Command on the battlefield in the cold weapons era was far more difficult than in the hot weapon era of later generations.
This difficulty does not mean that it is complicated, but that it is complex. With the continuous innovation of military technology, arms and weapons will definitely become more and more detailed and complex.
The difficulty mentioned here mainly means that it is very difficult to pass orders from senior officers to specific combat units.
In this era where communication relies on shouting, the only way to deliver orders is through messengers.
And even with a military formation of ten thousand people, it is not that easy to accurately pass on orders in a short period of time. This requires very efficient messengers who can fully understand the commander's operational intentions.
Moreover, orders cannot be passed directly from the commander to the most basic combat units. They can only be passed down level by level, and a large number of highly qualified middle and lower-level officers are needed to ensure that when the orders are passed down, they will not be passed down.
can become outdated and misunderstood.
But this increases the difficulty of delivering orders, because the feudal army's execution ability is often very poor, and junior officers will be afraid and delay for other reasons.
To put it bluntly, the biggest command problem in ancient battlefields was the timeliness of delivering military orders and the execution ability of the grassroots.
Therefore, the military laws of ancient strong armies were always extremely strict, including seven prohibitions, fifty-four beheadings, etc., all aspects were stipulated. In some places, the regulations were stricter than those of later generations, and far more than other countries and races in ancient times.
.
Of course, those who formulated military laws must know that strict military laws are difficult to enforce among their illiterate soldiers and illiterate middle- and low-level officers. They simply cannot remember them, or even understand them.
Therefore, these strict military disciplines are not mainly used for execution, but for military disciplines to function as a PUA and a conditioned reflex. Let grassroots officers and soldiers fear military disciplines more than fear death, thereby improving their execution ability on the battlefield.
, to be able to follow the instructions of your arm.
Later generations often jokingly call the countries in the Chinese cultural circle the monster houses of East Asia because of their overwhelming military combat effectiveness. One of the very important reasons for this is the tradition of strict military discipline.
Even the Turks, Huns and even Mongols on the grasslands paid great attention to military discipline through learning and exchanges with the Central Plains dynasties. When these armies were strong, they could use military discipline to form an efficient combat system. For those unorganized Central Asians
, the European army will naturally form a crushing attack.
This is also the reason why before firearms appeared on a large scale, a small force led by a military commander or a general trusted by the commander could often change the situation of the battle.
In addition to the fact that they are well equipped and well trained, the bigger reason is that they have good execution ability and can find a breakthrough on the battlefield in the shortest time, so as to execute it resolutely.
Generally speaking, except for a very small number, such as the iron army of Grandpa Yue's Yue Family Army, in most battles in the cold weapon era, the core combat strength among 100,000 people would not exceed 20,000.
The rest can be regarded as beings that are slightly stronger than the cheerleaders. They are used to improve morale, clean the battlefield, occupy territory, participate in pursuits, etc. They are of little use in the core decisive battle.
And when the core of 20,000 people has suffered losses of 30% to 40% and collapses, the battle will be over.
This is also the reason why in the cold weapon era, the army can generally only withstand losses of about 10%.
Because you have obtained the maximum benefits, there are only a few core troops who are willing to fight for these benefits, and you cannot expand these elites just because you want to.
Elite soldiers require a large amount of resources to support. In the feudal era, productivity was like that. The wealth produced determined the upper limit of the number of core soldiers and generals.
Zhang Zhao's Guiyi Army, which grew up from the Fengtian Army, is very powerful in Hexi and Anxi.
In addition to Zhang Zhaokai's little golden finger, the biggest reason is that Zhang Zhao spent all his money to raise these thousands of people, and everything about them is deeply bound to Zhang Zhao.
During the Anxi and Hexi periods, they took more than 60% of the Khotan Jin Kingdom's apparent interests, and Li Shengtian's palace guards were all helping the Fengtian Army.
More than 60% of the produce in Khotan was converted into grain, mules, horses and other materials and supplied to the Fengtian Army.
It was the same after he came back. The property Zhang Zhao obtained from the Hexi Sangha, the fertile land he cultivated in Liangzhou, and the property and land confiscated from the Shatuo Li tribe and Jincheng Wang family in Lanzhou were all used to support the Guiyi army.
These are thousands of people.
This is also the reason why he needs to keep fighting, to use more wealth and land to expand the core number of the rebel army to feed them.
Therefore, in the battle outside Mapaoquan Village, He Chuan had to wait for his tooth soldiers to finish wearing their armor.
Because they are the core combat force of the entire rebel army, and at the same time, when the tooth soldiers are wearing armor, Wu Defender must also lead his personal guards to attack.
Otherwise, haha! When robbing the rich girl, the tooth soldiers only give some soup to other soldiers after they are full. This will lead to a fierce battle, and if other soldiers are allowed to go up to it, it is a violation of the rules.
You are being unkind and I am being unjust. These soldiers dared to give up their weapons directly on the battlefield, and they did so as a matter of course. Therefore, despite the military orders issued one after another on He Chuan's side, the soldiers at the front did not move much at all.
