Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 488 Spain's Defense
"Amazing Grace", the more common translation in China in later generations, is a gospel song written by John Newton in 1779. In the 21st century, it can be said that any Christian, except for newly baptized children, can basically sing this song. And even if you are not a Christian , it is basically impossible to completely escape this song in the 21st century: countless movies and TV series quote it, not only the entertainment industry, but also politicians often sing it. There are more than a thousand versions of it, which shows how powerful this song is.
For non-Christians, this song can calm people down. But for Christians, it is not just a simple calming down, but a complete relief: when you are relieved, you will naturally be fearless.
At this time, Spain was a country that was fanatically Catholic, even though Philip had been on the throne for many years and had been advocating religious reconciliation. Therefore, when this song was sung in Manila, the comfort and encouragement it brought to all the Spaniards in the city was something that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty could not imagine.
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On October 1, the Ming army had basically completed its deployment on both the north and south fronts. Then Cao Wenzhao and Liu Zhaosun issued orders almost at the same time and began a tentative attack on the city of Manila.
In this battle, the Ming army's equipment replacement was not fully completed: according to Zhu Youdong's regulations for building a new army, a division with a full strength of 15,000 people, in addition to three infantry regiments and a cavalry battalion, there was also an independent artillery regiment.
Before smokeless gunpowder was developed, a regiment generally had fifty muzzle-loading guns of various sizes. After the successful development of smokeless gunpowder, breech-loading guns were naturally put on the schedule for replacement. But unfortunately, this is different from Spain, where there is a military time traveler named Rudolf who can draw a detailed breech-loading gun structure diagram out of thin air and guide domestic scientists in preliminary research. Zhu Youdong can draw a rough outline of a breech-loading gun, but he can't do the specific structure. Therefore, the development progress of the breech-loading gun in the Ming Dynasty is obviously behind that of Spain. So now, except for the fourteen breech-loading guns on the Fengyang, there are only three 75mm breech-loading guns actually assigned to each regiment, and the rest are all muzzle-loading guns.
Of course, although Zhu Youdong was not even considered a military fan in later generations, he still knew the basic point that "artillery must be used in a concentrated manner to be powerful." Therefore, Cao Wenzhao, who followed the emperor's teachings, would naturally concentrate the cannons of the three artillery regiments under his command for use.
"Commander, our frontline troops have been deployed. At present, the infantry is close to the enemy's first trench, one thousand meters away, and the artillery is one thousand two hundred meters away. According to the scouts' investigation, the enemy has deployed a lot of troops in the first trench, but after our scouts entered the enemy's firearms range, on the one hand, they were fired upon by the enemy, and on the other hand, there were too many obstacles and they could not go deep. Therefore, it is unclear how many cannons the enemy has on the position."
"It doesn't matter. Just fire the cannons and give it a try." He raised the watch on his arm and said, "It is now 8:20 a.m. on October 1. Pass the order down. In ten minutes, all the cannons will fire at the same time. Let's hit a base number first."
"Yes, sir!"
Ten minutes later, the gunners at the front almost simultaneously looked at their watches and fiercely pressed down the red flags in their hands: "Fire!"
Following this order, the Ming army's positions almost simultaneously flashed with dazzling red light and emitted thunderous roars. The conical bullets of the breech-loading cannons and the large iron balls of the muzzle-loading cannons all quickly flew out of the barrels, and after leaping into the air, they all smashed towards the Spanish positions with huge kinetic energy.
In a matter of seconds, countless piles of soil suddenly rose up from the Spanish positions, and loud explosions were heard.
Although the Ming army lagged behind Spain in the development of breech-loading cannons, thanks to Sun Yuanhua, an explosives fanatic, the Ming army's gunpowder was not backward: smokeless gunpowder was the propellant, but the explosives in the breech-loading cannons were all dana explosives.
Thanks to the growing strength of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army's current ammunition base has increased from 20 when Zhu Youdong just established the new army to 40. Therefore, the three artillery regiments with 150 cannons fired 6,000 shells in just half an hour!
There were so many shells, although most of them were muzzle-loading guns fired at the extreme range, but as the saying goes, many ants can kill an elephant. When these 6,000 shells landed densely in front and behind the Spanish trench, which was only three kilometers long, the entire battle line was completely shrouded in flying dust and billowing smoke.
