Arden's merchant ship finally entered the port area. He asked the sailors to lower the sails and slowly moved forward relying only on the propeller.
"Boom!" A Danish cannonball landed not far from the merchant ship. Because the distance was too far, the power of the cannonball was weakened a lot, and it just splashed a column of water on the sea.
Arden was stunned by the scene in the port area.
The once bustling pier was almost turned into ruins.
A large number of buildings were shattered by shells. There was originally a three-story tavern on the pier, but now only one floor is left, and only ruins remain from the second floor.
The harbor was full of sunken warships. Arden carefully controlled the rudder to avoid the sunken ships.
There are also many damaged Danish warships still anchored in the port.
Those Danish warships that once showed off in the strait were now filled with huge gaps.
Some had their masts blown off, and some of the cannons on the deck were blown up and down. From time to time, suppressed Danish gunners could still be seen under those huge cannons.
Others were directly disemboweled.
The navy is using tugboats at the port to try to tow these warships away so as to free up space near the pier for merchant ships transporting the army to dock.
Arden also finally saw four ironclad ships, which were four real giant steel ships. The doubts in his heart were finally solved. It turned out that this was the reason why Prussia dared to go to war with Denmark.
This is a battleship that Arden has never seen before. But at this time, Arden's eyes are all on their armor.
It can be seen from the outer shells of these four ironclad ships that they have taken countless enemy shells.
However, the most that these Danish cannonballs could do was make dents or make some rivets stand up.
From this we can imagine the brutality of the naval battle.
A scene of a heavily armored knight charging against the enemy's arrows, and then defeating more with less, appeared in Arden's mind.
Is this the true hidden power of our Prussian Navy?
As a Prussian, he felt proud in his heart.
Finally, a merchant ship completed the unloading work at the dock.
Ardern was ordered to dock his merchant ships.
The soldiers were already on the deck ready to go.
At this time, time is the most precious thing.
There are many ships waiting in line to dock behind!
The faster the landing troops, the greater the chance of final victory.
"Batalion Commander Gelden, I wish you good luck. I will be waiting for your triumphant return at the port." Arden said to the infantry battalion commander Gelden who was being transported on his ship.
"Thank you for taking care of me along the way, Captain Arden." Gordon also expressed his own gratitude and that of the soldiers to the enthusiastic captain.
But the two of them had no time to chat now, so they thanked each other.
Gordon took his soldiers and began to disembark as quickly as possible. The steam cranes at the port had been repaired by mechanics, and some were still functioning, which was convenient for unloading the artillery on the ship.
Landing at a port is not as troublesome as landing on a beach.
Merchant ships can dock directly, and armies can reach the port directly by stepping on the pedal.
However, after the Danish artillery adjusted its elevation angle, shells would occasionally hit the port.
Although it would also cause some damage, to the Prussian Army, such losses were nothing at all.
The landing conditions created by the navy this time can be said to be quite perfect.
After this time, not only the top brass of Prussia but also the ordinary soldiers of the army were in awe of the navy.
If an army wants to gain the respect of others, it must have outstanding military exploits and have the courage to take action.
Only on the battlefield can soldiers win the respect of others.
This time Prussia sent 40,000 troops to attack Copenhagen in advance. This force was already considered worthy of the Danes.
Although the Kingdom of Denmark now has 40,000 to 50,000 people in Copenhagen, they are basically militiamen who have just been recruited.
They prepared to use this army of militia to block the Prussian infantry.
Haha... It's simply wishful thinking.
Copenhagen's military port is not small.
After a simple cleanup, one regiment of Prussian infantry can now be landed at a time.
This time Prussia sent only artillery and infantry, not much cavalry.
This is mainly due to the relatively narrow terrain on Zealandia.
Gordon led his infantry battalion to assemble with his regiment at the port.
The first group of vanguard troops in front were already engaged with the Danes.
Originally there were only rumbles of gunfire around the port, but now "bang bang bang" gunfire can be heard.
After the troops were assembled, Gurden and his regiment were quickly pulled to the front.
The Danes set up five lines of defense on the road to Copenhagen.
Of course, these are temporary defense lines. They used bamboo baskets woven with wooden strips and filled them with soil to form breast walls. Some of the original buildings were also used.
The Danes even set up artillery positions at each line of defense to support the defending infantry.
Lieutenant General Eric was able to make such an arrangement in such a short period of time, which can be regarded as a good general.
Although there are insufficient troops in Copenhagen, there are still a lot of weapons in reserve. All the recruited militiamen use newly equipped rifled guns, and the number of artillery is also sufficient.
This is because most of Denmark's arsenals are located here.
The vanguard of the Prussian Army has been blocked by the Danish defense line.
It seemed that the Danes were preparing to use these lines of defense to hold back the Prussian infantry.