The crossbowmen from the formation on the right were still dilly-dallying and did not even launch an attack on the cyclone cannon of the Guiyi Army.
Fortunately, at this time, the Guiyi Army's cyclone cannon stopped firing.
One is that the polished stones are almost used up, but the key parts of the trebuchet are worn too much, and the kinetic energy has dropped significantly, so they must be overhauled.
But the damage caused by the eighty camel cyclone cannons was still very terrifying, directly paralyzing the crossbowmen in two cities and crushing the crossbowmen in four cities.
Although the number in the Central Plains was equivalent to one general in the Guiyi Army, with only more than a hundred people, it caused huge psychological pressure on the rebel army and greatly weakened the morale of the entire rebel army.
"Dong dong dong dong!" After about half a cup of tea, the rebel army's central drum and the command drums began to beat, and Wu's defense envoy led five hundred personal guards and began to move forward.
With his forward command and pressure, more than 6,000 rebel troops were in front. Under the command of drums and flags, they divided into three large formations and a dozen small formations to press against the Guiyi Army.
The five hundred men of Wu's defense envoy were in the middle, holding crossbows, and in front of them were the sword and shield bearers who were guarding them. On both sides, lined up in sequence, were archers carrying long spears and holding strong bows.
On the left and right wings are crossbowmen holding wooden single crossbows that are less powerful but more flexible.
At this moment, the wooden crossbowmen on both wings were spread out like a crane's wings, and the number of them was relatively scattered. They used a shooting strategy of stars in the sky.
That is, the crossbowmen spread out and use a small number of crossbow arrows to cover the entire enemy army, creating the illusion that crossbow arrows are shooting from everywhere, and focusing on damaging the enemy's morale.
Zhang Zhao waved his hand, and the big drum next to him began to beat. When he heard the sound of the commander's big drum, the drums commanded by the officers in each town, battalion, and capital also began to sound.
Every time the drum beats, the soldiers take one step, and the officers control the pace of the soldiers through the sound of the drum to ensure the integrity of the formation.
At the same time, the identification flag with black characters on a yellow background beside coach Zhang Zhao began to shake left and right. Bai Congxin in the distance got the news and immediately made arrangements.
Murong Nobunaga, who was on the left wing, and Li Cunhui, who was on the right wing, each led two hundred cavalry and galloped out from the two wings. They were going to attack the star-filled crossbowmen on the left and right wings of the rebel army.
When these scattered crossbowmen saw the cavalry rushing towards them, a dozen of them began to roar loudly. The crossbowmen who were originally scattered all over the sky began to assemble with two firemen as the basic unit.
Like plum blossoms, they gathered on the left and right wings. The twenty crossbowmen quickly turned into ten crossbowmen, four spearmen, three sword and shield soldiers, two hook and sickle shooters and a large square (stick)
) A small semicircular array formed by hands.
Among them, the crossbowmen are responsible for long-range strikes.
The spearmen resisted the cavalry charge.
Sword and shield soldiers prevent enemy cavalry from firing volleys.
The hook-and-scythe gunner is responsible for using the hook of the hook-and-scythe gun to hook the charging cavalry off their horses.
The big checker is the one responsible for hammering the cavalry to death.
They are scattered all over the ground like plum blossoms. Twenty people form a small formation, which can attack and defend, and can also support each other. If the cavalry really rushes over and passes through these cooperating "plum blossoms", then be prepared
Take off a layer of skin! In this style of play, those grassland cavalry have slightly worse armor, and often not many people will be left after a few attacks.
It's a pity that the Hexi Army is not a grassland people, and they also know that this style of fighting is powerful.
Therefore, when Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui saw that the rebel army was changing formation quickly, they immediately made a circle and stopped in the distance, and then dismounted directly.
These brave knights from the rebel army basically wore cotton armor and had not only horned crossbows but also foot bows on their horses. They would not rush into the formation at all. Murong Nobunaga roared a few times, and the two hundred knights formed a small crane wing formation.
, under the command of a small drum, move forward slowly. The range of the horn bow crossbow is similar to that of the wooden crossbow, but the power is a little greater, but the firing rate is slower.
However, at this time, Murong Nobunaga's two hundred men were all heavily armored crossbowmen. They had advantages in terms of armor and numbers. As soon as the two sides came into contact, the rebel army was immediately shot and turned upside down.
"Fuck you! Are these cavalrymen from Hexi? They have better armor than I do, and they have strong bows and crossbows, and they can dismount and shoot with heavy armor on foot!"
The rebels cursed loudly, and quickly asked their spearmen, hook-scythe gunmen and big boxers to pick up their crossbows again and began to shoot at each other.
However, what they originally formed was a Plum Blossom Formation, and now they were turning into a Crane Wing Formation that was good at shooting, causing the soldiers to become confused.
Suddenly! Just as their plum blossom formation dispersed, a burst of horse hoofbeats sounded.
