At the end of the 33rd year of Xuanping, Hao Bainian was promoted to field marshal and later retired. In addition, Ying Yikang, a representative figure among the new generation of generals, was promoted to lieutenant general.
The impact on the Imperial Army was profound and significant.
Because this means that the older generation of generals who have controlled the senior officers of the Imperial Army for more than thirty years have finally begun to withdraw from the front line and hand over power to the second generation of generals.
At the same time, the new generation of generals also officially entered the senior ranks and began to influence the development of the army.
In the Imperial Army, starting from the Huang Zhushan period until now, the hierarchy of middle and senior generals has been relatively clear.
Generally speaking, it can be divided into four batches based on before and after the establishment of the Imperial Academy and before and after the Unification War.
The earliest ones were naturally the bandit generals of the Huangzhushan period before the establishment of the Royal Academy, including Chen Tufu and others. However, these people basically gradually withdrew from the front line in the subsequent years of the Unification War, and there were no
Chen Tufu, who was able to climb to a high position, even if he was the best at it, later relied on presiding over artillery work and obtained the rank of Army General after the Unification War, but his prestige was still too weak.
But what's interesting is that because these people joined the dragon early and their early effects were quite obvious, as long as they are not stupid and cling to power, these people will receive generous titles even as compensation.
Although Tufu Chen obtained the rank of general after the Unification War, his influence was actually very low, but he still obtained the title of duke.
The reason is very simple, it is enough that he took Li Xuan to escape with a butcher's knife, saved the driver and even saved the country several times.
Basically, these people all retired from active service after the Unification War, and all of them went to enjoy the glory and wealth.
The second group was the early students of the Royal Academy represented by Hao Bainian and Li Chunjing, who can be generally called the first generation of generals.
Generally speaking, all officers who entered the Imperial Academy during the Unification War can be classified into this group. They generally participated in the Unification War, received early Imperial Academy studies, and at the same time had outstanding military achievements and accounted for the vast majority of officers.
Military aristocracy.
Even after the Unification War, many of these people were forced to retire or serve in false positions. However, these generals have a large base and they still hold the power of the army for a long time. Many generals who were promoted to brigadier generals after the Unification War were actually
Quite a few of them had already joined the army during the Unification War.
The so-called second-generation generals actually refer to the generals who entered the Imperial Academy after the Unification War, that is, the generals after the tenth period of the Army Imperial Academy.
They participated in a series of wars of the empire's external expansion, including a series of wars with the Tatars, the Battle of Fuso, the Indian Campaign, the African Campaign, etc.
These generals who entered the Royal Academy after the Unification War received the most formal modern military training from the beginning. Their fighting methods were different from those of the founding generals during the Unification War. In fact, the tactics of the founding generals remained the same.
With a strong traditional war model, even if they use artillery and flintlock guns, the tactical thinking of many generals is still that of traditional warfare.
However, the second-generation generals have been exposed to tactical concepts such as infantry and artillery coordination and line combat since attending military academy. Therefore, their tactical thinking is typical of that of a hot-weapons army. At the same time, their operations and promotions are very formalized.
.
At present, in fact, the best of these second-generation generals have generally climbed to the top. There are many major generals, many lieutenant generals, and several generals.
Originally, without the special role of Ying Yikang, there would be no such thing as a new generation of generals, because people generally regard the generals after the Unification War as second generation generals.
However, when Xuanping was more than 20 years old, a monster like Ying Yikang appeared.
In the past ten years, the most dazzling person within the Army has been Ying Yikang!
And Ying Yikang was in the 23rd term of the Army Imperial Academy, so people regard this time period as a division, and the generals after the 23rd term of the Army Imperial Academy are called new generation generals.
Generally speaking, they are young officers under the age of thirty-five, the typical young men in the army.
These young generals of the new generation are generally under thirty-five years old. In terms of military rank, except for Lieutenant General Ying Yikang, most of them are still school officers. Only a few of the more outstanding ones are brigadier generals. As for major generals
, there are only a few of them.
This group of young officers is the core composition of the current middle-level army officers. They generally serve as battalion commanders, regimental commanders and other positions.
At the same time, their military thinking is even more open and even leading.
Although Ying Yikang's military rank is a bit higher, he still belongs to the new generation of generals. To a certain extent, he can represent what the young generals in the Tang Army were like in this era.
Support the research and development of more advanced rifled rifles and artillery!
At the same time, more emphasis is placed on the logistics system, believing that with the development of ordnance technology and the sharp increase in ammunition consumption, logistics will become the most important factor in determining the outcome of a war.
