As the Chu army arrived in Yakutsk City, the most important battle in the early and mid-term of the Northern Strategic Plan, the Second Battle of Yakutsk City, was officially launched.
After the Chu army arrived here, they were not intercepted by the Russian army in the outer areas. Instead, they successfully landed five kilometers south of Yakutsk city, and then brought a large number of troops and equipment, as well as more grain and grass. Ammunition and other supplies were gradually disembarked.
The Russians did not take the initiative to challenge, which was also within the prediction of the Chu army.
No need to guess, these Russians definitely want to imitate the tactics of shrinking their troops to defend Yakutsk during the first battle of Yakutsk.
As long as they survive a few months and wait until winter... no, just wait until autumn begins to cool down, then the Chu army will be forced to retreat.
They did this last time, and the results were quite good. They successfully defended the city of Yakutsk even though there were not many troops defending the city, and the guns and weapons were far inferior to those of the Chu army.
Now, they want to do it again!
As for talking about city attacks, the Russians have never considered it.
They are not stupid... they have been fighting with the Chu army for so many years. They have long known that the Chu army's guns are sharp and equipped with all flintlock guns. The artillery is numerous and can fire a large number of explosive shells.
This density of firepower makes Russians tremble with fear when they see it.
You must know that Russian weapons, equipment and tactics are basically the mainstream equipment level of contemporary European armies. They are generally a mixture of matchlocks and early flintlocks. Musketeers have gradually become the main force of infantry, but they have not been able to completely eliminate the long-range rifles. Spearmen. In the infantry of European armies, musketeers and spearmen still exist at the same time.
However, the proportion of musketeers has increased significantly, basically above 60%, and in a small number of armies, the proportion of musketeers will be 70% or even 80%.
However, they still commonly have spearmen. The main function of these spearmen is to cover the musketeers and serve as the main force in close-range hand-to-hand combat.
Unlike the Chu army, spearmen and matchlocks had been completely eliminated, and the infantry was all fusiliers.
If the two fight in the wild, the Russians will be at a huge disadvantage, so the Russians will not foolishly run out and engage in line combat with the Chu army!
They decided to pay attention, so they hid in the castle and played a defensive battle of attrition with the Chu army!
The reason why the Russians are so determined is because they know the equipment level and tactics of the Chu army. Not only the Russians know this, but in fact many European countries know that the Chu army is difficult to deal with!
After all, the equipment level and line tactics of the Chu army are no secret, especially when dealing with European colonists.
The Portuguese had directly fought with the Chu army!
The British, Dutch, Danes, and Spanish all had contact with the Chu army in Southeast Asia or India.
The Nanyang Trading Company of the past, the Western Trading Company of today, and the Dutch East India Company, the English East India Company and other European trading companies are engaged in comprehensive and fierce competition in the Nanyang and Indian regions. Armed conflicts are indispensable, and if there are too many fights, it will naturally I know better.
Therefore, many European countries have or have more or less understanding of the Chu Empire's flintlocks, line tactics, and overwhelming howitzers.
I also envy the Chu army's flintlock line troops!
However, why haven't these European countries completely abandoned the matchlocks and spearmen like the Chu army, and then switched to all fusiliers?
It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t do it!
In order to fully equip flintlock guns, especially to completely eliminate spearmen, in addition to soft conditions such as tactical thinking and general thinking, there are also the most critical technical reasons.
If you want to fully popularize flintlock guns, you must first increase the firing rate of flintlock guns. I don't say how good it is, but at least it should be comparable to matchlock guns.
According to the early tests of the Chu army, the all-weather firing rate of the first-year matchlock gun was 70% (all-weather including rainy weather). The first large-scale equipment of the Chu army's second-year flintlock gun had an all-weather firing rate of 70%. It can achieve about 72%.
This laid the foundation for the flintlock to completely replace the matchlock.
The complete elimination of spearmen was due to the continuous advancement of smelting technology. The Chu army used sleeve spears on their muskets, which gave the matchlocks the ability to fight in close combat.
