After just one rocket salvo, the Korean army on the southern front collapsed inexplicably. This result was not only unacceptable to Quan Li, but even Zhang Wanbang was a little confused.
Zhang Canrong was shocked that he could fit an egg into his mouth when he opened it. Then he scratched his scalp and asked the people around him: "Can you tell me, the North Korean army looks like this... is it possible that they are feigning defeat to lure the enemy?"
He was also good at gesticulating with his hands left and right as he spoke, and said: "Do you remember that among the enemies I have fought, the one who was so weak seems to have been when I was sixteen years old and followed my father to pacify the refugees in northern Shaanxi.
That year, a locust plague followed a drought, and the refugees in four or five counties had no food to eat. They first surrounded Qingyang, which frightened King Qing and asked for help everywhere. Later, I followed my father to rescue him. The refugees did not dare to fight, so they let Qingyang go. Go north and rob Huanxian County. We chased to Huanxian County again. My father said that these people were actually miserable and there was no need to kill them, so he only fired one round of artillery fire at them.
Hey, guess what? After one round of artillery was fired, the 20,000 refugees were so frightened that they all dispersed. They were just like the North Korean troops today... The trouble later was that they were about to vomit when they captured the prisoners! Damn it, we only had more than a thousand soldiers at that time! "
An older servant leader beside him smiled bitterly and said: "I thought that the Korean army had obtained a lot of weapons and firearms, and with the guidance of Mao Canrong (Mao Guoqi), they should have made some progress. Who knows... Alas, no wonder the Japanese pirates attacked twice When they invaded North Korea, the North Korean troops were beaten to the point of running away twice.
Soldiers like this have no military discipline and are panicked when something happens. The officers don't know how to immediately suppress and stabilize the position? It's really rotten to the bones. How can it be called an army? With stuff like this, the North Koreans even said they were elites. That old slave really didn’t know what an ordinary North Korean army looked like. "
Zhang Wanbang waved his hand and was about to speak when suddenly a messenger came to report that the Second Association and the Union had applied to take the initiative.
Taking the initiative means the disintegration of the Hollow Phalanx, and the significance of the Hollow Phalanx cannot be unclear as an association. Now that it is clear that the Second Association's Co-President still applied to take the initiative, it can only be said that the Second Association's Co-President believed that the opponent's combat effectiveness was too poor, and there was no need to set up a hollow square array. He could just go up and blow it up.
The leader of the Second Association is Zhang Sixiao, who was born as a servant of the Zhang family, but he has adopted Zhang Wanbang's father as his adoptive father, and he and Zhang Wanbang are usually considered brothers. He is seven or eight years older than Zhang Wanbang, and he has experienced many battles. He was originally one of Zhang Wanbang's right-hand men left to him by his father, and his judgment ability on the battlefield is quite outstanding.
Now that Zhang Sixiao said this, Zhang Wanbang had to take it seriously. This guy was always timid. He picked up the telescope and looked left and right. In the middle of the process, he put away the telescope and extended his fingers to make two gestures, as if to judge the distance.
Not long after, Zhang Wanbang stood up suddenly, jumped off the Chinese military command platform, and shouted loudly: "The second and third battalions of the Second Association are allowed to attack, and they are asked to drive the Korean troops on the southern line north! The first battalion is waiting for an opportunity to attack. Go north along the inner line to threaten the left flank of the Korean army."
When he said this, the soldiers on the southern front left. Zhang Wanbang continued: "The self-propelled sidecars of the 1st and 3rd Battalions on the Eastern Front are oppressing the Korean army's positions on the Eastern Front. If they resist, the 1st and 3rd Battalion will stop advancing and shoot behind the sidecars.
Artillery and rockets will not be fired from the front of the eastern front for the time being. When the North Korean army on the southern front is also suppressed, the North Korean army on the eastern front will attack together with artillery and rockets, but accidental damage must be avoided. "
Zhang Wanbang is indeed an expert and bold person. His arrangement is a bit like changing the formation from the word "口" to the word "ji", and the hook needs to be lengthened, so that the "vertical hook" becomes A sharp blade that outflanks and squeezes the east and south routes of the North Korean Army.
The problem is that his military strength is far inferior to that of the North Korean army on the southeastern two fronts. Rather than outflanking or not outflanking, it is better to say that he treats the North Korean army as a refugee army, which is a "sheep herding" type of combat.
But this was not all he had in mind. Soon he gave orders to the Western Front, basically copying the "sweeping" style of the Southern Front, and asked the Western Front to level the front directly to the north. There is no doubt that he is preparing for a full-scale attack.
