Chapter 1359 True Strength
In the past several local battles between the two armies, the Houjin Army generally had a certain advantage in terms of military strength, which ensured that they could still pose a threat to the Haihan Army and let their opponents down even when their weapons and equipment were obviously backward. We can't free our hands and feet to attack this stronghold on the north side of the harbor. Of course, part of the reason for this is that the cavalry units of the Later Jin Army did have strong combat effectiveness, and were better than the Haihan cavalry in terms of riding skills and environmental adaptability. There are only a few hundred cavalrymen in Haihan, and they are all very valuable to the military. Naturally, they are not willing to be easily thrown into the battlefield where they need to compete with the enemy.
Without the effective cover of the cavalry, the infantry and artillery certainly did not dare to go deep inland to face the Houjin cavalry easily. Even if they had an advantage in weapon performance, it would not be in vain to fight cavalry with infantry when the forces were equal, but the Haihan Army This kind of combat method that relies heavily on logistical supplies will still worry about the rear Jin cavalry outflanking its retreat.
The comparison of military strength this time seems to be no different from the past. Although Haihan came with many ships, Muteb did not think that the other party would fight a protracted battle at Lushunkou, and more than a thousand soldiers under his command dismounted to defend the city. Mounting a horse is a cavalry, which has an absolute advantage in mobility. As long as they grasp the opportunity well, the Haihan people can only return without success after struggling like before.
It was not until the afternoon that the Haihan Army crossed the harbor and began to array on the coast north of Lushunkou. During the landing of the Haihan Army, the Houjin Army maintained great restraint and did not even send troops to harass it. This is of course also because they have tried to attack halfway across the sea before, but they have learned their lesson after being taught how to behave by Haihan naval gun.
"Just watching us land like this, Boarskin is very confident in their tactics!" Wang Tom said with emotion after standing on the deck and looking at the situation on the coast with a telescope. No men and horses of Hou Jin were found in the field of vision, and the city in the distance that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty continued to remain silent. It seemed that the Hou Jin army planned to hold on to it as it did in the past.
"What tactics can these barbarians from outside the Pass have? It's not just the same tactics used by the Ming army. We have spent a year cultivating their illusions, and now it's time to beat them!" Qian Tiandun looked gearing up. It looked like I am also looking forward to this battle.
In most of the battles between Haihan and the Hou Jin Army in the past year, he did not exert all his strength. He only used various methods to test the enemy's troop deployment, command system, tactics, etc., and to evaluate his own operations. The plan is constantly being revised and improved. Before it was determined to occupy this area, Haihan's military had been concealing its combat tactics so that it could defeat its opponent in one go in a decisive battle.
Such a routine is actually not complicated. If Houjin had a strong enough intelligence agency, it would not be difficult to collect various examples of Haihan's battles in the south. If they could learn more about how the Haihan Army solved cavalry and city defense in the past, they might have a deeper understanding of the current situation, and they would not be so arrogant as to think that the Haihan Army was "no more than that."
The soldiers of the special operations battalion quickly assembled in company units after landing. However, they did not wait for all subsequent cavalry and artillery units to land. They had already formed their formation towards the inland area and began to march separately.
If the musketeers using old weapons make such a move in front of the enemy's cavalry, they are undoubtedly seeking death. The scattered musketeers are like living targets in front of the highly mobile cavalry. The Ming army's performance on the battlefield The successive defeats have fully proved this point.
Not only the Ming army, but also the musketeers who used linear array tactics in this era actually had the same weakness, that is, they would face the dilemma of insufficient firepower when dealing with high-speed cavalry. If the frequency is chaotic, it is easy for the cavalry to seize the opportunity to break through the formation. As long as the musketeers lose their formation, their firepower output is almost negligible. Therefore, European countries in this era still had a large number of troops composed of a mixture of spearmen and musketeers. The spearmen were responsible for resisting enemy cavalry and covering the musketeers at close range.
However, the formation of spearmen has long been eliminated from the Haihan regular army, and they basically rely on the stable firepower output brought by advanced rifles to fight against the enemy. The seven-shot rifle currently equipped by the special operations battalion has further improved this tactic and is basically close to the tactics of later army squad platoons. Even a small group of people can have extremely powerful firepower output, and The cooperation between the squads can form a deadly crossfire. Even if the opponent is a cavalry, it will be difficult to survive under the encirclement and suppression of this firepower network.
