The rate of fire of the mortar is actually very slow. On the one hand, the matchlock fuse is very dangerous. To ensure safety, you must be very careful when firing. Otherwise, if you do not operate it properly, the chamber will explode in minutes.
Therefore, the mortar troops in the Chu army would rather fire at a slower rate than explode the barrel.
In addition, due to the simple structure of the mortar itself, it is difficult to aim. Each time the gun is fired, a certain amount of time must be adjusted, otherwise the shells will fly to who knows where.
The combination of the two further reduces the mortar's rate of fire.
Needless to say, in terms of accuracy, as an ultra-short-barreled mortar, its accuracy is really poor. Even if the gunner makes careful adjustments, he can only ensure that the shell will eventually fall within a rough range, and this range is relatively large.
As for firing without careful adjustment, the shells can deflect hundreds of meters away... You have to know that the effective range of the Chu army's series of mortars is often only a few hundred meters.
But now the Ming army discovered that the shells fired by the Chu thieves on the opposite side were not only numerous and dense, but also very accurate, almost as accurate as solid artillery shells.
Seeing the continuous falling of artillery shells on his position, a Ming army general was extremely panicked: "Why are there so many explosive shells among the Chu thieves?"
"Also, can't flower bombs only be shot with mortars? How do these Chu thieves use long cannons to open flower bombs?"
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't figure out why the Chu thieves were able to fire explosive shells with long-barreled field guns, and they could do so so fast!
On the other side of the battlefield, Colonel Wen Jiliang, commander of the artillery regiment of the 17th Division, smiled as he looked at the continuous explosions ahead.
"These new grenades are so useful, we have to apply to our superiors for more new grenades."
"As long as we have enough new grenades, our artillery fire is strong enough to crush any enemy!"
Huang Guangmao, commander of the 17th Division on the side, said: "It's a good idea. Now that the new grenades have just been put into production, there are more troops waiting for the new grenades. We can get this batch of grenades this time. This is already a great success." I tried my best not to strive for it anymore, and it’s impossible to want more.”
As the Shaanxi garrison commander, Huang Guangmao concurrently serves as the commander of the 17th Division and Army Lieutenant General. This is considered a senior general in the Dachu Empire Army and is a higher rank than most division commanders.
In the Chu army, the standard military rank assigned to division commanders is usually major general. Whether it is an A-class division or a B-class division, the division commander is a major general.
Huang Guangmao became a lieutenant general not because of his position as division commander, but because of his position as Shaanxi garrison commander. In addition to the 17th Division, he also had a second-class division, a mortar regiment, etc. directly under his command. What about military strength?
As a lieutenant general in the army, he is relatively familiar with the internal situation of the military. He knew that a new grenade was successfully developed at the end of last year, along with a powerful howitzer, the 18-pound light howitzer. .
After the successful development of new grenades, Emperor Luo Zhixue personally issued an order to develop and produce new grenades that can be used for field guns of various calibers, and organized the production of eighteen-pound light howitzers and even larger caliber howitzers.
In order to shorten the research and development time, it is also to allow the production lines of many arsenals to directly organize production quickly.
The R&D personnel directly performed a simple reduction or enlargement operation based on the successfully developed 18-pound new grenade and new light howitzer.
Within a few days, three new grenades of different calibers were produced: 130 mm, 115 mm, and 90 mm.
They are used for fourteen-pound cannons, nine-pound field guns/cannons, and five-pound field guns/cannons.
At the same time, new grenades of 170 mm and 200 mm were also developed. Together with the original 150 mm grenades, they were used in the original mortars, namely the 18-pound mortar and the 24-pound mortar. Used for mortars and forty-eight-pound mortars.
These new grenades of different calibers are very simple to design and develop because there are new grenades of 150 mm caliber.
Just simply zoom in or out.
As for production, it is also simple. The shell casings can be produced by making slight changes to the original grenade production line. All the ammunition vehicles have to do is to establish a new fuze production line.
The craftsmanship of wooden fuses is not very difficult, and it is not even more difficult than the production process of match ropes.
Therefore, it is possible to complete the production of a batch of new types of grenades of different calibers in a short period of time.
However, due to tight research and development time and tight production, these new artillery shells still use the old-style explosive shell technology in many aspects, and are still lacking in quality and even safety.
For example, in the production of the most basic shells, the materials used in the shell design of new grenades are actually better, and better processing techniques have also been added, so that the shells of new grenades can be made thinner and can withstand heavier loads. The chamber pressure does not break, and the fragments are more even after the explosion.
However, these cannot be achieved on the original grenade production line. Therefore, the new grenades currently produced by the Chu Army cannot meet the original requirements in terms of performance.
But how to put it, the new grenades now produced and used are a very typical emergency product.
