Chapter 149: Planning for the decisive battle
Zhu Xiongying couldn't understand it at all. In his opinion, it was simply the ravings of a madman. Who has ever seen troops so dispersed? In this case, Fu Youde could just concentrate his troops and fight all the way. Can they be defeated individually?
It's just nonsense.
Zhu Xiongying originally didn't have much confidence in Ye Chen. I am even less confident now.
So he didn't ask Ye Chen at all, but He Xi.
Seeing this, He Xi said, "I probably understand what Ye Chen means. How about I speak for him."
Zhu Xiongying said: "Okay."
He Xi said: "First of all, Ye Chen demonstrated these changes to His Majesty. Actually, he wanted to tell His Majesty two things. In fact, three horizontal lines can compare with the frontal firepower of the previous battalion. And a battalion has four to five hundred He can arrange a horizontal array of more than a hundred people. This is about fifty or sixty steps away. One guard has five battalions. It takes more than 300 steps per mile, and one guard spreads out in horizontal formation, which is one mile. Around 1,000,000 troops. Now we have prepared an army of one million. The infantry alone is about 700,000 to 800,000. That is, 1,450 guard posts. If all these guard posts are deployed in horizontal formation, how big a battlefield will be needed."
Zhu Xiongying said a number that he didn't believe: "Two hundred miles."
He Xi said: "Yes. But everyone knows that this is actually impossible. Because no one can command such a large battlefield. Moreover, the horizontal formation is not without its shortcomings. That is, the horizontal formation is much thinner and is difficult to face the cavalry attack. Unbearable. Only by changing the formation into a square formation or a hollow square formation can we withstand the cavalry attack. Now the army can change formations very quickly. In other words, as long as the cavalry attack is not an ambush, the impact on the infantry is limited."
"If the army gathers together, it will be like before, chewing hard bones. Even with the strength of the troops, it cannot be deployed. But the attack area spans 200 miles. Even Fu Youde cannot stop it."
Zhu Xiongying said: "Could it be that Fu Youde can't attack the first group with the main force and encircle and annihilate it?"
Ye Chen said: "It's impossible. First of all, I divided the army into military units. The distance between the two armies is no more than ten miles. Once attacked, the sound of gunfire can be heard, and it will only take a day or two to get closer to each other. Itinerary. I don’t believe that the Confederate army has the ability to eat 30,000 of my people in one day.”
Firearms are good for defense but not good for offense.
Not to mention whether there are any villages where we can stay along the way. Even if not, the Northern Army soldiers could dig out fortifications on the fields themselves. When the time comes, let’s see how the Southern Army attacks. You can't win without fighting for a few days. Within a few days, armies from all walks of life had arrived. We can launch roundabout fortifications and surround Fu Youde's troops here. Even without attacking, Fu Youde would not be able to bear a long-term siege.
Zhu Xiongying said: "What if Fu Youde retreats? Can you catch up?"
Ye Chen said: "Why chase? If he retreats, the south of Hejian and Texas will all be ours. Why chase?"
Zhu Xiongying was stunned. He seemed unable to find fault with this plan. He thought for a long time and said, "What should we do if the Confederate cavalry crosses the battlefield and attacks our army's logistics?"
It is impossible to cover everything within a two-hundred-mile area. Naturally, there is room for interspersed battlefields.
Ye Chen said: "Your Majesty, we also have cavalry. It can even be said that the combat effectiveness of our cavalry is superior to that of the other side. If they move along the canal, the cavalry has little use. But if Fu Youde moves away from the canal, we will fight them in the end. The logistics line of our country is still the logistics county where they attacked us. We only know this after having fought against them.”
"Your Majesty, the most critical issue here is that for the same army, one of our guard posts can save one mile of attack surface. But the southern army's one guard post can only be more than a hundred steps at most, which is one-third of ours. This is This allows us to make detours when we are facing each other. If the opponent wants to resist, they must use more troops than us. Fu Youde does not have that. It is impossible to have one. This is the key to our victory."
