Chapter 696 The fourth mixed regiment that cannot advance or retreat
When Gu Shizhong learned that the main force of the Ming army's cavalry was five kilometers away, although he was calm and calm on the outside and ordered, he was inevitably a little panicked in his heart.
As a veteran general of the Tang Dynasty, Gu Shizhong also experienced many large-scale battles of the Army of the Tang Dynasty. During this period, he also went to the Martial Arts School and the Royal Academy to study, and he also had a profound understanding of modern warfare.
At this moment, he led the fourth mixed regiment to raid Nanchang. What he was most afraid of was not that the Nanchang Ming Army would not leave the city, nor was he afraid of a head-on confrontation with the main force of the Ming Army several times its strength, because he had three artillerymen under his command.
The battalions are respectively the 1st Heavy Artillery Battalion, the 4th Mixed Artillery Battalion and the 14th Artillery Battalion.
It has three 48-pound heavy howitzers, nine 24-pound heavy howitzers, twelve nine-pound cannons, eighteen seven-pound cannons, plus six five-pound cannons and twelve three-pound shotguns.
, six two-pound shotguns.
Even if there are not eighteen shotguns, there are forty-eight heavy howitzers and field guns combined!
The strength of this artillery force is actually comparable to that of an artillery regiment. It is more than enough to assist the more than 3,000 infantrymen of his fourth mixed regiment in combat.
Therefore, whether it is a tough battle or a decisive battle, he has great confidence to fight it!
However, this confidence does not include encountering a large-scale Ming army cavalry in the wild!
As a high-ranking general in the Tang Dynasty Army, although he said that he had never fought against the cavalry brigade of the Ming Army, he had read many internal exercise reports of the Tang Army.
In the third year of Xuanping, the First Army organized a confrontation exercise between cavalry and infantry!
The total number of cavalry in the two battalions is only over 800!
What faced this was the two infantry regiments of the Second Infantry Division and related artillery units, with a total strength of more than 8,000 people!
The results of it?
The infantry units in the 2nd Infantry Division were defeated miserably!
And it was an undisputed defeat, leaving people with no excuse to feel sorry for the Second Infantry Division!
How was the exercise conducted at that time?
After the two met, the infantry troops formed an emergency formation. However, the cavalry troops did not, as many infantry generals expected, launch a charge directly before the infantry formation was completed. Instead, they charged directly from a full seven to eight hundred meters away.
stay.
Brigadier General Lu Yuzhi, who led 800 cavalry, did not charge. Major General Fang Xitong, the commander of the Second Infantry Division at the time, used infantry to initiate the attack and tried to counter with a square square formation that restrained the cavalry.
But what did Lu Yuzhi do? He directly led the cavalry to distance themselves, without giving the infantry of the Second Infantry Division the slightest chance to engage!
What's more important is that the infantry of the Second Infantry Division need to maintain their formation and not dare to move. If they relax a little, the cavalry troops on the opposite side will look like they are trying to attack, and then the infantry will be frightened to rearrange their formations.
Shape, be on guard!
Next, the two sides entered a long confrontation period!
Under the scorching sun, the heavy armored infantrymen in the Second Infantry Division were unable to hold up one after another. They either took off their armor or fainted!
Wearing dozens of kilograms of armor to fight, even if he is standing still, he is in good physical condition if he can hold on for several hours. And Lu Yuzhi is not stupid enough to stay where he is, but is he leading the cavalry on the outside?
Wander around and look for opportunities!
As soon as Lu Yuzhi's cavalry moved, the infantry phalanx of the Second Infantry Division would have to move accordingly. Otherwise, they would be completely destroyed if they were killed from behind.
The Second Infantry Division also tried to withdraw from the battlefield, but after a slight change of formation, the cavalry immediately mounted their horses. Do you dare to leave at this time? Try leaving!
Once the marching state is restored, it will take at least a few minutes to form a tight square formation, and these few minutes are enough for the cavalry four to five hundred meters away to charge over and kill them several times.
You have to know that a distance of four to five hundred meters is the optimal charging distance for cavalry!
The next result was not unexpected. The infantrymen of the Second Infantry Division could not move, stay in place, or fight. In the end, they were forced to stay in place. When the infantrymen's physical energy was exhausted,
After the morale of the soldiers dropped, Lu Yuzhi's cavalry occasionally came up to test him!
So the 2nd Infantry Division can do nothing but defend in place!
And in this exercise, until the end, Lu Yuzhi did not lead the cavalry to charge, but the Second Infantry Division could not move a step!
However, the exercise commander Li Chunjing judged on the spot that the Second Infantry Division had failed in this exercise!
Although there were many ideal conditions for this exercise, many issues were not considered, such as why the Second Infantry Division did not have cavalry? Why did Lu Yuzhi's cavalry unit have no infantry support, etc. Therefore, the exercise cannot be compared with actual combat.
But this exercise revealed very accurately what the advantages of cavalry are on the battlefield!
The advantage of the cavalry is not to charge in formation. In fact, if Lu Yuzhi directly led the cavalry to charge during the exercise, the square formation of the Second Infantry Division would have to teach these cavalry how to behave in minutes.
