Chapter eight hundred and seventieth Tatar cavalry who want to fly kites
Although the performance of the more than 400 forwards of the Tang Bing had exceeded the Tatars' estimates, and this estimate was not based on how strong the Tang Bing was, but that the strength of the Tang Bing seemed to be weaker than expected.
Before going south, they had heard that the Tang soldiers in the south were powerful. After going south, during their limited contact with the Ming army generals, they also learned about the strength of the Tang soldiers from market rumors. The most common adjective they heard was "sharp guns and cannons".
.
So at this time, they already had an advance understanding of the sharpness of the Tang soldiers' guns and artillery. However, like many civil servants and generals of the Ming Dynasty, they believed that the strength of the Tang soldiers was purely based on their sharpness of guns and artillery. If the Tang army did not have
If they can't catch their guns, or avoid their guns, then if there is a fight, the Ming army believes that it has at least a 50-50 chance of winning.
This is not an illusion of the Ming army's arrogance, but because when the Tang army and navy were fighting, the power of guns was too great, and they indeed relied heavily on guns, especially in tough battles.
With hundreds of cannons deployed, it is almost invincible. So far, no city has been able to withstand the strong attack of the Tang Army.
Intensive bombardment coupled with blasting, even the cities such as Changsha and Yangzhou that had been run by the Ming army for a long time and had complete fortifications, could not withstand it.
At this time, the Ming army often directly ignored another feature of the Tang army, that is, the hand-to-hand combat capability of the Tang army was not weak. Not only was it not weak, it also exceeded the Ming army by a lot.
Even if we put aside the special combat example of commando siege, we can only say that in field battles, bayonet charges have always been the specialty of the Tang Army!
In several large-scale frontal battles in the wild, the Ming army was able to barely maintain its formation and continue fighting even though it suffered a lot of casualties during the shooting phase. However, when the two sides approached and brutal hand-to-hand combat broke out, so Ming
The army often completely collapses.
There are many reasons for this. On the one hand, the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty Army are all professional soldiers. They undergo various trainings all year round and have sufficient food. The nutrients they absorb can support their high-intensity training. This also leads to a large number of soldiers.
The physical fitness of the soldiers of the Tang Army was generally better than that of the Ming Army.
Secondly, the Army of the Tang Dynasty was trained based on the modern army. It emphasized military law above all else, making soldiers fear military law more than fear of death. It allowed soldiers to develop the instinct to obey orders and not think too much.
To put it bluntly, the purpose is to train soldiers into robots that only know how to follow orders and fight.
Finally, there is the equipment of the Datang Army. A large number of musketeers, grenades, and artillery equipment can often cause a large number of casualties to the enemy before the two sides engage in hand-to-hand combat. With the large amount of plate armor equipment, the protective capabilities of the Datang Army have been greatly improved.
A huge improvement. Currently, the armor coverage rate among the main force of the Tang Army's regular army exceeds 70%. Not to mention the spearmen who are the main force in hand-to-hand combat are all wearing full body armor or half body armor. Even the musketeers
, and also specifically select some of the breastplates that have better physical fitness.
The advantages of so many aspects, taken together, mean that the close combat capability of the Tang Army is actually not as weak as the Ming Army thinks. On the contrary, the close combat capability of the Datang Army is very strong.
The sharp guns and cannons are just what outsiders see as the Tang Army. But in fact, the sharp guns and cannons are just an appearance. The most powerful thing about the Tang Army is actually the bayonet charge!
Almost all of the influence of the Tatars on the Tang Army was heard from the Ming Army, and some were heard by themselves from various rumors, whether it was the Ming Army or the rumors from outside.
The Army of the Tang Dynasty had sharp guns and artillery, but other aspects were rarely mentioned.
When the previous hundreds of "Tang soldiers" forwards were directly routed under the impact of their own cavalry, the Tatars' confidence also increased, and they had a feeling that the Tang soldiers were nothing more than this.
Of course, even though the evaluation of Tang Bing in his heart has dropped several levels, the Tatars are still not arrogant and contemptuous.
He did not say that he would rush forward without saying a word and launch a cavalry charge. Instead, he just sent out two thousand cavalry for a test. If the test results prove that the combat effectiveness of the Tang soldiers is indeed no more than this, then Buzgud will
Without hesitation, he led the main cavalry to charge forward and completely annihilated these ten thousand Tang soldiers.
If the result of the test was not too good, he would not hesitate and would cover the two thousand cavalrymen who were testing him, and then withdraw directly with tens of thousands of cavalrymen.
Anyway, there is no need for him to fight to the death with the Tang Army. If there is an advantage, he can take advantage of it. If not, it doesn't matter. Anyway, as long as he is active in the south, the Tang Army will have to allocate troops to defend against them. This can be regarded as containing the Tang Army and reducing Anping's situation.
The purpose was to suppress the pressure of 100,000 Ming troops.
The two thousand Tatar cavalry in front began to advance slowly in a traditional formation. What is a traditional formation? The classical cavalry, no matter what kind of messy cavalry formation it is, is basically a group of cavalry gathering together, then advancing in a group, and then a large group is divided into several groups.
