Whether against cavalry or infantry, the most powerful weapon of a soldier in attack and defense is not a gun, a bayonet or a saber, but a stable formation that is closely packed together.

Whether it is a horizontal unit that is carrying out firepower or a column that moves briskly, the crux of the question is whether the troops are firm in their determination and whether they are united.

Therefore, although the skirmish line plays an extremely important role in the battle by maximizing firepower and reducing enemy firepower, the battle formation is always based on dense horizontal formations, columns, and phalanxes. Especially when the enemy army has a cavalry that is not weak, a dense phalanx will be the safest queue for the infantry.

When the Union Army advanced on the battlefield, most of the officers walked behind the infantry line and on both flanks, and the infantry called the officers behind them "queue closers", and casualties in the battle were inevitable.

"Tighten the queue!"

"Elbow to elbow!"

"The third row comes forward!"

The orders of the queue to close the people came and went on the front.

4 heavy artillery batteries took cover behind the battle line.

8 field artillery batteries with 60 guns accompanied the infantry.

The ground of the battlefield was flat, and the terrain allowed the artillery to advance in horizontal formations. The gunners were lined up on both sides of the artillery, and the ammunition wagons were located 30 meters behind the artillery front.

At a distance of 500 meters from the enemy, the artillery batteries successively issued orders to release columns.

The marching horizontal team immediately stopped, and the gunners untied the front car, turned the guns in the direction of the enemy, and set up firing positions at intervals of 8 meters.

On the Tatar front, there were 3 fortified villages, which formed the support points in the front. On their southern flank, there is a hilly area of more than 30 meters, which is the commanding height of the battlefield in this area. There are artillery positions on the mountain ridges, and there are more than 30 Hongyi cannons from 6 to 20 pounds.

Yue Le's choice of battle position was very good, and the main force of the Tartar army arrayed in the delta was covered by hills and villages, shielding the intersection of the four waterways of the Beijiang and Xijiang rivers behind him. The hills obscured the view, and the Tatar horse caravan hid in the middle.

The infantry was the flesh shield of the Tatars, and the Manchurian knights, who were slightly more advanced than the medieval cavalry, were their core force.

The river behind the Tatars was 1.8 kilometers wide at its widest point and less than 500 meters at its narrowest point, and due to the presence of sandbars on the river, the connection between Yue Le and the northern Sanshui besieging army could be achieved by two 200-meter pontoon bridges.

The battle unfolded on the entire front, and the smoke of gunpowder rose and the neighing of men and horses everywhere.

The Federal Army undoubtedly had an advantage in the fire, and the artillery accompanying the infantry advance was placed at a distance of 500 meters from the enemy, and it was actually in the optimal range of the artillery.

Half of the 60 guns bombarded the enemy artillery positions under the hills of the south-west flank, and the rest were concentrated opposite the three villages. The efficiency of firing at enemy artillery positions was not high, and this practice would be forbidden when the artillery did not have an advantage, but in this battle, the field artillery of the coalition forces had a great advantage, and there was spare time to allocate a part of the 6-pounder guns to ricochet to interfere with enemy artillery firing.

Two of the four heavy artillery companies, located on the north flank, remounted their horses and moved forward.

The two companies to the south were still in the initial firing positions, the artillery stopped firing to cool the barrels, the officers directed the soldiers to move the gun positions, adjusted the screws, and 12 12-pounder guns and 3 heavy howitzers were aimed at the most likely position of the enemy cavalry. 5 mounted artillery companies were in reserve positions, waiting for the order to attack.

The two infantry heavy artillery batteries advanced to the position of smashing the enemy's battle line under this terrain, that is, they advanced 600 meters in a straight line, and it took about 20 minutes to actually advance 1 km.

Shou Xuan put down the binoculars and rubbed his eyes, leaving little time for Yue Le. He sat back down in Maza, and the adjutant brought a silver plate with a few plates of fruit, a glass of red wine, and a cup of green tea.

Thousands of soldiers fell on the battlefield, both enemy and ours.

Blood flows on the earth, bringing nutrients to the farmland, and this rice field will surely have a good harvest next year.

Banners of the Tatars flashed behind the hills.

Under the banners of the Eight Banners, the proud cavalry of the Tatars rolled up smoke and dust.

The regular establishment of the Aliha Chaoha Cavalry Battalion and the elite formation of the Bayala Protector Military Battalion.

Dressed in heavy armor and rushing into battle, the brave Buteha beat the cattle soldiers, Jilin, Ningguta Soren battalion.

The equipment is chaotic, and the flag is not in order, and the Chahar, Korqin, Tumut and other foreign vassals are Zasak Mongols.

A considerable number of those Mongol cavalry were already armed with shotguns, but no matter what weapons they used, they could not change their status as a miscellaneous fish for 500 years. Any army on this battlefield can bully the Mongol soldiers at will, those are scum and can be beaten at will. The Mongols had neither courage, nor discipline, nor queues, and now even the archery skills inherited from years ago are rapidly fading.

