Beginning in 1784, Zhao Xin fought for six years against the island countries, the Manchus, and Tsarist Russia. Although each time he relied on excellent training and advanced equipment to win with less, he had never faced a single battle. So many enemies.
There are more than 60,000 Russian troops on the plain north of the Belaya River. There are more than 20,000 Russian troops around the "Zaimka Fortress", which is more than 30 kilometers away in a straight line. There are still 10,000 Russian troops in Cheremhovo. .
As the old saying goes, if you have tens of thousands of people, you will be boundless; if you have hundreds of thousands of people, you will reach the sky and the earth. In the entire Eastern Siberia, the total number of members of the Northern Navy is only more than 17,000. To say that Zhao Xin was not nervous at all would be an absolute lie.
For this battle, he carefully planned for nearly two years. More than 100 D30-122 guns and 100,000 rounds of artillery shells have been prepared; Beihai Town has also accumulated more than 100 self-produced 75mm guns and more than 10,000 rounds of artillery shells; as for other types of ammunition and artillery shells He also hoarded a lot, such as more than 10 million rounds of rifle bullets, 100,000 rounds of mortar shells, and countless other types of military supplies. Compared with these, those 152-caliber cannons are nothing.
In order to prevent Russian spies from discovering the transportation of weapons and equipment of the Northern Navy, Zhao Xin quietly transported a lot of equipment to the secret warehouse in Irkutsk like ants moving.
It looks like they are well prepared, but in fact they are not much at all. The more advanced the weapons, the faster the rate of fire, and the higher the density of firepower, the more bullets consumed in a battle will become astronomical. AK is quite enjoyable to use, right? When recruits are nervous on the battlefield, they often fire more than a dozen bullets in one shot and still miss nothing. Even with a semi-automatic rifle, it takes only a blink of an eye to fire off ten bullets by pulling the trigger ten times. At present, only some veterans with squad leader qualifications in the North Navy are equipped with AKs to supplement the firepower of the infantry squads.
On the Western Front battlefield in the early morning, as the Russian right-wing infantry column advanced at double pace, the artillery was quickly left behind. When the forward observation post discovered this situation and obtained Zhao Xin's consent, they immediately notified the twenty-four 82mm mortars attached to the rear of the main position to open fire and bombard the Russian artillery.
The first one to fire was the benchmark gun. The first rapid whistling sound passed through the air. With a bang, the shell exploded ten meters away from the north of a Unicorn gun. The flying shrapnel killed three Russian gunners on the spot. , injuring five people.
Whether it is a howitzer or a cannon, since the projectile lands diagonally when it lands, and the shell is spindle-shaped, more fragments are generated on the sides of the projectile and less on the front and rear, so the fragmentation damage range is roughly A rectangle that is wide horizontally and narrow vertically. For example, the damage boundary of the 122 grenade is a radial range of 60 meters wide and 20 meters deep.
The ballistic trajectory of a mortar shell is a high parabola, and the projectile lands almost vertically, so its fragmentation killing zone is approximately a circle, and the shrapnel is evenly spread around. The killing circle of the 82mm mortar high-explosive bomb is a circle with a diameter of 36 meters, and the area of its killing circle is only more than 100 square meters less than that of the 122 grenade.
boom! Gray-black soil fell on the heads of the Russian artillerymen like raindrops. But before they could check the loss of personnel, the smoke from the first explosion had not dissipated, and the second roar came again. This time the shell landed five meters in front of the unicorn cannon, killing and wounding more people on the spot. There were more than a dozen people, and a unicorn cannon weighing more than 800 kilograms was overturned to the ground.
The face of the Russian artillery captain in charge suddenly turned pale. He hurriedly shouted to his subordinates: "Guys! Retreat immediately!"
At this time, a gunner who had just gotten up from the ground shouted: "Captain, the drivers are gone! We can't fire the gun!"
The captain ignored him and shouted: "No more! Retreat quickly!"
Historically, European armies, until the early nineteenth century, had a serious problem that hindered artillery battlefield mobility. Due to the existence of the "regiment commander's agent" system, artillery draft horses have always been provided by private contractors, and the drivers responsible for driving the horses are not soldiers. Some armies even delayed signing horse supply agreements and hiring drivers until just before war. So when the battle started, the contractors would try their best to bring the draft horses to the rear to prevent them from being damaged by enemy fire and causing irreparable losses, and the drivers would try to stay as far away from the front lines as possible.
