Facing the sharp bombardment of the rebels, Lu Xiangsheng was a little unsure about paying attention.
Next, should I let the infantry continue to advance slowly according to the original plan, wait until they get closer, and engage in light artillery, bow, and musket fire with the enemy infantry, and then enter into hand-to-hand combat?
In this case, our own infantry array will probably continue to be unilaterally bombarded by the rebels. According to the fact that it does not take a moment for the rebels to destroy a square array, it is estimated that when our own side slowly passes to the fighting distance, the frontline army will Many phalanxes had to be destroyed.
If you don't form a formation slowly, just rush over? This can reduce casualties from shelling, but it is still several hundred meters away. A direct charge will consume a lot of physical energy of the soldiers.
Especially the main soldiers, who wear heavy armor weighing tens of kilograms and run hundreds of meters with spears or shields and knives, will consume a lot of physical energy, which is very detrimental to subsequent battles.
Not to mention that such a fast charge cannot maintain the formation at all.
Most of the soldiers under him are actually miscellaneous guards. They can only fight at least two or three thousand. These people can maintain the formation if they advance slowly, but if they charge directly, the formation will break up in minutes. Lost.
Once the complete formation is lost, the dense infantry formation is also a dead end when facing the rebels.
It was neither a rush nor a rush, which put Lu Xiangsheng in a dilemma for a while.
At this moment, Lu Xiangsheng had a very bad premonition in his heart, a premonition that he had never considered before.
Maybe, maybe, this battle will be lost!
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On the other side, Luo Zhixue looked at the good artillery fire in front and couldn't help but smile. He also said to Xu Zhixian beside him: "This artillery is the god of war. As long as the artillery can be used efficiently, the war will be easy." It’s much easier.”
Xu Zhixian immediately said: "This is all due to the general's strong support for the development of artillery, otherwise we would not have achieved today's results."
"My subordinates heard from Brother Zhang that the combat manual for the 600-pound long artillery has been formulated. I have read it and was shocked. Looking at it like this, we should not increase investment in artillery in the future!"
Luo Zhixue chuckled. The artillery combat manual for the six hundred kilogram long gun was made under his direct instruction. The purpose was to enable the gunners to use the artillery in combat more rationally and effectively.
After all, artillery is considered high-tech equipment, and the level of education of grassroots gunners is just that. Even Luo Zhixue has temporarily launched targeted literacy education for low-level officers in the military for gunners and other technical units as well as grassroots backbones.
However, the educational level of the soldiers of the Baoxiang Army is still very low, and the gunners are no exception.
Even gunners who have received literacy education mostly don't understand various complex ballistic calculations.
In order to enable gunners with low educational levels to skillfully operate artillery, in addition to formulating firing tables, a special artillery manual was also developed.
The six-hundred-pound artillery combat manual that has just been formulated contains complete guidance for different enemies.
For example, for large-scale infantry formations, because the target is large, it is stipulated that limited sporadic bombardment can be carried out within a thousand meters of the enemy.
After the enemy enters 700 meters, you can start regular shooting.
After the enemy enters 250 meters, switch to full-pack shotgun shells for bombardment. In the last 100 meters, you can fire urgently and rapidly, regardless of the life of the barrel, until the enemy collapses or the enemy rushes up.
The combat manual states that artillery fire can be carried out from a thousand meters away, which seems to conflict with the limited range of 350 meters of the 600-meter long gun.
But there is actually no conflict.
There is actually no hard standard for effective range. It depends on the size of the target and how much lethality you want to maintain.
The effective range of the 600-meter-long gun specifically refers to shelling a target about 20 meters wide and a person high. Under the control of a skilled gunner, the hit rate can reach more than 95%, while ensuring that the shells still have enough damage. force.
After comprehensive consideration, the effective range of the gun was determined at 350 meters.
But this does not mean that this kind of artillery can only fire 350 meters. The maximum range of the gun can actually reach more than 2,000 meters. Of course, the maximum range is meaningless.
Because when the artillery shells a thousand-meter target, the hit rate has dropped to only about 10%, and the shells are not very lethal.
In actual combat, the artillery units of the Baoxiang Army will not bombard targets a thousand meters away, but they will not wait until the enemy actually enters 350 meters before bombarding.
The artillery fire will often start after the enemy enters 500 meters. Sometimes, under special circumstances, the enemy will be attacked at a longer distance, even at a distance of about 700 or 800 meters, with a relatively low hit rate. shelling.
It depends on the situation, mainly how wide the enemy's array is... The wider the enemy's array, the higher the hit rate of long-distance artillery fire.
For example, in this situation, the mountains and plains ahead are filled with Ming troops, and the front width of any square array can reach dozens of meters. Even if it is shelling from a distance of five to six hundred meters, it will hit the enemy array. The proportion will still be very high.
In the live ammunition test of the 600-pound long gun, it was aimed at attacking a target 20 meters wide and one person high, and was controlled by a skilled gunner.
