I want to be emperor

Chapter 611 Danba's Fear

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 put on the carriage.

At this time, he also heard the rhythmic sound of the horn coming from the front.

Peng Sanyu, who has been in the army for many years and is familiar with the horns in the army, immediately knew that it was the horn for urgent battle preparations!
Peng Sanyu immediately looked at the captain not far away!
This young second lieutenant, who had just graduated from the Army Military Academy for less than a year, felt a little stunned at this moment, and sat in the carriage for a long time without giving orders.

Peng Sanyu cursed secretly in his heart: "The recruit, you look pretty good when you're not fighting, but when something happens, you panic!"

But that was his immediate superior anyway, so he couldn't directly step forward to scold him, he could only walk to the captain quickly: "Captain, it's time to give an order!"

After the young second lieutenant heard this, he finally realized: "Yes, the enemy is attacking, stop immediately and form an emergency formation!"

At this time, the sentry officer at the front also dispatched a messenger: "The sentry commander ordered that all sentries stop, and form a square car formation on the spot."

The young second lieutenant said: "Got it!"

And his main subordinates, that is, the three chiefs like Peng Sanyu have already started to act!

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 formation formations. Even without the orders of the second lieutenant platoon leader above, they can actually form formations Work.

Peng Sanyu ran quickly, calling for a dozen other soldiers under him to move quickly, remove the horses from the four-wheeled carriage full of food, and 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 soldiers.

As the carriages of other friendly troops formed formation one after another, nearly a hundred carriages soon formed a huge hollow square formation.

And in front, there are two hollow phalanxes of the same size.

The Chu army's supply unit used these carriages to form three hollow square chariot formations as soon as they discovered the enemy's attack, with a distance of about 130 meters from each other, just like the hollow square formations of infantry.

It is worth noting that these empty phalanxes are opposite to each other, roughly like '◇◇◇', not directly facing each other, but opposite to each other.

This multi-diamond hollow phalanx seems to be just an adjustment of the angle, but in fact it is one of the results of years of exploration of the line tactics of the Great Chu Empire Army.

Because if the hollow phalanx is deployed face to face, um, that's like '□□□', then it's not fighting the enemy, but playing line-to-line shooting with yourself.If you want to avoid accidental injury, you can only open the distance, and once you open the distance, you will not be able to form intensive firepower, and there will be no support for each other.

But if it is changed from corner to corner, then there will be no accidental injury, and at the same time, crossfire can be formed on both sides, and more powerful firepower will be exerted when facing the enemy's impact.

Similarly, this is also the main reason why the empty square array is used instead of the hollow circular array.

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 era of cold weapons.

In the era of cold weapons, although formation is also important, it is far less important than in the era of line formation.

This is because in the line era, individual combat capabilities have become less important, and it is impossible for a small team of armored elites to kill through the entire formation.

Because no matter how brave the soldiers are, they can't stop the guns. If a row of muskets hit the past, even if you Zhao Zilong is reborn, you will still have to drink your hatred under the lead bullets.

In the era of line formation, the emphasis is on the display of firepower, and if you want to display better firepower, then an appropriate formation is inevitable.

Or in other words, the formations of the line era are basically born to exert more intensive firepower.

Even the hollow phalanx used as a defensive cavalry still focuses on the display of firepower. This is also when the Chu army conducts anti-cavalry operations. Unless the number of troops is too small, otherwise, it will never just play a lonely hollow square. instead of a phalanx, three or more hollow phalanxes will be deployed as much as possible.

Under the same strength, it is divided into multiple hollow phalanxes. It seems that each phalanx has fewer troops and becomes thinner, but it can form crossfire.

And crossfire is more important than the thickness of the formation.

This series of hollow phalanxes of the Chu army originated from infantry and evolved from the large hollow phalanxes of the earliest arquebus era.

The supply troops also followed the tactics of the infantry, and made certain improvements according to their own conditions, such as using carriages as obstacles.

However, although the hollow chariot formation of the supply troops is based on horse-drawn carriages, strictly speaking, it is also a hollow square formation, and there is not much difference in essence.

Now, the Chu army has set up three hollow chariot formations, diagonal to each other, with a distance of about 130 meters.

The outermost periphery of each hollow chariot formation is a carriage, and behind the carriage are musketeers waiting in full force. 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, there are coachmen and grooms with a large number of horses, in addition to ammunition temporarily transported from the ammunition vehicles.

It is worth noting that the reins of these horses are firmly fixed on the temporary iron piles. This is to prevent the horses from running around under the influence of guns and guns during combat, and avoid being shot by enemy bullets or bows and arrows. Injured and running around.

