Chapter 339 Defeating the Enemy in a Bloody Battle (6,000-character chapter)
To be honest, using "hollow phalanx" to deal with cavalry has not been a reliable idea since ancient times.
Even during the more than 100 years when the "Spanish Grand Phalanx" became popular, this tactic was still a fool's errand, because if the enemy cavalry is good at mounted shooting and fights you, the long-range musket output of the phalanx infantry is simply not enough.
The cavalry can completely circle around to the weakest long-range firepower side of the square formation, and then test it. Once they find that the musketeers in the formation are too slow to turn around and re-form, and there is a gap to exploit, they can immediately attack them.
Even though the cavalry will be stabbed repeatedly by the spears and spears gathered by the hedgehogs at the beginning of the encounter, as long as they survive the difficult period before the gap is opened, they will be able to completely smash the hollow phalanx and achieve a backstab.
Who said that the early Spanish Grand Formation only had 20% musketeers, and the remaining 80% were pikemen. Even the latest model only had less than half of the musketeers.
When facing the enemy head-on in a line formation, although there are few muskets, they can be used concentratedly, and the firepower density is sufficient. In the square formation, if the muskets are evenly distributed on the four sides, it will be completely inferior to the enemy who has assembled the entire army to make a desperate move.
ride.
If they are not evenly distributed on the four sides, but still try to use them all concentratedly, and let the musketeers always move towards the enemy cavalry according to the roundabout direction, then another problem will arise:
The cavalry is more maneuverable when sprinting, but the musketeers must form a strict formation to ensure that they do not hit their comrades in the chaos. If the cavalry circle around for a while, the musketeers themselves will be in chaos. Once this information is captured, the cavalry will take advantage of the chaos.
If you charge forward, it will definitely cause disaster.
Infantry carrying cavalry is inherently stressful. This is not a video game. The bloody soldiers can continue to fight to the death, and can change formations at will without panic or low morale.
Since ancient times, infantry and cavalry have been used in battles. It is a taboo to repeatedly change formations in battle. Han Xin did not command well, so he could only ask the infantry to stand still and not move. Anyone who retreats without permission will be killed!
However, times have changed. In the West, hollow square formations crushed muskets. This happened before and after the Napoleonic Wars. An important reason was the widespread popularity of ferrule bayonets and the fact that all personnel were equipped with muskets. There was no longer a single pikeman.
Such a high density of muskets means that even if four teams are equally divided, without mutual support, the long-range firepower is enough to crush the opposing cavalry. All musketeers can stand still from the beginning to the end of the battle, no matter what situation they encounter, there is no need to run around and change.
The formation creates chaos, and if you are charged close to you, you will fight back on the spot. The bayonet that has just been fired can also be stabbed directly, and there is no need to switch between long and near weapons.
At this moment, Banbulshan and Suksaha are encountering this situation!
…
"Bang bang bang——"
As Bamboulshan's Zhengbai Banner elite cavalry approached Huang Fei's hollow square formation between 200 and 150 paces, the Ming army riflemen opened fire one after another.
If there are any onlookers who don't know what happened, they might think that this is because the riflemen of the Ming Army couldn't keep their composure and didn't even come close to attack.
But in fact, these soldiers strictly followed the military orders, because everyone from Huang Fei to the guards of each formation and General Qian gave them the same order, telling them not to skimp on firepower and fire with all their strength when the enemy first entered the effective range.
The goal of the Ming army was not to expect the first wave of attacks to cause heavy casualties to the Qing army. On the contrary, they were luring the enemy and forcing the enemy to move, so that the enemy could retreat as early as possible and launch a roundabout!
This is also the standard method of dealing with cavalry assaults that the elite Ming Army rifle team has learned from tactical training in the past three years. It’s just that their enemies don’t know it yet.
When Banbulshan heard the gunfire, his hair stood up slightly. This was not because he was timid, but because of human instinct.
Dozens of Qing cavalrymen also groaned and fell down from their horses, and even more had their horses shot, throwing the cavalrymen off their horses.
The performance of the Ming army's new rifles can fully compete with the later French Charleville 1763 model, and some individual performances can even surpass it. Even if it performs deterrence shooting at a distance of nearly two hundred steps, the hit rate is impressive, but when the number is large, once
It was more than enough to kill dozens of horsemen and injure nearly a hundred.
