Jinghua's armed forces in the Ming Dynasty can be roughly divided into two categories. The security team is the "standing army" of armed servants, and the "factory protection team" is the "reserve force."
The "Factory Protection Team" is composed of various armed servants such as "Factory Protection Team", "Ore Protection Team", and "Veteran Guards" from Jinghua in various places, forming a separate system. However, due to years of habit, the previous names are still used, such as "Gansu Weilubao Copper Mine Protection Team."
Of course, it also has a more formal name within Jinghua, called "The 11th Northwest Factory Protection Team." This is because although the reserve system of the factory protection team basically copies the security team, it is not divided into provinces, prefectures, and counties. Instead, it is divided into Northeast, North China, East China, South China, Central China, Southwest, Northwest, Eight branches in Mongolia. That is to say, "North China's so-and-so factory protection team" and "Mongolia's so-and-so factory protection team".
It stands to reason that the numerical expression of "No. 3" is not as intuitive as a specific place such as "Weilu Fort". At a glance, you can know where the armed force came from and where it is usually stationed. However, this is actually Gao's pragmatic intention: to weaken the awareness of permanent residence and responsible area, and to form the thinking foreshadowing that "the national factory protection team will be deployed as needed at any time."
If this kind of thinking is applied to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, then perhaps it can be understood this way: Regardless of whether you are a soldier under the command of the Sichuan General Soldier or a soldier under the Gansu General Soldier, you must be stationed wherever the court says you will be stationed this year. The court said You will be governed by whoever is under your control this year - geographical restrictions are broken, and everything is deployed flexibly by the imperial court.
Of course, the limitations of the times still exist objectively. After all, Gao Wushi does not have much need to transfer them to perform tasks elsewhere at will. Therefore, even though Gao Pragmatic intends to guide the plant protection team system in this direction, the factory protection teams and mine protection teams in various places are still more accustomed to using the old names.
Speaking of the "Wilupu Mine Protection Team", the current number of people in this mine protection team - that is, the size of "three thousand people" - is not a regular establishment. According to Jinghua's system, every ten miners select one person to serve as the mine protection team. Therefore, the size of the "Weilubao Mine Protection Team" is usually not that large, and should be around six to seven hundred people.
But as we all know, miners have been one of the top sources of soldiers in all dynasties, and their personal qualities are so good that they can be called elite soldiers with just a little training. Therefore, when Burihatu came over, the Weilubao mine protection team was temporarily expanded to 3,000 people.
Liu Wei determined his location by the Black River and found an area where the water flow was not fast to arrange a Mongolian-style floating ferry. This method was discussed earlier in this book, which is the so-called "leather bag crossing the river".
A leather bag is an air bag made of leather. In the north, especially on both sides of the Yellow River, leather bags are a common tool for crossing the river. Leather bags are generally made of sheepskin. The production method is roughly to slaughter the sheep, blow air into the sheepskin with a thin tube to create airflow between the skin and meat, and then beat the sheepskin hard, and the sheepskin will be separated from the mutton.
At this time, cut off the sheep's head and limbs, and then tear the sheepskin down from the head, and the sheepskin will peel off completely. Then just tie the holes in the head, limbs and tail tightly, and it will be seamless. When it was time to use it as a tool to cross the river, the boatman blew air into the skin bag, and the sheepskin expanded into a bulging leather bag.
This leather bag could be used to carry rafts and float many people across the river at the same time. Generally speaking, the Mongolian army used this method of "crossing the river with leather bags" in all rivers with fast currents and difficulty in boating.
Nowadays, the water flow in this section of the Heihe River is not fast, but because it is deserted and Liu Wei does not have time to wait, he naturally does not consider recruiting private boats to cross the river, and can only "cross the river with leather bags". Fortunately, the cavalry generals of the Liu Jiajun had gone to Erdemutu for "further training" and had learned the Mongolian methods very carefully. They always had enough leather bags in the army, so the crossing of the river was quickly completed.
After crossing the Heihe River, Liu Wei once again arranged to replenish water, feed the horses, and eat. He also gave everyone three hours to get some sleep. At the same time, he sent three detachments that stayed overnight and dispersed in the direction of Weilu Fort.
This is also the proper meaning of the title. After all, if such a cavalry of 8,000 people suddenly attacked the Weilu Castle, people might think that the Mongolian army had arrived, and it would be bad to cause trouble. Therefore, it is necessary to send a night guard to the front station to inform the other party.
Another advantage of this is that Wei Lubao can make some preparations in advance. For example, those sixteen cannons that can be mobilized should be ready for loading as soon as possible. The same goes for the personnel who can accompany the expedition, and they should be prepared in advance.
