The battle plan was decided, and the elite army began to nervously devote itself to the defensive operation, and the decoy troops were quickly selected, no longer the soldiers who lured the cavalry into the trap before, but the people of the 1st Cavalry Regiment.

This is because this operation is different from the previous one, the enemy is farther away from him, there are more people, and he is mainly provocative, and he must also achieve exhausting enemy tactics, so those troops who act as decoys must be fast cavalry, and cannot be filled with infantry. Of course, this time, in order to let the other party follow, he spread his anger in the right place, so he wore the original Jingwu military uniform, instead of wearing the tattered twisted army costume.

Because it has turned its face with the Qing Dynasty, there has been no restriction on the dress of the elite army for a long time, and now except for the troops below the second type, the first type of troops are all wearing four-color multi-pocket camouflage uniforms, wearing M56 steel helmets, leggings on their legs, and only cloth shoes are still worn on their feet, not big leather boots.

The reason for this is mainly because of the price, because camouflage uniforms and M56 steel helmets are relatively cheap in modern society, and they are generally not easy to damage, but the shoes are different, and the price of leather shoes is not cheap.

In addition, after actual testing, cloth shoes are lighter and breathable than leather shoes, and it is more suitable to walk in China in 1860 where there are many dirt roads and rotten roads, and military cloth shoes can also allow the Chinese people in this era to make zuò, which is equivalent to increasing their jobs and income, so in the end, the shoe problem is still cloth shoes, the same as other troops.

Although the shoes are the same, because the camouflage uniform and steel helmet are more conspicuous, the Jingwu Army can be distinguished from other troops at a glance, especially the M56 steel helmet, which is slightly ugly and memorable, so the Jingwu Army A unit is also called a flower cloth soldier or an iron hat soldier in the people.

In this way, a thousand decoy troops put on camouflage uniforms again, put on M56 steel helmets and rode on tall quat horses. Armed with a long bamboo pole and a severed Russian head, he carried only a Sharps rifle and a Colt revolver, and then when the defensive position of the elite army was completed, he marched forward lightly with one man and two horses.

One man and two horses, of course, is to increase speed, since the Jingwu Army carried out the military restructuring according to Karlsson's construction, deliberately divided the cavalry units, and concentrated the Quart's horses and other excellent horses for these people, the cavalry troops have become more and more sophisticated. The situation of one man and two horses is a skill that every cavalry unit must master.

It can be seen from this that these cavalry units acting as bait are extraordinary, and they can master one man and two horses so skillfully, which is also related to the training system of cavalry units.

Also according to Karlsson's Jianyì, although the Jingwu army had a large number of horses, especially many excellent foreign horses, such as the improved Quart, Bell Huren and Ili horses in modern society, the total number of horses has long exceeded 30,000. Of these, less than 10,000 were bred as stallions, and the remaining 20,000 or so were put into cavalry units.

Although there were many war horses, there were very few real cavalry troops, except for Li Yongji's 800-man guard battalion in the past. The rest of the regular cavalry consisted of only three cavalry regiments, each of which had only 1,000 regular cavalry, but the reserve cavalry numbered 2,000.

A real cavalry regiment, although it is claimed to be only a thousand men. When fighting, it was counted as a thousand, but in fact the total number of a cavalry regiment was three thousand, and the number of horses was three thousand!

Other words. In a cavalry regiment, there are only 1,000 real combat cavalry, similar to regular knights, and only 1,000 people are counted when fighting; As for the other 2,000 people, they are alternate cavalrymen, who are responsible for taking care of horses, coping with logistics, learning cavalry tactics, and of course acting as substitutes, similar to the trainee knights among knights, and externally they are called logistics soldiers.

In normal times, a cavalry regiment is 3,000 people acting as a whole, but once a combat order is issued and the cavalry is required to fight, unless there are special circumstances, only the 1,000 regular cavalry will be dispatched, and when the regular cavalry is dispatched, in order to increase mobility, at least one person and two horses!

