Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1622 Overture to War ([-])
The battle between the two cavalry that night may have opened a new era in East Asia. It represented the first large-scale application of cavalry flintlocks to the frontal battlefield in East Asia.

Perhaps this battle, in the eyes of future generations, was nothing more than a bad battle in which the attackers fought unreasonably and the defenders defended indescribably; perhaps the performance of the cavalry and muskets also had many unsatisfactory aspects; perhaps it was because of the terrain and Due to the time, the whole battle seemed to be chaotic with few victories... But no matter what, it still opened a new era.

A new era of Musketeers.Of course, in reality there should be a limitation, because this new era can only be limited to Asia.

If you look at the whole world, with the rise of German black-shirted knights in the 40s, the dispute between cavaliers (cold weapons) and pistols (firearms) ran throughout Europe in the second half of the century.

16世纪末期最优秀的西班牙军事理论家当属博纳迪诺·门多萨，他的主要著作包括写于今年(1592年)的《1567-1577年间尼德兰战争史》和尚未动笔(写于1595年)的《战争理论及实践》。

Mendoza was also a battle-hardened general, a knight of the Order of Santiago who fought against the Netherlands under the Duke of Alba.He insisted that the lance was a more useful cavalry weapon than the musket. He said that a company of 120 Lancers could defeat an army of 500 men if they could be divided into several squadrons and charge the enemy simultaneously from multiple directions. Musket cavalry, of course, it would be better if a certain number of cavalry using muskets supported the Lancers on the flanks.

Mendoza also pointed out that the reason why so many people favor muskets is that musket cavalry has lower requirements on the quality of personnel and horses, so it is cheaper and easier to form.As for the formation that the cavalry should adopt, he believes that the commander should decide the depth and width of the formation according to the specific situation, but the ratio of depth to front should not be greater than 1:3.

Another famous cavalry general was George Basta, born in 1550.He became the commander of the cavalry when he was very young, led the cavalry for more than 40 years, and later became the commander of the Holy Roman Empire in the Balkans.In his later years, Basta also wrote a monograph on cavalry, "Laws of Light Cavalry Combat", which was published in Venice in 1612.

One of the main points in the book is that he believes that musketeers are superior to lancers.However, while Bastar's extensive experience as a general cannot be questioned, it is difficult to say whether he was a qualified scholar and writer.

In his book, there are too many assertions and too few arguments. Conflicting arguments can often be found in the argument chapters, and even some basic concepts are vague.For example, he often confuses heavy cavalry with lances and light cavalry with short spears.Basta's book was unceremoniously and violently attacked by a military theorist von Wallhausen who studied cavalry tactics.

Wallhausen was earlier the militia commander in Danzig, and later served as an adviser to Prince Maurice.Unlike generals like Delano, he did not lead troops to fight major battles but focused on military theoretical research and education.But he was the most famous military theorist in Germany and even in Europe at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. He was also the founder of the Siegen Military Academy, one of the earliest military academies in Europe.

Wallhausen wrote a lot, among which the most influential one was "The Law of Cavalry" published in 1616.This encyclopedic work covers everything a cavalry commander should know, from recruitment and training to tactics, strategy and more.

Due to Wallhausen's influence in military education circles, a school of thought has formed around those who admire him and his works.Among them is the Englishman John Crusoe, who published the book "Cavalry Military Tutorial" in London in 1632, which is basically an introduction to the English reprint of Wallhausen's "Cavalry Law".

Wallhausen was a staunch supporter of old-fashioned French cavalry tactics, and his book is full of criticism and mockery of Basta and his theories.

This situation is quite miraculous. When the previous generation of French commanders such as Delano and Tavana were more fond of pistol cavalry, and the cavalry was actually eliminated by most countries in the early 17th century, Wallhausen did not. Almost fanatically advocated the revival of French tactics.

He believes that cavalry should hold heavy lances and charge in small units in horizontal formations of no more than two rows, and that a gap of 20-30 steps (about 30-50 meters) should be left between the formations to prevent the front The back of the fallen block is also convenient for the front row personnel to evacuate backward when the first charge is unsuccessful.This almost completely overturned the principle of dense columns, which he believed caused even greater casualties due to self-struggling and trampling than those caused by the enemy.

However, whether it is performance on the battlefield or theoretical disputes, neither is the final decisive factor.

Societal and economic upheaval is the key factor.

