Dominate the Country

[Thanks to ‘ Kuaifengxing’ for the 588 reward]

The damage caused by the cannons is mutual. The cannons of the Fu Han Army can kill and injure the Qing Army, and the cannons of the Qing Army can also kill and injure the soldiers of the Fu Han Army. It’s just that compared with the commotion of the Qing Army’s formation, the performance of the Fu Han Army’s formation is calmer.

Hailan looked at it and felt a toothache. After the first artillery exchange, he immediately ordered the artillery team to increase the amount of gunpowder and make sure to shoot the cannonballs into the Fu Han Army’s formation. As a result, the Fu Han Army changed the square formation into a horizontal formation first, a thin 10%. This time, more than 30 cannons of the Qing Army fired at the same time, but they didn’t kill or injure any of them.

The narrow front certainly increased the horizontal area of ​​the Fu Han Army, causing them to suffer a large increase in the proportion of artillery bombardment, but it also shortened the depth of the Fu Han Army. If they were not careful, the shells would pass over their heads or fall in front of them.

And the most obvious point is: the reaction of the Fu Han Army after being bombarded, the formation was completely free of chaos and commotion. "What a strong army." Hailancha felt jealous, and then more hatred rose in his heart.

——The more elite the Fu Han army is, the more disadvantageous it is to the Manchu Qing Dynasty to which he is loyal.

Many people in the Qing army remembered the previous battle of Yunyan River. There were only two battalions of veterans of the Fu Han army. Under the fierce attack of the Qing army, which was more than ten times more, they did not panic and responded well. More than 10,000 Qing troops plus 40 or 50 cannons were blocked by the elite Fu Han army of more than 1,000 people for more than an hour, from dawn to dawn. And even when they were defeated, the troops retreated without chaos, not giving the Eight Banners cavalry any chance to take advantage of them.

A sharp whistle sounded in the Fu Han army array, and the five Fu Han army musket battalions on the front line began to continue to approach the Qing army array. More and more Fu Han army artillery positions completed the position layout, and more and more artillery joined the bombardment.

The Qing army artillery battle fell into a disadvantage.

Whether in terms of quantity or the quality and performance of the cannons, the Fu Han Army far surpassed the Qing Army. Fernandez's fair face was smoked black by the gunpowder, but he could not stop the Qing Army's artillery from secretly reducing the amount of gunpowder to the original data, or even less. Anyway, the gunpowder is everywhere now, and who knows how far the shells will fly after ignition.

The Qing Army's artillerymen cherish their lives very much, because the legend of "explosion" is like a sword hanging over their heads, making them panic and timid. But the Fu Han Army did not have such a situation.

The cannons of the Fu Han Army have enough credibility among the artillerymen, and when the gunners were trained, they also received test firing training with increased gunpowder, 20%, 30%, 50%, the latter is the maximum gunpowder addition allowed for field troops in the "Training Manual" of the Fu Han Army's artillery.

Huang Jie soon discovered that the Qing Army's cannons were not landing properly. After the first three rounds of shooting, the Qing Army's cannonballs could hardly reach the Fu Han Army's array. Did the Qing army's cannon suddenly break down? Or did the Qing army's gunners secretly reduce the weight of the gunpowder to save their lives? Huang Jie guessed the latter without even thinking.

"Tell the second-line artillery to move forward immediately, cross the main gun position, and move another mile."

"The second-line troops will move forward. The rear army will move forward to the main gun position--"

Huang Jie boldly moved the front line of the troops forward by one mile. He wanted to take a small gamble that the Qing army's cannons would get closer and closer.

Because the barrel heats up, continuous firing makes the barrel fatigued. If the cannon is of poor quality and is always loaded according to the original gunpowder measurement, there is really a danger of exploding. Therefore, the range of the Qing army's cannons will only get shorter and shorter, but Huang Jie has absolute trust in his own cannons and artillery. The cannons and artillery of the Fu Han army will not be sneaky on this point.