This is the draft horse. If you are using a mule, then no matter how fixed it is, it will be useless... because the mule is more sensitive to the sound of guns and guns.

When the horses face the sound of gunfire, they can at most lick their hooves, but the mules will just roll all over the ground... It's like crazy, and it can't even be pulled.

One thing could go wrong, before the enemy came in, the formation would have to be destroyed from the inside by these frightened mules.

This is also the reason why front-line troops basically do not use mules, and all use draft horses to transport cannons and supplies.

Although mules are stronger, have better endurance, and are better fed, they are prone to panic, and they scream and roll immediately after panic, making them unsuitable for fighting close to the front line.

In today's Chu army, mules are basically only used when transporting materials on a large scale in the rear.

After all, since the empire regained Monan and the Northeast, there has been no shortage of Mongolian horses.

Even if it is a Central Asian horse with better quality, with the introduction of stallions and its own cultivation for many years, the Great Chu Empire has continued to breed a batch of high-quality Central Asian horses.

The Central Asian horses carefully bred by Ma Cheng, the Great Horse Battalion of the Great Chu Empire, are already different from the Central Asian horses that were directly introduced from the previous Western Regions such as the Yarkand Khanate.

The horse administrators of the Great Chu Empire finally obtained a brand new Central Asian horse after introducing Arabian horses, Central Asian horses, and local Hequ horses for selective breeding.

If you pay more attention, the pedigree of this thing is actually very complicated, and it has many pedigrees of Mongolian horse, Arabian horse, Kazakh horse, and Qinghai horse.

The carefully bred Central Asian horse has an average shoulder height of 1.4 meters. This shoulder height far exceeds that of the Mongolian horse, but it also inherits the excellent characteristics of the Mongolian horse, that is, it has particularly good endurance and is 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 exploded... If it is compared with an Arabian horse, it is just not as good. Compared with a thoroughbred horse, it will be completely exploded...

This kind of Central Asian horse, from the point of view of later generations, 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 the best military horse that the Great Chu Empire Army can obtain so far, and to a certain extent, it is even more suitable for military use than the similarly imported and cultivated Arabian horses.

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 riding and running into the battlefield at a longer distance, which means higher battlefield maneuverability.

Nowadays, many of the main cavalry units of the Chu army have begun to switch to Central Asian horses one after another, but the number of Central Asian horses is not enough now, and most of the cavalry units of the Chu army can only use Mongolian horses.

Today's Damaying Army Stud Farm is a military stud farm that specializes in breeding and breeding Central Asian horses in the Great Chu Empire. In order to ensure the purity of bloodlines and avoid being polluted by bad horses, the Army directly took all the original Mongolian horses in the Damaying Army Stud Farm. migrated away.

At the same time, in order to breed more Central Asian horses, the Great Chu Empire Army has set up special Central Asian horse army horse farms in Monan and several other horse farms, especially Jeju Island.

Just want to breed more Central Asian horses.

In the army of the Great Chu Empire, the self-bred Central Asian horses have gradually entered the army and are used as horses for cavalry.

The logistics force uses Mongolian horses on a large scale. In places where Mongolian horses are not suitable in the southern region, they use the cultivated southwest horses. Although the southwest horses are short, they can use the climate and terrain of the southern region. This alone It is enough to make this seemingly short horse breed the main horse of the Chu army's southern troops.

The Great Chu 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 Great Chu Empire is too large, thousands of kilometers from north to south, thousands of kilometers from east to west, from the ice field in the north to the tropical rain forest in the south, from the coast in the east to the desert in the west.

From the low-altitude plains to the plateaus in the west, it covers almost all terrains and all climates.

However, troops fighting in different regions have different requirements for weapons, mules and horses, and it is difficult to unify them.

Therefore, most of the time, Chu Jun cares more about adaptability than performance.

As with weapons, so with 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, and the infantry and logistics units are equipped with Mongolian horses, while mules are not even visible.

This also avoids the need to worry about the mules being disturbed by the artillery when the [-]st Battalion under the [-]nd Supplies Regiment conducts defensive operations, because they are not assigned mules...

Peng Sanyu turned his head and glanced at the back. The auxiliary personnel such as the groom and the coachman had already placed the horses, and there should be no problems in the rear.

Now, what they need to face is the enemy cavalry who are rushing.

At this time, Peng Sanyu also heard a rumbling sound from a distance, which was the sound of a large number of horses' hooves trampling the ground.

The sound made by a small number of war horses is not loud, but the sound of thousands or even more war horses running is earth-shattering, and can be heard even at a long distance.