Liu Wei was not polite about this matter. Anyway, Gao Pangshi had given him authority, and Jinghua's armed forces in Gansu needed to obey his call when necessary. Liu Wei also knew that this authority was a little bit of a distraction for him, and maybe it was because of his sister's face, so he took this matter very seriously...but he couldn't let the mine protection team go to waste, it was the boss's private Where are the soldiers?
Three hours later, Liu Wei led eight thousand cavalry to set off on time. This time, they still did not mount their horses, but still chose to lead the way, and because it was no longer a rugged mountain road, the marching speed was a little higher. According to the horse speed, it has reached the level of "quick pace".
Speaking of horse speed, here is some trivia. Horses have four speeds, from slow to fast, they are divided into canter, trot, canter and gallop. Each speed corresponds to a specific pace, or pace, or action posture.
The slow trot, also called the regular trot, is the basic way for horses to walk. It is a four-beat (hoof sound) pace. The order of stepping on the hoof is: right back - right front - left back - left front. The speed is generally 3-4 miles per hour, which is 5-6 kilometers per hour. In Ming terms, it means walking eleven or twelve miles in one hour.
Trot means fast running and fast jumping. It is a two-beat (hoove sound) gait in which the horse's legs take turns to move, and there is a flying period when all four hooves are off the ground. The order of stepping on the hoof is: airborne period - left rear, right front - airborne stage - right rear, left front. The speed is generally 6 miles per hour, which is about ten kilometers per hour, or "twenty miles an hour."
Running is a three-beat (hoofbeat) pace. Taking left running as an example, the sequence of hoof tapping is: right rear - left rear, right front - left front - airborne period; taking right running as an example, the sequence of hoofbeats is: The left hind limb, the left diagonal limb (the left forelimb and the right hind limb move at the same time), the right forelimb, followed by a momentary soaring period. Before running the next step, all four hooves are in the air. The speed is generally 8-10 miles per hour, and the middle value is calculated as 9 miles, which is about 15 kilometers per hour, or "thirty miles an hour."
The pace is the pace used in later generations of horse racing, or the pace of cavalry entering the final sprint when charging into battle. That is, the four-beat trot during horse racing, which refers to a kind of running in which the horse follows the running sequence, with an extended gait and the highest speed. Taking left running as an example, the sequence of stepping is: right hind leg - left hind leg - right front leg - left front leg - airborne period.
Of course, as a sprint pace, the specific speed is uncertain and depends on the horse's ability. However, no one usually talks about the walking speed. After all, this speed cannot be maintained for long, and it can often only be calculated in seconds, and it is not mentioned when marching.
In fact, not only is the attack step not used normally, but the horse's "running" is rarely used. Generally speaking, the speed of the cavalry when marching refers to the "slow step" speed of the horse. When rushing on the road in an emergency, it will only be adjusted to the "quick step" - and this speed will not be used for a long time.
Again, horses are much more delicate than people, and far less durable than people. The reputation of "terrifying ape erectus" is by no means unfounded. In terms of endurance, humans have almost no equal opponents - of course this refers to innate potential. If you insist on saying that you can run three thousand meters to death, it is because modern humans lack Basic training has nothing to do with talent. Our ancestors don't take the blame.
Talking about speed, during the Napoleonic Wars, according to French military doctrine, the main cavalry footwork of the French army at this time can be divided into three types: slow step (pas), quick step (trot), and canter (galop). The speed is in order of each Minutes 100, 240, 300 meters.
The regulations for the armies of other great powers are generally similar to those of the French army. Take the Russian army, for example, its slow walking, fast walking, and running speeds are 50, 120, and 150 sand ropes (Russian units) per minute, that is, 107, 256, and 320 meters. , almost the same as the French army.
In addition to running, there are also raiders running at full speed in the armies of various countries. As mentioned above, there are naturally no specific regulations for this running method, but it is generally accepted that its speed should reach more than 8 meters per second.
There is no doubt that trotting, running and walking all consume considerable horsepower, especially the latter two.
Trotting for more than half an hour and running for more than 6 minutes will make the horse quite tired. Therefore, if they are marching long distances, the cavalry can only use the slow step - however, because the endurance of the Mongolian horses beats the European horses, the duration of the quick step will be greatly improved.
According to the consensus at the time, when the cavalry attacked the cavalry, whichever side of the cavalry could maintain a better formation and run faster would definitely win.
We need formation, speed, and horsepower, so there is only one solution left: approach the enemy at a low speed, and change to high speed in the last few hundred meters or even more than a hundred meters. It takes dozens or even ten meters to reach full speed. Although this requirement may seem simple, completing it in a group still requires a considerable degree of training.
