Chapter 3518 Shelling
The six thousand cavalry were like wind and clouds, their iron hoofs crushed the ice on the ground and swept through the wind and snow, like rolling thunder coming from the sky and covering the ground.
Seeing the soldiers in front of the Youtunwei camp busy setting up their resistance horses, Changsun Wen loudly ordered: "Charge up! Charge up!"
Horse resistance is indeed the nemesis of the cavalry, which can force the cavalry to slow down the front line and reduce its impact. However, once the cavalry loses mobility, it may not be able to bring more damage to the infantry. Therefore, under normal circumstances, when the cavalry rushes into battle, they ignore the rebel horses at all, and forcefully use the bodies of soldiers and war horses to knock the rebel horses away, or even fill this section of the road with corpses. As long as they jump over the rebel horses, the cavalry breaks into the infantry formation. , the powerful impact is unmatched, and generally the battle will be over.
Needless to say, the battlefield with cold weapons is so cruel. Not only will the generals not consider the losses that such an attack on the horse will cause to the soldiers when issuing orders, even the soldiers themselves have such awareness and will not hesitate to hit them. .
War is not a child's play, it is a fight between life and death. Everything is just for the final victory. Human life is like a trivial matter in this process. The life of others is like that, and so is your own life.
It's just that although the soldiers of Guanlong's army were determined to die and kept urging their horses to speed up with red eyes, the enemy on the opposite side kept letting them hit the horses.
"Tongtongtong"
A dull roar was heard in the Youtunwei camp, and then a cloud of smoke rose, and countless shells penetrated the wind and snow and flew towards them.
"Artillery! Artillery!"
"Attention, spread out the formation! Don't slow down!"
Changsun Wen gave a series of orders. He first bent his waist and pressed his body tightly against the horse's back, minimizing the cross-section of his body to avoid possible incoming shell fragments.
However, the cavalry behind him couldn't break up the formation at all. These cavalry belonged to different families and had never trained with each other. When they received the order to break up the formation, they collided with each other in panic, running at high speed. The collision caused a piece of him to fall down. The soldiers who fell to the ground had no time to get up and were reduced to pulp by the hooves of the horses behind them.
In panic, these cavalrymen did not dare to spread to both sides and could only charge bravely.
After all, the probability of a cannonball hitting the body is still very small. It is hard to say whether he will die or not. If it spreads slightly outward, it will collide with the robe next to him, and he will definitely die...
"Boom boom boom!"
Cannonballs fell from the sky one after another, dragging long fireworks-like tails, and rammed diagonally into the cavalry charge formation. They exploded immediately after landing, sending shrapnel flying and harvesting everything around them.
There were screams and screams, and people fell on their backs.
Before the Guanlong cavalry could feel the pain of shrapnel breaking through their armor and piercing their bodies, the second round of salvo fire in the Youtunwei camp had been completed. Countless shells fell into the cavalry position again. Changsun Wen, who was running, looked back. , the tragic situation like blood and fire hell made him feel cold in his heart, and all the excitement and pride disappeared.
He looked forward again. The cavalry running at the front was still hundreds of feet away from the Youtunwei camp. When the group reached the camp, wouldn't they have to suffer two or three rounds of artillery bombardment?
Even if not all of them are killed, the formation will definitely be scattered and it will be difficult to take advantage of the charge.
But how could he be allowed to look back at this time?
He had wrested the military power from Hou Mo and Chen Lin, and the fellow was not sure how angry he was. If he returned home with a defeated army and lost all his face, the fellow would definitely accuse him harshly in front of his father after he returned. , thinking about his father's possible punishment and the fact that he was still completely hopeless as the head of the family, he felt cruel.
"Charge, rush, rush! Rush forward and the enemy's artillery will become a decoration!"
He could only bite the bullet and rush forward, hoping that these rounds of artillery bombardment were just an attempt by the Youtun Guards to cover up the nature of being strong on the outside and hard on the inside. As long as they broke through the artillery fire and broke into the enemy's formation, their empty troops would not be able to stop the impact of his cavalry.
The six thousand cavalrymen accelerated again, charging forward desperately to avoid the cannonballs falling from the sky.
When they reached a few dozen feet in front of the camp, Changsun Wen, who was charging ahead, secretly slowed down his horse, but he waved the horizontal knife in his hand fiercely and shouted: "Charge up and trample them to death!"
The soldiers around them rushed towards the tall and sturdy Juma with red eyes. "Boom!" The tall Juma was staggered by the powerful impact of the cavalry, while the charging cavalry was smashed into a pulp with both men and horses behind. The soldiers did not bother to step forward to rescue them, but rushed in like a gust of wind along the gap between the horses.
"Bang bang bang"
The muskets of the Youtun Guards had already been arranged in a dense array, with countless gun muzzles spitting out gunpowder smoke in a round and round cycle. Soon the gunpowder smoke condensed into a huge ball and dispersed with the rising north wind.
