Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 632

  The battle lasted until about 1:00 pm. The Battle of the Kongsby Plateau has been fiercely fighting for nearly two hours, and new changes have taken place in the battle.

  On the battlefield

The Confederate Army suffered more intensive artillery fire and bullets. In addition, the Livingston Cavalry Division was wiped out. More than 30% of its troops were lost, and more than 45,000 casualties totaled. The rest of the army. The number of people is less than 90,000, so they have to switch to trenches and try to stand by for help.

  In contrast, the Northern Ocean Kingdom A Corps lost about 13,000 people, and its total strength is still around 100,000. With the advantage of artillery and firearms, it has become more and more vigorous and actively launched rounds of fierce attacks.

  Use artillery to plow once before attacking, and then use dense platoons of guns to attack the enemy, always maintaining a high-pressure momentum.

  If it doesn’t work once, it’s twice, and if it doesn’t work twice, it’s three times. It gradually destroys the resistance of southern white soldiers with a rain of steel bullets.

  In actual combat

The Mauser 1871 magazine-type rifle licensed by the Azure Weapons Company, which is generally equipped by the Ocean Kingdom Army, performed well and suppressed the single Martini-Henry MKⅠ rifle equipped by the Southern Federal Army and became the victory in the infantry offensive. Sharp weapon.

  The magazine can hold 6 rounds of ammunition, plus one round in the barrel, a total of 7 rounds can be fired at one time. Pull the bolt to shoot one round, and the continuous firepower is quite fierce.

  As the world’s first army equipped with magazine-style rifles, the Ocean Kingdom Army has used Mauser rifles for more than ten years and has made many major improvements.

  The original German-made 1871 Mauser rifle had a caliber of 11 mm, a gun length of 1290 mm, a barrel length of 852 mm, a gun weight of 4.54 kg, and a limit range of about 1500 yards.

  Such a long gun coupled with a long sharp spike, it is a long spear, which has obvious advantages in hand-to-hand combat.

But this kind of gun also has obvious shortcomings. That is, the Mauser 1871 rifle is a typical single-shot one-shot gun, which is filled with one bullet, and the gun body is too long and too bulky. Maybe this is not a problem for tall German soldiers. , But the Chinese use it too heavy and too long.

The Ocean Kingdom introduced the German Mauser magazine-style riding rifle, which is commonly known as the carbine. The gun is 953 mm long, the barrel is 648 mm long, and the gun weighs 3.2 kg. The range is about 1100 yards. Much lighter.

After   Azure Weapons Company obtained the franchise manufacturing authorization, it carried out a series of improvements to the gun, forming a new rifle currently equipped with large quantities of infantry troops, which was named "1888 Mauser Modified".

The main feature of the gun is that it adopts the advantages of the German-made Mauser magazine-style riding rifle. On the basis of the gun length is still 953 mm, the magazine design is improved to accommodate 6 rounds of ammunition and double-row supply, which increases the intensity of firepower Degree and reliability.

  At the same time, the muzzle bayonet has been improved, and the extended bayonet can be used. Although the overall length is slightly shorter than the original rifle design, the disadvantages in hand-to-hand combat are greatly reduced.

Another major improvement is to reduce the barrel caliber from the original 11 mm with excess power to 7.7 mm. Compared with the use of new yellow powder, the penetration power and rejection power of the bullet are not much reduced, and it has been increased. A rifling makes the shooting more accurate.

The benefits of    are obvious. As the weight of the bullet is greatly reduced, the ammunition carried by a single soldier reaches 100 to 110 rounds, which is almost double that of the soldiers of the Southern Army, and the continuous combat capability is greatly improved.

  But with such an infantry weapon, the attacking soldiers of the A Corps can use continuous firepower to kill the enemy heavily, leaving no chance for hand-to-hand combat to the white soldiers of the Southern Army.

  Firepower decisive victory is the creed of the Ocean Kingdom Army.

  The situation on the battlefield is very good. Only then did King Li Fushou and a high-level team have the opportunity to simply eat something to pad their stomachs and prepare to fight a protracted battle until the enemy's will to resist is completely destroyed.

The trench dug by the Confederate Army of the Confederate Army is also a shallow pit. Regiments or battalions resisted stubbornly one after another, dividing the huge battlefield into countless small points of support. Come transfer.

After experiencing the initial setbacks in the offensive of the   A Corps, knowing that they could not swallow such a large prey in one bite, they calmed down and did not start to "grind the enemy" in a hurry.

  What is "grinding the enemy".

It is to concentrate the artillery fire to bombard the enemy defended by the trenches in the outer circle, and then send out the infantry into a loose line of troops to attack. Enemy position.

  For this reason, the A Corps also brought heavy and heavy machine guns up from the rear, increasing the density of firepower transmission and causing continuous serious damage to the enemy.

  Although this kind of tactics has slow results, the victory can greatly reduce casualties, gradually cannibalize the enemy's position, and slowly accumulate small victories into big victories, which is safe and reliable.

