Lieutenant General Song Qilin, chief of staff of the Third Group Army, pointed to the map on the wall and said:
"According to the group army reform plan at the end of last year, our Northeast Campaign Command was changed to the Third Group Army. The A-class divisions, B-class divisions, cavalry brigades, independent artillery regiments and other units originally deployed in Shanhaiguan, Jizhen and other lines, except for the three A second-class division with poor combat effectiveness and no mobile combat capabilities was handed over to the Hebei Garrison Command, and the rest continued to be under the jurisdiction of our Third Group Army!"
"Currently these troops are organized into four corps, three cavalry divisions, one field artillery brigade, and one heavy artillery brigade."
"The four armies are the Sixth Army deployed on the Jizhen front line, the Eighth Army and the Ninth Army deployed on Shanhaiguan, and the Seventh Army deployed on the Liaodong Peninsula."
"Three cavalry divisions, namely the 1st Cavalry Division, 2nd Cavalry Division and 3rd Cavalry Division are all deployed on the front line of Shanhaiguan."
"The two independent artillery brigades are both on the front line of Shanhaiguan."
"The current Seventh Army in the direction of the Liaodong Peninsula has landed on the Liaodong Peninsula last fall. It is currently stationed at the Jinzhou Defense Line, Changsheng Island Defense-Fuzhou Defense Line, and has two A-class divisions, one standing B-class division, and one The independent heavy artillery regiment contained at least more than 70,000 Japanese troops on the opposite side, including at least 15,000 enemy cavalry and more than fifty long-barreled artillery pieces."
"The Sixth Army deployed in the direction of Ji Town is slightly less powerful. It only has one Class A division, two standing Class B divisions and one cavalry brigade. Like the Seventh Army, this Army lacks sufficient cavalry units. The offensive combat capabilities in the direction of the plains are greatly restricted, which is a typical case of having more than enough to defend the city but not enough to attack."
"And the troops deployed in the direction of Shanhaiguan are the main offensive force of our army!"
"Both the Eighth Army and the Ninth Army have three first-class divisions, including the First Division, the Tenth Division, and the Eleventh Division, our army's ace troops."
"Three cavalry divisions are also deployed on this line. Each cavalry division has two cavalry brigades, and each cavalry brigade has two cavalry regiments. The number of cavalry in each cavalry division has reached more than 4,000. In addition to the cavalry, In addition, each cavalry division also has a cavalry artillery regiment with twelve two-and-a-half-pound cavalry cannons and twelve five-pound cavalry cannons as fire support; it also has a cavalry artillery regiment with rapid maneuverability and a strength of about A cavalry baggage regiment of more than two thousand people."
"With the three cavalry divisions combined, we can pull out more than 12,000 cavalry for front-line combat, 72 cavalry artillery pieces, and more than 6,000 baggage soldiers to provide them with rapid supply tasks."
"This cavalry unit will cover the advance of the army after we advance eastward, intercept the enemy's cavalry attacks, and ensure that the army safely passes through the open areas of the plains and directly reaches the enemy's city."
"The two artillery brigades, including the Second Field Artillery Brigade, have a nine-pound field artillery regiment with a three-battalion structure and a total of thirty-six artillery pieces, and a twenty-four-pound howitzer regiment with the same three-battalion structure."
"The Third Heavy Artillery Brigade has a heavy howitzer regiment with twenty-four forty-eight-pound howitzers, and a heavy artillery regiment with twenty-four fourteen-pound cannons."
"So far, our group army has concentrated two main forces, six first-class divisions, three cavalry divisions, and two heavy artillery brigades on the front line of Shanhaiguan."
"In addition, there are headquarters troops directly under the group army headquarters, including the third heavy pontoon regiment, the third heavy engineer regiment, the third military police regiment, and the third guard regiment."
"Most of the above-mentioned troops have been fully staffed, and those with vacancies are expected to be fully replenished before the end of March."
"By April, before the eastward advance is planned, our army will be able to gather 130,000 people in Shanhaiguan."
