I want to be emperor

Chapter 669 The Northernmost County Government in History

With the arrival of the Chu army in Yakutsk, the most important battle in the early and mid-term of the Northern Strategic Plan, the second battle of Yakutsk was officially launched.

After the Chu army arrived here, they were not intercepted by the Russian army in the outlying areas. Instead, they landed smoothly five kilometers south of the city of Yakutsk, and then a large number of troops and equipment, as well as more food and grass, Ammunition and other supplies were disembarked one after another.

The Russians did not take the initiative to fight, which is also within the estimation of the Chu army.

No need to guess, these Russians must have wanted to follow the example of the first Yakutsk battle, adopting the tactics of shrinking troops to defend the city of Yakutsk.

As long as they survive a few months and wait until winter... no, just wait until autumn comes and the temperature starts to drop, then the Chu army will be forced to retreat.

They did this last time, and the results were quite good. They successfully defended the city of Yakutsk when there were not many troops defending the city, and the guns and weapons were far inferior to the Chu army.

Now, they want to do it again!
As for the city attack and the like, the Russians have never considered it.

They are not stupid... After so many years of back and forth with the Chu army, they have long known that the Chu army's guns are sharp, equipped with all flintlock guns, and there are a large number of artillery, and they can fire a large number of explosive bullets.

This density of firepower made the Russians tremble with fear when they saw it.

You must know that Russian weapons and tactics are basically the mainstream equipment level of contemporary European armies. They are generally equipped with arquebus and early flintlock guns. Musketeers gradually become the main force of infantry, but they have not completely eliminated long Spearmen, in the infantry of European armies, musketeers and spearmen still exist at the same time.

However, the proportion of musketeers has increased significantly, basically above 60.00%, and the proportion of musketeers in a small number of armies will be 70.00% or even 80.00%.

However, they still commonly have spearmen. The main function of these spearmen is to cover the musketeers and serve as the main force of hand-to-hand combat in close-range hand-to-hand combat.

Unlike the Chu army, spearmen and arquebuses have been completely eliminated, and the infantry is all fusiliers.

In this way, if the two fight in the wild, the Russians will have a huge disadvantage, so the Russians will not foolishly go out and play some line battles with the Chu army!

They decided to pay attention, and hid in the castle, playing attrition and defense with the Chu army!
The reason why the Russians can have such a firm determination is because they know the equipment level and tactics of the Chu army. Not only the Russians know it, but many European countries know that the Chu army is not easy to deal with!

After all, the level of equipment and line tactics of the Chu army is not a secret, especially when dealing with European colonists.

The Portuguese have all fought directly with the Chu army!

The British, Dutch, Danes, and Spaniards all had contact with the Chu army in Southeast Asia or India.

The Nanyang Trading Company in the past, today's Western Trading Company and European trading companies such as the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company are engaged in comprehensive and fierce competition in the Nanyang and Indian regions. Just know more.

Therefore, many European countries have a more or less understanding of the flintlock guns and line tactics of the Great Chu Empire, as well as the overwhelming howitzer bombardment.

I also envy the Chu army's flintlock line troops!
However, why haven't these European countries completely abandoned matchlocks and spearmen like the Chu army so far, and then turned to all fusiliers?
It's not that I don't want to, it's that I can't!
In order to fully equip flintlocks, especially to completely eliminate spearmen, in addition to the soft conditions of tactical thinking and general thinking, there are also the most critical technical reasons.

If you want to popularize flintlock guns in an all-round way, you must first increase the firing rate of flintlock guns. Not to mention how good it is, but at least it must be comparable to matchlock guns.

According to the early tests of the Chu army, the all-weather firing rate of the first-year-style matchlock gun was 70.00% (all-weather including rainy weather), while the two-year-style flintlock gun, which was first equipped by the Chu army on a large scale, had an all-weather firing rate of 70.00%. [-]% two or so.

This laid the foundation for the flintlock to replace the arquebus in an all-round way.

