Chapter 96 Mortars Show Power
Unfortunately, it was too late to remind him, and even before he finished his words, the shell had fallen near the low wall, and then there was a dull explosion, which set off a large area of dirt and smoke. Although the shell did not directly hit behind the low wall, several nearby bandits were still shaken. Some of them were dizzy, and their bodies were covered with soil that fell from the sky after the explosion.
The 80mm mortar shell is not low. If imported * explosives are used, the explosion is even more powerful than the 75mm field artillery. However, Zhao Dongyun has limited money, and * fierce explosives are very expensive. It is not enough for regular field guns and mountain cannons. There will be Given the mortar used for infantry support firepower at the cheap battalion level, the charge is still ancient black gunpowder, and the explosive power is only average.
But even if the power is not as strong as the explosive, at least it is a cannonball. If it falls nearby and explodes, not to mention the impact break or something, the fragments of the shell alone are enough for you to bear.
The bandits are still wondering. They didn't find that those officers and soldiers had cannons. Where did this shell come from?
When these bandits were puzzled, hundreds of meters behind Liu Fu's first battalion, Wei Anpo was observing the landing point of the shell with a telescope. He was not surprised that the first shell was not hit. Although his mortar gunners had begun training before and had also conducted many live-fire training, After all, before they have officially formed an army, the mortar teams in a state of testing and training naturally can't expect them to fight so fast and accurately.
Even in the past nearly an hour, his artillery almost had an accident, causing his shelling support to be delayed for more than half an hour until now.
Wei Anpo put down his telescope and then turned his head to order a few words to correct and shoot Zhuyuan according to the launch point of the first shell. At this time, there were not only two cannons, but six mortars fired together.
Another six 80mm mortar shells flew into the air, and then crossed a distance of nearly two kilometers and landed near the low wall. As the shells fell one after another, although four shells fell on the outside of the low wall, two fell on the inside of the low wall and not far from the bandits. When the two shells exploded, the fragments emitted instantly engulfed three or four bandits not far away.
And this is not over yet. Not long after this round of shells fell, another round of shells roared. Because there was no need to worry about the other party's long-range artillery counterattack, Wei Anpo naturally did not need to move the mortar team of the artillery position from time to time. Wei Anpo, who safely commanded the shelling in the rear, not only gave the soil to Lv Shuang gunners. The bandits showed what a large-scale shelling was, which stunned a group of mounted officers below Meng En and let them know what a mortar rapid fire was.
In just one minute, Wei Anpo's mortar team fired a total of nearly 75 shells. In this minute, each mortar fired an average of 12 shells. At that time, only a few hundred meters of low walls were shrouded in smoke.
This shocked the officers of the Third Mixed Association who are used to the firing speed of artillery two or three times per minute!
Although there are the latest tube retreat guns in modern times, the tube retreat guns are still the most advanced technology at present. Now the Japanese army is not equipped, and only a small number of Gruson artillery in the Beiyang Army are barrel retreat guns, and most of them include those recently purchased from Japan. A large number of artillery still have retreated.
In the era of retreating guns, it is generally difficult to shoot more than three rounds per minute. These days, except for the latest French artillery, which can achieve a rate of fire of more than ten methods per minute, other artillery is basically not good. The rate of fire of the 75mm 1903 field gun ordered by Beiyang from Germany is only eight rounds per minute. Left and right.
However, this mortar broke out with a rate of fire of 12 rounds per minute in the first actual combat. You know, this is still a very conservative rate of fire. The technicians of those Fuyuan Machine Factory have been worried that the speed of fire will cause bombs or other accidents, so they have not allowed the maximum rate of fire to explode. No However, it is possible to shoot 15 shells in a minute.
"Now I finally know why the commander bought this mortar, and it's worth it with this rate of fire!" When Meng Enyuan said this, he even began to think about how to equip his cavalry standard with mortars.
The mortar is only 100 kilograms, and it is divided into three parts. It can be carried out at high speed and follow the cavalry. It is not much more troublesome than equipping machine guns. If your cavalry has machine guns and this mortar, they will be able to have independent support firepower in the future.
If you fight with an enemy, it is best to win with a saber on a horse, but if there are thousands of Russian cavalry on the opposite side and can't win with a knife, you can get off the horse and fight step by step. With mortars and machine guns in hand, you have to die much!
Apart from Meng Enyuan's wild thoughts there, other officers of all sizes were also stunned. The day before yesterday, Liu Fu saw from the telescope that the low wall that had been blown by shells exploded almost every meter burst out with a stern: "This son of son of a bitch, the gunner is fucking fierce!"
