The Ming army in front formed a strange formation.
From front to back, there are countless small and dense wedge-shaped formations. The smallest unit is composed of small flags. Each small flag formation is composed of ten people.
Three shields stand in front in the shape of a cross. Behind the shields are three sword and shield soldiers holding Miao knives.
In the gap between the three shields are two pikemen who are waiting in full formation. There is a pikeman on each side of the shield hiding behind. Finally, there is the general flag holding a three-eyed gun and two steel crossbowmen.
The small formations of five small flags form a general flag formation according to a pentagon. Each small flag shield is at one corner of the pentagon. The entire general flag formation has no dead ends for defense on all sides.
Five three-eyed blunderbuss, crossbows, and twenty spears were all protected inside.
Two general flag formations were arranged one behind the other, ending with twelve people from the headquarters of the Hundred Households. The total number of people in the Ming Army's Hundred Households was exactly one hundred and twelve people.
In this way, the front of a battalion is composed of five front and rear arrays of hundreds of households. A regiment is composed of six battalion-level arrays. The six battalion-level arrays are arranged side by side.
Yang Fan's Chinese army commanded three regiments, that is, eighteen battalion-level arrays.
The infantry formations of this era were all linear and dense formations, because if the formations were not thick enough, they would not be able to resist cavalry assaults.
In the era of cold weapons in ancient China, the purpose of formations was to allow different arms and troops to fully cooperate and support each other.
Because the firepower covers each other and the combination of long and short soldiers can make the enemy pay a greater price when attacking in front of a military formation with no blind spots.
The Song Dynasty was the period in Chinese history that paid the most attention to the power of military formations. The reason why the Song Dynasty developed such unprecedented military formations was because the Song Dynasty lacked war horses.
If you want infantry to fight against cavalry, the only way is to form a strict military formation.
In this regard, the Northern Song Dynasty was undoubtedly successful. Under the premise of having famous generals, such as Di Qing, etc., the Northern Song Dynasty's use of foot control and riding achieved great success. The Northern Song Dynasty also regained Qinghai and defeated the nomads.
When the Northern Cavalry faced off against the Song Army, there was also a saying based on historical experience that there was no fighting in formation. In other words, when facing the Song Army who had set up a military formation, they were unwilling to charge into the formation, otherwise they would have to pay an extremely heavy price.
Therefore, when the cavalry attacks the infantry, the key to success is not to give the opponent a chance to form a formation. Defeating the infantry during their march will cost the least.
Once they form a formation, it becomes very difficult. The densely packed spears will stop the horses from moving forward.
At this time, we can only think of a way to use assault troops to break them up. Break through the dense formation, cut through the opponent's formation, causing the formation to become scattered, and then launch the main attack.
Once the infantry of this era were attacked and their formation was disrupted, big problems would occur.
Generally speaking, if you want to break through a heavy infantry formation, the cavalry is best equipped with heavy armor. That is, both humans and horses are armored. Just like Jin Wushu's six thousand iron pagoda cavalry in history.
Only in this way can we fight against the dense array of spears. However, the Mongols are all lightly armored. These people are herdsmen levies. They are all dressed in leather robes. Only captains of ten have leather armor, and only centurions have chains.
A. Only captains of thousands and higher officers and nobles have armor.
The reason why Yang Fan dared to set up the formation like this was because he used the concept of wheeled bulletproof shield produced by Xincheng Arsenal and introduced the modern concept of wheeled shield, which he made himself.
This kind of shield is made of riveted three-millimeter steel plates. In addition to the front, there are two side surfaces that are inclined backward. There is an observation slit in the middle, which can be used to observe the enemy's situation, and can also be used to make perforations and shoot three-eyed muskets and
Steel crossbows, shotguns, flintlocks, etc.
This kind of shield has a large protective area and has a stationary hoe. After it is put down, there is no fear of cavalry collision.
There are three wheels under the shield, one in the middle and one at the ends of the swept-back side panels on both sides.
When attacking, soldiers can push it forward. When defending, they can insert the hoe into the soil and fix it firmly on the ground.
The two spaces that only a hundred households can see are five or six meters wide. This is a passage for the enemy's cavalry to rush in. Between the two shields, there are three strands of barbed No. 8 wires twisted into trip wires. The trip ropes are separated from each other.
The ground is only over a foot high and cannot be seen among the grass of the prairie.
The engineers drove piles and buried many scaffolding steel pipes at the rear exit of the first military formation.
These steel pipes are two meters deep in the soil and four meters high above the soil. Because these steel pipes are erected and buried as deep as telegraph poles, they are very strong.
Thin steel wires were stretched at the height of the cavalry's necks. Because they were so small, the cavalry could not see them on horseback. These arrangements were used to kill and injure the cavalry rushing past.
"Everyone, look, behind this strange military formation, the Ming army has erected a lot of pipes, which look like they are made of steel. If we defeat them, all the steel will be ours." Ullu Taiji was excited.
said.
There is a lack of iron on the grassland, otherwise the iron pot would not have become the surname of the Golden Family.
Although I don’t know what the Ming army used these iron pillars for, they are real steel. This time they can make a lot of money.
Daza nodded and said: "This time, we must eliminate these arrogant Han people. They have brought to the grassland more steel than what we have obtained in hundreds of years combined. This is the blessing of the Immortal God.
If we don't take it, Changshengtian will be angry."
"Fellow Taiji, let's begin the attack. I'll be preparing wine in the tower, waiting for your triumphant return," Daza said.
"Blessed by the eternal God, we take this victory as a gift to congratulate Jinong." The Taiji said, stroking their chests.
"Go ahead, 30,000 warriors versus 18,000 infantry. I'm waiting for news of your victory."
Yang Fan and his 3,600-strong retainer regiment stood behind the military formations of the two factions. Behind them were the steel city wall fortifications of the bridgehead.
This time, after the reorganization and training of the Beijing camp, it was a test and a test. Sooner or later, they would have to go solo and face the enemy independently.
Yang Fan looked to the west and saw Zhang Shize with a thousand servants holding the formation behind him. He was in charge of the left wing. Jiang Bingzhong led 500 servants and cavalry in the east side. He was in charge of the right wing. Obviously, the strength of the Jiang family was no match for the British government.
For example, his family only gave him five hundred servants and cavalry.
Smoke and dust billowed in the distance, and a large number of Mongolian cavalry began to rush towards this direction at an accelerated speed.
Yang Fan looked through the binoculars and saw that there were a total of twelve cavalrymen, pushing forward in a horizontal formation. Yang Fan knew that there were a total of twelve Taijis in Tumut who had independent territories. These were the so-called Twelve Troops of Tumut.
.
Yang Fan couldn't help but curl his lips. They were all defeated generals. They were old acquaintances who had been annihilated once in Duolun last year.