The hit rate for one thousand meters is about ten percent.
At about 700 meters, its hit rate is about 28%.
At about 500 meters, the hit rate will increase significantly to 65%, and the lethality can still be maintained at normal levels.
After entering 350 meters, the hit rate can reach over 98%, and the lethality is greatly improved. One cannonball can even penetrate a queue of more than ten people. If you are lucky, one cannonball can kill. There are more than ten people.
Of course, all the above premises are based on the command of a skilled gunner and are only tests during training.
However, due to the quality of the gunners and the nervousness of the gunners on the battlefield, this hit rate cannot be achieved in actual combat.
The above data is also due to the fact that the artillery units commanded by Zhang Malin are now conducting intensive shelling on the enemy's large-scale phalanx from more than 500 meters away.
At a distance of five hundred meters, the lethality of the solid shells fired by the Baoxiang Army's 600-pound long artillery can still be guaranteed. It is not like shelling at a distance of seven or eight hundred meters or even a thousand meters, even if it hits the enemy. The kinetic energy of array artillery shells is not sufficient and the lethality is limited.
At the same time, at this distance, facing a large square formation with hundreds of people on the opposite side, the hit rate is also very impressive.
The artillery combat method of the Baoxiang Army is based on the collection and comparison of large amounts of data. It is not that Luo Zhixue or Zhang Malin directly decide at what distance to carry out artillery fire when their heads are hot.
Similarly, this also ensured that the artillery unit of the Baoxiang Army had a power far beyond that of this era.
And it was best reflected in today's battle of Sanyuanzhuang.
As soon as he appeared on the scene, he simply defeated an enemy square formation and even caused panic among the enemy troops.
However, this is not just fun. Zhang Malin's artillery unit will not stop shelling just because one of the opponent's phalanxes has retreated. Instead, they will change the target and continue to bombard another Ming army infantry phalanx.
Although it is no longer a high-intensity rapid fire, it still maintains a fire rate of about one round per minute.
Just five minutes later, the second Ming army infantry phalanx, which had withstood multiple rounds of shelling, inevitably collapsed.
There was no way, there was no way to fight back after being beaten, and the casualties were extremely heavy in a short period of time.
This kind of battle even made Lu Xiangsheng at the back feel numb, let alone the ordinary Ming soldiers who were on the front line and were constantly under bombardment.
Being able to persist for several rounds of shelling before collapsing, and not escaping immediately was considered a great honor to Lu Xiangsheng.
After seeing his second infantry array retreat, Lu Xiangsheng knew that he could not go on like this.
If the whole team continues to advance so slowly, it is estimated that more than half of the main force of our Chinese army will be killed by the enemy's artillery before they get close.
So after taking a deep breath, Lu Xiangsheng decisively ordered: "The central army rushes up, and the right wing also presses up. They have few artillery and few people. As long as we rush over, they will not be our opponent anyway."
"The cavalry is ready to attack. Let me take away their artillery."
At this time, if you don't want to be defeated one by one by the rebel artillery, there is only one way, and that is to advance quickly without giving the rebel artillery space and time.
Of course, he also kept an eye on it. At least on the left wing, the more than a thousand pacesetters and two thousand guardsmen deployed in Sanyuan Village did not let them move.
If this active attack fails, then Young Master Lu Xiangsheng will have to hide in Sanyuan Village and defend stubbornly.
As for the retreat of the entire army, it's not that Lu Xiangsheng didn't want to. If he could withdraw, he would have led his troops away long ago. Isn't it impossible to leave...
When the two sides are so close, once our side retreats, it will turn into a rout within minutes. If the enemy cavalry charges again, it will be a complete game.
In contrast, taking the initiative to attack still has the opportunity to turn defeat into victory.
As for retreating to Sanyuan Village, no matter how difficult it is, we can still wait for reinforcements to arrive.
Lu Xiangsheng ordered the central army and the right army to speed up the advance. Seeing this, Luo Zhixue had a smile on his face.
Even Xu Zhixian next to him had a relaxed look on his face: "General, the enemy's formation is in chaos, their morale is disorganized, and their morale is low. Our army will win this battle!"
The enemy's active attack seemed to speed up the distance of hundreds of meters across the battlefield, but in fact the formation was completely destroyed under the rapid impact.
This kind of enemy that has lost its formation will not pose much of a threat to the 1st Infantry Brigade.
However, although the situation was great, Luo Zhixue still did not get carried away. Instead, he said with a smile: "It seems that the other side is preparing to rush over and engage in close combat regardless of the formation. Send an order so that the artillery can open fire without saving ammunition!"
"The cavalry brigade must intercept the enemy's cavalry and must not allow the enemy's cavalry to approach and destroy our artillery positions."
"Let the baggage battalion move forward to defend the left wing of the 1st Infantry Brigade."
"The Janissaries are ready for battle."
"The victory or defeat depends on this battle, I hope you all will work hard!"
