Chapter 1438 Strength Gap
Qian Tiandun did have high hopes for the Pidao Army before the war, and even gave them the artillery flanks to guard. However, judging from the actual performance, the strength of the Pidao Army was still far from his expectations. On the one hand, this is due to the performance of weapons and equipment, and on the other hand, it is because the Pidao Army still lacks practical experience in this new combat method.
There are inherent difficulties in using infantry against cavalry. Although Haihan has taught the Pidao Army a relatively mature set of tactics, this is the first time it has been used on the battlefield. It is inevitable that there will be some mistakes when dealing with the enemy. place. However, Qian Tiandun did not have the idea of using the Pidao Army as cannon fodder as Shen Zhixiang was worried about. On the contrary, he did not hope that this new army would suffer too many casualties in the battle.
After all, Haihan has devoted a lot of material and financial resources to support the Pidao Army, and the target of this new army is changing from the Ming Dynasty to Haihan. To consume them is to consume Haihan's own strength. Qian Tiandunke also hoped that the Pidao Army could be slowly incorporated in the future and handed over part of Liaodong's defense to them. With the battlefield situation prevailing, he did not want this part of the force to suffer unnecessary losses.
Qian Tiandun did not intend to order the Pidao Army to withdraw to the barracks immediately, as this would cause a big blow to their self-confidence. To temporarily prevent the opponent from sending cavalry to attack and give the Pidao army a chance to breathe, this is probably the best response Qian Tiandun can think of at the moment. Although such a sporadic artillery offensive was a little hasty and the shock value was a little weak, as long as the artillery was fired, the Jin army in Jijiabao had to weigh the risks again if they wanted to attack.
After the only artillery fired four rounds at Jijiabao at a frequency of two minutes, the second artillery finally joined the attack. The shells from the two six-pound cannons were still very powerful after flying hundreds of meters and hitting the wall of Jijiabao. However, the effect of such shooting was limited. The threat was far greater than the damage. At least for the moment, the defending side had no Casualties occur.
Of course, the artillerymen did not expect that such a few rounds of artillery shells would be able to blast open Jijiabao. The shooting currently in progress was mainly for the purpose of calibrating fire in preparation for the subsequent large-scale fire concentration. And the most expensive new artillery pieces had just left the camp and were heading towards the position.
At this time, Yangguli had been forcibly dragged off the city wall by his adjutants and Qin soldiers, preventing him from continuing to watch the battle in a dangerous area where cannonballs could fall from the sky at any time. The desperate charge by Erhe and his subordinates outside the city just now did not cause much emotional fluctuations in Yangu Li. Since this group of people failed to break through the Haihan Army's defense line, Yangu Li would certainly think that they were a gang. Waste with low combat effectiveness will be gone if it is gone, and there is nothing to regret.
Of course, Yangu Li also noticed that the Haihan army formation was obviously weaker on the east flank. If the damn spear formation had not been used at the last moment, Erhe's cavalry would have been able to rush into the formation and kill them. Special kill. If more cavalry were sent to attack this area, Yangu Li was almost certain that he would be able to overwhelm the military formation there. But just before he was about to give the order, Haihan began to bombard Jijiabao. Although there were only sporadic shots, the south gate of Jijiabao was completely exposed to the enemy's gunfire. At this time, he did not dare to fire any more. Orders were given to open the doors and let the cavalry attack.
Yangu Li descended the city wall, but still ordered a cavalry team of a thousand people to prepare for an attack. If Haihan's bombardment stops, then you can consider sending cavalry to attack the weak points of Haihan's position. He also vaguely felt that there was something wrong with Haihan's sporadic bombardment rhythm, but he didn't understand why. If he was a little smarter and realized that this was because Haihan's artillery was not all in place, he would most likely have ordered an outpouring of troops to attack before Haihan completed the deployment of the artillery. Only in this way could there be any success. A glimmer of a chance of victory.
Although there was a cannon on the city wall that could also shoot shells a mile away, Yanguli did not order the cannon to be used immediately to launch a counterattack against the enemy. Because he knew that this kind of single-handed counterattack would not bring much threat to the opponent. Instead, it would expose the target by firing, thus attracting concentrated fire from the opponent. Therefore, Yangu Li did not want to use this cannon to suppress the formation until the most critical moment.
