Commanding on the battlefield in the cold weapon era was far more difficult than in the hot weapon era of later generations.
This difficulty does not mean complexity, but complexity. With the continuous innovation of military technology, arms and weapons will definitely become more and more detailed and complex.
The difficulty mentioned here mainly means that it is very difficult to pass orders from senior officers to specific combat units.
In this era where communication relies on shouting, the only way to deliver orders is through messengers.
And even with a military formation of ten thousand people, it is not that easy to accurately pass on orders in a short period of time.
"The Ronin Begins with Douluo"
This requires very efficient messengers who can fully understand the commander's operational intentions.
Moreover, orders cannot be passed directly from the commander to the most basic combat units. They can only be passed down level by level, and a large number of highly qualified middle and lower-level officers are needed to ensure that when the orders are passed down, they will not be passed down. can become outdated and misunderstood.
But this increases the difficulty of transmitting orders, because the execution ability of the feudal army is often very inadequate, and grassroots officers will be delayed for other reasons such as fear.
To put it bluntly, the biggest command problem on the ancient battlefield was the timeliness of delivering military orders and the execution ability of the grassroots.
Therefore, the military laws of ancient strong armies were always extremely strict, including seven prohibitions and fifty-four beheadings, etc., all aspects were stipulated.
In some places, the regulations are stricter than those of later generations, and far more than those of other countries and races in ancient times.
Of course, those who formulated military laws must know that strict military laws are difficult to enforce among their illiterate soldiers and illiterate middle- and low-level officers. They simply cannot remember them, or even understand them.
Therefore, these strict military disciplines are not mainly used for execution, but for the military disciplines to function as a PUA and a conditioned reflex.
Let grassroots officers and soldiers fear military discipline more than fear of death, thereby improving their execution ability on the battlefield and being able to command them like an arm.
Later generations often jokingly call the countries in the Chinese cultural circle the monster houses of East Asia. The military's combat effectiveness is overwhelming. One of the very important reasons is the tradition of strict military discipline.
Even the Turks, Huns and even Mongols on the grasslands paid great attention to military discipline through learning and exchanges with the Central Plains dynasties.
When these armies are strong, they can use military discipline to form an efficient combat system. They will naturally form a crushing blow against the unorganized Central Asian and European armies.
This is also the reason why before firearms appeared on a large scale, a small force led by a military commander or a powerful general led by the commander's confidants could often change the situation of the battle.
In addition to their good equipment and training, the bigger reason is that they have good execution ability and can find a breakthrough on the battlefield in the shortest time, so as to execute resolutely.
Generally speaking, except for a very small number, such as the iron army of Grandpa Yue's Yue Family Army, in most battles in the cold weapon era, the core combat strength among 100,000 people would not exceed 20,000.
The rest can be regarded as beings that are slightly stronger than the cheerleaders. They are used to improve morale, clean the battlefield, occupy territory, participate in pursuits, etc., but are of little use in the core decisive battle.
And after the core of 20,000 people has suffered losses of 30% to 40% and collapses, the battle will be over.
This is also the reason why in the cold weapon era, the army can generally only withstand losses of about 10%.
Because you have obtained the maximum benefits, there are only a few core troops who are willing to fight for these benefits, and you cannot expand these elites just because you want to.
Elite soldiers require a large amount of resources to support them. In the feudal era, productivity was like that. The wealth produced determined the upper limit of the number of core soldiers and generals.
Zhang Zhao's Guiyi Army, which grew up from the Fengtian Army, was very powerful in fighting in Hexi and Anxi.
In addition to Zhang Zhaokai's little golden finger, the biggest reason is that Zhang Zhao spent all his money to raise these thousands of people, and everything about them is deeply bound to Zhang Zhao.
During the Anxi and Hexi periods, they took more than 60% of the Khotan Jin Kingdom's apparent interests, and Li Shengtian's palace guards were all helping the Fengtian Army.
More than 60% of the produce in Khotan was converted into grain, mules, horses and other materials and supplied to the Fengtian Army.
It was the same after returning. The goods Zhang Zhao obtained from the Hexi Sangha, the fertile fields he cultivated in Liangzhou, and the property and land confiscated from the Shatuo Li tribe and Jincheng Wang family in Lanzhou were all used to support the Guiyi Army. These are thousands of people.
This is also the reason why he needs to keep fighting, to use more goods and land to expand the core number of the rebel army to feed them.
Therefore, in the battle outside Mapaoquan Village, He Chuan had to wait for his tooth soldiers to finish wearing their armor.
Because they are the core combat force of the entire rebel army, and at the same time, when the tooth soldiers are wearing armor, Wu Defender must also lead his personal guards to go up.
Otherwise, haha! When robbing the rich girl, the tooth soldiers only gave some soup to other soldiers after they were full. It would be a fierce battle, and if other soldiers were allowed to fight, it would be a violation of the rules.
You are unkind and I am unjust. These soldiers dare to give up their jobs directly on the battlefield, and they do so as a matter of course.
