At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 566: The Huns are experts in both cold and hot weapons
July 33, 7rd year of the Han Dynasty. Parthia, Persepolis.

The defeated soldiers of the Parthian Empire continued to gather in the city of Persepolis.

Jinzhe gathered more than 3000 people, and it was through these soldiers that they learned how the city of Tela fell.

When they realized that the Huns were facing their muskets and crossbows and then started to counterattack after 30 steps, everyone was silent. At this distance, not to mention the powerful muskets, even long arrows were difficult for the army to maintain morale and resist.

This was not the case when they fought the Huns in previous years. Both sides shot at each other with muskets from a hundred steps away, and then engaged in hand-to-hand combat after running out of bullets.

Zhang Meng, the captain of the Han mercenaries, said: "I suggest that you do not take the initiative to go out of the city to fight in the field. The Huns can make their soldiers ignore death. We will definitely be defeated if we attack in the field. If we defend Persepolis, we may be able to force the Huns to retreat on their own initiative."

Zhang Meng was originally a retainer of Guan Ying. After the Age of Discovery began, most of the nobles of the Han Dynasty established fleets. Zhang Meng was the one who helped Guan Ying's family make money from the sea.

When the Han Dynasty wanted to secretly support the Parthian Empire, Zhang Meng served as a mercenary to help the Parthian Empire establish artillery and musket teams.

This battle even surprised Zhang Meng. The Han Dynasty had fought against the Huns before. At that time, the Huns were as cowardly as mice. They would fight only when they could gain an advantage, and would flee immediately after a slight loss. They used the tactic of "if you can't hit me, you will be disgusted". The Han Dynasty finally defeated the Huns by actively attacking their old nest, Mobei, leaving no way for passers-by to escape. If the Battle of Tela City was true, it would be difficult for the regular army of the Han Dynasty to do this.

The city lord Manis asked, "Can we defend the city?"

Zhang Meng said: "I don't know either. With the cannon, the city's defense is far less powerful than before. But if you don't do anything, you will be defeated even faster. War is ultimately won by strength."

The city of Persepolis, built during the reign of Darius I (reigned 522-486 BC), was the capital of the ancient Persian Empire. It was conquered and looted by Alexander the Great hundreds of years ago, and then gradually fell into decline. The existing city was built by the Parthian Empire, but it is no longer as prosperous as it was in the ancient Persian period. The city defense is extremely backward, and most of the city walls are made of mud boards. It is almost impossible for such a city to withstand artillery fire.

Zhang Meng thought for a moment and said, "Now we can only dig more ditches, build low walls, and make full use of the power of artillery and muskets. However, an isolated city cannot be defended. I will wait for reinforcements from the periphery. Of course, if we can mobilize the people of the entire Parthian Empire and let them attack the Xiongnu's food supply route, our chances of winning can be increased by 3 points."

"Mobilize the people?" All the nobles and mercenary leaders of the Parthian Empire looked at each other in bewilderment when they heard this. In their social system, there is no concept of the people. There are only three levels: nobles, citizens, and slaves. Although the concept of citizens is similar to that of the people of the Han Dynasty, they are actually candidates for nobles and have the right to participate in politics. In terms of number and rights, they are closer to the gentry level of the Han Dynasty.

The Mediterranean region is a real slave state. The lower class in this region is dominated by slaves, and the rulers are slave owners. Self-cultivating farmers are only a minority and are not considered the mainstream. A few years ago, Rome conquered two small city-states and directly reduced hundreds of thousands of people in these two small city-states to slaves. Because the slave population was too large, it even caused a sharp drop in the price of slaves. Conquering and being conquered, slaves and slave owners are the main themes of this civilization.

So there is a very funny joke in later generations: why were there no peasant uprisings in the West?
Public intellectuals want to prove that Western civilization is more advanced. But in fact, there are not many peasants in the West, so there are not many peasant uprisings. But there are many slaves in the West, so slave uprisings are all over their history. The most famous one is the Spartan slave uprising that is in our textbooks.

Even during the so-called slave era of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties of Chinese civilization, slaves were still not the mainstream of that era, but rather the people of the country were gathered together in tribes.

