When the cannon was fired, Chen Tang asked people to aim at the huge three-row galleon two hundred paces away, and as a result, twenty cannons, and only one of the eighteen rounds that were successfully fired out, even if the brass cannon was placed on the crosshair, considering the wind direction and other factors, the parabola was extremely difficult to control.Ren Hong's side is flat, the distance is a little shorter, but the head is more accurate, there are three squibs in twenty rounds, and the other seventeen rounds are aimed at the Roman legions more than 100 steps away, don't say it, you really hit two shots!
It's just that the effect is not at all shocking when the cannon is fired, the iron ball failed to penetrate several people, and the Roman array was shattered, nor did it bounce wildly on the ground to hurt people, leaving the shells of the stump and broken arm smoothbore cannon unable to turn up, although it was in the middle of the formation, but it only smashed the two shields, smashed the people behind, and plunged the phalanx into temporary chaos.It's an enhanced version of the ballista.As soon as the cannon is fired, it will sound like a thunderbolt, the sound will boom for 300 miles, and the bullet can hit 30 or 40 miles.Ren Hong's cannon is a weakened version of the Ming Dynasty Franc machine: the maximum range is 300 steps, but although it is far from useless, the cannonball flies to it, it has long lost its power, the bullet falls a lot, it is weak and difficult to accurate, and the effective range is about the same as a bow and arrow.So Ren Hong was not disappointed, because this round of artillery was fired to boost morale."
Our army has the help of gods and thunders, and it will win!"
Morale is a more important thing than weapons, otherwise what if the five thousand Ptolemaic troops and the three thousand men brought by Pompey ran away in an instant?
It is said that one of the reasons why Pompey lost to Caesar was that the troops recruited in Greece were on the verge of collapse in a decisive battle.Even if he fled, he shouted "our army is defeated", and ran back to the camp by the way and swept away a lot of belongings, and his quality was quite inferior.This kind of thing, the current Pompey and the group of mercenaries may be able to do it.The Roman Tenth Legion on the opposite side was only more than 4,000, but the Han army here was only 3,000, what was the war?
War is to be able to overpower the few, and never fight more with less.Sure enough, the coalition army, which had been defeated by the Roman legions in the Ptolemaic army and whose morale was a little low, shouted excitedly after listening to more than a dozen sounds and seeing the orderly array of the Tenth Legion on the opposite side suddenly fell into a burst of confusion and dazedness.The morale of the fallen valley had recovered a little, and at least they saw the hope of winning by hugging the thighs of Seris, so that they would not turn around and run away before the battle began.At this time, a scene that Ren Hong couldn't help but admire appeared, and after a short period of confusion, the Romans regrouped their ranks.Each hundred people lined up in three formations, and in front of them were all flag bearers holding silver eagle flags, advancing unhurriedly in a burst of agitated trumpets.Unlike the Greeks and Egyptians, who were frightened into retreating by a swarm of bees and fire-flying crows, the Tenth Legion did not retreat but advanced."
Why are you so fearless?""
Because they're knights!"
This legion is arguably the most prestigious of all Roman legions, named after Gaul in 58 BC, when a soldier of the Tenth Legion joked: "Caesar has now done far more than he promised, he had only promised the Tenth Legion to serve as a guard, but now he had made them knights." ”Everyone was a knight, this was the pride of the Tenth Legion, they had been regarded by Caesar as the most reliable force since the beginning of their existence, and in the decisive battle with Pompey, the Tenth Legion decided the battle at the most critical moment.They are unstoppable, even in the face of unknown weapons, the commanders of the legion unanimously believe that it is the magic of the Seris, and the power seems to be similar to that of a ballista, there is no need to be afraid, just rush closer, and naturally it is useless.The hoplites of the 10th Army marched in a standard three-column horizontal formation, with light auxiliary infantry in between, with 1,500 men in the three central brigades, 1,000 men in two brigades of Pompey's army on the left flank, and 2,000 men in four brigades of the Ptolemaic army on the right flank.The Ptolemaic army on the right flank could not withstand the pressure like a mountain, and the Egyptian archers standing on the front line hurriedly drew the bows in their hands and fired the first wave of arrows indiscriminately from front to back!
The arrows fell in a sparse manner, and the Romans skillfully raised their shields, knelt down on one knee to block them, and then unhurriedly got up and moved forward again.Ren Hong had already noticed that the array of the Romans was not a straight line, but a diagonal line."
The array is dispatched to attack in turn to form a diagonal line, and the strengthened right flank is the first to receive the enemy, which is a diagonal attack tactic."
