warring states careerist

Chapter 861 The Battle of Yinyang ([-])

On the right wing of the Mo-Chu Allied Forces, Shu Pu Mi looked at the smoke rising from his own position, and took out his binoculars to observe the gaps in the dense phalanx of the Wei-Han Allied Forces on the opposite side.

Several officers laughed and said: "The artillery comrades are getting more and more accurate. I remember that when we fought against the Tian family a few years ago, the artillery was not so accurate. At that time, I was afraid that the shells would fall on my head. "

The rumbling cannons couldn't conceal the ridicule of the cavalry for the artillery a few years ago.

The current artillery is still using a very simple protractor, using the lead pendant and rope as a reference line, inserting the simple protractor into the gun hole, and calculating the angle of the muzzle after the lead pendant and the vertical line are stable.

They don't need a lot of calculations. Artillery officers are very good at counting, but the general artillery mainly looks up the table, which is like a rote method to determine the angle of the muzzle and the distance of the attack. .

Only relying on the amount of charge and adjusting the angle, although very simple, is still better than the artillery on the opposite side who relies on feeling and experience.

What's more, there were no copper cannons deployed on the opposite side of the right wing of the Mo Chu coalition army.

After the appearance of copper cannons, battles were generally started by the copper cannons of both sides.

Based on the experience of the concubine and the prisoner, in the first hour, both sides will choose to bombard, and slowly adjust their formations, waiting for one side to be unable to withstand the bombardment and launch an attack, or waiting for one side to feel that an opportunity is coming and launch an attack.

Generally speaking, after the shelling, these cavalry will launch a tentative attack soon.

But the first tentative attack will not be them, but another active cavalry brigade.

This time, a total of two active-duty cavalry brigades and the conscripted cavalry brigade of the concubines participated in the battle. The three brigades were all "cavalry who were not knights" in the sequence of the Sishang righteous division.

Although they are both cavalry and not martial knights, the three brigades are different.

The cavalry of the front brigade may be able to support some of Sishang, but other princes definitely cannot afford it.

Each of the cavalry in that brigade was equipped with three short guns, because it was difficult for the cavalry to reload when they were galloping, so they could only rely on pre-loading and supplementing.

These short guns are very expensive, and a brigade needs to be equipped with nearly [-] pieces, which is a huge amount of expenditure.

Of course, this configuration is not based on the infantry of the Sishang righteous division as the imaginary enemy, but it is obviously based on Wei Han and other princes who value heavy infantry in the phalanx as the imaginary enemy.

The emergence of muskets and gunpowder has made all countries try new formations, and many old formations are no longer applicable to the times.

Wei Han chose to rely on the original heavy infantry advantage of the phalanx, and use musketeers to cooperate with the phalanx.

And the cavalry attacking the heavy infantry phalanx is basically a dead end. If those elite-trained martial knights are fine, it is impossible for these cavalry to charge straight.

So that brigade was equipped with short blunderbusses. Taking advantage of its maneuverability, it shot three shots at the enemy when it was close to the enemy's infantry phalanx. Of course, there was no chance to reload after shooting, so it inserted the short blunderbuss into its waist and took out its iron sword and iron knife. shock.

If you can open the gap, you can rush in, as long as you rush in, the formation will disperse.

And if all three short guns are fired, and the enemy's formation still has no gaps, but continues to maintain high morale, then they can retreat...

In front of infantry archers and infantry musketeers, cavalry shooting at each other is killing the infantry.

The other brigade was not as wealthy as that brigade. Each person was only equipped with a short gun and had only one chance to go into battle.

But they have the cavaliers to cooperate with them. Generally, the cavalry is sandwiched between the two wings. After using the advantage of maneuvering to make a quick detour, the cavalry dismounts and shoots. The cavalry brigades on the two wings immediately make up for the gap and attack once.

On the way of the impact, the infantry knights will quickly reload, and if the cavalry opens a gap, they will support it with firepower; if they retreat instead of rushing away, they need to cover the retreat of the cavalry with salvos.

When it was Shuo Mi's turn, the re-recruited cavalry had much worse equipment, only a leather armor and an iron sword, and nothing else.

They can't compare with martial arts knights, those martial knights have iron armor; they can't compare with these regular non-martial knights' cavalry.

That's why there are always people complaining, jokingly saying that they are all cavalry, and the martial knights are the eldest sons; the remaining cavalry in active service are the youngest sons; The drunk and servile kind.

The concubine Mi heard a lot of complaints like this, but he also heard some rumors, it is said that there were some differences in what the cavalry should do.

Needless to say, martial knights are too difficult to train and the number is too small. The huge group of horse farmers and good families in Sishang can guarantee a sufficient number of irregular cavalry.

How should these cavalry fight?The top ranks of the military have different opinions.

Some said that it should cost a lot of money, and each person should be equipped with three short guns; some said that they should give up the short guns and only wear swords; It is loaded at the back; it is also said that it should be equipped with spears and swords. The spears are disposable, used when charging, and thrown away after the impact to replace the sword...

What everyone said seemed to make sense, each insisting on their own opinions, arguing endlessly, and it turned out that the equipment of the three cavalry brigades dispatched here this time was different.

The concubine Mi didn't like cavalry with short guns very much, because he felt that it was like the barbarian cavalry he often dealt with in Gaoliu before.

