I want to be emperor

Chapter 514 Spear and Shield (Two in One)

Bai Yangrong led the main force of the Seventh Army to march along the coastline in an overly cautious way, which made the Dongyao people on the opposite side speechless and helpless...

They had few troops in the first place, and their artillery was not even a fraction of that of the Chu army.

At the same time, their reinforcements will not come for a while...

With the strength of the Chu army and the number of artillery pieces, plus the record of the Chu army in attacking fortified areas in the past, it is extremely difficult for them to defend Fuzhou!
Originally, they were still counting on waiting for reinforcements, but the reinforcements did not come for a long time.

It is hundreds of kilometers from Jinzhou to Shenyang. The messenger flew for a few days to transmit the information to Shenyang, and then Huang Taiji in Shenyang could deploy troops according to the situation.

But this force is not so easy to deploy!
In fact, the Dongyao people did not leave too many troops in the rear, and the main force was basically concentrated in the front line of the Liaoxi Corridor to play staring games with the Dongyao people!
There are not many troops in the rear, and the main thing is to be vigilant, to prevent small-scale landing attacks by the Chu army.

At the same time, the deployment of troops in the rear is not too concentrated, basically a few thousand here, a few thousand there, and then some coastal observation and observation of small fortresses and other dozens of people.

And the Liaodong Peninsula can be regarded as their heavily fortified area. The three places Lushunkou, Jinzhou City, and Fuzhou City add up to a total of 1 troops deployed.

At the same time, there are thousands of scattered people in the surrounding coastal fortresses.

The more than 1 people stationed on the Liaodong Peninsula should be enough. It is no problem to deal with small-scale landing raids and harassment. If the Chu army lands with a few thousand people, it can also deal with it.

But the Dongyao people didn't expect that the Chu Manzi on the opposite side played so much with the landing, and directly brought tens of thousands of them here, and they were still the main force with a full range of guns and even brought a large number of heavy artillery.

So that the situation suddenly became passive.

Therefore, if Huang Taiji wanted to deploy troops to reinforce the direction of Fuzhou, it would take a lot of time to deploy scattered troops from the rear, and he would not be able to mobilize much. If he died, he would be able to mobilize another 2 or [-] troops.

At the same time, after deploying these troops, the other coastal areas will be empty. When the time comes, the Chu army will randomly send thousands of people to land in a wave, and then it will be a big headache.

If troops were directly drawn from the front line in western Liaoning, the impact would not be great, but it would also take time.

Due to the limited total force of the Dongyao people and the need to deploy heavy troops in the Liaoxi Corridor, it is doomed that the Dongyao people cannot deploy a large number of troops to the Liaodong Peninsula in a short period of time.

In this way, Fuzhou City will not be able to receive a large number of reinforcements in a short period of time.

If there is no reinforcements in a short period of time, it will be more difficult to defend Fuzhou.

Therefore, the Dongbao people in Fuzhou City initially wanted to use their own more than 2000 cavalry to delay the advance speed of the Chu army through harassment and other methods, so as to buy time to wait for reinforcements.

However, the Chu army was too cautious. They didn't let their captive cavalry find an opportunity to attack along the way. At most, they fought a few fights with the scout cavalry on the periphery of the Chu army. Although they relied on their own cavalry advantages in quantity and quality In this small-scale cavalry battle, he gained a lot of advantages.

But this kind of small local victory can't affect the overall situation at all!

They could only watch helplessly as the [-] troops headed straight for Fuzhou!

In this regard, the Dongyao people had no choice but to hold out in Fuzhou, hoping to hold on until the reinforcements arrived. For this reason, the Fuzhou defenders had gone to Shenyang several times in a row to ask for emergency help.

As for giving up Fuzhou and running away!
They had already abandoned Jinzhou and ran away before. Although Huang Taiji did not blame them, he still had to send someone to reprimand them. After all, the Eastern Captives stationed here did not make good use of Lushunkou and Jinzhou. The special terrain advantage of the city drove the Chu army into the sea. It can be said that they watched the Chu army land and then voluntarily abandoned Jinzhou City.