Yue Le's royal banner rose on the top of the hillock, and the occasional cannonball hitting the hilly area did not shake the battle flag of the Tartar commander.

As the chief minister of the Parliamentary Prince, Yue Le's position in the Tatar court was second only to that of the younger emperor.

In today's Tatar army, he is the commander with the strongest negotiation ability with the rabbit cubs of the Eight Banners, the big head soldiers of the Green Battalion, and the Han civilian officials, and only Yue Le can concentrate all resources and cobble together such a field army in Guangdong.

The most elite Kabush Warrior Habayala strikers were in control of the horses behind the knoll, with their commander. The cavalrymen wore heavy armor, and the visor with their cheeks hanging down was tied at the mouth and nose, revealing only the eyes. The wings of the forward battalion stretched out backwards and formed a half-moon formation.

According to Tatar convention, the forward battalion was both a decisive force and a supervising force to maintain military discipline. This duty was originally carried out by the Bayala battalion many years ago, and as Bayala flooded among the Eight Banners, the Tatars established the Bayala Forward Battalion as the most elite unit in the whole army.

The elite horse teams of the Tatars, each with 1 or 2 clothed minions on their side, some on horseback, more on foot.

The Green Battalion Horse Team did not have the luxury of the Eight Banners, and Yue Le tried his best to provide his subordinate Green Battalion soldiers with relatively sufficient supplies and silver rewards.

As a Tatar prince who is very sinicized, can write Chinese poems, and can paint, Yue Le is the backstage of many Han ministers and generals, he represents the reformers in the Tatar court, and many green camp generals are willing to die for Yue Le. Although the combat effectiveness of the Manchu Eight Banners still far exceeded that of the Green Battalion, like the Gansu Green Battalion under the Commander Daniel Zhang, its combat effectiveness was only one line worse than that of the Manchu Eight Banners in the Tatar army. Daniel Zhang won the respect of many Eight Banner generals with his performance on the battlefield.

The Tatar cavalry was arranged in such a neat line that they appeared on the battlefield almost in parade formation. The current economic strength of the Tatars was sufficient to provide their most elite armies with neat uniforms and armor. Each unit is lined up in large groups according to the battalion number, and in each battalion, it is lined up in small formations according to the color of the flag of the Eight Banners, which is about the configuration of a column.

There was a burst of admiration from the order.

In addition to the Nanyang New Army, the Eight Banners Horse Team in front of them is by far the most neat formation and the strongest combat effectiveness of the army. Before encountering the Burmese army, armed with flintlock muskets, they defeated all opponents they encountered on Asian land, including the almost all-firearmed, fierceness of the Central Asian cavalry and the Erut Mongols with Turkish muskets.

Historically, it is a big mistake for the Eight Banners to think that their combat effectiveness plummeted after entering the customs, which comes from the irresponsible nonsense of some historians.

The combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners showed obvious ups and downs, whether in the northwest battlefield or the southwest battlefield, until the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, the combat effectiveness of the full army was still better than that of the Han Eight Banners and the Green Battalion. The Burmese army was more afraid of the battlefield than the Manchurian horse team.

"Führer?" The adjutant stepped forward and reminded in a low voice.

"It's a little bit of fun to be an opponent." Shou Orderly smiled, "At least they'll be in line." ”

In the staff team around Shou Order, there are two special members, both over 60 years old, one is called Wang Zhongxi, and the other is called Hou Changshu.

Shou Orderly raised his glass and drank it down, and the bright red liquor oozed from the corner of his mouth, like the color of blood.

"In this situation, what do you two think of?"

Wang Zhongxi and Hou Changshu looked at each other and did not speak.

"Tell me straight."

Wang Zhongxi clasped his fists and said: "Führer, the old man remembered the Battle of Fucha 43 years ago. ”

Hou Changshu sighed, "I remembered Shangjian Cliff. ”

Yes, both of them participated in the decisive battle in 1619 that decided the fate of the East Asian continent - the Battle of Sarhu.

Wang Zhongxi was subordinate to Liu Ling's department in the south wing.

Although Liu Ling won a small victory, his troops actually performed very poorly. The Ming army phalanx composed of dismounted cavalry lacked disciplined infantry support, and the firearms equipped with were blown into the sky by some people, but in fact, most of them were useless fireworks and firecrackers, and the Ming army that did not dare to ride was a scumbag existence in front of the Tatars.

The Tatars only briefly tried once, and then easily broke through Liu Ling's large phalanx in the charge, and after capturing Liu Ling, they killed him at will. There is no problem with the arrangement of the civilian official Yang Hao in Salhu, and the reason for the defeat is simply that the fighting power of the Ming army is too scum, and it can't be defeated.

Wang Zhongxi broke through from the center of the disgraced Abu Darigang encirclement, and broke through to the Korean military camp with wounds and bloodshed. The Korean army was regarded as a waste by the Ming army, and they ran out of rations on the way to the march, but in the field of Fucha, the tenacious Korean army fought until the death rate was 53%, and the coalition phalanx with the Korean bird gunners as the core performed much better than most of the Ming troops who participated in the battle in Sarhu. Wang Zhongxi was lucky, he crawled out of the pile of dead people in the field of Fucha and survived to this day.

