Chapter 63 Intelligence flow is the essence of the battlefield
The cavalry's dominance on the battlefield is not due to the bravery of a frontal charge, but rather the dominance of the battlefield brought about by its powerful mobility.
Zhang Nai was indeed a brave and capable cavalry general, but the gap between him and Huang Taiji in the use of cavalry units was even greater than the gap in scheming between him and Li Laiheng.
When a war reaches a certain scale, the importance of command becomes more and more prominent. When two armies confront each other, the one with better command can often win the final victory.
The core of command activities lies in reconnaissance-obtaining intelligence, communication-transmitting intelligence, decision-making-using intelligence, issuing military orders-transmitting intelligence again.
Therefore, if you want to conduct successful command, you need to understand the battlefield situation in real time and issue orders in a timely manner. In other words, you must have sufficient battlefield information acquisition and transmission capabilities.
The flow of intelligence is the essence of the battlefield.
The strength of the cavalry lies not only in its maneuverability advantages and the huge power of charge, but also in the fact that the stronger cavalry can take advantage of the "intelligence flow" and destroy the opponent's ability to obtain and transmit information.
When Zhang Nai rode under the Tumen Pass and ravaged the rear troops of the Qing army, killing thousands of people. Even the more cautious Zhang Pizhu was distraught because of this small conflict.
Victory smoothed away the inner uneasiness.
They had not yet realized that the Qing army had completely cut off traffic and intelligence communication between Jingxing Road and Zhending City, which meant that a terrible situation was slowly emerging.
Prior to this, many Shun army light cavalry were defeated by the Qing army one after another and were expelled to the vicinity of Tumen Pass. Huang Taiji did not care how many enemies were annihilated. There was only one advantage he wanted to strive for and ensure, and that was to ensure that from
The battlefield between Zhending and Jingxing is completely under his absolute control.
The Dashun army detectives who were deliberately expelled by Huang Taiji to Tumenguan City brought "correct" but "inopportune" information to the defenders.
All this information shows that the Qing army's hundreds of thousands of troops, the absolute main force of which are elite soldiers, have all deployed under Zhending City and entered the stage of fierce siege. Huang Taiji even set up his own and
Emperor Chongzhen's imperial tent and throne, the Qing army's inevitable capture of Zhending City, and the full deployment of Donglu troops and horses. These "correct" and "authentic" but "out of time" intelligence made it possible for military science to
Zhang Pizhu, who had made great progress and could be called a mature general, was convinced that the Qing army's attack on Zhen Ding had reached a critical moment.
On the battlefield, the acquisition and transmission of information mainly rely on light cavalry. The light cavalry conducts reconnaissance activities and reports the detected situation to the commander. The commander determines what action should be taken next based on the detected situation.
After making judgment, light cavalry will be dispatched to convey the order to the armies scattered in various places, and each army will carry out relevant actions according to the order.
In this process, whether the light cavalry can detect enough intelligence and deliver it to the commander-in-chief and deliver the commander-in-chief's orders to the armies in a timely manner has become an important factor in whether one's side can take the initiative.
It should be noted that when delivering information, the cavalry often has to pass through large areas of weak control. Due to the lack of military presence on both sides, these areas will become battlefields for light cavalry from both sides. In this battlefield, the two sides compete for
Dominance of battlefield information. Whichever side can gain the upper hand in the melee can detect the situation and deliver the military orders in time.
On the contrary, not only will the enemy be deaf and blind due to poor feedback of reconnaissance intelligence, but the army may also be paralyzed due to poor communication of orders.
Zhang Nai's victory at Tumen Pass proved that the cavalry of the Dashun Army was not weaker than their enemies. In fact, this was indeed the case. The approximately 100,000 troops brought by Li Zicheng included a large number of elite troops.
If the cavalry can be used properly, Huang Taiji will never be able to obtain the absolute advantage of "information flow" on the battlefield.
Rather, what Huang Taiji had was the absolute advantage of the "information flow" over a "time difference".
Under Zhending City, there are two huge imperial tents decorated with gold, silver, glazed glass and silk brocade. They are as if they are afraid that the defenders will not know the location of the two emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They try their best to show their majesty and dignity.
Strong sense of presence.
Outside the royal tent, there is a towering throne. The same two thrones seem to have the "Emperor" sitting on them. Many brightly armored guards are surrounding the royal tent, seemingly for the purpose of
Defend against the assault launched by the defenders in Zhending City.
These two imperial tents were so eye-catching that they naturally attracted the attention of Gu Junen and Chen Yongfu. Gu Junen was originally an adventurous person. If Li Laiheng and Liu Fangliang hadn't taken away most of the cavalry in Zhending City, Gu Junen would have found a way to do so.
A team of elite cavalry was sent out to see if they could attack the two grand imperial tents.
Chen Yongfu also climbed on the battlements, carefully observing the layout and movements of the Qing army's siege troops. The defenders fired artillery one after another, and the enemy's offensive seemed to suddenly weaken many times compared to before. At first, the defenders' generals, including those who had joined the Army Department,
Everyone thought this was because the Qing army was waiting for the transportation and mobilization of Hongyi artillery.
However, as time passed, the Qing army's Hongyi artillery never appeared. The number of enemy artillery used to attack the city was so small that Chen Yongfu had to have a suspicion.
"It seems that many of Donglu's siege troops have been mobilized."
Xu Du represented the opinion of the Army Joining Division, which silently observed the movements of the Qing troops outside the city. From many clues, it was already certain that the number of troops besieging the city would be greatly reduced.
Chen Yongfu was puzzled by this, but he also admitted that Xu Du was right: "Once an army of hundreds of thousands takes action, it will be overwhelming and there is absolutely no way to hide. Judging from the movements of this Qing army besieging the city this morning,
, at least more than half of them have been transferred... But we still can't take it lightly. Even if more than half of them are transferred, the Qing army will still have several times our strength. Moreover, I see that the imperial thrones of the Lu chieftains are all under the city and have not moved.
I think the most elite soldiers and horses of Donglu should still be under Zhending City."
"What General Chen said makes sense. The captive chief has not moved his tent. It seems that he still regards defeating Zhending as his primary goal? Suddenly transferring so many troops... Is it because the troops are divided to attack Jingxing Pass, or the reinforcements from Taiyuan have been
Come on, the captive chief will divide his troops to meet the enemy?"
Xu Du bit his nails and fell into deep thought. Ever since he defected to the army and joined the army department led by Gu Junen, his military skills have begun to improve by leaps and bounds.
After three days of farewell, Xu Du looked at each other with admiration. Geographical maps of Zhending and Jingxing Road flashed through Xu Du's mind. The more he continued to fight against the Qing army's action, the more suspicious he became. Huang Taiji
His use of troops was quite clumsy. He did not look like a master of military science who had defeated the Ming army many times and had never been defeated in his career. Instead, he went straight and seemed to only know how to attack hard.
But even if they attacked this point with all their strength, the Qing army attacked Zhending with more than 100,000 troops, claiming to be one million. Before surrounding Zhending City, how amazing was his momentum? It seemed that he was going to swallow up the small Zhending city in one bite.
Definitely similar.
However, when the offensive and defensive battle of Zhen Ding City began, although Donglu did show an aggressive attack posture at the beginning, he even put up his royal tent, as if to show that he would never give up until Zhen Ding was broken.
Not long after the battle started, although the Zhending garrison was organized by Gu Junen and Chen Yongfu, the city defense was strong and the garrison's combat level was very impressive. However, the Qing army had more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, so it was not like this.
They soon suffered setbacks and were unable to recover. It seemed that their attitude toward the siege had become much more negative.