It's just that the barbarian cavalry used bows, and Sishang replaced it with short guns. He felt that the effect was not good.

Although the short bow cannot shoot very far, the same is true for the short gun. It is bumpy right away and it is difficult to shoot. Moreover, it is easy for the cavalry to dare not fight hand-to-hand.

He always felt that the cavalry should be outflanking, turning around, going around, or when a gap appeared, they should rush forward instantly, and use impact and hand-to-hand combat to open the gap and defeat the opponent.

Besides, he felt that if the cavalry had given up the charge and hand-to-hand combat and chose to shoot at the infantry now that Sishang already had flint guns, wouldn't that be suicide?
However, the reality is so helpless. If you choose to fight against Sishang's military system, cavalry and shooting tactics will definitely not work, and you will be directly shot and collapsed by Sishang's infantry.

But if it is against Wei Han's infantry phalanx that lacks musketeers, it seems that this kind of cavalry with short guns looking for opportunities to open the gap is still somewhat useful.

Thinking of this, the concubine Mi looked at the Chu soldiers in the central army, shook her head inwardly, and said to herself: "The rules on Sishang have always been about the cooperation of infantry, cavalry and artillery. After forming the formation, use artillery bombardment or infantry to shoot, and then charge after the shooting is scattered, and then shoot after forming the formation... But if we rely on the cooperation of these Chu troops, I am afraid it will not work."

In addition, he also felt that the Chu people's artillery was too small.

The artillery companies supported by the Mohists were basically deployed in front of the formation by the commander of the coalition forces. Among the Sishang Rebels, almost every regular infantry brigade was equipped with three small artillery to follow the infantry.Not under a separate artillery command except in exceptional circumstances.

There was a saying in the world before that the so-called commander-in-chief of the three armies refers to the three armies of the left, middle and right, while in Sishang there is the saying of the commander-in-chief of the five armies.

After mumbling in her heart, the concubine Mi was bored.

Now the first hour of the war is boring and bloody. It is impossible for both sides to launch an attack immediately, but let the copper cannons bombard for a while.

The soldiers on both sides endured the sound of cannons, watched the corpses of their comrades fall to the ground, and filled the gaps in the formation under the urging of drums to maintain the order of the formation.

It can be said that the first hour of the battle is a competition for discipline.

Whoever is not disciplined enough to withstand the shelling, whoever is not patient enough to launch the attack first, and whoever moves first and has a gap in the army will be passive.

Fortunately, the right wing of the Mo-Chu Allied Forces where the concubine was located did not have artillery, and there was no other weapon other than artillery to attack at such a long distance.

Both sides have copper cannons, which is the Chinese army, but obviously the artillery quality of the Mo Chu coalition army is better, and the artillery of Wei and Han's side is already small, so they don't have any advantage at all.

At noon, the shelling that lasted for an hour continued.

There have been large and small gaps in the central armies of both sides, some of which have been filled by the follow-up soldiers, and some are still empty.

The extremely boring concubine Mi finally waited for a long-awaited drumbeat. This was the drumbeat of the whole army moving forward. It seemed that the great Sima of Chu State was ready to try to approach the Wei Han army formation.

In fact, the Great Sima of the State of Chu not only prepared the whole army to move forward, but also used the advantage of shelling to create the illusion of a full-line attack, and used the forward advance as a cover to move part of the infantry deployed on the second line to the right.

Because the formation of the new army of Chu State is a bit like the formation of Sishang after the Mo-Vietnam War, there are more musketeers, so the line is longer.

Now the length is equal, in fact, part of the forces of the Mo Chu coalition forces are deployed behind.

The plan of the Grand Sima of the Chu State has not changed. Taking advantage of the fact that the right wing has more cavalry and less infantry - this determines that the right wing can move faster, so it is easy to advance ahead of the central army, making the front of the Mo-Chu coalition army to the right. incline.

Under this characteristic, it is possible to mobilize part of the Chinese infantry on the second line to move to the right wing, so as to supplement the forces on the right wing behind and form a superior force on the right wing.

Once the opportunity came, after the cavalry took advantage of the cover of the north wind and gunpowder smoke and began to circle around, the right wing could launch an attack, so that the left wing of the Wei and Han coalition forces had no chance to adjust their formation.

If the detour was fast enough, when the Wei and Han coalition forces found out, there would be no time to support the central army or adjust the deployment. The only thing that could be used was Wei Han's elite martial knights to support their left wing.

As long as Wei Han's martial arts knights were mobilized to the left wing, the only thing Chu Da Sima worried about was the safety of his own left wing, which would be guaranteed.

If the infantry on the right wing can also have an advantage, then as long as a small breakthrough can be obtained, it can continue to expand to create fighters.

If Wei Han defended against the frontal infantry, he would not have the extra strength to defend against the roundabout cavalry; if he guarded against the roundabout cavalry, then the infantry in frontal confrontation would be easily broken by the Chu army.

The movement speed of Wei Han's army is the biggest shortcoming, and it is also the shortcoming that Sima Chu wants to take advantage of.

With the sound of the drums from the Mo Chu allied forces, the Wei and Han allied forces, which had endured the bombardment of the copper cannon with an advantage of one hour, also began to make formation adjustments.

(End of this chapter)