The huge roar, the violent shaking of the ground, and the dust and shrapnel that hit them, of course, caused some casualties to the 3,000 soldiers in the trench. But, isn't it because of its reliable defensive capabilities that trenches are so popular in the historical plane?
Therefore, at this moment, the Spanish soldiers who had gained spiritual bonuses almost all bent over, pressed against the side of the trench, gritted their teeth, held the holy icon on the necklace in their hands, and prayed silently. Except for some wounded soldiers who were directly hit by shrapnel, almost no one made any sound.
However, the Spaniards did not have time to add barbed wire and iron fences to their trenches. Therefore, this amount of ammunition may not have caused much casualties to the soldiers in the trenches, but in any case, the various obstacles in front of the trenches were basically cleared .
As the gunfire died down and the smoke cleared, Cao Wenzhao climbed up to the command tower, picked up the telescope, and carefully checked the battlefield. After a while, he said to the commander of the First Division, Mao Wenlong, with a serious face: "The enemy's artillery didn't fire back?"
"Yes." Mao Wenlong also nodded solemnly: "It is said that this is a nest that has been operated by Westerners for many years. It is impossible that there are no cannons."
"It seems that this Western general is not easy to deal with." After saying this, Cao Wenzhao turned his head and said to the messenger: "Order, the artillery will fire another base number of volleys, and then let Du Hongyu's Eighth Division send an infantry regiment to charge."
"Yes, sir!"
As the messenger issued the order, at 9:30, the Ming army's artillery positions began to roar again. While 6,000 artillery shells of various types were plowing the ground again, an infantry regiment of the 8th Division also walked out of its own trenches and began to approach the enemy's trenches silently and slowly in a skirmish line formation.
Around 10:13, the Ming army artillery position fell silent. At this time, the loud charge horn sounded from the infantry array that had already walked out about 500 meters!
"assault!"
"Victory!"
More than 3,000 soldiers, led by their respective officers, shouted in unison, suddenly increased their speed, and began to charge towards the enemy's trenches.
"The Ming people are coming! Soldiers, return to your posts. Give the signal and let the artillery in the rear fire!"
As the Spanish officers at all levels in the trenches shouted, the soldiers who had not been killed, injured or knocked unconscious in the trenches raised their heads out of the trenches and began to set up their weapons.
At the same time, several red flares were also raised above the trenches. When these flares rose to mid-air, within a few seconds, the artillery positions behind the Spanish second trench also began to roar.
"Oh no! The thief is so patient!"
Mao Wenlong, who was standing in the rear command tower with Cao Wenzhao, saw countless flashes of fire on the enemy's position in the distance, and he didn't know what was going on. For a moment, he couldn't help but exclaimed.
"Wenlong, calm down. The soldiers charging in the front have no way back now. There is no other way but to charge forward."
"Commander!" Mao Wenlong looked at Cao Wenzhao in surprise: Is this what Marshal Cao, who loves his soldiers like his own sons, said?
"Wenlong, kindness does not make a good army. As a general, you must not ruin the big plan because of a moment of impatience." After saying this, Cao Wenzhao said to the messenger: "Beat the drums in the rear! Let the brothers in the front advance bravely!"
“Boom~”
Dozens of shells fell from midair, and a few of them also entered the Ming army. Fortunately, Spain's main focus was still on the Ottomans, so the Spanish army in the Philippines did not have breech-loading guns. In addition, the Ming army, which had replaced its breech-loading guns, had abandoned the dense infantry formation and adopted a skirmish line tactic. Therefore, this artillery attack did not cause much casualties to the Ming army in the charge.
"Brothers, work harder. Once we get close to the enemy trenches, the enemy won't dare to fire... Oh! Not good!"
The deputy commander of the Eighth Division and the commander of the First Regiment, who was standing at the front line, was Luo Xiong, who had shined in Siam that year. In his eyes, as long as his side could endure a little casualties, they could rush through the remaining two or three hundred meters and start a close battle with the enemy. However, at this moment, he suddenly heard a series of terrifying sounds that he had just heard.
"Da da da, da da da..."
