Daqin Engineering Corps

What Fusu didn't expect was that his soft ears saved his life this time.

For Shen Bing, the original Lanshi City was not important to the whole battle, because there were enough supplies for the Qin army and the people in the city for a year in Homusang City, and Shen Bing was very sure that the Seleucid Allied Forces would not be able to encircle Homusang one year.

So even if Lan's City falls, Shen Bing still holds the initiative.

But because of the arrival of Fusu and Ziyang, the whole situation changed: Shen Bing didn't dare to risk Fusu, which was related to the fate of Great Qin and even Shen Bing himself.

Therefore, Shen Bing must take the initiative to attack, and even beat the enemy as soon as he attacks.

Only in this way can the Seleucid army rushing to the Lan family turn back to Homusang instead of continuing to attack the Lan family.

5 Chapter Twenty Firearms

So the Qin army went out of the city from the north gate to fight.

Out of the city were [-] Shenwu troops and [-] heavy cavalry, plus [-] light cavalry as support.

The three thousand martial arts army was the main force in the middle. They lined up in groups of a hundred people, each holding arquebus guns, bronze swords at the waist and hips, and a rattan shield on their backs.

The two chiefs, one on the left and the other on the right, maintained the left and right borders of the queue and kept the queue in order. The hundred generals led their personal guards to command behind the queue.

One thousand heavy cavalry on each side cover, and one thousand light cavalry are divided into two as mobile troops on the flanks.

An army of 6000 men, against [-] Roman legions.

The reason why Shen Bing chose the Roman Legion as his target was due to two considerations:

One is that the Roman legion usually adopted passive defense tactics when dealing with the enemy's long-range weapons, such as forming a tortoise shell formation.

This approach will give musketeers more time to prepare... Musketeers are not afraid of how thick the opponent's shield is, but they are afraid of the opponent's reckless charge. In this way, the slower-firing arquebus will be rushed by the enemy and have to Potentially abandoned arquebus to choose close combat.

Second, because the shields of the Roman legions were larger, thicker, and stronger.

This is determined by the fact that the combat weapons of the Roman Legion are mainly short swords. Only light-weight short swords can be matched with large shields, while Macedonian soldiers must only be equipped with smaller and lighter ones because they have to hold super long spears weighing 18 catties. round shield.

There is no doubt that this round shield can only be used to protect a small area of ​​bows and arrows, and an arquebus can easily penetrate it and kill the Macedonian soldiers behind it.

But the Roman shield, which is 1.25 meters high, 0.78 meters wide, and weighs 10 kilograms... Shen Bing is not sure.

To be precise, Shen Bing was not sure how far the arquebus could effectively kill a Roman soldier holding this shield.

If the killing distance is too close, such as 50 meters, or even 30 meters... then the arquebus has no advantage against Roman infantry.

Because at this distance, the arquebus is only enough to shoot two or three bullets, and then it will be close combat.

The Shenwu army in rattan armor and holding a bronze sword has no advantage in close combat with the Roman legion.

This is actually not difficult to imagine.

Because the short swords used by the Romans were only about 60 centimeters in length, they were more piercing on the battlefield, that is, they pierced through the gaps in the connected shields.

In addition, the Romans would use shields weighing up to 10 kilograms to push, smash, and squeeze.

The most taboo of rattan armor is puncture and hitting with heavy objects.

On the contrary, it was difficult for the bronze sword in the hands of the Shenwu Army to break through the shield formation of the Romans like a wall, so close combat had only a dead end.

Shen Bing wanted to see if the arquebus could break the Roman phalanx first.

If not, you need to adjust your tactics.

In fact, there are other tactics to deal with the Roman and Seleucid armies, that is, to fight and go like the Mongolian army, so that the Roman phalanx and the Macedonian phalanx will not be able to catch up after exhaustion.

As for supplies, it can only be a "war to support war" style of play.

That is to take advantage of the fast cavalry speed to go deep into Seleucid, Macedonia, and even the hinterland of Rome. If the supplies are sufficient, they will go for a few more days. If the supplies are insufficient, they will find a nearby village to rob.

In this way, the Song Dynasty will be broken by Mongolia:

In order to deal with the Mongolian cavalry, the Song Dynasty also used heavy infantry armed to the teeth, and even equipped with various firearms.

However, the Mongolian cavalry usually did not directly fight the Song army directly, but used the advantage of the cavalry to cross the border and go deep into the territory of the Song Dynasty while looting and running around the world.

Mongolia is a fast cavalry, while most of the Song army is infantry, and the main infantry will not be able to catch up with the cavalry.

