Old Max's reminder is correct. Knight Molière is really not a stubborn old man. Under his arrangement, the materials and tactics of the expedition fleet are the most advanced.
First of all, these ten warships had their artillery refitted when they were in India. As a close official of the emperor, Molière collected all the rifled guns and shells in the colonies, and even installed smokeless gunpowder.
At that time, due to concept or cost reasons, a large number of old smoothbore guns were installed on sailing battleships. Although the new breech-mounted rifled guns had good technical indicators, they were not fully promoted.
There are only two reasons for this. One is money. This is easy to understand. It costs money to change the equipment. Just like in the Austro-Prussian War, it was not that Austria could not produce breech-loading rifled guns, but because the imperial finances did not allow it. That’s all.
Another reason is that the metallurgical industry at that time was not very mature, and the rifling in the rifled gun was too rough. This is really an important reason for the opposition of traditional military strategists.
The vast sea travels tens of thousands of miles at a time. The corrosive power of moist salt water on metal is very strong. The rifling in rifled guns is always worn away at the fastest speed. As for artillery without rifling, its reliability is even worse than smoothbore cannon.
It is for this reason that most of the navies of this era, especially the colonial navies, still used old but reliable smoothbore cannons.
But I never expected that Molière was actually a very avant-garde military expert. In his eyes, even if a rifled gun has 10,000 shortcomings, as long as it has strong firepower, high accuracy, and long range, as long as it has these three points, it will enough.
Molière held high the exclusive power of the special envoy given to him by His Majesty the Emperor, and arbitrarily and unreasonably squeezed the colonial governors and generals, looting all the rifled artillery in the Indian continent. By the time the expedition fleet set sail, half of the artillery in the fleet had become mutilated. It became the most advanced rifled gun.
Not only that, the individual weapons of the Marine Corps and sailors have also undergone a major change. All soldiers are equipped with breech-loading rifles specifically for skirmishers. Although the performance is much worse than that of the Mauser, It is enough to deal with the barbarians in East Asia.
"Keep a distance of five nautical miles from the coastline...focus on the enemy's observation towers on the top of the mountain...knock on them slowly one by one, dig out the enemy's eyes, and turn Naha into a blind man..."
"It's sir!" The flagman quickly announced Molière's order, and the captains of each ship began to select their own hills, regardless of whether they had dates or not.
Boom boom boom... The sound of cannons on the sea was like thunder, and the highlands around Naha Port were completely baptized by artillery fire. All the light and dark sentry towers suffered a devastating blow this time.
"Damn it! Damn it! If I had known I would have built permanent fortifications with reinforced concrete on every mountain peak!" Cai Mao angrily cursed in the Shuri Castle fort.
"Old Max! How far is the enemy fleet from us now? Can our giant cannon hit it? Fire quickly, we can't let the enemy continue to explode like this, fight back... fight back quickly!"
Old Max nervously used a telescope to measure distance. This is a basic skill for artillery. Even without military telescopes, they can measure the distance between targets with a few fingers.
Old Max was now highly nervous. He was afraid that he would make any mistakes. How could he care about his superiority at this time? He yelled without looking back.
"Shut up! I'm the artilleryman here, and this cannon is under my command... You're noisy, even if it misses, it's yours or mine!" The hot-tempered old black man roared, repeating what General Cai Mao said next. Blocked back.
Old Max seemed to be completely trapped in his own world. His mouth was murmuring, "The closest thing to the coastline is a frigate? It is five nautical miles from the beach by visual inspection... It is ten nautical miles from Shuri Fort in a straight line..."
"This distance is too far. Even if the cannonballs can reach it, they will lose their accuracy... Get closer, it's better to get closer..."
Just as Max was hesitating, suddenly a plume of smoke rose into the sky from the southern coast, and the soldiers in the fort were in an uproar, "It's the fishing village south of the shipyard! It's in the direction of Caijia Village! Why did the damn French blow up the fishing village!" Max, don’t forget, you drank in Caijia Village last month!”
There was a muffled sound. It was Old Max punching the artillery support, and his fist was bloody. "Oh God, these bastards who massacre civilians! I can't bear it anymore..."
"The artillery firing direction is seven o'clock in the southeast...the shooting elevation is 45 degrees...the number of gunpowder packets is three...choose heavy-duty explosive shells...this is our first shot in the battle. In the words of you Chinese, that is Let’s make a fortune!”
The Chinese artillerymen around Old Max are all his apprentices. Several months of intensive training have made them familiar with all the processes of cannon firing.
The artillery of that era, especially the large-caliber coastal defense artillery, basically all used ammunition separation. The heavy warhead was first stuffed into the barrel, and then the propellant package carefully calculated by the artillery crew.
Military textile cloth bundles high-explosive gunpowder into round and flat bags. Each bag contains a fixed amount of powder. Otherwise, artillery is a high-tech branch. Just relying on the skill of bundling gunpowder with one hand, it is impossible to learn it without a year and a half of training.
