1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 666 Consumables

At 7:30 in the evening, the frontline headquarters outside Gosenberg received telegrams one after another indicating the surrender of the garrison at Fort Zakod and Fort Lexington.

Sartre, commander of the artillery brigade, felt unsatisfied: "The defenders of Zakod and Lexington surrendered now? I also want to use them to give them to the second and third artillery regiments to practice shooting. Such a good actual combat There aren’t many opportunities for target practice.”

Sartre did not want the defenders of these forts to surrender too early. The First Artillery Regiment expanded from a regiment to a brigade and absorbed many new recruits. These recruits lacked practical combat experience. Sartre wanted to use these three small forts to give them to the new recruits. Let's practice our hands.

"If you pour 38,000 artillery shells into a palm-sized fort in one day, even if you don't kill many people, it will scare the Northern Army inside the fort." Kruger couldn't help but laugh, "You have fired a cannon in one day. A quarter of its lifespan has been lost. According to the way you play, one cannon can only last you three days."

Kruger had never fought such a wealthy battle in the Prussian army in his early years. A small battle consumed at least 110,000 artillery shells in just one day. With such intensity of shelling, not to mention the American army, even the elite troops in Europe were overwhelmed. I can't stand it.

Krueger's statement that one-third of a gun's lifespan was destroyed in one day is not an exaggeration. The service life of each Sacrato cannon is 1,200 rounds, and each gun fires 300 rounds a day. According to this This is so powerful that one cannon can only be used for four days.

In high-intensity wars, not only ammunition is a consumable, but the guns themselves are also consumables.

"When the cannon is fired, there are ten thousand taels of gold. Today, the ammunition alone cost 420,000 U.S. dollars." Elvis lamented how quickly the war burned money, not counting the loss of the artillery and more than 40,000 U.S. dollars. People eat horse chews.

"If the cannonballs produced are not fired, how can they be kept to celebrate the New Year?" Sartre laughed.

"Are there any casualties over at Zakod and Lexington?" Liang Yao slowly walked out of the lounge of the frontline headquarters and asked, stretching.

The Kani fortress group was just an appetizer, and the three small forts of Gossen, Zakod and Lexington were just the appetizers. The surrender of the two small forts did not shock him. His real goal was to gather the main force of the Union Army in Omaha.

As for how much money he spent today, Liang Yao didn't care. It was hundreds of thousands of dollars, just to send more kerosene to Europe.

"Their artillery can't reach us, so how can there be any casualties?" Sartre said with a relaxed face, "The results are just a little smaller. Only 327 people were captured, and the highest rank was only a major."

"Shouldn't there be two majors?" Elvis asked. He had just finished drinking black tea and returned to the headquarters before he had time to check the telegrams sent back from the front.

The top military commanders of the three small fortresses of Goshen, Zakod and Lexington are all majors. Two small fortresses surrendered, and only one major was captured. Did the remaining one escape or die?

"Major Charlie at Fort Lexington was killed," Sutter said. "If you want to capture two majors, I will ask the First Artillery Regiment to intensify the bombardment and blow up the major at Fort Gosenberg to surrender. ”

There were no casualties and Liang Yao was very satisfied with the result. He didn't care about spending more money on shells. Compared with the money on shells, he was more worried about too many casualties. The people who followed him east this time were all veterans, and one less person died.

As for the excessive consumption of ammunition and subsequent supply issues, Liang Yao is not worried at this stage.

At present, the battle line has not been drawn out, the supply line is very short, and the battle is along the Platte River with the Pacific Railway, so it is relatively easy to supply ammunition.

"The Rockets haven't experienced it yet, let's give the Rockets a chance to perform." Liang Yao wanted to let some flying monkeys play to open his eyes.

The officers and soldiers of the Rocket Regiment, who were already gearing up and eager to try, quickly pushed the rocket car forward after receiving the order to attack and made final preparations before launch.

The rockets equipped by the Rocket Regiment are modified based on Congreve rockets and are called Heavenly Punishment.

There are two types of Tianpu rockets: light and heavy. Rockets weighing less than 32 pounds are light rockets, and rockets weighing more than 32 pounds (inclusive) are heavy rockets. Light rockets are mainly used for field battles, while heavy rockets are mainly used for sieges or naval battles.

Having said that, the 32-pound rocket is more often used as a medium-sized rocket that can be used in naval battles and field battles. It is also the type of rocket with the largest number of equipment in the rocket regiment.

Due to its relatively large size and weight, the 32-pound Sky Punishment rocket requires a special launch vehicle for launch.

Each rocket launch vehicle crew has 8 people. The specific personnel configuration is:

One commander and one deputy commander each. The commander's responsibility is to aim at the target and command the launch, while the deputy commander's responsibility is to assist the commander in his work and replace the commander in the event of casualties.

Two rocket loaders are responsible for installing the rocket on the launch track and ensuring that the rocket is in the correct position.

An igniter, responsible for lighting the rocket fuse and launching it.

