When he first led his army southward, Chuang Potian was very high-spirited. He led an army of 5,000 people southward, picking up thousands of young men along the way, and obtained a large amount of food.
He thought that if he continued like this, it would be appropriate for his uncle and nephew's army to exceed 10,000 people when they captured Lushan County, and there would be no shortage of food.
As long as it can recruit tens of thousands of people, it can be regarded as one of the main forces among the rebel armies coming out from the east. I can't say that it is on an equal footing with Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and others, but its status is not that different. Maybe it will turn the thirteen rebel armies into fourteen rebel armies.
But now, looking at the current miserable state, Chuang Potian felt despair.
This reminded him of the disastrous defeat he suffered in Henan last year.
Last year, he led an army of more than 8,000 people in high spirits. As a result, he encountered several thousand officers and soldiers, many of whom were border troops from Yulin.
Against the main force of officers and soldiers with the upper border army as the core, Chuang Potian was undoubtedly defeated at that time, and it was a disastrous defeat!
Only more than 2,000 people were left in the 8,000-strong army, and they fled in panic.
However, compared to last year's disastrous defeat, Chuang Potian felt even more desperate now.
Because Chuang Potian felt that he would not be able to take away even 200 people, let alone 2,000 people.
After several hours of contact, Chuang Potian could tell that these were not officers and soldiers at all, but the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp that he had despised before.
But this Baoxiang camp is different from all the rebels under his influence. To say that they are rebels is better to say that they are officers and soldiers.
In fact, these Baoxiang camps were different from all the officers and soldiers he knew.
The enemy army in front of him was different from any officers and soldiers he had encountered before. Not only were their uniforms different, but their tactics were also very strange, making Chuang Potian feel uncomfortable almost everywhere during the fight.
The opponent's strength was only about half of his own, but he suppressed him from beginning to end. His two counterattacks failed to cause any losses to the opponent. On the contrary, his own counterattack forces suffered heavy losses.
These guys were obviously not officers and soldiers, but they were very similar to, but different from, officers and soldiers. Their use of artillery was simply beyond Chuang Potian's imagination.
It's not that he has never seen artillery. On the contrary, he has seen a lot. Some friendly forces have many artillery pieces. He even has a few captured light artillery pieces under his own command, and the officers and soldiers he encounters are even more carrying artillery pieces. .
But to be honest, he has never seen an army that can use artillery to this extent. It just pulls extremely heavy long-barreled artillery onto the battlefield for use in field battles, and these are clearly heavy artillery at a glance. The big guy can still move freely on the battlefield, which almost subverts his cognition.
In addition to the strange use of artillery, the Baoxiang battalions on the opposite side are also very strange in the use of muskets. Their musketeers are not distributed in each team like the musketeers of other officers and soldiers, and they cooperate with the swordsmen, shieldmen, and spearmen. .
Instead, they concentrated directly and continued to shoot and cause damage under the cover of the spearmen. Moreover, their muskets were so injurious that they could not be blocked even if they were wearing two layers of heavy armor. They were no better than the blunderbuss used by officers and soldiers in batches. Same, let alone a fire door gun like a three-eyed gun.
When the many changes in cavalry, artillery, and infantry were combined, the tactics of the Baoxiang Battalion were different from those of contemporary Ming army soldiers and rebels.
It was the first time Chuang Potian encountered this weird style of play. Before he even got used to it, he suffered heavy casualties and lost all morale.
Under such circumstances, Chuang Potian expected to be able to hold on to the camp for at least ten days. However, it was broken through in just over three hours. A large number of frightened thieves dropped their weapons, armor, and everything else that hindered their escape. , ran towards the rear.
At first glance, the bandit army was defeated all over the mountains and plains!
Blind Wang paid no attention to these ordinary defeated soldiers, and just stared at the defeated soldiers on horseback in Chuang Po Tian.
After a chase and fight, Chuang Potian followed in the footsteps of his nephew and died on the battlefield.
Before he died, Chuang Potian still couldn't figure out why he failed miserably.
And this battle has already entered garbage time after the main force of Chuang Potian's army was defeated. Even if Wang Xiazi led the cavalry to pursue Chuang Potian, regardless of the outcome, it would not affect the outcome of this battle.
But Wang Xiazi himself was very happy to catch up with and kill Chuang Potian.
Within two days, he led his team to kill the fleeing bandit leader twice in a row, and each time was more successful than the last.
"Fighting in this battle is easier than eating!" Blind Wang looked at the large group of despondent Cui Tou in front of him, and the rebel prisoners of war who were under the custody of the Baoxiang camp soldiers, with obvious joy on his face.
Lin Dongsheng on the side also said: "No, I have fought a lot in my life, and I have fought a lot of thieves in the past few years. Although it was easy to fight against thieves in the past, you have to be careful when fighting. If you're not careful, you might get run away by a stray thief!"
