Chapter 198: Gongs and Drums Noisy, Colorful Flags Flying, and Guns Roaring
Chapter 198: Loud gongs and drums, fluttering colorful flags, and roaring guns
At this moment, the sky was getting darker and darker, and as the temperature got lower and lower, it soon began to snow lightly.
Monk Zhou held on to the edge of the trench, exposing his upper body. While looking at the Qing troops approaching, he hummed a cheerful tune in a low voice: "Monk Huiming didn't have an Anbang plan, and the old lady fooled him into losing his mind." , shouted to all the monks, "Listen, if you want to know who retreats from the army, I would like to recruit him as my son-in-law."
"Monk, this little tune is really nice. Let's play another one."
"Go! Let the platoon leader hear that he's going to scold me again. Hey, hey, hey, hey! We've passed the 500-meter line!"
This man's name is Zhou Heizi, a native of Shengjing, and he is a rare Han soldier in the army of Beihai Town. At the beginning of the year, when Zhao Xin inspected the Lenji Island gold mine, he brought two hundred Han people, including Zhou Heizi, back from the gold mining field. The military camp in Beihai Town. The reason why this man was nicknamed Monk Zhou was because when he was captured, he was wearing a robe full of holes.
He did serve as a monk for several years. In the 40th year of Qianlong's reign, a plague broke out in the village where Zhou Heizi's family lived. Fifteen-year-old Zhou Heizi buried his parents and was worried about having no way out when a walking monk came to his door. He begged for a drink of water. When he finished the water, the walking monk told him that if he entered Buddhism, he could turn bad luck into good luck and avoid three disasters and eight disasters. After what he said, Zhou Heizi was moved. Anyway, he was the only one left in the family, so he followed. The traveling monk shaved his hair and became a monk and traveled around.
Later, the monk died of illness, and Zhou Heizi was ostracized in the temple. Out of anger, he wore a hundred-fold robe, held a wooden fish, and knocked for begging all the way. Only then did he go from Shengjing to Ninggu Pagoda, where he hung out for several years. You said he was A monk, he doesn't have an ultimatum in his hand; but if you say he is a citizen, he has no braids on his head.
When An Lin was the deputy capital of Ning Guta, he once saw Zhou Heizi in the city. It was said that he had a bone in the back of his head. If he held it down and cracked it, he would be beaten. But as soon as An Lin's sedan chair left. , Zhou Heizi got up and pulled up his trousers, purring and saying: "A bald head is cool and saves trouble. I don't have the leisure to fiddle with my braids every day." With such a guy, everyone in Ningguta City finally knew about it. There is such a number one hob meat in it. Love it to death!
When Fukang'an mobilized troops to attack Beihai Town last year, Zhou Heizi joined the civilian team in order to have enough food for the two of them. As a result, he went from the labor camp to the military camp in Beihai Town.
"Monk Zhou, get down here! Are you planning to eat the Qing army's artillery shells?" Yaichiro pulled him down with a single move by Zhou Heizi.
When Zhou Heizi saw it, he was caught by the platoon leader again. When he was in the new barracks, he was drilled by Mishi Lang to be a little afraid of him, so he lowered his head and said: "Platoon leader, didn't the company commander say yesterday, those cannons on the opposite side?" We can only hit a hundred steps, and it's still early."
Yachiro scolded angrily: "Fart! It's a small cannon at 100 steps, but a heavy cannon can hit 1,500 meters. Why did you just listen to the first half? Just a big guy like you just poked it up without wearing a hat, With a big bald head, who else will I hit if I don't hit you?!" He was about to continue scolding when the battlefield suddenly became quiet, and the sound of Qing army drums in the distance stopped.
Mishi Lang didn't care to lecture Monk Zhou any more and leaned out to watch. Monk Zhou's big bald gourd came close to him again.
"What are they going to do?" Yachiro was a little confused. He didn't understand the function of these drums and trumpets. During the battle in Beihai Town, different long and short sounds of the whistle were used as commands.
Monk Zhou said nonchalantly: "It's probably about to change the formation. I saw the exercises when I was at Ninggu Pagoda."
In the Qing army's marching queue in the distance, as the drums in front suddenly stopped, Wu Kambei was caught off guard and almost bumped into the people in front of him.
"Stand still and don't move! Sound the conch horn twice, and then follow the team's flag!" The leader of the team turned around and reminded in a low voice. Wukanbe nodded hard to show that he remembered.
They, the border residents, entered the military camp. In addition to practicing their bow and arrow and sword and gun skills every day, they spent most of their time memorizing the meanings of these drums. The leader of the team once said that this aspect of military discipline must be maintained in all battles.
On the occasion of formation, listen to the applause, beat the drums and ring the gold to stop the advance. If the drum does not advance, if the gold does not stop, beheaded; when the enemy is advancing, if there is a look back, shrinking, whispering or whispering, beheaded.
"Dong~~dong~~dong~~dong~~" The war drums began to sound slowly and rhythmically. The soldiers in the front line began to disperse to the left and right, following the team flags, led by the leaders of each team. Starting from the rear line, the first
What came out were forty shield carts. The wooden boards used on these shield carts were very thick. Each piece was about one meter and a half long and one meter high. Each cart was pushed by three soldiers, and two rows of close-up shield carts were arranged in front of the formation.
