The battle between two cavalrymen that night may have opened a new era in East Asia. It represented the first large-scale application of cavalry flintlock muskets to frontal battlefields in East Asia.
Perhaps in the eyes of future generations, this battle was nothing more than a bad battle in which the attackers fought unreasonably and the defenders could not defend well; perhaps the performance of the cavalry muskets was also unsatisfactory; perhaps it was because of the terrain and the
Due to time constraints, the whole battle ended in chaos with few results...but no matter what, it still opened a new era.
A new era of musketeers. Of course, in fact this should add a restriction, because this new era can only be limited to Asia.
If we look at the entire world, with the rise of the German black-shirted knights in the 1940s, the dispute between lances (cold weapons) and pistols (firearms) continued throughout Europe in the second half of the century.
The best Spanish military theorist in the late 16th century was Bernardino Mendoza. His main works include the "History of the Netherlands War 1567-1577" written this year (1592) and the yet to be written (written
1595)'s Theory and Practice of War.
Mendoza was also a battle-hardened general, a knight of the Order of Santiago who had fought against the Dutch under the Duke of Alba. He insisted that the lance was a more useful cavalry weapon than the musket, saying that a
If a 120-man lancer company can be divided into several squads to charge the enemy from multiple directions at the same time, then they can defeat a 500-man musket-equipped cavalry company. Of course, if there is a certain number of musket-wielding cavalry on the flanks to support the guns.
The cavalry would be even better.
Mendoza also pointed out that the reason why so many people favor muskets is because the musketeers have lower requirements on the quality of personnel and horses, so they are cheaper and easier to form. As for the formation that the cavalry should adopt, he believes
The commander should decide the depth and width of the formation based on specific circumstances, but the ratio of depth to front should not be greater than 1:3.
Another famous cavalry general was George Basta, who was born in 1550. He became the commander of a cavalry regiment at a very young age and led the cavalry troops for more than 40 years. Later, he served as the Holy Roman Empire Army stationed in the Balkans.
In his later years, Basta also wrote a monograph on cavalry, "Laws of Light Cavalry Combat," which was published in Venice in 1612.
One of the main points in the book is that he believes that musketeers are superior to lancers. However, although no one can question Basta's rich experience as a general, he is not a qualified scholar and writer.
It's hard to say.
In his book, there are too many assertions and too few arguments. Conflicting arguments can often be found in the argument chapters, and even some basic concepts are blurred. For example, he often combines heavy armored cavalry with lances and
Light cavalry with short spears were lumped together. Basta's book was unceremoniously attacked by von Wolhausen, a military theorist who studied cavalry tactics.
Walhausen was the militia commander of Danzig earlier, and later served as an advisor to Prince Maurice. Unlike generals like Delano, he did not lead troops to fight major battles but focused on military theoretical research and education. However,
He was the most famous military theorist in Germany and even Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He was also the founder of the Siegen Military Academy, one of the earliest military academies in Europe.
Wolhausen has written many books, among which the most influential one includes "The Art of Cavalry" published in 1616. This encyclopedic work covers the entire process of a cavalry commander from recruitment, training to tactics.
, knowledge that should be understood in terms of strategies, etc.
Due to Walhausen's influence in the military education community, a school of thought has formed around those who admired him and his works. Among them was the Englishman John Crusoe, who published "
The book "Cavalry Military Course" is basically an English reprint of Wolhausen's "Cavalry Art of War".
Wolhausen was a staunch supporter of old-fashioned French cavalry tactics, and criticism and ridicule of Basta and his theories can be seen throughout the book.
This situation is rather miraculous. While the previous generation of French commanders such as Delano and Tavanna were more fond of the lancer cavalry, and the lancer cavalry had actually been eliminated by most countries in the early 17th century, Walhausen
An almost fanatical advocate for the revival of French tactics.
He believed that the cavalry should hold heavy lances and charge in small units in a horizontal formation of no more than two rows. He also believed that a gap of 20 to 30 steps (about 30 to 50 meters) should be left between the formations to prevent the front from advancing.
Behind the stumbling block where the platoon fell, it was also convenient for the front row personnel to evacuate backwards when the first charge failed. This almost completely overturned the principle of dense columns. He believed that such columns would cause casualties due to self-trampling and trampling.
Even bigger than what the enemy caused.
However, neither performance on the battlefield nor theoretical disputes are the final decisive factor.
Dramatic social and economic changes are the key factors.
The main source of heavy lancers is the knight class. Of course, this does not mean that all lancers are knights, but the principle of "poor culture and rich martial arts" applies to both China and foreign countries at all times. Knights are mainly children of nobles, and they have practiced martial arts since the age of retainers.