After saying this, Song Qilin looked around and said: "The above is only the strength of our army. In addition to our army, this battle will also involve colleagues from the Guards. When the time comes, our two armies will fight together. The following is Please ask General Qian, the Chief of Operations of the Guards, to introduce the situation of the Guards!"
As he spoke, he turned his attention to the side of the conference room, the Guards general who was wearing a different color from the army generals present, and nodded slightly towards the middle-aged man.
Immediately, a middle-aged man wearing the black uniform of the Guards stood up!
The color of the army officers' uniforms is mainly dark blue, while the soldiers' uniforms are mainly gray. Even the cloth armor, the exposed layer of cloth is the same color, so it can be worn on the battlefield. I saw the Chu army covered in gray... and apart from the military service colors on the trousers, it was kept neat and fresh overall, so there were no messy hems of other colors or anything like that. The solid color military uniforms plus the military services on the sides of the trousers. color, and then add an epaulette and there will be no other unnecessary colors.
The colors of the uniforms of the early Guards were directly used by the army uniforms, dark blue for officers and gray for soldiers.
However, starting last year, the Guards adopted new military uniforms designed by the Guards themselves in order to reflect their uniqueness and show that they and the Army are not the same family.
The style of the uniforms of the Guards has not changed much. The regular uniforms are still the right-hand collared tops. Different from the army's uniform short hem, the Guards adopt seasonal and regular uniforms.
Summer uniforms continue to be short and long, with tops only reaching the crotch;
As for the autumn and winter regular clothes, they are the same as the summer ones, but there is an extra coat. This coat has a long hem. If this kind of coat is replaced with a double-breasted coat, it will not be much different from the coats of later generations. The main reason is that Keeping warm is also to make you look more handsome...
Except for many winter uniforms with long hems, other styles have not changed much.
But the color changes are quite big. Although the Guards Army continues to use the two basic colors of gray and blue, it also incorporates the red of the Ming Army, and changes the design of the army's trousers and tops to the same color. , changed to two colors.
The soldier's uniform is based on gray, but the collar and cuffs of the jacket have red hems.
Officers' uniforms come in a variety of designs. The summer clothes follow the dark blue design of the army officers' uniforms, but the trousers are changed to gray trousers of the same color as the soldiers, but this gray is darker.
In addition, officers will also be issued a pure black double-breasted coat as part of their winter uniform!
This kind of coat is made of woolen material. When it first appeared, it was actually designed and worn by Luo Zhixue. For a long time, the pure black double-breasted long coat became Luo Zhixue’s exclusive coat, and there were basically no courtiers. Dare to learn...
The winter coats issued to officers by the Army are in the Army’s traditional color: gray!
The navy uses navy blue, but although the navy's uniforms are also blue, they are lighter and different from the army's dark blue, so you can still see a big difference.
As for the Guards, they initially wanted to use taupe coats, but last year, after Luo Zhixue saw the uniform color scheme of the Guards, he thought it was a bit ugly, so he simply asked them to use black.
This long coat needs to be black to look better!
This is what Lieutenant General Qian Tai, the Chief of Operations of the Guards, is wearing now!
Slim-fitting dark gray trousers, long riding boots, a dark blue short right-turn collared top, and a pure black long hem coat with a double placket.
On the collar, there is a golden dragon pattern wrapped around a peony flower. This is a unique coat of arms for the Guards officers. Peony is the national flower, and the dragon pattern represents the emperor's guards.
After Lieutenant General Qian Tai of the Guards stood up, he did not point at the map like Song Qilin, but directly said to the other army generals present: "Part of the main force of the Second Guards Division of our Guards has arrived. , the 4th Cuirassier Regiment and the 4th Heavy Artillery Regiment have arrived in Tianjin before, and are currently on their way, and are expected to arrive in ten days. In addition, the 1st Guards Division of our Guards will also arrive by sea soon!"
"It is expected that before April, our Guards will gather 25,000 troops on the front line of Shanhaiguan to launch the Liaoxi Campaign together with our army colleagues!"
The strength of the Guards was small, and in this Northeastern Campaign, the Army was the protagonist. Whether it was the Guards or the Navy, they all cooperated with the Army in organizing the exhibition, so Qian Tai didn't say much.
