Chapter 280 The Sword Points at Japan (Twenty-six) Tactics that keep pace with the times
On the battlefields of the Middle Ages, the most terrifying army in Europe was nothing more than the heavily armored cavalry. Their elite training and superior defense were basically a nightmare for other arms on the battlefield.
On the eastern battlefield, the most difficult thing to deal with is the Mongolian bow and sword cavalry that come and go like the wind. They can shoot arrows from a distance and wield swords at close range. They can "fly kites" when facing heavy infantry and charge into formation when facing light infantry.
, can be called an all-round warrior, able to achieve a small defeat in defeat and a big victory in victory.
And when such an army faced temporary peasant recruitment, or Ming Dynasty guards who degenerated into serf-like soldiers, the battlefield situation became even more one-sided. These people who had just picked up weapons and had no combat experience faced the cavalry.
Shocked, the only emotion they could feel was fear.
Driven by fear, these armies tend to scatter and flee. In this case, there is no need to think too much, the failure of the fleeing side is obviously inevitable.
In order to solve this problem, military strategists from all over the world have tried various methods for thousands of years, the most effective of which are the spear phalanx and horse rejection. However, the spear phalanx and horse rejection also have disadvantages.
The training of the spear phalanx takes a long time, and there must be a sufficiently sophisticated organizational system, pension plan and other supporting measures to ensure that the soldiers actively fight; the laying of the horse guard also takes a long time, and the disadvantages of the horse guard are that
The mobility of the position is too poor.
All in all, everyone found that even with the spear array and horse resistance, there was still an urgent need for a new way to resist the attack of the enemy's elite troops on the battlefield.
Coincidentally, at about the same time, both the Czech Republic and the Ming Dynasty had a combat unit that could fight cavalry - chariot soldiers. The tactics used by chariot soldiers were the famous chariot formations (car camps, chariot forts).
Let’s talk about the situation in Europe first. In the early fifteenth century, the Czech handicraft industry and mining industry developed rapidly. As part of the HRE land and the direct jurisdiction of the Habsburg family, the Habsburg royal family has always adopted a high-pressure policy towards the Czech Republic——
Especially the religious oppression after the rise of the Reformation.
This finally aroused the dissatisfaction of the Czech people and the small and middle-class nobles. Faced with the oppression of the Germans, the Czech people, whose national identity was originally West Slavs, decided to rise up and resist.
But resistance is resistance. Although the Czechs are high-spirited and commendable, when this temporary army of farmers and craftsmen actually faced the menacing imperial cavalry, most people immediately showed due fear, and then
Scattered and fled.
In order to deal with this problem, the Czech nobles created a strategy of using moving four-wheeled carriages as a barrier to protect the lives of peasant soldiers. This was the prototype of the European carriage camp - Hussite Castle.
The advantage of the Hussite chariot fort is that it can not only provide protection for the soldiers on the chariot with its tall baffles, but also has strong mobility and can move freely on the battlefield.
The basic unit of a Hussite car fort is a group. Each car fort group generally has 10-20 people and corresponding ordnance. Above the group, a larger tactical unit is formed in units of 10 car forts, and above that is
A company unit composed of dozens or hundreds of vehicles and forts.
Each group has a chariot. The chariot's personnel are 2 archers (equipped with matchlocks and cannons), 4-8 crossbowmen, 2-4 flailmen (fighting with peasant flails), 4
One spearman, two shield bearers (large shields are used to protect people and horses during battle) and two charioteers. The charioteers are responsible for driving the horses and connecting the chariot after arriving at the camp. The chariot is commanded by the chariot commander.
The battle of the chariot and fort is not an independent operation by a single unit, but a combination of infantry, cavalry and vehicles for coordinated operations. The infantry of the Hussite chariot is organized into a fifty-man team, with a fifty-man commander. A hundred-man commander commands several
The fifty-man team, infantry Hetman, commanded all the infantry. The cavalry was lightly equipped and highly mobile, so its mission was to conduct reconnaissance, marching alert, carry out counterattacks and pursue the fleeing enemy.
In addition to the mix of personnel, the car fort also used artillery as fire support. The artillery force of the Hussite car fort was divided into field artillery and siege artillery. The field artillery included short-barreled howitzers that fired stone projectiles and fixed on wooden gun mounts.
, a long barrel that fires stone and iron bullets.
Generally speaking, five tanks are equipped with one field gun. The main siege artillery is a mortar with a caliber of 850 mm and a range of 200-500 meters. Each tank team is equipped with one.
It can be said that Hussite Castle was the dawn of modern army tactics, because it ended the myth of the invincibility of aristocratic knights, and also broke the medieval war characteristics of personal bravery, and placed more emphasis on the close cooperation between various arms.
