fire back through the gun muzzles are relatively weak. In order for the artillery to aim and launch smoothly, the fortifications directly in front of the artillery cannot be repaired several meters or even ten meters like the city wall.
Thick.
This also gives the cannon a chance!
The siege troops of the Tang Dynasty did not discover this before. Now that they discovered it, they quickly reported it. The artillery commanders at the rear made a prompt decision and immediately changed the artillery attack method.
The small and medium-caliber artillery continued to fire grenades to suppress the enemy, while the large-caliber heavy cannon was quickly replaced with solid bullets, and the propellant was appropriately increased to increase the shelling kinetic energy of the solid bullets.
The targets of these heavy cannons that fire solid bullets are several other prominent forts in the Malacca city defense system, as well as some fortifications with similar anti-howitzer characteristics.
Shi Enli, who was on the front line, naturally didn't know what the subsequent effects would be. He had just led his troops to capture this prominent fort and was preparing to launch an attack on the main city wall more than 20 meters ahead.
There is also a city wall connecting the protruding fort and the main city wall. The passage is in this short city wall of more than 20 meters. However, there is no obstruction to this wall passage. The Portuguese on the opposite side relied on a strong
It is not easy to rush through the breastworks and fortifications.
But when the battle has reached this point, it is no longer time to retreat when encountering the slightest difficulty.
After Captain Shi Enli simply observed and analyzed the situation, he decided to use the simplest and most violent method: bayonet charge!
In this case, it is unreliable to slowly fire at the opponent, or use shotguns, or act as a forward with heavy armored troops, because time does not allow!
The fighter plane disappeared in a flash, and there were probably only a hundred Portuguese soldiers behind the parapet on the opposite side. But after another three to five minutes, hundreds of Portuguese soldiers appeared on the opposite side, and Captain Shi Enli would not be surprised!
Therefore, Shi Enli did not hesitate at all and directly gave the order to charge with a bayonet!