A shield wall 400 meters long and wide.
Immediately afterwards, a group of musketeers divided into ten rows and columns, with fifty people in each column, came out; infantry in the front and cavalry in the back. When these musketeers walked to the front of the formation, the rhythm of the drums accelerated.
Change formation.
The first thing that lined up behind the shield car was a musketeer cavalry consisting of eight columns of five people. In the middle of each two rows, there was a musketeer leader standing at the head, and behind him were the team flags.
There is also a musketeer standing at the end between the two rows of armored soldiers; thus forming a queue of thirteen people in the shape of a double-headed sword.
Behind this cavalry array is a horizontal rectangular array composed of seventy-two musketeers and cavalry schools. The cavalry school in charge of leading the team stands in the middle of the first row, with sixteen musketeers on each side; in the rectangle
On the other three sides of the rectangle was a loose front composed of thirty-six musketeers. Within this rectangle, except for a few individual shotgunners, flag bearers and drum and buglers, the others were all carrying large trumpets carried by two people.
Soldier with matchlock.
There were six muskets carried by two people in each square formation, and each musket was carried by three Qing soldiers. The Qing musketeers dispatched on the western front arranged a total of three such formations. Those who originally stayed on the north and south wings
The Mongolian cavalry began to approach the two sides of the three square formations, and at this time the archery troops composed of border residents became the rear team and stood behind the musket formations.
"A group gymnastics performance from the Qing Dynasty!"
In the command post of Jurgen City, Liu Sheng looked at the approaching Qing army with a telescope, and said with a smile to Zhao Xin beside him: "It's a pity that there are a few people, so it's not interesting."
At this moment, Zhao Xin was carefully staring at the picture of the Qing army crossing the river on the southern front transmitted by the drone, and muttered: "Something's wrong."
After hearing this, Liu Sheng put down the telescope and asked strangely: "What are you saying is wrong?"
Zhao Xin pointed at the screen: "Why are there only two roads? Is there another road?" He has not ordered the Qing army to bombard the Western Front until now, because he is afraid that if the attack is too hard, the Qing cavalry will retreat immediately.
Liu Sheng ignored him and continued to raise his telescope to look at the opposite side. He saw several small artillery pieces shining with metallic light pushed out from behind the wings of each musket formation. Behind these gun emplacements, there were people holding up a
There was a red flag, followed by two drummers carrying a big drum.
The Western Front Army led by Duerjia had to cross mountains and ridges, so the artillery they carried were small cannons, such as Shenwei General Cannon, Shenwei General Cannon, Shenshu Cannon, and Victory Cannon. The smallest one with the smallest range weighed 300 meters.
A sixty-five-pound victory bronze cannon. This kind of cannon is mounted on a two-wheeled cart, six feet three inches long, loaded with six taels of powder and twelve taels of iron. It is pushed by people during battle.
According to the Qing Dynasty system, in addition to the Tiexin artillery in the field camp, only the internal firearms battalion stationed in Beijing can be equipped with artillery armor. The Eight Banners stationed in other provinces are not equipped with artillery armor, except for inter-provincial operations, and they need to be returned after the war.
After the artillery carts entered their positions, the gunners pushing the carts took a few pieces of wood from the carts and placed them under the wheels.
Liu Sheng turned around and asked Zhao Xindao: "How far do you think these cannons can hit?"
In the battle on the Fuljiaha River last year, before the artillery brought by Fukangan could be unloaded, the warships were sunk into the sea by Zhao Xin. Zhao Xin was too lazy to salvage them, not to mention the effort.
At that time, there was not much black powder to test cannons.
Zhao Xin seemed to be worried about something, and said without looking back: "There is always one or two hundred meters."
How far could the artillery of the Qing Dynasty actually shoot? Xu Guangqi in the late Ming Dynasty said that the Hongyi cannon "can serve tens of thousands of soldiers with one shot." And other people in the Ming and Qing Dynasties always like to say that a big gun can shoot for many miles, or
It rotted away for dozens of miles.
In fact, before Ding Gongchen first mentioned the "effective range" and "maximum range" of firearms during the Daoguang period, although firearm developers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties had a certain understanding of the range of firearms, they were often vague. Scholars were sometimes even one-sided.
Subjectively exaggerating the range causes ordinary soldiers to misunderstand the power of firearms, affecting the training of firearms soldiers and the effectiveness of firearms on the battlefield.
According to later research, the effective range of the heavy Hongyi artillery during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was 1,500 meters, and the maximum range was within 3,500 meters. Engels pointed out in his unscripted 1857 book "Artillery" that Europe before the mid-19th century
For field guns (note, this mainly refers to 6-pound, 8-pound or 12-pound guns, which were all heavy guns for the Qing Dynasty at the same time), the charge was almost one-third of the weight of the shell, and
The length of the field gun is 16 to 18 times the caliber. When using this kind of charge, if the field gun fires directly horizontally, the shell will land at a distance of about 274 meters (three hundred yards); if the shooting angle is increased
, the range can be increased to 2700 meters or 3600 meters. But at such a distance, the artillery shell loses any possibility of hitting the target. Therefore, the effective range of the field gun does not exceed 1280 meters or 1370 meters, and at such a distance
, only 1 out of 6 or 8 rounds may hit the target.