As a result, the artillerymen had no choice, either to drag the artillery themselves if necessary, or to abandon the artillery and flee, leaving them to the enemy.
However, it was too late for the Russian army to retreat. When the North Korean navy's forward observation post quickly reported back the shelling situation, the other twenty-three mortars immediately opened fire. The artillery position on the Russian left front was immediately plunged into blood and blood. Hell of fire.
In just two rounds of shooting, more than forty high-explosive shells ravaged the Russian artillery positions with gunpowder power far beyond this era. Only two of more than a hundred Russian artillerymen survived. However, this is just an inconspicuous wave in the boundless sea of people on the battlefield. It stirred for a while and then disappeared.
The light cavalry on guard around the artillery position hurriedly returned to the rear and reported the situation. General Borkons, who commanded the left-wing army, was a little surprised after hearing the news. He finally understood the terror of the enemy's artillery described by Suvorov.
Should messengers be sent to tell the infantry and cavalry to retreat?
However, this idea only flashed through his mind, and then he ordered his officers to go to the headquarters and request more artillery.
"Tell the Commander-in-Chief that I need at least forty Unicorn Cannons."
At this time, the infantry of the Russian left-wing group, facing the sparse rain of bullets fired from the opposite side, had quickly rushed to more than 400 meters outside the North Navy position. However, both officers and soldiers saw a shining line of light stretching across the distance. , the endless barbed wire fence, all took a breath of cold air.
The light cavalry responsible for reconnaissance in the front came back and reported that the height of this barbed wire fence was 1.5 versts (one verst is 0.71 meters), the depth was more than four versts, and it stretched for almost three versts from east to west, with both ends reaching Belaya. riverside. This news made several team leaders look shocked. It was so wide that even if the horses accelerated, they couldn't jump across it.
"The Tatars are crazy! They made such a thing out of fine steel!"
In the eighteenth century, iron was one of Tsarist Russia's main exports. As of 1790, the Tsarist Empire's annual steel production exceeded 160,000 tons, and its export volume also exceeded 65,000 tons, ranking first among European countries. However, in this era, the greatest use of steel is in the production of weapons. No one has yet made precious steel into barbed wire to block enemies on the battlefield.
Although there are many passages on the North Navy's barbed wire fortifications, for the tens of thousands of Russian troops in a tight formation, if they pass through the gaps that only allow two or three people to pass through, it will inevitably disrupt the column formation of five people in a row. .
what to do? The commander of the Russian army had no time to hesitate. Behind his regiment were three entire regiments of light cavalry. Once they hesitate, the rhythm of the entire left-wing offensive will be completely disrupted.
At this time, the not-so-dense bullets fired from the North Navy position were still killing soldiers bit by bit, and people in the front row were shot and fell to the ground from time to time. Although some Russian soldiers who fell to the ground wailed, those who stepped forward from the back row to replace them just stood silently, and no one leaned over to rescue them at all.
This was the case in the era of line battles. When someone fell in the queue, there was no timely battlefield rescue. In order to maintain the order of the formation, the injured could only wait for the team to pass and be taken care of by the civilians who followed behind.
"Destroy these barbed wire fences! Send people to the back to find some wooden boards!"
It's better to have orders than no orders, even bad ones. Following the regimental commander's order, the battalion commanders of each column immediately ordered their tall grenadiers to line up and ordered them to use grenades to destroy the barbed wire fence.
The grenadiers' headgear is different from that of ordinary musketeers. They all wear a somewhat funny, bishop's hat-shaped brass front bevel hat, which is easy to distinguish in the queue. These grenadiers first took out a "slow match" similar to a fire stick from the brass tube on the shoulder strap, blew it hard a few times, waited for the flame to light up, and then took out a large pomegranate from the cross-body bag behind them. The grenade was lit by a fuse made of hairy beech mixed with black powder.
boom! boom......
Smoke filled the air, and dozens of iron ball grenades exploded near the first barbed wire fence. The empty cans and glass bottles hanging on it made jingling noises. However, when the smoke cleared, the Russian army discovered that their grenades had no effect on these barbed wire fences.
The officers were helpless, so they issued a second order to the soldiers: "dig out all those wooden piles!"
The problem is that no infantryman on the battlefield in these years still carries tools. The Russian soldiers had to take off their daggers or bayonets from their waists and start digging holes under the wooden piles.
