Both the Ming and Mongolian sides claimed to have achieved a great victory at Yehe River, but whether it was a great victory or not depends on the strategic goals of both sides. To a certain extent, both sides' strategic goals were indeed achieved.
The purpose of the Ming army's dispatch of troops this time was to save Ye He and stabilize Beiguan. This purpose was obviously achieved after the victory of Ye Hehe. After the main force of the Mongolian army retreated, when Cao Yu led his troops to the west city, hundreds of people in the west city
The Mongolian defenders were retreating, and Cao Yu successfully took over Xicheng.
The purpose of the Mongolian army's eastward invasion is relatively more complicated. In other words, their purpose was very flexible from the beginning and can be divided into several levels. Of course, directly seizing Beiguan is the best goal, but when the Ming army directly
When he sent out 20,000 elite troops, Burihatu knew that this goal would be difficult to achieve.
Even so, Burihatu is not in a hurry. He can also disrupt Liaodong and use the chaos in Beiguan to stir up internal competition among the Jurchens to distract the Ming Dynasty. As for what role Mongolia plays in this, of course it is
He is a fisherman, and he is a very active fisherman. If both the snipe and the clam want to stop, Mongolia will add fuel to the fire, and Ming Dynasty will have to take action sooner or later.
Taking action would mean a waste of power. Regardless of manpower, material, financial resources or time, Ming Dynasty had to pay something. This relieved the pressure on Mongolia and delayed time.
Therefore, according to this idea, in fact, the Mongols could have avoided even the Battle of Yehe River. However, Burihatu always felt that after Gao Pragmatic fought the Battle of Monan, the strategic situation of the Ming and Mongols was reversed.
Originally, the Mongols took the initiative and continued to harass the border, while the Ming Dynasty passively defended. Instead, the Ming Dynasty began to recharge its batteries and formulate the national policy of "eastern control" with the intention of conquering Mongolia in one fell swoop.
This kind of offensive and defensive reversal happened to the Ming Dynasty, which had been founded for more than 200 years, and Burihatu could not tolerate it. Even in the past, the Ming army occasionally carried out burning operations, but they were just setting fire to the fortress. How long ago did they dare to destroy Mongolia?
As a purpose?
Therefore, Burihatu has a strong sense of crisis. He is keenly aware that the changes in the Ming Dynasty came from Gao Pragmatism. The improvement of the Ming army's combat effectiveness in recent years, regardless of tactics and armaments, is closely related to Gao Pragmatism. Not to mention that he himself has
He became the "best literary commander in the world" in the Ming Dynasty.
What the enemy agrees with is what we oppose, and what the enemy wants to insist on is what we want to defeat. The Ming army wants to recharge its strength, and Burihatu wants to make Ming Dynasty uneasy. All plans are ultimately for this purpose.
When Ye He's strength has been hit, when Hada's weakness is exposed to everyone, when Nurhaci's greed is noticed by everyone...Burihatu's strategy has actually been completed for the most part.
But this time, Burihatu was reluctant to stop immediately. The reason was that he found that the Ming army's fighting will had exceeded his original estimate and had to be restrained.
Where can this be determined? It was discovered from the Ming army's refusal to give in during the encounter at Ye Hedong City.
In the past, the Ming army rarely took the initiative to engage in decisive field battles with the main force of the Mongolian cavalry, but this time Cao Yu made a move to forcefully attack the main force of the Mongolian army under Yehedong City. This meant that the Ming army
——At least the elite Ming army is no longer afraid of the main Mongolian force and has the confidence to fight decisively with the main Mongolian army in the field.
This kind of confidence is what the Mongols are most worried about. The Ming Dynasty is crushing Mongolia in all aspects of manpower, material and financial resources. Once the millions of troops under its command no longer fear the Mongolian cavalry and dare to engage in head-on combat with the Mongolian cavalry, what will happen to Mongolia in the future?
Peace of mind?
As for the source of this confidence, Brihatu thought about it and felt that the most likely possibility is that Gao Pragmatic's three major victories were all based on footwork.
Although Gao Pragmatic's three victories were remarkable and brilliant, the premise was that his plan always put the Mongolian cavalry into the dilemma of having to fight with them, and he was able to form a local advantage, or encircle or ambush, so the results were astonishing. But Buri
Hatu had to ask, why couldn't the Ming army do this before Gao Pragmatism?
The reason is not complicated. Even if you let the Ming army surround the Mongolian cavalry, you couldn't really block it. As long as the Mongols really faced a desperate situation, they would just rush out and rush out.
Only when Gao Jingshi took charge of the army, the Ming army not only saw a significant increase in firepower, but also came up with a set of methods specifically designed to deal with cavalry, which was the so-called bayonet array.
