The Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance's plan for Luzon is not worth mentioning in Liu Xin's opinion. After all, she listened to Gao Pangshi's careful explanation of the current situation in Europe. Although Philip II said "the world is not enough for me", Spain had too many opponents and the power it could use in Luzon was too limited.
According to Liu Xin's idea, if we only talk about taking Luzon, any one of Jinghua's northern and southern fleets can handle it alone. This does not even require the pragmatic deployment of additional army troops. The marines attached to the Two Ocean Fleets are enough - the Beiyang Fleet has three thousand marines attached to it, and the Nanyang Fleet was previously responsible for the development of Taiwan, so it is even equipped with A Marine Corps of more than 8,000 people.
The Spanish Army of this era was still quite famous in Europe, and Gao Pragmatic had reminded her many times. However, Liu Xin, as a highly pragmatic "confidential secretary", especially a general-type confidential secretary who can command operations, after rigorous analysis, she still insisted that the actual combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army will not exceed the current Beijing-China garrison. average level.
Tactically speaking, the Spanish Grand Square is a mixed battle column composed of spearmen, halberdiers, matchlocks, and sword and shield soldiers. In terms of its guiding ideology, it is actually very similar to the Qi Army's Yuanyang Formation. However, in Liu Xin's opinion, the flexibility of the Spanish Grand Square was far from enough, especially in terms of changes in form, which was far inferior to the Yuanyang Formation.
Why? Because the Yuanyang Formation is actually composed of the small Yuanyang Formation into the middle formation and the large formation, its basic organization, in a more pragmatic way, is squad tactics, that is, the Little Yuanyang Formation.
What about the Spanish Grand Square? It is actually an infantry regiment tactic. From its inception to standardization, it finally formed a standard three columns, composed of more than 3,000 people. It eliminated sword and shield soldiers and halberdiers, leaving only spearmen and musketeers.
The Spanish phalanx is essentially all-round defensive, and it is more troublesome for opponents to defeat it. However, the problem is that it is too bulky, and its dense formation also makes movement inconvenient. The line of fire of the musketeers is too narrow. Although the method of arranging muskets in the four corners has been strengthened, It has all-round combat capability, but it can easily cause a waste of firepower.
Through Gao's pragmatic introduction, Liu Xin learned that the first tactic in European military history to overwhelm the Spanish phalanx was the improved phalanx of Morris, the ruler of the Netherlands, also known as the Morris phalanx.
In order to enhance the mobility and firepower of the phalanx, Morris reduced the depth of the Spanish phalanx. There are still pikemen in the middle, but the matchlock troops are arranged on both sides of the pikemen, reducing the depth of the musketeers but increasing the horizontal width, extending the fire line, and strengthening the firepower; and the musketeers are separated and can advance to the pikemen according to the situation. Previously, after hand-to-hand combat began, they retreated to the wings to gain greater mobility.
However, the ratio of pikemen to musketeers in the Morris Square is still about 1:1, and a large number of pikemen are still retained. This is different from the firearms that Gao Jingjing continued to promote among the various garrison forces in Beijing.
In terms of tactical thinking, the tactics currently promoted by various garrison forces in Beijing are more like the main ideas of another military revolution in Europe after Morris's phalanx, that is, the linear tactics of King Gustavus II of Sweden.
Gustav the Great (he is the only Swedish king who was posthumously named "The Great", Swedish: denStore) was a loyal student of Morris's military writings. Coupled with his early war experience, he felt that Morris's phalanx also had Need for improvement.
The phalanx reformed by Gustavus was a variant of Maurice's phalanx, which further emphasized mobility and firepower. During the Thirty Years' War, the Swedish army switched to using new matchlock guns that were lighter in weight and smaller in caliber, so that their loading speed could be faster than the old Mushket heavy matchlock guns, and the firepower density could be enhanced.
Coupled with Gustav's extensive use of lightweight field cannons (that is, light artillery units similar to Frederick the Great's "Flying Horse Artillery") to support the infantry, the long-range shooting firepower was enough to severely damage those in the Holy Roman Empire before the hand-to-hand combat began. A rabble that wants to make progress.
Therefore, he boldly further reduced the number of pikemen. The ratio of musketeers to pikemen in such a phalanx on the battlefield was generally greater than 3:2. The reason why there were no further additions of musketeers was that his main opponents, Imperial heroes like Tilly and Wallenstein, had too many iron canned heavy cavalry, and long gunners to restrain the heavy cavalry were still indispensable.