The complete elimination of spearmen is due to the continuous improvement of smelting technology. The Chu army used sleeve spears on the muskets, making the matchlock guns capable of close combat.

The all-weather firing rate of 70.00%, coupled with the sleeve gun, the combination of these two things made the Chu army start to form an all-fusilicon unit and test the application of line tactics.

It was not until the sixth year of Chengshun, the successful development of Type A Type III flintlock guns in the second year, and its all-weather firing rate reached 70.00% five years later, that the real military equipment began.

Even so, matchlock guns and spears have been equipped in the Chu army for many years.

Around the tenth year of Chengshun, the army completely retired matchlock guns, but the militia troops were still equipped with matchlock guns.

In the 16th year of Chengshun, the matchlock guns were fully retired in the militia and began to replace with various two-year-style flintlock guns retired by the military. Only in this way, the matchlock guns were completely retired.

In other words, from the first flintlock developed by the Great Chu Empire in the second year of Chengshun, it was not until 14 years later that the matchlock gun completely withdrew from the military power of the Great Chu Empire. Well, the militia is also considered a military force...

As strong as the Great Chu Empire, it lasted for a full 14 years in the process of eliminating matchlock guns from flintlock guns, let alone other countries.

Even if the Great Chu Empire set an example for them, it would be very difficult.

The technical problems are even more difficult to solve!
The Great Chu Empire obtained flintlock guns from many European countries through various channels for testing.

The early flintlock guns in these European regions had a very poor all-weather firing rate, basically around 50.00% and [-]%, and many of them lacked wind and rain protection measures, and were basically useless in bad weather such as wind and rain.

On the other hand, because of the civil war on the British side, the urgent need for new flintlock guns made them actively develop flintlock guns.

These British brought back several two-year-style flintlock guns of the Great Chu Empire obtained through special channels from India. After surveying and imitating these two-year-style flintlock guns, they came up with a new type of flintlock guns. The flintlock gun is called the Type [-] flintlock... Even the name clearly shows that the copy is the Type [-] flintlock gun.

Although the technology of this gun is not in place, it has imitated everything that should be imitated. At least the structure of the gun mechanism has been imitated very well... The firing rate can also reach about 60.00%.

The only problem is that their material is not good, especially the spring material is too poor, after a period of use the spring will not work, and then the firing rate will drop rapidly...

So the spring of this thing has to be changed frequently.

The barrel is not good enough, which will affect the accuracy, muzzle velocity, service life, extreme weather and other performance.

But these are not problems... The most important thing is that this new flintlock gun is too expensive. After the British made this flintlock gun, they were very depressed and found that they could not equip it on a large scale... This shit The cost is almost five times that of an arquebus.

This can’t be blamed on them, but the objects they imitated were already very expensive... The two-year-style flintlock guns produced in the early days of the Great Chu Empire were notoriously expensive... The prices of early mass production were more than 20 Chu One yuan, while the matchlock guns of the same period at that time only cost about four yuan.

Five times the difference!
It was not until the later technology came up and the mass production continued for a long time that the price of the two-year-style flintlock gun was reduced to the level of fourteen and five Chu yuan. Even so, it was more than three times more expensive than the matchlock gun!
By the way, the current new flintlock guns of the Chu army, that is, the 13-year series flintlock guns, are not cheap. The standard version and the cavalry version are about the same price, about [-] Chu yuan.

The expensive one is the tropical version, which costs sixteen Chu yuan a piece.

With the current industrial technology level of the Great Chu Empire, it would only cost two or three Chu Yuan to produce a matchlock gun for export.

If you want to use advanced flintlock guns in this era, you have the consciousness of being taken advantage of.

Otherwise, you can go with a matchlock gun, that thing is cheap... Well, the Qing Dynasty in history claimed to be very smart, and was unwilling to be taken advantage of by this, and insisted on using matchlock guns until Erya.