The term "bayonet array" itself comes from the Ming Dynasty itself. This extremely deceptive name even Burihatu was fooled into thinking that the key to the Ming army's foot control of cavalry was the bayonet itself. At that time, Burihatu also
Some people can't understand that what the bayonet can do, spearmen in the past can also do or even do better. Why did the Ming army abandon the spear formation and use the bayonet formation?
Many years ago, Burihatu believed that the number of spearmen in the Ming army was decreasing day by day because the Ming army did not dare to fight hand-to-hand. They were extremely cowardly and could only shoot with blunderbuss and other firearms from a distance. Once the Mongolian cavalry rushed towards them, they immediately dispersed like birds and beasts.
, any formation will be defeated, and only a few elite troops can stand firm and fight a tough battle.
However, some elites are always too few, such as the Qi Jiajun, Ma Jiajun, Li Jiajun, Ma Jiajun and other old rivals of the Mongols. Except for Li Chengliang's Li Jiajun, none of them can exceed tens of thousands. With this small number of troops, the emergency field is not bad.
, it would be difficult to turn the tide after it fell, so it was naturally impossible for the Ming army to achieve any real victory at this time.
After the Gengshu Revolution, the first war that the Ming Dynasty achieved that could truly be called a great victory was the Battle of Monan that Burihatu personally witnessed.
Gao Pragmatic also began to be regarded as a "Wen Shuai" after this war - although the Annan War was also very large-scale, it was impossible for mainstream people in the Ming Dynasty to regard Annan as an opponent of Mongolia's level, so the Annan War was
The internal quality of the Ming Dynasty is slightly lacking.
In this battle in Monan, Gao Pragmatic's performance was perfect, but as some people within the Ming Dynasty also noticed, Burihatu also knew that the real main force in this battle was actually Tumote and not the Ming Dynasty itself. Gao Pragmatic
In fact, through superb political means, he used the powerful Tumut cavalry to crown him victorious.
Even if ordinary people discover this, they will only think that Gao's pragmatic methods are great and can "use barbarians to control barbarians", but Burihatu discovered another important point.
It's not that Gao Pragmatic insisted on showing superb political methods, but that he clearly understood that the Ming army could not win the Battle of Monan with its own strength at that time!
Without a hearty victory, the vast majority of the Ming army, which could not be said to be elite, simply did not have the courage to stand alone against tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry. If they really wanted to force them to the grasslands and fight with the Mongolian cavalry in a decisive battle, they would be burned unless they were defeated.
It's so fragrant, let alone a great victory?
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic carefully selected and designed the "bayonet formation" at a location that was important but not particularly grand. This was how Zhang Wanbang and his son defeated Xin Ai in the battle.
This battle, therefore, unsurprisingly became the focus of the Ming army's propaganda - all other battles were fought by Tumote, and it is not convenient to brag about it.
Since then, the "bayonet array" has become famous and has become the weapon of the Ming Dynasty in controlling cavalry with foot. All the people in the Ming Dynasty, whether civil or military, believed that the magical power of the bayonet array could contain or even kill the Mongolian cavalry's majesty over the years.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty was like the European powers in the 20th century. It had the right to speak. The Ming Dynasty promoted it so hard, and not long after there was another battle in southern Liaoning, even the Mongols themselves believed Gao Pragmatism.
He thought that the bayonet array was really powerful, and the Mongolian cavalry had encountered the most powerful opponent in history.
Then came the Northwest Rebellion. Boshu Ketu, a reckless man, was not a pragmatic opponent of Gao. He was so calculated by Gao that he crashed into the encirclement and was tricked by the bayonet array - this is
According to Ming Dynasty, Burihatu has now guessed that the real meritorious service in that siege battle was definitely not the bayonet, but the firearm.
After three major victories, the Bayonet Formation became famous, and the Mongols changed their expressions upon hearing this. Although Cao Yu had never commanded a Bayonet Formation, he had bayonet formations available under his command, so he was not afraid of fighting with the Mongolian cavalry in the field, and he prepared to prepare for the battle at the foot of Dongcheng City.
Defeat the Mongols.
Although Burihatu had doubts about the power of the bayonet array, he was unwilling to fight under the Dongcheng City because the Ming army also had many elite cavalry at that time, and the Yehe cavalry in the Dongcheng City could also go out to fight at any time. The battlefield was chosen here.
The Mongolian army was at a disadvantage. Once the attack on the bayonet array got into trouble, and the Ming cavalry and Yehe cavalry launched an offensive from the flanks, the Mongols might suffer another major defeat.
Therefore, Burihatu chose to retreat directly to avoid fighting. But Burihatu was definitely not willing to retreat. He had to find a way to personally test the depth of the bayonet array. Otherwise, how could he make a correct decision when dealing with the Ming army in the future?
Whether it was sending Ma Chengxun away from the mountain, or not attacking the weak enemies on the northern front but choosing Zhang Wanbang's troops on the southern front, these were all special arrangements made by Burihatu in order to "test" the quality of the bayonet array.