Hailancha did not know that the artillery gunners of his artillery team dared to have such selfish intentions, and they were so bold as to really do it. But he could feel the increasing power of the Fu Han Army's artillery. Especially after the Fu Han Army's second-line artillery team had set up their positions.

Of course, before the Fu Han Army's second-line artillery team set up their positions, the first battle between the Qing Army's musketeers and the Fu Han Army's musketeers had already taken place. Whether it was the Qing Army's Eight Banners New Army, the Firearms Battalion, or the left and right musket troops, they were twice as strong as the Fu Han Army, with more than 5,000 people, but they were as vulnerable as thin paper in front of the five Fu Han Army's musketeer battalions.

The Qing Army's musketeers were simply musketeers. After they had bayonets, their waist knives were taken off by these people. The musketeers plus bayonets allowed the musketeers to still have good close combat capabilities without the protection of cold weapon troops. Just like the Fu Han Army's musketeers, they repeatedly launched bayonet charges and defeated the Qing Army.

And what about the Fu Han Army they were facing?

Chen Ming knew that the Qing army also had rifled guns, so he didn't dare to put the flying thunder cannon with a very short range in front of the musketeers, and the tiger squat cannon would not work either. If it fired iron cannonballs, the small tiger squat cannon could not shoot far at all. They only fired shotgun shells at close range, and they could exert their maximum power at a distance of thirty or forty steps.

But don't forget that the mortars that the Fu Han army had just developed not long ago. The range of this mortar is also very short, but this is much farther than that of the flying thunder cannon and the tiger squat cannon. As long as the angle is adjusted properly, the mortar can completely shoot shrapnel to a position three hundred meters away.

"Boom boom boom..."

At least half of the mortars, no less than fifty, will shoot at the Eight Banners New Army in the center of the Qing army, this army that Qianlong had high hopes for, this army that the entire Eight Banners pinned their hopes on.

The low four-wheeled artillery carriage only needs to dig four pits according to the size of the base to place the wheels, and then use large iron drills to nail the artillery carriage to the ground to fix it. Anyway, the four corners of the artillery carriage are inlaid with iron. Ring, this kind of mortar that can be easily moved on the dirt road by manual pulling is considered stable, and it is countless times faster than the cannon. Moreover, the mortar fired all explosive shells, with a short shooting gap and a fast rate of fire. It killed Qing soldiers as quickly as it moved on the dirt road.

"Tum, tom, tom, tom, tom..."

Amidst the dense and dull sound like firecrackers, the muzzles of hundreds of mortars spewed out large plumes of thick smoke and fire. The stubby barrels of each mortar had almost no vibration, and the shells flew out of the muzzle one after another and rushed towards the Qing army not far away.

Because of the problem with the fuze, the proportion of the explosive bombs not exploding is very high, and there is also the phenomenon of premature explosion in the air. Therefore, it is better to keep the fuze of the explosive bomb longer than to take the shorter one. After all, people in this era are afraid of cannonballs. The matter of throwing cannonballs back only exists in theory. That's much lower than the probability of a grenade being thrown back. The greater possibility is that the Qing soldiers ran away before the shells exploded.

However, it also depends on the position. If the position is small, or fighting in a formation, the enemy troops cannot run around, otherwise they will be defeated.

Therefore, the five thousand musketeers, who had high hopes from Hailancha, were beaten into chaos by mortars without even firing a single orderly shot. When the uniformly marching Fuhan Army troops launched their first neat attack at a distance of 70 to 80 meters, the 5,000 musketeers sent by the Qing Army fled back in a swarm.

"It's a bomb, run quickly..."

"Get out of the way, don't block the way..."

"Don't run, don't run, don't make a mess...wuwu..."

Few of the Qing soldiers were fools. When they saw the upward fuse of the shell that fell to the ground was still burning, the knowledgeable ones immediately called out the explosive bombs, while the ignorant ones thought it was an extra-large grenade. Who dares to surround me?

