Humans use fire, and humans are also afraid of fire. Although the memory genes inherited from the beast era have been worn away for hundreds of thousands of years, they still exist and no one is immune.
If the fire scene in front of the trench was just a scattered piece of fire, then the Austrian army could grit their teeth and rush over, even if part of it was burned. But they underestimated Xiao Letian's madness, and they also underestimated the huge power of the gasoline Molotov cocktail.
In this wave of Molotov cocktail attacks, the special mixed battalion smashed out more than 1,800 bottles. If officers at all levels had not given orders to stop it, I am afraid that this wave of more than 2,000 bottles of incendiary bombs would have been destroyed. All must be consumed.
Originally, it was a good thing that Xiao Letian could go to the battlefield in person to boost morale, but in the end, Xiao Letian got jealous and killed himself, which added to the chaos.
Xiao Hexin and Sima Yun rushed to Xiao Letian, pointed at the fire scene in front of them and shouted, "Sir! You didn't even look at what the fire was like, and you ordered it to be thrown away? You want to throw it all away? How can you fight in a war? Do you just want to have fun? Please go back to the headquarters immediately, that is your place..."
Xiao Letian smiled coquettishly. Looking at the sea of fire in front of him, he knew that he was a little too fanatical. The fire zone in front of the entire trench was ten meters wide, and the dancing flames were filled with tumbling and struggling dying Austrian troops.
Look at the fire scene directly in front of Xiao Letian. A blazing fireman is climbing helplessly forward. His burning arms are stretched forward, and his dark fingers are pointing at Xiao Letian, as if he will strangle him to death in the next second. Same.
It's a pity that humans are made of flesh and blood after all. When his fingers were about to touch the edge of the trench, Xiao Hexin raised his hand and fired two shots at Huo Man's head, finally ending his pain.
"Long Ye, take the adults out of the trenches... and go to the headquarters to rest. The prime minister's responsibility is to formulate strategies and tactics, not to implement them himself. Please don't take our jobs..."
Mr. Long embarrassedly held Xiao Letian's arm and whispered, "Sir, in fact, when the width of the fire field reaches six or seven meters, it is enough. There is no need to throw incendiary bombs... What a waste!"
Xiao Letian's face turned red but he said nothing. He knew that he had lost control of his emotions just now. He was only thinking about how enjoyable the fight would be, but he did not consider the issue of ammunition consumption.
After all, Xiao Letian is a master of strategy and tactics. He is very good at commanding large corps to fight or specifying national policies. But it would not be good if he were to be an ordinary grassroots officer such as a company platoon leader or battalion commander. It fits.
After all, Xiao Letian still kills too few people. He is unable to remain calm when encountering blood and killing, and easily falls into fanaticism. This shortcoming cannot be made up overnight.
On the bloody night of Naha, on a battlefield where cold weapons played the leading role, there was still some room for bloody bravery, but when faced with a modern war like the European War, what soldiers needed was calm officers, such as Xiao Hexin , Sima Yun et al.
"Leave it to you, I can trust you..." After saying this, Xiao Letian turned and left.
At this time, the battlefield had fallen into a strange atmosphere. The three thousand charging Austrian troops had stopped. They looked at the blazing fire and watched their miserable comrades being burned alive. The faces on everyone's faces They all showed fear.
I don’t know what happened, but the rear command did not force everyone to continue charging, nor did they order everyone to retreat. The Prussian army on the opposite side also stopped shooting, and the two sides just looked at each other across the fire field.
Time passed minute by minute, and less than three minutes passed. On the edge of the charging military formation, soldiers who could not bear the pressure began to retreat quietly. They subconsciously wanted to leave this killing place.
One, two, countless, the terror spread rapidly like a powerful influenza virus. In a short while, the entire charging military formation collapsed completely. This time, the three thousand warriors who charged intensively lost thousands of people in the battle, plus the two before. The corpses of scattered soldiers were scattered in the trenches, and now there were three thousand mutilated corpses piled in the trenches.
The battlefield was deathly silent, and all the spectators had no strength to even curse. The huge casualties made everyone shudder. Only then did they finally understand that the Chinese on the opposite side were completely different from the Chinese in the European rumors. All People think wrong.
"Let me go! I want to see the division commander... I want to see the count... Let me in, I have a way to defeat the enemy..." Outside the Austrian army's headquarters, at the door of the grass-green canvas tent, a captain He was controlled by soldiers from the guard company, but the captain seemed to have forgotten military discipline and was shouting desperately.
"Division Commander... I know the secrets of the Chinese. I know the reasons for the failure of the artillery battle. Please give me a chance to speak..." The captain yelled at the top of his lungs.
At this time, in the military tent, the old earl, who was so angry that he vomited blood and was unconscious, had just come to his senses. He struggled to let the soldiers help him up, and whispered, "It doesn't matter to me, I can still hold on, this little blow won't stop me... …Let him in, I want to hear his opinion…”
The old count sat on a chair and drank some water to regain his energy. At this time, the captain named Xiao was also pushed in.
"Captain of the Second Battalion of the Artillery Regiment, Vincent reports to you..."