The Guanlong cavalry who rushed at the front could clearly see the faces of the Youtun guardsmen, but they were knocked down by rounds of muskets. The bullets hitting their bodies felt like they had been hit hard by a heavy hammer, and their whole body was covered with pain. The energy and blood disappeared in an instant, and all the men and horses were beaten into sieves and fell heavily to the ground.
Countless projectiles formed a steel city wall. The cavalry rushing in front seemed to have been severely whipped by an invisible whip, and fell to the ground covered in blood. This gave the cavalry behind them great psychological pressure and panic, and they couldn't help but slow down their charging speed. Some of the timid ones even shouted, turned their horses' heads and tried to run back.
Changsun Wen was furious. He rode up and chopped off a cavalryman who turned around and fled with a knife. He ordered the soldiers behind him to act as supervisors: "Anyone who dares to retreat will be killed without mercy! Come on, come on, I will charge forward. As long as you rush into their position, you can kill them at will!"
The soldiers behind them stepped forward and dispersed. If anyone retreated from the battle or was afraid of the enemy, they would rush forward and strike with a knife, fierce and violent.
The cavalry was helpless, knowing that the son of the eldest grandson had become ruthless, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue to charge forward.
……
In the Youtunwei camp, Princess Gao Yang, Wu Meiniang, and Jin Shengman stood in front of the barracks window. Not far away was the Youtunwei artillery position.
The soldiers took out the cannonballs and propellant packs from the wooden box, first used a long brush to clean the barrel, then stuffed the propellant and then the shells, and someone lit the fuse, and then heard a "tong" sound. There was a sound, and a ball of flames and thick smoke were emitted from the muzzle, and then the operation began to be repeated, and the shells were shot out one after another.
Dozens of artillery were lined up in a line, and the earth-shattering power of the salvo made the three women's pretty faces turn pale and their hearts were shocked.
Covered by such artillery fire, it is impossible to imagine what a devastating blow the enemy will encounter...
Gao Kan wore a helmet and strode from a distance. He first stood outside the door, and after being summoned, he pushed the door open and entered. When he saw the three women watching in front of the window, he took two steps forward, bowed and saluted. : "Your Highness and two ladies, the rebels have sent another army to come. When attacking the main camp, according to the scouts' reports, the number of people is about 30,000, including more than 6,000 cavalry. Our army has already arrived to engage in the battle. The force of our army is too high, so as not to disturb the three of them, the general is here to explain. Please rest assured, three of you.”
Wu Meiniang said with a smile: "General, do you really think that the three of us are ladies who never leave the house? You know, His Highness once shot an enemy off his horse with an arrow, and Princess Zhende even captured him alive. Lian Ying The Duke also wants to praise the women for not being inferior to men!”
Gao Kan naturally knew that he had captured Changsun Wen alive before. He laughed and said with admiration: "Your Highness can cross the Yangtze River at a hundred steps. Madam Jin is very skilled. Madam Wu is also skilled in many strategies. I will admire them so much. By the way, this time the Guanlong rebels are in front of them. Come, Commander It is Changsun Wen and Hou Mochen Lin. Xu Changsun Wulang knew that he had lost his face, so he wanted to make up for it. Unfortunately, his subordinates were all rabble. Not only would they not be able to lose face, but they might even end up dead in front of the battle. "
Jin Shengman didn't care about Changsun Wen and his defeated general, but he was more interested in the artillery. He asked enthusiastically: "How powerful is the artillery? Why don't you just keep firing when the enemy shows signs and enters the range? If that's the case, Even if the enemy has 100,000 or 200,000 troops, they are just chickens and dogs, and they will be defeated in one blow."
Gao Kan respectfully explained: "Mrs. Jin doesn't know something. The power of artillery is enough to crack mountains and crack rocks. It cannot be resisted by the human body. It is the most powerful weapon in the world. However, it also has its own shortcomings. That is, after the cannon chamber fires another shell, , the temperature is extremely high, so the barrel of each gun has a endurance limit. Once this limit is exceeded, the barrel's endurance will be reduced. If the gun continues to fire, it will likely cause the gun barrel to explode. However, the cost of making gun barrels is extremely high. Only the Foundry Bureau in the world can cast them. The yellow, orange, and orange gold, the Marshal once described it very aptly, "When the cannon goes off, there are ten thousand taels of gold;" This is evident from this."
Firearms are indeed powerful, far more powerful than the previous swords, guns, swords and halberds, but their shortcomings are equally obvious, and that is that they are too expensive. Regardless of the configuration of gunpowder or the research and development of muskets and artillery, a huge amount of money is needed to support it. A small country is afraid that it will go bankrupt in just these few rounds of artillery battles today, so the navy will race to encircle the world and even support smuggling. In order to obtain huge wealth to support the firearms system of the Tang Dynasty. (End of chapter)