Because there is no reloading time during cavalry operations, Gao Pragmatic believed a long time ago that before repeating firearms matured, cavalry units could only use portable disposable firearms.
What is portable? It's just that this thing is small and easy to carry; it's disposable... Well, there's no need to explain this.
What counts as a portable disposable firearm? Of course it's a grenade, also called a palm grenade.
As mentioned a long time ago, Ming Dynasty has many types of firearms. In terms of explosive firearms alone, Ming Dynasty has many strange and weird products, so obviously, the simplest grenade-type products are of course indispensable.
It's just that... grenades in the black powder era were not very powerful in theory, so the actual application effects of these things were relatively average, so that they often "exploded without enough poisonous smoke", and many went astray.
Products such as grenades are not "original" to Jinghua, and their earliest origins can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, gunpowder was officially used in the military field. Rockets (arrows carrying gunpowder) and artillery (trebuchets projecting gunpowder) appeared. This was the origin of "thrown firearms".
Then in the Song Dynasty, various kinds of fireballs came out one after another, including thunderbolt fireballs, terrestris fireballs, poison fireballs, smoke balls, and fireballs. These fireballs were the true prototypes of hand grenades and hand grenades.
By the Ming Dynasty, the types and craftsmanship of fireballs had further developed. Unfortunately, it then stagnated in the Qing Dynasty for hundreds of years, and the development of grenades and hand grenades in China has also stopped at the level of the Ming Dynasty - perhaps even dropped a lot.
After the rise of the West, a discourse system centered on Western thinking was established around the world. The earliest history of Chinese people developing thrown firearms was almost annihilated. Therefore, many people in later generations - especially Westerners - basically did not recognize it. They believed that These are all original to them.
The earliest grenades containing black powder appeared in the West around the 15th century, when they were mainly used for fortress defense and prisons. It was not until the middle of the 17th century that grenades began to be equipped with the army. However, in the 19th century, with the development of guns and the reduction of castle offensive and defensive battles, grenades were once again ignored. Then in the American Civil War, grenades were taken seriously again.
The originator of Chinese grenades and hand grenades should be the Zhentian Lei, which was invented in the late Northern Song Dynasty. The outer shell is made of pig iron and contains black powder and a fuse. After the explosion, it uses fragments to kill the enemy. This thing was used by Yue Fei, but unfortunately for unknown reasons - maybe the black gunpowder was not powerful enough. In short, it seems that there was no further development during the Southern Song Dynasty.
The first professional grenadiers to appear in Europe were the reorganization of the French army during the reign of Louis XIV. The new grenadiers use traditional musket tactics to use grenades, that is, they stand in a horizontal line and fire (throw) grenades in a volley, using quantity to make up for the lack of power of a single grenade.
Soon, the British also began to train the two Guards regiments into Grenadier regiments, and major European countries such as Prussia, Austria, Spain, and Russia quickly followed suit. The grenadiers of that era were real soldiers who stood in a row and threw grenades - of course, they also had the muskets of ordinary line soldiers, and they could also complete all the tactical tasks completed by ordinary line soldiers.
This is obviously different from the Chinese. The Chinese did not create a special unit for grenades and hand grenades. However, Europe not only created a "Grenadier Regiment", but the Grenadier Regiment had a higher level than ordinary soldiers at the beginning. establishment and are considered elite.
Gao Pragmatic has also thought about why this phenomenon occurs. He thinks there may be the following reasons:
First of all, the biggest difference between the grenades at that time and the military grenades of later generations is that even if the safety bolt of later military grenades is removed, as long as you don't let go of your hand, the fuse will not be ignited. Even if you hold it in your hand for a minute, it will be fine. At that time, the grenade was simply a shrunken howitzer pellet. After igniting it and watching the fuse burn rapidly, you had to stay calm, not slippery, and follow the sergeant's command to throw it uniformly, and throw it far enough. There are still enemy lead bullets flying around...
This can only be accomplished by experienced battlefield veterans, or at least recruits who have undergone long-term training. Therefore, at the beginning, the Grenadier Regiments in Europe were basically all Guards or other elite regiments.
Moreover, the Europeans at that time also used black powder. In order to ensure the power of the grenades, they had to be made larger and the weight was not light. Therefore, the soldiers of the Grenadier Regiment were basically tall and strong with strong arms - well, when it comes to this image, everyone basically As you might have guessed, the person who took this to the extreme was Mao Zi.
