New Shun 1730

The morning training was over, and we had fish for lunch. After a nap, we had classes in the afternoon.

One hundred and twenty reserve officers sat on chairs, and books were placed on the brand new wooden table.

The books were all newly printed, and they were not written in the classical Chinese of old military books, but in the vernacular.

Before the bell rang, there was a lot of noise and laughter.

As soon as the bell rang, everyone shut up and sat up straight subconsciously.

The squad leader on duty saw Liu Yu coming in and shouted a command to stand up. Wu Fangrui's brain had not yet reacted, but his body had subconsciously stood up straight.

After saying hello to the teacher, not long after he sat down, the black painted wooden board of the lecture hall and the plaster pen in Liu Yu's hand made a series of frictions, and Wu Fangrui felt that his teeth were going to fall out.

Soon, the title was written on the blackboard.

Overview of Simple Coordination of Cavalry, Infantry and Artillery

Several figures were drawn on the blackboard, starting with three lines.

"For infantry, especially those equipped with flintlocks and bayonets, firing in formation is the most effective way to kill."

"Three rows, this is the most suitable thickness. If there are more, the ones behind will be watching. Such a thickness is very helpless for artillery."

"Artillery likes dense enemy formations, such as the current spear formations and matchlock formations of our dynasty. With one shot, they can hit a bunch of enemies, smashing and destroying them. There is no need to aim too much."

At this point, another figure appeared on the blackboard, and the original three lines turned into a thick rectangle.

"Three rows are effective against enemy infantry, but they are a bit thin against cavalry. Facing cavalry, a qualified officer will choose to tighten the formation and thicken it."

After that, he drew a "hui" shape.

"Cavalry may appear on the two wings and the rear. The best formation for infantry to fight against cavalry is such a phalanx. However, such a phalanx is also favored by artillery and infantry."

"You form a 'Hui' formation, and I will approach with a three-line formation. When I get close, the two wings will turn into a goose formation forward..."

The plaster pen squeaked, and a semi-enclosed V-shaped formation appeared around the 'Hui' shaped square.

"In addition, once the 'Hui' formation begins, or the infantry in the front row begins to shrink and increase the thickness, there will be gaps between the battalions, and the officers will be trapped in the formation and find it difficult to command the overall situation."

The original single Hui or V on the blackboard began to increase, and the small circles representing the commanders began to appear in various formations.

Three lines, thick matrix, Hui-shaped square, flanks, splits, gaps...These concepts that have been touched on a few days ago gradually became one.

Similar content and deeper content have been narrated in the next half month.

Wu Fangrui listened very seriously, and he knew that these contents were the real secrets that were not passed on.

The principle is still the principle of Sun Wu's Art of War, which is to defeat the minority with the majority and defeat the minority with the majority. However, the content of the Art of War is too profound, just the way, not the technique.

If you understand the way, you can naturally deduce the appropriate technique. But not everyone can understand the way, and not everyone is a genius.

In the past few months, I have been learning various formations.

How long is a line of troops?

What should be the width between the columns of a line of troops?

Column A has 20 people, and column B also has 20 people. How far should they be apart so that they can turn into a horizontal column after arriving at the predetermined position?

How many types of horizontal columns are there? In what circumstances should that formation be used? How to turn from a three-column horizontal column to a six-column or even a nine-column horizontal column?

When a battalion sets up a hollow formation, how do the officers of each company give their own orders?

A company's horizontal column needs to rotate 30 degrees to meet the enemy. How many steps should the infantry at the end of the row advance?

In the past few months, I have been learning these contents. In Wu Fangrui's view, these contents are what the sentry generals and brigade commanders should learn.

And what we are going to learn today is what the generals should learn, or... what the staff should learn?

He is not sure, but he knows that these things must be learned well. The assessment that will be conducted soon will divide them into different teams.

There are staff teams, infantry teams, cavalry teams, engineering teams and artillery teams. It is said that the worst will be assigned to the infantry teams, and the best will be included in the staff teams.

It is said that the infantry teams will start training soon, reduce classroom time, and may recruit the first batch of new recruits before this winter.

The cavalry team has the most people, because Liu Yu has been emphasizing that the cavalry must have more officers than the infantry.

An infantry company only needs one company-level officer and eight veterans, including sergeants and sentries.

However, a cavalry company needs at least four company-level officers, scattered in the cavalry team to control the entire team.

The engineering and artillery teams will continue to take some courses such as arithmetic geometry. It is not clear what the staff class will learn.

In recent days, there have been more and more speculations and discussions about the staff class. According to the idea of ​​"a well-regulated army but an incompetent general", more and more people think that this staff class is to train people who can "strategize" in the future.

