Brigadier General Qi Lianghou, a traditional cavalry general, was very dissatisfied with this exercise and even complained to his colleague Digu about it.
But the senior officials of the Guards and even the army were very satisfied.
Although the process of this exercise cannot be compared with actual combat, it still fully reflects the advantages and disadvantages of cuirassiers on the battlefield.
Especially the impact that broke out against the old traditional cavalry made them intoxicated.
As for what Brigadier General Qi Lianghou complained about, Lieutenant General Qian Tai also heard it, but he was not angry about it and even expressed his understanding.
Indeed, it was the request of the referee that the 8th Cavalry Brigade was unable to escape and was forced to engage in a hedge battle with the 4th Cuirassiers.
But this exercise was originally about watching traditional cavalry play various wind formations, a combination of bows and arrows, and cavalry artillery.
Rather, it depends on the cuirassier's ability to charge into battle.
Because when it comes to kite flying, the Chu army still has a lot of dragoons. These dragoons are better at flying kites than traditional mounted archers.
The range and armor-breaking capabilities of muskets are not comparable to those of bows and arrows, not to mention that when dragoons fight, they dismount and fight directly in formation.
"Rebirth of the Great Era of Fighting Waves"
With the existence of line tactics, let alone the light cavalry that mainly rides and shoots, even the heavy armored cavalry may not be able to charge over.
And the cavalry cannon. Although the traditional cavalry is equipped with cavalry cannon and performs well in actual combat, the same goes for dragoons and even the cuirassiers in the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment. They will not fight alone, but will go to the battlefield with a bunch of cavalry artillery.
Therefore, when it comes to testing cavalry artillery, mobility and shooting ability, the Chu army's cavalry units are very good at it.
Therefore, the cavalry artillery was removed from the exercise, and the cavalry artillery was not included in the exercise. Instead of engaging in dismounted formation combat, the exercise focused on formation charging drills that rarely appeared in actual combat.
The ability of the Fourth Cuirassiers to rush into battle has obviously been recognized by the top brass of the Guards and the Army.
"Although large-scale cavalry charges are relatively rare now, the Dongbu people we faced had a large number of cavalry from the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and they also brought a large number of cavalry from the Mongolian tribes. The combat of these cavalry Many methods are still in the era of traditional cold weapons!"
"From this, we can predict that when they are unable to break through our interception and attack our sides and rear by cavalry shooting, they will most likely struggle to launch a large-scale cavalry attack. Therefore, the cuirassiers are very powerful. Heavy cavalry with battlefield assault capabilities have important battlefield value!"
Qian Tai's positioning of the cuirassiers has always been very clear, which is to have assault on the battlefield, especially in large-scale battles, to intercept enemy cavalry and even launch counterattacks.
To put it bluntly, in Qian Tai's view, this kind of cuirassier is used for anti-cavalry operations.
As for the enemy's infantry, our own artillery will naturally deal with them.
And the effect of the exercise was quite good!
Lieutenant General Song Qilin, Chief of Staff of the Third Group Army, also agreed with Qian Tai's words: "As long as the enemy's cavalry can be blocked from our own infantry and artillery, then other battles, whether it is siege or head-on confrontation with the enemy, Our infantry and artillery are both invincible."
"To intercept the enemy's cavalry attack, mobility is one aspect, but impact capability is also very important!"
"The former dragoons, the developing hussars, and the original traditional cavalry had sufficient maneuverability, but their impact was still too poor."
"In the past, many of our dragoons were invincible during the shooting phase with enemy cavalry. However, because they lacked impact capabilities and were not more maneuverable than their opponents, I often appeared After the military dragoons dismounted and fought on foot, the enemy cavalry rode directly around to avoid the formation of our own dragoons and looked for other weak points to attack. This also caused the dragoons to be passive!"
"There are also some braver enemy cavalry who often approach quietly, then start riding fast at a relatively long distance, and finally launch a charge directly in a very small window of time. This also results in our dragoons often not having time to dismount. The horse formations eventually forced our dragoons to fight them on horseback, and our losses were considerable every time!"
