Rivera. Although it was the first time that Captain Antonio had commanded such a large-scale army battle, the experience gained from his long service in the army allowed him to form a three-pint Spanish phalanx.

Although due to the lack of officers, after all, the Spaniards did not think of raising a native army to fight a large-scale war. All they need is a police force that can fight the law and order war.

However, because there was a group of Japanese overseas Chinese with a high degree of obedience as the front-row soldiers, the three Spanish phalanxes still looked good when they appeared on the battlefield, and they were quite able to frighten the Japanese recruits who had just joined the army.

Unlike Li Chenfang, who concentrated the main force on the right flank, Rivera. Lieutenant Antonio's tactics were more rigid, dividing his forces evenly among the three Spanish phalanxes, with three 3-pounder guns and three 6-pounder guns scattered in the front row between the three phalanxes.

The remaining 227 cavalrymen remained with them, ready to be used as a reserve for breaking through the Japanese lines when the battle reached a stalemate.

On the Japanese side, in addition to concentrating the main force on the right flank, the formation of the Japanese army in front of the army was to adopt a slender three-line horizontal formation, so that although the frontal strength of the Japanese army was smaller than that of the opposite side, the formation of the enemy army was much broader.

Rivera. Lieutenant Antonio was clearly not a colonial officer with a penchant for military innovation, so he did not pay attention to the horizontal tactics employed by the Japanese at first. In his opinion, the thin horizontal formation of the Japanese army lacked depth, and as long as his phalanx broke through one place, the Japanese army would soon be dispersed.

However, Rivera. Lieutenant Antonio's knowledge of war lagged behind not only the Ming and Japanese officers on the other side, but even the Spanish officers at home.

In the past 20 years of European wars, the armies of European countries have advanced the cold and mixed combat mode to the combat mode centered on the core.

The combat mode based on cold weapons naturally emphasizes the depth of the battlefield, after all, except for bows and arrows, it is difficult for other soldiers to attack from the rear. Once the armies of both sides begin to engage in hand-to-hand combat, the deeper the depth of the army, the more difficult it is for the enemy to penetrate, and the more difficult it is for one's own side to be defeated.

But in the era of * as the core, firepower output has become the most emphasized content of the army. Li Chenfang and other officers of the Ming Army, after participating in all battles overseas, found that the blow inflicted by the output of all-force firepower to the enemy was far more than 10 sporadic shots, even if the number of casualties caused by the two was not much different.

For soldiers on the battlefield, the fall of one or two companions around them may be easier to inspire their mentality of fighting for their lives. For some brave soldiers, there may be the idea that they will rush into the enemy array and may not be shot at by the enemy.

But when the companions around him fall in pieces, even the bravest soldiers will not hesitate to turn around and flee, which is due to human nature.

Prince Maurice, for example, of the United Provincial Republic, improved the Spanish phalanx after discovering that the power of the arquebus was stabilizing. He organized the smoothbore gunners into six platoons, and through continuous training of soldiers to form a platoon, regroup, drill and review, thus forming a reciprocating cycle of gun platoon tactics.

This new phalanx, also known as the Maurice phalanx, reduced the number of spearmen and increased the number of smoothbore gunners, and the example of spearmen and musketeers was close to 1:1.

And the Ming army, which adopted flintlock muskets and field artillery reforms, took a step forward from its European counterparts. In the Guards and the First and Second Armies of the new army, the Ming army had eliminated the cold-weapon units and replaced the spearmen with musketeers armed with bayonets.

The new army outside the capital has not yet been fully equipped with bayonets due to financial constraints, but the army's coldness has also reached 1:2-1:3. The Japanese army was trained by the Ming army, and it was a military unit used by the Ming army to test new tactics, so most of the musketeers in each wing were between 70-80%.

This is also the reason why the Japanese army will use the three-row horizontal line tactic, but although the use of such tactics strengthens the firepower output, it also increases the quality requirements for soldiers and junior officers.

In previous wars, face-to-face hand-to-hand combat was actually only fought by the soldiers in the first few rows of the two sides, and most of the rear troops were playing soy sauce, and when their own troops broke through the opponent's defensive line, the soldiers in the back rows would chase the opponent's rout to expand the victory. If their side is broken through, the rear troops will also flee.

Therefore, in cold weapon warfare, the army commander often puts the veterans and elites in the front, in order to break through the enemy's defense line with one blow, so as to make the soldiers in the enemy's rear flee, thus shaking the mind of the whole army. Under the guidance of this kind of operational thinking, the Ming army's family system will prevail so much.

In the army that uses *, almost every soldier has to face the fear of hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and the family system at this time is also unsustainable. For an army that uses * to fight, the ability of a tactical unit to cooperate is much more important than that of a warrior who is brave enough to champion the three armies.

When all the soldiers in a tactical unit have outstanding courage, skill, and discipline, they will be swift, swift, and uniform in their actions when loading ammunition and completing platoon shots. In front of such a tactical unit, the so-called warriors and fierce generals are just targets.