Indeed, while the center and left flanks were still out of range, the two thousand Roman soldiers on the right flank were the first to make contact with the five thousand Ptolemaic troops, who were fearless of the arrows fired by the Egyptians, and after carrying the first wave, they quickly changed into a sharp formation and launched a decisive and rapid charge!
This made the Ptolemaic army, which had just been boosted by the "thunder of Zeus", panicked, and the order was very hurried, nothing more than the phalanx of the Greeks in the front row to level the spears, and the Egyptian archers in the rear continued to shoot.But the Romans on the right flank had covered a distance of more than 100 paces in one go, and rows of heavy throwers were thrown hard, followed by a loud clatter of shields and spears clashing together.Although the Ptolemaic army was outnumbered, both the Greeks and the Egyptians were afraid to fight the terrible Romans in hand-to-hand combat.Formed in a huge and clumsy phalanx, they were simply unable to effectively resist the nimble and ferocious attacks of the Roman detachments, like a stupid elephant besieged by a pack of hungry wolves.The Romans, on the other hand, skillfully changed the formation of the brigades and squads, wedged the entire formation in a triangle, trying to tear apart the Ptolemaic line.They obviously wanted to defeat the Ptolemaic army first, and then cooperate with their central counterparts to outflank the Han army.This tactic seemed to shout to the Han army: "You are surrounded!"
”This made many officers of the Han army furious: "He is only more than 4,000 people, and he wants to surround more than 10,000 troops?
The people of Great Qin are too arrogant!
”Ren Hong shook his head, he and his soldiers felt insulted, after all, like the Han army in the East and India, the Romans were also outnumbered in the Mediterranean world.But this battle is bound to make the 10th Legion, which underestimates the enemy, pay the price!
Five thousand against two thousand, the Ptolemaic army did not know how long it could hold out, and the one thousand Romans in the center had already approached, and in the face of the unknown Seris, they were more cautious than several brigades on the right flank."
Prepare your crossbow and fire your arrows!"
Ren Hong gave the order that long-range firepower was the greatest advantage of the Han army, and that the Romans must suffer losses before they could end the battle.The crossbow of the Han army was not launched rashly, until the enemy entered within eighty steps, and the crossbow that had been wound up for a long time was deducted by the material officer, and the diamond-shaped arrow struck directly at the enemy.The Romans defended themselves with shields as usual, two rows of shields to defend the front and overhead, but they were taken aback when the crossbows flew in front of them.I only felt that the shield in my hand had suffered a heavy blow, as if it was not an arrow, but a row of javelins, full of strength, and even a crossbow bolt pierced the poor quality shield, nailing the soldier's hand and shield together, dripping with blood.Seventy or eighty steps are still like this, and it is closer?
The Romans immediately habitually lowered their shields and prepared to sprint before the enemy's next round of fire, as they did on the right flank, but they only felt a flash in front of them, and the second volley came again!
Powerful crossbows gather thunder.How can it be so fast!
The Romans had to raise their shields again, but some of them fell to the ground, and the chain mail could not fully resist the heavy conical arrows at this distance, and the light infantry, which was less protected, suffered heavy losses.They didn't know that the officers of the Han army also resisted the enemy in three lines, with 300 people in each column, and 100 people took turns to step forward, and there were 100 people who were specifically responsible for winding the crossbows, which made up for the shortcomings of the slow shooting speed of the crossbow machine, and if it was properly coordinated, the speed could be compared to that of the bow.This forced the Romans to not dare to charge directly as they did on the right flank, and had to form a tight tortoiseshell formation, advancing under the continuous fire of crossbow arrows."
Second round of shelling."
The enemy was within sixty paces, and Ren Hong asked the Shenji battalion to fire artillery again.The advantages of the breech mother cannon appeared at this time, the long tubular mother cannon has a belly at the rear, and there is a large hole in the abdomen for placing the sub-cannon loaded with projectiles and gunpowder in advance, the mother cannon is copper casting, and the sub-cannon is wrought iron, because the iron chamber is more resistant to ablation than the copper chamber, which can prolong the service life, and the copper cannon barrel is not easy to burst.This will directly change the sub-cannon, and it can still shoot before the barrel is not hot.The muzzle of the cannon was lowered, aiming at the enemy phalanx, which was already much closer than the first, and as the fire rope burned to the end, a puff of smoke accompanied by a loud bang, twenty cannons were fired one after another, sending iron bullets to the phalanx!
