The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 897 Complete Overwhelming Power
"cover!"

At the riverside mill, Hu Yixiao roared and, holding his firing pistol, was about to leap over the breastwork.

"Second Master, we're not all dead, how can we let you go up there!"

At the critical moment, a Gwangju musketeer grabbed Hu Yixiao and, without waiting for Hu Yixiao's objection, jumped over the wall.

'boom! ’

The massive cannonball slammed into the stone wall of the mill, sending debris flying in all directions with a shrill sound. Hu Yixiao felt a burning sensation on his face, and a few drops of blood rolled down his cheek to his collar.

However, he had no time to wipe the blood. Instead, he led seven or eight sharpshooters to leap over the breastwork, firing their breech-loading needle pistols at the Russian troops opposite them.

If we don't deal with the six-pounder that the other side brought over, this mill won't be able to hold. If they keep bombarding it like this, it will collapse sooner or later.

Koreans are a very peculiar group. They always seem to have some inexplicable neuroticism, and almost everyone of them is a big eater, even the women are incredibly voracious.

Unfortunately, the peninsula is extremely barren, with a mountain range rising up in the middle of its dilapidated terrain.

This resulted in the cold winds from the Western Xianbei blowing directly through both sides of the mountain range without any obstruction.

The cold winds from the Eastern Xianbei were blocked by the mountains, and instead blew fiercely and relentlessly on the northeastern side of the peninsula, causing a life-or-death situation.

Such terrible weather resulted in extremely limited produce on the peninsula. During the Joseon Dynasty, even a bowl of dumpling soup was considered a very good meal for the king, so one can only imagine what it was like for those below him.

Over a thousand or two thousand years in an environment of extreme food scarcity, the Koreans developed extremely unique digestive habits.

When there's nothing to eat, they're used to not eating for two or three days.

When there's food to eat, a woman can easily eat a pound of rice in one meal—not just a pound of cooked rice, but a whole pound of rice.

These guys seem to be human beings being tested to their limits by nature.

Therefore, in Dayu, the army preferred to recruit Goryeo people as soldiers.

Although they are not particularly resilient and their combat strength is not as good as those from the Chinese mainland and the Japanese archipelago, they are definitely the ones who can survive the worst environments. It is said that even the Russians' gray-haired beasts call them "Big Brother".

The Gwangju musketeer who volunteered for the task was named Lee In-jun. He showed no fear and moved with incredible agility, darting across the flat ground faster than a mouse.

A few stray bullets flew by, but they didn't affect him at all; all he could see was that damned six-pound cannon.

180 meters, 160 meters, 140 meters.

Li Renjun suddenly fell to the ground, then quickly opened fire, pulled the bolt, released the bullet, chambered another round, and fired again.

The Russian artillerymen were somewhat shocked. They didn't understand what the Khitan soldier was trying to do by rushing over, let alone why he was lying on the ground.

But the next second, the artillery captain in charge of aiming suddenly tilted his head to the side, blood gushing from his neck, and he fell to the left.

Immediately afterwards, another artilleryman holding a pig bristle brush shuddered stiffly and collapsed as well.

'Bang!' The third artilleryman, who was confidently moving shells behind the gun shield, lunged forward and plunged his head directly into the muddy ground.

The remaining artilleryman who was about to set off the fuse immediately turned and ran, but in his panic, he made a fatal mistake. He straightened up as he ran away and emerged from behind the gun shield.

'Bang!' A swift bullet pierced his back, propelling the artilleryman forward several steps before he collapsed.

Ruthless and accurate, he truly deserves to be called a natural archer, born from the lowest rungs of Silla, who initially couldn't even speak Chinese, yet managed to enter the Jingying Wuwu Army in less than a year.

The Russian commander realized what was happening. The Khitans had a new type of firearm that could fire rapidly. He shouted anxiously, "Charge! Charge! Take care of the Khitans with bayonets!"

