Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1631 Northern Expedition ([-])
The terrain of Laoniu Mountain is nothing special, it is just an ordinary hill, but there is a river five miles north of this hill, which belongs to the tributary of the Kouhezi River in the Liuhe River Basin of the Liaohe River System.This river has a characteristic, it meanders as a whole, quite "nine bends and eighteen bends", and the river is not wide, except for a small section five miles north of Laoniu Mountain, which is very wide, even more like a spring in the middle of the east-west river. A lake comes out, and this lake is generally connected to a river.

From a geographical point of view, this kind of terrain is often suitable for human settlements. The Kulun Banner of later generations is also two or three kilometers northwest of this horizontally long lake. What kind of settlement is just that the Horqin people occasionally used it as a market when they were grazing in the past.

Of course, in any case, this place is considered a "familiar place", not an inaccessible place.The reason why the Ming, Manchu and Mongolian allied forces came here was actually because they lost the specific location of Abadai Saiyin Khan, and only one general direction is still under control.

At this time, Horqin Er Bei Lemingan suggested to Xiao Ruxun that he could come here to rest his horse and have a meal or something. In short, the army can rest and send scouts to find out the exact location of Abadai Saiyin Khan's headquarters, and then make plans .

After listening to Ming An's description of the local terrain, Xiao Ruxun also felt that the location of this place was not bad, especially that the distance between Laoniu Mountain and the unnamed lake was only five miles wide, and it was a place where it was difficult for cavalry to deploy. Badai Saiyin Khan made a sneak attack, so he agreed.

Some people may have doubts, saying that Abadai Saiyin Khan's troops are of course cavalry, but isn't your Ming-Manchu-Mongolian coalition army also all cavalry now?It is difficult for others to unfold, so could it be that you can unfold it?
Of course, it would be difficult for the Ming, Manchu and Mongolian coalition forces to form the formation required for a cavalry battle in such a wide place, but the problem is that Xiao Ruxun does not need a wide formation!Although the Ming army cavalry is indeed cavalry now, the Ming army cavalry is not as "professional" as the Mongolian cavalry. Aren't they mostly infantry before they became cavalry?

Therefore, Xiao Ruxun's idea was that even if Abadai Saiyin Khan came to attack, the Ming army could quickly form a dense formation to resist, and Gao Situ's several battles have fully demonstrated that the denser the infantry formation, the stronger the firepower. The stronger it is, the better it can form an advantage over cavalry.

For this reason, Xiao Ruxun's deployment of the garrison this time was quite abnormal. He did not place the Ming army camp in the middle according to the usual habit, and arranged all the Horqin cavalry around.He didn't do it all the other way around, though, putting all the cavalry in the middle.

Xiao Ruxun divided the Ming army into two parts. The Ming army with the ability to dismount and fight on foot was deployed on the east, west, and south sides (the north is the river). It is the three parts of Horqin and Manchuria, forming a sandwich biscuit as a whole.

After the layout was completed, the horses were sent out, the army was repaired, some people went to drink and feed the horses, some people started to bury pots and cook rice, some people prepared to set up camp, and some people installed deer firewood to reject horses, everything was in order.

Xiao Ruxun was quite satisfied with this, especially since the Horqin people and the Jurchens can now cooperate according to the Ming army's system, which makes him feel much more pleasing to the eye.You must know that at the beginning, especially after the Horqin people joined the coalition army, the situation in the army was really chaotic.

At that time, the habits of the three parties were different, and the Jurchens were a little stronger. After all, they had experience in cooperating with the Ming army in sending troops in the past, and they were more accustomed to accepting the command of the Ming army, and they could suppress their own habits; But it was the first time they were dispatched by the Ming army, and their habits on the grassland...in fact, they can't be called loose, it can be regarded as a kind of looseness on the outside and tightness on the inside.

However, the Ming army has undergone relatively strict training in recent years, and has become accustomed to acting in accordance with the wartime regulations formulated by Gao Yushi and perfected and finalized by Qi Jiguang. There are almost clear regulations on when to do what and to what extent. The order cannot be messed up, and there is not much flexibility in the time.

This kind of regulation has a strong high-level pragmatic style, and the high-level pragmatic style is, to put it bluntly, a simplified and weakened version of the military discipline of the children of the Red Dynasty in later generations.For example, the Hongchao military camp is very famous for its "quilt tofu cubes". It also requires high pragmatism. It can be measured almost with a ruler.

