I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 631: Battle of the Three Kings (V)

The Confederate soldiers were not proactive enough and were not as selfless as the Union soldiers. It was no surprise that they were suppressed.

But not all Confederate troops could withstand the harassment of the stragglers, and soon some troops were induced to fire volleys. However, the two armies were still far apart at this time, and the Confederate Army had time to reload the next bullet. However, the overall formation became somewhat scattered, and the rhythm began to become disrupted. Fortunately, the Confederate Army's formation was wide enough, and this degree of disarray did not destroy the overall formation.

The Confederate soldiers marched 80 meters per minute to the rhythmic drum beats, and soon approached a position two kilometers away from the Union Army. At this time, the artillery of the Confederate Army also began to fire, but their first round of artillery fire was not very effective.
However, several bloody alleys were opened up in the Northern Army's formation.
At this time, the bugler of the Union Army blew the march horn. The loud sound of the bugle echoed, and the infantry of the Union Army's center immediately began to advance to the sound of the bugle and drums.
The Northern Army’s plan is very simple. Since you want to encircle us from both wings, I will make a breakthrough in the center!
The cavalry behind the infantry line also mounted their horses upon command and were ready to go.

Wang Ze was also in the middle of the army. The Southern Army's artillery was getting more and more accurate. This time, the Southern Army brought all their artillery and poured ammunition into the Northern Army's formation as much as possible.
A solid cannonball came whistling like a messenger of death.

The shells had huge kinetic energy, tearing through the air and making a sharp sound. Wang Ze only felt a shadow approaching in an instant, and before he could react, the shells had already smashed into the crowd.
He watched helplessly as the head of his comrade who was walking in front of him on the right exploded in an instant, just like a watermelon being smashed. He felt something warm hit his face, causing it to hurt.
The cannonball continued to move forward with unabated momentum. The kinetic energy it carried had not yet been fully released, and it grazed the arm of a Union soldier behind it, easily taking away his arm, and then took away the legs of two soldiers behind it, and directly penetrated four rows of soldiers. Finally, it bounced on the ground a few times, emitting black smoke, and this fist-sized solid iron bullet finally released all the kinetic energy it carried. Just like this, a solid cannonball caused one death and three injuries.
The fragile human body was nothing in front of the violent kinetic energy of the shells. The shells easily tore four people apart, creating a bloody alley in the army. Before the people under attack could react, everything was over.
Wang Ze saw that the headless body of his comrade took two steps forward by inertia before collapsing to the ground. Blood spurted out like a fountain, and the soldier who had lost his arms and legs felt the pain and screamed in agony.
Wang Ze wiped his face with his sleeve and found that the warm substance on his face was a red and white substance. His stomach was churning for a while, and some soldiers around him even vomited directly. However, the drummer's drum beats were still there. Following the drum beats had formed their muscle memory, so they continued to move forward mechanically.
The army continued to advance, and the four dead and wounded were soon left behind. Four more people quickly came up from the rear. Wang Ze couldn't help but look back and saw several people in white clothes carrying medicine boxes dragging the three injured comrades back. This made him feel much more at ease.
The firing rate of the Confederate artillery was not high, and they could only fire one or two shells per minute. This level of attack was not enough to shake the will of the Union soldiers.
Liu Di didn't feel relieved when he saw the Northern Army being bombarded. Instead, he became more panicked. They were only one kilometer away from the Northern Army. The artillery was very accurate at this distance. He knew better than anyone how terrifying the Northern Army's artillery was. Now that they hadn't been bombarded, the Northern Army's artillery seemed to be brewing a terrifying force. But he had to follow the main force forward. This feeling of approaching danger made Liu Di's scalp numb.
At this time, on the artillery positions of the Northern Army, the artillery commanders waved their swords, and the cannons immediately spewed out angry flames, the huge roar was deafening, and the shells whistled into the sky.
The sound of huge artillery fire was continuous, drowning out all other sounds on the battlefield.
Liu Di immediately discovered that there were many more black dots in the sky. The number of these dots shocked him. Although he was prepared, the number of artillery deployed by the Northern Army was beyond his imagination.
He was an infantryman, so he naturally couldn't see the Union's artillery positions, and those who could see the Union's artillery positions would not tell them this information, so as not to affect the morale of the army.
But this is just the beginning.
A Union cannonball smashed into the Confederate formation like a demon, and the cannonball exploded.
As a huge explosion sounded, the strong flames instantly illuminated the people around the explosion point. The shrapnel was like a sharp dagger, flying in all directions at a very fast speed. The Confederate soldiers who were close at hand had no time to dodge and were instantly hit by the shrapnel. Some people were penetrated by shrapnel, and blood spurted out like a fountain. They fell to the ground in pain and screamed; some people were cut off by shrapnel, and their bodies twitched in a pool of blood; some people had small wounds on their faces and bodies, and blood stained their faces and uniforms red.

The shock wave from the explosion was like a ferocious beast, knocking the surrounding soldiers to the ground. They rolled and collided helplessly like fallen leaves swept by the wind. The flags in the army formation were torn into pieces by the shock wave and flew in the air.
This was a shrapnel shell. As each shell fell, white "flowers" continued to bloom in the Northern Army's formation.
Countless soldiers' broken limbs, hot blood and weapons were blown everywhere.
This wave of violent explosions stunned all the Southern Army, whether they were high-ranking generals or soldiers at the bottom.
No one expected this explosion, and no one was mentally prepared, which made all the Southern Army members confused.
Before this, no one in the Confederate Army had ever seen the Union Army use this kind of exploding shells on the battlefield.
This is also one of the Royal Group's technological breakthroughs. Zhu Houxuan naturally did not forget to work hard on the shells. In fact, the technology for making shrapnel shells is not particularly complicated. The most important thing is the technology of the fuse.
The shrapnel shells currently in service in the Northern Army use a needle-piercing trigger fuse, which can barely reach 40% of the firing rate. The cost is not cheap at all, but this technical indicator is sufficient in this era.
(End of this chapter)