So despite the military orders issued one after another on He Chuan's side, the soldiers at the front didn't move much at all.
The crossbowmen from the formation on the right were still dilly-dallying and did not launch even a single attack on the cyclone cannon of the Guiyi Army.
Fortunately, at this time, the Guiyi Army's cyclone cannon stopped firing.
One is that the polished stones are almost used up, but the key components of the trebuchet are worn too much, and the kinetic energy has dropped significantly, so they must be overhauled.
But the damage caused by the eighty camel cyclone cannons was still very terrifying, directly paralyzing the crossbowmen in two cities and crushing the crossbowmen in four cities.
Although the people in the Central Plains were equivalent to one general in the Guiyi Army, with only more than a hundred people, it caused huge psychological pressure on the rebel army and greatly weakened the morale of the entire rebel army.
'Dongdongdongdong! 'After about half a cup of tea, the rebel army's central drum and the command drums began to beat, and Wu's defense envoy led five hundred personal guards and began to advance.
With his forward command and pressure, more than 6,000 rebel troops were in front. Under the command of drums and flags, they divided into three large formations and a dozen small formations to press against the Guiyi Army.
Five hundred of Wu's defense envoys were in the middle, holding crossbows. In front of them were the sword and shield bearers who were guarding them. On both sides, there were archers carrying long spears and holding strong bows.
On the left and right wings are crossbowmen holding less powerful but more flexible wooden crossbows.
At this moment, the wooden crossbowmen on both wings were spread out like a crane's wings, and the number of them was relatively scattered. They used a shooting strategy of stars in the sky.
That is, the crossbowmen spread out and cover the entire enemy army with a small number of crossbow arrows, creating the illusion that crossbow arrows are shooting from everywhere, and focusing on damaging the enemy's morale.
Zhang Zhao waved his hand, and the big drum next to him also started beating. When he heard the sound of the commander's big drum, the drums commanded by the officers in each town, battalion, and capital also began to sound.
One step is taken every time the drum beats. The officers control the pace of the soldiers through the beat of the drum to ensure the integrity of the formation.
At the same time, the identification flag with black characters on a yellow background beside coach Zhang Zhao began to shake left and right. Bai Congxin in the distance got the news and immediately made arrangements.
Murong Nobunaga on the left and Li Cunhui on the right each led two hundred cavalry to rush out from the two wings. They were going to attack the starry crossbowmen on the left and right wings of the rebel army.
When these scattered crossbowmen saw the cavalry rushing towards them, a dozen of them began to roar loudly. The crossbowmen who were originally scattered all over the sky began to gather around two firemen as a basic unit.
Like plum blossoms, they gathered on the left and right wings. The twenty crossbowmen quickly turned into ten crossbowmen, four spearmen, three sword and shield soldiers, two hook and sickle shooters and a large stick (club). ) a small semicircular array formed by hands.
Among them, the crossbowmen are responsible for long-range strikes.
The pikemen resisted the cavalry charge.
Sword and shield soldiers prevent enemy cavalry from firing volleys.
The hook and sickle gunner is responsible for using the hook of the hook and sickle gun to hook the charging cavalry from their horses.
The big hand is the one responsible for hammering the cavalry to death.
They are scattered all over the ground like plum blossoms. Twenty people form a small formation, capable of attacking and defending, and can also support each other.
If the cavalry really rushes over and passes through these cooperating "plum blossoms", then prepare to shed a layer of skin!
In this style of play, those grassland cavalry have slightly poor armor, and often not many people will be left after a few attacks.
It's a pity that the Hexi Army is not a grassland people, and they also know that this style of play is powerful.
Therefore, when Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui saw that the rebel army changed their formation quickly, they immediately made a circle and stopped in the distance, and then dismounted directly.
These brave knights from the rebel army basically wore cotton armor, and had not only horned crossbows but also foot bows on their horses. They would not rush into the formation at all.
Murong Nobunaga roared several times, and two hundred horsemen formed a trumpet crane wing formation. Under the command of a small drum, they moved forward slowly.
The range of the horn bow crossbow is similar to that of the wooden crossbow, but it is more powerful, but the rate of fire is slower.
However, at this time, Murong Nobunaga's two hundred men were all heavily armored crossbowmen. They had advantages in armor and numbers. As soon as the two sides came into contact, the rebel army was directly shot and turned upside down.
"Fuck you! Are these cavalry from Hexi? They have better armor than I do, and they have strong bows and crossbows, and they can dismount and shoot with heavy armor on foot!"
The rebels cursed loudly, and quickly asked their spearmen, hook-scythe gunmen and big gunmen to pick up their crossbows again and started shooting at each other.
However, what they originally formed was a plum blossom formation, and now they were turning into a crane-wing formation that was good at shooting, causing the soldiers to become confused.
Sudden! Just as their plum blossom formation dispersed, a sound of horse hooves sounded.
It turned out that Murong Nobunaga didn't ask everyone to dismount, and he still had thirty cavalry left. As soon as the rebel army changed their formation, they rushed out from behind the unmanned horses.
