Valley Emperor

After Mr. Long took his personal soldiers and other generals of the Chinese army out of the battlefield, this also brought a huge problem, that is, the remaining Ming army completely lost the command center.

In the era of underdeveloped communications, the operations of troops, especially such large-scale operations, are extremely dependent on flags, and the flags of the leaders of both sides are even more important.

This is not only used to motivate morale, but also has an irreplaceable commanding role. The presence of the commander flag means that the subordinate generals and soldiers can find the backbone. When they look back, they can see their own commander, but if they look back If the handsome flag is not reached, it means that the main general has already run away.

Yes, not dead, but run away!

Because in the ancient army, after beheading the general, there is no such thing as a shout that so-and-so is dead, and then the enemy army will collapse. People see it as a commander-in-chief battle. As for whether the general will die, the ordinary soldiers below I really don't know, it's impossible if you say that the enemy's master will die, then he will really die.

But when the handsome flag fell, it really meant that the general died or ran away.

At this time, the troops are equivalent to losing their command, and a unit without a unified command will have a predictable fate.

Just like the previous Ming cavalry, they just lacked a unified command. Dozens of cavalry units were basically fighting each other, and the fight was extremely chaotic. No one listened to anyone else. on the commander.

However, this commander was only temporary. Those cavalrymen did not trust or even obey him. During the battle, this Ming army cavalry general could not command other Ming army cavalry under his subordinates at all. He could only command the headquarters and a small number of cavalry.

The Ming army cavalry under the unified command of the nominal commander is like this. Now the main infantry of the Ming army has completely lost the commander. It is conceivable what chaos will happen next.

And the key point is that Lord Long is a civil official, and he did not make detailed arrangements for the retreat like other professional generals, such as withdrawing that troop first, and then withdrawing that troop.

He just gave a simple retreat order, as for how to retreat? Please, this official is a genius in the imperial examinations. If you ask me to memorize the Four Books and Five Classics, and write an eight-part essay, there is no problem at all.

But when you asked me how to retreat, my brains were teasing you, how could Lao Tzu learn those rude martial arts things?

Go away, don't get in the way of this official escaping!

Lord Long left in despair and sadness, leaving behind the Ming army whose defense line was nearly 20,000 and had collapsed!

The defense line of this Ming army has completely collapsed, and it has lost its unified command. Several front-line generals are trying to reorganize, whether it is resistance or escape, but in this case, even Zhao Zilong , Zhang Fei and other famous generals are taken out, I am afraid that the situation will be irreversible.

The efforts of some of the front-line senior generals of the Ming Army were in vain. In the end, the situation was completely irreversible. They could only follow Mr. Long and retreat with their personal soldiers. As for those ordinary soldiers, at this time They also can't control the lives of these people.

Anyway, for these high-level generals, ordinary soldiers are actually cannon fodder, not to mention that more than half of the troops are young men and women who are temporarily recruited. It is enough to take away the real core, that is, their respective personal soldiers.

With the retreat of many senior generals of the Ming army, the general collapse of the Ming army was staged.

In less than a moment, there was no organized resistance from the Ming army on the entire front. Whether it was senior generals or ordinary soldiers, all of them hated their parents for giving them two less legs and running fast enough. .

The collapse of the Ming army is also a test for the new army of the Tang Dynasty, because they want to keep these Ming army as much as possible, whether it is to kill them or capture them, they need to give them as much as possible. Stay, otherwise, these defeated soldiers will most likely be reorganized by the generals of the Ming army after they have fled to the north.

At that time, these defeated soldiers will be reorganized. Although the morale will not be too high, it will always be trouble.

Therefore, when the Ming army completely collapsed, the new army of the Tang Dynasty also made corresponding tactical changes. From the previous denseness, the infantry phalanx with the infantry battalion as the basic unit quickly dispersed, forming a small phalanx with the team as the basic unit. Then began to hunt and capture Ming soldiers.

Well, basically they were shouting while chasing after them;

In the case of the complete collapse of the army, many soldiers of the Ming army who had been unable to escape would decisively throw down their swords in order to save their lives, and then knelt on the ground and chose to surrender.

There will even be some middle and low-level officers leading dozens or hundreds of people to choose to surrender collectively, and even during and after the surrender, they will help the Datang New Army maintain the order of the prisoners.

This is due to the tradition of the Datang New Army that has always treated prisoners preferentially. Many Ming army surrendered prisoners are well mixed in the Datang New Army. Many officers of the Datang New Army are actually Ming army officers who surrendered in the early days.

And the most typical representative of this is Zeng Ziwen!

In the mouths of senior officials of the Ming Dynasty, Zeng Ziwen had already become a great traitor of the Ming Dynasty. He even betrayed the court and joined the pseudo-Tang bandit army. He also turned around and became a member of the pseudo-Tang bandit army to fight against the Ming army. The key is that Zeng Ziwen is still doing well with the Puppet Tang Bandit Army, and it is said that he has been knighted.