And the cavalry of the Song army was much weaker than that of Mongolia, and they were killed in two or three hits when they caught up, so there was nothing they could do about the Mongolian cavalry, and even a few Mongolian cavalry with no more than a hundred men wandered around the country for several months A large circle from the other side and back again.

Over time, these cities in the Song Dynasty were dilapidated and collapsed without attack.

Therefore, people often assume on the modern Internet: What would happen if the Han Dynasty and Rome, the two strongest armies in the East and the West, collided.

To Shen Bing, there is no need to assume this at all.

You must know that the cavalry of the Han Dynasty was the elite that defeated the Huns, while the Roman cavalry was only an auxiliary unit, and it is not an exaggeration to call it garbage.

Therefore, as long as the tactics of the Han army are correct, Rome will undoubtedly be defeated.

Shen Bing should have used this tactic in the first place.

But one is that the combat method of "supporting war with war" is not as easy as it sounds.

This is mainly moral. Influenced by Confucian culture, soldiers in the Central Plains who "raise war with war" will affect their morale, while Mongolian cavalry "raise war with war" will increase their morale.

Secondly, Shen Bing had no intention of being enemies of these countries at first, but because of the Qin army's artillery, it frightened Macedonia, Rome and other countries to form an alliance.

Another one is that Shen Bing has a better and easier solution: arquebus.

So why bother to look far away?

Shen Bing has made up his mind. If the matchlock gun is not optimistic for the Roman legion, then he will turn to the Macedonian infantry.

Dealing with Macedonian infantry is much simpler, and those guys holding 18-pound super-long guns can hardly run.

Marcus was riding back and forth on his horse to give orders to the Roman soldiers.

After the Roman phalanx was ready, he had no time to cast his gaze on the Silk Kingdom army at the foot of the city a few hundred meters away.

He had never seen such a strange formation, somewhat similar to a phalanx, but each unit was longer than the phalanx.

He has never seen such a strange weapon, just like the messenger said, it looks like an iron pipe.

Can it kill?

With neither blade nor spike, how can one kill?

How powerful is it?

Marcus's mind went blank, and he didn't like the feeling of ignorance.

At this time, the "rumbling" sound of war drums came from the opposite side, and the army of the Silk Kingdom marched step by step following the rhythm of the drums.

Marcus gave the order, and the centurions blew their whistles.

The Roman soldiers let out a "hoo", raised their shields forward to form a shield wall, and then pushed forward step by step.

Not long after, the drumming on the opposite side suddenly stopped.

Marcus saw that the Silk Nation army stood the iron pipe on the ground, and then filled it with something.

Then the silk country army raised the iron pipes to aim at the Roman phalanx row by row...

At that moment Marcus suddenly understood something.

"Firearms!" Marcus exclaimed with his eyes widened, "That's a firearm! My God, they have so many firearms!"

If big firearms can shoot big iron balls, then small firearms can shoot small iron balls. If these small iron balls can kill people... that would be terrible.

Marcus wanted to withdraw the troops immediately.

But it was too late, just hearing a "bang bang" gunshot like a firecracker, and the Roman soldiers walking in the forefront were knocked down one by one in a pool of blood.

Chapter 521 Small test skills

80 meters can penetrate and cause damage, which made Shen Bing, who was standing on the top of the city watching the battle, feel half relieved in an instant.

In fact, this is not surprising. The Roman infantry shield weighed only 20 catties because of its large area, but the protection ability per unit area was not stronger than that of ordinary shields.

The arquebus breaks through a point per unit area.

The Roman phalanx was stunned, because before that, apart from weapons such as trebuchets and bed crossbows, there had never been any equipment capable of killing soldiers behind shields at a distance of 80 meters. But it did, and it used a seemingly insignificant iron pipe.

The Roman soldiers were frightened for the first time.

"What is that?" someone shouted in the formation: "Our shields are useless to them!"

The officers in the back didn't know what was going on ahead, and they thought it was because the shields weren't dense enough, so they gave an order: "Tortoise shell array!"

Although many Roman soldiers doubted whether the tortoise shell could work, on the one hand, they did not believe that the enemy's weapons could penetrate the shield. On the other hand, this was also the habit of the Roman legion to deal with the enemy's long-range strike equipment. They have no other choice.

So the Roman soldiers gathered together and formed a tortoise shell array according to the order: the front shield was connected to the shield with almost no gaps, and the shield was held above to block it, which looked like an airtight tortoise shell from the outside.