However, this tactic was regarded as a secret weapon of the Haihan Army. It had not appeared on the Liaodong battlefield before, and the Jin Army did not know that the Haihan people still had such a trump card. However, the Haihan Army knew that Hou Jin was good at using cavalry, and every time they clashed with Haihan, there were cavalry on the flanks. Whenever they got the chance, they would outflank him. This also made it impossible for the Haihan Army to safely advance to the center left. Under the city. However, the Hou Jin Army's tactics were single. After many trials, Haihan had basically figured out the opponent's tactics. Unlike Hai Han, they had room for improvement. The swords, bows, and horsebacks were all the Hou Jin Army had. capital.
Qian Tiandun formulated a set of risky tactics for the cavalry of the Hou Jin Army, which was to actively separate the troops and advance towards the enemy-controlled areas in a skirmishing manner. Of course, this "dispersion" does not mean stragglers or scattered soldiers, but means that the battle formation is no longer based on a linear array. Each combat unit maintains a certain distance between them to control a larger range and form cross fire.
This formation would of course be regarded as an obvious loophole on the battlefield of this era. No country's musketeers dared to adopt such tactics, and no country's cavalry had ever seen such a routine. Qian Tiandun knew that his opponent would definitely take the bait, but the specific performance still depended on the on-the-spot performance of his subordinates. This is not the first time that the special operations battalion has used a combat method like this, but it has no combat experience against cavalry before, so the risk is still quite high.
But Qian Tiandun had great confidence in his subordinates. He believed that after experiencing various battles, the troops he brought out would not lose their position in front of any enemy, even the rear troops who were famous for their cavalry fighting. The same goes for Jin Jun.
The person commanding the special operations battalion on the front line is still Battalion Commander Takahashi Minami. In fact, he currently commands mainly three combat companies. According to the plan, the troops are divided into three groups and slowly advance forward. Although it seems to be marching in scattered formations, in fact, squads are the basic combat units. The squad, platoon, company and battalion command systems at all levels are also ready to fight, just waiting for the opponent to show up and fall into the trap. . Sun Zhen, who has made many contributions in the special operations camp in the past two years, has been promoted to platoon leader, commanding four squads of nearly 60 people. These four classes seem to be working on their own, but the distance between classes has been maintained very well. If you look down from the air, you can see that these four squads are centered on one squad commanded by Sun Zhen himself, and the other three squads are scattered around the periphery at an angle of 120 degrees. This can ensure that when the enemy attacks from any angle, at least three squads can engage with it immediately and form a fire network. There are at least forty repeating rifles in the three squads. The firepower output intensity is basically equivalent to that of a company using traditional single-shot muskets, and it is no problem to deal with a charge of hundreds of cavalry.
Amakusa Shiro, the company commander of Sun Zhen's company, also personally led a platoon to sit in the center, and the other three platoons surrounded the outside in the same way to form support for each other. The firepower network between platoons is more powerful. If a platoon-level combat unit is enough to deal with an enemy cavalry of a hundred cavalry, then the lethality of such coordinated operations between platoons will be at least three to four times greater.
In order to ensure that the three groups of troops could take care of each other, Qian Tiandun asked the cavalry who landed later to take on the task of coordinating and communicating among the three groups of infantry. Although the cavalry brought by Harugong this time was only half of the cavalry battalion, considering the combat effectiveness bonus brought by the individual equipment, the generals believed that the combat effectiveness of these more than 100 cavalry was enough to carry out this operation. Planned.
If this still fails to withstand the opponent's cavalry, then Qian Tiandun's plan is to use the cavalry battalion to cover the retreat of the infantry, and then use the artillery on the rear position to provide cover for the retreating troops. Of course, Qian Tiandun did not intend to activate this backup plan unless it was absolutely necessary, because it meant that the special operations battalion would suffer considerable battle losses. After all, no matter how hard it was covered, two legs could not outrun four legs, and during the retreat, The chance of being broken up by enemy cavalry will also increase accordingly.
