In later history, after the Crimean War, the Russians began to reflect on the shortcomings of line infantry.
In terms of innovation, Tsarist Russia was always a latecomer among the European powers.
At this time, most of the troops sent by the British and French armies to the Middle East were equipped with rifled guns using minie bullets.
Therefore, when the British and French fought against the Russians, they used a large number of skirmishers to highlight and consume the Russian lines.
This caused the Russians to suffer a lot. It also caused the powerful Russian Army to eventually fail.
Muravyov did not yet know at this time the losses suffered by the Russians in the Middle East. He would soon encounter a more advanced tactics than skirmishers in the Far East.
Technology changes life, and in the same way, technology changes war.
The development of metal smelting, casting, machine tools and other technologies has made it possible to equip a large number of breech-loading guns.
It was the emergence of breech-loading guns that completely changed the infantry array that had existed since the cold weapon era.
From then on, the role of the infantry array was only to cultivate the organization and discipline of the soldiers, and no longer had any practical significance.
At this time, in the far south, Dong Shuheng, who was about to go to Jiangxi to escape the summer heat, was called to Dafeng by a telegram.
Ordinary matters naturally do not require the president to make a trip in person.
However, this matter was specifically explained by Dong Shuheng. Once successful, he must be notified immediately.
What is it?
It should be said that they are the same thing.
This thing is another artifact that changed the mode of modern warfare-smokeless gunpowder. It truly consolidated the status of breech-loading guns and allowed the family of breech-loading guns to develop and expand, extending into machine guns, semi-automatic rifles, and automatic rifles.
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As mentioned before, Mr. Schoenby entered the gunpowder laboratory of Huaihai Navy and continued his smokeless gunpowder experiments.
Under Dong Shuheng's prompting, he finally discovered a stabilizer for digestive fiber.
This news really made Dong Shuheng overjoyed. Because the emergence of smokeless gunpowder meant that he finally had bullets suitable for breech-loading guns.
The stability and durability of the rifle in the hands of Huai Haijun will be more durable.
The reason why Britain and France still use muzzle-loading guns is not that they cannot design and manufacture breech-loading guns. The fundamental reason lies in gunpowder.
The residue of black powder makes the failure rate of breech-loading guns appallingly high. Therefore, when the Huaihai Navy fought for a long time, it would suffer from fatigue in the later stage because the soldiers had to clean the guns.
When Dong Shuheng arrived at the gunpowder laboratory in Dafeng, he finally saw Sheenbai, whom he had not seen for a long time.
Compared with the last time we met, Mr. Schönbai's hair and beard have grown a lot longer. He also looks a little haggard.
This made Dong Shuheng criticize the director and support staff of the institute. How could such a precious scientist not take good care of him!
It was Schönbai who came out to help smooth things over with these administrative and logistical staff. These people were the most outstanding experimental support staff he had ever seen.
After Schönbai arrived here, although he was just a researcher, almost everyone here surrounded him. This made his experiment efficiency unprecedentedly high.
Many simple experiments were done for him by his assistants, so that he did not have to do everything himself.
Here he experienced a different research experience. It was as if he was an aristocrat in the field of research. Yes, it was the feeling of an aristocrat.
Schoenbai demonstrated to Dong Shuheng the smokeless gunpowder with a stabilizer added, which was in the form of a gel.
It looks like this because digestive fiber is added to alcohol and other stabilizers are added.
Schönbai said that the digestive fiber in this state can be compacted and cut into different shapes, which is just suitable for making propellants.
Dong Shuheng said on the spot that he would give Mr. Schoenby a huge bonus and promised that if he applied for a patent for this gunpowder in the future, his name would be included.
Making money is the original intention of Scheinbai when he came to China. In this regard, Dong Shuheng will not be stingy.
However, what surprised Dong Shuheng was that Scheinbai very vaguely mentioned that he wanted to return to Europe. He may have missed his family.
Naturally, Dong Shuheng would not let this happen. He had already sent people to Europe after Schönbei arrived in China. He believed that Schönbei would be able to see his family by the end of the year, but in China.
In order to stabilize Scheinbai, Dong Shuheng asked him to participate in experiments on the practical use of nitrocellulose in bullets and cannonballs.
In addition, whether the current fulminate primer is suitable for igniting smokeless gunpowder requires experimental verification.
On the other hand, Dong Shuheng raised a derivative topic to Mr. Schoenby - that is, whether other organic substances can be subjected to nitrification experiments, such as glycerol.
Nitrocellulose is only suitable for propellant, and the famous TNT is Dong Shuheng's ideal explosive.
Glycerin is an organic substance that has been discovered now. The concept of organic chemistry was proposed as early as the beginning of the 19th century, which itself is a huge topic in the field of chemistry.
Dong Shuheng encouraged Mr. Schoenby to pay attention to organic chemistry and pointed out that the field of organic chemistry will have huge development prospects in the future.
In the past, Schoenbai would have ignored the advice provided by these laymen, but Dong Shuheng's advice had already made him a success, so he paid special attention to it.
With the new topic, Schönbai did not mention returning to Europe. After all, his contract has not expired yet.
Can smokeless gunpowder be used as propellant, and how should it be used? What caliber should be used for the bullet and how much charge should be used, all of which require a lot of experiments.
