Chapter 967 Shelling
The artillery shells drew long trajectories in the sky, roaring and hitting the French positions.
In an artillery battle, in addition to the positions of both sides, the performance of the artillery itself, and the personal qualities of the artillerymen, vision is also very important.
This is one of the reasons why Franz wanted to kill the French reconnaissance balloons before the war began. The battlefield was one-way transparent to the Austrian side.
Therefore, at this time, the Austrian artillery could easily find the position of the French artillery and carry out a devastating strike.
In fact, the French artillery colonel's reaction was very quick, but still not as fast as the artillery shells. His artillery position received special attention.
The shells fell, dust flew into the sky, gravel, wood chips, and broken limbs shot into the sky, and then fell like raindrops.
Every time a cannonball landed, it was a serious blow to the morale of the French army. The originally orderly queue was hit by a cannonball.
Just like a pin hit by a bowling ball, a large piece fell instantly. The soldier who was directly hit exploded on the spot, and the effect was also very explosive.
The flesh and blood torn by the shells and shock waves flew into the sky, and then poured down on the heads of the nearby soldiers who had not yet recovered.
Red, yellow, white, black, the smell of blood, sulfur, urine, feces, and earth mixed together.
The officers yelled as hard as they could to maintain order, but some soldiers were completely possessed by instinctive fear, and they desperately rushed out of the queue in an attempt to escape the battlefield.
The lower-level officers and supervisory teams of the French army played an important role at this time, and the deserters were executed almost immediately.
The decisive action effectively stopped those who tried to fish in troubled waters, allowing other soldiers to recall the horror of the officers and supervisors and not dare to imitate those deserters.
An artillery shell landed not far from the artillery position, and the powerful explosion made people feel like the earth was shaking.
Compared with the French infantry, the performance of the artillery was much worse. In the first round of shelling, only a few shells hit the artillery position, but the level of chaos was even worse than that of the infantry. Some people were like headless flies. Running around, some people were lying on the ground like a pile of mud, unable to move.
These French artillerymen have never encountered a real battle. They have always unilaterally crushed their opponents in terms of firepower and range and have become accustomed to the sense of superiority called "security."
That's why they behave so badly in the face of life and death crises. In addition, the use of explosive bombs also greatly increases the bloodiness of the battlefield.
"You actually fired the explosive bomb so far! It seems that not only the commander of the opponent is crazy, but the artillerymen are also crazy. Aren't they afraid of exploding the barrel?"
What the artillery colonel didn't know was that the Austrian artillery opposite had already fully equipped steel cannons, and they were using special steel with manganese added. The endurance of the gun bores was much stronger than that of bronze cannons or mainstream iron cannons.
"Colonel Cesar, this is crazy! The Austrians actually use siege guns to fight in the field. We can't win this kind of artillery battle. For the sake of France, let's retreat quickly!"
The staff officer begged with a nervous look on his face.
"Why are you panicking?"
"They're already targeting us! Colonel Cesar!"
"No, that was just a test shot."
"Can"
The staff member wanted to say something else but was stopped by Colonel Cesar, who pointed at the hot air balloon in the sky.
"They rely on hot air balloons. Move the position forward! The closer the distance, the greater our advantage. They use siege guns, and they cannot compare with us in terms of reloading speed, shooting accuracy, or maneuverability.
As long as we advance to a distance of 600 meters, we can accurately strike it. "
Bono de Cullen in the distance was also shocked by the scene in front of him, because the opponent's artillery opened fire one kilometer away, which obviously did not conform to the common sense of artillery use.
It's a bit like the style of those country bumpkins in the Americas, but the United States and Mexico use three-pounders and four-pounders, while the Austrians use siege guns of at least 12 pounds or more.
The former is just setting off fireworks, while the latter can really kill people.
It is obviously impossible to engage in an artillery battle with the Austrians using field artillery. There are only two options at this time, one is to retreat into the city and use bunkers to fight a defensive battle, and the other is to use the entire army to defeat the Austrian army head-on. .
But the former is likely to be attacked from both sides, while the latter is too radical and risky.
However, this kind of abnormal behavior may also catch the opponent by surprise. As long as the strategy is executed properly, you can turn the tables and establish an advantage in the short term.
This short-lived advantage is very likely to boost one's own morale and at the same time cause the opponent to continue making mistakes.
Under this situation, it is possible to actually turn defeat into victory. France has used similar tactics many times to defeat the anti-French coalition forces with superior strength.
In fact, excellent officers are sympathetic to each other. At this time, Colonel Cesar has begun to move the artillery positions forward. There is no doubt that they intend to defeat the so-called German coalition forces in the front.
It has to be said that the French army of this era is indeed a model for the world's army. Even in a chaotic situation, the commander's orders can be conveyed to the grassroots at an extremely fast speed, and the grassroots officers can even be the first to respond. Time to act.
The entire French army immediately started operating like a precision machine and began to advance towards the German Allied Forces.
This abnormal action of the French army surprised almost everyone, and the German Allied Forces headquarters was in chaos.
This group of guys who were popping champagne just now turned into headless flies in the blink of an eye.
That's right, this group of people had just opened champagne and found a group of celebrities and dancers to join in the fun.
The entire command headquarters is like a large salon banquet, and aspiring young people from various countries obviously regard it as a social place.
Young people want to make friends with big shots, and those so-called big shots want to make friends with real dignitaries as a stepping stone to enter the upper class.
As for the real dignitaries, they were all trying to look familiar in front of Franz.
In less than two hours, at least ten handkerchiefs or scarves fell next to Franz, as well as an unknown number of rings, necklaces, earrings, and even several women's shoes.
Some ladies wanted to create some romantic encounters, but Franz had no interest in this.
Rather, he hates this behavior of treating the battlefield as a social occasion.
Just when the Austrian artillery fired its first test, exclamations mixed with cheers stimulated Franz's eardrums and nerves.
He even wanted to strangle all these people to death for a moment
Especially when the Austrian artillery was testing fire just now, some people tried to rush over and give Franz a hug.
However, these people did not succeed, as they were stopped by Zoche and Bordeaux.
Bordeaux may be a little constrained as a male, but Zochie, a naturalized man, has no worries at all.
She directly swung the long sword with the scabbard and stopped the remaining people. Although this approach was a bit arrogant, it was completely reasonable if it were placed on an Oriental.
After all, in the eyes of Europeans at that time, people outside of Europe were all barbarians, so it was completely reasonable to behave like this.