The tactic of diagonal cutting is really an old trick of the Mongolian army. The Ming army has much more experience and has even begun to have such training and actual combat. But this is the same situation as mentioned before. Because the Ming army used muskets, they could only shoot directly but could not project. The amount of bombs dropped in actual combat performance was far less than that of the Mongolian army. They could only rely on the power of muskets to achieve their tactical goals. Overall, It is not as good as the Mongolian army's diagonal shot.
According to the principles in the training manual, the Ming army did not advocate oblique cutting on oblique cutting because it was not cost-effective. After being half-armed, the Ming army's idea was for the opponent to cut diagonally, so I went straight into the middle. In other words, the opponent's diagonally cut team is regarded as a long snake formation. Our army rushes up to intercept it and engage in close combat, relying on its equipment advantage to fight head-on.
However, tactical codes are dead and people are alive. There are times when we cannot do this, such as now.
Judging from the formation preparation of the Mongolian army, this oblique cut is most likely an outward oblique cut, that is, "cutting" towards the outside of the Ming army's lineup. The tactical intention of this action is too obvious: if the Ming army plays the game of killing snakes, although it may be achieved, it will inevitably cause the two wings of the Ming army to be led by the Mongolian army to move to the outside of the battlefield. At this moment, the Ming army is already strong on the two wings and weak on the center. Once the two wings are released, the center will be even weaker, and even the flanks may become Mongolian.
The two generals in charge of commanding the two wings were Xu Long and Pogui. Both generals saw through the Mongolian army's intentions. In addition, they looked back and saw that the flag of the Chinese army had not changed. Therefore, they kept calm and continued to move forward slowly without making any other moves.
The Mongolian army's command may also have anticipated this situation, and the Chinese army also did not give new instructions. Therefore, the Mongolian troops on both wings quickly began to perform oblique cuts. When both sides entered the firing range, the first mid-range battle broke out: the Mongolian army fired one round at the outside and the Ming army fired at the outside.
This wave of exchange of fire may be due to the Ming army having the advantage. At least from the scene, the number of people killed by the Ming army was slightly less. Only eleven people were killed on the left and right wings combined. However, at least thirty or forty people or horses had arrows inserted into their bodies, and the severity of their injuries was unknown.
The Mongolian army probably didn't get a good deal. About twenty people fell off their horses, but not many were injured - after all, in a mid-range attack, the damage of Wanli II's muskets was obviously stronger than that of bows and arrows. When hit during a relatively high-speed maneuver such as diagonal cutting, whether the cavalry himself is hit or the horse is hit, he basically has no choice but to fall off his horse.
When the four generals on both sides of the Ming army saw this, they couldn't help but feel a little relieved. The Ming army currently has a slight advantage in terms of strength. The Ming army is not afraid of exchanges on the battlefield like this. After a few more rounds, the Mongols will definitely not be able to withstand it.
However, what is surprising is that this diagonal cut by the Mongolian army does not seem to be their previous routine. They did not circle back after disengagement and repeat the diagonal cut again at basically the same position as before.
This time, the Mongolian army "cut" out and circled farther away from the horizontal flanks of the Ming army's front, and then started a new round of oblique cuts towards the waists of the Ming army's two wings - the previous round was towards the waist of the Ming army's two wings. Go to the head of both wings.
At the same time, the Mongolian army once again sent a second batch of oblique cutting teams to the two wings. The number was still small, and the goal was the same as before, heading towards the heads of the two wings of the Ming army.
In the middle of the Ming army, Gao Yonggong, who had already put on the same armor as the generals, held binoculars with one hand and saw all this, with the words "wheel battle" popping up in his mind.
To some extent, the Mongolian cavalry who implemented the slanting tactic were spinning around the edge of the battlefield and shooting arrows into the battlefield. It looked like a rotating Frisbee or flywheel, using its sharp edges to chip away at the edge of the enemy.
If Burihatu planned to send out "frisbees" one after another to take turns cutting, it would really be a wheel battle worthy of the name. It's a bit like several pairs of armored vehicles with road wheels rolling over an obstacle. Just as the front tire passed, the next tire came again. Maybe after the first "tire" ran over the entire flank of the Ming army, it would adjust its position, turn back and start over again.
Originally, judging from the exchange ratio between the two sides just now, the Mongolian army suffered a loss due to such a tactical move, but Gao Pragmatic immediately discovered that something was wrong, because when the second batch of the Mongolian army's slashing troops began to accumulate fire, the Ming army had no front flanks. Counterattack - they haven't even had time to finish reloading!
Buri Hatu was indeed Buri Hatu. He didn't know that the advantage of the Ming army was its strong firepower. If there was a real bombardment, the Mongolian army would definitely suffer. But he also discovered the weakness of the Ming army's muskets, that is, the reloading speed was definitely not as fast as that of the Mongolian army's arrow-drawing and shooting-the latter did not need to prepare at all, they could draw the arrow, draw the bow, and shoot in one go, and it only took a few breaths before and after.
