Major Fang Qulin, commander of the cavalry artillery battalion who was watching the battle from behind, was stunned, and the front-line cavalry on the battlefield were even more surprised!
Many cavalrymen of the 4th Cuirassier Regiment just felt that they and their comrades were charging to the sound of drums, and then charged headlong. However, there seemed to be many East Riding Cavalry in front, but after they actually rushed in, they found that they were surrounded by There were not many enemies at all, and occasionally a few were stabbed to death by a lance from the comrades in front.
As a result, quite a few of the Chu army's cavalry never fought with the enemy from beginning to end, and could only continue to rush forward with their comrades in front...
As he rushed forward, he found that there was no trace of the enemy in front of him.
They had completely penetrated the Dongzhong Army's cavalry array and killed them directly!
But... this feels weird.
How should I put it, it doesn't feel like actual combat, but like a drill.
In the past, when they conducted drills, they basically charged like this. At most, there were only a few scarecrows simulating enemies in front of them, and sometimes there were not even scarecrows. A group of cavalry just charged into the air and performed various tactical actions.
Today's battle feels like an exercise to many of them!
Not to mention them, even the cavalrymen of the 4th Cuirassiers Regiment who actually participated in the battle and had actual encounters with enemy cavalry felt very weird...
This battle seemed too easy.
In their opinion, when encountering enemies, their own side always fights with more and less. When an Eastern Cavalry rushes over with a saber on the opposite side, it often needs to face three or four long hollow lances at the same time!
These Eastern cavalrymen would often be directly hit and dismounted by one or even several hollow lances before they could even get close.
The horse in the sprint stage brings huge impact to the lance, which can knock the enemy off the horse...
In order to protect the cavalry from being injured by the reaction force, the cavalry of the 4th Cuirassiers Regiment still use hollow lances. When this kind of lance is hit by a huge impact force, it will break directly in the middle, thereby protecting the cavalry...
Otherwise, under the impact, the enemy will be knocked away by the lance, and the cavalry holding the lance may also fly backwards, and injury or even death is inevitable.
The East Riding Cavalry directly in front of them were massively killed by these hollow lances and were immediately killed.
Because of the length advantage of the lance, coupled with the local strength advantage brought by the dense force, the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment still did not suffer too many casualties even after it penetrated the enemy's central array.
This made the cavalrymen of the 4th Cuirassiers Regiment, who launched a large-scale actual combat charge for the first time, feel incredible.
You know, they are actually all veteran cavalry. They have experienced countless battle stations, but to be honest, this is the first time they have encountered such an easy charge.
The cavalry in the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment are not directly trained from the recruits, but selected from the entire army's cavalry.
Many of them were veteran cavalrymen who came from the early Ming Army cavalry and even the rebel cavalry. Some of them had five or six years of experience in riding horses, and some had more than ten years of experience.
Only these elite cavalry can pass the assessment and be finally selected into the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment of the Guards, the first heavy cavalry unit of the Great Chu Empire.
In their understanding, a cavalry charge should not be like this, even if it was carried out by themselves, even if the officers above had repeatedly emphasized the advantages of this kind of wall-mounted charge during previous training.
But when they actually experienced it personally, they still found it hard to believe it.
Compared to the surprise of the ordinary cavalry, Guards Major General Sheng Yushu, who personally led the cavalry to charge, was much more calm.
This situation was already within his expectation!
He had already anticipated this outcome when he ordered a charge in advance and the Donglu cavalry on the opposite side was forced to rush forward to fight, still using the sparse formation of the traditional cavalry and archer cavalry.
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Even though this is the first time Sheng Yushu has led the cavalry in such a battle, the numerous drills, tactical deductions and statistics in the past will not be faked!
When charging in a dense formation on the wall, this is the result when faced with traditional cavalry.
Sheng Yushu has always believed so firmly!
Otherwise, he would not have fully supported the Guards in developing cuirassiers and hussars.
You must know that he is the director of the Cavalry Department of the Guards. In the army, he is also the director of cavalry. He is the number one cavalry figure in the Guards.
