Chapter 163: Human Sea Tactics
It's not that Sheng Yong can't accept death. But he really couldn't accept this way of death. It was the duty of a man to step on the edge and shed blood on the battlefield. When did life and death hang between each other's fingers?
This was absolutely unacceptable to him.
This means that the art of bowing, horse riding, and archery that Sheng Yong has practiced so hard since he was a child has turned into a joke in one day.
If on the original battlefield, a general like Sheng Yong who has practiced archery, horse riding and archery since childhood. With a small group of elite soldiers, among the thousands of troops, they dare to kill even one person. In the history of the Jingnan War, there were many records of King Yan getting separated from his army. It was because King Yan himself used this tactic. A strong general with hundreds of fine cavalry was enough to shake the infantry square formation. Once the formation was broken, all that was left was to drive the defeated troops into the enemy formation. The momentum is overwhelming.
This is the war that Sheng Yong wants.
The longed-for war.
Although He Xi, Ye Chen, Fu Youde and others all carried out military reforms. But essentially, one is active and the other is passive. He Xi and others took the initiative to pursue military reforms to seek more strategic advantages. Fu Youde, on the other hand, could only use military reforms to save the situation.
The starting points of the two are different, and their mentality towards the large-scale use of firearms is different.
He Xi, Ye Shen and others entered the new era with other things in mind. But Fu Youde and others were kicked in by the times.
If possible, Fu Youde and others want to leave everything in the past. It's just not possible.
No matter how complicated Sheng Yong's mood was, he would not let his mood affect his decision at this moment. He closed his eyes and opened them suddenly. There was no trace of weakness in his eyes at this moment. Some are just full of blood.
Sheng Yong ordered that all ministries could only advance but not retreat. Let the cavalry supervise the battle and kill anyone who dares to look back.
Then the artillery positions were ordered to move forward.
At this time, the Northern Army also made its final changes.
What was originally a square formation became a horizontal formation. Block the artillery positions behind them.
Both sides came within range of each other.
The first person to speak out was none other than the Crouching Tiger Cannon.
The shooting range of this guy is almost the same as the shooting range of the fire gun, but the firepower density is far different, although there are not many squatting tiger cannons following each hundred households. But it's enough for the moment.
Every hundred meters or so, a squatting tiger cannon opened fire.
Suddenly, many people fell down in the first horizontal formation on the opposite side.
The opponent also opened fire and retaliated.
Both sides shoot at each other.
Within a distance of less than a hundred steps, corpses fell one after another.
The Confederate army could not bear it at first, and several of them retreated in defeat, although they were beheaded on the spot by a group of cavalry.
Immediately, the second team, the third team, and even the tens of thousands of troops behind came rolling in. There is literally no end.
Sheng Yong had already made up his mind.
In this battle, if you don't drain your opponent's blood, you will drain your own blood. There is no third option.
However, in terms of firecrackers tactics, the Northern Army was obviously more mature than the Southern Army.
When the first column of the Northern Army suffered enough casualties.
At the command, the first column immediately retreated, following the traces left by the rear column. Withdrew to the back.
Immediately, they faced another burst of artillery fire.
Then the second column of fresh troops was in place and continued to shoot with the Confederate army.
This is the method of retreat and decisive battle.
On the whole, the Northern Army retreated step by step. Keep as far away from the enemy as possible and use firepower to kill them.
This method of warfare is highly hierarchical and requires middle- and lower-level officers to know when and what to do. There is no confusion when retreating. Especially the latter point is particularly important.
To know. The standard for retreat is to reach a certain casualty ratio. They were only allowed to retreat when they might collapse if they continued to fight.
At this time, once out of control, the retreat turns into a rout.
That would be very bad.
But once it is done well, it will give the soldiers more confidence. Let them know that they always have a way out and the higher ups will not be watching him
They were stripped bare. Although on the battlefield, everyone will die. But when it comes to shooting with muskets, it's more about luck and whoever is unlucky. As long as you can persist, the higher ups will give you a way out.
In this way, the Northern Army could sustain more casualties than the Southern Army.
