Chapter 40: The staff system of the Ming army
After setting up camp on the predetermined battlefield.
The Ming army continued to send scouts to explore the opponent's situation.
I have been waiting for almost seven days.
The leading troops of the 80,000-strong army on the opposite side gradually arrived and set up camp ten kilometers outside Pontianak City.
However, the Ming army did not dispatch immediately.
Instead, he stood still.
This wait lasted another three days.
It took ten days for the Qing-Borneo coalition forces to gather all their troops, and the 80,000-strong army set up a huge camp.
Then Lin Guoliang, Liu Guangliang, and a Dutch army major named Gropp rode horses and came with a few guards to observe the Ming army camp in person.
Unlike the Ming army's scouts who had already transmitted the situation on the opposite side back to the command post almost in real time, the coalition army had no scouts to use at all.
Before this, small groups of troops from both sides had exchanged fire.
But the Ming army scouts are all elite shooters of the Chasseur Artillery Battery.
The Chasseur Artillery Company was a unit established at Napoleon's suggestion and equipped with large-caliber muskets and small-caliber mortars.
It was different from the queuing up and shooting imagined by later generations.
In this era of European battlefields, there was a unit called "Chasers".
Such soldiers are generally equipped with rifled guns or larger-caliber flintlock muskets.
Existing in the form of skirmishers, before the line infantry of both sides engage in battle, they use muskets with longer range and higher accuracy as much as possible to hunt down enemy officers and high-value targets - such as gunners.
And now after having the mortar.
Napoleon proposed a mix of small-caliber mortars and chasseurs equipped with rifled guns.
Small-caliber mortars don't weigh much. Two soldiers can carry the artillery around. With a few auxiliary soldiers carrying shells on their backs, a mortar team of five people can carry the artillery around on their feet on the battlefield. Maneuver everywhere.
Although the range of the mortar is not as good as a rifled rifled gun equipped by the Ming army.
But it has a much longer range than ordinary flintlock guns.
Therefore, in the tactics of the Ming army, the original hunting tactics became artillery hunting tactics.
Chasseurs equipped with long-range rifled guns were combined with artillery squads using small-caliber cannons to form a ten-man squad for combat.
The combat effectiveness of such a ten-man combat team cannot be compared to those gangster thugs who have just picked up a gun.
Even without cavalry.
before the two sides fight.
The Ming army already had exclusive control of information on the battlefield.
The scouts sent by the coalition forces were unable to compete with the Ming army's hunting artillery battery.
After heavy casualties.
The coalition forces simply stopped sending out reconnaissance forces. They gathered into a few big lumps like hedgehogs and headed towards Pontianak regardless.
So what is the situation here with the Ming army?
Lin Guoliang, Liu Qianxing and others did not know.
Dutch Gropp is the commander of the Turkish army, so this time he also came to observe with Lin Guoliang and others.
This observation does not matter.
Gropp frowned as he observed the Ming army camp from a high place with a telescope.
"Gentlemen, we are facing a real army now."
Graup said.
The general who followed him immediately translated the Dutch into Chinese.
After hearing this, Liu Guangliang couldn't help complaining in his heart: "What you said, don't our 20,000 Qing soldiers be considered a real army?"
He turned to look at Lin Guoliang.
I saw Lin Guoliang also frowning.
"Master Lin, how is the situation with the rebels?"
"It's not easy to fight! Although this camp is small, it is set up in a very organized manner. The transportation in the ravines is convenient, and all kinds of materials and personnel are in order. The combat strength of the rebels is unknown for the time being, but at least the camp is stable. This The battle...isn’t easy to fight!”
Lin Guoliang knows the goods.
After all, he is a fifth-grade military attache.
If you have never eaten pork, you have at least seen pigs running away.
"If such a camp is not attacked with heavy firepower, the casualties will be huge."
Putting down the telescope in his hand, Graup said.
"But we are not helpless. We have more soldiers. We can surround them first. If they don't fight, we will go around and attack Pontianak!"
Lin Guoliang clapped his hands and praised: "Seconds! This is the key to attacking the enemy in the book of war! I will go back and organize the troops right away. Early tomorrow morning, the whole army will go out to fight! With 80,000 people, we will defeat the 4,000 Ming army. This battle will be huge." confident!"
........
Early the next morning.
It's just dawn.
The coalition forces began to cook rice, and carried large rice balls wrapped with dried salted fish in baskets to each camp. After the army ate the rice balls, the Liu family came to encourage them and gave them rewards for going out into battle. after.
The army went out to fight with great vigor.
The situation among the natives is similar.
After learning that there were only 4,000 people on the other side, the natives screamed and wanted to rush into Pontianak immediately.
Looted all the base camp of "King of Pontianak" Luo Fangbo.
The Ming army was also well prepared.
Their staple food is also rice, but the side dishes are much richer than the other side.
One meat, one vegetable and one soup.
The meat is whale meat.
There are whale pods in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean to the west of Malacca Sea Knight, and the whaling industry in the east has not developed much, so there are a lot of whales.
The profits from Daohua Trading Company's whaling fleet will soon cover the investment.
The dish is a stir-fried kelp shred, and the soup is a seaweed and egg drop soup, a pure natural seaweed soup, sprinkled with salt to add salt.
It's a good delicacy.
After having enough wine and food.
News came that the entire army on the opposite side had left the stronghold.
"Everyone is dispatched. It seems that the other side is very confident."
Napoleon smiled.
"Your Majesty, I suggest that we also dispatch the entire army, with the 4th and 5th battalions as the vanguard, three infantry companies plus a hunting artillery battery as the front, and three infantry companies plus a hunting artillery battery as the left side. , three infantry companies plus a chasseur artillery company detoured to the right, with the sixth battalion and the howitzer battalion as reserves."
Zhu Daohua smiled and said: "Bonaparte, the command of this battle is in your hands. You don't have to agree to everything."
Napoleon nodded: "Understood!"
He turned to look at the staff of the Ming Army.
"Carry out staff operations in accordance with the order I just gave. The goal of this battle is to defeat the enemy head-on and then use six infantry regiments and two hunting artillery companies on both wings to pursue and expand the results!"
"Follow the order!"
The staff members shouted in unison.
Then the staff department quickly broke down the order into details, and the orders were sent to each unit through the staff department and the messengers.
The staff departments of each army will make more detailed combat task assignments in accordance with the orders given by the superior staff departments and hand them over to the military chief. After the military chief agrees, the army will start dispatching.
It's like a gear.
From top to bottom.
The entire army is under the control of the staff system.
It's running like a machine.
This is actually close to the structure and system of the modern military.
Under such a system.
The military may seem a bit dull at times.
But one word stands out: stable!
Zhu Daohua believes that there should not be too many risks in things like war.
Wouldn't it be nice to steadily rely on superior equipment, firepower, or even military strength to win the war?