Besides being passive, Yangu Li could not think of a more suitable adjective to describe his current situation. Although it seems that the Hou Jin Army is fighting at home and should have an obvious geographical advantage, in fact it is the Haihan people on the opposite side who really have the geographical advantage. The Haihan armed fleet is basically invincible in the nearby waters and can come and go at any time. Yanguli also had to deploy many sentries on the nearby coast to prevent Haihan from suddenly bypassing the defense line from the sea and landing behind him.
On land, the world should have been dominated by the Houjin cavalry, but the real situation now is that the city cannot be suppressed by the opponent's long-range firepower. Thousands of cavalry can only huddle behind fortresses and high walls, waiting for the opponent to attack on their own. Reveal flaws. The tactics used by the Jin army to deal with the Ming army in the past seemed to be completely useless here in Haihan.
In the past, when dealing with the Ming army's musket array, the cavalry only needed to use some simple tactics to break through the opponent's defense line in a few rounds, and then they could kill the Ming army armed with fire sticks. However, the firepower output of the Haihan army was much stronger than that of the Ming army, and the intervals between rifle shots were so short that the Jin army began to suspect that the muskets used by the Haihan people did not need to be reloaded at all, but through some evil method. spells to complete the continuous shooting. If there is no shooting interval, then there will be no attack interval that can be used on the battlefield for the Hou Jin Army. This is simply an insurmountable gap for the Hou Jin Army, which must complete the attack through close combat.
In the past, I had only heard reports from the front line about how good Haihan's army was at fighting. But this time, after seeing Haihan's fighting methods on the battlefield, Yangu Li realized that he had overestimated the difficulty of this confrontation before the war. A little simpler. Even if our own side can use precious cavalry to attack the opponent's position at any cost, it will be difficult to cause a lot of effective damage to it. The battle loss ratio between the two sides will be a very terrible ratio. Even if Yangu Li is willing to risk his life, he may not be able to achieve an ideal record.
While Yangu Li was thinking hard about countermeasures in Jijiabao, Morgan in the Haihan Formation made a rare complaint. After the West Route Army under his command stabilized the situation, they turned the coastal highlands into a supply point specifically to receive supplies shipped from the sea. He knew that the special operations battalion would be responsible for the main frontal attack in this battle, so there were naturally many more opportunities to fight tough battles here. Morgan, who couldn't bear the loneliness, handed over the command to a junior officer and led the sniper team to the center. Rendezvous with Qian Tiandun's special operations battalion.
But after looking at the gatehouse and city walls of Jijiabao from the position for a long time, Morgan didn't find any valuable targets - when he started to look around, Yangu Li had already left the high place. Morgan did not want to expose this special tactic prematurely, so he ordered the sniper team not to shoot at will until a valuable high-level target was found. But in this way, he and his team had nothing to do for the time being, so they couldn't help but complain that Qian Tiandun's tactics before the war were problematic and did not create space for the sniper team to play their role.
Of course, this kind of complaint is just gossip. The battlefield situation is changing rapidly, and fighters have to be controlled by themselves. Of course, Morgan will not place all his hopes on friendly forces. Complaints are complaints. He never put down the telescope in his hand. Although there were no valuable targets on the city wall, it was quite interesting to see the changes in the impact point of the artillery fire.
An hour later, four new artillery pieces from the Hainan Arsenal were finally deployed on the artillery position. During this period, the sporadic sound of artillery fire never stopped. Dozens of artillery shells left many marks on the towers and walls of Jijiabao, but they failed to cause obvious effective damage. In addition, there were also a few cannonballs hitting the city gate, but the Jijiabao city gate seemed to be quite heavy, and none of the cannonballs were able to penetrate it. "Try the new ones!" Qian Tiandun, who came to the front line to supervise the operations in person, was also very interested in the power of these new artillery pieces. In fact, the reason why he came to the front line was to see with his own eyes whether the new artillery could play a decisive role on the battlefield.