Of course, Hussite chariots are not just a patent of Europeans. In distant East Asia, the Chinese in the Ming Dynasty also independently created the chariot tactics.
In fact, the Chinese used this kind of modern chariot very early. Probably at the end of the Hongwu era, firearm chariots had already appeared in the Ming army. In the middle of the fifteenth century, although chariots did not yet have mature tactics
, but has begun to take on the important task of fighting against the Mongolian cavalry.
During the Jiajing period, the Mongols repeatedly invaded the Hetao area. At that time, Emperor Jiajing appointed Yu Dayou as the commander-in-chief of Datong. From then on, China's Cheying process began.
But in fact, long before Yu Dayou, the governor of the Ming Dynasty, Zeng Xian, proposed the plan to build a car camp. However, because the party struggle in the court was too fierce at that time, the central government refused to delegate power, so it was dropped in the end. From this perspective,
Yu Dayou's Datong Motorcycle Camp was also established on the shoulders of Zeng Mian.
However, although Yu Dayou actually created the chariot camp for the first time and improved the Ming Dynasty's chariots, in essence, the Ming army's chariots at this time were still human-powered wheelbarrows, so they were inferior in terms of mobility and firepower.
, still not as good as the Hussite Castle in the Czech Republic.
It was not until Qi Jiguang served as the commander-in-chief of Jizhou that the Ming army's tactical level improved qualitatively. After arriving in Jizhou from Zhejiang, the enemies Qi Jiguang faced changed from the light infantry in the southeast to the Mongolian cavalry in the north.
Facing the Mongolian cavalry, the Yuanyang Formation that killed all directions in the south was not so easy to use - it was not that it could not be fought head-on, but that the Mongols simply would not fight him like this.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Therefore, Qi Jiguang needed a new tactic to fight against the powerful enemies on the grassland, and his choice was chariots, or chariot formations.
After learning from Yu Dayou's Datong chariot, Qi Jiguang discovered a bug in the Datong chariot formation - pushing the cart required too much labor, resulting in fewer combatants per team. In order to maintain combat effectiveness, the number of people equipped for each chariot was
It must be increased, and the end result is that the total number of tanks will decrease, or the number of troops will increase, which will consume huge amounts of money.
It is true that Yu Dayou's arrangement at that time was to have 50 people per chariot, and 16 of them were responsible for pushing the chariot.
In order to solve this problem, Qi Jiguang invented a new type of chariot - a sidecar. This is even more coincidental. Like the Hussite chariots, the sidecar uses the side of the chariot to meet the enemy, because
This can not only increase the defense area, but also use horses to pull carts, thus greatly saving manpower.
It can be said that Qi Jiguang's Jizhou Motor Camp at that time contained all the advantages of Hussi Motor Camp, and there were even more outstanding aspects.
The first is the firepower output on the chariot. In addition to the light firepower output of the crossbowmen and musketeers, each sidecar has two small Franco cannons, each of which is equipped with 30 kilograms of gunpowder and 100 rounds of lead bullets.
The second issue is the equipment of the personnel. The armor of the Ming army was provided by the court, so the equipment was relatively good (compared to the Hussite armed forces). High-quality cloth-covered iron armor could withstand the damage of most swords, guns and arrows.
In addition, there is a big difference in personnel distribution between Jizhou Chaoyang and Hussite Chariot. The soldiers in Jizhou Chaoyuan are divided into regular troops and special troops. The regular troops are also chariots, with ten people in a team.
Six people are responsible for the use of the Fran cannon, two boring machines with rockets, a helmsman to control the direction of the tank, and then a captain;
There are ten soldiers in the team, four cannon players, and they are also equipped with two-handed long knives. Two cane players and two palladium players. During the battle, the team is located between the chariots. When most of the enemy's troops are fifty steps away from the tanks,
At this time, the artillery was fired, and the musketeers of the surprise troops fired volleys; after the enemy troops closed on the chariot, the musketeers changed their swords to chop the horse's legs, and the spearmen behind were responsible for killing the enemy troops who landed on the ground.
At the same time, the muskets and artillery at the back are non-stop, acting as long-range protection. Also, the team of surprise troops must not be five steps farther than the chariot... etc., etc., in short, it is like a mandarin duck formation, with all aspects taken into consideration.
.
In addition, the car camp also has an infantry system that specializes in collaborative operations - the Killer Team and the Bird Gun Team. The Killer Team created by Qi Jiguang was an improvement on the original anti-Japanese Yuanyang Formation, but it was better at fighting the Mongolian cavalry; the Bird Gun Team
The team is the result of early line tactics.
A killer team consists of 12 people, two card players, two wolves, two hammers, two spears, two sticks, a captain and a fire soldier. The battle formation is similar to the mandarin duck formation.
The car is the backing movement.
