Chapter 615 “Witchcraft”

Dumb goose, no, Paskovich was completely stupid, because what he saw in front of him was completely different from what he expected. It's not like he hasn't seen brutal battles before, and it's not like he hasn't fought in battles that were ten times worse than this.

Having corpses all over the place is nothing more than child's play in his eyes. If necessary, he can sleep and eat with his head resting on the corpses. Anyway, he can do whatever he needs to do without any impact at all.

But today's battle was completely different from the ones he had experienced. In the past, it would have taken at least ten days and a half to cause such heavy casualties, and it would have had to be fought repeatedly to achieve such an effect.

But today was a good day. In just a quarter of an hour, at least three thousand people fell forever. How long does it take a quarter of an hour? According to his previous experience, this little time was not enough to fire two shots. How could it possibly cause such heavy damage?

But the corpses scattered all over the place in front of him told him unmistakably that this was all true. If he didn't make adjustments quickly, in another quarter of an hour, his young men would probably be slaughtered!

what to do?

Although Paskovich looked a little stupid, in fact his mind was running at high speed. Although he was shocked, his military qualities were still there recently. There is no other veteran like him who can still stay calm at critical moments.

"Accelerate the charge! Don't worry about the formation!"

Finally, Paskovich issued an order that made him very embarrassed. He had always emphasized the formation before, but now he was still the one who personally denied the role of the formation.

Making this decision was very painful for him, because Kornilov and Nassimov were watching him from the side, and he was so embarrassed that he was sent to his grandma's house.

But he couldn't control that much for the time being. If he didn't charge quickly, he would be even more embarrassed if the news spread back to St. Petersburg and Duke Mikhail.

The order was quickly conveyed, but in the eyes of Kornilov and Nasimov, this order was meaningless and would only accelerate the death of frontline soldiers.

The reason is simple. Compared with the British and French infantry on the opposite side who use Minie rifles, the army under Paskovich still uses front-loaded smoothbore flintlock rifles. This old rifle is not only slow to load but also has poor accuracy. Spreading the queue can certainly reduce the lethality of enemy artillery fire, but it also destroys the linear tactics on which smoothbore flintlocks depend.

Without a dense formation, the accuracy of muskets is very worrying at a distance of 100 meters. However, the British and French forces on the opposite side equipped with Migne rifles can roll call the gray animals one by one at 300 meters, and the rate of fire is almost ten times that of muskets. times.

Such a huge gap determines that the smoothbore fusiliers without a dense formation are a piece of cake, and continuing to charge is a dead end.

The correct approach is to retreat immediately, stop this meaningless attempt, and if you continue to advance, there will be more than three to five thousand casualties, and all these ten thousand gray animals will have to be filled in!

But just when Kornilov was about to speak a word of warning, Nasimov stepped on him without leaving a trace, and then gave him a dissuasive look. The meaning was very clear: Don't talk! Useless!

Kornilov was stunned, suddenly sighed, turned his head and said nothing. The reason is very simple. Looking at Paskovich, will you listen to their advice?

It's obviously impossible. It's even better that Kornilov doesn't speak. Once he speaks, it will irritate Lao Qiu Ba, making Lao Qiu Ba mistakenly think it is cynicism. Not only will he not listen to the advice, but he will send more soldiers in a desperate attempt. To die to prove how powerful and awesome he is.

Kornilov had no intention of quarreling with Lao Qiuba. In order to avoid more serious casualties, he could only choose to shut up, but his heart was bleeding. Just because of a willful old fool, thousands of lives were lost. It's a waste of time, what the hell is this?

Except for Kornilov who kept silent on the high platform, the other generals' expressions were not good-looking. Most of them were shocked. They had the most intuitive understanding of the lethality of explosive bombs, and they all basically came to the same conclusion. The conclusion - we also want explosive bombs! The more the merrier!

Of course, there are a handful of people such as Kornilov and Nassimov who have seen something more, that is, linear tactics may be eliminated, and dense formations in front of explosive bombs are simply useless. In this case, there is no need to arrange So closely what to do?

It’s just that there are still too few such smart people, because around Paskovich, his confidants are intensely discussing the significance of the existence of dense formations. Even though they have just witnessed a massacre, these old diehards still stubbornly believe that dense formations are Shape and linear tactics are still meaningful, or particularly important.

In their words, this is the life of the infantry and the basis for its survival. How can we fight without dense formations and linear tactics?

However, these old stubborns were immediately slapped twice in the face by the British and French forces. Under Paskovich's order, the remaining Russian troops on the battlefield began a death assault. They held rifles and bayonets towards the enemy positions. Rushing forward, you could hear the cry of hurrah from them, and the courage of these poor men was beyond reproach.

However, after entering the effective striking range of the Miné rifle, even though their formation had loosened up, it was still of no use. The hail of bullets knocked them off their feet, and the continuous shooting sound stunned the old diehards.

Because they have never seen a rifle with such a fast rate of fire. It can shoot almost four or five times per minute. Even a skilled gray animal can hardly shoot once in three minutes on the battlefield. Most recruits shoot every five minutes. Not a single shot!

Not only was the rate of fire fast, but what shocked them was that it was also very accurate. British and French soldiers could hit accurately from three hundred meters away. Under the effective command of the lieutenants, they fired volleys of guns and knocked down the gray soldiers in large numbers. Animals, almost every step forward the gray animals have to pay a heavy price.

"This is magic!"

"No! This is witchcraft! It's black magic!"

A few panic-stricken old fogies were already going crazy, feeling incredible and horrified by the hail of bullets from the Migne rifles. They had no way of understanding how it was done, so they could only blame it on magic or witchcraft.

Finally Kornilov couldn't help it anymore and mocked: "This is not magic or witchcraft, but a new technology! The new breech-loading rifle can shoot quickly and has extremely high rifling accuracy. What's the point? What a surprise!”

"I wrote a letter to the Navy Department last year, requesting a complete replacement of this new rifle, but some people just disagreed, saying that the existing weapons are advanced enough and do not need to be improved! What now?"