"The soldiers obeyed the order and went out with swords, iron whips, iron maces, shields, bows and arrows, and only armed with flintlocks and bayonets!"
"Check guns, strips, bayonets, fixed ammunition..."
"Soldiers, obey the order and line up in four columns!"
"Look to the right, stand at attention, turn to the right, walk in unison, one, two, one..."
As the passwords rang out, the 2,300 cavalrymen belonging to the 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments in front of the tent turned into the world's first line infantry that could use the "queue to kill" tactic!
Of course, Zhu Youjian would not really let his cavalry in front of the tent become line infantry. He just let the cavalry in front of the tent, who had higher individual quality, take on the task of exploring new tactics.
The 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments in front of the tent happened to be tasked with exploring the fusiliers' tactics. Since two years ago, they have been using the Chongzhen 12-year-old self-generating muskets produced by the Tianjin Artillery Bureau of the Ministry of Industry. The line infantry tactics "created" by Zhu Youjian began to be trained accordingly.
The Chongzhen 12th-year-old self-fired musket was designed by Bi Maokang, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry and director of the Tianjin Artillery Bureau, and Song Yingxing, the general manager of the Tianjin Artillery Bureau, with reference to the samples, drawings and processing of the flintlock muskets purchased by Grand Duke Luo from the Netherlands. After the equipment was installed, a self-designed new musket with the most advanced international level was designed!
The barrel of the gun is carefully processed using processes such as rolling, forging welding, and drilling. The various castings on the gun body are all made of high-quality brass. The main material of the gun body is high-quality wood, which also needs to be carefully crafted. Therefore, the cost of the gun is very high. Including the bayonet, purge bar, and strap, the entire gun costs 18 taels of silver!
In addition to the high cost, the output of Chongzhen's 12-year-old self-generating fire gun was also very low. Except for some of the craftsmen who produced this new type of musket were foreign craftsmen hired at high prices from the Netherlands, the rest were craftsmen who originally produced Lumi guns. Although the craftsmanship is good, the efficiency is not high, and the output cannot be compared with the various ironworks in Foshan that produce turtledove guns and the Shanghai Artillery Bureau founded by Zheng Zhilong.
Therefore, in the three years since Chongzhen's 12th-year-old fire gun was put into production, the total output has only been more than 10,000, which means it is impossible to equip the troops in large numbers. Therefore, as long as the two regiments of the Guards, the Youth Guards, the Youth Army and the Zhangqian Army are equipped with Chongzhen's 12th-year-old self-generating fire guns, only the seventh and eighth regiments of the Zhangqian Cavalry have completed the change of equipment. Two regiments.
In addition, the Chongzhen 12-year-old self-generating fire gun has not been tested in actual combat, which is also a reason why this weapon is not mass-produced and equipped with a large number of troops.
Although Zhu Youjian knew best about flintlock rifles and lining up to shoot, in his previous life he only learned knowledge from books. At most, he consulted his sons who had attended military schools and led soldiers. He had no chance to practice it himself. Therefore, we cannot blindly copy the book knowledge from our previous life... It is still necessary to conduct experiments and trials when conditions permit. After all, Zhu Youjian didn't know everything. Among the many things he learned in his previous life, he only had a partial understanding of many of them.
However, after nearly two years of trial training, Zhu Youjian felt that he really knew how to shoot, and could already command a battle in which the enemy was shot with a flintlock!
...
When Zhu Youjian was leading more than 2,000 dismounted infantrymen equipped with flintlock rifles to shoot the Japanese Japs, Masayuki Hoshina was also confident and ready to fight a battle that would turn the tide.
In the process of marching to the right front of the Ming army, Hoshina Masayuki adjusted the ten thousand-man phalanx under his command into two lines at the front and back - the two large horizontal lines were almost the standard configuration in the phalanx era, and Hoshina just followed the gourd. A scoop.
After completing the adjustment of the array and moving the troops seventy or eighty steps in front of the right wing of the Ming army's square formation, Baoshi ordered the iron gunners of each thousand-man square formation to go to both wings of the spearmen and line up ten rows. , and then began to adopt the tactics of advancing in turns, advancing and firing in turn, in a sequential cycle, and pressed on the Ming army step by step.
