Chapter 661 Infantry and Cannon Cooperation Practice

The establishment of the Qinglong Legion was centered on the Chuangzi Camp and then expanded step by step. The Chuangzi Camp is basically one of the most qualified and most combat-effective troops of the Hu Ben Army. With it as the core, it can be seen that Zhang Zhun attaches great importance to the field legion.

The first thing to be done is the setting of the vertical formation. At that time, the Ming army was mainly in a linear queue. The most commonly used one was the three-row row, which was the three-stage shooting invented by Mu Ying, which could effectively exert the power of the musket. However, for the Hu Ben Army, two rows were enough. Because the Hu Ben guns had a long range and were powerful, if they were arranged in three rows, the people in front might block the shooting of their companions behind and cause accidental injuries.

What the Hu Ben Army is now doing is a hollow square formation. The central position is the artillery camp. According to Yang Zhiyuan's settings, the four sides of the hollow square formation have a total of seven teams, about 400 people. There are a total of twenty-five teams in the Chuangzi Camp, which seems to be insufficient. In fact, due to the overlapping of the four corners of the square formation, the twenty-five teams are just enough.

Each team is arranged in two rows, with about thirty people in each row, and seven teams are connected to each other, with about 200 people in each row. According to each person’s Hu Ben gun, one shooting can shoot two hundred Minnie bullets. If the back row also shoots, four hundred Minnie bullets can be shot.

The killing effect of the Minnie bomb is quite obvious within a range of 300 meters. Especially for a more obvious target like a shooting cavalry, the hit rate can be basically guaranteed to be more than 10%. In other words, the enemy's cavalry may be directly knocked over to the ground by the Minnie bomb after entering a range of 300 meters. Generally, the charge speed of the Tartar cavalry is about eight meters per second and a distance of three hundred meters. Under normal circumstances, it takes about thirty-five seconds.

[Author's note: When a light cavalry charges, the speed can reach up to 60 kilometers per hour, which is more than 15 meters per second. However, this speed is absolute speed. A single cavalry may be able to do it. If a large number of cavalry gather together and launch an impact together, it will be unlikely. If it is disturbed in the middle, the speed will be slower.]

In thirty-five seconds, each soldier of the Tiger Ben Army can shoot three or four Minnie bullets, and four hundred people can shoot continuously, and can shoot 1,200 to 1,600 Minnie bullets. It is difficult to speculate how many Tartar cavalry can be killed. However, if there is no accident, at least a few hundred Tartar cavalry should have fallen to the ground.

Of course, after entering a distance of 60 meters, the Tartars can shoot arrows. This may cause certain casualties or chaos to the Hu Ben Army, thereby affecting the launch density of the Minnie bombs. But this impact will not be very large. In other words, as long as the Hu Ben Army troops do not have great chaos, they will have to be hit by at least one thousand Minnie bombs before the Tartar cavalry rushed up. This is not considered other weapons.

"Sir, look..."

After Yang Zhiyuan completed the arrangement of the square array, he asked Zhang Zhun for instructions.

"The key is to be familiar with it."

Zhang Zhun said with a serious expression.

From later generations, he was very clear about the psychological pressure of infantry when facing cavalry. The condescending cavalry, tall and large horses, the speed of lightning, and the sound of horse hooves will cause great psychological pressure on infantry. Even a very brave infantry, if he has not received strict training to fight against cavalry in advance, he may have psychological abnormalities when facing a large number of cavalry killing.

Once the psychological abnormality is not good, the level will be unbalanced. Once the level is unbalanced, the combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced. If the enemy cannot be prevented from approaching, the problem is not big. The most feared psychological collapse is that in extreme panic, they will turn around and run away. The most taboo thing about such an infantry phalanx is that someone turns around and escapes. Once someone collapses, the entire phalanx will be equivalent to a crack opening and will collapse quickly. Therefore, training soldiers' psychological endurance is very important.

Throughout history, the best way to prevent problems from soldiers is to prevent cruel training and cold discipline. Cruel training, day and night training, repeated training, and training at all times can turn people's nerves into numbness. The cold discipline makes every soldier dare not have the idea of ​​running away. If all the soldiers are trained into robots, there is no need to worry about this problem.

Of course, everyone knows that it is not easy to train a flesh-and-blood person into a robot who only knows how to kill, doesn’t know danger, doesn’t know how to suffer, doesn’t know how to be afraid. However, in order to laugh to the end, no matter how difficult it is, you must do it. In the chaotic times like the late Ming Dynasty, everything is false, and only force is real. If you want to survive, you must make yourself stronger.

What's more, Zhang Zhun in his previous life was originally a murder machine trained, and through his hands, more murder machines were trained. Zhang Zhun had full confidence in this regard. Didn't the ancient Qin army and the ancient Roman legion be trained in this way? No matter how cruel the training is, it is not as cruel as the battlefield! It is better to bleed and sweat during training than to lose your life on the battlefield.