There is a war ahead, and the Western Front campaign is going to be launched on a large scale. There is not much time for the Ministry of Industry to slowly toss and build new production lines one after another. The only way to achieve rapid production is to sacrifice certain performance and even safety. Able.
This is true, because time is tight and the current production capacity of new grenades is not high.
Even if the superiors have decided that the new grenades will be sent to the troops participating in the war on the Western Front for use as soon as possible to enhance the combat effectiveness of the troops on the Western Front, they will also be tested through actual combat to provide suggestions for subsequent improvements.
However, there were many troops participating in the war on the Western Front. Huang Guangmao also spent a lot of effort to get a batch of new grenades from behind, and the quantity was relatively limited.
After this batch is finished, although there will be replenishment in the future, the quantity will definitely not be too much.
Therefore, seeing the lively fighting of the artillery troops, Huang Guangmao had to give instructions that the new grenades should be used sparingly and used at critical moments and on important targets.
For some non-important targets where time is not urgent, old-style grenades can be fired slowly from a mortar.
Some targets that can be directly destroyed with solid artillery shells should also be attacked with solid artillery shells first.
In short, hit all targets with new grenades.
——
The Chu army's artillery unit had begun to slow down the use of new grenades, and instead fired some solid shells and mortars to fire old grenades. The Ming army on the opposite side still couldn't handle it.
The Ming army in many fortifications outside the city suffered heavy casualties from bombings and had to retreat, or simply hide and not dare to show up.
Faced with this situation, the infantrymen on the front line would naturally not let go of this opportunity.
Soon, many medium and small-scale assault operations were launched, one by one, they captured many of the Ming army's fortress defenses outside the city, and pushed the front to the front of the Jinzhou city wall.
The next thing will fall into place.
On February 17, the 17th Division launched a full-scale offensive against Jinzhou. Amidst the explosions of many new grenades, the infantry commandos directly captured the city wall and then opened the east city gate to welcome a large number of infantry into the city.
In the afternoon of that day, the Chu army successively captured large sections of the city wall and penetrated deep into the inner city area.
The Ming army defending the city suffered heavy casualties, and their morale hit rock bottom.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon that day, the remnants of the garrison in the city killed the right counselor of Shaanxi and the prefect of Hanzhong and other middle and senior civil servants in the city, and then surrendered to the Chu army as a whole under the leadership of a deputy general soldier.
"The First Clan"
As a result, this military fortress, which had resisted the Chu army for several years, completely fell under the control of the Chu army.
And the whole process is extremely fast!
The 17th Division of the Chu Army only set out from Xunyang on February 12th.
Arriving outside Jinzhou City on the afternoon of the 13th.
On the 16th, a probing attack was launched to clear away the many fortifications and fortresses of the Ming army outside the city.
On the 17th, a general attack was launched on the city itself, and Jinzhou City was captured in the afternoon of the same day. The nearly 10,000 remaining soldiers in the city surrendered to the Chu army after killing the civilian supervising officer.
In total, it only took six days for the Chu army to set off from Xunyang and capture Jinzhou.
Excluding the two days of marching and the two days of preparation, counting from the beginning of the large-scale bombardment, the siege actually only took two days.
It only took such a short time to capture Jinzhou City, which the Ming army had worked hard for several years. The role of the new grenade was crucial.
Without the intensive artillery fire caused by the new grenades, the Chu army would not have been able to capture the many fortresses and fortifications outside the city so quickly. It would also be impossible for the Chu army to directly suppress the enemy firepower at the top of the city after launching the general offensive, leaving the commandos with almost no chance. The heavy losses scaled the city walls and subsequently opened the city gates.
Huang Guangmao wrote a report after the war. In addition to reporting the detailed process of the Battle of Jinzhou, it also focused on the actual combat application of new grenades.
Huang Guangmao's report was copied into many copies, one was sent to Jinling City, and the other was sent to the Tongguan front line.
Because the journey is long, there is a detour in the middle, and the terrain is not easy to walk.
Therefore, even if the battle reports from the Hanzhong direction were sent to Tongguan on an expedited journey of 500 miles, the commander of the Shaanxi-Gansu Campaign, General Huang Dingquan, could still only see the relevant reports ten days after the end of the Jinzhou Campaign.
After reading the report, Huang Dingquan said: "There is no doubt that with the putting into use of new grenades, the war has entered a new level."
"In the Battle of Jinzhou, facing the enemy's fortress that had been operating for several years, the 17th Division quickly captured the city without the support of a large number of heavy siege artillery and 48-pound mortars. This shows the huge power of the new grenade effect!"
On the side, Army Major General Yang Xiangfei, chief of staff of the Shaanxi-Gansu Campaign Command, said: "Yes, the emergence of new grenades has greatly changed the pattern of war." (To be continued)
