,!
Zhang Wanbang's courage is undoubtedly heroic, but bravery is never reckless. Zhang Wanbang's courage to make such a decision has its basis and is supported by the balance of power formed after careful analysis.
In terms of military strength alone, the North Korean army has more than 30,000 troops, and the troops under his command that can go out to fight in the city are only 3,400. The strength ratio between the two sides is about nine to one.
The traditional art of war believes that "if the enemy is ten, it is to surround it, if it is five, it is to attack it. If it is doubled, it is to fight. If the enemy is divided, it can be divided. If it is small, it can be defended. If it is weak, it can be avoided."
This means that if we are ten times the enemy, we will encircle and annihilate them; if we are five times the enemy, we will attack; if we are twice the enemy, we will work hard to defeat the enemy; if we are evenly matched, we will try to disperse them and defeat them. If your troops are weaker than the enemy, avoid fighting.
According to this point of view, it is best for Zhang Wanbang to get out of the city quickly. Even if he is brave enough, he can only hold on to the city. If he can keep his food, even if he succeeds, how can he dare to go out of the city to fight? Isn't that looking for death?
However, Zhang Wanbang's military thinking is mainly influenced by Gao pragmatism. For example, his understanding of "power" is almost entirely derived from Gao pragmatism's fire density theory, that is, the strength of "power" is determined by the use of weapons within a certain period of time. The amount of ammunition fired under a certain quantity.
Looking at the battle we are facing now, it is a mathematical question: Compared with the firepower density of the 3,400 Ming army and the firepower density of the 30,000 North Korean army, which side has the advantage?
Of course, this question must take into account that combat is divided into different stages, so the question will also be divided into different stages. For example, in different stages such as long-range combat, mid-range combat, and close combat, the firepower density of both sides is obviously different.
At the same time, there are also related factors that will affect the density of firepower, such as the injury endurance of the armies of both sides - that is, how many casualties will cause military morale turmoil, morale collapse, etc.
According to Zhang Wanbang's understanding of the Korean army, although they received many obsolete firearms from the Ming army, Quan Li believed that the old-fashioned muskets supported by the Ming army were not effective (this was compared to the Japanese iron cannons), so he only needed some three-dimensional weapons. Eye blunderbuss and other types of muskets are not selected.
What they mainly strengthened was artillery. For example, the "Shengzihao Cannon", which was looked down upon by Gao Pragmatic more than 20 years ago, was mostly light artillery such as the Folan cannon and the Tiger Crouching Cannon.
In Zhang Wanbang's view, although the opponent's artillery has been strengthened, it is only stronger than the Japanese pirates' army with almost no artillery. It is far worse than his troops who are equipped exclusively with Jinghua artillery.
Not to mention the muskets, the three-eyed gun is not even as good as the Japanese iron cannon. It can only be fired at close range to listen for the sound. In fact, it is used more as a mace, which is incomparable with the Wanli II Type he is commanding.
Taken together, in terms of firepower density, even if the North Korean army has a huge advantage in strength, it is actually inferior to the Ming army.
Regarding these issues of firepower density, Gao Pragmatic had a detailed discussion with Qi Jiguang, and later Qi Jiguang gave more detailed teaching to the generals participating in the training during his lectures.
Speaking of teaching, one thing needs to be added here. Qi Jiguang returned to Beijing a few years ago after going south to frighten the riots in the Cajun army. He was praised a lot. Then because his term of office expired, he resigned from the post of commander of the Imperial Guard and was immediately appointed as the first president of the newly established Ming Dynasty Royal Military Academy. long.
This college was established under the impetus of Gao Pragmatic. Speaking of which, Gao Pragmatic took a lot of effort to promote this matter at that time, because the public opinion in the entire court did not support it very much - to be precise, " Those who do not support it very much are the real school, and almost all other officials are opposed to it.
China has never had a tradition of military academies. Although there have been corresponding "military strategists" for commanding operations in the era of various schools of thought, they existed as schools of thought. In theory, anyone can learn them freely. of.
Even if we talk about inheritance, it is mostly just family inheritance or family inheritance. In addition, except for Guiguzi who once taught two outstanding disciples, Pang Juan and Sun Bin, who have a sense of "teacher", there are few military academy-like existences.
In the era before high-pragmatic time travel, countries around the world basically had their own military academies. The number of academies varied depending on the size and strength of the country. The common origin of these military academies was generally believed to come from Europe.
