In the artillery battle between the two sides in the past few days, both sides suffered a lot of casualties, because the artillerymen of both sides basically fired at each other from a distance of more than 400 meters!
However, the Ming Army's gunner casualties far exceeded the Tang Army's gunner casualties. The most important factor was that the Tang Army was equipped with howitzers on a large scale!
Because the fronts of the artillery on both sides were protected by sandbags made of sand and gravel. The Ming army did not do this before, but after fighting with the Tang army for so many years, they learned a lot and knew how to build sandbags in front of the artillery.
To defend.
Therefore, the damage caused by solid bullets to artillery positions has been reduced a lot. Even if it is a direct hit, it will hit the sandbag, and the damage to personnel is limited. If it does not hit directly and falls next to it, there is basically no threat.
Ricochets, or falling directly into the artillery position, will cause a certain amount of damage.
But grenades are different, they will explode!
Moreover, the matchlock fuses of artillery shells these days are not very good, and embarrassing things often happen, such as exploding in advance before landing or exploding after a while after landing.
This kind of embarrassment has caused unexpected results in actual combat, that is, those grenades that explode in advance are much more lethal when they explode directly above the city than when they explode after landing. Often a shell will hit the enemy's
When an explosion occurs over a crowd, its shrapnel can kill or injure a dozen or more people. If the people are densely packed, it is possible to directly wipe out dozens of enemy people.
After all, the heavy howitzers of the Tang Dynasty were 48-pound grenades with a large charge. The explosion would not only produce a large number of shell fragments, but there would also be solid lead bullets flying around during the loading process.
If a 48-pound grenade explodes just right above an enemy infantry square, the damage range will be enough to cover dozens of meters in radius, and it is possible to directly destroy the infantry square.
Of course, this kind of artillery shell still cannot be called an airburst shrapnel, because its explosion time cannot be controlled by even the most experienced artillerymen, so whether an airburst will occur or not depends on luck.
Most grenades explode after landing on the ground. Of course, it often happens that they explode halfway through the flight before reaching the enemy's sky.
How should I put it? Whether the grenade now equipped by the King of the Tang Dynasty air explodes in advance or explodes when it hits the ground, or whether it explodes after landing for a while, or even whether it can fly to the enemy's position, that is all purely to see.
Character.
However, even such an unreliable grenade has become a major weapon of the Tang Army, especially in critical battles. It is very, very useful!
Using its special curved trajectory, it can land on top of the city or behind the city wall, and then explode. If you are lucky, the killing effect will be very impressive.
And after such a continuous battle, the Ming army's gunners suffered heavy casualties!
The Ming Army did not have as many gunners as the Tang Army, and when the Datang Army was engaging in artillery battles, there were rear artillery groups on standby at any time. If a gunner was killed or wounded on the front line, someone would immediately be able to replenish it.
Speaking of these pre-prepared artillery groups, even in the few supplementary brigades, there are still a large number of artillery that can be supplemented to the front line at any time.
As a result, the Ming Army's artillery naturally became weaker and weaker. In the first few days, the two sides were able to engage in fierce artillery battles, but now, the Ming Army's artillery has been almost completely suppressed.
.
On a hilltop on the outskirts of the city, Hao Bainian watched the Ming army retreat on top of the city. After its artillery was suppressed, he immediately ordered: "It's almost done. Order all ministries to prepare to attack the city according to the planned plan!"
The Tang Army had fought similar tough battles many times, and basically had a complete set of tactics. Although the Ming Army tried every means to strengthen their defense, as long as they did not use revolutionary weapons and tactics, they would basically have no chance of defeating them.
It was difficult to resist the Tang Army's strong attack tactics that relied on artillery to clear the way.
At the same time, at the top of Yangzhou City, Xiaoqi Zhao Dong was hiding behind the battlements, bending over and half-crouching, looking at the pseudo-Tang rebels outside the city.
Behind him, two gunners were loading a five-pound field gun, and two other gunners were doing the same thing as him.
Originally, a few days ago, there were seven people in the gun crew of his five-pound field gun, but in the artillery battle that lasted for several days, more than half of his comrades-in-arms were killed or injured, two died and two were injured.
Two, they are the only three left.
At first, he heard that the adults above were preparing to replenish manpower for his artillery team, but soon no one said so, because the gunners suffered too many casualties in the continuous artillery battle, and it was impossible to
There were no extra gunners to add to his side.
Although this Xiaoqi went to the Qianhu above to explain it to him, nothing happened!
In the end, there was no choice but to use three people to operate this heavy five-pound field gun.
Looking out from the battlements, one can see that the artillery of the puppet Tang rebels outside the city is continuing to fire, and many artillery shells are continuously flying to the top of the city.
At this time, the two artillerymen behind him had also finished loading, and then came over to him. Then one of them said: "Sir, the cannons of this bandit army are firing too hard!"