However, several army cavalry generals present were very interested in the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment mentioned by Qian Tai.
Someone immediately asked: "Brother Qian, is your fourth cuirassier regiment the heavy cavalry regiment we mentioned last time?"
"Didn't you say that war horses are difficult to deal with? How did you get them?"
"And what's up with the breastplate?"
Upon hearing people's inquiries, Qian Tai immediately said: "Well, it's the heavy cavalry regiment I mentioned before. However, it's not considered heavy cavalry. They are equipped with breastplates that only cover driving, so we took Named Cuirassiers!”
"The year before last, our Guards had been ordered to build a heavy cavalry unit. However, you all know that due to the lack of excellent war horses, our heavy cavalry unit has been unable to be built. Later, after we captured Shaanxi and Gansu, we Obtained excellent war horses from Yeerqiang!"
"The condition of these war horses from the Western Regions is much better than that of Mongolian horses. The shoulder height can generally reach about 1.35 meters, and some of the outstanding war horses can reach more than 1.4 meters!"
"His Majesty has specially assigned more than 600 of these excellent war horses to us for the formation of heavy cavalry troops!"
"However, after some experiments, we found that the traditional full-body heavy armor cavalry, coupled with horse armor, is still too heavy a burden for these war horses. And if there is no horse armor, it will not work if only the soldiers have full-body heavy armor. ."
"At the end of last year, the Ministry of Industry produced a batch of steel plate armor, and we asked them to make it into a breastplate-style armor. Although the protection area is smaller, the protection of the torso is still quite good. There is no problem in blocking bullets at relatively long distances.”
“And it’s not too heavy, so it won’t affect your mobility too much!”
"This kind of cuirassiers still use three-year-old cavalry flintlocks. They can dismount and use muskets for infantry combat. However, their main task is still for shock operations, because they are the first in our army to use lances as their main weapons. The cavalry!"
"When charging in formation, the impact capabilities of these cuirassiers are very powerful!"
When Lieutenant General Qian Tai talked about the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment of the Guards, the corners of his mouth could not help but curve up and he smiled.
Because he was responsible for establishing this cavalry unit, which he had been working on for more than a year. However, due to the lack of suitable war horses, he could only use Mongolian horses for training in the past.
It was not until the end of last year that the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment officially changed to more excellent Central Asian horses and began to be equipped with breastplates with better protective capabilities.
The impact capability of this kind of cuirassier is quite good, and more importantly, it also ensures excellent maneuverability while ensuring a certain level of protection.
According to Qian Tai's idea, when this kind of cavalry encounters the armored cavalry of the Dongjiu people, well, that is, those cavalry riding Mongolian horses and wearing armor, they can use their own mobility advantage to wear down the physical fitness of the enemy's war horses, and then Then dismount and fight on foot, line up and fire with flintlock muskets, and use the light cavalry carried with them to bombard the damned.
If it's not easy to fight, just get on your horse and leave. Anyway, those Eastern cavalrymen riding Mongolian horses and wearing armor won't be able to catch up.
If you encounter those unarmored light cavalry, it is mounted archery in the traditional sense.
So what else is there to say? Just form a dense formation and rush over in one go. Use lances to kill your opponents, and the use of pistols is strictly prohibited!
There are no cavalrymen in the entire cavalry regiment equipped with pistols.
Nowadays, the top cavalry generals of the Chu army, including Qian Tai, have no good impressions of cavalry pistols!
A few years ago, when the Suifa pistol first came out, the Chu army cavalry were quite excited, thinking they had found a weapon that could resist cavalry shooting. However, they later found out that this thing was unreliable...
If you use the semi-circle tactic, you can only fire one shot. The volley from the opposite side can shoot out several arrows in a row. At a distance of 20 to 30 meters, the lethality of muskets and bows is almost the same, so pistols are fired. The power is quite good, but the armor-piercing heavy arrows in Dongluoren are also powerful, but the Suifa pistol with extremely low firepower projection is not as effective as the bow and arrow.
The most important thing is that when the East Riding Cavalry sees you playing tricks, they start to attack, and even want to use some half-turn tactics. They basically charge directly towards you with their sabers or spears, and they don't let you play half-turn tactics at all. Chance to shoot...
