Chapter 966 Previous Lesson?

At this time, the routine on the battlefield was artillery battles. The French army, which had the M1841 Little Napoleon, had enough confidence in its firepower. After all, they had the best artillery in the world.

The M1841 field gun was cast in bronze, and its technical parameters were as follows:

Caliber: 93 mm

Barrel length: 1.52 meters (16.3 times the caliber)

Gun weight: about 389 kilograms

Maximum range: about 1,500 yards (1,371 meters is just a theoretical range.)

Type of ammunition: can fire solid bullets, blasting bullets, shotgun shells and shrapnel shells.

Later generations often evaluated its advantages as convenient transportation and operation, especially the American Civil War Club, which said that it made Robert Lee famous with its mobility and speed.

But in fact, both Robert Lee himself and other Confederate generals sneered at this kind of artillery.

In the mid-nineteenth century, military experts were more amazed by its exaggerated rate of fire and accuracy, which gave the French army an advantage in artillery battles.

But this time they miscalculated. In fact, when the French army's Napoleon six-pound field gun shone in the colonial war, military observers from various countries realized the shortcomings and limitations of this artillery.

The intensity and severity of war on the European continent were much higher than in other parts of the world at that time. The power and range of the six-pound gun in the colonies could almost be described as a god descending to earth.

However, this advantage was not so obvious on the European continent. Although the M1841 was still an excellently designed artillery, the fortress guns of various countries were almost 8-pound guns, 10-pound guns, 12-pound guns, and even 24-pound guns.

(It was a chaotic era at that time. There was no unified standard. All countries wanted to promote their own standards, so the caliber of artillery was also varied.)

It was a common practice at that time to make up for the lack of technology with volume. Faced with these big guys that weighed several tons or even dozens of tons, Napoleon seemed a little overwhelmed.

The Austrian military attached great importance to this, especially after they had money. They were like a group of upstarts who had never seen the world. They had to spend their money to be happy.

Franz thought that they would probably start researching 12-pound field guns like the mainstream European countries in history, but the military finally approved the 15-pound gun plan.

As for why it was 15 pounds, Franz didn't know, and it was probably just to suppress Britain, France and Russia.

The range, power and accuracy of this artillery are excellent, and the data in all aspects are almost more than twice that of the French main field gun Napoleon.

However, there are also big problems. This is not because Austrian steel does not meet the standards, nor is it because of the poor casting technology, but because it is too heavy!

The French M1841 six-pound bronze field gun only needs two horses to pull it around, while the Austrian M1848 fifteen-pound steel field gun requires eight draft horses and six spare horses.

In addition, it also requires a special supply and loading and unloading team consisting of three carriages, twelve horses, and eight soldiers.

In other words, a M1848 fifteen-pound steel field gun requires a total of twenty-six horses and sixteen soldiers.

If there were no railways and canals, it would take Franz a month just to transport these things to the battlefield.

Franz's messenger deliberately delayed time, in fact, to buy time for the preparation of these artillery.

Of course, these efforts are worth it.

Including Bonnot de Couron, almost all French soldiers have never doubted that France's artillery is the best in the world.

Although he didn't know whether Franz Joseph was a product of god-making or a real genius, from the fact that the latter was preparing for artillery battles, he knew that the other party was either overconfident or a complete idiot.

This gave Bonnot de Couron, whose battlefield map was dark, a little psychological comfort. After all, if the other party's commander was an idiot, it would help him a lot.

The commander's relaxed mood was soon transmitted to the soldiers, as if the endless Austrian Corps in front of them did not exist.

In fact, compared with the officers, the soldiers were not very nervous, because they could only see part of the battlefield. Ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and two hundred thousand people were all the same to them.

A French artilleryman pushed the heavy solid bullet into the barrel and poked it hard with the push rod.

"The Austrians are so stupid. What can they do at such a long distance? When they enter our range, we will greet them severely!"

The artillery colonel with two small moustaches said while pulling his beard.

There are actually many stereotypes in this era that seem extremely wrong now. One of them is that traditional artillery believes that solid bullets can hit farther than shrapnel.

In fact, this has a lot to do with the artillery design and artillery level at that time. The messy internal structure of early shrapnel shells led to uneven weight distribution and poor stability in the air.

At the same time, although the external design is also spherical, the shape of shrapnel shells is usually irregular, and the impact fuse technology of this era is not mature. Many shrapnel shells really have fuses burning, so artillery is called a technical branch.

In addition, in order to prevent shrapnel shells from exploding prematurely due to excessive pressure in the air, or even directly exploding, artillery will intentionally reduce the amount of propellant when firing shrapnel shells.

The above reasons together led to the fact that the shrapnel shells at that time were not as good as solid bullets in range, so this experienced artillery officer asked the soldiers to load solid bullets.

The French artillerymen were looking forward to the Austrian artillerymen entering their range. As the defenders, they could fire one more round or even several more rounds, which would give them a huge psychological and tactical advantage in the subsequent battles.

"Look at what those idiots are doing? Are they building a house?"

A French artillery staff officer laughed so hard that tears came out, and the artillery colonel with a mustache also noticed all this through the telescope.

"Idiot! That's not building a house, it's a simple crane!"

A dozen Austrian soldiers were using the pulley group of the crane to lift the gun barrel with difficulty, and then carefully dropped it on the gun carriage.

A dozen Austrians had to use tools to pull a cannon, while two French guys could lift a cannon.

"What a bunch of lazy people! You actually need a crane to install a cannon."

However, the laughter suddenly stopped, and the artillery colonel with a mustache immediately realized something.

"Damn it! Tell General Bonnot de Couronne! Either attack immediately or retreat immediately!"

The staff officer at the side asked in confusion.

"Shouldn't we teach the Austrians a lesson?"

"Fuck! Do you want us to use field artillery and siege artillery to shoot at each other?"

The colonel with two mustaches hadn't finished speaking when the roar of the god of war covered everything.