The battle between the two cavalrymen that night may have opened a new era in East Asia. It represented the first large-scale application of cavalry flintlock muskets to frontal battlefields in East Asia.
Perhaps in the eyes of future generations, this battle was nothing more than a bad battle in which the attackers fought unreasonably and the defenders could not defend well; perhaps the performance of the cavalry muskets was also unsatisfactory; perhaps it was because of the terrain and the Due to time constraints, the entire battle seemed chaotic with few results...but no matter what, it still opened a new era.
A new era of musketeers. Of course, in reality this should add a limitation, because this new era can only be limited to Asia.
If we look at the entire world, with the rise of the German black-shirted knights in the 1940s, the dispute between lances (cold weapons) and pistols (firearms) continued throughout Europe in the second half of the century.
The best Spanish military theorist in the late 16th century was Bernardino Mendoza. His main works include "History of the Netherlands War 1567-1577" written this year (1592) and "The History of the Netherlands War 1567-1577" which has not yet been written (written in 1595)'s Theory and Practice of War.
Mendoza was also a battle-hardened general, a knight of the Order of Santiago who had fought against the Dutch under the Duke of Alba. He insisted that the lance was a more useful cavalry weapon than the musket. He said that if a 120-man lancer company could be divided into several squads to charge the enemy from multiple directions at the same time, then they could defeat a 500-man unit. Cavalry with muskets, of course it would be better if there were a certain number of cavalry with muskets supporting the lancers on the flanks.
Mendoza also pointed out that the reason why so many people favor muskets is because the musketeers have lower requirements on the quality of personnel and horses, so they are cheaper and easier to form. As for the formation that the cavalry should adopt, he believed that the commander should decide the depth and width of the formation based on specific circumstances, but the ratio of depth to front should not be greater than 1:3.
Another famous cavalry general was George Basta, born in 1550. He became the commander of a cavalry regiment at a very young age and led the cavalry troops for more than 40 years. He later became the commander-in-chief of the Holy Roman Empire troops stationed in the Balkans. In his later years, Basta also wrote a monograph on cavalry, "Laws of Light Cavalry Combat," which was published in Venice in 1612.
One of the main points in the book is that he believed that the musketeers were a superior force to the lancers. However, while no one can dispute Basta's vast experience as a general, it is difficult to say whether he was a qualified scholar and writer.
In his book, there are too many assertions and too few arguments. Conflicting arguments can often be found in the argument chapters, and even some basic concepts are blurred. For example, he often confused heavy armored cavalry with lances and light cavalry with short spears. Basta's book was unceremoniously attacked by von Wolhausen, a military theorist who studied cavalry tactics.
Walhausen had previously been the militia commander in Danzig and later served as an advisor to Prince Maurice. Unlike generals like Delano, he did not lead troops to fight major battles but focused on military theoretical research and education. But he was the most famous military theorist in Germany and even Europe at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. He was also the founder of Siegen Military Academy, one of the earliest military academies in Europe.
Wolhausen wrote many books, among which the most influential one included "The Art of Cavalry" published in 1616. This encyclopedic work covers everything a cavalry commander should know from recruitment and training to tactics, strategy, and more.
Due to Walhausen's influence in the military education community, a school of thought has formed around those who admired him and his works. Among them was the Englishman John Crusoe, who published the book "The Military Course of Cavalry" in London in 1632, which was basically an English reproduction of Walhausen's "The Art of Cavalry".
Wolhausen was a staunch supporter of old French cavalry tactics, and criticism and ridicule of Basta and his theories can be seen throughout the book.
This situation is rather miraculous. While the previous generation of French commanders such as Delano and Tavanna were more fond of the lancer cavalry, and the lancer cavalry had actually been eliminated by most countries in the early 17th century, Walhausen An almost fanatical advocate for the revival of French tactics.
He believed that the cavalry should hold heavy lances and charge in small units in a horizontal formation of no more than two rows. He also believed that a gap of 20 to 30 steps (about 30 to 50 meters) should be left between the formations to prevent the front from advancing. Behind the platoon's fallen stumbling block, it is also convenient for the front row personnel to evacuate backwards when the first charge fails. This almost completely overturned the principle of dense columns. He believed that the casualties caused by such columns being trampled upon each other would be even greater than those caused by the enemy.
However, neither performance on the battlefield nor theoretical disputes are the final decisive factor.
Dramatic social and economic changes are the key factors.
