Valley Emperor

As the drums sounded like winter thunder, the arrays of the two sides continued to approach each other, from 500 meters to 300 meters to 150 meters.

At this time, in the formation of the new army of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Chaofeng, who was riding on a horse, suddenly raised his hand and said at the same time: "The whole army stops!"

At the last moment of the upcoming battle, stop to rearrange the formation and reload the ammunition. This is also the standard procedure for the new army of the Tang Dynasty to conduct line operations.

Officers at all levels issued various passwords the first time the troops stopped!

Zhou Song, the young captain of the 1st Musket Team of the 5th Infantry Battalion, rode a horse and trotted in front of his troops while shouting, "Organize the formation!"

"Load!"

"Light the match!"

As the order was issued, the troops that were in a forward-moving state stopped and began to organize their formations, while the musketeers and gunners began to reload, ready to shoot for the first time.

Seeing the pseudo-Tang thief army on the opposite side stop, Qiu Yu was not about to stop, but urged the soldiers to move on!

It's not that he thought the counterfeit Tang thieves were afraid, but he knew that the counterfeit Tang thieves had an advantage in firepower, and their muskets could kill a large number of their own soldiers at a distance of 100 meters. Those bowl guns are bigger than their own and have a longer range.

Therefore, if you stay at a distance of more than 100 meters and shoot against each other, whether it is your own bowl gun or your own archers, you will be at a great disadvantage. You must continue to shorten the distance and enter 100 meters or even 50 meters to fight, and then use your troops. The advantage completely rushed up to melee.

While letting the subordinate infantrymen continue to advance, he also said a few words to a thousand households beside him, only to see the thousand households nodded slightly after listening, and then turned the pier and walked towards the rear.

At the rear, there is a team of cavalry with about a hundred cavalry!

This Qianhu was obviously the commander-in-chief of this cavalry. After returning to his headquarters, he led the cavalry and began to bypass the infantry in front, and went around to the left.

Wang Chaofeng, who was on the opposite side, saw this scene. He didn't know what attention the Ming troops on the opposite side were fighting. He must be trying to attract his own attention with the infantry team, and then rushed over from the flank with the cavalry.

The opponent's cavalry naturally did not have the courage to attack their own Chinese army spear phalanx, and the target of their attack was only the musketeers on one side.

Because the musketeers gave outsiders the impression that they were very fragile and could not fight in close combat, even the mature European musketeers in this era.

But the musketeers of the Datang New Army are an exception. The reason is very simple, because the muskets equipped by the Datang New Army have bayonets, and they are also sleeve-type bayonets. After the bayonet is installed, it can be loaded and fired.

With bayonet musketeers, theoretically speaking, it is possible to completely eliminate spearmen and other cold weapon infantry. The reason why the new army of the Tang Dynasty still retains a large number of spearmen, swordsmen, bows and arrows Hands, not because the musketeers could not replace them, but because the Tang Dynasty produced too few muskets.

When this musket is not enough, it can only helplessly continue to retain a large number of cold weapon troops.

If these Ming cavalrymen came to attack their musketeers phalanx, Wang Chaofeng would let them take a good look, the musketeer phalanx was not so easy to attack.

What's more, the cavalry on the opposite side were not heavy cavalry, but light cavalry, or more precisely mounted infantry, and they were riding horses from the southwest region. He still had certain confidence in such cavalry.

As for why he has such a certainty, because the cavalry of the new army of the Tang Dynasty is like this!

And how did the cavalry of the new Tang Dynasty develop? In fact, it was developed from the selection of personnel and horses from the captured Ming army cavalry. Therefore, to a certain extent, the cavalry of the new Tang army is similar to the cavalry of the Ming army.

The specific manifestation is that the mounted horses are not suitable for mounted combat, and the cavalry is not good at riding and shooting. Usually, it is okay to be a scout, but it is very reluctant to let them go to charge and fight.

Take the cavalry of the new army of the Tang Dynasty as an example. Most of these cavalry are prisoners of the Ming army or some soldiers who are self-recruited who know how to ride. The riding skills can only be said to be average, and there is basically no need to expect them to be able to shoot arrows on horseback. You can still hit the enemy. Immediately charging and fighting meleely is also a pretentious thing. Bullying and bullying the collapsed enemy army, a cover-up is fine, but if you let them attack the enemy's infantry phalanx, Cao Mingda can spit you to death: you are paralyzed. If you want Lao Tzu to die, just say so!

This is not only the basic quality of the cavalry is reluctant, but also the horse is not good!

The new army of the Tang Dynasty and the cavalry of the Ming army in the Guizhou area were all short horses from the southwest region, mainly Yunnan horses and Qian horses. few.

Generally speaking, horses in the southwest have good endurance and can be used for a long time, and are more suitable for use as pack horses or draught horses in mountainous areas.