Don't think that people don't know about flintlock guns, and don't think that they haven't tried equipment. In fact, they know and have tried small-scale equipment...but they all gave up in the end. Why?Expensive... Why do you equip such expensive things when you are not at war.

As for wanting to wait until the war, sorry...no.

The ancient feudal countries were all the same. Usually, they didn’t care about the research and development of armaments and replacement of weapons. How to save money... I was dumbfounded when it came to war. At this time, I was in a hurry to get new weapons. It's often over before it's done...

As for the Great Chu Empire, because of the existence of Luo Zhixue, and because of the continuous external expansion wars, the armament work has naturally never stopped.

And the British side just happened to be in the period of civil war, so a Type [-] flintlock gun was produced. Although this flintlock gun still has problems of one kind or another, there are a lot of messy flintlock guns in Europe. In the gun, it is already considered top level.

Strictly speaking, in addition to the frequent replacement of springs, the cost of use is relatively high. This thing is actually similar to the early models of the two-year-style flintlock gun of the Great Chu Empire. After all, the technology in the early years of the Great Chu Empire was actually the same. The materials and processing technology are not much better.

The Great Chu Empire was able to produce this thing back then, and theoretically other countries with slightly better handicraft industries could also produce it.

But... this is a British flintlock, and it has nothing to do with the Russians... Although the Russians also imitate and learn in various ways, their technical level is even worse, and the flintlock they made is useless...

Therefore, until now, Russia still uses matchlock guns and flintlock guns together, and musketeers still need spearmen for protection.

In terms of overall infantry tactics, it is still the same set during the war in the 30s.

In addition to infantry, artillery is similar, and they also have field artillery, but not many.

Not to mention the more important explosive ammunition in the artillery, they don't have this stuff at all... Let alone them, a large number of other European countries do not have the advanced grenades of the Chu army, at most they use matchlock grenades to top them.

The current grenades of the Chu army use the second-generation fuze, that is, the metal time-delay fuze, which is different from the first-generation wooden time-delay fuze, which is more accurate and safer.

As for the grenades of the Chu army, even though they are still spherical shells, the fuze is also a medicine plate fuze, but it is not easy for you to imitate on a large scale...

How should I put it, this thing is an industrially produced product... If you want to imitate it by hand, it is not a big problem to make one or two, but if you want to make thousands, it is impossible!

Not to mention the fuze, you can't handle the shell casing...

Chu Jun's grenades, the shells seem to be black cast iron, but they are actually made of low carbon steel processed by wrought iron, and prefabricated fragments are used for processing.

If you don't have the corresponding steel smelting technology and finishing ability, you can't make this shell case at all.

If your skills are not up to standard, you have to learn from the Chu army to make this kind of grenade, so in order to withstand the chamber pressure, you have to make a very thick shell case, but a thick shell means that the charge is not enough, the explosive power is not good, and the shell case is thicker , there is no way that when the shell explodes, it forms a large number of fragments... In the end, there is a bang, and the grenade explodes in half... Just a sound, no actual power.

Therefore, many things of the Great Chu Empire, especially weapons, which are very technologically-intensive industrial products, are not something that the indigenous countries can learn if they want... The basic technology is not in place, and the samples and even the design drawings are directly given to them. They can't imitate it either.

The 13-year series of flintlock guns, a series of new artillery and grenades in the later period, and even the 15-year saber of the cavalry... Those indigenous countries have no way to imitate.

Don't talk about guns, let's just talk about the 15-year-old saber. At first glance, this thing is simple enough, and it can be imitated by any blacksmith.

However, if your imitation saber wants to achieve the strength of the 15-year saber, it will be difficult.

Unless it is slowly built by hand and takes a long time, it can be done in this way, but the saber produced in this way has no actual combat value...Weapons that cannot be mass-produced, especially this kind of cold weapon, have no actual combat value .

As for the Great Chu Empire...all of them are mass-produced directly using wrought iron as raw material and using large-scale forging machinery and other mechanical equipment...

