Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1356
Under the shining fire, there were loud bangs one after another.The Jinghua No. [-] artillery, known as the main field artillery of the Ming Dynasty, concentrated its bombardment. The volley of dozens of artillery was really shaking the ground. The Mongolian cavalry was blasted on this not-so-wide riverside road.

With just one round of volley, at least a hundred cavalrymen went to see the Buddha or Changshengtian on the spot, and a larger number of Mongolian cavalrymen were thrown off their horses by bouncing projectiles or the stumps of their comrades-in-arms.

Being hit by a stump in such a high-speed charge is like a bird hitting an airplane in later generations. It seems inconspicuous, but in fact, the consequences are often serious.Although the relative speed between the stump and the charging rider is not comparable to that of an airplane and a bird, it is still enough to knock a person off a horse or make a galloping horse stumble.And in such a dense high-speed sprint of cavalry, the hope of surviving is extremely slim.

In this round of shelling, at least [-] cavalrymen of the Mongolian army lost their combat effectiveness on the spot or directly. The increase in firepower of the Ming army made many veterans under Tumen's command look pale.

Once upon a time, the Ming army, which could only use the three-eyed blunderbuss to shoot at close range, could only hit people with iron maces, had its firepower soared!

Once upon a time, the army where only the servants dared to fight, and the ordinary soldiers turned pale with fright when they heard the rumble of the cavalry, was completely reborn!

Brihatu watched the battle from behind with a sinking face, the haze on his face was just like today's weather.Tumen profusely glanced at the casualties in front of him with some unease, controlled the horse that was about to move under his crotch, and turned his head to ask Brihatu: "Do you really want to fight like this?"

Brihatu's face was so dark that it seemed to be dripping water, expressionless, and said coldly: "If the sweat is reluctant to part with one or two thousand elites, this bayonet formation will never be broken."

"Zhang Wanbang only has 2000 people!" Tumen said sullenly, "Do I, the Mongolian warrior, want to exchange my life with the infantry of the Ming army like these chickens and dogs!"

Everyone around Khan could feel his anger, but Brihatu still had a straight face and said calmly: "Khan made a mistake, we don't exchange one life for one, but two lives for one— —We still have to bring in one or two thousand first-class war horses.”

"You!" Tumen sweated profusely as he swung his horsewhip and pointed at Brihatu. He didn't know whether he was angry or speechless, but he couldn't speak anymore.

In fact, Burhatu had already told him about the necessity of this battle in advance, and the possible casualties were also concealed from him.It's not that Tumen didn't know, but when he faced such casualties, he still couldn't help being shocked, heartbroken, and angry.

For so many years, how has the Mongolian iron cavalry compared with the Ming army in terms of casualties like this?
Let alone one to one casualty ratio, even if it was one to five, or even one to ten, the Mongols couldn't compare with Daming!

During the Dayan Khan period, Mongolia was divided into "160 households", that is, six "ten thousand households" tribes. At that time, the population of Mongolia was about [-] million.After Dayan Khan, it went through decades of development, especially during the period of Altan Khan, the prosperity of Tumet led to population growth.

Although the left and right wings of Mongolia have been split, the Northern Yuan court is still holding on to its airs. The approximate total population is about 190 million, less than 200 million. [Note: The above data comes from "A Preliminary Study on Mongolian Historical Population (11th Century-Middle of 17th Century)", authored by Wang Longgeng and Shen Binhua. ]
In this way, the total population of Mongolia is only 200 million, of which Tumed, Ordos, and Qinghai Tumed accounted for more than half, and Chahar and its eastern vassals only accounted for about 50%.Among the [-]%, only a little more than half belonged directly to the Chahar Khan Court, roughly no more than [-] people.

With a total population of about 50, Chahar can pull out an army of [-] to [-] during the war, which is already a typical Mongolian characteristic. Women and children straddle horses and raise swords.

With such strength, how could he compete with Daming one-on-one?This is not suicidal what is it?
But Brihatu had already explained the truth to him. If this battle is not fought, the Ming army will only become more and more difficult to deal with in the future. Not only the elite of the Ming army will learn the bayonet formation, a tactic to restrain the Mongolian cavalry, Even ordinary armies will develop like this.At that time, why would Mongolia compete with Ming Dynasty?Earlier, I won the tribute.

To be honest, if it's just paying tribute, Tumen can't think about it.Even though he is the "Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty", this title has already become a symbolic title. The Mongols have not used it for a long time, and they are only called "Mongol Khan".

Although the Mongolian Khan is also the king of a country, the idea that China is a "celestial dynasty", as the Mongols who have ruled the Central Plains for 70 years, they actually have it in their hearts. Ugly, but not unacceptable.

