Lu Ming

Chapter 553 Ming-Portuguese War ([-])

With the improvement of productivity and the accumulation of primitive industries of human beings until the seventeenth century, artillery formations composed of multiple artillery pieces have already appeared on the battlefield.In Europe, whether it is the ongoing 30-year land war or the large-scale naval battles that have appeared on the sea many times before, firing artillery is nothing new for European soldiers.

But for the ancient and backward Ming people, this earth-shattering scene is a kind of subversion-it subverts the Ming people's world view, making them realize that in the world they seem to be familiar with, there is a An unprecedented force.Power is the driving force behind all changes.

Although the two battleships also fired on the waters of Macau before, it was an emergency after all, and there were not many Ming fishermen who were lucky enough to watch the live broadcast.Today's bombardment is a close-range strike launched from land under the gaze of thousands of eyes. The effect is completely different.

The shelling is indeed shocking, even for people from later generations, because this is the first live ammunition land artillery fire that occurred in the Far East on this plane.

The sense of presence brought by gunpowder smoke and huge air shock cannot be felt by watching the Battle of Huaihai on the TV screen.Therefore, the melon-eating people in the tower, including Cao Zongbing himself, were very excited during the first round of rapid firing of ten rounds.

"What a big battle! Ashamed and ashamed, the old man was off guard for a while, making everyone laugh."

It was a fat and white gentleman who spoke.His surname is Pan, and he is a social leader in Zengcheng County. He owns a restaurant in his family, and his dim sum is famous far and wide.Master Pan was also the first group of people to have a relationship with the Cao family, so he was lucky to be in the corner of the tower today.

However, during the rapid artillery fire just now, Mr. Pan, a Taiping scholar, did not stand the test of the revolution. He trembled under the deafening artillery fire. fell to the ground.

Fortunately, Master Pan was surrounded by people, so he was helped up immediately after he fell down.At the same time, Bai Juren from Zengcheng urgently asked for a wet towel to wipe Master Pan's face, which made Master Pan calm down.

"Oh my god, the explosion of this cannonball is really earth-shattering. It's no wonder that Master Pan lost his composure, and my student is also shaken!"

After a few sentences to smooth things over, Master Bai saw that the sound of the cannon had stopped for a while, so he took care of the orderly who was wearing a military uniform and was specially sent to do miscellaneous work, and asked for an oblate military iron kettle painted with green paint, and poured the tea in it. I gave Master Pan two gulps.

Not to mention the melon-eating business gentry who were surprised by the artillery fire from their own family, let's talk about the square formation of generals in the middle of the tower.

Even though it had been expected beforehand and no one made a fool of themselves just now, the generals still showed the shock in their hearts on their faces.After all, everyone has seen Francophones and a few cannons firing on weekdays. Have you ever seen such a battle?

The outspoken General Ma Shen was still standing behind the binoculars at this moment, with a sluggish expression, his mouth wide open, looking at the artillery position in front of him that was covered in billowing white smoke like a fairyland, and muttered in his mouth, "Your Excellency, relying on such a sharp weapon, must be invincible in the world! "

"It's not surprising, everyone is leading the coquettish."

Cao Zongbing had already returned to his soul at this time.Seeing someone cheering him on, he looked confident, and seized the opportunity to show a wave of strategic vision that a commander should have: "Nowadays, China has frequent exchanges with overseas countries, and all kinds of military preparation methods depend on this. Firearms are getting more powerful."

"The current battle is just the beginning. Fighting a group of lone troops at the door of the house, the right time, place and people are not there. But it will be hard to say in the future. The territory is vast, and one day we will meet the opponent's army."

Speaking of this, Cao Zongbing put on a strict expression: "Everyone, the world has changed. Those of us in the army no longer rely on swords and spears to fight the enemy. Today, sitting on this tower, They are all talented and fierce generals. After this battle, everyone should learn to broaden their horizons, and must not cling to the handicapped and stick to the little tricks handed down by the ancestors to make a living!"

As the saying goes, whoever has the biggest fist has the right to speak.Hearing Deputy Commander Cao's semi-preaching words, coupled with the rumble of cannons below the tower, all the generals present except Commander He bowed and clasped their fists together: "The last general will be taught!"

It is said that the rumbling cannons heard on the tower at this moment were not actually fired from the artillery positions below.The first round of ten rapid fire here has been fired, and what is still roaring now is the sound of the counterattack from the St. Paul's cannon.

In fact, from the third round of rapid fire, the St. Paul's Fort began to fight back.The Portuguese waited in full force for so long, and after confirming that the opponent was officially firing on a large scale, they immediately ordered the artillery to return fire.

However, the results of the Portuguese shelling were not good: the sound of the artillery was sparse and the damage effect was poor. It can be said that in the initial artillery battle, the Portuguese were completely defeated.

There are many reasons for this.

