open sea

Chapter 1303

When the Franc cannon outside the besieged camp emptied the No. 11 guns, Earl Charles finally couldn't help it.

It is not difficult to watch soldiers die indifferently, but how to make soldiers stop howling and spreading fear is difficult.

The artillery of the Ming army sprayed shotguns with very limited damage. In front of each army formation were veterans from all over the lord's command. They generally had good armor defense and stood behind the fortifications. Those infantry and mercenaries who lacked defense were all Arranged behind the array.

The nobles leading the front line even boasted that even if the Ming army bombarded them with artillery for 400 rounds, they would probably die less than [-] people.

It was indeed quite pertinent, but everyone ignored the injured.

The Ming army's artillery fired the first round, and the morale of the entire army was low; but when the third round was fired, everyone was not afraid, and no one was killed.

But later on, more and more people heard the wailing, some were not hit by the iron pellets in the eyes, some were injured by the iron pellets, and the screams became more and more. Old John's reserve team came in handy to take those injured Men were pulled from the front into the camp to provide dressings.

Wounded soldiers who stay in the ranks will only continue to cry and reduce morale, but once they can be healed, they are much quieter.

Although they don't have a military doctor, many lords have their own doctors with them. Friends from the same country and chaplains in the army behind will also participate in the treatment, so it's good to be able to bandage them.

But Old John's reserve team couldn't keep up with the speed at which the soldiers became wounded, and the endless shelling also made the soldiers terrified. Compared to being killed by a single shot, this fear of being disabled at any time is more frightening— — There is no Social Security these days.

The battlefield casualty rate is not directly related to the collapse of the army. The key depends on whether the formation is scattered or not, whether the command system fails or not, and whether an army, from generals to soldiers, does not know what to do with the current situation.

Earl Charles knew very well that he had dealt with the third most fatal situation.

The aristocratic commanders and veterans on the front line don’t know what to do now. The power of the longbow projectile is not enough, and the distance of the direct shot is not enough. If you move forward, you will face more casualties, and if you retreat, the enemy will chase you. , Touching the bottom line of the soldiers' collapse and escape.

Earl Charles had to give an order, and if he didn't give an order for a while, he might not have the chance to give an order.

The horn of the siege camp was finally sounded, and then the nobles in front of the battle followed their own combat habits, and the low-pitched horns sounded one after another.

Every noble subordinate has different combat habits, some are used to blowing twice, some are used to blowing three times, but regardless of how many times the last sound must be for the same purpose, to prepare the soldiers for battle.

The cavalry with muskets and spears gathered in the camp and turned to the two wings; the infantry line obeyed the orders after the encouragement of the Protestant monks, and of course there were two knights who were deeply influenced by knight novels, and they planned to advance with their spears in the face of the gunfire. .

They did not have a unified command, and each commanded the soldiers under their command. They were not an army but several noble alliances headed by Earl Charles. Under each noble alliance were several knight alliances.

However, dispersion is only relative. For example, Earl Charles, who has the most troops, easily gathered two hundred cavalry consisting of cavalry, heavy cavalry, and light cavalry, and collected all the short muskets in the army to send to the light cavalry. They formed a semi-circling cavalry , to cover the movement of the heavy cavalry to the flank of the Ming army.

Since the end of the Italian War, the knight masters with normal brains don't like to charge anymore. It's not that they are cowardly. They are still happy to fight with the enemy knights, but it's hard to describe the matter of attacking the organized infantry front.

It’s not to say that you can’t rush or you can’t crash. Tactics are all carried out by people. This question has to measure the skills and timing of both sides, but in most cases, the gains outweigh the losses. What’s so bad about driving the enemy’s heavy cavalry out of the battlefield? ?

They favored the half-round tactic even more. In fact, the half-round is just a different name, similar to the ancient horse archery of the Central Plains Dynasty and the Japanese Yabusame, shooting at about five steps.

Five steps is the habit of archers in the Central Plains Dynasty. It is very scientific. This distance is usually out of the reach of infantry cold weapons. This tactic is used to attack infantry lines with mostly cold weapons. Most cavalry archers in the world are used to Arrows are released in this position, because it provides the greatest chance of hitting in a safe situation.

Of course, if the cavalry is elite enough, they can shoot from a farther position, but they may not be able to penetrate the armor. It is not a problem with the bow, and it is not easy to use it immediately; May not be able to shoot.

This tactic was originally used to deal with infantry gun formations. They also formed formations during the ancient Roman rule, but it was strange that they didn’t know how to form formations. Therefore, Western Europe and Northern Europe appeared relatively late in this tactic. Inherited the genes of Wushuang riding and shooting, not in this list.

Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn’t work, it mainly depends on the enemy you encounter. If you use it well, you can tear the front line. If you use it poorly, the Huns who were shot to death by Li Ling will welcome them underground.

In the eyes of Earl Charles, the current situation is a good opportunity to use semi-circular tactics. The Ming army’s third battalion has a lot of spears, mostly light armored infantry, and few muskets. Slowly, as long as you attack from the flank and shoot the enemy with a half-round tactic, the heavy cavalry will take the opportunity to attack the artillery position, which should be able to tear the front line for the main infantry.

Even if they can't, they can still get out of the shock.

The two hundred riders went around the siege camp, attacked from the east, bypassed the range of the artillery and marched towards the right battalion of Muye, the Ming army. The distance of only one or two hundred paces, the commander of the right battalion did not have time to turn the gun, so he simply Instruct the caravan artillery to continue to bombard the enemy's formation forward, and the infantry under his command to form a formation with large shields and spears, ready to defend and counterattack.

Ying Ming, who was in the middle army, also observed this, and waved his general flag to lead fifty cavalry to the right battalion to help, while the remaining fifty cavalry continued to defend against the enemy's rear.

During the short charge, Earl Charles saw that the Ming army was adjusting its formation. Those crossbowmen put their big crossbows on their big shields, and the galloping cavalry also put their shields on their fronts and approached quickly with their muskets.

During the period, Fran's machine guns bombarded them twice, and several riders and horses were knocked down and rolled off their horses. They could bear such a loss.

Approaching thirty steps, dozens of large crossbows shot out, overturning a row of cavalry including men and horses. All the cavalry were relieved... They will not give the enemy another chance to fire the crossbow again, the front line is right in front of them, They raised their muskets and were about to approach the shooting position!
One by one, the cavalrymen turned their horses' heads while galloping, and stretched their arms to shoot at the Ming army a few steps away. Earl Charles, who led the team, could even see the faces of the enemy who looked different from them before the smoke burst out, but those faces There is no fear, which is strange.

Just when the war horse had turned around and he was about to turn his head, he heard a muffled grunt through the gunpowder smoke, followed by something coming out of the gunpowder smoke, and flew away beside Earl Charles. place.

There were one after another piercing sounds behind the ear.

The earl on horseback looked like he had seen a ghost—it was a javelin.

(End of this chapter)