Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1236 Three Battles to India ([-])
There is a saying in later generations that weapons are not as good as silver dollars, and silver dollars are not as good as doctrine.

In this era when soldiers all over the world have no doctrine, Liu Yu is full of confidence in Dashun's winning rate in this war.

Many years ago, the difference between soldiers here and those in Europe was mainly silver dollars.When the daily calories of black slave soldiers can already be trained once a day, they are still worrying about whether they can eat and drink soldiers' blood, so that training every three to five days is already at the standard battalion level. can lead to mutiny.

Now the weapons are a little stronger, and the silver dollars are not bad. Although the sailors with bad teeth curse those dried meat and pot helmet cakes that are so hard that they can be hammered into nails, at least it is not a problem to eat enough.

The most important thing is that Dashun not only pays wages on time, but also a group of self-interested officials pay full wages in the border area for meritorious service.

Not only are they paid, but they are even granted land after retiring.

This is incredible, incredible, enough to be called the number one army in the world.

What's more, the elite combat engineers in Dashun, before the battle, were not discussing cutting their heads and making meritorious deeds, but discussing life after the war, farming, family, cattle and horses, and work.

And, the outlook for the future.

This is scary.

So, at eight o'clock in the morning, the shelling at sea began and the company officer issued a combat mission.These soldiers who had already entered a state of stunned before the start of the battle quickly became excited.

Neither needs to be the same as India that distributed opium and hemp leaves in the previous Carnatic War in order to break out combat power.

It is also not necessary to be the same as when the Dashun Northern Expedition to the Luocha Fortress earlier, before the heavily armored soldiers attacked the city first, the officers had to pile up boxes of silver in front of everyone.

They just clenched the muskets in their hands, squatting excitedly and quietly in the garrison pit ready to attack.

The order given by the officer was to attack at a quarter past nine.

Because the tide begins to ebb around nine o'clock, and around twelve o'clock, the tide will recede to the lowest level.

The tide recoils from the ancient Worm River, between 01 o'clock and 30:[-], there will be a period of time that is most suitable for building a pontoon bridge to cross the river.

The goal of the No.13 Battalion was to control the salient fort on the south side of Fort St. George before twelve o'clock, destroy the British cannons on the salient fort, and at the same time build an artillery position to defend the British counterattack.

Between twelve and one, the artillery had to cross the Gowom, pull the twelve-pound guns onto the triangular fort, and begin shelling the main fort of Fort St. George.

Otherwise, the next ebb tide will have to wait until after 13 o'clock in the evening, which means that the No.[-] Battalion will spend a dangerous night on the triangular fort, being constantly counterattacked.

Zhao Lisheng and other soldiers in charge of the assault stopped talking at this time.Maybe it was out of excitement, maybe it was out of habit, the more excited they were before the war, the less they wanted to talk.

The sound of gunfire on the sea was intertwined with the shelling on the west and north sides. In the garrison pits, there was only the sound of chewing tobacco or spitting and dregs.

At a quarter to nine, the soldiers in the nearby ditches and barracks began to cross the river in accordance with the orders of the officers.

Zhao Lisheng stuck his head out of the parapet made of wicker baskets, and the companies of his battalion with special tiger squat guns had already started to cross the river.

Ahead of them crossing the river was a special company of skirmishers with rifled guns, and mast shooters from the Indian squadron.

Dashun is in the direction of Nanyang, and there are not many skirmishers.Dashun has a lot of stragglers in other directions, and many of them are tribal people from North Asia or North America. Most of them were hunters of Dashun Whale Sea Fur Company before, but they I hate that it is not suitable for the climate in India and Southeast Asia, so I did not participate in the Nanyang operations.

The skirmishers on the Nanyang side were mainly hunters who hunted elephants, rhinos, and crocodiles. They mainly operated in Nanyang and Africa. They were also a by-product of the gradual development of Dashun trade in these years.

Mast shooters and these elite skirmishers all use special rifled guns.This is called a muto bullet, unlike those elite hunters and skirmishers in France who have to use a hammer to knock lead bullets into rifled guns.

These skirmishers do not form formations, nor do they fight in lines.Instead, go in groups of five, take cover, and shoot freely.

If it is a big battle against the field, their task is to consume the enemy in front of the phalanx and line formation.In short, if the artillery can't hit, the cavalry will run back when they charge, and the opposing line will shoot freely and slowly.

But in specially enhanced siege warfare, their task is to use the range and accuracy advantages of rifled guns to suppress the enemy soldiers in the bastion.

The fire support companies covering the combat engineer battalion dug their own holes with specialized tiger squat guns.

Soon, these stragglers and the navy mast shooters in striped shirts dispersed across the river, each found a hidden position, and began to shoot freely and loosely in the direction of the bastion.

Through the parapet, you can see the fire support company of the same battalion, finally doing the old job of the grenadier.

A team of five, carrying specialized small cannons weighing tens of kilograms, quickly dug a hole more than a hundred steps away from the bastion trench and the artillery slope.

The shelling at sea and the artillery in the artillery position here, under the scouting of the hot air balloon, easily suppressed the British artillery on the bastion.

Soon, small pits were dug. The back baskets carried by the team members carried grenades when they went, and they could be directly filled with soil when they arrived at the place.

Not long after, some small artillery have completed simple position construction.The soldiers ignited the grenade they carried, stuffed it into the small cannon, and threw it out with a very low chamber pressure. It exploded on the anti-battery slope and the parapet behind the trench that disgusted all the general grenadiers who attacked the city.