Although such a combat plan carries certain risks, after discussing with several other generals, Qian Tiandun still believed that this method was probably the most effective way to defeat the enemy's cavalry and kill its effective forces. Because the number of Haihan cavalry is limited, as long as the opponent does not launch a charge, it is almost impossible to form a situation where the golden cavalry is killed. Even if Haihan can break through the city, the opponent can see that the situation is not good and escape. Haihan relies on infantry as the main force. The Lord's troops cannot intercept all the opponent's cavalry.
Only the plan formulated by Qian Tiandun to lure the enemy to attack could lead the Houjin Cavalry into the arranged killing formation to attack. As long as it can cause enough damage to the opponent, winter is approaching. From now on, with Jin's almost primitive level of armed force, it will be too late to mobilize troops from Liaodong and organize troops to seize Lushun Pass.
The actions of the Haihan Army naturally fell into the eyes of Muteb who was watching the battle on the top of the city. He watched for a long time and still couldn't believe his eyes - the Haihan Army actually gave up their most powerful musket formation and just beat the infantry like this. Press forward before dispersing. Is this because the Haihan people believe in their unparalleled strength, or do they feel that the sabers of Houjin's cavalry have become dull?
Muteb was relatively cautious at the moment. Even after seeing the almost stupid formation of the Haihan Army, he still did not rush to order the two cavalry lurking outside the city to attack. Muteb knew that the Haihan army was not weak in combat, and was even far stronger than Houjin's other opponents. Several of his predecessors who died in Lushunkou had confirmed this with their lives, so he was also very worried about the Haihan army making such a move. You are deliberately luring yourself into the trap.
But the generals under his command couldn't hold back anymore when they saw such a scene, and they all took the initiative to ask him to fight, hoping to rush outside the city to harvest a wave of heads as soon as possible. After all, after having dealt with the Haihan people so many times, this is the first time that they have encountered such an opportunity. All Houjin warriors grew up on horseback, and at a glance they have realized the "negligence" of the other party. The huge defensive loopholes left behind naturally refused to let such an opportunity pass easily.
Muteb hesitated for a long time. Seeing that the opponent's infantry was already far away from the coastline and should have been out of the range of the naval guns, and there were no cavalry accompanying him to escort him, he felt that the opponent had probably not suffered any big losses in Port Arthur this year, so This time, he was really overconfident to resort to such a foolish move. But the opportunity is fleeting. If you wait for the opponent to march to the city to complete regrouping, it will be too difficult for the cavalry to break up the team.
"Pass my order, raise the flag, and let the two bulls outside the city attack!" Muteb finally made up his mind. This opportunity was still worth taking a chance on. He didn't even need to give more detailed instructions. When the cavalry outside the city saw this situation, they naturally knew how to take action.
The cavalry uses its own mobility to cut through the infantry formation and then annihilate them separately. This is one of the most basic cavalry tactics. Nowadays, the infantry formation of the Haihan Army is so scattered. If you don't know how to operate it, Niu Lu'e, who leads the team and directs the battle, can really be dragged out and beheaded.
Soon two flags were raised from the top of the city, which represented the two groups of Houjin cavalry lurking outside the city. Seeing the signal of the raised flags meant that Jia La Ezhen Muteb had issued a battle order. The two cavalrymen, who were already ready to move, immediately emerged from the forest and slowly accelerated from the flanks to cover the advancing Haihan army.
The reason why there is no direct charge is also the combat experience of the Houjin Cavalry. Slowly accelerating allows the horses to gradually adapt to the battle rhythm, and at the same time, it also uses this to gradually put pressure on the enemy. If the opponent chooses to retreat after seeing the cavalry appearing, it will be much easier to pursue the running opponent than to confront them head-on. Once engaged, it will easily cause the enemy to be completely defeated. This kind of combat experience has been verified many times by the Ming army. In the eyes of the Houjin cavalry, the psychological quality of the Haihan army infantry should not be much better.
Almost at the same time that the Houjin Cavalry appeared, the advancing Haihan Army had stopped and began to adjust its formation under the command of its officers, preparing to fight the slowly approaching Houjin Cavalry.
(End of chapter)