Burihatu naturally considered the three-way encirclement that Gao Pragmatic was thinking about at the moment. However, he and Gao Pragmatic had different positions and faced different situations, so their concerns also had different priorities.
Rather than saying that Burihatu is now worried that Chahar's army may face an encirclement from three sides in a few days, it is better to say that he is more worried about the movements of Chahar's nearly 400,000 people.
Whether in the eyes of Burihatu or Tumen, as long as the 60,000 elites of the Chahar Khan Court are determined to escape, they will eventually be able to escape. At worst, they will lose a group of troops who have been cut off from the rear. So what if the Ming army mobilized 600,000 troops? Even if it takes a toll, at least the main army can still move if they want to.
Compared with twenty years ago, the current combat effectiveness of the Ming army can indeed be said to have undergone earth-shaking changes. Both Tumen and Burihatu have to admit this. After all, they have tried it several times before. The cold results are there, and it is meaningless to deny it desperately.
However, no matter how the Ming army's combat effectiveness is improved, it cannot change the pattern that the main force of the Ming army is always its infantry corps. The cavalry units of the Ming Army have indeed been greatly improved. For example, the overall proportion of war horses has more than doubled, and even the total size of the cavalry units has nearly doubled.
But so what? Does that mean that the Ming army is now strong enough to fight a battle of annihilation against the Mongolian cavalry? Of course not. Even if the Ming cavalry now has advantages in firepower and range, it only means that they have the strength to face the enemy Mongolian cavalry head-on. In terms of mobility, the Mongolian cavalry is still the only one in the world.
Why? It's not just the obvious hard indicators such as the proportion of war horses and the number of draft horses that Gao Pragmatic has already thought of, but there are also other influences.
What is more interesting is that as Jinghua's steel and iron production capacity has increased year by year, and as Gao Pragmatic's financial investment in the army has increased after he was promoted to the Minister of Household Affairs, the military expenditures received by the Ming army have also increased in recent years.
This is of course a good thing, but it must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. For example, after the Jiubian Ming Army had a surplus of finances, it considered that it might have to fight the Mongolian grasslands. Therefore, in addition to buying horses, it also upgraded the equipment level of the Ming Army cavalry.
They don't need to worry about weapons. The Ministry of War, in accordance with high and pragmatic expectations, has uniformly replaced them with Jinghua's lances. Later, considering that it was unreliable to fight with bayonets immediately, they replaced the previous sabers and implemented Suitable for both hot and cold weapons.
At the same time, the Ministry of War considered that the Mongols were worried about the loss of manpower in battle, but the Ming army itself was more worried about the high loss of pensions (first implemented by Gao Jingsi in Liaodong and later extended to Jiubian), so The Ming cavalry was also equipped with new armor and war horse equipment.
Let’s talk about the former first, which is to replace the sabers given to the cavalry troops. At this point, Gao Pragmatic had taken a detour before, but later found that the saber still couldn't be saved, so he replaced it. The replaced saber was redesigned, and even Gao Pragmatic himself participated in the final design.
These sabers were modified based on the Yan Ling saber that was most conveniently used by the Beijing cavalry. They were made into short handles, narrow blades, and slightly curved shapes. In fact, they were very similar to the famous Cossack "Chasik" in history. saber".
Due to the high quality of Jinghua's steel, this saber is three feet six inches (1.2 meters) long with parallel blood grooves. It is slightly longer than the Chasik saber known as the "Blade of Heaven", but still maintains sufficient strength. As for the weight, it is light enough like Qiasik, with a total weight of three kilograms or one tael.
The saber is a weapon, and the weight gain of three kilograms or one tael is not much, and it is still acceptable, but the situation is different when it comes to armor.
First of all, the armor of the Ming army cavalry itself has changed. When Gao Pragmatic was playing games in his early years, he liked heavy cavalry. After all, the values were very exaggerated. However, with some subsequent understanding, a new idea began to emerge, that is, within the scope of East Asia, heavy cavalry is of little use, and even if it is equipped, it does not require too much.
Since he is in charge of the money bag and the Ministry of War is also within his sphere of influence, the proportion of heavy cavalry in the Ming army is indeed very low. In a cavalry unit of 10,000 people, the number of heavy cavalry is usually less than 1,000, roughly Around eight hundred.
The Ming Army's cavalry focused on developing "half-equipped cavalry". This fact itself is in line with the Ming Dynasty's cavalry army-building thinking, that is, the four treasures of cavalry: soft bows, long arrows, fast horses, and light swords. Of course, the soft bow and long arrows have now been replaced by the Wanli II lance. The fast horse has always attached great importance to it, and the light sword has also been supplemented.
What we are talking about here is the idea of building an army, that is, cavalry equipment should not be too heavy, so the overly heavy Song Dynasty-style full equipment is only a small amount of equipment, and the main development is key protective half equipment.