Not long after, Peng Sanyu saw a puff of smoke billowing up in the northwest sky!
Not long after the smoke and dust appeared, the figure of the enemy cavalry appeared on the top of a low hill. Even if it was far away, it could be seen from the scattered formation and messy costumes on the opposite side. Traditional cavalry unit of nomads.

In these days, it is easy to distinguish the cavalry of the Chu army from the cavalry of other armies.

The cavalry of the Chu army either wore gray uniforms or bright steel plate armor, and they were unified in uniform, and their formations were often very neat. At a glance, they knew that they were the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire.

"Here we come!" Peng Sanyu withdrew his gaze, and then landed on his subordinates 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, you just follow my orders, reload as soon as you are told to load, and shoot as soon as you shoot!"

Peng Sanyu didn't blame those nervous subordinates who even had trembling hands. These people were recruits who came over this year, and their service time was only about half a year. They hadn't even been on the battlefield before. It is normal for the enemy cavalry to be nervous.

At this time, it is useless to blame, you have to guide them to relax!

So Peng Sanyu simply walked up to one of them: "Come on, do it with me, take a deep breath... Do it again, take a deep breath!"

Seeing these people take a few deep breaths in a row, they calmed down a little, Peng Sanyu said: "They will charge up later, don't think too much, just load, aim and shoot, it's very simple, even simpler than training target shooting! "

"Wait for the next shot, we can beat them so hard that even their parents can't recognize them!"

At this time, an old soldier next to him was also smiling, and said to the recruits with a relaxed expression: "I fought a lot of barbarian cavalry in the past few years. When I was on the prairie, those barbarian cavalry Load our guns like a fool, we will shoot one by one, and a large piece will fall across the opposite side as soon as we pass by."

Another veteran came over and said: "We will win the battle later, maybe we can get some loot, these barbarians like to hang some gold and silver ornaments on their bodies, no matter how bad they are, they also have some very good crooks." Knives, get a few, we won't need them, but there are many rich bosses in China who like to collect this kind of crap!"

"Fortunately, we can make some extra money this time."

Another veteran said: "That's right, we are transporting luggage in the back every day, and there is no benefit for us except eating something. Damn, when we fought those cities in Guazhou, we didn't have any 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 [-]th Infantry Regiment. Do you know what he got when he was in Guazhou? A knife made of gold... Tsk tsk, that is a scimitar made of pure gold. Get rich!"

"This person compares himself to others, so he must be pissed off!"

"Oh, there's no way, even though we're just heavy soldiers, it's not easy to get some loot!"

Peng Sanyu on the side laughed and said, "Although our luggage is not as heavy as those of the infantry, at least we have the opportunity to drink some soup, but those guys from the Artillery Regiment, it is impossible to get even a little loot from their service to their retirement!"

"It seems to be able to run to the front to participate in the battle, but think about it, those guys who play with artillery can only hide behind and fire. If the siege enters the city and the infantry can enter the city, is it possible that their artillery can also enter the city? "

"When the artillerymen also enter the city, the shit will be eaten up by others, and there will still be their share!"

Perhaps it was Peng Sanyu's calm self-talk, and the relaxed tone of the comrades-in-arms veterans. Seeing these veterans directly change the topic to the spoils of war, the recruits all seemed to relax a bit, and they no longer knew the fear of the enemy in their hearts. Unconsciously disappeared, replaced by the desire for loot!

If you're lucky, you can get one or two pieces of gold jewelry from those barbarian cavalry... Tsk tsk, don't you want to get rich!

Peng Sanyu couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief when he saw that the hands of these recruits no longer trembled, but showed longing looks one after another.

What he was most afraid of was bringing in new recruits. Nima might not be able to perform tactical moves not to mention being nervous, and he might even be frightened and just crouch down with his head in his arms, or even turn around and run away.

That would be a big deal.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have guided these recruits immediately.

Now it seems that it has initially stabilized.

However, he also knew that this was only temporary, and when the fight really started, especially when the opponent rushed up and started shooting or shooting arrows, and his own side suffered casualties, these recruits would most likely become unstable factors again.

But he didn't have a good idea about it.

It was such a trouble for a recruit to go to the battlefield for the first time, and he couldn't expect all the soldiers under his command to be veterans who had served for several years.

As time passed, the Zhungeer cavalry on the opposite side got closer and closer, and their speed was getting faster and faster with the naked eye, and they should have entered the trotting stage.

At this moment, even though the distance was still 500 meters, the two 65mm field guns carried by the supply troops also fired.

Anyway, the target on the opposite side is so big, and the shells can basically hit them if they don't deviate too far.

In the face of a strong enemy attack, the artillery fire can be fired for as many rounds as possible.

