Chapter 462: Test Fire
Chapter 456 – Testing Firepower
While the Glory Alliance side was engaging in a great migration and construction, the Border City Alliance, which relied on brutal means to preemptively complete most of the fortifications, was ready to snatch the first shot.
“Put down your tools and gather immediately!” The soldiers of Border City Alliance blew the whistle to gather the mobilized soldiers who were reinforcing the trenches, in fact, the so-called mobilized soldiers were the drudges who were forced to work, after this period of forced labor, there was still only barely enough food to make ends meet every day, all of them were yellow and thin, and all of them were swaying when they walked, but under the threat of the muzzle of the gun and bayonet, they still squeezed the potential of their lives to come over to the queue, because the ones who didn’t follow the order had long since died, and those who were still alive were all exceptionally obedient. Those who are still alive are exceptionally obedient.
“Everyone listen, prepare to charge in one hour, those who arrive at the enemy line will get one day’s food, those who don’t arrive will get no food, at the same time as long as you kill one enemy soldier, you can get the qualification of a formal soldier and no longer participate in labor” Border City Alliance soldiers coldly gave Admiral Cross’s order, not caring what these mobilized soldiers think.
In fact, many people didn’t even hear what the Border City Alliance soldier said next, there was only one thought in their mind, it’s war.
A large number of old-fashioned firearms and hard bread were piled up in front of the bewildered mobilized soldiers, and under the rifle butts and leather boots of the Frontier City Alliance soldiers, they lined up to receive their weapons and food according to the habit they had developed during this period of time.
The hard bread that was still covered with dirt and dust was definitely not a delicious food, and the coarse wheat flour and unknown debris baked at high temperature was even more of a challenge to one’s teeth, but the mobilized soldiers who only had two bowls of paste to hang on to their lives every day were still desperately trying to scrape their teeth against the fist-sized hard bread, trying to stuff this into their stomachs in the shortest possible time, because they had no more hope of surviving, which was evident from the weapons in their hands and the leather boots. This was evident just from the weapons in their hands.
The weapons given to them were not the standard weapons of the Border City Alliance army, but the flintlock rifles piled up in the warehouse after the Noble Alliance army had changed, as well as the muskets scavenged from the homes of the nobles and the commoners, and now these old contraptions were the only weapons the mobilized soldiers had.
Next they were going to take the muskets that they didn’t know whether they could fire or not, and charge towards the enemy’s position, without fire support, without artillery support, there were only bullets from behind, because all the cowards who broke away from the charging line would get a round of hot love from the supervisors.
The problem was that the musket was just fine when used in a defensive position, at least it had time to reload, for charging it was a death wish, especially when faced with an opponent equipped with a rear-loading rifle still lying on his back in the trenches, and any brave man who dared to stand on the battlefield to reload would not have the next chance to charge because he would not live to see that time.
But pick up your weapon and look at it, and, well, it’s just one round of ammo, so there’s no need to even think about reloading.
Without another chance to reload, and with the pathetic hit rate of the old muskets, to kill a man with just one shot, you had to shoot him in the face, and that required them to charge across the hundreds of meters between the two lines and successfully jump into the enemy trench to do so.
The chances of surviving all of this against a hail of bullets from the other side, even if they had never been to war, so could they not be desperate.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the soldiers of the Border City Alliance had been keeping a close eye on them, and the weapons in their hands only had the chance to fire a single shot, these mobilized soldiers would probably want to directly turn against them.
After barely filling their stomachs, the mobilized soldiers who were still full of bewilderment and fear held their old muskets with the hands that had just put down their tools, and began to charge towards the opposite side under the threat of the muzzles of the guns behind their backs, and what they would be facing was something that even they themselves didn’t know.
The mobilized soldiers who were forced to step onto the battlefield became more and more panicked the more they ran, but they didn’t dare to stop, they could only give vent to their fear by shouting loudly, and at the same time praying that the other side wouldn’t shoot, so that they would be able to survive, but this was obviously dreaming, the battlefield lacked everything, and I’m afraid that what was the most lacking was mercy.
The commotion caused by the charge of several thousand people of course could not be hidden from the side of the Glory Union, in fact, from the time the other side began to mobilize, they had already told the laborers to pull back and had told the reserve regiments to get ready for battle, so after the warning was ineffective, they immediately opened fire.
In fact, the Glory Union had considered letting the opposite party enter the position and then recruited them, but as long as the opposite party wasn’t stupid, they would definitely have some defenses, such as threatening them with their families or sending people to blend in. Don’t have more than one, just detonate a few bombs to successfully create chaos in the position, and the other side will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to break through the defense line, so mercy is not an option.
The reserve regiments weren’t shooting indiscriminately though, they were targeting the fastest runners, and the ones that appeared strong.
The fastest runners are a potential threat no matter what the reason is, and the strongest ones, the opposite side of the cannon fodder what kind of life they are living, the same border they can see, how can they maintain a strong body, so nine times out of ten, it is a spy who is mixed in.
As for whether it will be wrongly killed, this is a war, on the battlefield regardless of right or wrong, live to qualify for guilt, so once fired, no mercy.
The reserve regiment mainly focuses on light equipment, and the single weapon is the bolt-type rifle that is mass-mounted in the territory, this kind of rifle is longer, and after installing the long bayonet, it is like a short spear, which increases the weight and at the same time, it is also not convenient enough.
But the recoil of this rifle is small, high accuracy, very suitable for long-distance shooting, lying down in the trench to use, within three hundred meters is as simple as hitting the target, even if it is relatively speaking insufficiently trained reserve regiment, within two hundred meters also has a very high hit rate.
Even more deadly is that the distance of hundreds of meters between the two armies even a big stone are not, not to mention the trees, no cover and no blockage, just based on fast running is useless.
Especially when the mobilized soldiers stepped into the range of one hundred meters, the light machine gun of the reserve regiment began to sweep the fire.
Although the territorial machine gun is a copy of the Czech light machine gun, can only use twenty rounds of ammunition magazine, but after all, it is also a machine gun, the trigger is pulled, a fan swept over, the mobilized soldiers who do not know how to disperse the charge fell seven or eight at once.
One magazine finished, mobilized soldiers can no longer withstand the despair brought about by heavy casualties, either lying on the ground trembling, or crazy running around, the result fell under the muzzle of both sides.
The entire process of defense state of the reserve regiment in addition to the consumption of some bullets, even the grenade did not have the opportunity to use, but this time the test is not the end.
At the same time, in multiple locations along the entire defensive line, thousands of mobilized soldiers used their own little lives to test the firepower of the Glory Alliance’s defensive line, and then were recorded one by one by the Border City Alliance soldiers in charge of observation.
Unfortunately, the mobilized soldiers were too useless, except for a few defense lines that used long-handled grenades, all other places were solved by rifles plus machine guns, which greatly discounted the value of the information obtained by the Border City Alliance, and prompted them to decide to use even more extreme and cruel means.
(End of chapter)