On the front line of Tongguan, Huang Dingquan, wearing the uniform of a general, climbed up to the observation hill with a saber. Just a thousand meters ahead of him was the famous Tongguan.
Tongguan in the traditional sense is actually just a small city guarding the valley passage.
If the traditional cold weapon army wants to take Tongguan, it must fight against this city guarding the passage. This is extremely difficult for the cold weapon army that lacks the ability to attack fortresses and does not have powerful artillery.
But for the Chu army, which had a large number of firearms, if the defenders did not make defensive deployments on the periphery, especially on both sides, and did not dig a large number of trenches and build fortresses outside, it would be almost impossible for the defenders to block the Chu army's artillery fire.
With the powerful artillery strength of the Chu army, well, they don't even need any new grenades. They can just rely on a large number of five-pound and nine-pound field guns and nine-pound and fourteen-pound cannons to create a gap and then cover it. The heavy infantry attacked.
Even though it is difficult for solid cannonballs to directly threaten the thick city wall, it can still deliver a devastating blow to the battlements on the upper part of the city wall.
Not to mention, the Chu army also has a large number of mortars. Even though these mortars have a slow rate of fire, they are inconvenient to maneuver, have poor accuracy, are extremely dangerous to operate, and have extremely low cost performance. The shells often fail even if they explode. It often only explodes into two halves, and it can only be used in siege operations and has a lot of shortcomings...
However, its unique curved trajectory and explosive killing characteristics can play an incomparable role in offensive battles that solid direct-aiming artillery can't match. It is still enough to offset many shortcomings, and then becomes a powerful siege weapon for the Chu army.
As for low cost performance and the like, the wealthy Chu Jun said that this is not a problem at all... I have plenty of money.
You said that field artillery that fires solid shells is better than mortars, more practical, and more cost-effective... Chu Jun said: I also have more field artillery than you... and many more!
Competition in military equipment is actually very simple, that is: I have what you have, more than you, and better than you, and then I have what you don’t have...
As for the Ming army on the opposite side, it's not that they don't know about mortars or they can't make them. It's just that they don't have the need for combat. They don't attack the city, so why do they need mortars...
On the other hand, Dongduo, I heard that many craftsmen were gathered during this winter to imitate the Chu army's mortars and build their own siege mortars. Well, they named them 'Sky Cannons'.
They are still dreaming of conquering Shanhaiguan and entering the Central Plains!
Since Shanhaiguan was to be conquered and a tough battle was to be fought, there was naturally a need for weapons such as mortars.
The Chu army was equipped with a large number of mortars. This was something that the Ximing army under Sun Chuanting knew very well. After all, the two sides had not been fighting for a day or two, but for several years. There were too many mortars, so naturally they would slow down. Slowly figure out how to resist the mortar attack.
So they built a complex defense line on both sides and in front around Tongguan City, which was guarding the passage.
There are as many as eight large-scale fortresses known to the Chu army alone. These fortresses are built on both sides and in front of Tongguan, relying on the mountains. Long-barreled artillery and many short-barreled artillery are also deployed on them.
Plus there are numerous small and medium-sized forts between the large forts.
These forts, regardless of size, are often surrounded by trenches, parapets and other defensive fortifications, and artillery is deployed.
The Ming army in front of them built a complicated defense line, covering an area of fifteen kilometers from north to south, almost extending from the edge of the Yellow River to the depths of the mountains. They built fortresses in almost all places suitable for the Chu army to attack, guarding almost Each Chu army may pass through the passage in large numbers.
This kind of fortress has a defense system with trenches and parapets, and deploys artillery. Its purpose is also very simple, that is, to resist the powerful artillery fire of the Chu army, including solid shell bombardment and mortar bombardment.
As for building so many fortresses, it was naturally to prevent the Chu army from bypassing Tongguan itself and to take a small path from the south of Tongguan.
Although the valley passage guarded by Tongguan is a flat road, it does not mean that people cannot walk in other places. South of Tongguan is a mountainous area about 14 to 5 kilometers wide. The altitude of these mountains is also 400 to 500 meters, or even 5 meters. Six hundred meters high.
However, there are still some valley trails between these mountains, although these trails are often difficult to walk and cannot pass artillery or even baggage carriages.
But... you have to know that this is just normal times. If it is during a war, the attackers directly mobilize tens of thousands or even more civilians in order to bypass Tongguan, and the defenders do not interfere. It takes a certain amount of time to I will build you a winding mountain road several meters wide, enough for carriages to pass...
This is true for the army in the cold weapon era, let alone the Chu army with mature and complete engineering troops.
If the Ming army only huddles in Tongguan City, the Chu army's engineering troops will be able to choose a suitable place in the south and blow up a living passage for the army in just a few days.
