The first thousand one hundred and ninety-eight chapters
According to the assumptions of some generals in the army, especially those who support the construction of heavy cavalry!
Once this kind of heavy cavalry wearing full-body plate armor charges, no cold weapon troops can stop their charge.
Even if they are blocked by the enemy's tight formation, they can still rely on the impact of the tall and strong horses and the super protective capabilities of both men and horses to smash the enemy's defense line.
Even if they are forced into hand-to-hand combat in the end, they will still be the top heavy infantry in this era.
If you want to use cold weapons to cause harm to them, you can only use heavy weapons, such as sledgehammers, to effectively kill them. If it is a sharp-edged weapon, you can only use the most exquisite technology to accurately insert the sword into the plate armor.
There is a gap in the combination. If you are not a super expert, don’t try it, because when you look for its weak point, he will have stabbed you through!
Of course, they also admitted that even if they were wearing the best armor in this era, these heavy cavalry could not stop the guns. At medium and long distances, they could deal with the shooting of ordinary caliber muskets, but at short distances they would be shot.
Killed with one shot.
Not to mention heavy muskets, artillery shells, etc. The heavy muskets can punch a hole in them from a hundred meters away. Let an artillery regiment of the Datang Army come over and aim at the square formation of the cavalry regiment and fire a burst of rapid fire.
One hundred percent can wipe out more than half of this cavalry regiment!
Facing guns and cannons, these heavy cavalry equipped with top-grade plate armor are still vulnerable!
But the generals who supported the construction of heavy cavalry said this: "We are not stupid, why should we be stupid enough to let heavy cavalry attack the enemy's infantry phalanx equipped with guns and artillery!
And according to the enemies the empire currently faces, these enemies are not modern armies equipped with a large number of guns and cannons, but East Asian armies in this era that are still generally equipped with cold weapons!
We are really about to encounter the enemy's musketeers!
Why use heavy armored cavalry to attack the musketeer phalanx? The Tang Army relied on guns and cannons. They would not directly pile up infantry or directly bombard them!
When it comes to playing with guns and cannons, the Tang Army has never been afraid of anyone!
As for the role of heavy armored cavalry, they are used to deal with the enemy's cold weapon troops!
But even so, it failed to convince everyone of the usefulness of these heavy cavalry. There were still many people who thought these heavy cavalry were expensive vases, and most of the people who thought so were people within the army.
Even within the cavalry, there are very different opinions on this!
Many people who advocate the construction of light cavalry say that the cost of establishing such a heavy cavalry is enough to build several times the number of light cavalry, and several times the number of light cavalry can definitely defeat this kind of heavy cavalry.
You must know that the First Lancers are the best in all aspects. The knights are the best cavalry selected from the entire army. Not only are they physically strong, but most of them are proficient in multiple combat operations at the same time.
Skills, many of them are even veteran cavalry from the Unification War period. Each of these veteran cavalry is a valuable asset to the army.
At the same time, in order to support these heavy cavalry in charging operations, the riding horses they are equipped with are also the best Central Asian horses and some Arabian horses selected from across the country. The war horses they ride on generally reach a shoulder height of 1.48 meters.
, some even reached 1.5 meters.
In addition, in order to reduce the burden on the riding horses, there are two additional Mongolian horses, one of which is their daily marching riding horse, and the other is used to carry equipment.
Then, in order to reduce the burden on the knights, each cavalry also has an auxiliary cavalry, who usually raises horses and carries logistics supplies. When it comes to combat, they can also ride horses to accompany them in battle.
A standard three-horse ride!
So even though they are equipped with full-body plate armor, you might think that they are special cans with poor mobility. Their long-distance running ability is not weaker than that of light cavalry. And on the battlefield, if necessary, they can also
You can give up the plate armor and knight's lance and fight directly with the saber. When necessary, you can also use the Suifa lance to dismount and fight on foot!
They are said to be heavy cavalry, but in fact they can also be transformed into light cavalry!
But this is also what many people criticize. Since you want to fight as light cavalry, why do you waste so much energy on heavy cavalry? You can just use light cavalry.
So many debates have resulted in the fact that there is currently only one heavy cavalry in the Tang Empire, the First Lancer Regiment!
Later, several other heavy cavalry units established by the Tang Army were also called heavy cavalry, but in fact they were not much different from light cavalry. At most, the breastplates they wore were thicker, because the chest armor was thicker.
The armor is heavy, and the horses attached to it are slightly better.
As for pure light cavalry, they are also equipped with breastplates, but they are lightweight breastplates, and their thickness is generally similar to the light plate armor equipped by infantry.
Various lightweight plate armors are almost the standard equipment of all arms in the Tang Empire. Even this lightweight plate armor cannot effectively resist musket fire, but it can resist the effects of arrows and other cold weapons.
It was still pretty good, but most of the enemies the Tang Empire faced were still in the cold weapon age, and were worse than the Ming army back then, so the actual combat effects of various light plate armors were pretty good.
Generally speaking, ordinary musketeers are equipped with light breastplates, while some heavy musketeers, grenadiers and other units in the front row are equipped with light half-body armor, while the sword and shield bearers in the assault troops are equipped with light full-body armor.