"Thirty cavalrymen want to attack two hundred of my men. I will shoot you to death!" The rebels all sneered and ordered their crossbowmen to target the charging Hexi cavalrymen.
Although these Hexi cavalry were widely dispersed, they were shot by dozens or hundreds of strong bows and crossbows, and they quickly lost more than a dozen cavalry. The rest circled around and spread out to both sides, not daring to charge any more.
The rebels grinned with big yellow teeth and were making a few remarks, but his face suddenly froze.
Because after this wave of more than thirty cavalry was killed, the remaining Hexi cavalry had seized this opportunity to mount their horses.
This time there were one hundred and seventy armored knights, facing him in a one-row Crane Wing Formation composed of two hundred people. Moreover, they had just finished shooting the arrows in their crossbows and had not yet loaded them.
"Fuck you! I'm going to tell you!" A few drops of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, and he hurriedly went to get the spear he had just dropped at his feet.
But at this time, the rows of soldiers around him suddenly collapsed, and many people ran away, because they knew very well that they would definitely be too late and unable to stop him.
Murong Nobunaga hated the crossbowmen of the insurgent army for killing more than a dozen of his brothers. Taking advantage of the extremely fast speed of the smoke and dust in the snow under his crotch, he crashed into the insurgent army first.
He swung his long spear, and with one blow he knocked back the heads of the fleeing rebels, directly breaking their neck bones. Then he hammered left and right, and more than a hundred cavalry quickly defeated the crossbowmen of the rebel army. They killed most of them.
Li Cunhui on the other side, like Li Cunhui, almost used the same method to dent the crossbowmen on both sides of the rebel army. Then they mounted their war horses and continued to find the weak points of the rebel army to harass.
At this time, Commander Wu, who was commanding from the front, finally couldn't bear it anymore. He raised a flag and ordered the cavalry on both wings to attack and kill the two troops of Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui who were harassing their wings.
As soon as the hundreds of cavalrymen of the rebel army moved, Bai Congxin immediately shouted loudly. He and Wang Tongxin were separated, and led 800 cavalrymen to protrude from the two wings of the Guiyi army to intercept the rebel cavalry.
At the same time, the main cavalry force of Sun Xiaoguo's rebellious army in Mapaoquan Village was supported by a group of horned crossbows. He gathered more than 800 cavalry and galloped towards Zhang Zhao's main formation.
But almost at the same time, a cannon sounded, and Zhebu Jiashi, Du Lunchixin, Wen Chongle, Qingzhou Party Xiang Li Yanli, and Huizhou Party Xiang Li Zhongchao's father and son troops who were ambushing in Ma Paoquan Village came out from three sides.
Although the cavalry of the Guiyi Army was weaker, they had a numerical advantage, with a total of 2,500 people. The two sides immediately started fighting with each other outside Mapaoquan Village.
The battle on the two wings began, and the two main infantry troops in the middle also came within range of both sides.
The sky full of arrows whined like a swarm of bees in the sky, shooting at each other. Soldiers from both sides almost fell to the ground screaming in pieces.
Especially the sword and shield soldiers in front of the formation lay on the ground under the violent blows of the bows and crossbows, while the officers on both sides urged the soldiers forward almost without looking away.
During the contact between the two armies, when they were within the range of the crossbows, they basically walked slowly because of the need to maintain formation and the fear of death, which caused everyone to walk slowly.
But once they enter the range of the crossbow, the brutal exchange of fire will cause both sides to speed up involuntarily.
Finally, after a brutal exchange of fire, the two sides collided with a loud bang. The spears on top were clashing, and the jumping soldiers on the bottom were bending and fighting with rats.
Not to mention the difference in armor coverage between the two sides, the rebel soldiers fighting now are not the elite of the entire rebel army.
Therefore, as soon as they made contact, they were beaten back continuously. The 500 elite soldiers led by Wu Defender were the hardest hit, and at least 60 to 70 people were lost.
The rebel army was continuously beaten and retreated, and then was beaten back again and again. But at this moment, Zhang Zhao saw from a height that He Chuan's tooth soldiers had finished donning their armor and began to walk down in formation.
"Ming Jin withdraws his troops. The summer heat is in full swing. Our army has been putting on armor for an hour and a half and has been fighting for two quarters of an hour. However, the enemy is finishing putting on armor. We ordered everyone to retreat slowly and fight again tomorrow!"
If you want to fight, I won't fight with you. Anyway, the morale of the rebel army has been severely damaged today, and at least six to seven hundred people have been injured and killed.
Moreover, Zhang Zhao sneered sinisterly, the infantry retreated, the cavalry battle on the Mapao Spring side can still be fought, I will destroy your cavalry, how will you spend tomorrow?
"Order Bai Congxin to lead his troops to encircle and annihilate the rebel cavalry in Ma Paoquan, and bring Sun Xiaoguo's head to see me!"
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
It’s not me who’s holding it back! I really can’t finish it. I’ve written more than 4,000 words and still can’t finish it. I’ll finish the next chapter!
