Landing in Cadiz was not a problem for the Chu army. The fierce naval bombardment on the first day basically destroyed the Spanish resistance. The subsequent landing process of the army troops did not encounter any actual resistance, and even There wasn't even much of a firefight.
On the first day of the daytime battle, the only ground force was an infantry battalion of the Indian 3rd Division. After landing, they advanced in depth and encountered Spanish reinforcements about three kilometers away from the beach. In the line battle, hundreds of people from each side participated, with dozens of casualties.
That night, an infantry regiment of the 3rd Indian Division advanced along the coastline toward the port area of Cadiz. During this process, it encountered no actual resistance. There were only a few remaining Spanish soldiers and the servants of the 3rd Indian Division. There were sporadic exchanges of fire.
After the troops of the Indian Third Division suffered more than 20 casualties that night, they basically cleaned up the port area and effectively covered the subsequent direct landing of more troops in the port.
Among them was a main artillery battalion of the 53rd Division.
With the landing of eighteen 75mm mountain guns, the landing Chu army's ground troops had their own artillery power, instead of relying only on the naval gun fire support of naval warships.
During the landing stage, because there is no need to consider issues such as infantry and artillery coordination, and the hot air balloons of naval warships can also take off during the day for effective observation and guidance, the navy's bombardment of military targets in coastal areas is very vigorous.
But as night entered, especially when the Chu army's large-scale infantry units began to control the port area and advance toward the city, the navy's naval guns were no longer able to provide direct fire support and could only extend the artillery fire in depth.
Because of the need to extend artillery fire, and the effective range of some naval guns is also limited, in order to better provide in-depth fire support, the Navy even allowed four frigates to risk running aground close to the beach to extend the artillery range.
This night, there was still the roar of artillery, but in fact the casualties on both sides were not much.
After all, the main Spanish defenders have already withdrawn from the city. Now there seem to be a lot of Spaniards in the city, but in fact there are only a handful of broken troops and stragglers who stayed in the city for various reasons. The rest Basically they are civilians.
Therefore, it seems that the Chu army's artillery fire was still very powerful that night, but in fact it did not pose any actual threat to the Spanish defenders... They had already run away, and it would be of no use if you hit them with artillery shells.
The violent artillery knockdown destroyed a large number of buildings in the city, leaving the Chu army with another city that looked like ruins!
After dawn the next day, around 8 o'clock in the morning, the 8th Infantry Regiment and 9th Infantry Regiment of the Indian 3rd Division, which were responsible for urban combat tasks, had completely controlled the entire city of Cadiz.
At nine o'clock in the morning, the Great Chu Empire ordered the European Expeditionary Force to co-organize the expedition. Lieutenant General of the Great Chu Empire Army and Commander of the 27th Army Bo Jian'an landed at the port and established a frontline headquarters.
Accompanying him in landing was the absolute main force of the Army in this European Expeditionary Force, Major General Ding Zhengqing, commander of the 53rd Division, and a large number of other officers.
In a well-preserved large warehouse at the port, they set up the headquarters of the 27th Army. Then Army Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an ordered the Indian Third Division to continue to eliminate the remaining enemies in Cadiz, and dispatched battalion-level combat troops to the surrounding areas. Clean up.
As for the main force, the 53rd Division, they continue to land!
During yesterday's daytime and nighttime landing operations, except for the initial landing, in which an infantry battalion of the 53rd Division was responsible for the main landing force for safety, subsequent landings and urban operations were all undertaken by the Indian Third Division.
As of this morning, only one infantry battalion and one artillery battalion of the 53rd Division have completed the landing.
Except for a mixed battalion stationed in Tangier, all the other troops of the 53rd Division were dispatched to Cadiz to carry out the combat mission of landing in Spain.
In other words, there are still more than 10,000 Chu soldiers floating on the sea waiting to land.
In the morning of that day, the infantrymen of the two infantry regiments of the 53rd Division landed one after another. Relatively speaking, the infantry's landing was much simpler. After all, the infantry did not have heavy equipment. After the ship docked, the soldiers brought rifles and Just disembark your luggage and go ashore.