Hou Changshu is from the Ma Linjun. Ma Lin was the best-performing general on the battlefield of Sarhu, and his troops were also the best-performing Ming troops in the entire history of Ming and Qing wars. Marin first marched every day to the hard village, and with powerful reconnaissance discovered the main force of Nurhachi marching towards him in the dense forests and valleys, avoiding the tragedy of two famous generals like Juniper and Liu Gong, who boasted and coaxed, but in fact two wastewood-like generals were suddenly pressed under the noses of the Tatars during the march and battle.

Nurhachi's raid on Marin was unsuccessful, and Marin took decisive measures to retreat the fortified fortifications he had built the night before. In the face of the Jianzhou cavalry all over the mountains, Marin calmly commanded and set up a force to ambush on the flank of the battlefield, and it was this ambushed force that greatly slowed down Nurhachi's attack. Then Marin's main force drove out of the camp and wandered in the field, forming a phalanx and carrying Nurha's bare shoulders.

Under the pressure of the enemy's absolutely superior cavalry, Ma Lin dragged on the battle for a long time, and finally led a considerable number of officers and soldiers to maintain the formation and successfully break through, compared with Li Rubai, who fled without a fight, Liu Qi, who was completely wiped out by more than 10,000 cavalry commanded by Dai Shan, and Juniper, who was completely scattered, Ma Lin's performance all the way was quite good.

Witnesses of the war, such as Wang Zhongxi and Hou Changshu, and even a small number of captured Eight Banner soldiers, provided the Federal Army with a large number of first-hand materials of the Tatar Army, which formed the basis for the study of the Tatars at the General Staff Headquarters and the Non-commissioned Officer School. It is no exaggeration to say that the Federation has studied hundreds of Ming Tartar war victories, and its understanding of the Eight Banners is even greater than that of the Tatar court itself.

Shou Ling threw away his glass, "You are right, Sanshui will be a decisive battle that will decide who will rule the world just like the Battle of Sarhu, but this time, it will be the Tatars who will lose. ”

The enemy's horse team charged, Yue Le sent 7,000 cavalry to rush into the battlefield, and the smoke and dust rose to the sky, just like in the Battle of Fucha, Yue Le's grandfather Dai Shan commanded tens of thousands of cavalry to pour out of the Valkash Valley and quickly approach the Korean army's formation.

At the front line, the commanders of each infantry battalion held high their command knives and stood under the battalion flag.

On the left flank of the battle line, two battalions in a sub-battalion column marched at an angle, standing on the outermost side of the line.

"Prepare the phalanx!"

"The companies on the left and right sides of the queue form a phalanx."

"March!"

After three successive orders were issued, the two sub-battalions in the middle of the column went to the left and right sides respectively to form two new sub-battalions perpendicular to the original direction of the advance, and the last one sub-battalion continued to advance, sealing the phalanx and turning back in place, and the four sub-battalions and eight infantry companies under one battalion were one after another, completely closed and formed a hollow phalanx.

The largest phalanx in the army regulations is the brigade phalanx composed of four battalions, but in the war, this kind of overly heavy and complicated phalanx has never appeared, and it is relatively simple, and the battalion phalanx with three rows of horizontal formations on each side is the most commonly used anti-cavalry formation.

With the dazzling change of infantry formation, the 16 battalion phalanx was quickly formed on the battlefield, and the brigade and regiment commanders chose the nearest battalion phalanx to join, the dense bayonets flashed cold, and the brigade and regimental flags were hunting and fluttering in the battle line.

The 12-pounder field gun fired solid bullets with a ruler of 25, and the two battalions had a total of 12 heavy guns, and the heavy shells landed for the first time at a distance of 900 meters, partially forming ricochets, piercing an entire column of enemy cavalry, and the remnants of the meat flew everywhere. The artillery fired the maximum rate of fire, firing 3 shells every two minutes.

Four light cavalry regiments divided into a small number of cavalry to move around the center and flanks of the battle line, about 3,000 cavalry were concentrated under the command of the commander of the 2nd Division, Filhoff, and four platoons of cavalry rushed into the ranks of the Tatar cavalry from north to south.

Shou ordered to put down the binoculars, "Xiao Decheng." ”

The Captain of the Guards stood up and saluted.

"Take your entire army and go to the aid of Filhoff."

The Guards consisted of 2 infantry battalions composed entirely of veterans, 2 squadrons of Guards Carbines, 2 mounted artillery batteries, and 12 4-pounder guns.

After the Battle of Leizhou, at the strong request of the Guards, the Carbine Lancers were equipped with cuirasses, and the Guards Cavalry was a heavy cavalry unit that was only distinguished by its number.

Almost at the same time as he saw the Tatar cavalry charge, he threw himself into his main reserves.

The Guards were to launch a combined infantry and artillery strike against the enemy's main field forces.