Compared with the old medieval army, the gap between the new modern army and the old medieval army is not only in equipment, but more importantly in people's thinking. Even if the army with medieval thinking is fully equipped with modern foreign guns and cannons, it will be doomed if the tactical thinking cannot keep up. It's a failure.
Today's bloody battle at Osaka Castle has proven this. The 30,000 Southwest Allied Forces are the core force in overthrowing the four feudal lords. Among them, the number of muskets and equipment has reached more than 13,000, but the number alone cannot form a combat effectiveness. , the thinking of the coalition forces throughout the battle was still stuck in the medieval era.
Since it is a siege battle, the musketeers have always been an auxiliary unit. They can only suppress fire outside the city wall and are completely unable to cause effective damage. The real battle is still completed by the samurai and ashigaru.
This is the cunning point of the French. From the beginning, they formulated a very targeted strategic plan. Without the support of heavy artillery, pure musketeers carried out siege warfare, and their effect was not as good as ordinary samurai and ordinary warriors. There are Ashigaru soldiers.
Due to various reasons, Xiao Letian's heavy weapons for the four southwest vassals are under embargo. Xiao Letian will not provide them with large-caliber artillery, grenades, explosive packs, and Gatling heavy machine guns.
And Western arms dealers have also been warned by Xiao Letian. If they want large orders from Ryukyu in the future, they must follow the Prime Minister's rules.
In fact, in the mid-19th century, Europeans had already had the concept of arms embargo. The most advanced weapons would not be sold. Arms dealers in Asia, large and small, are now helping Europe digest their inventories.
Since the Austro-Prussian War proved the advanced performance of breech-loading guns, there has now been a wave of rifle updates across Europe. All muzzle-loading guns in active military service and warehouses have been eliminated, but these rifles cannot be thrown away in vain. , as a result, war-torn Asia became the target of arms dealers.
The Qing Dynasty is preparing to quell the rebellion in the west and the rebellion in Xinjiang. This is a big business that must be grabbed. The Japanese Overthrow Movement has also ignited the flames of war. This is also a key goal of businessmen.
But that's all. All the warlords in Asia can buy from the Europeans now are these obsolete rags. Except for Xiao Letian, no one in Asia can buy the truly most advanced weapons.
The four southwest vassals asked Xiao Letian more than once for the purchase of artillery, new explosives, and finally some grenades. The quality of Ryukyu's grenades was well-known.
However, due to various political considerations, Xiao Letian rejected their request and only provided a lot of rifles.
Without the support of artillery and explosives, siege warfare became extremely difficult. Many times, Saigo Takamori even had doubts about Western weapons. Since 70% of the battles were solved with Tachi's spears, why spend huge amounts of money on them? to purchase Western weapons.
There are not a small number of people with this kind of thinking in the coalition forces, especially those low-level fanatical samurai. They have developed great doubts about Western weapons during this war. This suspicion even caused the suspicion of Sakamoto Ryoma. hostility.
Sakamoto Ryoma is the most important money bag of the fallen forces. His sea aid team has hardly fought a few battles and spent most of its time on trade, most of which was with Ryukyu.
Japan's gold, silver, local specialties and even food continued to flow into Ryukyu, in exchange for ship after ship of foreign guns. But now, looking at the weapons purchased with huge sums of money, their effectiveness on the battlefield is unimaginable. So big, a sense of dissatisfaction arises spontaneously.
But today, when the new Tokugawa army trained by the French set foot on the battlefield, the new tactics completely subverted their imagination. Only then did everyone realize that this is how muskets should be used.
Strict shooting discipline ensured that all firepower was concentrated, and modern military drills quickly turned ordinary people into numb battlefield parts.
They can march neatly to the rhythm of the snare drum despite the rain of bullets, they can shoot intensively at ultra-close ranges as close as fifty meters, and they can also cooperate with infantry and artillery according to the commander's rhythm.
In the eyes of these Japanese samurai, those shells almost flew past the soldiers' heads. Wave after wave of shells cut out death zones in the charging crowd of coalition forces. A single explosion of high-explosive shells would create thousands of high-speed The fragments flew everywhere, reaping life.
The explosion cut off the charging crowd, preventing the enemy from forming a continuous and dense wave of attacks. Then the musketeers, under the command of the commander, began to concentrate their firepower to eliminate those enemies rushing at the front.
After two musket volleys, the artillery in the rear was also ready to fire again, followed by another intensive fire.
The Southwest Allied Forces have never seen such an efficient way of killing in their lives. Each one can only use more crazy roars to boost their morale. The battlefield is full of duck-like roars.
