Dominate the Country

"Boom!"

A heavy rocket was fired from a trench three or four hundred meters away. The rocket landed on the front of the expeditionary army's defensive position, accompanied by a huge indescribable roar. A "yellow earth rain" fell within the range of thirty or forty meters in front of the position. The yellow earth was all over the sky and black smoke was like a column.

The Spanish kept bombarding the expeditionary army's position with rockets.

When this unique killer became a "universal weapon", the Spanish began to use it frequently in the war. Moreover, the rockets on both sides of China and the West have formed different styles from each other. The rockets of the Spanish seem to have a shorter range than Chen Han's. It should be some differences in appearance design, but the Spanish are more ruthless. They have no light rockets in their hands, and even medium rockets seem to be few. They prefer heavy and super heavy rockets.

According to the captured prisoners, the Spanish rockets only have three levels of a/b/c, and the smallest one is 70 or 80 pounds, which is comparable to Chen Han's heavy rockets. The largest one weighed 120 pounds, and there were 50 to 60 pounds of explosives in it, which was completely crazy.

During the Battle of the Colorado River Mouth, the Spanish relied on surprise. After the two armies formed inertia through the day-to-day artillery bombardment, they first launched a feint attack on the flank to tie down the excess troops of the defenders, and then suddenly used rockets. In a very short time, 200 rockets were delivered to the front position of the bridgehead of the expeditionary army. Repeated bombings caused serious losses to the expeditionary defenders, disrupted the combat rhythm of the expeditionary guards, and even paralyzed their overall counterattack capabilities. After that, the army rushed in, and through the brutal bayonet battle, the expeditionary army in the river mouth defense battle had to choose to retreat, and was forced to abandon a considerable part of the artillery.

Pay attention, it is lost rather than blown up, and the time is very urgent.

But after that war, although the rockets in the hands of the Spanish still posed a threat, they could no longer achieve success in one fell swoop.

Because compared with the bombardment of this "super cannon", the Chen Han military has already had a way to deal with it.

The Qing Dynasty has not been able to find a way to deal with this attack, but it does not mean that Chen Ming can't think of a countermeasure. As a time traveler standing on the shoulders of "advanced wisdom", Chen Ming knows that the rocket will be leaked sooner or later, but he still uses it in various ways. How can he not consider the countermeasures when he encounters rockets in the future?

There is only one magic weapon - defense in depth/combat.

The range of rockets is limited, which means that their assault range is limited. Artillery interception and rifle shooters have always been important means to contain rocket troops. If one, two, or three trenches are not enough, then four, five, or six trenches will be used. At the same time, while focusing on defense, also pay attention to counterattacks. Rocket troops are not armored troops. They do not have superior protection. They are like a group of thin-skinned mages. As long as they are caught in front of them, they are a group of crappy musketeers.

However, the previous Fu Han Army and the National Defense Army never had the opportunity to verify whether the emperor's idea was correct or not. After all, the training ground was not an actual battle. Although repeated drills provided a lot of help for Chen Han's tactical formulation.

And now in North America, the "actual combat" has finally arrived, and this day has finally arrived.

After the difficult battle of San Diego, the expeditionary army established a new defensive position, with multiple trenches on the front line, light firepower in the front and heavy firepower in the back, and independent small positions set up in the large position, always ready to prepare for the reserve and counterattack troops, and attack the enemy in the advancing position at any time.

The combat force that Chen Ming created in this era is completely different from the Soviet Army's deep combat theory in history. This is at most just a little fur of the latter. Due to the limitations of the times and technology, this combat strategy is inherently incomplete.

It only deals with the emergence of rockets, a bug-type weapon.

If it weren't for this weapon with too much lethality, the conventional way for both sides of the war in this era would still be to shoot and kill.

But now, under the muzzle of rockets, which are "short-range heavy artillery", whoever dares to kill with volleys is courting death.

Chen Ming can imagine the line of soldiers advancing steadily under the bombardment of iron bullets, and he can also imagine the line of soldiers advancing steadily under the bombardment of shrapnel and shotgun, but he really can't imagine the line of soldiers still advancing steadily under the bombardment of rockets. That is simply not the damage that people can bear.

A rocket can make half a company write off, that is no longer killing, but slaughter.

In Chen Ming's "speculation", if both sides of the war have a large number of rockets, the battle between them can only be a consumption.

