Off the coast of Cadiz Port, more than a dozen warships were lined up in twos and threes, and they were fiercely bombarding important military targets such as Cadiz's coastal defense batteries ahead.
The rumbling sound of artillery continued on the sea, and the main gunfire of two large-tonnage battleships was the most eye-catching.
These are the two battleships Guiyang and Kunming.
The two hundred millimeter front-loading rifled cannons equipped on them are the largest and most powerful rifled cannons in active service in the Dachu Empire Navy. The attached shells are extremely powerful... Such huge shells cannot even be loaded manually, and can only be loaded with the attached loading crane for loading.
Although loading is troublesome, the rate of fire is very impressive. At the same time, because it is only for land bombardment, it does not need to be loaded as fast as death. Therefore, these large-caliber main guns only take a few minutes to fire one round.
However, this kind of huge cannonball, which can only be fired in a few minutes, is extremely powerful!
Once a high-explosive bomb hits, it can almost clear away all living targets in the open air within a range of tens of meters.
It's better to hide in anti-gun fortifications, but you have to be farther away or hide in very thick fortifications.
If the fortifications are average and the distance is relatively close, the shock wave and earthquake caused by the huge explosion can kill you alive. Ordinary civil fortifications can also collapse and bury you alive... There are people on the left and right. die.
If you are attacking a coastal defense fort, especially the coastal defense fort in Cadiz, Spain, which was designed and processed against howitzers a few years ago, semi-armor-piercing projectiles will be used when high-explosive grenades have little effect. , directly relying on the powerful power of armor-piercing bullets to overturn these so-called fortifications into the sky.
It doesn't take much, just one hit can overturn a fort!
The power of a two-hundred millimeter cannon is no joke. Even if the shell is only filled with black gunpowder, don't think that black gunpowder is less powerful.
Even during the Russo-Japanese War, except for the Japanese naval guns whose shells were charged with picric acid, others including the Japanese's own army artillery and the artillery of the Russian army and navy, the shells fired by them were still filled with powder. They all use black gunpowder.
But less powerful?
The fortifications built by the Russians in Lushun, which were made of cement and steel, still could not withstand the bombardment of the Japanese's large-caliber siege artillery.
Don't take the scientific proportions and technologically produced black powder seriously. The power of this thing when it explodes is also amazing!
Now more than a dozen battleships of the Dachu Empire Navy are using hundreds of artillery pieces to continuously bombard the coastal defense guns in Gasdi ahead and the remaining warships in the port, as well as the discovered enemy targets and other military targets. .
Their bombardment, calibrated by hot-air balloons, appeared precise and deadly, especially the two battleships that had always had tethered hot-air balloons for observation and calibration. Their bombardments were very accurate and powerful, causing inflicted damage to the Spaniards on the opposite side. suffered huge losses.
It effectively covered the large-scale landing of the army on the side!
Several times, when the Spaniards on the opposite side saw that the Chu army was about to land, they wanted to secretly send people around to carry out a beachfront counterattack. However, they were attacked by the Chu army's naval gunfire before they reached the predetermined position, causing heavy losses.
On one of them, they also knew that the Chu army's bombardment was powerful, so they sneaked with only a few artillery pieces and relied on the cover of the woods, trying to get close to the coast, and then shelled the Chu army's landing troops on the beach.
The result still failed to escape the sight of the observer on the hot air balloon!
These naval observers riding in hot air balloons are holding high-power naval telescopes... They are usually used to find and observe targets that are often more than ten kilometers or even further away.
If it was just used to find targets that were no more than a few kilometers away, it would be a piece of cake.
Under the favorable cover of the navy, the army dispatched the first batch of a battalion from the 53rd Division to successfully complete the landing, and then consolidated the beachhead to welcome more friendly troops from the rear.
Because the initial landing was more important, in order to avoid the first batch of landing troops being beaten back and causing subsequent landing troubles, the Army simply did not let the cannon fodder unit of the Indian Third Division serve as the vanguard.
Instead, an infantry battalion of the 53rd Division was dispatched to act as a forward, using the absolute firepower advantage to land and stabilize the beachhead.
Although the Chu Army often uses Indian servants as cannon fodder, it is not used casually. For some combat missions that are not risky and require relatively high firepower, the Chu Army sometimes simply lets regular troops do it.
Only some messy combat tasks that are more dangerous, are expected to have larger casualties in combat, are more troublesome, or will get their hands dirty, will they be more inclined to let servant armies like the Indian Legion do it.
