The caliber of the 75mm howitzer is not large, and the explosive power is naturally not large, but this is not large compared to large-caliber artillery.
The actual power is not small, and the accuracy is extremely good. At least it can defeat the local indigenous troops stationed on the city and lose their temper.
Because the local indigenous people lacked artillery, especially long-range artillery, there were only a few smoothbore cannons. What is interesting is that these smoothbore cannons were sold to them by the arms dealers of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, the artillery of the Tang Dynasty boldly deployed the artillery to fire at a distance of about 1,500 meters from the city head.
This distance is naturally very far for smoothbore cannons, and there is basically no accuracy in firing them. However, for breech-loaded rifled cannons such as the 75 howitzers currently equipped by the Tang Army, it is basically the same as those that are close to the enemy.
There is no difference if you shoot in the face. In the hands of an experienced gunner, the cannonball can be fired wherever it is pointed, with very little deviation.
What's more, it is still a grenade. It only needs to hit the approximate target. It does not need to hit the target like a solid bullet to cause damage.
Even though there was only one artillery battalion with only eighteen 75-gun howitzers, the bombing still caused unspeakable misery to the natives in City No. 6. Within a few minutes, there were countless casualties among the natives on the top of the city, and even more were frightened.
The remaining people naturally turned around and ran away, or hid behind the battlements and shivered.
The effect of the bombardment was quite good. After at least ten minutes, the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty could no longer see any natives who dared to appear on the top of the city.
According to convention, if it were a Tatar or European army, for example, seeing this scene, they would have used infantry to charge and attack the city.
But that was just what the barbarians did, and the Tang Army would not do that.
You can definitely win if you rush in like this, but casualties are inevitable.
The Tang Army still pays more attention to reducing casualties, otherwise the country would not have been developing and equipping rifled weapons, and it would not want to fight at a distance and use kite flying tactics.
Think about annihilating the enemy without getting hurt!
This kind of thinking is similar to that of the United States in later generations. It is technologically advanced and has more advanced weapons. When facing a backward enemy, it always wants to engage in zero-casualty operations.
Datang now also has this trend.
Therefore, it is impossible to stupidly charge directly and fight the enemy hand-to-hand.
The method they adopted was very simple. The artillery continued to bombard to suppress the enemy, and then the infantry stepped forward and stopped about three hundred meters away from the city wall.
Why stop?
Naturally, he raised his rifle and fired at the enemies on top of the city!
This distance is very safe. The enemy's artillery was originally very few, but now it is suppressed by Datang's artillery. It is estimated that there are not even a few artillery left.
And their matchlocks, bows and arrows were unable to kill the Tang infantry more than 300 meters away.
With the Mini rifle's precise firepower suppressing the remaining enemy troops on the city wall, all the natives on the city wall were completely wiped out.
Then the siege troops slowly prepared for their next move!
First dig a communication trench, then turn it into a tunnel almost to the city wall, and then bury gunpowder.
This is the age of guns, who is still stupid enough to climb the wall?
It is simple and convenient to blow it up directly with explosives.
They are not even willing to charge directly towards the city gate, because this still represents an unknown direction. It is easy to break through the city gate, but ancient city walls, regardless of the east, west or indigenous people in India, the gate openings of traditional cities are all
It was a key defensive area, and the city gates were blown open. The defenders also took other measures to kill the enemy who tried to enter the city directly through the gates.
Although it is faster to attack the city gate directly, the 52nd Regiment is not in a hurry and does not care about wasting a day or two.
After all, this Indian campaign did not pose much difficulty to the Army, which had already made up its mind, so it did not formulate any messy tactics such as large-scale maneuvers.
The tactics of the 18th Division are very simple, just push them all the way!
Anyway, their strategic goal is very simple, that is, to sweep through several surrounding indigenous countries and seize some gold and silver trophies to supplement military expenditures.
Some areas with convenient inland river transportation and easy development will be directly brought under control. However, the remaining areas with poor inland river transportation or difficult agricultural development will be attacked first to eliminate the original ruling class and then support them.
A few puppets, etc., then sign various unequal agreements to fully control their military, financial and other powers, reap economic benefits, and at the same time make them pay compensation, at least to get their military expenses back.
When going to war with the natives, Datang would never engage in loss-making business. Every time it went to war with the natives, no matter how big or small, compensation was necessary.
Now that they are equipped with rifled weapons, especially breech-loading guns, the cost of fighting is getting higher and higher. The Army had already thought before the war started that the cost of this war must be borne by the local indigenous states. Anyway, the Army itself is
Not even a big boy will come out.
There is no pressure in the grand strategy, and the specific tactics are simple and crude, so the frontline troops naturally do not have too much estimation when fighting. They can fight as comfortable as possible and as convenient as possible.
After suppressing the enemy's forces at the top of the city, engineers stepped forward to plant explosives.
