I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 326 Confidence and Adventure

The Prussian cavalry in reserve and the Hilde cavalry battalion responsible for covering the right-wing artillery quickly received orders and quickly began to form their teams, preparing to annihilate the group of French cavalry artillery that dared to push forward in front of the two armies.

At the same time, the French cavalry artillery battalion had completed preparations for shooting. The horses were driven more than a hundred meters away, and the cannon adjusted the shooting angle.

The herald of the artillery battalion quickly ran past the temporary artillery position and shouted: "Solid bullets. Prepare for school firing!"

The gunners skillfully filled the muzzle with gunpowder, hammered it tightly, and then inserted a 6-pound iron ball.

The company commanders of each company received the prepared reports one after another, and the command flag not far away fell immediately.

The igniter immediately pulled the firing rope, and the hammer at the rear of the cannon hit the flash cap hard, igniting the gunpowder in the barrel.

Yes, all the cannons equipped by the Guards Cavalry Artillery have been replaced by percussion caps. In fact, after the flash cap gun matures, the flash cap firing technology can be easily transplanted to the cannon. All that is required is to repeatedly adjust the structural strength of the fire door and trial-produce a slightly larger special flash cap. These things were basically completed by the Royal Ordnance Factory at the beginning of the year.

With a loud rumbling sound, a large amount of black smoke rose from the muzzle, and 12 iron balls roared and flew towards the South Netherlands Army nearly steps away.

Under the close range artillery fire, nearly one-third of the artillery shells accurately passed through the infantry lines. When the huge impact swept across the human body, it was like hitting a balloon filled with water, causing the flesh and blood to explode. , the red-black sticky substance was thrown backwards in a fan shape seven or eight meters away.

Nearly half a minute later, the command from the cavalry artillery battalion commander came, "Grape bullets!"

After the loader has compacted the gunpowder, the loader removes a cylindrical "iron bucket" from the ammunition cart, carefully fills it into the muzzle, and then compacts it again.

The company commanders of each cavalry artillery company of the Guards Corps observed the shooting effect through their telescopes and quickly ordered the gunners to adjust the shooting angle.

There was even a shell that rolled into the second infantry line behind the Dutch army because the gunner raised the firing angle a little high, crushing the calf of a drummer.

However, the range of grape bullets is relatively short, so it is difficult to use them when the artillery of both sides is bombarding each other - they will be suppressed by the opposite solid bullets with a longer range. At this time, the mounted artillery of the Guards Corps was almost in the face of the Dutch infantry, enough to use grapeshot.

As the firing order was issued, the 12 six-pound cannons spewed out thick smoke again, and this time what flew towards the Dutch infantry line was no longer a solid iron ball, but a spinning cylindrical barrel.

And even the thrown bone fragments have terrible lethality. The person being stabbed is not much different from being hit by a bullet. Basically, there is an absolute dead zone within 1 meter on both sides of the flight path of an artillery shell, and soldiers within 2 meters may be killed or injured.

The shell left four gaps in the infantry line, and after landing, it bounced and rolled out. Even at this time, as long as it was touched by the dark iron ball, it would immediately pay the price of broken limbs.

For anti-personnel infantry, solid bullets are just an itch, while grapeshot is the real nightmare.

Many movies and TV shows shoot grapeshot when they shout about shooting grapeshot. In fact, there is a big difference between the two.

Although grape bombs also rely on shotguns to kill, they are not simply stuffing a bunch of small pellets into the cannon. Instead, they use ropes, iron sheets, etc. to fix a large number of small iron balls together, and usually wrap them in multiple layers. .

The shells treated in this way can fly farther by relying on the overall inertia - compared to simple shotguns - when they get close to the enemy, the fragile shell surrounding the projectiles will tear under the impact, and the projectiles inside will then fly out in all directions. The horrific screams from hell suddenly erupted from the South Netherlands infantry lines.

Thanks to the previous school shooting, nearly a hundred walnut-sized projectiles swept around the crowd, like a giant fly swatter, instantly slapping forty or fifty soldiers into pieces.

The Dutch officer hurriedly shouted: "It's grape bullets! Stay low! Don't run around, stay in formation!"

The French infantry line on the opposite side is not too far away. If they spread out to avoid the artillery at this time, when the French rush up, the Dutch army will probably not be able to complete the entire team, so they can only grit their teeth and hold on.

"Don't worry, at such a close distance, our cavalry will take care of those cannons soon!"

"Once the French cannons are put away, victory will be ours!"

The Dutch soldiers turned around and saw that their cavalry had basically completed the entire team. Their confidence suddenly increased and they began to busy filling the vacancies left by their teammates who died in the battle.

And just less than twenty seconds later, the French cavalry artillery cannon fired again.

It was still grape bullets, flying with a weird scream that was different from ordinary artillery shells, but it stopped suddenly in the middle - that is when the shells shattered and the projectiles inside were thrown out.

Another blood mist rose, but because the Dutch soldiers deliberately ducked to avoid it under the command of the officers, only more than thirty people were hit, but such heavy casualties were enough to trigger panic in the infantry lines.

You know, in this era of muskets + muzzleloaders, even if the infantry lines on both sides fire a salvo at close range, it can cause dozens of casualties at most.

Few people have seen such bloody and tragic scenes.

Major Hilde could see the tragic scene on the Dutch infantry line when he raised his eyes. He turned around and saw that his cavalry had almost completely formed the team. He immediately pointed his riding whip forward impatiently and shouted angrily: "Follow me." Teach those French artillerymen who are looking for death a lesson!”

Immediately, more than 800 war horses trotted out - this was already a violation of cavalry code. Generally speaking, you will start trotting when you are approaching about 300 steps, and you will only be allowed to charge within 100 steps.

At this time, Hilde's cavalry battalion was at least 700 steps away from the French cavalry artillery. Doing so would seriously consume the horses' physical strength.

But Hilde can no longer care about it at this time. If those cannons are not dealt with, the Dutch will collapse from the grape bombs!
And at such a close distance, the cannon had no time to escape. As long as he rushed over, he could easily reap the fruitful results of more than a dozen cannons. In comparison, the little infantry lost before was nothing at all.

However, almost as soon as his cavalry galloped out, the French artillerymen at the forefront of the battlefield began to collect their firing tools and "hurriedly" mounted the cannons on their horses.

Hilde sneered when he saw this. These stupid French people dared to pull the cannon to such a forward position! Even the most skilled gunner would take at least 5 minutes to harness the cannon and start retreating. It would take several minutes to retreat within the fire range of our own infantry.

Such a long time is enough for me to kill all the gunners, nail all the gun doors, and smoke a cigarette comfortably!
(End of this chapter)