1890 King of Southeast Asia

"Set the fuse at 32."

"Distance 700, extend back to 900, No. 1 charge."

"Fire at maximum rate of fire for each gun!"

"Ready~~"

The artilleryman nervously set the fuse, inserted it into the mortar shell, and then put it aside.

Three or four people were doing this operation for a gun, and five or six people were doing it for a gun.

At this time, the air burst fuse or all the fuses were all mechanical structures. To achieve different tactical purposes, they needed to be set before firing.

The structure of the time delay fuse or air burst fuse is very simple. There is a small spring inside the fuse, which is screwed and locked before firing. It is triggered during firing and detonates after a certain time.

"Fire!"

The artillery commander waved the small red flag in his hand fiercely, and the small flag fluttered as it passed through the air.

The mortar shell with the fuse set and the additional charge was picked up by the gunner, put to the muzzle, and let go, and the mortar shell slid in.

The primer at the tail of the shell hits the firing pin, the primer is ignited, and then the propellant is ignited, the air expands rapidly, and the mortar shell is pushed out with a clanging sound.

Tong Tong Tong...

The organization of the light infantry division has been changed, most of the heavy artillery has been cancelled, and there are not many light artillery left. It stands to reason that there should be more mortars, but in fact, it is not.

The mortar is easy to move and set up. Although the power is poor and can only hit personnel, it is light in weight and easy to move. The difficulty of making shells is low, and it can be mass-produced between the Qing Empire.

This is very consistent with the setting concept of the light infantry division. The light infantry division is a compromise on the supply capacity of areas with poor road conditions over long distances, but the mortar can achieve a perfect closed loop.

A regiment has set up a six-gun field artillery company equipped with an extended barrel 37mm field gun and a twelve-gun 82mm mortar company - divided into a platoon plus three squads, one platoon directly under the regiment, and three fire support squads under the battalion.

One squad has two 82mm mortars.

The company level has a firepower platoon with 4 60mm mortars, and a battalion has 12.

So the whole regiment has a total of 12 82mm mortars, 36 60mm mortars, and six 37mm field guns, a total of 52 guns.

However, there are only six barreled artillery, and they are small-caliber cannons - this is used to attack weak fortifications in battle.

The combat concept of the light infantry division has never been to fight alone in the front, either to cooperate with each other in the front, or to fight mobile warfare.

Forty-eight mortars give the infantry a strong battlefield support capability. As for anti-artillery, it can only be left to the divisional artillery or even the artillery division.

There is no way, the road conditions and supply distance force the light infantry division to make a choice.

Every minute, hundreds of mortar shells rush out of the trenches, flying for nearly 30 seconds, and explode at a height of about 700 meters from the first regiment and 7 or 8 meters above the ground.

The first batch of explosions were shrapnel shells. When each shell exploded, hundreds of steel balls and shell fragments would spread out like flowers, covering the center of a circle of more than ten meters around the explosion point - the farthest they could fly was several hundred meters, but they had little killing power.

The Japanese army happened to evacuate at this distance, and the squadron leader and the battalion leader were assembling their troops to prepare for another attack.

Although they lost hundreds of people after being strafed by machine guns, the death rate was close to a quarter, which had reached the standard that ordinary troops must rest,

but what is the flag regiment? What is the Eighth Division? What are the soldiers of the Empire of Japan?

It is a lie that the casualty rate makes soldiers lose their combat effectiveness! The warriors of the Empire of Japan are not afraid of these!

Well, to put it bluntly, the first round of attacks has only been carried out, and it has not been half an hour in total. If they push on now, they will not end well, so the officers are ready to do it again.

This time they are ready to disperse the attack. They clearly found that when the distance exceeded 500 meters, the machine guns of the first regiment stopped tracking and shooting.

So the officers gathered at a position of 700 meters, intending to stop the soldiers and regroup to fight again.

The captain of the Qiwei regiment looked at the soldiers who were reorganizing in the gun mirror, and he breathed a sigh of relief, and then he had time to get angry.

Just now, he was really hesitant, hesitating whether to attack the defeated team.

After all, this is a battlefield. If these defeated soldiers rushed back, the Qiwei regiment might lose its organizational ability.

It was not until the officers reorganized in the rear that it had time to think about other things. Looking at the corpses scattered on the offensive road, it felt ashamed.

"Let the two attacking battalions wait for artillery support. The next time they must attack the enemy's position to wash away the shame, otherwise, the battalion commander should apologize to His Majesty the Emperor!"

"In addition, report the news that the enemy has a large number of machine guns to the brigade commander. The Qing Empire has not imported so many machine guns. The opponent is the Nanhua Army!"

"The morale of the Nanhua Army is very high. They are not shaken at all in the face of huge casualties. I think we need to pay more attention to their movements."

"Finally, the firepower of the Nanhua Army on the opposite side is very strong. Request firepower guidance."

The Qiwei Regiment's brain turned rapidly, and they figured out many joints in an instant.

They already knew about the Nanhua dispatch of troops, but they didn't expect them to arrive so soon, and they still maintained their combat effectiveness after crossing the ocean.

"Hey! Should we withdraw some soldiers to prevent retaliation from the Nanhua artillery!" Chief of Staff Abe asked.