As for Lieutenant General Qian Tai of the Guards, although he was also a supporter of the cuirassiers and was a cavalryman, in fact Qian Tai did not have as much say in the development of the Guards cavalry as Sheng Yushu did.
Many of Lieutenant General Qian Tai's ideas need to be seen through Sheng Yushu. If Sheng Yushu disagrees with Qian Tai's views, then Qian Tai will not be able to bypass Sheng Yushu, the director of the Cavalry Division, and directly create a fourth cuirassier regiment. and three regiments of hussars.
After all, the reason why the Guards are able to develop new cavalry is because Sheng Yushu himself is a staunch supporter of new cavalry, especially wall-type charge cavalry.
He has long believed that wall-mounted charge cavalry is the future!
He also believes that if wall-type charge cavalry wants to gain a greater battlefield advantage, the cavalry must be used intensively, and cannot be dispersed to engage in harassment and the like like traditional mounted archer cavalry. Even charge operations are very sparse.
He believes that when cavalry charges, density is the first factor. Only when the density of troops increases, it will be able to form a local strength advantage.
The pursuit of military superiority has always been the pursuit of generals.
If we delve deeper into various tactics and tactics, no matter whether they are detours, running attacks, etc., in the final analysis, they are still for the pursuit of military superiority, especially the pursuit of local military superiority.
Well, in later modern tactics, such as the Soviet Union's Great Depth Strategy, there is a core tactical idea: concentrate most of the firepower and troops, focus on breaking through a certain area of the enemy, tear it apart, and then mechanize the troops from Rush into this gap and conduct a large-scale strategic detour or surprise attack, eventually forcing the enemy to withdraw from the front or directly strategically envelop the enemy.
What this pursues is local firepower and troop superiority.
Another example is the German Blitzkrieg. There is a very important tactical idea in it, which is to concentrate the use of mechanized forces such as tanks, and then form fists to carry out assaults and large-scale strategic detours.
This is still the pursuit of local advantages in strength and firepower.
When the American emperor comes on the scene, they will not engage in such messy things. They will go straight to a comprehensively enhanced firepower advantage. An ordinary infantry division can assign you a tank regiment... There are countless various supporting firepowers.
But in the final analysis, what the US imperialists pursue is still superiority in military strength/firepower.
It's just that other countries are not very powerful and can only pursue local advantages... The United States has great imperial power and directly pursues comprehensive advantages.
Sheng Yushu has always felt that he should pursue military superiority.
Especially when the number of one's own cavalry is relatively limited, it is even more necessary to concentrate the cavalry to form a fist and form a local advantage in cavalry strength.
When it comes to tactics specifically, the cavalry array must increase its troop density and accommodate more cavalry within the limited tactical width!
The final result was the intensive cavalry formation that the Chu Empire Army and Guards had been engaged in in recent years.
It's just that it's not easy to create such a dense cavalry formation!
This thing is actually quite demanding.
On the one hand, extremely strict discipline is required. The cavalry must act in unison, especially before launching the final charge, and the integrity of the formation must be maintained.
Even during the attack phase, the integrity of the formation must be maintained as much as possible.
A charge without a unified formation and a dense formation is not a wall charge.
On the other hand, there are also considerable requirements for war horses and soldiers.
The war horse does not have to be very good, good in physical fitness, or strong in carrying heavy loads. Although the 4th Cuirassier Regiment uses the top Central Asian horses, this is because the 4th Cuirassier Regiment is a real horse. As for the heavy cavalry of Bajing, you can actually use Mongolian horses to carry out intensive charges of light cavalry.
The high requirements for war horses are reflected in rigorous training. War horses must undergo perfect training to be able to remain calm and calm. They must not panic and move around because of the sound of gunfire, especially artillery fire. In a formation charge, if one horse moves randomly, it will mess up the entire cavalry array.
Finally, the requirements for the cavalry are not low. The cavalry also needs rigorous training, especially discipline, which is indispensable. They need to strictly implement orders. If your superiors tell you to jog, jog, or trot quickly, When you run, you run, and when you hit, you hit the stride. You must strictly control the horse's pace and keep it consistent with your comrades.
Not fast, not slow.
