Valley Emperor

This kind of short-barreled heavy howitzer, which was first used by the Tang Dynasty, is actually quite a waste of propellant. In order to ensure sufficient range, a large amount of propellant needs to be used, not to mention the charge in the shell.

One shot with this type of artillery is enough to fire more than a dozen field artillery guns. The cost-effectiveness has always been a huge problem. Only an army like the Datang Army, which has a military expenditure of more than 20 million a year, can use it without any scruples.

The Ming army has always lacked enough ammunition. There is no way to do this, because China lacks sulfur, and saltpeter can be said to be able to get a part, but there is no way to use sulfur, and a large amount of use basically needs to be imported.

This is also the reason why in recent years, sulfur has become an important export commodity of Fusang. Many famous people in Fusang who are engaged in maritime trade have found that the old knives and fans cannot be sold, but sulfur has become very popular. Made a lot of money.

But Fusang's current maritime trade channels are basically monopolized by the Tang Dynasty!

The Tang navy basically blocked the coast of China, and the Ming Dynasty originally rejected maritime trade, so the source of sulfur has always been very scarce.

Later, King Hui's department secretly used the Tsushima Strait to trade sulphur through North Korea and Fusang, and only then did they get enough sulphur.

Otherwise, he still can't afford a howitzer, a big consumer of gunpowder.

However, although they also have more than a dozen artillery pieces, including two howitzers, but in terms of the artillery strength of both sides, the artillery pieces of the 15th Infantry Division are still more than five times the number of artillery pieces of King Hui's remnants.

The disparity in the strength of such artillery pieces is large enough to make King Hui despair!

After so many years of fighting, even the most stubborn generals of the Ming army now know that they can't rely on swords and bows to fight, but cannons and muskets, especially artillery.

However, there is no rush to make artillery, and the technical requirements are quite high. Without industrial production, we can only rely on hand-made artillery, and it is impossible to build many artillery pieces.

In the past, when the Ming Dynasty still occupied a large area of ​​the country, it was able to use a lot of manpower to build artillery regardless of the cost, which also made the Ming army a few years ago, such as Zhang Yue's department, the 100,000-strong army led by Emperor Zhengde himself, possessed A lot of artillery.

But now, there are not many people in Liaodong at all, and there are not many artillery craftsmen. Even if King Hui lets these craftsmen build them day and night, they will not be able to make many artillery pieces!

If there is not enough artillery, how can we fight?

This is a very cruel question!

When both sides were observing each other, the first day passed so peacefully, but the next morning, the Ming army on the top of the city discovered that the pseudo-Tang thieves outside the city began to move, and they began to move. Moving forward, a large number of artillerymen pushed the artillery forward.

The Ming army soldiers who have some experience know that the pseudo-Tang bandit army is about to start a siege!

Because when the pseudo-Tang thieves attacked the city, it was almost always the artillery that fired first, using the advantages of the artillery to completely suppress the artillery counterattack in the city and other defensive forces on the city.

After the suppression is over, their infantry will rush up!

In fact, they guessed right, Kang Gaozhi is indeed planning to start the shelling!

Since he came to Liujing, he did not expect to be surrounded for a few months and wait for the enemies in the city to starve to death. This is not in line with the strategy of the empire. The bosses above did not give him a few months to slowly besiege the city. , but let him quickly open the situation!

why? Military spending is limited!

It is money for the army to eat, drink and chew every day outside!

At the same time, fighting in siege is not in line with the fighting style of the Datang Army today.

Now that the Datang Army is fighting, it is always attacking and then attacking. Even if it is a defensive operation, in the final stage, it will rush up to shoot a volley, and then charge with a bayonet!

The Datang Army never relied on besieging the city. In fact, they were not good at it. They were better at blasting the city wall with blasting, using artillery to suppress the defensive force at the city head, covering the infantry to charge, and waiting for the infantry to rush to the city head. At that time, the city can basically be declared broken.

This combat mode is almost unfavorable for them who have absolute artillery advantages.

Today, the same is true, when dozens of artillery shells began to fire one after another, the Ming army artillerymen on the city head still tried to fire back, but they soon became misfired.

Because they soon discovered that staring at the enemy's absolute artillery superiority and fighting back was simply courting death, so they wisely withdrew from the predetermined artillery position.

Soon, except for a few left-behind observers, a large number of Ming soldiers withdrew from the city head!

Many battles in the past have told them that staying in the city at this time, the probability of casualties is very high, and there is no way to fight back other than passive beatings.

At this time, the best way is to hide!

After waiting for the enemy's infantry to start charging, it is not too late to go up to the city to defend.

