Chapter 1539 The Rise and Fall of the First Empire - The Ottoman Phalanx
At night, the plains on the south bank of the Danube River were pitch black. Occasionally, skirmishers from both sides encountered each other in the wilderness and shot at each other. Occasionally, there was a burst of gunfire in the empty plain, and then it quickly returned to calm.
Thousands of yards around the Fortress of Gyor and to the south, there are two bright lights. This is where the camps of the Holy Roman Empire's army and the Ottoman Empire's army are located. Both sides have set up camp, and the bonfires are dotted across the wilderness, like
Two seas of stars falling on the ground.
Between the two seas of stars is an empty plain with a width of more than ten miles. If nothing goes wrong, a battle that will determine the rise and fall of the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and will also permanently change the structure of the entire world, will soon begin.
will erupt in this empty plain.
In his camp, Henry Zhu was leaning on a table made of several ammunition boxes, using a quill pen to copy a set of tactics he had just summarized in a notebook. He had a hard time convincing Osman
Grand Vizier, let yourself go to the front line, watch and record this decisive battle with your own eyes!
This battle will not only determine the fate of the world, but will also change the pattern of war for many years to come. Because Henry Zhu’s father, Zhu Cixiang, took out the Goldfinger Minie bullets from the bottom of the box! Oh, they are now called cork rifled bullets.
This kind of ammunition is very easy to load (because the warhead is one size smaller), allowing the firing rate of rifled guns to exceed that of smoothbore guns. This improvement is enough to change the pattern of war.
You must know that the effective range of a rifled gun is far greater than that of a smoothbore gun. The only difference between the two is a cannon that fires shotguns!
Rifled guns can fire outside the effective range of shotguns. If the rate of fire is fast enough and the number is large enough, they can completely paralyze the enemy's artillery placed in front of the formation to support infantry operations. Moreover, rifled guns using cork rifled bullets can also attack the enemy.
The charging cavalry is a huge threat. If there are enough rifled rifles to fire volleys, then a row of rifled riflemen can kill and injure the fast-running cavalry at a distance of several hundred yards. When these cavalry rush to
Before approaching, you can usually complete three effective shots. With a musket, you can usually only complete one shot.
Of course, although the rifled gun equipped with cork rifled bullets is good, it is not without some shortcomings. The biggest shortcoming of the rifled gun is that the output is too low and the price is too high. If Aurangzeb had not given a sponsorship to the Ottoman Empire
It is impossible for the Grand Vizier Ahmed Koprulu to collect more than 6,000 rifled guns for the Yenicherry Army in just a few months. 2,000 of these rifled guns were purchased from France.
Yes, 300 of them were brought by Henry Zhu as a gift to the Ottoman Empire, and the remaining 3,700 or so rifled guns were purchased by Ahmed Koprulu at a high price from nobles in the Ottoman Empire. Because they were expensive,
Therefore, it is rarely equipped with troops, but it is the first choice firearm used by nobles from various countries when hunting. There are not many stocks in the Ottoman Empire, and even the Sultan’s palace has dozens of them (Mehamed IV is a hunting fan), Leopold
There were dozens of troops in the palace of King De I (his queen Claudia Felicitas was a hunting fanatic), so with the efforts of Ahmed Koprulu, the Yenicheri Legion soon became
Equipped with more than 7,500 rifled guns (the Yenicherry Army was originally equipped with some rifled guns).
And the old man Ahmed Koprulu also knew that his "rifled gun advantage" was one-time! As long as the opponent picked up a corked rifle bullet on the battlefield, the Ottomans' advantage would be gone, and it would even change.
The Ottoman Empire was far inferior to the European handicraft powerhouses such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France in terms of its ability to make guns for its disadvantages.
