Chapter 269 War Prelude (Seventeen) Three-stage grenade attack
Because there is no reloading time during cavalry operations, Gao Pragmatic believed a long time ago that before repeating firearms matured, cavalry troops could only use portable disposable firearms.
What is portable? It means that this thing is small and easy to carry; it is disposable... Well, there is no need to explain this.
What is a portable disposable firearm? Of course it is a grenade, also called a palm grenade.
As mentioned a long time ago, Daming has many types of firearms. In terms of explosive firearms alone, Daming has many strange and weird products, so obviously, the simplest grenade-type products are of course indispensable.
It's just that... grenades in the black powder era were not very powerful in theory, so the actual application effects of these things were relatively average, so that they often "exploded without enough poisonous smoke", and many went astray.
Products such as grenades are not "original" from Jinghua. Their earliest origins can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, gunpowder was officially used in the military field, and rockets (arrows carrying gunpowder) and artillery (trebuchets projecting gunpowder) appeared.
), which is the origin of "thrown firearms".
Then in the Song Dynasty, various kinds of fireballs came out one after another, including thunderbolt fireballs, terrestris fireballs, poison fireballs, smoke balls and fireballs, etc. These fireballs were grenades, the true prototype of hand grenades.
By the Ming Dynasty, the types and craftsmanship of fireballs had further developed. Unfortunately, they then stagnated in the Qing Dynasty for hundreds of years. The development of grenades and grenades in China has also stopped at the level of the Ming Dynasty - and may have even declined.
Quite a few.
After the rise of the West, a discourse system centered on Western thinking was established around the world. The earliest history of Chinese people developing thrown firearms was almost annihilated. Therefore, many people in later generations - especially Westerners basically do not recognize it. They think
These are all their original creations.
The earliest grenades containing black powder appeared in the West around the 15th century. At that time, they were mainly used for fortress defense and prisons. It was not until the mid-17th century that grenades began to be equipped with the army. However, in the 19th century, with the development of guns and castles
With the decrease in offensive and defensive warfare, grenades were once again neglected, and then in the American Civil War, grenades received attention again.
Chinese hand grenades, the originator of hand grenades should be the Zhentian Lei, which was invented in the late Northern Song Dynasty. The outer shell is made of pig iron, filled with black powder and a fuse. After the explosion, it uses fragments to kill the enemy. Yue Fei once used this thing, but unfortunately he does not know why.
——Perhaps the power of black powder is not enough. In short, it seems that there was no further development during the Southern Song Dynasty.
The first professional grenadiers to appear in Europe were the reorganization of the French army during the reign of Louis XIV. The new grenadiers used traditional musket tactics to use grenades, that is, they stood in a horizontal line and fired (throw) grenades.
Use quantity to make up for the lack of power of a single grenade.
Soon, the British also began to train the two Guards regiments into grenadiers, and major European countries such as Prussia, Austria, Spain, and Russia quickly followed suit. The grenadiers of that era were real.
Soldiers who stand in a row and throw grenades - of course, they also have the muskets of ordinary line soldiers, and can also complete all the tactical tasks completed by ordinary line soldiers.
This is obviously different from the Chinese. The Chinese did not create a special unit for grenades and hand grenades. However, Europe not only created a "Grenadier Regiment", but the Grenadier Regiment had a higher level than ordinary soldiers at the beginning.
Established and regarded as elite.
Gao Pragmatic has also thought about why this phenomenon occurs. He thinks there may be the following reasons:
First of all, the biggest difference between the grenades at that time and the military grenades of later generations is that even if the safety bolt of later military grenades is removed, as long as you don't let go of your hand, the fuse will not be ignited, and you will be fine even if you hold it in your hand for a minute.
At that time, the grenade was simply a shrunken howitzer pellet. After igniting it and watching the fuse burn rapidly, you had to stay calm, not slippery, and follow the sergeant's command to throw it uniformly, and throw it far enough.
There are still enemy lead bullets flying around...
This can only be accomplished by experienced battlefield veterans, or at least by recruits who have undergone long-term training. Therefore, at the beginning, the Grenadier Regiments in Europe were basically all Guards/Prince Guards or other elite regiments.
Moreover, the Europeans at that time also used black powder. In order to ensure the power of the grenades, they had to be made larger, and the weight was not light. Therefore, the soldiers of the Grenadier Corps were basically tall, strong, and strong in arms - well, when it comes to this image, everyone basically
As you might have guessed, the person who took this to the extreme was Maozi.