If you give up Fuzhou at this time, I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to your superiors.

In this way, the defenders in Fuzhou hurriedly strengthened the city defense with the idea of ​​waiting for reinforcements for ten days and a half months.

Time passed through September, and after October, the main force of the Seventh Army led by Lieutenant General Bai Yangrong finally arrived at Fuzhou City.

Along the way, they didn't go smoothly.

On the one hand, the cavalry of the Dongyao people were always watching the sidelines, and the thousand half-baked cavalry of the Seventh Army were nervous and did not dare to relax at all times.

The infantry always has at least one infantry regiment on the periphery, marching in battle formation facing the enemy cavalry.

Only in this way can a large number of infantry and artillery march behind at a normal speed.

But even so, it was more troublesome to march. After all, the cavalry of the Dongyaoren could also move, and from time to time they would make a short-distance rapid maneuver, which made the cavalry of the Chu army and the infantry regiment on guard on the periphery nervous.

As soon as the cavalry of the Dongyao people moved, the cavalry of the Chu army had to follow suit to prevent the opponent from bypassing their own cavalry and rushing directly to the middle of the rear.

Even if the Chu army's cavalry is not as good as the opponent's, if the Dongyao cavalry really rushed up, the Chu army's cavalry would still be able to entangle the opponent for a while.

As long as it can block the opponent for a while, an infantry regiment that continues to maintain a battle formation in the rear can quickly step forward to support.

If the battle between the cavalry was so intense that the cavalry on both sides fell into a melee, it would be very beneficial to the Chu army.

Because when the infantry and fast light artillery of the Chu army came up, it was still a matter of whether these cavalry could leave.

This is also the reason why these Eastern captive cavalrymen kept trying to go around and other maneuvers, but when they found that the Chu army's cavalry had been following closely and firmly protecting the Chu army's flanks, they didn't have the guts to really charge up.

Ever since, the two sides kept trying to attack like this, entangled in the interception for many days, until the Chu army reached Fuzhou City.

After seeing the city wall of Fuzhou, Bai Yangrong breathed a sigh of relief!

Damn, this kind of long-distance march under the threat of enemy cavalry is really tiring, and a little carelessness may cause great losses.

You must always pay attention to the movement of the opponent's cavalry, and at the same time maintain a high level of vigilance and respond quickly.

This is the Chu army. If it was replaced by other troops, it is estimated that they would not be able to bear the pressure halfway and retreated.

Why can Chu Jun do it?
Well, there is a saying in the football world, it is called the goalkeeper of the weak team.

It means that the opponents with relatively poor strength are surrounded and beaten every day, and the goalkeeper who keeps the goal is fighting all day long...their training opportunities are far more than those of other strong teams, so the probability of a good goalkeeper, It is far bigger than that of the giants... Of course, the giants buy ready-made,

The same is true in the military field!

Compared with the Chu army, the Ming army's cavalry had an advantage for a long time. Even in the Western Ming Dynasty, Sun Chuanting still held a good cavalry force under his hands.

Because the strength of the Chu army's own cavalry is shoddy...there is no way to block the large number of enemy cavalry, so the Chu army's infantry and artillery are forced to rely on themselves, thinking of many ways to offset the advantage of the enemy's cavalry, and fighting against the cavalry is the most important heavy.

For example, the musketeers equipped with flintlock guns under the new system, the hollow phalanx they created was purely to resist the impact of cavalry.

In addition, many of the infantry's line tactics are also used to resist the impact of cavalry. For example, when the Chu army was in Lushunkou, the first battalion of the No.90 Infantry Regiment used the line tactics of occupying the hill and lined up. Can also be used against cavalry.

Being condescending can effectively counteract and limit the rapid leveling of the enemy cavalry, reducing the speed of the enemy's leveling up.