The main source of the heavy cavalry is the knight class. Of course, it does not mean that all the cavalry are knights, but the principle of "poor culture and rich martial arts" is applicable both at home and abroad. Knights are mainly children of nobles, and they have practiced martial arts since the era of servants. , There is no lack of time and money to practice martial arts.

By the late Middle Ages, even the equipment of attendants could catch up with real knights, what was missing was only a title, but as we all know, the knight class in the Middle Ages originated from the fief system of Charlemagne, that is, the king granted land to the nobles, and the nobles Fight for king.

From big nobles to small nobles and then to knights, with the advent of the Renaissance, the traditional feudal fiefdom economy was severely impacted. Many knights even abandoned the dignity of nobles and became robbers in order to make a living.With the disintegration of the knight class, more and more children of the nobles were transferred to the middle and lower ranks of officers, and the knights with lances gradually withdrew from the historical stage of Western Europe.

As stated in "The Emperor's Bayonet": The cavalry themselves have also undergone a transformation. They gave up the use of cavalry spears, or cold weapons, and the heavy cavalry was replaced by pistol cavalry.

The latter's main weapon was the musket or matchlock pistol, and their tactics were half-rotations: "A regiment of cavalry marches towards a pre-selected target, each platoon of cavalry rushes forward, firing pistols, shooting regiments of infantry or cavalry, Then withdraw, reload, and the next platoon of cavalry rushes forward to shoot."

The reason why I say this is because the truth is not only applicable to Europe, but also applicable to Asia, especially East Asia.

A knight with a high level of training is obviously hard to come by. Just like Jinghua's cavalry, although they are strictly selected and trained, if you want to count on their equestrian skills to be better than the Mongols, and their ability to fight on horseback is stronger than the Mongols , that is obviously difficult for the strong - the Mongols have been on horses since they were young, and they rely on horseback riding all day long, while the Han people may only ride horses for the first time in their teens, and they usually regard horses as extremely precious. Walking on your own, how can this be better than equestrianism?

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty can only compete with the Mongols' scimitar cavalry with musketeer cavalry. The competition here is not only the level of technology, but more importantly, the cost advantage.The musket itself is of course more expensive than the scimitar, and it costs more to fight. It seems that the cost has no advantage, but it wins in the "army advantage", that is, the advantage of cultivation and composition.

Moreover, due to the gap in productivity, the larger the population and the more developed the manufacturing industry, the greater this advantage will be.

To use a tactic that is no longer very pleasant to describe in later generations, that is, the musket cavalry of the Ming Dynasty can play the crowd tactics, but the machete cavalry of the Mongols must not be able to play it.The reason is that if Ming is willing, the increment of its musket cavalry can expand to an astonishing level, while the stock of Mongolian scimitar cavalry is basically fixed and the increment is too small, so once the loss is too much, especially if the stock loss is greater than the increment, It will lead to the collapse of military power.

Of course, this theory is highly pragmatic and understandable, but Gao Jiang doesn't understand it. He doesn't know that the musketeers don't have to defeat the Mongolian cavalry in the eyes of his master.At this moment, Gao Jiang only thinks about one thing: how to get the Tumed army out.

Given that Jinghua has always had brilliant records on all fronts, Gao Jiang certainly regards defeating his opponent as his first consideration, so his plan at the moment is to take advantage of the sneak attack in the dark to defeat the Chahar army first, and then settle down. Take the Tumed army away with peace of mind.

At the beginning, the plan seemed to be implemented quite smoothly, especially when the Jinghua cavalry rushed out of the elm forest to shoot the first wave of musket fire. The dense cavalry muskets almost directly defeated the Chahar former army Senseless.

Although due to the limitation of the width of the battlefield and other factors, less than [-] cavalry actually completed the first round of musket shooting, but because the opponent was unprepared, they could not quickly complete the formation change in the middle of the night after discovering that they were attacked, so that The Jinghua cavalry hit more than [-] targets, and actually caused about [-] casualties, but the Chahar cavalry did not collapse.

How many brushes does the Khan Ting elite have, and Brihatu, who is in the middle army, is not a fuel-efficient lamp.The ruler of the Mongolian Khanate and the military adviser of Tumen Khan immediately judged that the identity of the person must be the Jinghua cavalry—because the cavalry of the Ming army generally did not choose to stop after finishing a round of muskets. Began loading on horseback for a second wave of musket fire.