The 70mm infantry cannons attached to the infantry regiment are also very light. Even if the dock is crowded and the dock itself has no lifting equipment, the infantry artillerymen of the infantry regiment can directly push these infantry cannons off the ship.
However, the landing of cavalry troops, artillery troops and baggage troops is very troublesome!
The 53rd Division is a cavalry regiment. Although it is only a light cavalry regiment in the standing second-class troops, with a full establishment of only more than 800 cavalry, the 53rd Division is different from ordinary second-class troops. The 53rd Division is Although it is known as a second-class unit, it is actually selected as the absolute main force in European operations because of its long-term commitment to combat missions in Africa.
According to the basic policy of maintaining the backbone and basic combat effectiveness of Class B troops in peacetime, Class B troops will be expanded and equipped according to the standards of Class A troops during war.
Before going to Europe, the 53rd Division was configured according to the standards of a first-class combat readiness unit, so it could be equipped with breech-loading rifled guns.
The cavalry units have also been replenished in accordance with combat readiness standards... Of course, there are still so many cavalry personnel, but they have been upgraded from the standard of one rider on a single horse to the standard of one rider on two horses, and an additional 70mm infantry is deployed. The cavalry artillery battery.
Why are cavalry equipped with infantry cannons? Because this thing is so easy to use... Furthermore, the replacement equipment for the 70mm infantry cannon is the 65mm field gun and 115mm light howitzer in the era of front-loading smoothbore guns, and these two It happens to be a cavalry cannon used on a large scale by cavalry troops.
In addition to the cavalry artillery company, there was also a cavalry baggage company.
The total number of members of the regiment reached over a thousand. The main force used war horses, that is, Liaohe horses, with more than 800 horses. The auxiliary war horses, that is, auxiliary cavalry, carried weapons and ammunition, and were occasionally used for riding during fast marches, such as Hexi horses. There are more than nine hundred horses.
In addition, there are more than 200 draft horses or war horses in the cavalry baggage company and more than 60 four-wheeled or two-wheeled carriages.
The entire 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment is said to be a light cavalry regiment, but in fact it has more than 2,000 mounted horses and draft horses, more than 1,100 personnel, and six infantry guns. At the same time, the whole regiment is fighting As well as logistics personnel, they are all equipped with the cavalry version of the Type 18 rifle with a slightly shorter barrel. At the same time, each cavalryman is also issued a Shaanxi-type 11mm cavalry revolver.
This kind of pistol is a cavalry combat pistol specially developed for cavalry. It has a long range, high accuracy, and high power, but it has relatively large recoil and weight... It’s just that many cavalry dislike this thing because it is too heavy and has heavy recoil, so Many cavalrymen would rather spend their own money to buy Tianwu revolvers and go to the battlefield.
The Tianwu revolver has been very popular among the Chu State military, police and even the people since its birth. The military uses it as a large-scale self-defense pistol for officers and artillery and other technical arms, and it is also used by the army, navy, and guards. , all four branches of the armed tax police are uniformly used.
In addition to the military, a large number of local patrol agencies also purchase large quantities of this type of Tianwu revolver, or patented products of this pistol, such as the so-called Liuzhou 33 pistol purchased by the Guangxi Local Patrol Department, which Liuzhou Arsenal boasts about It is independently developed, but it is actually a patented and reskinned version of the Tianwu revolver.
As for private purchases, especially in overseas territories and colonies, more people buy such pistols.
The Tianwu-type revolver and various messy patented reskinned versions are currently the most produced and sold firearms in the Dachu Empire... In the thirty-fifth year of Chengshun alone, various weapons companies produced at least five One hundred thousand.
At present, the total production of Tianwu revolvers is at least 4 million units!
Compared with the output of serious military rifles such as the Type 18 rifle and the Type 19 rifle, they are just little brothers...
