Chapter 741 The decisive battle between Tang and Tibet (4)
Sang Chiruo, who was sitting in the center of the formation, heard that the army in the right rear compartment was facing six thousand Tang cavalry. He only lasted for more than half an hour and then began to flee. At first, he thought it was his generals joking.
Domiyi's 23,000 warriors have experienced countless cruel wars, and no matter which battle was a bloody battle, how could he be so weak?
Thinking of this, Sang Chiruo gritted his teeth and asked, "Are you telling the truth?"
The Tubo general knelt on the ground and said in a trembling voice: "The remnants of the army in the right rear wing have all fled to the central army. When we asked about it, they all said this."
Sang Chiruo was stunned at first, and then asked in a deep voice: "Where are the people who escaped? Bring them here, I want to interrogate them personally!"
Not long after, a Tami Yi Qianhu who had escaped back was brought into the big tent.
The man's body was in a mess, and even his armor was discarded in the process of escaping.
After Sang Chiruo saw it, he became furious and asked what happened.
The Tami Yi Senhu stretched out his limbs and lay on the ground, with his forehead on the ground, and said plaintively: "The Tang people have that new style of firearms, we are really no match for them!"
Sang Chiruo asked carefully.
Qianhu then explained the entire process of the dragoons going into battle.
After listening, Sang Chiruo immediately realized that this army with strange weapons was the army that defeated Dun Renzin at Fengxiang Pass.
The rumored hand-held firearms can not only be used by infantry, but after they were originally equipped to cavalry, such amazing tactics could be born.
Sang Chiruo was surprised and began to think about ways to defeat the enemy.
In the battle with the army in the right rear compartment, the Tang Army's dragoons had been using muskets to attack and conduct long-distance attacks. There was only one exception, and that was when facing the Tibetan light cavalry, they gave up their muskets and used melee attacks.
Sang Chiruo guessed that the Tang army's muskets were similar to artillery, very bulky, and had great recoil. When firing, they needed to dismount and be fixed on the ground before they could fire.
Therefore, when the Tang army's dragoons faced the Tubo cavalry, they did not choose to attack with muskets, but turned to close combat.
After thinking about this, Sang Chiruo immediately pieced together the army and formed a light cavalry of more than 3,000 people.
Sang Chiruo gave only one order to the general of the light cavalry unit. If the group of Tang Army cavalry armed with muskets appeared again, there was only one thing the latter had to do, and that was to take advantage of the opponent's dismount to prepare to attack as quickly as possible.
He rushed forward with great speed and used a dogfight to stick to Tang Qi, waiting for the follow-up infantry to rush for reinforcements.
After receiving the order, the cavalry general said with a troubled face: "The truth is, the number of cavalry in the Tang army is almost twice that of our army. Once a war breaks out, we may not be able to sustain it for long."
The Tang cavalry had a large number of soldiers and strong fighting power, and even their horses were far better than those of the Tubo. Sang Chiruo naturally understood this truth.
However, the Tibetan army was severely short of horses. Most of the horses were lost in the battle of Fengxiang Pass. Now these three thousand horses were the limit of what the army could support. The lack of horses had become the army's weakness.
Sang Chiruo didn't want to say more, and just yelled at the cavalry general: "If you can't stop Tang Qi from escaping, I will kill you first!"
When the cavalry general heard this, he quickly accepted the order and did not dare to say anything more.
At this time, the front army and two wings of the Tubo army were still fighting to the death with the Tang army.
The Tang Army's dragoons, which circled to the side of the battlefield, after replenishing their ammunition, passed through the original camp of the Tubo Army in the right rear wing and began to approach the Tibetan Central Army's camp.
As soon as they approached, the Tang army discovered that there was an additional light cavalry force of more than 3,000 men on the periphery of the Tubo central army. The generals of the dragoons immediately understood that the Tubo people planned to use light cavalry to counter the dragoons.
Although the previous Tubo right rear wing army also had light cavalry, there were only a few hundred cavalry, and they were placed on the flanks.
But the three thousand light cavalry of the Tubo Central Army were different. They directly crossed the shield wall and were placed in the front line. The purpose was to deal with the arrival of the dragoons.
As long as the dragoon enters the range of 150 steps again and dismounts to start shooting, the Tibetan cavalry will rush up without hesitation, taking advantage of the opportunity when the Tang army dismounts and forms a formation and has no time to retreat, using the entanglement
Stick to the melee approach to prevent the Tang army from using the dragoon's kite-flying tactics again.
However, the Tang Army's dragoons sneered at this calculation.
I saw the dragoon pick up the musket from his side, load the ammunition on the horseback, then drive the horse to a distance of 150 steps from the Tibetan army, and choose to complete the shooting directly on the horse.
In another world, the dragoons born in the 16th century, although in most cases have been used as fast delivery weapons similar to "motorized infantry", in rare cases, they will also be deployed on horseback.
Use your gun to lure and chase enemies.
For example, in the Battle of Dresden in 1813, Napoleon I's French dragoons defeated the Austrian infantry regiments by flying kites and shooting from horseback.
The reason why dragoons at that time mostly used dismounted shooting was not because they could not fire on horseback, but because they could not find suitable opportunities in ordinary wars. After all, in that era, both sides of the battle had muskets, and the ranges were almost the same.
, choosing to shoot on a horse will not only reduce the accuracy, but also increase the difficulty of loading, not to mention that the target will be more obvious when the mount is manned, which is equivalent to a huge target.
However, in the Tang Dynasty of this world, the farthest projectile weapon possessed by a single Tibetan soldier was the crossbow.
The shooting range of about one hundred and twenty steps is already the best, but it is still less than half that of a flintlock gun.
In this case, when facing the enemy light cavalry, the dragoons choose to shoot immediately. Although it will reduce the accuracy of shooting, it can ensure safety, and they can pull the kite back and forth to slowly reduce the enemy.
The strength and morale of the army.
When the Tibetan generals of the right rear wing army who escaped from the battlefield saw that the Tang army's dragoons could actually shoot on horseback, they all suddenly felt cold in their hearts.
The smart ones among them have already guessed the outcome of the matter.
The dragoons of the Tang Army were born in Anxi and Beiting. Everyone was a soldier with superb riding skills. Their horses were also the best war horses. The range of the muskets in their hands was much greater than that of bows and arrows.
If muskets can also shoot on horseback, it means that the light cavalry can't suppress the dragoons even if they cooperate with the infantry tactics.
Furthermore, in addition to siege warfare, dragoons will become the trump card among all military branches in any battlefield, and there are almost no field troops that can pose a threat to them.
If you want to deal with such an enemy, you can only bring a catapult or crossbow to the front line to install and shoot.
However, the Tibetans are retreating now, so who would carry such a thing in the army?
Seeing that the soldiers in the front line of the Chinese army were being killed by muskets again, and the Tubo light cavalry rushed up, and were kited by the dragoons, the morale of the Tubo Chinese army began to slowly decline, and gradually collapsed.