Chapter 879 Cocktails from Russia (Second update, please subscribe)
Artillery bombardment and infantry attack!
This is not just the six-word secret formula for the Ming army to fight, but a universal truth!
No one would doubt this.
Especially after the Ming Dynasty invented the mortar, it completely changed the way of warfare that had existed for hundreds of years. The tactic of lining up and shooting was simply suicide in the face of the mortar.
The artillery bombarded and the infantry attacked.
It is the most typical army tactic at present.
However, Alexander was not satisfied and he shook his head.
"Major, our siege guns have been bombarding the fortress, but we all know that Pleven Fortress is a very large fortress, and there are a lot of trenches and barbed wire outside the fortress. Even until now, we have not been able to break through the outer positions. In addition, Pleven is surrounded by valleys and hills, which is more favorable to the defending side. They only need a small trench and a few machine guns to stop the attack of tens of thousands of troops. Even if we use siege guns, we can only attack little by little. We need to end the battle in Pleven as soon as possible."
Why does it have to end so quickly?
Because Russia needs money!
Although Russian bonds are still selling well in European markets, one thing is certain: once the offensive is thwarted, Russian bonds will immediately collapse and banks will refuse to buy Russian war bonds.
By that time, it would be difficult for Russia to continue the war.
Faced with the Tsar’s question, Li Bin fell silent. How to quickly conquer the fortress?
"Your Majesty, we can also use airships."
General Skobelev suggested.
"If we use heavy bombs, we can destroy their fortresses just like the Ming army did!"
“It’s a different situation.”
Li Bin shook his head and said.
"When we entered Uruguay, we encountered a brick and stone fortress with no defensive depth at all. As long as the fortress itself was destroyed, the Brazilian defense would also collapse. Their garrison had less than 3,000 people, while in Pleven, the Turks had 50,000 people and their defense depth was a full ten kilometers..."
What is the Russian army facing now?
It is a trench fortification somewhat similar to the trenches of World War I. Barbed wire, trenches and fortresses form a deep fortress defense system, but there are slightly fewer machine guns and cannons.
Even in World War I, it could withstand 12-inch cannons, not because the fortress was so strong, but because the fortress's peripheral system was large enough.
If you want to take it down, you have to sacrifice human lives bit by bit.
After thinking for a while, Li Bin recalled the air cannons and incendiary bombs he had used when fighting the Argentine army. The incendiary bombs seemed to be very effective against trench fortifications.
"Your Majesty, perhaps, we can consider using incendiary bombs!"
"What? Incendiary bombs?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, I know we don't have many incendiary bombs, but we don't have to use standard incendiary bombs."
Li Bin walked to the map table, held the map table and pointed at the outer position of the fortress and said.
"We can use oil drums as incendiary bombs. This is easy. Since airships can drop bombs, they can also drop oil drums. We just need to put a few pieces of white phosphorus in the oil drums as fuses. After the oil drums are thrown from the airship and shattered on the ground, the white phosphorus will lose its water seal and will spontaneously ignite in the air, thereby igniting the flowing oil. I think it is best to use waste oil after extracting kerosene. It is more viscous than gasoline and kerosene and can burn continuously. Water flows to lower places, and so does oil. It will flow into the trenches and pour into the fortifications. I think it should play a certain role!"
Li Bin's suggestion made Tsar Alexander II and other generals all enlightened.
Oil!
There are plenty of them in Russia!
Waste oil, hundreds of thousands of tons were thrown away in Baku that year. The waste oil after extracting kerosene and gasoline has no use at all except for extracting asphalt. If it can be used on the battlefield, it would be perfect!
Even Li Bin, who made this suggestion, did not know what kind of changes his suggestion would bring to the war, but in the next few days, thousands of tons of waste oil were sent to Moldova and then loaded onto airships. In the past five years, Russia has built a huge airship force consisting of 116 airships through imports from Ming Dynasty and self-production. However, in this war, they did not play much of a role. Their use of airships was still at the level of the Franco-Prussian War - throwing aerial darts or using Gatling guns to strafe ground targets.
This time, at Li Bin's suggestion, wooden oil drums were loaded into the cabin, each containing 158 liters of waste oil. These oil drums seemed very simple, and even when they were loaded on the airship, the airship crew members doubted whether they were useful.
“By God, they really work!”
During the prayers, the captains of the airships even cursed loudly.
"Damn it, I told you to throw away all your matches and tobacco. If the oil barrels catch fire, we will all be burned to death..."
Soon, a fleet of fifty airships left the airship field. They flew towards the Pleven Fortress from an altitude of one thousand meters. A few hours later, they arrived at the Pleven Fortress.
"Get everyone into bunkers, the Russians are starting to bomb with their airships!"
After discovering the Russian airship at the observation post, Osman Nuri, the commander of the Ottoman army, came to the top of the fortress and observed the airship troops in the distance from the top while giving orders.
"It would be great if I had so many airships!"
Compared with Russia, Türkiye has only 26 airships. One reason is that it does not have enough money, and the other is that... after many tests, the Turks do not think that airships are of much use at all.
That is, they fired artillery shells and threw nails from the air, but the accuracy of bombs was not very high. Even in the face of bombing, the army could avoid it by hiding in advance.
In short, airships are not as powerful as they first appeared, and countries around the world have developed various anti-bombing tactics - to put it bluntly, just hide!
Of course, the Ming Dynasty's bombing of the Brazilian Navy changed people's views. It can only be said that any new weapon needs time to be tested after it is put into the battlefield.
Just as Osman Nuri was envious of the Russian airships, he saw through the telescope that the airships stopped over the "Eagle Fort" on the left wing, 12 kilometers away from the main fortress.
"Pasha, they are hovering. If we can aim the airship at the fortress, keep it still, or move it slowly, the bombing accuracy will increase tenfold."
Muhammad Ali was a German who converted to Islam. He was no stranger to airships. He had witnessed the power of airships as early as the Franco-Prussian War, but airships did not seem to be as powerful as he imagined.
"However, this doesn't seem to mean much. They should reduce it to about 500 meters, which will further improve the accuracy. Of course, at this time, we can shoot the airship with a rifle. Although this is of no use, it must have a certain effect... What?"
Suddenly, Ali opened his eyes wide in astonishment, and he even put down the telescope in some confusion.
"What were they throwing? Barrels of wine?"
(End of this chapter)
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