Not only were the Danes equipped with new equipment, but the current Prussian infantry was also no longer the original Prussian infantry.
In the past few years, the Prussian infantry has completely replaced the Dresser rifle.
Moreover, the Prussians also changed their original infantry tactics. They had abandoned the tactics of line infantry.
The Danes were prepared to wait for the Prussians to form a line formation and die in front of their own defense line. This was already impossible.
Now the Prussian vanguard was blocked by the Danes, partly because the assembled troops were not enough.
On the other hand, it is because the Prussian artillery has not yet completed its deployment.
Gordon's regiment marched hastily and finally arrived at the front line.
He could see the bodies of many Prussian soldiers lying in front of the parapet position set up by the Danes.
Obviously the vanguard has already launched several waves of attacks.
Many of the corpses were in front of the Danish positions, and some were even hung on the parapets.
It seems that the vanguard force almost succeeded just now.
At this time, the vanguard was hiding outside the Danes' range to rest and recuperate.
Although the Danes used muzzle-loading guns, they were basically rifled guns.
The Crimean War popularized rifled rifles in Europe.
Therefore, Prussian soldiers did not have any advantage in terms of range.
After Arden's regiment arrived, it was ordered by its superiors to stop outside the shooting range.
The attack stopped temporarily.
The staff decided to wait until the artillery was deployed before launching firing.
Through the telescope, you can see some Valier gun carriages behind the Danish position.
These artillery carriages formed the Danish artillery position.
This kind of gun-carriage clamp widens the wheelbase, and the gunner can sit on both sides of the gun and move with the sports car.
However, the artillery they used was still the twelve-pounder and six-pounder cannons from the Napoleonic period.
Artillery shells are still mainly solid bullets.
It was these Danish artillery pieces that prevented the vanguard of the attack from succeeding.
However, the Danes did not know yet that their rivals, the Prussians, had already built a barrel-retractable breech-loading cannon.
The performance of the Krupp artillery has completely surpassed that of the Napoleon cannon. It can be said that the two are not at the same level of artillery.
Walden conveyed the above order to several of his company commanders.
At the same time, they asked their soldiers to keep their minds divided when attacking, and at the same time pay attention to the coordination between them.
This new tactic had just become popular in the Prussian army.
There are also some soldiers, especially veterans, who cannot change their old combat habits.
The Prussian Army has now developed a new tactic that allows soldiers to attack enemy positions in squad units, taking turns to cover and fire.
"Boom, boom, boom..." The sound of artillery fire finally sounded from behind Gerden. This was the Prussian artillery firing.
Their first wave of shelling knocked out the Danish artillery positions.
Completely crushing the opponent in terms of range. Prussian artillery naturally wanted to take advantage of this.
The Danes had just been ravaged by the guns of the ironclads in the port, and now they were suppressed and beaten again by the artillery of the Prussian army.
Suddenly, the artillery position behind the Danes was blown into a mess.
Subsequently, the Prussian artillery moved its target to the breastwork position of the Danish infantry.
At the beginning, it was not too difficult for these Danish militiamen to block the Prussian infantry with the cooperation of artillery.
They even thought that the Prussian infantry was nothing more than this.
Everyone was happy and confident.
However, enemy artillery fire came at this time, and these people suddenly became confused.
"Attack." Gordon rushed forward with his battalion.
They were divided into several echelons, taking turns to cover and rush towards the Danish parapet position.
They hoped to break through this position in one fell swoop while the Danes were in the panic of the shelling.
This attack was very effective.
Gerden's men rushed all the way to the temporary position built by the Danes with wooden frames and earth.
Some of the soldiers who were rushing forward jumped onto the parapet and charged at the Danes behind with their bayonets drawn.
Although most of the first batch of Prussian soldiers who rushed over were wiped out by the Danes.
But they bought enough time for the Prussian soldiers behind them.
The militia finally collapsed as more Prussian soldiers rushed through the barricades. They rushed towards the second line of defense in the rear.
Gordon led his men to chase the defeated troops and kill them all the way forward.
This is a good opportunity. With the broken troops in front of them, they may not need artillery to break through the enemy's second line of defense in one fell swoop.
As it turned out, the artillery behind the Danish second line of defense did not fire due to the large number of broken troops blocking it.
In this way, Gurden's attack force broke through the second line of defense the following year in one fell swoop.
But when we attacked the third line of defense, we encountered huge resistance.
Some Danish officers reacted and guided the broken troops to go around in both directions.
Worried about being surrounded by the Danes, the attacking Prussian army temporarily retreated.
The third line of defense, which received the defeated troops of the first two lines of defense, now has a much larger number of people.
It is difficult to defeat the enemy quickly with infantry alone.
So the Prussian soldiers stopped again and waited for the artillery behind them.