The chaotic Qing army still remembered Hailancha's order. Among them, the Eight Banners New Army, which suffered the most serious damage, tried to regroup despite frequent shelling and launched a counterattack against the Fuhan Army. Such a messy army could withstand the indiscriminate bombardment of hundreds of mortars. If they did not break up immediately, it would be the maximum endurance of the Qing army's musketeers. When the fuhan army's five battalions of musketeers fired neatly, the Qing army collapsed immediately.

In the fired bombs, the Fuhan Army not only filled them with gunpowder or fragments. Some of the bombs were also filled with quicklime, chili powder, etc., so it was okay for the Qing Army's musketeers to perform poorly. Understood.

But for Hai Lancha and other Qing generals in the rear, the performance of the Qing musketeers really broke their hearts. "Cavalry, attack immediately to meet the defeated troops..."

Hailancha, who always maintained a calm mind, did not leave these unsatisfactory musketeers behind because of his anger. He immediately sent a cavalry to attack.

Fernandez broke into a cold sweat when he saw it. The Fuhan army remained in order during the bombardment. Fernandez was not surprised. The armies of various European countries can generally do this. Battles with high casualty rates have been going on in Europe for many years, so the endurance of European soldiers in the casualty rate is much higher than that of the current armies of Eastern countries. But after he deeply understood the quality of the Qing soldiers, and then saw the performance of the Fuhan army on the battlefield, he felt it was incredible. The Fuhan Army on the opposite side behaved like a Western army.

He murmured to himself, kept crossing himself on his chest, and prayed devoutly: "Heavenly Father, I thank you. You are my strength and my help. You can make my weakness strong, no matter where I am weak. That’s where it makes me strong.”

"Heavenly Father, I praise you. You are a faithful God. Your faithfulness is extremely great. Your faithfulness lasts to all generations and will never change. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you will always hold fast to the covenant you made with me. Through Your Holy Spirit, grant all your permission to me.”

“Merciful Lord, I thank you that the power of your resurrection is also in me, allowing me to live forever in your presence, in your words, in your eternal life, in your kingdom, and in your kingdom. Live in your life, in your glory, in your riches, in your loving grace..."

Fernandez chanted the prayers of the True God Sect over and over again. Today's battle made him feel very bad. The Fuhan Army's army not only produced very beautiful arrays, but was also equipped with a large number of small mortars. This was an 'innovation' that no European army had ever seen. A large number of small mortars disrupted the order of the Tatar musketeers from a long distance before the rifles fired, giving the Fuhan Army musketeers a chance to easily defeat an enemy twice their size. If this continues, the outcome of this battle will be very serious. It was bad, very bad. He didn’t want to die here: “…I pray in the name of the Lord, amen!”

Finally, Fernandez completed the most sincere prayer in his life. He exhaled and felt much more settled. His expression calmed down and he looked at the panicked Qing artillerymen beside him. A trace of disgust flashed deep in his eyes: " Hum, these arrogant and ignorant barbarians, hateful heathens!”

As these Portuguese people came into more and more contact with the Qing army and understood each other more and more, Fernandez's originally good impression of China was falling little by little. These gunners of the Tatar army did not even know the most basic mathematical knowledge, nor the most basic formula of black gunpowder. Many people could not even write their own names. They were as stupid as the black slaves in Africa. Fernandez really couldn't get a good impression of such people. Moreover, China was not as rich as he initially thought. God knows that he had lived in Macau since he was a child, and the Pearl River Delta should be the most prosperous place in China at this stage.

"Boom boom boom..." At this time, several violent explosions suddenly sounded in the direction of the Yunyan River in the south of the battlefield. Huang Jie raised his eyebrows suddenly. The army on the southern route was so sharp, and they were going to be shut up? A gloomy look passed over Hailancha's face, and he immediately said to Goshha beside him: "Go and investigate!"