Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 855 Qi Jiguang Car Camp

Qi Jiguang's march was not slow, but it couldn't be said to be fast either. It was just the speed of ordinary infantry in the Ming army.

But this is not because the Qi family army is slack, but because Qi Jiguang brought the car camp with him this time.

Not talking about the chariots of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but only explaining the chariot battalion, it seems that it should be traced back to Zeng Mian at the earliest.

After Zeng Mian's death, the Che Ying tactics were formally put forward and practiced for the second time. It was from Yu Dayou who was transferred to Shanxi at that time. Yu Dayou made many improvements to Che Ying and made improvements to many details. .

Yu Long Qi Hu, killing people like dirt.Yu Dayou was transferred from northern Xinjiang, and Qi Jiguang was transferred to the north again, and they all set their sights on Che Ying.

Personal character has a great influence on the general's combat style. For example, Ma Fang has a strong personality, so the enemy's cavalry is strong, so he has to "cavalry by cavalry"—you can do it, I can even do it better than you. Row.

But Qi Jiguang is different. From his style of being an official, it can be seen that this is a person who can judge the situation and not compete with the general environment or the direction of the wind. He prefers to adapt to local conditions and find ways to solve problems based on existing conditions. .

What are the existing conditions?For the Japanese pirates, he emphasized the role of small-scale elite soldiers and created a mandarin duck formation, which has been invincible and invincible ever since.

For Mongolia, it is much more complicated, because the Mongols' innate advantage in cavalry is too huge. No matter how you look at it, Ming can only base itself on defense first, and then have a chance to gain a foothold in offense.

If there is an analogy between Mongolia and Ming Dynasty, it would be as if Mongolia is a lightweight boxer with high flexibility, while Daming is a heavyweight boxer with poor agility.

Theoretically speaking, Ming can withstand a hundred punches from Mongolia without falling down, and as long as it hits Mongolia with one punch, it can beat Mongolia to the ground for ten or eight years.

But the problem is that in fact, Mongolia's flexibility and strength have seriously surpassed the model, comparable to cheating players. Daming took a hundred punches solidly, but he just couldn't hit the other punch.

Daming's physical fitness is there, even if Qi Jiguang is the coach, he can't remake you and strengthen your weaknesses.We can only find a way to continue to strengthen our advantages, and try to make Daming a supermodel in a certain aspect.For example, let's say that Daming is given a set of heavy armor, and this heavy armor also has thorns. In this case, no matter how flexible he is, the Mongols will not dare to punch easily.

Therefore, there is a matter of overhauling the border defense and building thousands of hollow enemy towers.

But just like a boxing match, if you want to win, not only do you have to stand still, you have to knock them down, so Qi Jiguang has been thinking about how to defeat the cavalry.

Gao Yushi has had many private correspondences with him over the years, and among them he proposed a tactical idea called "hollow phalanx".

Qi Jiguang already knew that Gao Pragmatic's mind would often have some seemingly nonsensical, but in fact brilliant ideas, and he always carefully examined his proposals before making conclusions.

So Qi Jiguang spent more than two years testing the practicality of this "hollow phalanx" tactic, and finally he came to several conclusions:

First of all, this tactic is only suitable for elite troops who are not afraid of death. This army must have a simple bayonet and a musket, and it will not waver in the face of cavalry. Going to the three-row front to fight against the cavalry charge, the psychological pressure alone can cause the general army to collapse.

Secondly, this tactic has high requirements for firepower. In a highly pragmatic way of expression, it has high requirements for "unit bomb quantity", otherwise there is not enough firepower, even if the soldiers in the hollow phalanx do not collapse because of fear of rushing into the formation , nor can it cause enough damage to the enemy, and then make it fearful and timid, and dare not fight.

Finally, this tactic requires that you be on the side with the artillery advantage, otherwise if the opponent has the artillery advantage, after a few rounds of shelling, the hollow phalanx that is passively beaten is meaningless.Of course, this does not seem to be a big problem. Can the Mongols still gain an artillery advantage?What a joke, it became the situation that swept the world during the founding of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty.

Are there any elite soldiers?Yes, but Qi Jiguang has been training for so many years, and the elite soldiers who have been basically trained are some of the elite soldiers in Jiliao, Xuanda, Shaanxi and other towns, and since Qi Jiguang can only control them during the training period, will they appear soon after returning to the town? Corruption and deterioration, no one can guarantee this.

So in the end, it is hard to say how many soldiers can use this hollow phalanx tactic.Qi Jiguang only dared to say that the Qi family army he personally led was capable of completing the hollow phalanx and deploying it well.

As for the issue of firepower, since the advent of the Longqing Type [-] musket, the firepower has been significantly improved. Especially the firearms produced by Jinghua are of high quality and properly maintained. There is basically no need to worry about explosions and other phenomena within the safe use period. Therefore, Barely can be considered enough.

But because the hollow phalanx requires bayonets-it is used to face the cavalry charge, put the gun upside down on the ground, and the tip of the bayonet is tilted forward to form a bayonet forest to deter the opponent's horses.

This one needs to be explained a little: horses are very smart creatures, they will subconsciously avoid the shining sharp metal like bayonets, so when the "bayonet forest" appears, the war horses will resist to charge to them.

In the era of cold weapons, the front formed by a firm heavy infantry line will never be easily shaken by heavy cavalry. This is the conclusion of later generations.Not to mention things like Archer Jones's "The Art of War in the West". In fact, even the Mongolian cavalry will form a shield defense when they are desperate. There is a premise, the "firm heavy infantry" is definitely not the guard soldiers like those beggar gangs in Daming.