It was no longer a gentle push with the longest range, but directly smashed the two shields, and the corner of the phalanx collapsed directly.Because the Romans were standing too densely, more than a dozen people were dragged by the force and fell to the ground, two of them died on the spot, and the iron bullets were stained with blood and embedded in the ground with smoke.Within a hundred paces, the artillery was much more accurate, and two or three out of ten, a total of four hundred-man troops were hit by the artillery, and before they could regroup, they were subjected to another round of crossbow fire, and the casualties rose rapidly.The five centurians had lost their combat effectiveness, but there were still ten centurians who did not retreat, but increased their speed, and some even picked up the eagle flags that fell to the ground after the death of the flag bearer and continued to move forward.Who will humiliate the banners of the 10th Army and Brigade?
No one, unless all of them die in battle!
Ren Hong raised his hand and asked the Shenji Battalion to withdraw, theoretically the sub-mother cannon can be fired in a few minutes, but the barrel can't withstand continuous fire, and it needs to rest every once in a while to cool down, otherwise it will break down in minutes.Therefore, it is only possible to fire more than 10 rounds per hour on average, and according to the test of the Shenji Battalion, after about 100 rounds of copper cannons, it is no longer very useful.Ren Hong brought a total of fifty cannons, and when he brought them back, they were fifty scrap copper and rotten iron.Artillery is just the icing on the cake, and what really has to be relied on is still a hard-fought positional battle.The arrogance of the enemy had been shattered by the crossbow array and the second round of artillery fire, and the steps were not as firm and swift as before, and even had a visible disarray.This is the reason why the effect of early firearms was not as good as that of bows and crossbows, but they were used, and the psychological shock was too great.After two more rounds of crossbow arrows, the Romans with many crossbow arrows stuck in their shields finally approached the Han army, and as the tortoiseshell array dispersed, the Roman soldiers who were not injured in the artillery fire and crossbow array walked out of the queue with heavy throwing guns in their hands, and threw them hard towards the Han army's position with a running charge!
This is a tactic that professional soldiers have trained for countless years, and although the accuracy of throwing guns is not enough, throwing them in unison can also inflict heavy damage on the enemy, and produce a huge shocking force, causing the enemy's position to collapse in a short period of time, and creating a good opportunity for your own side to charge.Indeed, a few throwing spears pierced the shield, and even penetrated deeply into the iron armor of the Han soldiers, causing casualties.But javelins and artillery shocks, who is greater?
The Han army withstood the heavy attack with their shields raised, and although there were some casualties, they were not on the verge of collapse as the Ptolemaic army on the right flank, and as more than a thousand Roman soldiers shouted and charged, the two armies began to engage in close combat.The Han family ring head sword against the Roman short sword, Wu Kuiteng against the Roman shield, and Ge Ji against the spear.The two sides fought together, it was a duel between men, and there was the smell of blood, sweat, and even feces and urine everywhere, presumably some young Roman soldier who was scared to pee by the artillery.The battle was a test of courage and order, and both sides were professional soldiers, both of whom began to stand out ten years ago.One followed Ren Hong to conquer Hezhong and India, and even went on an expedition to Fahrenheit; The other side followed Caesar and conquered Gaul, crossed the Rubicon to seize Rome, and crossed the Adriatic to defeat Pompey.The other party is a rare strong enemy in this life, veteran to veteran, proud to proud!
However, on the frontal battlefield, the Han army was twice as numerous as the opponent, and the shield soldiers in the front row fought with the Romans, while the Halberd soldiers in the back took advantage of the length advantage, and their weapons were obliquely downward, specifically attacking the lower three roads of the Romans, and the shields did not take care of the calves and ankles that they protected.The Roman soldier did not wear shin armor, just a pair of sandals, and his ankle was cut by Gohu, and he immediately fell to the ground with a cry of pain, and the Han man who raised the ring head knife high in front of him took the opportunity to slash at them, but was rushed up by the side and the Roman stabbed the sword into the chest!
