Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1464 Changes in Southern Border ([-])
The Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance's plan for Luzon is not worth mentioning in Liu Xin's view. After all, she has listened to Gao Pragmatic's careful explanation of the current European situation.Although Philip II "the world is not enough for me", Spain has too many opponents, and the power that can be used in Luzon is too limited.

According to Liu Xin's idea, if only Luzon is taken, any of Jinghua's northern and southern ocean fleets can be handled alone.This doesn’t even require a high level of pragmatism to deploy additional army troops. The Marine Corps attached to the two ocean fleets is enough-the Beiyang Fleet itself has 3000 marines, and the Nanyang Fleet is equipped with 8000 marines because it was responsible for the development of Taiwan. Multiplayer Marines.

The Spanish Army in this era can still be considered famous in Europe, and Gao Yushi has reminded her many times.However, Liu Xin, as a highly pragmatic "confidential secretary", especially a general-type confidential secretary who can command operations, after rigorous analysis, still insists that the actual combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army will not exceed the current Jinghua garrison average level.

From a tactical point of view, the Spanish phalanx is a mixed battle column composed of spearmen, halberds, matchlock gunners, and sword and shield soldiers. In terms of guiding ideology alone, it is actually very similar to the Qi's army's mandarin duck formation.However, in Liu Xin's opinion, the flexibility of the Spanish phalanx is far from enough, especially in terms of changes, it is far inferior to the mandarin duck formation.

Why?Because the mandarin duck formation is actually a middle formation and a large formation composed of small mandarin duck formations, its basic structure is a squad platoon tactic in a highly pragmatic way, that is, a small mandarin duck formation.

What about the Spanish phalanx?In fact, it is an infantry regiment tactic. From its inception to standardization, it finally formed a standard three columns, consisting of more than 3000 people, and eliminated the swords and shields and halberds, leaving only spearmen and musketeers.

The essence of the Spanish phalanx is all-round defense. It is troublesome for the opponent to defeat it, but the problem is that it is too bulky, and the dense formation also makes it inconvenient to move, and the line of fire of the musketeers is too narrow. Although the method of arranging muskets at the four corners is strengthened All-round combat capability, but it is easy to cause waste of firepower.

Through a highly pragmatic introduction, Liu Xin learned that the first tactic in European military history that overwhelmed the Spanish phalanx was the improved phalanx of Maurice in the Netherlands, also known as the Morris phalanx.

In order to enhance the mobility and firepower of the phalanx, Morris reduced the depth of the Spanish phalanx.The middle is still the pikemen, but the arquebus troops are arranged on the two wings of the pikemen, the depth of the pikemen is reduced but the horizontal width is increased, the line of fire is extended, and the firepower is strengthened; Previously, after the hand-to-hand combat began, it retreated to the wings and was more mobile.

However, the ratio of pikemen and musketeers in the Morris phalanx is still about 1:1, and a large number of pikemen are still retained. This is different from Gao Yu's continuous strengthening and promotion of firearms in various garrison forces in Beijing.

In terms of tactical thinking, the tactics currently being promoted by the Jinghua garrison are more like the main idea of ​​another military revolution in Europe after the Morris Phalanx, that is, the linear tactics of King Gustav II of Sweden.

Gustav the Great (he is the only king of Sweden who was posthumously named "the Great", Swedish: den Store) himself was a loyal student of Morris's military works, coupled with his early years of war experience, he felt that the Morris phalanx There is also a need for improvement.

Gustave's reformed phalanx was a variant of the Morris phalanx, with a further emphasis on mobility and firepower. During the Thirty Years War, the Swedish army switched to using new arquebus guns with reduced weight and reduced caliber, so that its loading speed was faster than that of the old Musket heavy arquebus guns, and the firepower density was enhanced.

Coupled with Gustav's extensive use of portable field cannons (that is, light artillery units similar to Frederick the Great's "flying artillery") to support infantry, the long-range shooting firepower is enough to severely damage the Holy Roman Empire before the start of hand-to-hand combat. The rabble who want to make progress.

Therefore, he boldly further reduced the number of spearmen. The ratio of musketeers to spearmen in this phalanx on the battlefield is generally greater than 3:2.The reason why the musketeers were not further added was that his main opponents, such as Tilly and Wallenstein, had too many heavy cavalry in tin cans under the command of the imperial army heroes, and the pikemen to restrain the heavy cavalry were still indispensable.

