Daming kill

Chapter 261
It was a long time until it was completely dark before Li Ping entered a large tent and took off his helmet and armor.

Visiting wounded soldiers took up a lot of his time.

Although the bloody battle was not long, his troops still killed more than 500 people and wounded two to three thousand.

In other words, the total casualties were close to one-third.

Fortunately, they were the victors and stayed on the battlefield, so that the dead were much less than the wounded, and the most common situation in cold weapon battles where deaths exceeded injuries did not occur.

The more and more mature rescue capabilities, especially the experience accumulated in the Daye County defensive battle, and the insistence on engaging part-time medical soldiers at the squad level also kept them from being at a loss in the face of such a large number of wounded.

However, there are so many wounded in one day, which greatly exceeds their ability to treat the wounded, especially for the seriously wounded.

It is conceivable that the death toll will rise tomorrow.

Then it took Li Ping a lot of time to decide how to treat the enemy's wounded soldiers.

Zhang Xianzhong's approximately 1000 troops (some of which have not yet completed the river crossing) completed the crossing of the river, except for a very small number of people who snatched boats and fled southward, and more than [-] people, including Zhang Xianzhong himself, escaped eastward along the Baishui River, the rest were either captured or killed.

According to preliminary estimates, there were more than 5 prisoners, of which there were almost [-] to [-] wounded.

Although the Peasant Army suffered a severe stampede with a high mortality rate, a large number of defeated soldiers flooded in panic or were squeezed into white water, resulting in countless drowned people, and generally lacked armor to protect vital parts of the body, and there was no timely and effective battlefield. The number of wounded is far less than the number of deaths due to many reasons such as medical treatment.

But the occupancy of medical resources by so many enemy wounded is still terrible.

Even taking out the first aid kits carried by all the officers and soldiers in Li Ping's army for basic bandaging treatment is not enough.

Therefore, many officers and soldiers objected to rescuing the enemy and refused to provide any real help.

Hu Zhongshan, who was in charge, was confused as to how to deal with it.

As the plate got bigger and bigger, not only did Hu Zhongshan's ability and knowledge start to fall behind, but he was indeed a bit old!

In the end, Li Ping, who had learned all about the situation, made the adjustment and ordered the troops to strictly implement it.

Li Ping insisted on helping the enemy's wounded soldiers as much as possible. It is not necessary to use field hospitals for treatment, and it is not necessary to use scarce medical supplies, but basic bandaging and cleaning of wounds must be done, and special personnel (captives) must be arranged to take care of them.

Even though he was a little annoyed after seeing the wounded soldiers and revisiting the bloody scene, Li Ping soon became excited again.

After such a big victory, it is inevitable for anyone to be excited, especially after getting a general understanding of the results of the battle.

People who are excited often like to preach, and Li Ping is no exception. He has a lot of things he wants to share with his subordinates, and he hopes they can remember them.

Before, he didn't dare to say much about the formation of troops.

Even if the formation method he promoted has already proved its effect countless times in confrontation exercises.

But drills are drills after all, and theories that lack the support of actual combat materials can only be theories after all, and their persuasive power is pale.

Even the battle that attacked Mianyang a few days ago was too small and the opponent too weak to be worth mentioning.

But now, he has confidence.

Therefore, before the money was paid, Li Ping had already talked about it for a while uncontrollably, and after the money was paid, the words became more meaningful.

Ma Yong, Duan Qiang and other generals and staff who had been following him all this time naturally stood aside obediently and listened to the teachings.

This big tent is really big, but Li Ping didn't care about it, he just focused on spitting.

"As many lines as possible should be deployed in the formation, at least the second line, and if the strength of the troops permits, the third line should be arranged.

In this way, the losses in the front row can be filled by the back row, which means that each combat unit has its own reserve team.

At the same time, the complete rear line also ensures that a complete array that has not participated in the battle can turn to the flank at any time, preventing the flank from being broken through or turning around the enemy's flank.

There is a lot to do with the fact that so many people in Zhang Xianzhong collapsed so easily because he only set up a front line. We must learn a lesson.A general must never set the whole army into one line, but must divide the army into at least two lines or two arrays.

This is consistent with the idea of ​​keeping a reserve team that I always emphasize.

However, it should be noted that the distance between the second line and the first line should not be too close to prevent the front row from collapsing and being swept away.

It can't be too far away, and there must be time to replace and support the front line.