Looking at Bu Qu's casualties, Bamboulshan shuddered briefly, and a ferocious expression reappeared on his face, and the thought of fighting for his life once again took over in his brain:
"As expected, the Nanmanzi's musketeers are concentrated in the front! Pass them between the barbarian formations, then circle back to the rear and trample them to disperse them!"
Bambulshan's guess is absolutely correct if he is facing the old Ming army three to five years ago. Because the firearms equipment rate of the Ming army at that time was so low, or even lower.
Being able to display such a strong concentration of musket firepower on the front shows that the Ming army concentrated all muskets on one side! The long-range deterrence on the other sides is in vain!
Moreover, muskets are not as heavy as bows and arrows. The arrows have a high kinetic energy carrying rate. Arrows with slow flying speed are also quite lethal. As a result, bows and arrows can be shot in a curved direction. The crossbowman can release arrows into the sky behind the pikemen, which can be relatively flexible.
Support any direction of the formation.
The projectiles of the musket are extremely light, and the kinetic energy maintained by the mass is very small. The kinetic energy is mainly maintained by the flight speed of the projectile. Once the projectile speed drops significantly, the lethality of the musket is approximately zero.
Since ancient times, the threat of musket fire has been minimal, and one must stand in the front row to shoot flatly. This will cause the musketeers to change formations and adjust the output direction, which will cause great chaos to the original military formation.
Bumble saw that the Ming army musketeers couldn't keep their temper, and exposed the truth in advance, so they became angry instead of angry, and became more and more ferocious.
Like a hot dinner knife cutting butter, the Zhengbai Banner Jingqi sharply penetrated into the gaps between the hollow square formations of the Ming army and directly implemented a large-scale detour.
As the army entered the battle, the enemy and we were at each other's throats. Banbulshan and Suksaha also lost the ability to direct and finely command their troops. After all, we are already among the enemies, and the enemy is among us. Everyone is engaged in mobile warfare.
It is impossible to find all of his troops, and at most he can only command a group of close relatives in front of him.
However, the generals of the Qing army generally did not think this was a big problem. The grassland nomadic army had always had the advantage of a far more "flat management structure" than the Han army, and was better at adapting to changes and fighting independently.
The Mongols were a typical example back then. Before the war, they agreed on who would attack and who would attack and contain them. However, on the actual battlefield, once they found that the situation had changed and the troops originally stipulated to attack with sheep could seize better opportunities, they would not do anything.
Hesitation automatically transforms into the main attack. When the main attack force planned before the war sees that friendly forces are more suitable for the main attack, they will immediately switch roles and cooperate obediently.
The level of flatness of the Qing army was slightly less than that of the Mongols, but it was not far behind. Naturally, they were very comfortable with the situation in front of them. The various units were quickly dispersed into units of Jia La or even Niu Lu, and fought independently.
Every Jia La Er Zhen no longer needs to listen to the direct command of Banbulshan or Suk Saha. He can command on his own based on his war talent and military sense.
Some radical and adventurous Qing soldiers, Jia Laerzhen, chose to move in one step and went directly to the opposite direction of the Ming army's gun-intensive side, that is, directly behind them, and then closed the distance and launched a counterattack.
Some impatient and impatient Qing soldiers Jia Laerzhen chose to detour back to the flanks and attack directly in the direction of the waist of the Ming army's formation, without waiting for them to completely detour back to the rear to carry out backstabbing.
The specific tactics are diverse, and a hundred flowers bloom, but the ending is the same.
The imagined situation where the density would suddenly drop when hit by long-range firepower when reaching the side of the hollow square array did not appear.
On the contrary, the density of muskets in every direction of the Ming army's hollow square formation was so high!
No matter which side the Qing army charged from, they faced a barrage like a storm.
"Kill all the dog Tatars!"
"The Ming Dynasty will win! As long as I am there, there will be no Tartars!"
Zhu Shuren prepared 25,000 new weapons made in Wuchang for today's battle, as well as nearly 10,000 other relatively old-fashioned weapons. And the left wing of the Ming army was the top priority that had been envisioned before the war.
More than half of the firepower.
