But he quickly ordered all the soldiers wearing plate armor to gather together, preparing to concentrate their forces and go into battle.
After the hurried assembly, there was no time to reorganize, so they were sent directly to prepare to participate in the fight!
It's just that these heavy musketeers carry heavy muskets and wear half-body armor. In addition, the place where the attack is launched is actually some distance away from the city wall, and it is not flat like the north. In fact, it is a gentle slope from the dock to the city gate.
Although the road is not too steep, and there are winding roads for walking, in the final analysis, the Guards still attack from the top.
From the attack site to the city gate, there were trenches, wooden fences and other obstacle fortifications built by the Portuguese.
The climb up and over obstacles made these heavily armored musketeers very tired.
No way, their half-body armor is not some export-type ultra-light half-body plate armor, but the heavy-armored troops in the Tang Dynasty Army, such as heavy-armored cavalry, heavy-armored sword-and-shield troops that rarely exist today, and heavy-armored long-armor soldiers.
The standard half-body armor worn by spearmen and other troops.
Although the Army of the Tang Dynasty is said to have been fully equipped with firearms, the traditional arms have not been completely abolished. There are still sword and shield soldiers, spear soldiers and even archers, but the number is already very small, so small that it can be ignored.
, retaining these purely cold-weapon units is just a matter of preserving tradition and taking precautions against emergencies.
Don’t wait until one day when you need it, but it’s gone!
The biggest characteristic of arms construction is that it does not matter whether it is useful or not!
Just like the naval arms race of various countries in the 20th century, various types of warships were built one after another, and many warships did not actually conform to the country's naval tactics. But how can I put it, the arms race does not mean
Is it appropriate? But we should also have what the enemy has, especially some new things, such as the aircraft carrier at that time. When the aircraft carrier first came out, no one thought that it would have such a big effect in the future, but someone made it.
Other countries immediately followed suit. It doesn't matter whether it's useful or not. It's not too late to slowly figure out how to use it after making it.
This kind of thinking is actually a kind of thinking that is only for prevention and preparedness.
Although the Tang Dynasty military said it did not engage in any arms race with other countries, it still had this philosophy in arms construction, that is, it does not matter whether it is useful or not, it must be available. If it is not useful, it should be thrown away. If it is useful, it can be used immediately.
Therefore, the Army of the Tang Dynasty still retained a small number of pure cold weapon units such as sword and shield soldiers, spearmen and archers, all of which were the product of this preparation.
These traditional sword and shield soldiers and spear soldiers are naturally equipped with armor with very strong defensive capabilities. Some are full body armor, and some are half body armor.
The heavy-armored musketeers of the Guards are equipped with the standard half-body armor that these cold-weapon heavily armored troops are equipped with!
What he wears on his body and head, plus arm guards, leg guards, etc., the whole set weighs more than 20 kilograms. Plus other equipment such as muskets and waist knives, each soldier's load is not light.
Even though the soldiers of the Guards are of good quality, and the physical fitness of these heavy-armored musketeers is better than that of ordinary soldiers, it is normal for them to be tired and out of breath after running all the way.
After all, they are not grenadiers!
If they are grenadiers, these loads are nothing. They are all strong men who need height and weight. Their physical fitness is not comparable to that of ordinary soldiers.
But when these heavily armored musketeers arrived, panting and rushing into the city gate, the situation on the battlefield changed instantly!
The Guards soldiers who participated in the battle before were all ordinary musketeers. Although they wore light breastplates, which could effectively protect important parts, there were still many parts that were unprotected, plus the total length of the muskets and bayonets in their hands.
, are also not as good as the pure spearmen of the Portuguese opposite, so if it is purely a hand-to-hand battle, although there is no disadvantage in the fight, it will not take much advantage.
The reason why they still had the advantage and forced the Portuguese to retreat step by step was mainly due to their intensive musket shooting and throwing grenades!
Especially the grenade throwing attack, the effect is quite good!
Because both sides are fighting in dense formations and at close range, the shot does not need to be aimed and can hit the enemy directly. The same is true for grenades. After the grenade is thrown, it can basically blow up the Portuguese.
But speaking of it, this kind of dense formation actually has limitations on the lethality of grenades, because if the formation is too dense, the shock wave and shrapnel of the grenade will often be absorbed by several people around the grenade, but the people on the periphery
Basically there will be no impact.
If the grenade explodes in a relatively sparse enemy formation, it can actually achieve greater results.
However, this can only be thought about. These days, whether it is the Tang Army, the Guards and other Datang armies, or troops from other countries, regardless of whether they are cold weapons or musket troops, they are all in dense formations.
