"Concentrate firepower to fight the 'Killer Lang', and order the jumping soldiers to go to the city to block the enemy from going to the city!" Seeing that dozens of armored enemy soldiers were carrying siege equipment and leaving the team, Luo Datong ordered loudly.

In fact, from the formation of the Shuaifu Army to the present, the offensive and defensive battle that took place in Changshu should be regarded as the first real battle of the New Song Army to defend the city. When they were in Qiongzhou, the battles mostly took place on the sea and the coastline, and they often blocked the enemy's main force at sea by virtue of the superiority of the naval army, and when the enemy arrived on the island, they often suffered heavy casualties, unable to break through the coastal defense line of the Song army, and could not penetrate deep into the hinterland prefectures and counties.

In the subsequent battle to recover Jiangnan, the Song army was on the offensive, and several limited defensive operations were also defensive counterattacks, and after heavy losses with the enemy in the defense, they counterattacked. In these battles, rivers and mountains are often used as the basis for local fortifications and defenses, and strictly speaking, they should also belong to the category of field warfare. The reason why this is so is also because of the result of Meng Yuan's wanton destruction of the city after conquering Jiangnan, so that they have no objective conditions to defend the city.

After recovering Jiangnan, the Song army began to establish a defense line on the Yangtze River, rebuilding and renovating the prefecture capitals and cities located in important areas along the Yangtze River, and restoring the cities on the second line and in the hinterland that were on the main transportation routes and military points. However, in the past three years, the Mengyuan army has been unable to cross the Yangtze River defense line, and even if a small force successfully smuggles to the south of the Yangtze River, it will avoid well-defended cities, and only dare to fight those military fortresses that are remote and relatively weakly fortified.

As a result, the Song army had not actually organized a battle to defend the city, and lacked experience in this area, especially after changing to firearms. In the past, the training and exercises of defending the city were mostly based on the cold weapon combat method and the experience and lessons of the enemy army defending the city that was reversed in several siege operations, so the New Song Dynasty army, from the emperor Zhao Yu to the ordinary basic officers, everyone was still in the stage of exploring and summing up experience, and the current Changshu garrison Luo Datong was the same, and he was also crossing the river by feeling the stones.

However, Luo Datong knew that most of the commanders would be well-equipped when launching an attack. Elite veterans with rich combat experience and the strongest combat effectiveness are arranged in the front row as an assault force to lead the way and guide the follow-up troops to attack; Or make them 'jumping' and use them as surprise soldiers at the critical moment of the decisive battle, which plays the role of boosting morale and opening breakthroughs. Because these selected sharp soldiers fight for their lives, they are also vividly called 'Collision Heroes'.

Of course, these front-line soldiers who lead the way are not cannon fodder, nor are they more casualty than other troops. They are generally elites with relatively strong combat effectiveness, and ordinary soldiers can't go if they want to. The soldiers in the front row have at least seen the big scene, and when they see the enemy coming violently, they will not run away, and they have the most basic professional qualities.

Moreover, archbow and crossbow shooting is the norm in war, and there are not many opportunities for direct melee combat between the armies of both sides. When fighting, they usually use weapons such as bows and crossbows to shoot from a distance, or block and encircle, waiting for the opponent to run out of food and grass, and will not easily engage in a head-to-head duel. In a big battle, this kind of blockade, harassment, and temptation may occupy most of the time, and the real decisive battle is very short.

As a result, in most cases, the damage taken by soldiers comes primarily from ranged weapons such as bows and crossbows. Under the long-range projectile coverage of the bow and arrow, the chance of hitting the arrow is the same regardless of the front row and the back row. Front-row soldiers are usually better protected than ordinary soldiers, wearing well-dressed armor and having a higher safety factor than others.

In addition, the military formation often changes its formation according to actual needs in the battle, and alternates operations according to the battlefield situation, even if the cavalry is divided into many squads to take turns to attack when attacking, and it is rare to rely on the same group of people to put the whole field in the front row, after all, the continuous combat man and horse have to rest. From this point of view, everyone's chances of survival are equal, and since it's their turn, they don't have any complaints.

It is human nature to be afraid of death, and if elite veterans are faced with a mortal situation, they may also weigh the pros and cons and have the idea of escaping. How can the soldiers be firmly restrained at the forefront of the military formation? In the final analysis, it still depends on strict military discipline. The so-called strict military discipline is nothing more than generous rewards and heavy punishments. As the saying goes, there must be brave men under heavy rewards, and the rewards received in all dynasties and dynasties are extremely rich, and such generous rewards are enough to make people rush to them.