The two sides were evenly matched, but the Romans suffered more casualties due to their outnumbered outnumber.But they were holding on, and when the soldiers in the front row were exhausted, they were replaced by their comrades in the back row, which was also a Roman tactic, and the attack was carried out on a wide front, usually with several batches of substitutions before ending the battle.They only had to wait for their comrades on the right flank to break through the Ptolemaic army, outflank it, and complete the goal of the oblique attack.But at this moment the rumbling of cannons rang out again, and with the unexpected defeat of the Ptolemaic army, the ten guns that had not been used before had long been placed on the high ground near the center and the right flank, aiming at the Romans, who were about to win and were getting closer and closer to them.The dense infantry phalanx was attacked by artillery, and although the projectile accuracy was insufficient, the strongest soldiers would fall into confusion in the face of iron bullets that could fall on their heads at any time.And the 1,000 crossbowmen of the Han army were also transferred to this side by Ren Hong, lined up in three rows to protect the artillery positions.This doubled the pressure on the Romans on the right flank, and a brigade of four or five hundred men was sent out to form four phalanxes and attack the artillery positions.The opposing infantry array is entangled, and it only takes one javelin throw and charge to crush the crossbowmen and destroy the strange weapons of the Seris.The "thunder" of the Seris was very slow to fire, and the Romans advanced with crossbows, and although the eagle banner had changed three people in a row, it was still a little closer to the enemy's position, and there were only twenty or thirty steps left, and the spear throwers could come out and throw.But at this moment, the crossbow officer of the Han army in the front row dispersed after a round of salvo, and the ten artillery pieces that had not cooled down for too long could not take care of it, and put in the sub-cannon again, really facing the surging enemy soldiers, how many people would care about him for such a thing as artillery life?
Ten cannons aimed at the four Roman phalanxes that were close at hand, and as the arquebuses burned, they broke out again with a loud bang!
But this time it was not a round iron bullet that flew out, but dozens of small leads!
Driven by the force of the gunpowder explosion, they flew out of the barrel of the cannon, scattering a large number of lethal small projectiles within a conical range of dozens of paces, and quickly hit the oncoming dense phalanx!
Those soldiers who had just run out of the phalanx and were about to throw spears were the first to bear the brunt of them, and each of them was hit by several lead bullets, and blood splashed everywhere for a while, and some of them even directly pierced their bodies, opening bloody holes one by one.Next was the phalanx of hurried shields after hearing a loud noise, as if a thousand, no, ten thousand Rhodes or Balearic slingers threw stones in unison!
It's like a metal rainstorm again.The four Roman hundred-man phalanx were not spared, and the large shields that had been able to withstand the crossbow bolts were beaten to the ground, and the soldiers hiding behind were caught in hot buckshots, and their chain mail could not resist the force.In an instant, the four phalanxes seemed to be overwhelmed by the great force, followed by screams and moans.Times have really changed, and the once invincible Roman phalanx now has natural enemies that specialize in them.This scene shocked the Romans and Ptolemaic troops on the battlefield, and the Egyptian queen who watched the battle on the city wall was dumbfounded.Those who were only concerned about the shock did not even notice that one of the guns blew up, and the splattered lead injured their own people, and five artillerymen of the Shenji Battalion were seriously injured, and several crossbowmen who came close also hung their colors.But this round of shotgun salvo almost changed the tide of the battle, the four centurians used by the Romans to assault the artillery positions suffered heavy losses, more wounded and fewer dead, the survivors dragged their companions and began to retreat, and the Han crossbowmen pursued endlessly.The two brigades in the center could not wait for the outflanking of friendly forces, and after several rotations, they were a little exhausted.Pompey on the left flank, relying on his old troops who had been in Egypt for seven years, withstood their onslaught with the same tactics as the Tenth Army.On the right flank, the three brigades of the Romans finally defeated the already demoralized Ptolemaic army, and the Greeks and Egyptians could not support it after all, leaving a stump and broken arm cut off by the Roman dagger to retreat to Alexandria, ignoring the reprimand of the queen who was watching the battle from the city.Although they repelled the Ptolemaic army, in the face of the artillery positions of the Han army, the Romans did not dare to rashly attack this time, in fact, the next launch would have to be at least a quarter of an hour cold.The Romans on the right flank, away from the artillery and crossbowmen, began to turn and move in parallel to the center, in order to flank the Han infantry with the center?
However, they did not cover the retreat of their allies, and then formed a tortoiseshell formation and began to slowly withdraw towards the east."
Chen Tang and Wang Feng also won."
Ren Hong looked to the north, and the Romans chose to retreat, but it was not simply because of the long-range weapons and artillery deterrence of the Han army.Rather, the sails of Caesar's fleet appeared on the sea not far from the battlefield, and they were also withdrawing eastward, Caesar's plan to seize Alexandria with two thousand men apparently failed with the rumbling of cannons and the fire that raged there.What's even more shocking is that Caesar's ship even smokes billowing smoke!
PS: The second chapter is in the evening.