Chapter 28 Preset battlefield
He Xi seemed to have thought of something and said, "What do you mean?"
Ye Chen said: "What the general means, Mr. Tang Laohou, doesn't have a deep understanding of firearms. As long as he is dragged into the preset battlefield, he can be defeated easily."
He Xi heard this and thought it made sense.
Firearms are very important, but among the generals of the Ming Dynasty, firearms are favored and not favored. The favored means that firearms are indeed powerful and must be used in battles, but most generals do not know how to use firearms themselves.
There is no other reason. The quality of the firearm is defective and it is easy to explode. One accidentally blew himself up. But that's not good.
This kind of general's use of firearms is limited to others telling him how to use the firearm and how to use it. There is nothing more.
However, due to the arrival of He Xi, the development of Daming firearm technology was actually very rapid, and the flintlock gun was already very mature. It’s just that the military has little demand for flintlock rifles. Without him, firearms replace bows and arrows in the military. Positioned in this way, the flintlock gun is redundant.
First, flintlock guns were more expensive than matchlocks and more difficult to process. Secondly, most of the generals in the army came with long spears, bows and horses, and looked down upon firearms. If firearms were introduced on a large scale, what would these generals do?
Tang Shengzong is actually a representative of this kind of general.
They may not be indifferent to the development of firearms, they just don't need them. After all, the current weapons and equipment of the Ming Dynasty are at the point of excessive force for any country on the earth. Why reform and change your job?
So firearms were not promoted on a large scale at all.
There is another difference between Tang Shengzong and other generals, that is, Tang Shengzong has been idle these years and has no chance to come into contact with the latest firearms. In fact, He Xi has not kept the latest firearms secret and cannot keep it secret. As long as it has something to do with ordnance, several government officials want to know, so it's hard not to know. Whether you value it or not is another matter. To know is to know.
And Tang Shengzong was before this. I really don’t know.
In fact, the generals of the Ming Dynasty were not so complacent. Many generals saw the rapid progress of firearms and also studied them. The characteristics that Ye Chen just mentioned are the characteristics of studying firearms and getting hands-on with them.
Often exposed to firearms, some areas of the skin are different from others.
Even if Ye Chen's judgment was wrong, it was not too wrong.
He Xi said: "Then this battle will be left to you."
Ye Chen raised his eyebrows and became excited for no reason. Ye Chen is such a person. For him, nothing excites him more than war. This was also the reason why he was always willing to work under He Xi. In case of war, he was really willing to give him full power.
Given Ye Chen's qualifications, there are actually not many opportunities to lead the entire army like this.
Ye Chen said: "My lord, please sit down and watch me break the thief."
Before Ye Chen could defeat the thief, he had to defeat him first.
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This is a real defeat.
Ye Chen didn't dare to play any tricks in front of Tang Shengzong. After all, Tang Shengzong had too much combat experience. Tang Shengzong would discover something was wrong if he made any slight mistakes on the battlefield. So, Ye Chen bluffed and put the entire army on guard along the river. They retreated secretly and prepared a preset battlefield.
But Tang Shengzong didn't notice. However, Tang Shengzong came here to make great contributions and let everyone in the world know that he, Tang, was not here to work as a foreigner. Therefore, he expressed his opposition and secretly came to Chencang to build a plank road. He swam with arms fifteen miles downstream and pounced directly on him. Behind the troops guarding the shore, under attack from the front and back, the troops along the coast were immediately routed.
Tang Shengzong took advantage of the situation and went ashore to interrogate the prisoners.
He immediately knew that He Xijian was no match and prepared to withdraw his troops before the formation.
Tang Shengzong repeatedly inquired and cross-examined, and the confessions obtained did not make much difference.
After all, in this matter, Ye Chen concealed the truth from these troops. It would be strange for Tang Shengzong to ask anything.
Sure enough, Tang Shengzong had no doubts.
There is no other reason. This is in line with Tang Shengzong's judgment of He Xi.
