Two hundred and ninetieth eight chapters cruel war
The scouts on the east bank of the Lanjiang River also took the risk to steal a few items and sent them back that night.
Li Xuan was speechless as he looked at the items in front of him, which were prepared in large quantities by the Ming army.
These Ming troops are really interesting!
The items placed in front of Li Xuan are quite interesting. First of all, it is a rather exaggerated shield. It is not quite appropriate to call it a shield, because this thing is as tall as a person and only fifty centimeters wide.
Behind it are several thick wooden boards spliced together. A layer of iron sheets is nailed on the outside of the wooden boards, and a layer of cotton armor is also covered on the outside of the iron sheets.
Except for the wooden board at the back used as a support, the combination of iron sheets and cotton armor is basically the combination of the cotton and iron armor equipped by the New Army of the Tang Dynasty.
However, the weight of such a huge shield is also quite exaggerated. It may weigh hundreds of kilograms. Even the strongest soldiers cannot carry such a thick wooden board very far. It is estimated that they would have to fall down after walking more than ten meters.
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After all, this kind of giant shield cannot be carried or carried on the back. It can only be carried with both hands. This requires very high physical fitness of the soldiers.
In addition to this exaggerated giant shield, there is also a small shield. This small shield is obviously modified from the single-person buckler of the previous Ming army, and is much thicker.
Then there is also a wheelbarrow, which is said to be a handcart, but in fact it is more suitable to be a chariot. The front section of these carts includes iron sheets and cowhide, and there is also a large front baffle. Look at the iron.
The thickness of the shield is probably better than those portable shields in terms of defense.
Li Xuan was quite speechless after seeing these three types of defensive shields. Just looking at the materials used in these shields, he knew that the cost must be quite high, at least much more expensive than the muskets equipped by the new army of the Tang Dynasty.
But do these Ming troops think they can stop their own volleys of musketry with this?
You must know that after the Ming army landed, they were only thirty meters away from the defense line of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. The Ming army would still advance. At this distance, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was equipped with 14mm muskets and even plate armor made of fine steel several millimeters thick.
Can punch a hole in one shot, can these defensive shields made of thin iron sheets, cowhide, cotton armor, and thick wooden boards block the bullets of our own muskets?
Just kidding!
Sure enough, the next day Li Xuan personally asked the guards to use muskets to conduct live ammunition tests on these defensive equipment of the Ming army.
The defensive power of these defensive equipment is quite good at fifty meters away. Except for the small shield that was penetrated, the giant shield and the shield car were intact. However, when they came forward to thirty meters, even the giant shield could not bear it.
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At a distance of twenty meters, even the baffle on the shield car couldn't stop the bullets!
In other words, even if the Ming army spent a lot of money to build and equip these things, it was still unlikely that they could block the muskets fired by the new army of the Tang Dynasty at a range of 20 to 30 meters.
If shields or armor could block bullets, the West would not have used hundreds of years of line troops to line up and shoot, and armor would not have withdrawn from the stage of war.
Not to mention, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was preparing to use not only muskets, but also grenades and artillery to carry out concentrated killings against the Ming army on the beach.
And the power of artillery and grenades is not something that shields or armor can withstand.
Thousands of grenades were thrown on the heads of the densely packed Ming army on the beach. It was very likely that the scene of the last Battle of Lanjiang Ferry would be repeated. The Ming army was stunned by the bombing, and thousands or even thousands of people were killed or injured. In the end
The whole army collapsed.
The Ming army knew that the New Army of the Tang Dynasty had grenades and artillery, so how did they prepare for it?
Li Xuan was quite curious about this, but unfortunately, the scouts of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty did not find out the relevant preparations of the Ming Army.
But the next afternoon, the spies on the other side of the river brought back some bad news. The Ming army on the other side of the river actually brought a lot of artillery.
I heard that there were more than ten bowl-mouth cannons, and there were also twenty or thirty other random artillery pieces, which could not be considered artillery, but were just larger muskets.
The appearance of this batch of artillery instantly made many officers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty feel the pressure.
Once these artillery pieces are close to the shore, even if they have a short range and slow rapid fire, they are still enough to pose a serious threat to the new army of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, Zeng Ziwen of the Privy Council Operations Department and several staff members agreed that these artillery pieces must be killed as soon as possible at the beginning of the war. As for the ordinary infantry of the Ming army, the threat was not too great.
After all, the fortifications that the New Army of the Tang Dynasty spent three months building were not in vain. They were enough to resist the attack of ordinary infantry of the Ming Army.
The only threats that could pose a threat to the new army of the Tang Dynasty were the artillery of the Ming army and a large number of archers.
Artillery is so powerful that it cannot be defended against, and can only be pre-empted.
As for the many archers of the Ming army, this is difficult to deal with and they can only defend passively.
