Chapter 568: The Transformation of Tradition

"Itakura-den fell, Kawada-den fell, Yoshida-den took a few steps backwards, then covered his eyes and shouted to me: 'Takahashi-den! We can't retreat,' and then his hand drooped down, revealing half of his face, which was already bloody and fleshy, and he sat on the ground, motionless. ”

"I don't know what fear is, even I feel like my heart is no longer beating, the sound of lead bullets breaking through the air, the sound of hitting the human body, like raindrops, makes me feel like the sky and the earth are tilted. And I was like a puppet, pulled by the arm by something, clumsily reloading the short gun with ammunition, and shooting blindly forward. The beating of the short gun, coupled with the sound of the gunshot, came down at once, and it also made me accumulate strength all at once. ”

"The British's volley from forty paces away was so familiar that it was almost indistinguishable from the Chinese red salvo, except that the gunfire was a little more brittle, which may be the reason why we Satsuma did not retreat under the first volley. And when this subconscious feeling disappeared, the words shouted by Yoshida continued to make us survive. ”

"We cannot retreat, and the will of our Satsuma people, even in the most brutal of the Shura field, must stand the test. We followed the Chinese army for thousands of miles to show the ...... of the Satsuma samurai No, we can't retreat, in fact, because we're afraid! In such a Shura field, once we turn our heads, we will lose not only our lives, but also our souls! ”

"So, at such a time, the people who can still think of running away are actually warriors, and many of the stragglers in red are looking left and right, as if waiting for their colleagues to move, and they may as well retreat, but looking at it, their eyes finally fall on us Satsuma. At that time, we were already frightened, so we loaded and shot in a daze, and when we saw our appearance, their courage was gone, and they followed us, with messy shooting, to resist the round of bombardment like a tidal wave. ”

"Looking back after the war, I feel that the war was really a wonderful event. We had fifteen hundred men with the stragglers in red, and the Britons on the opposite side were four thousand, and if we could organize a salvo, the difference between the two sides should not be so great. But we are like being bombarded by an enemy ten times our size, and this is the art of modern warfare......"

"I don't know how long it took me to feel that it was an unbelievable wonder that I was still alive, the sound of small drums from behind, and the sound of the horns of the stragglers like the gods of the heavens reaching out from the zenith and pulling us out of hell. Retreating from the gap between the battle columns of the red-clothed people, I and a few of the Satsuma people actually cried on the spot, one crying and one kneeling on the ground, vomiting vigorously. ”

"I have already left the Shura Field, but as the red-clothed people advance in the horizontal formation, the Shura Field is waiting for more delicious offerings."

Takahashi Yoshiruto's Satsuma lost half of them in just ten minutes, and the stragglers of the new Sixth Division of the Anglo-Chinese Army also lost one-third. They didn't know that the horizontal formation of the British East India Company's colonial army on the opposite side had been weakened by nearly a quarter after advancing to the attack distance, and before facing the Anglo-Chinese horizontal formation.

When the two sides were forty or fifty meters apart and fired at almost the same rhythm, the gunsmoke erupted from one end to the other like a torrent, with a length of nearly two kilometers.

The first volley of the Yinghua horizontal array almost engulfed the opponent, but the opponent also seemed to fall into the extreme fear described by Takahashi Yoshiryo, and the battle column did not retreat, and quickly responded with a volley that did not disperse.

At that moment, Gui Zhen, who was at the rear of the battle column, shivered all over, and felt that something cold suddenly poured into his body from his navel, and the whole person froze. ..., on the hillside further behind, there were already subordinates who said to Wu Ya: "Gui Zhen estimates that he can't hold on......"