He also thought that if he could follow such a mortar team after his first battalion in the future, his combat effectiveness would not soar!
And Xi Hezhi, who was on the front line of the battle, blushed. He was just a lowest-level officer, but he could not imagine what would happen after his troops were equipped with mortars, let alone what kind of large-scale mortar equipment would have on the combat effectiveness of the third mixed cooperation.
Those things were too far away for him. Now he didn't think about why the mortar was so fierce. All he knew was that the bandits on the opposite side were definitely stunned.
Although it is 300 meters away, there is a piece of smoke on the opposite side from the telescope. More than 70 shells landed on a low wall defense line of less than 300 meters in just one minute, and the low wall opposite is not the kind of trenches with perfect artillery defense. It was plowed by 70 or 80 mm mortar shells. I guess there are only a few people left.
At this time, Xi He knew that his opportunity had come!
Although there was no prior coordination arrangement, the superiors only asked them to conduct fire reconnaissance at the beginning and did not order them to conquer the position, as a qualified grassroots officer, it is impossible to give up after seeing the opportunity!
So Xi Hezhi has waved the command knife in his hand again and shouted, "Brothers, Lord Zhao has been raising me for a long time. In order to make everyone support his family, this salary has not been reduced at all. Now it's time for Lord Zhao to need me to serve his life! "
Han Duotian beside him also shouted with an excited face: "I will rush there and kill his mother. I want to avenge the big tiger!"
Xi Hezhi continued to do the final morale: "Now the bandits opposite have been dispersed by our artillery brothers. As long as we rush there, we can win!"
Xi Hezhi looked around again and shouted, "Go up the bayonet!"
As the soldiers pulled the bayonet from their waist and inserted it into the bayonet slot of the muzzle, Xi Hezhi also blew the bronze whistle!
A sharp whistle sounded in the ditch. The soldiers in the second row climbed out of the ditch one after another with bayonet-mounted rifles, and then charged forward. Xi Hezhi also rushed out of the ditch with the saber in his hand and shouted from time to time: "Go!"
The saber in his hand also waved forward from time to time, leading dozens of soldiers in the second row to charge. During the charge, from time to time, someone rotated to stop shooting at the low wall in the distance to suppress fire.
The bandits behind the low wall were almost stunned after the round of shelling just now. In their bandit career, they fought with the officers and soldiers, and they did not go through the shelling of the officers and soldiers, but today's shelling is far different from the shelling they had encountered in the past.
After the dense shells fell, they caused serious casualties to nearly 100 bandits who had no artillery fortifications. In just one minute, the bandits had fallen nearly half of them again. The whole low wall was almost covered with corpses, blood flowed, and the bandits who were injured by shell fragments groaned in pain. Those who were bombed The man with broken foot crawled on the ground, and the intestines of those whose abdomen was cut by shrapnel flowed all over the ground. One person even screamed and tried to stuff his intestines back.
At this time, he was charged by the second row. Although a few people in the remaining bandits shot back, most of them were shocked to see the Beiyang soldiers who seemed to rush all over the mountains, and some timid people had even turned their heads and fled.
And the thing of escaping from the battlefield, there will be a second one, and then escape piece by piece.
When the soldiers in the second row charged, even within 100 meters of the low wall, most of the surviving bandits behind the low wall had run away. During the charge in the second half, not even a bandit shot at them.
This made Xi Hezhi, who was ready to die from injury, feel very surprised that this charge was not like a charge, but more like an armed outing.
"Bandits are bandits, and no matter what, they won't be beaten!" Xi Hezhi was full of contempt for these bandits: "If I had known it would be like this, I would have rushed up with people at the beginning!"
However, when Xi Hezhi led the low wall and saw the bodies and wailing wounded on the ground, he could no longer speak for a while. From a rough look, at least 50 or 60 people were lying here.
"These artillery are really fierce!" Xi Hezhi thought that these were the results of artillery, but what he didn't expect was that the head wounded here were all the results of artillery, but half of the bodies on the ground were his second row of battles.
In the hour-long shooting just now, a soldier may feel that it takes a long time to hit one, and even some soldiers have not get any hits from the beginning to the end, but after the base is large, even if the hit rate is worse, they can achieve the results of shooting 20 or 30 people.
It's just that it's so long that people can't feel it.
This makes Xi He subconsciously think that the bodies in this place are masterpieces of artillery!