Three hours ago, he had already lost fourteen artillerymen to this method by the Yu soldiers, which made the Russian commander lose patience and attempt to take the mill by relying on his numerical advantage.

But he was wrong. After Hu Yixiao brought Li Renjun back with his men, the more than 300 guards of the mill relied on their needle-firing guns with extremely high firing rates to prevent the Russian army from advancing an inch.

A standard flintlock musket could only fire three shots per minute at best, and many soldiers couldn't achieve that speed in actual combat.

However, needle-firing guns fire at least ten times per minute, and most can even reach thirteen to fifteen times.

So, judging solely from firepower, there were only three hundred people in the mill, but in reality, it should be considered as at least a thousand people.

The Russian army attacked this place with 3,000 men. There was no overwhelming difference in firepower. The Yu soldiers also had the fortifications around the mill to use, so they actually had the advantage.

The Russian commander just didn't understand this principle. Even though he realized that the Khitans had rifles with a high rate of fire, he still hadn't figured it out and tried to rely on his numerical advantage to launch a strong attack. As a result, he lost more than a hundred corpses and gained nothing.

Seeing the enormous losses, the commander was furious and desperately tried to use his connections to get a few more gunners.

As a result, the artillerymen of the Xiaowu Army in the village east of the mill had already obtained the firing parameters from the mill garrison.

When the Russian gunners arrived and were still visually calibrating, two three-pound cannons in the village, one in front of the other, whistled and hit the Russian six-pound cannon.

In an instant, the gun shield of the Russian six-pounder cannon was smashed through, the gun carriage flew into the air, and two of the four artillerymen were instantly crushed into a bloody mist, while the other two were beyond dead.

. . . .

On the main battlefield, Count Bennigson lived up to his reputation as a renowned general, commanding flawlessly.

Although the Russian army came from the upper reaches of the Don River and did not carry many artillery pieces in order to take advantage of the rapid raiding characteristics of its all-cavalry force, its tactical arrangements were very appropriate.

This village, named Karakashev, is only about 40 kilometers from Rostov. It is not small; in fact, it could be called a small town. If you really want to put it in perspective, Huang Renyong's 8,000 people could all be crammed into the town.

If these 8,000 people all enter the town, it won't be easy for Bennigson, despite having 30,000 men, to take it down.

So when the war began, Count Bennigson did not rush to take down Huang Renyong’s troops with a surprise attack. Instead, he first sent two thousand cavalrymen into the forest to massacre the Azerbaijanis.

Although these Azerbaijanis had won some battles with the Western Route Army of the Great Yu, their fear of the Russian army had not been eliminated.

After being brutally beaten in the woods, most of them fled in terror.

As they ran, they relayed news of the Russian raid back to the auxiliary troops' camp outside the town, immediately throwing everyone into chaos.

Count Bennigson then dispatched another 5,000 cavalry to raid these auxiliary camps. They easily separated them from the elite Yu troops in the town and pursued them for six or seven kilometers, killing three or four hundred men.

He only began preparing for the attack after confirming that there were only a few thousand people defending the town of Karakashev.

The Russian army adopted a pattern of alternating attacks by infantry, cavalry, and artillery. First, the infantry attacked from the north and west in diagonal lines, with skirmishers in front, line infantry behind, and grenadiers hidden among them.

Once the infantry has fought off the enemy, the cavalry will launch a sudden attack, while the artillery will bombard the enemy before and after the battle, depending on the circumstances.

This tactic caused considerable trouble for the Yu army in Karakashev town, as the Russian forces outnumbered Huang Renyong's troops by tenfold.

The cavalry was even more impressive; the Russian army had at least 60,000 warhorses and draft horses.

Huang Renyong's force consisted of only a thousand cavalrymen, most of whose horses were draft horses rather than warhorses, and a large portion of them were left outside the town and ridden away by the panicked Azerbaijanis.

The battle raged until 2 p.m., with Russian troops making three incursions into the town of Karakshev. Although they were driven out each time, the Yu forces suffered heavy casualties.