Today's landing mission cannot be missed. In addition, there are more than a dozen naval warships nearby to provide ample fire cover, so the risk of landing is very low.
Mainly, you may encounter some sporadic enemy targets after landing, but the overall threat will be very limited.
So we might as well join the 53rd Division ourselves!
After landing ashore like an outing, the battalion of the 53rd Division did not rush in. Instead, it built fortifications on the beach to cover the landing of subsequent troops.
Soon, hundreds more people landed successfully. After more than a thousand regular troops, or about one regular army that strengthened the size of the mixed battalion, successfully landed, the beachhead was basically stable.
Then the Indian Third Division began to land. This servant army did not stop at the beach after landing. Instead, it crossed the beach and advanced directly in depth.
By evening, three infantry regiments, a cavalry battalion, an artillery battalion and a supply battalion under the Indian Third Division had all landed. The division's total of more than 12,000 people were divided into two arrows on the left and right and advanced rapidly in depth. .
As night fell in the evening, an infantry battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Indian Division encountered a line of Spanish infantry that was marching from the rear to Cadiz for reinforcements. The two sides hurriedly formed their formations to conduct a test. Sexual confrontation.
Because the Spanish reinforcements were small, less than 500 people, while the infantry battalion under the 7th Regiment of the Indian 3rd Division had almost 800 people.
The generals on the other side of Spain were obviously not stupid either. They did not linger for too long. They just had a brief confrontation and then quickly withdrew.
In this tentative confrontation, there were not many casualties without both sides. The Spaniards suffered more than forty casualties, and the Chu army's Indian servants suffered more than ten casualties.
But it is worth mentioning that this was a serious line duel. Both sides used front-loading muskets, and even the formations were almost the same. The Spaniards still used a more radical double-row tactic. The Chu army The three-row tactic used by the Indian servant army.
From the perspective of the Chu army, this battle is just a trivial matter, not even a major battle... After all, this is just a battle between a group of Indian servants, and there are no technical arms such as artillery and cavalry. It is just a group of troops on both sides. The infantrymen lined up and fired at each other stupidly.
The Indian servant army has a very low position in the Chu army's combat sequence, and its weapons, equipment and tactics are still at the level of ten years ago.
The regular army of Chu State, which had already completed the change of uniforms, had stopped playing this trick a long time ago.
But this battle gave many generals on the Spanish side a major misjudgment: the Chu people were no good!
Although in this trial attack, the Spanish reinforcements failed due to inferior equipment and too many troops, which eventually led to a retreat.
But they thought they had also gained a lot of information about the Chu people from actual combat.
First of all, the Spaniards were extremely impressed by the orderliness and strict discipline of the Chu people!
The Spanish generals were envious of their forward, left, right, retreat, and even formation changes during the battle... They didn't know that it was just an Indian servant army. The servant army was naturally trained to death, and those who disobeyed orders would have been put on the spot. Shot.
To be honest, the battlefield discipline of the soldiers in the Indian Servant Army is better than that of the Chu State's regular army.
The general of Chu State wanted to kill his own deserters, etc., so he was somewhat worried...
Not to mention during daily training. Although the military laws of the Chu Army's regular army are quite strict, they can't be shot at every turn... Any officer who dares to shoot soldiers at will will have to go to a military court tomorrow.
If the quarrel gets too big, it will even trigger a mutiny and put your life at risk... Who is not a high-ranking Chu man? If I give you face, you are an officer. If I don't give you face, I will give you a shot!
But for the Indian servant army, there is really nothing to worry about. Chu officers often do not treat them as human beings during training... If you treat them as human beings, it will be difficult to use them as cannon fodder on the battlefield.
In addition to the harshness of Chu officers, the reason why the discipline of the Indian servant army is so strict is actually more because the indigenous officers in the servant army are more cruel... These indigenous officers who were promoted by the Chu people, in order to please Chu In order to stabilize their position, the Chinese are not merciful at all towards their compatriots. During training, it is common to beat, scold or even shoot indigenous soldiers who violate discipline.
It just so happens that these indigenous soldiers are basically from untouchable backgrounds... They are used to being submissive, and not many of them really resist such strict military discipline!
However, their humble origins, coupled with the various abuses and harsh treatment they suffered after joining the army... led to them treating other people on the battlefield, whether they were other indigenous people in India or the local indigenous people in Africa. He has a retaliatory sadistic mentality and does things very cruelly.
Sometimes even many people in the Chu army feel that these Indian servants are somewhat perverted!
