Chapter 161 The Troubles in Nancha (Twenty-Nine) Break the Formation
Breaking through the long-range fire blockade and approaching the bayonet formation, a bloody battle immediately began.
Unlike the Mo Daobing, a powerful weapon of the Tang Dynasty that "controlled cavalry with foot", although the bayonet array can also "attack like a wall", it is obviously not as domineering as "the enemy will be destroyed, both men and horses will be crushed". How to use bayonets
He is not good at chopping, and almost exclusively specializes in "stabbing".
But to be honest, although the Mo Dao soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were powerful, they had two serious flaws. One was that the manufacturing of the Mo Dao itself was too "high-precision" at the time. Not only was the output extremely low, but it was also expensive and difficult to equip in large quantities;
Secondly, the selection of Mo Dao soldiers is also extremely strict. It would be polite to say that one in a hundred is selected. In fact, it may be necessary to select only one in a thousand, because Mo Dao soldiers not only need to have amazing courage, but also need to be extremely strong - if they are weak, they will definitely not be able to defeat "people and horses".
"Broken" effect.
It is precisely because of these two problems that there was no more Modao after the Tang Dynasty, and Modao soldiers gradually became a legend.
The bayonet does not have such trouble. Although the manufacturing of the bayonet is also "high-precision", currently Jinghua can satisfy it, but the use of the bayonet is far simpler than the Mo knife, and the requirements for people are much lower. As long as a person
Qualified soldiers can use it.
However, the bayonet itself is not a very professional cold weapon. It is actually a supporting weapon, and its main function is to make up for the lack of melee combat capabilities of the musketeers.
To a certain extent, it is a modified product of the three-eyed gun, which is designed to allow soldiers to project long-range firepower and engage in close combat. From the perspective of its cold weapon properties against cavalry, the bayonet
The formation is actually inferior to the spear formation.
What is the most practical and cost-effective melee weapon in the classical period? There is basically no dispute about this, it is the spear! It is not any other fancy cold weapon, it is a simple spear. This type of long handle is represented by the spear.
The cold weapons used for assassination are called "the king of weapons".
They are all long-handled weapons. There are differences between spears and ordinary weapons such as spears, spears, and beryllium. Although it is said that the difference between these weapons is due to differences in shape. For example, the difference between spears and guns is in the style of the head.
The difference between a spear and a beryllium is in the way the handle is attached, but the most obvious difference between a spear and a beryllium is in length.
The spear is actually better called a spear. The length of a spear is generally one to two feet, that is, three to six meters in length (however, according to Ichikawa Sadaharu's "Weapons Collection", the spear in Chinese history was
The longest length of a long-handled weapon is 5.6 meters, and the longest length of a long-handled weapon is 8 meters. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, spears and guns were collectively called without distinction).
This length may exceed the imagination of many people. After all, cold weapons up to 6 meters long may not be common in movies and TV dramas. Is such a long weapon easy to operate?
Don't even think about it, of course it's inconvenient. With a 6-meter long gun, you don't have to think about any fancy moves, such as dancing with a spear or something. That's just a dream. The way to use this kind of weapon is basically the same.
Move, thrust forward - yes, that's the move: stab!
So does this trick work? Of course it does!
Even primitive people can recognize the powerful lethality that can be produced by stabbing with cutting-edge weapons. It is precisely for this reason that humans early invented stabbing cold weapons such as spears (wood or bamboo sharpened).
To be honest, melee cold weapons can be roughly divided into three types. One is a sword, which uses an edge to kill; the other is a spear, which uses a pointed tip to stab; and the third is a blunt weapon, such as a hammer.
Among these weapons, the only one that can be very long is the spear. If the other two are too long, they will basically have no maneuverability, and their lethality will decrease instead of increasing.
Is length useful? Of course it is, as the old saying goes: An inch longer makes an inch stronger. The longer the weapon, the wider its attack range, and this is the case with spears. First of all, spears are long, so their attack range is large.
Secondly, the lethality is also very strong. Even though there is only one move of stabbing, this move is the most lethal move. If you want to hit enemy soldiers with armor defense, stabbing is the most effective. Swords and swords can be used to chop.
Weapons that are offensive weapons encounter particularly high resistance when breaking armor, and are at an absolute disadvantage against heavily armored enemies. Of course, blunt weapons can also "break armor," but they face the same problem as the selection of Mo Dao soldiers.
Well, you must first have soldiers of this Hercules level.
Whether in the ancient East or the West, spears were very popular cold weapons. In those famous phalanxes in the West, the absolute main force among cold weapons was spears. Spear soldiers were definitely the most effective in ancient times.
Arms.
Long-handled weapons entered the battlefield. In addition to being used by chariots and cavalry, they were also widely used by infantry. The spearmen in the square formation followed the shield infantry and used the gap between the shields to thrust.
