Chapter 068 Wanlis One Style May Power the World (Part 1)
Zhang Bingzhong is direct, and Xin Ai is even more direct.
In just a few months, he went from wearing shoes to being barefoot. At this time, when he encountered the weak Ming army in the wild, how could Xin Ai be polite? Let alone being polite, he couldn't let it go.
Xin Ai has fought with the Xuanda Border Army for most of his life, and he knows the situation of the Border Army very well. Although the Border Army as a whole can be described as poor, poverty also has to be divided into different levels.
Taking Datong Town alone as an example, there are a total of fifteen guards in Datong. To talk about Shuozhou Guard, Yuzhou Guard, Andong Zhongtun Guard, etc., they are indeed poor. They are so poor that they would have to work without some gray income.
It's to the point of starvation.
However, the four guards of Datong - that is, the four guards of Datong, the front, rear, left, and right guards, are definitely the generals among the dwarves, and they can live a fulfilling life.
Why? Because these four guards are not only the core guards of Datong Town, but also now control important horse market places such as Desheng Fort and Shahukou Fort. In other words, their treatment was good originally, but now they are even better
You can get certain benefits from the horse market, which is naturally not comparable to ordinary health centers.
As for Zhang Bingzhong's troops, the main force was the Datong left guard, and the rest were his own three to four hundred servants, all of whom were relatively wealthy among the border troops.
Of course Xin Ai could see the flag of the left guard of Datong at a glance, and knew that this was a promising opponent and that the army must have a lot of baggage. Even without mentioning the baggage, the various attire they had on them was a considerable fortune.
What else is there to say? Naturally, we should hurry up and get ready to grab it!
As for combat effectiveness, Xin Ai has fought against Datong Zuowei, but the situation was different from today. At that time, Datong Zuoback was defending in the city. Xin Ai did not choose to attack because he did not want to bear heavy casualties.
, so they are actually in a situation where they have had many nominal battles, but not many actual battles.
However, even if they have not fought head-on, Xin Ai has a great psychological advantage. Firstly, the cavalry itself is not afraid of infantry, especially the Mongolian cavalry with the nature of archers, and there is no need to worry too much about what the infantry can do to them; secondly, the cavalry itself is not afraid of infantry.
In the past, they were also on the offensive side, generally suppressing the Ming army. This was naturally the easiest situation to develop a psychological advantage.
In fact, even when there was no tribute issue more than ten years ago, the only people Xin Ai found really troublesome in Xin Ai's promulgation of Shanxi were Ma Fang's subordinates.
Therefore, Xin Ai did not hesitate at this moment and immediately ordered two forces to be divided. Two thousand cavalry on the left and right began to prepare to harass and shoot. He himself led the main force of the Chinese army to stay still for the time being and observe the opponent's movements first.
This style of play is very common in the Mongolian army. It is to first see if the opponent will panic when faced with the Mongolian cavalry that is attacking the camp with fast horses. If the formation is chaotic or even collapses due to panic, then it is obviously a weak force.
In this case, Xin Ai can either continue to harass and grind, or simply lead the main force into the battle. It just depends on whether Xin Ai is in a hurry.
If the opponent is relatively calm and accepts the battle calmly, that's okay. The Mongolian cavalry is not afraid of endurance battles, as long as they continue to send troops to harass round after round.
Based on their hundreds of years of war experience, if they keep procrastinating in this way, even if they cannot defeat the enemy, they will be able to defeat the enemy sooner or later.
After all, the cavalry are not afraid of being bitten by the infantry. As long as they circle and shoot from a distance, they can continue to cause damage to the opponent while ensuring their own safety. Although this kind of long-distance shooting is not very powerful, it may not really be able to kill many people.
, but continuous harassment can still severely damage the opponent's morale. If there is enough time, the opponent's collapse will only be a matter of time.
After all, if you are beaten but unable to fight back, no matter who it is, there will be times when you can't stand it.
The cavalry moved, but the infantry barely moved.
This is not surprising. It is impossible for infantry to compete with cavalry in maneuverability, and the usual response is relatively passive. But Xin Ai frowned, because the Datong Zuowei Ming army on the opposite side did not make the most common circle.
Array.
The circular formation is the most common defensive formation for infantry, especially when facing cavalry. When Ming infantry encountered Mongolian cavalry in the wild, it was simply a conditioned reflex to defend the enemy with a circular formation.
But there was an exception today. The infantry of the Datong Ming Army formed a square formation that looked very thin. This formation was so thin that there were only a few rows of soldiers on each of the four sides. It seemed that a single charge of the formation could destroy it, and then
Attack the central army directly and capture the opponent's general.
Xin Ai was a little confused. Could it be that the opponent's general was a fool and brought thousands of horses to the grassland to reward Huang Taiji?
But although there was only one Ma Fang in Xuanda Shanxi that he was really afraid of, it did not mean that they really did not have strong generals. In fact, the overall strength of the three towns in Xuanda Shanxi was very strong, otherwise they would not have been able to withstand it.
I mean decades of ravage, right?
Xin Ai didn't quite believe that the general who could lead 6,000 elite troops out of the three towns of Xuanda in Shanxi Province was really a fool. He decided to observe it for a while before making a decision.
The first thing the other party did made Xin Ai scratch his head. Their formation was already very weak. Now as the cavalry dispatched by him were dispatched in two directions, the first row of soldiers in the Datong Ming army formation was far away from Xin Ai.
Under the watchful eyes, not only did they not start loading powder and ammunition in preparation for shooting, but they all put a "long dagger" on the muzzle of the musket. Well... it seems that it can also be said to be a "slender dagger".