A few hours later, there was a loud bang!
This indigenous city whose name the Tang Dynasty people didn't even know fell like this!
After capturing the city, the troops did not continue to advance, but began to capture prisoners. Inadvertently, tens of thousands of extra prisoners were found. As for you saying that there were only a few thousand soldiers guarding the city, why were there tens of thousands of extra prisoners?
Ask me, I'll ask who's going.
Anyway, there are only so many prisoners!
According to the Tang Dynasty's policy of preferential treatment of prisoners of war, these prisoners of war will be used to build roads and transport various supplies.
The advancement of the army relies too heavily on logistics. Although many places have rivers, some do not. Where there are no rivers, the army has to rely on storage and manpower for transportation.
These captives were also full of longing for the Tang Dynasty. They were so convinced that they brought their own dry food to help the Tang Dynasty build roads and transport supplies.
For the Tang Army's seriousness, the surrounding indigenous states simply could not resist it.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the surrounding small indigenous states are not strong.
Today, the situation on the Indian peninsula is quite chaotic. The northern region is controlled by the Mughal Dynasty, but its territory is actually not very large.
The entire northern part of the Mughal Dynasty bordered the Tang Dynasty. The area north of Kabul in the northwest used to be the southern region of Central Asia controlled by the Tatars. Now, it has naturally become the southern region of Central Asia controlled by the Tang Dynasty.
The northeast is the Tubo Province of the Tang Dynasty.
To be honest, the countries bordering the Tang Dynasty were quite unlucky. In the past, the Goguryeo Peninsula and the Fusang Islands had become the mainland of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tatars also fled to Europe.
Countries such as Annan and Myanmar in the South Pacific Peninsula have been at war with each other for more than 20 years. It is conservatively estimated that the population is only two or three percent of what it was back then.
Not to mention those Nanyang Islands.
The Mughal Dynasty was no exception. In the early years, the Tang Dynasty supported them against the Tatars. However, as soon as the Tatars withdrew from Central Asia, they became the targets of the Tang Dynasty!
Due to the troubles of the Tang Dynasty, the expansion of the Mughal Dynasty in India was very unsatisfactory. Now it only controls Afghanistan, Punjab, the middle and upper reaches of the Humong River Basin in Delhi, and the southernmost area reaches Agra.
The Bengal region in the east had already become independent under the instigation of the Tang Dynasty.
The Rajputs in the west also received support from the Tang Dynasty, and while fighting against the Mughals, they fought against the Jijrats.
As for the rest of the Indian peninsula, there are hundreds of states, large and small, and many of them are new states. At the same time, many states have been destroyed one after another.
The people of the Tang Dynasty themselves are not sure how many indigenous states there are on the Indian Peninsula today.
The reason for this situation is naturally the Tang Dynasty, which is causing trouble and trouble on the Indian continent.
They did not annex any indigenous countries. Except for a few areas such as Gohe State, Permu State, Ceylon Island, and Goa, which had large areas of actual control, the other colonies were actually very small port cities, mainly
In order to control the outlets of major rivers and excellent ports on the Indian peninsula.
In addition, they have no intention of large-scale annexation of these indigenous states in the short term.
At the same time, the Tang Dynasty allowed conflicts and wars between these countries. Not only did they allow it, many arms dealers even went to the battlefield to sell arms. In order to sell their own arms better, they did not mind giving one to a certain country for free.
Collect ordnance, and then encourage them to start a war.
But they also did not allow any country to unify India, and they did not allow even large-scale states to appear. This is why the Mughal Dynasty was suppressed and dismembered by the Tang Dynasty personally.
On the whole, today's Indian peninsula is in a situation where hundreds of countries are fighting each other. Not to mention that outsiders can't figure out how many countries there are in India today. Even the Tang Dynasty itself, who created this situation, can't tell them apart.
It is very clear how many states there are in the Indian peninsula today.
Anyway, it’s a mess and we’re fighting every day!
This time when Datang launched the Second Indian Campaign, it still did not take the annexation of large areas as the core goal. Of course, the expansion of certain actual control areas was also being cleared.
The more purpose of this battle is to punish!
This time, if we don’t wipe out several surrounding countries one by one, it will not be able to reflect the power of the Tang Dynasty!
In this case, the pressure of military operations is actually very small, and it is not at the same level as that in Central Asia.
It's even less stressful than in the Americas.
To be honest, the natives in America are much more ferocious than the natives in India. Although they are still backward and ignorant, they are not afraid of death, and their methods are very cunning. Many tribes cannot defeat the regular army of the Tang Dynasty, so they attack the immigrants of the Tang Dynasty every day.
.
However, ordinary immigrants from the Tang Dynasty are not easy to mess with. After all, immigrants from the Tang Dynasty generally carry guns, and the immigration points will also have militia units.