Therefore, since ancient times, when the defenders defended Tongguan, they not only defended Tongguan City, but also guarded many trails in the southern mountains. The same was true for the Western Ming Army, and they even rebuilt strong forts on these trails. Fortresses make it more difficult to attack.
It's just that for the army in the cold weapon era, once the defenders built checkpoints and stationed troops on such mountain trails, such places would often be more difficult to attack than Tongguan itself.
Therefore, in many battles for Tongguan in ancient times, the attackers often focused on attacking Tongguan City itself.
But this is different for the Chu army!
Tongguan City itself is too difficult to attack, and the Ming army built numerous anti-artillery fortifications. If it were to attack directly from the front, the Chu army would definitely suffer heavy casualties.
In order to reduce the casualties of the attack, the generals of the Chu army began to think about how to conquer the Tongguan defense line last autumn.
It is inevitable to rely on heavy artillery to defeat Tongguan City itself. After all, in the end, no matter what, he had to pry open the turtle shell and seize the valley passage, so that the subsequent logistics troops could pass through.
Even if we ignore the logistics troops, there are tens of thousands of Ming troops stationed in this city. If such troops are not removed during the attack, even if the main force of the Chu army can bypass from the south, these Ming troops will become a nail and can be defeated at any time. Threaten the flank and rear position of the attacking Chu army.
But before attacking Tongguan City itself, the Chu army needs to make sufficient preparations, such as finding better firing positions for the artillery troops.
In the opinion of the generals of the Chu army, the mountains over Tongguan City are very suitable for artillery positions. As long as they occupy a few hills in the south, and then spend some effort to move the artillery and ammunition up, then our artillery troops will You can condescendingly bombard Tongguan directly.
In addition, by seizing several mountain trails in the southern hills, young and strong troops can be dispatched to carry light artillery such as two-pound field guns through the mountains, and then appear behind Tongguan, thereby cutting off the connection between Tongguan and the rear, and completely tactically surrounding Tongguan City. The enemy forces, causing the enemy forces to lose reinforcements and material supplies.
As for the difficulty of attacking these fortresses guarding the trails, that's for sure.
But in war, people will inevitably die. If you want to capture Tongguan and seize the flat passage into Guanzhong, how can you do it without paying a certain price?
And compared with the ancient cold-weapon armies, the Chu army, as an offensive force, has an advantage that cold-weapon armies cannot match. That is, the Chu army's guns and artillery firepower are very powerful, and they can concentrate their firepower on some enemy fortresses guarding the valley. It's less difficult.
In particular, the newly installed new grenades will become the core ammunition in this tough battle.
To go with these new grenades, there were twelve 18-pound light howitzers that were rushed out by the Yingtianfu Dangtu Heavy Artillery Factory of the Great Chu Empire and urgently transported to the Tongguan front line.
From Huang Dingquan to ordinary officers and even soldiers, they have high hopes for these twelve new howitzers!
This thing is very light in weight. The total gun weight is even lighter than a five-pound field gun, and only slightly heavier than a two-and-a-half-pound field gun.
The light weight brings superior maneuverability. In combat situations, the two artillerymen can push you directly, even up the mountain.
And although this kind of artillery is very light, its power when firing new 150mm grenades is not small at all.
At the same time, neither the range nor the accuracy can be compared with the old 18-pound mortar.
When the Tu Heavy Artillery Factory rushes into production, several of them are still the same 18-pound light grenade, which will become the main artillery in this tough battle.
In addition to the twelve 18-pound light howitzers, other Chu army's existing artillery can also launch these new grenades and can play an important role in this critical battle.
For example, the original mortars weighing 18 kilograms or even 24 kilograms or 48 kilograms can launch new grenades.
After all, the Chu Army's new grenade only has an extra wooden holder and a new fuze compared to the original grenade. Even the production line is still a modified version of the original old grenade production line.
At present, the Chu Army has completely stopped producing the original three types of grenades, including the 18-pound, 24-pound, and 48-pound grenades, and has fully switched to the production of new grenades. However, the output is still relatively limited, and the total amount is not much. Therefore, in a short period of time, the Chu Army has Most of the artillery units have to continue to use old-style grenades.
In order to make the limited new large-caliber grenades more effective, Huang Dingquan personally mobilized a small number of elite mortar batteries to specifically launch new grenades.
Using old mortars to launch new grenades, the range and accuracy are still poor. The only improvement is the rate of fire. The increase in the rate of fire also means that the density of fire support has increased and the power has increased.
In addition to the original mortars, a large number of field artillery in the Chu army could also fire these new grenades.
It's just that the grenades fired by field guns are limited by their caliber and have a relatively small charge, so they are not very powerful. (To be continued)