By the way, the Tianwu revolver is quite expensive to buy. The latest improved version for civilian use costs more than 30 Yuan. The military and police version is cheaper but the price is not much different. Anyway, it is more than 10 Yuan. Chu Yuan's Type 18 rifle is much more expensive.
Hebei Arms Company can live a very comfortable life just by relying on the self-production of this pistol and the licensing of patent fees.
The 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment is no exception. Many of the cavalry are equipped with the standard Shaanqi-type cavalry pistol, but many cavalry choose to use self-purchased Tianwu-type pistols.
Plus one piece of the Type 18 rifle cavalry version.
In terms of firearms firepower alone, this cavalry regiment is ferocious enough, not to mention that it also carries six 70mm infantry cannons, which directly support the infantry regiment with more than 3,000 firepower.
Plus exclusive baggage company!
The 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment, which was expanded to the standard of a first-class combat readiness unit, is not the same concept as the ancient traditional cavalry unit, and the combat method is not a horse charge in the traditional sense... Although these cavalry also have riding swords , cavalry charge is still a very important part of daily training.
But these days, when you can use artillery and firearms to kill the natives from a distance, why do you have to line up and charge like a wall?
Therefore, the tactical positioning of cavalry units such as the 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment among the main forces of Chu has never been to charge in formation, but to conduct reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance, rapid assault interception or support operations.
In terms of specific battles, the main battle is on foot and on horseback.
It is naturally not easy for such a cavalry regiment to get off the transport ship. The more than 800 cavalry alone are okay, but the more than 2,000 horses and a large number of baggage carriages are not easy.
At the same time, because the port facilities in Cadiz are too backward, the deep-water berths are very limited, and the port itself has no lifting facilities. Even the quality of the trestles at several deep-water berths is not very good. These ordinary wooden trestles are old. The state of disrepair made it difficult for the Chu army to transport a large number of vehicles, artillery and war horses ashore through these trestles in a short period of time.
And some usable trestles also need to be given priority to support the landing of artillery troops and baggage troops.
As a result, it was very troublesome for the 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment to land ashore. It took a long time to wait in line for a deep-water berth.
As a result, when they landed, they found that the wooden trestle was not strong enough. Too many people and horses could not be allowed ashore at the same time, otherwise the trestle would be crushed in minutes.
In the end, we had no choice but to slow down and simply use small boats to transport people ashore.
But there is no good solution for horses, artillery and vehicles. We can only take our time.
Although the landing of the 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment was slower, it was able to proceed normally, but the landing of the 53rd Division Artillery Regiment next door was simply a disaster.
When we landed the 75mm mountain artillery camp before, we didn't find any big problems... Although this thing is a divisional artillery, its main purpose is to be light. The marching weight of the whole gun is only more than 360 kilograms. , an artillery piece of this weight can already be considered
As a result, when the 75mm field artillery battalion began to land, the artillery with a total weight of more than 1,600 kilograms was stretched directly... Although there is hoisting equipment on the transport ship, the hoisting equipment driven by the steam engine on the ship can be used. This long-barreled division-level suppression artillery was directly hoisted onto the trestle...but the trestle built in Spain was too long.
The Chu people overestimated the quality of the port facilities built by the Spanish. As a result, the stone trestle, which looked very solid, collapsed under the pressure of three 75mm field guns in succession... three The main artillery and its draft horses fell directly into the sea.
The angry Colonel Wei Chenglin, the commander of the 53rd Division Artillery Regiment, yelled: "These Spanish natives are so irresponsible that they built such a shoddy project!"
You can scold them, but there is nothing you can do... You can't arrest Spain, who are responsible for building the dock, and hold them accountable.
Three artillery pieces fell into the water, and fell into the sea water several meters deep. The draft horse that pulled the cannons basically drowned on the spot, and the artillery pieces were also missing.
Although it is said that divers can be organized for salvage in the future, I don’t know when that will happen.
Finally, the engineers of the Chu Army carefully inspected several other berths, and finally found that trestle-type berths were basically unreliable. If they wanted to get these heavy artillery ashore, they could only risk getting close to the shore and hoisting them directly on the shore. Homework... The pier on the shore is solid and can hold up.