, there is no shortage of time and money for martial arts training.
By the late Middle Ages, even the equipment of the squires could catch up with the real knights. All they lacked was just a title. However, as we all know, the knight class in the Middle Ages originated from Charlemagne's fief system, that is, the king distributed land to the nobles, and the nobles
Fight for the king.
From big nobles to small nobles and then to knights, with the advent of the Renaissance, the traditional feudal fief economy was strongly impacted. Many knights even abandoned the dignity of the nobles and became robbers in order to make a living. With the disintegration of the knight class
, more children of the aristocracy became middle- and lower-level officers, and knights holding lances gradually withdrew from the historical stage of Western Europe.
As stated in "The Emperor's Bayonet": The cavalry themselves also experienced a change. They gave up the use of cavalry spears, or cold weapons, and heavy cavalry were replaced by pistol cavalry.
The latter's main weapon is a flintlock or matchlock pistol, and their tactics are semi-rotation: "A cavalry regiment marches towards a pre-selected target. Each row of cavalry rushes forward, fires pistols, and shoots the infantry or cavalry regiments.
Then they withdrew, reloaded their ammunition, and the next line of cavalry rushed forward and fired."
The reason why I say this is because the principles are applicable not only in Europe, but also in Asia, especially East Asia.
A knight with a very high level of training is obviously hard to come by. Just like the cavalry in Jinghua, although they are strictly selected and trained, if you want to expect their equestrian skills to be better than the Mongolians, and their ability to fight at close range is stronger than the Mongolians.
, that is obviously forcing people to do something difficult - Mongolians have been riding horses since they were young, and they rely on riding horses to travel all day long, while Han people may only ride horses for the first time in their teens, and they usually regard horses as extremely precious.
If you can walk on your own, how can you compete in equestrian competition?
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty could only compete with the Mongolian scimitar cavalry by using musket cavalry. The competition here is not just the level of technology, but more importantly, the cost advantage. The musket itself is of course more expensive than the scimitar, and the cost of fighting is also higher.
, it seems that there is no advantage in cost, but it wins in the "advantage of forming an army", that is, cultivating advantages and forming advantages.
Moreover, due to the gap in productivity, the larger the population and the more developed the manufacturing industry, the greater this advantage will be.
To describe it with a tactic that no longer sounds good in later generations, the Ming Dynasty's musket cavalry can use the human sea tactic, but the Mongolian scimitar cavalry certainly cannot. The reason is that if the Ming Dynasty were willing, the increase in the number of its musket cavalry
It can expand to an astonishing level. However, the stock of Mongolia's scimitar cavalry is basically fixed and the increase is too small. Once the losses are too large, especially if the stock loss exceeds the increase, it will lead to the collapse of the military strength.
Of course, Gao Jiang is pragmatic and understands this theory, but Gao Jiang does not understand it. He does not know that in the eyes of his master, the musketeers do not have to defeat the Mongolian cavalry. At this moment, Gao Jiang only thinks about one thing: how to conquer Tumo
The special forces responded and went out.
Given that Jinghua's record on all fronts has always been brilliant, Gao Jiang of course regards defeating his opponents as his first consideration, so his plan at the moment is to take advantage of the sneak attack at night to defeat the Chahar Army first, and then install
Peacefully receive the Tumote army and leave.
At the beginning, this plan seemed to be implemented quite smoothly, especially when the Jinghua cavalry rushed out of the elm forest and fired the first wave of musketry. The relatively dense cavalry muskets almost directly hit Chahar's former army.
Senseless.
Although due to limitations such as the width of the battlefield, the first round of musket shooting was actually completed by less than two thousand cavalry, but because the opponent was unprepared, they could not quickly complete the formation change in the middle of the night after discovering that they were being attacked.
The Jinghua Cavalry hit more than 400 targets and actually caused about 300 casualties, but the Chahar Cavalry did not collapse.
How many talents do the elites of the Khan Court have, and Burihatu, who is in charge of the central army, is not a fuel-efficient lamp. The ruler of the Mongol Khanate, the military advisor of the Tumen Khan immediately judged that the identity of the person must be Jinghua
Cavalry - Because Ming cavalry generally did not choose to stop their progress after firing a round of muskets, and began to reload their horses to prepare for the second wave of musket shooting.
Paying so much attention to the use of muskets was Gao Pragmatic's original style of commanding infantry. The two main combat styles of the Ming army's cavalry have nothing to do with this style of play - the habitual style of play of the Li family army in Liaodong is to first use a small group of elite troops to attack.
