The next day, Gao Pragmatic tested the artillery at Zhenhe Fort in the northwest of Datong City according to his planned schedule. However, due to Gao Pragmatic's selfishness, the test on the artillery was far less rigorous than yesterday's test on the firecrackers, so he concluded that the artillery was Barely usable.
Of course, Gao Pragmatic also found a good reason for this kind of test that obviously showed signs of leakage - the cost of cannons is far more than that of firecrackers and there are not many equipment, and now we have a large army under pressure, if we can conduct a durability and strength test like the test of firecrackers, If a large number of artillery guns exploded in a non-battle-damaging manner, it might affect the subsequent battle against the enemy. How could it not be beautiful?
However, this visit to Zhenhe Fort gave Gao Pragmatic something else - for the first time, he saw with his own eyes the appearance of serious Ming Dynasty border troops.
Before today's visit to Zhenhe Fort, the "border troops" Gao pragmatic saw for the first time were the troops that Qi Jiguang brought with him when he met him last time, but he knew that they were actually the Southern troops brought by Qi Jiguang from the south, that is, The so-called Qi Jiajun. The second time he saw the border troops was the defenders he saw in Datong City yesterday. At first, he thought that the defenders of Datong were direct descendants of Ma Fang. Later, he asked casually and found out that they were not the defenders of Datong City. There are only two groups of guards: the Datong avant-garde and the Datong rear-guard.
In other words, the armies he saw the first two times could not represent the normal level of the "nine-border" frontier armies - the former was too strong and the latter was too weak.
The Qi Jiajun that Gao pragmatic saw at that time was not only well-equipped, but also in good spirits, not to mention disciplined. As a layman who doesn't understand the military, Gao Pragmatic feels that with these three points, this army will never be bad.
The former defender of Datong whom he saw yesterday made Gao Pragmatic frown. Although all the soldiers were on alert because Wang Chonggu had issued a combat readiness order, they were still a little lazy. It should be a tense and orderly pre-war period. Prepare, but many people are still bumping around like headless flies. Coupled with the whitewashed and patched mandarin duck war jackets on their bodies, the overall look makes people feel unreliable.
Regarding this situation, Gao Jingshi even took the opportunity to ask Ma Fang a question. In the end, Ma Fang was very calm and told Gao Jingshi that the role of this group of people was mainly to make up the numbers. When the war actually started, success or failure would depend on the main force of the direct line - -The main force of the direct line generally has two parts, one part is the general military supervisor, and the other part is the armed servants.
Gao Pragmatic has never been optimistic about this situation. He prefers the model of Qi Jiajun: he would rather have fewer soldiers, but he must be elite.
Judging from the situation at Xuanda, there are still some elites, but only the General Military Supervisor can be considered a serious "official army" of the Ming Dynasty, and the rest, which accounts for a very large proportion, is actually the "semi-private army" of the General Soldier. ".
For someone like Gao Pragmatic who insists on institutionalism, it is obvious that Qi Jiguang's model is what he wants the Ming Dynasty to have, because the Qi Jiajun has already proven one of its biggest advantages in its original history: other elite troops of the Ming Dynasty, as long as they are replaced by The general's combat effectiveness may plummet, but the Qi family army is different. No matter who is replaced to lead them, their combat effectiveness is as reliable as ever!
This is the true embodiment of Qi Jiguang's military training achievements - this is an army that has been forged over a long period of time based on discipline and regulations. The quality of the general can only affect the correctness of the troop deployment, but does not affect the accuracy of the troop deployment. The combat effectiveness of the troops themselves.
In other words, a good general can use this unit at the right location and time, while a bad general may use it at a meaningless location and time. But regardless of whether the general is good or bad, this unit will The combat effectiveness of the troops themselves remains unchanged.
If we want to classify it according to later generations, the army with this kind of performance actually already has the main characteristics of a "modernized army".
Gao Pragmatic can even say with certainty that if all the armies of the Ming Dynasty were like Qi's army, even if they didn't change a single piece of equipment, they would be able to easily defend their country. Even after the rise of Boar Skin, there would be nothing to worry about.
The reason is very simple. For a normal ancient army, if the battle losses exceed 10%, collapse is almost inevitable. However, for a modern army, the battle losses of 30% are just drizzle. It can even continue to fight with more than half of the battle losses. Examples abound.
The gap is not based on reason at all, and the Battle of Bali Bridge clearly demonstrated this gap.
Don't say that you can't fight if the equipment is inferior to the people. In the history recorded by the British themselves, many British officers recalled that the Qing army was not afraid of fighting with them. Even if the Qing army was suppressed and beaten when the two sides were shooting at each other, it would still be very difficult. Shaohui would collapse, but as long as the British lobster soldiers launched a bayonet charge, the Qing army would collapse immediately without exception.
However, as a person who likes to think about problems from an institutional perspective, Gao Pragmatic also knows very well that if the Qi Jiajun model is to be promoted throughout the Ming Dynasty, the difficulty is not in implementing the Qi Jiajun training process or military regulations, but in that the deeper system is difficult to reform.
To put it simply: if the guard system is not reformed, the Ming army will never be able to enter modernization. The reason why the Qi Family Army has been stronger than the Guard Army since its establishment is that, in addition to the obvious advantages of the soldier selection and training system formulated by Qi Jiguang, another advantage is that they recruit soldiers: if you fight well, you will stay. People's salaries and rewards; if you don't succeed, get out, go back and continue mining and farming for the rest of your life without success.
Even in Gao Pragmatic's view, the situation of Qi Jiajun can only be regarded as a primary modern army, because a truly modern army also needs spiritual weapons such as nationalism and patriotism to arm the mind and let soldiers know Who am I fighting for?
During the Anti-Japanese War, some domestic armies suffered so much battle losses that almost all of them were wiped out, but they still refused to retreat. Could it be because of their high military pay? They do it because of their national feelings and patriotic enthusiasm!
Of course, this aspect seems to be too far away at present. It requires continuous strengthening and efforts for at least one or two generations in various aspects such as cultural popularization. Gao Pragmatic even doubts that even if he can achieve smooth sailing in reform in his life, he may not be able to do so smoothly. See that day.
However, at least at the level of Qi Jiajun, there is still a chance to achieve it through thorough reform of various military systems such as the guard system.
Today, at the Zhenhe Fort where Gao pragmatically arrived, the troops stationed were none other than Ma Fang's General Military Supervisor Division. There were not many of them, only five to six hundred people. This Datong General Military Supervisor gave Gao a pragmatic feeling. , which was not much different from what he expected - more than enough fierceness but not enough discipline.
Fierceness can be seen by looking at their expressions and demeanor, and the same is true for discipline - when directly facing Ma Fang himself, this group of people seemed relatively honest, but as soon as Ma Fang turned around, then Even people like Gao Pragmatic, who consider themselves "ignorant of soldiers", frowned after seeing this feeling of being careless.