However, Brihatu believes that the situation is changing. If Mongolia has been showing a continuous decline compared to Ming Dynasty, it may not be possible that Ming Dynasty will directly take Mongolia into its pocket in the future.

The example Brihatu used to persuade Tumen was Daming rebuilding Daning City.Daning City was a city specially used to control Mongolia in the early Ming Dynasty, but it was finally abandoned because of the Jingnan Battle and subsequent turmoil in the Ming Dynasty.

Today, the Ming people recaptured and rebuilt Daning City, what is the meaning of it?It is nothing more than to completely control Mongolia.In other words, if the Mongols don't think of a way to resist, there won't even be a "Mongolian Khan" in the future. Maybe...in the future, there will be positions such as "Governor of Mongolia" and "Governor of Mongolia" in the Ming court, just like Yunnan General governor.

This prospect made Tumen shudder. He dared not imagine that the descendants of Genghis Khan would not only lose the Central Plains, but even their hometown in Mongolia, and could only prostrate themselves in front of Zhu Yuanzhang’s descendants—even though Hannaji had already done so.

Tumen's confidence is not enough, but no matter what, he has to give it a try as the Great Khan of Mongolia.If this battle can really break the myth that the bayonet formation uses steps to control cavalry, maybe there will really be huge differences among the Ming people, and Mongolia will breathe again.

Thinking of this, Tumen stopped talking, but there was a trace of worry in their eyes.

The battle on the front line is still going on. The Mongolian cavalry already knew the situation they were facing and the importance of this battle during the mobilization of Brihatu earlier.Although the first round of shelling caused them heavy losses, almost equivalent to the casualties of being ambushed by the Ming army when they attacked Caogu in the past, the Mongolian warriors did not flinch, but shouted together.

They reminded each other in the sound of call signs to let everyone know that they were getting closer and closer to the Ming army. As long as they rushed in front of the Ming army and broke through the line of defense composed of some not too long bayonets, the Ming army's infantry in the rear would not be able to attack at all. There is no resistance.

Then they got the second round of shelling.The bad news is that they lost as many as 400 people again; the good news is that it can be seen from the distance that the Ming army's cannons were too late to fire a third round of salvo.

The frenzied charge of the front army, regardless of casualties, inspired the courage of the rear cavalry, and they rushed forward continuously. No one thought about whether death or victory awaited them next.

The elites of the former army controlled the horses desperately according to Brihatu's instructions, lest they be frightened by the loud noise and lose the courage to charge forward when facing the bayonet formation.Burhatu concentrated a large number of heavy cavalry for this battle, and these heavy cavalry are very valuable in the Mongolian army.

During the Western Expedition of Mongolia nearly 300 years ago, heavy cavalry accounted for about [-]% of a typical Mongolian army, and light cavalry accounted for [-]%.Heavy cavalry is mainly used for assault, and close combat is necessary.

During the Second Western Expedition (1235-1242), the most common armor for Mongolian heavy cavalry was iron plate armor (called lamellar armor in foreign history), and some people wore chain mail and leather armor.The iron armor itself can resist the slashing of the scimitar and the puncture of bows and arrows and other throwing weapons, but the sword can easily cut off the rubber bands that fix the iron armor, and repeated chopping may cause the iron armor to crack.

At the same time, European heavy knights generally wore chain mail all over the body (including the head). The chain mail cannot be damaged by swords and slashes, but arrows and spears can penetrate, and the chain mail is heavy, which greatly reduces the cavalry. Flexibility and speed.

Compared with the heavy cavalry, the light cavalry is more important in the Mongolian tactical system. It can shoot long distances, lure the enemy, guard, outflank and even close combat. The main means of attack is to shoot arrows intensively.

However, although light cavalry is important, it does not mean that their status is higher than that of heavy cavalry.Hussars generally only wear round helmets, with little body and horse armor.The performance of the Mongolian compound recurve bow used by the light cavalry (the back of the bow is made of wood, horn and tendon) is superior to that of the best British longbow (made of elm or yew) in Europe at that time. Foreign historians concluded that The conclusion is: the Mongolian bow pulls at least 166 pounds, and the effective range is 320 meters, and the British longbow is 80 pounds and 230 meters respectively.

However, the effective range does not refer to the effective armor-piercing range. In front of the elite Ming army in armor, it is very difficult to break the armor.Not to mention the current "cold iron treasure armor", even the cotton armor is difficult to be pierced by arrows, otherwise, why do generals often survive "being hit by dozens of arrows"?
The melee weapons used by Mongolian heavy cavalry and light cavalry are scimitars, which are improved on the basis of Arabian scimitars.The blade is small and light, with a good curvature, which is more in line with the theory of mechanics.