But Wu Fangrui feels that it is not enough to be a strategic planner.

For example, as Liu Yu said before, the marching route, camping arrangements, marching distance, etc., the staff are not planning, but to make detailed plans and make careful arrangements to ensure that even if the commander is stupid, he can ensure that the march and camp are not chaotic.

As for the more advanced level of strategic planning, I am afraid it is not something that can be learned in a short time. At least it needs to be honed in war. Now it is just laying the foundation.

Based on his observations over the past few days, Wu Fangrui has roughly figured out Liu Yu's training strategy.

Take the infantry as an example. If a 5,000-man camp is to be trained, the staff squad and cavalry squad will be selected first, leaving about 40 reserve infantry officers.

These 40 reserve officers, together with one or two hundred good-family soldiers who have been trained together for three months, form a company and continue to train the most basic formations, turning, stride, and loading.

The 40 reserve officers take turns to serve as the rotating company commander.

At the beginning of next year, 1,000 soldiers will be recruited, and the original good-family soldiers will serve as sergeants, and the original reserve officers will serve as sentry platoon leaders.

Repeat the previous formations, turning, stride, loading, assassination, etc., and teach five with one.

The year after next, maintain the scale, train formations and formation changes, select new sergeants, and select the best company commanders.

The year after next, recruit 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers, and continue to train five with one, turning, loading, shooting, etc.

In the next year, practice formation, change formation, coordination, and march.

In five years, the army was established.

This is in line with Wu Zi's method of training soldiers. It seems to be a helpless method. People have limited energy, and Liu Yu is too busy to do anything.

The navy is fine. There are many people who are said to have witnessed the Rakshasa Navy from scratch, and there are also many captains who are called "names in history" by Liu Yu.

But on the army side, Liu Yu does not use the old officers at all, and the system is completely different from the new army.

Completely abandoning them, we have to start from scratch.

Wu Fangrui thought, Lord Liu is the company commander first, then train everyone to be a company commander, and then let them be company commanders.

Although this method is stupid, it is really effective. However, if the famous generals in ancient times see it, they may laugh and think it is too stupid.

Now we finally start to teach some secrets that are not passed on. Before, we taught them to know the facts, but now we have to teach them to know the reasons. Therefore, it is impossible for one person to teach more than 100 people. We have to select 20 people who can truly inherit the skills, otherwise we cannot teach them all.

Those who were thrown into the infantry class, I am afraid that according to what Lord Liu said, it is enough to know the facts, and there is no need to know the reasons. They are defective among this batch of candidate officers.

As long as you know how to turn your company in the camp when you can form a team, queue, and change the formation, it will be fine.

Even... you don’t need to think, because the real war will not be based on the company. The company is only a part of the entire camp and cannot act alone. What you have to do is to know your position and how to achieve the battalion’s order after the battalion officer gives an order.

As for the cavalry, artillery and engineers, it is even more impossible for them to be the direct descendants of Lord Liu.

Thinking of this, Wu Fangrui became determined in his heart. He must be admitted to this staff class no matter what. This is the direct disciple of Lord Liu.

In the future, the real selection of battalion commanders must be selected from here.

Thinking like this, it is inevitable to look forward to it and get ready.

However, when the day of the actual exam came, Wu Fangrui was confused, or all the students were confused.

There was no test paper, no standard, but Liu Yu spent ten days talking to each student one by one.

Those who finished the conversation were sent directly to Liugong Island and were forbidden to talk to those who were not talked to.

Wu Fangrui remembered the content of his conversation.

At first, he asked about some of the content he had learned a few days ago, which was a simple understanding of the coordination of the three arms of cavalry, infantry and artillery.

After asking these questions, he asked about his understanding of the advantages of using a flintlock with a bayonet.

Liu Yu had talked about this question before, and it seemed that there was a standard answer, but after Wu Fangrui finished talking about the standard answer, he still boldly expressed his own thoughts.

"I think, in addition to the advantages mentioned before, there is another one, which is the speed of marching on the battlefield. The muskets and spear formations must advance at a very slow speed to ensure that the coordination is not disconnected. Once a disconnect occurs, the enemy may seize the opportunity."

"Even if the enemy's flank has a weakness, the enemy may have already filled the gap when this thick formation moves over. But if you don't advance in formation, even if there is a gap, it is meaningless without a formation."

"The flintlock muskets and bayonets can quickly advance in a column once the enemy's flank has a weakness, and launch an attack at the weakness before the enemy's formation is completed."

"The thinner horizontal column is faster than the square; and the column , and faster than the horizontal column. ”

“Sun Tzu said: I am one, and the enemy is divided into ten. So ten attack one, then I am many and the enemy is few; if I can use the many to attack the few, then the ones I fight with will be limited.”