Xin Ai is a little confused. What is the Ming army doing? Can your muskets be able to shoot out daggers and use them as flying knives?
But he understood next, because after the Ming army fixed their bayonets, they suddenly took a small step forward and squatted down, with the butts of their rifles facing down and their "daggers" facing upwards.
"Lean the tip of the knife forward, and everyone in the first row does this and remains still.
Xin Ai was stunned for a moment, then sneered.
His fourth son, Hamu, saw this and asked, "Why is Abu laughing?"
Xin Ai pouted in the direction of the Ming army and said: "The Ming general opposite is a fool. How can he try to stop the Mongolian cavalry with just a few lines of his?"
Hamu said: "The firearms of the Ming army have become much more powerful in recent years than before. The enemy may think that the power of these rows of firecrackers is enough to make us retreat."
Xin Ai sneered: "Retreating when faced with difficulties? I have no way to retreat now!"
Hamu twitched the corner of Du'er's mouth, but couldn't say anything.
Xin Ai added: "Besides, there is nothing to retreat from. Even if the Ming army's weapons are more powerful than before, as long as they launch a charge, how many guns can they fire at a distance of several hundred steps? As long as they charge in front of their formation, just rely on
Can such a thin array be able to block the charge? Then it will be nothing more than a collapse of thousands of miles."
Hamu looked at Du'er and said hesitantly: "But the soldiers in their first row..."
"I saw it, but so what, those things together are not as long as a spear, not to mention there is only one column, can they stop the charge?"
Hamu thought about it all, and it seemed right. Although the spear formation could restrain the cavalry from charging, the spears of the spear formation were much longer than the Ming army's "gun mouth and knife", and it was impossible for the spear formation to only place the first one.
First row, the Ming army wanted to rely on a row of "guns and knives" to block the charge. Isn't this a dream?
After thinking this, he felt relieved and nodded: "Maybe the leader of the Ming army is a hereditary commander and doesn't know how to fight at all."
Just when Xin Ai and his son felt that the Ming army's formation was really providing food to the Mongolian cavalry, the two cavalry sent earlier had already begun to attack and harass, but unexpectedly, their actions ran into big trouble.
The Mongolian cavalry suddenly discovered that the range of the Mongolian compound bows they were proud of was actually at a disadvantage when facing the current Ming army!
How is this possible? Since the Mongol Empire conquered the world, the Mongolian cavalry has never suffered a loss in the key factor of range! (The range of the English longbow is actually longer, but there are two points to note: the Mongols are mounted bows and the English are
Foot and bow; the Mongols never fought against the English.)
The basic equipment of the Mongolian cavalry archers is the hyperbolic compound bow, which has different performances with different arrows. When using heavy armor-piercing arrows, it can have amazing penetrating power, and when using light arrows, it can have an exaggerated range. It is light when used.
When shooting an arrow, its range exceeds 300 meters.
(In fact, it should be expressed as "step", but how long a step is is a controversial matter. Here, we simply use meters. This data comes from Timothy May, professor and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of North Georgia.
Chang, a world-class authoritative scholar of the history of the Mongolian Empire and military history. He has written monographs such as "The Art of Mongolian War" and "The Culture and Customs of Mongolia".)
However, due to the insufficient power of light arrows, especially when facing the Ming army with strong defensive capabilities, their effectiveness is greatly reduced. Therefore, the current Mongolian cavalry usually shoots armor-piercing arrows at a shorter distance, usually within 150 meters.
This habitual shooting distance gave these two cavalrymen a hard time, because the Ming army on the opposite side opened fire about 200 meters away from them, and killed more than twenty Mongolian soldiers in one salvo, and also hit at least
Thirty war horses threw the cavalryman to the grass, where his life or death was uncertain.
Judging from the formation of the Ming army, apart from the soldiers in the first row of bayonet formations, there are only more than 1,200 people who can shoot in one direction, and these 1,200 people are divided into three rows. Just now, only the first row of soldiers can shoot.
Column fired.
A salvo of more than 400 people hit about fifty targets. If this data were produced in the era of rifled guns, it might be a bit bad, but in the current era of muskets, it is already shocking.
Although the cavalry are large in size and have obvious targets, and during the attack, the Ming army only needs to shoot forward, and the unlucky ones on the other side will naturally hit the bullets, but... the previous muskets fired at the front, and the bullets
It may also float up or down, and the accuracy is very worrying.
This time, the Wanli Type 1 flintlock musket has very little ups and downs. Although it is not accurate, it is much better than in the past.
Because the Wanli Type 1 is actually a "pseudo-rifled gun" - in accordance with high pragmatic requirements, there are four symmetrical thin and shallow straight rifling lines inside the barrel of this gun.
Rifling is rifling, why do we say pseudo rifling? Because in a highly pragmatic concept, rifling should be the spiral shape of later generations. The effect of this early straight rifling is relatively limited, and due to metallurgical limitations, considering the metal stress
The problem is, these four rifling lines are stretched very slightly to avoid affecting the strength of the gun body and causing the chamber to explode.
From Gao Pragmatic's point of view, this thing really cannot reach the level of "rifling" in his mind.
But it turns out that the presence or absence of these four wires still has a huge impact. The shooting accuracy of the Wanli Type 1 far exceeds that of Jinghua's previous generation main product, the Longqing Type 2! At least its bullets will not fly randomly.
One volley fired, and the Mongolian cavalry was stunned. Xin Ai and his son who were watching the battle from a distance were also stunned.
Hamu turned Du'er's face pale, swallowed, and said: "Abu, the 'Nie'erge' tactic failed, how about... try using 'Shiwuchi' instead?"
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