Even if the enemy is charging at you dozens of meters away, you can't back down!
But everyone has the instinct to fear death and survive. There may be a few truly brave people who are not afraid of life and death, but most people will still be afraid even after training.
Among a hundred cavalry, what will happen when they launch a charge without maintaining a strict formation?
For example, in the traditional cavalry charge, there is no strict formation. Regardless of the array, they often rush forward in a swarm.
At this time, the brave or brainless cavalry will gradually rush to the front, while the timid or more thoughtful cavalry will involuntarily or deliberately fall behind by a few steps... leading to a situation such as disconnection.
When the brave or brainless people at the front are fighting with the enemy and there are more casualties, the cowards at the back will often let their horses go around the enemy, or even make a sharp turn to retreat...
This point is widespread in classical cavalry, regardless of Eastern or Western cavalry, and even in modern cavalry.
This has nothing to do with equipment level or anything like that, it's purely human nature.
After all, you can't make every soldier under your command fearless of life and death.
After all, the army is made up of people, and these soldiers were just ordinary people before.
The cavalry generals of the Chu army also knew this, and got inspiration from the infantry's battle tactics.
There must be brave men and cowards in the infantry, and there are also some who are brainless and thoughtful. How does the infantry unit allow the infantry to fight together?
It relies on an extremely tight line formation.
At the same time, during training and combat, soldiers must maneuver strictly in accordance with the formation requirements. If you take ten steps forward, it can only be ten steps, not nine steps, and not eleven steps.
This is actually something that the army's infantry units have become accustomed to, because the Chu army has attached great importance to infantry discipline training from the beginning, relying on long-term, day-by-day discipline training to allow soldiers to form a conditioned reflex to obey orders. , making soldiers fear military law more than death!
How to train specifically?
In fact, it is very simple. During training, you are asked to turn left. If you turn right, Shangguan will go down without saying anything.
I asked you to take ten steps forward, you took nine steps, and without saying a word, the whip came down again.
Coupled with some auxiliary team training, for example, if one person makes a mistake, the whole class will be punished, if a class makes a mistake, the whole team will be punished, etc. It is basically the same.
Those who refuse to change despite repeated admonishment...remove directly, what, you still want to retire and go home, how can such a good thing happen? Do you think the army can come in when it wants and leave when it wants to?
Such people who are dismissed are usually sentenced to desertion, and then directly thrown into a special deserter camp to work under fed and exhausting coolies, and even harm their families.
What, you have a big temper and are not afraid of being beaten. When you enter the Taobing camp, you still shout that you will beat me to death, even if you are unable to resist... Well, this kind of person is usually shot directly.
The Chu army's recruit training has always been very strict. Otherwise, it would be impossible for the soldiers to lay out their formations on the battlefield and fight with their heads down in the face of the enemy's guns, bows and arrows. Their comrades were half blown away by the shells. , they could still turn a blind eye and continue to move forward steadily.
After a complete three months of training in the recruit training camp, the physical fitness and personal combat skills of the Chu army's recruits will definitely pass the test, regardless of their physical fitness and personal combat skills.
The Chu army's cavalry training was not as strict as that of the infantry in the early days. It was still trained according to the traditional cavalry training method, focusing on riding skills and the soldiers' personal combat skills.
After all, the Chu army's cavalry were originally from the Yulin frontier army, and most of the cavalry they received later were also Ming army cavalry, because they also had a strong flavor of traditional cavalry, from training to combat.
This is different from the custom of infantry and artillery, which are built directly from the ground up without the involvement of traditional military forces.
And Guards Major General Sheng Yushu wanted to introduce infantry training methods and even combat ideas into the cavalry.
Because only the strict military discipline of the line infantry can allow the cavalry to maintain a tight unified formation and fight.
The Fourth Cuirassier Regiment and the three Hussars Regiments are the products of this military thinking.
But now it seems that he, Sheng Yushu, has succeeded!
In the impact battle just now, the enemy's total cavalry strength was actually more, but our own cavalry concentrated its strength and directly killed the opponent's central army, forming a huge local strength advantage.