The main source of heavy lancers is the knight class. Of course, this does not mean that all lancers are knights, but the principle of "poor culture and rich martial arts" applies to both ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. The knights are mainly children of nobles, and they have practiced martial arts since the age of servants. , there is no shortage of time and money for martial arts training.
By the late Middle Ages, even the equipment of the squires could catch up with the real knights. All they lacked was just a title. However, as we all know, the medieval knight class originated from Charlemagne's fief system, that is, the king distributed land to the nobles, and the nobles Fight for the king.
From big nobles to small nobles and then to knights, with the advent of the Renaissance, the traditional feudal fief economy was strongly impacted. Many knights even abandoned the dignity of the nobles and became robbers in order to make a living. With the disintegration of the knight class, more noble children became middle- and lower-level officers, and knights holding lances gradually withdrew from the historical stage of Western Europe.
As stated in "The Emperor's Bayonet": The cavalry themselves also experienced a change. They gave up the use of cavalry spears, or cold weapons, and heavy cavalry was replaced by pistol cavalry.
The latter's main weapon was a flintlock or matchlock pistol, and their tactics were half-rotation: "A cavalry regiment marches towards a pre-selected target. Each row of cavalry rushes forward, fires their pistols, and shoots the infantry or cavalry regiments. Then withdrew, reloaded, and the next line of cavalry rushed forward to fire."
The reason why I say this is because the principles apply not only in Europe, but also in Asia, especially East Asia.
A knight with a very high level of training is obviously hard to come by. Just like the cavalry in Jinghua, although they are strictly selected and trained, if you want to expect their equestrian skills to be better than the Mongolians, and their ability to fight at close range is stronger than the Mongolians. , that is obviously forcing people to do something difficult - Mongolians have been riding horses since they were young, and they rely on riding horses to travel all day long, while Han people may only ride horses for the first time in their teens, and they usually regard horses as extremely precious. How is it possible to compete in equestrian competition if you can walk on your own?
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty could only compete with the Mongolian scimitar cavalry by using musket cavalry. The competition here was not just about technological level, but more importantly, cost advantage. The musket itself is of course more expensive than the scimitar, and the cost of fighting is also higher. It seems that there is no cost advantage, but it wins in the "army advantage", that is, cultivating advantages and forming advantages.
Moreover, due to the gap in productivity, the larger the population and the more developed the manufacturing industry, the greater this advantage will be.
To describe it with a tactic that no longer sounds good in later generations, the Ming Dynasty's musket cavalry can use the human sea tactic, but the Mongolian scimitar cavalry certainly cannot. The reason is that if the Ming Dynasty is willing, the increment of its musket cavalry can expand to an astonishing level, while the stock of Mongolia's scimitar cavalry is basically fixed but the increment is too small. Once the loss is too much, especially if the stock loss exceeds the increment, It will lead to the collapse of military power.
Of course, Gao Jiang understood this theory pragmatically, but Gao Jiang did not understand it. He did not know that in the eyes of his master, the musketeers did not have to defeat the Mongolian cavalry. At this moment, Gao Jiang was only thinking about one thing: how to get the Tumote army out.
Given that Jinghua's record on all fronts has always been brilliant, Gao Jiang of course regards defeating his opponents as his top priority, so his plan at the moment is to take advantage of the sneak attack at night to defeat the Chahar Army first and then install it. An Anxin took the Tumut army away with peace of mind.
At the beginning, this plan seemed to be implemented quite smoothly, especially when the Jinghua cavalry rushed out of the elm forest and fired the first wave of musketry. The relatively dense cavalry muskets almost directly hit Chahar's former army. Senseless.
Although due to limitations such as the width of the battlefield, the first round of musket shooting was actually completed by less than 2,000 cavalry. However, because the opponent was unprepared, they could not quickly complete the formation change in the middle of the night after discovering that they were being attacked. The Jinghua Cavalry hit more than 400 targets and actually caused about 300 casualties, but the Chahar Cavalry did not collapse.
How many brushes do the elites of the Khan Court have, and Burihatu, who is in charge of the central army, is not a fuel-efficient lamp. The ruler of the Mongol Khanate and the strategist of the Great Khan of Tumen immediately judged that the identity of the person must be the Jinghua Cavalry - because the Ming Army cavalry generally did not choose to stop advancing after firing a round of muskets. Start loading the horse and prepare for the second wave of musket fire.