The artillery that operates these four guns comes from an artillery company specially established by the Army for this purpose. In addition to more than 30 gunners, this company also has a large group of logistics and technical personnel. Its organization is significantly different from that of an ordinary artillery company. . There are more than ten large flatbed trucks providing supporting services for these four guns. In addition to the ammunition loaded, there are also various tools and spare parts for maintenance.
Company Commander Long Ping is an artillery commander who has participated in a series of foreign wars such as the Battle of Penghu, the Battle of Miyakojima, the Battle of Taipei, and the Battle of Zhoushan Islands. With his captain rank and military honors, he should actually be in a higher position. , but the Haihan Army does not have a corresponding military organization such as an artillery battalion, so he can only temporarily stay in the position of company commander. Of course, the company he is commanding now is unique in the entire Haihan Army. This new type of artillery developed by Haihan Ordnance is currently only used by his unit, called the Artillery Special Service Company. Due to the small-scale deployment, most artillerymen did not even know the existence of this new weapon.
In July last year, this kind of artillery was unveiled at the Cross-1635 joint military exercise held in the Beibu Gulf, and showed terrifying power and accuracy in the test firing target, which shocked the envoys and military observers from various countries who observed the exercise. . Although this new artillery was just a concept weapon exhibited by Haihan at the time, all visitors would not view the emergence of this weapon so simply. Anyone with a discerning eye can tell at a glance that this weapon will completely break the balance on the battlefield. As long as Haihan installs it on a large scale in the army, no one will be able to have a head-on confrontation with Haihan's army on land in the future.
Although among the weapons unveiled at that time was the even more amazing steam-armored gunboat, that thing was ultimately expensive and required extremely high logistics. It was unlikely to be deployed on a large scale in the foreseeable period. It was a real concept. weapons, so the outside world doesn't care that much about its existence.
Of course, the Haihan military also realized that it is much easier to equip artillery than a group of ironclad ships. After all, the navy is still invincible in the Far East, and the need for equipment upgrading is not so urgent. However, the army needs more powerful weapons to complete combat missions. Artillery is undoubtedly a highly cost-effective lethal weapon.
After Long Ping received Qian Tiandun's order, he ordered all four cannons to be loaded and fired at the gate of Jijiabao. Only four cannon shots were heard, and the seemingly heavy city gate exploded in response. Although it did not fall down, it had already been blasted with several large gaps.
"All four shots hit, good shot." Qian Tiandun confirmed the shooting results through the telescope and nodded with satisfaction.
The shooting accuracy and power of this new type of artillery were fully revealed in this round of shooting, which greatly exceeded the artillery currently in service in the Army. If I had to find fault, it would probably be the cost of use. The shells for this new type of artillery can only be produced in small quantities at present, and their cost is about dozens of times that of traditional solid bullets plus black powder. Even people as wealthy as Haihan cannot use them for the time being.
Qian Tiandun did not give the Hou Jin army time to react, so he ordered another shooting. Then the four cannons fired one after another, and the gate of Jijiabao turned into broken wood in the smoke and dust, exposing the space behind it without any cover.
When Haihan launched the first round of artillery bombardment, the artillery shells that penetrated the city gate flew into Jijiabao and killed several cavalrymen who were preparing for battle in the rear. In the midst of chaos, the second round of artillery bombardment came over again, including Two cannonballs flew through the doorway into the already chaotic cavalry, tearing several horses into pieces together with the cavalry on their backs.
Yangu Li, who was lecturing the cavalry, witnessed this scene with his own eyes. Although he was a general who had experienced life and death on the battlefield, he was shocked when he saw his men and horses turned into a pile of bloody pieces in front of him. Still quite big. And the Haihan Army suddenly destroyed the city gate with a few cannons, which was beyond his expectation. He was stunned for a while before he remembered to issue the order: "Hurry up and block the city gate!"
Of course there will be no spare gates in Jijiabao, and the existing gates have been blown to pieces and cannot be put back together. In desperation, they could only fill the city gate hole with tree trunks, gravel, sandbags and other objects to block the passage in and out of Jijiabao.
Qian Tiandun was not in a hurry. After his opponent had been busy in the doorway for almost an hour, he ordered Long Ping to fire another round of artillery, blasting open most of the doorway that had just been blocked.
(End of chapter)