In addition to using firearms and crossbows, the only effective way for infantry to fight against cavalry is to form a tight line and assassinate with dense spears.
Roughly speaking, in this era of alternating hot and cold weapons, famous armies such as the Great White Pole Soldiers, Swiss Spearmen, and Spanish Grand Formation in history all rely on spears to deal with cavalry. Among them, the Spanish Grand Phalanx also relies on long spears.
Spearmen protect musketeers, which is very close to Gaowu Shi's current concept.
The practicality of spears is very strong. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China, classical long weapons such as halberds and Ges were basically eliminated. The only long weapons used by army soldiers on a large scale gradually were spears and spears. The same is true in Europe.
, starting from the 14th century, infantry used spears and axes (a cold weapon unique to the Swiss, a combination of spears and axes, generally translated as "Swiss halberd" in China), which led to the decline of feudal knights. (Cheap, restrained and expensive.
, those who are expensive will inevitably show a tendency of decline.)
When hot and cold weapons alternated, musketeers and spearmen were usually used together. At that time, there were already musketeers using matchlocks. Because the muskets fired single shots, they were easily vulnerable to enemy infantry and spearmen between shots.
In a cavalry assault, the musketeers who only had their rifle butts as blunt weapons for self-defense were too weak to attack the enemy. Therefore, the musketeers at that time were often flanked by spearmen holding long spears to protect them. This was the Spanish Grand Square.
The real core.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! It was not until the invention of the bayonet that this situation changed. With the bayonet, the musketeers also had powerful melee capabilities and could fight against the enemy's cavalry and infantry alone in melee. So
Some countries began to formulate troops whose members were all musketeers, greatly increasing their combat effectiveness.
Regarding the bayonet, the earliest documented record in China is the blunderbuss knife in He Rubin's "Bing Lu" in 1606. The first appearance in the West was in a peasant dispute in Bayonne, France in the 17th century. The peasants at that time inserted the knife into the bayonet.
In the muzzle of the rifle, it was used to attack the enemy. In the 18th century, the socket bayonet appeared, which was a type that protruded from the right side of the musket barrel. This was because the muskets at that time were front-loaded and loaded.
Does not interfere with ammunition.
The muskets currently produced by Jinghua are still front-loaded. They are just flintlock front-loaded and equipped with a paper shell fixed charge. Therefore, the bayonet produced by Gao Pragmatic is also a socket-type bayonet. It uses a spear-type attack.
, replacing the blunt weapon attack of the three-eyed gun, and combining it with the three-stage attack of the musket to form an alternative Spanish square formation.
The advantage is that the weapons and equipment are more unified, which facilitates logistics support and training. It is in line with the pragmatic and consistent simplified logistics ideas and doubles the efficiency of training individual combat capabilities. The disadvantage is that at the moment when it really resists the cavalry charging into the formation, its combat effectiveness is greatly reduced.
They are inferior to spearmen.
However, when the impact of the charging cavalry is exhausted and the two sides begin to fall into a melee, bayonets with a more reasonable length are more useful than spearmen.
In short, the biggest feature of the bayonet is that it can be used at both distances and near, and its power is not weak. In other words, it is actually a panacea that can do any job.
The 800 Mongolian heavy cavalry who suffered heavy casualties and finally rushed to the bayonet formation, in accordance with Burihatu's pre-battle requirements, suddenly took out a hood and stepped forward when their horses were about 20 steps away from the bayonet formation.
Lean forward, extend your left arm, and put the hood on the horse's head.
This group of elite heavy cavalry overcame the problem of loud noises by using superb equestrian skills to control the horses. However, the habit of war horses automatically avoiding "bright and sharp" objects was difficult to overcome with equestrian skills, so they temporarily prepared cloth hoods.
Well-trained and excellent cavalry horses can move regardless of sight for a short period of time and rely entirely on the knight's command. Due to economic reasons, the Mongols' heavy cavalry is decreasing day by day, but this to another extent makes it possible for riders to be selected as heavy cavalry.
They are more elite and have better equestrian skills. They obviously have such ability.
Zhang Wanbang's originally calm face became a little ugly at this time, but he was not afraid. He just took a deep breath, drew out his saber and cursed: "Two thousand heavy cavalry for two thousand infantry? Is this old boy Tumen afraid?"
You don’t understand arithmetic!” Then he raised his sword and roared: “Brothers, we can’t lose in this battle, we can’t afford to be the wife of Yinzi today—fuck you!”
This group of people in the bayonet array, whether they were servants or guardsmen, were all greatly defeated by the Mongolian cavalry. They were really high-spirited. In such a situation, no one was timid to fight. They roared and promised: "Fuck you!"
"
Sooner or later, the iron cavalry has arrived. Although the Mongolian heavy cavalry does not use long soldiers and lances, although their charge is not as fierce as that of the Western knights, the impact of the war horses is still there.
