The company's live-fire training is about to begin.
The company conducts live-fire firing once a year to test the training results.
Each of the two artillery platoons has the opportunity to fire one live round. If approved, up to three rounds can be fired.
Note that these are cannonballs, not bullets. That requires collaboration as a whole class.
The artillery company Wang Ke is in is a mortar company. What is a mortar?
There are many types of artillery. The ones with longer barrels are called cannons, the ones with shorter barrels are called howitzers, and the ones with even shorter barrels are called mortars.
The length of the cannon's barrel is more than forty times the diameter of the muzzle, and its ballistic trajectory is straight and low. It has the best firepower when hitting tanks and its accuracy is very high. The maximum range of foreign self-propelled cannons is 35 kilometers.
The howitzer is a field gun with a short barrel and a relatively curved trajectory, suitable for attacking hidden targets and ground targets. Howitzers can be divided into two types: towed and self-propelled according to their maneuvering methods.
The mortar is a gun with a short body, a large shooting angle, and a high ballistic arc. The seat plate is used to bear the recoil force. Most of them use muzzle loading, and mortars can shoot at targets behind shelters. It is said that at the shortest distance, the Liberation War once hit targets 60 meters away through a wall.
How do mortars work together?
The squad leader is responsible for commanding, holding two small flags, one red and one green. Green means loading is complete, and red means timeout. Standing in front of the artillery, reciting and conveying the command of the position commander loudly and shooting Zhu Yuan, it is very majestic.
The first gunner is the aimer, responsible for setting up the shooting elements or aiming directly at the target according to the command given by the squad leader, and loudly reporting the preparations for shooting to the squad leader.
The second gunner is the loader and is responsible for loading ammunition. After reloading, crouch beside the gun.
The third gunner and later are ammunition handlers, responsible for opening the shell box, taking out the shells and installing the fuze.
The fuze is a small iron nub screwed on the front of the shell. After pulling out the safety pin, the shell will explode when it hits the ground with a few kilograms of impact force, thus triggering the explosion of the projectile. The shrapnel from the shell can be used to kill the enemy. A small hand grenade will have four to five hundred pieces of shrapnel, and an artillery shell will have even more.
Therefore, there is a saying on the battlefield that new recruits are afraid of trumpets and veterans are afraid of guns.
When the new recruits heard the charge, they were a little confused. As soon as the veteran heard the sound of the artillery, the "hissing" sound made by the artillery shells flying overhead was very terrifying, and he didn't know if they landed in his hidden position.
So after coming down from the casserole roof, the reconnaissance team devoted themselves to intense training from the next day. This training is to quickly and accurately capture the target, and quickly measure the distance and angle between the command post and the target to determine its coordinates.
Only after determining the coordinates of the target, based on the coordinates of your own artillery position, can you calculate and determine the shooting elements. The elements of shooting include the nature of the target, the azimuth and angle, the ruler, and the shooting form. Single shot or concentrated fire salvo.
When the command was given, the sound of repeating the command from the artillery position came and went, which was really spectacular.
As for the forward command post, the most original shooting command is issued from here.
The wireless class and telephone class provide double-safe communication channels for the command post. Therefore, before the collaboration, the reconnaissance class, wireless class, and telephone class will practice repeatedly to ensure that the chain is not missed at the last moment.
The role of the reconnaissance squad will be highlighted at this time. The measurement is fast and precise, and the calculation is fast and accurate, all in seconds. Whoever can control the suppression of artillery fire can have the final chance of victory at any time. This is also the fundamental reason why the command platoon has an important position in the entire company, why the reconnaissance squad has an important position in the command platoon, and why the calculation soldier has an important position in the reconnaissance squad.
Wang Ke required Song Ruimin, who served as the calculation soldier, to do no less than 10,000 coordinate training calculations every day. Luo Shaohuan, Niu Suozhu, and Hu Yanlou, who served as the steering wheel hand and artillery team mirror hand, measured hidden movement points no less than 200 times a day. And it must be fast and accurate, and the error cannot exceed one percent. All links are based on actual combat requirements.
Well, the problems of Luo Shaohuan, Niu Suozhu and Hu Yanlou were exposed as soon as they entered the actual comprehensive exercise, especially Hu Yanlou, who had no problem with his running speed and concealed access to his observation position, but the measured angle was transmitted back every time. There is a large error. What is happening?
Run along and find the reason. I finally found it. It turns out that both the steering wheel and the gun mirror have a horizontal bubble that searches for a plane. If the horizontal bubble is not aligned correctly, your steering wheel or gun mirror will not be on a horizontal plane, and the angle you measure will be deviated. A slight mistake on the battlefield can lead to a thousand-meter mistake.
Moreover, the steering wheel and the gun mirror must be rotated in one direction, but cannot be turned back and forth to focus on the target. Once the target is not found or the lens is turned past the target, the operating handle must be pressed down, and it must be turned back and started all over again. If the error is half At an angle of one meter, your distance calculation may be off by tens of meters. What is a meter? If a circle is 360 degrees, then it would be too inconvenient to calculate the angle in minutes and seconds. Modern military topography directly divides a circle into 6,000 equal parts. Each equal part is one meter, so precision calculation saves huge trouble and is more convenient.
Therefore, practicing hard on the spot to deal with bubbles and camera rotation is really hard work. Each scout has to practice tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of times.