The ratio of the cannon team is relatively simple, with one captain, one fireman, and ten cannon players. During combat, the vehicles are arrayed in three rows, using the three-stage attack that the Ming army has already mastered to provide continuous firepower.
In addition, the chariot formation is also coordinated by the cavalry battalion. The cavalry battalion of the Jizhou chariot camp consists of twelve people. The whole battalion has a total of 3,000 people.
Cavalry, quick lance cavalry, boring cavalry, sword and stick cavalry, another captain and a logistical fireman.
In the first round in the central part (Qi Jiguang used the word "bureau"), one captain had eight blunderbuss and three palladiums. In the second and third rounds, one captain had four bows and cavalry, four hooks, sickles, and two boring palladiums. The time for cavalry combat is when the enemy is in panic.
.At its peak, Jizhou had more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, and later the imperial court sent troops from all over the country to take turns to go to Jizhou for training.
Like the Hussite Car Fort, the Jizhou Car Camp was also equipped with field artillery. However, the Ming Army's general artillery at that time was slightly less powerful than the European long-barreled artillery. However, among the field artillery, there were also those with special Chinese characteristics.
Firebox carts and other former enemy-style push chariots can indeed exert great power when facing the lightly armored Mongolian cavalry.
Compared with the Hussite Chariots and Forts in Europe, Qi Jiguang's Jizhou Chariot Camp can be said to be more hybrid of the times. Because in addition to the use of chariot tactics, Jizhou Chariot Camp also included early line tactics. At that time,
In Europe, line tactics were not yet popular. It was for this reason that Qi Jiguang would be considered the father of modern armies in the East in later generations.
However, even though the car camp has many advantages, it also has a shortcoming that cannot be ignored - it is too dependent on flat terrain. Once the terrain is rugged, it will be difficult for the car camp tactic to exert its power. Therefore, as time goes by, especially
It was the rapid development of firearms themselves that caused the vehicle formation to be eventually replaced by the new infantry square formation.
In the original history, this combat mode that replaced the car camp was the starting point of the famous modern army - the Spanish Grand Square.
Hey, have you noticed any strange problems? Yes, the problem lies in Gao pragmatism.
The emergence of Gao Jingshi brought the development of firearms to the Ming Dynasty and brought infantry line tactics that were more advanced than the Spanish Grand Formation. Therefore, Gao Jingshi did not use sidecars when leading his troops. He preferred to use high-speed weapons.
Organizational and high pensions and rewards were used to obtain the strict military discipline that is most necessary for a modern army, and then based on this, he implemented his "queue to shoot" and bayonet musket phalanx tactics.
As for why this is the case, as I said just now, sidecars have very high requirements on terrain, while gun platoons and bayonet musket phalanxes have greater advantages in versatility and can be used almost everywhere.
Another consideration is to simplify logistics. Gao Pragmatic attaches great importance to the versatility and simplification of equipment. Therefore, after he took charge of the household department and actually controlled the military department, he cut off many of the flashy weapons and equipment in the border army and compressed the weapons as much as possible.
The variety of equipment not only greatly improves production efficiency, but also greatly reduces the difficulty of replenishment.
Qi Jiguang is naturally outstanding in tactics, but when it comes to things like large-scale production, he is obviously not as good as Gao Pragmatic. Moreover, China has always been about not being in charge of its own affairs, so Qi Jiguang, as a general, has no need to think about it.
Issues such as the convenience of military production and logistics dispatch should naturally be considered with a high pragmatism.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! However, it did not take Gao Pragmatic a long time to fully master the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War. The result of this was that among the various armies trained by Qi Jiguang, except for the last one -
- that is, the Imperial Guards -, the rest all followed his second-stage car camp system.
If the car camp tactics just mentioned are regarded as the first stage of Qi Jiguang's car camp, and the highly pragmatic and basically unnecessary car camp is regarded as the third stage, then what is in between the two is the second stage of Qi Jiguang's car camp.
stage.
The main features of the second phase of the car camp are the simplification of weapons and the simplification of the organization, but the combat idea still relies on the protection of side cars to ensure fewer losses of soldiers. As for its presentation, it can be seen on today's battlefield - but it is not
completely.
In principle, the second phase of the vehicle camp is also a coordinated operation of vehicles, cavalry, and artillery. However, the troops are unpredictable and the situation is unpredictable. According to different battle conditions and different opponents, temporary adjustments can also be made.
Just like what they are facing today is the Japanese army. Compared with the Ming army, the Japanese army, whether it is cavalry or artillery, is not worth mentioning. The battle method they are famous for is the iron artillery team, that is, the matchlock gun.
Team.
In addition, although the Japanese troops are generally shorter in stature, due to more than two hundred years of fighting each other during the Warring States Period, the Japanese troops are relatively fierce in close combat.