"The leakage rate is around 10 percent. The most serious incident was that a soldier's eye was burned, which could potentially blind him."

Captain Hu Yixiao requested that the military headquarters immediately dispatch the best military doctors to remove the eyeball to prevent the other eye from being affected.

"The firing pin is generally used about ten times, with a maximum of sixteen times. If it is used more than sixteen times, it will definitely be damaged and must be replaced."

In Huang Renyong's command room, a group of staff officers were reporting to Huang Renyong the feedback from the Mofang defense troops who had been fighting with needle-firing guns.

This is the biggest drawback of the Dayu Zhongwu 1806 firing pistol, which is almost identical to the Dreiser needle-firing pistol: it leaks gas and the firing pin is too delicate.

Compared to the Schneider rifle, which could be modified from a muzzle-loading flintlock musket, and the culmination of this design, the American Springfield 1903 rifle, it still falls short.

Huang Renyong was accompanied by a group of ordnance engineers from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, who were there to collect data for improvement.

Because Da Yu had no suitable opponent to test this firing gun under full and tense conditions.

"Okay, those are all problems. Let's talk about the good points."

"First of all, the ignition failure rate has been reduced from 17 percent of the original flintlock gun, which is one misfire on average every six times, to 1/200, which is one misfire every two hundred times, which is now almost negligible."

"The rate of fire has increased from two to three times per minute to an average of twelve times, representing a qualitative leap compared to flintlock muskets."

"In terms of loading method, soldiers can load while lying down, on their side, or even lying down, without having to stand up for the tedious loading process. Therefore, the role of fortifications such as breastworks has been maximized."

Captain Hu Yixiao even went so far as to say that future warfare might no longer require the foolish practice of forming lines of troops; fortifications might become the most crucial element of field battles.

Huang Renyong nodded. Hu Quan, this third brother, does seem to have a real talent for warfare.

"It's past 2 a.m. now. I estimate that the Russians will definitely start a night battle after nightfall, because there are many of them. Those Russians who managed to escape must have drawn up a map of the town for them."

"So, should we take the initiative and attack?" asked a centurion from the Xiaowu Army next to Huang Renyong.

"Yes, get ready. In an hour, we'll line up in a row and launch a preemptive strike, making it look like we're afraid to fight them in open battle and are trying to break out."

Huang Renyong's eyes gleamed. "Have all the soldiers re-equip with Zhongwu firing pistols and line them up to be shot. I want to make those clueless Russians suffer a great loss!"

It turns out that because the flintlock muskets had not undergone a final large-scale battlefield test, the Xiaowu Army was equipped with 6,000 of them, but flintlock muskets remained the standard weapon.

This is also why the Xiaowu Army brought so many auxiliary troops from Azerbaijan and Western Torgut.

Many of them came to transport firing pins, as well as the firing pins, cardboard cartridges, and other supplies needed for the Xiaowu Army.

In the forest outside the town of Karakashev, Count Bennigsen was also analyzing the battlefield situation with his officers.

In the eyes of Russian officers, this battle was destined to be a close-quarters fight with bayonets drawn.

Since neither side had many cannons, and the town of Karakashev had many buildings, and the Khitans were very tenacious fighters, it was certain that they would have to fight house by house in the streets.

"There should be about three thousand Khitans in Karakashev. They are very tenacious fighters. I request that fifteen Guards Grenadier Battalions of the First Army be the main assault force tonight."

The speaker was Lieutenant General Karl Gustav Bayekhov of the 2nd Infantry Corps of the 1st Eastern Army, and these fifteen Guards Grenadier Battalions were his elite troops.

The First and Second Eastern Armies were new armies established around 1809 by the Rus' Empire under the guise of military reform, following the disastrous defeat at Austerlitz, and modeled after the French Grand Legion.

