Xinshun 1730

Chapter 438
The battlefield is so cruel and ever-changing, a wrong decision may lose the initiative, and thus regain the initiative at a high cost, or even a complete defeat.

It's not that Wu Fangrui is so good at predicting things, but the battlefield environment determines that there are only a few choices.

Wu Fangrui was a staff officer. Apart from knowing how to maximize strengths and avoid weaknesses, after all, he had been with Liu Yu in Weihai for too long, so he was able to understand the combat thinking of the Privy Council.

This time to capture Hagi City, the idea is very clear.

The gunboat besieged the city and attracted the Japanese to Hagi Castle and the castle town, which were isolated from the sea; the gunboat bombarded it, causing chaos, and immediately seized the two hills with great significance on the battlefield, completely grasping the initiative on the battlefield.

In his opinion, if the Japanese had read military books, they would choose to take back the initiative after waking up from the initial chaos.

About half an hour later, the counterattack of the Hagi Castle defenders officially began.

On the sea in the distance, the engineers of the Marine Corps took a small boat and rowed slowly towards the sea. They landed without any threat from the enemy, which was almost the same as when they were training in Weihai.

These engineers also built docks for unloading at the port in the shortest time, and built positions for artillery.The follow-up troops that are still floating on the sea need to repair the simple pier before they can land.

When the Japanese counterattacked, those marines who hadn't landed could only watch the fun on the boat.

On the opposite side of Hagi Castle Mountain Jia, Japanese iron gunners lined up by the river, trying to shoot at the opposite Dashun marines, thus covering Jia's samurai crossing the river.

On the side of the Dashun Army, skirmishers equipped with expensive hand-drawn rifled Miniguns spread out at a place slightly back from the river bank, and were not in a hurry to shoot at the iron gunners on the opposite side.

The Marine Corps who were still using cheap imitation French 1728 Army muskets in the formation lined up on the back of the mountain, and did not want to shoot at the iron gunners, but wanted to shoot halfway.

More than 600 armored warriors began to board small boats and tried to cross the river.

At the same time, the warriors who tried to threaten the flank of the Dashun landing force also started to cross the river.They are going to capture Hagi City Mountain B first, and then sweep over.

Since he wanted to encircle and annihilate the group of warriors who were trying to threaten the flanks, it was not good to immediately defeat the warriors who were trying to cross the river in front of Hagi Castle Sanjia.

The fleet did not fire, and the landing artillery fired at the slowest speed, delaying the assembly of warriors who intended to cross the river, trying to create a time difference between the two teams of warriors from the east and the west.

Because the officers knew very well that as long as the naval guns fired, the group of warriors in front of Jiashan would collapse in an instant.

I'm afraid that when the warriors on the east side intend to threaten the flanks, they will see that the front is scattered, and the river will not cross, and they will just run away, which will be meaningless.

The delay of the artillery had an effect. The two teams of warriors who originally planned to cross the river at the same time had a time difference of about seven or eight minutes.

On the east side of Mount Yi, the battle has already begun. The first batch of Japanese warriors who landed have begun to attack Mount Yi, and the second batch of iron gunners who crossed the river have also begun to board the ship.

On Mount Jia in the west, a large number of samurai finally began to board the ship.

A warrior in armor is in front, holding a wooden shield, trying to block lead bullets.The samurai on the same boat leaned on the boat with their heads bowed.

After Li Yan confirmed that it could start, he asked someone to raise the banner of shelling, and asked before the sound of the cannon, "What formation is this?"

"Back to Your Highness, there is a formation of long snakes. The Japanese attack the snake's body and roll its head and tail together. Jiashan is the head and Yishan is the tail. The Japanese's technique of breaking the formation is correct. Hitting the snake's head and cutting the snake's body want to make me unable to look at the head and tail. It is useless to defeat the snake-headed team in an instant."

As soon as the conversation ended, the impatient navy, who had been waiting for a long time, fired immediately.

Northeast and west, the pincer firepower formed in two directions immediately covered the Japanese crossing the river.

The stragglers began to shoot freely, and the Marine Corps, which was arrayed by Yamane, played the drums, marched forward, and raised their guns on the river bank.

However, the Japanese samurai team of thousands of people is facing a triangular cross bombardment of 12/186 of the artillery of [-] cruisers, plus six light howitzers of the frontal marines, a total of [-] artillery pieces.