Under these arrangements, the casualty ratio between the Northern Army and the Southern Army was about one to three. It takes three Confederate soldiers to die before one Northern army can be killed.
And Sheng Yong also saw the subtleties of the Northern Army's formation. But he couldn't change it.
On the one hand, middle and lower-level officers all grew up in the cold weapon era. I'm actually not too familiar with firearms fighting methods. Most of them are illiterate, and their acceptance of new knowledge is very low.
This kind of ability to change formations freely in a hail of bullets is completely lacking.
This is not the ability of one person, but the ability of a system.
On the battlefield, these officers, such as battalion officer Qianhu and platoon leader Baihu, must stand at one end of the queue. When commanding and firing, the dangers they face are no worse than those of officers rushing into battle in the cold weapon era.
Even bigger.
The reason is very simple. Officers in the cold weapon era were equipped with very good equipment and armor. They were difficult to kill in battle. But the age of firearms was different. Even if you still have armor, you often have little ability to resist firearms.
In the age of muskets, they, like soldiers, faced the enemy's bullets. It's just a bet on whether your luck is good or bad.
If you look carefully, the probability of death is even higher.
It is not unusual for an officer to die in battle, and even if an officer dies in battle, the formation of the Northern Army will not be deformed because there are enough replacement officers.
Although He Xi and Ye Chen always felt that the officers were very nervous, on the whole, they were still barely adequate. As the first successfully organized army, the First Army was mostly formed from the Liaodong Guard. There were many Koreans among the soldiers.
They got land in Liaodong and were grateful to the Beijing court. Willing to die. Deep down in their hearts, they also felt that they were inferior to the Ming Dynasty people, and they also particularly obeyed the management of the Ming Dynasty officers.
In this case, as long as all the officers are not killed. Even if it doesn't crash.
There are thousands of households in a camp, and the camp is in consultation. It is really difficult to kill all the governors, several hundred households, money and grain officials, and dozens of officers.
But it was different with the Southern Army. Many things depend on one person.
The leader of the Confederate army that collapsed before was unfortunately shot, and his upper body could not be found. They naturally collapsed. At a loss on the battlefield.
Under this situation, the Southern Army was reluctant to maintain its offensive, and it was impossible for the front to carry out rotating attacks.
Only how many people die in the front will be compensated in the back. Keep the offensive momentum intact. But in this way, one can imagine how much psychological pressure it will put on the soldiers.
Think about it, everyone who came forward died. It's your turn to step forward.
Who is not afraid. Who doesn’t have their calves and stomachs drilled?
One is to gamble on luck. If you are not lucky, you will die. If you're lucky, you can pull back. These people can reorganize themselves at the back and then re-arrange themselves. Ready to fight again. But here in the Southern Army, it's all organized and polished. It affects morale even more.
Although in Sheng Yong's view, if you rush over, the faster you rush, the smaller the loss will be. But who dares to challenge the person who actually implements it? The faster you rush, the faster you die?
However, the foundation of the Confederate Army is not other than that. It was the Ming army that had just founded the country.
The bravery of the Ming army is still there.
A soldier could not stand this situation any longer.
There was a team to supervise the retreat, and as a victorious Ming army, they were also arrogant and unwilling to run away from the battlefield. Not to mention that the White Army has a garrison system. He is not alone. He has a large family behind him. If he is executed for retreating, his family will be implicated.
And in this kind of confrontation, the firepower from the other side is much stronger.
Not a solution.
Not only Fu Youde but also Sheng Yong are not used to this calm and flowing style of keeping distance and shooting each other. They are both trying to adapt. And the soldiers below didn't adapt either.
Because the officer was killed, the soldier
Said: "Brothers, if you advance now, you will die, and if you retreat, you will die. It's better to have a good time. Brothers, charge with me."
Then he threw away the musket, picked up the long knife and rushed over.
However, this soldier's charge was immediately overturned to the ground under the intensive firepower, and he could no longer die.
It was just the charge formation he led that affected the entire Confederate army.
Originally, the Confederate army was still in a formation of fighting with the Northern army, but now they rushed forward in a swarm. There was a huge crowd of people at that time, it was a real crowd tactic.
