Seeing everyone showing fear when they talked about this rifled cannon, Wulihan immediately slapped the table: "Isn't it just to shoot farther and more accurately? What's so scary? Let's go back and divide the formation even more
Spread out, these artillery pieces are nothing to be afraid of! In the past, we didn’t even have guns and cannons, so we used bows, arrows and sabers to beat the crap out of those southern barbarians. Today we have guns and cannons, and it’s much better than before!”
Wulihan's tone sounded arrogant, but it also made others feel a little relieved. After thinking about it, it was still a cannon, but it just hit farther and was more powerful.
In the past, their situation was even more tragic. For a long time, they were bombarded unilaterally. Later, they had guns and cannons, but the muskets were only matchlocks, and they were still suppressed and beaten.
That is to say, they have only been equipped with flintlock guns in the past two years. Although the performance of the artillery is still there, it is still there.
I've been through worse times before, so there's no reason why I can't get through it now.
But when Wulihan said this, young Babo sighed secretly in his heart!
Today is different from the past!
In the past, the Jin people did not have guns and artillery, so they knew better when fighting. They would not easily give the Southern Tang barbarians a chance. They would always look for opportunities to attack their rear supply lines, or force the Southern Tang barbarians to engage in cavalry battles with them.
Cold weapon warfare is the main approach.
It seemed that the Tatars were being suppressed and beaten, but the Tatars were not afraid of losing face and would run when they should. Therefore, it seemed that the Tatars were retreating steadily and were driven all the way to the Western Regions by the Tang Dynasty, but in fact the actual losses they suffered were not
big.
However, since the Tatars were also equipped with guns on a large scale and saw the benefits of guns, they also wanted to use the power of guns when fighting, and often gave up their traditional fighting methods.
Armor and bows and arrows were thrown into the warehouse, replaced by muskets and artillery.
Especially recently, after the Tatars switched to flintlock muskets on a large scale, and after personally experiencing the huge tactical advantages of flintlock muskets, they paid even more attention to gun combat.
Today, the Tatars still use cavalry as their main force, but the proportion of infantry and artillery is increasing year by year. Especially on the Western Front, the cavalry is only used as a surprise force, and the main force has become infantry and artillery.
Even for cavalry units, training and combat attach great importance to the application of muskets. The large-scale distribution of Suifa pistols and Suifa short-barreled cavalry lances to cavalry units is a direct proof.
To put it bluntly, the Tatars are now bent on learning from and moving closer to the Tang Dynasty, especially in the military field.
Nowadays, in the Jin army, generals who support infantry and artillery occupy a dominant position. Senior generals who insist on traditional cavalry warfare have been purged one after another. Even Ullihan, a traditional cavalry general, has actually been eliminated for a long time.
Abandoned mounted archery and advocated line cavalry.
The so-called line cavalry is actually the wall cavalry of the barbarians of the Southern Tang Dynasty, but the Jin Dynasty deliberately used other names when translating.
In Gbagbo's view, this situation is a matter of neglecting the fundamentals.
Guns and artillery are a good thing, and line cavalry is also a good cavalry. It is necessary to learn, but it is a bit too much to fully study all the military concepts and tactics of the Tang Army and completely abandon the traditional tactics of the Tatars.
Playing with guns and cannons, how could they in the Jin Kingdom have played with the barbarians of the Southern Tang Dynasty!
It doesn’t matter what type of country they are, or what type of country the Jin Kingdom is.
Those Southern Tang barbarians claimed that the Tang Dynasty was an industrial country.
If you, a country of mixed nomadic farming, compete with an industrial country with guns and weapons, you are asking for your own death!
But for this situation, Babo could only sigh. He was in a low position and had little power. In this army, he was only a staff officer. He was far from being able to make adjustments to the military strategy of the Jin Kingdom.
Few people even listened to suggestions.
Wulihan talked a lot again, saying nothing more than that the more difficult days in the past have passed, and although we are also encountering difficulties now, we are still better than before.
He also said that it is people who decide war, not rifled guns.
As long as the soldiers fight bravely, victory will definitely belong to their Kingdom of Jin!
Ulihan can become the senior cavalry general of the Tatars on the Eastern Front. He has 40,000 to 50,000 elite cavalry at his disposal. Whether it is tactics or strategic ability, or personal charm, qualifications, etc., he is not bad. Otherwise, he would not be able to sit here.
Secure this position.
After some encouragement from him, most of his generals gave up their panic.
This made Ullihan breathe a sigh of relief.
In his view, the rifled cannons of the Southern Tang Barbarians were certainly dangerous, but the greatest danger did not come from the Southern Tang Barbarians' new weapons, but from the decline in morale and morale of one's own troops.
After boosting the morale of the army, Wulihan immediately made corresponding arrangements.
The first thing is to decide to attack again in the afternoon!