Seeing these confused nobles, Zhang Meng remembered that this was not a Han man.

Zhang Meng said: "Give the serfs the status of free people, and give them a piece of land to inspire them to defend their country."

In Zhang Meng's view, these are all advanced experiences of the Han Dynasty. It was with these experiences that the emperor defeated the tyrannical Qin Dynasty with millions of soldiers.

The city lord Manis shook his head and said, "Now Anxi still relies on the nobles to defend the country. How can we divide their slaves and land?"

Other nobles also refused and divided their serfs and land.

After Jin Zhe and his group of overseas students returned, there was a call for reform in the Parthian Empire. After all, these people had witnessed the power of the Han Dynasty, and they had a strong desire for the Parthian Empire to learn the policies of the Han Dynasty. In Jin Yin and others' view, as long as they learned the policies of the Han Dynasty, they would be able to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and then defeating the small Huns would be a piece of cake.

However, these reform policies were too unfavorable to the nobles of the Parthian Empire. At this time, the Parthian Empire needed the help of these nobles, and the king of Parthia was even more worried that the reform would cause internal strife in the Parthian Empire before the Huns came, so he restricted the reform policies and only carried out some military reforms.

The Parthian Empire was unable to mobilize the people, but they still took advantage of these few days to recruit serfs, dig ditches, build low walls, expand the defense area of ​​the entire Persepolis, and improve the city's defense system.

During this period, the Hun's 10-strong army slowly advanced towards Persepolis.

On July 7, the Hun army appeared outside the city of Persepolis. Five days before, the Huns built a camp and surrounded Persepolis on three sides with their camp.

In the artillery position, Zhang Meng used a telescope to observe the Huns' position not far away, trying to find the Huns' artillery position.

Jin Zhe asked Zhang Zhe: "Instructor, do we still have a chance to win?"

Although the Huns came to the city of Persepolis, their contact with the outside world was not cut off. What made Jin Zhe a little desperate was that the situation in the north was even worse. The Huns had successively conquered three important cities of Parthia and were now surrounding the capital of Parthia. It seemed that Parthia was on the verge of national destruction.

Zhang Meng said: "Of course there is a chance. As long as Parthia mobilizes the majority of its people, you can defeat the Xiongnu. Although the Xiongnu have 20 troops, Parthia has million people, which is far more than the Xiongnu army."

Jin Zhe heard this and said, "The pests in the country would rather drag the Parthian Empire to hell than give up their own property, because in their eyes, their property is sacred and inviolable. If the Parthian Empire cannot protect their property, they would rather not have the country of Parthian Empire."

Zhang Meng said calmly: "Since they have made their choice, they should bear the consequences themselves."

Zhang Meng's background was not very good. His father was a tenant farmer. When Guan Ying started the uprising, his father saw that his family was poor and followed Guan Ying in the rebellion without a second thought. It is said that a general's success is the result of the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers. Although war is the best opportunity for the lower class to change their fate, Zhang Meng's father was one of the thousands of soldiers. When his father died, Zhang Meng was still a child, so he was adopted by Guan Ying. After he grew up, he became a general of Guan Ying and worked for the Guan family. With his background, he did not have much favor towards the nobles.

In Zhang Meng's view, the Xiongnu's horizontal musket tactics were not only a tactical victory, but also an institutional advancement. The Parthian army, which was composed of lower-class cattle and horses and mercenaries, could not resist the Xiongnu army, which was composed of self-cultivating farmers and herdsmen. The Xiongnu took two blows from the Parthians, while the Parthians could not even take one blow.

The tactics to break the situation were also very simple. All the Parthians had to do was not be afraid of death. They also walked 30 steps to strike the Huns. In fact, because the Parthians were defending their country, they should be able to withstand heavier casualties, while the Huns could definitely not withstand the two attacks of the Parthians at 30 steps.

On July 7, the Hun army launched an attack in three directions. The first Huns to launch an attack were artillery. Three artillery battalions with 11 artillery pieces continuously bombarded the city of Persepolis.