It is not that smokeless gunpowder can be converted into combat effectiveness as soon as it is developed.
Dong Shuheng will have to continue using black powder for at least the next six months.
Dong Shuheng could not give any suggestions on how to put gunpowder into practical application. These researchers could only slowly verify it through experiments.
Back on the battlefield in the Far East, soldiers from both sides were still using black powder to kill each other.
Although the power of black powder was only one-third that of smokeless gunpowder, the shells exploded in the Russian array at this time, still causing huge casualties to the Russian troops who landed on the beach.
Muravyov didn't know why Britain and France sold advanced equipment such as grenades to these Qing people.
But now he had to stop the infantry formation and use skirmishers to rush directly towards the Huaihai Navy artillery position.
This means that the Russian army will suffer huge casualties. They have no means of fighting back before rushing to the enemy's position.
"Ula!" the chants of the charge kept coming.
The running Russian army will be much less damaged by the explosion.
After all, the power of bombs filled with black powder is limited. Lin Wei's men only have one and a half artillery regiments (part of which was given to Wang Xiao to take to Khabarovsk), and all the mortars are not firing now, so Lin Wei is going to keep them for cover.
Infantry transfer.
Such firepower could not completely block the Russian charge.
The charging Russian troops gradually pushed into Huai Haijun's artillery position.
At this time, the infantry who had been hiding in the trenches finally launched their attack.
The charging Russian army only saw a line of fire suddenly shooting out from the small mound in front, and then slowly rising smoke.
It seems to have formed a gray-white wall, slowly growing taller, and then gradually dissipating with a gust of wind.
Then there was another burst of the same gunpowder smoke, and the process started over and over again.
Bullets eject from the line of fire, fly forward along a fixed line, tearing apart everything in front of them, until their kinetic energy is exhausted and burrowed into the soil, or they get stuck in human flesh and bones.
In the sight of both the enemy and ourselves, the charging Russian troops fell layer by layer from front to back.
Muravyov quickly ordered the artillery on the ship to fire back. Although the range of the artillery on these gunboats was not as good as that of the Huai Navy's artillery, they were able to hit the Huai Navy's infantry positions.
The Huaihai Navy's position was mainly to prevent Russian shelling. The earth dug out of the trenches built a slope in front of the position.
Such a slope can effectively absorb the kinetic energy of solid projectiles.
However, the soil debris stirred up by Russian artillery shells still affected the shooting efficiency of Huai Navy soldiers.
The fierce battle lasted for more than half an hour, and the Russian troops were still rushing forward.
There are just too many of them!
"Order the troops to abandon the first line of defense!" In a command post at the rear, Lin Wei observed the situation on the battlefield with a telescope.
The battles of these Russian regular troops were obviously more organized. Each time they rushed up, there were not too many soldiers, but the Huai Navy had to use all its firepower to strike.
As an excellent commander, you must have a certain understanding of various weapons and equipment.
Muravyov did not expect that the opponent was using a breech-loading gun. Only this kind of gun can allow soldiers to shoot from a prone position. However, this kind of gun has not yet become popular in Europe.
He knew that an important problem with this type of gun was that it was prone to malfunction and needed to be cleaned every time it was used. Moreover, its cleaning was much more difficult than that of a muzzleloader gun.
Feeling that the firepower on the battlefield was obviously weaker, Muravyov said to the messenger beside him: "Order the first regiment of the Siberian Division to break through the enemy's defense line this time and destroy the enemy's artillery position."
The Siberian Division was the elite infantry in Muravyov's hands.
Following the order, a pair of neatly dressed infantrymen rushed forward.
They had loaded their rifles with bullets, put on their bayonets, held them diagonally in front of them, and ran forward with steady steps, from slow to fast, very rhythmic.
It turned out that most of the people who had charged before were armed militiamen, and Muravyov was not stupid enough to use his own elite to conduct a probing attack.
At this time, the artillery position had stopped firing, and the Huaihai Navy's artillery position could not be seen from the shore.
I don’t know if the Huaihai Navy’s artillery is too hot and needs to be cooled down.
Anyway, it is a good thing for the Russian army that the opponent's artillery has stopped.
The advancing infantry picked up speed again.
The troops who were landing were also seizing this rare opportunity to move to the shore.
500 meters...400 meters...
Just when the Russians felt that they would be able to penetrate the Qing's positions this time.
A deeper sound of artillery sounded. In the sky, the artillery shell drew a curved parabola and landed 400 meters in front of the position, hitting the Russian charging crowd right in the middle.
Logically speaking, this distance is already the blind spot for ordinary artillery, so this blow left the charging Russians baffled.
"What kind of cannon is this? Are the Qing people using trebuchets to throw grenades?" Muravyov said to himself.
The earliest grenades in history, namely explosive bombs, were thrown using a trebuchet, so the trajectory was a parabola.
Muravyov naturally did not know that the reason why the Huai Navy used grenades on a large scale was because they used breech-loading guns, modified the structure of the shells, and had a stable triggering device.
Of course, this means higher costs.
How does this work? Dong Shuheng believes that an army armed with money and technology will have greater room for progress.
An army that only stimulates people's fighting skills and fighting instincts is not a sustainable development model after all.