Zhao Lisheng retracted his head, took out the last piece of betel nut and chewing tobacco from his pocket, mixed them together and chewed, and then waited for the order to attack.

The soldiers of the company carried the small boat, quickly crossed the Guwam River, and then lined up by the river to regroup.

The direction of their attack has been set. The whole is on the southeast side of the fortress, and there will be a blind spot for a long time.

"Company! Forward!"

The officer drew out his saber and walked in the first row on the far left of the company, while the soldiers beating the snare drums beat according to the normal drum rhythm.

This distance is safe, the real battle will take place in front of the embankment in front of the trench.There is the key to making grenadiers, pioneers, or combat engineers in a generalized sense higher than ordinary private troops.

It can be said that there is the place of honor; it can also be said that there is the cruelest meat grinding war.

In front of the trench there was a long sloping embankment that would render the cannon shells pointless.

It also prevents grenadiers from easily throwing grenades into trenches.

Behind the trench is a triangular fort or solid fort.It is about two meters higher than the trench, and the defensive soldiers on it can throw grenades or shoot.

The slope in front of the trench made the grenadiers on the attacking side have to rush up the slope to throw the grenade in place.The defender can use the slope to throw the grenade far.

And the slope is a standard open field, bare, without a stone, a perfect shooting range.

The sound of drums drove the company's footsteps, the naval bombardment had stopped, and only a few heavy artillery from the army on the south side were left for heavy artillery support.

At a place about seventy steps away from the ditch, Zhao Lisheng unconsciously wanted to speed up, but the sound of the drums pushed back his footsteps that were about to speed up just now.

The supporting tiger squatting guns at the back took advantage of the curved fire, which had greatly consumed the defenders, but after all, there were still some defenders hiding in the breast wall or the concealment of the solid fort.

boom……

Clouds of white gunpowder smoke billowed from the protruding fort on the opposite side, and Zhao Lisheng heard the sharp whistling of lead bullets in his ears.

Looking sideways, not far from him, a colleague was hit by lead bullets and fell to the ground in pain.

The people behind jumped over the comrades who fell on the ground as if they couldn't see them at all, and made up to the first row numbly.

Twenty steps ahead is the most disgusting slope.The company also began to suffer casualties.

When he finally reached the slope and advanced another ten steps, the whistle in the officer's mouth finally blew.

Accompanied by the sound of the whistle, Zhao Lisheng finally let go of his suppressed footsteps and rushed towards the top of the slope.

The trench is close to the salient fort, and the combat engineers can only shoot at the enemy on the top of the slope, throw grenades at each other, or compete for courage to throw back the grenade thrown by the opponent.

boom……

A three-pound gun hidden under the bunker of the salient fort, loaded with shot, fired a shot at the Dashun army on the slope.

Zhao Lisheng's face was covered with blood. He felt as if his thigh had been sprayed by those nasty shotguns. He should be bleeding, but he didn't bother to check it at this time, feeling that the injury was not serious.

Four or five people next to them screamed. At such a close distance, they were hit by the shells of the three-pound gun, and there was blood everywhere.

The sound of swishing lead bullets kept echoing in my ears.

Zhao Lisheng ran to the top of the slope and saw the emplacement of the three-pound gun, but he couldn't see the British army hiding behind the emplacement.

Still, he was close enough that he could even hear the chattering behind the gun emplacements.His wife is a Bourgeois, that is, a mixed race of Europeans and Sinhalese. He may not understand this kind of foreign language, because his father-in-law's father is a carpenter in Germany and does not speak English. , but it didn't prevent him from knowing that this probably meant to urge quick reloading.

So he took out the grenade from behind and rubbed it on the friction skin he was carrying. The fuse of the grenade was not white phosphorus, but phosphorus sulfide. Although it was not very safe, it was still safer than white phosphorus.

After rubbing and burning, the white smoke began to burn. Cao Dian said that if the distance is close enough, you should count twice in your heart before throwing it out.

But in this case, Zhao Lisheng obviously counted too fast, and then threw it towards the gun emplacement.

After throwing, he turned sideways, shrunk his head, and shrugged his back, which was a subconscious movement.Looking at the comrades on the slope, at that moment, it was like a top-notch picture.

Someone was squatting on the ground to catch a grenade thrown by the British army but hadn't exploded, obviously wanting to throw it back.

Someone is holding a musket, and I don't know where they are shooting.

Someone was lying on the ground, clutching his chest and screaming.

Somebody got dizzy, probably subconsciously jumped into the ditch in order to avoid the falling grenade, but there were still four or five grenades that had been kicked in or thrown past by his feet, and he desperately wanted to jump up.

Someone was also loading a musket there, and beside him lay a comrade who had been hit in the head by lead bullets.

The company carrying the bamboo ladder behind is rushing here.

The scene of the top frame at this moment quickly dissipated, and a deafening explosion sounded from the fortress. The huge air wave of the gunpowder explosion shocked Zhao Lisheng's ears, as if a ball of cotton had been stuffed in by someone. , humming, but it seemed that someone was constantly stuffing air into his ears with a cleaning rod.

Until it was so stuffed, he wanted to pat his ears and pour out the air that seemed to have solidified into lead lumps in his ears.

"Don't stand around stupidly! Help put the ladder up!"

(End of this chapter)