This may seem like a waste of manpower, but in fact, this system is actually to speed up the training of cavalry talents.

Cavalry is different from ordinary infantry, the cost of effort and training is too great, after all, it is not easy for a person to learn ordinary equestrian skills, and he has to learn to deal with emergencies on the battlefield, so they are the best of the best, from the beginning, choose the group of people who adapt to the fastest horse speed as cavalry.

Then, one of the best men was the soldier, and the two second-best men were the auxiliaries, which allowed the regular cavalry to put aside a lot of clutter and devote a great deal of time each day to training the horsemanship, while the reserve cavalry was responsible for other things such as caring for the horses.

In this way, the best regular cavalry can master the basic equestrian and cavalry tactics in the shortest time, so as to form combat effectiveness in the fastest time, and during this period, the reserve cavalry will also be learned, although the learning speed is not as fast as the regular cavalry, but there is not much difference.

The cavalry units of the Jingwu Army can form combat effectiveness in such a short period of time, which is inseparable from this 1+2 wartime elite training system, otherwise, if you follow the old-fashioned method, it will be impossible to train real cavalry in one year.

Of course, this cavalry system is for emergency purposes, and the real cavalry must still need a lot of time to learn and come step by step, so in the Qingpu Military Academy, there is a special cavalry section, and the cavalry department has a large number of excellent war horses and teaching materials, and the teacher is also very good, it is Karlsson himself. Now Karlsson is an instructor at the Qingpu Military Academy every day, and his life is leisurely.

Since the distance was not too far, only thirty miles, the cavalry units acting as decoys did not need to be sympathetic to horsepower at all, and rushed to the camp of the Han Eight Banners, which was said to be the Russian intervention army and the Qing army, according to the standard marching speed of 25 kilometers per hour.

It was also a loss that this land was all large plains, and the autumn was high and crisp, the land was very hard, and the road was basically official, so the speed of the bait cavalry was very fast, and it took less than an hour to reach the periphery of the enemy camp.

The commander of the 1st Cavalry Regiment was called Chen Heng, who was also the commander of the decoy unit this time, and he only ordered to stop the advance when he reached three miles outside the enemy's camp, and then he rode on his horse and took out his binoculars to carefully observe the situation on the opposite side.

Three miles is the prescribed safe distance. Because in this era, field artillery is still mainly equipped with artillery, and the strongest field artillery is generally a 12-pounder gun, which is usually able to hit 1000 to 1500 yards, about 1.37 kilometers, so it is already a safe distance to stop the army at 1.5 kilometers, that is, three miles away.

Of course, the safe distance of 3 miles is the minimum distance, and it is generally required to stop the army within 5 miles. However, this time they were acting as bait, and Chen Heng has always been known for his boldness, so every time he stopped his army, he was three miles away from the enemy, which was called convenient to observe, but in fact, it was to show that he was bold, and this time was no exception.

From the eight-fold telescope, Chen Heng found a piece of dust in the camp opposite, and it seemed that the other party had discovered him, so he smiled coldly. waved his arms and said loudly: "Sons, get to work!" Pick up the head for me! ”

In a cheerful roar, the cavalry behind followed Chen Heng's movements. At the same time, pick up the bamboo pole, and then pick the head of the bamboo pole with you, and then stand it high.

Almost all of these heads were Russian heads, and only a small number were the heads of the Qing army. These heads were lifted high on bamboo poles, and then these cavalrymen shouted and trotted back and forth, and even took out their left *wheel* pistol from time to time and shot into the sky. The meaning of provocation and insult is overflowing.

Chen Heng is not worried that the distance is too far and the other party can't see clearly, although Chen Heng knows that the other party may not have such advanced binoculars as himself, but since the other party is a foreigner, there must be a monocular, and at a distance of three miles, even if the monocular can't see clearly, at least you can see who the head on the bamboo pole is, after all, if nothing else, the military cap of the Russian Cossack cavalry is different.