Such Zeng Ziwen was the most dazzling guiding light in the eyes of many Ming army officers who were willing to surrender or were forced to surrender.

With the example of Zeng Ziwen, they would think that it might be a good choice to defect to the puppet thief army of the Tang Dynasty. It would not be a general of the Zhu family, but it would be good to be a general of the Li family. Maybe they could mix it up. The title of nobility has passed the founding hero of the country and the addiction of the wealthy family for hundreds of years.

Surrender after a defeat, then join the enemy and fight against the friendly forces of the past. This is not an unacceptable thing for many Ming troops. Well, not only for the Ming army, but actually for most ancient armies. It's all normal.

Datang Xinjun is no exception!

The reason why the new army of the Tang Dynasty has not surrendered on a large scale is because the new army of the Tang Dynasty has not yet encountered such a big defeat. It's also a matter of minutes.

As groups of Ming troops began to surrender, the number of Ming troops captured by the new army of the Tang Dynasty also began to constantly refresh records.

Two thousand, three thousand...

When the total number of the surrendered Ming army exceeded 5,000, the new army of the Tang Dynasty could not even find enough manpower to guard these prisoners, because the new army of the Tang Dynasty was still in a fighting state.

The troops are chasing the fleeing Ming army ahead, and it is unlikely that too many people will be allocated to watch the prisoners and clean the battlefield!

In the end, the only thing to do is to take in, keep prisoners, and clean the battlefield to the 5th Infantry Regiment, which had not participated much in the battle before.

The other troops continued to pursue and route the fleeing Ming army, and at the same time began to spread out in other directions to maintain vigilance and defense against the surroundings.

Chasing down the enemy, taking prisoners, cleaning the battlefield, and at the same time maintaining the state of the surrounding area, so that the new army of the Tang Dynasty, which has already exceeded 10,000 people, felt that they were not enough, and the scene was once chaotic!

There is no way, the troops are already too scattered, and the tasks are heavy. At this time, even Li Xuan, the commander of the whole army, is busy and confused, and it is very troublesome to command, and even the same order appeared and passed it to the two. The embarrassment of the troop.

Fortunately, it is now at the end of the battlefield, not the most intense period of war, so there are no serious consequences.

However, the difficulty of commanding in such a chaotic situation also gave Li Xuan the idea of ​​finding a way to improve the command system, especially the communication method.

At this time, he was very fond of having a radio command system. How wonderful it would be if there were dozens of walkie-talkies. Even if there were no walkie-talkies, it would be great if there were wireless telegraphs!

Unfortunately, this idea of ​​his is doomed to be unrealistic, at least not until he lights up the radio technology tree.

The walkie-talkie did not appear until the Second World War, and the military wireless telegraph that could move with the troops was only used on a large scale during the First World War.

Before this, many generals were trapped in a backward command system!

There are many ways to do this. Among them, the most effective short-range battlefield command method is undoubtedly the traditional semaphore command, and the slightly long-distance command can only be passed through the messenger.

The words of the semaphore commander~www.wuxiaspot.com~ are simple. To popularize the semaphore, not only must there be a large number of professional semaphore soldiers, but middle and low-level officers must also understand the semaphore.

On the contrary, it is more troublesome to popularize a large number of messengers, because it involves a long-standing problem: the shortage of horses.

In an army, the horses ridden by the messengers are often the best, basically the same as the horses ridden by senior generals.

For example, in the modern Japanese army, the highest priority of war horses among them is the supply of high-ranking officers and messengers, followed by artillery and cavalry.

In Li Xuan's central army camp, the task of delivering orders to subordinate units was in charge of the personal guard battalion. In this battle, there were more than 20 messengers who specially delivered orders to the command center where Li Xuan was located.

In the subordinate units, there will also be many professional messengers. If the total number is counted, the number of professional messengers in the Datang New Army can reach more than 100.

These more than 100 people are constantly running between the various units, conveying various military information.

And these more than 100 people represent the need for more than 200 or more horses!

Especially for long-distance order transmission, in order to hurry up and ensure that the order can be transmitted on time, the messengers often take turns riding two or even three horses.

Without such an efficient order transmission system, Li Xuan would not be able to effectively command the Datang New Army, which was scattered in various places, and the number had expanded to more than 10,000 people.

However, even with the current scale of the ordering troops, Li Xuan still cannot satisfy Li Xuan. If the new army of the Tang Dynasty continues to expand in the future, and the occupied territories will become larger and larger, there must be a systematic order transmission system, that is, The so-called station.

Without the post system, it would be difficult to effectively command more and more troops with larger and larger sites.