Eight Banners Han soldiers like Huang Deheng were not afraid of death.
The combat effectiveness of the servant army has been the same since ancient times.
To say that the servant army can be as brave and capable as the "imperial army" is either stupid or stupid.
But because of their strict discipline, they knew very well that if they hesitated to move forward or fled with only a few casualties, they would definitely be caught and beheaded by the supervising team.
Retreat is only allowed when heavy casualties are encountered.
So now, they have no other choice but to move forward bravely.
After advancing for about a hundred steps, the air-tearing scream sounded again in the air ahead.
Huang Deheng's heart immediately rose to his throat. This was the second row of artillery shells fired by the Ming army. Whoever was hit and who was not hit could only depend on his luck. My ancestors, please protect me.
Maybe the ancestors of the Huang family really heard the prayer.
The second row of shells still missed Huang Deheng, but one shell fell behind him, instantly plowing a bloody path through the dense infantry formation of the Eight Banners and Han Army.
Several more Eight Banners and Han troops had their limbs shattered in an instant.
After the two rows of shelling came down, Huang Deheng was no longer afraid.
Because he found that the chance of being hit by a cannonball was not high.
Although the Ming army's red cannons were sharp, they were not terrible.
Huang Deheng's perception was not wrong. At least at this period, the threat of the red cannon was not that great.
It's just bragging that one shot can destroy dozens of miles. If you were hit by a red cannon ball, you would definitely be dead or injured.
However, it is not easy to catch a red cannon shell on the battlefield, and the probability is very small.
One is because the accuracy is not that high, the other is because the rate of fire is slow and it takes three to four minutes to reload at the fastest, and the third is because no explosive ammunition has been produced so far.
There are no explosive shells, so a few will be killed with one shot.
With explosive bullets, a large number of people will die with one shot.
Of course, firing shotgun at close range is another story.
It would also be terrifying to be hit by a shot from a red cannon at close range.
Therefore, artillery during this period could only be an auxiliary arm, not a main battle arm.
According to the original trajectory, artillery will have to wait until at least the 18th century to become the main battle arm, which is still more than a hundred years from now. Therefore, the current main battle arms are still infantry and cavalry.
…
Huang Deheng was in the military formation so he couldn't see clearly.
But Dorgon and the others stood at a high place and could see very clearly.
More than a hundred red-coated cannons from the Ming army were divided into two clusters and launched artillery bombardments against the two groups of Eight Banners Han troops that attacked. However, in the two bombardments, more than half of the shells failed to hit the target, either because they were too far away or too far away.
Close, or just off-center, less than half of the shells hit the two Eight Banners and Han Army formations that attacked.
】
After all, the distance of a thousand steps is a bit far, and the hit rate can only be left to chance.
A small number of artillery shells also fell on the ground, and then ricocheted into the formation of the Eight Banners and Han troops.
These ricochet bombs and direct-hit artillery shells will basically plow a bloody path between the two infantry formations of the Eight Banners and Han Army, killing and wounding several or a dozen Eight Banners and Han troops.
But overall, there were not many casualties.
The damage to the side van was also in good condition.
According to the current casualty rate, when the Eight Banners and Han Army approaches within 50 steps of the Ming Army's formation, the Ming Army's artillery will only fire five or six times at most, and each artillery strike will kill 30 to 50 people. By then, the Eight Banners and Han Army will be
The army only suffered two to three hundred casualties at most. This casualty was not unbearable for the Eight Banners and Han troops who attacked.
What's more, the Ming army's red artillery will soon have to move its target.
Thinking of this, a ferocious smile appeared on Dorgon's lips.
…
"Um?"
Xu Yingwei suddenly felt a chill in his heart.
Because the camel soldiers on both sides of the Jiannu infantry formation suddenly began to accelerate.
The one hundred camels, driven by the slaves, actually accelerated forward and quickly broke away from the infantry array.
In less than a moment, these more than a hundred camels had arrived in the middle area between the Jiannu Army Formation and the Ming Army's Hollow Phalanx, about 500 steps away from the Ming Army's Hollow Phalanx in the northwest corner.
"This distance..." Xu Yingwei's brows furrowed even more.
Because this distance is just outside the maximum range of the Crouching Tiger Cannon.
The Tiger Crouching Cannon equipped by the Ming Army had a maximum firing range of exactly five hundred steps.
Although the 4-inch field guns in the main artillery position are within reach, the 10 field guns are currently blocking the advancing Jiannu infantry phalanx and cannot be used to attack the Jiannu camel soldiers.
The key is that there are only a hundred camel soldiers, and the target is too small.
If we really use a 4-inch field gun to fight mosquitoes, it would be like using a cannon to fight mosquitoes.
In addition, there is a more important reason. Xu Yingwei is not aware of the threat of the camel soldiers.
Xu Yingwei couldn't figure out what the purpose of Jiannu sending these more than a hundred camel soldiers was? A direct charge?
If they really wanted to charge directly, the Ming army soldiers would beat these camels into sieves with rifles. The vitality of camels may be slightly stronger than that of war horses, but it is absolutely impossible to block the lead of the rifles.
Just when Xu Yingwei was confused, more than a hundred camels were actually driven by the slave driver to lie down in front of the two armies. Then the slave driver pulled the blanket off the camel's back.