Zhao Dong glanced back slightly, and then said: "If you don't want to die, just squat down, cannonballs don't have eyes!"
He didn't want his last two gunners to lose their lives inexplicably. One of his loaders stood up unluckily and was hit by a flying solid shell!
The model was so miserable that people couldn't bear to look at it. The whole person was smashed flat.
After that, he saw a small black dot in the sky flying towards him quickly. Before he could say anything about getting down, the small black dot landed on the top of the city more than ten meters away, and then issued a
A dull explosion!
The air wave caused by the explosion also carried many sand and gravel fragments flying towards them. Fortunately, their artillery position was also protected by sandbags on the left and right, so although the three of them were a little dizzy from the shock, they were not injured.
.
He shook his head, shook the sand and mud off his head, and then looked back to the side. He saw that the artillery group next to him was in a mess, with several gunners staggering around, dead or injured.
This is the explosive bomb of the bandit army!
If Zhao Dong was asked to say what he hates the most, it would definitely be the enemy's explosives!
This thing is difficult to defend, even if it has battlements and sandbags, but once this thing falls on the artillery position, it will definitely cause a bloody storm. Among the four artillerymen under his command, except for one unlucky guy who was hit by a solid bullet, the rest
The three people below were all killed and injured by a shell that landed nearby. One was killed and three were injured on the spot.
What was even more unlucky at that time was that the first artillery group next door, including the flag commanding the artillery, was all scrapped.
So these days, for the sake of his own life, he worked hard to thicken and heighten the sandbags!
Sighing, Zhao Dong did not look at the situation, because everyone knew that he was either dead or disabled, and looking at the situation himself in the past was not helpful. He still has his own mission now.
I saw him bending down, walking behind the artillery, and then asked the two remaining gunners to help push the artillery to the muzzle position, and then he started to aim!
His aim was the same as that of most Xiaoqi gunners in the Ming Army, relying entirely on experience and instinct.
Because the past few years have passed, although the Ming army is equipped with a lot of artillery, it has not learned much about training gunners and artillery commanders. They can only learn and operate based on the fragments of words circulated by the puppet Tang rebels.
artillery.
However, the technical difficulty of artillery is not low. A qualified gunner needs to master arithmetic and geometry. He must know how to calculate ballistics on site and control the amount of gunpowder to achieve accurate hits.
Even in the Tang Army, it is difficult for gunners who have received systematic training to master this kind of skill. A gunner who can calculate and shoot Zhu Yuan needs a long time of training.
As for the Ming Army, the situation was even worse. In the end, they had no choice but to let the most experienced gunners serve as artillery, relying solely on their experience and instinct.
Zhao Dong is also an old artilleryman in the Ming army. He was born in the frontier army and played with Folang machine guns in the north in his early years. Later, when he came there, he started to play with this five-pound field cannon.
I don’t dare to say how good it is, but by firing a few more rounds, you can get a feel for it and improve your hit rate.
After Zhao Dong took aim carefully, he lit the match himself. After the match was burned to a low level, the five-pound bronze field cannon, which was built in Huaibei in the early years, shook violently, and the entire gun body moved back several feet.
At the same time, there was a loud noise and a cloud of white smoke rose.
Zhao Dong, on the other hand, ignored the cannon and instead stared at the sky in front of him with his eyes wide open. Relying on experience, he quickly found the cannonball he fired.
The artillery shell drew a slightly curved curve in the air, and then landed on the artillery position of the Puppet Tang Bandit Army 400 meters away. However, when it landed, it happened to land on the artillery batteries of two Puppet Tang Bandit Army.
In the middle, although it bounced a few times, it did not cause any damage.
However, Zhao Dong did not feel any regret, because in his opinion, the shot just now was a good one. The deviation was only a few meters, which was nothing at all. As long as he maintained the current angle and charge,
The more times you come, the more likely you are to hit.
So he said: "Come again!"
However, just as he was speaking, the gunner on the side said hurriedly: "Look, sir, the bandit army seems to be coming!!"
At this time, Zhao Dong looked to the other side. Sure enough, the puppet Tang rebel army that was originally six or seven hundred meters away had formed a separate square formation of about a thousand people. It was already slowly forming.
The thousands-man phalanx of pseudo-Tang thieves who were advancing were all wearing the bright and dazzling armor unique to Tang thieves. Zhao Dong knew that this kind of armor was called plate armor, but he also saw that this thousand-man
Almost half of the people in the phalanx were wearing full-body armor, and most of the rest were also wearing half-body armor.
As soon as he saw these people, Zhao Dong immediately felt bad, and then shouted: "Quickly, load the shells!"
"That's the assault camp of the Tang bandits, they're about to attack the city!"
The assault camps of the Puppet Tang thief army are almost as famous as their guns and cannons. In almost every city siege, the Puppet Tang thief army will dispatch this kind of assault camp. Once they are allowed to board the city, it will be almost a battle.
massacre!
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