And the three-row formation lined up in a row can greatly exert intensive firepower!
An infantry battalion, under this tactic, can fire [-] rounds of bullets per minute, which is enough to offset the bows and arrows shot by cavalry cavalry.

What, you said the enemy cavalry rushed over on their own initiative?
This... shouldn't be such a stupid cavalry general, right?I think should not be……

Under normal circumstances, the cavalry would not attack the tightly formed infantry array, so it was just a three-row infantry formation that looked very thin!

Moreover, the three rows of the Chu army are actually not thin... It seems that there are only three rows, but in fact the soldiers are shoulder to shoulder, and the density of troops is very high.

In such a tight formation, the formation of musketeers transformed into short spearmen, even a cavalryman would not want to charge up...even a heavy cavalry dressed in iron cans...in fact, the speed of the heavy cavalry did not rush over. It had to be harvested by musketeers before!

Heavy cavalry can't hold bullets, even if the cavalry is strong and can wear super thick heavy armor, it's still made of fine steel...

But it's useless if the war horse can't hold the bullet...

This is why the heavy cavalry wearing iron cans gradually declined and eventually disappeared on the battlefield, replaced by various light cavalry and cuirassiers. Anyway, iron cans can't hold bullets, so it's better to be mobile!

The line tactics employed by the Chu army still restrained the cavalry to some extent, but it was not absolute. It was the same sentence. The cavalry had two legs and four legs, but for those cavalry who rode two horses or even three horses, , that is to add eight or even twelve legs...

The short-distance mobility of cavalry on the battlefield is naturally stronger than that of infantry, and it is much stronger.

Therefore, the cavalry will run, just like the Dongyao cavalry did before, they will use their own mobility to constantly adjust their direction and try to attack.

If there is no chance, change direction and do it again...

If it weren't for the two cavalry regiments of the Chu army, with the determination to intercept them desperately, clenching their teeth and constantly adjusting their positions according to the position of the enemy cavalry, the cavalry would have found a loophole and rushed in.

Once the enemy cavalry finds a weak point and rushes in, it will definitely be a disaster for the infantry and artillery on the march.

And most of the generals of the Chu army are also very clear, so they have always paid great attention to the defense against enemy cavalry on the battlefield.

As early as when fighting the Ming army on the Central Plains battlefield and the Guanzhong battlefield, the Ming army often used the advantage of cavalry to launch attacks. The Chu army’s response method was to intercept and entangle the enemy with weak cavalry, so that some infantry were always in a state of combat readiness, etc. After the weak cavalry of their own family entangled the opponent, they immediately stepped forward to reinforce and sent the enemy cavalry that had slowed down to the west with guns.

If you do this kind of thing a lot, you will naturally have all kinds of experience.

In the Army Officer Academy, the infantry, artillery, and even the trainees of the engineering and engineering departments all need to accept special courses on cavalry defense.

This shows that the Chu army attaches great importance to anti-cavalry!
No way, who made the Great Chu Empire lack excellent war horses and excellent traditional cavalry, and this situation will not be resolved in a short time.

And the best unit against cavalry is cavalry!

If the cavalry can't do it, they can only think of another way.

As for producing a large number of excellent cavalry in a short period of time, this is impossible!
It doesn't matter whether the Chu army is strong or not, the key point is that the training cycle of cavalry is too long, and it will take several years at every turn...

Even though the Great Chu Empire has invested huge manpower and material resources in the construction of cavalry, it is conservatively estimated that it will take at least three to five years to see more obvious results.

How should I put it, cavalry is easy to get, but war horses are hard to find!

The horse administration of the Great Chu Empire has already started, and the cultivation of high-quality war horses is also in progress, but the cultivation of horses takes time. It takes several years for horses to grow up from birth, and then it takes a long time to expand the size of the high-quality horse herd. several years……

Without a large number of excellent war horses, naturally there will not be a large number of excellent cavalry...

No matter you are playing the oriental classical cavalry, or all kinds of messy new cavalry that the Chu army has figured out, you must have a horse, right...