Originally called the First and Second Western Groups, they were intended to defend against the French Empire. However, as the threat posed by the Great Yu to the Rus' Empire grew, the Rus' people, who had suffered under Mongol rule, also began to believe in the Fourth Yellow Peril fabricated by the French.

These two army groups were then renamed the First Eastern Army Group and the Second Eastern Army Group to prevent the invasion of the Great Yu.

These are two rather large army groups, with a combined force of over 100,000 men.

In particular, the First Eastern Group, whose commander-in-chief was Tsar Alexander I himself, comprised more than 60,000 infantry and cavalry and possessed 600 cannons.

Its status in the Tsarist Rus' Empire was equivalent to that of the legions formed by the Great Yu's personal guards, such as the Left and Right Divine Lightning Guards, the Left and Right Feathered Forest Guards, and the Left and Right Dragon Soaring Guards.

Count Bennigson thought carefully for a moment and slowly said, "Judging from the intensity of today's battle, the Khitan commander on the other side has placed his most elite troops and most advanced weapons near the mill to prevent their water supply from being cut off."

The legion in Karakashev was also quite capable, but it was lacking in weaponry and firepower.

Huang Renyong's plan worked; his order to only allow the mill guards to use the needle-fired pistols successfully misled Count Bennigson.

"I agree with the plan, but we should hurry up and refine it, because the Khitans are not like the Ottomans and Poles, but an extremely terrifying Yellow Peril Empire!"

Count Bennigsen was somewhat excited, because a victory against the Khitans in the first battle would greatly help his status as a German within the Rus' Empire.

But he was also very cautious. Count Bennigsen knew what kind of person General Mikhail Barclay was. He was a formidable figure who was more capable than him and was also his superior.

However, before he could shine on the western front, General Mikhail Barclay, who was a major general eight years earlier, was captured by the Khitan army during the First Khitan War.

"Count, the Khitans have come out! They've launched a counter-attack against our attacking infantry!"

The somewhat excited Earl of Bennigson was about to further refine the plan when he heard a loud shout outside. He quickly led his staff officers out of the forest to investigate.

In the distance, about 2,500 Khitan troops had indeed emerged from the town of Karakashev and were driving back two or three Russian infantry regiments that had launched a brazen attack.

“I don’t quite understand,” Earl Bennigson muttered. He put down his binoculars and wondered if he was seeing things, but then immediately raised them again to observe.

"Could it be that the Khitans were really advancing alone without a large number of cavalry as reinforcements, and that they were afraid of being surrounded and trapped by us?"

So that's why they launched the attack at this time, inflicting heavy casualties on our soldiers, to prepare for a night breakout?

Hearing the count's mutterings, the officers also found it hard to believe, but the situation on the battlefield was right before their eyes, leaving them no choice but to believe it.

Taking advantage of their hesitation, Huang Renyong led his troops to quickly repel two or three thousand Russian soldiers, occupy a high point outside the town, and push six field guns to the highest point as stabilizers to suppress Russian artillery.

Forty minutes later, the Russian troops, who could not fathom Huang Renyong's intentions, began to assemble one after another.

The approximately 13,000 troops were divided into three large square formations and advanced diagonally from three directions. At least 7,000 Cossack cavalry were behind them, ready to reap the rewards after the infantry had inflicted heavy losses on Huang Renyong's forces.

Fifteen minutes later, the two armies made contact.

The Dayu field artillery was positioned high on the hillside, and all of them were six-pound cannons. They could inflict heavy casualties on infantry from a distance of about 1,000 meters.

If shrapnel shells used against artillery and cavalry are fired, they can accurately hit targets at a distance of 450 meters, with a kill radius of about 15 meters.

On the other hand, the Russian army mostly used three-pounder cannons, because it was impossible for cavalry to carry too many six-pounder cannons around during a raid.

Furthermore, they have almost no new types of artillery shells that can be detonated in the air, such as shrapnel shells; they mainly use solid shot, grapeshot, and old-fashioned explosive shells.

Even more seriously, there was a huge difference in the gun shields between the two armies' artillery.