However, although there are two 65mm field guns with lethal power, they are nothing more than that in Danba's view!
Such casualties are nothing to the thousands of cavalry under his command.

Anyway, in war, there is no one who is immortal. As long as there are not many casualties, the price is completely acceptable. As long as he rushes over, he can use the musket, bow and arrow in his hand to let the Chu barbarians on the opposite side know that they did not come outside the Great Wall whenever they wanted. .

Now that you have come, you will have to pay the price of your life!

Moreover, the formation on the opposite side looked so thin, even with a carriage as a support, Chu Manzi dared to divide his troops and listed three formations.

If the opponent gathers thousands of troops and forms an extremely thick formation, relying on spears and supporting muskets, then he will have to be cautious.

Well, at least he won't rush forward foolishly.

But the opposite side is divided.

Not to mention the division of troops, and the formation of these Chu barbarians is still facing all sides at the same time...

This means that the direct frontal force is extremely thin!

In this way, when one's own side rushes over, the pressure they face will be relatively low, not to mention that the opponent doesn't even have spearmen... Don't these Chu barbarians really think that they can fight with muskets?

Although the musketeers are powerful, they also need the protection of the spearmen. Only relying on the musketeers on the battlefield is not enough to survive.

This is the conclusion that Danba has come to during his many years of fighting, and he has also come to this conclusion from the Russian population who came from Europe.

In distant Europe, although the locals used a large number of guns and guns in wars, and the proportion of musketeers was also increasing, spearmen were still an indispensable part of the battlefield.

Whether it is defending against the enemy's impact or launching a hand-to-hand charge, spearmen, especially armored spearmen, are still the well-deserved core force.

The outcome of the two sides mainly depends on whose spearman collapses first!

But these Chu barbarians in front of them didn't have a single spearman, they were all musketeers!
Divided troops, all spearmen, still a strange hollow square formation, with insufficient frontal firepower.

Under such circumstances, Danba felt that the battle was stable.

Even if he couldn't directly break through the enemy's formation... Well, he never thought of charging like that... He's not stupid, and he wouldn't take the initiative to charge into the infantry formation, even if the infantry formation on the opposite side looked rather thin.

However, he still has no such idea!
What he has to do is to lead the cavalry under his command to approach quickly, turn at a distance of tens of meters from the enemy, and shoot and shoot arrows at the same time.

Give full play to the power of bow and arrow and spring wheel flintlock pistol at close range.

After the fight, retreat...return to the pistol cavalry to reload, and the cavalry archer slowly recovers his arm strength, and then rush again...

After repeating this, if the Chu barbarians on the opposite side don't collapse after coming a few times, he will write their names upside down!

His approach is correct, this is also a typical tactic for a light cavalry unit lacking artillery accompanying the army to deal with infantry formations, making full use of its own mobility to continuously attack until the enemy completely collapses.

When the enemy collapses, it is the time to charge up directly with a saber.

So Danba waved his hand, and the messenger beside him blew the horn on the grassland, and the humming sound spread across the field, reaching the ears of every Zhungeer cavalry.

In an instant, the more than 1000 Zhungeer cavalry began to speed up, and at the same time began to concentrate their forces, and formed a total of twelve waves with a scale of about a hundred people.

Seen from the sky, the more than 1000 cavalry were divided into twelve regiments, but they were connected end to end, forming a vertical line, heading straight for the northernmost chariot formation of the Chu army.

He did not divide his troops, but concentrated his forces and went straight to the enemy's frontmost chariot formation.

At the forefront 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 only use their feet to control the horse on the bumpy horseback, while their hands have already begun to bend their bows!
It's getting closer... soon!
Danba looked at the formation of Chu Manzi's chariot in front of him. Although there was a carriage blocking him, he could still vaguely see Chu Manzi behind the carriage.

Those Chu barbarians were like cowards who only dared to hide behind the carriage, like a shivering little rabbit.

Danba also began to bend his bow, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth!
However, at the next moment, there was a sudden crackling sound from the Chu Manzi's car formation ahead, followed by a cloud of white smoke.

As soon as Danba heard the sound and saw the scene, he knew that the opposite side was firing!

This is also within his expectations!
Still the same sentence, there is no such thing as immortality in a war, and you can't expect Chu Manzi on the opposite side to be killed by raising his hand in fright.

There is a saying that rabbits bite people when they are in a hurry.

However, when a rabbit wants to bite someone, Danba will kick it hard!

Just like now...

Danba continued to bend his bow and soon entered the range of riding a bow. He was in no mood and had no time to pay attention to other things.

