Chapter 572 Siege (Twenty-Four)

Where did the rebels' new artillery come from?

Montecuccoli had no idea.

Countless conjectures popped up in his mind in an instant, but none of them could be verified at this moment and here.

While Montecuccoli was in a state of confusion, the battle on the river bank continued.

In the sky, the illumination rocket exhausted its short life, and collapsed unwillingly into a small red spot, and then disappeared in the night sky.

Both sides lost a main light source.

However, the liquid fire thrown into the trench had not yet burned out. The firelight shone through the veil-like smoke, dimly illuminating everything on the river bank, and behind the commandos of the Lodwijk unit who jumped out of the breastwork, casting a series of frenzied shadows.

The timing of the Lodwijk unit's attack was very good. In order to cover the landing of its own soldiers, the rebels' artillery had already fired a round of fire and temporarily disappeared. Only the rebels' musketeers were still firing fiercely.

Behind the soldiers of the Lodwijk unit who were at the forefront, there was a white tail, like the wake left by a ship on the water.

Under the wind, the white tail quickly lost its shape and spread to both sides.

At this time, someone suddenly realized that the so-called "tail" was actually a white smoke.

Montecuccoli's cognition was higher than that of ordinary soldiers. He recognized the origin of the white smoke at a glance.

It was real alchemical smoke, fast and fierce, and sticking to the ground, far from the smoke made by burning wet straw and wet clothes.

The smoke released by many Lodwijk commandos blended with each other, almost completely obscuring the route of the charge.

Now, both sides could not see anything.

However, in Montecuccoli's view, using precious alchemical smoke was really unnecessary. The cover of smoke was actually meaningless to the subordinates of Lieutenant Colonel Lodwijk.

The advantage of the rebels was that they had built artillery positions in advance.

If it was Montecuccoli himself who commanded the rebel artillery, he would have measured the distance and calculated the angle in advance, so that he could hit the target even if he could not make visual corrections.

Rather than relying on smoke to help, it is better to rely on the rebels' old siege guns, which are too heavy and have no wheeled gun carriages to accurately reset.

The rebels' musketeers may be disturbed by the smoke, but the human body at 200 meters is only half the size of a thumbnail after stretching the arm, so it is difficult to aim, let alone shoot accurately.

On the contrary, the musketeers on the closer side are more affected.

Moreover, the smoke will hinder the action of the commandos, so in the eyes of the artillery lieutenant colonel, Lieutenant Colonel William Lodwick's use of alchemical smoke is a bit desperate.

The key is to disperse, to keep the soldiers apart from each other, and not to stack them up, to spread the formation thin.

However, soldiers fighting alone will be at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat, and loose assaults will hardly be effective.

So essentially, this is an unsolvable problem.

And this problem was originally prepared by Raymond Montecuccoli for the "students" serving in the rebels.

But at this moment, on Margit Island, a test site that couldn't be any smaller, the artillery lieutenant colonel could only watch his friendly forces solve this problem.

With a white tail, the soldiers of the Lodwek unit in the front had already rushed to the edge of the trench.

What greeted him was a tongue of fire bursting out of the muzzle.

There was a hole in the breastplate of the Lodwek soldier, and the huge impact made him stagnate, and then he lay down dejectedly.

The can with the logo of the Magic Warfare Bureau hanging on his back was pressed down by his body, still "hissing" and spewing white smoke.

But the rebels in the trench had too few muskets, and a few sporadic gunshots were not enough to curb the momentum of the Lodwek unit's charge.

More and more Lodwijk soldiers rushed out of the smoke and jumped into the trenches.

The hand-to-hand combat began.

Swords against swords, chests against chests, no one could retreat, roars and screams mixed together, and the musketeers on the slope and the other side of the river were also firing desperately.

The iron cans brought into the trenches continued to spew alchemical smoke, and the billowing white smoke rolled down to the lower part, and soon filled the trenches.

Nothing could be seen.

But Montecuccoli still did not give the order to reload, and even did not tell his men what kind of shells to use.

The adjutant next to him could no longer wait, and he took a step towards the lieutenant colonel, his lips trembling, wanting to say something.

But Montecuccoli just glared at him and asked his student to swallow the words on his lips.

After a difficult breath, the rebels' cannons began to roar again.

However, it was not those old heavy cannons, because the shooting sound was crisp and transparent.

Montecuccoli immediately unscrewed the three hourglasses representing the six-pound cannon, threw the fine sand that had not yet flowed out of the hourglass directly to the ground, and then quickly tightened the hourglass again and turned it upside down.

"Just the cannon! Reduce the gunpowder by half!" Montecuccoli shouted, "Load one shot of shotgun shells!"

"Reduced the gunpowder by half! Load one shot of shotgun shells!" The adjutant woke up as if from a dream and shouted to the gun position.

The gunners of each gun also shouted and repeated the order. The loader filled half of the gunpowder, then put on the partition and stuffed the tin can filled with lead into the muzzle.

Montecuccoli personally adjusted the shooting angle. He turned the screw to raise the muzzle of the six-pound cannon that had been aimed at the rebels in advance, so high that it was almost pointing diagonally at the sky.

"Don't waste the cannon on destroying the enemy's cannon."

This is what Montecuccoli taught every artillery student.

Because the opportunity to shoot cannons is too precious, and the efficiency of destroying cannons with cannons is too low.

Not to mention that it is pitch dark at this moment. Even if you want to have a "cannon duel", you can't aim accurately, and you can only shoot vaguely at the position where the fire is on the opponent's position.

Moreover, if the rebel artillery commander has listened carefully to the artillery director's class, he will definitely arrange the bunkers in advance, and after each shot, he will use a mobile barrier to close the shooting port.

On the other hand, the artillery position where Montecuccoli is currently located is hastily built and is far from solid.

The enemy has bunkers, and we have no cover. Shooting under such unfavorable conditions, and at such a close distance, is simply courting death.

The enemy's artillery can even completely ignore Montecuccoli's artillery and focus on destroying the infantry of the Southern Front.

Most of the artillery officers who graduated from the Union Army Academy studied textbooks written by Montecuccoli.

He knew very well how his students would think, how they would prepare, and how they would respond.

And Montecuccoli would break his own teachings tonight.

"Fire!" The moment he gave the order, Montecuccoli wanted to know which student on the other side of the river it was.

The muzzle of the six-pound cannon burst out with red flames of death, and the tin can filled with lead was thrown high, disintegrated in mid-air, and rained down the fire of death on the rebel artillery position.

[Thanks to the book friends for the collection, reading, subscription, recommendation ticket, monthly ticket, reward and comment, thank you all]