Even though Bago City was not transformed into a real bastion-style city in just one month, the newly built large sharp corners still played the role of a bastion.
Different from the early obtuse-angle bastions in Europe, the newly renovated Bago City was changed from the original Chinese-style four-corner building to an octagonal building, and the angles formed by these are the best fire coverage and shooting areas.
The Burmese army only dispatched 3,000 men. Of course, it was unable to conduct a siege-style operation. It could only attack two of the eight angles. In this way, two parts were formed, and both parts would be attacked by the left and right sides at the same time.
shooting in a direction.
One of the characteristics of the Wanli Type 1 musket is that there are riflings in the barrel. Although the rifling is shallow and straight, which is completely incomparable with the spiral rifling of later generations, for now, it still has a shooting accuracy that far exceeds that of contemporary muskets. Again.
Coupled with Gao's pragmatic knowledge of the optimal ratio of black powder and the principle of "granular gunpowder", the gun's range can almost reach the best state under current technical conditions.
Gao Silian, as a colonial envoy who opened up the Huaying area with very few troops, was actually very familiar with the Wanli-style tactics of combining the bastion with the city defense.
Just like the "Waishan Fortress" that Huang Zhiting visited during the military parade in Jingang, Gao Silian built at least seven or eight large bastions as fortresses in the process of expanding to Huaying. He had no idea how to defend the bastions when defending the city.
His firepower was brought to its fullest, and he was very experienced.
It stands to reason that you can shoot before the enemy enters the angle. That area is called the "first shooting zone" by Gao Jiajun. However, the effect of shooting at this time is usually not very good, and it is easy to scare away the enemy.
army, so when it was necessary to kill the enemy in a demonstration style, Gao Silian would not choose this tactic of firing immediately.
The second shooting area is the area after the enemy enters the angle. Generally speaking, this area can already form cross fire, but the specifics will depend on the size of the city or the large bastion itself. If the city
If it is too large, the second shooting area may not be able to fully cover the firepower because the range of the gun is still not enough.
As for the third shooting area, it is the tip of the angle. This is the area completely covered by crossfire, which can cause the most powerful attack. If the enemy arrives here and then launches it, the enemy will not only be attacked by a sudden
The powerful firepower stunned and even defeated them, and after they collapsed, they also faced a desperate return - they had to be beaten all the way back.
The Burmese army's three thousand test troops lived up to expectations and were stunned. Within the crossfire coverage of the third firing area, they were attacked head-on by the Bago garrison.
The junior officers from the Jinggang Garrison to the Bago Garrison personally led the shooting, and loudly reminded the recruits of the shooting steps, when to charge, when to reload, and when to shoot.
When should the barrel be cleaned, when should the gun be recharged...etc., these experienced officers shouted loudly to prevent the Mon soldiers who were new to firearms from messing around.
Although Gao Silian, who was watching the battle from behind a bunker in a corner of the tower, was a little disappointed with the shooting speed of these new subordinates and was also dissatisfied with their shooting accuracy, the success of the tactics itself was unquestionable. The Burmese army who rushed up to try to set up ladders did not
After a few rounds of random shooting, they all fell into collapse.
In fact, the casualties of the Burmese army at this time were not large. From the angle that Gao Silian could see, the Burmese army's losses would not exceed 200 people. Assuming that the results were similar at the other angle, after these rounds of shooting
The Burmese army's losses were only about 400 people.
According to the point of view that Gao Pragmatic repeatedly emphasized to them, the tactic of "queuing to kill" is often compared with discipline, that is, who can withstand the first wave of damage from the shooting without collapsing, so the first in the battle line
It is common for the second row to be fully lit sometimes.
Gao Silian understands this tactic, but the Burmese army on the opposite side obviously does not understand it. Not only does it not understand, but the situation they face is also different from the battle line shooting - the shooting is always face-to-face. If you have a chance, you can kill me with one shot.
, I also have a chance to kill you with one shot. Whether you live or die depends on luck and shooting speed.
The key problem why the Burmese army began to collapse after losing only this few men was that they had no way to fight back against the enemies in the bastion. With only waist knives, they were not even equipped with bows and arrows, except for raising their crude weapons in vain.
There is absolutely nothing we can do about the wooden shield.
In addition, the progress of erecting ladders has also gone to zero, because although the bastion was completed, Gao Silian did not give up the traditional tactics. There were still soldiers on the city wall responsible for throwing rolling stones and wood down, pouring "gold juice" on the head.
". Moreover, the shooting port in the corner wall can also be used to shoot at the opposite wall to attack the Burmese soldiers attacking the city.
All in all, a three-dimensional attack has been formed in this area. The Burmese army is almost in a state of being trapped in a urn, unable to advance or retreat.
In the end, these unlucky ones could only brave the crazy firepower of the fire network and retreat. When the lucky ones among them finally escaped and ascended to heaven, they found that there were only a few comrades around them.
