Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 615: How can you say that the Ming Dynasty has no cannons?
Although he was young, Shuja was an experienced commander thanks to his good education and the fact that the Mughal Empire still retained a little bit of Mongolian tradition: the prince had to grow up on the battlefield.
He knew that the Zhendan people would almost certainly launch a night attack tonight.
The reason is obvious: due to seasonal factors, the Aurora people had limited manpower and lacked heavy weapons. Therefore, they had little ability to fight back against our artillery fire. However, before the sun went down this afternoon, we sent a thousand people out to try it out, and it turned out that the enemy's light weapons were more powerful than those of the Telugu people before.
Therefore, as long as the commander of the opposing side does not want to be driven into the sea, he will definitely launch a night attack tonight, so as to give full play to the advantages of the Zhendan people's light weapons: if we really have to wait until tomorrow, giving our side a whole day of artillery bombardment, then no matter how well the Zhendan people hide in the town, their losses will inevitably be heavy, and by then they will not have the strength to launch a night attack even if they want to.
Therefore, the enemy will definitely come tonight.
Now that we know the enemy will definitely come tonight, what happens next becomes clear.
In view of the huge difference in combat power between the new army and the old army in this army, Shuja did not mix the two armies. Instead, he placed the new army in the north (back) and the old army in the south (front). Although the barracks of the two armies were independent of each other, they were only about one kilometer apart.
In addition to ordering all soldiers to stay in armor tonight, hold their weapons, and sit together in groups to rest. Shuja sent out a large number of sentries and asked engineers to dig trenches and set up various obstacles around the barracks. The enemy's light weapons were powerful, so the more thick wooden bunkers that could block bullets, the better... In the camp, which centurion was responsible for extinguishing the fire and which captain was responsible for chasing were all arranged properly.
The dragnet has been laid, just waiting for the Zhendan people to crash into it.
Time slowly came to two o'clock in the morning.
From this time on, sporadic gunshots began to be heard from the Indian army's outer positions, occasionally mixed with screams in different languages: There was no doubt that this was a conflict between the Aurora scouts and their own sentinels on the periphery.
Although this sound was nothing compared to the cannon fire during the day, it could be heard far away in the quiet night. All the soldiers in the Indian army camp knew that the Aurora people were coming.
Shujia, who was sitting firmly in the central army tent, listened to such voices, and the smile on his face became more and more intense: If our army has discovered them from such a distance, can it still be called a night attack?
That's right, our artillery is actually quite rubbish, because we just got this weapon not long ago, so the amount of training is seriously insufficient. Not only can it not be used in field battles, but even in the daytime, the speed of this artillery is only slightly better than the previous muzzle-loading guns, and it is far inferior to the previous artillery of the Telugu people. Therefore, my artillery cannot be put into battle at night. I can only let you attack me.
But I have heavy machine guns. In the defensive battle, I will let you see that our newly trained Mughal heavy machine gun soldiers are not vegetarians either.
If you really come at dawn, or quietly knock out all the sentries and sneak in, I'm really a little scared: I know that in this land ruled by our Mughal, the Sikhs and Pashtuns may be a little better, but other ethnic groups are really lax in nature and seriously lack discipline. No matter how clear my orders are, there will still be a lot of people sleeping down there.
But it's only two or three in the morning, and you have alerted so many secret sentries. No matter how lax my soldiers , they have already been alerted.
Very good, the flaw that I was most worried about is gone, and I'm just waiting for you to run into it.
…
"Captain, we are about 200 meters from the enemy camp."
"Very good. How many enemy sentinels have we knocked down along the way? How much have we lost?"
"It's pitch dark here, so I don't know the exact number. But I think there are more than 30 of them, and our losses are probably around 7 or 8 people."
"This casualty ratio... Never mind. After all, these sentinels are in the dark. Where are our cannons?"
“They’ve all been brought up.”
"Hey, do these Indians think we don't have heavy weapons? I'm going to open their eyes today! Pass the order, all artillery pieces get into position!"
"Yes, sir!"
Following Lu Xiangsheng's order, his soldiers pushed up more than ten large-caliber iron barrels. Then the soldiers made a simple gun mount for these iron barrels, and then stuffed large ammunition bags of similar caliber into them.
