Tang Taizong once said: "I can use one to ten, without him, a strong soldier is sharp." ”

The Tang Army's Mingguang Armor and Mo Sword Array, as well as other ordnance, are indeed something to be proud of. And now, Zhu Yongxing is also trying his best to equip his army, not only weapons, but also armor.

The urgency of the war promoted the development of science and technology, but this was also due to Zhu Yongxing's vision and knowledge. The import, absorption, and imitation of smelting and processing machinery such as steelmaking blast furnaces, hydraulic forging presses, and hydraulic boring machines, the employment and introduction of relevant talents, and semi-assembly line operating procedures...... After Zhu Yongxing's operation, the industrial level of the Ming Dynasty, mainly related to the manufacture of ordnance, was once again at the world's advanced level.

Without these advances in industrial science and technology, Zhu Yongxing might have won the war. After all, the invincible boast of the Eight Banners did not have such a deep and great impact on him, and as early as when Dongjiang Town was still alive, Mao Wenlong and the Liaodong refugee army also won the Qing army, which is a proof. It has been more than 20 years since the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, almost a generation, and the signs of decadence are even more obvious.

According to Zhu Yongxing's idea from later generations, even if the weapon is not available, the tactics will change, and strive to win the victory with the fastest speed and the least sacrifice. In reality, however, innovations and changes in tactics and weapons are alternating.

Defensive operations of arquebuses, the use of bombardment cannons, tunnel blasting, flintlock pistols and bayonet equipment, mixed arrays of hot and cold weapons, hollow phalanxes of all firearms, line tactics of naval ships, training of cavalry wall charges, introduction and imitation of plate armor...... All these changes in weapons and tactics led to one victory after another, and turned the shape of the war that revived China around at an astonishing speed.

If you are only in a single position in the army, navy or cavalry, you may not feel the change so comprehensively, but only at a certain level. It would be shocking to see how the various branches of the military have changed in just a few years.

But many people just saw the change in weaponry and tactical play, and this is not the most rewarding place for Zhu Yongxing. The only way to do this is to abandon the bad rules of "using civil affairs to control military forces" and "controlling large and small systems," establish a strict mechanism for rewards and punishments, and establish a staff department of a modern nature. Enabling the army to regard honor as life is the most gratifying thing for Zhu Yongxing.

In other words, weaponry and tactics may be temporary, but a system that works can last a long time.

For example, the ease of logistics mentioned by Gao Dejie and Yu Qi is actually a manifestation of the more professional military forces. The ensuing battle witnessed the superiority and power of the cavalry wall battle.

The so-called cavalry wall charge is when the cavalry pushes the enemy in a straight line, with the horses next to the horses, shoulder to shoulder, like a fast-moving wall. Always fight in a collective way. Rather than fighting chaotically on their own, the combat effectiveness is far greater than that of classical knights.

Normally, if the traditional cavalry encounters a wall-type charge, one face will encounter two or three slashed weapons, and no matter how high the individual martial arts are, it is often difficult to parry. Or to be more precise, no matter how high a knight's martial arts are, when facing the cavalry wall, it will also be a lose-lose result. It's not the kind that can rush back and forth in traditional cavalry battles and pick a lot of people alone.

If it is described in detail. In the traditional cavalry charge, there are gaps between horses and people, so as not to squeeze each other into chaos. The battle between the two traditional cavalry armies is to advance in the opposite direction, attack each other, and suffer casualties. Many cavalrymen would pass past the enemy, then regroup behind the enemy's rear, and then charge each other again, resulting in many engagements.

Apparently. If a dense, continuous wall formation is used when charging, then the two sides will rarely be able to traverse, or even form a near-innocuous engagement like "finger crossing".

From the point of view at that time, the introduction of the cavalry wall charge was also to make up for the huge gap between the cavalry of the Ming army and the nomadic riders in martial arts and horsemanship. If the cavalry trained the day after tomorrow wants to compete with the nation that grew up on horseback, it is not enough to rely on hard training, and it is too late in time, so it can only rely on collective strength to adopt this tactic similar to "man for man."

As Napoleon said, one Mamluk could defeat three French cavalry, but a hundred French cavalry could defeat a thousand Mamluks. After the advent of modern cavalry, although the nomadic cavalry still outperformed in individual horsemanship, it was no longer able to defeat the cavalry units of the farming people.

What binds modern cavalry together is not the personal charm of the commander or the iron chains, but the military discipline that is more indestructible than the chains of the chain horses. Any cavalry less brave than the modern army is vulnerable to a wall charge, and when confronted with a braver enemy, the modern army can die with the enemy cavalry.

Gao Dejie's horse lance gradually tilted from high to low, and the riders on both sides looked at the military flag on the horse lance, slowly increasing their speed. At the same time, they clenched the hilt of their swords, their upper arms perpendicular to the horizon, the tips of their elbows against their helmets pointing towards the sky, and their upper arms were hard behind them, ready to unleash a slash with all their might.

The standard equipment of the Ming cavalry was a one-handed sabre. Except for a few skilled martial artists, such as Gao Dejie, who was in charge of commanding in the middle of the team with a horse lance and a military flag. Although assassination is the most lethal of the means, it is difficult to accurately perform this action on fast, staggered warhorses. Moreover, in high-speed hedging, if you can't use long weapons flexibly and skillfully, it is easy to be pushed off the horse by the recoil force.

Comparatively speaking, the hit rate of the knife slash is at least three or four times higher than that of the spear stab, and with the power of the impact, the knife slash also has the power of lethal and mailing, at least it can make the opponent immediately lose the ability to fight.

And Zhu Yongxing's idea of army building is to train a large number of cheap and sustainable soldiers, rather than a few elites with amazing skills. This is true for arming muskets, and it is still true for cavalry wall assaults. As long as the opponent's army is not all fierce generals of Guan Zhang Zhao's level, the exchange ratio of the Ming cavalry will not be much compensated. And if the opponents are all fighters of Guan Zhang Zhao's level...... So even if the exchange is lost, what is the loss?

After half a year of training, summarization, and improvement, although the cavalry of the Ming army could not reach the density of knees touching knees, the gap was only half a foot at most, and it was absolutely impossible to tolerate the enemy's cavalry; Although the charging distance of the Ming cavalry could only reach more than 200 steps, with the addition of slow running, the distance of more than 400 steps was basically enough.

Wang Zhan's spear was also slowly stretched out, the wind whistled in his ears, and fifty paces away was the first column of comrades who rumbled forward, and the black armor advanced like a wall. (To be continued......)