In the time of Alexander I, new recruits were arranged according to their height after joining the army. Only the tallest and strongest ones could become grenadiers, while the shortest ones who were best suited for hiding in the grass would participate in light infantry training. Because
For these reasons, it can be said that grenadiers have a higher status than ordinary line infantry from the beginning.
Secondly, although the grenade "volley throw" has a shorter range than the musket volley, as long as it is within reach, it is a very shocking attack method. No matter how powerful the musket is, it can only hit the line.
The power of the grenade can directly kill the entire row of enemy soldiers. It can also disrupt the enemy's formation and cause panic among the enemy soldiers in the back row or even collapse of the whole line.
In addition, grenadiers are generally stronger than ordinary soldiers, so in the era of lining up to be shot, grenadiers were usually used as an attacking force, the most important blow to reverse the situation on the local battlefield or crush the enemy.
in use.
The tactical arrangement is generally like this: first volley the guns, then advance in formation, wait until the grenades are within throwing distance, then throw the grenades, and then directly charge with bayonets. Although this paradigm seems very rigid and does not have the feeling of "art of war" at all, it is actually general
When the fight reaches this level, the opponent has often collapsed or is on the verge of collapse. Finally, when he sees the fierce men from the sky who are taller than him charging towards them with bayonets, surrendering is obviously a good choice.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! This function is a bit like the shock troops in World War I and World War II. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, in the Battle of Bunker Hill, the British elite threw
The grenadiers charged several times but were blocked by the Continental Army.
But in any case, grenadiers often have more opportunities to gain military exploits than ordinary soldiers, and of course they are more dangerous, so they are worthy of their reputation as elites.
By the way, Maozi's group of weirdos once again used the grenadiers to the extreme: relying heavily on the long-range firepower advantage brought by the Unicorn Cannon, plus they always had insufficient ammunition, and even the grenadiers did not receive much shooting training.
Coupled with Suvorov's 300-yard bayonet charge tactics... so the Maozi Grenadier Corps basically ignored shooting, and even didn't bother to throw the bullets, and just put the bayonet "Ula" on it. It turned out that this trick was actually very effective against the French.
efficient.
The Ming Dynasty's use of these fancy firearms was more fancy than the fancy firearms themselves. There was basically no fixed usage. In other words, the weapon R&D and production system and tactical command system of this era simply could not match each other and were completely out of touch.
Generally speaking, the craftsmen at the rear "developed" new firearms according to their own imagination. The generals at the front had no idea how to use each of the dozens of firearms they carried and for what occasions. Therefore,
In fact, when it comes to the battlefield, it is often chaotic, almost allowing low-level officers to take random orders, or even the soldiers themselves to express themselves freely.
This situation did not change until Qi Jiguang came out. Many fancy-looking firearms were ignored by Qi Jiguang, and instead he chose some weapons that were more effective. However, for explosive weapons, Qi Jiguang
Although it has been used and a lot of work has been spent on improving it, the final range of use is still limited. The reason is obvious. The explosion power is not enough and the use limitations are too great.
This situation has improved with the advancement of Jinghua's gunpowder technology, and grenades have begun to be slowly equipped into Jinghua's own armed force system. As for the Ming army, the Imperial Guard purchased some, but not much, and other places in the Nine Borders
There has been no large-scale procurement for the time being - not because of other reasons, but because the border army is not as financially wealthy as the Guards, and is still working hard to expand the size of the cavalry and complete the evolution of the entire army's "musket and bayonet troops".
The advancement of Jinghua's gunpowder technology means that the grenades it produces do not need to be as large as early European hand grenades (or hand grenades). Since the size is smaller, the requirements for the size of soldiers can naturally be reduced accordingly. Therefore, after Jinghua's internal testing for a period of time, in addition to
In addition to equipping soldiers with varying numbers of grenades, the elite infantry also equips cavalry with this weapon on a large scale because it is a typical "portable disposable firearm."
On this night when the moon was flickering, the Jinghua grenade was used on a large scale for the first time and gained its reputation. Gao Jiang led his cavalrymen and ignored the Chahar Mongolian cavalry who were beginning to prepare for a tactical attack.
They moved sideways not far away, but continued to load ammunition and ammunition, and fired a second round of musketry, killing and wounding hundreds more Mongolians on the west side with their backs to the Laoha River.
At this time, the Mongolian troops who were located in front of them by the river had already moved to the north and south sides respectively, firstly to facilitate the execution of Burihatu's encirclement order, and secondly to avoid frontal strikes from muskets. In their view, this Gaojiang force
Your behavior is quite irrational. You keep hitting the river. Do you really want to be surrounded?
