Throughout the history of human warfare, night battles have always been a mode of war that commanders try to avoid. No one will initiate a night battle unless it is absolutely necessary.
This is not to say that there are no classic night battles, but such successful battles are really rare!
Since ancient times, there have been many reasons for commanders to avoid night battles, but they can only be summarized into a few points.
First, the physical fitness and weapons and equipment of individual soldiers are not suitable for night fighting! In ancient times, the material conditions of mankind were still very difficult. Being a soldier was always a hard job. The lack of dietary supplements such as vegetables, fruits, meat, etc. caused a large number of soldiers to suffer from night blindness in varying degrees.
This is no joke. In the era before vitamins and medicines appeared, too many soldiers from poor countries suffered from night blindness. They were truly blind at night, let alone even going to the toilet during a war.
The soldiers were blind, and the means of lighting at night were insufficient. That is, torches and lanterns could barely be used. There were no flashlights, searchlights, or even shadows.
A battle like a blind man touching an elephant is something no general would dare to risk.
Second, the command methods are very backward. Before the advent of radio technology, how could the various units coordinate in a night battle? What should I do if the two sides collide?
The headquarters couldn't find the ministries, and the ministries couldn't find the generals. The end result was a chaotic war!
Third, the limitations of the ancient military system! In the Middle Ages, before the rise of nationalist ideas, fighting was just a job for ordinary soldiers.
They do not have a strong will to fight, let alone the courage to face death. They can fight with the wind, but once they encounter difficulties, these soldiers will definitely choose to escape.
The chaos in night battles can easily lead to the collapse of the team structure, especially the small units at the grassroots level. Once they are separated from the larger units and without higher-level supervision, it is very likely that these soldiers will run away!
In the age when soldiers were fed, there were too many such situations. After leaving the army, you could defect to the other party in a blink of an eye, or even fall into the trap of being a bandit. Who would follow you in the underworld that leads to death?
The current Spanish garrison is an example. Those indigenous soldiers who don't know what loyalty is, once they are in danger and can't see the supervisory team on their side, what are they waiting for if they don't run away?
General Enmu is a nerd with no actual combat experience. His identity as a general was created by his family with money. He just followed the script. He felt that what his army could not do, the Chinese could not do either.
The entire 100,000-strong garrison had no training at all to prevent sneak attacks in night battles. When the Chinese launched a general offensive, countless of their soldiers were even snoring, and the officers kicked their feet without waking up.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! The Chinese sneak attack at night..." There were shrill shouts all over the entire defense line.
"What? What happened?" The sleeping soldier knocked down the kerosene lamp, and the last bit of light in the tent was extinguished.
A squad of soldiers were crowded into a narrow tent. In the darkness, people were stepping on each other, squeezing each other, and bumping into each other... Before they could put on their pants, the muffled thunderous sound of artillery sounded in the distance.
At the Chinese artillery position, Zhu Yuan started firing blindly at night according to the daytime targets. These smart artillerymen had already made a bombing plan.
They calibrated the bombing targets one by one according to the distance from near to far, and before the war started, they also carefully calculated the advancing speed of their soldiers!
Artillery clears the way for the infantry. In this dark night, it relies on complete preparations and precise calculations!
In order to avoid accidentally injuring friendly troops, each shooting element can only fire three consecutive shots, and then immediately adjust to cover the distance. With such advancement layer by layer, the artillery is like being equipped with later night vision devices, accurately killing only the enemy. Don't hurt yourself accidentally.
This shelling completely stunned the Spaniards. Many people were sent to see God by artillery while they were still in bed. Huge fear immediately spread within the defense line.
Two full rounds of shelling had passed, and the Chinese vanguard advancing forward in the dark had approached a distance of more than 200 meters in front of the position. It was not until this moment that the Spaniards fired the first shot of the counterattack.
The scattered rain of bullets could not stop the powerful Chinese army. In the unknown terrain late at night, all the soldiers did not choose to run, but pressed forward as steadily as a mountain.
Soldiers were constantly falling down after being shot, and soldiers were constantly filling up their positions. This casualty was simply a piece of cake for the Chinese army that had fought countless fierce and tough battles.
Two hundred meters, one hundred meters, fifty meters... the light of the enemy camp fire was extremely clear, and the explosion of fire reflected the enemy's panicked figure every time.
The Spanish army has been completely eliminated by the times. An army that has not even popularized breech-loading rifles, let alone the most advanced heavy machine guns.
The firepower produced by the muzzle-loading rifle alone cannot withstand this group of tigers and wolves coming from the north!
"All troops attack! All units fight freely, search for the enemy freely, and meet at dawn in Manila City!"
"Break through! Insert into the enemy's rear and disrupt their defenses!"
"We have only one goal...Manila City!"
"Kill!" A roar suddenly broke out in front of the Spanish position. Thousands of Chinese soldiers began to charge forward, rushing into the Spanish defense line with just one assault.
The battle in the dark night quickly turned into a brutal hand-to-hand battle. The Chinese troops swarmed into every trench and every bunker, tearing down every inch of spiked fence...
The explosion of grenades was mixed with the explosion of distant artillery shells, creating a sound of death that terrified the colonists.
The sharp bayonets pressed towards the indigenous troops like a forest. The indigenous soldier who had just faced him fled like a rabbit that had been shot.
The entire Manila Defense Line stretches for more than 80 kilometers from east to west, starting from Manila Bay in the west and reaching the Pacific Ocean in the east. The entire Luzon Island is divided into two parts, north and south.
It stands to reason that a hundred thousand troops cannot defend the 80-kilometer long defense line, but Luzon Island is mountainous, especially the eastern part of the defense line, which has continuous mountains.
Therefore, the focus of the defense line is actually the thirty-kilometer area in the west. This area has also become the most brutal fighting hell. Many years later, Spanish and indigenous veterans who have experienced this bloody battle will still break out in cold sweats when they recall that night. .
"There is no way to stop them. They are a group of devils from hell. They are proficient in the most effective killing methods. We are no match at all!"
"Grenade, * took the lead in clearing the way. After our unit was bombed and there was chaos, they immediately opened fire on us..."
"Their rifles shoot fast and accurately. They are the most advanced breech-loading rifles of the year. They can eject bright bullet shells after every shot..."
"In the time it took for us to fire one shot, the opponent had fired all five. Can this battle still be fought? This is not a war, this is a one-sided massacre!"
"When our commander decided to use the strong bodies of Europeans to fight back in hand-to-hand combat, we realized that this was a huge disaster!"
