frightfiction Chapter 6 Tactical Training
Chapter 6 Tactical Training
Training an army is extremely difficult. Alice found it hard to compare the troops she was training with the model armies of her previous life. In a world where nation-states had not yet been established and national and civic consciousness had not yet awakened, it was difficult for an army to unleash its formidable fighting power.
Fortunately, she didn't need such a strong army. A fully armed army, with its revolutionary tactics and weapons, could easily wipe out the old-style army in a short period of time. History has proven this; she was merely an imitator.
"Your Highness... this terrain is not advantageous for a large army to fight, why should we...?"
"Sergeant! Have you forgotten what I emphasized? What should you call me?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Louder!"
"Yes, sir!"
Alice was also wearing a well-fitting military uniform, carrying a carbine flintlock rifle, and training in the field with the 1st Flintlock Regiment. As a unit that used firearms, they had to have a clear understanding of field tactics in complex terrain.
They are not the Red Shirts, nor do they need to go to that extent. The terrain of the entire demon world lacks the large grasslands of the human world. Most of the countries are composed of mountains and hills, which also causes the characteristics of the demon civil war: battles usually break out at a few key nodes.
Cities are burial grounds; tens of thousands of demon corpses once lay beneath each fortress.
"All troops, listen up! Ridgeline! Two lines!"
Alice raised her command sword. The vampire royal family preferred to use scythes as their weapons, but Alice insisted on forging a command sword to be her own.
"Quickly! Assemble around the flag!"
"One-two-one! One-two-one!"
"Line up! Shoulders strapped!"
"Battle formation!"
A row of gray lines, a gray wall, quickly rose up on the ridgeline. Smedley stood next to Alice, marveling at the simple yet effective training.
"You are truly a military genius."
"It's just standing on the shoulders of giants—loading ammunition!"
The gray-clad soldiers quickly picked up the paper-packed ammunition. Every action of loading was trained. The initial discipline and obedience training, and the later weapons training, took Alice almost a month and a half. But when the soldiers raised their guns within two minutes, it was all worth it.
"One rank! Hip height! Raise your guns!"
As the sound of clothes clattering against objects rang out, a forest of guns were raised and aimed down the mountain, where a row of targets stood.
"Fire!"
Like a thunderclap, or the first rumble of spring, gunpowder smoke filled the air, and the deafening gunfire filled the air. Under the shock of sound and light, Smedley believed that even the bravest demon warriors would not dare to face the hail of bullets.
"Second platoon, step forward! Raise your guns!"
"First platoon, reload!"
"Fire!"
As Smedley watched this model unit grow from nothing to something, he suddenly realized that he possessed a powerful army, and he was now eager to use this powerful force to fight against the enemy.
"A powerful army! Mages are nothing but child's play in the face of such an army!"
For thousands of years, magicians have been a powerful force in combat. They can quickly unleash magic to kill, and powerful magicians can activate magic to create fireballs to attack city walls.
But now, with the emergence of flintlock musketeers, ordinary mages are no longer the masters of the battlefield.
"This is far from complete—I need more factories. Is the hydraulic shaft installed yet?"
Using water power, factories actually used this kind of power source before the steam age. Water power drives water turbines to drive the factory's power shaft. Before the steam engine became widespread, industrial areas usually used this kind of power.
Although it was unstable and had low horsepower, it was sufficient to power the water-powered forging machine designed by Alice and to forge bronze cannons.
The M1857 Napoleon 12-pound field gun was a renowned muzzle-loading field gun. This powerful gun could fire a variety of ammunition, including solid shot, high-explosive shells, and shrapnel shells, and it is still possible to manufacture such a gun under modern conditions.
"Is that why you told me to find some trained people?"
When Smedley saw Alice's new weapon, he looked curiously at the carriage-like object. Cheng Liang's cannon barrel was made using the clay casting method and a water-powered drilling machine, making it an unmistakable industrial product.
"The M1857 12-pound field gun, with a 117mm caliber, can be considered as an enlarged version of a gun."
"No wonder you asked me to train in some strange exercises a few days ago."
"The deterrent effect of muskets is often insufficient, but by enlarging the muskets, we will obtain this monster."
Alice did not use a match cord for firing, but instead used a simpler pull-button, similar to the pull-button of a hand grenade, only more primitive. This ignition tool was made by manufacturing small brass shells and pull cords, filling them with some chemicals. Its essence was similar to a match, but the pull-button ensured its use in rainy conditions.
"The powder packs also had to be custom-made... I measured them many times with the craftsmen, scrapped three cannons, and finally determined the amount of powder."
Alice pointed to several broken cannons piled up in the open space of the munitions factory. Their barrels had been blown open and they would soon have to be melted down and remade.
"So troublesome?"
"General Smedley, do you know anything about standardization?"
"what--"
"Standardization means that everything from the length of small parts to the caliber of artillery must be strictly regulated. Even the number of meters a soldier in the First Regiment walks must be roughly determined."
"It's like artillery. If we don't experiment and find the standard value for the propellant charge, then each gunner's loading of ammunition will be uncontrollable. Sometimes they load too much, sometimes too little."
"A larger load means a longer range, but the safety of the artillery cannot be guaranteed; a smaller load means greater safety, but the range cannot be guaranteed."
"As a military commander, you certainly want to know the combat effectiveness of your troops, which includes how far artillery can fire."
"Test team! Scale at 1000 meters! Load!"
"Standards are set from the very beginning of the craftsmanship, which means that we have control over every step, from the quality of gunpowder to the size of the projectiles. Our new army can no longer tolerate the old days where every craftsman's product was different."
"Our weapons have strict requirements, and the ammunition must be appropriate. This means that we need so-called standardization, not only in weapons, but also in our tactics and in the daily lives of our soldiers. We must quantify all of this."
"Our military must become a cog in a precision machine, but not just the military; once we have a chance to breathe, our entire society must become a precision machine."
"Fire hoses loaded! Ready to go!"
"Fire!"
The commander's sword fell, the mountains crumbled and the earth split, and the sound of cannons ushered in a new era.