And if the distance between soldiers is more evacuated, it can make the maneuverability stronger, so that each combat unit can complete more complex tactical actions and have more tactical options.

This also gave lower-ranking officers room to take the initiative.

Multi-line and loose arrays actually guarantee higher flexibility and more tactical capabilities, and also have a higher command fault tolerance rate.

Of course, these also have high requirements for the training level and courage of the soldiers, and they must be trained more and more strictly at ordinary times.

It should also be emphasized here that two or more lines should not be absolute, and there is no fixed model, and it involves the selection and use of the reserve team. It must be determined in combination with your own strength and arm allocation, as well as the actual terrain.

It cannot be dogmatic, let alone solidified.

But one thing is certain, looking at the formation of an army can often tell the training level of the army, the lower the training level, the more inclined the army is to use intensive tactics..."

Although Li Ping kept chattering, no one showed any impatience.

On the contrary, everyone is listening carefully, and some people even want to find a pen to write down.

This was not because Li Ping was their commander in chief and had just led them to a huge victory, so he had to put on a show to save face.

But Li Ping's summary of combat and tactics is too incisive and comprehensive.

Not to mention others, even Zhou Wen looked at Li Ping with more and more admiration. He had long suspected that Li Ping's family had a relationship with Qi Jiguang. Write down all the words and study hard.

Not to mention that Li Ping has so many unprecedented ideas for training the army and a lot of strange tactics in his stomach.

This battle also proved that his tactics and the training methods he insisted on were not only all feasible, but also very effective.

Their big tactic for this attack was a frontal attack plus cavalry detours on the right.

That's right, Li Ping asked the cavalry to choose a detour from the west, which is considered impossible by ordinary people, and before that, Li Ping had first attracted the enemy's main attention to the east, so that the detoured cavalry could give Zhang Xianzhong's army the most unexpected heavy flank.

But in fact, Zhou Wen felt that when the cavalry didn't make a detour, they had almost won the battle just by attacking from the front.

The tactics and formations they used in the frontal attack were not generally effective.

And now, Li Ping also explained the way to deploy troops so clearly, concisely and logically.

This is not a summary of previous experience is impossible.

In particular, some of the things they mentioned were actually useless at all, such as turning the rear row to defense and directly bypassing the enemy's flank from the rear row.

Even now, Zhou Wen still feels that victory in this battle seems like a dream.

Ten thousand defeating one hundred thousand is simply a miracle!
Zhou Wen knew that Li Ping's personal prestige had reached a height that was unattainable and would no longer be questioned, including that he himself felt the slightest fanaticism and admiration in his heart.

While daydreaming, Zhou Wen's mind quickly memorized, for fear that he might miss something.

But for Li Ping, he didn't pay much attention to the changes in the eyes of his subordinates. He was used to it long ago, and he didn't fully know that some of them were thinking too much.

In fact, Li Ping did not have any research on the formation of troops in ancient times.

But as a history buff, especially a military history buff, and a bonus from his previous career, Li Ping has read "Cambridge War History" and read about the evolution history of ancient military formations.

This allowed him to at least know the basics of multi-line tactics even though he didn't have special learning and special memory.

He also has a particularly deep memory of a passage in "Cambridge War History".

"Only two major civilizations invented infantry drills: China and Greece, and both did it twice. The first was northern China and Greece in the fifth century BC, and the second was at the end of the sixteenth century. Both Holland Morris clearly advocated for a return to traditional practices."

Li Ping even knew that in the late Roman period, with the decline of the empire, it began to be more inclined to use intensive Macedonian tactics.It is also known that in Europe at the same time as the current Ming Dynasty, all commanders have become accustomed to deploying more than one line of arrays.

That's why he sneered at Zhang Xianzhong's phalanx formation.

Li Ping's formation method is actually well-known.

This is linear tactics.

And Li Ping's troop establishment also ensured his effective use of line tactics.

What many people don't know is that the formation of European military divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions and companies that originated and formed in modern times is actually a product of the development of linear tactics, and it also deeply embodies the thinking of linear tactics.

Even this tactical thinking was applied to World War I and World War II.

The divisions of an army face the enemy in horizontal formation, and the brigades in the division are arranged in multiple lines.The regiments of the brigade are arranged in horizontal formations, and one or two regiments are reserved as a reserve team in the rear column.Each battalion under the regiment forms in a line, or in a column, or in a mixed formation.Each company in the battalion is arranged horizontally in three rows...