In front of Zhang Zhun, there are many pennant flags, which are of different colors. Each pennant flag represents the enemy's attack from different directions. What the square array needs to deal with is attack from all directions. Therefore, it is very important to skillfully change between queues. And it is also very important for the commander to actively allocate troops according to the situation on the battlefield.

Now, what Zhang Zhun needs to be careful about is this most basic reaction ability.

Brigadier General Zhang raised the red pennant.

"The enemy is coming from the east!"

The officer on duty immediately shouted.

The red flag in the middle of the square formation flew rapidly.

The soldiers on the east side of the phalanx saw the red flag flying and immediately turned toward the east. The tiger guns in their hands were all bayonets. The soldiers on the south and north side, the last row of soldiers, strengthened to the east to prevent the east side from breaking through. In fact, the soldiers on the last row of soldiers in each direction were reserves, and when necessary, they could strengthen to any other direction.

The purpose of this is of course to prevent the frontal formation from being broken through. When it comes to the most cruel stage of the battle, even if you use bayonets or human bodies, you must keep the enemy's cavalry. If the enemy's cavalry rushes into the middle of the square formation, the square formation will be completely finished.

"The enemy is coming from the west!"

"The enemy is attacking from the south!"

"The enemy is coming from the north!"

Zhang Zhun is constantly changing the pennant.

The soldiers of the Chuangzi Camp also changed their formations according to the big flag in the middle of the square formation. At the beginning, everyone was calm and moved quickly when changing the formations, and there was no chaos. However, by the seventh change, chaos occurred.

When Zhang Zhun raised two pennant flags to indicate that the enemy launched an attack from two different directions, the formation of the Chuangzizhan camp was completely in chaos. Some soldiers ran eastwards, and some soldiers ran westwards, but they collided with each other and were in chaos. Many officers such as the commanders and the leaders of the team were also confused and did not know how to react.

When Zhang Zhun raised the three pennant flags to indicate that enemies appeared in all three directions, the phalanx became even more chaotic. Enemies appeared in all three directions, and the only reserve team in the idle direction was basically running randomly. Even officers at the level of the assistant commander did not know how to deal with it.

Under such high pressure, some soldiers also felt panic. Although they were not yet at the point of turning around and running away, they were already in a state of panic. The main manifestation was that they could not calmly operate the Hu Ben Gun, and they would crowd wherever there were many people. As a result, they forgot their tasks and responsibilities. In general, they were just four words, a mess.

"stop!"

Zhang Zhun had to order the drill to stop.

The chaotic square formation slowly returned to normal.

There is no way, the training time is too short, neither soldiers nor officers can adapt. This fully shows that the current Hu Ben Army still has great difficulties in fighting the Tartars. It is said that the square formation of the Roman legion will take three years to complete, and even if the Hu Ben Army is genius, it will take three months.

Time does not matter much. Before the training is completed, the Hu Ben Army will not easily fight against the Tartars. Huang Taiji's current main task should be to burn, kill, loot, and make money from the Ming army. Sun Chengzong was killed, Lu Xiangsheng was imprisoned, and Baoding Prefecture and other places were attacked. Even if the Ming army wanted to watch from the wall, it would probably be impossible. Let the Tartars and the Ming army be entangled for a while before talking.

"Order Liu Chenzi to bring the thunder cannon here!"

"Practice together!"

Zhang Zhun was quite satisfied with the reaction of Chuangziying, so he ordered the artillery to join.

Only the pure infantry in the Chuangzi Camp could not effectively prevent the enemy cavalry from approaching, because the lethality of the Hu Ben Gun was limited and the shooting speed was not fast. In order to more effectively block and eliminate the enemy cavalry, a large number of artillery soldiers were also needed to be equipped in the center of the phalanx. With the development of war, the status of artillery soldiers will become more and more important. Before the tanks came out, the lethality of the artillery was a veritable king of land warfare.

In the past two days, the artillery battalion has received the first batch of twelve thunderbolt guns in total. The so-called thunderbolt guns are Napoleon guns, with a caliber of about 120 mm and a maximum range of about 2,000 meters, but the general use range is within 1,000 meters. If it exceeds 1,000 meters, the accuracy will not be very good.

The key is that the thunderbolt cannon is completely installed on the cannon car and can be easily converted. There is no problem in marching with the field corps every day. According to Sun Qinkai's introduction, the conversion process between this thunderbolt cannon from marching to launch is only about 30 seconds. If the gunners train strictly, the time can be shortened a little.

"Sir! Report to the Artillery Battalion!"

After receiving the order, Liu Chenzi arrived soon.

He brought four thunderbolt cannons and prepared to practice with the Chuangziying.

"You guys demonstrate it alone first!"

"Switch from marching to combat!"

Zhang Zhun said expectantly.

"clear!"

Liu Chenzi took the order.

The artillery team he led was a total of four thunderbolt cannons, dragged by four war horses and slowly moved forward. The artillery carriages of the thunderbolt cannons were set up according to the basic structure of the Napoleon cannon, and the wheels were increased and widened, mainly to adapt to the complex terrain and roads of China. There were plains near the Central Military Camp, and most of the places in northern Zhili were plains. When the artillery carriages were moving, there were no problems at the moment, and it looked quite safe.

