The construction of the pontoon bridge on the Yehe River was quite smooth. Although the engineers of the Liaodong Army were far less professional than the Imperial Guards who had independent engineers, due to the existence of Tingzhou in the river at this time, Tingzhou could be used as an intermediate fulcrum. This pontoon bridge
The difficulty of construction was greatly reduced. Even with the additional step of cutting ice, it only took more than an hour to basically get it ready.
Cao Yu took time to calculate. With a little conservation of horsepower, Ma Chengxun should be almost back to Dongcheng at this time. However, he did not send a messenger, which meant that he had no battle situation to report -
In other words, it may be that they did not catch up with or encountered the Mongols.
If he didn't catch up, Ma Chengxun would definitely choose to continue chasing. There's nothing to say. But if he didn't catch up, Cao Yu had to be a little worried. He frowned and hesitated for a while whether to send troops to cross the river.
Also thinking of going with him again was Gao Yimin. And from the look on his face, Gao Yimin seemed to be more suspicious. He said in a deep voice: "General Rong, the situation seems to be somewhat different from what was expected before."
"What doubts do you have?" Cao Yu asked him while looking towards the forest not far from the front of Qi Jin's military formation on the east side, as if he wanted to find something in it.
"I have my doubts..." Gao Yimin also looked towards the forest and said slowly: "Buriha tried to divert the tigers away from the mountain, but the main force of the Tatars is still in the forest."
Cao Yu's eyes were focused, but surprisingly he showed no fear, he just said calmly: "I entered the army camp when I was thirteen years old. So far, I have fought in sixty-four battles, big and small, and won thirty-one major victories and seventeen minor victories.
Invincible in eight battles, small losses in nine battles, and big defeat in one battle.”
He took a deep breath and continued: "However, there has never been a battle between cavalry and foot. Now that I have a try, there is no regret in this life." Suddenly he waved his hand and sent an order: "Send the order to Qi Jin and Zhang Wanbang, the second general, to strengthen
Be on guard and prepare to meet the enemy." Then he said to Gao Yimin: "Now that Ma Chengxun's troops have left, the northern front is empty, and it is inconvenient for me to sit in command of the central army and move lightly. Please bring brother Gao to bring one thousand of my servants and five of my brother's servants.
One hundred, fifteen hundred guards, a total of three thousand troops, to guard the northern front for me, I wonder if Brother Gao will agree?"
Gao Yimin originally wanted to just let Cao Jian go, but then he thought that Cao Yu might have other motives for not letting his brother go into battle. Although he didn't know why, he had to consider it. So he said: "Since I have the trust of General Rong, Yimin will definitely live up to his orders.
"
Cao Yu praised him greatly, ordered the dispatch of manpower to him and notified Cao Jian. Gao Yimin was originally a staff member and had never worn armor. At this time, he immediately changed his military uniform, put on "cold iron armor" and led his people to arrange the northern line.
Battle formation.
Unlike Cao Yu, Gao Yimin had a much deeper understanding of "controlling cavalry with footwork". Although he looked serious, he did not look at this war like a narrow escape like Cao Yu, and even said, "I have no regrets in this life."
Come on like this.
The reason why the ancient cavalry was powerful was mainly because it was equipped with fast-moving horses. Compared with the slow-moving infantry, it had an absolute advantage in tactical time and space.
Although the advantage of cavalry is obvious, Taizu of the Red Dynasty said well, "Weapons are an important factor in war, but they are not the decisive factor. The decisive factor is people, not things." Even the Song Dynasty, which had long been considered to have poor military combat effectiveness,
There are also some generals who gave full play to their subjective initiative in actual wars and created some tactics of "controlling cavalry with foot".
For example, in the early Southern Song Dynasty, Monk Yuan and Xianrenguan battles under the command of Wu Jie used the Fanxiu battle technique, the Shunchang battle under Liu Qi's command, and the Yancheng battle under Yue Fei's command were all classic techniques used in the Song Dynasty.
Examples of winning battles by "stepping and riding".
The methods adopted by the Song Army at that time mainly included the following three methods: First, "taking advantage of the terrain and using surprises" to limit the mobility advantage of the enemy's cavalry.
This method mainly relied on the natural geographical barriers at the junction of the Song and Jin Dynasties and the dangerous terrain in the Southern Song Dynasty to restrict the Jin cavalry team. In the "footsteps control of cavalry" tactics, to achieve the goal of controlling cavalry, the focus is on "controlling dangers"
", that is, launching operations on the basis of defense.
In the third year of Jianyan's reign, Lu Yihao, who was the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel at that time, believed: "The plains and shallow grass can be advanced and retreated, which is the place for cavalry. One of the cavalry can guard ten infantry; the mountains, forests, rivers and swamps are dangerous and difficult to enter and exit, so it is best to use foot."
The ground is one of the infantry, and can guard ten cavalry. Since the Jin Dynasty Nanmu, the soldiers of the Central Plains have been in a stalemate with the Jin people. Those who did not engage in confrontation and collapsed, used the plains and wilderness to capture many cavalrymen, and the Chinese cavalry was so small."