The shells hit the walls of Persepolis like meteors, and dust and bricks and stones were flying everywhere. Countless unfortunate people in Parthia were hit by the Huns' artillery and were crushed into flesh and blood, leaving only some bloodstains to prove their existence. The buildings near the walls in the city were collapsed and scattered, and dust was flying everywhere, looking extremely miserable.

Jin Zhe spat out the dust in his mouth and said, "Instructor, fire your artillery and fight back!"

But Zhang Meng shook his head and said, "The number of artillery and shells in the city is extremely limited. We cannot defeat the Xiongnu artillery battalion. The limited shells must be used to kill the Xiongnu's manpower."

The Parthian Empire had no industrial system, and their artillery was transported by the Han Dynasty. There was no shortage of sulfur and saltpeter along the Mediterranean front, but without an industrial system, they relied solely on workshop-style production of black gunpowder. The Parthian black gunpowder was not only of poor power and quality, but also in small quantity, which meant that Zhang Meng had to use it sparingly.

In the Hun camp, Zhou Yafu used a 16x telescope to observe the direction of the Hun artillery bombardment.

"It seems that the Huns' artillery technology is far inferior to that of the Han people. The Han people are already equipped with lighter and stronger steel cannons, while their artillery, judging from its power and range, is still an iron cannon that is cast in layers inside and outside."

Wrought iron has high toughness and is suitable for the inner tube, while pig iron is strong and suitable for the gun body. This layered forging of the cannon perfectly brings out the properties of iron, but of course the casting process is extremely cumbersome.

Of course, there are materials that are more suitable for making artillery. Bronze is a naturally suitable material for making artillery. It has strong heat dissipation and high ductility. Artillery made of bronze can fire hundreds of shells, while no matter how much the technology of iron cannons is improved, it is difficult to exceed 100 shells.

After the Han Dynasty discovered the Luzon copper mine, tens of millions of kilograms of copper were imported every year, which made the Han Dynasty not care about the cost and cast a large number of copper cannons with better ductility and lighter weight.

After the invention of the graphite dry pot, the Han Dynasty's steelmaking technology was further improved, and it could produce 1 ton or 2 tons of steel at a time. Then the artillery began to be updated with steel cannons with better toughness.

Apparently, the Huns had not yet mastered the technology of graphite dry pots. They could not forge high-quality artillery steel and could only continue to use pig iron and wrought iron to make artillery. The Huns bombarded Persepolis for half a day with artillery, and the entire city looked like a demolished building.

Li Shang said: "The Xiongnu have a lot of gunpowder. They must have fired tens of thousands of shells in half a day, and the gunpowder they used must be 30,000 to 50,000 kilograms. Even the imperial court rarely uses gunpowder so lavishly."

Li Shang was even a little envious. Just half a day of bombardment consumed their battalion's one year's worth of gunpowder stock.

Zhou Yafu said: "The Xiongnu's artillery lacks quality but makes up for it with quantity. If they were to fight against our Han army, our artillery would be out of range and would blow up their artillery."

Amidst the deafening bombardment, the Hun army began to advance in orderly steps.

When the Huns came within three hundred steps of the city of Persepolis.

Zhang Meng yelled, "Fire!"

"Boom boom boom!"

More than 200 artillery pieces fired almost simultaneously, and like meteors, they accurately hit the Huns' army formation.

Suddenly, a gap appeared in the Hun army formation, leaving bloody corpses on the ground. Those who were not killed by the artillery fire were either missing arms or legs, and could only wail on the ground.

But the soldiers' wailing did not affect the Huns' advance.

Parthian muskets on the first line of defense when the Huns began to approach within 100 steps of Persepolis.

"Bang, bang, bang!" The sound of gunfire began to ring out. The density of these bullets was not high, but the frequency was very fast. Not only were some Hun soldiers hit and fell, but soon someone else filled these vacancies.

When they encountered a ditch, the Huns found a way to fill it with wooden boards and continued to move forward. When they were forty or fifty steps away from the Anxi people, they also raised their muskets.

"Bang, bang, bang!" There was a burst of gunfire, and soldiers from both sides kept falling down. Then the Huns fired two rounds of gunfire, and the Parthian soldiers could not bear the casualties and fled to the rear.

The Hun army filled the trenches and continued to advance.

Zhang Meng shouted, "Use mortars!"