  It's about 4:00 in the afternoon

After more than three hours of fierce fighting, the boiling gunfire on the battlefield is still audible, the front line held by the Southern Federal Army has shrunk by a large amount, and the number of casualties and captured has increased by more than 20,000, leaving only a shortfall. 70,000 people are struggling to support the situation, and the war may completely collapse at any time.

   just now

  A large number of blue-gray figures appeared in the rear of the Confederate Army of the South. This was the reinforcements of the Victorian Corps. This gave the struggling Williamson Corps soldiers a shot and saw new hope again.

  In a short time, there were overwhelming reinforcements in the telescope's field of vision, with a total number of more than 50,000. The neatly arranged queues pressed forward and were less than 5 kilometers away from the encircling circle.

  According to the current speed, it will take about 50 minutes to an hour to reach the battlefield.

The   A Corps immediately dispatched the Tiger Cavalry Division and Leopard Cavalry Division to intercept, and the diagonal stab was inserted into the space zone to set up the interception line of fire to prevent the enemy's two armies from joining.

   At this time, more than half of the artillery fire of the Confederate Army had been destroyed, and more than 200 artillery pieces were still turned around, launching a large-scale bombardment of the Chinese cavalry deep in the enemy's rear.

Such a large number of artillery seems scary, but considering the poor rate of fire of the retreat artillery, the number of cannonballs that can be fired per minute is less than one thousand. A cloud of smoke.

  The A Corps, which has always had the advantage of artillery fire, was of course not to be outdone. It immediately concentrated large-caliber artillery to suppress the enemy’s artillery positions.

  In general, the situation on the battlefield has become more severe due to enemy reinforcements.

  There were nearly 70,000 enemies in his mouth, and more than 50,000 Confederate reinforcements came outside, which caused great pressure on the A Corps.

  At this time, the A Corps had been fighting for 6 hours, with a loss of more than 25,000 soldiers, and a total force of more than 92,000. Moreover, the soldiers were short of horses, and there were not many ammunition left in the soldiers. The artillery ammunition reserves were also consumed.

  It is not that there are no shells, but a large number of shells are stored in the ammunition depot in Novorossiysk. With the existing more than 300 carriages, they can’t keep up with the use.

  The name of the rapid-fire cannon is not a cover, and under full firing, the cannonballs piled up into hills can't withstand Huohuo.

   "Is the B Corps coming up?" Li Fushou took a sip of hot coffee from the military kettle, and then asked when he screwed on the lid.

  "Your Majesty, the main force of the B Corps is already coming quickly. It is estimated that they will be on the battlefield in 40-50 minutes."

   "Where is the Red First Division?"

   "Already ready, as long as you give an order, you can appear on the battlefield in 10 minutes and destroy the reinforcement enemy like a ruin."

"Well, you can control the military by yourself. My request is that since the enemy is here, don't leave. Leave all of them to me. This will also reduce the pressure on conquering Sydney, a defensive metropolis, and the recruitment of the Southern Federation. It's not small. Once the enemy's heavy army is retracted, the battle will be difficult to fight."

   "Your Majesty, the Weichen understands that you must resolutely leave the enemy behind and annihilate them all according to your wishes."

   "Well, take care of it as you see fit."

  Li Fushou will not intervene in the military command of frontline generals. The Central Kalimantan Militia Division before the war was a hapless one, and it happened to touch sensitive areas.

The long live, long live, long live slogans of the feudal dynasty are purely psychoanaesthetics. Not only are they useless, but the ability to absorb hatred is first-class. Li Fushou also lacks the slightest favor for this slogan, and of course he has to take action. Beat beat.

  Fortunately, they played well on the battlefield. It seems that they have improved quite a bit after rigorous training, which makes Li Fushou satisfied.

  War really can spur the rapid growth of soldiers. A day’s cruel war is more effective than a year’s training.

  An army that has not experienced the baptism of war can hardly be called a strong army. The transformation of an army must undergo war forging before it can become steel.

  Some people say...Didn’t the army of the Ocean Kingdom ever experienced the **** battle of Moresby? Isn't that enough?

   is not enough, not enough.

  Don’t forget that during the **** battle in Moresby, the total number of the Shangri-La garrison division was 13,000. That was 8 years ago. Most of the soldiers who had fought **** battles have retired and enjoyed their rural life.

  A small number of sergeants with rich war experience were transferred to the African Expeditionary Corps, and they are still in Mozambique today.

The subsequent raids on Borneo, the expedition to Africa and other wars were all less than 10,000 people. Compared with the large corps of hundreds of thousands today, the vast majority of soldiers in the two corps A and B are newcomers. Grew up quickly in the brutal war.

  There are Chinese militia organizations in the north, the white militia organizations in the south, the National Guard in the north, and the National Self-Defense Force in the south.

  Hundreds of thousands of wars are by no means as easy as imagined. The balance of wars will not be tilted to one side before the emergence of oppressive absolute forces.

Li Fushou's extensive preparations for the war can only show his solid foundation in the long-term tug-of-war. More powerful military strength, more population, richer resources and powerful industrial production, everything needs to go with the time of the war. Gradually revealed.

  Many materials are reserved for the worst case (British involvement in the war), which did not show up at the beginning of the war.

  After all, the massive amounts of materials piled up in the warehouse cannot be immediately turned into real combat effectiveness. Only in larger-scale war mobilization and long-term battles can they show their power and provide strong support for war.

  (End of this chapter)