It cannot be said that the establishment has little to do with customs and culture, but more comes from the needs of war.

It is difficult to explain by accident and coincidence the sudden evolution of the battalion and sentry military organization that is too similar to the modern brigade and regiment organization in the late Ming Dynasty.

Although Qi Jiguang's array tactics and training methods did not completely disappear after his death, and continued to be partially applied throughout the late Ming Dynasty, even Liu Ting's chariot soldiers and some frontier troops still had a strong shadow.

However, due to the neglect of the most core discipline, these armies who only inherited part of the mantle failed to make any waves in the end.

Daming and Qi Jiguang went silent, but Europe was constantly changing and transforming in constant wars, then matured, and finally developed into a world-leading military establishment system.

Although the emergence and extensive use of firearms played a greater catalytic role, it is not absolute.

When the Jacobites (royalists in Britain) confronted the muskets of the British army with cold weapons, and when the Zulu king Tchiwayo marched against the British colonists with contradictions, due to the adoption of multi-line formations, these technologically backward The Legion has worked its own miracles.

Li Ping's resolute adoption of modern military establishment is not only his personal habits and adapting to firearms warfare, but also the importance and decision to adopt the military thinking contained in it is also an important factor.

Sometimes, you don't need to be proficient, once you surpass the dimension, it is enough to achieve crushing.

It's like the truth that no matter how good a carriage is, it doesn't matter what kind of train it is.

Li Ping's victory today seems unbelievable, but it is by no means accidental, let alone lucky.

Finally, Li Ping's armor was successfully removed piece by piece with the help of the stupid Liu Qiang and the messenger Dong Jiangpeng.

All eyes were on Li Ping.

Li Ping laughed twice, and said: "It's okay, look, there is no injury inside." After speaking, he patted his whole body with his hands to prove that what he said was true.

Li Ping knew what everyone was looking at.

In addition to the blood stains on the outermost layer of his armor, there were three broken arrow shafts inserted, and it is said that there were more arrows inserted, but the others were all pulled out.

At the same time, many openings were opened on the outer cloth surface, and the iron armor pieces inside were even exposed in several places.

These all show that Li Ping, who chose to be eye-catching, was often taken care of by Zhang Xianzhong's army, and that Li Ping had been rushing to the most intense places.

Everyone naturally worried whether Li Ping was injured.

However, Li Ping himself is not worried, of course he knows best about his body.

He wore triple armor.

In addition to the outermost set of knee-length fine cloth face armor (the inner layer is iron sheets), he also wore a chain mail, and then a cotton armor, and the innermost silk underwear for arrow protection.

There are also special metal protective equipment on the neck, wrist and other places.

This kind of protection can be said to be quite high. Basically, except for being hit on the face and a few exposed limbs, it is difficult for the peasant army who lacks heavy weapons to cause fatal damage to him.

This is the reason for the kind of generals often written in history books, especially the generals of the Ming Dynasty, who were still fighting with dozens of arrows and charged left and right in the peasant army, and it is also true.

It was this kind of protection that made Li Ping dare to lead the team to charge and attract Zhang Xianzhong's firepower.

Otherwise he is really a fool!

At the same time, this battle also made him further realize the indispensable and important role of armor, especially good armor, in cold weapon warfare.

After returning from the pursuit, he chose to continue to patrol and visit the wounded soldiers with all his burdens. In fact, he also wanted to show his bravery and pride to the officers and soldiers, showing that he had been fighting with the soldiers.

The whole body was relieved of the burden and cooled off. Li Ping stood up very relaxed and walked around the tent, stretching his arms and legs.

Only then did he notice that there were a lot of women's clothes scattered on the ground.

Frowning, Li Ping couldn't help asking: "Whose tent is this?"

"It's Zhang Xianzhong, the first thief. I haven't had time to clean it up yet. I'll have someone clean it up right now." Ma Yong replied hastily.

Just as he was about to nod, a staff officer suddenly reported loudly outside the tent.

Soon, Li Ping began to mutter about the unexpected news he had just received: "The bandits from Xiangyin City ran away while the city was abandoned?"

"I will immediately arrange to march to Xiangyin City, so that the general can live in the city tonight." Ma Yong said excitedly.

"No rush." ​​Li Ping hastily stopped.

Then, he sat on the big chair in the tent and began to think quietly, his eyes would look at the women's clothes on the ground from time to time.

After a long time, Li Ping suddenly said, "Call me Huang Chengdong."

(End of this chapter)