Outside the Luohe Gorge in Guang'an County, Yang Jun, the patrol envoy to Qunan in Quyang Prefecture and the commander of Quyang's Second Army, was wearing a raincoat and leading a group of generals through the wounded camp.
He looked at the many wailing and wailing wounded soldiers in the funeral camp, as well as a large area of corpses covered by the rain forest in the open space outside.
Yang Jun had no joy at all in conquering Luohe Gorge.
Instead, he frowned!
This battle was both within his expectations and beyond his expectations.
What he expected was that he relied on his huge force advantage to forcefully divide his troops to bypass the defense line of the South Navy's 3rd Division, and finally made detours to force the South Navy to retreat, and then seized the Luo River Gorge, a strategic passage southward.
But what he didn't expect was that this time he attacked the Luohe Gorge with an absolutely superior force, and also had many heavy artillery and river warships to assist. He attacked the Luohe Gorge, which was defended by only 10,000 people. In just two days,
No less than 10,000 people were killed or injured!
The number of casualties was so high that he couldn't believe it!
Originally, he was still coordinating command from the rear, but thousands of casualties occurred on the first day of the general offensive. For this reason, he went to the front line in person that day, but the attack on the second day still suffered huge casualties. At that time, he saw with his own eyes countless of his own troops.
The soldiers were torn to pieces by South Korean naval artillery shells and bullets.
If the partial division troops sent by him had not successfully detoured, and if the other party had most likely run out of ammunition and retreated on its own initiative to avoid being surrounded, I am afraid that our own casualties would have been even greater.
He even once doubted that if the opponent had enough ammunition to defend tenaciously, and he had more than 100,000 troops, it was not clear whether he could win the Luohe Gorge.
Naturally, he didn't know that the huge results of the third division were based on the consumption of most of the ammunition.
Breech-loading rifled weapons are easy to use, but their ammunition consumption is huge.
In the era of muskets, a soldier was issued fifty rounds of bullets, and the war was often over before the bullets were finished. But in the current era of breech-loading rifles, dozens of bullets are not enough for a battle.
Excessive ammunition consumption, insufficient replenishment, and facing the danger of being cut off from their retreat, led the Third Division to take the initiative to retreat.
Otherwise, the Third Division would not have retreated!
As long as there is sufficient ammunition, the Third Division is fully confident that it can defend for a long time, even if it is besieged.
Unfortunately, there is not enough ammunition!
Nowadays, the South Korean Navy has entered the breech-loading era in terms of weapons and equipment. The amount of ammunition consumed is extremely large, and they are all new weapons. There was not much reserve of this ammunition before, and it was all used as much as the arsenal produced.
A large amount was consumed in the Northern Expedition in the past few months, and a large amount was consumed in the subsequent eastward march to Anlong County and Hetai County. Basically, the newly produced ammunition in the rear was sent to the eastern front. After discovering the abnormal movement in the north,
Finally, although the rear responded quickly to supply ammunition to the front line, this took time.
Before this, the Third Division could only rely on its own ammunition reserves to fight the war, which naturally could not be sustained for long.
Although the third division retreated and Quyang's second army successfully captured the Luohe Gorge, Yang Jun could not be happy.
Those killed and injured were all his direct descendants!
Although Quyang Prefecture is a unified state in name, the state order is just an empty frame, and the real power is controlled by the commanders of the four major armies of Quyang Prefecture. They are the real masters of Quyang Prefecture.
Yang Jun's Second Legion is the most powerful force in Quyang Prefecture. It has more than 200,000 troops and controls half of Quyang Prefecture. It is almost the combined strength of the other three legions. If it were not for these three
The legions have always advanced and retreated together. Yang Jun had already killed them and completely controlled Quyang Prefecture.
This time going south is not an overall operation of Quyang Prefecture, but a private action of Yang Jun's Second Army. The purpose is very simple. Kill Lin Ziran and seize Nanhai Prefecture. Even if the entire Nanhai Prefecture cannot be taken, Guang'an County must be taken.
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But he didn't expect that the first battle he led the main force southward would suffer such heavy casualties.
Obviously in the previous small-scale probing attack, the opposing Southern Navy did not show such strength. Why was the opponent's firepower so fierce when it came to the general attack?
Even if they are equipped with breech-loading guns, they can't be so exaggerated!
Yang Jun is also no stranger to breech-loading guns. This thing has been widely spread in a very short period of time since its emergence. The small feudal towns in Nanhai Prefecture all know that Fuyuan muskets are modified into breech-loading rifles.
The vassal towns in other states are naturally no exception.
Yuan Yonghan also converted the smoothbore gun into a breech-loading rifle, and Yang Jun did the same. What's interesting is that the smoothbore gun they equipped before was actually a Fuyuan musket. There was no need to redesign this modification, and it was directly modified according to the Fuyuan rifle.
As for breech-loaded artillery, there is nothing we can do about it, but front-loaded rifled cannons can still be produced. The arsenals under Xu Teng and Yuan Yonghan are so poor that they can produce front-loaded rifled cannons. At least he, Yang Jun, still has a skill that is not good enough.
What about a bad artillery factory?
Therefore, this rifled weapon is nothing new in Daheng today, especially in Nanhai Prefecture and surrounding areas. The learning ability of each vassal town is very strong, and they are afraid that their weapons and equipment will fall behind others. In the end
Their territory was taken away, so after the emergence of breech-loading rifles, these feudal towns were all very active.
Similarly, the emergence of breech-loaded rifled weapons, especially breech-loaded rifled cannons, was also the reason why many feudal lords wanted to kill Lin Ziran and capture Luohai City.
Breech-loading rifled guns are fine and can be made by medium-sized arsenals. Although the performance will be a little worse, they can still be used. If it doesn't work, they can be modified with smoothbore guns.
But the breech-loading rifled cannon is not easy to produce. The technical requirements for this thing are too high. Nowadays, there are only a few arsenals in the entire Daheng Empire that can produce such technically demanding breech-loading rifled cannons.
Everything is in the hands of Dafan Town.
In the entire southern Daheng region, there is only one Nanzhou Machinery Bureau that has this technical strength.
Kill Lin Ziran, capture Luohai City, and capture the Fuyuan Ordnance Factory, Nanzhou Machinery Bureau and the entire industrial system, and you will be able to obtain breech-loading rifled rifles and breech-loading rifled cannons.
This is a huge attraction for Yuan Yonghan, Yang Jun, Ningyu Prefecture and Zhongluo Prefecture.
Not to mention that they can also capture the Nanhai Prefecture area. Once the Nanhai Prefecture area is integrated, it will immediately become a Dafan Town, a Dafan Town that can affect the situation in Daheng!
The huge strength of Nanhai State is the reason why they want to enter Nanhai State!
Not only to get it for myself, but also to prevent Lin Ziran from getting it!
With the potential of Nanhai Prefecture, especially its industrial strength, after Lin Ziran truly unifies Nanhai Prefecture, the war potential that Nanhai Prefecture can unleash is astonishing!
How much the vassals in various states feared the Southern Navy under Duke Meng, now they are equally afraid of the Southern Navy under Lin Ziran!