"But this cuirassier is very good. Although it is not as mobile as the light cavalry, its short-distance maneuverability on the battlefield is still good. Even if the enemy wants to retreat temporarily, they can take the opportunity to rush forward."
"And the impact ability is even better. The effect of this intensive charge formation is great!"
"I have also seen intensive charges of hussars in actual combat before. Although the formation is also very close, due to the lack of protection and the use of sabers as the main weapon, the casualties during the charge are not small."
"The intensive charge of the cuirassiers has a much greater impact. We can fully expect to see them directly tearing apart the enemy's cavalry formation on the battlefield, forming a spearhead, and then driving other cavalry to follow up, thereby expanding their advantage!"
Lieutenant General Song Qilin continued to look at the exercise report in his hand as he spoke, and finally said: "Our army should also develop this cuirassier!"
General Zuo Yingzhe, commander of the Third Group Army, said at this time: "It is not easy to do this. Everything else is easy to talk about, but this horse is not easy to solve!"
"Now we can only get some better Central Asian horses from the Yarkand Khanate in the Western Regions. There are only a few thousand horses every year. However, although ordinary Central Asian horses are taller than Mongolian horses, they are not enough to become important horses. The mounts of the cavalry have to be selected from the best. There are only a few hundred horses this year, and it is very difficult to maintain a fourth cuirassier regiment!"
As he said that, Zuo Yingzhe glanced at Qian Tai. It was this man who had long seized the way for the Yarkand Khanate to import horses for the Guards. What he said was that the Guards were the emperor's army and were of great importance. Safeguarding the horses must be a priority.
As a result, most of the thousands of horses that the empire obtained from the Yarkand Khanate in the past two years were taken away by the Guards.
When most of the army's cavalry units, even the elite Fourth Cavalry Brigade in the northern frontier army, still used Mongolian horses, the three divisional cavalry regiments of the Guards plus a fourth cuirass Cavalry regiments, these four cavalry regiments have all used Central Asian horses.
Not only that, even the officers' mounts and the horses used to convey military orders are all Central Asian horses.
To be honest, Zuo Yingzhe had strong opinions on this.
However, the opponent is the Guards, and the Guards have a special status. They always give priority to equipping them with all kinds of good things, and this horse is no exception, so there is nothing they can do.
But Zuo Yingzhe also heard that the empire was recently in contact with the Heshuote tribe, one of the four Mongolian tribes of Mosquito that entered the Qinghai Snow Region. He couldn't figure out the details, but he heard that they were preparing to open up various trades. The empire would have follow-up plans. A certain number of fine war horses may also be obtained from this channel.
The higher-ups of the empire have been trying to win over several nomadic tribes or khanates in the northwest region.
In addition to the Yarkand Khanate and the Heshuote tribe, the empire is also actively in contact with the northern part of western Monan Mongolia controlled by the Eastern captives, that is, the Khalkha Tribe of Mobei Mongolia.
Although this Mobei Mongolia has a close relationship with the Eastern captives, in the final analysis, the three tribes of Mobei Mongolia are not directly under the territory of the Eastern captives, but only temporarily surrender to them as a vassal state.
Some important ministers in the empire believe that as long as the hoe is used well, there is no corner that cannot be dug down!
Well, this is just the first half of the sentence, and the second half: If you can’t dig it down, just knock it down!
For this reason, the empire has been carrying out various small actions in Mongolia and the Western Regions in the past two years, constantly poaching people from the East through threats, inducements and other methods.
Not to mention, the effect is great!
For example, the Heshuote Tribe, one of the four tribes of the Desert Mongolia that has entered the snowy area, is still nominally the leader tribe of the Desert Mongolia.
In the past, like the Yarkand Khanate, they had friendly relations with the Eastern Banished people. Later, when they saw the rise of the Great Chu Empire, they began to contact the Great Chu Empire in Europe.
It was different when the Yarkand Khanate took the initiative to defect to the Chu Empire from the beginning because of the threat from the Jungar tribe. They were still coy about it for a long time, and only recently contacted the empire for trade.
It is not the ordinary trade behavior among the people, but the bulk material trade that the government personally participates in and leads.
