Chapter 1679 Improvements in Drills
Zhu Pingan shook his head slightly. He was not satisfied with this round of volley. It was not that he was dissatisfied with the gunpowder. Although the smoke of the gunpowder was large, the improved granular black gunpowder was more powerful. In fact, it was already very large. What dissatisfied Zhu Ping'an was that this round of volleys was incomplete.
In the first group of three rows of soldiers, about a quarter of them were half a beat behind in firing before they fired their guns.
However, after counting the bullet marks on the target, Zhu Pingan's dissatisfaction calmed down a little.
Firing at a distance of fifty meters, the Zhejiang Army’s hit rate was still acceptable. The hit rate for the three rows of targets reached 80%, especially the first row of targets that were riddled with holes. It was almost 100%, with only three targets missing.
If it were on the battlefield, with this round of volley, the Japanese pirates on the opposite side would fall in large pieces like wheat. Even if the Japanese pirates were wearing large Japanese-style armor, they would have to shoot one by one in front of a black powder gun fired at a distance of fifty meters. The power of black powder is not something that ordinary armor can protect against.
"Load!"
Zhu Ping'an ordered the first three rows of soldiers to load and fire. Because of the oil-paper gunpowder bags, the efficiency of loading ammunition was higher than that of Europa and Japanese pirates at the same time. More than doubled. Moreover, since a certain amount of gunpowder is wrapped in oil paper in advance, there will be no errors such as too little gunpowder and insufficient power, or too much gunpowder to explode the chamber.
In less than a minute, all the soldiers of the first three rows loaded the ammunition under the command of Zhu Pingan.
“Prepare, release!”
After Zhu Pingan gave the order, the first group of Zhejiang soldiers fired another salvo, and black smoke filled the air again.
This second salvo was much better than the first salvo. More than 90% of the soldiers fired the salvo, and less than 10% of the soldiers fired slightly behind by about half a beat.
Then came the third round of volley, and this round of volley was even better. Only seven or eight soldiers were half a beat behind, and the rest of the soldiers were able to fire the volley.
After three rounds, the black smoke caused by firing became a bit big, and the line of sight was inevitably affected.
Before the second salvo training of soldiers, Zhu Pingan had to temporarily change the shooting position and moved twenty meters to Zai to avoid the smoke. Of course, this is also training. In actual combat, you cannot change your position at will. You have to bite the bullet and fire in the smoke.
This time Zhu Pingan had three rows of new targets re-established to facilitate the hit rate test.
The second group of soldiers, Zhu Pingan, ordered them to conduct a three-stage attack, also at a distance of fifty meters. After the first row of soldiers opened fire, they retreated to the back and concentrated on loading; then the second row of soldiers came forward. The second flat-end gun fired, then stepped back to reload, and the soldiers in the third row stepped forward to fire. In this way, the three rows of soldiers fired in turn.
Bang bang bang.
Bang bang bang.
Bang bang bang.
The pause time between the firing of the three rows of soldiers was no more than five seconds, and they fired almost continuously. The firing efficiency was indeed increased three times, but compared to the first group of soldiers, the density of firing was reduced by 30%. Of course, this is certain. The first one is a three-row salvo, and the second one is a three-row rotation. The density of one-row shooting is definitely 30% lower than that of a three-row salvo.
After the round of shooting, Zhu Pingan checked the bullet marks on the target. Compared with the first shot, the hit rate was slightly lower, but the overall difference was not big. However, considering that it was a fixed target after all, if The enemy on the opposite side is moving, so the hit rate will definitely be compromised.
In addition, on the battlefield, soldiers will inevitably be nervous and excited, and their hit rate will be further reduced.
Zhu Ping'an began to think thoughtfully, and then waved his hand to order the second group to continue firing, firing two consecutive waves of six shots.
Zhu Ping'an found that the first wave of three shots was almost able to achieve relatively continuous shooting.
But after the second wave of reloading, that is, the time interval between the third shot and the fourth shot was obviously longer.
After all, loading of firecrackers in this era is relatively troublesome. Although Zhu Pingan brought oil-paper-packed ammunition in advance, loading of firecrackers in this era is still cumbersome.
In order to keep the shooting effective After firing the gun, before reloading, use an iron rod to clean the barrel of the gun and poke out the remaining gunpowder to avoid impurities affecting the accuracy and power of the gun again.
So, this resulted in a pause of nearly a minute after the third shooting, before the fourth shooting sounded.
Zhu Ping'an believes that if the Zhejiang army continues to train for a period of time, the gunpowder reloading speed will be able to reach a higher level. By then, the interval between the third shooting and the fourth shooting will be shortened to less than half a minute.
However, Zhu Pingan studied it carefully and shook his head.
Although the three-stage fire is stronger than the Europa-style three-row salvo in terms of continuous shooting, the loading of firecrackers in this era is very cumbersome, the rate of fire is limited, and the number of only three rows cannot maintain the continuity of firepower.
Moreover, the firepower density and lethality of three-stage attacks fired in rows are far inferior to those of three-row salvos.
You can imagine that on the battlefield, three-stage firing is used in rows and rows. The shooting speed can be relatively continuous, but the enemies fall one by one: but if three rows of volleys are fired, the enemy will They fall in batches. On the battlefield, these two enemy-killing effects have different deterrent effects on the enemy. Is the enemy shocked when he sees his comrades around him fall one after another, or is he shocked when he sees his comrades die? There is no doubt that it is the second one.
The reason why the Yong Ji Formation is used is to improve the shooting accuracy and density of the fire cannons, ensure the firepower output, and make up for the shortcomings of the current fire cannons.
At a certain time, the more bullets fired, the greater the lethality. This is an obvious reason.
So, after Zhu Pingan went through this verification, he considered Yixiang and decided to use the Europa-style three-row salvo method.
Think about it. The European tactic of queuing to kill has been tested by more than a hundred years of iron-blooded wars. The British have been able to dominate the world with the tactic of queuing to shoot for more than a hundred years. They must be able to withstand actual combat experience. .
Although I dare not say it is the best tactic, it is definitely the most suitable tactic for muskets.
However, considering the terrain characteristics of the southeastern coastal areas, such as hills and ravines, crisscrossing rivers and narrow roads, this terrain may not necessarily be able to accommodate the Zhejiang army's horizontal formation in three rows; and the Japanese pirates are accustomed to With the characteristics of close combat and good at running, if the Japanese pirates break into the Yongji Formation without fear of death, they may be in trouble.
Therefore, Zhu Pingan added two variations to the Yongji Formation, namely the six-row thick formation and the nine-row thick formation. Three rows are one formation, six rows are two formations, and nine rows are three formations. The first formation is three rows. After shooting, he retreated and concentrated on loading, and then the second group of three rows of soldiers came forward to fire, one after another, and improved the three-stage attack.
This not only takes into account firepower and continuity, but also adapts to the terrain of Jiangnan, and restrains the combat characteristics of Japanese pirates.
After some experiments, Zhu Pingan nodded with satisfaction and settled on it. (End of this chapter)