Facing such an enemy, cavalry and artillery are actually useful, but the main force of the cavalry went to conduct tactical deception and has not returned yet. The artillery needs to continue acting to avoid exposing Shimazu Yoshihiro prematurely, so it can only rely on specialized
The vehicle formation using hedgehog tactics came to meet the enemy.
Fortunately, the vehicle formation in the second stage can cope with it. It goes without saying that the mobility and defensive power of Jinghua's improved sidecars have been improved. Although the gun holes have been removed (the artillery has been professionalized), the musketeers'
Firepower density has been increased.
The Japanese army had to endure several rounds of volleys before they could get close. Even if they got in front of the sidecar, they would find that there would be a reverse angled baffle on the upper part of the car, making it difficult to climb over at all, thus making it a close range.
Eat a gun.
In short, unless every Japanese soldier is a super soldier, they will all collapse sooner or later.
When Kato Kiyomasa discovered that the effective range of the Ming army's iron artillery was far beyond his own, he already knew that this battle would be difficult. When he saw the sidecar, he immediately understood that something was wrong, but now he could not allow him to retreat.
, can only order to advance quickly.
What Kato Kiyomasa means is that since you have a sidecar that can defend against the volleys of our iron artillery team, then I will quickly approach and let the bamboo spears and swords behind the iron artillery team snatch the sidecar, and then we will decide the outcome in close combat.
.
When it comes to close combat, Kato Kiyomasa believes that his side will win. He has heard many stories many years ago, most of which were brought back to Japan by various "Navy Troopers" who "camped" along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. All the stories are almost the same, and they are all clearly stated.
If an army "discharges cannons from afar, they may dare to fight, but if they engage with swords, they will be defeated and flee."
Although after the Renchen year, Kato Kiyomasa slightly revised this statement in his mind, believing that the Ming army's cavalry still dared to fight and were good at hand-to-hand combat, but the infantry was still despised by him because they rarely fought against each other.
Under the strict orders of Kato Kiyomasa, the Iron Artillery Team of the First Army, despite losing as much as seven to eight hundred, finally approached the Ming Army's sidecar defense line, and in the process stopped to fire two rounds of volleys. Unfortunately, due to
The Japanese iron artillery had difficulty penetrating the reinforced sidecars, and the actual effect of these two salvos was approximately zero.
At this time, Kato Kiyomasa no longer cared about the basic principles of the use of the iron artillery team, and ordered the iron artillery team to retreat, and the bamboo spear and tachi troops came forward to seize the vehicle in close combat.
Because of the limited financial resources of the Japanese army, even the First Army, a direct lineage of Toyotomi, had only 3,000 iron gunners out of 10,000 people before the war. The losses after entering Korea plus today's losses have meant that Kato Kiyomasa now has no iron gunners in his hands.
It's less than two thousand, and if we continue to lose it, we will really be ruined.
Kato Kiyomasa could only make a big bet, betting that his soldiers could break through the sidecar defense line in close combat, and even seize the Ming army's sidecar, and defeat the invading enemies of Hanyang in the subsequent close combat.
However, to his surprise, he suddenly heard the sound of gold ringing from the top of Hanyang City Tower suddenly, and the sound was extremely urgent.
Kato Kiyomasa was stunned and even wondered if something had happened to Shimazu Yoshihiro: I finally attacked the Ming army despite huge casualties. As long as I break through this car formation, I can turn defeat into victory and kill everyone.
Now, instead of continuing your efforts to beat drums and cheers for me in person, you are asking me to withdraw my troops with gold?
"Shimazu Yi...His Majesty Shimazu is confused. Is this the time to retreat? The entire army should not worry about Ming Jin, just continue to attack! The first person to break through the Ming army's chariot, if he is not from the Wu family, I will award him
He has the title of warrior; if he is originally from the martial arts family, I will reward him with ten thousand crowns and Yongle Tongbao!"
Identity, wealth, and these exciting rewards were already clear. The Japanese army became energetic and began to launch a fierce attack on the Ming army's sidecar formation.
At this time, the chanting of gold continued on the tower of Hanyang City, and the sound of the chanting became more and more urgent, as if if the troops were not withdrawn, they would face catastrophe. Kato Kiyomasa frowned deeply, and still did not understand the reason, so he simply assumed that Shimazu Yoshihiro could not control Hanyang.
When the situation improved, I devoted myself wholeheartedly to commanding this battle.
Before the Japanese troops defended themselves with the sidecar formation, there were soon more than a hundred casualties, almost all of which were shot and killed by the Ming army behind the cars. At this moment, Kato Kiyomasa suddenly heard a large group of galloping horses.
The sound of kicking.
What made Kato Kiyomasa's face suddenly turn pale was that the voice came from behind Kato Kiyomasa!
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