When he heard the word "enemy attack", Peng Sanyu jumped out of the car subconsciously and at the same time picked up the musket he had placed on the carriage.
At this time, he also heard the rhythmic sound of the horn coming from ahead.
Peng Sanyu, who has been in the army for many years and is familiar with military horns, knew as soon as he heard it that it was the horn sound for emergency formation to prepare for war!
Peng Sanyu immediately looked at the captain not far away!
This young second lieutenant, who had just graduated from the Army Officer School for less than a year, felt a little stunned at this time. He sat in the carriage for a long time without giving any orders.
Peng Sanyu cursed in his heart: "Young recruit Danzi, he looks fine when he is not fighting, but when something happens, he immediately panics!"
But that was his immediate superior after all, so he couldn't just step forward and curse. He could only quickly walk to the captain: "Captain, it's time to give the order!"
After hearing this, the young lieutenant realized: "Yes, the enemy is attacking, stop immediately and form an emergency formation!"
At this time, the sentry officer in front also sent a messenger: "The sentry commander ordered all sentries to stop and form a square vehicle formation on the spot."
The young second lieutenant said: "Got it!"
And several of his main subordinates, namely the three commanders like Peng Sanyu, have already begun to take action!
As experienced non-commissioned officers who have served for many years, I dare not say anything else, but they are quite proficient in basic tactical movements and formations. They can actually form a formation even without the orders of the second lieutenant and platoon leader above. Work.
Peng Sanyu ran quickly, calling on the other dozen soldiers under his command to move quickly, remove the horses from the four-wheeled carriage full of grain, and then connect the carriages end to end.
In this way, multiple carriages can be built into a simple city wall to provide field protection for these heavy troops.
As the carriages of other friendly forces also formed one after another, nearly a hundred carriages soon formed a huge hollow square formation.
In front, there are two hollow square formations of the same size.
As soon as this Chu army's baggage force discovered that the enemy was attacking, they used these carriages to form three hollow square formations. The distance between them was about 130 meters, just like the hollow square formations of the infantry. Same formation.
It is worth noting that these empty square formations and vehicle formations are diagonal to each other, roughly like this '◇◇◇', which does not mean directly facing each other, but corner to corner.
This multi-diamond hollow square formation seems to be just an adjustment in angle, but in fact it is one of the results of the Chu Empire Army's years of exploration of line tactics.
Because if the hollow phalanx is deployed face-to-face, well, that's how it is, then it's not fighting the enemy, but playing line shooting with yourself. If you want to avoid accidental damage, you can only distance yourself. Once you distance yourself, you will not be able to form intensive firepower, and there will be no support for each other.
But if it is switched from corner to corner, then there will be no accidental damage, and at the same time, cross fire can be formed on both sides, and more powerful firepower will be exerted when facing the enemy's impact.
Likewise, this is the main reason why an empty square matrix is used instead of a hollow circular matrix.
The formation of the army is still very particular, especially after entering the era of flintlock guns, the role of formation is even greater than that of the cold weapon era.
In the cold weapon era, although formations were also important, they were far less important than in the line era.
This is because in the line era, individual combat capabilities have become less important, and it is impossible to rely on a small group of armored elites to kill the entire formation.
Because no matter how brave the soldiers are, they can't stop the guns. A row of muskets will hit them. Even if you, Zhao Zilong, are reincarnated, you will still suffer from lead bullets.
In the line era, what matters is the display of firepower, and if you want better firepower display, then appropriate formations are inevitable.
Or in other words, the formations in the line era were basically designed to exert more intensive firepower.
Even the hollow square formation used as a defensive cavalry still focused on the use of firepower. This was also the time when the Chu army was conducting anti-cavalry operations. Unless the number of troops was too small, otherwise, it would never just play a solitary hollow. Square formations, but will deploy three or more hollow square formations as much as possible.
With the same force, divided into multiple hollow square formations, it seems that each square formation has fewer troops and becomes thinner, but it can form cross fire.
And crossfire is more important than the thickness of the formation.
This series of hollow phalanxes of the Chu army originated from the infantry, and evolved from the hollow large phalanxes of the earliest matchlock era.
