When it was shelled, the shell exploded less than ten meters away from Wulihan. Although Wulihan was not injured by the shelling, several people around him were killed or injured.
A counselor he relied on was killed by shrapnel on the spot, and two other guards were also injured by shrapnel.
His location is a full 1,500 meters away from the artillery position of the Southern Tang Manzi!
This kind of distance was basically a safe distance in previous wars. Even if the enemy's smoothbore cannon could hit this far, there was basically no hit rate at all. Therefore, most of the time, in large-scale battles, commanders would
Set up a command post at this distance.
But now, he, the supreme commander who is located in the rear, a full 1,500 meters away, has been bombarded. One can imagine how terrible the bombardment of the troops was.
Before he could figure out why Nan Tang Barbarian's bombardment was so accurate and ferocious, he was not willing to let his troops be bombed in vain!
But it's not that easy to leave.
Most of the tens of thousands of Tatars had dismounted and turned into infantry and artillery, preparing to attack the First Cavalry Army around the nameless lake.
Without horses, the advancement speed is not fast, and the retreat speed is also not that fast.
And it continued to be hit by precise artillery fire.
The more than thirty 100-millimeter front-loading rifled guns in the First Cavalry Army have been maintaining steady fire since the bombardment began. In order to cause confusion among the Tatars, in addition to initially aiming at 800
In addition to the Tatar artillery shelling at a distance of 1,500 meters, the follow-up actually widened the distance, mainly conducting interceptive shelling at a distance of about 1,500 meters.
The goal was naturally to prevent the Tatars in front from retreating easily and crossing the 1,500-meter fire blockade.
Although it is impossible to stop everyone, as long as some of them are fearful and slow down a little, more Tatars can be slowed down and their retreat speed will be reduced, thus resulting in greater shelling results.
After more than half an hour, tens of thousands of Tatars finally withdrew in a chaotic manner. Because of their hasty retreat, they even directly lost more than half of their artillery units.
Some of them were lost by direct shelling, while more were actually abandoned by Tatar artillery on their own initiative.
Retreating with heavy artillery is quite troublesome. Under continuous bombardment, the artillerymen in panic can still run away with the artillery, so they can just drop the artillery and fire.
In addition to the large artillery losses, although their personnel losses were not small, to be honest, during the half-hour shelling, the Tatar casualties were only one or two thousand at most. From afar,
Not to mention heavy losses.
However, it is very uncomfortable to feel that one can only be bombarded by the enemy unilaterally, but one's own side has no power to fight back. The resulting significant reduction in military morale is even more fatal.
After the Tatars withdrew, Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin promptly sent a light cavalry unit to clear the battlefield.
They did not go too far, that is, they operated within a range of 1,500 meters. Their main task was to destroy the artillery left by the Tatars.
As for the wounded Tatar soldiers, they didn't care. They didn't even bother to give them a knife to end their pain, let alone hope for medical treatment.
The wounded and wailing wounded Tatar soldiers were more damaging to the morale of the Tatars than the corpses of the Tatar soldiers.
Ulihan also sent cavalry to try to fight, but the light cavalry sent by the First Cavalry Army did not engage in the battle at all. They rushed forward and used explosive packs to blow up the intact artillery or ammunition carts left by the Tatars, and then immediately retreated.
Daixin's goal was to defend this place, rather than taking the opportunity to engage in a cavalry confrontation with the Tatars.
More than a thousand light cavalry quickly withdrew, and Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin also temporarily walked down the hill.
After being subjected to such a sudden bombardment, these Tatars needed time to adapt, and they could not stupidly continue to charge up again without any preparation.
That's not bravery, that's sending death!
If the Tatars really wanted to do this, Diaxin would be happy to death.
Although the hit rate of a front-loaded rifled gun within two thousand meters is half, and the hit rate at 1,500 meters is not too high, the hit rate can be greatly improved after entering the distance of one thousand meters. In the hands of a slightly experienced gunner,
Basically, it means hitting wherever. The Tatars rush up without any preparation, and our own artillery can give them another big surprise.
It's a pity that the Tatars are not so stupid. They have already realized that today's battle is a bit strange.
In Wulihan's tent, Wulihan said solemnly: "Their cannons are weird. Normal artillery can't shoot so accurately!"
Needless to say, Wulihan said that others also saw the problem.
Everyone uses smoothbore cannons, and everyone knows what a smoothbore cannon is.
Although the Tatars' artillery casting technology is not very good, they loot everywhere and always have a lot of copper materials in their hands, so many small and medium-caliber field cannons are cast with bronze cannons.