After a charge, the three cavalry regiments of our own side had only lost more than 80 cavalry in total, most of which were hussars covering the two wings and using sabers to fight.
The main force, the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment, only lost a total of more than 20 cavalry!
As for the Dongfeng cavalry, they lost at least more than 500 cavalry!
The enemy's Chinese cavalry was directly penetrated by the Chu cavalry. In the process, they suffered heavy losses, most of which were killed by the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment.
If we compare the casualties, the casualty ratio between the East Riding Cavalry and the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment is about fifteen to one.
This is a very scary number.
Earlier, before the Liaoxi Campaign was launched, the 4th Cuirassier Regiment, which had just arrived at Shanhaiguan, was ordered to conduct actual combat exercises with the 4th Cavalry Brigade, the elite traditional cavalry of the Chu Army. The referee ruled that the casualty ratio was five to one.
Today's ratio is in actual combat, which is much higher than the number determined by the referee.
"This is the true power of cavalry charging on the wall!"
Charging while riding a wall is the future of the cavalry! "Major General of the Guards Sheng Yushu looked back at the cavalrymen under his hands with faces of joy and even disbelief.
He immediately raised his saber and said, "Turn around and attack the enemy's left flank!"
"Let's do it again!"
"Guards charge!"
Guards Major General Sheng Yushu led his cavalry in a sharp turn and directly attacked the enemy's left-wing cavalry, which was still in a stunned state.
The enemy's left-wing cavalry still didn't understand the situation on the battlefield. They even couldn't understand why the Chinese army was defeated in just a moment.
You know, they have three thousand riders
The Chu barbarian cavalry on the opposite side seemed to have three to four thousand people, but apart from the cavalry artillery and the infantry (baggage) with muskets, there were actually just over two thousand cavalry.
They captured the cavalry from the East and had a strength advantage.
Not to mention, these three thousand cavalry are the elite cavalry in the Eight Banners. They are first-class in horsemanship, archery, and even dismounting to fight.
However, such a group of elite cavalry was directly defeated by the Chinese army during the opponent's attack...
And the cavalry on their left wing, according to their usual fighting methods, actually didn't come into contact with many enemies at all. To put it bluntly, in the charge just now, most of them, the cavalry on the left wing, were actually alone... Only the peripheral left-wing cavalry of the East Army could compete with the Chu army's hussars covering the flanks.
However, after a strange charge, the Chinese army's more than a thousand cavalry were completely defeated, and then these Chu barbarian cavalry turned directly towards their left wing and charged towards them.
What should we do at this time?
What else can I do? Of course I have to turn around and run away. Is it possible that I can't do it again with the Chu Manzi on the opposite side...
Just now, three thousand of their cavalry clashed against each other, and they were all defeated cleanly.
Now the Chinese army suffered heavy casualties, and the rest fled in scattered pieces. The right wing was a little further away, and their left wing only had a few hundred riders.
Even in a regular battle, he can't defeat the two thousand cavalry on the opposite side!
So they turned their horses around and ran away, not to mention running so fast that the 4th Cuirassiers behind them couldn't catch up...
Seeing this, Guards Major General Sheng Yushu directly ordered the 4th Cuirassiers Regiment to stop advancing, leaving only the 3rd Hussars Regiment to pursue, while he himself led the 4th Cuirassiers Regiment and the 2nd Hussars Regiment to kill again. Heading east to capture the remaining hundreds of cavalrymen on the right wing...
The people who captured the right-wing cavalry were smarter. As soon as they saw the main force of the Chu cavalry turning around, they ran away without waiting for Sheng Yushu and the others to pursue them with their cavalry.
These Dongfeng cavalry are all typical cavalry and archery light cavalry. Although many cavalry are wearing armor, they all look like armored cavalry... But in fact, they are either wearing armor or only add a small amount of iron. The cotton clip has poor protection, but is very light in weight.
Just like the cavalry-specific light half-body armor worn by the hussars and dragoons in the Chu army... It is said to be half-body armor, but it is two different concepts from the conventional half-body armor of the infantry. There is a big gap in weight and protective capabilities. Very.