In Tang Shunzhi's "Wu Bian", there is a clear record of the Ming Dynasty's half-equipped cavalry:
"The body of Zhou's horse is the most dangerous, but its head and face are crotch-shaped. Although the old system of horse face is ingenious, in the recent battle of Fuli, Chen and Cai, many horses were injured, and the longevity star died on the forehead. I now make it to stick on the forehead and use cotton cloth to make it. One piece is attached to the horse's face, between the forehead and the brain. If it encounters an arrow stone, it can penetrate the iron surface, and there is still iron on the forehead that can separate the horse's face, so it is suitable for sticking on the forehead.
The chickens in Daquan are large and the autumn coins are small, or the summer months are sultry, the snow and rain are frozen, and the autumn coins are completely removed, but there are still chicken collars to cover the fat. This vest is suitable for use as a small fully equipped military vest. The body of the armor hangs down about one foot over the defense. "
It can be seen from this that the main equipment of the Ming army cavalry horses is divided into the following categories: horse face, chicken neck, horse body armor, breastplate, etc.
"Horse face" is a long and narrow metal face protector with eye holes on it. It mainly protects the horse's face. It is as big as the horse's forehead. It was improved by Tang Shunzhi and has cotton cloth on the inside for forehead sticking; the "chicken neck" is actually a The armor on the neck of the auxiliary horse is made of armor pieces, with a buckle on the front to fasten it; the "horse body armor" is the main armor on the horse, which is about the same length as the horse.
This is a typical change of thinking. The heavy cavalry of the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty not only had certain defensive advantages when charging into formations and engaging in battle, but they also sacrificed the characteristics of cavalry. However, the semi-equipped cavalry of the Ming Dynasty restored the original mobility of the cavalry. It also retains good defensive capabilities.
Compared with the heavy cavalry in the Song Dynasty, the coverage area of the Ming army's horse armor has significantly decreased. Large areas of armor such as those behind the back have been abandoned, and more emphasis is placed on mobile combat. At the same time, the Ming army's cavalry also has a good formation-breaking function during combat, and Better at small-scale battles.
However, the above are all theoretical figures. In fact, for a long time after Tang Shunzhi improved the half-suit, the only people the Ming army cavalry could really equip with this standard were the servants of various generals. This caused the Ming army's cavalry to wear armor in the early decades. The rate was quite worrying. In addition to the cavalry themselves wearing cover armor, they were no longer used to armoring their horses.
However, as Gao Pragmatic gradually came to power, the Ming army restored the configuration of these semi-equipped cavalry and even optimized some equipment components.
These things are too detailed and boring to talk about, so it is better to report the standards directly: the original semi-equipped cavalry, the full set of equipment weighed about twenty-four kilograms, and the cavalry weapons in the early years were different from those of today. The weight is about thirty to thirty-two pounds (not counting the human body weight, which is difficult to determine).
Through the joint efforts of Jinghua Iron Works and Wang's Arsenal, the weight of the cavalry half-suit is now 21 kilograms, and the saber is about three kilograms, which is three kilograms lower than during Wang Shunzhi's period decades ago. However, due to changes in weapons, the rifle is now about seven kilograms, the ammunition it carries is about three kilograms, and the total body weight is about thirty-four kilograms. Compared with the past, it is two to four kilograms heavier. A compromise is calculated as three kilograms.
Although it is only three pounds heavier than Tang Shunzhi's period, this comparison is actually just the feeling of the servant cavalry. For cavalry who are no longer accustomed to wearing armor, when they put on armor again, they actually gain more than ten kilograms at once, which can significantly affect the speed of the cavalry - whether marching or fighting.
And what about the Mongolian cavalry? There is no need to compare the heavy loads of the few heavy cavalry. After all, the Mongols are now limited in resources and there are fewer and fewer heavy cavalry. Especially when the Mongolian heavy cavalry rushed into battle and was defeated head-on in Liaodong last time, Tumen Khan learned from the painful experience. The heavy cavalry was abolished until it had only a symbolic meaning, so it was okay not to mention it.
What is the weight of its core main force of light cavalry? Fifteen to sixteen pounds. As for why it is this number, it actually has a lot to do with Gao Pragmatism.
With the improvement of the quality and stability of the Ming army's firearms and the increasing range of the muskets, Burihatu found that the significance of the Mongolian cavalry wearing armor in front of the Ming army was getting smaller and smaller - unless the Ming army could not hit them, they would not be able to defeat them. A hit can almost break the armor, so what's the use of this armor?
This is like the history of the development of armor around the world. Armor has gone from getting heavier to heavier and gradually disappearing. The biggest factor causing the change is the development of firearms.
In the era of cold weapons, weapons developed, and the weight of armor increased accordingly, and the two sides were barely even. In the era of hot weapons, the power of weapons developed exponentially, but the increase in weight of armor could not be the same - after all, it does not matter whether it is a person or a horse. , the load-bearing capacity is limited, and it is impossible to increase the thickness without limit.
What to do? I will also develop weapons! As for the armor, you can just throw it away, it won't be of much use anyway.