The blanket was pulled off, instantly revealing the revolving cannon hidden underneath.
Seeing the revolving cannon, Xu Yingwei's childish eyes shrank slightly, big cannon!?
Damn it, Jian Nu actually hid a cannon? This camel team is actually an artillery unit?
However, Xu Yingwei was still not too worried, because Jiannu only used camels to transport the cannon to the front of the two armies. However, it would take time for the Jiannu artillerymen to remove the cannon from the back of the camel, install it and fix it, and then measure the parameters.
By the time the Jiannu artillery had completed these preparations, the Ming army's 4-inch field artillery had already been prepared.
When the time came to fight artillery against artillery, the Jiannu artillery was no match for the Ming artillery.
At that moment, Xu Yingwei was about to give the general order to the 10 field artillery units to adjust the shooting parameters.
Compared with preventing the advance of the slave infantry, it is obviously more important to attack the slave artillery.
"Send my order to the field artillery commanders..." Xu Yingwei's eyes widened just as he was halfway through the order, because he was surprised to see that the Jiannu artillerymen just moved their hands and put the camels on their backs.
The loaded cannon was turned around, and its black muzzle was already aimed at the Ming Army's hollow phalanx in the northwest corner.
"How is that possible?" Xu Yingwei almost exclaimed.
The cannon of the Jiannu slaves was actually fixed on the back of the camel? Can it be rotated?
Am I just blinded by this? The cannon can actually be fixed on the back of a camel?
"Xu Gijian, do you have any questions?" Gao Qiqian was keenly aware of Xu Yingwei's mood swings, and suddenly became inexplicably nervous.
The emperor's sky is thick and the earth is thick.
The ancestors of the Ming Dynasty.
But be sure nothing happens.
I'm high and low, but I haven't become the eunuch king yet.
"Nothing, just a small problem." Xu Yingwei quickly regained his composure.
As a general, he is most afraid of being impetuous, so he must calm down.
After a pause, Xu Yingwei shouted again: "Field artillery commanders, target the Jiannu Camel Artillery in the northwest, reset the shooting settings and switch to semi-fixed paper shells!"
Xu Yingwei's order was quickly conveyed.
The 100 4-inch guns in the main artillery position quickly adjusted the firing parameters.
At the same time, the fully fixed paper shells stacked next to the field guns were removed and replaced with semi-fixed paper shells.
The so-called semi-fixed paper shells have only half the gunpowder and are specially prepared for close range shelling.
The professional level of the Ming army's artillery is not bad, and the reaction speed is not bad, and the parameters have been measured in advance, but no matter how fast it is, it still can't keep up with Jiannu's camel swivel cannon.
The artillery of the Ming army had just started operating, and the first row of artillery from the slave artillery came over.
Xu Yingwei could clearly see white smoke rising continuously from the muzzles of hundreds of camel cannons.
A moment later, the artillery shells hit the Ming army's hollow phalanx in the northwest corner. Because the distance was only 500 steps, Jiannu's camel cannon aimed directly and fired horizontally, so the hit rate was very high, most of them
The artillery shells all accurately hit the wall of the Ming army's sidecar, and only a small number of the shells hit high or low.
But even a small number of shells fired high or low will mostly form ricochet.
In an instant, the Juma in front of the formation and the wall of the side carriage were beaten into pieces, and dozens of Ming army soldiers guarding behind the side carriage wall were killed and wounded. Even the artillerymen in the hollow phalanx were injured.
There were a few casualties, which were caused by the ricochet caused by the high-pitched artillery shells falling into the hollow square formation.
"A thief!" Xu Yingwei's face fell.
He had a premonition that there was going to be trouble in the Battle of Hunhe.
They expected that Jiannu would abandon the cumbersome Hongyi cannon in order to speed up the march, but they did not expect that Jiannu would actually find a camel cannon to replace the Hongyi cannon.
Moreover, there were quite a lot of camel cannons built by the slaves.
Zheng Sen had clearly reported to him just now that Jiannu owned four to five hundred camels.
This means that Jiannu has at least 400 camel cannons. With so many camel cannons, can the Ming army's hollow infantry phalanx and sidecar formations still be relied upon?
…
Xu Yingwei was in a bad mood, but Dorgon was in a good mood.
Dorgon finally smiled when he saw that the attacking Green Battalion had only one round of artillery fire, knocking at least a dozen sidecars of the Ming Army's Hollow Phalanx into pieces in the northwest corner, with pieces of wood flying everywhere.
"Good fight!" Hong Chengchou also clenched his fist hard.
Fan Wencheng and Ning Wanme, two traitors, also congratulate each other.
The only fly in the ointment is that the power of the camel swivel gun is still slightly insufficient.
If this is a red cannon, after it penetrates the side carriage wall of the Ming Army's hollow phalanx, it will definitely be able to cause fatal damage to the Ming Army arrayed behind the carriage wall. Not to mention that one cannon can cause erosion for several miles, but it can also cause erosion for several feet.
no problem.
But now, the Camel Revolving Cannon has exhausted its power after penetrating the sidecar.
But it doesn't matter. If one shot can't penetrate it, use two shots. If two shots don't work, just use three shots.
As long as the wall of the Ming army's sidecars is destroyed, the Ming army infantry inside the wall will be a living target.