The gunners of the navy are all veterans fed with gunpowder in Weihai. Coupled with the use of flintlocks, the frequency of firing is extremely fast.

After three shellings and a salvo by the marines, the warriors attacking across the river collapsed in an instant.

Only between Thunder.

The iron gunners in the rear lined up and rushed towards Hagi City; the samurai halfway across the river, who were lucky enough to survive, immediately turned the bow of the boat and fled backwards.

The marines who had fired a volley stopped on the spot, took out lead bullets, bit through the paper package, and loaded gunpowder and lead bullets.

Accompanied by the sound of drums, a battalion column was quickly formed, turned right and walked eastward.

The more than 900 warriors who had already crossed the river in the east did not expect that the battle in the west would end so soon.

It's like hitting a few strings of thunder, but even if it's raining, it doesn't rain so quickly before the thunder is over.

Just as Wu Fangrui explained with the formation method, he wanted to hit the head and attack the body, so that the head and tail could not look at each other, so the tail was cut off first.

But I didn't expect that the troops who hit the head didn't hit at all, and now it has become the most stupid attacking long snake formation that only cuts its belly.

The battalion column attacked the advancing Dashun Army. After the front company heard the order to change formation, the drummer reduced the pace from 75 steps to 60 steps.

Whether it is military drums or military songs in this era, they all must conform to the pace of the drill.

Listen to the tempo of the military songs of various countries at this time, and you will know the frequency of steps per minute in the drills of various countries at this time.

The companies in the back quickened their pace, changing from walking to trotting, just like they had trained countless times in the Weihai small station camp, and ran quickly at an oblique angle according to the rhythm of the officers to where they should be.

The stragglers move forward, using a loose formation to lengthen the width and cover the lines behind.The last company did not participate in the front-to-back shooting, but followed the line to ensure that it could change into a hollow phalanx at any time. Although the Japanese did not have cavalry, the officers were very old-fashioned.

The characteristics of the Dashun land battle are the ultra-fast formation speed, the formation change during the march, the stragglers attached to the front, and the formation change of the regiment and battalion that can be cut into a battalion-level square formation at any time.

Relatively speaking, the rate of fire and loading speed per minute, according to the world ranking at this time, the rate of fire is much lower than that of the musketeers who have already taken power under Frederick II, but the speed of changing formations is much higher than that of Frederick several times.

If they lined up with the Pu army to shoot at this time, Dashun's army would definitely suffer a disadvantage during the shooting stage.

Conversely, the ultra-fast maneuverability of the Dashun Army made it difficult for the Dashun Army to experience Frederick being defeated by the Cossacks and the tide-like Turghut Mongols in several battles similar to Kulesdorf. The scene of desperate suicide - the Prussian army's transformation speed is too slow, so the Mongols of the Torghut Department, in history, can go to Berlin for a while before returning to the east.

Adapting measures to local conditions, Liu Yu, who actually presides over the military reform and tactical system thinking, is very clear about the situation around Dashun, the style of the battle to be fought in the future, and all possible opponents in the strategic direction.

Whether it is the Mongols in the northwest, or the Russian Cossacks and Turghut Mongolian cavalry, or the mountainous Japan, the rugged southwestern plateau, or the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia, the speed of formation and skirmishing tactics are prioritized over the rate of fire. and filled.

Dashun is also unlikely to go to Europe and shoot against European armies on the plains. Emphasizing the rate of fire and emphasizing the overall formation with a unified diagonal formation is to cut feet and fit shoes.

And this kind of tactical thinking is not only useful when recovering the Western Regions, but also effective when attacking Japan.

In less than 2 minutes, the battalion column was transformed into a horizontal column, and the skirmishers had already deployed.And if there is a threat on the flank, it can also be converted into a battalion hollow phalanx within 2 minutes.

Realizing that the situation was wrong, the Japanese warriors also reacted, knowing that it was impossible to attack Mount Yi, so they left a small half of their troops to restrain Yishan's three companies, and the rest rushed to the Dashun Army, which had quickly turned into a horizontal formation.

The army drum stopped suddenly, and the officers' orders, mixed with Shaanxi, Gyeonggi, Jiaoliao and other accents, sounded at the same time.

"Raise the gun!"

clack la la...