Therefore, Qi Jiguang has been waiting for a high level of pragmatism to come up with the bayonet he proposed ten years ago, and the new musket that can be used with the bayonet, because only when these two weapons are combined, the hollow phalanx will not be empty talk.

But Qi Jiguang couldn't wait stupidly, so he began to think about how to apply the "hollow square formation" tactic without a bayonet.

Thus, an improved version of the car camp appeared.

"In the past, tens of thousands of enemy cavalry clashed, and the situation was fierce and difficult. Our army's formation was undecided, and we often broke through, took advantage of the situation, and ravaged it until there were no survivors. If the enemy wanted to fight, our army had to fight; if the enemy didn't want to fight, I could only watch That's all. Every time the situation is there, the enemy often turns into the host, and our army is afraid of the weak, and the spirit is exhausted, and the situation is irresistible." - Qi Jiguang's "Real Records of Military Training, Volume [-], Cheying Jieyi".

"If the enemy wants to fight, our army has to fight; if the enemy doesn't want to fight, I can only watch." This sentence perfectly presented the most embarrassing part of Daming when he faced the Mongolian cavalry.

Qi Jiguang's main consideration for the training battalion is that the battlefield environment in the north is very unfavorable for the Ming army, especially the northern battlefield with boundless deserts is suitable for large-scale mobile horse warfare. The formation is far inferior to that of Mongolia. Although the Ming Dynasty has a large number of infantry available, its mobility is too poor, far inferior to the fast maneuvering of the Mongols who come and go like the wind.

This is very similar to what the Japanese pirates in the south encountered during their campaigns. The Japanese pirates also used the boats on the sea to maneuver quickly, making it impossible for the slow Ming Dynasty infantry to resist, and there was nowhere to resist. They were often beaten by the fast-moving Japanese pirates. .

However, unlike the Japanese pirates in the south who have no rules and are like stragglers, the Mongolian army is a large group of elite forces with clever tactics, which is far beyond the comparison of the Japanese pirates who fight indiscriminately.

Qi Jiguang's Qi family army in the south had already set up camps, which could effectively deter Japanese pirates from attacking the camps, but they could not stop large-scale horse warfare raids in the north.The established camp is the basis for Qi's army to fight and defend. Once the camp is kicked, there is no chance of winning this battle.

In order to cope with this severe battlefield situation, Qi Jiguang referred to the combat experience and resources of the northern frontier army, and based on the highly pragmatic idea of ​​"unit bombing volume" as the core, joined the original Qi's army's law of setting up camps, and compiled a new concept. The car camp corresponds to this.

(Note: In Qi Jiguang's book on military affairs, the chariot battalion and the supply battalion are the ones that get the most attention. It can be seen that Qi Jiguang attaches great importance to the tactical use of the chariot battalion. It is the horse, infantry and other units that are the main force in the battle when it is planned for field battles. Strong support and backing. In other words, Che Ying cannot guarantee that his side will "win", but it can guarantee that his side will be "undefeated".)
Generally speaking, the car battalion is combined with the main combat battalion such as horses and infantry to form a mixed camp, with the chariot battalion as the core of the battalion's fighting and defense.

But the planning of the car battalion itself is a unit with both offensive and defensive capabilities. An independent car includes two teams of regular soldiers and surprise soldiers, and two powerful Jinghua imitation Fran cannons as fire support, which are sufficient in combat capability. Tactical independent combat missions.

At the same time, according to different tasks, you can flexibly join small main combat units such as horses and troops as additional offensive and defensive weapons for the car battalion.

In the past, the car camps in the period of Zeng Mi and Yu Dayou were relatively heavy-duty and large-scale "cars". It is a partial compartment; if there are guard plates on both sides, it is called a chariot.

After Qi Jiguang created the wagon camp, he felt that the side van was too large and heavy. Although it was good for guarding and defending, it was seriously insufficient in mobility, which was lacking in the use of tactics. In addition, a light vehicle battalion was established.

This kind of newly made light car is good for traveling far and passing through dangerous passes, so it is sometimes used.There are 210 six vehicles per battalion, 54 vehicles on each side, and one captain for each vehicle, that is, the captain; one helmsman, that is, the fire soldier.The first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth are gunners, the seventh and eighth are all palladium archers, and the ninth and ten are all wolf gunners. This is a team.

But even the light vehicle camp, after all, is not the era of internal combustion engines, and there are no engines available, so the speed of travel can only be maintained to be similar to that of ordinary infantry.

However, Qi Jiguang is not worried about this problem. He has two purposes in this battle. One is to complete the orders issued by the emperor through the hands of Gao Pragmatic, so that the headquarters of the Chahar Department will be unstable. If Li Chengliang and his son can successfully complete it, the Taining Department Both the Duoyan and Duoyan tribes will lose their strength, and as long as Qi Jiguang has a good time to let Chang Ang know the defeat of Su Bahai and Dong Huli, it's hard to say whether he dares to stick to Daning.

If he didn't dare, he could only run away, and if he left, he would go to Tumen and cry, then the mission on Ji Liao's side would be completed, and they must have severely disrupted Tumen's plan.

It would be even better if Chang Ang still dared to defend Daning. Qi Jiguang happened to test the power and effectiveness of Cheying in Saibei.

(End of this chapter)