"But the past two days of fighting have been smooth sailing. Brothers haven't even warmed up yet, and the bandits in front have already been defeated."
Anyongduo also stepped forward at this moment and said: "The battle can be so smooth, in addition to your cavalry, Brother Wang, Zhang Laopao's artillery is indispensable."
"Especially the two 600-jin cannons under old gunner Zhang. They are very powerful when fired. They can kill the rebel army to pieces from a distance of more than a hundred feet. With these two 600-jin long cannons, , the remaining ten light cannons can also play a greater role!"
"In the past, when we were still officers and soldiers, the friendly forces also brought a lot of artillery to fight, but they only brought light artillery. The distance was too close, and they could kill them with a single charge. It was not like the six hundred kilograms now. With a long cannon, if you want to rush over from the other side, you have to run a long way."
"In the future, we still need to get more of these 600-pound long cannons."
"Yes, the more these 600-pound long cannons, the better. With these long cannons, those light cannons can also exert greater power. Otherwise, those light cannons alone will be useless."
When these people turned the topic to artillery, Luo Zhixue was also talking to Zhang Malin: "This time your artillery sentry was very good, and it seems that the gunners are also impressive, you are ready, prepare Four artillery groups, a new batch of 600-pound long artillery should be ready when we return this time."
Zhang Malin grinned and said: "Don't worry, General. After these few actual battles, the gunners under me are basically trained to the same level. They may be a little bit behind on where to shoot, but they still can't operate the gun normally." questionable."
Luo Zhixue said: "By the way, there is one more thing I need to tell you. After the new batch of four long cannons are installed, the light cannons under your hands will be separated and directly lowered into the infantry. From now on, your artillery The sentry is specially equipped with a 600-pound long cannon."
Zhang Malin was a little confused when he heard this: "Separate it and go directly down to the infantry?"
Zhang Malin was puzzled. According to him, the current cooperation between the artillery sentry and several infantry sentries is quite good. He doesn't know why it needs to be changed.
Luo Zhixue said: "When this battle is completed, a group of several hundred recruits in Songshan Village will have completed preliminary training. At that time, we will establish a battalion-level organization, and then directly arrange light artillery in this battalion-level organization. As infantry firepower.”
Although Luo Zhixue has not officially finalized and announced this matter, it doesn't matter if he says it now. Anyway, after packing up the battlefield and returning to Songjiazhuang, Luo Zhixue will officially implement the battalion-level establishment.
In this regard, Luo Zhixue already has a complete case.
Originally, according to his plan, although there were gains after this expedition, it would only be able to support the expansion of the army by a thousand troops.
But the actual harvest now is much more than expected. After this battle, just the harvest from sweeping through the countryside in Lushan County is enough for them to expand their army by 2,000 people.
If we can still get some harvest in Nanzhao County in the future, then the food and other materials needed for subsequent maintenance will be almost there.
As a result, in the next one or two months, the Baoxiang Battalion will expand to more than 3,000 troops. Naturally, such a large number of troops cannot be what they are now. Luo Zhixue will directly command each sentry, and a higher level must be established. Prepared for larger scale wars.
At the same time, a larger battalion-level establishment was established for subsequent expansion.
Judging from the current situation, Luo Zhixue feels that it is time for Baoxiang Camp to further expand.
However, no matter whether it is moving eastward or southward, Baoxiang camp will inevitably encounter large-scale officers and soldiers or some kind of bandits.
This puts forward further requirements for the large-scale combat capabilities of the Baoxiang Battalion.
At least, Luo Zhixue must not be allowed to continue to personally command the sentinel-level troops to fight as they are now. That would not be possible at all.
For this reason, Luo Zhixue has been considering the issue of larger-scale battalion-level establishment in recent times.
According to Luo Zhixue's vision, the subsequent battalion-level troops will be expanded based on the existing fifth sentry establishment, and will be organized into a scale of about four to five hundred people, with musketeers and spearmen as the main arms, and Line combat is the main fighting method, coupled with infantry battalions composed of traditional forces such as two or three light artillery pieces and dozens of sword-and-shield-hand archers.
When conducting large-scale field battles, three such infantry battalions are used to fight in formation, supplemented by 600-pound field artillery and cavalry, forming a brigade-level battle group of more than 2,000 people for combat.
Considering the scale of the new recruits being trained and the enemies that need to be dealt with in the future, Luo Zhixue feels that at least six such infantry battalions, two field artillery posts, and two cavalry posts are needed to form two brigade-level independent battle groups to cooperate with each other. Combat.
If the follow-up development goes more smoothly, Luo Zhixue will also upgrade the expansion plan for the third battle group. As long as there are three such brigade-level battle groups, even if Luo Zhixue is facing 10,000 or more of the main force of the army Dare to fight!
However, the expansion of so many troops is also very difficult.
Muskets, armor, artillery, cavalry and war horses are all obstacles to Luo Zhixue's army expansion!