Their war horses, cattle, sheep, livestock, wool and other specialties were exchanged for various daily iron tools, cloth, tea, military cold weapons and even matchlock guns from the empire.
This kind of strategic-level transaction would simply not be possible without the nod and push from the top management of both parties.
I won’t talk about the Yarkand Khanate and the Heshuote Ministry, but on the Chu Empire side, it is not the companies that conduct bulk material transactions with the Yarkand Khanate, but the Ministry of Commerce and Trade.
To this end, the Ministry of Commerce and Trade has also set up two trading companies, respectively responsible for trade with the Yarkand Khanate and trade affairs with the Ministry of Special Affairs. In the future, the Ministry of Commerce and Trade may open several more trading companies to use What about the trade affairs with the other three Mongolian tribes in Mobei and the three Mongolian tribes in Mobei.
And this kind of official trade does not only exist in areas that are not controlled by the Eastern captives. Even in Monan Mongolia, which is actually controlled by the Eastern captives, there are actually widespread secret transactions with the Great Chu Empire. .
It's just that it's not made public, it's all done secretly. The leader of the Dachu Empire is still the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, which is under the responsibility of the subordinate Xuanda Trading Company. However, many people in this trading company are actually people from the Commerce and Trade Investigation Department. …
The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade is a very special agency. It is both a trade agency and an intelligence agency.
However, this organization has a low reputation within the Dachu Empire. It is far less famous than the Internal Affairs Section of the Hanlin Academy and the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Supervisory Academy!
Even compared to the Army's Military Intelligence Department, the Navy's Military Intelligence Department is much more low-key. After all, the two military intelligence agencies can tell at a glance that they collect enemy intelligence.
However, because the Commercial Investigation Department only operates in the territory of hostile forces, ordinary people and even most imperial officials have no chance of contacting it, and they have never even stopped listening.
The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade usually works in non-friendly areas, which used to be areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty, and later Monan Mongolia. Even in Liaodong, which is controlled by the Dongji people, the Investigation Department personnel can be seen.
They secretly smuggle various strategic materials in enemy-occupied areas, and at the same time collect all kinds of intelligence.
The intelligence they collect is more inclined to the strategic level, especially to things related to politics and people's livelihood.
For example, you can figure out the political leanings of the other party's top management, and then determine which one should be assassinated, which one can be won over, and which one can be supported.
We also need to find out the other party's grain output and the output of various strategic materials, and check whether there is any money in the other party's treasury.
This information is basically public information and can be collected as long as you are careful.
Then they will summarize and analyze the news, and finally determine the true situation and trends of the unfriendly forces.
And this information will eventually be used to judge or even interfere with the other party's strategic direction, and judge the other party's war mobilization and maintenance capabilities.
In fact, no one in the outside world knows that they are doing this kind of thing. It's not like the Army's Military Intelligence Department, who are doing it to everyone in the world, even those who are far to the west and are not yet bordering the areas controlled by the Da Chu Empire. Geer knew that the Great Chu Empire had a military intelligence department that specialized in spying on all kinds of military intelligence, assassinating important generals, setting fires, looting and causing destruction, so bad that it leaked pus!
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The trade between many tribes in Monan Mongolia and the Great Chu Empire was carried out secretly under the leadership of the Commercial and Trade Investigation Department, which was not well-known in the outside world.
This kind of secret trade also solved the shortage of many war horses for the Chu army.
This has led to a very special situation in the Chu army now, that is, some of the newly purchased war horses were purchased from the Mongols or even the Eastern captives!
This is very similar to the Ming army!
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, many of the Ming army's war horses were purchased directly from the Mongolian grasslands. At that time, the Ming army's enemy was Monan Mongolia.
Later, Monan Mongolia was controlled by the Eastern Captives. This kind of war horse trade actually continued. The Eastern Captives even got involved themselves, acting as the financial backers and selling war horses to the Ming army through middlemen.
Don't think it's unbelievable that the two sides are still trading war horses when they are at war. This is the reality.
Whether it is the Ming army or the Chu army, because they lack excellent war horses, they all urgently need war horses on the grassland.
