New Shun 1730

The battlefield is so cruel and ever-changing. A wrong decision may lead to the loss of initiative, which will cost a high price to regain the initiative, or even a complete defeat.

It is not that Wu Fangrui is so good at predicting things, but the battlefield environment determines that there are only a few limited choices.

Wu Fangrui is a staff officer. In addition to knowing how to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses, he has been with Liu Yu in Weihai for too long and can understand the combat ideas of the Privy Council.

This time, the idea of ​​attacking Hagi Castle was very clear.

The gunboats besieged the city, attracting the Japanese to the main city and the town under the castle, which were isolated in the sea; the gunboats bombarded and caused chaos, and immediately seized two hills of great significance on the battlefield, completely mastering the initiative on the battlefield.

In his opinion, if the Japanese had read military books, they would choose to regain the initiative after waking up from the initial chaos.

About half an hour later, the counterattack of the defenders of Hagi Castle officially began.

On the sea in the distance, the engineers of the Marine Corps took a small boat and slowly rowed towards the seaside. The landing without any enemy threat was similar to the training in Weihai.

These engineers also built docks for unloading at the port and built positions for artillery in the shortest time. The troops still floating on the sea need to land after the simple dock is repaired.

When the Japanese counterattacked, the Marines who did not land could only watch the excitement on the boat.

Opposite the Hagi Castle Mountain Armor, the Japanese iron gunners lined up by the river, trying to shoot at the Dashun Marines on the opposite side, so as to cover the warriors of Armor crossing the river.

On the Dashun side, the scattered soldiers equipped with expensive hand-pulled Minié rifles dispersed slightly behind the river bank, and were not in a hurry to shoot at the iron gunners on the opposite side.

The Marines who were still using cheap imitation French 1728 Army smoothbore muskets lined up near the mountain, and did not shoot at the iron gunners, but wanted to attack halfway across the river.

More than 600 samurai in armor began to board the boats and try to cross the river.

At the same time, the samurai who tried to threaten the flank of the Dashun landing force also began to cross the river. They planned to capture Hagi Mountain B first, and then sweep over.

Since they wanted to encircle and annihilate the samurai who tried to threaten the flank, it was not easy to immediately defeat the samurai who tried to cross the river on the front of Hagi Mountain A.

The fleet did not fire, and the landing artillery fired at the slowest speed, delaying the gathering of the samurai who tried to cross the river, trying to create a time difference between the two samurai teams in the east and the west.

Because the officers knew very well that as long as the ship's guns opened fire, the samurai team on the front of A Mountain would collapse in an instant.

I was afraid that when the samurai who wanted to threaten the flank on the east side saw that the front was scattered, they would not cross the river and just run away, which would be meaningless.

The delay of the artillery worked, and the two samurai teams that originally planned to cross the river at the same time had a time difference of about seven or eight minutes.

In Yishan in the east, the battle has already begun. The first batch of Japanese warriors who landed have begun to attack Yishan, and the second batch of iron gunners who crossed the river have also begun to board the ship.

In Jiashan in the west, a large number of warriors finally began to board the ship.

The warriors in armor were in front, holding a wooden shield, trying to block the lead bullets. The warriors on the same ship lay on the ship with their heads down.

After Li Li confirmed that it was time to start, he asked someone to raise the flag for the bombardment, and asked before the sound of the cannon: "What kind of formation is this?"

"Your Highness, it's a long snake formation. The Japanese attacked the body of the snake, and the head and tail rolled together. Jiashan is the head and Yishan is the tail. The Japanese's technique of breaking the formation is correct. They hit the snake's head and cut the snake's body, trying to make me unable to take care of the head and tail. However, the team that hit the snake's head was defeated in an instant, and it was useless."

As soon as the conversation ended, the navy, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately opened fire.

The pincer fire formed from the northeast and west immediately covered the Japanese crossing the river.

The scattered soldiers began to fire freely, and the Marines lined up at the foot of the mountain sounded the war drums, lined up forward, and raised their guns on the river bank.

The Japanese samurai team of only a thousand people was now facing the artillery of half of the 12 cruisers, plus the six light howitzers of the Marines in front, a total of 186 artillery pieces of triangular cross bombardment.

The navy's gunners were all veterans who were fed with gunpowder in Weihai, and with the use of flintlocks, the frequency of firing was extremely high.