Combat.
In large-scale battles, fighting in dispersed formations is a method of death in all likelihood.
When the heavily armored musketeers came forward, the Portuguese's only defensive advantage was quickly disintegrated.
The battle of the heavily armored musketeers is not as simple as fighting them with bayonets. They rely on the heavy armor on their bodies, then stand and shoot, and attack the enemy with the 18mm musket in their hands.
Although most of the Portuguese on the opposite side were also wearing armor, and many of them were still wearing the export-type plate armor exported by the Tang Dynasty, it was useless against the bullets of muskets.
After shooting, come forward and fight with bayonets!
Basically after such a round, the Portuguese on the opposite side collapsed!
After relying on the heavy armored musketeers to open the gap, many light infantrymen from the rear quickly followed up, then expanded the gap, completely occupied the city gate and surrounding areas, and then rushed to the top of the city to cover more soldiers entering the city!
At this time, it can basically be announced that the second temporary regiment of the Guards has conquered the southern wall of Malacca City.
The capture of the southern city wall was not much later than the 57th Infantry Regiment's capture of the northern wall!
So Ding Chenzhen, who was at the rear, received news that the troops had conquered the northern city wall and the southern city wall in just a few minutes!
The two city walls were broken, which basically declared that Malacca's outer city defense line had been completely breached. At this time, even the Portuguese soldiers on the east wall had already voluntarily abandoned the east wall and moved into the inner city.
However, Datang's siege troops did not stop, but moved forward quickly. They wanted to take advantage of the current chaotic period to open a gap in the inner city, and then completely capture Malacca.
The city defense system of Malacca City, like many castles, has two city defense systems: an inner city and an outer city.
The Tang Dynasty's Wandan City in Wandan Prefecture is a very typical outer and inner city design!
The outer city of Wantan City, which is built on the mountain, is larger, but there is also an inner city wall built on the top of the city.
The same is true for Malacca. The entire city of Malacca, including the three urban districts of southeast, north and south, belongs to the outer city area, but the Xicheng District belongs to the inner city area.
And built a second city wall!
After the first wave of attacks launched during the chaos was repelled by the Portuguese, Ding Chenzhen did not let the troops launch a second wave of attacks. Instead, he ordered the troops to take a short rest and then mobilized artillery units into the city.
Moreover, in addition to a large number of small and medium-caliber artillery, the artillery units mobilized also have a lot of heavy artillery!
This time, Ding Chen really did not intend to let the infantry carry out a strong attack. He planned to directly bombard the city wall with heavy artillery, and then cover the bombardment with a large number of grenades. He did not believe that the Portuguese could hold on.
The battle had reached this point, and even if the Portuguese retreated to the inner city, they were basically unable to stop the attack of the Tang siege troops.
The area of the inner city of Malacca City is far less than that of the outer city. Its total area is less than one square kilometer. Although it still has a solid city defense system, for such a place that is only a little bigger, Datang has
You can concentrate more firepower and troops to attack harder!
At noon that day, the fighting calmed down slightly, but in the afternoon, the Datang artillery troops that entered the city launched a fierce bombardment of the inner city.
This time, their bombardment target was not limited to the city head, but expanded the scope of the bombardment to the entire inner city.
Among them, the heavy artillery unit continued to use solid artillery shells to bombard the city wall, trying to collapse the city wall to open a gap, while more artillery fired grenades towards the inner city!
From the afternoon to the dawn of the next day, the Tang artillerymen, who had not had much rest, fired a total of nearly 6,000 artillery shells, most of which were grenades, and most of them fell into the inner city of Malacca and exploded.
That night, there were constant explosions in the inner city of Malacca, and many buildings were hit and then burned, so that the inner city was ablaze!
Wait until the next morning, if someone looks down at the inner city of Malacca from the sky at this time, they will be able to see a shocking scene!
The city almost turned into a pile of rubble, with fire and smoke rising in many places. Dead and injured Portuguese could be seen everywhere in the city.
The Governor's Palace in the inner city of Malacca was even more unlucky to be hit by a grenade weighing 48 kilograms. The violent explosion caused the masonry and wooden structure of the Governor's Palace to completely collapse. Many Portuguese officials and Portuguese officials in the building collapsed.
Officials of the Indian company suffered heavy casualties!
Under such fierce bombardment, coupled with the fact that the outer city fell yesterday without even being able to defend it for half a day, the remaining Portuguese in the city could no longer raise their spirits to resist.
When the morning sun gradually rose, a dazzling white flag rose on the dilapidated inner city wall!