But as a kind of riding, these pony breeds are seriously unsuitable, and their fatal flaws are underweight and shoulder height.

Take the war horses in Napoleon's army as an example. The war horses used by his cuirassiers are between 1.55 and 1.6 meters high at the shoulders, and the shoulders of the dragoons are between 1.53 and 1.55 meters high. The cavalry, a typical light cavalry, rides a horse with a shoulder height of between 1.49 and 1.53 meters, and the light lancer is between 1.46 and 1.5 meters high.

It is worth noting that even if they are the draw horses used to pull the gun, they use horses between 1.53 and 1.55 meters, and the specifications are the same as the horses used by the dragoons.

Although it is unfair to use the horses of the French cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars as a comparison, because the types of horses in Europe and Asia are different, it is not possible to make a valid comparison, but it is worth mentioning that from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, the Japanese army used The war horse of the 1980s, the so-called Oriental Horse, was imported and bred from France, and its shoulder height can reach more than 1.5 meters!

Therefore, from the point of view of modern army data, a cavalry, even if it is a light cavalry without a load, must have a shoulder height of more than 1.4 meters in order to meet the minimum standard.

It is a pity that the new army of the Tang Dynasty was unable to obtain horses that could meet these standards, let alone a war horse with a height of 1.41.5 meters, even if it was 1.2. The horses are also Mongolian horses that have been scattered to the local area from the north.

In the new army of the Tang Dynasty, the horses used are basically all southwest horses, and the shoulder height is only between one meter and one meter one. Therefore, if you pull a nine-pounder battery, eight or ten horses in the modern European army are enough, but the new army of the Tang Dynasty is enough. There are more than ten horses here.

Fortunately, the cavalry of the new army of the Tang Dynasty was struggling, and the cavalry of the Ming army in Guizhou was also struggling!

In ancient China, except for a few periods when it controlled the northwest region and was able to introduce war horses in Central Asia, in most other times, the Central Plains Dynasty could not obtain these fine war horses, only from Mongolian horses and southwestern Mali. Choose to use.

Therefore, in history, we will see that in the early days of most Central Plains dynasties, when the national strength was at its peak, the cavalry was also very strong, because at this time they were able to control the northwestern region and the Mongolian region, and obtained a large number of excellent horses, but in the middle and late stages, after the national strength weakened If these areas cannot be controlled, then the cavalry will gradually become weaker, and finally

It can only be to play the waves of refugees!

After all, not every dynasty is as rich as the Song dynasty, and you can play hoplites without a warhorse!

To a certain extent, this is also the reason why heavy cavalry has not really developed in China since ancient times. It is impossible for a horse that is too short to carry out combat with knights and hundreds of kilograms of equipment.

The Ming Dynasty was all right at this time. The northern frontier army could obtain Mongolian horses and even the Northwest and Central Asian horses imported from the northwest region. Although the Mongolian horses used in large quantities were not very good, they were about one meter two to one meter three. With the shoulder height, it can barely be used as a light cavalry horse.

However, the Yunnan-Guizhou area was originally a horse-producing area, and there has never been much external threat here, and the mountainous terrain is not suitable for cavalry combat, so from ancient times to the present, no ruler of the feudal dynasty will spend a huge price on it. The development of cavalry in these areas, the introduction of tall horses.

Now, what Wang Chaofeng saw was riding a group of Ming army cavalry with a height of only one meter at the shoulder, going around in a chaotic formation from the front.

Although their cavalry was not very good, nearly a hundred cavalrymen ran past, and the momentum was still great!

Immediately, Wang Chaofeng strengthened the defense of the right flank, and let the musketeers on the right flank mount bayonets to guard against the impact of the cavalry.

As long as the Ming cavalry dared to come up, they would first fire their artillery and then face the enemy with bayonets!

The distance between the two sides is already very close at this time. Although the cavalry of the Ming army has also moved~www.wuxiaspot.com~, they will not rush up at the first time. They are waiting, waiting for the attack on the flank of the pseudo-Tang bandit army. Chance.

At this time, Wang Chaofeng's troops had already officially entered the battle. As the Ming army approached 100 meters, the artillery opened fire first, and then the musket troops fired rounds.

Regardless of whether it is artillery or musket troops, their targets are not the sword and shield soldiers of the Ming army, but the artillery and archers of the Ming army.

Now they just want to use the advantage in range to intercept the long-range firepower of the Ming army, so as not to cause a large number of casualties to themselves after the long-range firepower of the Ming army is projected.

When the gunfire was loud, it was inevitable that the Ming army would start to suffer casualties!

However, the number of casualties is not too many, and it can even be said to be small, because the distance is still too far, and the hit rate is very limited at a distance of 100 meters.

But with the deaths and injuries of their comrades, the scene of blood and flesh flying reminded these Ming soldiers of the Battle of the Bronze Drum Acropolis a few days ago.

Bronze Drum Acropolis, that's a sad place!