“Some people say: Whenever I fight with the enemy, if they are many, I will set up a false formation to divide their forces, and they will have to divide their forces to prepare for me. Since the enemy's forces are divided, their forces must be few. I am one, and their soldiers are many. Using the many to attack the few will definitely win.”

“These are all general ideas, but if you think about it carefully, the decisive battle is nothing more than using the many to attack the few. The faster the column moves, the more opportunities there are to create opportunities to use the many to attack the few; or when the enemy reveals a flaw, you can seize it. ”

This has never been said before, and Wu Fangrui doesn't know if what he said is right.

In the camp school all the way to Wude Palace, the seven martial arts books are to be taught, but those who teach may not understand, and those who learn are just thinking for themselves.

After reading these military books, combined with Liu Yu's training and explanations over the past few months, this idea came naturally.

In his heart, he already supported Liu Yu's view that the military system of Dashun was backward.

Overall, Dashun's military was much stronger than the previous dynasty, and it completely eliminated the matchlock guns, multi-barreled guns, thunder guns and other things that were wildly imaginative and proved to be completely ineffective in actual combat tests.

Replacing them with heavy matchlock guns and light artillery, the military reform was completed at the level of the late Thirty Years War.

The Chuang army was famous for its spear formation and three walls, and the Battle of One Stone also broke the weakened Guanning Army.

However, in the Battle of Tongguan, the Dashun Army was taught a lesson by the Tatar Qing. Under the bombardment of the strongest traitor artillery in East Asia at that time, just like the bloody battle of Hunhe River, the thick formation of the Dashun Army was broken by the artillery.

After that, the counterattack in Jingxiang, perhaps because the flintlock gun mechanism was far from mature at that time, or because of the helplessness in the fierce battle, in short, the way of Dashun’s army building was fixed-the most effective way to fight against cannons is more cannons.

The powerful artillery used small-caliber artillery to make up for the lack of matchlock gun projection ability, the spear formation provided cover, the light cavalry of the government soldiers protected the flanks, the matchlock guns and artillery fiercely bombarded to open the gap, and the elite melee soldiers in heavy armor attacked from the gap, and they were invincible.

The matchlock gun formation was sparse and the firepower was insufficient? Why bother with flintlocks? Just strengthen the small-caliber cannon that can be used by people carrying horses and finding a pile of earth to set up. Following the thinking of the previous dynasty, various small cannons were used to strengthen the projectile firepower.

This idea is not wrong, but two ideas under the insufficient firepower of the matchlock gun.

It’s just that when the flintlock gun plus bayonet was opened, with the increase of the ignition rate and the bayonet from the insertion tube to the sleeve to the latch, the gains and losses were reduced.

Finally, at a certain threshold point, the flintlock gun that can be densely arrayed completely surpassed the firepower combination of small-caliber cannon and matchlock gun.

The idea of ​​Gu Erye to make so many leather cannons is actually similar, which can be understood as a strengthened large matchlock gun.

The Mongols had no cannons, and the Junggars only recently began to form artillery from the Swedish officer Lenat.

The rebellion of the Tusi in the southwest was a security war, and the experience of the security war was that more light cannons made up for the firepower. 30-50 kg, 100-150 catties, 200-300 kg, can be carried and carried by a horse. In the southwest mountainous area, light weight is the priority. It can hit a distance of 100 meters, or shoot a pile of broken stones and iron slag at close range to suppress the opponent.

The Luosha Envoy is qualified to evaluate that Dashun's military system will definitely suffer a great loss on the plains of Eastern Europe. Once the heavy formation is suppressed by the artillery, it will be a target; as long as it attacks, it may be out of touch and reveal flaws.

But the surrounding small countries, chieftains, tribes and domestic rebels are not qualified.

Relying on their own artillery, they bully those without artillery. Relying on their own thick formation, they let the Mongols rush at will.

The so-called punching a toddler and kicking an old man.

Wu Fangrui did not have such a vision, but he had been subtly instilled with a lot in the past few months, and he had already recognized Liu Yu's ideas in his heart.

Combining his understanding of military books and martial arts classics, he expressed his own thoughts.

After saying this, he couldn't help feeling a little uneasy, wondering if he was adding unnecessary details.

Liu Yu did not show any expression of happiness or unhappiness. After asking him some other questions, he let him go.

After living in the new barracks on Liugong Island for a few days and expressing his admiration for the beautiful brick and stone structure of the Liugong Island Naval School with some of his companions, Wu Fangrui's uneasiness finally turned into an excited roar.

He was admitted to the staff class.