The tactics currently being promoted by Gao Yushi in Jinghua are roughly the tactics of Gustav II, but because Jinghua launched the rifle bayonet earlier, the firepower density of the garrison system is higher and the pikemen are more vulnerable. The dependence is lower, so the garrison has even basically completed the "full firearms".

Of course, there is another key reason here, that is, the opponents are different.The various armies of the garrison are deployed in southern Xinjiang, and there are almost no opponents in southern Xinjiang who have a large number of heavy cavalry.

Even in the most exaggerated way of thinking, it doesn't matter if you treat the Mughal Empire as an enemy, because the rulers of the Mughal Empire are descendants of the Mongols. They are good at light cavalry, but they are also not good at heavy cavalry. .

This means that the Jinghua garrison almost does not have to consider the threat of heavy cavalry (at this time, muskets are more difficult for heavy cavalry to break armor, and they need to be shot at close range, but close range means that they will be attacked by heavy cavalry, and the outcome is unpredictable) , just need to increase the density of firepower without thinking, and at most consider mobility.

The emergence of any tactics is bound to be linked to the performance of weapons at that time. The reason why Jinghua can continue to increase the firepower density regardless of pikemen is that the high pragmatism attaches great importance to firearms, which makes Jinghua's musket level far exceed the same period in history. He could neither produce breech-loading guns nor smokeless gunpowder, but it is not difficult to surpass the current era.

Thinking of firearms, Liu Xin suddenly thought of a rumor from the Battle of Lang Son a few years ago, and asked pragmatically: "I was curious about something about Huang Dutong during the Battle of Lang Son, and I forgot to ask her before." , I forgot to ask you, but now I think about the siege of Manila, but I suddenly remember..."

Gao Wushi rolled his eyes and asked, "You mean she used my 'God Letter' to invite Taishang Laojun's 'Nine Nether Yin Thunder' to blow up the city wall of Langshan?" [Note: See this book According to Chapter 141 of the Guangxi volume, the fierce battle with Langshan]
Liu Xin giggled, glanced at Gao Mo, and still asked, "Tell me, what did you use to fry it?"

In fact, Gao Mo knew about this matter, of course Gao Yushi didn't mind, he smiled lightly and said, "Nitroglycerin."

"Oh..." Liu Xin suddenly realized: "I just said, why did you make it so mysterious, and I haven't seen you guys use it again."

Gao Wushi shook his head and said: "That thing is indeed too dangerous. I was worried when it was transported. After using it once, I almost stopped all production and only asked them to study passivation."

For Jinghua at that time, the difficulty of nitroglycerin was the glycerin itself, because the production method was actually simpler: half a part of glycerin was dropped into a mixture of one part of nitric acid and two parts of concentrated sulfuric acid. As mentioned before, ancient Chinese There is indigenous manufacturing technology of nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

Gao Yushi arranged it secretly at the time, and it took a long time to get a small amount of glycerin.Then he found that this thing was difficult to use, because it was really too sensitive, and it would explode if not careful, and it was extremely powerful.Therefore, after the Battle of Lang Son, he ordered the temporary suspension of militarization experiments, and instead asked the gunpowder factory to conduct passivation experiments.

In fact, Gao Shishi knew the raw materials needed for the passivation of nitroglycerin, because he knew that Nobel’s Dana (yellow dynamite) was obtained by absorbing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth—in fact, Nobel was the first to use dynamite before dynamite. He first came up with the "warm method" to passivate nitroglycerin. Unfortunately, Gao Yushi only knew the name and didn't know the specific operation at all.

However, knowing the five words "diatomite absorption" is far from enough. Gao Yushi doesn't know where to dig diatomaceous earth, nor how to operate the so-called "absorption" after digging.

Speaking of the situation at this time, Liu Xin quickly solved one of his troubles: "Diatomaceous earth, there are quite a few of these things in China. But I guess with the current level of technology, there are only two that can be used. Places: one is in the northeast of Liaodong, and the other is in Yunnan. Others such as Zhejiang, Shandong, and Sichuan also have them, but there are too many impurities, and I guess you can’t use them well even if you dig them out.”

"Is there a specific location?" Gao Wushi asked.

Liu Xin said: "It's too specific and I don't remember it, but the one in Liaodong is... Well, now it's the Changbai Mountains, and the one in Yunnan is just in Tengchong."

Gao Wushi was taken aback: "The Liaodong is in the Changbai Mountains? You mean it's in the hands of the Jurchens?"

"That's right, which other Changbai Mountains are there? The place I'm talking about is basically near the border with North Korea."

Gao Wushi shook his head and said, "It's a bit difficult, at least for the time being. Tengchong is fine, but it's a bit far away... You also know that the waterway in Yunnan is not very convenient, and the land transportation is all carried by horse-drawn people."