Sure enough, an hour later, the Ming army observation soldiers on the top of the city found that the intensity of the enemy's artillery was significantly weakened, and there were still about 3,000 soldiers from the pseudo-Tang bandit army approaching, and it seemed that they wanted to attack the city.

As a result, behind the city wall, a large number of Ming soldiers were urged by the officers to run up the city again, waiting for the possible arrival of the infantry to charge.

But at this time, the infantrymen of the pseudo-Tang thief army outside the city stopped, and then, there was a dense rumbling sound from outside the city, dozens of solid shells, plus more than a dozen huge cannonballs. The howitzer flew to the city head at the same time!

Especially the more than ten howitzers, more than half of them fell on the city head, or exploded over the city head!

Such a violent explosion immediately caused heavy casualties to those Ming troops who had just arrived at the city and were ready to meet the enemy!

Seeing this scene, King Hui, who was personally supervising the battle, couldn't help but cursed in a low voice, "Damn it!"

But apart from scolding the **** thing, he did not make an order for the soldiers to withdraw again, because although the three thousand soldiers of the pseudo-Tang bandit army outside the city stopped, they were still about two hundred meters away. Can charge at any time.

"Pull the artillery up and hit their infantry!" At this time, the generals of the Ming army also reacted!

Their artillery is weak and weak, and it is naturally nonsense to fight with the artillery of the pseudo-Tang bandit army, but if it is used to attack the infantry of the pseudo-Tang bandit army, the effect is naturally excellent.

But the Tang army soldiers outside the city were obviously not stupid. As soon as a black runner appeared on the top of the city, a colonel immediately waved his saber and shouted: "All turn back, run in unison, we retreat. !"

"Disperse the formation, hurry up!"

A fool would be foolish enough to stand two hundred meters away and let the enemy take aim.

As a result, when the Ming army's artillery was finally pulled up and ready to fire, the three thousand Tang army soldiers had already run away more than 400 meters, and the formation was extremely loose.

At this distance, there is basically no need to worry too much about being accurately hit by the enemy's artillery, even if there are artillery shells flying over, but with their current loose formation that specializes in preventing shelling, a shell can only kill two people if it hits to death. It's just three people, don't expect more.

What's more, when they took the risk, they naturally had something to rely on.

That's their artillery brethren!

When the Ming army pulled out the artillery, the artillery unit had already carried out a new round of loading, and then each aimed at the predetermined target, the enemy's artillery position!

They had a plan long ago, and naturally they prepared more quickly than the hurried Ming artillerymen. Therefore, when the Ming army was ready, the artillery shells actually fell on their positions one after another!

One of the howitzers did a great job today!

This 48-pound howitzer almost produced the best explosion effect in theory. It just exploded on the top of an artillery position of the Ming Army. After the shell exploded, the shrapnel thrown out almost covered the entire artillery position. !

As a result, the three artillery pieces of this artillery position had just been pulled out, and they had not had time to fire a shot. More than half of their dozens of artillerymen fell in a pool of blood!

Such a tragic situation almost made the surviving gunners stunned, and then they all ran to the rear. They wanted to escape this **** on earth and return to the city wall to hide!

There was no one to stop them from fleeing, because the commander of the Ming army in this artillery position was also killed by the artillery!

This is just a small microcosm of the artillery battle. After repeated artillery battles, less than half of the more than ten artillery pieces of the Ming army can basically be used!

This is not to say that the artillery fire of the Datang Army directly destroyed their artillery. Those artillery pieces are big guys, very thick, and it is really difficult to destroy them directly. The main reason is because the casualties of the gunners are too heavy.

This is also the tragedy of the artillery units of the Ming army. From a few years ago to the present ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ it is almost the same. At the beginning of each battle, the artillerymen of the Ming army are the most unlucky arms, because In order to suppress the artillery of the Ming army, the main target of the early artillery bombardment was the artillery unit of the Ming army, and the main goal was to kill their gunners.

There were not many skilled gunners in the Ming army. The casualty rate was so high, and not many people were willing to be such artillerymen. Therefore, sometimes the Ming army often had artillery, but they could not find enough skilled gunners. Wait until the battle In the middle and late stage, ordinary soldiers are often used directly as gunners.

At that time, basically there is no need to expect any hit rate, and even bombing is a common thing!

The same is true now. The difference in strength made all the resistance of the remnants of King Hui before the war collapsed in an instant!

After two days of repeated artillery bombardment, almost the entire Liujing city was full of potholes. With an earth-shattering explosion, a gap of more than ten meters was blown out of the Liujing city wall. The final attack!

When the soldiers of the assault battalion resisted the casualties and rushed to the top of the city, it was announced that the entire Liujing City defense line was torn apart!