A small team will spread out very far from front to back, forming a wave-like attacking rhythm. There is basically no neat formation.
Because there is no intensive training, and the speed of the war horses and the riding skills of the cavalry are surprising, it is difficult to maintain a unified formation when charging. When charging, they will basically rush forward in a swarm!
Of course, this is still talking about the situation where heavy armored cavalry directly attacks the enemy array!
The Tatars don't have any heavy cavalry, most of them are light cavalry who play horse shooting!
The standard cavalry and archery light cavalry is used to deal with the infantry phalanx, or to deal with the enemy's heavy armored cavalry as follows:
At first, wander far away from the enemy, or simply stay in place and let the enemy infantry form silly formations. From time to time, send small groups of cavalry up to harass and shoot a wave of arrows.
Then when the infantry on the opposite side becomes impatient or unable to hold on and wants to move forward, they continue to distance themselves. However, if the enemy infantry wants to retreat, when the enemy's infantry retreats, their formation will be messed up and they will rush forward and fire arrows!
Then... then there is no more, because at this time the enemy infantry phalanx is often finished!
Subsequent charges will only expand the results!
If they don't want to waste time, or for other reasons, the cavalry will also launch an attack directly. The attack method is also particularly interesting, that is, they will conduct a small-scale maneuver and go directly around the flank of the enemy array, or to be more precise, they will not
In the direction of a large number of enemy infantry archers.
Then these light cavalry will launch an attack, and the method of attack is also very interesting: they do not mean to rush directly to fight hand-to-hand, but divide into many attack waves to form a long column. The leading cavalry will be in the enemy's array for about
Tens of meters away, they began to turn sharply and passed in front of the enemy's formation. During this period, the cavalry began to bend their bows and shoot arrows directly on horseback.
If the enemy has no archers at all, or there is no time to support them, they will even dismount and shoot directly with a rifle from dozens of meters away. This is why cavalry usually carry two bows, one of which is a small riding bow.
, and the other one is usually a powerful walking bow.
Well, yes, they will not be stupid enough to directly attack the enemy's infantry square. The basic principle is to rush up and shoot arrows!
When the traditional infantry's archers turn around and run to the flanks to counterattack, they will mount their horses and run away without hesitation!
Then, they change directions and do it again, again and again!
Then, the enemy's infantry phalanx and even the heavy-armored cavalry basically collapsed. In the end, they beat up the drowned dogs and caught up with them and directly used their sabers to expand the victory.
This tactic can be described in a simple term: kite flying!
Back then, the Mongols used this trick to defeat invincible opponents all over the world!
It forced the Song army to equip a large number of heavy armored infantry, develop and equip powerful bows and crossbows, and then it could only passively defend, and basically had no ability to actively attack in the face of cavalry and light cavalry.
The Europeans were even worse. At that time, the Europeans in the Middle Ages were still playing with heavy armored cavalry, but the Mongols flew kites all the way to the Danube River!
Later, the Mongolian cavalry degenerated, and Zhu Yuanzhang's cavalry inherited the tactics of mounted archery, and the Ming army also had a large number of firearms to cooperate. As a result, the Mongolian cavalry was also killed with the advanced version of mounted archery.
The current Tatars are naturally playing the same tactics as their ancestors, and they used this tactic just now to directly kill more than 400 "Tang Bing" forwards.
So this time, they prepared to repeat their old tricks. When the two thousand cavalry slowly approached, they discovered that the array listed by the Tang army on the opposite side was a bit strange. There was no distinction between front, rear, left and right.
The Tang army of tens of thousands of people was divided into three large square formations, and each of the three large square formations had a number of small square formations. Moreover, these small square formations looked very thin, and they were all composed of musketeers.
, such a thin hollow square formation gives people the illusion that it can be broken by just rushing up!
Could it be that these Tang troops were seeking their own death? How could such a thin phalanx block their own attack?
The Tatar cavalry who were slowly going up were a little confused, but since the Tang army had such a thin formation, don't blame them for taking the opportunity to kill!
At this time, they no longer looked for flanks, because the Tang army on the opposite side was backed by the river, and the front and left and right were the same, so there was no such thing as flanks.
When they approached more than 400 meters, they had already begun to slowly increase their speed. At this time, the artillery of Datang on the opposite side also opened fire one after another. Many artillery pieces of the divisional artillery regiment of the 5th Infantry Division had not had time to move off the ship.
There are only a few, and most of them are naval artillery fire support provided by the navy's river fleet. It is not much, but there are still thirty or forty artillery pieces.
The cannonballs streaked across the sky, then bounced on the ground and rushed into the Tatar cavalry. Every time a cannonball hit the Tatar cavalry, it would cause a bloody storm, but!
The Tatar cavalry did not stop, they continued to charge forward!
Although the artillery of the Tang army was not small, the Tatar cavalry formation was already very loose. If this solid artillery shell came over, unless it was particularly lucky, it would not be able to kill or injure a few Tatar cavalry. After being attacked by the artillery shell,
These Tatar cavalry dispersed further.
But seeing the Tatar cavalry disperse, Chen Keqiao smiled!