The baggage troops also followed the infantry tactics and made certain improvements based on their own circumstances, such as using horse-drawn carriages as obstacles.
However, although the hollow vehicle formation of the baggage troops is based on carriages, strictly speaking, it is also a hollow square formation, and there is not much difference in essence.
Now, the Chu army set up three hollow chariot formations, diagonally opposite each other, about 130 meters apart.
The outermost periphery of each hollow vehicle formation is a carriage, with musketeers standing ready behind the carriage. In addition, a 65mm field gun is deployed between the gaps in the carriage facing the direction of the enemy cavalry attack.
Behind the musketeers were coachmen and grooms with a large number of draft horses, as well as ammunition temporarily transported from ammunition vehicles.
It is worth noting that the reins of these draft horses were firmly fixed on the temporary iron stakes. This was to prevent the horses from running around due to the sound of gunfire during the battle, and to avoid being hit by enemy bullets or bows and arrows. Wounded and running around.
This is a draft horse. If a mule is used, then no matter how fast it is, it will be useless... because mules are more sensitive to the sound of gunfire.
When faced with the sound of gunfire, the horses would at most clutter their hooves, but the mules would just roll all over the ground... as if they were crazy, unable to pull back.
Maybe, before the enemy troops come in, the formation will be destroyed from within by these frightened mules.
This is also the reason why frontline troops basically do not use mules and only use draft horses to transport artillery and supplies.
Although mules are stronger, have good endurance, and are easier to feed, they are prone to panic, and their tendency to scream and roll immediately after panic makes them unsuitable for fighting close to the front line.
In today's Chu army, mules are basically used only in the rear areas and when large-scale material transportation is carried out.
After all, since the empire regained Monan and Northeast China, there has been no shortage of Mongolian horses.
Even for Central Asian horses of better quality, with the introduction of stallions and its own breeding for many years, the Dachu Empire has continued to cultivate a number of Central Asian horses of high quality.
The Central Asian horses carefully bred by the Great Chu Empire's Damanying Army are different from the Central Asian horses directly introduced from the Yarkand Khanate and other Western Regions.
The horse administration personnel of the Great Chu Empire finally obtained a brand new Central Asian horse after selective breeding of imported Arabian horses, Central Asian horses, and local Hequ horses.
If you pay more attention to it, this thing actually has a very complex pedigree, with many bloodlines including Mongolian horses, Arabian horses, Kazakh horses, and Qinghai horses.
The carefully bred Central Asian horses have an average shoulder height of 1.4 meters. This shoulder height far exceeds that of Mongolian horses, but they also inherit the excellent characteristics of Mongolian horses, that is, they have particularly good endurance and are easy to raise.
Correspondingly, the short-distance speed can only be said to be good, but the explosive power is not good.
But it also depends on what kind of horse it is compared with. If it is compared with a Mongolian horse, its explosive power will be completely over the top... If it is compared with an Arabian horse, it will only be inferior. If compared with a purebred horse, it will be completely overpowered...
From the perspective of later generations, this kind of Central Asian horse is actually more suitable for use as a light draft horse and a horse for medium and long-distance riding.
However, for the Chu Army, this is already the best military horse that the Chu Empire Army can get so far. To a certain extent, it is even more suitable for military use than the Arabian horses that were also introduced and bred.
Because this thing has good endurance and is suitable for riding, it also means that it is suitable for light cavalry, and it can allow light cavalry to start running into the battlefield at a longer distance, which means higher battlefield mobility.
Nowadays, many of the main cavalry units of the Chu Army have begun to replace them with Central Asian horses. However, the number of Central Asian horses is not enough, and most of the Chu Army's cavalry units can still only use Mongolian horses.
Today's Damanying Military Horse Farm is a military horse farm in the Great Chu Empire that specializes in breeding Central Asian horses. In order to ensure the purity of the bloodline and avoid being contaminated by inferior horses, the army directly transferred all the original Mongolian horses in the Damanying Military Horse Farm. Migrated away.
At the same time, in order to cultivate more Central Asian horses, the Da Chu Empire Army has set up special Central Asian Horse Army horse farms in Monan and several other horse farms, especially on Jeju Island.
