Fox of France

The militiamen didn't have much gunpowder, so it was impossible to waste it like this. But on their side, there are a lot of passionate lives, and it's nothing to waste. So they decided, risking the bullets of the defenders, to push the cannons close enough to the Bastille, so close that if the cannonballs want to fly, they need to successfully face the opponent's goal like the striker of the Chinese men's football team on the opponent's goal line. Bigfoot cleared the siege with superb skill, and then opened fire to collapse this "fortress of tyranny".

However, the ideal is full, but the reality is always very skinny. The cannon had only moved two steps forward before it attracted the attention of the defenders. Some of the defenders were Swiss mountain people. In addition to being equipped with ordinary rifles, they also carried their usual rifled shotguns for hunting.

In fact, rifled guns appeared quite early in Europe, and the advantages of high shooting accuracy of rifled guns are widely known, but because the rate of fire of rifled guns is too slow, it is difficult to find their place in the army. (In the era of queuing up and shooting, after the first round of volley, the soldiers were surrounded by thick fog on the battlefield. At this time, they either rushed up to fight with bayonets, or quickly loaded bullets and then fired with probability. In the first round In the first case, you don't need much range; in the second case, rate of fire is more important than accuracy)

Therefore, this type of weapon is generally only used in places that require high accuracy but not high requirements for the rate of fire - such as hunting - to come in handy. Therefore, military rifles in this era are basically smoothbore guns, but high-end shotguns are often rifled guns.

Switzerland is full of forests and mountains, so rifled guns are very common among the Swiss. Swiss mercenaries tend to bring their own weapons, so Swiss mercenaries are often equipped with rifled shotguns.

Several Swiss soldiers with rifled shotguns immediately opened fire on the militiamen who were struggling to push the cannons. To say that the military quality of the Swiss mercenaries in this era is really good. Their fire was quite effective, and three or four more militiamen were brought down at once. It's just that the reloading of rifled guns in this era is too slow. They fire much slower than normal muskets. So while the Swiss were loading their bullets, the militiamen pushed the cannon forward again. Then, the gun went off again, and several more people were knocked to the ground.

The militiamen showed true fearlessness. They set up the cannons, loaded the gunpowder and the shells, under the firing of the Swiss. Under the operation of trained artillerymen, the firing speed of cannons is actually much higher than that of rifled guns; if it is in the hands of well-trained British Royal Navy cattle, their firing speed may even be faster than smoothbore guns .

However, it is the Parisian militia who have never played with cannons that control the cannons. Most of them, before that, had never touched a cannon in their lives. Therefore, their speed of loading the cannon was naturally very slow, so slow that the rifled guns on the opposite side fired three rounds during the time they loaded a shell, killing more than a dozen people. They are considered finished loading.

Then the gun exploded while firing on the Bastille—they loaded the barrel with a double charge of powder in order to bring down the walls in one shot.

"We need real artillery, real artillery!" A shout came from the militia, "Among you, who has been an artillery before? Please stand up! France needs you to contribute your strength!"

However, no one stood up. Among the tens of thousands of militiamen who besieged the Bastille, there were no artillerymen.

The situation became stalemate again, the militiamen still leaned on the cover of the house and fired at the Bastille indiscriminately. The guards on the Bastille side were more calm. They rarely fought back, but the effect of the counterattack was very good. In the shooting, all the militiamen were hit, and the defenders were almost unscathed until now.

...

The National Self-Defense Forces in Joseph's neighborhood did not participate in the siege of the Bastille, but stepped up their guard. However, several leaders of the National Self-Defense Forces were closely watching the progress of the battle.

"The Bastille is actually not difficult to conquer. The key is that the militia lacks qualified artillery. As long as a few shells accurately hit the same position at the bottom of the city wall, it may cause the wall to collapse. Once there is no protection from the city wall, a hundred or so What can a defender do? It's a pity that the militiamen don't have good gunners." A fat shop owner said.

"Of course there are good gunners among the militia, but not among the mob," said Charles. Although theoretically everyone is the "third estate", in fact, people in this neighborhood, including Charles, have made no secret of their contempt for the militiamen who are now besieging the Bastille.