At this time, when artillery enters a dangerous area, there is a gun shield (armor) that can cover the front of the artillery to protect the artillerymen and the artillery.

The cannon shield of the Dayu was made of hard oak with steel plates, and could withstand the bombardment of a three-pound cannon at a distance of 600 meters.

Furthermore, it features a shock-absorbing and triangular ramp design, which can even deflect solid projectiles fired by the enemy.

In order to save time, the Russian army carried only light gun shields, which were also made of hard oak, but only covered with a 1.5-millimeter-thick sheet metal.

This type of gun shield is difficult to defend against once a three-pounder is at 500 meters, and even a needle-firing musket can penetrate it at a distance of less than 150 meters.

The Russian artillerymen at the mill were mostly killed by sniper rifles fired from this distance.

Count Bennigson was well aware of this situation, which is why he dared not push the cannons forward and could only wait until the chaos of battle to decide when to use them.

Therefore, for the first five or six hundred meters, it was almost entirely Russian infantry advancing while enduring heavy artillery fire from the Da Yu.

A single solid shot from a six-pounder can penetrate a column of soldiers more than five meters wide. The destructive power of bombarding such a column without any threat is unimaginable.

For a time, the battlefield was littered with the corpses of Russian infantrymen. Often, a small square of thousands of men would suffer heavy losses after being bombarded by concentrated artillery fire, forcing them to dismount and regroup.

If the Russian army hadn't had over 10,000 infantrymen while Huang Renyong only had six field guns, the Russian army wouldn't have needed to fight this battle.

Once within 400 meters, both sides simultaneously dispatched scouts to harass the advancing line infantry formations.

The Dayu Archers (Hunters), armed with needle-firing guns, relied on their unparalleled rate of fire to inflict heavy casualties on the Rakshasa Hunters.

Even though the Rakshasa Hunters outnumbered the Great Yu Archer Army by more than three times, they still couldn't withstand them.

They fired almost five shots while you only fired one. Forget about skill, the psychological pressure alone is enough to crush you.

After repelling the Rakshasa hunters, the archers continued to advance, indiscriminately firing at the Rakshasa line infantry from a distance of two hundred meters.

Gunfire erupted on the battlefield, and the infantry advancing in neat ranks suffered even heavier losses. One battalion of over 800 infantrymen at the forefront of the left flank collapsed under the burst fire of 70 needle-firing muskets.

Seeing this, Count Bennigson quickly dispatched 1,500 Cossack cavalry to cut through the infantry formation and drive away the hunters.

Huang Renyong promptly ordered the Shesheng Army to retreat and commanded the artillery to fire shrapnel shells, bombarding the artillery from a distance of 400 meters.

The shrapnel shell was also a new invention, invented in 1784 by English artillery major Henry Schreipnell. After improvements in 1793, the technology matured, and the British army began to use it in small quantities around 1800. In 1802, during negotiations with India, the English Secretary of War shared it with the Indian Empire.

Mo Zibu immediately recognized the extraordinary nature of this item and directly took out 17,500 silver dollars, equivalent to about 5,000 pounds, to buy the patent for its use.

They offered him an annual salary of three thousand silver dollars and a little over one thousand pounds, and recruited him to serve as the general manager of the Jingkou Arsenal of the Ministry of War.

This type of shrapnel grenade solved the problem of controlling the detonation time of early exploding shells, and was filled with a large number of steel balls and steel arrowheads.

When it explodes within ten meters overhead, it can create a fragmentation hell of about fifteen meters, making it an excellent weapon against cavalry and artillery.

The poor Cossacks had no idea what shrapnel was. Wearing dog-skin hats, they screamed and charged toward the Dayu Archery Army as usual.

Then, a shrapnel grenade exploded above the heads of more than forty Cossacks. The sharp steel balls and steel arrowheads were so densely packed that they produced a strange shriek.

