The western line is the mouth of the Suifen River. The Suifen River originates from the white-bodied black water and goes all the way east. It turns a corner before entering the sea and flows from north to south into the Amur Gulf on the west side of Vladivostok.
The defensive position of the volunteers was spread out along the east bank of the Suifen River. The frozen Suifen River was as wide as a big road, and solid ice was exposed under the remaining snow where the horses had just trampled.
It is already half past nine in the morning. After the first Cossack regiment broke through the defense line in the morning, the volunteers spent two and a half hours to expand the defense line. At this moment, the east bank of the Suifen River is no longer what it was in the early morning.
Relying on a four-kilometer-wide shooting position, countless barbed wire fences were built on the battlefield. For this battle, Xiao Letian specially customized fifty tons of spiked wire from the Tanggu Iron Factory, all of which circled the city in large coils. Shipped to the Far East.
Previously, when the volunteers were on the offensive, only a small amount of these barbed wire fences were used, but now that the offensive and defensive situation has changed, these spare supplies can be put to use.
The thick pine wood was sharpened and smashed into the ground, and three wooden rods were tied together to form a tripod, which was strong and stable. Crush one from twenty meters and then tie it up one by one with spiked wire.
This kind of unskilled work can be done by everyone, and the entire battlefield is full of engineers and civilian workers holding steamed buns in their mouths and tying barbed wire with their hands.
The soldiers were not idle either. They rushed to the ice and started chipping away at the ice to bury explosives. This was a hard job. Explosives cannot be placed directly on the ice with a thickness of 60 to 70 centimeters. That would reduce the power a lot. You have to chip away at the ice. The efficiency of the explosion can be improved by digging a groove 30 centimeters deep and burying the explosives in the groove.
The entire defense line from the south is more than 1,500 meters away. Everyone knows that the explosives in hand cannot completely destroy the ice, and there is not enough time at all, but even if it only delays the attack of some cavalry, This is enough.
A steady stream of soldiers brought more sandbags, and the shooting positions began to extend and gradually connected together, until the last Gatling was erected on the position, which finally brought cheers from the audience.
"Holy shit! You've brought this baby here, why did you go there earlier!"
The shooters who controlled the Gatling smiled bitterly and said, "Do you know how difficult it is to maintain this weapon? A Gatling requires a squad of soldiers to service it. This is a high-tech weapon."
Gatling in this era was the most primitive version. It was not as easy to operate as shown in later film and television works. The bulky six-barreled Gatling heavy machine gun was just like a small field gun and had to be placed in a dedicated cannon. It is not displayed at all when it is moved on the rack and carried by soldiers on their shoulders.
This kind of weapon is not yet an automatic weapon. It must rely on extremely experienced shooters to crank the crank to rotate. This is a very rigorous technical task. If it is too fast, it is prone to jamming and other malfunctions. If it is too slow, the rate of fire cannot be suppressed. The enemy's effect, and the shooter's psychological quality must be very good.
On the battlefield of life and death with thousands of troops, the bloody fighting can easily make people excited. If the shooter's psychological quality is not good enough, he will unconsciously speed up the shaking speed, getting faster and faster until the machine jams or other problems occur. Fault.
Therefore, the primary and secondary shooters of the Gatling gun are selected from the oldest veterans who are used to life and death.
A Gatling has two shooters and two shooters, the squad leader and deputy squad leader are observers and are responsible for daily training, and there are two loaders.
These two loaders are very critical. Gatlin does not use chain feed or magazine feed, but the most primitive discharge method. A long row of bullets holds fifty rounds, which are manually inserted into the magazine by the loader during the shooting process.
This job is not easy to maintain. Gatling will pour out two to three hundred rounds of ammunition every minute when he fires. This means that the two loaders have to reload three times per minute, a total of six reloads. In the middle, there must be a tacit understanding of coordination and continuous flow. Connecting them end to end can ensure the effective output of firepower.
It can be seen that the loader is also a very dangerous job. The series of tasks such as squatting, standing upright, loading, and retreating make it very easy for them to expose their targets and be easily fired by the enemy.
There are two shooters, two observers, two loaders, and the remaining four are mechanics and reserves. The movement of the heavy machine gun, the fixing of the bracket during shooting, and the construction of bulletproof bunkers are all completed by mechanics and reserve forces. The most critical thing is the mechanics. Some minor faults must be repaired on the spot.
They are the engineers of the heavy machine gun squad, and they are also a reserve force that can be replenished at any time. Exactly ten people formed a Gatling shooting team, and only in this way could this primitive heavy firepower play its effective role.
Of course the soldiers who had suffered heavy casualties before would be scolded. Why don't they use such good weapons to fight with the enemy and keep them to hatch eggs? But how could they know how difficult it is to maintain such a delicate weapon? Why don't the Western armies use it in large quantities even though they know that Americans have invented such weapons? To put it bluntly, it's because it's too difficult to maintain.
However, one of the God-given attributes of the Chinese is patience. Not only can they endure hardship, but they also have a strong tolerance for it. They are delicate and can do small tasks without going crazy. It is this excellent national attribute. However, they are not disgusted at all with such a delicate weapon like Gatling.
There is even a saying in the machine gun class, not to mention that it is difficult to serve an uncle, no matter how difficult it is, it is easier to serve than the Eight Banners uncle in Sijiu City! Anyone who has mixed with those ancestors can serve this uncle.
"Don't complain! Just now, Uncle Jia lost his temper again, and it took half an hour to replace parts... But don't worry now! With ten units of Uncle Jia guarding him, no matter how many thousands of enemies the enemy has, they can't even think of crossing a single point! "
Just when the main observer was bragging, suddenly in the southwest of the battlefield, several war horses suddenly emerged from the woods on the other side of the Suifen River. On the horses were soldiers wearing Chinese military uniforms. The first one was actually a half-year-old child. .
I saw the horse on the child's crotch running with hooves like lightning. Just as he rushed onto the ice, the child took out a phosphorus-headed fireworks from his arms and lit it in the wind, and a bright yellow alarm shot up into the sky.
"The Rakshasa ghosts are coming! The whole forest and the post roads are full of Rakshasa ghosts... The enemy's reinforcements are coming to kill us!"
The veteran who was setting up defenses at the front was stunned when he saw it: "Who is this person? How can he ride such a good war horse!"
The veteran didn't rub the sand in his eyes. He pointed at the tall horses and stammered, "Isn't this... not... not that horse?"
"Damn, that's an Arabian horse that can only be ridden by the leader or above! It is said that it was bought from the desert far away!"
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