Night falls.
In the grassland sky, the stars are very bright.
It did not pass through the northern part of Central Asia where human industrial civilization was dazzling.
Even at night, the light under the stars can still make people see the figures in the distance clearly.
On the banks of the Syr Darya River, in the battlefield, the artillery on both sides was struggling to tilt their firepower at the enemy, and the infantry on both sides were also ready for a decisive charge.
After a fierce battle during the day.
The Ming army had built a defensive wall of sandbags, vehicles, soil, and standing timber at the front of the Russian army's position.
The height is only about 1.5 meters, and many shorter soldiers even need to stand on tiptoes to aim their guns.
However, this wall was not originally built to facilitate infantry shooting.
It was to provide cover for the Ming army's artillery positions with more than a hundred howitzers, large and small.
One hundred and thirty howitzers were deployed.
These artillery can easily pour grenades with a charge of up to 6 catties into the Russian trenches through high-throwing trajectories.
The Russian army opposite them, from top to bottom, from general to private, knew this very well.
These artillery threats are fatal to them!
Throughout the afternoon, dusk, and into the middle of the night, the Russian army continued to send out infantry assaults, and at the same time, they also frantically reinforced their already very strong trench defense zones.
The Russian trench defense was arranged like this.
Before the first trench, there were three barbed wire fences.
The barbed wire fence formed by driving wooden stakes deep into the soil is difficult for horses to break through.
This barbed wire fence was originally used for grazing.
Still very solid.
The three barbed wire fences are about a hundred meters apart.
Behind the last barbed wire fence is the first trench of the Russian army.
This way.
The distance from the first barbed wire fence to the first trench was six hundred meters.
It's about four hundred steps.
Consider the time it takes to break down the barbed wire fence.
It takes at least ten minutes for the infantry queue to pass this distance. Considering the obstruction of the defenders, this time may be longer! !
The distance of four hundred steps is already within the effective range for the front-loading rifles equipped by the Russian army.
Although the hit rate is impressive, the number of Russian troops is also large enough, and they can still cause a lot of damage to their opponents under intensive firepower.
The Russian troops in the trenches will form two rows of shooting queues.
The row in front placed their guns on sandbags and aimed and fired, while the Russian soldiers in the row behind stood and fired.
To form more dense firepower - before the emergence of machine guns, the way to form dense firepower was to concentrate as many muskets as possible within a unit area!
Within 10 minutes.
A well-trained soldier can complete at least 15 reloads, which means that the Russian army can fire 15 volleys!
This is definitely a fatal blow to the attacker.
Judging from the experience of the Balkan battlefield.
This combination of barbed wire, trenches, and rifled guns equipped with bottom-expanding ammunition is almost invincible.
No army can withstand such intensive firepower and break through three barbed wire fences and rush into the trench! !
No army can endure 15 rifled volleys! !
According to the experience of the Russian army, even if the Ming army's artillery was deployed at the front, it was impossible for them to use artillery to completely suppress the Russian army hiding in the trenches.
so.
In this battle, the Russian army will definitely be able to cause a lot of damage to the Chinese on the opposite side - in theory, this is indeed the case.
But at this moment.
When Sumarokov, the acting division commander of the Russian 12th Infantry Division, was inspecting the front line, he felt very uneasy.
He was sent to Central Asia after retreating from the battlefields of the Caucasus.
As an experienced frontline officer, he was informed by more than a year of war experience in the Caucasus battlefield.
Such a defensive position has a great advantage whether facing horizontal formations, columns, square formations, skirmishers and other tactics.
Such a defensive position was impossible to break: even if the attackers had five times more troops than the defenders!
The current situation is that the number of Russian troops is more than double that of the Ming army on the opposite side!
But even so, Sumarokov was still very uneasy.
Because the opponents in this battle seem to have endless new tactics, and they are equipped with new weapons.
New tactics based on the emergence of new weapons: lying down and crawling, now seem to be able to minimize the casualties encountered by soldiers during the advancement process!
If only a few years ago.
Some of the soldiers under his command wanted to lie on the ground and crawl towards their opponents. Sumarokov's first thought was to pull out his command knife and cut this guy who was degrading to the dignity of a soldier into pieces!
but now.
Sumarokov realized.
The Chinese on the opposite side may really be able to win through this seemingly very unsightly tactic.
As they lay on the ground, bullets almost flew over their heads.
The impact surface is greatly reduced.
And once they break through to the range.
The astonishing rate of fire of breech-loading guns makes it impossible for the Russian army equipped with front-loading guns to win with such a difference in rate of fire.
"You can't use volley tactics, you can't shoot at them forcefully, otherwise everyone will be killed!"
Sumarokov thought.
But here's the thing.
What can we do if we don’t use volleyball?
With grenades and bayonets?
This is a solution.
Put the enemy into the trench and fight with grenades and bayonets.
But here's the thing.
The Russian Army is equipped with too few grenades.
in industrial production capacity.
Let alone Russia.
Even if all European countries are now bundled together, they may not have greater production capacity than the current Ming Empire.
This is a huge empire with a population of 500 million.
It is really scary to be neighbors with such a country - Sumarokov never thought that they do not have a border with China.
The number of grenades cannot be matched by the opponent's.
Russian soldiers are not afraid of fighting with bayonets.
But the problem is that many of the Ming soldiers on the opposite side have bought revolvers.
Except for officers above the platoon leader, other Ming army soldiers are not issued pistols.
But if Ming soldiers have money, they can buy their own pistols.
There are many firearms factories in Foshan now. After some internal research, the price of pistols in the Ming Dynasty is not high, so many Ming soldiers can afford them.
After all, this is something that can save your life at a critical moment.
When fighting in close combat.
When it comes to stabbing vs pistol, it's obvious who has the advantage.
Of course, Sumarokov can attack these Chinese for not practicing martial ethics.
But the reality is here.
They have more grenades than you, and they will empty the six bullets in the revolver before using the bayonet. How else can you shoot? (End of chapter)
