readx; Lao Huihui thought that the newly arrived army would not attack actively, but he only guessed half right. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 It is true that the main general Li Laiheng only went down to the village nearly ten miles away from the camp of the thieves, and then let 2,500 of the 3,000 cavalry eat and sleep immediately, including himself. As soon as the rice bowl was gone, not even five minutes had passed, snoring began in the military tent, and everyone immediately fell asleep.

Of course, this is not that Li Laiheng is afraid of the battle, but that the team under his command has not had a good rest for several days and nights. Since receiving Lu Xiangsheng's urgent military order, Li Laiheng set off from the starry night of the station, first rushed to Nushan Lake to surround Li Wanqing, and after Li Wanqing surrendered, he rushed to Yangzhou non-stop. At that time, it was cold and snowy, and he had to compete for time with thieves, and the degree of hardship can be imagined.

What Li Laiheng didn't expect was that just yesterday, on the way to Yangzhou, he also encountered a group of thieves moving north. This force of thieves is about 20,000, although it doesn't seem to be much compared to the army of thieves who can easily tens of thousands or even 100,000, but almost all of them are cavalry, which is not easy to deal with.

Originally, according to Li Laiheng's idea, his task was to rescue Yangzhou, which was the overriding task at present, and he didn't want to provoke this group of thieves. And when the thieves encounter the main force of the official army, they will generally back down. But the bandit I encountered yesterday was unusual, and it seemed that he was holding back a breath of anger, and the army rushed up like crazy.

Now that the enemy has sent him to the door, Li Laiheng can't do it if he doesn't fight. However, his style of play was completely different from that of the Guanning Iron Cavalry: under the special care of Zhu Youzhen and the careful training of Li Laiheng, this cavalry had become the first cavalry in the official army to be equipped with a large number of firearms.

After the enemy was reluctant, the ball was a lonely battle

As early as the beginning of the rebellion, when the troops set out from Beijing, the three generals Li Dingguo, Hao Yongzhong and Li Laiheng had different troop allocations. Because Li Dingguo wanted to attack Luoyang, he brought all light cavalry; Hao Yongzhong led the main cavalry of the 3,000 battalions of the Beijing Division, both light and heavy cavalry, and once he had to fight against the main force of the rebel cavalry, Hao Yongzhong was the main force that could not be compromised.

Li Laiheng's troops were relatively special, and they were basically formed from the reconnaissance battalions of the original Qin soldiers. Among the Qin soldiers, if it comes to a single military quality, the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion may not be the most top-notch; However, in terms of overall quality, they are absolutely one in a hundred, and they can use all kinds of skills skillfully, and they have a variety of combat means.

The reason why Zhu Youzhen let this unit form a separate army was because of more far-reaching considerations. Although the damage caused by his thieves' rampant attack on the Ming Dynasty was very huge, from a military point of view alone, the combat effectiveness of the thieves was not strong, even the strongest combat effectiveness, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Ma Shouying and other units, were also a rabble for well-trained officers and soldiers, whether it was conventional tactics or firearms, they could easily defeat them.

But the Manchu Eight Banners Army outside Shanhaiguan has always been a lingering shadow in Zhu Youzhen's heart. Although in the defense of Beijing, the Eight Banners Army returned with feathers and was almost wiped out with white flags, but there were special conditions for the achievement of this result, and there was no lack of luck.

However, if you want to pacify Liaodong, you must confront the Eight Banners Army in a dignified manner. At that time, the battlefield was either the vast northeastern plain or the endless Mongolian steppe. Whether it is the Eighth Banner Army or the Mongolian cavalry, the biggest advantage is that they are mobile and flexible, and if they want to defeat them completely by infantry artillery equipped with firearms, they must have very strong troops and logistical support capabilities. Obviously, the current Ming Dynasty can't do this.

Therefore, the Ming army must also have a cavalry that is mobile and flexible, and can ensure the defeat of the Eight Banners Army in the field, so that it can be invincible, accumulate small victories into big victories, gradually weaken the Manchu Qing, and finally completely pacify Liaodong.

The far branch of the hatred of the lone ball is cold

It turned out that Zhu Youzhen had pinned his hopes on the Guanning Iron Cavalry, but later he realized that although the Guanning Iron Cavalry was extremely brave, it was still a traditional cavalry combat method, and the number of troops was too small, and it was not easy to train, at most it was just a tie with the white armor soldiers in the Eight Banners Army. If the Eight Banners Army adopts the tactics of luring the enemy to concentrate forces in depth to encircle and annihilate them, the Guanning Iron Cavalry has no chance of winning. As for the Jingying cavalry, which was adapted from the Qin soldiers, its combat effectiveness was still a lot worse than that of the Guanning Iron Cavalry, not to mention.

So how can the Ming cavalry defeat the Eight Banners Army? After a long period of painful deliberation and brainstorming with young generals such as Li Dingguo and Li Laiheng, who had rich experience in actual combat, Zhu Youzhen finally found an idea, that is, to combine the mobility of cavalry with the powerful power of firearms. In a nutshell, it is to form a firearms cavalry unit!

The enemy of the earth hates Mo Gufan

Even just a few years ago, this idea would have been completely unrealistic. First of all, since it was cavalry, it was definitely impossible to carry heavy artillery, and could only use bird guns as weapons. However, in the past, the bird guns were all arquebuses, and the characteristics of cavalry combat doomed the arquebuses to be completely useless.

But now it is different, several military factories strongly supported by Zhu Youzhen can already produce flintlock pistols in large quantities, and the Beijing camp near the water has begun to replace flintlock pistols in large quantities. Although flintlock pistols also had to be reloaded once, which was still cumbersome compared to modern firearms, it was a huge improvement over arquebuses. For cavalry, it was no longer impossible to load ammunition on a horse and fire it with flintlock.

And if the cavalry can replace the traditional bow and arrow with flintlock birds, the advantage is very obvious. First of all, in terms of range, a good archer can also shoot up to eighty paces, but a little worse will not shoot at eighty paces. Moreover, archery is a physical job, and continuous release of arrows will inevitably lead to a decrease in physical strength, which in turn will affect the range. In the event of a headwind, the flight of the arrows will also be greatly affected. However, the bird gun is completely unaffected by physical strength, and the air resistance of the projectile is much smaller than that of the arrow, which can maintain the range stably.

Second, the hit rate of the bird is higher than that of the bow and arrow. The initial velocity of the lead ejection chamber is far beyond the reach of the bow and arrow; Moreover, the trajectory of the arrow is parabolic, and the trajectory of the lead bullet is close to a straight line, making it easier to aim. With rigorous training, the Bird's Gun Striker has a much higher hit rate than the Archer.

Second, the killing effect of the bird gun is much greater than that of the bow and arrow. If you are shot by an arrow, as long as it is not a vital part, you can usually maintain some combat effectiveness, not to mention armor protection; But the lead bullet shot by the bird gun is different, no armor can stop this thing, and it is extremely destructive to human tissues, as long as it is shot, no matter what part it hits, it can easily make the person who is shot lose its combat effectiveness.

But the flintlock also has its obvious weaknesses compared to the bow and arrow. How can we build on our strengths and avoid our weaknesses?