Dumb goose, no, Paskovich was completely stupid, because what he saw in front of him was completely different from what he expected. It was not that he had never seen brutal battles, and it was not that he had not fought in battles that were ten times worse than this.
Pass.
The sight of corpses all over the place is nothing more than child's play in his eyes. If necessary, he can sleep and eat with his head resting on the corpses. Anyway, he can do whatever he needs to do without any impact at all.
But today's battle was completely different from those he had experienced. In the past, it would have taken at least ten days and a half to cause such heavy casualties, and it would have required repeated tug-of-war to achieve such an effect.
But today was a good day. In just a quarter of an hour, at least 3,000 people fell forever. How long does it take to take just a quarter of an hour? According to his previous experience, this little time is not enough to fire two shots. How could such a tragic death be caused?
Kill?
But the corpses scattered all over the place in front of him told him unmistakably that this was all true. If he didn't make adjustments quickly, in another quarter of an hour, his young men would probably be slaughtered!
what to do?
Paskovich may look a little stupid, but in fact his mind is running at high speed. Although he was shocked, his military qualities are still there recently. There is no other veteran like him who can stay calm at critical moments.
It can be done.
"Accelerate the charge! Don't worry about the formation!"
Finally, Paskovich issued an order that made him very embarrassed. He had been the one who emphasized the formation before, but now it was still him who personally denied the role of the formation.
Making this decision was very painful for him, because Kornilov and Nassimov were watching him, and he was so embarrassed that he was sent to his grandma's house.
But he can't control that much for the time being. If he doesn't charge quickly, the news will spread back to St. Petersburg and Duke Mikhail. He will be even more embarrassed.
The order was conveyed quickly, but in the eyes of Kornilov and Nassimov, this order was meaningless and would only accelerate the death of frontline soldiers.
The reason is very simple. Compared with the British and French infantry on the opposite side who use Minie rifles, the army under Paskovich still uses front-loaded smoothbore flintlock rifles. This old rifle is not only slow to load but also has poor accuracy.
Spreading the queue can certainly reduce the lethality of enemy artillery fire, but it also destroys the linear tactics on which smoothbore flintlocks depend.
Without a dense formation, the accuracy of muskets at a distance of 100 meters is very worrying. However, the British and French forces on the opposite side equipped with Migne rifles can roll call the gray animals one by one at 300 meters, and the rate of fire is almost ten times that of muskets.
times.
Such a huge gap determined that the smoothbore fusiliers without a dense formation were useless, and continuing to charge was a dead end.
The correct approach is to retreat immediately, stop this meaningless attempt, and if you continue to advance, there will be more than three to five thousand casualties, and all these ten thousand gray animals will have to be filled in!
But just when Kornilov was about to speak out a reminder, Nasimov next to him stepped on him without leaving a trace, and then gave him a dissuasive look. The meaning was very clear: Stop talking! It's useless!
Kornilov was stunned for a moment, then suddenly sighed and turned his head without saying anything. The reason is very simple. Looking at Paskovich's appearance, will you listen to their advice?
It's obviously impossible. It's even better that Kornilov doesn't speak. Once he speaks, it will irritate Lao Qiu Ba, making Lao Qiu Ba mistakenly think it is cynicism. Not only will he not listen to the advice, but he will send more soldiers in a desperate attempt.
Go and die to prove how powerful and awesome he is.
Kornilov had no intention of quarreling with Lao Qiuba. In order to avoid more serious casualties, he could only choose to shut up, but his heart was bleeding. Thousands of lives were lost just because of a willful old fool.
It's a waste of time, what the hell is this?
Except for Kornilov who kept silent on the high platform, the other generals' expressions were not good-looking either. Most of them were shocked. They had the most intuitive understanding of the lethality of explosive bombs and basically all came to the same conclusion.
The conclusion - we also want explosive bombs! The more the better!
Of course, there are a handful of people such as Kornilov and Nassimov who have seen something more, that is, linear tactics may be eliminated, and dense formations in front of explosive bombs are simply useless. In this case, arranging
So what do you do closely?
It's just that there are still too few such smart people, because around Paskovich, his confidants are intensely discussing the significance of the existence of dense formations. Even though they have just witnessed a massacre, these old diehards still stubbornly believe that dense formations are
Shape and linear tactics are still meaningful, or particularly important.
In their words, this is the life of the infantry and the basis for its survival. How can we fight without dense formations and linear tactics?
However, these old stubborns were immediately slapped twice in the face by the British and French forces. Under Paskovich's order, the remaining Russian troops on the battlefield began a death assault. They carried rifles and bayonets and charged at the enemy positions.
Rushing over, you can hear their shouts of hurrah. The courage of these poor people is really beyond reproach.
However, after entering the effective strike range of the Miné rifle, even though their formation had loosened up, it was still of no use. The hail of bullets knocked them off their feet, and the continuous shooting sound stunned the old diehards.
Because they have never seen a rifle with such a fast rate of fire. It can shoot almost four or five times per minute. Even a skilled gray animal can hardly shoot once in three minutes on the battlefield. Most recruits shoot every five minutes.
Not a single shot!
Not only was the rate of fire fast, but what shocked them was that it was also very accurate. British and French soldiers could hit accurately from three hundred meters away. Under the effective command of the lieutenants, they fired volleys of guns and knocked down the gray soldiers in large numbers.
Animals, almost every step forward the gray animals have to pay a heavy price.
"This is magic!"
"No! This is witchcraft! It's black magic!"
A few panic-stricken old fogies were already going crazy, feeling incredible and frightened by the barrage of bullets from the Miné rifle. They had no way of understanding how this was done, so they could only blame it on magic or witchcraft.
Finally, Kornilov couldn't help it anymore and mocked: "This is not magic or witchcraft, but a new technology! The new breech-loading rifle can shoot quickly and has extremely high rifling accuracy. What's the point?
What a surprise!”
"I wrote a letter to the Navy Department last year, requesting a complete replacement of this new rifle, but some people just disagreed, saying that the existing weapons are advanced enough and do not need to be improved! What about now?"