Three artillery bombardments, plus a volley from the Marines, the samurai who were attacking across the river in front collapsed instantly.

Only between thunder and lightning.

The iron gunners lined up behind them ran away with their heads in their hands, running wildly towards Hagi Castle; the samurai who were halfway across the river, who were lucky enough not to die, immediately turned the bow of the boat and fled to the back.

The Marines who fired a volley stopped on the spot, took out lead bullets, bit open the paper bag, and loaded gunpowder and lead bullets.

With the sound of drums, a battalion column was quickly formed, turning right and marching eastward.

The more than 900 warriors who had crossed the river in the east did not expect the battle in the west to end so quickly.

It was like a series of thunders, but even if it was raining, it would not rain so soon after the thunder.

As Wu Fangrui explained with the formation, he wanted to attack the head and attack the body, so that the head and tail could not take care of each other, and cut off the tail first.

But he did not expect that the troops who attacked the head did not attack at all, and now it became the most stupid attack on the long snake formation to only cut the belly. The head and tail were not unable to take care of each other, but the head and tail worked together to sweep, like a python strangling a beast.

The battalion column attacked the advancing Dashun Army. After hearing the order to change the formation, the drummer of the company in the front reduced the step frequency from 75 steps to 60 steps.

Whether it was the military drums or military songs of this era, they must be consistent with the stride of the drill code.

Listening to the rhythm of the military songs of various countries at this time, you can know the step frequency per minute of the drill code of various countries at this time.

The following companies speeded up their pace and changed from walking to trotting, just like they had trained countless times at the Weihai Station Camp, running quickly at an angle to where they should be according to the officer's rhythm.

The skirmishers move forward, using a loose formation to extend the width and cover the lines behind them. The last company did not participate in the front shooting, but followed the line, ensuring that it could change into a battalion hollow square formation at any time. Although the Japanese did not have cavalry, the officers' training and training were very old-fashioned.

The characteristics of the Dashun land battle are the ultra-fast formation change speed, formation changes while marching, skirmishers assigned in the front, and regiment-camp formation changes that can be cut into battalion-level square formations at any time.

Relatively speaking, the rate of fire and reloading per minute, according to the world rankings at this time, are far lower than the musketeers who have taken over Frederick II, but the speed of changing formations is higher than that of Frederick II. several times.

If they lined up with the Prussian army to shoot at this time, Dashun's army would definitely suffer during the shooting stage.

In turn, the Dashun Army's ultra-fast mobility made it difficult for the Dashun Army to experience the defeat of Frederick by the Cossacks and the tide of Turgut Mongols in several similar battles like Küllersdorf. The scene of the fight leading to despair and wanting to commit suicide - the Prussian army's change of formation was too slow, so the Mongols in the Torgut tribe were historically able to go to Berlin before returning eastward.

Liu Yu, who actually presided over the military reform and tactical system thinking according to local conditions, knew very well what was happening around Dashun, what style of battles would be fought in the future, and all possible opponents in strategic directions.

Whether it is the Mongols in the northwest, the Russian Cossacks and Turgut Mongolian cavalry, or the mountainous Japan, the rugged southwestern plateau, or the tropical jungles of the Southeast Asia, the speed of formation changes and skirmishing tactics are prioritized over the rate of fire. and loaded.

Dashun is also unlikely to go to Europe and shoot against European troops on the plains. The emphasis on speed of fire and the overall formation with a unified diagonal formation is to cut the feet to fit the shoes.

This kind of tactical thinking is not only useful when recovering the Western Regions, but also effective when attacking Japan.

In less than two minutes, the battalion column turned into a horizontal formation, and the skirmishers were deployed. And if a threat appears on the flank, it can also be converted into a battalion hollow square within two minutes.

The Japanese warriors who realized that something was wrong also reacted and knew that it was impossible to attack Yishan, so they left less than half of their troops to contain the three companies on Yishan. The remaining people rushed towards the Dashun army, which had quickly turned into a horizontal formation.

The military drum suddenly stopped, and the officers' orders, mixed with various accents such as Shaanxi, Gyeonggi, Jiaoliao, etc., sounded at the same time.

"Raise the gun!"

Click, click, click…

The musket was raised horizontally and aimed numbly at the armored warrior who was shouting something they didn't understand and charging to kill.

"put!"

