,!
This is why Xu Zhixian just said that he would build an artillery communication trench to pull out the mortars.
To deal with this kind of turtle shell, the Chu army had a large number of solid artillery fired by two and a half kilograms and five kilograms of field cannons. Even the nine kilograms of field cannons were not enough. Fourteen kilograms of siege heavy artillery had to be used to suppress the fire. Then pull up the mortar, especially the 48-pound mortar, to better suppress the enemy's counterattack firepower.
This is also a good reflection of the Chu army's thinking in attacking tough battles in the past year or so: when in doubt, use mortars, and if still not, use larger caliber and more mortars...
This also led to more and more mortars and equipment in the Chu army, and more and more ammunition was spent!
There is no way, now the Ming army is afraid of the Chu army's artillery, and it is impossible for them to come out and play field battles with you. Therefore, the large number of medium and light field artillery and various battle tactics used by the Chu army have basically become useless. .
The Chu army could only increase the number of nine-pound field cannons accordingly, and even equip them with fourteen-pound siege cannons.
Not to mention the mortars, the Chu army had more than a dozen independent 48-pound mortar regiments.
You must know that contemporary mortars are basically useless except for siege. They are not used at all in field battles...
After all, the performance of contemporary mortars is actually very poor. They have short range, poor accuracy, are extremely dangerous to operate, and their maneuverability is not very good... In the end, they are very expensive, and they need to be of the same caliber when firing. Several times the propellant of a field gun...
However, even so, the Chu army was still equipped with mortars on a large scale.
Without him, the Ming army was too shrinking. Without so many mortars, they couldn't pry their turtles open!
Facing different environments and enemies will seriously affect an army's ideas for building an army.
This is not only true in the Chu army, but also in the Ming army.
This was not how the Ming army played in the early years, especially when Lu Xiangsheng launched an upright attack with the Chu army.
The result was a complete failure.
It was precisely because of Lu Xiangsheng's disastrous defeat in the field that the Ming army became more and more conservative when dealing with the Chu army. The more they fought, the more they acted like a shrunken turtle. Various defensive measures were even more excessive than those in Liaodong against the Eastern Capture...
As far as the Yangzhou defense system built by Song Zushun is concerned, it is actually quite complete. Except for the perverts of the Chu army, even their European counterparts from the Thirty Years War could only stare...
The various three-pound regimental guns and six-pound, nine-pound, and twelve-pound field guns of our European counterparts are basically useless against this kind of defense system, and after fighting for a long time, there may not even be a trace of the defenders. with...
But when you rush up when you think the defenders are finished, the defenders immediately take out all kinds of messy artillery and hide in the trench fortress to fight back.
However, blindly passive defense could not stop the Chu army's fierce attack.
After all, Luo Zhixue is not from this era, and he is not bound by the common concepts of this era.
For example, while others were still praising the powerful kinetic power of solid artillery shells, Luo Zhixue's eyes were always on grenades.
The grenade research team at the Royal Institute of Technology already has more than a hundred researchers, and they have been thinking about how to make the long-barreled artillery launch grenades all day long.
The project team was established by Luo Zhixue himself, with researchers recruited by him. All kinds of funds are fully guaranteed. It can be said that it requires people to give people and money to give money. What they have to do is to develop a long-barreled artillery that can also be used. grenade.
Now the grenade research team has a preliminary idea, and they have come up with a new ignition idea.
When the current grenade is launched, the gunner needs to ignite the fuse directly on the shell, but now, they are thinking about how to use the high temperature generated when the artillery is fired to ignite the fuse...
In this way, we can avoid a very big trouble and trouble for the mortar artillery troops in the Chu army today. That is because the match rope fuse is used, and the gunner must light the match rope every time before firing the shell... This step is very dangerous. , in the Chu army, there were often accidents such as mortar gunners exploding the barrel due to operating errors, and the resulting casualties were not a small number...
Therefore, the current thinking of the grenade research team is that since it is too dangerous for the gunner to ignite in advance, then the high temperature generated by the propellant is used to ignite the fuse. This avoids various risks such as premature explosion of the chamber and direct explosion of the shell as soon as it comes out of the chamber.
However, it is not feasible to use the old exposed fuse as a fuse. We have to find a more reliable fuse. Recently, they are working on wooden fuses and have achieved certain results.
Generally speaking, the research on various aspects of grenades is going quite smoothly, but because of the rush of time, there are no precedents to refer to. Even if the general direction is already available, the specific details still need to be worked out repeatedly.
At least during the Jiangbei Campaign, Luo Zhixue could no longer see new grenades being produced and put into service.
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Unswervingly promoting the development of grenades is the direction taken by Luo Zhixue using his personal prophet. In Luo Zhixue's view, any resistance in the face of an absolute explosion is nothing but scum...
