New Shun 1730

These excellent staff officers are the earliest batch of veterans, and they have strategic thinking. The traditional Chinese military education was originally placed in the slightly strange world at this time, teaching strategy first and then learning tactics.

Based on this, they saw the problems of both sides in terms of tactics.

Strategically, they can also predict the future trend.

Since Frederick II did not sacrifice the army to save the general, did not abandon the 9,000-man Prince Dessau Corps, and ran away with the main force, but chose to fight in adversity, this certainly requires courage, but also requires more tactics.

According to the military tactics of Li Weigong and Sun Tzu's Art of War on the idea of ​​switching between offense and defense, they can only choose to send their cavalry to attack and turn to defense, and strive for the arrival of the main infantry.

In battlefield mobility rather than strategic mobility, cavalry is always faster than infantry. It takes two hours for infantry to march a distance of 20 miles, while cavalry only needs 40 minutes. This is the difference. It is also the only reinforcement that Prussia can get in Chatusitz before seven o'clock.

And the infantry can only arrive at least around 9:30 to 10 o'clock.

If the cavalry is not sent to deliver first, the Austrian army, with 28,000 men and an absolute advantage in cavalry, will eat up the Prussian corps stationed in Chatusitz. If the battle starts at 7 o'clock, it is likely that the battle will be over before 9 o'clock.

But at 9 o'clock, the main force of the Prussian infantry will definitely not arrive to support. This is the Prussian army, not the iron army of later generations that can march 180 miles a day and continue to fight.

Let the cavalry deliver, at least it can delay the time for about an hour, that is, the time for Chatusitz to be captured by the Austrian army will be delayed from 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock, and after 10 o'clock.

Don't look at the difference of only one hour. On the battlefield, let alone one hour, even five minutes may determine the outcome.

This is what the staff of Dashun thinks, "There is still a possibility of winning tactically, as long as the Austrians keep making mistakes."

But strategically, this step is actually drinking poison to quench thirst.

The cavalry was sent away, and they had been suffering from the lack of cavalry before. Even if this battle was won, Prussia would stop there and would definitely not be able to organize another battle.

After sending away almost all of their cavalry, the battlefield is still on the Central European Plain. Without cavalry, wouldn't the next battle be like sending food to others?

And these staff officers are sure that this is the "information" that Liu Yu in Amsterdam wants.

However, it is still hard to say whether Prussia can win tactically. At least in the eyes of these staff officers, the chance of winning is slim.

At this time, the Prussian army, which was in a serious disadvantageous situation, really took the lead in launching an attack with cavalry.

The remaining infantry, relying on the town of Chatusitz, used the houses in the town as cover and built fortifications, which was completely a posture of giving up tactical actions and defending with all their strength.

This state may not be wrong in the eyes of the staff officers on the Dashun side, but it also means that only reinforcements can be relied on to turn defense into offense.

Without artillery cooperation and infantry to follow up quickly, even if the cavalry broke through the gap, wouldn't it be quickly blocked by the Austrians? At that time, the charging cavalry might not be able to come back. The cavalry, who have lost their impact, still want to shoot at the infantry who have blocked the gap in formation?

"If the Qingzhou Army, which was at its peak, best trained, and had the highest ratio of officers, was fighting the Austrian Army, how would this battle be fought?"

Thinking about this scenario, in their opinion, it would be very easy if the army of Dashun came to fight.

Excluding the differences in infantry tactical thinking, the artillery ideas of the Dashun Army after the reform are definitely world-class. At least at this time, it should be the only country in the world that has established a systematic artillery.

This military reform is certainly not the result of closed-door development, but a continuation and absorption of the battlefield experience of Europe in recent years.

Before the Thirty Years' War, the whole world was trying two paths for the era of firearms.

One is the route of field artillery with matchlock guns, relying on queue attacks and melee cavalry to win.

The other is the route that Ming and Shun continued, with heavy ship artillery equipped with matchlock guns and light large spray guns, and trying to strengthen the first-line firepower.

Multi-barreled muskets, light tiger squat cannons, large lifting guns, small cannons lifted by two people, Swedish leather cannons, and other weird designs are all products of the second route.

However, practice makes perfect, and the long-term wars in Europe have proved that the second route is wrong.

But it was not until the Spanish Succession War 20 or 30 years ago that the flintlock and bayonet were put into use, and the two tactical ideas were finally determined. Before that, it could only be said that there was no winner. The Turks and Persians also used the second idea. Before the popularization of flintlocks and bayonets, they were not worse than the first route.

However, bayonets and flintlocks have been popularized.

Therefore, in the first fork in the road, Dashun was definitely behind before the military reform.

However, with the military reform brought about by the Qingzhou Army's Western Expedition, Dashun overtook the old system, not only completely abandoned the old system, but also learned from the experience of various countries, leading the world trend in the army's tactical system.

From Gustav II of Sweden who made cannons lighter and organized legion cannons; to the luxurious animal-head cannons of the Bourbon royal family that Dashun bought from France; to the fact that the four-pound cannon was too light and the eight-pound cannon could not keep up with the slow speed of infantry deployment after the military reform, the artillery system was improved by abolishing the four-pound and eight-pound cannons and using six-pound cannons. None of this came out of thin air.

The idea is continuous.

The luxurious Bourbon royal style animal-head cannon tail cannons that Liu Yu bought from France at that time could only be considered advanced in terms of casting technology, but they were definitely not as trendy as the French 74-gun battleships.

But the idea of ​​the French artillery system is absolutely leading. Including those heavy, expensive and luxurious beast-head cannons, they also continue the idea of ​​the French 74-gun battleships - to achieve a balance as much as possible in the two attributes of firepower and mobility.

