It was September in the Wei Dynasty, which was in the third autumn. The climate in the capital had reached Gao Pragmatic's favorite time. If it hadn't been for the holidays, he would have wanted to visit Xinzhai for a short stay.
It's a pity that this autumn is a truly troubled one. I just heard that Narita Kai, the concubine he picked up inexplicably, had to stay in Kanto temporarily because someone needed to contact three parties about the transfer of the Narita family. Then he heard that Xiao Ruxun from Liaodong reported that he had been beaten. We haven’t seen the Tumen army for several games, and we have to wait for even worse news...
Tumut's Eastern Expeditionary Army was ambushed and lost more than 10,000 of its main troops in Qingcheng.
This is not the worst. What is worse is that although the cavalrymen of Jinghua Trading Company who went to the rescue overnight successfully rescued them, they did not get much benefit in the night battle that night. They lost more than 800 people, setting a record for the direct armed forces of Jinghua. The highest battle loss record in a single battle. Gao Jiang, the leader of Jinghua in this battle, ordered himself to be put into solitary confinement when he returned to Daning City, and sent someone to report to him, Gao Situ, to await punishment from his master.
More than 800 people were lost in one battle, which was truly the worst record for the armed forces of Jinghua's direct lineage. In southern Xinjiang, whether it was the restoration of Annan or the conquest of Burma, or the defeat of Siam and Pingnan, there had never been such a huge loss - you must know Annan, Burma, etc., the scale of the war at that time could easily be tens of thousands. Against tens of thousands, most of the results were that Jinghua crushed its opponents with its comprehensive leadership in weapons and tactics.
The northern Xinjiang side was similar. During the Monan War, although the direct line of Jinghua did not really fight many big battles, the infantry of the Ming Dynasty, which may be weaker than the direct line of Jinghua, could withstand the fierce attack of Xin Ai's tribe, and it was not so ugly. What a loss!
Not to mention that during the Battle of Southern Liaoning, the Fried Flowers Department kicked the iron plate with all its desperate blows, and the move of the Liaodong Inland River Fleet, a direct descendant of Jinghua, to block the river was the key to the demise of the Fried Flowers Department.
How long ago had Jinghua's direct armed forces suffered such serious losses? Not to mention that the report submitted did not even mention the specific losses of the Chahar-Mongolian army. It could only be estimated that "it was twice as much as mine"?
"Don't be too depressed. Although the loss is not small, I think we still have to find out the reason first... I mean, we have to find out why there was such a big loss first. After all, judging from the report, their ambush started from Tactically speaking, it was a success, but the problem should have been during the battle."
It was Liu Xin who spoke. As the Secretary-General and Chief Military Secretary of the Beijing Secretariat, she had every need to express her views on this matter.
Gao pragmatic frowned, touched his chin and said, "Judging from the report, Burihatu's command should be the key."
"He did react very quickly. He probably saw at a glance that the Cavalry troops lacked the experience of regular combat in large corps, so he quickly closed the distance to offset the grenade threat of the Cavalry troops." Liu Xin analyzed: "The Cavalry troops have long range It relies on muskets and mid-range grenades, but in terms of close combat, it seems that the Yanling Saber is not as good as the Mongolian scimitar."
"I don't think it's necessarily that the gap between the Yan Ling Dao and the Mongolian Scimitar is really that big. What's more important is the lack of close combat experience. This is multifaceted. It may be a training issue, or it may be, as you said, simply a lack of experience. The regiment’s experience in regular combat. After all, most of the previous battles of the Cavalry Corps were bandit wars, and whether bandits or horse thieves, there are not tens of thousands of them, so this is a law and order battle that has never been fought before. Caused by regular warfare.”
Liu Xin pondered: "There were not many problems with Gao Jiang's arrangements before the battle. Although the results of the on-the-battle command were not very good, I don't think he can be entirely blamed. The entire cavalry force lacks the experience of such a large regiment in regular combat. This Only then did Burihatu find the loophole."
Gao Pragmatic looked gloomy and said: "There are still problems with the weapons and equipment of the Cavalry. It is impossible for us to beat the Mongols in terms of personnel quality in close combat on horseback, so we must change our thinking..."
"How to change?" Liu Xin spread his hands: "Cavalry is not infantry. It cannot create a hollow phalanx of bayonets and muskets that relies on formation, discipline and firepower density. As long as the Mongols shorten the combat distance, they can only fight on horseback."
Gao pragmatic closed his eyes and thought for a while, then said: "Do you know why fifth-generation machines can beat fourth-generation machines?"
"Ah? What?" Liu Xin was stunned for a moment, obviously not understanding.
"I'm talking about our fighter jets at that time. Do you know why the fifth-generation fighter jets completely overwhelmed the fourth-generation fighter jets?" Gao Pragmatic explained briefly and continued to ask.