The tactics Gao Pragmatic is currently promoting in Jinghua are roughly the tactics of Gustavus II. However, because Jinghua introduced rifle bayonets earlier, the firepower density of the garrison system is higher and it is more effective against pikemen. The degree of dependence is even lower, so the various security forces have even basically completed the "full firearmsization".
Of course, there is another key reason here, that is, the opponents are different. All the garrison armies are deployed in southern Xinjiang, and there are currently almost no opponents in southern Xinjiang who have a large number of heavy cavalry.
Even if you follow the most exaggerated approach, it doesn't matter if you treat the Mughal Empire as an enemy, because the rulers of the Mughal Empire are descendants of the Mongols. They are better at light cavalry, but they are also not good at heavy cavalry. .
This means that the garrison forces in Beijing hardly need to consider the threat of heavy cavalry (it is difficult for muskets to break armor of heavy cavalry at this time, and they need to shoot at close range, but close range means they will be attacked by heavy cavalry, and the outcome is unpredictable) , just need to increase the firepower density without thinking, and at most consider mobility.
The emergence of any tactic must be linked to the performance of the weapons at that time. The reason why Jinghua can continue to increase its firepower density regardless of the pikemen is that Gao Pragmatic attaches great importance to firearms, which has made Jinghua's musketry level far higher than that of the same period in history. Although He could neither produce a breech-loading gun nor smokeless gunpowder, but it was not difficult to surpass the current era.
Thinking of firearms, Liu Xin suddenly thought of a rumor from the Battle of Lang Son a few years ago. Chao Gao asked pragmatically: "There was one thing that Huang Dutong was very curious about during the Battle of Lang Son. I forgot to ask her before. , I forgot to ask you, but now that I think about fighting the siege of Manila, I suddenly remember..."
Gao Jingshi rolled his eyes and asked: "You mean she used my 'divine letter' to invite Taishang Laojun's 'Nine Nether Thunder' to blow up the Langshan city wall?" [Note: See this book. According to Guangxi Volume Chapter 141 Fierce Battle at Lang Son]
Liu Xin chuckled, glanced at Gao Mo, and still asked: "Tell me, what was used to blow it up?"
Gao Mo actually knew about this. Of course Gao Pingshi didn't mind. He smiled lightly and said, "Nitroglycerine."
"Oh..." Liu Xin suddenly realized: "I told you why it was so mysterious, and I never saw you use it again."
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "That thing is indeed too dangerous. I was very nervous when transporting it. After using it that time, I almost stopped all production and only asked them to research passivation."
For Jinghua at that time, the difficulty with nitroglycerine was the glycerin itself, because the manufacturing method was actually simpler: half a part of glycerin was dropped into a mixture of one part nitric acid and two parts concentrated sulfuric acid. As mentioned before, in ancient China There are indigenous manufacturing technologies for nitric acid and sulfuric acid.
Gao pragmatically made secret arrangements at the time, and it took a long time to get a small amount of glycerin. Then he found that this thing was difficult to use because it was too sensitive. It would explode if not careful, and it was extremely powerful. Therefore, after the Battle of Lang Son, he ordered a temporary suspension of militarization experiments and instead asked the gunpowder factory to conduct passivation experiments.
In fact, Gao Pragmatic knew the raw materials required for the passivation of nitroglycerine, because he knew that Nobel's Dana dynamite (yellow dynamite) was obtained by absorbing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth - in fact, Nobel was the first to use yellow dynamite before He also first came up with the "warm method" to passivate nitroglycerin, but unfortunately Gao Pragmatic only knew the name and did not know the specific operation at all.
However, knowing the words "diatomaceous earth absorption" is not enough. Gao Pragmatic has no idea where to dig diatomite, nor how to operate the so-called "absorption" after digging.
After explaining the situation at this time, Liu Xin quickly solved one of his troubles: "Diatomaceous earth, China has a lot of it. But I estimate that with the current technical level, only two can be used. Place: One is in the northeastern part of Liaodong, and the other is in Yunnan. Although there are others such as Zhejiang, Shandong, and Sichuan, there are too many impurities. I guess you won’t be able to use them even if you dig them out.”
"Is there a specific location?" Gao pragmatically asked.
Liu Xin said: "I don't remember it too specifically, but the place in Liaodong is in... well, now it's the Changbai Mountains, and the place in Yunnan is quite coincidental, it's in Tengchong."
Gao Pragmatic was stunned: "Liaodong's is in the Changbai Mountains? You mean it's in the hands of the Jurchens?"
"Yes, where else is there in the Changbai Mountains? The place I'm talking about is basically near the border with North Korea."