Wu Ya put down the binoculars and said in a deep voice: "The overseer team stepped forward to join the battle!" If you can't hold on, you have to persevere! ”

There is a big river in the north and a swamp in the south, and the front is only three or four kilometers wide, and at most a division of horizontal battle columns will be placed, and Gui Zhen will retreat, and the rear battle columns will also be crushed. Therefore, several other divisions of Wu Ya did not pull up, but assembled in a more open area in the rear. Once the Britons broke through the Sixth Division, although it would not cause any serious damage to the British Chinese Army as a whole, the overall deployment would be chaotic. The Britons chose this place for field warfare in order to gain time.

A group of soldiers in black hats, red clothes and black pants rushed towards the rear of the Sixth Division, which was the commander of the Burmese Governor's Army, who usually maintained military discipline and was escorted in battle. But the latter duty was almost never performed, and the lieutenant who led the team was stiff in his own legs and stomachs when he was dispatched for the first time today.

The platoon guns continued to roar, and after more than ten rounds, the two sides were not much scattered, and when the commander led the soldiers to the rear of the sixth division's battle column, seeing that the division command battle flag had penetrated deep into the front battle column, the commander sighed and stopped his subordinates who wanted to go to Gui Zhen to report.

"They can still withstand ......"

Hearing the sound of this gunshot, it was obvious that the Sixth Division did not rout, but when they set off, they could clearly see through the binoculars that the soldiers in the front of them were almost like cutting wheat, falling down layer by layer.

"If there are not enough rows, spread out and become two rows! Organization! Don't mess up the organization! Where there are sporadic gunshots, the battalion commander directly kills people! ”

Gui Zhen stood in the battle column, roaring like a god of war from the sky, he never spared his life when he led the troops, and the banner division under him was also inferior in origin, and he did not feel bitter about his oppression. His roar was like an invisible whip that whipped all the officers and men of the 6th Division.

"There are Satsuma devils in the back, and there are servant troops on the left and right, you have the face to retreat, and I Gui really has no face!"

This is Gui Zhen's true thought in his heart, the status of the banner people in the country is not only lower than that of the Han people, but even lower than the Miao Yao people, but they are also higher than the Satsuma devils and the aborigines of the foreign domains. Just for the sake of face, he must not retreat. He just wants to smear his deeds with the blood of the banner people, and this is the only way for the banner people to wash away their reputation and return to the Han ethnic group.

And the main point he emphasized is the key to maintaining the firepower of his own battle, control, organization, rather stiff and slow, rather than scattered in a hurry. Gui Zhen is nearly fifty years old, and he is no longer very good at learning things, so he also holds the battle canons he learned at the Whampoa Army Academy very tightly.

In order to maintain the firepower of the battle line, it is necessary not only for the officers and men of the battle line to have an extremely tenacious will, but also for them to grasp the rhythm of long-term training.

How did the battle line collapse? At first, a team of ten people can fire a salvo at a rate of fire of three shots a minute, and gradually someone will slow down. If the officers do not adjust the pace and help the soldiers through the chaotic period, then more and more people will slow down. They either fired indiscriminately, or they had a situation of one kind or another, in short, more and more firepower broke away from the organization, and in the end the battle line actually became a messy convection of lead bullets, rather than a neat wash.

A good officer, a well-trained and strong-willed soldier, after withstanding the initial pressure, will not only not reduce the rate of fire, but will also accelerate in groups due to entering a state of euphoria, resulting in a burst of four or even five rounds of fire a minute, forming the so-called "knowing blow".

Unfortunately, the officers and men of the 6th Division did not have this quality, and their rate of fire was always around three rounds per minute, and occasionally there were palpitating scattered ripples. However, the shame of "must not be disgraced in front of the Satsuma devils and the servants and natives" suppressed the 6th Division, and Gui Zhen pressed hard and steadied his position, and such a rate of fire could be maintained. ..., the two extremely wide horizontal battle columns continued to spew fireworks and smoke, and the frontal collision lasted for more than ten minutes, and no one knocked anyone back. Both sides are in a state like a rubber band stretched to the limit, and they can no longer make more choices, so they can only continue to fight each other like this.