However, he shouted here for a long time, but the other party still didn't move, and he didn't send anyone out at all, which made Chen Heng a little puzzled.

Why is the other party so calm? Did he see through his own provocative meaning, or did the other party not see it clearly?

After thinking about it, Chen Heng pursed his lips and decided to give the other party a more exciting provocation, so he blew a high-frequency whistle, and when everyone stopped making noise, he roared loudly: "Brothers, Lao Maozi can't see clearly, let's give him something more ruthless!" I ordered, open the distance, the car hangs in formation, with me as the leader, follow me! ”

After speaking, Chen Heng picked up the head on the bamboo pole, shouted loudly, and rushed to the other party's camp first.

Seeing that Chen Heng was like this, the others quickly followed suit, and soon formed a loose hollow large ring in the process of marching.

Chen Heng came to the front of the other party's camp four hundred meters this time, took advantage of the situation to insert the bamboo pole in his hand into the ground, and then turned the horse's head, quickly bypassed, and then, the people behind also followed, and in the later place, he also inserted a bamboo pole with a human head on the ground, and continued to bypass.

In this way, a thousand people quickly stuck a thousand bamboo poles carrying human heads 400 meters in front of the opponent's camp gate, and then quickly ran to a range of about 450 meters away from the camp gate, took out the Sharps short-barreled carbine, and crackled and shot at the heads.

At this time, even with visual eyes, you can roughly see who the heads belong to.

In fact, even if you can't see clearly, as long as your brain is not stupid, you should know what is going on when you see that the opponent's cavalry is actually coming with a big cannon, and your own cavalry is gone.

Finally, someone on the other side soon couldn't help it, and the gun was fired, listening to the sound of the gun was not like lifting a gun, and looking through the high-powered telescope, sure enough, all the people who shot were tall Russians!

It's a pity that the cavalry of the elite army are 450 meters away from the other side, and most of the muskets of those Russians are front-loading smoothbore guns, and the effective shooting distance is only 150 yards, less than 140 meters, so far away, it is useless at all.

You must know that although Tsarist Russia at this time was also regarded as a European power, their equipment was still far behind that of Britain and France and other powers, and this gap was clearly reflected in the Crimean War.

Britain and France and other powers, at this time the main force has been generally equipped with Mini rifles, while the penetration rate of Russian rifled guns in the army is less than 5 percent, even after the Crimean War, urgently began to equip, but due to the limited production capacity and military spending, the penetration rate is less than 10 percent, and basically equipped with European troops on the Western Front.

Troops like the East, such as the Russian army on the Eastern Siberian side, at this time were still dominated by honest front-loading smoothbore guns. There was not a single rifled gun in the rear, and the penetration rate of the Mini rifled gun in the front was less than 2 percent.

In other words, these Russians' muskets were very backward and had a very low range, and only artillery could hit each other, but their artillery was mostly old-fashioned front-loading guns. For the sake of lightness, most of the artillery brought with the army this time were six-pounder guns and eight-pounder guns, and there were no twelve-pounder guns at all.

For six- and eight-pounder field guns, a distance of 450 meters could be obtained, but only with solid bullets. And the other party is so scattered, and there are not many of their own artillery, and if they fire, how effective it is is really enough.

Moreover, although Chen Heng seems to be lawless, he is actually very careful, and has been carefully observing the other party's situation with a telescope, he has long known that at this distance, the opponent's musket is not a threat to him. Only artillery could hit him, so he kept an eye on the opponent's artillery.

The field artillery of the Russians, whether it was a six-pounder or an eight-pounder gun. At this time, all were front-loading infantry guns.

This kind of infantry artillery has a characteristic, that is, the elevation angle is not high, and it is generally used as direct fire, so it is necessary to shoot people. You can't put it in the rear of the infantry, which might hit your own people, but you have to push the artillery to the front line. Shoot directly at the enemy, so if you look carefully, you can still see the clues.