Running uphill, downhill, and hiding to meet the enemy are commonplace.
During this run, my shoes wear out very quickly. A pair of Jiefang shoes can last up to two months before the soles become as thin as paper. The uppers are fine, but the soles are missing.
During this period, Wu Xiangyu had been helping Wang Ke wear shoes, and sent him all the shoes he and his comrades had saved.
Hu Yanlou often runs barefoot. Running barefoot on the mountain is not as easy as on the flat ground. There are many rocks and branches on the mountain, which often hurts the feet. What to do, wear straw sandals. It was during this period that Wang Ke learned to make straw sandals. When he later entered the government, he often attracted a lot of envy when he wore the straw sandals and straw slippers he made. This is not mentioned later.
After more than a month of intensive training, the day of live-fire shooting is getting closer and closer, and Wang Ke's heart can't stop beating. After all, this is a big test of the year's training. After the live-fire shooting, the company will go back to the barracks to rest and spend its third winter.
This time, superiors also attach great importance to the live ammunition firing of several artillery companies. The third-level head of the military division regiment will come to the command post to watch in person. Wang Ke's company, ranked last, will fire. After asking for instructions, the command platoon leader and reconnaissance squad leader who have not entered the position can Observe to learn from experience and adjust future training methods.
This kind of live-fire discussion and observation was still relatively common in military training at that time. The command post was located on an unnamed highland of just over 100 meters. The vehicles of the third-level commanders of the military divisions all drove to the top of the hill, and then they all carried Mazar into the viewing platform on one side. Under the camouflage net on the hillside, there are various steering wheels and gun mirrors, where dozens of reconnaissance squad leaders and command platoon leaders are watching.
Wang Ke searched for a long time, but he did not set up a cannon mirror on the hillside. Looking around, he found a sunken pit halfway up the hillside, less than three meters in diameter and about one to three meters deep. From the perspective of actual combat, this place is well hidden and is an excellent place to set up guns and mirrors for reconnaissance.
"Let's go there." Wang Ke said to the new platoon leader Yan Jiao.
The two men jumped into the pit and set the cannon up to the mirror.
No matter which angle you look at, this pit has a wide view and is easy to hide. The cannon was set up against the mirror, only two rabbit-ear-like lenses were exposed.
The new platoon leader Yan Jiao took a look and found that squatting in this pit was almost undisturbed by the cold wind of early winter. He was not disturbed by the observing comrades, it was very quiet, and he felt very satisfied.
"Reconnaissance squad leader, look at all the people who are watching and learning, we are the only ones that meet the requirements of actual combat training. I will sit for a while, and you will notify me when the cannon goes off." He sat in this pit and looked at the vehicle parked on the top of the hill. From the looks of it, there are still a lot of good cars there. The warm sunshine shines on the pit, making it warm.
"Platoon leader, why are there a group of female soldiers below us?" Wang Ke noticed that at the foot of his mountain, more than a hundred heroic female soldiers came, carrying a horse and sitting on the other side of the viewing platform. The straight-line distance from my observation position is only fifty meters.
"Where?" Platoon leader Yanjiao stood up immediately upon hearing this and looked at the female soldier at his feet.
"Oh, I know. I heard today that a group of female students from Bethune School are also coming to study. The main purpose is to experience the confrontation and intensity of future wars." After saying this, Platoon Leader Yanjiao seemed a little proud. He took off his hat made of leaves and weeds and waved to the group of female soldiers. Some female soldiers actually saw it and then waved to Wang Ke.
Wang Ke thought, don't you know whether Wu Xiangyu and the others are coming? After speaking, he lowered his head and placed his eyes on the two eyepieces under the gun mirror.
"Platoon commander, it's about to start, signal flare." Before he finished speaking, there was an overwhelming roar, and the shells trailed the flames. In the target area opposite, in the circle drawn with lime, there was a sound like a thunderbolt from the blue. "Dong dong dong" The sound of the artillery was like exploding in the ears. The female soldiers below were so shocked that they covered their ears with their hands and screamed.
It was live ammunition from a cannon battery, and it was incredibly loud.
Platoon leader Yanjiao was also frightened. He covered his ears with his hands and swallowed with his mouth wide open. The sound was too terrifying and we were not ready yet.
"Dong dong dong" Another row of shells roared over. "This place is too close to the target area." Platoon leader Yanjiao complained, even though it was still a thousand meters away from the target area.
After this volley fired, another artillery battery began to rotate, with a short rest in between. It can take fifteen to twenty minutes. Platoon leader Yanjiao climbed up from the pit. He still wanted to go behind the cars on the top of the mountain, at least there wouldn't be such a loud noise. But Wang Ke seized this rare opportunity to write down his experience of observing the explosive points, correcting the shooting elements, and how to capture the impact point in actual combat, so as to prepare for future training. While he was squatting in the pit and jotting down his memories in the small notebook he carried with him, he suddenly heard a cry of exclamation from the top of the mountain, especially when he saw platoon leader Yan Jiao running behind a car, dragging The door of a car was shouting "Hold it, hold it!"
The car rolled down and jumped straight into its own pit. In an instant, it was less than three to five meters. Platoon leader Yan Jiao had already let go of his hand. If he didn't let go, he would be dragged down.
Soon enough, a black shadow had already reached Wang Ke's head.
A desperate scream came from the female soldier on the side fifty meters away!