Although the first batch of horses that collided with the bayonet formation almost stumbled and fell to the ground without exception, the huge inertia caused their bodies to roll forward, and even knocked away two or three layers of bayonet rows. The knights on the horse had already expected to do so.
Perform a vault roll and then get up to fight.
Vaulting and rolling is an extremely dangerous action, especially for knights wearing heavy armor. Fortunately, the so-called heavy armor of the Mongols is not the full-body armor like in Europe, but leather armor with iron plates on the outside, which can still ensure people's movement.
Ability. However, the difficulty of vaulting and tumbling on the battlefield is even greater. Only half of the knights who vaulted and tumbling on the wide front stood up alive.
But this wave of impact did have a huge effect, that is, the Mongols suddenly discovered that the bayonet array itself was not outstanding in its defensive capabilities against heavy cavalry! Although the first wave of heavy cavalry on the wide front lost almost all their horses,
But there are only about 300 people in this front.
In other words, it does not require a particularly strong force to attack the bayonet formation at close range with the horses blindfolded. The real reason why the Mongolian cavalry was defeated in the two previous wars is actually that the musketeers and artillery behind the bayonet formation were too powerful.
, the Mongolian cavalry was already exhausted before they could even reach the front of the formation, losing the most critical concentrated impact force of the formation.
The murderous intent of the Mongolian cavalry increased sharply. Whether it was the fallen cavalry who got up to fight again, or the mounted cavalry who rushed into the formation from behind, they all slashed with their swords, intending to kill to vent their anger.
Tumen in the distance also became excited. He raised a monocular telescope that was obviously low-level equipment of the Ming army and was overjoyed. When he saw that the formation was broken, he laughed and patted Burihatu on the shoulder.
, said loudly: "Okay, okay, Burihatu, you really have a trick! This bayonet array is so famous, but it turns out to be just a silver-like wax-tipped gun. Just withstand their firearms, rush to the front of the array, and then immediately cover the horses.
With my eyes, this bayonet array cannot stop my Mongolian cavalry at all!"
The surrounding Mongolian generals also laughed and cheered each other. The entire Mongolian army in the rear was full of joy, waiting for the light cavalry to continue to charge forward and slaughter Zhang Wanbang who had "broken the defense".
Unfortunately, their celebration may have been too early. The only one who remained reserved, Burihatu, soon discovered something strange - after the Ming army's bayonet formation broke through, the Mongolian heavy cavalry was not able to crush the Ming army's infantry.
Pressure, the two armies fought together in a strange way.
Tumen and others reacted a little late. They didn't react until they noticed that Burihatu's expression was still serious. They all looked towards Zhang Wanbang's position and realized something was wrong.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Although the bayonet array of the Ming army was broken, it did not collapse. Instead, even the musketeers turned into bayonet soldiers and began to divide the work and cooperate in a formation of about ten squads to fight against
The Mongolian heavy cavalry, accustomed to fighting alone, launched an encirclement and suppression campaign.
That's right, it's an encirclement and suppression!
Burihatu was the first to call out: "No, this is... the little mandarin duck formation?"
What he said is not wrong, but it is not completely right. Zhang Wanbang's style of play does come from the "Little Mandarin Duck Formation", but in private Gao Pragmatic has always divided the number of people into dozens and dozens of people.
The Little Yuanyang formation is called "squad platoon tactics".
This is a tactic that was developed in later generations with an infantry squad or an infantry platoon training in small formations. It does not conflict with the large formations of the current era. It just forms many small groups on the battlefield.
Carry out combat.
This tactic is too complicated to describe in detail. To put it simply, it is to form a strength advantage in various local battlefields, always maintain one's own strength to fight with more and less, and to encircle and suppress the enemy forces fighting independently as quickly as possible, and ultimately accumulate small victories into big victories.
.
Although the Mongolian heavy cavalry is elite, no matter how elite it is, they cannot defeat ten of them. What's more, they are scimitar cavalry, not spear cavalry. After their impact has subsided, they still need to get close to the Ming army to complete the killing. The Ming army used
It is a bayonet. The butt and body of the gun plus the bayonet are much longer than the scimitar. It can cause damage to the Mongolian cavalry earlier. It does not necessarily have to stab people. It is equally effective to stab horses, because even if the horse armor can prevent arrows,
It's even resistant to hacking to a certain extent, but it's obviously not immune to sharp bayonet stabs.
The Mongolian cavalry, who thought they would be overwhelming, never expected that after breaking the "myth of bayonet array", what awaited them was not victory, but a more difficult and even less advantageous fight.
Outside the battlefield, the commanders of the two armies, Tumen and Cao Yu, gasped at the same time.
However, their feelings of wonder and shock must be completely different.
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