It's just that the shore berths for large-tonnage ships are very limited. Those berths were originally used for the baggage troops to land ashore... The cargo of the baggage troops is also very heavy, and the vehicles and their cargo are basically heavy in tons. If you add in If it were a draft horse, it would basically cost more than two tons.
But there was no choice but to move the baggage troops to the back and let the artillery go ashore first.
The entire landing scene was even more chaotic than yesterday, and accidents occurred frequently... This made the Chu army very resentful and deeply dissatisfied with the Spanish infrastructure projects.
At the same time, in order to meet the subsequent hoisting and transportation operations at the port, the Chu army had to let a large number of young Spanish men in the city go to the dock for construction, so as to get a usable dock at least.
This landing operation also revealed that the main force of the Chu army, which carried a large number of artillery and supplies, was extremely difficult to carry out a landing operation.
It's not even as good as a servant army like the Indian Third Division... The landing operation of the Indian Third Division was not that troublesome. There wasn't even a port when they landed yesterday. They were directly connected to the landing by small boats.
Because the Indian 3rd Division is a standard light-armed force with all personnel. Although there is a so-called artillery battalion, the artillery attached to it are all old 65mm field guns, and they were disassembled when they came ashore. Landed by boat transfer.
The number of mules and horses is also very small. There are only a few officers' horses and artillery troops' draft horses. It is enough to just use a ship to land on the beach.
However, the 53rd Division only has various riding horses and artillery draft horses, and the logistics horses add up to several thousand horses.
There are fifty-four divisional artillery pieces in the artillery regiment, and there are dozens of 70mm infantry cannons.
Then there are hundreds of various four-wheeled heavy trains, two-wheeled carriages.
The 53rd Division alone carries more than 2,000 tons of various logistical supplies. This does not include the 27th Army's military dependents, who carry even greater amounts of various logistical supplies.
The logistics supplies of the entire 27th Army, that is, food, feed, medical supplies, ammunition, supplementary artillery, firearms, military uniforms, tents and other military supplies total more than 10,000 tons.
Otherwise, there would be no need for an entire transport fleet to transport various supplies!
The reason why the 27th Army carries so much combat supplies is because they also know that they will be fighting locally for at least several months or even more than half a year. All kinds of combat supplies are taken directly with them, but they can't carry them with them when they are fighting. We have to wait for supplies from the rear...
With the speed of shipping these days, if we wait for continuous supplies later, the ammunition on the front line will have been exhausted long ago.
According to past experience, the 53rd Division is nominally a Class B unit, but in fact, when it performs tasks as a Class A unit during wartime, it consumes a huge amount of supplies every day.
Not to mention the consumption of ammunition, just people eating horse chews consumes dozens of tons of food and feed every day.
If a battle breaks out, a huge amount of ammunition, mainly artillery shells, will be fired... The amount of ammunition used in large-scale battles is not calculated in rounds, but in tons.
Once the troops leave the material hoarding point and need to move forward to perform mobile combat missions, the logistical supplies required are huge!
This is also the reason why the 53rd Division carried hundreds of horse-drawn carriages... There are not enough vehicles with fewer vehicles, and even the materials hoarded at the port cannot be transported to the front line.
And these transportation forces are only used by the 53rd Division itself. In fact, in the higher-level military headquarters, that is, the 27th Army, the local manpower and material resources will be fully utilized in the future, and the organization will be larger. Large-scale material transportation channels.
Therefore, even though the 53rd Division of the Chu Army seems to have strong combat effectiveness and can reach Madrid, the capital of Spain, in one go, this is actually unlikely.
Because the distance is too far... supplies are too difficult.
The 53rd Division, a first-class unit with strong firepower and high mobility, is 150 kilometers away from the supply station, so their own logistics and transportation capabilities alone are no longer able to ensure sufficient logistics supply... Even eating can become a problem.
Even if you can rely on eating the enemy to solve part of the problem, you can't solve the problem of ammunition.