The option of putting on the bayonet had disappeared from Gui Zhen's mind, and he felt that he had done his best to hold the troops to hold on to the shooting. And the Britons seem to be in the same state, all their courage is spent on maintaining the battle column and firepower, and if the ceasefire is bayonet, it is believed that the whole line of battle will collapse.

Through the smoke screen, Gui Zhen saw through the binoculars that the British officers had begun to shoot the soldiers who had broken away from the battle columns, and a trace of warmth returned to his chest, and he felt that the scale of victory was beginning to tilt towards him. But his subordinates tugged at his sleeves and motioned him to turn back, and when he saw a row of black-hated and red-clothed soldiers lined up in the rear, he suddenly felt his throat dry again.

This riverbank wilderness originally had no name, and later generations only regarded it as part of the Battle of Shalian, but for the Sixth Division, this was their decisive battle. In half an hour, they had already exhausted their ammunition and began to use reserve ammunition. And throughout the battle, those who survived to the last fired more than a hundred times.

Man is not a machine after all, after a long confrontation, the gunfire finally dispersed, and this was true of both friend and foe, no matter how hard the officers tried, the salvo could no longer be organized. Seeing that the battle columns of the Sixth Division were in tatters, and many officers and soldiers were even standing in the pile of corpses to shoot, Wu Ya hurriedly sent reinforcements to gradually replace the people of the Sixth Division with wings as a unit, but still retained Gui Zhen's command. This is what Gui Zhen deserves, although Wu Ya is dissatisfied with this person's background and style of acting, but Wu Ya must also respect such a tenacious will to fight.

The Britons on the opposite side did not have such sufficient troops, they just kept thinning the battle columns, and in the end they could not even maintain two rows of horizontal formation.

"We failed...... What Clinton did, he trained the yellow-skinned monkeys into a real army, exactly the same army as the British Model Army! We were defeated not by the yellow-skinned monkeys, but by our own army. ”

Two hours later, Colonel William King, commander of the Burmese Regiment of the British East India Company, took off his military hat in frustration, as if to pay tribute to the enemy. Whether it is the color of the uniform, the rhythm of the battle, or even the will to fight, the red-clothed battle column on the opposite side is very similar to the ** team, when the opponent's shooting gradually turned from messy to orderly, and began to return to rhythm, he knew that defeat was rushing towards him.

"It's time for the Burmese to play their part......"

He nodded to his men, then turned his horse's head and walked away surrounded by cavalry.

The Britons were cautious and calm, and had expected to break through the Anglo-Chinese army with their best horizontal formations, but they did not expect to fall into a muddy volley of gun fire, and since things were already off track, there was no need to throw more weights. Take this opportunity to take away the artillery, cavalry, and remaining infantry, and you can have more weight in the subsequent battle.

The Britons retreated, and the Burmese were pushed into battle, where they were greeted by the Anglo-Chinese servant army. But in the follow-up battle, both sides could no longer raise any spirit, the Burmese retreated, the servant army won a great victory, and Wu Ya and others were not happy.

It's miserable......

Looking at the battlefield, even Wu Ya, who is known as the curtain of human head beads, can't stop exhaling a long breath, as if he is in an ice field where the cold wind is howling.

Rows and rows, piles of corpses, neatly laid out on the battle line, friend and foe.

The Anglo-Chinese army did not encounter the Europa army, and during the Battle of Luzon, there were small-scale field battles with the Spanish army, so the army canon also emphasized one point: to fight against the enemy who has the ability to organize the battle line, you must be mentally prepared to bear a very high casualty rate. ..., the canon is the canon, but through personal experience, Wu Ya and other officers knew how high the so-called "extremely high casualty rate" was.

On the face of this battle, especially after the retreat of the British, the Anglo-Chinese were the victorious side. The enemy left more than 4,000 corpses on the battlefield, captured 3,000 people, and almost completely annihilated, and ran away from the cavalry. But the Anglo-Chinese side also lost nearly 3,000 killed and wounded nearly 3,000. Not only that, but the Sixth Division accounted for more than 3,000 casualties, and the casualty rate of the whole division was as high as 60 percent!