"No need. According to the Nanhua fighting style, they would have used artillery long ago. This group of idiots who only waste shells and have no knowledge of the art of war..." As the commander of the Qiwei Lieutenant General was speaking, dense explosions were heard.

The mortar firing was not loud, so the Qiwei Lieutenant General did not notice it at all, or rather, the entire Japanese Eighth Division did not notice the shell firing.

When the shells fell, many frontline soldiers heard the sound of the shells passing through the air, and some even saw the arc of the shells falling and wanted to evade.

The mortars were slow, and if the eyes were good, it was not impossible to dodge, but it was based on the premise that there were only one or two shells.

When the shells fell all over the sky, not to mention the naked eye, human-shaped radars were useless.

boo...

"Nani!" The commander of the Qiwei Lieutenant General looked at the distance in horror.

The distance was too far, and the shrapnel shells exploded in the air, and the dust was not large, so in his naked eyes, the explosion was not fierce.

But he was experienced, and when he heard such dense explosions, he knew that something was wrong.

"Immediately apply to the brigade commander for tactical guidance! Soldiers set up defenses on the spot and prepare to hold on! Quick!" Captain Qi Wei left a word and climbed back to the artillery.

What happened next made Captain Qi Wei a little terrified, because the preparations were not sufficient, the first group of shrapnel shells were not many, and after they were exhausted, they used high-explosive grenades.

High-explosive grenades are the most numerous ammunition in the South China Army, because of their high tactical versatility, they can be used for everything.

Unlike shrapnel explosions, the visual impact and explosion sound of high-explosive grenades are much stronger, at least the dust they roll up is much more.

However, the actual combat effect is worse, after all, the amount of charge is not large.

"The artillery fire is still extending! And this must not be a cluster bomb, it can only be a mortar... It's amazing!"

"Using the high rate of fire, low bullet speed, and high elevation of the mortar, we can concentrate firepower to bombard a certain point and form a barrage in a short time... What a waste!"

"Unfortunately, this is a tactic used by the enemies of the Empire of Japan, and it is used on the soldiers of the Empire of Japan."

Captain Qi Wei was shocked by the dense explosions.

The two battalions have less than 2,500 people in total. Excluding technical arms and logistics arms, there are only about 2,000 people participating in the attack.

But in just a few minutes, Nanhua fired thousands of shells, right?

An average of one shell for every two people?

Captain Qi Wei didn't know what to say for a while. According to his idea, those soldiers were not worth the money for these shells, even if they were cheaper mortar shells.

After all, it is impossible for shelling to kill everyone, not to mention that Nanhua's shelling is relatively concentrated. Maybe the enemy in these areas suffered more casualties, but other places would be better.

Five minutes! The shelling lasted for a full five minutes!

These five minutes shocked the Qiwei Regiment. Such a luxurious fighting style made the Qiwei Regiment Captain forget his work for a while.

In five minutes, the First Regiment fired 1,100 shells, and the mortar shells they carried were destroyed. The continuous high-speed bombardment made the gun barrels hot.

After the last shell exploded, the battlefield fell into silence.

The First Regiment did not take the opportunity to send infantry to attack. The Japanese army seemed to have forgotten that it was their people who were bombed, and did not send anyone to support them.

It was three minutes after the explosion that Japanese soldiers ran out of the artillery coverage area. Many of them were covered in blood and ran wildly with empty hands.

Although most of them retreated towards the Japanese positions, some Japanese soldiers were still scattered.

"Baga! Cowards! Send people to catch those cowards! Count the casualties!" Seeing a Japanese soldier running towards the Nanhua position with his hands raised high, the Qiwei Regiment Captain slapped the last captain in anger.

That's right, of the three battalion commanders of the Japanese army, only one was left. Of course, the commander of the Qiwei regiment didn't know.

When the Japanese army retreated, it was the battalion commander who led four squadron commanders to organize the reorganization. There were many people in the battalion headquarters, and the reorganization efficiency was high, and the most people were concentrated.

Correspondingly, the firepower of the first regiment was more concentrated.

Of the two battalion commanders, one was hit by shrapnel and turned into a hornet's nest, and the other had half of his head cut off by high-explosive shell fragments. They were both dead.

"Captain of the regiment, there are less than a thousand soldiers who came back, most of them were injured and lost their combat effectiveness." The chief of staff of the regiment said helplessly after counting the casualties.

Lost combat effectiveness refers to the wounded, which is also the Qiwei regiment. One third of them were killed or missing, and the overall casualty rate was more than half.

Moreover, these casualties were caused within half an hour, and the morale of the Japanese army fell to the bottom.

"Baga! Nanhua, a cunning Chinese! No samurai spirit! Baga!" The commander of the Qiwei regiment drew out his command knife and chopped at the small tree in incompetence and rage.

"Colonel! We should think about how to end it!" The chief of staff said bravely.

"...Report to the brigade commander, the Qiwei Regiment suffered heavy losses and requested to retreat for rest..." The commander of the Qiwei Regiment said unwillingly.

After this experience, if nothing unexpected happens, his future will be bleak.

[Author's side note]: I defended my thesis yesterday, and I have been busy these days. I worked on my thesis and PPT until three o'clock the day before yesterday, so I haven't updated it. I will make up for it in the next few days.

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