Win again

Soon, the peasant army behind realized that such scattered attacks were completely in vain.

Some of the leaders started shouting loudly.

They wanted to try to assemble outside the range of the official army's cannons, and gathered the few archers to line up behind for cover.

They probably wanted to rush through the last hundred meters together, and they still maintained strong fighting spirit.

As for the small number of bird cannons of the army, they did not cause much interference to them. They had seen many more bird cannons fired at the same time. They still simply thought that it was just bad luck and the past.

Party organization is poor.

They ignored that it was really difficult to bring together a group of people with little water experience in the river, and it was not a matter of luck and ability, and this was in a highly stressful combat environment.

As a result, many bamboo rafts that were finally brought together continued to collide with each other more violently, causing more yelling and chaos.

They couldn't hit it anyway, so the officers and soldiers took advantage of the enemy's organization at the back and began to seize the time to clear the chamber and load the ammunition.

Signal soldiers passed orders back and forth among the wooden walls: after entering the firing range, they heard the whistle and then opened fire freely.

This order is to prevent some soldiers from not knowing the distance well, firing outside the range or at a range with insufficient lethality, and causing chaos to the entire unit.

Whistles replaced the trumpets commonly used by officers and soldiers in Li Ping's army, and Li Ping directly handed over the firing rights of the cannon troops to the front-line commanders.

Finally, dozens of bamboo rafts and rafts from the first wave of the simply organized Peasant Army rushed over. There was a second wave behind them, and many Peasant Army soldiers even went into the water without fear of the cold.

Increases the attack surface and reduces the probability of being hit.

But this obviously cannot solve the fundamental problem.

Whether you are walking in the water or sitting on a bamboo raft, wooden raft, etc., the speed cannot be increased. Especially when walking in cold water, after tens of meters, the heat loss will be far beyond imagination.

If you just walk across the river without any disturbance, and then go ashore to warm yourself by the fire, etc., as long as your body is not particularly weak, it's actually not a big problem.

But if you are blocked or travel at a slow speed, causing you to soak in the ice water for too long, the problem will be big.

As the whistle sounded again, the bird cannons fired again, and even a few fire cannons also fired.

And since the whistle was used as the command, this round of firing was still similar to a salvo.

At the same time, the first wave of "arrow rain" from the peasant army also arrived.

It was said to be a "rain of arrows", but in fact there were only about twenty arrows. But it can still be seen that the peasant army was determined to fight for this place, otherwise they would not have allowed so many precious archers to lead the way.

However, the attack effects of the two sides are quite different.

The shooting effect of this round of shooting by the official army's cannon soldiers was quite amazing. The gathering of the peasant army obviously greatly increased the damage effect of the firearms.

Although the distance was about a hundred meters, there were still thirty or forty people knocked directly into the water.

However, the killing effect of the peasant army's bows and arrows is still unlucky "zero".

Although one arrow successfully hit the head of an officer's cannon soldier, it only made a sound on the iron helmet.

Finally, after surviving the second round of shooting, the remaining peasant army finally approached a distance of fifty or sixty meters. Although they had lost more than one-third of their companions at this time, they finally had hope.

These remaining peasant soldiers began to shout wildly, even if their voices were completely hoarse, their morale still did not decline.

Of course, shouting loudly can also alleviate the fear in the heart.

Some people say that according to the general war experience in the Western world in later generations, an offensive force should collapse if it loses more than one-third. The peasant army is not an extremely mentally strong force and should not deviate from this experience category.

But in fact, this is just a rumor taken out of context.

The West has statistics and opinions in this regard, but they are in modern times, that is, after World War I. They are based on the unique modern army organization of the West, and are calculated in units of divisions.

The infantry divisions of modern Western armies usually have three or four infantry regiments (generally two brigades, two regiments per brigade), as well as howitzer battalions (generally no less than 3), anti-tank battalions, and anti-tank battalions.

Battalions, air defense battalions, engineer battalions, medical battalions, supply battalions, communications companies, military police companies, reconnaissance teams and other large-scale auxiliary support units.

At the same time, its infantry regiment also has a large number of similar indirect combat units.

Judging from the establishment of the US military and the German army during World War II, their direct combat personnel basically accounted for only about 30%-40% of the entire division's establishment, which means that the troops deployed in the most forward offensive were only one-third of the entire division at most.

about.

Therefore, Western military strategists believe that one-third of an offensive force's casualties will be considered to have collapsed or completely lost its offensive capabilities.

Putting aside this Western view, we only talk about general offensive forces.

It is generally believed that when the loss of more than one-third of combatants can be regarded as insufficient offensive power, and when more than two-thirds of combatants are lost, it can be regarded as losing offensive capability, except for elite troops.

After all, there are many examples of fighting to the last man in history. What is more important depends on will, morale and quality.

"Kuang, kuang."