So concerned about the use of muskets, that is the style of high pragmatism when he commanded the infantry. The two main combat styles of the cavalry of the Ming army are not related to this style of play. Fight with the enemy, and then the main force sees the opportunity to join the battlefield to secure the victory in one fell swoop;

The Xuanda cavalry such as the Majiajun and Majiajun are more Mongolian. They like to use light cavalry to shoot long-range (regardless of muskets or bows), and retreat when the enemy meets them, and then start to circle around and shoot in a wandering style. The army lineup is out of shape, and then the elite soldiers will directly attack the Chinese army.

No matter which of these two tactics is used, it is unlikely that the current situation of loading ammunition on the spot and preparing for the next round of shooting is unlikely. This style of tactics can only be played by Jinghua's cavaliers.

Brihatu ordered very decisively: the front army retreated by the river, and the Chinese army hit a "right uppercut" and attacked obliquely to the east.They were asked to try to disrupt the rhythm of the Jinghua cavalry with bows and arrows, and at the same time go around behind the Jinghua cavalry, making a gesture of outflanking the opponent.

To be honest, if the weapons and equipment of the Jinghua Cavaliers are similar to those of the black-shirted knights, then Gao Jiang's command obviously has serious problems at this moment, and the biggest problem is stopping to reload.

At this time, the representative of the European musket cavalry is the black shirt knight, and the combat unit of the black shirt knight is usually a squadron of 300-400 people, arranged in a tight formation, maintaining a row of 20-30.After the cavalry in the front line fired, they separated to the sides and retreated to the rear of the formation to reload ammunition.

This marching shooting tactic was originally invented by the Spanish infantry to ensure uninterrupted firepower.After the opponent's formation was loosened by the bombardment, the cavalry squadron rushed forward and dispersed the enemy with swords and gun handles.

From the perspective of tactical thinking, the black shirt knight's thinking is very clear, which is to ensure the uninterrupted firepower of the firearms before the two sides meet.This idea is almost exactly the same as when Gao Pragmatic commanded the infantry. In essence, it is to ensure the continuity of firepower and increase the firepower density per unit time, which is obviously correct.

But there is a problem. The mobility of infantry and cavalry is different, and the difficulty of loading is also different. Therefore, infantry can engage in three-stage strikes in dense formations, but it is obviously much more difficult for cavalry to copy them.Moreover, if the cavalry really does this, it will actually turn itself into a horse-riding musketeer infantry. Its role on the battlefield is almost the same as that of infantry. However, the unit density of cavalry cannot reach the level of infantry, so its firepower density It is impossible to be as tall as infantry.

In other words, the cavalry who do this are purely exploiting their weaknesses and avoiding their strengths.

The weapons used by German black-shirted knights are pistols, which have limited range and power. However, because they are pistols, if the amount of ammunition cannot be increased due to technical reasons, they can use one person with N pistols to increase ammunition. Quantity, relatively increased firepower density.

However, Jinghua cavalry is not equipped with this kind of pistol that can only shoot one shot. Jinghua's cavalry is improved on the basis of rifles. The general characteristics are that the gun body is slightly shorter, the accuracy is reduced, and the weight is reduced, and the strength of the gun body is improved. , and adjusted the ergonomic design to make it convenient for melee combat after adding a longer bayonet.

Using a gun-handled bayonet for melee combat is by no means the best option, so Jinghua’s code of conduct stipulates that Musketeers generally only use bayonets when chasing remnants of the enemy.

Obviously, the Yanling Dao was used for fighting, especially against the Mongols who used machetes for melee combat.The reason why the bayonet is used to chase down the remnant enemy is because at this time, it is usually assumed that the enemy has no resistance and will not fight back, so "stabbing" has become the most concise and clear means of killing the enemy, not only does it not require redundant actions, Don't waste energy.

Gao Jiang's command at this time seems to have a big problem. He is actually using the Jinghua cavalry as infantry on horseback.However, the problem is that they are cavalry, and the time is still at night. Such in-situ loading not only gives up the speed advantage, but also the firepower density cannot be increased.In terms of lethality, such a command might as well let them dismount in advance to form a formation, and simply use them as infantry.

Brihatu obviously saw this defect at a glance, so he ordered the cavalry to attack and hit a "right uppercut" to outflank and annihilate the Jinghua cavalry.

But Gao Jiang has entered the Jinghua Qiding system since he was a boy. Don't you really understand this truth?Of course not, although he and his subordinates did not have several muskets that could be "fired and changed after one shot", they had other killers.
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(End of this chapter)