No matter how strong the human body is, it cannot withstand the attack of artillery shells and bullets. The morale of the coalition forces is close to the edge of collapse. When they see more enemy reinforcements coming out of the woods, no matter how strong their mental strength is, they will collapse.
"The enemy's reinforcements... Oh my God, there are so many. The enemy's reinforcements are not three thousand..."
"We lost, we lost, we fell into a trap. The Tokugawa family used Osaka Castle as bait to drain our blood, and then let these new troops make up the final blow..."
"Die here, let us stay here."
The chaotic battlefield was filled with roars of despair. Instead of retreating, the soldiers brainwashed by Bushido began to attack even more crazily.
French Commander-in-Chief Chédovan put down his telescope and turned to Matsudaira Yongho and said, "Now I have a little admiration for you. You know you will definitely lose, but you still want to fight. What does the 'Jade Broken' mean? Forget it, I will look for it later." The answer is..."
"Command the artillery, extend the fire, and cover the enemy's base camp with firepower... Even if it doesn't explode, I still want to scare them. I don't believe it. The samurai are very powerful. Could it be that the big shots behind the scenes are also very powerful."
Before Xie Duowan could finish his words, Matsudaira Rongbao suddenly grabbed his arm, "No, absolutely not... Prince Renhegong is in the base camp, and we cannot harm His Highness."
Xie Dowan stared at him as if he were a monster. "War, we are at war now. What I want is victory. I don't care if he is a prince... The artillerymen follow my orders and shoot at the enemy's base camp..."
"No, we are all ministers of the emperor. We, the Tokugawa shogunate, are not rebellious. What we are fighting for is nothing more than what governance philosophy to use to govern Japan..."
"The four southwestern feudal lords believe that withdrawing from the emperor will revive Japan, but we don't think so. The Tokugawa shogunate has accumulated enough experience in its two hundred years of rule. Reforms should be proposed by the shogunate so that they can be more enforceable."
"We started the war to avoid a bigger war. If the coalition wins, then Japan will really fall into civil war. The daimyo and the southwestern vassals who support the shogunate will definitely fight to the death. God knows how civil war will start. How many years.”
Xie Dovan is a purely professional soldier. He does not understand the complicated Eastern political philosophy. What kind of nonsense is launching a war to avoid war? What kind of nonsense is this.
"I'm sorry, I'm a professional soldier, I'm not a politician, I don't understand these words...fire."
With an order, the twelve artillery pieces were raised in elevation. The ballistic curves were quickly calculated under the measurement of the artillery crew. Then white smoke and flames were ejected from the muzzles, and twelve high-explosive artillery shells were directed toward the camp. go.
It was not that the Japanese soldiers had never seen cannons, but they really didn't expect that rifled cannons could shoot so much farther than smoothbore cannons. Black smoke suddenly rose up from the camp that they thought was as stable as a mountain.
For a moment, the entire camp was in chaos. Prince Renhegong collapsed on the ground in horror. He saw with his own eyes that the waists of several soldiers at the gate of the camp were broken and their internal organs were spilled on the floor.
"Go...get out of here quickly..." The prince screamed strangely, turned around and ran away with his attendants.
This was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The Bushido spirit has always been unafraid of death, but death must be valuable. The banner of the four Southwest vassals is to respect the king and resist the barbarians, and the emperor is their flag.
His Highness the Prince is the representative of the Emperor, he is the one who brought the royal banner, and the 30,000 allied troops are fighting for the Emperor. But no one thought that everyone was calling Yu Sui to die, so why was the Prince the first to escape.
The base camp is too far away from the artillery position of the New Tokugawa Army. The artillery shells hit here are no longer accurate. They just exploded a few rounds in the open space at the entrance of the camp. There were not more than a dozen people killed in total, but for those who have always been pampered, To the prince, this scene was already hellish.
The royal family and ministers who have been kept in captivity by the Wu family for hundreds of years have long lost their bravery. Although they say they are very beautiful and majestic, and they all sacrifice their lives like warriors, but when it comes to the battlefield, they are just like warriors. It's just a show at the base camp.
But now Prince Renhegong couldn't even pretend. A few shells scared him to death. The enemy was still four or five miles away from him, so he actually ran away.
A sense of sadness emerged from the hearts of those present. Is this the royal family they want to be loyal to? Tens of thousands of us have died for the emperor, but in the end the royal family was the first to escape.
"Damn it, our lives are not brought by the strong wind. We are also living people born and raised by our parents. Why should we die in vain? Let's go, I quit..."
When the first ashigaru chooses to turn around and flee from the battlefield, fear spreads like a virus.
One turned into two, two turned into four... In the end, thousands of soldiers chose to retreat, and the morale of the Southwest Allied Forces completely collapsed at this moment.