"Empty, empty."

Several loud muffled sounds were violently highlighted amidst the sound of gunfire. Two Crouching Tiger cannons and two Small Fran cannons opened fire. This was their effective range for shooting down scattered shells.

Even though their cannons are not big, they are still enough to hit a small fan at such a close range.

In an instant, the first few bamboo rafts and the peasant soldiers on the rafts were either wiped out, or they were all turned into bloody gourds.

From a distance of tens of meters, a small cannon can hit shot-to-shot bullets with absolute accuracy.

The most shocking thing was the two small Fran cannons, which fired once in less than ten seconds. Soon all five rounds of shotguns from each gun were shot out, making the bamboo rafts and wooden rafts of the peasant soldiers clustered together.

The platoon has completely turned into a hell on earth, with people crying for their fathers and mothers everywhere.

After the cannon stopped, the river was miraculously quiet for a long time.

Both the enemy and ourselves were a little bit unconscious until the sound of a cannon being fired broke the silence, and then the sound of a large number of cannons being fired was followed by the sound of fried beans again.

However, this time after the smoke dissipated, no one could be seen within 70 meters in front of the official army. Even seven or eight peasant army archers who were slightly ahead were knocked down into the water.

Amidst continuous cries and howls, the peasant army behind began to retreat desperately. They were completely frightened.

The bamboo rafts and rafts that were still behind finally stopped moving forward, and they were confused as to what to do.

Zhou Wen, commander of the fifth company, is located behind the second row of wooden walls.

As the captain of a spearman company, his task is to lead the entire company to promptly support the section of the spearmen he is responsible for. Once the enemy soldiers enter the ten-meter range, they must immediately go forward to prepare for battle, and wait for the enemy to attack.

When trying to get ashore, they used spears to push them back into the water.

To be on the safe side, Zhou Wen should reveal his head to observe after the battle begins. After all, they have neither iron helmets nor thick armor (seriously insufficient equipment), so they are easily injured by enemy bows and arrows.

But after Zhou Wen entered the wooden wall, he never lowered his head again.

This is the first time Zhou Wen has participated in a battle, and the first time he has seen the scene of war immersed in it. He wants to know more about the battlefield and the war.

But this seemed a little different from the war he imagined.

At first, when countless enemy troops appeared on the other side of the river, and when they rushed over in a large group on various bamboo rafts and wooden rafts, the scene really frightened him.

Zhou Wen once felt his hands and feet were cold and his limbs were cold, thinking that he would have to fight a bloody battle today. He didn't know whether he was ready to kill or be killed, he was just confused.

However, now, he was shocked to find that he seemed to be completely a spectator.

He probably won't have much to do in this battle, and the reserve team of muskets and the archers as the general reserve team will probably not be needed either.

So far, the entire battle has been a battle between cannons and artillery, and it will probably remain so in the future.

Fire - clear the chamber - load - fire again.

Zhou Wen watched helplessly as the cannon soldiers in front went from being extremely nervous and making many mistakes at the beginning to becoming more and more proficient at the back.

The enemies moving slowly in the water are like living targets and become the best training for the gun soldiers.

This is not a war at all, it is target practice, and the target is a living target.

Zhou Wen was even more disappointed by the enemy's chaotic organization.

Didn't they have any pre-war drills? How were their generals organized? What were the junior commanders doing? How could the troops be allowed to be in such chaos?...

Among countless questions, Zhou Wen almost intuitively believed that if he was allowed to take command, he would definitely be much stronger than those enemy generals.

What also shocked Zhou Wen were the cannons and artillery.

These two murderous weapons that he had no knowledge of before turned out to be the protagonists of a battle.

For the first time, Zhou Wen established a very intuitive concept of their power and use. As long as the conditions are right, they are really sharp.

Of course, Zhou Wen also noticed their obvious flaws. He had a lot of ideas in just this short time.

After the battle was over, Zhou Wen decided to take a closer look at the actual combat advantages and disadvantages of firearms.

Unlike Zhou Wen, who was busy shocking and learning, the fields on the edge of the highlands were in a hurry after he started shooting with muskets. He who rarely spoke at first even started shouting frequently in his weird accent.

Because the horses were very agitated and a little frightened.

Although these horses had been trained to adapt to the firing of muskets and small cannons, after all, it was only a small amount of firearm fire, and it was not comparable to the dense and coherent sound of firearms today.

Yuan Ye could only keep calming the horses back and forth, and shouted to tell the "stupid" riders what to do.

Dozens of war horses kept him busy.

He would only occasionally take a quick glance at the fighting on the riverside.

Seeing that the enemy began to retreat, the command organization on the bunker was filled with joy. Many people began to communicate in low voices, praising the role of firearms and not paying any attention to the enemy's performance.

Li Ping also felt a lot more relaxed, at least no longer so nervous.
To be continued...