Joseph knew what Shire meant. There were indeed good gunners in the militia. Those gunners were members of the French Royal Army a few days ago. They were suddenly expelled for various things in the past two days, and then immediately joined the militia. But though they were militias, (like the Charles were of the Third Estate) they were not the militias that were besieging the Bastille—they were the more organized National Guard.

Joseph also knew to whom the gunners were actually subordinate. The influential figure in the army controls these truly combative "National Guards". In history, when the attack on the Bastille reached a stalemate, it was his men who dragged a cannon Arrive at the scene, then force the defenders to surrender with continuous and precise bombardment. It was precisely because of this decisive move that this big man was able to become the commander-in-chief of the Paris National Guard, and for a time became a pivotal big man in the early days of the revolution.

This big man is the Marquis de Lafayette.

"But this time, it's not certain whether the Marquis of Lafayette can get his wish. Because even without his support, the Duke of Orleans has other ways." Joseph thought.

The Duke of Orleans and the Marquis of Lafayette were both great nobles who supported the constitutional monarchy. But that doesn't mean they are allies. The Duke of Orleans is a royal family, and the suitable candidate for the monarch in the constitutional monarchy he hopes is himself; but the suitable candidate for the Marquis of Lafayette is not him. Maybe the Marquis of Lafayette didn't particularly appreciate the locksmith (Louis XVI had a hobby of making all kinds of difficult locks), but for him, any member of the royal family was more suitable for him than the Duke of Orleans. Crown of France. Because the Duke of Orléans, with his power and influence, would never resign himself to being a rubber stamp if he became king.

Therefore, the Marquis of Lafayette has always regarded the Duke of Orleans as "the greatest threat to democracy". In the original history, after taking power, the Marquis of Lafayette immediately used coercion and temptation to throw the Duke of Orleans to England.

But now, unlike in history, although the Duke of Orleans does not have artillery in his hands, he has something that he did not have in his original history-high explosives.

With the help of Joseph, Lavoisier obtained a relatively safe explosive by mixing diatomaceous earth with nitroglycerin. (Of course, it is still incomparable with the high insensitivity of later generations, which can't be blown up with a gun.) With this thing, we can create the simplest and most violent weapon against various fortifications—dynamite Bag.

The rate of fire of guns in this era is very limited, and the number of people defending the Bastille is also quite limited. Relying on such firepower alone is not enough to prevent the militia from approaching the walls of the Bastille. It's just that ordinary militiamen with only muskets can't do anything about the 30-meter-high and 3-meter-thick city wall even if they rush under the city wall, but the people of the Duke of Orleans are different. Lethal Weapon - Dynamite Pack.

At this time, a detachment of National Guards dragged a cannon past the barricades in Joseph's block. From the very neat equipment and very neat pace of this National Revolutionary Army, as well as the well-fed horses dragging the cannon, it can be seen that this is a well-trained team, by no means those The real, mob-like militia is comparable.

"The Marquis of Lafayette has already started to act." Joseph thought, "The people of the Duke of Orleans should take action."

At this moment, there was a loud noise suddenly. The shock made the surrounding window panes rattle.

"Where is this gunpowder magazine exploded?" Someone asked in panic.

"It seems to be the Bastille. Did they really blow up the gunpowder?" Charles frowned.

Legend has it that in the Bastille, there were hundreds of thousands of pounds of gunpowder. This is of course a rumor, the Bastille simply did not have so much gunpowder. But earlier, when De Launay, the governor of the Bastille, had threatened to ignite hundreds of thousands of pounds of gunpowder when he besieged the militiamen who besieged the Bastille, he threatened to die with everyone. So now everyone believes that there is a large amount of gunpowder in the Bastille.

"Probably not." Joseph looked towards the east, then shook his head and said, "If the powder magazine exploded, we should be able to see a large plume of thick smoke now, but the smoke we see now is not big enough."

The gunpowder in this era is black powder, which will produce a lot of thick smoke after the explosion. Therefore, it was definitely not the powder magazine that exploded.

"There wasn't much smoke after the explosion, but it made the houses so far away vibrate. This must be because the Duke of Orleans' people used high explosives. It seems that the Marquis de Lafayette's team was late. .The vibration is so strong, how much explosives did they pack in the explosive pack?" Joseph thought.