In an instant, it was as if something had crawled out of the bodies of the Cossacks in the very center, and they were instantly torn to shreds, their flesh flying everywhere. Even their warhorses didn't have time to neigh before they collapsed to the ground.

Most of the other Cossacks around were also shot. The lucky ones could still cry out a few times, while the unlucky ones had their brains splattered out and remained silent, or had their chests and abdomens pierced and could only groan.

The Dayu six-pounder cannon has a very high rate of fire, firing at least two hundred shrapnel shells within ten minutes. It basically emptied the shells in one go, making it impossible to conduct accurate shooting for at least the next ten minutes.

This terrifying number of soldiers not only routed the Cossacks who charged in, but also decimated many of the surrounding infantry.

In those ten minutes, the Russian army suffered at least a thousand casualties, so much so that many battalions of infantry behind them dared not advance and were all dragging their feet.

Count Benihissen watched with trepidation and rage, "The Khitans' artillery accuracy has declined; it's time to let them taste the power of our cannons."

Under the command of Count Bennissen, the Russian artillery advanced rapidly, with many artillerymen and laborers exerting all their strength in the attempt to push the cannons to a position where they could bombard the Yu artillery.

But Huang Renyong must have his reasons for daring to fight like this.

Amidst the resounding suona horns, two thousand Dayu line infantrymen marched in one direction, the direction in which the Russian artillery and infantry were the most numerous.

Don't underestimate this; to run forward on the battlefield without the formation becoming disorganized on a large scale is something only elite troops can accomplish.

A distance of three or four hundred meters sounds like a long range, but it takes elite soldiers less than two minutes to cover it.

At that time, the Russian artillery had not even reached the designated location, let alone been able to open fire. Huang Renyong was taking advantage of this time difference.

Count Benihissen had not anticipated this move and could only order his line infantry to advance, attempting to defeat Huang Renyong's infantry by relying on their numerical superiority.

But this time it was even worse. At a distance of 90 meters, both sides fired a salvo at each other, resulting in casualties on both sides. Just as the Russian army was about to launch a three-stage attack, the Da Yu army fired its second salvo.

It's nothing more than pulling the bolt, loading the magazine, chambering the round, and firing. There's no need to bite through the gunpowder bag to get the propellant, no need to point the muzzle upwards and use a tamping rod to compact the gunpowder, and no need to load lead bullets.

This speed advantage is simply unbeatable.

"One, two, three, four, release!"

"One, two, three, four, release!"

Countless junior officers like Hu Yixiao shouted that the musketeers of the Xiaowu Army were more and more accurate with each volley, and that their firing style was not like that of flintlock muskets, where they would fire freely after a volley.

Amidst this frenzied roar and adrenaline surge, their reloading became faster and more skillful. The Russian army was simply unable to contend with them. One phalanx would be routed in a matter of seconds, and another phalanx, witnessing the carnage, would have its soldiers' legs buckle before they even arrived.

Count Benihissen watched in despair as more than two thousand Khitans charged into his encirclement of seven or eight thousand men, then swiftly slaughtered his infantry like wild sheep.

"Let the cavalry charge! Charge forward and use their sabers to finish off those Khitans!" Count Benihisen shouted in anguish.

But instead of military orders, he was met with chaos.

It turns out that Huang Renyong had a backup plan. Among the Yu auxiliary troops who were divided and driven away by the Russian army, there were not only Azerbaijanis and Western Torguts.

In fact, Huang Renyong's most elite cavalry, namely the Xiaowu Army cavalry led by Hu Yijie, was also among them.

So they were not dispersed as the Russian army had expected, but were gathered up by Hu Yijie after running several kilometers.

Amidst the thunderous roar of hooves, Hu Yijie's more than 5,000 cavalrymen routed the Cossacks guarding the battlefield and charged back like a raging storm.

Count Benihisen had no time to react and could only retreat under the cover of Cossack cavalry.

His tens of thousands of line infantry, who arrived on the battlefield as dragoons, were simply abandoned.

(End of this chapter)