Two days later, that is, on 17 June, nearly 100 large and small ships of the Democratic League and four divisions of the army advanced to 10 kilometers east of Shizhong Mountain in Hukou County.

The land route was led by Shi Dakai, and the water route was led by Wang Feng and General Li Guang.

After picking up the binoculars and taking a closer look, Wang Feng turned his head and ordered: "Land and water armies, pause the advance!" ”

"Yes!" One flag after another was played.

Shizhong Mountain is like a boulder abruptly on the riverside, the side by the river, extremely steep, the top of the mountain can be hidden one by one artillery positions, and under the mountain, according to the distance by the river, there are three positions on the left, middle and right.

On the farthest left side of the river, is the position of the Gan Army, the clothing of the Gan Army is mixed, some of them are dressed in the green battalion regiment training uniform, and the other part has the typical characteristics of the Hunan and Guizhou ethnic minorities, and the weapons are mainly shotguns, spears, bows and arrows.

The middle road is the headquarters of the Hunan army, wearing the standard blue uniform of the Qing army's green battalion regimental training, most of them have thick beards, a big brave character on their chests, and the weapons are mainly Sui Hair Guns, and some Mini guns, and the artillery in the formation is specially arrayed with battalions as units.

On the right side, that is, the side closest to the river, the costumes are also very mixed, a considerable number of people are also wearing yellow vests and white-edged uniforms belonging to Wei Changhui, the king of the West, and the weapons are not except for the Mini gun, which is slightly inferior to the Hunan army, the proportion of spears and bows and arrows is larger, and the number of artillery is not much.

These three positions are in a half-arc shape to guard Shizhong Mountain, and many people are hidden in the depths of the Chen Di, and they can't see the number of troops for the time being.

And on the water, from a distance, the sails are full of shadows, incomparably magnificent, densely packed with small boats. Basically there was a cannon mounted in the capital of the ship.

Shi Dakai had already had the intention of stopping, and now he was. Since the military has updated its weapons and equipment in large quantities, it has abandoned the tactics of blindly rushing forward. Instead, relying on the advanced weapons and pressing forward step by step, this time when he saw the flag from the ship, he immediately stopped the whole army and displayed an offensive formation.

In the past, in the era of oars, you could say stop by paddling the big oars backwards, but now it is not possible, and the ship is no longer equipped with oars. If you want to stop the boat, you can only stop the propeller first, and then turn in the opposite direction to resist the impact of the upstream river.

As the flags were raised, the roar of the engines of the ships gradually subsided, and the speed of travel gradually decreased, but it would be a while before the whole fleet came to a complete standstill.

"Hmm~~" Yang Shuijiao couldn't help but nodded: "Don't look at Zeng Guofan as a literati, but he still has a hand in military training." The mental outlook of the middle position was obviously stronger than that of the riverside, and the one on the left, although not bad, looked a little messy. ”

Zhang Zongyu was also beside Wang Feng, Wang Feng turned his head and asked, "Zhang Zongyu." You see. ”

Zhang Zongyu didn't dare to slack off, and after thinking about it, he said: "I heard that Zeng Guofan's military training is based on Wei Jiguang's art of war, combined with the improvement of the foreigner's military training method. Judging from the formation of today's Hunan army, it has done a lot of hard work. In particular, his artillery team was a single column, and each battalion set up a mountain-splitting artillery battalion. Obviously, he has realized that artillery can only be used intensively in war to exert its greatest power, and the commander-in-chief must not be taken lightly. ”

Wang Feng said lightly: "Although Zeng Guofan is attentive, his training methods are old, his vision is not broad enough, and his Hunan army has a very important flaw. ”

Wang Feng didn't say anything halfway, Zhang Zongyu knew that this was testing himself, so he picked up the telescope and looked at it again, but no matter how he looked at it, the lineup was neat, and he couldn't see any flaws.