At the same time, Quan Li finally reacted. Quan Li personally arranged for some of his soldiers to be sent to the Eastern Front as a supervisory team to prevent the Eastern Front from collapsing inexplicably like the Southern Front. At the same time, because the previous plan could not be achieved, he simply planned to put the main force of the Northern Front into combat mode and start Attack south.
The mentality of the Korean army has changed several times so far: when they first heard that they were going to confront the Ming army, everyone was thinking about fetching water from fifteen buckets - they were up and down, not knowing what the future would be like;
It was discovered that there were only more than 3,000 Ming troops in the hills of Songquan Cave. Everyone was relieved, and their morale suddenly became high, with the momentum of "defeating Zhang Wanbang and taking Han Yangjing lightly";
When they came down the mountain, the rear column of the North Korean army was greeted by a minefield, and two to three hundred men were killed on the spot. Although the loss was only one hundred and one in the total force, they were hit without even seeing the opponent's figure. Secondly, they were hit by the explosion. The power is truly astonishing, so the blow to morale is not small;
Next came the collapse of the southern front. It is clear that the North Korean army has nearly 10,000 troops on the southern front, and although the enemy in front of them can see that they have sufficient firearms, the number of them is too small after all, less than a thousand at most, maybe only about 800, no matter how you look at it, it should be You can win by launching an attack at will.
Unexpectedly, the Ming army only launched a rocket salvo, and the Korean army, which was still on the march and had not yet set up its formation, was stunned on the spot.
This round of rocket volley fired by the Ming army was really like "a sudden spring breeze coming overnight, thousands of pear trees blooming", and the effect was like boiling soup pouring snow. Not to mention that the North Korean army could no longer move forward and prepare for formation, it even became a mess on the spot. Everyone seemed to be running around, hoping to avoid the rockets that were hitting the sky.
In fact, the accuracy of rockets in this era is very low, and it is completely impossible to hit anywhere. The Ming army can only control the landing point in one area as much as possible. It is a weapon that relies entirely on covering strikes to be more effective.
In addition, there is no mechanized operation such as automatic loading in this era. After a round, the rockets need to be loaded into the rocket launch vehicle one by one. However, because the rocket car has only two operators, it obviously takes a long time to load 81 rockets. Therefore, in addition to defending the city, unless you encounter a fool in the field, this weapon can basically be regarded as a disposable weapon-fighting It takes a long time to wait for the next wave after one wave.
However, the stunned North Korean army did not think so much. They only knew that they were badly beaten by this round of rockets. Although no one knew the exact amount of losses they suffered, everyone knew that they could not withstand another wave. Such an attack, so they subconsciously think... they have lost and must run!
In fact, Zhang Wanbang knew that the North Korean army only looked miserable, but in fact it may not have suffered serious losses. This was determined by the true lethality of the current rockets.
The current rockets do not have strong explosive power. It is a pipe dream to expect how many people the explosion can injure - how powerful can an arm-thick black powder explosion be?
Directly hitting a person's chest and exploding on the spot might kill that person, but there were only about 400 rockets that actually hit the crowd of North Korean soldiers just now, so theoretically, at most, about 400 people were directly killed on the spot. .
Yes, the flying pottery fragments caused by the explosion can definitely cause damage, but the "elite North Korean army" on the opposite side is wearing armor. Although the quality of the armor that Ji Liao cleared out of its inventory was really average, no matter how average it was, it could still play some role. At least it could provide good defense in important parts such as the chest and abdomen.
The pottery fragments generated by the explosion only rely on the explosion of black gunpowder as kinetic energy. If the opponent is unarmored, it is quite effective. However, if the opponent is wearing armor, it will be difficult to deal with. Only the neck and face are the sure-kill areas. Other places, including the limbs, can generally only cause injuries, and even disability is difficult to achieve.
Under this circumstance, Zhang Wanbang was very clear about the actual damage caused by the rocket offensive just now - the number of people killed or seriously injured was no more than a thousand people, and there may be a lot of minor injuries left, but it would not actually result in combat effectiveness. loss.
Of course, the second half of this sentence is useful when it comes to the Ming army, but it may not necessarily apply to the Korean army, because the Ming army that came to fight in North Korea were almost all elites, and the Korean army... Well, according to the pragmatic standards of Nanning Hou Gao, they said they Even the military is a bit reluctant.
For the Ming army elites, who mostly came from the towns of Jiubian, minor injuries, such as a cut on their arm, were not taken seriously at all.
After the highly pragmatic military reform, the benefits of the nine sides have been greatly improved. Not only has the equipment been standardized, but other equipment has also been standardized.
