Chapter two hundred and seventy third grenadier preparation
Although the targets of the musketeers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty were only the gun positions on the bow of the ship and the gunners.
But in fact, their bullets covered the entire ship, and even several rafts nearby were covered, causing more results than expected.
This is not because they hit more enemies in the first place, but because the hit rate of the musket bullets at this distance is so small, and the spread area is too large. They are indeed aiming at the cannons on the bow of the ship, but in fact the bullets are
The deviation is too big, and it is normal for the deviation to be a few meters or even more than ten meters.
But this also has advantages, that is, it hit many Ming soldiers who were not the original target. The ferry was one of the only ships of the Ming army, and there were several Ming army generals wearing armor. It was clear from them
Judging from the armor, one can tell at a glance that he is a mid- to high-level general, and at the end he started from a hundred households.
More than a hundred bullets swept past like a heavy rain, not to mention the bow gun position in the eye of the storm. Several Ming army gunners had several blood holes in their bodies in an instant, and those behind the artillery
At least half of a group of Ming soldiers also fell down, many of them were Ming army generals wearing iron armor. For a while, blood flowed across the ferry.
Several people also fell down on the two surrounding rafts.
This round of hundreds of shots fired from a distance of about sixty meters hit at least more than thirty Ming soldiers, almost destroying an entire ferry, and incidentally also destroyed several surrounding rafts.
He was beaten to a semi-disabled state.
The blood flowed on the ferry and the raft, and then flowed into the river, turning the clear river water red, showing a strange and coquettish look. The wavy river water seemed to turn into a bloody mouth, swallowing one Ming army soldier after another.
.
With the firing of the muskets, Xie Ziwei's artillery finally fired its second shot of shotgun shells.
The power of shotgun shells is far greater than that of solid shells at medium and short range. At a distance of less than 100 meters, when the artillery fires shotgun shells, it is equivalent to spraying out a lot of iron nails.
, iron slag, etc., the coverage area can reach tens of meters.
It is really possible to wipe out an infantry company with one shot.
Xie Ziwei's shot was not so unlucky to hit the empty river, but hit the river with two rafts.
The shields on the rafts used to withstand lead bullets were as fragile as paper when faced with artillery fire. After one shot, one of the rafts was completely unable to move. The one holding the shield in front
The soldier was covered in blood and his whole body was silent.
The Ming soldiers behind him were all knocked down. More than ten people died on the spot, and the rest were injured. Many struggled and fell off the raft.
Even the raft itself may have been hit by shrapnel at several key joints, and the raft gradually fell apart into independent tree trunks.
Although the other raft next to it was not completely hit, it still suffered heavy casualties. At least half of its people were killed by this shot.
Seeing this scene, Xie Ziwei on the fort finally smiled!
The previous shot of shotgun did not cause any casualties to the Ming army, which put him under a lot of pressure.
The rate of fire of artillery is very slow, especially when the Ming army is getting closer and closer, his artillery does not have much time to intercept the enemy.
In this short time, every shot is precious!
Kill as much as possible the Ming army crossing the river, so as to reduce the pressure they put on the infantry after landing.
That's right, as the war situation has developed to this point, most people can see that it is already impossible to intercept the Ming army on the river and prevent them from landing on the shore.
Because the Ming army was already less than thirty meters away from the shore.
With this distance of thirty meters, it is difficult for the soldiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty to completely defeat the opponent with medium and long-range firepower!
So what they have to do now is to kill and injure the Ming army as much as possible before the Ming army lands.
However, even if the Ming army was about to go ashore, this was within the expectations of many senior generals of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty.
What they want to do is to prevent the enemy troops from crossing the river, which is two different things from preventing the Ming army from landing.
Li Xuan never expected that when the Ming army crossed the river, he could defeat the Ming army with only musketeers, archers and a mere artillery piece.
After all, the Ming army had three thousand people!
The rate of fire of their muskets and artillery was also limited. During the process of the Ming army crossing the river, the damage they could cause to the Ming army was also limited, not to mention that most of the Ming army's casualties at this time were cannon fodder.
This also means that the core backbone of the Ming army has not been severely damaged!
Li Xuan also has a complete set of response plans for this!
War is never an option. After option a, there will always be options b, options, even d, f and even more options.
As a commander, when formulating a battle plan, there will always be a backup plan and a backup plan of the backup plan.
Seeing that the Ming army had almost reached the shore, Li Xuan said to the messenger: "Send the order to implement Plan A and Three!"
When the messenger heard this, he immediately waved the flag in his hand. Naturally, he waved the flag not to look good, but to convey the flag message.
In this era without radio communications, the most efficient and effective way to achieve command on the battlefield is to command through semaphores.
