My Daming New Empire

Chapter 18 Surprise

When the flintlock became the standard equipment of the Ming army, the Ming army gradually transitioned from the rigid military formation in the past to the skirmish formation.

In this era without radio stations, telephones, and long-term communication channels, no general dared to let the formation be too scattered, causing the soldiers to not know the order and collapse.

However, the area coverage ability of the flintlock gun, when facing cold weapons, if you want to pursue the maximum lethality, you will naturally put it in a larger formation that directly faces the enemy.

When the enemy also appeared with flintlock guns, in order to reduce their own losses, this formation naturally became more and more scattered.

Moreover, in the war on the dividing line between Asia and Europe, there were almost no siege battles.All are wars aimed at killing the enemy and occupying territory, and such fronts are often hundreds or even thousands of miles long.

There are only a few cities on the large plain in the southwest of Ural Mountains, and many cities that are famous in later generations have not yet appeared at all.

Even if there were a few siege battles, they were not the mainstream of the war.

Therefore, unlike in history, the development of artillery has fallen into a stagnation stage. This difficult-to-transport weapon was left out in the cold after Ming conquered Timur.

There is another key reason here, which is the lack of resources.

Europe is a continent with very few resources. Except for a few coal and iron mines, almost all precious metals are very scarce.

In addition to metal resources, saltpeter resources are even more scarce. There are only four large-scale saltpeter producing areas in the world, one in Siberia, one in India, one in China, and the largest in Chile.

But these four regions are all controlled by Daming.

Europeans and Arabs knew how to make gunpowder, but they had no saltpeter.

Before the thirteenth century, Europeans didn't even know what saltpeter was. They followed the Arab saying and called saltpetre "Chinese snow".

From the Arabs, they learned to boil the soil of urine to obtain saltpeter.

Just 30 years ago, at the end of the Hundred Years’ War between Britain and France, when the British army captured Le Havre, they used only three small cannons, consuming only two kilograms of gunpowder per day, firing 20 cannons, about two hundred lead bullets, 120 lead blocks.

It's not that they didn't realize the power of artillery, but they didn't have saltpeter.

After learning how to make flintlock guns, in order to collect saltpeter, big cities in Europe began to build toilets like Ming Dynasty, and then special people boiled dung every day.

Human feces are inherently smelly and smelly, and after being cooked at high temperature, the smell can be imagined.Those European cities are extremely smelly, but they can only obtain saltpeter through this method.

Historically, Europe had a stable source of gunpowder only after the discovery of saltpeter mines in India in the [-]th century.

But in this time and space, it is impossible for them to come and occupy India again.

They don't have gunpowder, so they don't pay attention to the manufacture of artillery. They can't even supply gunpowder for muskets. How can they care about developing artillery?

They didn't have artillery, and it was naturally impossible for the Ming army to spend countless manpower and material resources to transport the artillery from the wild forest without roads to the front line.

Therefore, under such conditions, although both sides now have nineteenth-century weapons in their hands, the mode of warfare is still medieval.

And when the repeating gun was replaced, the range increased by three times, and the power of the bullets also increased by three times. The effective killing distance of 400 meters has regained an absolute advantage in front of the flintlock guns that could only effectively kill the enemy within a range of 100 meters in the past.

As for this weapon change, in order to adapt to the change of weapons, Daming's army formation once again underwent a huge change.

In the past, the effective killing distance of 100 meters did not have an absolute advantage when facing the powerful longbow and crossbow.

Therefore, although Daming's army consisted of two five ten men as a combat unit, it was still composed of two shield soldiers, six combat soldiers, and two logistics soldiers.

It is equivalent to saying that out of ten people, four of them cannot display direct combat effectiveness in normal combat.

However, when the repeating gun appeared, the range could be extended to 400 meters.Don't say 400 meters, even 200 meters, the opponent's weapons have lost their threat.

Moreover, after the bullets are separated, soldiers do not need to fire two more shots to reload gunpowder and bullets, which greatly saves the time for loading bullets.

On the one hand, there is no need to consume manpower for protection, and on the other hand, there is no need to use two people to transport ammunition and load guns.At this time, the ten people fighting can play their best roles.

In addition, soldiers no longer need to carry gunpowder bags and bullet bags, which enhances their mobility.

Therefore, this kind of military formation with continuous guns is closer to the skirmish formation of later generations than the previous military formation.

Although only 3 people are equipped with repeating guns, each of them can exert their combat effectiveness.And even if the enemy has more than 20 people, at most half of them can display their combat effectiveness.

Coupled with this suppression of firepower and space distance, even if you face an enemy ten times larger than yourself, you will not be at a disadvantage in the slightest.

As soon as the battle started, the white coalition forces could feel the fierceness different from before.

The firepower of the Ming soldiers in the past was not much different from theirs. In the battles between the two sides, the suppression of troops was more often considered, followed by factors such as the right time, place and people, and tactics.

But now, outside the firing range, the Ming army began to attack. They kept a distance of 300 meters, and then fired at their own side.

What made them even more terrified was that the previous bullets hit the body, at most round bullets shot into the muscles.Even if it hits a vital point, as long as the lead bullets do not cause infection and poisoning, the lucky soldiers can still survive.

But now, the bullets hit the soldiers, even wooden shields couldn't stop them.And the bullet becomes bigger, and the degree of damage is also greater.

Even if it doesn't hit the vital point, it can make a soldier lose his combat effectiveness.

And as long as it hits a vital part, even their god can't save them.

The huge wounds caused by such powerful bullets made it impossible for the "veterinarians" in the army to treat them. The screams of the soldiers caused everyone's morale to drop rapidly.

Since the white coalition army is a coalition army, of course it is not composed of personnel from a principality.

Except for the Principality of Novgorod, the Principality of Moscow, the Principality of Kiev, the rest of the Principality of Lithuania, the Principality of Poland, as well as the Holy Roman Kingdom, the Kingdom of Hungary and other countries, the soldiers are only fighting for money.

When they have the upper hand, they can be very brave, but when the situation is against them, they will run faster than anyone else.

The front line of the battle is about to collapse, and the white coalition seems to have returned to 20 years ago.

At that time, they held swords and spears, and there was no room for resistance in front of the muskets of the Ming soldiers.

Now, the same is true.

At a distance of two to 300 meters, the bullets in their muskets could not be delivered.But the opponent's bullets ruthlessly harvested the lives of their own people.

Hundreds of thousands of troops, when they scrambled to retreat and flee, the impact was huge. The entire army's formation lost control, and the generals didn't know the soldiers, and the soldiers didn't know the generals.

The generals of the coalition army did not expect such a one-sided battle at all, so they could only rush to find their subordinates and seize the time to consolidate their positions.

In this delta area, there is a large amount of food and supplies that they have worked so hard to transport. In order to fight the Ming soldiers for a long time, they dug more than a dozen trenches here, which is also their last honor.

When the enemy entered the trenches, Ming soldiers did not attack by force.In terms of numbers, the number of Ming soldiers is far less than that of the opponent. Forcibly attacking the position will only increase their own sacrifices, and the advantage of guns will disappear.

Such a result was expected by Tang Sai'er and Guo Ang. Before the war, they had already considered the advantage of the burst gun over the enemy, including the enemy's retreat, which appeared in their push.

Therefore, Tang Saier and Guo Ang did not attack by force, but left [-] troops equipped with repeating guns and [-] troops equipped with ordinary flintlock guns.

Ten thousand soldiers equipped with repeating guns were arranged in each direction, each team, as long as the enemy made a tentative attack, they would come forward and I would snipe at 200 meters.

3 people surrounded an army of more than 20 people. This is not a myth, but a fact.