Fortunately, the Ming army was not completely unprepared. Although the unexpected changes of the Mongols made them suffer a dumb loss, Xu Long and Pogui reacted very quickly and immediately issued an order: keep moving forward, but start to rotate vertical lines to Respond to the Mongolian army's wheel battle.
Vertical line rotation First of all, let’s talk about the cavalry formation. Because the Ming Army's cavalry was half-armored, under Gao's pragmatic instructions, the Ministry of War issued a pamphlet to the cavalrymen in each town, which mentioned the wall-style charge of the French army in history - of course it did not say anything about "law". "Army", he only said "there has been such a thing", and deliberately made it look like the heavy cavalry of the Jin Dynasty's iron pagoda.
Of course, the Ming Army's cavalry is not considered to be heavily armed, but considering that the Mongolian army is almost armor-free, the Ming Army's cavalry refers to the infantry's array line idea, and also implements a certain degree of array formation in the cavalry.
To put it simply, for example, the Ming army is now advancing on the flanks and is arranged in the form of ten columns. It can be understood as ten people leading the way, followed by a long list of cavalry. The characteristic is that they line up, unlike the previous cavalry. Pay attention to the ranks.
The vertical line rotation is an action of exchanging columns, which is equivalent to exchanging positions of the left and right columns. The specific method is to keep the speed of the outer column unchanged, while the inner column accelerates slightly and passes diagonally forward from the rider on the outside. At this time, the original outside becomes the inside. Go a little further inside to the vacant position. The row that has reached the outside will move inward at the same time, and the rotation is completed.
Of course, this is only the most basic rotation, and only two columns participate in the rotation. If you want to complete the rotation of three, four or even more columns, the principle is the same, just follow the instructions.
It's just that the Ming army did this training for a relatively short period of time. The actual training lasted only two or three months. In actual military training, the army generally did not rotate more than three columns. In order to avoid causing confusion, the instructions issued by Xu Long and Pogui at this moment were surprisingly consistent, both of which were "rotate the three outer rows of vertical lines."
In fact, in addition to the lack of time, the training of only three-column rotation was carried out. Another important reason is that infantry arrays usually used "three-stage attack" in the past. So far, there has been no situation where the three-stage attack cannot take turns. Since the cavalry had never seen this kind of actual combat before, it was not expected that the success of the three-stage attack in the infantry formation did not mean that the cavalry could also do it well.
The cavalry columns began to rotate. This move really surprised Burihatu, who was commanding the Mongolian army. He really did not expect that the Ming army had such preparations. However, after a little observation, he immediately made a targeted arrangement: speed up.
Instead of accelerating forward, it accelerates the speed at which the diagonal team is sent. He controlled this acceleration very accurately. Basically, the front army had just left and the rear army had arrived, giving the Ming army almost no chance to breathe.
This time, the Ming army had another problem. The training for the column rotation was insufficient. As soon as the Mongolian army accelerated, they were unable to respond in time. Not only did the team suffer from scattered fire during the rotation, which caused some sporadic chaos in the team, but also more The trouble is that both Xu Long and Po Gui found that the three-stage attack couldn't handle it - it was still a problem of reloading speed.
The reason is very simple. The infantry is standing on the ground, so reloading is less affected and the movements are naturally faster. However, because the cavalry is on horseback, the horse is bumpy in its movements. The cavalry has to control the horse's position and complete the reloading at the same time. It is obvious that it cannot catch up, which causes the reloading speed to be slowed down a lot, so the "three-stage attack" "The tactic will not be able to achieve its original purpose of uninterrupted shooting.
At this moment, the Mongolian army immediately gained the upper hand. Even though the shooting effect was not as good as that of the Ming army, the "volume of bombs dropped per unit time" far exceeded that of the Ming army, and the exchange ratio was quickly restored.
In just five rounds of diagonal cuts on the left and right wings, the Ming army's losses had slightly exceeded the Mongolian army's losses. It is conceivable that if this battle continues like this, the Ming army will only suffer more and more losses in the end.
Gao pragmatic also discovered this, but he gave up the adjustment after thinking about it. Firstly, he had no good way to make fine adjustments while adhering to the original big plan. Secondly, the distance between the two parties was already relatively close, and the adjustment was actually of little significance.
Therefore, the Mongolian army sped up and sent out multiple teams to cut diagonally. Gao Pragmatic simply also sped up, and the Hit Army flew a blue flag. The meaning of the blue flag in the command of this battle is to speed up. After receiving the order, the center and left and right wings of the Ming army began to speed up significantly, and the horses have entered a state of medium speed running. Generally speaking, this means that a charge is about to be launched, or it may be a tactical action such as a diagonal cut.