At this moment, the atmosphere on the battlefield became a little strange. The sporadic shooting from the North Navy on the opposite side suddenly stopped, leaving the Russian army a little confused. The soldiers in the front row of the Russian column were struggling with the barbed wire. They finally dug away the earth and rocks under the wooden piles, and after pulling them out with force, they found that just pulling out the first wooden pile was useless; because the second wooden pile was The wooden stakes of the first road are arranged staggeredly, just like the branches of the thorn vine.
The hands of many Russian soldiers were cut with blood by the butterfly-shaped blades on the barbed wire fence. However, they had no choice but to pull out one blade after another.
As time went by, tens of thousands of people from six regiments were lined up in front of the first barbed wire fortification. The infantry were anxiously waiting for orders, while the horses under the cavalry were also circling uneasily.
Fortunately, there are more people and more strength. After more than half an hour, this piece of high barbed wire fence with a length of 100 meters was finally cleared. The uniforms of the Russian soldiers responsible for the cleanup were torn to pieces, and their faces and hands were covered with blood. .
The barbed wire fences piled together looked like a huge monster covered with spikes, densely tangled together.
"These Tatars are really ruining a good thing! Using such strong iron wire to make a horse."
"Who says it's not the case! But there are tens of thousands of us, and they want to stop us based on this? Just dream!"
"Ula! Forward!"
However, the joy only lasted for a moment. The Russian chasseurs had just advanced a few meters, and then they discovered with great grief and indignation that there was actually a low-pitched barbed wire fence in front of them that was two feet high and as much as seven feet deep. The iron wires holding the blades were densely crisscrossed in the grass.
The Russian army was suddenly filled with overwhelming anger. Can the vicious "Tatars" still fight happily? !
A battalion commander angrily ordered his chasseurs to stand in three rows and fire a random shot at the Northern Navy position 200 meters away.
Contrary to what many modern people imagine, the firing method of line infantry in the fusiliary era was not that the first column fired first, but that the third column fired first, and after a period of time, the second column, and then the first column... ....The purpose of this is to keep the rifles of the first row of soldiers loaded as much as possible so that they can deal with the enemy's cavalry at any time, or save them for use at the most critical moment.
At the end of the 18th century, although there were certain differences in the rifles of European armies in terms of caliber, barrel length, barrel installation method, butt shape, flintlock bolt design and purge, in terms of rate of fire and effective range, The difference is not huge.
A soldier who goes to the battlefield usually carries 50 to 60 rounds of bullets. The so-called bullet is a cylindrical paper roll. Inside the paper roll is a spherical lead bullet and the gunpowder required to fire the lead bullet. At the same time, the shooting speed of soldiers is not very fast. A well-trained soldier can fire 5 rounds of live ammunition per minute in a short period of time, but under normal circumstances, such a rate of fire cannot be achieved; the Russian infantry did not have any weapons until 1811. The doctrine stipulates that soldiers must practice reloading to the level of three shots per minute. Previously, the regiment and battalion commanders had to control the training themselves.
However, for various reasons, the rate of fire in actual combat is lower than the rate of fire specified in the doctrine, and will continue to decrease during the battle. At the beginning of the battle, the flints were brand new and the fire holes were clean, so misfires rarely occurred; but as the battle progressed, the misfire rate became higher and higher. Another reason for the reduced rate of fire is that the gunpowder cannot be completely burned, so the residue will gradually accumulate on the inner wall of the gun bore, making it very difficult to load lead bullets. The gun bore must be completely cleaned after dozens of shots. In addition, if fired dozens of times at a rapid rate, the barrel of the gun will become too hot to touch. Finally, over time, soldiers also show signs of fatigue.
By the way, in a battle in Europe at the end of the 18th century, infantry required an average of 200 to 500 rounds of ammunition to kill an enemy.
The reason why the Northern Navy stopped shooting at the enemy infantry was certainly not to allow the Russian troops enough time to pass through the barbed wire fence. Zhao Xin's original plan was to let the Russian left-wing troops pass the first barbed wire fence before taking action. The 100 meters in depth in front of the formation was the Shura field he had laid for the left-wing Russian troops.
However, the Russian left-wing troops did not intend to remain idle. While waiting for the planks to be delivered from the rear, the commanders of each regiment ordered the 4-pounder cannon and 6-pounder artillery groups at the rear between the infantry and cavalry to face the north from their positions on both wings of the formation. Naval positions were bombarded.
"Du~~dudu!"
