In the 17th century in Europe, the military strength of the Kingdom of Sweden can definitely be called the best among the first-class countries, the geographical location and natural resources of the Kingdom of Sweden are not outstanding, but the Swedish army was the first to complete the military reform of line tactics in the hands of Gustav the Great.

It can be said that it was Gustav the Great's bold use of thin muskets in actual combat, greatly reducing the strategic depth and strengthening firepower, and achieving a series of victories, that detonated the military changes in the development of the entire European continent towards the development of line tactics.

Muskets appeared on the European continent two hundred years ago, but it wasn't until the time of Gustav that line tactics were really taken seriously.

Although Gustav the Great has long been cold, the military system he left behind is still regarded as a classic by his descendants, at least in the 17th century, Gustav the Great's military theory was still in an advanced position.

France, the military power in Western Europe, began to build a standing army with line tactics on the basis of absorbing this military system.

The phalanx tactics of the Kingdom of Spain, which once dominated Europe and even the world in the 16th century, became synonymous with backwardness in the 17th century with the decline of the hegemony of the Kingdom of Spain.

Because of this, the Kingdom of Sweden is one of the few countries in Eastern Europe that can play the tactic of lining up to shoot before encountering the Taiping Army, and the rise of the Taiping Army has strengthened the accuracy of this tactic, and even the Kingdom of Sweden has reduced the proportion of pikemen again after Karl X studied the victory of the Taiping Army, and completely banned the armor of musketeers, and replaced them with more ornate cloth uniforms with little protection.

In the Swedish army, only pikemen and other full-time hand-to-hand combatants and some cavalry wore heavy cuirasses and iron helmets.

This is mainly because the bayonet has not yet become popular in Europe, and the only countries that have learned the power of the bayonet are the dying Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, and the Russian Empire, which was controlled by a thousand faces after the defeat......

In this backward era of logistics relying entirely on livestock and manpower, it is very difficult to maintain the gathering of tens of thousands of troops.

This is one of the reasons why large armies in this era tend to march in several ways.

A field barracks camp of tens of thousands of people produces a terrifying amount of excrement every day, and when the number of troops exceeds a certain number, the split becomes inevitable.

Five elite grenadier divisions of the Taiping Army were divided into two routes, one division copied the rear road of the Swedish Corps and penetrated directly into the Polotsk region.

The remaining four divisions were divided into three parts and marched forward, Hong Tiancheng personally led two divisions to Vilno City to relieve the siege, and dozens of miles away on the left and right flanks were the other two elite grenadier divisions that were covered on both sides.

The total number of the five elite grenadier divisions of the Taiping Army reached more than 65,000 people, and the Taiping Army surpassed the enemy in strength for the first time in the confrontation.

Of course, Hong Tiancheng, who occupies such a big advantage, is no longer limited to defeating or even defeating the enemy army, what he wants is total annihilation!

The reason why the enemy of the Taiping Army was always able to recruit a group of veterans with combat experience to fill the new army after each defeat was because many of the defeated regular army soldiers had fled and rejoined the army.

Even if the morale of these routs is severely damaged and they are overwhelmed, they can be used as auxiliary militia units, at least compared to those farmers who have just taken up arms, these veterans who have undergone military training and experience in war are much stronger.

The rapid growth of the Christian Brotherhood was also inseparable from the large number of defeated soldiers defeated by the Taipings, and those men in the prime of life who knew how to fight themselves saved Jobs a lot of training energy.

In previous battles, the enemy's strength was always more than that of the Taiping army, and the Taiping army was already excellent if it could ensure that it was not surrounded, let alone encircle and annihilate the enemy, so Hong Tiancheng could only fight a rout but not a war of annihilation.

Annihilation in a decisive battle means more to break up the enemy's army than to kill and capture all the enemy soldiers.

In the absence of modern means of transport, even if there is cavalry pursuit, it is difficult to really kill all the routs, after all, the soldiers have brains, they can find a corner or a hole or something to hide, and it is impossible for the cavalry pursuing the rout to dismount and search carefully, and some are targets for them to chop.

The two divisions led by Hong Tiancheng were slightly smaller in number than the main force of the Swedish Legion, but Hong Tiancheng thought that he was enough to defeat Karl X alone, and the two divisions on both flanks were more used to block Karl X's escape route from two directions and drive him in the direction of Polotsk, while the Taiping elite grenadier division that had cut off the rear of the Swedish Legion was waiting there, just to complete the final harvesting task.

The plan was perfect, but alas, Karl X was not a fool......

After receiving the news of the arrival of Hong Tiancheng's army, Karl X directly withdrew the siege of Vilno, leaving thousands of people as the rear troops to resist Hong Tiancheng's army, and after buying time for the entire army to evacuate, he retreated to the Polotsk region with most of the main force of the Swedish army towards the original route of march.

Karl X's Swedish legion attack on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was based on the Polotsk region as a breakthrough.

Although the efficiency of the Taiping army's march was higher than that of the Swedish legion, this chase and escape, coupled with the time-delaying troops left by the Swedish legion, made it almost impossible to catch up with Karl X.

Fortunately, the elite grenadiers of the Taiping Army of the 5th Division, which had set off in advance in the direction of Polotsk, blocked the retreat line of Karl X as scheduled.

The Swedish legion, which had a main retreat of more than 30,000 people, immediately launched a battle formation and pressed towards the fifth division of the elite grenadiers of the Taiping Army.

In the eyes of Karl X and other Swedish generals, they have the advantage of twice the strength of the Taiping Army, and the basic soldiers of the Swedish Legion are all veterans with combat experience.

After all, the combat goal of Karl X and his party was to break through, not annihilate, this elite grenadier division of the Taiping Army, and they felt that the difficulty should be much lower.

What Karl X and his party didn't know was that for the Taiping soldiers who put Hong Tiancheng's order above their own lives, the enemy's breakthrough and their own annihilation could be equated, because they would never flee from their own battle line!

Thanks to the obscene Admiral for the 100 starting coins