Although the bronze-cast cannons are heavier, their performance is much better than ordinary iron cannons. This also makes up for the Tatars' lack of artillery technology.
As for the Tang Dynasty, because there were too many cannons, it would be too expensive to use bronze cannons, so the Tang Empire abandoned bronze cannons long ago and switched to cheaper iron cannons.
Iron cannons were cheaper to make, but there was a slight gap in performance. The Tang Empire relied on cannon-making technology that was far superior to other countries to make up for the lack of materials.
Therefore, although most of the artillery of the Tang Army were iron cannons, their actual performance was better than the bronze cannons of other countries.
but!
Good limited!
According to the past concepts of the Tatars, 800 meters is almost the maximum range of the five-pound, nine-pound and other field artillery in the hands of the barbarians of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Only within 500 meters will there be a relatively high hit rate.
The Tatars' own artillery was inferior, but in fact the effective range of their nine-pound field cannon could be maintained at more than 400 meters, but the artillery accuracy at about 800 meters was not as good as that of the Tang Army's artillery.
Therefore, although there is a gap in the artillery between the two sides, they can still be overcome with courage and tactics.
In the past, for the Tatars, the comparison of artillery strength between the two sides, range and power were not the main differences, the difference was quantity!
But today, the long-distance and precise shelling performed by the artillery of the Tang Army was beyond the imagination of the Tatars.
Oh my god!
Those Southern Tang barbarians could actually maintain a certain hit rate within a distance of two thousand meters.
This was absolutely impossible in the past.
However, something so impossible happened today.
At this time, a young officer said: "It is absolutely impossible for a smoothbore cannon to have such long-range accuracy. Whether it is our smoothbore cannon or the smoothbore artillery of the Southern Tang Barbarians, it is impossible to have such accuracy!"
Another person said: "Smoothbore cannon? What do you want to say?"
Generally speaking, no one will deliberately talk about smoothbore cannon these days, but they will call it artillery, because almost all artillery is smoothbore cannon.
At this time, the young officer said: "The rifled cannon must be the rifled cannon of the barbarians of the Southern Tang Dynasty!"
With that said, the young man turned to Wulihan and said: "The navy of the Southern Tang Barbarians is equipped with rifled cannons, and its effective range is far greater than the previous smoothbore cannons. Last year, I was ordered to go to Hormuz in Persia to make an unannounced visit to the Southern Tang Dynasty.
When Manzi of the Tang Dynasty, I once saw with my own eyes the rifled cannon of the Manzi Navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty parked in the port."
"They also conducted a test firing outside the port. I saw with my own eyes that their shelling distance reached 800 meters!"
As he spoke, the young man raised his tone, and then said: "Everyone, you have to know that those are naval guns on their battleships. They originally have a short range. If this rifled gun is moved to land, the range will be farther!"
"He heard that the coastal defense batteries they used to block the strait are also equipped with rifled guns. It is said that they can shoot for more than three or four thousand meters!"
After hearing this, Wulihan did not speak immediately, but looked at the young man!
This young man's name is Babo. He is only in his twenties this year. He is a new generation of young Tatar officer who grew up during the war.
When these young people were still teenagers, the wars in this world turned into gun wars. When they went to the battlefield for the first time, they took muskets and what they saw were artillery.
They are different from the older generation of Tatar generals.
Moreover, because of his outstanding performance, Babo was highly valued by the top management. Last year, he even brought Tatar spies to sneak into the Safi Dynasty.
Spying on the Safi Dynasty was not the main goal, the main purpose was to spy on the situation of the barbarians in the Southern Tang Dynasty.
After pondering for a moment, Wulihan said: "Rifled gun? What is this?"
Babo immediately said: "This is a newly developed artillery piece by the barbarians of the Southern Tang Dynasty. It is said that there are riflings carved inside the barrel, which allows the cannonball to rotate forward after being fired to improve accuracy!"
"Carving rifling in the barrel?" Wulihan was a little confused.
So he simply didn't understand. He didn't understand these technical issues, and what he was more concerned about was not these technical issues. What he cared about was what a rifled gun was and what impact it could have.
Barbo said: "Yes, it is to carve rifling inside the barrel to improve accuracy. When I was in the port of Hormuz, I once sneaked into the local tavern and heard the sailors of the Southern Tang Barbarians boast about the effectiveness of these rifled guns.
The firing range is twice or even higher than that of the old smoothbore gun. If used as a coastal defense gun, the hit accuracy can be further improved!"
"By the way, I heard that their artillery shells still use cylindrical shells, with a larger charge and greater explosive power!"
Regarding this statement, others also nodded and said: "When we were bombarded just now, the explosion power of their shells was indeed greater than before!"