"Everyone, please take cover!" On the Beihai Navy's position, except for the soldiers hiding in hidden bunkers, everyone else in the trenches shrank into the anti-gun holes under the fortifications.
Four hundred meters away, the two wings of the Russian army roared and smoke billowed. More than a dozen solid shells landed on the front and rear of the Northern Navy's fortifications. However, due to the obstruction of a large number of sandbags deployed in front and back of the position, the shells did not land after they landed. Instead of bouncing, it keeps spinning and rolling around.
Some people may think that solid bullets in the smoothbore cannon era will be fine as long as they are not rubbed? To tell you the truth, you are totally wrong, you forgot about the shell shock wave!
According to true historical records, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1812, a Russian artillery officer was cleaning the barrel of a cannon when an enemy solid bullet flew over his head and behind him. The officer fell unconscious on the spot. , his head, neck and back became black and swollen. Although he woke up later, the power of the solid bullet shock wave was evident.
The time has come to 7:30 in the morning. In the North Navy headquarters, Sheng Haizhou reported to Liu Sheng that the drone found that the Russian center and right-wing groups had been dispatched, and the leading troops were still one kilometer away from our main position.
The Beihai navy has been waiting for this moment for so long. Liu Sheng shouted into the walkie-talkie with excitement on his face: "Zhao Xin, the enemies are out! It's time to start!"
At the Northern Navy artillery position located on the south bank of the Belaya River, more than two hundred artillery pieces of various types have been removed from their camouflage, and the muzzles of more than a hundred D30s protruded from the bunkers, pointing diagonally at the sky.
At this time, the heavy fog in the northern wilderness had been blown away by the wind, and the sun had completely jumped out of the horizon, and then disappeared into a dark cloud above it. After a while, the sun broke through the edge of the dark clouds, and everything on the plain seemed to be dyed with a layer of gold, and the outlines were bright and shiny.
As Zhao Xin issued the "start shooting" order, the benchmark guns in each artillery regiment took the lead in firing.
Like the infantry, the artillery of the Northern Navy also adopts the "three-three system" organization; a battalion has 18 guns, and a regiment has 54 guns. The benchmark guns were tested in units of companies, and there were 36 benchmark guns alone. This means that Zhao Xin placed four regiments of artillery on the south bank of the Belaya River!
A squad of 122 howitzers requires 8 people, and a squad of 75mm guns requires 3 people. The more than 2,000 people present already account for two-thirds of the North Korean Navy's artillery. Fortunately, with Zhao Xin, the artillery positions did not require too many people responsible for transportation, so the manpower of each artillery regiment was reduced by more than half.
Artillery squad leader Li Yansheng has been working hard for this day for more than a year. Since the day he joined the North Korean Navy Artillery, in addition to daily military training, he has also crammed in mathematics in both black and white. Whether it was the mastery of cryptic formulas, trigonometric functions, or even various calculation tools and observation equipment, this former Qing army artillery co-leader who had only attended private school for a few years suffered a lot.
In more than a year, Li Yansheng wanted to give up countless times. If it weren't for the encouragement of his comrades and instructors, he would have given up long ago. Just three months ago, after he passed the math test that had stumped countless people, 32-year-old Li Yansheng couldn't help but burst into tears.
As the artillery boomed on the position, after the thirty-six benchmark guns completed two test firings, the company commanders who received the forward observation posts and drone reconnaissance data immediately issued firing orders.
"Fire the whole company! Target No. 106, enemy infantry group, grenade instant fuse, No. 3 charge. Scale 6-00, direction 30-00. 4-round salvo!"
After receiving the order, Li Yansheng immediately found the correction amount of the concentrated fire direction from the "correction amount calculation table" based on the charge number, sight gauge, and the distance between the gun and the reference gun, and corrected it in the direction of the reference gun. After the sight hand quickly adjusted according to the correction amount, Li Yansheng shouted: "Fire!"
When the artillery of the Northern Navy on the south bank of the Belaya River launched an overwhelming artillery bombardment at various Russian military units, bursts of artillery fire roared across the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovskaya plain. , artillery shells ejected from the terrifying barrel, streaking through the humid air and clear sky, accompanied by a shuddering icy whistling sound, and continued to fiercely attack the Russian troops in the three directions of left, center and right. Smash it over.
The North Navy's counterattack has officially begun!
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Set a small goal first, such as remembering in 1 second: Shukeju