But then again, this is a minority after all, and most of the time someone is still needed as a meat shield to resist the powerful impact of the cavalry, and there seems to be no chance of getting a reward at this time, and not everyone wants money and death. What really makes soldiers dare not leave their posts without permission under any circumstances is the harsh military law. Any army that escapes is basically bound to die, and there is still a glimmer of life in desperate life, even if it is killed, the family can still get generous pensions. Therefore, under the stimulation and constraints of generous rewards and strict military laws, soldiers can only absolutely obey military orders on the battlefield, no matter what position they are placed in.

Often, an elite unit that has won multiple victories has a strong confidence in defeating the enemy, and has never lost a head-on confrontation with the enemy for most of their careers, and has even produced a very large casualty ratio. Countless experiences have convinced them that as long as they remain sober and never waver in their confidence in defeating the enemy, the enemy will definitely fail in the end, and naturally there will be no reason to escape.

All in all, those who survive the rigors of war will gradually become experienced soldiers. And because the quality of the soldiers in the army is uneven, most of the commanders put elite veterans who are well-equipped and experienced in combat in the front row. The general battle can not make them shake half a point, even if they encounter a strong enemy army, the enemy is very strong after the fight, the two sides are evenly matched, and the experienced veterans understand that they can only hold on, and they can only grit their teeth and stick to the end, until one side's will to fight completely collapses. And once you can't hold on and collapse first, the only outcome in this case is to be unilaterally slaughtered by the enemy.

Therefore, the most likely situation in a war is that one side fights more smoothly, because the defeated side always has to use relatively rookie new troops against the victorious side's already experienced veterans. The result is only to increase their experience and morale, as well as their confidence. Of course, if a strong army suffers heavy casualties in a certain battle, it is easy to collapse, because there are no core backbone veterans who can stand in the first row.

Of course, all of the above are professional armies that can get on the battlefield and kill the enemy, and are above the average level. But in countless wars, large and small, many times the protagonists of the wars are amateurs with no combat experience. They can't accurately predict the outcome of a war, and may judge the contrast between enemy and enemy forces only from the comparison of numbers, but vision can sometimes deceive people, and the so-called allusion to the grass and trees is exactly this truth, and generals who are good at using troops often take advantage of this.

Therefore, when Luo Datong found that the enemy broke away from the brigade and took the lead in attacking, he decided that they were the elite forces that played the vanguard, although the number was small, it often played a role in affecting the trend of the battle. If you succeed, you will be able to climb the city first, capture the flag, seize the foothold, and lay the foundation for the army to successfully capture the city; On the contrary, it is only necessary to concentrate firepower to destroy these dozens of people, and no matter how many enemy troops are left, their morale will be affected and they will be scattered.

At present, the enemy army is attacking in two directions: one way to attack actively, it is bound to win; One side fought tepidly, intending to contain it. The direction of the main attack seemed to have become clear, and Luo Datong decided to transfer the reserves of the three regiments defending the West Gate and Zhenshan Gate to the West Gate to strengthen the defensive force, instead of using the brigade reserves. Of course, in addition to taking into account the fact that the battle has just begun, there are also practical considerations.

First, because of the low regulation of Changshu City, the city wall is narrow, and it is difficult for large troops to deploy. When using the commonly used triple shots, when changing formations, they will rub shoulders and affect tactical movements; Second, if the formation is too dense, it is easy to be shot by the enemy, increasing casualties. You must know that the Song army, which has changed its firearms, has eliminated its armor, but only wears a helmet and cuirass, and its defensive power has decreased under the dense rain of arrows; The three Song troops were fully equipped with firearms, and the only weapon used for hand-to-hand combat was the bayonet on the gun, and the bayonet was a bladeless three-edged form, which was conducive to stabbing but could not be chopped, and was not conducive to close combat in a small city.

Another important reason is that the weapons equipped by the Song army are not conducive to destroying the equipment used by the enemy army to enter the city. In modern film and television dramas, we often see that the defending side can easily push down the ladders and climbing poles used by the enemy to climb the city, and even a flying leg can kick the ladder into the air and overturn it, and the people on it screamed and fell to the ground, and they were not dead or half disabled.

In fact, this is not the case, even the simplest ladders and climbing poles used to climb the city are equipped with iron hooks at the top, and even the blades are made into a jagged shape so that they can be firmly hooked to the gaps in the city wall when erected. After standing on the ladder, gravity increases, and as the number of people increases, the friction also increases greatly. In such a situation, it is almost impossible for one or more people to push the ladder down with their bare hands.

Therefore, Luo Datong ordered all regiments to form a jumping team as a mobile force, and the personnel must first have a big waist and strong strength, after all, they will not lose their strength. They were not armed with muskets, but were armed with a large axe or pole, a two-foot-long ring-headed knife on their backs, ten grenades in their pockets around their waists, and iron armor.

As can be seen from the weapons equipped, the task of the Jumping Squad is to destroy the enemy's climbing equipment when the enemy enters the city, and to act as a counterattack force to kill and injure the enemy who climbs the tower. And once they are on the field, it means that the enemy army has been forced under the city......