After an hour of artillery preparation, more than 600 75mm field guns and 105mm field howitzers fired a total of 20,000 rounds!
Although this kind of firepower density is incomparable to the amount of 100,000 and 200,000 rounds of ammunition dropped per hour during World War I and World War II in history, it still gave a group of bears who had never seen a big scene of shelling a feeling of earth-shattering!
When the bombardment suddenly stopped, the Rakshasa Army's offensive starting position was already filled with joy.
Such a fierce shelling must be able to kill all the living creatures on the Turkish position, right?
Nicholas I, who came to the front line to supervise the battle, thought the same way, so he wiped away his tears and said to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, who was standing by his side as the royal herald: "Mikhail Pavlovich, go quickly Give the order to Marshal Wittgenstein and ask him to launch an attack immediately and make sure to achieve a breakthrough before the Turkish reserve reinforcements come up!"
"Nikolai Pavlovich," Grand Duke Mikhail reminded, "Should we wait for the airship responsible for reconnaissance in the sky to send back a telegram before deciding whether to launch an infantry attack?"
It turned out that there was a Feilong 3 airship equipped with a radio station in the sky at this time, observing the effects of the bombardment from a high position.
"No need," Nicholas I said, "the effect of the bombardment is good enough, now is the best time to break through!"
Nicholas I said this, of course not because he was unaware of the anti-cannon effect of the "Bagua Machine Gun Formation". Zhuge Weidao married his own sister after all, and he also expected the Rakshasa Kingdom to become Eastern Rome and disrupt Europe!
Therefore, Zhuge Weidao had already told Nicholas about this. However, Zhuge Weidao did not tell Nicholas how to break the "Bagua Machine Gun Formation". Of course, it's useless to talk about it. Neither "water tank tactics" nor "storm commando tactics" can be developed overnight. As for destroying the enemy's positions with overwhelming firepower, that is more difficult than building a "water tank."
Because that requires the production of tens of thousands of artillery pieces and hundreds of millions of artillery shells - regardless of World War I or World War II, the artillery shell production of the major players is calculated in hundreds of millions!
Not to mention today's Mao Xiong, even the Ming Dynasty, the world's largest industrial country, has not yet developed such an astonishing artillery shell production capacity - in peacetime, no one will start a production line with an annual output of 100 million artillery shells! And if you really want to produce so many artillery shells, the artillery shell production line alone is not enough. You must also have various production lines for charges, fuses, primers and shell casings. Of course, there must be enough cannons, as well as vehicles or horses to tow the cannons and transport ammunition.
In short, even if Nicholas knew that the artillery preparations in the previous hour were not effective, there was nothing he could do. He brought a total of hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, which was enough to hit the walls of Constantinople. They couldn't all be used on the Turks' first line of defense, right?
Moreover, the entire Rakshasa Army's artillery reserve now only has a few million rounds - based on the experience of the last battle against Napoleon, this number is enough. They can't all be used in Constantinople, right?
Therefore, Nicholas would rather die more people and save some artillery shells. After all, Rakshasa still has to guard against Prussia, Austria, France, the British Empire and the Ming Empire!
After receiving Nicholas' instructions, Mikhail had no choice but to pick up the phone in the shelter and give Caesar's order to Marshal Wittgenstein.
Caesar's orders must of course be carried out, and Peter Wittgenstein, who was able to rise through the ranks and become a marshal, knew the truth.
So less than 5 minutes after Mikhail's phone call, red signal flares went up in front of the Rakshasa Army's attack launch position!
The signal flare conveyed the order to launch an attack.
In various offensive positions, in the trenches and behind the parapets, there were already crowds of fully armed Rakshasa infantry! They all saw the shelling just now. Not only did they see it, but they also let out bursts of cheers. "Hurrah! Hurrah!" the voice once shouted louder than the roar of the cannon.
After all, these furry bears don’t know how fierce the artillery fire of the new era war is? Even those veterans who had participated in the Napoleonic Wars felt that victory was in sight when they saw tens of thousands of high-explosive artillery shells being fired in front of them.
How could the backward Turks withstand such a level of shelling? Even if the French emperor is resurrected, he will be helpless in the face of this level of firepower, right?
Those veterans who had competed with Napoleon's army were now either officers or non-commissioned officers. Their past experiences had made them blindly confident.
In several major breakthrough directions, when the Rakshasa officers and non-commissioned officers saw the signal flares rising, they jumped out of the trenches and behind the parapets without hesitation. They drew their sabers and pointed forward, while raising their arms and shouting : "Ula! Ula go forward!"
Immediately afterwards, the Mao Xiong soldiers came out, holding Suvorov rifles with bayonets, shouting "Ula! Ula!" and started charging with their heads covered.
Most of these furry bear infantrymen smelled of alcohol. They had a glass of vodka to energize them at the beginning of the attack, and now they began to charge with the help of alcohol.
Mao Xiong's infantry are also equipped with water-cooled machine guns, but the amount of equipment is not very large, that is, one company is equipped with one.
These machine guns also move forward with the infantry, but they will not rush directly into the Turkish trenches. Instead, they will be re-set up 1,000 to 1,500 meters away in front of the Turkish trenches, then raise their muzzles and roar. The ammunition belt shook crazily, and strings of powerful bombs poured out like a river of fire, passing over the heads of the charging infantry, and finally landed on the Turkish position.
Some mortars also moved to the front like machine guns. After they were set up, they began to pour artillery shells on the Turkish positions. In an instant, another burst of bullets rained down on the Turks' forward position!
At this moment, Turkish artillery suddenly fired. The shell landed among the charging crowd, sending up balls of fire and exploding countless tiny shrapnel, which were carried by the shock wave and passed through the crowd. Immediately, pieces of flesh and blood were brought up, harvesting the lives of the brave and fearless Rakshasa soldiers.
However, the shelling density of the Turks was even lower than that of the Rakshasa, only about 1/10 of the latter. Of course, this kind of firepower was not enough to stop the bayonet attacks coming like a tide.
In order to rush through the dangerous area blocked by artillery fire faster, the Rakshasa officers and soldiers who drank too much vodka even accelerated their charge!
If you look down from a high altitude, you can see waves of gray skirmishers, just like rising waves, rushing towards the Turkish positions composed of trenches and barbed wire.
Wu Zhenfa, who was watching the battle on an airship, already knew something was wrong. From his position, he could certainly see that the Rakshasa bombardment was ineffective. The Turks had almost nothing to lose!
Moreover, he could also see the Turkish reserve team wearing little red hats, moving forward quickly through the traffic trench!
Suddenly, deadly tongues of flame appeared in front of the Turkish position, rolling over the charging Rakshasa people.
The density of these tongues of fire is extremely high, and they are cleverly arranged to form a continuous crossfire!
The vanguard of the Rakshasa people, who had been charging headlong just now, plunged into the fire net constructed by the Turks with machine guns, and were cut down row by row like ripe wheat.
However, the Rakshasa people's charge was not repelled immediately. They continued to move upward in waves, and soon rushed through the ditch and rushed to the barbed wire entangled with wooden poles.
Because of the precedent of the Battle of Peshawar, the Rakshasa infantry were equipped with vise grips, and it was impossible to stop their progress with one or two barbed wire fences.
But just as the charging Rakshasa infantry cut the barbed wire fence, the Turkish New Army infantry who had moved to the forward position had already set up their rifles.
Deadly rifles and machine gun bullets were fired at the Rakshasa officers and soldiers who were temporarily blocked by the barbed wire...