In terms of abnormality, among the large number of Indian slave armies, the Indian Third Division should be among the best... But such a slave army that looks abnormal in terms of soldiers, training, and combat methods, in the eyes of the Spaniards But it has become an elite division with strict discipline and neat formation.
It is not that Spain has never fought with the Chu people. In Mexico, there were small-scale conflicts every two days. But to be honest, Spain knew that the Chu people were very strong, but it was unclear how strong they were. clear.
Especially the small conflicts between the two countries in North America are actually mostly sporadic informal battles between the militias of both sides. There are very few battles between regular armies, and the occasional battles are basically based on cavalry.
This time in Gasland, the two sides were considered to be the first large-scale head-on confrontation between armies.
Putting aside the despairing naval fleet of the Dachu Empire Navy, just talking about the army, the Spaniards were certainly amazed, but after careful consideration, several of their frontline generals felt that although the strength gap between the two sides was huge, , but not to the point of surrendering.
As long as our tactics are appropriate and our soldiers use their lives, we still have hope to drive away the Chu people and save their country and home!
Even though the opponent was highly disciplined, the muskets they used were better percussion guns, and they also had powerful artillery units that could launch grenades.
But Spain has not been idle in the past thirty years.
They also imitated and equipped flintlock muskets one after another. Although there is a big difference in firing rate between flintlock muskets and percussion cap guns, there is still no difference in the way of combat.
Using these imitation flintlocks, the Spaniards have also fully entered the line era. Their line infantry is also well-known on the European continent, and is not much weaker than the French army in the north.
In terms of artillery, the Spaniards also successively imitated several field artillery of the Chu army. They were equipped with a field artillery system based on six-pound and twelve-pound front-loading smoothbore cannons. Moreover, they also imitated the Chu people's wooden ammunition stocks. He made a disc fuse and made his own grenade.
Although the performance of the artillery and the power of the shells are somewhat inferior, it is still usable.
Because of the influence of the Chu Empire, the military development speed of the European continent and West Asia far exceeded the original time and space history.
Today's European region has basically entered the line era collectively... Those matchlock guns and spearmen from the Thirty Years' War have long been thrown into the garbage heap of history.
The Line Era in Europe unfolded at least forty or fifty years earlier than the original time and space history.
This process also requires the help of the Chu people... The Chu Empire has almost opened up to sell various flintlocks and smoothbore artillery to foreign countries in recent years, and even grenades have begun to be sold out. This European region has also been the center of the Chu Kingdom's national defense in the past ten years. A big market for industry.
A large number of various flintlock guns and smoothbore cannons are sold to Europe every year.
Not to mention anything else, even the Spanish bought at least 100,000 smoothbore muskets exported by Chu State and more than 200 export version smoothbore cannons.
Other countries have more or less purchased them. England not only buys guns and cannons from the Chu people, but also buys sail warships from the Chu people.
In the past few years, the Chu people had sold many decommissioned pure sail warships to the British. Only then could the British quickly replace the large number of ships lost in the Anglo-Dutch War.
By the way, the Dutch also purchased a large number of guns and sail warships from the Chu people.
After the 1920s, the Chu people put iron-ribbed wooden-hulled ships and steam ships into large-scale service. This led to the retirement of a large number of traditional wooden warships with pure sails. Many of these ships were not thrown away directly, but simply modified. Then it was sold to countries in Europe or West Asia.
Among them, the Jinling-class third-class sailing wooden battleships built on a large scale in the early days of the Chu Empire were useless to the Chu army after entering the steam age, but they were still first-class to the navies of other countries. Good battleship.
The Jinling-class pure-sail wooden warships were gradually decommissioned and sold to the outside world. They were very popular with Europeans. The British alone purchased six of them in one go... The Dutch, the other side of the Anglo-Dutch War, purchased ten of them. .
The Dutch built their country through commerce, but they were much richer than the British and were generous with their purchases... Relying on these ten battleships and the purchase of more than twenty Chu-made sailing battleships, they defeated the British in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. He had no temper at all, and finally felt proud.
After the British were beaten, they turned to the Chu people to buy more wooden warships with sails, and they wanted to avenge the Dutch... But now that the Chu people themselves had come to Europe, they didn't know that the British had any No chance for revenge.
After all, compared with the old wooden warships with sails and sails purchased from the Chu Kingdom by Europe, the steel steam warships used by the Chu Empire Navy for their own use are the real weapons of war.
In the face of this weapon of war, Cadiz, which was considered to have complete shore defenses and thick shore defense firepower in the entire European region, was reduced to rubble like paper.