It is advocated to rely on the geographical situation of the Jiangnan water town to resist the attack of the Jin cavalry.
The second is to use crossbow catapults to "non-contact" long-range strikes to defeat the enemy. If the infantry directly comes into contact with the Jin and Mongolian cavalry in the field, the cavalry will undoubtedly have a condescending advantage. Only by striking before contact with the cavalry can they win.
Chance.
Compared with the Northern Song Dynasty, there have been some new developments in the manufacturing technology and functions of crossbows in the Southern Song Dynasty. The most commonly used ones are the divine arm bow inherited from the Northern Song Dynasty and the newly made enemy-defeating bow, divine power bow, etc., which will not be described here.
The third is to rely on infantry formations to defeat the enemy. Due to the shortcomings of the cavalry, the Song army tried to rely on setting up large infantry formations to defend against the invading foreign cavalry. However, this method of warfare limited the impact of the opponent's cavalry, but at the same time sacrificed its own troops.
The maneuverability is not a good strategy from the actual combat effect.
For example, in the battle before the "Chanyuan Alliance", the "Ping Rong Ten Thousand Formation" gathered 110,000 elite soldiers of the Song Army. Under the Dingzhou troops, they set up a defensive posture like waiting for a rabbit. Unexpectedly, they were bypassed by the Liao army and easily attacked.
Damingfu and other cities in the rear.
All in all, the advantage of cavalry is that they always have the upper hand. They can fight when they want and leave when they don't want to. If infantry wants to find its own advantage, it must first pick the right place and secondly choose the right weapon.
Today's battle has changed over time. The current situation is that the Ming army is fighting with its last stand - but there is a pontoon bridge that has been built behind it. The number of the Ming army is now slightly lower than that of the Mongolian army due to being "drove the tiger away from the mountain" by Burihatu, but it is at a disadvantage
limited.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! As for weapons and equipment, Gao Yimin believes that his side has a clear advantage.
The greatest pressure may be on Qi Jin's troops who are facing the enemy from the front. Qi Jinben took more than 3,000 Qi's troops to Shenyang to take office, 3,109 to be exact, which is the standard number of people for a battalion of Qi Jiguang's car camp.
Under this configuration, Qi Jin's carriage camp had 256 Jinghua No. 3 artillery pieces, 512 Wanli II muskets, and 8 Jinghua No. 2 artillery pieces. Later, as the Ming army's firearms level further increased, the equipment of the carriage camp also increased.
The number of Wanli Type II muskets has been increased to 1080, and the number of firearms operators is 1080, accounting for nearly half of the combat personnel (some are dedicated to logistics).
The standard tactics Qi Jiguang prepared for the chariot camp was that when the Mongolian cavalry was charging towards the Ming army, the chariot camp quickly formed a square formation, with the infantry and cavalry placed in the middle of the square formation.
When the Mongolian cavalry entered the firearms range, all firearms fired a salvo, knocking down a group of Mongolian vanguard troops; but the Mongols would still continue to charge forward. At this time, the infantry placed horse-repelling devices in front of the vehicle formation. Horse-repelling devices were similar to
When a horse rushes towards something like a caltrop, it will either be stabbed and startle, or it will stop moving forward, or even be directly hit to death. No matter what, it will cause chaos in the enemy's attack.
Taking advantage of this chaotic moment, the Ming army's long gunners in the chariot formation began to stab each other with thousands of spears, and another group of enemy troops were knocked down. By this time, the Mongolian cavalry was already in chaos, and those in front had to retreat.
, but the car behind could not be stopped and kept rushing forward. The team was in chaos and lost all its energy.
At this time, after fully consuming the enemy forces through the first two stages, Qi Jiguang's cavalry troops will suddenly rush out and give the Mongolian cavalry a final fatal blow.
But this tactic has now changed. After the rise of the bayonet formation, the musketeers also have the ability to fight in close combat. Therefore, the number of spearmen and wolfsmen has been greatly reduced, and the configuration of the musketeers has only been increased to the 1080 people just mentioned.
This also caused changes in tactics, that is, the original "thousands of spears stabbing together" became the "hollow square formation" tactics of "thousands of spears firing", and hand-to-hand combat changed to shooting.
The Ming army has taken great reform measures in recent years, and its organization and tactics are constantly changing. Earlier, Qi Jiguang was stationed in Jizhen, and in the "Records of Military Training" he specified the firearms configuration of each chariot camp, horse camp, and infantry camp.
(Not counting cold weapons) and the number of people, a complete cavalry battalion at that time had a total of 8,517 people, at least 3 cavalry battalions, plus the baggage battalion, the number was nearly 30,000.
The main firearms configuration of this nearly 30,000 vehicle, infantry, and cavalry joint combat unit is as follows: (excluding the firearms configuration and number of personnel in the supply camp), a total of 384 vehicles, 768 No. 4 guns, 12 rocket vehicles, and 24 No. 2 guns.