"Dududu!"

Zhang Zhun blew the whistle.

"There are enemies!"

Liu Chenzi shouted in a hurry.

The artillery soldiers immediately followed the procedures, divided the work and cooperated, and operated at the same time. One soldier dragged the tool off the war horse and pulled the horse to the back. The other two soldiers quickly lowered the thunderbolt gun's gun mount and smashed it to the ground as a support point. The other two soldiers took the ammunition bags and separated the ammunition bags. One quickly pushed the shells into the barrel from the front of the thunderbolt gun, and the other loaded the launching medicine into the gunpowder pool. Several gunners were busy with different work, in an orderly manner. All the work was carried out almost at the same time.

Zhang Zhun stared at them with his eyes shiningly estimating the time. As the war became more and more professional, time became a very critical element. In ancient times, a battle often lasted for several months or even years. However, now, a battle ends at most two or three days. The key battle may not last for two hours.

"Prepare is done!"

"Can launch!"

After the ammunition was loaded, Liu Chenzi reported loudly.

"good!"

Zhang Zhun nodded with satisfaction.

Because he did not have an accurate timing tool, he could only estimate the calculation, which was indeed only about thirty seconds. Zhang Zhun was quite satisfied with this time.

If the enemy cavalry launches an attack, the distance will not be much longer in thirty seconds, at most three or four hundred meters. With the scouts of the Qinglong Legion and the Qianli Mirror and other reconnaissance tools, in the plains, you should be able to find the enemy's cavalry two or three thousand meters away. As for the mountainous areas... who would be so stupid that you would use cavalry in the mountainous areas?

In other words, as long as there is no accident, the thunderbolt cannon has enough time to react. No matter how fast the horse is, it will take about five minutes to run a distance of two thousand meters. A single cavalry may be faster, but a large-scale cavalry operation can advance forty kilometers per hour, and the speed is already amazing, even if it launches a charge.

Each thunderbolt cannon can fire at least twice a minute, or ten times a minute in five minutes. If the number of thunderbolt cannons is sufficient, its power will be good. The main reason for the cannon to cause huge psychological pressure to the enemy is that it is hit by a solid projectile and is completely different from being hit by a Minnie bomb. The losses caused by the former are much greater than the latter, and the deterrent power is incomparable.

If the thunderbolt cannon is shot directly, a large iron ball with a diameter of 120 mm is enough to kill at least twenty or thirty enemies in a straight line. If the enemy cavalry is too dense, it is possible to even kill fifty or sixty people. During the American Civil War, Napoleon cannon shot one shot and reimbursed half of the enemy's company. It sounds incredible, but this matter does exist, mainly because the enemy lined up in a straight line and the team was dense.

Cannons have another very important influence on enemy cavalry, which is to scare the enemy's war horses. Not all war horses are completely accustomed to the roar of cannons. Especially in the event of chaos, a considerable number of war horses, like humans, will also be frightened after suffering a tragic blow. Once the war horses are in a state of panic, the power of the enemy cavalry will be further reduced.

"Target! It's south!"

"preparation!"

"put!"

Zhang Zhun personally issued a password.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The gunners lit the fuse, and after a moment, the sound of the cannon began.

The sound of the thunderbolt cannon is a bit like a flying dragon cannon. Ordinary people can't tell the difference at all. The projectile flew out and hit about 1,500 meters, and made a huge hole in the soil. The soldiers who came to check needed to dig downwards with a shovel and dig about two feet deep before they could dig out the large iron ball.

A large iron ball with a diameter of 120 mm will be hit at high speed and its power is indeed extraordinary. Any target that stands in front of it may be ruthlessly torn apart. In addition to the power of direct shooting, if the round projectile is on a relatively hard land, it will also cause violent jumps, causing secondary damage. If the enemy's team is dense, the secondary damage will be very serious.

"Grape bomb!"

"preparation!"

"put!"

Zhang Zhun shouted again.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The sound of cannons rang out again.

A large number of marbles were thrown out and landed five hundred meters away.

Due to design reasons, the range of the Thunderbolt Cannon fires grape shells is about 500 meters, which is basically the same as the Dragon Cannon. The most basic reason is that the Thunderbolt Cannon is much thinner and shorter than the Red Cannon in order to reduce its weight, which means that the chamber pressure it can withstand is much lower. Since the chamber pressure is low, the range is naturally closer. However, because the caliber of the cannon is relatively large, at the same time, the marbles fired are much smaller than the Dragon Cannon.

At a distance of 500 meters, the power of using grape bombs to deal with enemy cavalry is still very considerable. The area of ​​grape bombs is spreading, which can cause a large number of enemy cavalry to fall at the same time. Once a large number of enemy cavalry falls, the enemy's charge queue will definitely cause chaos, thereby reducing the speed of the impact. If a large number of war horses fall to the ground, it can even prevent the enemy cavalry from continuing to advance. In this way, the Hu Ben Army will have more time to counterattack.
Chapter completed!