In the early days when the Chu army fought in the Jiangbei and Central Plains areas, the pistol cavalry they produced suffered great losses!
In the end, the awkward unit of pistol cavalry had to be abandoned, and the three-year cavalry flintlock, which was shortened from the two-year-old flintlock, was adopted.
This time, the Chu army directly used their half-baked cavalry as mounted musketeers on the spot, and His Majesty even designated this kind of cavalry as dragoons.
Not to mention, dragoons are quite useful. On the surface, they are cavalry...but when fighting, they dismount and fight, and then form a tight line formation, often with several guns behind them. Two and a half pounds of cavalry cannon.
The traditional Ming army cavalry on the opposite side will feel very awkward when encountering this kind of dragoon...
You have to use bows and arrows to shoot at these dragoons. They can shoot from a hundred meters away, and they are very powerful.
The ability of bows and arrows to break armor at longer distances is not good. However, the dragon cavalry of the Chu army basically wear full body light armor. These light armors cannot block muskets, and even have poor protection against cold weapons. There is still no problem with bows and arrows at medium and long distances.
If you want to get closer, if you come up to a distance of twenty or thirty meters, there will be a lot of casualties. And when you finally come up to a distance of twenty or thirty meters and prepare to shoot arrows, people will already charge with bayonets. Got it!
If you can't shoot at each other, just rush over?
You can tell with your toes that cavalry cannot directly attack the dense array of infantry... When the dragoons dismounted to fight on foot, each of them was an elite musketeer, attacking their line, and the elite grenadiers who attacked the infantry. There is no difference in the lines.
It was difficult to charge into the formation, and it was difficult to engage in crossfire, so the Ming cavalry at that time was very uncomfortable.
Of course, this discomfort is only limited to the Chu army's dragoons dismounting in advance to fight on foot... If the Ming army or the Eastern captive cavalry find an opportunity to charge directly while the dragoons are still on horseback, the Chu army's dragoons will Lose the fight...because they are originally half-baked cavalry, and fighting on horseback is not their strong point.
In addition, this limitation is also based on the fact that the Ming army cavalry had to take the initiative to attack the dragoons who dismounted in advance.
If the Ming cavalry did not take the initiative to attack, then the dragoons would have no choice but to wait passively or mount their horses to retreat, or pursue long-distance pursuits.
The pursuit distance is close, and you still have to worry about someone killing you with a counterattack!
But no matter what, horse-mounted infantry such as dragoons were already the best solution that the Chu Empire's army could find in the early days.
But as time passed, especially after more and more cavalry were trained, the number of regular cavalry in the Chu army gradually increased.
In addition to the traditional volley cavalry that directly accepted various surrenders in the early days, a number of hussar brigades were also formed with self-trained cavalry. These hussar brigades are to some extent enhanced versions of dragoons and are also equipped with three-year-old cavalry. Then there were guns, sabers, pistols, and light half-armour.
They can dismount and use the three-year-old cavalry flintlocks to fight in formation, and at the same time they can mount their horses and charge directly into the battle with their sabers!
This kind of hussars is actually the cavalry unit of the Chu Army and the Guards. It is a cavalry unit that has been painstakingly built in the past two years!
After this, the army and the Guards also wanted to engage in heavy cavalry!
This kind of heavy cavalry does not refer to the existing hussars of the Chu army, or the armored cavalry in Dongli, or the original Liaoxi cavalry in the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty. These cavalry seem to be armored, but in fact they are limited by the load-bearing capacity of the war horses. , all wearing light armor.
The definition of heavy cavalry by the senior leaders of the Chu army is that they wear full-body heavy armor similar to heavy-armored spearmen and sword-shielders, and the armor is dozens of kilograms heavier.
They even prepared the style of armor in advance, which is a full-body steel plate armor. They also got a big iron can. They also put armor on the war horses, and then let the heavy cavalry carry a three- to four-meter-long cavalry lance. If you form a dense formation and charge forward, the impact must be very powerful!
It's a pity that war horses have been unable to be produced due to the restrictions on war horses. Even after obtaining this batch of Central Asian horses, they still cannot be produced...
