mtl008 Chapter 582 Grenade
Chapter 582 Grenade
Looking at the dark muzzles of the guns, the young men felt a chill and slowed their pace. The government troops used these firearms to fight off the vicious Tartars; they were formidable, and the young men didn't want to be shot themselves. Zhao Si whispered encouragement in the crowd: "What's there to be afraid of? It's just a scare tactic. The government troops won't dare openly kill civilians; we have so many people watching!"
Some people actually believed him. After hesitating for a moment, they moved, some even jogging.
Without even a second's hesitation, he coldly ordered, "Fire!"
The soldiers pulled the triggers, and "bang, bang, bang," young men dozens of paces away fell one by one. Those who thought the officers and soldiers wouldn't dare to lay a hand on them were stunned.
Some people were seriously injured but did not die. They rolled on the ground in pain and screamed loudly, which was particularly tragic under the gaze of more than 10,000 eyes.
Park In-yong was incredibly unlucky. Caught in the crowd, before he could do anything, he was hit by a bullet in the shoulder and fell into a pool of blood. The wound wasn't fatal, but the pain was excruciating. He rolled on the ground, howling in agony. Zhao Si and Liu Neng, on the other hand, were lucky enough to escape the stray bullets.
The company commander shouted, "Listen up, everyone! Anyone who tries to escape will be considered a Tartar spy and will die in vain. Think twice before you act!"
The soldiers relayed the message one by one to both ends of the long line, until finally everyone heard it.
The officers and soldiers were fully armed and carrying guns, and with the pretext of Tartar spies, they were openly killing people. Coupled with their long-standing fear of the government, after this volley of shots, all the people dared not have any more thoughts and behaved themselves obediently.
Zhao Si was stunned for a long time before he accepted the failure of his incitement. He dared not say anything more, squeezed into the crowd, tied his wrists with a rope, and pretended to be innocent, having nothing to do with the young men from before.
After this minor incident, the nearly ten thousand people were bound together with ropes and slowly moved towards Dengzhou under the control of more than a hundred soldiers. The escorting soldiers naturally wouldn't tell them they were being taken to Dengzhou to become military households, to avoid further complications along the way. Once in Dengzhou, these people were like turtles in a jar, unable to cause any more trouble.
On the sea, a fleet of ships stretching as far as the eye can see is cutting through the waves and moving swiftly forward.
On the flagship "Guangdong," Liu Ye convened officers of battalion commander rank and above, along with staff officers from the Military Affairs Department, to review the battle and discuss the gains and losses of the Battle of Changyi. Timely post-battle debriefing and recognizing shortcomings are essential for any army. While this battle resulted in a final victory, the losses were substantial, and some unforeseen judgment errors occurred during the fighting, warranting thorough analysis.
Liu Ye gestured for Shi Ying, who had been on the front lines, to speak first.
Shi Ying thought for a moment and then said, "I have a few ideas, but I don't know if they're right. I'll share them and everyone can give me some advice."
"First, we've always heard that the Tartars are unparalleled in horsemanship and archery, but judging from their actual performance in battle, that's not the case at all," Shi Ying said thoughtfully. "According to the Independent Regiment, the truly skilled horsemen are the Mongols, and the best horsemen and archers are also the Mongols. While many Tartar cavalrymen also ride two horses, they are more like mounted infantrymen. When they get close, they don't charge on horseback but fight on foot. However, their heavy arrows are incredibly powerful when fired horizontally; the first five arrows are comparable to muskets. In my opinion, if we encounter Tartar cavalry in the future, as long as they are not outnumbered, we don't necessarily have to form an empty square formation."
Xu Yifan nodded and said, "That makes sense. But I think we should add a condition: that there are no Mongols accompanying us. If we are harassed by Mongol light cavalry on both flanks, then we can only form a square formation."
Su Hongtu also said: "The Mongols' horsemanship and archery skills on horseback are indeed impressive. In terms of agility and mobility, they far surpass the Tartars. With them around, it would be difficult to defend against them without deploying a square formation."
Liu Ye concluded, "Let's synthesize your opinions, refine them further, and incorporate them into the infantry manual. Then, when we encounter Tartar cavalry again, we'll know how to deal with them."
This conversation actually makes a lot of sense. If they meet again, the Tartars should first have their Mongol cavalry flank them. Ordinary formations alone won't be able to withstand that.
Shi Ying continued, "Secondly, the Tartars' shield wagons are troublesome, at least in terms of their effectiveness against muskets. If there are no cannons in the front, the Tartars can use the shield wagons as cover to send up archers and fire arrows recklessly. We don't have a good solution for the time being."
Zuo Wuwei, the artillery battalion commander of the First Regiment, interjected: "Unless we set up the mountain guns in front of the troops... But that would put the artillerymen in a dangerous situation with an extremely low survival rate on the battlefield. Whether it's arrow fire or infantry charges, the artillerymen would be the first to die. No way, no way."
Liang Xiaoming seemed to be deep in thought, and muttered to himself, "Artillerymen need to be safe, so we could consider grenadiers..."
Liu Ye asked curiously, "What grenadier?"
Liang Xiaoming snapped out of his reverie and explained, "Before we have rifled muskets, we can consider using grenades to fill the firepower gap between indirect fire howitzers and flintlock muskets. Imagine, the Tartars go through all the trouble of pushing their shield wagons in front of us to cover their archers as they fire arrows, and then we throw a volley of grenades at them, and all the archers are dead. Wouldn't that be awesome?"
Liu Ye was both surprised and delighted: "There's such a thing? They can actually make hand grenades? Why didn't they do it sooner?"
"Grenades from the black powder era weren't as convenient and practical as you might imagine. Without high explosives and reliable trigger mechanisms, so-called grenades were just scaled-down versions of artillery shells—bulky and not powerful enough. That's why we never used them before; volley fire and artillery were sufficient for most battles," Liang Xiaoming explained. "Now that we're dealing with shield wagons, we can use this weapon. I'll give it a try when we get to Lingao."
Quartz was filled with anticipation. "Manually throwing exploding shells? That's a great idea. Then we won't be afraid of the Tartars' shield carts anymore."
He then went on to offer his third suggestion.
"Finally, the Tartars mostly wear armor, and more than one layer, while we don't, which puts us at a significant disadvantage in battle. I've observed that the Tartars' fighting style revolves around a few basic tactics: hurling light arrows, firing heavy arrows horizontally, and charging with infantry. We can withstand heavy weapons like maces and axes even with armor; however, if we have light armor on our head, chest, shoulders, and arms, we can mostly stop hurled light arrows, and even heavy arrows won't be fatal. With suitable armor, our soldiers have a much higher chance of survival."