For example, based on the recommendations of the Medical Department of the Jinghua Artisan School, the Ming army's simple battlefield medical treatment was improved. They all carried ten pieces of gauze in the sheepskin bags around their waists, as well as a small bottle of "Baobao Dan" (similar to the old Yunnan Baiyao, divided into two portion, powder and one insurance pill).
If the injuries during the war were not serious, the soldiers of the Ming army could first take some Baibao Dan, then pull out a piece of gauze and wrap it around them. This would be considered an emergency hemostasis.
There is a saying in Chinese medicine, to the effect that if it is related to Qi, use ginseng, and if it is related to blood, use Panax notoginseng. The main ingredient of Baibao Dan is Panax notoginseng. For injuries such as stopping bleeding and removing blood stasis, Panax notoginseng is a miraculous effect. This is also the reason why the Red Dynasty army put Yunnan Baiyao on the altar - after countless It has been proven effective on the cruel battlefield.
But if the elite of the Ming army could not treat a minor injury as a big deal, the North Korean army obviously could not do it. If Gao Pragmatic could witness the performance of this army with his own eyes, he would probably evaluate their level as worse than the Qing army in the Battle of Baliqiao.
At least, although the Qing army in the Battle of Baliqiao was defeated many times by the British and French forces, they were able to regroup after retreating and then launched another attack. The whole battle lasted for about eight hours. It seemed that the North Korean army could not do this at all, and they actually collapsed on the spot.
[Note: The Battle of Baliqiao was actually a series of battles. The mainstream assessment of later generations believed that the actual battle lasted about eight hours and was not a charge to the death and the entire army was annihilated on the spot. ]
However, one thing these two battles are very similar is that although the cold-weapon feudal army faced a firearm-based army seemed to be defeated miserably, in fact, the direct losses suffered on the battlefield were not significant.
The Battle of Baliqiao was exaggerated in later generations to say that the entire Qing army died in the battle. This is nonsense. A large part of the reason comes from the fact that some witnesses in the British and French allied forces wrote their own experiences in the style of "recording legends."
You must know that Europeans have always been internally afraid of the "Eastern Tatar Cavalry" because of the two tragic histories of Attila's "Whip of God" Huns army sweeping across Europe, and the later Mongol Western Expeditions that defeated the European coalition forces. of. When they defeated the so-called "Manchu and Mongolian main forces" of the Qing Dynasty, their inner feelings could be described as elated, overturning thousands of years of fear.
Such a mentality made various records full of "legendary feeling". In order to prove that it was not easy to win, they forcibly exaggerated the bravery of the Qing army, and even wrote that the entire army died in battle.
In fact? Later research found that the direct battle losses of the Qing army were only about 1,200, accounting for only 4% of the total troops participating in the war. If there is anything that makes later generations feel strange, it may be that the generals suffered relatively large losses - but this is due to The feudal army in the late dynasty had too much will to fight. If the general himself refused to take the lead, it would be almost impossible to command the army to actually attack.
The general is taking the lead, and the enemy on the opposite side is an army with hot weapons. So why is it strange that you, the general, have become part of the loss? The army in the era of hot weapons requires officers not to charge on the front line. Otherwise, you are brave enough, but what will happen to the command of the army after you die in battle?
Of course, Tsarist Russia is an exception, because Tsarist Russia has a high degree of feudalism, and its firearms level has always lagged behind Europe at the same time. Commanders need to take the initiative to fight bravely to drive the entire army. This is why the loss rate of Tsarist Russian officers has always been high. main reason. [Note: This style still continues in the Russian army until the current Russo-Ukrainian war. ]
What about the performance of the North Korean army? Not to mention it!
According to Zhang Wanbang's estimate, the rocket volley that directly defeated the North Korean army on the southern front in the previous round actually killed at most 500 people, leaving perhaps more than a thousand or at most 2,000 people with minor injuries, but that Theoretically, it will not affect the continued fighting.
However, nearly ten thousand people on the southern front of the North Korean army collapsed like this. Even Zhang Sixiao, who was in command at the front, believed that they should take advantage of the situation to attack, leaving them no chance to regroup.
Zhang Wanbang followed the good advice and not only approved the attack, he even adjusted the entire army's combat plan at once.
He originally set up a hollow square formation, treating this North Korean "elite" of 30,000 people as the two Mongolian elites he faced in the early years, the Xin Ai lineage and the Chaohua lineage. His idea was to defeat the opponent through resolute defense. After a head-on collision, he finally deployed his elite troops to attack the Korean Central Army and achieve a complete victory.