"Well, I'm not sure. It seems to be mainly due to the stealth performance?" She paused and asked, "Does this have anything to do with the current situation? The cavalry can't be invisible."
"Stealth performance is of course one of the keys, but there is a reason why being invisible has such a big advantage." Gao pragmatically said: "Just like most people know that being invisible means that I am close to you, but you don't know at all. , at this time I launch a missile, even if you discover it in time, you may not be able to escape at all. This 'unavoidable' distance has a professional term in the military called 'no-escape distance'..."
"What does this have to do with the cavalry?" Liu Xin seemed to be more concerned about the current problems and asked again reluctantly.
Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "Don't be anxious, listen to me first... During the fourth-generation aircraft period, the mainstream ideas of fighter jets at that time were high-speed, dog-fighting, and flexible control. Especially at that time, the Soviet Army occupied a considerable position in the mechanical performance of some aircraft. It was a small advantage, so Midi felt that he had to change his thinking - since my flight control is no better than yours, then as long as I don't fight you in close combat, wouldn't it be enough?"
Although Gao Pragmatic obviously did not explain in detail, the last sentence was so straightforward that Liu Xin finally understood his intention and suddenly said: "You mean, I need to think of an idea to avoid close combat?"
Gao Pragmatic nodded and said: "Yes, I have thought about melee combat. People have inherent advantages there. Although we can't invest huge capital in training them from an early age, or equip them with full armor or even horse armor. But in that case, not only would the cost be higher, but it would also lead to a serious decrease in mobility. I think the gain outweighs the loss.
In my opinion, it is better to think of ways to deal with weapons. As long as the two sides come into close combat, they can inflict a serious blow on the enemy. Even if a close combat still occurs in the end, relying on the early advantage, our army will be much less likely to lose. . "
Liu Xin thought for a while, shook her head and said: "Unless you can get a repeating musket, it will be difficult to achieve such a goal. As you can see from this report, our army had a clear advantage when the muskets were fired at the beginning. It also caused a lot of casualties to the enemy when it was used.
Until this time, our army had a considerable advantage. The real defeat came when Burihatu beat his drums and trumpets and the Mongolian soldiers charged our army desperately. "Speaking of this, Liu Xin turned over the letter paper in his hand and added: "Look, the opponent is at this point, but we are still insisting on completing the three-hit combo of hand grenades and then facing the enemy with Yan Ling Dao. "
She sighed: "Gao Jiang probably regarded the Mongols as a ragtag group of bandits and horse bandits. He thought that after these three consecutive attacks, the Mongols would definitely suffer a lot of losses, and such losses would be enough to collapse them, so he caused After the three consecutive hits of grenades, our army was almost unable to fight back in a short period of time.
If Erdemutu hadn't realized something was wrong when he heard the clarion call for the general attack, and brought his own troops back to support regardless of safety, I'm afraid the final outcome might have been worse. "
Gao Jingshi said solemnly: "From this perspective, it makes sense for Gao Jiang to put himself in solitary confinement!"
Liu Xin hesitated for a moment, then persuaded: "Gao Jiang did misjudge, but I still want to say that this misjudgement is not too outrageous, because before that, whether it was the Chahar-Mongolian army or the Inner Khalkha Regardless of the Mongolian troops in the Huahua Department, overall they had the problem of not being able to bear the first wave of losses, and this was precisely where Gao Jiang's misjudgment came from.
This time Burihatu made up his mind from the beginning regardless of losses. This has never happened before. I think Burihatu has learned lessons from the past, but Gao Jiang did not expect this, so he made a mistake. Judgment. "
Gao pragmatic glanced at her and asked: "You mean, because the incident happened suddenly, there should be no punishment?"
"It's not that he shouldn't be punished, but I think he should be given a chance to redeem himself." Liu Xin explained: "No matter how the miscarriage of justice occurred, the responsibility for the miscarriage of justice should be borne by him as the commander. There is no doubt about it. .But punishment is only to clarify responsibility, it is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is how to avoid suffering the same failure next time.
At the same time... how should I put it, just like we did at that time, it is not easy to train a cadre in an organization. We cannot deny his years of hard work and achievements just because of one failure. We must give people a chance to prove themselves. "
Gao Pangshi let out a long breath and said: "Okay, you can draft an order in my name to make him guilty and meritorious service. First, he will lower his professional title by one level, but clearly give him the command of Daning's three cavalry. Leave it to him...I want to see how he performs next. By the way, tell him that this is the last chance."
Liu Xin didn't speak, just nodded. After a while, she said: "You just said that you would find a way to deal with this situation with weapons... Do you have any ready-made ideas?"