The combination of the 72% all-weather firing rate and the sleeve stab allowed the Chu army to begin to form an all-flintlock unit and experiment with line tactics.
It was not until the sixth year of Chengshun that the Type-A III flintlock gun was successfully developed and its all-weather firing rate reached 75%, then the real equipment for the entire army began.
Even so, matchlocks and spears were still equipped in the Chu army for many years.
Around the tenth year of Chengshun, matchlocks were completely retired from the army, but militia troops were still equipped with matchlocks.
In the 16th year of Chengshun, all matchlocks in the militia were retired and began to be replaced with various two-year-old flintlocks retired by the military. In this way, the matchlocks were completely retired.
In other words, from the time the Chu Empire developed the first flintlock gun in the second year of Chengshun, it was not until fourteen years later that the matchlock completely withdrew from the military power of the Chu Empire. Well, the militia can also be considered a military force...
As powerful as the Chu Empire, it still lasted for a full fourteen years when the flintlocks eliminated the matchlocks, let alone other countries.
Even if the Chu Empire sets an example for them, it will still be very difficult.
The technical problems are even more difficult to solve!
Through various channels, the Dachu Empire obtained flintlock guns from many European countries for testing.
The all-weather firing rate of these early flintlock guns in Europe was particularly poor, basically around 50 or 60 percent. Many of them lacked wind and rain protection measures, making them basically useless in bad weather such as wind and rain.
On the contrary, because of the civil war, the British had an urgent need for new flintlock muskets, which made them actively develop flintlock muskets.
These British brought back several 2-year-old Chu Empire flintlock guns from India. Through mapping and imitating these 2-year-old flintlock guns, they came up with a new type of flintlock gun. The gun is called the Type 2 flintlock gun... Even the name makes it clear that it is copied from the Type 2 flintlock gun.
Although the technology of this gun is not up to standard, everything that should be imitated is imitated. At least the bolt mechanism is imitated very well... and the firing rate can also reach about 68%.
The only problem is that their materials are not good, especially the spring material. After using it for a period of time, the spring will no longer work, and then the firing rate will drop rapidly...
So the springs on this thing have to be replaced frequently.
The barrel is not good enough either, which will affect performance such as accuracy, muzzle velocity, service life, and use in extreme weather.
But these are not problems... The most important thing is that this new flintlock gun is too expensive. After the British came up with this flintlock gun, they were very depressed to find that they could not equip it on a large scale... This piece of shit Costing almost five times as much as an arquebus.
This cannot be blamed on them, but the objects they imitate are inherently expensive... The two-year-old flintlock guns produced in the early days of the Dachu Empire were notoriously expensive... The prices of early mass production were more than 20 One Chu Yuan gun, while the matchlock gun of the same period at that time only cost about four yuan.
Five times the difference!
It was not until the technology came up later and mass production continued for a long time that the price of the two-year-old flintlock gun dropped to the level of 14 to 15 Chu Yuan. Even then, it was more than three times more expensive than the matchlock gun!
Incidentally, the current new flintlock guns of the Chu Army, that is, the 13-year-old series of flintlock guns are not cheap. The price of the standard version and the cavalry version are about the same, both are around 13 Chu Yuan.
The more expensive one is the tropical version, which costs sixteen Chu Yuan.
With the current industrial technology level of the Dachu Empire, it only costs two to three Chu Yuan to produce a matchlock gun for export.
If you want to use a flintlock gun with advanced performance in this era, you have to be aware of being taken advantage of.
Otherwise, you use a matchlock gun, that thing is cheap... Well, the Qing Dynasty in history prided itself on being very smart, and was unwilling to be taken advantage of, so it insisted on using matchlock guns until Er Crow.
Don't think that people don't know about flintlock guns, and don't think that they haven't tried equipment. In fact, they know it and have tried small-scale equipment... But they gave up in the end. Why? Expensive... Why would you equip such expensive gadgets when you're not fighting?