This was exactly what the Shenwu Army wanted. They unhurriedly reloaded again, then raised their matchlock guns again, and there was another "bang, bang, bang" sound from the tortoise armor formation. Shouting, another row of Roman soldiers fell to the ground.

Immediately, a Roman soldier shouted at the officer behind him: "Sir, the enemy's weapons can penetrate the shield, and the tortoise shell array will not work!"

Only then did the officers understand the problem and the crisis, but they had never fought such a battle... The enemy's equipment could penetrate the shield?

So for a moment I froze in place and didn't know what to do.

If it was another legion, such as the Macedonian army, it would probably collapse immediately when encountering this situation.

But the Roman Legion has strict military discipline, especially they also implemented a very cruel "eleven killing system".

That is to say, if there are more serious situations such as large-scale routs, mutiny, or loss of the military flag, lots will be drawn in groups of ten, regardless of officers or soldiers, regardless of their status, they will be executed if they draw a death lot.

And the surviving soldiers can only be stationed in dangerous areas outside the barracks, and their rations are replaced by barley for livestock.

Although it was not practiced much, it was enough to deter the whole army so that they did not dare to escape easily.

At this time, Marcus gave the order: "All troops charge!"

Marcus is an experienced commander. He only discovered a problem at the moment when the enemy and the enemy faced each other: although the enemy's firearms are powerful, they take a long time to prepare.

Therefore, if you want to win this battle, you can only charge with the fastest speed.

Hearing this order, all the Roman soldiers felt trepidation for no reason... Isn't this a firearm to face the enemy with flesh and blood?

But it was only stagnant for a while. Following the officer's whistle, the Roman soldiers rushed towards the Silk Army with a shout, holding shields and short swords, hoping to enter the enemy's formation for close combat.

However, the reality made them very desperate.

The Roman soldiers all held heavy shields, and even when they charged, they staggered...their charge speed would be faster than that of the Macedonian infantry. Although their shields were heavier than the super long spears, the super long spears were not easy to maintain balance.

But more than two minutes is still enough for the matchlock gun to fire more than ten rounds of ammunition, especially as the distance between the enemy and our armies gets closer and closer, the hit rate of the matchlock gun also increases significantly.

So with bursts of "bang bang" gunshots, batches of Roman soldiers fell on the charge road, and those corpses lying on the ground further increased the difficulty of the Roman army's charge, and the corpses piled up more and more .

In terms of charge alone, the charge of the Roman legion wearing armor and holding a heavy shield is extremely wrong.

Because if the heavy shield and armor can't stop the projectiles fired by the matchlock gun at a distance of 80 meters, the heavy shield and armor are meaningless except to block the charge speed of one's own side.

This is also one of the reasons why the breastplate gradually disappeared after the musket appeared and was finally eliminated.

Therefore, if the Roman soldiers were smart enough to throw away their shields and charge at full speed, they might pose a threat to the matchlock guns of the Shenwu Army.

But no one realizes this. The shield can be said to be the third life of Roman soldiers. Long-term wars have made them think that throwing away the shield means injury or even death, so they would rather die with it.

But even so, the battle was still a dangerous one.

The Roman Legion rushed to the nearest position and was less than ten meters away from the Shenwu Army. It was about to rush into the Shenwu Army and cause a commotion. Fortunately, a rain of arrows from the flanking light cavalry blocked it in time.

Seeing this scene, even Shen Bing had to secretly praise the fighting power of the Roman Legion.

This is a war of disparity in strength, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a war of different dimensions.

In particular, the Roman soldiers had never seen an arquebus before. It was not easy to see this kind of equipment that could not be dealt with for the first time without panic and complete collapse. It can become the overlord of the Mediterranean and even fight all the way to Central Asia.

But now, with the appearance of Shen Bing, I am afraid that the Roman Legion will never have such an opportunity.

Finally, after piled up like a hill of corpses in front of the guns of the Shenwu Army, the Roman soldiers could no longer bear the fear in their hearts and collapsed.

Of course Wang Ben would not let go of this opportunity, and he sent the cavalry up with a wave of his hand.

The two thousand heavy cavalry played a role at this time. They rushed out of the formation from the two wings, and then rolled towards the fleeing Roman soldiers like tanks.

Qingqi dispersed to chase and kill the fleeing skirmishers with bows and arrows.

The Shenwu army marched towards the enemy's city wall step by step with muskets in their hands... The archers on the city wall were almost negligible to their rattan armor, and they could walk to the city wall and shoot them at close range.

As a result, the Roman soldiers on the wall were also frightened. Even though Marcus angrily shouted and even killed several deserters, they left the wall and fled desperately.