As the Qing army's "group exercise" formation was completed, the drums in the square formation gradually stopped. At this time, an assistant leader gave a military salute to Du Erjia and asked: "Military Gate, the formation has been set up. Please
Military gate orders!”
Duerjia frowned. He looked at the motionless trenches of Beihai Town opposite and felt a little puzzled. What on earth are these people on the opposite side doing? This is not a mountainous and hilly place. What kind of trenches should they dig? They even hid soldiers in them.
One blast from the cannon and the whole fucking game is over! I really don’t understand, this is not how to seek death!
Since you don't understand, then don't think about it. Duerjia cleared her throat and said: "Show the flag, fire the cannon! Blow the conch horn, the artillery battalion fires two rounds of cannons, and the formation advances!"
As the order was issued, a Qing soldier holding a red flag bordered by flames stood in the center of the three square formations and began to wave the flag in his hand.
Mishi Lang, Monk Zhou and others who were hiding in the trench were watching the Qing army's performance 300 meters away with dazzled eyes. When they heard a "Boom!", the group of soldiers were suddenly startled and hurriedly shrank away.
head.
Along with the intensive drumbeats sounded again, a long conch trumpet echoed across the empty land.
"Woo~~~"
Yaichiro, who was hiding in the trench and looking around, heard the sound of the conch horn and instinctively felt that something was about to happen. He quickly whispered to the soldiers around him: "Pay attention to concealment and pass it on!" As the orders were passed one after another, the original
The soldiers who were still lying on the edge of the trench watching the excitement all shrank back, ready to take shelter in the anti-gun holes inside the trench at any time.
Monk Zhou was still humming a ditty very excitedly at this time, but now he changed it to another one: "Zhongli of the Han Dynasty, holding the fairy peach, sneering slightly, and Lu Chunyang, carrying the sword."
"Shut up! If you keep singing nonsense, your salary will be deducted!" Yachiro scolded. This time, Monk Zhou just hummed minor tunes when he had nothing to do, but he couldn't sing the military songs he was taught well.
At each artillery position in the middle of the Qing army's formation, they saw the red flag of the Chinese army waving, and the flag bearer behind the artillery position also began to wave the red flag. Then, the two drummers behind the artillery position began to beat the drums, and the drum sound increased from slow to fast.
sounded.
The two gunners quickly installed the fixed charge package and stuffed the iron bullets; the third gunner adjusted the artillery elevation according to the firing chart made in advance, and then used the iron thorn in his hand to pierce the charge package from the fire door;
The famous gunner thrust the firefork in his hand into the fire door.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!." More than twenty cannons made of various types of copper or iron sounded one after another. As white smoke rose up, accompanied by firelight spurting from the muzzle, iron bullets shot from the muzzle one after another.
It roared out and smashed into Beihai Town's position.
The Qing army began to attack!
Monk Zhou was hiding in the artillery-proof hole under the trench, listening to the "swish" sound coming from not far away, and the unquenchable curiosity in his heart made him scratch his head and head. He had never seen what an artillery shell looked like.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one around him was paying attention to his comrades, Monk Zhou slowly straightened up and showed his head from the edge of the trench to check. He saw countless small black dots hitting the black soil that was not yet frozen, and most of them only bounced a few times before returning.
There was no movement. And the farthest one only hit fifty meters in front of the trench. The iron bullet plunged into the ground, emitting a wisp of smoke.
"Tch~~" Monk Zhou imitated Liu Sheng's tone and raised his little thumb at the Qing army in the distance. "What the hell are you doing!"
After the Qing army's artillery fired two rounds, there was a golden sound in the square formation and the artillery firing stopped.
And Duerjia then got the result of the bombardment, that is, there was no result!
So the Qing army's artillery array continued to move forward. When it reached a position 200 steps away from the trench, the second conch sound sounded, and the Qing army's artillery began to fire another round. After the shooting ended, ten people in front of the three artillery formations
The two "Big Sword" cavalry formations began to attack. When they advanced to a hundred steps away from Beihai Town, they formed a line. Under the guidance of the two red flags in the team, they turned to separate on the two wings and faced Beihai Town on horseback.
Aiming and shooting from trench position.
After the musketeers finished shooting, they no longer returned to the front of the formation. Instead, they arrived near the Mongolian cavalry on the north and south wings, dismounted their horses and ammunition, and prepared to attack again.
When the musket array reached a distance of a hundred steps, the third conch trumpet sounded, and accompanied by the sound of drums in the phalanx, the first row of musketeers in the phalanx raised their muskets, and the musketeers in the phalanx also raised their guns.
Start aiming.
When the rapid drum beat reached its climax, the brass horn sounded.
"Boom, boom, boom" The battlefield was filled with white smoke. Looking from the direction of Beihai Town, only vaguely identifiable figures of the Qing army on the opposite side were left.