Chapter 926: 927 The sound of gunfire in Fengjiang
Chapter 926 Chapter 927 The sound of artillery in Fengjiang
After another day of hard fighting, the Dahua army once again pushed the front one kilometer toward Fengjiang. They paid a price of 3,000 people for this, which is no longer a small number.
No one can easily bear 3,000 casualties a day. The cumulative number of casualties is enough to collapse a country.
But in order to seize Fengjiang as soon as possible, Zhao Chen no longer has much to worry about: he must cut off the support of the Tang Empire to Zhao Yu as soon as possible. This is now the only chance for the Great China Empire to win.
After finally advancing the position another kilometer, Zhao Chen was finally able to fire his own shells into the urban area of Fengjiang with the 250 mm caliber army heavy artillery in his hand.
Since yesterday, Zhao Chen couldn't wait to push his artillery to the appropriate position, and today he recklessly started bombarding Fengjiang.
“Load the shells!” Standing next to a large enough artillery, the wheels of this kind of cannon are even solid steel heavy artillery. It takes a lot of time and manpower to move a little bit.
In order to get this cannon into a suitable position, Dahua Empire even hired several tractors to help - in conjunction with the tractors, they worked together to barely achieve it.
Along the way, engineers have to fill countless craters, and guard companies have to protect safety. Most operations have to be carried out at night because enemy planes harass them during the day.
In short, using heavy artillery of this level is a big project and very time-consuming. In order to exert enough pressure on Fengjiang as soon as possible, Zhao Chen did not know how much effort he spent to accomplish this feat.
After using the corresponding equipment to push the shell into the gun bore, under the camouflage net, the loaders pushed the propellant into the gun one after another.
Because the caliber is too large, this kind of artillery can no longer use standard propellant. Its propellant is independent and needs to be increased or decreased according to the range requirements.
At one command after another, the gunners closed the breechblocks and retreated to a safe position.
The gunner pulled the firing rope, and the muzzle of the artillery sprayed out an astonishing flame in the next second. The white smoke rolled into the sky and swallowed up everything around it. The huge vibration caused the surrounding gravel and soil to dance fiercely.
A huge cannonball pierced the sky, with a sharp sound, spanning a distance of more than ten kilometers, and finally landed in a slum on the edge of Fengjiang City.
There is no way. The very edges of cities are often filled with slums like this, where the poorest people in the city live. These people make a living by working hard and relying on urban industry to live a poor life.
Because there is no money, the buildings in these places are actually very simple. The Dahua Empire itself has used wooden structures all year round, and reinforced concrete houses similar to those in the Tang Empire are in the minority.
Although a large number of buildings in the center of Fengjiang are made of reinforced concrete, there are still a large number of wooden houses in the periphery.
Now, it is the turn of these wooden houses to be unlucky: a huge 250 mm caliber artillery shell falls, even if it does not directly hit the wooden houses, the damage to such buildings will be huge.
There was a loud bang, and a black column of smoke rose into the sky, rising and rolling continuously. It could be seen clearly even in the center of Fengjiang.
All the surrounding buildings were collapsed at once, and some houses were directly on fire. There were not even many ruins and rubbles left in the house that was directly hit by the shell.
There was a scary big hole in the ground, and dozens of civilians living here died in an instant. You must know that it is a 250-caliber artillery shell, and it is very easy to kill those around you.
The earth trembled with this loud noise. This sudden explosion caused horrific destruction, but this was just the beginning.
Another artillery shell fell immediately: In order to bombard Fengjiang, the Dahua Empire prepared five 250-caliber heavy artillery. This time the artillery attack was launched together with these five heavy artillery.
Following the second loud noise, a huge black smoke column once again rose up in Fengjiang City. The entire city could see it clearly, and even most of the city could hear the deafening sound.
Such things cannot be concealed, and panic begins to spread: many people begin to flee to the east of the city, and refugees carrying baggage can be seen everywhere on the streets.
The weather is not that cold anymore, so even if they sleep on the streets, these people are willing to sleep on safer streets.
After all, it is theoretically safer to stay close to the Tang Empire. If this is not possible, risking a swim to the Datang Empire is also an option.
Zhao Yu was walking around nervously in his room. He just heard the sound of cannons and saw the smoke columns rising in the city.
At this moment, he was a little irritable, because the place where he was was about to become the front line: "The enemy has already reached Fengjiang City! Why don't you fight back? If this continues, isn't it over? Ah? Isn't it over?"
He didn't dare to question his adviser Xu Guo, and he didn't dare to go to Luo Xiao and yell, so the only ones he could curse at were his own housekeeper and a few of his confidants who no longer had any real power. General Feng Jiang.
