After being transferred to Africa along with the soldiers of the Third Regiment of the Indian Army, Halair underwent equipment change and adaptability training in Mogadishu.
However, because they had already used exported flintlock muskets and exported field artillery and other weapons, the corresponding tactics were also the Chu army's infantry and artillery coordination and infantry line tactics.
These tactics are actually the same as those used by the Chu army's regular army, so the soldiers of the Third Regiment of the Indian Army conducted adaptive training very quickly.
You just need to adapt to and master the operation of the flash cap firing gun and that's basically it.
On the other hand, low-level officers like Hallel still need to undergo additional study.
After all, different weapons have led to changes in tactical details. In the past, Hallel was used to having his own artillery provide artillery support to his side at a distance of about five or six hundred meters, but now, artillery support is often more than a thousand meters away. The rice begins to unfold.
This also caused the infantry to advance, expand the distance of the queue, and change the rhythm differently.
Ordinary Indian soldiers in the legion do not need to understand these things. They only need to follow orders and fight.
But Hallel, a low-level officer, needs to be understood. After all, he is the deputy sentry officer. He also needs to cooperate with the sentry officer in commanding operations, and when necessary, he can lead dozens of people to fight alone.
After about a month of adaptive training in Mogadishu, Haleer and the others began their first combat mission.
The mission this time was simple, mainly to attack an indigenous tribe dozens of kilometers away from Mogadishu.
According to the information reported by superiors, it was said that there was a local indigenous tribe who refused to accept enlightenment and not only refused to open the market in their territory, but also used force to expel a Chu caravan that was going for trade.
For this reason, the superiors decided to give them some color, and by the way, kill the chickens to scare the monkeys, and deter the many chaotic indigenous tribes in Northeast Africa.
Let them know who the real master of Northeast Africa is!
After receiving the order, Hallel attacked along with hundreds of other Indian Legion soldiers.
There were a total of three infantry posts, an artillery post, a cavalry team, and a baggage team carrying out this combat mission. The total strength was about 630 people. It turned into a small-scale mixed battalion, composed of the Great Chu Empire. Army Captain Tian Yingguang is in command.
This large-scale multi-arms mixed formation is also a small-scale mixed battalion formation often used by the Chu army when carrying out some small-scale battles.
All basic arms are available and can be fought individually.
After all, fighting requires the cooperation of multiple arms, and it is impossible for a single arm to launch a battle.
If the infantry is dragged out to fight alone, and only a few old front-loading smoothbore cannons are placed on the opposite side, they do not need to be very good, then it can pose a great threat to one's own infantry.
Then there is the enemy's cavalry, which is also a great threat.
In order to guard against this threat, one's own artillery and cavalry are also needed.
When multiple arms are involved in the battle, the consumption of materials is also large. Naturally, professional baggage troops are needed to take care of logistics issues.
After leaving Mogadishu, Hallair and his small mixed battalion walked for four days under the leadership of local indigenous guides before arriving at the intended location.
The reason why it took me four full days to walk about 40 kilometers was that in addition to being unfamiliar with the terrain and roads, more importantly, the local roads were really bad.
There are basically no wide roads, only some trails, and most of the time you walk on wild fields.
It was okay for men and mules to move forward on foot, but it was more difficult for artillery and carriages transporting baggage to maneuver, which resulted in a slow advance.
However, even if the marching speed was slow, they did not say that they would give up artillery and baggage and adopt a light approach.
It would be impossible for the Chu army to fight without bringing enough artillery and shells.
How can we fight a war without artillery?
Although the Indian Army is just a servant army, their commander is from the Chu State, and he also came out of the Army Officer School. Therefore, when fighting, he can naturally bring as many artillery pieces as he can.
However, the servant army of several hundred people brought a total of six artillery pieces, four of which were 25-year-old 65mm light field cannons and two 20-year-old 115mm light howitzers.
In the Chu army, these two kinds of artillery are generally equipped with mountain jungle troops or overseas troops, local mountains, jungles, overseas areas and other places with inconvenient transportation.
The main thing is that it is lightweight and detachable for carrying.
Among them, the 65mm field artillery, although not very powerful, and limited by its relatively small caliber, can only use solid shells, but it is very light and easy to maneuver. Therefore, it started during the Unification War of the Da Chu Empire. , until now thirty years after Chengshun, it is still the indispensable main artillery in the army of the Chu Empire.
This thing seems to be weak in power, and its effective range is only about a few hundred meters... But you can't resist others' lightness. At critical moments during the war, they don't even need draft horses, just give it to two artillerymen to pull it up.
When encountering mountainous terrain, it can be disassembled directly for carrying. When there is no supporting horse, the artillerymen can separate it and carry it...