The British colonial army had 2,400 men killed, and less than 1,000 men remained in their horizontal columns, and if it had not been for the cover of the Burmese, they would have been almost completely wiped out......

"Fortunately, there are only more than 20,000 Britons, and this battle is even more difficult for them to fight in the field."

"Don't grow up the prestige of others and lose their morale, they dare to pull everyone out of the field, and we will have the stomach to eat it all!"

"The Sixth Division is not only a banner division, but also a new division, if it is replaced by a main force like the Eagle Yang Army, the casualties will definitely be much smaller."

"The Britons are not regular kings, only the officers are Britons, and the soldiers are all Tianzhu people......"

"I think this is related to the characteristics of the horizontal formation, this kind of combat method is face-to-face life exchange, and the horizontal formation spreads out the troops, most of them are on the front line, plus the power of the flintlock gun, the canon is right, if you don't have the determination to cripple the troops, you can't use this kind of tactics."

The Yinghua side was deeply touched by such a tragic injury, and the officers talked a lot, Wu Ya patted Gui Zhen, who was still standing under the banner of the command, and wanted to say something praise, but the other party was slapped to the ground by this slap, and then wow-wow-wow-wow-la-wow, crying while vomiting, just like Takahashi Yoshiru's gang of Satsuma earlier.

"It seems that the tactics of war are really going to be changed......

Wu Ya looked at the group of Satsuma people who were kneeling on the ground, clasping their palms and closing their eyes, and solemnly praying to this Shura field, the rifled guns they were carrying were new gadgets that all the "battle soldiers" did not want to take.

"This tactic works! We still won! Sacrifice is inevitable, even if it is serious, but we have enough manpower, enough weapons, and enough will, even if Britain moves over, we can defeat them! ”

There were also conservatives who were making generous statements, but most of the officers shook their heads gloomily, the army is clinging to tradition, but the higher principle of the army is to kill and wound the enemy more effectively, to protect itself more reliably, and that the experience of blood is just around the corner, and the traditions of the past must be changed.

"The Britons are also using rifled guns, and the scale is not small, they are learning from us, and the summary of this battle must deeply discuss the issue of tactics! Next, each division concentrates rifled guns, forms a separate battalion of hunters, and tries the column tactics mentioned in the Protestant canon! ”

Wu Ya's attitude has changed, and all military revolutions are triggered by the self-promotion of the front-line combat troops.

Of course, compared to the Anglo-Chinese side, the Britons reacted less violently. Colonel King was accustomed to seeing more than 50 percent of his troops damaged in Europa, and what shocked him in this battle was that he met an army with Europa quality in Asia.

His understanding of the significance of the war was that of the East India Company's Burmese interests, rather than a change in military tradition. He told Jenningde frankly that unless the colony assembled an army of 100,000 men and was close to the standards of the British Army, it would be impossible for Sarian to hold it.

Clinton originally made a detailed report on how high the military standards of Britain and China were and how strong they were, but the British East India Company did not believe it, believing that it was the pro-British Clinton who was alarmist. A good gun construction does not mean that the army's combat power is high. The Battle of the Wild of Kesharan made the British East India Company come to a definite judgment that even if the Anglo-Chinese Army was worse than the British Army, it was at most the difference between the French Army and the British Army, not the difference between the Indians and the British Army.

Combined with the strength of the Anglo-Chinese navy, at least the naval combat technology and combat effectiveness of the cruisers, which the British East India Company could no longer compete with, Jenningde seriously considered whether to promote the company to make a big splash in London, so that London could raise a large army in Asia to protect the interests of the East India Company and Britain.

"At least until London gives an exact reply, and the company gathers enough warships to break through the Chinese naval blockade."

Jenningde made such a decision, with 20,000 colonial troops and more than 200 artillery pieces, he could not give up easily.