Take the Prussian army, a model of cavalry in the Seven Years' War, for example. Under ideal conditions, the Prussian cavalry speeds up from a quick step to a trot when it is 110-150 meters (150-200 steps) away from the enemy, and is fifty or sixty meters away from the enemy ( 70-80 steps), use spurs to urge the horse to move forward at a canter, but do not let go of the reins.
This is because all war horses cannot gallop at the same speed. The cavalry still needs to control the horses to maintain the formation, and wait until they are only 15 meters (20 steps) away from the enemy before rushing forward at the highest speed.
The specific methods of the armies of other countries are somewhat different, but the basic idea is still the same. They start with a slow step when they are hundreds of meters apart, and then gradually accelerate to a fast step, running or even walking.
Taking the French military doctrine as an example, when the enemy is 315 meters away, he switches from a slow step to a fast step, when he is 165 meters away from the enemy, he changes from a quick step to a running step, and when he is 65 meters away from the enemy, he accelerates from running to a long canter or even a running step.
I'm going too far, but let's get back to it. Liu Wei relied on the fact that the war horses in his headquarters were strengthened based on Mongolian horses and had relatively long endurance. Therefore, his plan was to march intermittently between fast trot-slow trot-quick trot-slow trot, as fast as possible. He quickly arrived at Weilu Fort first, and then rushed to Suzhou City with the heavy firepower of Weilu Fort.
The key to this plan is speed, and the magic troops must fall from the sky without Suzhou being prepared. Even if the Mongolian army in Suzhou discovered that they were a cavalry that theoretically did not have the ability to attack fortresses, they might not be able to close the city gate in time. Secondly, even if the city gate was closed, their own heavy artillery could focus on blasting a gap.
It has been more than two hundred years since the Mongols fled back to the grasslands. They have no experience in defending cities and are typically good at attacking but not good at defending. During the last Korean War, the Ming generals who commanded the Mongolian cavalry also took them out to fight in the field. The job of defending the city relied entirely on the Han army, but no one expected the Mongolian cavalry to defend the city.
Because they alternated between slow and fast steps, but they did not carry people at the same time, Liu Wei's cavalry ran very fast this time. They covered a hundred miles in six hours and successfully arrived at Weilu Castle. A supplementary rest (referring to eating, drinking, etc.).
Of course, even so, six hours is twelve hours after all. The whole afternoon and the first half of the night passed, and it was already midnight when they arrived.
Weilu Fort was indeed a large bastion. The densely packed torches at the top of the city roughly displayed the shape of the bastion in front of Liu Wei's eyes. Liu Wei ordered to stand two miles in front of the east gate of Weilu Fort, and sent Ye Bushou again to negotiate.
Not long after, seven or eight members of the Jinghua mine protection team, dressed in brown robes and armor, followed the Ming army at night and came to check. When Liu Wei saw this, he couldn't help but nodded secretly: After all, he is the Marquis's soldier. He is really careful. After seeing the document with my customs seal, he still sent someone to check it in person.
"But Mr. Liu from Sichuan is in person?" the first person asked loudly, holding his hands from afar.
"It's Liu!" Liu Wei was not in a hurry to dismount, but shouted: "I have been ordered by the Marquis to temporarily supervise your department. Where are Gao He, the deacon of Weilubao Copper Mine, and Gao Duo, the captain of the mine protection team?"
After hearing these words, the first person completely believed Liu Wei's identity. He knelt down on one knee with his companions behind him and said, "Reporting to Mr. Liu, I am Gao Duo. The deacon is arranging the reception in the fort. Please The commander-in-chief arranged for his troops to rest in the fort."
After hearing this, Liu Wei finally stood up and jumped off the horse, stepped forward to help Gao Duo up, and asked at the same time: "You are not in a hurry to rest for a while. Let me ask you, can you make all the preparations I asked your department to make?" Already?"
Gao Duo smiled and said: "How dare you miss the important event of the general army? The sixteen cannons have been mounted on trailers and are ready to go with the army at any time. Our army currently has 3,127 people, and we have decided to leave only 500 people to defend the city. , the rest have packed their bags and are ready to go to Suzhou at any time."
Liu Wei was very satisfied and nodded in affirmation, but then continued: "Okay, but our troops are going to make a surprise attack on Suzhou. Can you keep up?"
"General, just don't worry. The brothers in Weilubao are all miners, and they all have iron legs. There is no reason why this place, which is only a hundred miles away, can't keep up." Gao Duo raised his chest slightly and answered confidently. road.
"Okay, very good! In that case, my troops will enter the fort right now, eat this meal and set off immediately!"
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PS: I fell asleep while typing last night, so this chapter is from yesterday.
(End of chapter)
