Chapter 319: Flying Artillery (Please read on)

Chapter 320 Flying Artillery (Please read it later)

On the wide and smooth King's Road in France, nearly 20,000 French soldiers lined up in a marching column that could not be seen at a glance, marching quickly in the loud singing.

69𝔰𝔥𝔲𝔵.𝔫𝔢𝔱】

In the back of the team, the young Napoleon leaned tightly on a tall artillery carriage pulled by four horses, just like cuddling with a lover.

Well, the others were sitting on the carriage, but he would rather walk beside the artillery carriage, just to see her from all angles and touch her.

That was the latest model of riding artillery carriage produced by Joseph's Jewel Carriage Company.

Joseph ordered the craftsmen to trial manufacture it more than half a year ago, and it was just completed a few months ago. The first batch of more than 20 vehicles were built, all equipped to the Guards Corps.

This large-sized horse artillery carriage, which looks like a long wooden house, was made based on Napoleon's later horse artillery, of course, with some necessary improvements.

The concept of horse artillery was created by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War.

The so-called horse artillery, in simple terms, is to equip the cannon and the gunner with enough horses, to drag and maneuver throughout the process, so that the movement speed of the cannon is doubled, thereby greatly increasing the flexibility of artillery tactics.

However, there were many shortcomings in the early horse artillery, such as the cannon had to be constantly untied and tied with ropes connected to the horses, resulting in too long preparation time.

The general view of this era was that it took more than one-third longer for the horse artillery to complete the firing than ordinary artillery.

In addition, the horse artillery was not suitable for heavy artillery. Usually, it was difficult to drag a cannon of more than 6 pounds with horses to move quickly - a 12-pound cannon required 8 horses to drag, and the soldiers who drove the horses were well-trained if they could keep the horses in order, and it was basically impossible to run faster.

So at the end of the 18th century, countries were still mainly equipped with ordinary artillery, supplemented by a small number of horse artillery.

However, Napoleon, a genius in using artillery, brought the advantages of cavalry artillery to the extreme, and even turned all the artillery of some legions into cavalry artillery.

He had many innovations in the application of cavalry artillery. For example, cavalry artillery used speed to rush forward quickly, fired several rounds of volleys at the enemy's face, and then quickly evacuated. Another example is to equip cavalry battalions with cavalry, and follow the cavalry to gallop and bomb all the way.

In short, after him, the importance of cavalry artillery in various countries has doubled.

But for the time being, Emperor Napoleon is still a newbie drooling over the cavalry artillery.

In history, Napoleon's cavalry artillery had two main core equipment-horse-drawn cannons and ammunition carts.

The long wooden house that Napoleon was "hugging and licking" at this time was the ammunition cart that was very common later, nicknamed "shed car".

This thing "integrated" the logistics support of the artillery, and could quickly drag out the shells and gunpowder inside during combat, and could be loaded in a short time when moving, and dragged away by horses.

This is much more convenient and time-saving than the gunpowder cart, ammunition cart, and tool cart used by Frederick's cavalry artillery, which had to be harnessed to horses when moving.

And speed is the biggest advantage of cavalry artillery.

Joseph combined the structure of later heavy-duty trucks and added a plow to this type of vehicle, and changed the shell and gunpowder modules to a pull-out structure. The covers of the gunpowder and shell boxes used automatic locks - this was designed by Louis XVI himself, and it was strong and reliable.

With these changes, the cannon's firing preparation was seven or eight seconds faster than the original version in history.

In addition, Joseph also added 6 seats to the ammunition cart for the gunners to ride. Soldiers were not allowed to ride in the "caravan" in history, and the gunners had to run with the car on foot.

But no one could stand not sitting in a carriage. So the gunners sat on the roof of the ammunition cart, which was shaped like a sloping French roof. Although the buttocks must be uncomfortable, if you want to be lazy, you can only endure it.

Joseph knew that it was extremely difficult to prevent the gunners from riding in the car, so he simply added seats for them, which was at most a matter of adding a horse. This also greatly increased the movement speed of the cavalry artillery.

As for the cannon, Joseph also made some improvements, mainly adding the kind of clips between the train carriages in later generations to the tail of the gun.

Don't underestimate this change. When the cavalry artillery needs to move, the time to put the cannon on the horse can be greatly shortened, and the operation is also easier.

Another thing is to add a winch to the gun carriage.

When the cannon is fired, the horse needs to stay far away to prevent it from being startled. In this way, every time the cannon is fired and the movement is switched, a lot of time is wasted to put the horse.

Therefore, the cavalry artillery in the Napoleonic era invented a unique operation-the rope connecting the cannon to the horse is left very long, and the lasso is not untied when shooting. In this way, when you want to maneuver, you only need to tighten the rope and you can get on the road immediately.

Joseph went a step further and even skipped the rope. The horse dragged a long rope and went directly, and then the gunner used the winch on the gun carriage to slowly reel in the rope.

This is the real ability to fight and run!

Napoleon stroked the new cavalry artillery vehicle that fascinated him, and recalled the cavalry artillery tactics he had trained in his mind, and his heart was filled with excitement.

If these exquisite tactics and sophisticated weapons can be used to equip the Corsican National Army, it will increase their combat effectiveness exponentially.

He took a deep breath, and it seemed that coming to Verdun this time was absolutely the right decision.

The troops were about to arrive in Luxembourg, where they would fight the Prussians, and he would be able to gain experience in actual combat and grow into a real general!

…

Wenselle, central and western Luxembourg.

Blücher saw more than a hundred Austrian defenders in the town fleeing in panic through the telescope, and said to the messenger expressionlessly:

"Leave a battalion to garrison, and the others will rest for an hour, and then continue to move south. I want to capture Diekirch before tomorrow afternoon."

After defeating Leo's main force, the battle became very easy, which made him a little bored.

Just like when attacking Wenselle just now, he only ordered a dozen rounds of artillery fire, and the defending Austrians ran away.

It can be predicted that the battle to attack Diekirch tomorrow will most likely be the same. And after taking it, there will be no more obstacles on the road to Luxembourg City.

Leo's troops should still have about 1,600 people left, and he brought ten times the troops, so there is no suspense in capturing Luxembourg City.

His staff officer suddenly rushed over and handed him a wax-sealed paper roll:

"General, Potsdam sent it four days ago."

Blücher opened the secret order, frowned slightly, and looked up at the staff officer:

"The French have joined the war. Although General Driesen defeated them in Liegnitz, this is a very dangerous signal."

He shook the reins:

"Order to speed up the march. We must solve the problem here as soon as possible and then return to Silesia to reinforce the Duke."

At this moment, two hussars galloped over and shouted to him:

"General, a large group of enemy troops were found 2 miles to the south! There may be several thousand people."

Blücher was startled when he heard this: Could it be the Austrian reinforcements? How could they come so quickly? !