Gao pragmatic glanced at her and said, "You said it yourself, only a repeating musket can solve it."
"Have you achieved a breakthrough with the continuous musket?" Liu Xin asked immediately.
Gao pragmatic suddenly fell silent for a moment, and then said: "I suddenly thought of a person named Dai Zi."
Liu Xin was stunned for a moment and asked, "Who is this person?"
"A firearms expert during the Kang Mazi period is said to have invented the continuous gun - probably the repeating musket you mentioned." Gao pragmatically replied.
Liu Xin asked in surprise: "During the Kangxi period, there were repeating muskets in China?"
"No." Gao Pragmatic said calmly: "This man offended the Tatar firearms expert and Belgian missionary Nan Huairen. He was slandered and slandered by him, and was eventually exiled. He could not even produce firecrackers on a large scale. There are also rumors that , it was Kang Mazi who did not dare to allow such firearms to come out, lest it weaken the rule of the Qing Dynasty."
"Oh...these Manchu Tatars are really bent on slowing down the pace of progress. However, since the early Qing Dynasty could make continuous fire blunderbuss, it should mean that the manufacturing difficulty is not particularly high. Couldn't Jinghua be able to make it now? ?Didn’t you give them some technical advice on this?" Liu Xin asked.
Gao Pragmatic said a little depressedly: "The Maxim machine gun was invented in 1883 and patented in 1884. If you ask me if you can give me advice on how to build a Maxim machine gun, then I really don't have the ability."
Liu Xin was stunned for a moment, frowned and said: "It's so late. Was it invented so close to World War I? Then why do you want to solve the current problem by improving the level of weapons?"
"The Maxim is a heavy machine gun. If we talk about the prerequisites for its invention, then perhaps it should be regarded as an upgraded version of the rifle." Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "I can't provide any guidance in this aspect. After all, I don't know much about its principles. I know it clearly. I just roughly remember its appearance. The specific mechanical structure is beyond the level of understanding. However, the repeating rifle is not good. I have some ideas about the repeating pistol."
"Oh?" Liu Xin threw the Maxim machine gun away and asked, "What about the pistol?"
"We definitely don't have the conditions to make a magazine pistol now. After all, we haven't even finished the metal cartridge case yet. However, we can still think of a solution for the revolver." Gao pragmatically said: "You know the revolver, right? It's just a revolver. Commonly known as a wheel pistol, it is a multi-shot non-automatic firearm. Its main feature is that the gun is equipped with a rotating drum magazine, which contains 5 to 7 bullet nests (mostly 6), and the bullets are loaded in the nests. , turn the wheel, and the bullets can be aimed at the barrel one by one. Because the common revolver swings out to the left when loading, it is also called a revolver."
"Oh, that, I know, I've seen a lot of them on TV. If I remember correctly, I've seen a lot of them in western cowboy movies." Liu Xin replied immediately.
Gao Pragmatic has never watched many Western movies. When he watches American movies, he basically only watches popcorn blockbusters to pass the time. Western movies don't interest him much. But that was not the topic to be discussed now, so he just nodded and brought the matter back.
"Actually, as early as... around the 16th century, matchlock revolvers appeared in Europe, and later flintlock revolvers appeared. But there were two big problems with the revolvers before Colt. One was It is necessary to turn the runner by hand, or to pull the hammer by hand to drive the runner into position, and then the trigger can be pressed to complete the single-action firing; secondly, there are always some technical obstacles in firing bullets, so they are not widely used."
Liu Xin thought for a while and asked: "So, the 'Colt' you just mentioned is the key to solving the problem? Is this Colt a person or a technology?"
"It's a person." Gao pragmatically said: "The revolver invented by Colt has a primer impact bolt and a spiral rifled barrel. It uses shell bullets with conical bullets, and pulls a trigger to complete the rotation. Two-step action to fire. This made the revolver truly have good practical value for the first time and was widely used in countries around the world. Although people later made some improvements to the revolver, its basic structure and principles still remained Just as it was when Colt was invented.”
After a pause, Gao Pragmatic added: "However, due to the lower firing rate of the revolver, slower loading, and smaller ammunition capacity, after World War II, its status in the army was replaced by the automatic pistol. Replaced. However, because revolvers are very easy to handle blind fire bullets and have quite reliable performance, police and individuals in many countries still love to use them. When U.S. President Ronald Reagan was assassinated in 1981, the assassin used a revolver."
Liu Xin didn't care much about what he mentioned later, and just asked: "Can you handle Colt's improvements? Oh, I mean, can you provide technical guidance?"
----------
Thanks to book friends "Yun Fuyue Yu", "KeyNg", "Cloudy Good Mood", "Cao Mianzi", and "Pin" for their monthly support, thank you!
