Chapter 65 War Preparations
Starting from the end of July, Alda has held several military exercises in succession. After all, in the upcoming war, they will no longer be dealing with a third-rate pirate group, but a noble from another territory. Military strength, so we must adapt in advance.
In order to be able to use troops flexibly on the battlefield, at Paul's suggestion, the staff began to try to use linear tactics, specifically: each infantry battalion was arranged in a horizontal line, and each company of spearmen in the battalion They were arranged in 6 rows deep, with each company responsible for two rows; the musketeers were deployed separately, arranged in 3 rows, with one platoon responsible for one row.
Compared with the current popular phalanx tactics, the front of Arda's army is wider and the depth becomes smaller. The wide front can form a semi-enveloping effect. As the number of equipped muskets increases, the effect of dealing with dense square formations will become better and better, and a large amount of firepower can be output to the enemy in a short period of time. .
Compared with large combat groups such as 10,000-man corps and 1,000-man corps, which are commonly used in the world, smaller troop formations such as companies and platoons can provide lower-level commanders with more opportunities to exert their subjective initiative. Of course, the premise is that there are a large number of qualified middle- and lower-level officers in the army. Paul is very sure that no other force in the world attaches as much importance to the training of middle- and lower-level officers as he does. In order to train qualified lieutenants and non-commissioned officers, he even established a special In a military academy, the things in the minds of low-ranking officers in most countries' armies are not much better than those of their top soldiers.
In view of the poor hit rate of the smoothbore barrel, the musketeers were not allowed to fire at will before hearing the officer's order. In actual operation, there were generally two methods: round fire or volley fire.
During round firing, three rows of soldiers fire in sequence from front to back. While one row of soldiers is shooting, the other two rows of soldiers are aiming or loading ammunition. This goes back and forth to maintain continuous firepower output.
When firing a volley, the first row of soldiers half-kneeled and fired, and the second and third rows of soldiers stood and fired. In this way, all the soldiers could fire a volley at the same time. Although this kind of volley It is impossible to maintain uninterrupted firepower, but combat examples in European history prove that a burst of fierce fire within a few minutes of approaching the enemy before launching the climax of the charge is very effective.
A single volley of soldiers can fully prepare for the attack of strictly trained spearmen. A piece of information that Paul read in his previous life said: Such a volley can not only give the enemy more It can cause huge damage to the enemy, and can also cause three times the fear and shock effect of previous single row shooting on the enemy, which can greatly dampen the enemy's courage. The reason is very simple. For ordinary people, a long-lasting thunder is not enough. The shock and frightening effect it brings will be greater than the shock and frightening effect of 10 intermittent thunders combined.
Paul believed that against the temporarily recruited soldiers of the local lords, he could defeat them with just one volley.
Soldiers standing in the first row undoubtedly need great courage, so a reward mechanism called "Courage Allowance" was created. Soldiers standing in the first row will receive three times the daily salary. award. In order to fully protect the soldiers in the first row, the Equipment Department worked hard to purchase and build a batch of iron armor so that these warriors could confidently and boldly lead the brothers behind them to advance forward.
In order to eliminate the soldiers' fear of bows and arrows, the main long-range weapon of the current era, the Equipment Department also mobilized the public to temporarily make 100 wooden bows, which can be used to shoot thin wooden sticks wrapped with cloth on the head. . Of course it is incomparable to a truly qualified war bow, but it is enough to simulate the effect of firing a hundred arrows. During the exercise, rows of soldiers held up simple wooden shields, beat drums, and moved toward the "enemy" with neat steps. During this period, anyone who could not bear the psychological pressure and retreated or charged rashly would be severely punished.
In order to give full play to the role of artillery, the concept of "infantry and artillery coordination" has also been proposed. Of course, what Paul calls "infantry and artillery coordination" is very simple: after the artillery bombards the infantry, the infantry rushes after the cannon. boom.
But this still tests the mobility of the artillery. In order to increase the movement speed of the artillery and support the infantry in time, each artillery team is equipped with 4 horses, two horses are used to pull the artillery, and two horses are used to pull the artillery. Used to pull ammunition, artillerymen not only have to practice increasing the firing speed, but also practice how to quickly load and unload artillery and arrange firing positions. In addition, the infantry must be able to overcome the fear caused by the shells fired by their own artillery whizzing past their heads, and the artillerymen must also be able to roughly grasp the relationship between the different elevation angles, ranges and even ballistics of the artillery, otherwise they will be hit. It's not good for people.
After several exercises, a combat method suitable for the Arda army was figured out:
When the enemy takes the initiative to attack, artillery carries out long-range fire strikes on the enemy to destroy the opponent's combat team. When the enemy gets closer, the musketeers and the artillery equipped with shotguns will carry out medium-range fire strikes on the enemy, killing a large number of the opponent's effective forces. During this period, the musketeers will use round fire to ensure the continuity of firepower. When the enemy charges When arriving at the formation, the spearmen stepped forward to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. If the enemy force was strong, the musketeers attached their bayonets to join in the melee combat. If they were evenly matched, they would kill the enemy accurately at close range under the protection of the spearmen, while the artillery was responsible for delaying the enemy. The follow-up force of the army.
When the Arda army took the initiative to attack, the artillery first used long-range fire to destroy the enemy's formation and deployment, preventing the enemy from effectively gathering. When the artillery fired, the musketeers were in front and the spearmen were behind to attack the enemy. When the position moved and approached the enemy, the musketeers fired a volley to kill a large number of opponents and demoralize the enemy. Then the spearmen launched a charge and defeated the enemy.
In the previous battles, many veterans who were injured and unfit to remain in the army were regrouped. They were sent to garrison in various villages and towns, and with the assistance of the local peasant associations, they established and Direct the training of militia groups. In Paul's plan, local militias would serve as reserve forces and become an important part of Arda's military system.
The reason why it is necessary to strengthen the training of militiamen is because in the wars between lords in this era, there was a notorious but effective war strategy-sending small groups of troops to raid and plunder the other side's towns and reduce the number of troops. The enemy's population and economy ultimately force the opponent to surrender.
When the army strengthened its power, Cecil, who was in charge of the intelligence system, was not idle either. Because people in this era had little sense of confidentiality, it was easy to figure out the movements of the traitors in Baildin.
Intelligence shows that Viscount Abut and the other two barons have returned to their fiefdom to recruit soldiers, while Viscount Angelo continues to sit in Butua. According to calculations, the size of the army that four people can assemble is about 2,000 to 2,500 people.
Paul was naturally dismissive of those farmers who had just put down their hoes. The only thing that worried him a little was that there were more than 20 knights in the enemy team, which was different from the "water-injected pork" of the Graiman family. , they are genuine knights. When assembled, they become a considerable cavalry force, and their personal martial arts are very strong.
“Should we practice hollow square formation?” Paul suddenly remembered this.
(End of this chapter)