The hilltop location where Li Xuan is located is naturally the place where the officers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty pay the most attention in normal battles. Even the messengers around the officers on the front line will always pay attention to Li Xuan from beginning to end in normal battles, so that they can immediately
Received the order from Li Xuan.
After the messenger next to Huang Xueren saw the flags of the messenger next to Li Xuan on the hilltop, he immediately said to Huang Xueren beside him: "Your Majesty, your Majesty sends an order to implement Plan A and Three!"
After hearing this, Huang Xueren nodded and murmured: "It's about time!"
Immediately he said loudly: "The musketeers continue to maintain fire suppression, and the spearmen are ready to engage in battle."
Then he said to dozens of other strong spearmen around him: "Get ready to drop bombs!"
The dozens of strong spearmen around here belong to the third spear team. However, in addition to one spear beside them, there are several big iron bumps in front of them!
This iron lump looks like a cannonball, but not as big. These cannonballs also have a fuse!
This is the first weapon to appear in the new army of the Tang Dynasty: grenades!
Li Xuan ordered the craftsmen to make it in the first half of the year. It is not difficult to make, but the new army of the Tang Dynasty has never been equipped with batches of equipment. Why? Because the new army of the Tang Dynasty is short of gunpowder, and the musketeers and artillery lack enough.
of gunpowder, there is not much gunpowder left to make this grenade.
However, in order to cope with the Ming army crossing the river, Li Xuan temporarily asked the craftsmen in Xikou Village to rush out a batch of hand grenades. There were not many, only a hundred.
These grenades are two different things from the grenades of later generations. These grenades are just a thin iron can filled with gunpowder and iron nails and iron pieces. They are particularly heavy, so it requires a very strong soldier to throw them twenty or thirty meters.
distance.
The detonation relies on a fuse, which means you can light it before throwing it out. If you throw it out too late, you will be the one who dies.
These grenades were equipped by the Third Spear Team of the 1st Infantry Battalion, which had relatively good physical fitness. In order for the Third Spear Team to gather enough strong soldiers, Li Xuan also specially transferred some soldiers from other Spear Teams.
Some strong spearmen were recruited to join the third spear group to replace the soldiers.
In this way, the Third Spear Team was able to gather more than forty soldiers who could throw grenades. Li Xuan naturally wanted to build the Third Spear Team into a soldier who could hold a spear for close combat, and at the same time,
A grenadier unit capable of throwing bombs.
When muskets are used to completely replace spears, these grenadiers will become a professional grenadier unit that uses muskets and also throws bombs.
By then, Li Xuan will make them the most elite infantry in this era!
Li Xuan's ideal grenadiers should be strong, disciplined, courageous, and willing to sacrifice.
Because grenadiers not only need to use muskets to fight like line infantry, but also need to get close and throw bombs.
If they are not strong enough, they cannot throw bombs, so this unit has very high requirements for height and physical fitness.
If they are not brave enough, they would not dare to brave the enemy's firepower and advance to a distance of twenty or thirty meters to drop bombs. The biggest role of the grenadiers is not to defend, but to attack. If the enemy is also a grenadier, then both sides
Just throwing bombs at each other.
The most the line infantry can do is line up to shoot, but the grenadiers line up to throw bombs. When the bomb thrown by the enemy explodes right next to them, they still need to stay calm and throw the bomb out. This is detrimental to the courage and sacrifice of the soldiers.
The mental and discipline requirements are extremely high.
If their discipline is not strict enough, they will throw bombs early or late. In the former case, the bomb will be picked up and thrown back by the enemy, and in the latter case, they and their comrades will be killed. If it is thrown from too far away
Not to mention bombs, they can't even blow up the enemy, so they won't be of any use for a long time.
Therefore, an elite grenadier unit must possess physical fitness, courage, sacrifice, and discipline.
This is why in the 17th and 18th centuries, the grenadiers have always been the elite troops of various countries' armies. Even though the grenadiers were later limited to weapon innovation and tactical changes, they have disappeared from the battlefield, but the title grenadiers still remains.
However, it has been retained and has gradually become synonymous with elite infantry in the armies of Western countries.
Of course, the Third Spear Team in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is not considered a grenadier yet, not because they are equipped with spears, not because of their physical fitness, but because their courage, sacrifice and even discipline cannot match
superior.
During defensive operations, hiding behind parapets and throwing bombs are two different things, and braving enemy fire and walking to a distance of twenty or thirty meters from the enemy to throw bombs are two different things.
However, even though there were many misfortunes, once the Ming army came ashore, they had to endure the baptism of primitive grenades in the hands of the Third Spear Team.
Huang Xueren couldn't help but get excited when he thought that after dozens of his own grenades were thrown out, they might set off masses of flowers of flesh and blood in the Ming army! js3v3