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "This is a bit difficult to handle, at least for the time being. Tengchong is no problem, but it's a bit far... You also know that the waterway in Yunnan is not convenient, and the land transportation is all carried by horse-drawn people."
"I think the main problem with transportation is not the high cost, but the slow speed. But it's actually nothing, because your nitroglycerin... With all due respect, mass production is probably not very reliable with the current technical level. So the dosage of diatomaceous earth is destined not to be very large.”
Liu Xin paused, then continued: "As for the use of diatomaceous earth, I don't know, but I have seen diatomaceous earth before, and the thing itself looks a bit like gunpowder. I mean, it is in powder form. , so I guess..."
"Infiltration?" Gao Pingshi asked immediately: "Infiltrate directly with nitroglycerin, and then the diatomaceous earth will become the same thing as gunpowder. Is this what you mean?"
"That's what I mean, but I want to emphasize that I'm just guessing. I don't understand this." Liu Xin replied immediately.
Gao pragmatic nodded and frowned: "We still have to do the diatomaceous earth thing. I think it is necessary to do experiments after we get it. But what you said makes sense. Glycerin is not easy to handle. , to be honest, the appearance of the first batch of glycerol came from an accident.”
"Accident?" Liu Xin was a little surprised: "Didn't you do it on purpose?"
"No, I was focused on making TNT, but unfortunately I didn't succeed." Gao Pragmatic waved his hand: "The glycerin was accidentally made by the soap factory. I used to often ask them to record and report the newly discovered things. , so after a while I saw the report and remembered that the thing might be glycerin, so I instructed them to make a little, very small amount of nitroglycerin to try."
"You succeeded just like that?" Liu Xin smiled and said, "Then you are really lucky."
"I said they would test a little bit, but they injured seven people, and one of them was blinded in one eye." Gao pragmatic sighed: "At that time, I felt that this thing was too dangerous, and it was best not to use it if possible, so I had to forgive me. Used it once in the Battle of the Mountain.”
"It can be seen from this..." Liu Xin blinked: "At that time, you looked at Huang Dutong in a different light."
Gao Pragmatic paused after hearing the words and coughed lightly: "Let's get down to business."
"Okay, let's get down to business." Liu Xin rolled her eyes at him and said lazily: "Even without nitroglycerin, Manila City's bastion system cannot be said to be impregnable. I can provide you with two methods here, one is quick and the other is slow."
Gao pragmatically said: "Slow one, you're not telling me to surround Manila until they cannibalize them, then open the city and surrender, right?"
"Why, isn't this a good idea?" Liu Xin spread her hands: "I know this news cannot be hidden. Whether it is the Spanish or the Portuguese, there will definitely be ships heading to Manila, and you can't take all these ships. Send it to the sea, after all, there is still business to be done, right?
But this has no conflict with the siege. They discovered it when they found it, and it didn't matter if they sent the news back to Spain. Anyway, as you said, Philip II is in ruins, and it is impossible for him to send the Invincible Fleet to Nanyang to fight you. Besides, didn't you say that this Armada expedition would fail? Then there is no need to worry. "
Gao pragmatically said: "In addition to tactical mistakes, the Armada will also be greatly affected by bad weather. I don't know if the butterfly effect will affect this. But even if the Armada fails... Well, to be honest, Philip I can build another invincible fleet in two years."
This shipbuilding ability did make Liu Xin stunned for a moment, but she still said it didn't matter: "It doesn't matter even if it's two years. The Spaniards can't delay it in Manila for two years. Besides, even if the Armada is rebuilt, the first thing that comes to mind is to go to the British." He will never come to Nanyang for revenge, unless Philip II is really crazy."
Of course Philip II was not crazy, he was just religious fanaticism. The main reason why this guy insists on attacking England, apart from Queen Elizabeth issuing privateering warrants and mobilizing British pirates to rob Spanish treasure ships, the most important reason is to oppose the Anglican Church - he wants to restore the glory of the Catholic Church in England.
[Note: In fact, he still had some legal basis for attacking England. The last Queen of England, Mary I, was the first wife of Philip II. At that time, Philip II’s title included King of England (co-ruling). But because Mary had no descendants, theoretically, after the death of Mary I, his right to co-govern was also lost. However, Philip II was more aggressive and claimed the throne of England when he attacked England. ]
Having said that, Gao Pragmatic still did not want the battle to drag on for so long. He shook his head and said: "I dragged the nobles to fight in Manila. The purpose was not to compete with Spain for the colonies, but to divert the attention of the nobles. But This requires Luzon to restore its original functions as soon as possible and create benefits. So, you might as well talk about another way."
Liu Xin smiled and said, "This will require my expertise..."
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