"Please rest a moment, don't waste time, you can make your statement!"
Without saying a word, Vincent took out a piece of white paper from his arms. After opening it, people saw that it was a simple cross-sectional view of the enemy's trench.
"Sirs, this is the style of the trench dug by the Prussian army on the opposite side. We suffer the loss because of this weird trench that is more than two meters deep..."
"We all know that artillery can be divided into two types according to its ballistics. One is flat-firing direct-aiming artillery, and the other is curved-firing artillery. The heavy cannons and howitzers assembled in large numbers in our division are both flat-firing and direct-aiming artillery..."
"Look carefully, everyone, because our artillery is a powerful flat-firing artillery, most of the artillery shells pass over the trenches and explode on the land on both sides of the trenches. Unless they explode just above the trenches, they will be fragmented. And the shock wave cannot hit the enemy in the dead corner of the trench..."
"Sir, we need curved artillery, we need mortars! Only the attack method in which the shells land vertically can increase the effective damage to the trenches. We have been deceived by the spectacular scene of shelling before. Most of our ammunition is Wasted…”
The old count didn't know where he got the strength. He jumped up from his chair and grabbed the simple cross-section diagram, and followed Vincent's ideas to trace on the diagram with his fingers.
The officers present all graduated from regular military academies. Although there are many nobles and dandies among the Thorn Flower Masters, it is undeniable that these people are still very well educated. They understand the theory Vincent said as soon as they hear it. .
This is darkness under the lamp. The old ideas are really harmful. In fact, it is not their fault. After all, they are living in an era of great development of military science and technology and theory. It is inevitable that there will be some omissions when new and old ideas collide with each other. .
Don’t talk about them. In fact, in real history, until the First World War more than fifty years later, after the Battle of the Marne and when mankind entered trench warfare on an unprecedented scale, the old thinking still persisted. exist.
At that time, British and French commanders found more than once that after their crazy shelling, the German troops in the opposite trenches did not suffer many casualties at all, and they could always continue to resist tenaciously when the subsequent infantry launched a charge.
The baffled British and French commanders mobilized a large number of artillery experts and even mathematicians to analyze the situation, and finally discovered that the key to the problem lay in the artillery's firing trajectory.
In a trench more than two meters deep, the side facing the enemy is the so-called blind spot for shooting. As long as the enemy curls up and hides in this blind spot, it will be difficult for the enemy to be harmed by the fragments and shock waves above his head, unless the artillery shell coincidentally hits him. Only then can an explosion over the trench cause certain casualties.
From that moment on, the Army began to popularize field mountain artillery, also known as mortars. The direct-aiming howitzers and cannons mostly destroy fixed fortifications on the battlefield.
"Division Commander... we can't waste ammunition so needlessly. If we double the number of artillery pieces, we may be able to completely plow the battlefield with brute force, but we don't have that many artillery pieces... Now let's go to the rear to mobilize forces. We don’t even have that time to fire cannons..."
"What about the method? Since you can find the key point, I think you must have a solution!" the old earl asked anxiously.
"Yes, of course I have a way... let our cavalry come up and let the most primitive grenadiers return to the stage of war. Since we can't change the trajectory of the artillery, we will use manpower to throw the bags in..."
"The artillery separated half of the ammunition and bundled it into packages. First, let the artillery regiment fire and bomb the trenches. The enemy will definitely continue to hide in the blind spots of defense. At this time, let the cavalry approach the battlefield with the packages and express them, and explode them when they are unprepared. Kill them..."
"Then the whole army will attack. Don't just send infantry. Let the infantry assault continue in the trench area on the southern line, and let the cavalry attack on the trenches on the east and west sides. What we need now is time, and we can no longer take into account the casualty rate. Our three waves of attacks More than an hour has been wasted, we have no time..."
Count Tabris looked at him with relief, "Okay, okay, your name is Vincent, right? I accept your suggestion, and now you will be responsible for this attack... If it succeeds, I will recommend you to the emperor. I promise that at the very least I will give you the position of artillery regiment commander..."
Vincent's eyes immediately lit up, and he gave a military salute, "Resolutely complete the mission, sir, please rest assured!" After saying that, he turned around and left the headquarters.
At this time, Count Tablis finally regained a trace of color on his face. He looked at the high ground opposite and sighed and said, "Xiao Letian, right? I admit that I underestimated you Chinese. Your performance surprised me. Not only are you... Rely on advanced rifles to fight us, even the tactics in your mind are extremely advanced..."
"I really don't understand. How can you, a group of soldiers who came out of the Chinese battlefield where cold weapons played the leading role, have more advanced war concepts than us Europeans?"
"I absolutely don't believe that you dug such trenches to fight the battle out of a sudden impulse. Since you can come up with such defensive means, you must have a complete set of mature tactical experience in your mind... It really makes me curious. Well, who did you study under? Or is it that you are gifted and learned it all on your own?"
Thinking of this, the old earl quickly shook his head: "No, no, no, what's wrong with me? There are just a group of Chinese people across the street. How can that backward nation have such outstanding talents? Hahaha..."
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