In the time of Alexander I, new recruits were arranged according to their height after joining the army. Only the tallest and strongest ones could become grenadiers, while the shortest and most suitable for hiding in the grass would participate in light infantry training. For these reasons, it can be said that the grenadiers have a higher status than ordinary line infantry from the beginning.
Secondly, although the grenade "volley throw" has a shorter range than the musket salvo, as long as it is within reach, it is a very intimidating attack method. No matter how powerful the musket is, it can only hit one or two rows of soldiers in front of the line, while the power of the grenade can directly kill the entire row of enemy soldiers. While killing, it can also disrupt the enemy's formation. Causing panic among enemy rear-line soldiers and even total collapse.
In addition, grenadiers are generally stronger than ordinary soldiers, so in the era of queuing to kill, grenadiers were usually used as an attacking force, the most important blow to reverse the situation on the local battlefield or crush the enemy. in use.
The tactical arrangement is generally as follows: first volley the guns, then advance in formation, wait until the grenades are within throwing distance, then throw the grenades, and then charge directly with bayonets. Even though this paradigm seems very rigid, and it doesn’t feel like an “art of war” at all, in fact, usually when the fight reaches this level, the opponent has often collapsed or is on the verge of collapse, and in the end you see someone who is taller than you. The fierce men descending from the sky charged with bayonets and killed the generals. Surrendering with their hands raised was obviously a good choice.
This function is a bit like the shocktroops in World War I and World War II. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, in the Battle of Bunker Hill, the British elite grenadiers were blocked by the Continental Army after several charges.
But in any case, grenadiers often have more opportunities to gain military exploits than ordinary soldiers, and of course they are more dangerous, so they are worthy of their reputation as elites.
By the way, Maozi's group of weirdos once again used the grenadiers to the extreme: relying heavily on the long-range firepower advantage brought by the Unicorn Cannon, plus they always had insufficient ammunition, and even the grenadiers did not receive much shooting training. Coupled with Suvorov's 300-yard bayonet charge tactics... so the Maozi Grenadier Corps basically ignored shooting, and even didn't bother to throw the bullets. They just put the bayonet "Ula" on and it was done. It turned out that this trick was actually very effective against the French. efficient.
The Ming Dynasty's use of these fancy firearms was more fancy than the fancy firearms themselves. There was basically no fixed usage. In other words, the weapon R&D and production system and tactical command system of this era simply could not match each other and were completely out of touch.
Generally speaking, the craftsmen at the rear "developed" new firearms according to their own imagination. The generals at the front had no idea how to use each of the dozens of firearms they carried and for what occasion. Therefore, In fact, when it comes to the battlefield, it is often chaotic, almost allowing low-level officers to give random orders, or even the soldiers themselves to express themselves freely.
This situation did not change until Qi Jiguang came out. Many fancy-looking firearms were ignored by Qi Jiguang, and instead he chose some more effective weapons to use together. However, although Qi Jiguang used explosive weapons and spent a lot of time improving them, the scope of their final use was still limited. The reason is obvious. The explosion is not powerful enough and its use is too limited.
This situation was improved as Jinghua's gunpowder technology progressed, and grenades began to be slowly equipped into Jinghua's own armed force system. As for the Ming army, the Imperial Guard purchased some, but not much. The other nine border areas have not yet purchased large-scale purchases - not for other reasons, but because the border army is not as financially wealthy as the Imperial Guard. We are working hard to expand the size of the cavalry and complete the evolution of the "musket and bayonet soldiers" in the entire army.
The advancement of Jinghua's gunpowder technology means that the grenades it produces do not need to be as large as early European hand grenades (or hand grenades). Since the size is smaller, the requirements for the size of soldiers can naturally be reduced accordingly. Therefore, after Jinghua's internal testing for a period of time, in addition to In addition to equipping soldiers with varying numbers of grenades, the elite infantry also equips cavalry with this weapon on a large scale because it is a typical "portable disposable firearm."
On this night with the moon appearing and disappearing, the Jinghua grenade was used on a large scale for the first time and gained its reputation. Gao Jiang led his cavalrymen and ignored the Chahar Mongolian cavalry who had begun to prepare for a tactical attack and moved sideways not far away. He just continued to load ammunition and fired a second round of musket volleys. The Mongolians on the west side with their backs to the Laoha River killed and wounded hundreds more.
At this time, the Mongolian troops who were located in front of them by the river had already moved to the north and south sides respectively, firstly to facilitate the execution of Burihatu's encirclement order, and secondly to avoid frontal strikes from muskets. In their opinion, Gao Jiang's behavior was quite irrational. He kept hitting the river. Do you really want to be surrounded?