Even, he did not dare to trouble Zhao Zheng and Zhao Feng - in his opinion, these two people were "one of his own" worth winning over, and they could not be offended easily.
But he couldn't help but curse. After all, the Chinese army had already dropped artillery shells into the city of Fengjiang. If he didn't take a stand, wouldn't it be no different from a clay sculpture?
"Your Highness! Zhao Chen holds heavy troops and attacks at all costs. The soldiers have tried their best..." Zhao Zheng, who was relieved of his military power and has now become a totem, said: "If there is no air supremacy, there will be no fighting for those pilots." After the deadly bombing, I am afraid that the Chinese army has already entered the city. "
As a general, Zhao Zheng still has a good vision. He simply looked at the map and some documents left by the Tang Empire Advisory Group, and roughly guessed part of the plan.
After all, you have to take credit but suffer misfortune, so the losses of the dwarves and goblins will not be hidden from Zhao Yu. These days, more than 1,000 dwarves have died, more than 1,300 goblins have died, and 1,000 orcs have died, which is not a small number.
Thousands of people are killed every day, which is a considerable loss for the defenders - this actually explains the problem, at least it can prove that these mercenaries are genuine.
At this point, I have to mention the contribution of the Tang Empire in this matter: Although it was nominally said that Fengjiang paid for the foreign corps to participate in the war, it was actually the Datang Group who paid the money.
The money paid to hire these soldiers was all real money, which was even much higher according to the market price. The requirements of the Tang Empire are actually very simple - since I have given you enough money, you must contribute!
Countries also gave the Tang Empire face in this regard: they knew very well whether they could reverse the trade deficit, whether they could have the money to pay the loans provided by the Tang Empire and the war reparations they owed... relying on this time's "mercenaries" "Active.
As a result, many of the troops heading to Fengjiang were elites drawn directly from the main forces of various countries for the purpose of military training.
The Tang Empire, which is on the spending side, will also check the quality of these troops and use the Datang Empire's own standards for certain logistical supplies.
So these mercenaries from various countries who participated in the war in Fengjiang were very powerful in combat. Even if they were not as good as the real Tang army, they were on par with the army of their opponent, the Dahua Empire.
This can be seen from the offensive and defensive battles between the two sides: the battle loss ratio of both sides is about 3 to 1. Basically, this loss ratio is the offensive and defensive battle loss ratio of equivalent strength.
"But, but..." Of course Zhao Yu knew that his side was actually doing a pretty good job. Let's not talk about anything else for the moment, let's talk about the troops going south. Haven't they already occupied Jiange and achieved a great victory?
Zhao Feng on the side is also persuading: "Your Highness! Don't panic! Our troops going south have captured Guiguang Sword Pavilion! Victory is already waving to us! As long as we hold Fengjiang, everything will be fine."
"Don't worry! Follow-up support will come in a steady stream!" Xu Guo, the counselor who was sitting there as steady as a mountain, comforted Zhao Yu calmly and said: "Your Highness's safety is not a problem! If the situation in Fengjiang worsens, we will not go to Shanping." Same?"
“Having said that…” What Zhao Yu really wants to go to is Dongfengjiang, and to Datang. But he really couldn't say it, and he himself knew that he really should stay in the Dahua Empire.
Looking at the fifth smoke column rising on the horizon in the distance outside the window, Zhao Yu felt that he was still very nervous - those shells seemed to fall in front of his face.
At the Fengjiang Bridge, there were more people fleeing. In order to ensure that Fengjiang would not turn into an empty city overnight, the rate at which the Tang Empire accepted refugees was still controlled within a very reasonable range.
But there are so many civilians and local wealthy people. For them, when can they run to the Tang Empire and when can they confirm their safety.
So they are still running towards the Tang Empire. Even though they know that the Tang Empire will not let them pass, they still have illusions: What if, what if the Datang Empire suddenly allows them to pass?
"Is there no other way? Let the bombardment stop?" Zhao Yu still refused to give up and asked while looking at his two relatives.
"It's not impossible. Now that we know the enemy's artillery positions, we can use large-caliber coastal defense artillery to destroy them..." Zhao Zheng gave his own suggestion.
"Or dispatch the air force to find the enemy's artillery positions and directly bomb...to destroy these long-range artillery." Zhao Feng, who was on the side, also gave his own opinion.
“Then do it quickly!” Zhao Yu’s tone was full of dissatisfaction, and he said to the two of them: “Go quickly! Hurry... I don’t want to hear the sound of cannons anymore! I don’t want to hear it anymore!”
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There is another one that will be finished faster and will be delivered around 12:20. Those who don’t want to stay up late can watch it tomorrow morning.
(End of this chapter)