After all, in front of a modern battleship like the Guiyang battleship with a full load displacement of more than 6,000 tons, an ancient small port like Cadiz is completely worth mentioning.
The battleship Guiyang and the sister ship Kunming participated in the battle this time. These two battleships were quite large tonnage even in the Dachu Empire, and they looked very intimidating.
Moreover, part of the wrought iron armor is used near the waterline armor belt of the hull, and the superstructure outside the armor also uses a lot of iron materials. Therefore, this class of battleships, at first glance, seems to look like an ironclad ship in the traditional sense.
But it's not actually...at its core, it is actually a steam battleship with iron ribs and wooden hull.
If we really want to talk about pure iron-clad ships, in fact, the Jinling-class battleship currently under construction in the Dachu Empire can be considered an iron-clad ship in the traditional sense. The entire ship is made of steel... pure steel without any adulteration.
The gun layout of Guiyang and a series of sister ships is also different from many early ironclad ships in the original time and space. It does not adopt the traditional shipside gun layout, but adopts the front and rear central axis rotating turret layout. Still a high freeboard design.
The high freeboard design allows this class of ships to have good ocean navigation performance and do not have to worry about being hindered by waves when firing.
However, this design also prevents this class of ships from deploying too many large-caliber heavy guns. After all, deploying too many heavy guns in a high-freeboard design will cause the ship's center of gravity to become unstable. It can only deploy four 200mm front-mounted rifled guns.
However, in order to make up for the lack of firepower, in addition to the two double-mounted open-air rotary turrets on the front and rear central axis, a total of twenty-six 150mm rifled guns were deployed on both sides of the ship using traditional shipside columns. gun.
So even though there are only four main guns, the firepower of this thing is still very fierce.
The overall design idea of the Yingtian-class battleship is actually light protection, fewer main guns and more secondary guns, and attaches great importance to ocean navigation performance and endurance.
If this kind of warship had been placed in the original time and space of the mid-to-late 19th century, it would have been beaten even on the battle line... If it were to die, it would be a colonial cruiser... Because the protection is too poor, and the number of main guns is small and the caliber is small. As a result, its lethality against ironclad ships of the same level is limited.
If classified strictly according to performance, this kind of battleship was actually a colonial cruiser in the mid-to-late 19th century in its original time and space.
But why did the Chu Empire Navy design it this way?
Because the Chu Empire built it to deploy overseas to deal with the natives...
Therefore, what is needed is a large range and excellent ocean navigation performance. As for firepower, compared with a few large-caliber main guns, what the navy needs more is a large number of 150 mm naval guns with moderate caliber... 150 mm naval gun price Cheap, and so are the shells.
It is also convenient to fight, and the gunner can directly load it manually without using a crane for lifting and loading.
Battleship design is mostly based on actual needs. In many cases, it does not mean that the bigger the ship, the larger the caliber of the gun, the better.
And even though the Yingtian-class battleship looks like just a large cruiser, its technical content is not low at all.
The combined steam engine equipped on it was the most advanced double-expansion high-pressure small water tube boiler steam engine at the time, and its extremely low failure rate allowed this class of ships to completely abandon sails and use pure steam engine power for long-term voyages.
The technical level of this steam engine is no less than that of the 1870s in the original time and space...
Not to mention the battleship Guiyang, even the many Baling-class frigates nearby seem to be just handymen, but their technical content is not low at all... It can make the Dachu Empire dozens of batch-built Baling-class frigates. Ling frigate, and the price is guaranteed to be low enough, which is not much lower than the technical requirements for a 10,000-ton battleship.
So for many things, just because they look ordinary at first glance, doesn’t mean that the technology is not good... but that’s not the case.
Whether it is the two Yingtian-class battleships Guiyang and Kunming that look mighty and domineering, or the several Baling-class frigates that look a bit petty, or the two Jinzhou-class cruisers that look quite decent but have extremely graceful lines. .
There are a total of more than ten overseas warships that have appeared outside the port of Cadiz. No matter which one they are, they can use square kite tactics to wipe out the entire European fleet one by one when they have sufficient supplies of ammunition, coal, fresh water, etc. .
Of course, Europeans are not stupid, they just don’t know how to use kite flying tactics for the Chu navy.
They will run away... For example, the fleet in Cadiz has run away a long time ago... You can't stay in the port and wait for death, or go out and fight to death!
Not long ago, the Portuguese navy bravely went to sea to fight, but the news that the entire army was destroyed in the end had already spread throughout Europe!
Even if we want to fight, we can't be so stupid and face to face with the Chu navy which has an absolute advantage!