It turned out that Murong Nobunaga didn't ask everyone to dismount and left thirty cavalry behind. As soon as the rebel army changed their formation, they rushed out from behind the unmanned horses.
"Thirty cavalrymen want to charge two hundred of my men, I will shoot you to death!" The rebels all sneered and ordered their crossbowmen to aim at the charging Hexi cavalry.
Although these Hexi cavalry were widely dispersed, they were shot by dozens or hundreds of strong bows and crossbows, and they quickly lost more than a dozen cavalry. The rest circled around and spread out to both sides, not daring to charge any more.
The rebels grinned with big yellow teeth and were making a few remarks, but his face suddenly froze.
Because after this wave of more than thirty cavalry was killed and dispersed, the remaining Hexi cavalry had seized this opportunity to mount their horses.
This time there were one hundred and seventy armored knights, facing him in a one-row Crane Wing Formation composed of two hundred people. Moreover, they had just finished shooting the arrows in their crossbows and had not yet loaded them.
"Fuck you! I'm going to tell you!" A few drops of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, and he hurriedly went to get the spear he had just dropped by his feet.
But at this time, the rows of soldiers around him suddenly collapsed, and many people ran away, because they knew very well that they would definitely not be able to stop him in time.
Murong Nobunaga hated the crossbowmen of the insurgent army for killing more than a dozen of his brothers, so he used the speed of the smoke in the snow under his legs to rush into the insurgent army first.
He swung his long spear, and with one blow he knocked back the heads of the fleeing rebels, directly breaking their neck bones. Then he hit him with a hammer from left to right, and more than a hundred cavalry quickly defeated the crossbowmen of the rebel army.
They killed most of them.
Li Cunhui on the other side used almost the same method to dent the crossbowmen on both sides of the rebel army. Then they mounted their war horses and constantly searched for the rebel army's weak points to harass them.
At this time, the Wu Defense Envoy who was commanding from the front finally couldn't bear it anymore. He raised a flag and ordered the cavalry on both wings to attack and kill the two troops of Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui who were harassing their wings.
As soon as the hundreds of cavalrymen of the rebel army moved, Bai Congxin immediately shouted loudly. He and Wang Tongtong divided their positions and led 800 cavalrymen to protrude from the two wings of the Guiyi army to intercept the rebel cavalry.
At the same time, the main cavalry force of Sun Xiaoguo's rebellious army in Mapaoquan Village was supported by a group of horned crossbows. He gathered more than 800 cavalry and galloped towards Zhang Zhao's main formation.
But almost at the same time, a cannon sounded, and Zhebu Jiashi, Du Lunchixin, Wen Chongle, Qingzhou Dangxiang Li Yanli and Huizhou Dangxiang Li Zhongchao and his son's troops who were ambushing in Ma Paoquan Village came out from three sides.
Although the cavalry of the Guiyi Army was weaker, they had a numerical advantage, with a total of 2,500 people. The two sides immediately started fighting with each other outside Mapaoquan Village.
The battle on the two wings began, and the two main infantry armies in the middle also came within the shooting range of both sides.
The sky full of arrows whined like a swarm of bees in the sky, shooting at each other. Soldiers from both sides almost fell to the ground screaming in pieces.
In particular, the sword and shield soldiers in front of the formation lay on the ground under the violent blows of bows and crossbows, while the officers on both sides urged the soldiers forward almost without looking away.
During the contact between the two armies, when they were within the range of the crossbows, they basically walked slowly because of the need to maintain formation and the fear of death, which led to everyone walking slowly.
But once they enter the range of the crossbow, the brutal exchange of fire will make both sides speed up involuntarily.
Finally, after a brutal exchange of fire, the two sides collided with a loud bang. The spears on top were clashing, and the jumping soldiers on the bottom were bending and fighting with rats.
Not to mention the difference in armor coverage between the two sides, the rebel soldiers fighting now are not the elite of the entire rebel army.
Therefore, as soon as they made contact, they were beaten back continuously. The 500 elite soldiers led by Wu Defender were the hardest hit, and at least 60 to 70 people were killed.
The rebel army was continuously beaten and retreated, and then was beaten back again and again. But at this moment, Zhang Zhao saw from a high place that He Chuan's tooth soldiers had finished donning their armor and began to move down in formation.
"Ming Jin withdraws his troops. The summer heat is in full swing. Our army has been putting on armor for an hour and a half and has been fighting for two quarters of an hour. However, the enemy is finishing putting on armor. We ordered each general to retreat slowly and fight again tomorrow!"
If you want to fight, I won't fight you. Anyway, the morale of the rebel army has been severely damaged today. At least six to seven hundred people were injured and killed.
Moreover, Zhang Zhao sneered sinisterly, the infantry retreated, the cavalry battle on the Mapao Spring side can still be fought, I will destroy your cavalry, let's see how you spend tomorrow?
"Order Bai Congxin to lead his troops to encircle and annihilate the rebel cavalry in Ma Paoquan, and bring Sun Xiaoguo's head to see me!"