The idea of ​​this artillery system is absolutely correct, but due to the constraints of technology, fine processing, casting technology, and infantry tactics, the Bourbon dynasty's artillery system is already a bit outdated.

The rigid linear infantry marches slowly.

Therefore, the heavy eight-pound cannon is enough to provide support for the infantry without considering rapid deployment.

However, the infantry tactics of the Dashun Army after the reform, especially the idea of ​​the battle to pacify the north of the Altai Mountains in Dzungar, emphasizes the mobility of the infantry, relying on rapid changes in formation, column marching and turning, etc. to open a gap.

This requires lighter artillery that can keep up with the Dashun infantry, which takes battlefield mobility as the first element.

The four-pound cannon is light enough, but the power is too small to tear a gap at all.

The eight-pound cannon is powerful enough, but too heavy and can't keep up with the speed of the Dashun infantry.

At the same time, with Liu Yu's early technology tree of investing in steam engines at all costs, casting, iron smelting, boring machine processing and other processes have continued to improve, but the degree of improvement cannot make the eight-pound cannon as powerful as before and light enough to be quickly deployed and follow the infantry.

Therefore, the artillery system of Dashun naturally adopted mobility and firepower to achieve a perfect balance under existing technical conditions; six-pound field guns and twelve-pound field guns that are perfectly suitable for existing infantry tactics.

This idea still continues Liu Yu's idea of ​​buying those beast-headed cannons from France, but because of the infantry tactics system and technological progress, the old idea is implemented under new conditions.

It seems to be just a change in the artillery system, but in fact it is just a manifestation of the direction of the transformation of the entire army tactics system behind it.

Because the artillery system of Dashun has been determined, the staff must understand the advantages of the new artillery system, otherwise why should it take time, effort and money to reform the old system?

It is precisely because of countless discussions that the staff of Dashun are quite disdainful of the Prussian and Austrian armies on the battlefield...at least in terms of artillery.

On the Dashun side, after the military reform, all the battles fought have artillery advantages. On the one hand, before the flintlock bayonet military reform, Dashun's front-line projectile firepower was insufficient, and it could only rely on various cannons to make up for the inertia formed; on the other hand, in the founding war of Dashun, it really suffered a loss from the traitorous artillery team of the Later Jin Dynasty, which was the strongest artillery in Asia at that time. After the loss, it was deeply impressed and attached great importance to artillery.

In the eyes of the Dashun staff, the artillery of the Prussian and Austrian armies was obviously not right, and the proportion of artillery was really a little less.

Moreover, the use of artillery was also a negative example that was discussed every day and every night after the new artillery system of Dashun was put on the agenda.

While Frederick II was commanding the battle, the staff of Dashun were observing the situation on the battlefield from a high place, fulfilling their obligations as members of the military observation group, so that "stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade".

But until now, there is still nothing to attack.

At around eight o'clock, the battle had been going on for more than an hour. Just as the staff of Dashun imagined, the Prussian cavalry that took the initiative to attack collapsed.

The Austrian cavalry was superior to the Prussian cavalry in terms of technology and quantity. The Prussian artillery did not have the light field artillery that could follow the cavalry like Dashun, and could not provide effective fire support.

Although it collapsed, the tactical goal was barely achieved.

During the period when the cavalry was sent out, the Austrian commander did not seize the opportunity to attack the center army, but waited until the cavalry battle on both wings ended before preparing for a large-scale attack.

For about an hour and a half, the Austrian army's center infantry was basically dead and did not move.

The staff of Dashun probably understood that it might be that the Austrian army still had a rigid line formation tactic, and could not achieve the rapid change of formation and column marching and turning like the Qingzhou army, so the coordination of infantry and cavalry had great problems.

Especially the Prussian cavalry on the right wing of Austria. According to the experience of the Dashun staff in the battle at the northern foot of the Altai Mountains, it is entirely possible to use infantry and cavalry to eat up all the Prussian cavalry clusters on the left wing.

But the speed of the Austrian infantry in the telescope was simply touching, and the Prussian cavalry that the Dashun staff thought was about to be annihilated ran out...

And the next scene made these Dashun staff members dumbfounded.

At this time, the Austrian army had defeated the cavalry on the left and right wings of Prussia, and the flanks were completely controlled by Austria.

But the Austrian side did not strengthen the attack on the flanks, but instead transferred a large number of infantry to the center line to attack Chatusitz.

Not only did the military forces line up in a line, but it was evenly arranged, visible to the naked eye, and it was a line of almost uniform thickness.

The field artillery was dispersed to each squadron, as the support artillery of the infantry, each firing and bombarding the Prussian line in the town of Chatusitz.

The grenadiers in gorgeous clothes were all divided into small teams, and followed the infantry squadrons to attack, blooming everywhere on the long front.

To the northwest of the town, that is, the left wing of the Austrian army and the right wing of the Prussian army, there was a not-so-high hill. The number of Prussian troops there was small, but the army that had gained an absolute advantage on the flank did not attack the hill that could threaten the flank of the Prussian army's center and completely control the battlefield situation.

On the contrary, the originally deployed front line continued to press towards the center and the front of the town of Chatusitz.

The staff officer who led the team put down the telescope and couldn't help cursing.

"Fuck you! The commander of the Austrian side should be shot. Is this how the grenadiers and field artillery are used? Dispersed to various infantry squadrons? Instead of concentrating them together to make the sharpest dagger and directly attack the hills in the northwest? This tactical system and exhibition ideas are completely different from the Whale Marquis's method of concentrating the advantage on one side and making a breakthrough at one point."