He Xi was just unfamiliar with military matters, but he was not an idiot. He Xi was self-aware and knew that he could not defeat him, so it was unreasonable to find a way to save the army and withdraw. Not to mention, the method of withdrawing troops before the formation and concealing the truth was also used well. If he hadn't come to fight, he really wouldn't have noticed anything unusual.
Since Tang Shengzong believed the words of these prisoners.
Then what Tang Shengzong had to do was very simple. Take advantage of his illness and kill him. So Tang Shengzong raised thousands of cavalry and chased him directly.
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Many gullies were dug densely on both sides of the official road from Jinan to Dezhou. There is thatch covering the trench, but it cannot be seen from a distance. Inside the trench, there were all musketeers.
Everyone is preparing to shoot.
There are preparations for casting bullets. Some were dismantling the guns and wiping the parts.
This is the first pure musketry army in the Ming Dynasty.
It was also trained by Ye Chen with the support of He Xi. He Xi had told Ye Chen many ideas about firearms, but they were just ideas. Ye Chen started shooting firearms tactics based on He Xi's ideas.
It's just that among the musket tactics designed by Ye Chen, there are various tactics, but there is no queue to shoot.
He Xi also asked Ye Chen this question, and Ye Chen felt that only a fool would do this. If you have to fight in the field, you have to get on the shield car. If it is not possible, use cavalry to kick their butts, divide the troops to contain them, dig trenches, but there is no option to line up and shoot them.
If that doesn't work, use artillery fire.
There is also a vehicle formation. Various tanks can be used as defensive weapons. They can slowly advance to the front line and then engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Being defeated in formation is something that the Liao cavalry knew about the Song infantry formation. That is to say, facing the already formed Song infantry formation, the cavalry never attacked directly because they would definitely be defeated. But this did not prevent the Liao cavalry from suppressing the Song army on many occasions.
After all, there are so many ways to fight a war, and it is simply incomprehensible to have to line up and shoot them.
Of course, maybe one day there will be special restrictions on the battlefield, so we will fight like this. For example, when the Tang army attacked a stone castle and killed tens of thousands of people, it was with human lives. After all, there was no other way. Due to geographical restrictions, it had to be forced.
Ye Chen is also He Xi's most valued trump card, and he can be said to be the best firearms warfare expert in the Ming Dynasty.
He Xi proposed ideas about firearms and created various new firearms, while Ye Chen was responsible for finding ways to apply these firearms and forming regulations. In the entire Ming Dynasty, or even in the entire world, no one is more familiar with firearms warfare than He Xi.
It's just that He Xi still has some worries.
He Xi said: "Are you sure that Tang Shengzong will definitely take this path?"
Ye Chen said: "This is the only official road. I have made many arrangements in front to let the people behind know that we are retreating along the official road. Before coming here, Tang Shengzong will encounter an ambush. Once here, there will be no There will be other ideas.”
When He Xi heard this, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He didn't know how to evaluate Ye Chen.
It doesn't matter whether Ye Chen is a stone-hearted person or Ye Chenci doesn't have an army. In short, although He Xi felt that what Ye Chen did was not wrong, she still felt uncomfortable. In order to get this opportunity to ambush, Ye Chen gave Tang Shengzong at least two victories.
He Xi estimated that at least two thousand people from the Beijing camp died in these two defeats.
What's even more frightening is that they don't know why they died.
Ye Chen never told his true purpose.
And Ye Chen was calm from beginning to end. It seemed that in order for him to achieve his strategic goals, no matter how many people died, he would not blink an eye. But now Ye Chen is able to dig trenches with the soldiers, and even condolences them one by one. , seems to be in harmony with every soldier, just like a brother, and treats the dead soldiers the same way.
In He Xi's opinion, it was simply schizophrenic. On the one hand, he could rip out his heart and lungs, and there was no way it was fake at all. When using troops, it seems that these people are just regarded as a number. Not even raising his eyelids.
No amount of death will affect him.
At this moment, far away
Suddenly a tree fell down. He Xi suddenly became energetic. He knew that this was a signal that had been arranged long ago and that the enemy had arrived.
Tang Shengzong was about to lead a large group of cavalry into the preset battlefield.