Rocket bombardment, artillery bombardment, scattered army short-range sprint, and finally a series of brutal hand-to-hand combat.

There is absolutely no neat and slow line of soldiers. All soldiers are scattered and rushing at a distance, rushing to each other at the fastest speed. The shooting effect of flintlock rifles is "annihilated" in minimization, and bayonet battles have become the main body between soldiers.

Facts have proved that Chen Ming's speculation is still reliable.

The Spanish did not dare to let the soldiers line up in a square formation. Two heavy rockets fell into it and the entire square formation would be destroyed.

As for the expeditionary army, they knew the power of rockets very well and always used scattered troops. Even in the trenches, they did not dare to let the soldiers stay together.

At the same time, the trenches of the two armies were getting deeper and deeper. The depth of the trenches on Chen Han's side has generally exceeded two meters, divided into two layers, with a step in the middle, which is only half a meter wide.

Standing at the bottom of the tunnel, you can use the step as a small platform, where you can eat, maintain your guns, and adjust your bayonets; and when it comes to fighting, you can stand on the platform and extend your upper body out of the trench to shoot.

If a rocket hits, as long as you react in time, you can roll to the bottom of the trench. As for whether you can save your life, it depends on luck.

Many trenches have shelters, which are built with logs, and then covered with loess. After compaction, logs are laid, and then covered with loess, layer by layer, at least three layers, which look very solid. Soldiers can eat, rest and avoid wind and rain in it on weekdays, and fight against moisture and mosquitoes, but when the battle starts, it cannot provide a safe shelter for the soldiers' flesh and blood. It is difficult to guarantee that it will be as solid as a rock under the attack of super-heavy rockets. The anti-artillery caves that soldiers usually don't like to stay in are more reliable.

Trenches are not apartments, they are always simple, and the shelter for living is underground, so damp mosquitoes are inevitable! Of course, the northern part of Mexico has a tropical desert climate [San Diego on the coast has a Mediterranean climate], which is warm, dry and rainy, much better than the cat ear caves where Chinese soldiers stayed in the 1980s in the previous plane.

Moreover, the Spanish trenches are parallel and straight, and these inexperienced people can't think of Z-shaped trenches. Chen Han's trenches are "Z"-shaped, and each trench is connected by a traffic trench. Guard posts and firepower points have long been incorporated into the trench system. In addition to the main trench, even the traffic trench has evolved into a Z-shaped structure, which can not only reduce the damage of the opponent's artillery fire, but also concentrate more firepower to attack the invading enemy.

The entire line of defense has multiple trench positions, and each trench position consists of the most basic three-layer structure of the front area, the combat area, and the rear area. The trenches are also equipped with various living facilities, such as dormitories, toilets, temporary hospitals, etc.

Compared with the expeditionary forces that have "rich" experience in this regard, Spain is still a baby who has just learned to walk.

The daily life in the trenches is extremely boring. While keeping the soldiers alert, "how to kill time" has become a very important topic. Of course, when there are intense battles, the soldiers have no time to be "bored". Even in relatively stable periods, small-scale attacks are commonplace. Moreover, the enemy's firepower often bombards more exposed areas.

Especially on Chen Han's side, don't forget that they also have hot air balloons, and those "eyes" can see much farther than the Spaniards.

Therefore, in the trench life, although there is no formal combat operation, the soldiers must always be on guard against the coming of the god of death.

In addition, the environment is harsh. Even if the corpses are collected in time, the blood cannot be completely cleaned up, which attracts a large number of mosquitoes and flies. Non-combat casualties caused by the spread of various diseases are very common.

Chen Han was fine, they had been prepared for this, clean drinking water and adequate food, absolutely enough clean water, strict toilet hygiene regulations, greatly reduced the growth of bacteria in the trenches, it rarely rains here, and the lack of water is also a major reason.

However, the Spaniards who suddenly jumped from "volley shooting" to "trench warfare" were not used to this kind of life. They were not well prepared in terms of diet, drinking water and toilet hygiene, so that many Spanish soldiers did not die under bullets and bayonets, but fell under the claws of diseases.

Moreover, when encountering major combat tasks, some soldiers became mentally disturbed due to excessive tension for several consecutive days.

The average quality of the Spanish colonial army was not high, and rockets, such a killer, put great mental pressure on people.