After the gunshots were fired, the soldiers loaded the next lead bullet numbly in the smoke. After the second round of shooting, the charging Japanese warriors collapsed.

No one in the river crossing team of more than 900 people escaped. Either he would be captured, or he would swim across the river in panic and drown in the river.

In two volleys, more than 400 people were killed and injured, more than 200 warriors surrendered, and the rest either drowned or were defeated under Mount Yi.

The artillery that had adjusted its angle also bombarded the iron artillerymen arrayed on the north bank at this time. The skirmishers fired at the iron artillerymen on the opposite side across the river, or shot at the swimming samurai who were good at water.

The simple one-word long snake formation completely cut off the Hagi Castle Japanese people's idea of ​​​​wanting to go out of the city to fight in the field, and quickly retreated to Hagi Castle.

There were no samurai left in the entire castle town, and the samurai who retreated to Tsukiyama Hagi Castle did not know that their nightmare of defending the city had just begun.

Li Huan, who witnessed all this on the mountain, saw the Dashun Army's field battle for the first time. He has commanded the fleet and has actually fought many battles by now, but they were all skillful battles relying on the mobility of the fleet.

The cities they attacked were either close to the sea or almost no one in the city gave up on their own initiative.

The smoke at the bottom of the mountain has not yet dissipated, and Li Han is still silent in the amazement of the change of formations just now, just like watching a play. After a few commands, the scene changes, and a new scene begins.

"In the past, when I was in the palace, I heard the story of Ying Sao Bo's battle to conquer the Western Region. Now that I have seen it today, I know that the rumors are true. Ying Sao Bo relies on soldiers rather than generals to fight."

His emotional intelligence is very high. Wu Fangrui is also a person who has only half a foot in the circle of noble generals in the capital. How come he doesn't know what this rumor is?

The original words were that a group of veterans looked at the review of the Battle of Altai Mountain commanded by Liu Yu, and they all curled their lips and said: "What the hell is this fight? Can we win? Give me a group of soldiers like this, and I will definitely fight better than Shouchang." ”

Wu Fangrui smiled after hearing this and asked: "Your Highness, since the war began, our army has suffered no more than a hundred casualties. What we rely on is our army's artillery in every battle, and even our numerical superiority. It can be said that since the war began, almost every Isn’t this a strategy of fighting with more?”

"Those who don't know about soldiers think it's just relying on the convenience of the navy to transport troops. Those who know the military know that the convenience of the navy in transporting troops is itself a stratagem."

"It's just that other people's strategies rely on being prepared for battle. But Ying Suobo's strategy... relies on money."

Li Han thought for a while and seemed to have some realization. He nodded and praised for a long time: "Only when I am in charge of the navy can I understand the beauty of money. Indeed, without the logistics and transportation department established within the navy, there would be no such strategy of jumping to fight. ”

Wu Fangrui thought of a story Liu Yu had told them, and said: "Two hundred years ago, hundreds of Spaniards destroyed a big country. What is frightening is that two hundred years ago, the Spaniards were able to transport hundreds of people and dozens of cannons to America across 20,000 miles of ocean without stopping in the middle."

"Now that two hundred years have passed, do you think that our dynasty can now send a thousand infantry and twenty cannons to Europe?"

Li Li listened to Mantou talking about the difficulties of going to Sweden, and shook his head sadly and said: "No."

Wu Fangrui said again: "If you land on Kyushu Island, regardless of the cost, you can ferry 50,000. If you jump to Xiaobin, you can ferry 5,000; if you go to Malacca, you can ferry 1,500 at a time; if you go to India, you can ferry 500 at a time. Your Highness is now in charge of the navy, and where you can be called the king's land in the future depends on the Logistics and Transportation Department."

"If the generals of the army want to make merit in the future, they will all rely on your highness."

Li Li thought to himself, how can they rely on me? It is clearly relying on the Logistics and Transportation Department. Just looking at the situation, the navy has made great contributions this time, and the court will definitely not let the navy train, logistics, conscription, command, and shipbuilding all at once. Even if I am a blind prince with a Christian name, it won't work.

But thinking about Wu Fangrui's words again, I feel that there is a deep meaning and it is worth thinking about. Obviously, India, which can only ferry 500 people at a time, cannot be called the king's land; but Malacca, which can ferry 1,500 people at a time, can be called the king's land, and it is not impossible.