Two ammunition handlers, responsible for transporting ammunition.

A maintainer is responsible for the maintenance of the launch vehicle and rocket.

Not long after, under the command and dispatch of Weng Zhichao, the leader of the rocket regiment, 80 rocket launch vehicles were ready.

"ignition!"

Following Weng Zhichao's order.

Hundreds of rockets gradually pierced the night sky, trailing scarlet tail flames, mixed with the unique screams of rockets, like angry dragons coming out of the sea, heading straight for the Goshen Fortress.

A few seconds later, the rocket landed, and the deafening explosion shook the earth. The flames rose into the sky, instantly engulfing the walls and trenches in the fortress.

For a time, the entire Gossen Fortress was filled with smoke and rubble.

Although the rockets of this era were not very accurate, it did not require great accuracy to hit a target as large as a fortress. Almost all the punishment rockets were launched into the Gossen Fortress.

With just one round of rocket salvos, the defenders in the Gossen Fortress were frightened and their morale completely collapsed.

To be fair, since most of the defenders in the Gossen Fortress were hiding in the bunker cellar, a round of rocket salvos caused very limited casualties to the defenders.

But this round of rocket salvos had a much greater impact on the morale of the defenders than the daytime bombardment.

"Raise the white flag! Raise the white flag! Surrender! Surrender! We surrender!"

Alex held his head and ordered his lieutenants to raise the white flag and surrender to the Western Army.

At this moment, he no longer had the idea of ​​holding on until the next day to surrender and save some dignity for himself. Who knows how many more rounds of beatings they will have to endure tonight.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the remaining 158 Northern Army soldiers in Fort Gossen held white flags and walked out of Fort Gossen and surrendered to the Western Army.

So far, the three small and medium-sized forts of Fort Gossen, Fort Cozad, and Fort Lexington have all been occupied by the Defense Forces of the Republic of America, and the first phase of the campaign objectives of the Defense Forces of the Republic of America have been completed.

In this battle, the Defense Forces of the Republic of America took only one day to capture the three small and medium-sized forts built by the Northern Federation at a high cost without any casualties, captured 485 Northern Army soldiers, and killed 261 Northern Army soldiers.

Liang Yao and the top leaders of the National Defense Force were very satisfied with this performance.

"To be able to withstand such heavy casualties, the defenders of these three forts should be the elite of the Northern Army." Although this victory came easily, Liang Yao still gave his opponent a relatively objective evaluation.

To be honest, the performance of these Northern Union troops was not bad, but it was a pity that they met an opponent like him who was not afraid of spending money in war.

If the opponent was the Southern Army, these Northern Union troops might be able to hold on for a month or two.

"It has been examined. They are all from the Mason Brigade, the standing army before the war!" Liang Xi reported to Liang Yao very excitedly.

The Northern Union army has three levels. The first level is the standing army that existed before the war. This group of Northern troops is not large in number, only tens of thousands of people, but it is the most powerful team in the Northern Union.

The second level is the volunteer corps formed by the northern states. The source of the volunteer corps is mainly composed of retired soldiers. The combat effectiveness is also very strong, but the number is not large.

The third level is the first and second batches of mobilized soldiers. The origins and composition of these mobilized soldiers are relatively complicated. Most of them are urban poor and bankrupt small farmers. The mobilized soldiers are currently the largest and weakest troops in the Northern Army.

Killing and capturing 746 standing troops of the Northern Union in the first battle is indeed a big victory.

The news that Fort Gossen, Fort Cozad, and Fort Lexington had been lost, and 746 members of the Northern Union regular army of the Mason Brigade had been killed and captured, quickly spread to the West Coast, as well as Washington and Richmond, along the well-developed telegraph network in North America.

Although they had been prepared before, the fact that the three forts could not stop the Western Army for even a day was still far beyond the expectations of the Lincoln Cabinet.

"How many casualties did the Western Army suffer?"

Secretary of State Seward asked Secretary of War Scott, if the Western Army suffered relatively heavy casualties to capture the three forts, such a result would not be unacceptable.

"We cannot count the casualties of the Western Army, but the Western Army has publicized that they have no casualties. The only casualties are the ammunition in their North Platte ammunition depot and the US dollars in the Treasury." Scott's face was like a Shar Pei dog, and there was no expression fluctuation on his face.

"Nonsense!" Seward retorted, "These Western barbarians are so shameless! How could they take down three fortresses without any casualties! The ones defending these three fortresses are our standing army! Standing army!"

Seward had serious doubts about this result. The siege was the most difficult battle. The Western Army took down their three fortresses at lightning speed without any casualties, which violated the common sense of war.

The American Army is a modern army, not a primitive Indian armed force or a medieval army. How could it not pay any casualties?

"Anyway, at least one thing is certain. The Western Army took down the three forts guarded by our standing army in less than 12 hours." Lincoln frowned, "We have to keep this situation confidential. At present, it seems that our third batch of mobilized soldiers only mobilized 100,000 people, which is still too conservative."