After the First World War in the original time and space plane, many recovered soldiers in European countries had health or mental problems due to the war, and even collapsed. It is the same now. Once a large-scale action occurs on the battlefield, scenes of "hell on earth" will also come.

As someone said in the last time and space, the development of industrial technology made infantry vulnerable to automatic weapons, and infantry charging trenches equipped with machine guns became a foolish act tantamount to collective suicide. A machine gun stuck in a trench can sometimes even knock down 1,000 soldiers. The large number of railways and the narrow territory of Europe also made it difficult for the attacking side to surpass the defenders in strategic mobility. The combination of the two finally made trench warfare a form of warfare that runs through the entire war.

What about trench warfare in this era? The offensive means of both sides are still infantry charges. This is not because the generals on both sides have rigid brains and are stubbornly conservative in tactics, but because there are no tanks in the war of this era. Trench warfare itself limits the attack of cavalry, and the offensive means of both sides can only rely on infantry.

The only change is that the infantry array has changed from a neat and uniform square line to a scattered line like a "mob".

What has not changed is still death, and soldiers on both sides died in large numbers.

No matter how scattered the soldiers' formations were, the Spanish could not act like a group of defeated soldiers who had thrown away their armor and weapons. Chen Han was also limited by the infantry offensive tactics, so every rocket and shotgun shell could harvest a lot of lives.

The war really came to a stage of "consumption".

This put the expeditionary army under great pressure. The front battlefield had to decide the outcome, and the casualties were too great for both sides to bear. The Spanish did not dare to take the initiative to launch an attack, and the expeditionary army did not dare to take the initiative to die. In order to reverse the situation, they could only divide their troops to harass and attack. On the contrary, the Spanish were also using this trick to counterattack the expeditionary army, so that the overall horizontal width of the battlefield continued to increase.

The huge roar made people's ears numb. Even if they spoke loudly, they could not hear what they said.

Huge columns of smoke almost obliterated the position. The Spanish C-class rockets were very flavorful, and the expeditionary army's super-heavy rockets were not simple. Both sides had explosive charges of 40 to 50 kilograms, which were far more powerful than all other weapons.

"Boom!"

The wind and sand swept, and large pieces of broken concrete were swept by the storm like confetti in the wind. The brick and wood buildings that were more than a foot thick were as fragile as sand castles in front of rockets.

In the early morning of October 17, 1782, the Spanish launched another wave of offensive.

The battle had just lasted for less than an hour, and two battalions of the Spanish colonial army had suffered heavy casualties in the attack. The commander of the Spanish colonial army, Rivera, could no longer suppress his anger and severely reprimanded the front-line commander, Major General Rubio Marc Calderon of the 5th Division of the Spanish Colonial Army, "Why didn't you order the rocket troops to advance?"

"Use bayonets to force them to advance, I want to send rockets to the second line of defense of the Chinese."

"Cowardice at this time is a crime against the Kingdom of Spain. How many brave soldiers have fallen under the Chinese counterattack?"

"As rocket soldiers, they must be brave. Whoever retreats is a sinner of Spain. I allow you to execute him on the spot."

Major General Calderon was very ashamed and could only apologize to Rivera repeatedly and promised to break through the first line of defense of the expeditionary army as soon as possible.

But the attack was blocked, and even if they moved the rocket troops forward, the attack was still blocked.

Another hour later, the two regiments used by the Fifth Division for the attack suffered heavy casualties and had to withdraw from the battle, which cast a heavy shadow on the prospects of this offensive war for De Rivera.

Now, accompanied by a large number of staff officers, De Rivera came to an underground bunker only five or six miles away from the front line and observed the situation on the battlefield with a telescope. The vast wilderness was shrouded in fireworks and could not be seen clearly. The artillery positions fiercely spewed artillery fire at the Chinese positions. Every explosion of rockets made De Rivera's heart tremble once, and he felt the power of heaven's punishment.

After two hours of firepower strikes, the Spaniards launched three thousand-man-scale attacks. Once they rushed into the positions of the expeditionary army, but occupying the first trench was not a victory at all. They were soon counterattacked by the follow-up troops of the expeditionary army.

Through the telescope, the Spanish soldiers who were once again retreating filled the wilderness illuminated by fire, but there were still explosions among them. Every explosion of a shrapnel shell and rocket would take the lives of several or dozens of Spanish soldiers. De Rivera couldn't help cursing again.