And its power seems to be small, but this is also compared with other medium and large-caliber field guns of the Chu army, but in fact it is enough to deal with the indigenous people.
For example, the 25-year-old 65mm light field gun has a total weight of only 210 kilograms. The barrel, gun mount, wheels, etc. can be disassembled and then carried separately by draft horses.
But despite its lightness, the effective range of the artillery can actually reach four hundred meters.
This is still talking about the effective range. If you don’t pay much attention to the head and high lethality, there is actually no problem in firing at a distance of six to seven hundred meters. It’s just that the hit rate has dropped, and the terminal kinetic energy of the solid bullet is not very good. Just enough.
In terms of actual power, the Chu Army's 25-year-old 65mm light field gun is actually about the same as the six-pound field guns in many European countries, but its maneuverability and rate of fire are far superior. them.
So this thing doesn't seem very powerful, but it is very valued in the Chu army, especially among the grassroots soldiers.
Even a 115mm light howitzer that can fire grenades, which is specially developed for regiment-level troops and can shoot in a straight direction, cannot replace the tactical status of the 65mm field gun.
Because the grassroots troops of the Chu Army have a special liking for the 65mm field artillery, the Chu Army has been continuously improving over the past thirty years and is widely equipped with this series of artillery. The two latest improved models are:
The plain type Type 24 65mm field gun weighs 350 kilograms and has an effective range of 500 meters;
The mountain type 25-type 65mm light field gun weighs 280 kilograms and has an effective range of 400 meters.
However, with the progress of the times, especially as rifled weapons gradually mature, I am afraid that it will not be long before the 65mm front-loading smoothbore field gun will gradually withdraw from the war stage like other front-loading smoothbore cannons.
After all, the gap between the two in terms of explosive power, range, and accuracy is really huge.
In the autumn of the 30th year of Chengshun, Hebei Arms Company has reported that their continuously improved 75mm breech-loading rifled field gun has initially solved the problem of barrel pressure and rifling wear resistance after improving the steel barrel material and process. question.
The breech-loading rifled artillery problem that plagued the breech-loading rifled artillery has also been solved to a certain extent. The breech-loading rifled artillery developed by Hebei Weapons Company is mainly a horizontal wedge-type breech block. However, due to some design details in the processing, it results in air tightness. Sex is actually not that good.
It is far less airtight than the screw-type breech made by the Dangtu Heavy Artillery Factory of Jiangnan Weapons Company.
It can only be said that it is barely enough.
Well, this is also a breech-loading rifled gun developed by Hebei Arms Company. It has only a caliber of 75 mm and uses a metal shell custom-loaded ammunition...
To a certain extent, Hebei Weapons Company's 75mm breech-loading rifled artillery is actually a thing that imitated some of the design principles of their own Type 18 breech-loading rifle, and then enlarged and improved it!
Therefore, it naturally has the two characteristics of relatively small caliber and using metal fixed-loading ammunition...otherwise it would not be possible.
However, these seemingly flawed things also allowed them to come up with the finished product faster and pass the military's harsh live-fire test.
Although it has not yet been finalized, it is not far away. It is optimistically estimated that by next year, the Army will be able to obtain the first batch of sample guns for various tests.
They are very hopeful to get the first batch of large-scale breech-loading artillery orders from the military!
The overall progress and prospects are much faster than the other four domestic weapons companies... The three weapons companies of Huguang, Shaanxi-Gansu and Guangdong and Guangxi have not even solved the problem of barrel life.
Jiangnan Weapon Company's gun barrels have no problem, and have been applied to naval front-loading rifled artillery currently in production, but their air leakage problem has not been solved.
The screw-type breech block they have developed seems to have a bright future, especially for heavy artillery of medium and large calibers with separate ammunition, but the problem is that it has not been developed yet...
Overall, the research and development progress of the Da Chu Empire's breech-loading rifled artillery is not bad, and there is no hope of large-scale service in a short time. However, after two or three years, it is expected that small-scale experimental equipment will be available, and after five years, it will basically be ready for mass production. Equipped.
But that is all a matter for the future, and even if the Chu army is to equip the latest breech-loaded rifled guns, it will start from the first-class combat readiness divisions, and it will start with the local first-class divisions, and then the overseas first-class divisions. One step at a time.
Under such circumstances, we don’t know when it will be the turn of the regular troops stationed in Africa to equip themselves with the most advanced breech-loading rifled guns.
This is still talking about the regular army in the Dachu Empire Army, well, specifically the A-class and B-class divisions.
As for the local garrison units of the C Division, it is even more difficult.
As for the Indian Legion of the Servant Army...the Indian Legion stationed in India, it is estimated that there will be no hope within twenty years.