Although the details cannot be achieved to that extent, at least the current Ming army has begun to get used to the strict military discipline that Gao Situ gave them, even if they don't understand why Gao Situ is concerned about these "insignificant" details. They have come up with many tricks, but at this moment the Ming army is at least used to another thing: fearing the chief more than the enemy.

Gao Yushi couldn’t build a people’s army in the feudal era, and even now there is no clear concept of a nation-state. It is very difficult to build a modern army, so he and Qi Jiguang actually built a military under the conditions of the feudal system. Get as close as possible to the army of the modern army.

How does such an army form?Rely on two "clarities": clear rewards and punishments and strict discipline.

As with other human groups such as corporations, the key to maximizing combat effectiveness in the military is to bring out the human element.The same sword, given to a farmer who wields a hoe all day long, or a military nobleman who has been wielding a gun since childhood, the combat effectiveness it can exert is incomparable.

Therefore, for a long period of time, the military aristocrats who used war as their profession became the main body of the army's combat effectiveness, which was especially evident in the sparsely populated medieval Europe.Therefore, the wars at that time were often full of individual heroism and became a stage for knights to perform.

With the gradual development of human society, human beings have improved step by step in terms of economic strength and organizational ability, and the rules of war have also undergone earth-shaking changes.With the promotion of hot weapons, the requirements for personal skills are getting lower and lower. Ordinary people can become qualified soldiers after short-term training. The importance of military aristocrats is gradually decreasing. bigger.

Accompanied by this change, the role that individuals can play is getting smaller and smaller, and the role of generals is to strategize in the rear rather than charge forward. With the popularization of knowledge, the tricks of famous generals are becoming less and less common.As a famous general among famous generals, one of the biggest differences between Qi Jiguang and the famous Chinese generals in the past is that his goal of building an army is different. He hopes that the army he builds and trains is an army that can win battles no matter who is in command.

It is good for a famous general to command, but it is not bad for ordinary generals to command. This is the central idea and core goal of his military training.With such a goal, in the case of similar equipment, the overall will and execution ability of soldiers actually become the key to determining the outcome of the war.

Military laymen usually think that when the musket appeared, cold weapons immediately became vulnerable.But in fact, for a long period of time, due to the lack of shooting accuracy and repeated shooting speed of the musket guns, the combat effectiveness of the Musketeers was very worrying.

This requires musketeers to be able to overcome all psychological fears and line up to shoot in an orderly manner when they can clearly see the eyelashes of the soldiers in the front row of the opponent, bullets whizzing past their ears, and teammates around them keep getting shot down.

At this stage, military discipline overwhelms all other elements, and has become the top priority repeatedly emphasized by the armies of various countries. It has been implemented through rigorous training, and it has been imprinted in every word and deed of every soldier.

This is also one of the main factors why the Ming firearms troops with advanced thermal weapons could not resist the attacks of the Eight Banners cavalry using cold weapons, because although the Ming army possessed a large number of firearms, their military discipline could not meet the above requirements at all.The experience of the Qing army in actual combat also caused the rulers of the Qing Dynasty to misunderstand the power of firearms. Of course, in the early Qing Dynasty, they actually attached great importance to artillery.

In the Opium War, the vast majority of the Qing army collapsed in front of the invading British army. In the early years, many people believed that the difference in weapons and equipment between the two sides determined the outcome of the war.But in fact, even if the Qing army is allowed to hold the same weapons as the British army, the victorious side will undoubtedly still be the British army.

The secret of fighting in this era is to be tougher than anyone else. Whoever can endure to the end and launch a shocking volley at the most suitable time will win the battle.Whichever side's survival instincts overwhelm discipline will lose.

Gao Yushi formulated the firearms combat drill code for the Ming army, which was modeled on the modern British military drill code. He divided the combat part into eight steps, and promoted it in the imperial guards and the Nine Sides—of course, he could not influence Some troops are not sure whether they have followed suit.

These eight steps are: 35. Weave in line; 105. Soldiers follow orders to load their guns; 60. Maintain a linear formation and march close to the enemy's formation; [-]. Slow down the marching speed at a distance of about [-] feet ([-] meters) from the enemy's formation; [-]. , stop at a distance of about [-] feet ([-] meters) from the enemy's formation; [-]. Follow orders and use muskets to aim at the enemy formation; [-]. Each row shoots at the enemy formation together, retreats to the rear row, reloads, and then shoots in unison until the next two rows have finished shooting , Repeatedly; Eighth, when the enemy's defeat falls into chaos and the formation is in chaos, follow orders and charge with bayonets.