Sure enough, after a while, Chen Heng saw that the opponent's front suddenly spread out in a few places, and pushed out a cannon from behind. The others, too, were smart enough to disperse as quickly as they heard the command, and then turned around and ran away.

Running back to the back, Chen Heng found that the other party still didn't move, and his brows furrowed suddenly.

Soon, Chen Heng called his chief of staff Li Fei over: "Little Lizi, something is wrong, doesn't it mean that Lao Maozi's discipline is outrageous, and he is the most impatient?" We're all like this, can they still hold their breath? ”

"I don't know about this." Li Fei scratched his head, "I also listened to my young master's affairs, and I don't know what is going on." Perhaps, maybe these people are timid, or, perhaps, the commander of the other side is more shrewd? ”

"Cowardly? Not necessarily. Chen Heng shook his head, "We fought their cavalry before, although they were stupid, but they had nothing to do with cowardice. In addition, they had also fired before, and it seemed that the discipline was so-so. Well, I think it's the other side's commander who won't let the attack. ”

"Why didn't the other party come out and beat us?" Li Fei touched his chin with his hand, this is still the habit he learned from Li Yongji, "We are only a thousand people, not much, their camp is so big, I think there are at least seven or eight thousand people, there is no reason to be afraid of us a thousand, it is really not good, you can also send cavalry to chase us...... Ay? ”

Sure enough, in the end, the two looked at each other, and both nodded at the same time, as if they both thought of a reason.

"It seems that this is it." Chen Heng nodded, "The other side doesn't have many cavalry anymore, so they don't dare to come out to chase us, because they know that the infantry can't catch up with us." ”

"Could it be a trap?" Li Fei then asked, "It's impossible for the other party to send all the cavalry out as scouts, right?" Will you want to be like us, let us be paralyzed, and give us a little more ruthlessness? ”

"You mean an ambush? But it's all flat land, with an unobstructed view, unlike the grove where we ambushed, where did he ambush? ”

"Yes, but we were really lucky enough to leave all the other party's cavalry behind?"

"It's all speculation, just give it a try." Chen Heng smiled, "You find two hundred people, three in front of the formation...... No, at two hundred and fifty meters, run around the other party's camp and take a look...... You are not allowed to go! ”

"Good...... Well? Why don't you let me go? Li Fei said hatefully, "Why? You...... Commander, you are unreasonable! ”

"Where are so many why!" Chen Heng pouted and said, "I am the regiment commander, and I have the final say in this unit!" In short, if you can't say it, you can't do it, and you will carry out the order! ”

Soon, two hundred men were selected, and they all changed to a well-rested horse, and then carried only a Colt revolver and a Type 65 cavalry knife with only one Colt revolver, and then they formed a loose formation, and began to circle around the camp at a distance of two hundred and fifty meters from the other side, blatantly provoking and observing.

Due to the speed of this group of cavalry, the artillery could not keep up, and at a distance of 250 meters, the range of the opponent's musket could not be hit, so they could only watch the other party go around the camp in a big circle.

When this group of reconnaissance teams returned safely on sweaty horses, Chen Heng completely understood that the other party really had no cavalry, so he didn't dare to act rashly.

Think about it, even if the Russians are arrogant, but they are not ignorant fools after all, in this kind of sweeping great plain, if there are no cavalry troops, simply rely on infantry to chase the enemy's cavalry, unless it is a brain pump. However, looking at the other party's measures, although the soldiers of the other party were ordinary and a little uncontrollable, the commander seemed to be calm enough.

"It seems that the other side really has no cavalry, or the number of cavalry is insufficient, so they dare not go out of the camp casually, so our strategy of luring the enemy may not be good." Chen Heng took off his helmet and touched the hair stubble on his head, "The horses are pulled, the whole army is resting on the spot, and we will drag them ...... Also, Xiao Lizi, hurry up and call Da Shuai, report all the things here, please let Da Shuai decide! (To be continued......)