The Ming army thought that the horse government had collapsed in the middle and late stages, while the Chu army had not yet had time to expand its own horse government, and they were all short of horses!
In contrast, whether it is the Mongolians on the grassland or the captives from the East, they are also in urgent need of food, cloth, tea, and various iron tools from the Central Plains.
Especially tea, which has been a strategic material for the Mongolian nomads in recent hundreds of years. On the one hand, it is used to supplement vitamins, and on the other hand, it is just for religious needs.
There are pressing trade subsidies on both sides.
Under such circumstances, the Chu army also obtained some war horses from Monan Mongolia in the past two years, and the number was quite large.
In the five years since Chengshun, the Chu Empire obtained more than 5,000 war horses from Monan Mongolia, mainly from the Xuanda area.
Moreover, many of these war horses are led by the Dongji people behind them. The Dongji people will definitely not intervene personally, but will do it through middlemen.
However, the quality of these war horses obtained from Monan Mongolia was not very good, and they could not meet the army's demand for heavy cavalry.
If the army wants to develop heavy cavalry, I'm afraid it will have to find ways to increase the number of war horses imported from the Western Regions. This is actually a way to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.
It is best to obtain excellent horse breeds and then breed excellent war horses yourself.
This is what the Damanying Military Horse Farm is doing now. They use the many stallions obtained from the Western Regions through various official or private or even smuggling channels, including a large number of Arabian horses, Kazakh horses and even a group of carefully selected horses. Selected Mongolian horses, etc.
Nowadays, a large number of excellent stallions of various types are gathered at the Damaying Military Horse Farm, and these excellent stallions will be continuously cultivated in the future.
On the one hand, it is to directly breed more Arabian horses and Central Asian horses, which are already excellent horses.
In addition, these outstanding stallions are also used for cross-breeding, trying to breed better war horses.
And these all take time!
Therefore, the Chu Empire Army may not be able to produce heavy cavalry for a while, and can only continue to carry forward the light cavalry.
As for the war horses used in the light cavalry, some of them will be solved internally, some will be solved from the Yarkand Khanate, and some may be solved from the Heshuote Ministry in the future. At the same time, some will be solved from the smuggling transactions in Monan Mongolia.
Among them, the deformity of Monan Mongolia is a smuggling trade that is maintained only by the tacit understanding between the two parties. You can't say that they are kidnapping people to enrich the enemy, or that the Chu Empire is seeking to enrich the enemy. It is purely because both sides have their own rigid needs!
Dong Capture has so many horses in his hands that he can't even use them all...
Not to mention the Mongolian tribes in Monan, they have no shortage of horses!
However, they are in extremely short supply of ironware, tea, cloth and other supplies from the Central Plains.
For the Chu Empire, a large number of war horses were needed, as well as ordinary horses, cattle, sheep, and even wool.
There is naturally a complementary trade relationship between the two sides.
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The empire actively sent envoys to contact the Yarkand Khanate, the four Mongolian tribes in the Mongolia, and the three Mongolian tribes in the Northern Mobei. These efforts not only expanded its sources of war horses and other livestock, wool, leather and other materials, but also expanded the dumping market for its own industrial products. , or in order to further cut off the foreign aid of the Eastern captives, and even strive to pull them into the chariot against the Eastern captives.
It's just that although these foreigners have made contact with the empire and even agreed to trade with the empire one after another, they have not easily boarded the empire's tanks.
This made many high-ranking officials in the empire very dissatisfied, shouting that people who are not from our race must have different hearts!
In fact, life in most of these desert Mongolia and Mobei Mongolia is not easy.
For example, in Mobei Mongolia, why do people flirt with and even submit to the Eastern captives? It's because the Russians from the west have already killed them... They are so pressed that they can hardly breathe.
At the same time, Mongolia and Mongolia did not have a good relationship with them, and they were at war with each other.
In order to protect themselves, they adopted the strategy of distant friendship and close attack, and adopted the policy of surrendering to the East to capture people to protect themselves.