In this kind of wild encounter, the greatest advantage of the cavalry is not its charging ability, but its strategic initiative!
In other words, if the cavalry wants to fight, they can fight. If they don't want to fight, they can leave. If they don't want to fight, they can stay aside.
The infantry can only respond passively to this, and there is almost no other way except to stick to their original position!
Eight thousand infantry, and even infantry with complete infantry and artillery, were dragged in place by the cavalry with only more than 800 cavalry. This is why Li Chunjing concluded that the Second Infantry Division's exercise failed.
Because under normal circumstances, if these 8,000 infantrymen were held back by the enemy's cavalry for so long, the enemy's main infantry force must have caught up long ago, or completed other strategies, but these 8,000 infantrymen were powerless against this.
.
The Second Infantry Division's exercise failed and it was just an exercise, but now Gu Shizhong is facing a real battle!
Thousands of military governor's cavalry were nearby, like a poisonous snake, they might swoop up and take a bite at any time.
Now, Gu Shizhong has even forgotten about attacking Nanchang!
The current fourth mixed group can protect itself, but it has lost the opportunity to continue attacking Nanchang!
The infantry of the Fourth Mixed Regiment formed an emergency formation, and the artillerymen also hurriedly unloaded the artillery, then pushed it directly onto a low hilltop, and raced against time to start digging bunkers and constructing artillery positions.
On the periphery of the artillery position, there are a large number of infantry units of the Fourth Mixed Regiment. At this time, the heavy armored infantry in these infantry units are putting on armor with the help of their comrades, while the musketeers, light armored spearmen and other soldiers are already
Start arranging on the outside first.
Facing the enemy's cavalry attack, they naturally listed a four-corner square formation specially designed to deal with the cavalry.
The four sides of this square formation are spearmen, and the four corners are musketeers!
The spearmen are the core of defense, and the musketeers at the four corners are the main killing firepower!
After more than ten minutes passed, more than 6,000 people in the Fourth Mixed Regiment had already formed a huge defensive formation. In the middle was the artillery position and a large amount of baggage, while on the outside was the infantry square formation.
Five infantry square formations composed of five infantry battalions cooperate with each other to protect the artillery and baggage inside.
Behind the infantry square formation, the second line of defense is composed of baggage troops, transport troops and other auxiliary units. They do not have a square square formation, but a traditional close square formation with a depth of six columns!
Just when the fourth mixed group formation was completed, a puff of smoke and dust rolled up in the distance, and then everyone heard a sound like thunder!
Through the telescope, Gu Shizhong could clearly see a large number of cavalry appearing about 1,500 meters in the distance!
At a rough count, the enemy's cavalry numbered as many as a thousand. Although these cavalry had not yet mounted their horses and started running, but the cavalry were leading their horses forward, they still created a huge momentum.
What a bad news!
"Command the entire army to hold their positions!" Gu Shizhong said to the order soldiers around him. Soon, the flag soldiers behind him would move the flags in their hands to convey Gu Shizhong's latest order to the troops!
After giving the order, Gu Shizhong was worried, but in order to boost morale, he still pretended to be relaxed and said: "Don't worry, gentlemen, these bandit cavalry can't charge over. If they dare to charge over, our guns and cannons will be fierce."
Teach them a lesson!"
The 6,500-strong army formed a tight infantry phalanx, and there was also a large number of artillery to assist the battle. As long as the enemy's cavalry generals were not stupid, then they would not launch an active charge!
The war situation may remain in stalemate until new changes occur!
The fact is indeed as Gu Shizhong expected. The thousand pseudo-ming cavalry took the initiative to stop after they arrived about a kilometer away from the fourth mixed regiment. Through the telescope, Gu Shizhong could see the pseudo-ming cavalry on the opposite side.
I'm still thinking of feeding the war horses **.
You can tell at a glance that the counterfeit cavalry on the opposite side will not be stupid enough to charge directly. What are they waiting for?
Maybe they were waiting for the opportunity to rush up and fight, maybe they were waiting for more main infantry to arrive and try to surround them, maybe they were waiting for the Ming army from other directions to return to support Nanchang, but no matter which way it was, the situation was different for the fourth mixed regiment.
Words are extremely unfavorable.
Gu Shizhong knew that he could not wait like this forever. This stalemate must be changed!
But what should I do?
At this time, Gu Shizhong finally realized Fang Xitong's helplessness during the summer exercise!
However, what Fang Xitong was facing at that time was just an exercise. Now, what he is facing is a real war. If he is not careful, the Fourth Mixed Regiment will fall into a desperate situation, let alone carry out the instructions given by Lieutenant General Li Chunjing.
The next task is to conquer Nanchang.
Brigadier General Gu Shizhong was thinking hard, but the other officers of the Fourth Mixed Regiment did not listen. A large number of middle and senior officers gathered together to argue and discuss various possible methods!
At this time, Gu Shizhong suddenly heard a major say: "The cavalry on the opposite side is not the cavalry under General Lu!"