First of all, the distance between the artillery positions of the two sides is about 1200 meters.This distance was deliberately chosen by the Army.At this distance, the refined iron cannon produced by the traverser using the hammer forging + drilling process, whether it is an 8-pound or a 24-pound heavy cannon, can send shells into the enemy's fort without requiring accuracy to meters (in fact, it can't be done) To), as long as you can break into a fort that looks like a small town, you are considered qualified.

But the Portuguese cannons will not work.Although the cannon casting technology of the Bugarao Cannon Factory is considered the most advanced in this era, it is the original casting technology of the 1200th century after all, so a smaller caliber cannon cannot hit a distance of [-] meters.

The remaining heavy artillery that can be fired also has problems with heat dissipation and structural strength: all the cannons of the indigenous people in this era cannot be fired continuously, otherwise they will explode.

In addition, the gap between black gunpowder and chestnut gunpowder, the purity of the gunpowder, and the professionalization, morale, sight, logistics and other factors of the artillery on both sides have accumulated to form the final result.

The outcome of the first round of artillery battle is very clear: one side can shoot ten rounds in a row, big and small shells rain down like black crows, and although the other side has the advantage of altitude, the artillery fire that comes over is soft and unsatisfactory, and the damage effect is not satisfactory .

Yu Mingjie, who was staying at the command post, saw the entire process of the first round of shelling through a telescope.

At this moment, the position was filled with white smoke, and the figures were looming, making it look a bit deserted.This is because, except for a few wounded who were hit by iron eggs and corpses to be rushed to the rear, the rest of the soldiers who have finished shelling have followed the order from the headquarters and all hid behind the bunker.

After all, war has casualties.Although the Portuguese bombardment was messy just now, there were still lucky bombs that happened to be hoisted into the bunker surrounded by sandbags.Although some of them did not hit anyone, most of the soldiers who were hit died on the spot.

The wounded who are being sent back now are actually considered lucky.Most of these people were scratched to their limbs, or secondary injuries were caused by debris thrown by shells.

Yu Mingjie turned a blind eye to the medical soldiers rushing past the binoculars, and the wounded had no pressure on the formally trained medical soldiers.What he cares about is the current overall situation of the position. Although there is nothing wrong with the visual inspection, he still has to wait for the first-hand report.

Soon, 5 minutes after the artillery ceased, the strong wind that had been specially waited for before played a role: a strong southeast style blew away the gunpowder smoke on the position, and everything became clear.At the same time, the messengers kept running into the tent to report the latest situation on the ground.

In this round of shelling, 3 people were killed and 7 people were injured in the Ming Dynasty, and a few equipment and bunkers were damaged. Generally speaking, the casualties were not large and within an acceptable range.

The losses on the Portuguese side were not small.Through multiple telescopes/astronomical mirrors and artillery mirrors before and after the observation, it was found that at least two Portuguese artillery positions were smashed, and the artillery dumped casualties.In addition, the main body of the fortress, several dental walls and bunkers were also damaged.

When Yu Mingjie collected all kinds of information and evaluated the effect of the first round of shelling, he nodded in satisfaction, and said to the messenger beside him: "Order, all artillery crews check the status of the artillery, and replenish the ammunition supplies in time, 5 A second round of rapid fire will be launched in minutes."

"Yes!"

After repeating the order aloud, the orderly hurried out of the tent.

As mentioned earlier, in order to cope with the situation of full deployment in the future and the lack of imported materials, the troops are now "de-importing materials" as much as possible, whether in combat or training.

The walkie-talkies are now limited to private chats among the traversers, and the troops have returned to the "regular" way of relying on manpower and horse mules to run and pass orders.

The orderly quickly passed the order to several artillery company commanders.

The artillery positions that received the order suddenly became busy.The soldiers began to shuttle between the ammunition cart and the gun position, and piled up the materials needed for the next round of rapid fire in advance in the storage block reserved behind the gun position.

Immediately afterwards, the next round of rapid fire began.

This round of blows completely stupefied the Portuguese. They couldn't even fight back this time - all the cannons were still waiting to cool down and could not be used for firing.

The short and fierce "bobo flow" shelling method continued like this.From morning to afternoon, every half an hour, the artillery array of the Ming Dynasty would definitely fire hundreds of iron bullets of different calibers.These shells smashed into every corner of the St. Paul's Fort like locusts, causing the Portuguese army to suffer heavy casualties and heavy losses.

Even the primary industrialization brought advantages that the natives could not make up for.In the eyes of a wise man, a carload of cars is like a solid iron bullet of silver, so they smashed towards the opposite side without hesitation, endlessly, as if they didn't want money.

At the beginning, the Portuguese army was still struggling to fight back.However, when the number accumulated to a certain level, the losses of the Portuguese were too great to make up for: in each round, there would always be lucky shells passing through the gap in front of the gun emplacements, accurately drilling into the emplacements, and killing the soldiers and equipment inside.

Although they couldn't understand the opponent's endless shells and the barrel that didn't seem to need cooling, the Portuguese finally made the right choice under the most brainless, bold, and countermeasure attack: all personnel hid Enter the interior of the fort and abandon the upper artillery position.

(End of this chapter)