Old Max put in his earplugs, opened his mouth wide, and held the launch cord tightly in his hand, praying to God to bless him with victory.
"Go to hell!" Max suddenly pulled the flint rope, and a string of sparks ignited the medicine bag. There was only a loud bang, and the Shuri Fort seemed to be infected by the nozzle of the steam locomotive. White smoke spurted out along all the gaps. From a distance, it looked like a giant spitting out white mist.
The launch of the 280-caliber cannon was truly earth-shattering. The recent Shuri Castle was as if it had experienced an earthquake. The dust that had not moved for hundreds of years on the roof beams fell straight down.
King Shangtai on the city wall was so frightened that he took half a step back. His ears were filled with tinnitus from the loud noise, but the young king was extremely excited.
"The artillery fire... Our cannons fired back... It's so enjoyable, so enjoyable! This is power, this is the power to protect our Ryukyus..."
At this time, the French fleet closest to the coastline was not the two light cruisers that normally covered the flanks, but a frigate named Gauls.
This is a double-decker frigate battleship equipped with 60 guns. In the naval sequence of the mid-19th century, such a battleship was a heavy naval ship after the battleship. If the Glorious was not here, then his name It would not be called a frigate, but a heavy cruiser.
The Gaulois was the culprit who had just opened fire and bombed the fishing villages. Of course, they would not feel any guilt. Molière had already promised to massacre the city, so would they still care about a few fishing villages that were easily bombed? ? Anyway, I have enough ammunition this time.
What is a revenge journey? What is a battle of revenge? To put it bluntly, it was to vent his anger on His Majesty. The more painful Xiao Letian was beaten by the expeditionary force, the happier Napoleon III would be. Only when the emperor was happy would the officers and soldiers be rewarded.
"Work harder, boys... let's fire another volley and burn that shabby village to the ground... First mate, be sure to record our results and say that there is a company hidden in this village... Oh no, no, no, Just say that there is a battalion of troops hidden, and it was us who defeated this battalion..."
"Yes! Captain..." The first mate wrote enthusiastically on the voyage record. All the officers and soldiers around him who heard the captain's words smiled brightly.
Everyone is a discerning person. Although Special Envoy Moliere is a bit perverted and weird, he reveals a lot of information in and out of his words. As long as the special envoy wins, he will not interfere at all in the process, and he will even push back at critical moments. Let's give everyone a hand and make everyone bolder.
Not to mention that there was a battalion hidden in this village, even if the reported result was that a brigade was killed, everyone believed that the special envoy would eventually sign the battle merit list.
"That's great. I haven't fought in so many years. I didn't expect to get such a good opportunity to make meritorious service in the colonies and East Asia. This is truly a gift from God. I'm afraid everyone here will only encounter such an opportunity once in their lifetime.
At this moment, the second officer who was commanding the soldiers on the deck and countless sailors looked up at the sky in surprise. Everyone heard a strange sound flying rapidly from far to near in the sky.
Boom, boom, boom, like a train flying across the sky.
Of course trains cannot fly in the sky, this is common sense. The veterans realized that something was wrong just after a second thought.
"Oh God! It's the sound of heavy artillery... it's the sound of heavy coastal defense artillery..." The shouting continued, and the seawater 20 meters away from the starboard side of the battleship suddenly roared into a violent air wave and headed towards the Gaulois. go.
The 280-caliber heavy high-explosive shell did not hit the Gaulois, but hit the sea twenty meters on the starboard side. But when such a powerful shell explodes, the light shock wave can sweep across a radius of fifty meters.
The fragments mixed with seawater flew up in the air, and the energy generated by the gunpowder instantly vaporized countless seawater, leaving a white mist near the explosion point.
At this time, the Gallican's starboard salvo had just finished, and the gun doors had not even had time to close. The rain of fragments rushed into the hull along the gun doors, giving the busy artillery crew a chill.
Whoosh whoosh... bang bang bang... shrapnel flew across the air, instantly pockmarking the starboard side of the battleship. The most horrifying thing was on the deck. The captain who had just laughed most arrogantly was stabbed between his eyebrows by a piece of shrapnel. His body hit the deck with a thud, causing everyone to scream in surprise.
"The captain died... The captain died... Where are the medics? Save people quickly..."
This is the power of coastal defense artillery. It has a large caliber and sufficient firepower. If this gun can hit the hull, it can shatter the entire ship. Even if it explodes on the sea, it can kill the enemy with the power of fragments.
The Gaulois suddenly burst into cries, blood flowed on the deck, corpses were strewn on the ground, and even the cabin was filled with cries.
"Oh God! Our intelligence is wrong! Ryukyu actually has the most advanced coastal defense guns?" Molière rushed to the starboard side of the Glory, holding a telescope and looking at the chaotic Gaulois, his face extremely gloomy. The ominous premonition in my heart became stronger and stronger.
Note: It’s the beginning of the month again, so I’m asking for monthly tickets, thank you!
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