"I think the main trouble in transportation is not the high cost, but the slow speed. But this is actually nothing, because your nitroglycerin... With all due respect, with the current level of technology, mass production is not very reliable. So the amount of diatomaceous earth is destined not to be very large.”

Liu Xin paused, and then said: "As for the usage of diatomaceous earth, I don't know, but I have seen diatomaceous earth before, and the thing itself looks a bit like gunpowder. I mean, it is in powder form , so I guess..."

"Soaking?" Gao Wushi immediately asked: "Just soak it with nitroglycerin, and then the diatomaceous earth will become the same as gunpowder. Is that what you mean?"

"That's what I mean, but I want to emphasize that I'm just guessing. I don't understand this." Liu Xin replied immediately.

Gao Wushi nodded, frowned, and said, "We still have to do diatomaceous earth. I think it is necessary to do experiments after we get it. But what you said is also reasonable. Glycerin is not easy to handle." , to be honest, the appearance of the first batch of glycerin came from an accident.”

"Accident?" Liu Xin was a little surprised: "Didn't you do it on purpose?"

"No, I was only thinking about TNT at the time, but unfortunately I didn't succeed." Gao Wushi waved his hand: "The glycerin was accidentally produced by the soap factory. I used to ask them to keep records of new discoveries and report them. , So after a while, I read the report and remembered that it might be glycerin, so I instructed them to make a little, very small amount of nitroglycerin to try."

"Success like that?" Liu Xin smiled and said, "Then your luck is really good."

"I said to experiment a little bit, but they wounded seven people, and one of them was blinded in one eye." Gao Yushi sighed, "At that time, I thought this thing was too dangerous, and it would be best not to use it, so I just have to forgive it." Used it once in the Battle of the Mountain."

"It can be seen from this..." Liu Xin blinked: "At that time, you looked differently at Huang Dutong."

Gao Wushi paused when he heard the words, and coughed lightly: "Speak the business."

"Okay, let's get down to business." Liu Xin rolled his eyes at him, and said lazily, "Even without nitroglycerin, the bastion system in Manila City is not impenetrable. Here, I can provide you with two methods, one is quick and the other is fast." slow."

Gao Wushi said: "The slow one, don't you mean that you want me to surround Manila, surround them until they cannibalize people, and open the city and surrender?"

"Why, isn't this a good way?" Liu Xin spread her hands: "I know this news cannot be hidden, no matter if it is Spaniards or Portuguese, there will definitely be ships heading for Manila, and it is impossible for you to take all these ships Send it into the sea, after all, business still has to be done, right?
But this has no conflict with the siege, they will find out if they find it, and it doesn't matter if they send the news back to Spain.Anyway, you have said it all, Philip II is a bad ass, he can't send the Armada to Nanyang to fight with you.Besides, didn't you say that this Armada expedition would fail?Then there is no need to worry. "

Gao Wushi said: "In addition to tactical mistakes, the Armada Fleet is also greatly affected by bad weather. I don't know if the butterfly effect will affect this. But even if the Armada Fleet fails... er, to be honest, Philip The Second King can build another Armada in two years."

Liu Xin was taken aback by this shipbuilding ability, but she still said that it doesn't matter: "It doesn't matter even if it takes two years. The Spaniards can't delay in Manila for two years. Besides, even if the Armada is rebuilt, the first thing that comes to mind is to find the British." For revenge, I will never come to Nanyang, unless Philip II is really crazy."

Of course Philip II was not crazy, he was just religious fanatic.The main reason why this guy insists on fighting England is that, apart from Queen Elisa issuing privateering licenses and mobilizing British pirates to rob Spanish treasure ships, the most important thing is to oppose the Anglican Church—he wants to restore the glory of the Catholic Church in England.

[Note: In fact, there is still some legal reason for him to fight England. The previous Queen Mary I of England was the first wife of Philip II. At that time, Philip II had the King of England (co-government) in his title.But because Mary I had no descendants, theoretically speaking, after Mary I died, his co-government rights also lost.However, Philip II was more fierce and claimed the throne of England when he fought England. ]
Having said that, Gao Yushi still didn't want the battle to drag on for so long. He shook his head and said, "I took the nobles to fight Manila. The purpose was not to compete with Spain for the colony, but to divert the attention of the nobles. This requires Luzon to restore its original functions as soon as possible and create benefits. So, please talk about another way.”

Liu Xin smiled and said, "This will use my major..."
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(End of this chapter)