Therefore, in order to maximize the "rifled gun advantage", Ahmed Koprulu decided to concentrate on the use of rifled guns, and concentrated all 7,500 rifled guns into 50 newly established long rifle battalions. Each long rifle
The battalion is composed of 150 long riflemen, 120 arquebusiers and 270 pikemen. The 150 pikemen are divided into two parts. One part is a long rifle company composed of 120 long riflemen (under the jurisdiction of 4 platoons)
; The other part is a skirmisher team composed of 30 long riflemen with particularly outstanding shooting skills. They are directly under the battalion commander of the long rifle battalion and are responsible for covering the brigade and sniping the enemy's artillery and officers.
The tactics and formations adopted by these long rifle barracks were similar to European square formations, with the pikemen as the walls and the long riflemen and arquebusiers responsible for the firepower output.
At the same time, Ahmed Koprulu also formed many "half companies" equipped with 6-pound artillery (that is, units equipped with 4 to 6 6-pound cannon), which were directly assigned to the regiment (consisting of three to four battalions).
composition).
According to Ahmed Koprulu's idea, the tactical thinking of the long rifle battalion will be to use long rifles and matchlocks to protect the long rifles to attack the enemy's artillery and cavalry at long distances, and then use the long rifle battalion to protect one's own artillery half.
Get close to the enemy's infantry phalanx and use the 6-pounder cannon to produce cannonballs to hit the opponent.
Henry Zhu recorded the infantry phalanx tactics "invented" by Ahmed Koprulu in a notebook, gave it a name, "Ottoman phalanx", and put it in his backpack. Then he followed it with
I put my clothes on and lay down on the camp bed. I couldn't sleep. Tomorrow is the time for the decisive battle!
He is a good diplomat, and now he has been tricked into the battlefield! He has to think carefully about who tricked him? It seems to be the wicked and smoking bastard Liu Shu Wang!
No, when I get back to Yingtian, I must tell my mother and let her blow my pillow. I must send my sixth uncle to Africa to be the king.
King Leopold I was too excited to sleep that night.
Because he will soon become the hero of Catholicism, the defender of Christ, the defender of Central Europe, the liberator of Hungary, and perhaps the liberator of Serbia and Bulgaria!
With better luck, he might be able to become the liberator of Constantinople and once again plant the banner of Christ on the walls of Constantinople!
Thinking of this, Leopold I was so excited that he almost cried!
Just when his eyes were about to be drowned by his own tears, Lorraine's Charlie's voice came from outside the tent.
"Your Majesty the Emperor! There is important news!"
King Leopold I said: "Come in quickly"
Charles of Lorraine opened the curtain and walked into the camp. He saw the emperor wiping his tears and was a little dazed: "Your Majesty, are you here?"
"I have sand in my eyes. A gust of wind blew in just now," said Leopold I. "Charlie, is there any important news?"
"It came from Lorraine," said Charles. "The 100,000 French troops led by Louis XIV have arrived in Lorraine and are waiting for you to allow them to enter the land of the Holy Roman Empire!"
"Really?" Leopold I smiled, "Charlie, do you think we really need them?"
Charlie of Lorraine was stunned, "Your Majesty, this is 100,000 French troops! And the one actually in charge is Prince Condé!"
Leopold snorted coldly: "He saw that we were in sight of victory, so he wanted to take a share of the pie. If I allow him to enter and let him share the honor of victory, then you may not be able to become the Grand Duke of Lorraine."
Already."
France's occupation of the Principality of Lorraine was "illegal". Only one country in Europe, the Netherlands, recognized that Lorraine belonged to France. The other countries recognized the Principality of Lorraine as part of the Holy Roman Empire and recognized Charles IV as the Grand Duke of Lorraine.
So the possibility of Charles becoming Charles V is still very high!
But Louis XIV has become the savior of the Holy Roman Empire, so who can ask him to get the Duchy of Lorraine back?
Charlie could not say anything for a moment, although many years of military experience told him that the Ottoman Empire would probably have a back-up plan, and the war in front of him would not be easy to win.
But he was extremely unwilling to give up his power over the Principality of Lorraine!
Chapter completed!