Beijing mobilizes its entire country and claims to have a million-strong army, but not that many will actually be deployed on the battlefield. But the quantity will not be small. Under such circumstances, it is simply impossible for Fu Youde to use three times more troops than Beijing.
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Shen understood the hint He Xi gave him.
His changes like this improved the efficiency of the use of soldiers and horses without increasing the number of troops.
This is the real core issue.
But it was not what Zhu Xiongying could have imagined. Seeing that Zhu Xiongying didn't understand, Ye Chen said it directly.
Seeing this, Zhu Xiongying frowned slightly and said, "Uncle, what do you think of this plan?"
He felt that this plan was unreliable, but he didn't understand the mystery. I can only ask He Xi.
He Xi said: "You have a problem. That is the issue of command. Let me ask you, according to you, an army is divided into three guard posts. Its battle line stretches for three or four miles. How should it be commanded? When two armies How to command when we are about ten miles apart on the battlefield? And the logistics you use in doing so are amazing, how should the logistics be organized?"
After Zhu Xiongying heard this, he frowned secretly and thought to himself, "Is this to give Ye Chen some trouble?"
He felt that He Xi didn't get the point at all. Because aren't these command and logistics issues the basic skills of a general? What's there to ask?
Ye Chen thought for a while and said, "Please give me some advice."
Zhu Xiongying never thought that military reforms would affect all aspects. It's not just a simple deployment of firepower. People are separated by distance. The entire two hundred miles is actually a big battlefield.
In order to facilitate command, Ye Chen divided the large battlefield into small battlefields. But in fact, the small battlefield is not small either. In a battle involving tens of thousands of people, the battle line stretches for several miles. If there is such and such terrain in the middle, it is possible for ten miles.
Commanding on the battlefield relies entirely on military music, drums and so on. But it is difficult for these sounds to travel ten miles away. In other words, the military music system cannot cover the battlefield.
Previously the battlefield was just a single battlefield. Now the battlefield is more complicated. The problems that need to be dealt with have increased exponentially.
Logistical issues are also important.
A million troops gathered in a wide area of one or two hundred miles would be a logistical disaster. Just look at Emperor Sui Yang's campaign to conquer Korea.
Only millions of people supporting the Huaihai Campaign can ensure the smooth progress of the war. It's the same today.
Of course, the consumption of firearms in this era is not so scary.
After a battle is won, a soldier can fire more than a hundred molecular bombs, which is too much. But that doesn’t mean that such logistics are easy to maintain.
The army was piled together before, just like the army was piled on the canal in the previous battle of Anlingbao. Logistics convenience. But things are different now. The battlefield is spread out, and logistics and supplies have to keep up. Not to mention how well the logistics are prepared, simply speaking, it is a very difficult problem to keep up with the army step by step.
The entire difficulty is completely different from the previous battles.
Ye Chen had actually commanded the battle. He had never thought about this before. He was so immersed in his grand idea of a decisive battle that he never thought about the problems involved. But things are different now. By He Xi a little. His mind changed and he immediately knew how difficult it would be to do this.
He Xi also thought for a while and said, "Opening House."
Zhu Xiongying was shocked and said: "The shogunate..."
The so-called shogunate is also different from the Japanese shogunate. The shogunate of the Han Dynasty was able to set up its own bureaucracy.
But why doesn’t it work later? There are a lot of things that are hard to say here. That's why Zhu Xiongying exclaimed.
After hearing this, He Xi understood what Zhu Yingxiong was thinking. She smiled calmly and said, "It can't be regarded as the shogunate, because it is the staff department."
The staff department set up in the central government before He Xi was actually different from that of later generations. It served more of a check and balance of power, and the staff function did not play much of a role. But now it is no longer possible. Because of military reforms, various affairs increased exponentially. It's simply too much for one person to handle. There must be a strong staff team. And this powerful team of staff cannot belong to an individual. If it's personal, don't say Zhu Xiongying can't sleep, He Xi can't sleep either.