It now appears that this is a serious overestimation of the strength of the North Korean military, especially the opponent's "organizational degree." If the organizational level of Zhang Wanbang's troops is regarded as one hundred, then the organizational level of the North Korean army is no more than 30, maybe only in the 20s.
As Zhang Wanbang's order was issued, the battlefield situation quickly changed further.
The Ming army's southern front pushed back the Korean army's southern front like a duck. These defeated troops impacted the Korean army's eastern front, causing the eastern front battle formation to shake. However, there was no artillery bombardment or rocket salvo on the eastern front of the Ming Army. Instead, they pushed the sidecar forward and shot at the back of the sidecar.
The firing during the maneuver was not intensive, and the losses caused were not large. However, this momentum overwhelmed the already panicked and wavering North Korean Army's Eastern Front, causing the Eastern Front to quickly collapse.
The supervising team sent by Quan Li was faced with a retreat due to landslides as soon as it arrived at the eastern front. Just after killing a dozen people, it was scattered by a swarm of defeated troops. The so-called supervising the battle was no longer possible.
In this way, two of the three north and south routes collapsed. Quan Li was shocked and thought that there was no chance of winning this battle. He was about to mobilize the main force on the northern front to retreat. Unexpectedly, Zhang Wanbang's general's banner had already reached the northern front.
The Ming army on the northern front did not hesitate at all and immediately launched a forced offensive. This time, artillery and rockets finally came together, and judging from the intensity of the artillery fire, Zhang Wanbang should have mobilized the entire army's artillery to launch - but only one round, because the Ming army infantry had already rushed forward.
Because they were well aware of the long-range killing range of the North Korean army, the Ming army did not rush forward all the time, but quickly formed a formation outside the range of the North Korean army, and then launched a paused salvo while advancing to the beat of the drum. That is, take a few steps to stop and fire a volley, and then complete the turn while advancing in unison.
As a result, the North Korean Army's northern front also collapsed, and the three armies completely lost command. Quan Li himself ran and asked the flag bearer to hold the flag high - he was not stupid, he knew that the collapse was irreversible. This move was to let the defeated soldiers know that he was Where to gather towards him.
The Battle of Zhenling has only come to an end.
Quan Li didn't know that the 1,800 Transkalkha Mongolian cavalry who had been sent out of the city by Zhang Wanbang earlier were now facing the defeated Korean troops who had collapsed across the board, showing a ferocious smile from the prairie.
Because of its rather strange origin, this cavalry has actually been independent from the Ming army's command system to a certain extent. This is not to say that they did not accept the command of the Ming army, but that the Ming army was a little confused about how to use a Mongolian cavalry.
As the Zaikarkha cavalry, they were also the "remnants" who stayed in the area after the war against the Yuan Dynasty and never moved westward. Obviously, their original status was not high. Their low status means they are relatively poor, so they definitely don't have heavy armor, and they don't even have light armor.
After the expedition to North Korea, Ma Gui considered that they could be regarded as direct descendants of Erdemutu, a highly pragmatic disciple, so he transferred two thousand sets of cavalry armor to them from military supplies. This cavalry was fully armored.
The cavalry's hood may be the prototype of the "waistcoat" of later generations. Its main function is to protect the body and trunk. It has very little impact on movement. It is also very light and is very suitable for the highly mobile Mongolian cavalry.
This group of Mongolian cavalry from Outer Khalkha, who were used to being poor, never expected to receive such a generous gift without fighting, and were very grateful to the Ming army (another reason is that Outer Khalkha was originally far away from the Ming Dynasty, and there were few Participated in the plunder of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army never attacked them, and there was almost no grudge between the two sides). I had long thought of helping the Ming army on the battlefield, so as not to always have such a huge personal debt in my heart.
So, this time the North Korean army hit the muzzle of their gun - oh, the knife edge was on it.
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Thanks to the book friend "Cao Mianzi" for the reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Yun Fuyue Yu" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: I have one thing to report. My home was disconnected from the Internet last night. I contacted customer service this morning to send maintenance personnel to the door for inspection. They arrived at 2 pm and found out several suspected line fault points. After the repair, they found that the connection was still blocked. So the maintenance man climbed up and down to check, and finally found a smashed beer bottle on the bay window platform outside the stairs, which had cut off the wires in my house. Both the maintenance man and I were shocked. If a bottle was smashed down, What can people do? How could anyone do such a dangerous thing! There is really no quality at all!
In addition, I still coded the words when I was disconnected from the Internet. In order to make up for the actual disconnection, this chapter will be updated by 1K words. The next chapter is normally today’s update and will be available in about an hour or two. Can go. (The above number of words does not affect the text size of 5K)