"The scimitar will slide along the curved surface of the blade when it touches the enemy's body." It will not cut into the body and cannot be pulled out.Hussars also carried a type of spear or spear with a hook that could be used to pull enemies off their horses.Since the gun head has a hook, it will not penetrate too deep into the enemy's body and is easy to pull out.

As the Mongolian left wing has been "trade sanctioned" by the Ming Dynasty for a long time, the number of heavy cavalry under its command has been decreasing day by day, and now it can only be maintained at about [-]%, which is even more precious.

If it is said that the light cavalry was more responsible for "guerrilla" on the battlefields of various periods in East Asia, then the heavy cavalry was a professional household for breaking the formation, which was most obvious in the Song-Jin War and the Song-Mongolia War.Now the Mongolian front army is all heavy cavalry, without hook and sickle configuration, and all use machetes.

Such a configuration means that Brihatu did not consider his own casualties, and he completely pinned his hopes on the heavy cavalry causing direct damage to the Ming army after the defeat of Zhang Wanbang's troops.

Moreover, although this group of heavy cavalry set up a front arrow formation, that is, although the whole charged forward, they partially formed a typical "oblique entry" of cavalry combat.But in any case, in such a head-to-head battle, the opponent has bayonets, and the heavy cavalry of the former army will definitely pay a heavy price.

At this time, courage is everything.

With the temporary curtain call of the artillery, the three-stage strike behind the bayonet array of the Ming army began to fire.The routine is a consistent routine. The first round of volleys caused nearly a hundred casualties of the Mongolian heavy cavalry—this data is not as good as the two times in Monan and Liaonan. Armored heavy cavalry was used.

The first round of musket salvo was deliberately fired at a longer distance in order to fight for another round later, so the lethality was slightly insufficient, and the casualties caused were naturally not too large.

The Mongols remained unmoved and continued to charge forward.Soon, the Ming army launched a second round of salvo, this time the lethality far exceeded the first time, and more than 200 heavy cavalry were lost instantly.

The Mongols remained unmoved, even shouted louder, and continued to rush forward.They were only a hundred steps away from the Ming army's bayonet formation. For the cavalry in the charge, this distance was at most enough for the Ming army to fire another round of salvo.

The third round of salvo started without any accident. Since the distance was only about fifty paces, both sides could almost see each other's eyes clearly and see each other's expression.

The Mongols were fanatical mixed with some kind of anger, and the Ming army was cold and harsh mixed with some worries.But no matter what, the effect of the third round of salvo was almost the same as that of the second round of salvo, and at least 200 Mongolian cavalry were reimbursed on the spot.And this time, the Ming army could easily see that the armor on their bodies was pierced and blood spattered everywhere.

But at this time, the test of the Ming army really came.The three-stage strike has been completed, and although the first row of musketeers who have retreated have replaced their paper-cased fixed-load ammunition and can continue shooting at any time, the Mongolian heavy cavalry has already rushed to the front of the bayonet formation.

Although this heavy cavalry team has obviously become much weaker than it was at the beginning, there were about [-] heavy cavalry before the war, and after two rounds of artillery fire and three rounds of musket salvo, now there may be only one thousand left, but one Thousands of cavalry rushed to the front of the bayonet formation without hesitation. Can the bayonet formation really resist?

If you can't resist, what should you do next?
There was no time to think on the battlefield. The Mongolian heavy cavalry now had no threat of long-range weapons. The backlog of anger was completely released, and they charged fiercely without any hesitation.Their ferocious faces showed their deep hatred for the Ming army in front of them.

Riding in steps?Now let's see how you make it!
But they immediately discovered that they only paid attention to the artillery and muskets of the Ming army, but ignored some "old weapons".

The "Di Shi" temporarily arranged by Zhang Wanbang was trampled by the Mongolian heavy cavalry and danced wildly.Many grounds that were trampled by the horses and flew up slapped the barbed caltrops on the wooden boards hard on the horses or soldiers.

The horse gear of the Mongolian heavy cavalry is not European-style, and the protection is not that exaggerated. The legs of the horse are completely exposed, and they will immediately lose their combat effectiveness if they are hit by barbed wire.Then there was another wave of unavoidable losses, and more than two hundred heavy cavalry fell in the "darkest hour before dawn".

The remaining 1000 heavy cavalry were completely angry, their eyes were red, and the anger in their hearts could only be washed away with blood.Brihatu exchanged [-] or [-] of the most precious heavy cavalry for [-] heavy cavalry to approach the front of the bayonet formation.

No one still has the mind to consider whether it is cost-effective or not, and a bloody contest begins.
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Thanks to the book friends "drinking a pot of scorching wine" for their reward and support, thank you!
Thanks for the support of book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Drinking a Pot of Burning Wine", thank you!
(End of this chapter)