On the one hand, the armor is concentrated as much as possible on the front row soldiers who may face the threat of enemy bows and arrows. On the other hand, some thick wooden boards are laid on the top of the parapet to prevent the Ming army's bows and arrows from being thrown. As for the front, there are
The parapet is blocking it.
I was afraid that the Ming army would throw bows and arrows and a large rain of arrows would cover it, which would reduce the defensive effectiveness of the parapet by more than half.
Now, both the New Army of the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Army have begun to take targeted defensive measures.
While the main forces of both sides were making final preparations, the two sides had already begun small-scale contacts and battles.
Starting from the third day, the Ming army would send small-scale troops to stow away and land at night, sometimes at the Lanjiang ferry, sometimes at several other ferry crossings.
Most of the illegal immigrants were discovered by the monitoring personnel of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty before they even got close to the shore, and then small-scale battles broke out between the two sides.
During this process, there will naturally be no major problems at the Lanjiang Ferry.
However, although the First Mixed Battalion and the Second Mixed Battalion both won after two consecutive battles, they also caused certain losses because they were sudden battles at night.
Even once again, the Ming army broke through the defense and penetrated deep into the rear, almost risking a breakthrough by the Ming army.
As these frequent small-scale battles continued, the Ming army lost hundreds of people, but the New Army of the Tang Dynasty also suffered a lot of losses. The main force suffered no losses, but the combined number of the first mixed battalion and the second mixed battalion was
Nearly eighty people were lost.
This made Li Xuan very angry. These Ming troops did not dare to fight a decisive battle openly and engage in such a small-scale smuggling operation.
If the fight continues like this, the First Mixed Battalion and the Second Mixed Battalion will suffer heavy losses.
Their two mixed battalions together only have a total of 500 people. They have lost 80 people in just a few days. In a few more days, won't these two mixed battalions be crippled?
At this time, Zeng Ziwen made a suggestion. Since the Ming army launched such a violent smuggling operation, it is better to rotate the troops. On the one hand, it can allow the troops who have experienced the battle and suffered slight losses to rest and recover.
Time, on the other hand, can also give those troops that have not been tested in combat the opportunity to experience actual combat and accelerate the growth of these new recruits.
Upon hearing this, Li Xuan also felt that it was feasible, and immediately rotated the troops of the two mixed battalions and the main battalion.
Moreover, it is still a transfer of the organic system. For example, the original musketry team of the first mixed battalion is transferred to the second infantry battalion. The musketeer team of the second infantry battalion is transferred to the first mixed battalion. Its spear team, sword and shield soldiers, and bows and arrows are transferred to the first mixed battalion.
Hands and cavalry are also rotated.
In other words, except for the establishment of the first mixed battalion and a few personnel in the battalion headquarters, other units will undergo rotation.
The same is true for the second mixed camp!
And in this way, it has indeed exerted a considerable effect. Although the two mixed battalions still frequently fought against the Ming army, and sometimes even fought two or three times a night, to be honest, losses were inevitable, but their damage was obvious.
The number of troops is larger, and the most important thing is that the combat effectiveness of these two mixed battalions has always been maintained.
As for the troops who were rotated to Lanjiang Ferry to rest and prepare for war, they were to replenish the new troops sent from the rear and continue training.
Although reports of casualties ranging from a few to dozens of people can be seen every day, the two mixed battalions of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty have always maintained their combat effectiveness.
To be precise, every team and battalion maintains their combat effectiveness.
It could not only block the Ming army's sudden sneak attack across the river, but also maintain the combat effectiveness of the troops, and even quickly improve combat experience. In this regard, Li Xuan felt that Zeng Ziwen's proposal was really good.
But this also resulted in the fact that dozens of new soldiers were sent from the rear every day to replenish the troops.
Fortunately, the recruitment of new soldiers by the New Army of the Tang Dynasty has been uninterrupted. Now, although almost all the soldiers in Zhengtai County who have qualified and voluntarily joined the New Army of the Tang Dynasty have joined the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, there are still a few people who apply every day.
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The training of these new recruits recruited in the later stage has already begun to train individually. After a month of basic training in the recruit camp under the Operations Department, they will be replenished to the units with missing personnel, and then trained with other soldiers in the unit. Through the old-to-new model,
growing up very fast.
Nowadays, Li Xuan has no plans to establish new troops in the short term. These recruits who are still in the new barracks are just to make up for the battle losses.
Whenever a new soldier is added to the main force, it means that a soldier is killed or injured!
This may sound cruel, and people with a little bit of a Virgin heart will sigh a lot, saying that Li Xuan and the many generals of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty are too cruel and have no humanity at all. They take dozens of lives every day.
to consume.
But this is war, a life-and-death war. War is about killing the enemy by all means, because if you don't kill the enemy, you will die.
As for human nature, there is nothing human about war!
Moreover, what Li Xuan and the others are playing is rebellion. There is no rebellion without death. For Li Xuan, as long as the person who dies is not himself, then that’s fine!