Is there anything wrong with the tactics of Cao Yun and Gao Yimin? Actually, no. They just never expected that under the series of methods of Burihatu, the purpose was not to defend the West City, nor was it even to severely damage or defeat the Ming army.
.Burihatu just wanted to test the true power of the bayonet array and understand its tactical characteristics so that he could have a basis to think of ways to crack it.
As for Burihatu's repeated talk of breaking the bayonet array myth, it is actually nothing more than wartime propaganda. It is of course the best if it can be broken, but it is actually within his acceptance range if it cannot be broken.
The outcome of this battle was still acceptable to Burihatu. Although nearly two thousand people died in the battle (the Ming army beheaded more than 1,600 people, and most of the rest died of injuries after being rescued), and the elite heavy cavalry
The losses were heavy, but Burihatu still believed that the battle was worth it.
No matter how great the loss is, can it be greater than that of Monan? In the Battle of Monan, the loss of the main force of Chahar alone was tens of thousands. This time it was less than two thousand. What’s the big deal? Compared with the gains, Burihatu can definitely do it.
Satisfied, it was enough to give an explanation to Tumen Dahan.
After listening to the detailed battle report and Burihatu's analysis and explanation, Tumen also felt that although the loss of these two thousand people was not small, it was completely worth it. At least he now understood that the really powerful part of the bayonet array was not it.
It can restrain cavalry in itself, but it can combine the hot and cold weapons of the Ming army to form a new tactical system.
Different from this tactical system, which closely cooperated with the various weapons of the Ming army in the past - this was the magic weapon of the Qi family army - the bayonet array was characterized by doing the opposite, and it appeared to simplify combat.
According to the past tactics of the Qi family army, including the Yuanyang Formation, the characteristics were "each has its own division", that is, the fire gunman was only responsible for firing the gun, the wolf gunman was only responsible for blocking the enemy, etc.
Is this method of warfare effective? Of course it is, otherwise Qi Jiguang's victory in every battle could be due to his cheating?
But the problem is that once a certain part is missing, the Mandarin Duck Formation will be somewhat incomplete and its effectiveness will be greatly reduced. This is also one of the reasons why Qi Jiguang always insists on fighting with few casualties or even zero casualties. It is not that he has advanced thinking to the 21st
Century, he knew that casualties would have a great impact on his tactical system.
Gao Pragmatic's thinking seems to be completely different. He first strongly emphasized the use of firearms. The proportion of musketeers increased day by day under Gao Pragmatic's insistence, so much so that the subordinates of Gao Pragmatic's direct generals like Zhang Wanbang were even completely firearms-
-In addition to artillery, the combat troops are musketeers. The only one who fights with pure cold weapons is Zhang Wanbang himself.
Everyone knows that musketeers cannot fight in close combat. Does Gao Pragmatic do this to give up on close combat? No, he came up with a bayonet and worked hard to stand up for the bayonet array, deliberately making his three major victories impossible.
Attributed to the bayonet array.
Why is this? Burihatu now understands: no matter how powerful the firearm is, it cannot represent the bloody courage of the Ming army, and blood courage is always the soul of an army.
The Mongols looked down upon the Ming army that did not dare to fight in hand-to-hand combat. But once the Ming army dared to fight in hand-to-hand combat, the Mongols, including Burihatu himself, immediately felt a huge threat.
This is the transformation brought about by blood bravery.
Gao pragmatic did not promote how powerful his cannons were, nor how powerful his muskets were, but he promoted his bayonet array. The reason was that he wanted to use this to arouse the bloody courage of the Ming army, so that the Ming army dared to fight hand-to-hand and dare to face any strong force.
enemy.
As long as his goal is achieved, the Ming army will become a force that combines long-range and close combat. If any army wants to fight the Ming army, it will first be hit by cannons from a distance, then by muskets, and finally by bayonets.
If you think about the difficulty of fighting against each other, you will know how terrible it is.
The most shocking thing about Burihatu is that such an army that combines long-range attack and close combat has actually existed before, that is, the Mongolian army after conquering Central Asia!
There are returning cannons in the distance, horse bows in the middle, and scimitars near!
The Mongol army at that time is now long gone. Even if they are still there, Burihatu knows that he cannot deal with the army that Gao Pragmatic hopes to build.
In terms of distance, Jinghua's artillery has no rival in northern Xinjiang; in terms of distance, the effective killing distance of muskets has exceeded that of bows and arrows, and its power is much greater; in terms of close combat, the scimitar has lost the charge kinetic energy of the horse and is no longer as powerful as the bayonet.
excellent.
Tumen looked at Burihatu who looked worried, hesitated again and again, and couldn't help but asked: "Is there any way to solve it?"
Burihatu slowly came back to his senses and shook his head slightly: "Not yet." Then it seemed that he couldn't bear to look at the disappointed eyes of the great Khan, sighed, and added: "Let's see if the things left in Xicheng can be recovered.
It worked.”
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