In order to train such an army, it is necessary to assemble soldiers for a long time, train them to fire, march in reverse, reload and act in unison, and make them obey a strict discipline life. This kind of professional army is not something that nomads can support, and its combat effectiveness is not something that a semi-professional army can match.

So when the two sides lined up, Rivera. Lieutenant Antonio felt that his men were no weaker than the diminutive Japanese soldiers. But as soon as the two armies began to march, he immediately realized the gap between the soldiers on both sides.

Under the guidance of the drumbeat, the slender horizontal team of the Japanese army walked 300 meters without major deformation, but the native spearmen on their side walked 50 steps a little crookedly, and after 100 steps, they began to have a disjointed front and rear queue.

Rivera. Lieutenant Antonio immediately realized that the Japanese soldiers might not look very good physically, but they were certainly much better trained than the natives under his command.

But at this time, it was no longer possible to stop the phalanx, so he could only draw out some of the Spanish officers and adjust the ranks of the natives of the opposing formation. In order to disrupt the advance of the Japanese army, Rivera. Lieutenant Antonio had to order his own artillery to fire in advance to deter the Japanese soldiers.

The effective range of the 3-pounder guns of the Spanish army was between 200-300, and the maximum range could exceed 800 meters. The effective range of the 6-pounder gun was between 800-1100, and the maximum range could exceed 1800 meters.

When the two armies lined up, the distance between the two arrays was about 1,500 meters, and when the two armies approached 1,000 meters, Rivera. Lieutenant Antonio then ordered his artillery to open fire. At this time, the Japanese army had just entered the effective range of the six-pounder gun, and was far from the effective range of the three-pounder gun.

Therefore, half of the Spanish shells were ineffective, and only in the case of hitting the big luck could the shells of the 3-pounder gun happen to fall into the Japanese array.

It should be said that although the number of artillery used in Spain was small, it was not powerful enough. But for many Japanese soldiers on the first battlefield, these shells still caused them a lot of pressure.

In particular, several six-pound shells just pierced the Japanese ranks, creating several gaps in the thin Japanese formation, causing confusion among the Japanese soldiers near the gaps, and boosting the morale of the Spanish-Turkish forces who witnessed all this.

However, the military innovation of the Japanese army is not only reflected in the replacement of weapons, the training methods of soldiers, and the change of formations during combat, but also in the organization of the army.

The new army has reduced the number of soldiers in a tactical unit to about half of what it used to be, but the number of officers in a tactical unit has been strengthened. In other words, the number of junior officers has increased.

When the Japanese army was shelled, the benefits of this organizational change were immediately apparent. The Japanese soldiers, who were in confusion and wavering, quickly resumed their ranks under the scolding and whipping of the junior officers, and once again marched in unison towards the enemy phalanx opposite.

The rapid recovery of the Japanese army in the queue shocked the allied soldiers who were at the forefront of the phalanx. In their eyes, these Japanese soldiers were not human beings at all, but sentient pieces of wood.

According to the Ming army's drill code, the horizontal marching speed of the battlefield should be 86 steps per minute, while the Japanese army stipulated that it was 78 steps per minute, that is, 48-51 meters per minute. The Japanese endured about 10 minutes of shelling, about 5-6 rounds of fire. Finally, he approached within 150 meters of the leading soldiers of the coalition forces.

As the Japanese began to make final adjustments before the battle, the three Spanish phalanxes on the side of the coalition were about to turn into diamond shapes. At this time, the Spaniards no longer cared about adjusting their formation, and they could only pray that they could enter hand-to-hand combat as soon as possible and break through the Japanese defense line with the advantage of spearmen's weapons.

Hundreds of Spanish arquebusiers began to shoot in rotation, and although the Spanish arquebusiers were not accurate at this distance, they were so powerful that they could make a Japanese soldier incapacitated by just grazing a person's limbs.

However, the Japanese soldiers, who had already endured the Spanish artillery fire, calmed down at this time, aimed their guns at the spearmen opposite, and patiently waited for the shooting orders of the officers around them.

The three rows of Japanese horizontal squatting in the front row, half-squatting, and the back row standing upright, forming a three-dimensional firepower, when the coalition forward entered a distance of 80 meters, the Japanese soldiers finally heard the order to fire.

A metal storm of buckshot swept away the spearmen and arquebusiers in the front row of the coalition forces, and even wiped out half of the soldiers in the second row of the wing. Such a fierce blow immediately made the coalition soldiers panic, and the three Spanish phalanxes began to collapse.

It was also at this time that the commanders of both sides, who were standing in the rear and watching the game, issued orders almost simultaneously. Rivera. Lieutenant Antonio ordered the cavalry units around him to attack, trying to flank the Japanese from the left flank and save the rout of the frontal troops.

Li Chenfang ordered all his artillery to open fire, completely crushing the left flank phalanx of the coalition army, which had been in chaos, and ordered the Maori wing to prepare for a charge. After Li Chenfang gave the order, he added: "... Tell the Maori Victor that no prisoners are needed in this battle. I hope that this battle will show the Spaniards and the natives of Luzon that the majesty of the Celestial Empire brooks no provocation. ”

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