I just want to breed more Central Asian horses.
In the Army of the Great Chu Empire, independently bred Central Asian horses have gradually entered military service and are used as cavalry riding horses.
The logistics force uses Mongolian horses on a large scale. In places in the south where Mongolian horses are not suitable, the bred Southwest horses are used. Although Southwest horses are short, they can use the climate and terrain of the South. This alone It is enough for this seemingly short horse breed to serve as the main force of the Chu army's southern troops.
The Dachu Empire chose horses. Troops in different regions used different horses, just like weapons. Even artillery of the same caliber was divided into several types to adapt to different combat environments.
There is no way, the territory of the Chu Empire is too large, thousands of kilometers from north to south, and thousands of kilometers from east to west, from the ice fields in the north to the tropical rain forests in the south, from the coast in the east to the deserts in the west.
From the low-altitude plains to the plateau in the west, it covers almost all terrains and all climates.
Troops fighting in different regions have different requirements for weapons and mules and horses, making it difficult to unify.
Therefore, most of the time, the Chu army cares more about adaptability than performance.
This is true for weapons, and it is also true for mules and horses.
This is also the reason why among the units of the Fourth Cavalry Army on the northwest front, most of the cavalry are equipped with Central Asian horses, the infantry and logistics troops are equipped with Mongolian horses, and there is not a single mule in sight.
This also prevents the First Baggage Battalion under the Second Baggage Regiment from having to worry about its mules being disturbed by artillery when conducting defensive operations, because they do not have mules attached to them...
Peng Sanyu turned his head and glanced behind him. The groom, coachman and other auxiliary personnel had already arranged the draft horses. There should be no problems in the rear.
Now, what they need to face is the attacking enemy cavalry.
At this time, Peng Sanyu also heard a rumble in the distance, which was the sound caused by the hoofs of a large number of war horses trampling the ground.
The sound made by a small number of war horses is not loud, but the sound of thousands or even more horses running is earth-shattering, and can be heard even from a long distance.
Not long after, Peng Sanyu saw a puff of smoke rising in the northwest sky!
Not long after the smoke appeared, enemy cavalry appeared on the top of a low hill. Even though it was far away, it could be seen from the scattered formations and messy costumes on the opposite side that it was a cavalry unit. The traditional cavalry unit of the nomadic people.
In these days, it is easy to distinguish the Chu cavalry from the cavalry of other armies.
The Chu cavalry either wore gray uniforms or bright steel plate armor, and they were uniformly styled, and their formations were often very neat. At a glance, you could tell that these were cavalry from the Chu Empire.
"Here we come!" Peng Sanyu withdrew his gaze and then focused on his men again: "Hurry up and check the equipment!"
Peng Sanyu saw that some of his soldiers seemed a little nervous, and immediately said: "Don't worry, they can't rush in, we are very safe!"
"When the time comes, just follow my orders. Reload as I tell you, and shoot as I tell you!"
Peng Sanyu did not blame those nervous men who even had trembling hands. These men were all new recruits who had been recruited this year. They had only served for about half a year. They had not even been on the battlefield before. Facing a large-scale It is normal to be nervous when enemy cavalry attacks.
At this time, blaming is useless, you have to guide them to relax!
So Peng Sanyu simply walked up to one of them: "Come, do it with me, take a deep breath... do it again, take a deep breath!"
Seeing that these people calmed down a little after taking several deep breaths, Peng Sanyu said: "When they rush up later, don't think too much, just load, aim and shoot. It's very simple, easier than during target practice! "
"Wait for the next shot, and we can beat them so hard that even their parents won't recognize them!"
At this time, a veteran next to him was also smiling and talking to the recruits with a relaxed expression: "I have fought a lot of barbarian cavalry like this in the past few years. When we were on the prairie before, those barbarian cavalry were just like this." We loaded our guns like fools, we shot one at a time, and when a row passed by, a large number fell down on the opposite side."