As for the solid cannonball, that thing is just a big iron lump, which can kill several people... and this thing can only be aimed directly at the attack. It is okay against thin city wall fortifications, but it can't be used against those thick city walls or even solid bastions. Such a defense system, solid artillery shells are useless...
As for grenades, although the most primitive mortar is still inferior in all aspects, this difference is mainly reflected in poor accuracy, short range, and high cost.
As for the power, it is definitely awesome!
In order to make the mortar's explosive shells more powerful after explosion, the Chu army used prefabricated fragmentation shells, and they also had a lot of charges.
Among the three calibers of mortars in the Chu army, there were eighteen-jin mortars, twenty-four-jin mortars, and forty-eight-jin mortars. The largest number was not the eighteen-jin mortars, but the forty-eight-jin mortars...
Even if the charge is still black powder... But don't look down on black powder, it is also very powerful... Countless famous wars in the 19th century were fought with black powder, such as the Napieron War and the Crimean War. The Asian War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Austro-Prussian War, the American Civil War, the two Opium Wars between China and Britain, the Sino-Japanese War (the Japanese navy used picric acid for artillery shells, and the army used black powder), etc.; even in the Russo-Japanese War in the 20th century, both sides The charges for army artillery shells and Russian navy artillery shells still use black powder...
Only during World War I did tnt become the mainstream of army and navy artillery charges. Black powder was gradually abandoned, and this abandonment process lasted for decades...
Even during World War II, the armies of some countries or forces still used black powder as artillery charge.
As for the black powder used by the Chu army, Luo Zhixue personally proposed the ratio based on hearsay from later generations. It is definitely the most scientific ratio and is produced mechanically.
The black gunpowder produced in this way is even more powerful than the black gunpowder used in many countries in the 18th and 19th centuries...
And this kind of black powder-charged artillery shells were fired towards the Ming army's position outside Yangzhou City through a large number of Chu army's mortars, and then set off bursts of explosions.
In the Ming army opposite, some soldiers of the Jiangbei New Biao Army who had successfully withdrawn from the Hezhou Battle once again experienced this fierce bombardment that was almost desperate.
As for the new recruits of the Jiangbei New Standard Army who had not experienced the Hezhou Battle, they were all frightened and trembling under the shelling.
As for the guardsmen, Song Zushun did not send them to core defense locations such as fortresses outside the city at all. It was not because he disliked their poor combat effectiveness, but because he was afraid that they would blow up the camp and flee after being violently bombarded by the Chu army. .
Their escape could easily cause a chain reaction.
Therefore, Song Zushun would rather deploy the main force of his direct lineage in the fortifications outside the city than let these guard soldiers go to the most dangerous front line...
The Jiangbei New Standard Army under Song Zushun had many veterans, and the recruits had also undergone certain training. The most important thing was that their anti-artillery fortifications were quite good.
Hiding in the artillery fortifications one by one can better resist the Chu army's bombardment.
However, the Chu army fired too many artillery shells, and many of them were 48-pound mortars.
The forty-eight-pound mortar shell is quite powerful. Even if it does not hit directly, the huge impact after the explosion can destroy many roof fortifications, and even directly kill the Ming army soldiers inside the fortifications.
If a shell happened to fall into the tunnel and explode, the casualties would be even more severe.
The fierce bombardment lasted for more than two hours. After more than two hours, a group of Chu soldiers wearing thick armor, carrying muskets with bayonets, or commandos holding swords and shields gradually approached through the traffic ditch. A hundred meters away.
Immediately afterwards, following the order from the frontline officer, this commando team, which belonged to the Fourth Division, launched a surprise attack towards the fortress in the eastern suburbs of Yangzhou.
As soon as the shelling stopped and the shelling extended towards the rear, they rushed forward quickly...
They tried to rush in and fight before the Ming army defenders reacted!
The Jiangbei New Standard Army almost didn't react, but it was just a little bit. When they saw that the bombardment had stopped, and when a large number of Chu thieves in gray military uniforms appeared outside and rushed towards them, they immediately jumped on the defensive one by one. Emerging from the artillery fortifications, the gunners were manipulating various short robes in an attempt to carry out bombardment, and the musketeers also began to fire.
However, since the Chu army's assault troops rushed out, they were naturally prepared in advance.
This preparation was not made by them, but by the artillery unit...
No, when a large number of men from the Ming army emerged from the artillery defenses and tried to fight back, a group of Chu army's mortars that had been prepared and rushed in close to the deployment also opened fire directly.
Suddenly, dozens of mortar shells flew into the sky, drawing winding curves, and finally fell towards the eastern suburbs fortress!