Therefore, sometimes if you just look at the clothes of the Chu army or the Dongdu cavalry, don’t think that the armored ones on the opposite side are heavy cavalry... They are just the same thing, and they can only block arrows from medium distance or above or light cold weapons. some type of.
If it is a heavy arrow, especially a heavy arrow used to break armor, it will not be able to block it at all.
The protection ability against cold weapons such as spears and blunt weapons is not very good either.
You can't expect the powerful protective performance of half-body armor that is so light and has a relatively large protective area.
What really has protective properties is the cuirassier's breastplate!
Although the protective area is a bit small, the protection of the front of the torso is very good. It can resist even medium and long-range bullets. As for arrows, even close-range armor-piercing heavy arrows cannot break through...
Just kidding, that is a steel plate a few millimeters thick. Although it is mild steel and the craftsmanship is very poor, it is still steel... It is designed to block bullets... Just arrows... It is not the protective purpose of the breastplate at all. !
Of course, the breastplate can only protect the front torso, and the helmet can only protect the head. Considering that the enemies of the Chu Empire, whether they are the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Mongols, or those from the Western Regions, they are still playing horseback shooting. A large number of The stage of equipping bows and arrows.
In order to protect the limbs from being injured by the enemy's arrows or cold weapons such as sabers.
The cavalrymen of the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment are equipped with leather arm guards, skirts, long leather boots, long butt gloves, etc. in addition to the breastplate.
Although these leather protective gears can only protect against ordinary bows and arrows, medium and long-range heavy armor-piercing swords, and light cutting and slashing weapons, they are better because of their light weight.
When these leather protective gears are combined with the breastplate, it will be possible to achieve a perfect balance between protection and mobility for the cuirassier unit of the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment.
Well, this situation is only temporary.
If the enemies of the Da Chu Empire slowly progress in the future and abandon a large number of cold weapons such as bows and arrows, and mainly use muskets, then this kind of makeshift leather accessories can directly withdraw from the stage of history, because this thing is impossible to defend against. Live the bullet.
At that time, a cuirassier had a breastplate and a helmet, which was enough!
As for the hussars and dragoons, the light half-body armor specially worn by the cavalry can be thrown away directly.
But now... the enemies of the Dachu Empire are still using bows and arrows and cold weapons on a large scale. Therefore, light armor or even leather armor that seems to be very bad can still play a big role on the battlefield to protect our own soldiers from being attacked. The threat of backward weapons such as barbarian arrows and swords.
Well, the premise is that these backward barbarian troops can have the opportunity to rush over and shoot arrows at the Chu army!
But the Chu army was stupid enough to stand and take arrows!
But in actual combat... everyone is not stupid!
Just now, the East Riding Cavalry wanted to engage in a typical traditional cavalry cavalry shooting tactic of going left and right, back and forth... But the Guards Cavalry did not give them this opportunity at all, and directly held up their lances and sabers, They formed a tight formation and rushed over.
Simply and neatly beat the enemy's cavalrymen to the point where they were running away!
Three thousand Dong captured the elite cavalry, and more than 500 were killed and wounded on the spot. Later, the Chu army sent hussars to pursue and kill hundreds of them, resulting in 800 to 900 casualties.
The remaining two thousand Dongfeng cavalry had no choice but to flee, and they divided into several parts to escape. There was no way to stop them in a short time.
Judging from this battle, even if there are still more than 2,000 of the three thousand Eastern Capture Jingqi, they have actually disappeared in the Eastern Capture combat sequence!
The cavalry detachment of the Guards of the Da Chu Empire directly ignored the scattered fleeing Eastern Cavalry and continued to move toward the northeast, where the battlefield between the Chinese armies of the two sides was fighting!
Sheng Yushu needs to lead the Guards cavalry detachment to penetrate directly to the rear of the enemy's center, give them a heavy blow, directly crush them, and establish victory in this very large-scale battle!
In this regard, Major General Sheng Yushu has full confidence!
After this battle, their Guards cavalry's large-scale wall-mounted charge tactics were destined to become famous all over the world.
And he, Sheng Yushu, will also rely on this battle to advance to the rank of Lieutenant General of the Guards and become one of the core senior leaders of the Guards!