The musket was raised flat and aimed at the armored warrior who was shouting something they didn't understand.

"put!"

After the sound of gunfire, the soldiers loaded the next round of lead bullets in the smoke. After the second round of shooting, the charging Japanese warrior collapsed.

None of the more than 900 people crossing the river escaped.Either he was captured, or he swam across the river in a panic and drowned in the river.

With two volleys, more than 400 people were killed and injured, more than 200 warriors surrendered, and the rest either drowned or were defeated under Mount Yi.

The artillery who had adjusted the angle was also bombarding the iron gunners arrayed on the north bank at this time, and the skirmishers shot at the iron gunners on the opposite side across the river, or shot and killed the warriors who were swimming in good water.

The simple one-word long snake formation completely cut off the Japanese people's idea of ​​going out of the city to fight in the field, and quickly retreated to Hagi City.

There were no more samurai in the entire castle town, and the samurai who retreated to Tsukiyama Hagi Castle did not know that their nightmare of defending the castle had just begun.

Li Yan, who witnessed all this on the mountain, saw the Dashun Army's field battle for the first time.He commands the fleet, and has actually fought many battles up to now, but they are all skillful battles relying on the mobility of the fleet.

The city that was attacked was either near the sea, or almost no one in the city gave up voluntarily.

The gunpowder smoke under the mountain has not cleared yet, and Li Yan is still silent in the astonishment of the change of formation just now, just like watching a play, a few orders, and as soon as the scene changes, a brand new scene begins.

"When I was in the palace in the past, I heard the story of Ying Suobo conquering the Western Regions in one battle. Now that I see it today, I know that the rumors are true. Ying Suobo fights with soldiers and not with generals."

In his words, he has a high EQ, and Wu Fangrui can be regarded as a person who has half a foot in the circle of honorable generals in the capital. How can he not know what this rumor is?
The original story was that a group of veterans looked at the rematch of the Battle of Altai Mountain under the command of Liu Yu, and all curled their lips and said: "What is this fight? This can also win? Give me a group of soldiers like this, and I will definitely fight better than the usual ones." .”

Wu Fangrui smiled when he heard the words, and asked: "Your Highness, since the start of the war, our army has suffered no more than a hundred casualties. What we rely on is the artillery of our army in every battle, and even the superiority in numbers. It can be said that since the start of the war, almost every Battles are fought with more and less. Isn't this a strategy?"

"Those who don't know soldiers think it's just the convenience of the navy to transport troops. But those who know soldiers know the convenience of the navy to transport troops, which is itself a calculated strategy."

"It's just that other people's strategies rely on being ready for battle. But Eagle Sobo's strategy... relies on money."

Li Yan thought for a while, and seemed to have realized something. He nodded and praised for a long time: "If you are in charge of the navy, you will know the beauty of money. Indeed, if there is no logistics and transportation department formed within the navy, there will be no such strategy of jumping and fighting." gone."

Wu Fangrui thought of a story Liu Yu told them, and said: "200 years ago, hundreds of Spaniards destroyed a large country. What is to be feared is that 200 years ago, the Spaniards were able to travel [-] miles across the ocean. Dock and ship hundreds of men and dozens of cannon to America."

"Now that 200 years have passed, does Your Highness think that it is possible for me to send a thousand infantry and twenty cannons to Europa?"

Li Yan heard Mantou talk about the difficulty of going to Sweden, and shook his head sadly: "I can't."

Wu Fangrui said again: "If you land on Kyushu Island, you can cross [-] yuan regardless of the cost. If you jump to Xiaobin, you can cross [-]; Now that he is in charge of the navy, where he will be called a king in the future depends on the logistics and transportation department."

"The generals of the army still want to make meritorious service in the future, but they all depend on His Highness."

Li Yan thought to himself, where is he relying on me?Obviously relying on the logistics and transportation department, just looking at the situation, this time the navy has made great achievements, and the DPRK and China will never let the navy's training, logistics, conscription, command of troops, and shipbuilding be controlled by one hand.Even if he was a prince who was blind in one eye and had a Christian name, that would not work.

But thinking about Wu Fangrui's words again, I also feel that Po has a deep meaning and is worth pondering.Obviously, India, which can only cross [-] at a time, is not considered a royal land; but Malacca, which can cross [-] at a time, is called a royal land.

(End of this chapter)