Another veteran came over and said: "If we win the battle later, we might be able to get some trophies. These barbarians like to hang some gold and silver jewelry on their bodies. No matter what, there are some very good benders among them." Knives, get a few of them when the time comes, we won’t be able to use them, but there are many wealthy bosses in the country who like to collect these crappy things!”
"With luck, we can make some extra money this time."
Another veteran said: "That's right, we are transporting baggage at the back every day, and there is no benefit except eating something. Damn it, when we attacked those cities in Guazhou before, we didn't have a share at all, and all the benefits were given to the fifth The people from the infantry regiment took it!"
"Let me tell you, I have a brother who served in the Fifth Infantry Regiment. Do you know what he got when he was in Guazhou? A sword made of gold... Tsk, tsk, that's a scimitar made of pure gold. You’ll get rich!”
"This person will make people angry if he compares himself to others!"
"Oh, there is no way. Even though we are just heavy troops, it is not easy to get some trophies!"
Peng Sanyu on the side chuckled: "Although our baggage is not as good as those of the infantry, we still have a chance to drink some soup, but those guys in the artillery regiment will not be able to get even a little trophy from the time they serve to the time they retire!"
"It seems that they can run to the front to participate in the battle, but think about it, those guys who are playing with cannons can only hide in the back and fire cannons. After the siege is carried out, the infantry can enter the city, but their artillery can also enter the city? "
"When the artillery troops also enter the city, everyone will eat up all the shit, and they still have their share!"
Perhaps it was Peng Sanyu's calm self-talk and the relaxed tone of his comrade-in-arms veterans. Seeing these veterans directly change the topic to the trophies, the recruits also relaxed a little, and they no longer knew the fear of the enemy in their hearts. It disappears unconsciously, replaced by the desire for loot!
If you're lucky and can get one or two pieces of gold jewelry from those barbarian cavalry... Wow, don't you want to get rich!
Peng Sanyu couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the hands of these recruits no longer shook, but showed signs of yearning one after another.
What he was most afraid of was leading new recruits. He might not be able to perform tactical actions because of his nervousness. He might even be frightened to the point of squatting down with his head in his hands, or even turning around and running away.
That would be a big deal.
Otherwise, he would not have guided these new recruits immediately.
Now it seems that it has initially stabilized.
However, he also knew that this was only temporary. When the fight actually broke out, especially when the opponent rushed up and started shooting or releasing arrows, and his own side suffered casualties, these new recruits would most likely become unstable factors again.
But he didn't have much to do about it.
It was such a troublesome time for the new recruits to go to the battlefield for the first time. He couldn't expect that all the soldiers under his command would be veterans who had served for several years.
As time passed, the Jungar cavalry on the opposite side got closer and closer, and it was visible to the naked eye that their speed was getting faster and faster, and they should have entered the trot stage.
At this moment, even though the distance was still four to five hundred meters, the two 65mm field guns carried by the baggage troops opened fire.
Anyway, the target on the opposite side is so big, the cannonball can basically hit it as long as it doesn't deviate too far.
Facing the attack of a strong enemy, the artillery fire can be fired for as many rounds as possible.
However, although the lethality of the two 65mm field guns is still there, in Danba's view, it is nothing more than that!
Such casualties were nothing to the thousands of cavalry under his command.
Anyway, there is no way to fight without death. As long as there are not many casualties, the price is completely acceptable. As long as he rushes over, he can use the muskets and bows and arrows in his hands to let the Chu barbarians on the opposite side know that they did not come just because they wanted to. .
Now that you are here, you have to pay the price with your life!
Moreover, the formation on the opposite side seemed so weak, even with the support of carriages, but Chu Manzi actually dared to divide his troops and listed three formations.
If the opponent gathered thousands of troops and formed an extremely thick formation, relying on spears and muskets as assistance, then he would still be wary of one or two.
Well, at least he won't rush forward stupidly.
But the troops on the other side were divided.
Not to mention dividing the troops, the formation of these Chu barbarians is still facing all four sides at the same time...
This means that the force directly facing the front is extremely thin!
In this way, when our side rushes over, the pressure we face will be relatively low, not to mention that the opponent doesn't even have spearmen... Do these Chu barbarians really think they can fight with muskets?
