Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1275 Offensive and Defensive Psychology ([-])

After returning home, Peter and King George II were furious and asked what do you eat?Why didn't the port of Rochefort attack?Wouldn't you avoid Dashun's merchant ships and take down Rochefort?

Soon, Congress created a "Misconduct Commission."

At that time, the public opinion in Britain had already been instigated by Pete, and it was extremely fanatical—otherwise, John Bean would not have been shot; Edward Hawke was almost dismissed because of the investigation because he let the French warship escape—in short, the British Public opinion has been completely instigated by William Pitt and other "little patriots, the Patriot Party".

Then someone has to take the blame.

Then, the Malpractice Commission took a look around, well, you, John Mordaunt, will be the one to blame!
Of course, in essence, it is actually a party struggle.

John Mordaunt, was a supporter of former Prime Minister Robert Walpole, or Walpole's party.

It was Lord Cornwallis who recommended him to be commander of the army attacking the port of Rochefort.

The wife of Lord Cornwallis is the daughter of the former Prime Minister Walpole's niece, Powall's own sister.

John Mordaunt was so close to getting "I'm Walpole's Henchman" on his face.Obviously, this is Walpole's faction, ready to push up the younger generation of army officers.

In fact, courts all over the world play similar games, forming cliques, fighting between old and new cliques, supporting cliques, cultivating young people to gain positions, etc., etc.

The malpractice investigation committee, seeing that Pete insisted on finding someone to take responsibility, didn't really understand who was going to be held responsible:
Before William Pitt came to power, he started his career by spraying the cabinet and organizing anti-government activities.It can be said that after spraying Walpole at least ten times a day, words such as trash, coward, idiot, villain, etc. emerge endlessly.

The naval commander is Hawke, and his father is a middle-class family member. He is a purely technical backbone of the navy and has no party affiliation.

This person cannot take the blame.

At a glance, it is obvious that this John Mordaunt is fat and big, and you are the one to take the blame and mess with Walpole's people by the way.

George II came forward to balance it out, sacked John Mordaunt's official position, retained his military rank, and threw it to Gibraltar.

In this matter, it is not true that Mordaunt did not know that this was a party dispute.

But the situation at that time was indeed that Dashun's "neutral" ships had issued a warning to Britain, which led to John Mordaunt's suggestion at the military meeting not to fight but to withdraw.

In the end, it was also because of his utterance that someone caught him and fled him to Gibraltar, where he committed crimes and meritorious deeds.

At that time, he hated Dashun so much that his teeth were itching. He waited for Dashun's fleet to appear near Gibraltar, and after defeating Bosken's fleet, the degree of hatred deepened: Dashun's neutrality was false. Knowing this, the Dashun merchant ship in the port of Rochefort should have been destroyed at that time, and all the ginseng and mink fur on it should have been taken away!
Then, the original Governor of Gibraltar "returned to the country to recuperate due to illness", and he, a general who still had the rank of general left, "resigned in danger" and became the supreme commander of Gibraltar.

As a result, Dashun's army landed and began the siege of Gibraltar. It also adopted a very disgusting scurvy tactic, burning down all the shops and houses in Gibraltar.

Mordant, who originally wanted to wash away his shame in Gibraltar, almost hated Dashun to death:

When he was soaring, it was Dashun's merchant ship who got in, which made him a big scapegoat.

It was so easy to start again, become the governor of Gibraltar, and besieged by Dashun's army, and it is very likely that he will bear the big blame for Gibraltar's loss - can't hold it?House burned?As the acting Governor of Gibraltar, what do you eat?Why not do fire prevention work in advance?Why not prepare firewood for the winter in advance?Why didn't the food from residents' shops be rationed in advance and those supplies were allowed to be burned by the Chinese?
That is to say, there is no gratuitous hatred.

Defoe hated China and insulted China, because the pottery factory he opened with his friends was overwhelmed by oriental porcelain, and he would never forget to describe "clay pots" in his life.By the way, I witnessed the massive unemployment caused by the influx of oriental cotton cloth into the UK, and the oriental aesthetics began to "distort" the traditional aesthetics of the UK.

George Anson, because he was insulted by Liu Yuhao in Lingdingyang, and because he needed supplies and repaired ships to attack Manila, he had to endure it; The "scurvy pill" promoted by Dr. Ward in the Navy was wildly sprayed, and it was regarded as a model of collusion between officials and businessmen of the Ministry of the Navy. After eating this scurvy pill, a battleship with 570 crew members, Only 130 people died, and Dr. Ward earned 50 pounds for the promotion of the whole navy. As for whether to give Anson a share of the money for promoting the magic pill, ghosts know.Naturally, it is also anti-obstinate to the point of being stunned.

The same is true for Mordant.

In this era of "Oriental fever" and "Chinese fever", apart from Montesquieu's political "enlightenment" purpose of "borrowing the east to satirize the west" and using Eastern religions to satirize the church, the basic principles of anti-Dashun It's all because of suffering some pain that life shouldn't bear, and it is believed that the responsibility lies with Dashun.

Therefore, under such circumstances, Dashun's tactical trap is really a combination of timing, location, and harmony.

From a rational tactical point of view: Theoretically, it is the best effective means to delay the enemy's attack time and disrupt the enemy's attack steps before the enemy hoards supplies, has not fully deployed its troops, and before the attack is about to be launched.

As for personal feelings, what Mordaunt thought was a bit...human.