This operational code performed well when Gao Yushi personally led the troops. The previous Liaobei battle was the first time that Gao Yushi had not personally commanded the situation and achieved rich results-although Chahar also announced that they were the winners. But the Ming side had a leader to testify, so the imperial court approved the highly pragmatic infantry drills.

Most of the cavalry of the Ming army are similar to the Eight Banners of Manchuria in history. They are dual-purpose infantry and even more inclined to "mounted infantry". one type.The cavalry in Xiao Ruxun's hand is for both infantry and cavalry, so he actually hopes to fight an anti-sneak attack here - in the form of infantry.

It has been about a month since this trip, and Xiao Ruxun has gained some experience.One of the very clear points is that the Ming army replaced by an all-cavalry formation can indeed bite the tail of the Mongols, but it is still as difficult as ever to hope to catch up or even encircle and annihilate them.

Most of the time, it was obvious that they had tried their best to get close to the Mongols, and then they could only drive the Mongols away when they killed them. After the battle, if there were twenty or thirty heads, it would be considered a good harvest.

According to the secret order Gao Wushi gave him before the battle, he had honestly reported the battle situation, hoping that the invincible Gao Situ could come up with a solution.

Hmm... He certainly didn't know that Gao Wushi was also struggling with this matter now, and even started to think about ways to make weapons, thinking about making a revolver.

I don't know whether it was Tian's wish or God's wish, but the rewards that Xiao Ruxun learned that evening were "everything as usual", "no Mongolian army found", "no trace for tens of miles in a certain direction" and so on.

It is inevitable that there will be some discussions at the top of the military, and many people suspect that this time they may really be lost.Ma Chengxun, the highest general in the Ming army except for Xiao Ruxun himself, believed that if no trace of the enemy can be found tomorrow morning, it means that it is meaningless to continue wandering on the grassland. The whole army retreated to Kaiyuan.

Different from the previous situation, this time Ma Chengxun did not represent his opinion alone, and the three Manchurian ministries subordinate to him all expressed their support for Ma Chengxun's views.After all, it was getting late, and the Manchurians had to go back to prepare supplies for the winter.Right now is not the Northeast in 400 years. If you are not prepared for Yudong's work, you will really freeze to death, and it's not just one or two.

The three Baylors in Horqin had a hard time. They knew that the main reason why the army could not catch up with Abadai Saiyin Khan was that the Horqin tribe dragged their families.Even though this is the territory of the Horqin tribe, they have a geographical advantage, and it is easier to predict the direction of Abadai Saiyin Khan in advance, but the two conflicts... still can't catch up.

Moreover, although they are all nobles, their riding skills and their vision of observing riding skills are absolutely fine. It can be seen that both the Ming army and the Manchurian army have tried their best, at least they will not be slower than their Horqin troops with their families. , I can't even find an excuse, I can only blame the bad situation, and I can't do it if I want to beat Abadai Saiyinhan, let alone give Tumen a good look.

Another problem is that, after receiving the great favor of the Ming army this time, and the threat from the Tumen has not been lifted, I am afraid that in the future, they can only honestly rely on the Ming army.

Actually, Horqin Sanbeile didn't have much resentment towards the matter of taking refuge in the Ming army.As I said before, they are not nation-states. As long as the conditions are reliable, it is not a problem who to turn to. In history, so many Mongols joined the Ming army or were instructed by the Ming army to fight against the Hou Jin. How can there be any discord Vengeance?

Neither a nation-state nor an ideological dispute, the vast majority of Mongolians in this era don't care about any hatred at all-no matter how big the hatred is, as long as the money is paid, it will be nothing.

In later generations, there is a Mr. Macron who was talking about the threat of the Red Dynasty one day ago. The next day, [-] Airbus orders were placed in front of him. He immediately raised his thumbs up and praised: "This is excellent!"

In ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, it is better to be true.

Horqin Sanbeile had nothing to say, so he could only express his agreement with Ma Chengxun's opinion, and promised that once he retreated from the original border, he would station in the area instructed by the Ming army, but he would ask Daming to support some winter supplies.For this request, Xiao Ruxun first agreed in principle.

But they didn't expect that some accidents could still happen during the night.
-
Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Book Friends 20191007113800870" for their monthly support, thank you!
Thanks to the book friend "Flexbio" for the support of 7 monthly tickets, thank you!

(End of this chapter)