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Chapter 1157 Trench Warfare

However, any weapon equipment that is intended to be equipped to the entire army must undergo multiple actual combat tests before mass production. Training test firing alone is useless because the pressure level cannot be reached and the battlefield environment cannot be fully reflected.

Hong Tao originally planned to put the test field of these new weapons in America to fight against the Spanish colonial army. Unexpectedly, the Hawaiian naval base was not yet built, and the serious provocation of the Ottoman Empire came first. Well, it doesn't matter who you try it on, so you might as well bring the Warrior Battalion equipped with new weapons.

"Boom...boom...boom..."

Even with the cover of artillery fire and smoke, the Ottoman defenders still found the traces of the Warrior Battalion. So the artillery hidden in the trenches also opened fire, and the movement was louder than the naval guns on the river, and the sound was dull and deep.

But the landing effect was far worse, they were all solid bullets, some of them plunged into the mud, some bounced up after landing, and rolled around in jumps. Whether they could cause casualties depended entirely on luck, and whoever caught up with them would be unlucky.

The Warrior Battalion reacted quickly. After hearing the artillery fire in front of them, most of the soldiers stopped running and lay down on the ground without moving. But some were unlucky and were hit by the first wave of shells before they could even crawl. Their bodies were smashed into pieces and blood was spilled on the spot.

"Boom boom boom... Boom boom boom..." The next scene was interesting. There was no close combat or fierce fighting on the battlefield, and even no human figures could be seen. Instead, the most lively scene was on the river. The frequency of artillery firing increased instantly, but the explosion points were relatively concentrated, all near the enemy's artillery positions.

In the artillery battle, the Ming navy was using the range advantage of its naval guns to clear out the Ottoman defenders' artillery positions one by one. At this time, the lookout on the hot air balloon became the artillery aimer, using flag signals to command the naval guns on each warship to cover the position of a certain artillery position with firepower.

Soon the Ottoman defenders sensed something was wrong and stopped firing. But as soon as the artillery fire stopped, the soldiers of the Warrior Battalion would get up and continue charging.

This dilemma put the commander of the Ottoman garrison in a difficult position. It was obvious that if the Ottoman garrison did not fire, the Ming army would charge. Once they reached a certain distance, the artillery would become ineffective in order to avoid accidentally injuring their own people.

If they did not want the Ming army to get too close to the trenches, they would have to face long-range attacks from the Ming army's artillery, and they would not be able to fight back. The large sailing ships anchored on the sea were about 2 kilometers away, and the defenders' artillery could not reach them.

In the end, the Ottoman commander made the most correct choice and stopped the bombardment. Since he was in a passive position in the artillery battle, he should not waste precious artillery and gunners.

At worst, we can just pretend that there are no artillery, since we still have trenches and the Guards. Come on, let's see if those death-seekers on the river will continue to fire after the Ming army approaches the trenches.

"Right choice, wrong approach. The chances of winning this battle have increased by another 10%, and the casualties of the Warrior Battalion can also be reduced."

Hong Tao did not command the battle at the front line in person, but he was not idle either. Instead, he raised a second hot air balloon in the camp and learned about the changes on the battlefield simultaneously through the lookouts.

When he learned that the Ottoman defenders had stopped shelling, he finally smiled, with a crooked mouth. The Ottoman commander had been fooled. If the shelling had not stopped, the Warrior Battalion would not dare to charge quickly and would have to pay a higher price in casualties to get close to the trenches.

The method of using naval guns to concentrate on clearing the shore artillery seems to be quite effective, but in fact it is not sustainable at all. The long range of naval guns comes at the cost of high chamber pressure, which results in the inability to fire quickly for a long time, otherwise it is easy to explode. The river channel is not very wide, and it is very troublesome for the warship to turn around and continue to bombard with the naval guns on the other side. It takes at least an hour to carry out the whole set of steps, such as raising anchor, turning around, dropping anchor, test firing, and calibration. After a few more times, it will basically be dark.

Is it possible for the Ming army to launch a night attack? The answer is absolutely not. Night attacks are usually launched by the weaker side, and any general who can defeat the opponent in a fair and open manner will not choose to launch an attack at night.

The cost is too high. Once you get into a melee, you can't even tell the enemy from yourself and the direction, and it's easy to be wiped out. The Ming army has an advantage in weapons, but it is at a disadvantage in numbers. It is most afraid of close combat, so there is no need to use short to attack long.

"We'll be within musket range soon!"

Ding Shun did not go to the front line, because it would be useless. At this time, most of the battlefield was covered with smoke and dust. He could not see anything with a telescope, so he might as well follow the emperor and wait for the lookout to report.

He didn't know much about the training of the Warrior Battalion, and as the Army Governor's Chief of Staff, it was not convenient for him to pay too much attention to the actions of the Imperial Stables, as doing so would cause unnecessary trouble.

But now he was very worried. As an old soldier, he had been in contact with artillery for so many years and understood one thing very well. In infantry battles, artillery was only used to harass and scare people, and its actual effect was far worse than that of muskets.

And these last hundred meters or so are the gate of hell. If the Ottoman army were replaced by the Ming Army, it is likely that less than one-tenth of the 2000 warriors would survive intact.

"What I'm worried about is not the ground, but the trenches. Let's wait and see." Hong Tao did not agree with Ding Shun's concerns. The Warrior Battalion's daily training is very targeted, and the imaginary enemies are mostly the army.

That's right, as the emperor's imperial guards, the mission of the Imperial Horse Guards is completely opposite to that of the army and navy. There are not many opportunities for them to participate in foreign wars, and their biggest potential enemies are the Ming army and navy, or more precisely, the rebellious Ming army and navy.

The Ottoman defenders also used muskets, which were not as advanced as those of the Ming army, so it was not difficult for the Warrior Battalion to deal with them. However, after entering the trenches, the battlefield environment changed. Whether the new weapons could work in the complex terrain and how much effect they could have remained a question mark.

"No one is allowed to retreat! Hold up your guns and shoot, don't stop! Get out of here, you coward, God will...ah..."

Two kilometers away, in the first trench of the Ottoman Guards Corps, an elderly Yericheni was waving his scimitar at the top of his lungs, with more than a dozen soldiers of the corps lying or sprawled around him.

Following a burst of gunfire, a soldier of the Guards Corps fell from the edge of the trench, his face covered in blood, most likely from a bullet in the head. Another soldier squatted at the bottom of the trench holding a musket, not daring to show his head to shoot.

This made Yerichen very angry. He kicked the coward away, picked up his musket and walked up the stairs to the shooting position. He just put the musket flat and fell down with a scream before he could aim at the enemy. Half of his face was bloody, his hands and feet were twitching, and he was about to die.

(End of this chapter)