As for wanting to wait until the war begins, sorry... no.
Ancient feudal countries were all indifferent. They didn't pay much attention to research and development of armaments or replacement of weapons. How could they save money? When the war came, they were dumbfounded. At this time, they were in a hurry to get new weapons. Often it’s over before it’s even finished…
As for the Great Chu Empire, because of the existence of Luo Zhixue and the continuous war of external expansion, the armament work naturally never stopped.
The British side was also just in the midst of a civil war, so they came up with a Type II flintlock gun. Although this flintlock gun still has problems of one kind or another, it is a mess of all kinds of flintlock guns in Europe. In the gun, it is already considered top level.
Strictly speaking, apart from the frequent replacement of springs and high cost of use, this thing is actually similar to the early model of the Da Chu Empire's second-year-old flintlock gun. After all, the technology of the Da Chu Empire in the early years was actually the same. The materials and processing technology are not much better.
The Chu Empire was able to develop this thing back then. In theory, other countries with slightly better handicraft industries could also develop it.
But... this is a British flintlock gun, and it has nothing to do with the Russians... Although the Russians also imitated and learned in various ways, their technical level is even worse, and the flintlock guns they produced are not eye-catching...
Therefore, until now, Russia still uses a mix of matchlocks and flintlocks, and musketeers still need spearmen for protection.
The overall infantry tactics are still the same as those during the war in the 1930s.
In addition to the infantry, the artillery is similar. They also have field artillery but not many.
Not to mention the more important explosive shells in the artillery, they don't have such things at all... Not to mention them, a large number of other countries in Europe do not have the advanced grenades of the Chu army. At most, they can use matchlock grenades to top them.
The Chu army's current grenades use second-generation fuses, namely metal delay fuses, which are different from the first-generation wooden delay fuses and are more accurate and safer.
As for the Chu army's grenade, even though it is still a spherical shell and the fuze is also a medicine tray fuze, it is really not easy to imitate it on a large scale...
How should I put it, this thing is an industrially produced product... If you want to imitate it by hand, it is not a big problem to make one or two, but if you want to make thousands of them, it is impossible!
Not to mention the fuse, you can't even handle the bullet casing...
The shell of the Chu Army's grenade appears to be made of black cast iron, but it is actually made of low-carbon steel made of wrought iron, and is processed with prefabricated fragments.
If you don't have the corresponding steel smelting technology and finishing capabilities, you can't make this cartridge case at all.
If your skills are not up to standard, and you have to learn from the Chu army to make this kind of grenade, then in order to withstand the chamber pressure, you have to make a very thick shell, but a thick shell means that there is not enough charge, the explosion power is not good, and the shell is thicker , let alone a large number of fragments formed when the shell exploded... In the end, there was just a bang, and the grenade exploded in half... It just made a sound, with no actual power.
Therefore, many things from the Chu Empire, especially industrial products with very high technical content such as weapons, are not something that the indigenous countries can learn if they want to... The basic technology is not in place, so we directly give them samples and even design drawings. They can't imitate it either.
The 13-year-old series of flintlocks, the later series of new artillery and grenades, and even the 15-year-old saber of the cavalry...the indigenous countries could not imitate them.
Let’s not talk about guns, let’s talk about the fifteen-year-old saber. This thing seems simple enough at first glance. Any blacksmith can make a rough copy of it.
However, if your imitation saber wants to achieve the strength of a fifteen-year-old saber, it will be difficult.
Unless it is slowly crafted by hand and takes a long time, it can be done in this way, but the saber produced in this way has no actual combat value... A weapon that cannot be mass-produced, especially this kind of cold weapon, has no actual combat value. .
As for the Dachu Empire... they all directly use wrought iron as raw materials and use large-scale forging machinery and other mechanical equipment for mass production...
Even though the Russians had obtained many weapons and equipment from the Chu army through various channels before, apart from directly using these very few Chu army weapons, it was very difficult to imitate them.