The infantry trained by Huang Fei and Lin had a total of 15,000 new Wuchang-made weapons and 5,000 old-style firearms! The total number of 20,000 was enough for them to equip most of the soldiers with muskets. This density was simply higher than that of the Qing army.
unbelievable.
After three years of truce, the world has completely changed!
Times have changed!
Some people may wonder: Didn't Banbulshan and Suksaha observe the enemy's situation before diving into the trap? It has been three years since Shunzhi. There are also some telescopes in the Qing army, which have long been popularized. They are nothing more than magnification and
The accuracy is not as good as that of the Ming army, but it can still tell the status of the Ming army in advance.
It has to be said that the battlefield here is relatively flat, and the Qing army could not find a high ground high enough to observe the enemy's situation in depth. Even with telescopes, from a distance, they could only see that the front row of the Ming army were carrying muskets, and the back row was blocked
The soldiers are also invisible.
The Qing army made assumptions based on old experience and made wrong judgments. It is understandable that they felt that the Ming army was bluffing.
There are tens of thousands of people on the battlefield, and there is no condescending overlooking condition. How can it be so easy to see clearly what is real in the back row?
And for all of this, at this moment, it’s time to pay the price.
Hundreds and thousands of Qing cavalrymen were heavily shot by rifles and fell to the ground in a short period of time. Blood flowed freely, and the corpses of the men and horses were scattered on their pillows.
Because the various departments of the Qing army were fighting independently, they could not respond quickly and uniformly. They could only rely on their own abilities and intuitive judgment.
Some Jia La foreheads are really brave, so they straighten up and continue to carry out the back stabbing attack. The Ming infantry on the opposite side are all ready, with bayonets already on. They insist on firing to kill the enemy until the last thirty steps before they are close, and then straighten their bayonets and deploy them.
A stance against sprinting.
Countless Qing cavalrymen were shot to the ground as they approached, suffering heavy casualties. Those who finally rushed forward could not stand in front of the dense array of seven-foot-long bayonets and rifles.
Under the crazy and intensive stabbing of bayonets, groups of cavalry were pricked into hedgehogs. Even if they screamed and fell off their horses, they would be subjected to subsequent intensive fire shots, and the lake of flesh and blood was suddenly unrecognizable.
After paying such a heavy price, the results achieved by the Qing army were not so conspicuous in comparison. Apart from knocking away some Ming army musketeers, the gains were not much.
Even if a small hole is torn in the hollow square formation, the Ming army's reserves will immediately fill it up, and the bayonets on the left and right will immediately press forward, frantically stabbing the Qing cavalry who have lost speed and fallen into hand-to-hand combat.
The defense of the Ming Army riflemen should not be underestimated either. Like the Dutch musketeers of the same era, they wore hydraulically forged steel breastplates and helmets to ensure key protection and spend the limited load on the blade.
The defense of the limbs such as arms, legs and feet was abandoned, and was only protected by thick layers of cotton. This did not affect movement and facilitated precise aiming and shooting.
When facing the charge of Qing cavalry, such armor can also maximize its practical effect. Anyway, when being charged by cavalry, the probability of fatal injury to the limbs is extremely small, and the flexible hands and feet can also make it easier to control the landing posture when being hit by the side.
Seeking life from death.
There is also a padded lining inside the breastplate, which can protect the internal organs and cushion the pressure when being hit. These are proven optimal solutions.
The biggest disadvantage of this approach of almost giving up limb protection is that when facing enemy light cavalry flying kites and harassing them with mounted bow fire, the probability of riflemen being injured will greatly increase, especially when modern riflemen do not
Equipped with a large shield to prevent arrows from missing.
However, the firepower density and range advantages of the new muskets have already determined that the Qing cavalry in this era will not be more than a hundred steps away from you, crossing the formation to harass and shoot at you. In that case, the Qing army will definitely die more miserably.
They were restrained by the Ming army at every turn and fell into the Ming army's preset fighting method, which ultimately led to these Qing army Jia La who chose to fight bloody battles to the end and fell into a desperate situation.
At the same time, it was precisely because the Qing army fought separately in Jia La units. People's hearts were always divided, and everyone's judgment of the battle situation was also different.
Those who were more timid or cautious, after paying the price of the first hundred casualties, had already begun to assess the situation, and would rather turn around and escape immediately, at the cost of being chased and shot by the enemy for a whole distance while escaping.