However, instead of pressing forward with the entire army, only a few thousand troops were sent to test the enemy, and the troops were required to deploy an anti-artillery formation at a distance of two thousand meters from the enemy.
The distance between soldiers is widened to reduce the loss of shelling.
After Ulihan made his decision, the Tatars quickly adjusted.
In the afternoon, about three thousand Tatars held flintlock guns and gradually entered the battlefield in a super loose formation. The distance between soldiers was even more than ten meters.
After the Tatars dispersed, the effect of the bombardment naturally became worse.
These three thousand Tatars advanced to a distance of about one thousand meters and suffered little loss.
But Dai Yaxin and others didn’t take it seriously!
Although these Tatars dispersed their formation and did not suffer too many losses, after they dispersed, their firepower became even weaker, and they were unable to invest more troops on the battlefield.
However, the defenders of the Tang Dynasty relied on defense systems such as parapets. The distance between soldiers was very close, and the firepower density per unit area was enough to exceed five times that of the loosely formed Tatars in front of them.
Sure enough, Dai Yaxin soon saw many scenes that he had expected.
Although these more than 3,000 Tatar cavalry did not suffer too many shelling losses, they stopped within a thousand meters.
The terrain for the attack on the nameless lake is so large. If the troops could be denser and 20,000 people could be put down, then the Tatars now only put 3,000 people out in order to avoid losses.
Opposite the 3,000 people were more than 20,000 Tang Dynasty defenders!
Even if the Tatar general's brain is burned out, he will not continue to attack.
Soon, more Tatar soldiers came to reinforce from the rear in the same skirmish formation, and the Tatars who arrived first began to dig the breastworks for cover.
Seeing this scene, the artillery of the First Cavalry Corps also adjusted in time. Instead of shelling the Tatars in skirmish formation, they shelled the Tatars digging the breastworks.
The speed of the shelling was not very fast. I just fired one shell when there were too many Tatars in that area.
If they kept spreading out, no shells would be wasted.
This kind of dismissal made the Tatars even more uncomfortable.
Because the accuracy of artillery fire is not low at a distance of one thousand meters, and the power of a 100-millimeter cylindrical grenade is not small. It does not need to be a direct hit, but it can produce shrapnel and shock waves when it explodes nearby to kill the enemy.
This kind of loss was also within the expectations of the Tatars, so although they continued to be bombarded, they continued to move forward in this skirmish formation to provide reinforcements.
Not long after, a trench parapet slowly appeared at a distance of a thousand meters, and more and more Tatars gathered behind the trench parapet.
Major General Qi Lianzhong saw this scene and promptly gave Dai Yaxin a suggestion: "Now you can send cavalry to charge at their skirmishers!"
Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin shook his head and refused: "No, we will fight defensively and cannot attack easily!"
Although our own side can send cavalry to attack, the Tatars on the opposite side will definitely send corresponding cavalry to fight as soon as possible, and then it will become a head-on duel between cavalry.
This is not what Diaxin wants!
If there was a direct cavalry duel, he would not come here to defend. He would have led an army of more than 20,000 people to engage in a head-on cavalry duel with the Tatars.
Although the suggestion was rejected, Qi Lianzhong, the chief of staff, still reminded Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin: "There are more and more Tatars now. When they are almost ready, they may launch a direct charge!"
Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin said: "Just wait for them to rush up!"
"When they charge, the personnel will be denser. The artillery effect should be better. When they charge to a distance of 500 meters, we will still have a lot of smoothbore cannons waiting for them."
"Also, don't forget, the 3rd Cavalry Division is equipped with Mini rifles!"
When Dai Yaxin said this, Qi Lianzhong didn't say anything more.
He is only the chief of staff and is responsible for making suggestions. Whether to adopt them or not is up to Diaxin.
And he also knew that the 3rd Cavalry Division was equipped with Mini rifles, which had an effective range of four hundred meters.
Its effective range is not weaker than the old five-pound artillery.
It's just that the number of equipment for this kind of muskets is still a little less. Now the Army has just started to equip them. Among the Western Expeditionary Army, currently only the 3rd Cavalry Division, which used to be better at dismounted infantry combat, has taken the lead in equipping this kind of front-loading rifled muskets.
.
It is said that the army's top brass has been waiting for years to install rifled rifles. This year, they have made up their minds to equip the mini rifles in batches. At least the troops fighting on the front line must be equipped as soon as possible.
Wait until the breech-loading rifled gun appears in the future before changing the equipment.
This situation is the same as that of a front-loading rifled gun.
Front-loading rifled weapons are used as a transitional weapon. They are used first for emergency purposes, and when breech-loading rifled weapons come out, they are thrown away and replaced.
However, although the Mini rifles are good, the number of equipment is still too small. The total number of Mini rifles in the 3rd Cavalry Division is less than 4,000. Four thousand Mini rifles are not enough to defeat tens of thousands of enemies.