The Heshuote tribe, the nominal boss of the Desert Mongolia, is not doing well, because the Zhungeer tribe, one of the Desert Mongolia tribes, has been very strong recently.
The Jungar tribe not only defeated the Russians recently, but also forced the Russians to stop going south and turn east to threaten Mobei Mongolia.
At the same time, the Jungar tribe also actively moved east to seize the playground of Mobei Mongolia, and continued to expand to the southeast, continuing to launch wars against the Yarkand Khanate entrenched in Hami and Turpan.
Because of the strength of the Zhungeer tribe, the Heshuote tribe simply gave up its traditional territory in Moxi and directly entered Tibet on a large scale.
If you can't offend me, you can't afford to hide!
The Heshuote tribe went to the snowy area and bullied the local chieftains, but the Yarkand Khanate in the Hami-Turpan area could not escape and could only resist the invasion of Jungar.
This is also the reason why the Yarkand Khanate so decisively surrendered to the Chu Empire.
It was because of being overwhelmed by Zhungeer that in order to protect themselves, they couldn't wait to keep the thigh of the Chu Empire, and then obtained a large number of weapons to resist Zhungeer's invasion.
Of course, the Great Chu Empire also obtained a large number of war horses from the Yarkand Khanate, and even used the Yarkand Khanate as a channel to import excellent war horses from Central Asia further west, and sent some industrial products through the Yarkand Khanate. Sold further west.
Nowadays, the entire northwest is in chaos. The empire is able to maintain an overall positive situation for the empire under this complicated situation. It does not allow Momo Mongolia and Mobei Mongolia to launch a war against the empire and maintain normal relations. We can even attract some Monan Mongolian tribes and empires to do business secretly, which is already very good.
As for more, there is basically no hope now, at least not until the Donglu people are defeated.
The Dongji people's previous achievements in Monan Mongolia were much more threatening to the nomadic people than the guns and cannons of the Great Chu Empire!
But even so, on the eve of a massive battle in Liaodong, the Chu Empire still sent a number of missions to the north and northwest, trying to continue to poach people from the east, and to stabilize them no matter what. , to prevent them from being used by the Eastern captives.
Especially Mongolia is the focus of this large-scale diplomatic operation of the Chu Empire.
Because Monan Mongolia is also divided into many tribes, not to mention that several of the tribes defected to the Eastern captives at the beginning. They were even enemies of the Eastern captives and fought with the Eastern captives for many years.
It was only after they were defeated in the end that they were forced to surrender to the eastern captives.
Among them was Monan Mongolia, the most powerful Chahar tribe in the past.
In the past, Lin Dan Khan had great ambitions and wanted to lead the Chahar tribe to reunify Monan Mongolia!
During the same period, the Dongjiu people wooed the Horqin and other tribes south of the Nen River Basin and the Nei Khalkha and other tribes to the north.
Finally, after many years of war, Lin Dan Khan was defeated and forced to flee to Qinghai, where he eventually died.
As soon as Lin Dan Khan died, the remaining troops of Chahar were even less able to resist the attack of the Eastern captives. In the end, the Eastern captives once again defeated the remaining forces of the Chahar tribe and captured his son Ezhe. Soon after, they captured Lin Dan Namu Zhong, one of Khan's wives, and Lin Dan Khan's posthumous son Abu Nai.
Moreover, Huang Taiji was not afraid of meat and fish, and directly married Lin Danhan's Yishuang...
At this point, Lin Dan Khan's lineage was completely finished, which eventually led to the Chahar tribe and its affiliated Karaqin, Tumut and Ordos tribes to completely surrender to the Eastern Captions.
And these things have only happened in the past few years!
Although forced by reality, the Chahar tribe and many of its affiliated tribes have surrendered to the Eastern Captions, but the hatred in the past cannot be eliminated in just a few years.
Many of the Chahar soldiers who died in the war with the Eastern Banishers in the past, their fathers, brothers, and their nephews are all still there!
At this time, the secret mission of the Da Chu Empire quietly arrived at the territory where Tumut was located!
After meeting the people, the first words of the envoy from the Dachu Empire were: Do you want revenge? Do you want freedom?