, we must also resolutely choose strategic transfer.
As a result, these strategically shrinking Qing army units were all chased and shot by the Ming army, resulting in considerable casualties. The Ming army, which had repelled the frontal enemy, was able to free up its hands to deal with the friendly troops who were still fighting and fighting to the death.
The stubborn Qing army that refused to retreat.
Less than half of the main force of the Two White Banners of the Qing Army chose to fight to the end. These people suffered doubled pressure on the battlefield and fell into an absolute local battlefield strength disadvantage.
The hollow phalanxes of the Ming army carefully adjusted and moved closer together. Soon, those phalanxes that had not yet ended the battle, where the Qing cavalry was intensively charging, were met with short bursts of Ming army musketry from behind, and the chaos suddenly became more chaotic.
And these Ming troops who stabbed the Qing army in the back did not dare to open fire, because the Qing army and friendly forces were fighting together. If the Qing army was too sparse, an inadvertent back-stabbing Ming army might accidentally injure one of its own people.
,
Therefore, they could only shoot at the Qing army in a very dense manner. Once the Qing army was defeated and scattered, fighting on their own, they had to cease fire. Even so, a few Ming army musketeers were accidentally injured by their comrades in the process.
Fortunately, the forged steel breastplates of the Ming Army's musketeers could block the kinetic energy of stray bullets two hundred steps away. Only those shot in the hands and feet would be seriously injured, which somewhat alleviated the losses caused by accidental injuries.
Once the intensive charging and tearing formation of the Qing army was broken up, resulting in individual hand-to-hand combat between loose cavalry, the Ming army's bayonets could quickly deal with them.
…
However, after more than half an hour of brutal fighting, the winner of the fiercest bloody battle on the west side of the main battlefield was completely decided.
Zhengbai Banner, which charged the deepest, suffered the heaviest casualties. Ban Bulshan, who led the troops, was killed directly in the formation. At least two more Jia La troops in Zhengbai Banner were annihilated in the formation. They were strangled and wiped out by the Ming army, and there was no way to escape.
Two Jia La Er Zhen died directly in battle.
The other three Jia La finally realized that something was wrong with the tragic defeat and fled in panic. However, only two of the three Jia La, Ezhen, escaped alive. The other Jia La, Ezhen, was shot in the back by the Ming army in the process of escaping.
Killed by a hail of musketry and bullets.
As for Niulu-level officers, more than a dozen people were killed and seriously injured in total.
The cavalry with white flags on the other side, because they did not charge so fast and deep, suffered relatively small losses, and they recognized the defeat more quickly and ran away. Suksaha also saved his life, but he was also killed by stray bullets and shrapnel.
The injury is not fatal.
Only one of the Jia La under his command was completely wiped out, and the remaining four killed hundreds of people each and escaped. There were also hundreds of wounded soldiers each, but as long as they were seriously injured and fell from their horses, they would undoubtedly be captured.
After the victory, the Ming army, which had the right to clean up the battlefield, fired back and killed them all. Only those lightly wounded who did not fall off their horses could escape with their lives. If they fell off their horses, they would be dead.
While the two white flags were severely damaged by the hollow square formation tactics to lure the enemy, the Ming and Qing armies were also busy on the frontal battlefield in the middle.
After just one or two cups of tea after the exchange of fire on the west side, the Chinese army on the front entered into a bloody fight. Just because the Chinese armies on both sides had no room to detour, the tactics were relatively old-fashioned. The entire Ming army formed a line formation, stacked into
Falun shot one after another,
There is no hollow square formation, there is no luring the enemy to go deep, it is a majestic battle with real fists and fists to bloody battles. The number of casualties in the battle is not rising as fast as the west side.
"With you," the canine and teeth are fighting so fast.
Just like a chemical reaction, even if two solid reactants are put together, there is only one contact surface between them, and the reaction speed is not too fast.
But if two cups of liquid reactants are directly poured together and stirred to fully form a solution, then the contact surface area will be countless times greater than that between the solid reactants, and the reaction speed will naturally skyrocket.
The central army of the musketeers in an upright line is like a solid reactant, and the hollow square array that lures the enemy into a deep fight is like a reaction solution. It is clear at a glance which side will win first.