Fight with the enemy, and then the main army seizes the opportunity to join the battlefield and seal the victory in one fell swoop;
Ma Jiajun, Ma Jiajun and other Xuan cavalry are more Mongolian. They like to use light cavalry to shoot from a long distance (whether with muskets or bows), then retreat when the enemy attacks, and then start to circle around, perform roaming shooting, and wait for the enemy.
The army lineup is out of shape, and then the elite troops are used to directly attack the central army.
No matter which of these two tactics, it is unlikely that the current situation of loading ammunition on the spot and preparing for the next round of shooting will occur. This style of tactics can only be used by Jinghua's cavalry.
Burihatu gave a very decisive order: the front army retreated by the river, and the Chinese army made a "right hook" and attacked diagonally to the east. They were asked to shoot randomly with bows and arrows to disrupt the rhythm of the Beijing cavalry.
He went around behind the Jinghua Cavalry and made a gesture of outflanking the opponent.
To be honest, if the weapons and equipment of the Jinghua Cavalry are similar to those of the Black Shirt Knights, then Gao Jiang's command obviously has serious problems at this moment, and the biggest problem is stopping to reload.
At this time, the representative of the European musketeers was the black-shirted knights. The combat units of the black-shirted knights were usually squadrons of 300-400 people, arranged in a tight formation, maintaining a 20-30 row. After the cavalry in the front row opened fire, they fired to both sides.
Separate and retreat to the rear of the array to reload ammunition.
This shooting tactic while on the move was originally invented by the Spanish infantry to ensure uninterrupted firepower. After the opponent's formation was loosened by bombardment, the cavalry squadron swarmed up and used swords and gun handles to drive away the enemy.
From a tactical perspective, the black-shirted knights have a very clear idea, which is to ensure uninterrupted firepower of firearms before the two sides come into contact. This idea is almost exactly the same as when commanding infantry with high pragmatism. In essence, it is to ensure the continuity of firepower and improve unit time.
The firepower density inside is obviously correct.
But there is a problem. The mobility of infantry and cavalry is different, and the difficulty of loading is also different. Therefore, the infantry can carry out three-stage attack in a close formation, but it is obviously much more difficult for the cavalry to copy it. And, if the cavalry really does this
If you do it, you will actually turn yourself into a mounted musketeer infantry. Its role on the battlefield is almost the same as that of infantry. However, the unit density of cavalry cannot reach the level of infantry, so its firepower density cannot be as high as that of infantry.
high.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In other words, the cavalry doing this is purely exploiting their weaknesses and avoiding their strengths.
The weapon used by the German black knights is a pistol, which has a limited range and limited power. However, because it is a pistol, if the ammunition load cannot be increased due to technical reasons, they can increase the ammunition reserve by equipping one person with N pistols.
quantity, relatively increasing the firepower density.
However, Jinghua Cavalry is not equipped with such a pistol that can only fire one shot. Jinghua's lance is improved on the basis of a rifle. Its general characteristics are that the gun body is slightly shorter, the accuracy is reduced, and the weight is reduced, and the strength of the gun body is improved.
, and adjusted the ergonomic design to make it easier to install a longer bayonet for close combat.
Using a handle-type bayonet for close combat is by no means the best option, so Jinghua's military regulations stipulate that musketeers generally only use bayonets when chasing remnants of the enemy, and they need to use wild goose feather knives when fighting enemies in close combat.
Obviously, the Yanling knife is used for fighting, especially against the Mongolians who use scimitars for close combat. The reason why the bayonet is used to chase the remaining enemies is because at this time, it is usually assumed that the enemy has no resistance and will not fight back.
, so "stabbing" has become the simplest and clearest way to kill the enemy. Not only does it not require unnecessary movements, it also does not waste physical energy.
Gao Jiang's command at this time seems to have a big problem. He is actually using the Jinghua Cavalry as mounted infantry. However, the problem is that they are cavalry, and it is still at night. Loading in this way not only gives up speed.
advantages, and the firepower density cannot be increased. In terms of lethality, such a command would be better to have them dismount in advance to form a formation, and simply use them as infantry.
Burihatu obviously saw this flaw at a glance, so he ordered the cavalry to surround and give a "right hook" to outflank and annihilate the Jinghua cavalry.
But Gao Jiang has entered the Jinghua Cavalry system since he was a boy. Does he really not understand this truth? Of course not. Although he and his subordinates do not have several muskets that can be "fired with one shot for another", they have other
Killer weapon.
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