Well, to a certain extent, Gao Jiang does mean to "want to be surrounded", but the fundamental reason is that he hopes to shorten the front contact area so that he can concentrate firepower on key attacks - since the opponent wants to surround him, what kind of purpose is there? The method of deliberately widening the distance between the teams to prevent the intensive firepower of the musket array will not work.
Moreover, since the killing distance of Jinghua's muskets has now exceeded that of the Mongols' arrows, the Mongols must concentrate their forces and charge directly into the formation, striving to directly encircle, annihilate and strangle Gao Jiang's troops.
The Mongols gave way to the riverside, and Gao Jiang did not pursue them. Instead, he rushed to the river and took over the "position", and then subconsciously prepared to order another reload of ammunition.
However, this time it seemed that it was too late. The Chahar Mongolian army circled and surrounded them too fast. At this moment, they had formed a dense formation and started to launch a centripetal offensive. The war horses changed from cantering to trotting, and their speed was obviously increasing with the naked eye.
Gao Jiang himself was a cavalry general, and he could see at a glance that it was no longer enough to complete the next musket reload before the Mongols rushed in front of him, so he shouted loudly: "Hang up all the guns! Drive the horses according to the direction of my flag and gradually increase the speed! Palms of the hands Prepare for three consecutive shots from Lei!"
Three orders, the first is to hang the gun, that is, hang the cavalry musket back into the leather buckle on the left side of the horse's hip; the second is to first give the target direction, and then "gradually increase the speed", which is to ask the entire army to prepare. The run-up before sprinting; the third step is preparation for attack. Be prepared to throw three grenades in a row.
This tactic is called "three-stage grenade strike" in the Jinghua Cavalry Unit. It was not invented by Gao Pragmatic, because Gao Pragmatic did not understand cavalry combat and did not dare to arrange tactics randomly.
In fact, this is a tactic studied by the cavalry leaders themselves. Its main combat method is not to charge directly into the formation and throw mines three times in a row during the charge. Instead, it still adheres to the cavalry's habit of diagonally inserting into the battlefield, using diagonal lines. Cut in and throw grenades three times to the side and front.
There are several purposes for doing this, and the two key points actually lie in the word "distance". First, it can prevent the warring parties from closing the distance too quickly, causing the thrown grenades to injure one's own people; second, the oblique opening is more conducive to the commander's temporary adjustment of subsequent tactics according to changes in the battlefield situation.
This point may need to be explained, that is, after one, two or three diagonal throws, if the enemy army shows signs of overall chaos or even collapse at any time, our army can change from diagonal cut to charging formation and carry out the final blow. ; If the three throws fail to cause the enemy to waver and collapse, our army will use the characteristics of the cavalry to run away with one strike, quickly distance themselves, circle back, and see if we can use the "three-stage grenade strike" again. ".
All in all, this tactic is actually the same idea as the edge harassment shooting used by the Mongolian cavalry. However, because the distance of throwing grenades is shorter than the range of arrows, its use is relatively limited. Usually, it is necessary to use the first wave of muskets to shoot at the enemy. It is best to use it only when the opponent gives up the competition of long-range bow and arrow shooting and instead attacks the formation.
It seems like this is an opportunity now, but although this tactic has been repeatedly studied internally by Jinghua, and there seems to be no big problem in theory, there is sometimes a gap between theory and practice...
The first wave of grenades thrown by the Jinghua Cavalry was very effective. The unprepared Chahar Mongolian army was blown away one after another in the rumbling explosions. Many of the companies had already undergone "special gunfire training" All the war horses were frightened, and even two centurions who had been tested on the battlefield were thrown off their horses. God knows whether they were trampled to death by their fellow war horses.
This round of grenade offensive even alarmed Burihatu and Tumen Khan, who were watching and commanding the battle in the south of the battlefield. Tumen Khan was shocked and said: "Is this explosive? I mean...the landmine you mentioned before?"
"No, this is not a landmine. It looks like a palm mine, but it is much more powerful than the previous palm mines." Burihatu replied at a very fast speed.
This man was really powerful. Not only could he see what the weapons of the Beijing Cavalry were at a glance, but he didn't even bother to discuss it with the Khan. He immediately shouted and yelled at the messenger: "Blow the drums and trumpets. Don't worry about the horses. Charge in advance." Formation! Take me straight to the center of the Ming army, fast, must be fast!"
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PS: I had a stiff neck last night and could hardly hold my head up. Does anyone who knows orthopedics have any useful remedies?