Therefore, the Russians so far mainly use matchlock guns, coupled with some flintlock guns with poor performance, and then supplemented by cold weapons such as spears as the main infantry weapons.
On the whole, the equipment level is still that of the late Thirty Years War.
If you want to confront the Chu army head-on with this level of equipment, you will die miserably. The Russians have already had a lot of failure experience in this regard.
And if you lose more battles, you will naturally gain more experience.
According to the experience gained by the Russians, the best way to fight the Chu army is not a head-on confrontation, but a defensive operation relying on the castle. It does not mean that you can win by defensive operations, but to prolong the battle through defensive operations. Time, wait until winter comes.
Winter is the best weapon for the Russians to resist the Chu army.
Now, they are preparing to do the same.
On June 24, the 21st year of Chengshun, the Chu army arrived in the city of Yakutsk. In the first few days, the Chu army did not launch an attack on the city of Yakutsk. Instead, they were carrying out various preparations, mainly The artillery is moved off the ship and then transported to the city of Yakutsk for deployment.
As the artillery and ammunition of the Chu army were gradually put in place, the second battle of Yakutsk City was truly begun.
On June 28, the Chu army's artillery unit launched the first round of artillery bombardment on the city of Yakutsk.
This time the bombardment consisted of field artillery and cannons used by some river warships, which mainly fired solid shells to bombard some of the fortifications of Yakutsk City.
Naturally, this kind of shelling is unlikely to achieve much actual results. The Russian castle is also a bastion after all. They considered resisting shelling when building and designing it. In recent years, due to the threat of the Chu army, they have reinforced the city of Yakutsk. defense facilities.
Therefore, if you want to rely on pure solid artillery shells, it will be difficult to cause any practical blow to this kind of city defense system in a short period of time.
The Chu army was not in a hurry. The first round of solid bombardment was purely an exploratory bombardment, mainly to find the enemy's weak points, attract enemy artillery counterattacks, and then find some hidden firepower points of the enemy. If there is a chance, Destroying some of the enemy's weak points in city defense at the right time is an unexpected surprise.
After the exploratory bombardment on the first day, the Chu army launched a large-scale bombardment on the second day.
But this time the shelling was different from the painless one on the first day. Large-scale grenades were launched, and intensive shelling was carried out on the densely populated areas and artillery deployment locations in Yakutsk City.
The grenades fired by numerous howitzers and field artillery were continuously shot out, and then fell on the Russian fortress positions, and began to steadily and orderly harvest Russian lives.
Of course, the actual results cannot be too many... The Russians have also been beaten by experience, and the city defense facilities also have relatively complete anti-grenade facilities. After the Chu army began a large-scale howitzer bombardment, many Russian soldiers took cover. Entered the artillery defense fortification.
However, when the Russians descended from the city and began to enter various artillery fortifications to avoid the shelling, the Chu army's infantry also began to move.
The Chu army's infantry began to rely on the terrain to gradually get closer, and when they got closer, they used the 115mm light howitzers they carried to approach and bombard them.
The 115mm light howitzer is an artillery piece that can be fired flatly or in a straight direction. When it is fired at a large angle, it is actually no different from a medium-caliber mortar. The shells bypass city walls and other defensive facilities, and then fall from the sky. under the enemy's head.
When a large number of artillery began to cover the infantry's attack, it also meant that the city of Yakutsk entered a real engagement stage.
The Russians couldn't just hide and not fight back at this time... Facing the attack of the Chu army's infantry, they had to come out of the artillery fortifications, and then use their matchlocks, their flintlocks, and their artillery to fight back.
Otherwise, the Chu army's first wave of infantry attack would be able to directly attack their city.
However, what the Chu army wanted was for them to come out of the artillery defense fortifications.
As long as they come out of the artillery defense fortifications, the Chu army's artillery units, which have been prepared in advance, will be able to carry out targeted and intensive rapid-fire artillery bombardments, and then quickly and effectively kill a large number of enemy troops.