When the Mongolian army saw this, Burihatu narrowed his eyes slightly, tilted his head slightly, and said to a herald beside him: "Go and tell Huang Taiji to get ready." The herald heard the order, respectfully accepted it, and hurriedly rode on his horse. And go.
Burihatu himself drew out his scimitar, pointed at the pragmatic "Mongolian and Yuan Dynasty Economic Strategy" diagonally, and shouted: "The Chinese army speeds up and prepares to charge into battle!"
As the Ming army and the Mongolian army all accelerated, the five diagonal cutting teams on the left and right that the Mongolian army had previously sent, as if they had received orders, gave up their previous separate diagonal cutting operations and began to quietly move closer.
Xu Long and Pogui both noticed this move, and probably worried that Gao Jinglue would not notice it, they both asked the flag bearer to raise the orange flag. The orange flag in this battle meant a reminder when the enemy's situation changed. Of course, as the commander-in-chief of the entire army, Gao Pragmatic paid special attention to it, so he immediately discovered the trend of the Mongolian army gathering diagonally.
Could it be that the opponent wants to attack the flank? Gao Pragmatic immediately thought of this, but he was a little hesitant at the moment: if the two wings were ordered to divide their troops to defend, then the initial crab claw formation tactic would be weakened; but if no defense was added, if the two wings were attacked and collapsed after the battle, the problem would will be bigger.
After weighing it, he still felt that the prediction of a total collapse was even more uneconomical, so he ordered the left and right flanks to separate their troops for alert, and the main force still targeted the central army of Burihatu.
At this time, Burihatu also noticed this: that is, the left and right flanks of the Ming army invariably moved the outermost three columns a little farther away from the seven columns approaching the central army.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Burihatu's mouth. He waved his hand and made a gesture of first extending his five fingers and then suddenly clenching his fist. The Chinese flag immediately changed. The two wings of the Mongolian army located outside the two wings of the Ming army received the order and immediately changed into a front line formation. It looked like they were about to launch a charge and attack before the Ming army's flank defense line was formed.
This move obviously made the Ming army's flanks immediately increase their vigilance. The three outermost columns of Ming army cavalry immediately reduced their speed until they came to a complete stop. At the same time, they narrowed the distance between the rows and began to face the Mongolian army with their horses' heads facing outwards, preparing to When the Mongolian army moves, he will rush forward to prepare for close combat.
As expected, the Mongolian army's flanks moved, and it seemed that they were about to force a charge into the formation. However, when the Ming army's flanks began to move forward in a dense formation, somewhat like a wall charge, the two flanks of the Mongolian army suddenly cut in the direction of the Ming army's rear in an oblique motion, and at the same time fired a barrage of fire towards the Ming army in front of them. Waves of arrows.
The damage caused by this wave of arrow rain was not weak. At least thirty or forty people and horses were hit by arrows, but not many fell off their horses. It only caused some slight commotion in the Ming army's Phalanx. At the same time, the front row of the Ming army responded with a volley. Perhaps due to the dense formation, the effect of this round of volleys was actually quite good, and the losses caused to the Mongolian army might be a little greater than the losses they suffered just now.
However, the actions of the Mongolian army made the Ming army a little panic - Chen Can's rear army only had about 2,000 people in total, and although the equipment of the cavalry transferred from Tianjin Guard was no different from that of their nine-sided troops, it was well known that they In terms of actual combat, he is almost the same as a new recruit.
Burihatu sent out five slanting divisions on the left and right wings, each with 500 people, which is equivalent to 2,500 cavalry on the left and right wings. Of course, a small part was lost, but the impact was not huge. .
This means that there are about 5,000 Mongolian troops on both wings of the Ming army. These Mongolian troops are now turning to attack Chen Can, the rear army of the Ming army, which has only 2,000 people and is inexperienced. Isn't the rear army in danger?
At this time, the three lines of external defense on the flanks of the Ming army have just been adjusted to a dense formation. It is not easy to change to a formation with faster turning and speed. If they cannot intercept the two flanking Mongolian armies, their own defense line may have a big impact. Danger!
Gao Pingshi could see this clearly with the help of the telescope, and his heart was tight. He could see at this moment that Burihatu's tactics relied on the speed advantage brought by the Mongols' equestrian skills and light armor, and quickly changed tactics to make the Ming army unable to cope.
In this case, it would be fine if the Ming army had a fully defensive formation. They could rely on their inside advantage to smooth out the speed gap. But at this moment, the main forces of the two sides are about to collide. If you want to adjust in such an accelerated hedging, you can Difficult.
The difference between cavalry duels and infantry is speed. Gao Pragmatic remembered Budyonny's summary of cavalry tactics in his mind. Finally, he gritted his teeth and ordered: "Order: The three flanking columns try their best to intercept, and the whole army...charge!"
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