180 No. 3 guns, 8,232 musketeers (Wanli Type 1), 1,296 quick shooters (Wanli Type 2), equipped with 76,800 No. 4 artillery shells, 720 No. 2 artillery shells, 1,497,600 musket bullets, 388,800 quick gun bullets, and 104,280 rockets
, No. 3 shells 162,000, total number of people 25,551.
If the supply battalion is included, the number of various types of equipment will be increased, and the total strength will reach 30,531.
With the victory of Gao Pragmatic, some changes were made to the vehicle camp organization to adapt to the changes in tactics, but in any case, according to Qi Jiguang's thinking, only these 30,000 people can form a "complete organization."
It is a pity that although the theory is good, it is difficult to implement under the military system of the Ming Dynasty. The reason has been mentioned before. The military power of the general soldier has been suppressed, and the Ming army does not have a regular establishment of up to 30,000 people - this establishment will be left in later generations.
During the Red and Blue Civil War, it was equivalent to a reorganized division of the Blue Army.
Therefore, when Qi Jiguang himself was in charge of Ji Town, he could train and "organize" like this, but after he left, this organization actually ceased to exist. The only good news is that after he became the Imperial Guard, he combined this organization with
Gao Pragmatic discussed it and came up with a Beiyang Army-like organization that was very close to Yuan Shikai's "New Army at Small Stations".
Although Qi Jin brought a complete car camp to Shenyang, this time he left a thousand people to look after the house in Shenyang, and only brought two-thirds of the manpower. Theoretically, Qi Jin now has only one The castrated version of the car camp will definitely have an impact on combat effectiveness.
Zhang Wanbang's troops defending the southern front are simpler than Qi Jin's troops in terms of organization. He has 500 servants and 1,200 guards. Among them, the servants are all mounted infantry, and they have already dismounted and set up formations.
Because Zhang Wanbang's department is a typical "highly pragmatic organization", it has a higher firearms ratio, but it does not have sidecars and relies entirely on bayonet formations. Its characteristic is that it looks thinner than Qi Jin's department. As for fighting... Anyway, his record Even though he was there, no one dared to doubt that he couldn't bear it.
In comparison, the three thousand people now led by Gao Yimin are a lot more "primitive". First, their firearms are not proportioned enough. The servants are fully equipped with Wanli Type 1 muskets and "Cold Iron Armor", but the guard station This is not the case with soldiers. The Longqing Type 2 is not fully equipped. Of course, the Longqing Type 2 has been discontinued and it is estimated that it will not be available again. The ones they have are old products.
These guardsmen brought by Cao Jian came from Jinzhou in southern Liaoning. There was almost no fighting in Jinzhou, and the priority of changing equipment was not enough. The 1,500 guardsmen only had 400 Longqing II muskets, and the remaining The musket is not a three-eyed blunderbuss, but a bird blunderbuss that was eliminated from Ji Town in the early years.
The shooting range of the bird gun is actually pretty good, but the main reason is that the accuracy and killing range are not as good as the Longqing Type 2, and the reloading is much slower. As for comparing it with the Wanli Type 1 and Wanli Type 2... I still don’t want to compare it, it sounds sad.
Since neither the Longqing Type 2 nor the blunderbuss could mount bayonets, in fact, only 1,500 people on Gao Yimin's side could set up bayonet arrays, and Gao Yimin suspected that their bayonet array training was seriously insufficient.
Bayonet array must be trained. One of the biggest characteristics of this "modern tactic" is that it treats people as machines. A similar idea can be seen by comparing it with "queueing to shoot": you don't need to have thoughts, you don't need to You have your own mind, I just need you to behave and obey orders!
The main purpose of training this kind of army has been summarized by someone in history. The general idea is to make soldiers "fear officers more than bullets." Gao Yimin knew this very well, and it was not long before the Cao brothers entered the ranks of "high-level generals". The servants are more of the same as before: they fight bravely and have outstanding personal force, but their discipline is hard to say.
Therefore, the current form of defense of the Ming army on three sides: the north, east, and south is that the north has the most people but a slightly outdated combat system; the east has the most complicated tactical system but the most elite training; the south has fewer people but an excellent tactical system. By the way, this army The morale is extremely high and they have no fear of the Mongols (Zhang Wanbang's troops defeated the Mongolian cavalry twice with inferior troops).
Cao Yu himself was in charge of the central army, and he only had seven or eight thousand men at hand, and most of them were just guard infantry. The task of these people was naturally to provide emergency support to whichever side, but that being said, the east and south sides The line is actually less suitable for support, because the tactics on both sides have their own systems, and the garrison soldiers who supported the past may not necessarily be able to cooperate effectively.
Relatively speaking, only if there is a problem on the northern line, his support here will be more useful.
Gao Yimin obviously also understood the current situation. He had the largest number of people here, but the actual combat effectiveness may be the lowest. He rushed to the front of the formation, and while commanding the layout, he felt a little nervous: If I were Buri Hatu, I'm afraid I would have to choose to come from the north.