As one of the birthplaces of early civilization, why is China not the birthplace of military academies but Europe is? Of course, this is because the social realities faced by both parties are different.
Military academies are usually regarded as a type of "university", and universities appeared very early in the Arab world. The earliest known university in later generations, the University of Qalouin in Morocco, was founded in 859. It was originally a discussion building. QZ temple for academic issues.
More than a hundred years later, the Egyptians established Al-Azhar University in Cairo, which is the second oldest university in the world and the first university to award degrees to students.
Later, Europeans were influenced by the Arab world during the Crusades, and after returning home, they also founded their own universities under the influence of the church. The University of Bologna, the University of Paris, the University of Oxford and other institutions of higher learning that are familiar to later generations were successively established from the 11th to the 12th century.
Compared with these general universities that mainly teach art, theology, law, and medicine, military colleges developed much later. This was mainly determined by the organizational form of the military in Europe at that time.
In the 8th century AD, during the reign of Charlemagne, his most effective state violence machine was an elite cavalry force. The excellent mobility of these cavalry made efficient expeditions possible, which helped Charlemagne establish a huge empire covering an area of more than 1.1 million square kilometers.
In order to win over the hearts and minds of this cavalry force, Charlemagne granted these cavalrymen land as their fiefs. Later, in order to further win over people, Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the Bald, declared that the land granted to these cavalrymen by the state as a reward was hereditary.
These actions of Charlemagne and Charles the Bald created perhaps the most famous aristocratic class in European history - the knights. These well-trained and well-equipped knights almost replaced the infantry during the reign of Charles the Bald and became the main source of military power in the Carolingian Empire.
Later, the Carolingian Empire fell apart because of its unique inheritance law [Note: Its inheritance law is simply a bit like the Chinese push order]. Although the powerful empire collapsed, the knight class created by this empire was carried forward by the successors of Charlemagne because of its fierce fighting power.
In later developments, knighthoods and fiefs began to be separated, that is, fiefs could be inherited conditionally, but knighthoods were not hereditary. Therefore, if the son of a knight wants to maintain his status as a knight, he must go through various experiences and become a knight at the age of 21. In this process, you need to serve as a squire for other knights to gain experience and gain qualifications.
In the process of moving from noble boys to knights, these "future knights" will receive very strict training and gain valuable technical and tactical training. This training process is basically equivalent to the functions of the later military academies. Therefore, since the country does not need to promote outstanding military talents outside the knights and aristocracy, it naturally does not need military academies to cultivate military talents.
China's feudal era at this time was similar. Most military talents came from the family inheritance of military families, or directly from the survival of the fittest in war - whether they were rewarded for meritorious service in the country's foreign wars, or selection for domestic wars of suppression and counter-repression. .
Since China has been in a unified political environment for a long time, even if there is an occasional "triple conflict" situation, the strength of each country is relatively strong, and military talents can continue to emerge through constant wars, so there is no social foundation for the emergence of military academies.
Returning to Europe, the educational model of military talents in the age of knights changed in the middle and late Middle Ages. Due to the continuous development of military technology and command art, knights riding tall horses and wearing thick armor are no longer invincible.
During the Hundred Years' War, the English longbowmen defeated the French knights twice at the Battle of Crecy in 1346 and the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
In the Battle of Nancy in 1477, the Lorraine-Swiss Allied Army, with pike infantry as the main force, completely defeated the Burgundian Knights. The Duke of Burgundy, "Charlie the Bold", who was famous for his chivalry, was also killed by a Swiss axe-gun in this battle, which directly led to the disintegration of the Principality of Burgundy and created a great cause for France and the Holy Roman Empire. Divided by the Busburg dynasty.
These military changes that occurred in the 14th and 15th centuries demonstrated the strong rise of infantry in the European cultural circle, which prompted European countries to begin to establish professional armies with infantry as the main body. The declining knight class was quickly absorbed into the professional armies of various countries.
Although knights and soldiers of noble origin often held higher ranks in the army due to their bloodline advantages, at this time there was no longer an unbridgeable identity gap between knights and ordinary soldiers.
Even because the military skills that phalanx infantry need to master are far less than those of knights, and even if they are from farmers, as long as they are professional soldiers, they still have enough time to train military skills. Therefore, in the European armies of this period, knights and peasant soldiers were often distinguished only by blood.
In order to expand more career directions, some old knights in France began to establish knight schools that only recruited knights and noble children. Soon, this trend also swept across Germany.