First.
As for the cavalry, ordinary light cavalry are equipped with breastplates, which are the same thickness as those of musketeers. This is to ensure the flexibility and mobility of the light cavalry.
As for the cuirassiers, the breastplates they are equipped with are thicker.
The First Lancer Regiment is the most special, being the only heavy cavalry unit in the army equipped with specially made light full-body armor.
In addition, no matter what kind of cavalry, the weapons they use are uniform, and they all use the three main weapons of Suifa pistol, saber, and Suifa lance.
Therefore, most of the time, the tactics of the Tang Army's cavalry were very simple. They formed a dense formation and charged forward with lances. The front row of cavalry first used their pistols to attack, and then they swung their sabers to kill!
Among them, the Suifa pistol replaces the role of the cavalry hollow lance in the past, which was used as a short-range disposable weapon. Now even heavy cavalry regiments such as the First Lancer Regiment have abandoned the hollow lance and instead used
Then a pistol was issued instead!
Because they are both disposable weapons, the killing distance of the hollow spear is closer, while the Suifa pistol is farther. At the same time, several Suifa pistols can be carried at the same time. Many cavalrymen like to carry two Suifa pistols at the same time.
Draw your bow left and right, throw it away on the spot after shooting, and charge forward with your saber.
This tactic is learned from cavalry infantry. Infantrymen also like to rush to a distance of about 20 meters to fire a volley before launching a bayonet charge. At the same time, they throw grenades and finally charge forward with bayonets. Over the years, the actual combat effect has been
Always good.
Nowadays, even the Tatars in the north know how the musketeers of the Tang Dynasty charge. It is such a simple three-blade axe, but knowing it does not mean that they can resist it.
From the cavalry equipment of the Tang Dynasty Army to the heavy cavalry, there is currently only one cavalry regiment, and the rest are all light cavalry. It can be seen that the senior officials of the Tang Army are still aware of the development of cavalry.
Think about it, it is enough for the heavy cavalry to have one regiment to act as a facade, but the main cavalry still has to rely on the light cavalry.
The light cavalry in the Tang Dynasty Army was not strictly divided into hussars or dragoons, because the equipment of the light cavalry in the Tang Army was uniform and there was no obvious difference. They were all equipped with pistols and sabers.
, then fired a lance.
When you mount your horse, you can charge with your saber, and when you dismount, you can use your cavalry to fight on foot!
The only difference lies in their armor and the horses they ride on.
Therefore, theoretically speaking, all cavalry in the Tang Army were able to mount their horses to charge and dismount to fight on foot.
The Tang Army currently has five independent cavalry divisions, twelve independent cavalry regiments, with a total of about 30,000 independent cavalry, and 20 division-affiliated cavalry regiments. The total number of reserve division cavalry battalions is about 15,000.
Divisional cavalry.
The total number of cavalry was therefore approximately 45,000.
But it is impossible for all of these 45,000 cavalry to be placed in the north, let alone in the Hetao area.
For example, take the Third Cavalry Division stationed in the Liaohetao area. This cavalry division shoulders the important task of guarding the Chahar Tribe, Duoyan Sanwei and other nomadic tribes, and defending Liaohetao and even the entire western and eastern Liaoning.
Another example is the Fourth Cavalry Division stationed in Gansu. This cavalry division is basically immobile, because the Tang Empire has only one main cavalry division in the northwest region. If this is deployed, there will basically be no mobile strategic force here.
.
Most of the remaining cavalry units have their own tasks, either deployed on the Great Wall defense line or in the hinterland of the Central Plains, making them difficult to mobilize easily.
Currently, the Army has about 15,000 cavalry concentrated in the north of Shanxi, that is, in the eastern Hetao area. This is basically the largest number of cavalry units that the Tang Army can mobilize for mobile combat.
To this end, they even disrupted other units and transferred many divisional cavalry units stationed in the hinterland of the Central Plains to the north to take over the important tasks of the independent cavalry units that were transferred.
In addition to these 15,000 independent cavalry, in order to march into Hetao, the Tang Army also assembled infantry units from two infantry divisions and two reserve divisions in northern Shanxi. The total strength of these four units reached 45,000
people!
In other words, in order to march into Hetao, the Army of the Tang Dynasty had already assembled a total of 60,000 troops. After the 60,000 troops had been assembled, the Holy Emperor Li Xuan had once again held a military and political meeting during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
After the meeting, a secret order was officially issued, ordering the Ninth Army on the front line to officially launch the Battle of Hetao!
This Battle of Hetao will be the largest battle launched by the Tang Empire after the Liaodong Campaign that year, not only in terms of troops but also in terms of cost!
For this battle, the empire had prepared more than eight million taels of war funds!
It can be seen from this that war is a waste of money. Emperor Zhengde of the pre-Ming Dynasty also made many plans to recapture the Loop, but gave up in the end. Why, this does not mean that the army cannot defeat these Tatars.
, more than 40 years before the reign of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, he himself was also fond of martial arts, he still paid more attention to the army, and his combat effectiveness was pretty good.
But why did everyone give up on recapturing the Loop?