The mortar soldiers on the second line set fire to the shells in their hands.

"Puff, puff, puff" dozens of two-pound mortar shells drew a graceful arc and fell into the Huns' army formation.

The Hun officer saw the mortar shell and yelled, "Get down!"

"Boom boom!" The Huns around were blown to pieces and stopped their attack.

In this era without shrapnel shells, mortar shells filled with black gunpowder are more lethal, especially Xu Hanjun's flying thunder cannon. Although it has a short range, it is the most powerful in this era. Ten kilograms of black gunpowder can kill people and animals within a ten-foot range.

The Roman noble Apatius, the Seleucid nobles, the Ptolemaic dynasty, and even Carthage who were watching the battle on the sidelines were all stunned by the scene of war before them.

The intensity of this war was enough to almost destroy their three views. Was this the kind of war they had ever seen? Wars in the artillery era were actually fought like this.

Although they also purchased a small amount of muskets and artillery in their country, because there was no strong enemy oppression, these nobles were comparable to Fu Kangan of the Qing Dynasty. They recognized the power of artillery, but the price was high and the accuracy was low. Although muskets were more powerful than bows and crossbows, they were troublesome to load and the price was also a big problem.

A bow and arrow can fire three rounds in battle, but a musket can only fire one shot. In the eyes of nobles from other countries, it is not as practical as a bow and arrow.

Therefore, these countries were only equipped with a small amount of muskets and artillery, and they only played auxiliary roles in wars. After all, many of the barbarians around them were so poor that they couldn't even afford leather armor. The difference between using bows and arrows and muskets was not that big, and artillery was not even as practical as catapults.

When they saw tens of thousands of musketeers, they realized that they had underestimated the power of firearms. Although they did not understand the term "dimensionality reduction attack", they actually thought so in their hearts. Their country's army was afraid that they could not withstand a single attack from the Huns. However, Parthia resisted such a powerful Huns Empire for decades, and it was worthy of being a powerful country in the Mediterranean.

Junchen saw that his soldiers suffered heavy casualties under the enemy's mortar attack.

"Artillery battalion, destroy the enemy's mortars," he ordered.

The Hun's artillery battalion began to adjust the muzzles of their guns and fired continuously at the enemy's mortar positions.

"Boom, boom, boom!" Hundreds of shells continuously bombarded the mortar camp, and a large number of mortar operators were killed.

"The mortars should retreat to the rear and order those mercenaries to attack!"

Jin Zhe ran through the trenches to the rear of the German army and said, "It's time for you to attack. You can get a gold coin for chopping off a Hun's head. How much money you can make depends on your own ability."

The Germanic mercenary captain yelled, "Germans, attack!"

Then the German mercenary captain rushed towards the Huns with an iron shield in one hand and a sword in the other, followed by hundreds of German warriors.

More than 5000 mercenaries, divided into more than a dozen groups, rushed towards the Huns like a flood.

At this time, most of the Xiongnu soldiers fired three or five shots. The army was filled with smoke. In addition, Zhang Meng dug trenches and built low walls, making it difficult to attack the enemy by shooting in a line. But the Xiongnu army did not retreat.

"Confucius said: 'The general of an army can be deprived of his command, but the will of a common man cannot be taken away.'" The Huns shouted loudly. Holding flintlock rifles, they formed groups of three or five and rushed towards their enemies.

The two sides engaged in extremely brutal hand-to-hand combat, but the result of the battle made Zhang Meng and Jin Zhe extremely disappointed. It was enough that they could not defeat the Huns in terms of firearms.

After finally forcing the Huns into a battle where they could use cold weapons, they sent out their bravest German mercenaries.

But the situation on the battlefield was that the brave warriors in their eyes were stabbed to death in just a few strokes by the Huns' bayonets.

Although the 1-meter-long flintlock rifle could not compare to a spear, it could be considered a long weapon when combined with a bayonet. The Huns' thrusts directly killed the Germans, causing a river of blood.

Zhang Meng watched as one third of his 5000 mercenaries fell in less than an hour, and the remaining mercenaries either surrendered under the Huns' bayonets or fled to the rear of their positions.

(End of this chapter)