But the Mongols can't develop weapons now, so in response, they have to pick up the old tradition. If you can't beat me, you can't run away! So the Chahar Mongolian Army simply threw away their armor, focused on reducing weight, and continued to enhance their already strong mobility.
What is the butterfly effect? This is probably a manifestation of the butterfly effect. Everyone is not a piece of wood. If you change, I can't beat you. So if I don't change, am I waiting for death?
It is precisely because of these changes on both sides that Burihatu, who is in a weak position, is more sensitive than Gao pragmatism. Therefore, while Gao Pangshi was still thinking, "I can beat him now," Burihatu had already discovered his advantage - he was not afraid of not being able to outrun him now.
As this battle has developed to this point, Gao Pragmatic has always been thinking about how to surround the Chahar people and fight a battle of annihilation. However, Burihatu knew from the beginning that there was no chance of fighting head-on, so he persuaded the Tumen Khan not to even want Chahanhot, and directly After playing the golden cicada's shell, he jumped out of the encirclement to the west and escaped from the battlefield.
Gao pragmatic wanted to continue to encircle him, and Burihatu could naturally guess it, but that was nothing more than continuing to run. As for the attack on Guihua City, this is only part of Burihatu's big plan. Its importance is roughly at the level of "the best can be captured, and it won't be a big problem if it can't be captured."
Burihatu's biggest worry is how the nearly 400,000 Chahar tribesmen will escape the purge. Although Gao Pragmatic has obviously not taken this matter to heart yet, and is still focused on annihilating the 60,000 Chahar army. Although the Ming army cannot catch up with the Chahar Mongolian army, it can still outrun the 400,000 tribesmen. Fast - although the tribesmen have horses, they also have many cattle and sheep, and cattle and sheep cannot run as fast as horses.
Burihatu had already arrived at Guihua City with the Tumen army. The city had obviously received the news and had already closed the city gates. The towers were filled with Tumut Mongolian troops holding bows and arrows and staring eagerly.
Burihatu got an old-fashioned monocular telescope from somewhere that was obviously produced by Jinghua. He picked up the telescope and looked at it for a while, then shook his head and said: "The city is quite heavily guarded. It seems that the news of our army's arrival has reached Guihua at least one day." Now that the day has passed, it is no longer worthwhile to think of a sneak attack."
Tumen snorted coldly and said: "The news must have been leaked in Shacheng - well, if you hadn't insisted on leaking the news there, I think the sneak attack and naturalization might have been possible."
Although it was a heavy accusation to say this as a Great Khan, Burihatu had a special status and said calmly: "This is also due to helplessness. Great Khan, if the whereabouts of our army are not revealed to the Ming army for a long time, After the main force learned about it, who knew whether the Ming army would spread out hundreds of thousands of troops to search?
Great Khan, if they discover the whereabouts of our people's migration, thinking that they can't catch the main force of our army anyway, and simply attack the people, then our Chahar Department will be in doom. "
In fact, Tumen naturally understood this truth, otherwise they would not have agreed to let them go in Shacheng after only collecting a few supplies. The reason why Burihatu asked him to do this was to let the Ming army know that they had been naturalized in the DPRK and force the Ming army to return for reinforcements.
This style of fighting is somewhat similar to the combat during the heyday of the Mongol Empire two to three hundred years ago. The key is to lead the enemy and make them run exhausted. In endurance competitions, the Mongols are very confident. .
"What should we do now?" Buyantaiji couldn't help but ask: "Should we fight Guihua City or not?"
Tumen did not speak, but turned to look at Burihatu, but he was choked by the wind and sand and couldn't help coughing.
Both Buyantaiji and Burihatu immediately shouted "Profuse sweat". Fortunately, Tumen immediately waved his hands, cleared his throat, shook his head and said: "It doesn't matter, it's just wind and sand, it doesn't matter. Burihatu, you Let’s talk.”
Burihatu glanced at the Great Khan and saw that he seemed to have just choked on a mouthful of sand, so he said: "Naturalization naturally requires fighting. Not only must we fight, but we must also make a determined effort to win. But in comparison, These are just illusions. Our army has a more important thing at the moment...
We must concentrate our elite troops to harass the strategic headquarters of Grand Master Gao, so that other Ming troops will be frightened and rush to save the spiritual sustenance of this Ming army, thereby creating conditions for the migration of the people. "
Buyantaiji took a deep breath, turned to Tumen and said, "Great Khan, please leave this matter to me."
Tumen knew his intention: to succeed the Great Khan was not only about blood, but also prestige to secure his position, especially in the current critical situation.
However, the danger involved in leading a so-called elite army that is far smaller than the Ming army to harass the Ming Dynasty's number one military commander is self-evident. What if something unexpected happens...
"Great Khan, please allow me to go with Huang Taiji." At the critical moment, Burihatu suddenly volunteered.
Tumen sweated profusely and breathed a sigh of relief. He swallowed quietly and tried to keep his voice as calm as possible. He nodded and said, "Okay, you go ahead... pick whoever you want to bring with you."
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