King Mang Yingli, the Golden Tower White Elephant King of Toungoo Dynasty in Myanmar, looked at the soldiers who were fleeing back in twos and threes with a livid face. His angry words "cut them all" stuck in his throat for a long time, and finally swallowed it back.
After all, he had seen the situation just now. If these soldiers continued to stay in the corner of the city wall, there would be no other meaning than waiting for death. Moreover, his strength was damaged now, and he only had these 70,000 people at hand. He would not be able to kill any more of them.
It's a loss of one's own strength.
Captain Reddy came over, his face was not very good-looking, and his words were even more unpleasant: "Your Majesty, it seems that we are facing a very big trouble, and the situation has exceeded the pre-estimates."
Mang Yingli gritted his teeth, but kept a straight face and said nothing - I'm not blind, do you need to say this nonsense?
Fortunately, Captain Reddy really didn't come just to mock his employer, he came with a solution to the problem.
"Your Majesty, I think at this moment, if you don't want to pay a huge price far beyond imagination to capture this city, then we should consider spending money to solve the problem."
Mang Yingli was stunned for a moment, turned to Captain Reddy, frowned and asked: "Solve it with money? Do you mean to bribe the opponent's guard? But we don't even know who the opponent's guard is... maybe it's Alabang.
?Hmph, this traitor, I wish I could cut him to pieces with a thousand knives, and if you want me to spend money to bribe him, that is just a dream!"
"No, no, no, Your Majesty, when I say spending money, I don't mean buying off the garrison generals - although this can also be an option." Reddy shrugged and said: "I mean, spending money to buy some
Artillery to attack this city. Your Majesty, you know that we in Portugal have advanced artillery. If we can purchase two hundred or at least one hundred artillery pieces, it will be a huge help in capturing this city.
And I, Simon Reddy, know the Governor of Malacca and even the Governor of Goa. Through my connections, I can buy these artillery pieces as soon as possible so that His Majesty can regain this city of great political and economic significance as soon as possible.
I hope you will consider this suggestion carefully."
When Mang Yingli heard this, he sneered and said: "The artillery you sell is too expensive. Even the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could not afford to buy a few cannons for one thousand taels of silver."
"Your Majesty has misunderstood. One thousand taels are ship-borne long heavy guns, and that was the price quoted to Ming Dynasty officials in the early years... Of course, if Your Majesty needs it, these long heavy guns can indeed be moved to the shore for use. Through me
Because of the relationship, the price can also be greatly reduced, such as 800 taels per door, what do you think?"
Mang Yingli still sneered: "But as far as I know, the cost of such a long and heavy cannon is no more than three hundred taels of silver at most."
"Oh... I admit that what you said is true, but you have to consider another point. It costs a lot to transport these long and heavy artillery from Europe to Myanmar. What's more, we will also give away four basic shells, so eight hundred
Two yen per door is definitely a friendly price.”
If Gao Pragmatic were here, he would probably laugh out loud, because after a series of transformations and technological improvements in standardized production, the price of similar artillery manufactured by Jinghua is far lower than the cost mentioned in Mang Yingli: Mang Ying
It says "no more than three hundred taels", but in fact Jinghua's similar artillery cost only one hundred and sixty taels.
By the way, the cost of the same level of artillery in the Kingdom of England at this time was about two hundred taels per gun after calculation. The reason why Jinghua was able to make it cheaper was because the iron molded cannon was badly used in time travel novels.
In addition to the artifacts, the most critical issue is that Kaiping Industrial Zone can provide high-quality and low-cost metals.
Different from the bronze cannons used by the fleet, the artillery used by the land division from the No. 1 gun to the No. 4 gun are made of iron, because there is no need to worry about the high humidity and high salt environment at sea causing the artillery to rust, and Jinghua’s iron and steel production capacity is huge, which means that
You won't fall into a cost trap.
Even Gao Wuzhi now has some doubts about whether he can consider using iron cannons directly for the fleet, because the Ming Dynasty is really short of copper, and the cost of this bronze cannon is enough to make several iron cannons. It is just that the barrel of the bronze cannon is used
It is easy to recycle and recast after the lifespan has expired, but recycling and recasting iron cannons is a bit more troublesome.
The two groups of people at the Craftsman School have been quarreling for a while, and neither side can convince the other. The half-hearted and pragmatic Gao does not dare to come up with blind ideas, so he has to put the matter on hold for the time being - after all, Britain in the original history
There were still a large number of naval bronze cannons during the Yiwu period.
As for the iron-moulded cannon, when Gao Pangshi first proposed this idea, he really thought it was a "major innovation." Who would have thought that the master craftsmen would understand it as soon as he mentioned it.