It's a pity that the Great Chu Empire is short of horses. Well, to be precise, it is not a lack of horses. There are still many inferior horses in the Great Chu Empire. The Chu army really lacks excellent horses!
The cavalry caused by the lack of horses was not good, which gave birth to many messy anti-cavalry tactics of the Chu army... just like the people of Song Dynasty to develop heavy armored infantry and the like.

Well, let alone, in fact, Chu Jun really tried this, but unfortunately it was useless...

In addition, the Chu army actually has a lot of heavy armored infantry... In the old-fashioned infantry battalion, half of the spearmen and half of the musketeers were composed, and one-third of the half of the spearmen were heavy armored infantrymen. Spearman.

These heavy-armored spearmen are all wearing heavy armor. This kind of heavy-armored spearmen is actually the heavy-armored infantry in the cold weapon era. In terms of protection ability, the heavy-armored spearmen in the Chu army are a few The ancient heavy armored infantry of a hundred years ago was much stronger...

This is the result of improved armor protection capabilities after technological innovation.

When outsiders, especially those generals of the Ming army described the Chu army before, they would often say this: Chu thieves have many guns and thick armor.

The armor rate of the Chu army is very high, and the front-line soldiers are basically 100%.

The old first-class division was even able to arm one-third of the spearmen into full-body heavy armored spearmen.

The current new first-class divisions are all musketeers, so most of the soldiers wear light half-body armor. Only the grenadiers can see full-body heavy armor, but the grenadiers usually don’t wear it in battle. In special circumstances, such as attacking and assaulting, heavy armor will be worn.

Although armor is still widely used in the Chu army, it is no longer developing in the direction of heavy armor, but in the direction of light weight.

As for dealing with the cavalry... The top generals of the Chu army firmly believe that shells and bullets are the only solution!
After killing the enemy cavalry with shells and bullets on the charge road, naturally there will be no enemy cavalry rushing up...

The long-term disadvantage of cavalry has led the Chu army to pay attention to anti-cavalry tactics, and the same situation also happened in other directions!
This point is also evident in the previous Ming army's new standard army.

Looking at East Asia, which army has defended the city in the past ten years?There is no doubt that it is the Ming army. Well, it means that the army is not accurate enough. To be more accurate, it is the new standard army prepared by the governors.

Why?Wasn't it forced by Chu Jun...

In the face of the Chu army, which is powerful in field battles and has a large number of guns, they can only think about how to defend the city all day long. Not to mention, after the research and actual combat experience of many generals in the Ming army, they built The city defense system is getting better and better, so that the Chu army with a large number of artillery will have a headache seeing it...

Conversely, looking at East Asia, which army has the strongest offensive ability in the past ten years?This must be Chu Jun.

Why is the Chu army so strong in attacking fortifications?
It was because the Ming army on the opposite side continued to develop the city defense system, forcing the Chu army to continuously strengthen its siege methods.

The solid shells fired by traditional field artillery are basically useless to the city defense system of the new standard army, forcing the Chu army to use mortars that are extremely cost-effective and very dangerous to use, and later forced the Chu army to develop new flowering ammunition. Finally came up with the howitzer.

Under the attack of the new howitzers, the main force of the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the new Qin army under Sun Chuanting, couldn't hold it back and died.

After the end of the new Qin army, the Western Ming Dynasty was completely over. In the remaining areas of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, there were not many new standard troops equipped with guns, and the special city defense system of the new standard army could not be copied.

The city defense system of the new standard army is also based on the large number of guns equipped by its own side. Those core fortresses outside the city do not have two and a half catties of field guns. Basically useless.

In terms of attacking fortifications and city defense systems, the Ming Xinbiao Army and the Chu Army are spears and shields, stimulating each other and making progress.

In terms of cavalry and anti-cavalry tactics, the Ming army and the Chu army are also in the relationship of spears and shields, but now, the spears and shields still exist, but the spears have been replaced by the Dongcap cavalry from the Ming army cavalry.