"Hmph, the river floods during the rainy season, and the artillery weighing several tons cannot be transported up. However, these iron barrels weighing dozens of kilograms are still no problem... What time is it now?"
"Captain, it's 2:58 now."
"Wait a little longer."
Two minutes later, red flares were raised simultaneously in three locations around the Mughal North and South Camps.
"Time's up, fire!"
The gunner, who had been waiting impatiently, quickly lit the iron barrel, and then the huge ammunition bag flew into the air and smashed towards the Indian camp.
The conscienceless cannon, due to its lack of airtightness, has a very short range, even in the 20th century, it was only 150 to 200 meters. In this era, it is only less than 180 meters.
Such a close-range weapon would have no use against the enemy's cannons with a range of more than 3,000 meters during the day. But at night, it became a heavy weapon for the Ming army to break through the enemy's defense.
“Boom boom!”
Huge explosions soon sounded at the edge of the Indian army's barracks, mixed with huge flames, and occasionally you could see broken limbs or human figures flying in the air. For a moment, the entire north and south sides of the Indian army's position were boiling.
"Fire one more round, then move the gun position forward 20 meters. Set up the machine guns and fire wherever there is fire on the opposite side to cover our gunners."
"Yes, sir!"
The so-called infantry-artillery coordination, in addition to training as the basis, depends more on racial talent. And the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty generally have this talent.
Therefore, following the orders of officers from various places, the fierce artillery fire of the Ming Dynasty, under the cover of its own infantry, slowly but orderly began to extend towards the Indian army camp.
The moment the Ming army's cannons sounded, His Highness Shuja was horrified to the extreme: How is it possible! I have carefully looked at the enemy's military camp under Patna City, and there is no trace of the wheel hub of the artillery cart. Besides, if the Aurora people really have so many cannons, wouldn't they just take down Patna City directly? Why would they gather in such a small place like Asansol Town and be attacked by our concentrated fire?
I can understand you trying your best to transport a few cannons here during the rainy season, but the sound of the cannons outside, are there probably hundreds of cannons? How is this possible?
“Your Highness!” The tarpaulin curtain of the camp gate was pulled open, and Mudra’s tall figure appeared: “The Zhendan people’s cannons are too powerful. Roughly speaking, their cannon caliber is at least twice that of ours!”
"Oh, General, are you frightened? If it's a cannon of that caliber, how heavy would it be? How could they transport it here in the rainy season?"
"I don't know exactly how heavy it was, but Your Highness, the enemy's artillery was extremely powerful. Many of our soldiers' bodies were at least dozens of meters away from the enemy's bullet impact point. The dust splashed by the shells did not cause any direct damage to them. But the mouths, eyes and noses of these soldiers were all covered in blood. They were killed by the shock! I really can't think of anything else that can have such power except for super-large-caliber cannons."
"My general, I don't care how powerful the enemy's artillery is, we must survive this night. You know our troops. If we withdraw at night, we will collapse without the enemy chasing us!"
"Yes, I have already ordered the officers below to hold their ground and fight back with all their might. But Your Highness, your safety..."
"I have my own guards. Just do your own thing, General."
"yes!"
…
"Da-da-da, da-da-da."
On the path of the Ming army's advance, a machine gun point that continuously spewed out tongues of fire became a roadblock for the Ming army. Several soldiers rushing in the front were cut down by this suddenly appearing fire point.
"Humph! Where's the Jaguar? Where's our Jaguar?"
"Squad leader, here we come!"
Several gunners ran over quickly, each carrying a box of supplies, and jumped into a bomb crater together. Then, in the dark night, with the help of the weak firelight, they quickly assembled a Jaguar mortar.
"Position, set, release!"
The old gunner’s artillery was extremely accurate. With just two rounds, he had knocked out the firing point cleanly.
…
"Humph, barbarians, do you really think that our Ming Dynasty has no artillery?"
General Liu Zhaosun, who was only 500 to 600 meters away from the soldiers in the front, put down the binoculars in his hand and looked at his watch: "It's been an hour. Have the obstacles around the enemy camp been cleared?"
"General, according to the battle situation collected by the General Staff, even if it's not 100%, it's at least 80% to 90 %."
"Well, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology, this is a low-latitude area in the East Fifth District. The sun rises early in the morning. I don't want to give these guys time to recover their eyesight. Pass the order, blow the horn, and charge the whole army!"