In the end, I could only make a simplified version of the cuirassier!
Qian Tai was very much looking forward to the Fourth Cuirassiers Regiment being able to bring out the power of the cuirassiers and lances, so that he would have enough reasons to convince others and His Majesty to expand the size of the cuirassiers.
In his opinion, cuirassiers are the future!
Those hussars wearing the same light half-body armor as Zhihu were of no use at all.
The heavy cavalry that many people at the top of the Army dream of, that is, heavy cavalry that are dressed like tin cans and have armor on their war horses, is even more unremarkable. Those things were released hundreds of years ago, and guns and cannons It was pretty much the same before he appeared, but now... he is wearing such heavy clothes and walking slowly, which makes him a live target for cannonballs!
Maybe the rifleman will chase you and fire a few rounds at you!
In the future, there will still be cavalry wearing breastplates!
The protection is moderate and the mobility is sufficient. It is simply the best cavalry in the age of guns that combines protection and mobility.
If you get a cavalry rifle, although the impact is not as good as that of traditional heavy cavalry, it is not comparable to light cavalry like hussars.
However, the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment was the first cuirassier and even the first lance in the Chu Empire. Moreover, this cavalry was first established in Jiangbei, and was later moved to Xi'an for training and re-equipment. The Central Asian horse, after changing clothes and undergoing adaptive training, ran to Tianjin and prepared to fight in Shanhaiguan.
This cavalry unit has not been on the battlefield yet, and due to time constraints, it has not even conducted a coordinated exercise.
Therefore, most others are still skeptical about the actual combat effectiveness of this cuirassier.
Even Qian Tai himself, although he acted full of confidence, was actually very nervous in his heart.
——
Others in the Army were also interested in this 4th Cuirassier Regiment of the Guards.
Just as the Guards have been groping for cavalry, the Army has also been constantly thinking about improving the combat effectiveness of cavalry in order to be able to fight against the large number of cavalry under the control of the Dongluo people.
Even if there are no Eastern captives, there will still be Mongols, and then all kinds of people from the Western Regions, they basically have no shortage of cavalry!
But for the Chinese dynasty in the Central Plains, cavalry was a relatively embarrassing unit. Although they knew it was very important, they were unable to train a large number of excellent cavalry because of the lack of a large number of qualified war horses!
Therefore, we can only think of ways in other aspects.
For example, the Song Dynasty used heavy armored infantry, powerful crossbows and even the earliest firearms, etc. These all appeared to fight against the northern cavalry.
The Ming Dynasty was at the extreme... They inherited a large number of horses left over from the Yuan Dynasty, so their cavalry in the early and middle stages was very powerful, and could directly beat the strength of the Mongolian cavalry...
The best unit to fight against cavalry has actually been only one type since ancient times, and that is cavalry!
The cavalry in the early Ming Dynasty fully reflected this!
But after being weakened, the Ming army could only think of other ways to fight against the cavalry, and they actually found it, which was the car and artillery array created by Qi Jiguang...
This set of tools was quite easy to use against the nomadic cavalry in the cold weapon era. It could be used both offensively and defensively, and it once suppressed these nomadic cavalry.
Until the Dongjiu people came up with armored heavy infantry... they wouldn't play tricks on you, they would just rush towards you and cut them down...
Then...then the car and artillery array of the Ming border army knelt down!
Later, the Eastern Captives, with one heavy armored infantry and the Mongolian cavalry under their control, defeated the Ming army so much that they did not even dare to leave the city.
But these changes were all in the era of cold weapons and the era of primitive combination of hot and cold.
And now...the Chu army and the Dongji people have all put long-barreled artillery on wheels and pulled them directly onto the battlefield to use as field artillery.
tomato
Therefore, whether it is cavalry or not, the tactics used against cavalry have also undergone tremendous changes!
But no matter how it changes, one core thing will not change. Well, at least it will not change until tanks come out. That is, the best unit to fight against cavalry is always cavalry!
Not infantry, not machine guns, always cavalry!
The core here is not something like impact, but mobility!
Mobility is the core element of cavalry!