Compared with ordinary conscripts, students who graduated from the Knight School have been exposed to knowledge in mathematics, engineering, artillery and tactics in school, and can relatively easily qualify for officer positions in the army. This makes people in the German region The knight's school began to evolve into an officer's school. The importance of this "pre-service education" was fully reflected in the military changes that came quietly later.
Since the 18th century, European countries that have completely emerged from the haze of the Middle Ages have successively established their own modern nation-states. European powers such as Britain, France, Austria, and Prussia can now maintain much larger standing armies than before—this means that these countries A larger supply of junior officers is required.
In addition, artillery, a highly destructive weapon, began to dominate warfare. The attackers began to need more advanced artillery, and the defenders also began to need stronger fortifications. As we all know, modern artillery relies heavily on mathematics and ballistics based on it, and the construction of field fortifications requires more advanced engineering knowledge.
This is the social soil that the military academy needs, which is the so-called "demand creates supply."
In 1748, the War of the Austrian Succession ended in a near draw. France and Austria, the allies on both sides of the war and the two strongest countries in Europe, both discovered during the war that they were extremely short of well-trained low-level officers.
This is because at that time, the only aristocratic military schools that could provide low-level officers to the army were the aristocratic military schools that evolved from the knight schools. These military schools were expensive and only admitted children of aristocrats. They screened out most of the school-age students at the entrance stage, so they were unable to supply a sufficient amount of junior officers to the increasingly large armies of the great powers.
As war experience, France and Austria established military academies with relatively loose admission conditions at almost the same time - the Royal Military Academy in Paris and the Theresa Military Academy in Vienna. The two oldest military academies in the world were both founded in 1751, the former in January and the latter in December.
Today, the rewriting of the laurels of the world's oldest military academy is completed by Gao Pragmatic, skipping court disputes and directly persuading the Ming Emperor. Under Gao Pragmatic's direct persuasion, Zhu Yijun relied on the victory over Yuan Dynasty, Li Rusong's recovery of Pyongyang, and Liu Jing's victory. Emperor Majesty, established by capturing Hailongtun, skipped the court controversy and established the "world's first higher military academy" on the grounds that it renamed the "Ming Dynasty Military Academy" as the "Ming Dynasty Royal Military Academy".
As the strongest military training expert in the Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang was recommended by Gao Jingshi to be the first dean of the Royal Military Academy of the Ming Dynasty. Gao Jingshi himself was discovered by the emperor as the "honorary dean" when he explained a series of rules and regulations of the "Military Academy" to Zhu Yijun. This thing is very interesting, so he was awarded the position of "Honorary Lifetime Dean" of the Royal Military Academy of the Ming Dynasty.
Here we have to mention the meaning of the word "royal" for the Military Academy: one of its most direct impacts is that the future honorary dean and dean of the academy will be directly appointed by the emperor himself, without going through the cabinet. , Liubu and other discussions are not subject to its jurisdiction.
The hospital is directly responsible to the emperor, which is the meaning of the word "royal". By the way, because it was named "Royal", the hospital's flag and emblem were allowed to use the five-clawed dragon pattern - but because it still had to be different from the emperor himself, the army "soldiers are more valuable and faster", " It means "as fast as the wind". The shape of the dragon pattern of the Royal Military Academy of the Ming Dynasty is stipulated as a special type of dragon pattern.
[Note: There are many forms of dragon patterns, such as rising dragon, descending dragon, positive dragon, group dragon, standing dragon, walking dragon, and even two dragons playing with beads. ]
The establishment of the Royal Military Academy of the Ming Dynasty was due to Gao Pragmatic's belief that with the participation of the Jinghua Group, the military system of the Ming Dynasty had begun to "modernize". The old war training and family inheritance were not enough, and they were not professional enough, so there must be corresponding Promote the establishment of a talent training mechanism.
In the future, Gao Pragmatic also plans to gradually improve the military school system at all levels under the Ming Dynasty Royal Military Academy, such as establishing "Jiliao Military School" and "Xuanda Military School" in each governor-general.
Gao Pragmatic even hoped to change the "Navy Division" to the Navy after the victory in the war against Japan, and then establish the Ming Dynasty Royal Naval Academy and its naval school.
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Heaven huwz" and "Cao Mianzi" for their monthly support, thank you!
ps: Originally, the story about the Military Academy was supposed to be written after Liu Wei defeated Bozhou, but I accidentally forgot about it at the time. I just remembered it today, so I just wrote it as a supplement... I will write about the father teaching his son tomorrow.