Even though the Russians had obtained many weapons and equipment from the Chu Army through various channels before, except for directly using these very few weapons of the Chu Army, it is very difficult to imitate them.

Therefore, so far, the Russians have mainly used matchlock guns, paired with some flintlock guns with poor performance, and then supplemented by cold weapons such as spears as the main infantry weapons.

On the whole, it is still the level of equipment in the late period of the 30 Years War.

If you want to confront the Chu army with this level of equipment, you will die miserably. In this regard, the Russians have already had a lot of failure experience.

And if you lose more battles, you will naturally have more experience.

According to the experience of the Russians, the best way to fight the Chu army is not to confront the Chu army head-on, but to rely on the castle to conduct defensive operations. It does not mean that you can win by relying on defensive operations, but to prolong the battle through defensive operations. Time to wait until winter comes.

Winter is the best weapon for the Russians to resist the Chu army.

Now, they are preparing to do the same.

On June 21, 24 of Chengshun, the Chu army arrived in Yakutsk. In the first few days, the Chu army did not launch an attack on Yakutsk, but was making various preparations, mainly moving the artillery Disembark, and then transport to the city of Yakutsk for deployment.

With the Chu army's artillery and ammunition in place one after another, the second battle of Yakutsk City can be regarded as the real start.

On June 28, the artillery unit of the Chu army launched the first round of shelling on the city of Yakutsk.

This time the bombardment used field artillery and cannons used by some inland warships, mainly firing solid shells, and shelled part of the fortifications of Yakutsk City.

Naturally, this kind of bombardment can't achieve much actual results. The Russian castle is also a bastion. When it was built and designed, it was considered to resist the bombardment. In recent years, because of the threat of the Chu army, they have reinforced the city of Yakutsk. defense facilities.

Therefore, if you want to rely on pure solid shells, it is difficult to cause any actual blow to this kind of city defense system in a short period of time.

And the Chu army is not in a hurry. The first round of solid bombardment is purely exploratory bombardment. It aims to find the enemy's weak points, attract the enemy's artillery to counterattack, and then find out some hidden firepower points of the enemy. It is a surprise to destroy some weak points of the enemy's city defense at the right time.

After the tentative bombardment on the first day, the Chu army launched a large-scale bombardment on the second day.

But this time the shelling was different from the painless one on the first day. Large-scale grenades were fired, and intensive shelling was carried out one by one on the densely populated places and artillery deployment sites in Yakutsk City.

The grenades fired by numerous howitzers and field guns were continuously shot out, and then fell on the Russian fort positions, and began to harvest Russian lives in a stable and orderly manner.

Of course, the actual combat results are unlikely to be too many... The Russians have also gained experience from being beaten, and there are relatively complete anti-grenade facilities in the city defense facilities. After the Chu army started a large-scale howitzer bombardment, many Russian soldiers hid Into the artillery fortifications.

However, when the Russians went down from the city and began to enter the artillery fortifications to avoid the shelling, the infantry of the Chu army also began to move.

The infantry of the Chu army began to gradually approach relying on the terrain, and after they approached, they approached with the 115mm light howitzer they carried for shelling.

115mm light howitzer, this thing is a kind of artillery that can shoot flat or curved. When it shoots at a large angle, it is actually no different from a medium-caliber mortar. This shell bypasses the defensive facilities such as the city wall, and then falls from the sky under the enemy's head.

When a large number of artillery began to cover the infantry attack, it also meant that the city of Yakutsk entered the real engagement stage.

The Russians can't just hide and not fight back at this time... Facing the attack of the Chu army's infantry, they have to come out of the artillery fortifications, and then use their matchlock guns, their flintlock guns, and their artillery to fight back.

Otherwise, the Chu army's first wave of infantry attack could directly kill their city leaders.

However, what the Chu army wanted was for them to come out of the artillery fortifications.

As long as they come out of the anti-artillery fortifications, the prepared artillery units of the Chu army will be able to carry out intensive rapid-fire shelling in a targeted manner, and then quickly and effectively kill a large number of the enemy's vital forces.