First, artillery shelling covered the infantry attack, and the infantry attack forced the enemy to fight back, and then artillery was used to kill the enemy.
It's that simple. Even the Russians on the opposite side are very familiar with this two-axe tactic. It makes the Russians on the opposite side cry for father and mother!
The Russians knew what tactics the Chu army would use to attack the city, and took corresponding defensive measures, but they still could not withstand it.
The Chu army has been practicing this whole siege process for more than ten years, but so far, no enemy has been able to withstand such a seemingly simple tactic, but in fact it requires the support of strong national power.
After the artillery bombardment, the infantry charged, and after the infantry charged, the artillery bombardment!
It's that simple, and the whole world knows that the Chu army will fight like this... but no one can withstand it.
Why?
Why else? The Chu army has so many artillery pieces!
Not only are there many artillery pieces, but they also use second-generation metal time-delay fuze grenades. The overall firepower level has reached that of later generations in the early 19th century...
It’s a shame that the indigenous armies of various countries these days can hold it.
The weapons and equipment of the Russians in Yakutsk are not bad among European countries. There are more than 5,000 mercenaries and militiamen in total, and they are equipped with various equipment ranging from more than three pounds to less than twelve pounds. There are more than 20 medium and long-barreled artillery pieces, and the number of artillery pieces per 1,000 people has reached four.
This level has surpassed the field armies of most other countries at the same time, and is only possible for city-defending armies.
But how many artillery pieces did the Chu army that attacked Yakutsk have?
The Lena River Dispatch Army of more than 8,000 people has a small field artillery regiment with a total of twelve 115mm mountain guns, twelve 115mm field guns, and twelve 150mm light howitzers.
Then there are the infantry regiments and the cavalry regiments, which have a total of six 90mm field guns, twelve 65mm field guns, and twelve 115mm light howitzers.
The army's dispatched force alone has sixty artillery pieces of various kinds.
Then the Navy temporarily removed the artillery from some Civil War battleships, and deployed naval gunners to form a naval artillery battalion. This artillery battalion has eight 115mm cannons and ten 150mm howitzers.
The total number of artillery pieces deployed by the army and navy on the ground reached seventy-eight!
Then the river gunboats in the Navy's Second Group did not sit idle and cooperated with the army in shelling the Russian army. The total number of guns that these river warships could mobilize must be dozens.
The army and navy have more than a hundred artillery pieces involved in offensive operations.
There are so many artillery pieces just to attack a city. In contemporary times, no other country can do this except the Chu Empire!
Not to mention, these artillery pieces of the Chu army, except for the 65mm field cannon, are all capable of firing grenades.
Simple tactics, relying on powerful artillery power.
If there aren't even many artillery pieces, then there's no such thing as infantry and artillery coordination.
How could the Russians be able to withstand such intensive bombardment... If they couldn't, they didn't have the ability. If they had the ability, they would have swept across Europe long ago!
Therefore, on July 3, after several days of fierce fighting, they relied on their absolute artillery superiority to repeatedly bombard the Russians, causing a large number of enemy casualties and lowering morale.
The leading infantry of the Chu army finally reached the top of Yakutsk City, and then began to attack the city.
At around 16 o'clock that afternoon, seeing that the situation was over, the Russian commander had no choice but to order the remaining soldiers and civilians to lay down their weapons and surrender.
As a result, the city of Yakutsk, Russia's largest colonial city, largest military fortress, and most important transportation hub in Far Eastern Siberia, officially fell into the hands of the Chu Empire.
On the same day, the administrative officials of Xiaobeihai Prefecture who went north with the Lena River Dispatch Army began to station in the city and established the northernmost administrative agency in the history of China: Zhenbei County Government Office!
Zhenbei County, this is the official name of the Chu Empire for this place, which means the city that guards the north!
And this city’s important geographical location really deserves this title!
(End of chapter)