After sticking to it, he died of scurvy, and Dashun occupied Gibraltar, and Dashun was rewarded for his meritorious service.

If there is a strong attack, given the terrain of Gibraltar, with [-] defenders, the attacker must prepare at least [-] to [-] casualties, so the main general on the Dashun side will not be punished.

The only thing is, if he launched a counterattack before the attack, burned Dashun's food, cannons, and disrupted Dashun's offensive deployment, then someone on Dashun's side would have to take the blame, take responsibility, or even be shot!

Mordant's state of mind at this time is purely:
Before I die, I also want to hold my back!
The bigger the level the better!

However, when facing the officers, he could not make such emotional expressions.

After analyzing the current situation, grain stock, winter approaching, and Dashun's obvious all-out attack, the counterattack plan he proposed is quite reasonable.

"Gentlemen, although we don't know if the people in Parliament will choose to rescue us, or throw us away like used toilet paper."

"But we have to do something. If we do nothing, we won't last until next spring even if the Chinese don't launch a full-scale attack. Besides, what's the use of staying until next spring? It's all rocks, It's not even possible to grow a turnip."

"The current situation is very dangerous. We must speak out and let the Chinese know that even in such a predicament, we will still choose to fight and choose hope."

"I noticed that the Chinese stockpiled a large amount of grain, cacao wine in de la Concepcion. Also their heavy artillery, gunpowder magazines, and Spanish shops."

"Before they swelled up and were about to attack, we chose to fight back, raiding their positions, looting food, burning warehouses and artillery. If we succeeded, we got supplies, and they would find that there was no way to starve us to death."

"I think that this evening, the soldiers in the direction of the Gulf Fort should be assembled—we must act at night, because their hot air balloons will always be watching our movements during the day. Only by relying on the protection of the Evernight Goddess can we Concentrate the forces defending the bay."

For this military order, none of the officers below objected, and they really had hope.

In this era, this kind of long siege war is shattering.

despair.

Food shortage.

scurvy.

No vegetables.

The lack of spirits is even more difficult for soldiers to bear.

cold.

No firewood for heating...

And so on, all of these have brought down morale to the extreme.

What's even worse is the continuous shelling every day. The heavy artillery keeps dropping iron pellets randomly on the defensive positions, making the defenders nervous every day even if the opposite side does not launch an attack.

In this case, not only officers, but even many soldiers would rather fight.

If successful, enough wine, food, oranges or lemons, and wood from Spanish towns can be grabbed...

The officers gave 100% support to Mordaunt's plan.

Soon, a counterattack plan targeting the direction of the isthmus was formulated.

From their point of view, Dashun's defense doesn't seem to be tight, and it seems that launching an assault to occupy the trench is really not a big problem.

In fact, they were right.

At least, judging from the current tactical system and tactical theory, Dashun's defense system is a bit weird.

Dashun's defense system in the direction of the isthmus is multi-layered.

The first layer of trenches and parapets closest to Gibraltar are basically straight, and there are not many troops defending them.

They are mainly rifled flintlock skirmishers that can be shot at a long distance, and some small-caliber shotguns are deployed in key positions.

According to the tactical system of the "explosive bomb" era, the important firepower of the defender cannot dig ring fortifications, because such an explosive bomb will reimburse the firepower.

In the era of solid bullets, of course, these shotguns should be deployed in the ring fortifications to facilitate shooting in all directions.

Moreover, the width of the first trench is actually very large, but it only avoids the threat of shelling from the Gibraltar defenders from an angle.

This width is not only for defensive counterattacks, but also for gathering troops in the first trench before launching an attack, and then relying on mole-like engineers to dig in and approach the defenders.

Behind the first trench is the second trench of Dashun. The trench completes a very standard "W"-shaped fold line and is connected to the first line of defense through a limited number of zigzag trenches.

Heavy artillery is basically deployed near the second trench.

At the apex of the V, regimental artillery will be arranged.

At intervals, Dashun Combat Engineers would deploy one of the specialized parabolic explosive shells and tiger squatting guns, with a range just enough to cover the first trench.

A large number of Dashun's troops are also deployed on the second line of defense, where there are special garrison pits, but the camp is not on the second line of defense, but further back.

The assault companies of combat engineers are also deployed in the second line of defense.

If you need to attack, go through the zigzag trench, avoid shelling, move to the first trench, and then dig a hole.

If you want to defend, the defenders on the first line of defense will retreat to the second line of defense in an orderly manner after resisting, and then the main force of the second line of defense will counterattack under the cover of their own artillery fire.

This does not need to be specially performed after coming to Gibraltar, but this is the tactical regulations of the Dashun Combat Engineers.

Because the task of combat engineers is to besiege, and the most taboo method of attacking the city by zigzagging is to counterattack inside the city.

Defense itself is the basic tactical system of siege in this era.

The difference between Dashun and the European tactical system is that Europe chose to reform the military service system to recruit more troops to besiege the bastion, and the large troops continue to advance, which is the most cost-effective; while Dashun is carefully considering the siege method with a scale of 5000 people. Strengthening trench warfare and civil engineering technology is the most cost-effective.

Europe developed the Grenadier into elite line infantry and hand-to-hand assault specialization; while Dashun developed the Grenadier into elite engineer, civil engineering and trench specialization.

The staff officers on the front line only slightly modified it according to the tactical guidance of luring the enemy to counterattack, but overall it was within the scope of the tactical idea of ​​"based on the limit of sending 20 people across the ocean" set 5000 years ago. .

(End of this chapter)