Paying so much attention to the use of muskets was Gao Pragmatic's original style of commanding infantry. The two main combat styles of the Ming army's cavalry have nothing to do with this style of play - the habitual style of play of the Li family army in Liaodong is to first use a small group of elite troops to attack. Fight with the enemy, and then the main army seizes the opportunity to join the battlefield and seal the victory in one fell swoop;
The Ma Jiajun, Ma Jiajun and other Xuan cavalry are more Mongolian. They like to use light cavalry to shoot from a long distance (whether with muskets or bows), then retreat when the enemy attacks, and then start to circle around and perform wandering shooting, waiting for the enemy. The army lineup is out of shape, and then the elite troops are used to directly attack the central army.
No matter which of these two tactics, it is unlikely that the current situation of loading ammunition on the spot and preparing for the next round of shooting will occur. This style of tactics can only be used by Jinghua's cavalry.
Burihatu gave a very decisive order: the front army retreated by the river, and the Chinese army made a "right hook" and attacked diagonally to the east. They were asked to shoot randomly with their bows and arrows in order to disrupt the rhythm of the Beijing Cavalry, and at the same time go around behind the Beijing Cavalry, as if they wanted to outflank the opponent.
To be honest, if the weapons and equipment of the Jinghua Cavalry are similar to those of the Black Shirt Knights, then Gao Jiang's command obviously has serious problems at this moment, and the biggest problem is stopping to reload.
At this time, the representative of the European musketeers was the black-shirted knights. The combat units of the black-shirted knights were usually squadrons of 300-400 people, arranged in a tight formation, maintaining 20-30 rows. After the cavalry in the front row opened fire, they separated to both sides and retreated to the rear of the array to reload ammunition.
This shooting tactic while on the move was originally invented by the Spanish infantry to ensure uninterrupted firepower. After the opponent's formation was loosened by bombardment, the cavalry squadron swarmed forward and used swords and gun handles to drive away the enemy.
From a tactical perspective, the black-shirted knights had a very clear idea, which was to ensure uninterrupted firepower from firearms before the two sides came into contact. This idea is almost exactly the same as when commanding infantry with high pragmatism. In essence, it is to ensure the continuity of firepower and increase the density of firepower per unit time. It is obviously correct.
But there is a problem. The mobility of infantry and cavalry is different, and the difficulty of loading is also different. Therefore, infantry can carry out three-stage attack in a close formation, but it is obviously much more difficult for cavalry to copy it. Moreover, if the cavalry really does this, it will actually turn itself into a mounted musketeer infantry. Its role on the battlefield is almost the same as that of infantry. However, the unit density of cavalry cannot reach the level of infantry, so its firepower density It is impossible to be as tall as an infantryman.
In other words, the cavalry who did this were purely exploiting their weaknesses and avoiding their strengths.
The weapon used by the German black knights is a pistol, which has a limited range and limited power. However, because it is a pistol, if the ammunition load cannot be increased due to technical reasons, they can increase the ammunition reserve by equipping one person with N pistols. quantity, relatively increasing the firepower density.
However, Jinghua Cavalry is not equipped with such a pistol that can only fire one shot. Jinghua's lance is improved on the basis of a rifle. Its general characteristics are that the gun body is slightly shorter, the accuracy is reduced, and the weight is reduced and the strength of the gun body is improved. , and adjusted the ergonomic design to make it easier to install a longer bayonet for close combat.
Using a gun-handled bayonet for close combat is by no means the best option, so Jinghua's drill code stipulates that musketeers generally only use bayonets when chasing remnants of the enemy, and they need to use wild goose feather knives when fighting enemies in close combat.
Obviously, the Yanling knife was used for fighting, especially against the Mongolians who used scimitars for close combat. The reason why the bayonet is used to chase down the remnant enemy is because at this time, it is usually assumed that the enemy has no resistance and will not fight back. Therefore, "stabbing" has become the simplest and clearest way to kill the enemy. Not only does it require no unnecessary movements, No waste of energy either.
Gao Jiang's command at this time seemed to have a big problem. He was actually using the Jinghua Cavalry as mounted infantry. However, the problem is that they are cavalry, and it is still at night. Loading on the spot not only gives up the speed advantage, but also the firepower density cannot increase. In terms of lethality, such a command might as well have them dismount in advance to form a formation, and simply use them as infantry.
Burihatu obviously saw this flaw at a glance, so he ordered the cavalry to surround and give a "right hook" to outflank and annihilate the Jinghua cavalry.
But Gao Jiang has entered the Jinghua Cavalry System since he was a boy. Do you really not understand this? Of course not, although he and his men did not have several muskets that could be used to "shoot one shot at a time", but they had another trump card.
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