Wang Feng said again: "Zhou Yanqi, come and talk about it!" ”

"Yes!" Zhou Yanqi said loudly: "Each battalion of the Hunan Army Infantry includes a total of 505 battalion officers, divided into 4 sentry posts, 108 people per outpost, one sentry officer, one sentry commander, 8 teams per sentry, 12 to 14 people per team, plus the battalion officer's personal soldiers, the whole battalion has a total of 38 teams, two teams of mountain artillery, eight teams of guns, 9 teams of small guns, 19 teams of knives and spears, and 180 long-term husbands.

The horse team includes 511 battalion officers per team, 276 horses in the whole battalion, 1 battalion officer, 1 assistant, divided into 5 posts, 102 people per post, one main and deputy sentinel officers, 50 Ma Yong, 5 scattered Yong, 10 per shed, and 81 men.

The problem he had here was that the battalion was the largest fixed establishment in the Hunan army, and the battalion officer and above were the commanders, and each commander had a few battalions, a dozen battalions, or even dozens of battalions.

Therefore, we can see that although the Hunan army has begun to gradually equip itself with modern weapons and has also adopted Western-style training methods, its basic organizational structure has still not jumped out of the trap of the old-style brave battalion, and compared with our army, it is not difficult for us to find the shortcomings of the Hunan army's establishment under the conditions of modern warfare.

In terms of infantry units, the battalion of the Hunan army can be regarded as our battalion, the sentry is equivalent to a company, and the team or shed is equivalent to a squad, but we will be very surprised to find that the most important basic tactical unit in the modern army is also the most important post for training grassroots commanders: the platoon cannot be found in the Hunan army, and the sentry is directly under the squad, and the consequence of this is a serious shortage of grassroots commanders.

At the same time, there was no concept of a battalion headquarters in the Hunan army, and a battalion officer did not even have any commander to assist him, not even a deputy battalion officer, let alone a chief of staff. ”

Zhang Zongyu asked without knowing what to do: "What does this have to do with the combat effectiveness of the Hunan army?" ”

"Good question!" Zhou Yanqi smiled slightly: "The establishment of the Hunan army is a product of the era of cold weapons, in the era of cold weapons, long-range firepower is sparse, mainly relying on the white-edged impact of the infantry, so only a dense formation can ensure sufficient assault force, but with the emergence of firearms and the gradual increase in power, the dense formation is not conducive to exerting its own firepower, but will also become a live target for the enemy, bringing dozens of people in front of the cluster, crowded in one place, easy to hit the enemy's bullets."

Even though the Hunan army realized its own lack of organizational structure and kept up with the development trend of the decentralization of the infantry ranks in the face of intensive firepower, once the battle formation was opened, the soldiers did not have the command of the officer, the fighting will and initiative could not be improved, and the use of small units could not be talked about, and the result could only be defeat when encountering the enemy, and the result would only be defeat when encountered, and fleeing as soon as defeated. ”

Zhang Zongyu showed a thoughtful look, a few years ago in Xiao County and the Democratic Alliance Army, in his current point of view, the Twist Army at that time did not deserve to be called the army at all, can only be regarded as a homeless army, but now the Twist Army was transformed into the Huai Army by Li Hongzhang, the introduction of a lot of new weapons, even if there are defects in the organizational structure Zhou Yanqi said, but when it encounters the Democratic Alliance Army, will it really be defeated when it meets the enemy, and will it flee when defeated?

Zhou Yanqi looked at him and said: "There are still two serious problems in the upper-level organization of the Hunan military battalion system, in our Democratic Alliance Army, the basic strategic unit is the division, and the upper army and the group army are clearly hierarchical, and each has its own subordination.

In the Hunan army, the largest fixed unit is the battalion, and in wartime, each commander generally commands battalions of different numbers to participate in the war, and there is no subordinate relationship between the commanders. The battalion is often recruited and trained by the commander himself, and has an inseparable relationship with the commander himself, and is not commanded by the commander or by the commander's cronies, and it is very likely to produce extreme situations such as disobedience to dispatch, difficulty in obtaining military orders, and even mutiny. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you Feihu for the monthly pass on a sunny day and the tip from the person in charge of the accounting agency ~~~~