Well, to a certain extent, Gao Jiang does have the intention of "wanting to be surrounded", but the fundamental reason is that he hopes to shorten the front contact area so that he can concentrate firepower on key attacks - since the opponent wants to surround him, what kind of purpose is there?
The method of deliberately widening the distance between the teams to prevent the intensive firepower of the musket array will not work.
Moreover, since the killing range of Jinghua's muskets has now exceeded that of the Mongols' arrows, the Mongols must concentrate their forces and charge directly into the formation, striving to directly encircle, annihilate and strangle Gao Jiang's troops.
The Mongols gave way to the land by the river. Gao Jiang did not pursue them, but fought to the river to take over the "position", and then subconsciously prepared to order another round of ammunition reloading.
However, this time it seemed that it was too late. The Chahar-Mongolian army circled and surrounded them too fast. At this moment, they had formed a dense formation and started to launch a centripetal offensive. The war horses changed from cantering to trotting, and their speed was obviously increasing with the naked eye.
Gao Jiang himself was a cavalry general, and he could see at a glance that it was no longer enough to complete the next musket reload before the Mongols rushed in front of him, so he shouted loudly: "Hang up all the guns! Drive the horses according to the direction of my flag and gradually increase the speed! Palms of the hands
Prepare for three consecutive shots from Lei!"
There are three orders, the first is to hang the gun, that is, hang the cavalry musket back into the leather buckle on the left side of the horse's hip; the second is to first give the target direction, and then "gradually increase the speed", which is to ask the entire army to prepare.
The run-up before sprinting; the third step is preparation for attack. Be prepared to throw three grenades in a row.
This tactic is called "three-stage grenade strike" in the Jinghua Cavalry Unit. It was not invented by Gao Pragmatic, because Gao Pragmatic did not understand cavalry combat and did not dare to make random tactics.
In fact, this is a tactic studied by the cavalry leaders themselves. Its main combat method is not to charge directly into the formation and throw mines three times in a row during the charge. Instead, it still adheres to the cavalry's habit of diagonally inserting into the battlefield, using diagonal lines.
To cut in, throw grenades three times to the side and front.
There are several purposes for doing this, and the two key points actually lie in the word "distance". The first is to prevent the two warring parties from closing the distance too quickly, causing the grenades thrown to injure one's own people; the second is to
The oblique opening is more conducive for the commander to temporarily adjust subsequent tactics according to changes in the battlefield situation.
This point may need to be explained. That is, after one, two or three diagonal throws, if the enemy army appears to be in overall chaos or even collapse at any time, our army can change from diagonal cut to charging formation and carry out the final blow.
; If the three throws fail to cause the enemy to waver and collapse, then our army will use the characteristics of the cavalry to run away with one strike, quickly widen the distance, circle back, and see if we can use the "three-stage grenade strike" again.
”.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! In short, this tactic is actually the same idea as the edge harassment shooting used by the Mongolian cavalry, but because the distance of throwing grenades is shorter than the range of arrows, it is more effective to use
It is limited, and is usually best used only when the first wave of musket fire is used to force the opponent to give up the competition of long-range bow and arrow shooting and instead engage in a charge attack.
It seems that this is the opportunity now. However, although this tactic has been repeatedly studied internally by Jinghua, and there seems to be no big problem in theory, there is sometimes a gap between theory and practice...
The first wave of grenades by the Jinghua Cavalry was very effective. The unprepared Chahar Mongolian army was blown away one after another in the rumbling explosions. Many of the companies had already undergone "special gunfire training"
The war horses were frightened, and even two centurions who had been tested on the battlefield were thrown off their horses. God knows whether they were trampled to death by their fellow war horses.
This round of grenade offensive even alarmed Burihatu and Tumen Khan who were watching and commanding in the south of the battlefield. Tumen Khan was shocked and said: "Is this explosive? I mean... the one you mentioned before
Mines?”
"No, this is not a landmine. It looks like a palm mine, but it is much more powerful than the previous palm mines." Burihatu replied at a very fast speed.
This man was really powerful. Not only could he see at a glance what the weapons of the Beijing Cavalry were, but he didn't even have the intention to discuss it with the Khan. He immediately gave a loud shout and yelled at the messenger: "Blow the drums and trumpets. Don't worry about the horses. Charge in advance."
Formation! Take me straight to the center of the Ming army, fast, must be fast!"
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