After the next moment, Danba let go of the bowstring, and the arrow flew out immediately. After a distance of more than 40 meters, it directly hit Chu Manzi's carriage.

But Danba didn't see the direct direction of the arrow falling, but immediately drew out the arrow and continued shooting.

However, when he bent the bow again, he had already started to urge the horse to turn. In fact, without his urging, the horse would also turn ahead of time because of its instinct to avoid obstacles.

Ever since, Danba's mount passed directly about 30 meters in front of the Chu army's chariot 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 20 cavalry fell down behind him.

This is not a good sign!

And this is not over yet, he found that after he led his army to turn around, he had already left the front of the enemy army that had attacked just now, but his own side was still hit by the trigger!

That's an enemy musketeer from the side!

Damn!

Danba had a bad feeling in his heart. This Chu Manzi's formation was weird, and the firepower was too dense.

Although the one-sided firepower is not very good, but the continuous ability is very strong, so that after I turned to retreat, I was attacked by the opponent's firepower, which caused my own cavalry to continue to fall.

Danba has a bad feeling in his heart, but now he is on the battlefield, and there is not enough time for him to think too much. He can only instigate the horse to continue turning as much as possible, and leave the battlefield with the subordinates who have completed the attack .

Fortunately, the cavalry charged fast, and they left the battlefield in a short while.

Looking back now, he found that the first wave of cavalry led by himself had lost at least 30 people. He turned his head and looked at Chu Manzi, who was still hiding behind the carriage and continued to fire!
Those Chu barbarians had carriages as their backing, so the casualties should not be too great!
Something is wrong with this situation, the casualties are too great!

Immediately afterwards, he saw his second wave of cavalry rushing up... Just like the plan he had made before, wave after wave continued to attack the enemy's northernmost hollow phalanx until the opponent collapsed .

At this time, he saw Chu Manzi on the opposite side fired round after round of guns. After three consecutive rounds of guns, the second wave of cavalry on his side had already fallen by more than ten cavalry.

However, most of the bows and arrows or pistol bullets shot by our own cavalry landed on the carriage, and they did not pose too much threat to the Chu Manzi infantry behind the carriage.

More importantly, he saw that after the second wave of cavalry turned around, they fell obliquely in front of Chu Manzi's second musketeers, and those Chu Manzi musketeers fired. But some cavalry were still knocked down.

When the second wave completed its attack, only 70 cavalry were left in the second wave of cavalry with a scale of [-] men.

Coupled with the first wave of attacks led by himself, the two waves of attacks directly lost more than 20.00 cavalry, and the casualty ratio reached more than [-]%!
And now... the third wave of attacks has already begun, and the fourth wave of attacks will follow closely behind...

Looking at this scene, Danba's face changed drastically. He seemed to see the horrible scene where his own cavalry rushed up wave after wave, and then fell down under the guns one after another!
He didn't know why such a weird situation happened, but he knew that it must not happen!

So he panicked and shouted: "Retreat... quickly retreat!"

"Don't rush!"

Danba yelled, "Quick, trumpeter, blow the horn to retreat!"

But looking left and right, the horn player was no longer there, he had died in the previous impact.

Danba could only do it again and again, waving his hands and shouting at the cavalrymen who were rushing up from behind: "Retreat, retreat..."

But no one can hear him!

In the sound of guns and cannons on the battlefield, no one can hear the voice of people except those around them. The soldiers all follow the penetrating horn or the general's flag.

Now, the Zhungeer cavalry strictly followed Danba's previous orders, rushing up to shoot arrows or guns one after another, and then turned to follow Danba's flag to retreat.

During this process, most of the Zhungeer cavalry were able to withdraw from the battlefield intact. Only a small number of Zhungeer cavalry were hit by guns and remained on the battlefield forever.

However, there were more than ten or twenty casualties in this wave, and the Zhungeer cavalry came up wave after wave.

Gradually...the road to the Chu army's chariot formation was filled with the dead and wounded of the Zhungeer cavalry and their horses.

A charge, a charge that is expected to be easy to catch, even if there is no result but a charge that will not cause too much loss, wait until Danba rides his horse to the front and personally stops the subsequent waves of charges.

The Zhungeer people have paid more than 150 cavalry casualties!
In this regard, most of the Zhungeer cavalry didn't even know what happened, let alone why there were so many casualties.

This Chu Manzi doesn't look too strong!
Even Danba couldn't figure out why the firepower of these Chu barbarians was so powerful, which was completely beyond his understanding of musketeers.

It scares him!
Danba is not afraid of powerful enemies, what he is afraid of is powerful enemies that he cannot understand!

(End of this chapter)