When one of the two white flags suffered more than half of their casualties, and the other was severely wounded and fled in embarrassment, the Chinese army had just finished warming up, and the number of casualties on both sides was only one or two thousand, and there were not too many injured. Compared to
With more than 50,000 heavy troops each fighting against each other, the casualties were originally nothing.
As a result, the complete collapse of the Two White Banners quickly brought chaos to the Qing army's center.
The musket formation formed by Huang Fei and Lin still needs time to readjust the formation, and then they can approach the Chinese army at a moderate speed to support their comrades.
However, Cao Bianjiao's Ming army cavalry, who had their hands free, could react quickly in a very short period of time and immediately flanked the Qing army.
What's even more sinister is that Cao Bianjiao also learned to be cunning. Not only did he quickly take up positions with his cavalry, he controlled the position and compressed the flank space of the Qing army.
He also learned how to use six horses to pull a vehicle-mounted cavalry cannon, and quickly deploy to the front line with the cavalry. After the cavalry pulled away, he immediately moved to the weak position on the Qing army's western flank, and the front line
Deploy cavalry artillery.
When Huang Fei and Lin Chengcheng's infantry arrived and re-arranged themselves to deter the Qing army's flanks, the cavalry and artillery were generally deployed, so they could coordinate with the infantry and artillery.
Yue Le, of the Central Army of the Qing Army, had actually been paying attention to the movements of the two white flags in the west. When he learned that Banbulshan had died in battle and Suksaha had been injured and fled, he also made a hasty response as soon as possible, deploying troops from the Central Army.
Part of the troops barely protected his right side.
However, when he hurriedly changed the formation, he did not expect the Ming army to suddenly deploy cavalry cannons. When he could barely get into position, dozens of Ming army cavalry cannons fired fiercely at the flanks of the Qing army.
The right side of the Qing army's center was beaten to pieces, and more importantly, their morale was greatly depleted. They did not expect that their flanks could still be bombarded.
The Ming Army's cavalry artillery already had some models that used low-power explosive shells, but the shells were too light and could not carry much charge, so they mainly used solid iron ball shells.
As we all know, the most devastating effect of solid iron ball artillery shells on infantry and cavalry is achieved by "shooting sideways at the horizontal line and using ricochet to directly blind and kill a row of people."
In the era of bastion attack and defense, even the musketeers on the city wall were very afraid of siege artillery ricocheting horizontally along the city wall. It was easy for a single shell to kill many people.
At this moment, the situation on the right side of the Qing army's center was also the same. The flank of the horizontal line was exposed and was covered by several ricochet bombs, which directly penetrated the entire row of candied haws. The lake of flesh and blood was terrible and the morale collapsed instantly.
Under the tornado of cavalry artillery, Cao Bianjiao and Huang Fei launched charges one after another, completely smashing Abatai's right side.
The Ming army's main force, Huang Degongbu, who was holding the front line, saw that the friendly forces on the flanks had succeeded. Their morale was also boosted and they began to advance. The rifle team used a strict stacking method, advanced dozens of steps in turn, stopped shooting, and then stopped.
Reload the ammunition and let the friendly troops in the back row advance forward, severely oppressing the Qing army's battlefield space.
The 120,000 Qing troops finally ushered in a complete collapse. Several senior generals of the Mongolian cavalry first realized that the battle situation was irreversible and began to flee north.
While the friendly forces were holding the line, they would not be pursued by the Ming army when they crossed the Shaoshui River and returned to the north bank, so they waded across the river calmly.
In contrast, it would not be that easy for the slow-moving Qing troops to escape. There must always be dead soldiers responsible for breaking up the rear to resist damage and hold back the Ming troops.
Otherwise, whether the Qing army swam eastward across the Feishui River or fled north for more than ten miles and then waded through the shallower Shaoshui River, they would have been brutally killed by the Ming army's pursuers.
As for heading west, swimming across the Shaopi lake, which stretches for tens of miles, is absolutely impossible. If you don't swim in a river that is only a hundred meters wide, but swim in a lake that is dozens of miles wide, you will be killed.
Isn't it fast enough?
The battlefield terrain of "surrounded by water on three sides", which the Qing army did not care about before the war, at this moment, exposed its huge hidden dangers as the Qing army quickly collapsed in less than half a day.