Although muskets are powerful, they also need spearmen to protect them. The musketeers alone cannot survive on the battlefield.
This is the conclusion that Danba came to during many years of campaigns, and he also came to this conclusion from the Russian people who came from Europe.
In distant Europe, although the locals used a large number of guns and the proportion of musketeers was increasing, spearmen were still an indispensable part of the battlefield.
Whether it is defending against enemy attacks or launching a melee charge, spearmen, especially armored spearmen, are still the core force.
The outcome of both sides mainly depends on whose spearman collapses first!
But the Chu barbarians in front didn't even have a spearman, they were all musketeers!
The troops were divided, all spearmen were used, and it was still a strange hollow square formation, with insufficient frontal firepower.
In this case, Danba felt that the battle was stable.
Even if he couldn't directly break through the enemy's formation... Well, he had never thought about rushing into the formation... He was not stupid, and he would not take the initiative to attack the infantry formation, even if the infantry formation on the opposite side looked quite thin.
However, he still didn't have this idea!
What he had to do was to lead his cavalry to quickly approach, turn at a distance of tens of meters from the enemy, and fire and shoot arrows at the same time.
Make full use of the power of bows and arrows and yellow-wheeled flintlock pistols at close range.
After the fight, retreat...the pistol cavalry comes back to reload, the cavalry archer takes a moment to recover his arm strength, and then charges again...
Repeatedly, if the Chu barbarians across from him didn't collapse after a few visits, he would write their names upside down!
What he did was right. This was also a typical tactic used by a light cavalry unit lacking accompanying artillery to deal with an infantry array. It made full use of its mobility to continuously attack until the enemy completely collapsed.
When the enemy collapses, it's time to charge forward with your saber.
So Danba waved his hand, and the messenger next to him blew the horn on the grassland. The whining sound spread across the wilderness and reached the ears of every Jungar cavalryman.
Suddenly, the more than a thousand Zhungeer cavalry began to speed up, and at the same time began to concentrate their forces, and formed a total of twelve waves with about a hundred people.
Viewed from the sky, these more than a thousand cavalry were divided into twelve regiments, but they were connected end to end, forming a vertical line, heading straight for the northernmost vehicle formation of the Chu army.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
He did not divide his troops, but concentrated his troops to attack the enemy's vehicle formation at the front.
At the front end of this line, Danba rode his horse and led the first wave of more than a hundred cavalry into the attack and run stage!
These cavalrymen were riding on bumpy horses, using only their feet to control the horses, while their hands were already bending their bows!
The distance is close... almost!
Danba looked at the Chu Manzi car formation in front of him. Although there was a carriage blocking it, he could still vaguely see Chu Manzi behind the carriage.
Those Chu barbarians were like cowards and only dared to hide behind the carriage, like trembling little rabbits.
Danba also started to bend his bow, and a smile appeared on his lips!
However, at the next moment, there was a sudden popping sound from the Chu Manzi car array in front, followed by a cloud of white smoke.
As soon as Danba heard the sound and saw the scene, he knew that the other side was firing!
This was within his expectation!
Again, no one can die in a battle. You can't expect the Chu barbarian on the opposite side to be so frightened that he will raise his hands and be killed.
There is a saying that rabbits bite when they are anxious.
However, when the rabbit tries to bite someone, Danba will kick it hard!
Just like it is now...
Danba continued to bend his bow and soon entered the shooting range of the riding bow. He was in no mood and had no time to pay attention to anything else.
The next moment, Danba loosened the bow string, and the arrow immediately flew out. After crossing a distance of more than forty meters, it directly hit Chu Manzi's carriage.
But Danba did not see the direct direction of the arrow falling, but immediately drew out the arrow and continued shooting.
But when he bent the bow again, he had already begun to urge the war horse to turn. In fact, he did not need to urge the war horse, because the war horse would turn in advance because of its instinct to avoid obstacles.
As a result, Danba's mount passed about thirty meters directly in front of the Chu army's vehicle formation.
At this time, he had time to turn around and look behind him, but what he saw made him frown slightly!
The casualties were greater than he expected, and at least twenty of the cavalry behind him fell.