This is also the reason why Bo Jian'an of the Army only allowed the Indian Third Division to move around and eliminate surrounding enemy forces after the army began to land, but did not let the large troops directly penetrate into the hinterland.
The logistical work has not been completed yet, and a large amount of supplies are still on the ships. Going deep into the inland means sending people away by yourself...
No matter how good the breech-loading rifled gun is, it must have ammunition. A breech-loading rifled gun without ammunition is worse than burning a fire stick.
So, after the navy bombarded Cadiz all day long, the army's landing was quite lively at first, but then they didn't attack for a long time, and they stayed in the port of Cadiz for several days.
It was not until the seventh day after the landing that all the supplies were moved ashore, and the army troops, with the Indian Third Division as the leader, began to penetrate deep into the interior!
At this time, the Spaniards on the opposite side also became nervous.
When the Chu army first bombarded Cadiz, the Spanish army in Cadiz knew that it was outnumbered. There was no difference between directly defending Cadiz and directly sending people to the Chu people.
This was also proven in the subsequent Chu army bombardment. The overwhelming and violent bombardment of large-caliber naval guns was simply not something that human power could resist. At least the Spaniards had not found a way to resist for the time being.
Therefore, the Spaniards began to retreat long ago, and the Spanish troops who came up with emergency reinforcements from surrounding areas did not blindly go to Cadiz. Instead, they went to a place called Harkasburg to join forces with Cadiz's retreating troops.
In the following days, Spanish troops and a large amount of material resources continued to gather from the surrounding areas, and soon more than 30,000 troops were gathered in the Harkasburg area.
These 30,000 people are also very typical of Spain's new army.
That is, a new army equipped with flintlock muskets, mainly new artillery, and using line tactics as its core tactics.
The infantry are all Suifa line infantry of the new era. Half of the flintlocks are exported by the Chu people, and half are self-made in Spain.
The artillery is equipped with more than 150 front-loading smoothbore cannons, and the performance of these smoothbore cannons is actually quite good.
They are not the antiques from the Thirty Years War. They are basically new field guns that have been popular in the past twenty years. The effective range of the twelve-pounder can reach thousands of meters, and it fires a wooden disc fuse with a wooden bullet holder. The kind of grenade... is either the Chu State's export version of the artillery, or the Chu State's export version of the artillery imitated by the Spaniards.
Grenades were not exported by Chu State.
However, the technical content of this thing is not high, and it can be made by hand in European countries, but because the shell craftsmanship is not good, the explosion power is small and there are few fragments. Many times, the so-called grenades produced by these European indigenous countries have so many dumb bombs that even if they explode, they can easily be blown into two halves and cannot effectively form a large number of fragments.
To a certain extent, because of the emergence of the Chu Empire, the military level in Europe has improved by at least fifty years compared to the original time and space... and in the field of artillery, it has improved by at least hundreds of years.
In the original time and space, wooden bullet holders and wooden disc fuses were not used on a large scale until the mid-19th century... The technical content of this thing is actually very average, and it is mainly a matter of thinking.
Of course, due to poor basic technology, the Europeans seemed to have come up with a new type of grenade, but the actual power was not very good and could not be compared with the grenades produced by various countries in the mid-19th century in the original time and space.
Just the manufacturing process of a cartridge case would stump them.
But for European countries, less power is better than nothing.
Today, Spain is in the Harkasburg area, about seven kilometers north of Cadiz. The 30,000 troops gathered together can basically be regarded as the current mainstream local army in Europe. Both weapons, equipment and tactics are highly representative. .
And can such a Spanish army stop the Chu army?
In this regard, the Indian Captain Harel expressed his pessimism... and even felt sad for the ignorant and fearless Spaniards opposite: These fools are really ignorant and fearless!
Anyone who has seen Chu's new regular army fighting with breech-loaded rifled guns would never be able to form such a neat and dense infantry square in front of the Chu army!
Apart from sending people away, what else does this do?
(End of chapter)