It's just that in the face of the constantly upgraded and strengthened anti-cavalry tactics of the Chu army, the cavalry of the Dongyaoren failed to get too much money, and could only watch the Chu army fight to Fuzhou City.

As for the Seventh Army, which is equipped with a large number of artillery, especially a large number of howitzers in batches, let alone attacking a city with a traditional city defense system like Fuzhou today, even if it was launched a few years ago by the Ming and New Standard Army. The various new city defense systems are also one-on-one.

At that time, tens of thousands of new Qin troops were stationed. Relying on the advantages of natural and dangerous locations, the Tongguan defense line equipped with at least dozens of field guns and hundreds of traditional short-barreled shotguns were all smashed open by the Chu army with new howitzers. A gap was opened, and the entire defense line was torn apart.

Now Fuzhou City, which doesn't even have much anti-cannon fortifications and only a dozen long-barreled artillery, can't stop the Chu army at all!
And all this was fully proved after the Chu army launched the siege on the first day!

When the Chu army directly used more than 100 various artillery pieces to start bombarding Fuzhou City, a general who stood on the city wall and commanded the defenders watched the artillery shells flying all over the sky, and the city head and various places in the city were constantly There was an explosion...

Eyes widened, mouth slightly opened...

The whole person seemed to be frightened, until a 150mm grenade fired by an [-]-pound light howitzer fell in front of him, and he showed a frightened expression as if he had recovered. Immediately after a loud noise, his The whole world became dark and quiet...

A few low-ranking officers from Dongyao next to them looked at the bloody Dongyao generals who were blown up here, their expressions were dull, and then no one said anything, and ran down the city wall one by one quickly!
It's a pity that they ran down the city wall and it was still not safe!

The howitzers fired by the Chu Army’s howitzers have a curved trajectory. When attacking the city, especially when the enemy is not threatened by a large number of artillery, the artillery units of the Chu Army simply put dozens of nine-jin and eighteen-jin light howitzers Close to the deployment, directly play a large-angle curved shelling, this ballistic is comparable to that of a mortar.

Under such circumstances, a large number of grenade shells fell directly from the sky, instead of flying straight from the opposite side...

This also means that many grenades will cross the city wall and explode not far behind the city wall, instead of flying over the battlements without hitting the battlements like those field guns with a straight trajectory. There!
A large number of grenades exploded on the city wall and at the front and rear positions, which made the Dongbao who guarded the city do not know how to deal with it.

They have never experienced such a war!
In their minds, war is fighting and killing. Soldiers from both sides collide and fight each other. Whoever can't hold on will lose.

Even the Dongbang people are equipped with guns, but to a large extent, the outcome of the war is also determined by the fighting of the first-line infantry and cavalry.

But now... Chu Manzi on the opposite side has not come up yet, and his side has already suffered heavy casualties.

There are explosions everywhere, gunpowder smoke everywhere, and it's not safe there.

It is not safe on the top of the city, and it is not safe behind the city wall. From the perspective of Dongyao soldiers in these situations, it seems that the whole world is exploding, even if they are hiding in a house not far behind the city wall, it is even more dangerous .

Because if the grenade directly hits the house and explodes, it will be killed by the collapsed defense if it is not killed.

In order to avoid the explosion, they ran around like headless chickens, but running around is actually more dangerous...

The grenade is different from the solid bullet. The grenade relies on the shrapnel to kill, and the lethality of the shrapnel is the greatest in the open area.

Run around in an open area, and the shrapnel flying around will find you!
The best way is to find a corner that can block the shrapnel and hide, and then pray that you don't get hit directly by the shells!
Of course, there are also large-caliber howitzers in the Chu army. The shells of these large-caliber howitzers have a larger charge and can form a relatively large shock wave after the explosion, so if you encounter large-caliber shells, even if you hide in a bunker It must be safe.

The Dongbao people have never experienced such a situation, and they don't know how to deal with it.

(End of this chapter)