The hussars continued to faithfully carry out their officers' orders, charging again and again at the steam monsters, but most were shot from their horses before they could even get close.
Even when a brave soul threw himself onto a tank, things rarely ended well. The air rifles couldn't fire fully automatically, but a shot every two seconds was still far beyond what soldiers of this age could imagine.
These were the specifications of the Girandoni Air Rifle, whose parameters had become much more stable after more than half a century of development.
The air rifle's biggest problem, airtightness, had been solved by advances in the rubber industry. The strength of its barrel had increased dramatically with the advent of special steel, while high-pressure gas had been obtained by chance during experiments into the low-temperature separation of nitrogen.
Specially designed vehicle-mounted high-pressure cylinders had also solved the problems of sustained power and accuracy. Normally, the pressure in the small high-pressure cylinders used by soldiers dropped with continuous use, weakening both the rifle's power and its accuracy.
According to the Austrian Army's field manual during the War of the Sixth Coalition, Air Riflemen had to pump their cylinders by hand 800 to 1,000 times to fire twenty consecutive shots.
It was the very definition of "ten minutes of charging, forty seconds of use."
On top of that, replacing a cylinder was a technical job. Even veteran soldiers ran into all sorts of problems during routine training, let alone under the pressure of battle.
But with vehicle-mounted high-pressure cylinders, there was no need to worry about that. All they had to do was add a pressure-regulating valve, and they could fire to their hearts' content. The only drawback was that they couldn't leave the tank beneath their feet.
The air rifles' high