The third regiment of the Indian Army in Africa or the servant army in similar situations in the future will probably be treated better, but they will have to be equipped after a large number of first-class and second-class divisions.
Under such circumstances, for the Third Regiment of the Indian Army, it is conservatively estimated that the front-loading smoothbore gun, a seemingly outdated weapon, will be used for more than ten years!
Well, assuming the Indian Legion still exists ten years from now...
Not everyone in the upper echelons of the Chu Army has a favorable impression of the Indian Legion, a servant army like the Indian Army. The Indian Army, a servant army, was supported by the Indian Garrison Command and the 24th Army Headquarters. .
The local Jinling side is not too concerned about it, and there is no talk of support or opposition.
After all, overseas garrisons in other places actually use local indigenous people to some extent to form some servant-like armed forces, but they do not have any formal establishment.
For example, the Nanyang Garrison Command had previously recruited thousands of young indigenous people from Siam, issued them with weapons, and then sent them to Borneo to fight the local indigenous people, but they did not receive any formal training. The establishment is only in the name of armed escort.
As for recruiting young indigenous people to serve as logistics personnel, this is even more common. Basically, in every overseas military operation, the Chu army will recruit local young people to serve as logistics personnel.
After all, the Chu army could mobilize troops from the mainland, but it could not mobilize a large number of young people to go over. The cost was too high and it was not worth it.
Not to mention that the logistics civilians who are not armed and have the ability to protect themselves are prone to large-scale casualties when attacked. Naturally, the Chu State is reluctant to let its own people die as cannon fodder, so it becomes a matter of recruiting local indigenous young men. Of course.
Even in Africa, there was no exception. When Haleer and the others were advancing, they were followed by a group of young and strong peasants recruited from the local area by the Chu army. These peasants would transport a large amount of food and ammunition for Haleer and the others. The army needs it all the way.
In this Chu army's crusade against local indigenous tribes, except for the battalion guards and supervisory team composed of more than ten Chu army officers and more than thirty Chu army soldiers, the rest were Indian servant soldiers and local youth. A strong citizen.
Among more than a thousand people, there were only less than fifty Chu people.
This was also an important change in the Chu Empire's overseas expansion, which was to reduce the casualties of the Chu people as much as possible, and began to use indigenous people as cannon fodder on a large scale to complete various low-intensity, high-casualty combat missions.
This situation cannot be said to be good or bad, it is just some changes made according to the changes of the times. It is precisely because of this change that people of indigenous origin like Lai Haer can embrace the Chu people. Thighs, escape the poverty of the past.
After marching for four days, the third regiment of the Indian Army successfully arrived at a local indigenous tribe whose name was unknown... This tribe naturally had a name, but the local indigenous language was complicated and difficult to understand, and the Chu people had no intention of joining them. What kind of cultural and linguistic exchange.
So until the battle broke out, in fact, neither the people of Chu nor the servants such as Hallel knew what their enemies were called...
But that's not important.
If you can't communicate with words, you can't communicate. As long as guns can communicate, that's fine.
After a burst of shelling and a few more rounds of gunfire, the indigenous tribes across the street knelt down on the spot. Then it was time to collect trophies. Laihar was very lucky. He got a handful of inlays from the corpse of an indigenous leader who looked like an indigenous leader. There are many precious stone daggers and some gold jewelry.
Others have gained more or less.
After plundering the loot and cutting off the heads of the enemy's dead soldiers to build a several-meter-high monument to demonstrate the power of the Chu army and deter other indigenous tribes, the army returned with more than 2,000 young and strong prisoners of war.
Mogadishu is in the stage of major construction. As the largest military camp of the Chu Army in Northeast Africa, it is also a supply port for the fleet and a transit port for various materials. It is in urgent need of a large number of laborers to build the port and other tasks. Class building.
Well, Haleer and his team's expedition this time was not only to demonstrate their force to deter other indigenous tribes, but also to capture some prisoners of war to come back to work.
The infrastructure construction of such a large port requires a lot of labor, and the Chu army obviously cannot use its own soldiers to do it, nor can it transport construction workers all the way from other places, so it can only use prisoners of war. .
Well, most of the overseas coastal port cities of the Chu Empire were basically built by prisoners of war.
Of course, it must be emphasized that the Chu Empire claims to be the only civilized country on earth. The Chu people are civilized people and slavery has always been strictly prohibited.
Regardless of whether they are natives or indigenous people, as long as they are in the areas controlled by the Da Chu Empire, slaves or slave laborers are not allowed to appear.
Therefore, those who built various infrastructures in overseas territories or cultivated plantations were not slaves, but prisoners of war!
Prisoners of war are prisoners of war, slaves are slaves, and the two must not be confused.
Chu people still need to be proud!
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