Later, Gao Pangshi realized that some novels were too exaggerated. In theory, this thing is not particularly novel. For example, in the Han Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, iron molds for casting farm tools were unearthed, but Gong Zhenlin just used them.
Just come to make cannons.
So why hasn’t anyone done this before? Actually, it’s because of technical difficulties.
The hardware itself of the iron mold technology is not difficult to produce. It can be made of cast iron or steel. It is nothing more than a carrying container. In addition to fixing the gun mold, it also has a better heat dissipation effect.
The advantage of the iron mold is that it is easy to integrate. Unlike the clay mold cast gun, which has to wait for time to dry in the sun. After a gun is cast, you have to wait several months. The iron mold cast gun can be used directly after leaving it for a while.
These hardware are fully achievable at the level of the Ming Dynasty.
However, the iron mold also has shortcomings. From the perspective of metal casting and metallography, the heat dissipation of the iron mold is too fast, which causes the problem of large supercooling of the molten pig iron when it is cooled, and the cementite in the molten iron cannot reach it in time.
The graphite has already solidified after precipitation (graphitization has no time to proceed), so the cementite in iron mainly exists in the form of iron carbide, which is the so-called white iron.
Of course, because the molten iron is supercooled during the solidification process, the metal crystal particles on the surface are relatively dense, the body tube is smooth, and the airtightness is much better than that of the clay mold.
The real advantage of the iron mold is that it speeds up the production rate, without having to wait for several months like clay mold cannon casting. This is particularly prominent in Gong Zhenlin's iron mold, but the whitening of the iron mold cannon products is very serious.
Because the cooling rate is too fast, although it is relatively smooth, almost all the iron produced is white iron, which causes the brittleness to increase and the performance of the artillery to decrease.
So the result of this is that in order to increase the tensile strength, we can only use quantity to stack mass, that is, increase wall thickness.
How did Gao Pragmatic solve this problem? Oh, actually it can’t be considered a highly pragmatic solution. In fact, it was later figured out by Jinghua Steel themselves - the key lies in the drumbeat that Zhu Zaiyu came up with under Gao Pragmatic’s prompting.
Wind equipment.
This thing is a bit troublesome to explain in detail. To put it simply, it is similar to the hot blast technology during the American Civil War. The temperature in the blast furnace is high enough, so that the silicon content in the molten iron is high, and graphitization becomes more prominent during cooling.
However, this only solves the problem of white iron. It has roughly evolved to the level of gray iron. However, the problem of excessive cooling of iron mold casting cannons has not been completely solved. It can only be said to be barely usable, and the casting speed has been greatly improved.
, after a pragmatic and comprehensive consideration, I feel it is acceptable.
As for the problem of iron mold cooling speed, Gao Pragmatic knows the principle of solving it, which is the so-called internal mold water cooling, but this thing seems to be quite difficult. It has been several years since Jinghua Steel got his tips, but basically there is nothing
Progress. I tend to be very pragmatic. I only know a few superficial theories, and my practical ability is completely zero. I can only continue to wait.
The issue of purchasing artillery reached a deadlock. Mang Yingli couldn't afford such a large amount of money to buy the Portuguese's expensive artillery. Captain Reddy left with great regret, and before leaving, he said something very hard to Mang Yingli.
He said: "It is very difficult to capture a large bastion even in Europe. Apart from smashing it with a large number of artillery, the only way is to besiege it for a long time. Your Majesty, please give it some thought."
Mang Yingli didn't know if his words were threatening, but the dilemma before him was obvious, and continuing to attack by force was definitely not the way to go at the moment, so he had no choice but to order a suspension of the attack and start deploying the siege.
Gao Silian's strategic goal of preventing the opponent from attacking by force in the first battle was finally achieved.
In fact, he was a little scared, not because of anything else, but because he had never commanded tens of thousands of people before. The largest command force was only three or four thousand people, and the bastion he guarded was not like Bago City.
It was a super-large "bastion", so he had been worried about whether his side could command it if the other party launched a general attack without hesitation.
After all, the establishment of the Bago Garrison was an accident. As a result, apart from himself, there are only a few low-level officers who are from the Gao family, and the middle and high-level command system is basically empty. If we really face a full-scale war
In combat, who knows if there will be problems everywhere.
As a result, a situation was formed inside and outside Bago City where the two sides were afraid of the wolf fighting the wolf.
Gao Silian looked through the binoculars at the Burmese army who had begun to set up camp. He breathed a sigh of relief and cast his eyes to the east. He thought to himself: I don’t know when Dutong will choose to launch a counterattack. It is taking advantage of Mang Yingli’s unstable foothold.
Should we fight back directly, or should we wait for a while until the Burmese army completely relaxes before fighting?
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Yue Xiaoyao", "Dou'er852", "System crash", "Wuyouwu k book", "I only look at it but don't click in", "Old Westerners in Altay", "Long in disrepair"