At the same time, they did not insist on line tactics like their predecessors.
The older generation of generals generally believe that when faced with an attack, they still maintain a stable formation and continue to approach until they are thirty meters away from the enemy before firing and launching a bayonet charge. This is the measure of whether a unit is an elite unit.
standard.
This can be seen from the fact that most of the infantry divisions of the Tang Army conduct daily training towards this goal, and especially like to play this kind of wave flow during combat.
Of course, not every infantry division in the Tang Dynasty can do this. There are now more than 60 infantry divisions in the Tang Dynasty, but only a few elite troops can do this.
Even among the twenty front-line combat readiness divisions, although there will be one or two battalions or regiments in each division that can do this, it is definitely not all units.
Often only the most elite infantry regiments and infantry battalions can do this.
The entire division has this kind of tactical capability. In fact, there are only two or three in the entire Datang Army, and they are all veteran elite units with numbers in the top ten.
The Tang Army's pursuit of this kind of one-wave tactics had a huge relationship with the general tactical thinking of the second generation generals.
However, among the new generation of generals, under the influence of Ying Yikang, especially after the emergence of rifled weapons in recent years, for example, the Navy began to equip front-loading rifled guns a few years ago.
The tactical thinking of the new generation of generals has also changed.
The new infantry and artillery coordination tactics compiled by Ying Yikang, and even the infantry drill code and artillery drill code that were affected by this are typical examples.
Everyone can see that the world is changing, and it is changing extremely fast.
In the early days of the Unification War more than 20 years ago, everyone was still using matchlocks and cold weapons. However, by the late stage of the Unification War, they had basically entered the flintlock era, and thus entered the line era.
But now, more than twenty years later, with the great success of the 3rd Cavalry Division of the Western Expeditionary Army in the Central Asian battlefield using front-loading rifled rifles and the front-loading rifled guns of the 1st Cavalry Army Artillery Regiment, almost instantly within the Army
It just set off a rifle storm.
With the emergence of rifled weapons, more new tactics were proposed.
The Emperor Sheng also attaches great importance to this, and Ying Yikang's promotion is a very obvious signal.
This means that the Tang Army has begun to enter the rifled era.
To enter the rifled era, the research and development, production and equipment of rifled weapons are naturally the top priority.
The spring of the thirty-fourth year of Xuanping.
On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, just after the Lantern Festival, Li Xuan appeared at the Guards training ground on the outskirts of Jinling.
He came today to inspect a batch of new weapons.
Not one type, but a batch!
With the entry into the rifled era in recent years, the military has developed a variety of rifled weapons, including a large number of front-loaded and rear-loaded weapons. Because there are many, the military's procurement volume is also limited.
At the same time, in order to unify logistics, the military purchases weapons with as few models as possible.
However, there is a lot of equipment participating in the competition, such as the breech-mounted field artillery used by the Army. There are at least a dozen artillery manufacturers across the country vying for orders.
As for the navy, which is also a big user of guns, its naval gun orders are also competed by various artillery manufacturers.
Not to mention rifles, there are currently at least dozens of rifle research and development projects across the country, just to compete for the Army's new generation rifle orders.
As for which weapon will be selected in the end, it will naturally depend on everyone's ability.
At the same time, because the various new weapons of the empire are basically priority equipment for the Guards, all manufacturers hope that the Guards can equip their own weapons, in order to open up a gap and let their own weapons be included in the procurement list of the Army or Navy.
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Therefore, today's new weapons drill of the Guards will not only watch the weapons and equipment currently in service of the Guards, but also demonstrate a large number of new weapons that have not yet been installed, some of which are even purely laboratory products.
Major manufacturers have long been prepared for this new weapon inspection, preparing many new weapons to win the favor of the Holy Emperor.
As long as the Holy Emperor reads it and agrees, even if it is worthless, there is no need to worry about not getting an order from the military!
So during today's inspection of new weapons, Li Xuan just passed by and saw a lot of messy weapons and equipment placed in the square.
Li Xuan didn't count them, but he estimated that there were dozens of various types of artillery here.
There are probably dozens of types of rifles, lances, and pistols taken together.
There are also a lot of other messy weapons and equipment.
You don’t need to guess to know that these must have been created by the three major weapons companies.
It was a rare opportunity to shine in front of His Majesty. Naturally, these three major weapons companies would not miss it, and basically brought out the most advanced products from their subordinate manufacturers.
The most majestic of them all is an artillery piece!