First, shelling covers the infantry attack, and the infantry attack forces the enemy to fight back, and then uses artillery to kill and injure the enemy.

It's that simple, even if the Russians on the opposite side are very familiar with this two-axe tactic, the Russians on the opposite side are crying for their father and mother!

The Russians knew what tactics the Chu army would use to attack the city, and took corresponding defensive measures, but they still couldn't hold back.

The Chu army has played this whole siege process for more than ten years, but so far, no enemy can withstand such a seemingly simple set of tactics that actually requires the support of strong national power.

After the artillery bombards the infantry, the infantry rushes, and the infantry rushes after the artillery bombards!
It's that simple, and the whole world knows that the Chu army will fight like this...but no one can stand it.

why?
Why else, the Chu army has a lot of artillery!
Not only are there many cannons, but also the second-generation metal time-delayed fuze grenade is used. The overall firepower level has reached the level of later generations in the early nineteenth century...

The aboriginal armies of various countries can bear it these days.

The weapons and equipment of the Russians in Yakutsk are not bad in European countries. There are more than 5000 mercenaries and militias in total, and they are equipped with various medium-sized weapons that weigh more than three pounds and less than twelve pounds. There are more than 20 long-barreled artillery pieces, and the number of artillery pieces per thousand people reaches four.

This level has surpassed most of the field troops of other countries at the same time, and only the city defense army can achieve it.

But how many artillery pieces did the Chu army attack Yakutsk?
In the 8000-strong Lena River Dispatch Army, there is a small field artillery regiment under its jurisdiction. There are a total of twelve 115mm mountain guns, twelve 115mm field guns, and twelve 150mm light howitzers.

Then there are infantry regiments and cavalry regiments with a total of six 90mm field guns, twelve 65mm field guns, and twelve 115mm light howitzers.

The dispatched army of the army alone has sixty artillery pieces of various kinds.

Then the navy also temporarily removed the artillery from some civil war warships, and transferred naval gunners to form a naval artillery battalion. This artillery battalion has eight 115mm cannons and ten 150mm howitzers.

The total number of artillery deployed on the ground by the army and navy has reached as many as 78!

Then the inland river gunships in the second brigade of the navy did not sit idle and did their jobs, but cooperated with the army to bombard the Russian army. The total number of naval guns that these inland river battleships could mobilize must also be as many as dozens.

The entire artillery participating in the offensive operations, the army and navy add up to more than one hundred.

So many cannons are just to attack a city, this kind of thing is done by no other country except the Great Chu Empire in the present age!
Not to mention, these artillery pieces of the Chu army, except for the 65mm field artillery, can fire grenades.

Simple tactics, relying on powerful artillery power.

If you don't even have much artillery, then you're still playing with infantry coordination.

Under such intensive bombardment, how could the Russians be able to bear it... They can't bear it, they don't have this ability, if they had this ability, they would have swept across Europe long ago!

Therefore, on July [-], after several days of fierce fighting, relying on the absolute artillery advantage to repeatedly bombard the Russians and cause a large number of enemy casualties, morale was low.

The leading infantry of the Chu army finally killed the head of the city of Yakutsk, and then began to attack the city.

At around [-] o'clock in the afternoon that day, the Russian commander, seeing that the situation was over, had no choice but to order the remaining soldiers and civilians to lay down their weapons and surrender.

As a result, Russia's largest colonial city in Far East Siberia, the largest military fortress, and the most important transportation hub, Yakutsk City, officially fell into the hands of the Great Chu Empire.

On the same day, the administrative officials of the Xiaobeihai Mansion who went north along with the Lena River Dispatch Army began to station in the city, and established the northernmost administrative organization in the history of China: the Zhenbei County Government Office!
Zhenbei County, this is the official name of the Great Chu Empire, which means guarding the northern city!
And the important geographical location of this city is indeed worthy of this title!
(End of this chapter)