This is not a good sign!
And this was not over yet. He found that after leading his army to turn around, he had already separated from the enemy's front that he had just attacked, but his own side was still under fire!
That's the enemy musketeer coming from the side!
Damn it!
Danba had a bad feeling in his heart. This Chu Manzi's formation was weird and his firepower was too intensive.
Although the one-sided firepower is not very good, the sustained ability is very strong, so much so that after he turned to evacuate, he was even attacked by the opponent's firepower, which in turn caused his own cavalry to continue to fall.
Danba had a bad feeling in his heart, but he was on the battlefield now, and there was not enough time for him to think too much. He could only incite the horse to continue turning as much as possible, and leave the battlefield with his subordinates who had completed the attack. .
Fortunately, the cavalry charged quickly and left the battlefield in no time.
Looking back now, he found that the first wave of cavalry led by him had lost at least thirty people. He turned to look at Chu Manzi on the opposite side, still hiding behind the carriage and continuing to fire!
Those Chu barbarians had carriages as their support, so the casualties should not be very large!
Something is wrong with this situation, there are too many casualties!
Immediately afterwards, he saw his second wave of cavalry rushing up... Just like the plan he had made before, wave after wave continued to impact the enemy's northernmost hollow phalanx until the opponent collapsed. .
At this time, he saw Chu Manzi on the opposite side firing round after round of volleys. After three consecutive rounds of volleys, more than ten of his own cavalry had fallen in the second wave.
However, most of the bows, arrows or pistol bullets fired by the cavalry landed on the carriage, and did not pose much threat to the Chu barbarian infantry behind the carriage.
More importantly, he saw the second wave of cavalry turn and fall diagonally in front of Chu Manzi's second musketeers. Those Chu Manzi musketeers fired, although the distance was relatively far and the hit rate was not high. But some cavalry were still knocked down.
By the time the second wave completed its attack, there were only about seventy cavalry left in the second wave of cavalry that originally numbered a hundred.
Coupled with the first wave of attacks led by himself, and the two waves of attacks, more than fifty riders were directly lost, and the casualty rate reached more than 20%!
And now...the third wave of attacks has begun, followed closely by the fourth wave of attacks...
Danba's face changed drastically as he watched this scene. He seemed to have seen the horrific scene of his own cavalry rushing up one after another, and then falling under the gun one after another!
He didn't know why such a strange situation occurred, but he knew that it must not happen!
So he looked panicked and shouted: "Retreat... retreat quickly!"
"Stop rushing!"
Danba shouted: "Quick, trumpeter, blow the retreat horn!"
But looking left and right, the trumpeter was no longer there, he had died in the previous impact.
Danba could only wave and shout over and over again at the cavalry rushing up from behind: "Retreat, retreat..."
But no one could hear him!
Amidst the gunfire on the battlefield, no one could hear the voices except those around them. The soldiers all followed the penetrating horn sounds or the generals' flags.
Now, the Jungar cavalry strictly implemented Danba's previous order, rushing up one wave after another to shoot arrows or fire, then turned and followed Danba's flag to evacuate.
During this process, most of the Jungar cavalry were actually able to evacuate the battlefield intact. Only a small number of Jungar cavalry were hit by gunfire and remained on the battlefield forever.
However, there were more than ten or twenty casualties in this wave, and the Jungar cavalry came up one after another.
Gradually... the road rushing towards the Chu army's vehicle formation was filled with the dead and wounded of the Zhungeer cavalry and their horses.
A charge, a charge that was expected to be captured, even if there was no result, there would not be much loss. After Danba rode his horse to the front and personally stopped the subsequent waves of charges.
The Jungar people have already suffered the casualties of more than 150 cavalrymen!
In this regard, most of the Jungar cavalry did not even know what happened, let alone why there were so many casualties.
This Chu Manzi doesn’t look that strong!
Even Danba couldn't figure out why the firepower of these Chu barbarians was so powerful. This was completely beyond his knowledge of musketeers.
This terrifies him!
Danba is not afraid of strong enemies, he is afraid of strong enemies that he cannot understand!