However, Baoke's soldiers only fired two rounds of volleys, and the fusiliers led by Zhu Youjian sang the military song "Yi Shuihan" and felt the front line.
"Wan, long live my lord, why did you come up here in person?"
The regimental staff general of the Pingliao Army who is responsible for commanding the right wing of the Ming Army is Shang Kejin. Before Zhu Youjian arrived, he was commanding his third regiment of the Pingliao Army to strengthen the defenses and prepare to rely on the breastworks made of sandbags. The Japanese and Qing allied forces fought a battle.
Unexpectedly, the Emperor of Ming Dynasty actually brought more than 2,000 fire rifle soldiers to support him... This incident made him very depressed.
Because he never asked Zhu Youjian for help!
He has more than 4,000 people under his command, equipped with more than 2,000 turtledove guns, and several 3-pound cannons for support. Where does Zhu Youjian need to take action?
Now Zhu Youjian came over on his own... He was a bit suspected of taking credit! Once you become the emperor, you don't take credit for this, but you still compete with the people below. Is it really okay?
Zhu Youjian smiled and patted Shang Kejin on the shoulder, "I know you are loyal and brave, and I also know that the Pingliao army is good at fighting and can withstand the enemy in person. But I still want to test the spontaneous gunfire... So You just have to fight as usual, I will lead my own troops out of the large square formation, go around to the enemy's left wing and shoot the enemy with cannons!"
ah!
Shang Kejin was startled by Zhu Youjian's words. He came out of the hollow square formation to attack the enemy's flank at night... Isn't this too bold? What should I do if I encounter the cavalry of slave thieves?
At this moment, bursts of gunfire like fried beans came from the front. This was the Japanese Japanese shooting shotguns, approaching step by step!
Zhu Youjian didn't want to talk nonsense anymore, but got on his horse and shouted: "Cavalry in front of the tent, keep the formation, run forward! The target is the enemy's left wing! Follow me to kill the enemy!"
Before the shouting ended, Zhu Youjian had already clamped his horse's belly and galloped forward, leading his more than 2,000 people to the east, preparing to go around the hollow square formation.
And his dismounted cavalrymen carrying flintlock muskets could indeed run, and they could also maintain formation while running.
This ability... is also very impressive!
Because mobility is combat effectiveness!
Before the emergence of flintlocks and bayonets, two weapons that could be combined to dominate the battlefield, infantry not only had to wear armor, but also had to carry some very bulky weapons, such as spears several meters long.
So mobility is a very worrying issue!
Another worrying problem is the lack of flexibility - an infantry unit of about 1,000 people often includes spearmen, archers, sword and shield bearers, musketeers and other arms. When a large number of different arms are put together, commanding is extremely troublesome, coordination is difficult, and it is not flexible enough.
And when flintlocks and bayonets replaced almost all types of infantry weapons, the infantry became very flexible - the line infantry that later generations thought was ridiculously rigid was actually more flexible and more capable than almost all infantry that had appeared before. Easy to maneuver.
Line infantry can run and march! Moreover, it is easy to change the formation during the march, and even switch from the march mode to the combat mode in a short period of time, and even form a majestic formation.
These two abilities were vividly demonstrated in the battle in the early morning of June 27, the fifteenth year of Chongzhen.
More than 2,000 dismounted cavalry wearing slatted half-armor (actually half-armor was redundant) and carrying flintlock muskets, ran forward at a speed almost as fast as the cavalry, and emerged from the Ming army's square formation.
Then these more than 2,000 fusiliers rushed towards the Japanese left wing at extremely fast speeds. Before Masayuki Yasukina could figure out what was going on, more than 2,000 fusiliers advancing in four columns had already A slender two-row shooting formation was quickly pulled out on the left wing of the Japanese army, and it was also advanced to a distance of less than 30 steps from the two thousand-man phalanxes on the far left wing of the Japanese army!
When Hoshina was in a hurry to adjust his formation to prevent the enemy from attacking the flanks, 2,000 flintlock muskets had already fired the first round of volley!
The time of queuing up to be shot has arrived!
