Chapter 2031
Based on his observations during this period, Sun Bing knew that the Qing army's musketeers usually marched on foot when they came out of the camp for training, and only the foreign instructor and his escorts chose to ride horses. After all, this training ground is very close to the Qing army's camp. It will definitely take longer to load and unload saddles and bridles on the horses than on the road. There is really no need to travel on horseback. The scene of all members on horseback indicates that this musketry team is probably going to move far away from the camp - maybe this is another combat operation after a long time, and it is also the fighter opportunity that Sun Bing has been looking forward to. .
Sun Bing immediately ordered his people to rush back to the temporary base on the coast as soon as possible to send orders to assemble and prepare everyone for battle. As long as this musketeer team is far enough away from the Qing army camp, Sun Bing will look for opportunities to take action and strive to solve this hidden danger at once.
However, the Marines' hiding place was in the mountains and forests, and it was not easy to keep up with the Qing's cavalry on two legs. Fortunately, the position is condescending, and the direction of the Qing army's march can be judged in advance through observation. Moreover, the opponent is not riding fast, so it is not likely to be lost for the time being.
However, the Marines' observation point was several miles away from the temporary base on the coast. If they waited for the message to be sent back to complete the assembly before rushing over, they would definitely miss it in time. Therefore, Sun Bing could only take a few people to follow on foot, leaving signs guiding the direction along the way, so that the large army could follow as soon as possible.
About ten miles to the southwest from the Qing army camp is the fortress defense line built on the Daheishan Mountains. There are large dense fortress areas in the southeast and northwest of the Daheishan Mountains. There are as many as hundreds of large and small fortresses. . Even if Haihan has superior weapons and equipment, it will be difficult to completely clear out the Qing army's fortresses in this area in a short period of time.
The Haihan Army had organized several large-scale offensives before, but soon discovered that conquering these fortresses required a large amount of artillery shells and gunpowder, and casualties were inevitable. Moreover, the enemy would constantly build new fortresses to maintain the depth of its defense lines. , the cost of conquering this place was completely out of proportion to the gain, and in the end, we voluntarily gave up the plan of attacking the fortress defense line.
After that, the two sides tacitly stopped taking the initiative and began to rely on their respective lines of defense to enter a strategic confrontation. Although small-scale armed conflicts still occur from time to time, most of them are only brief encounters at the patrol level, and both sides are very restrained and do not invest more troops.
There is a gap of less than ten miles between the Daheishan defense line controlled by the Qing army and the Jinzhou Isthmus defense line stationed by the Haihan army. However, this area is basically a plain terrain, making it difficult to hide their tracks. Patrol teams from both sides generally do not Too far away from your own defense line. The last time the Qing Army's musketry team set up an ambush outside the fortress's defense line, catching the Haihan Patrol Team off guard.
However, after that battle, it was not easy for the Qing army to use this method to ambush the Haihan patrol again. After confirming that the Qing army was equipped with standard muskets, the Haihan Army issued a military order strictly prohibiting the patrol team from traveling far away from the scheduled patrol route without authorization. The relatively open and flat environment between the defense lines of the two armies made it difficult for the Qing army to set up an ambush in advance. Such an elite small force did not dare to be easily pulled out to fight Haihan head-on. In addition, it was already winter, so the musketeers only We have returned to the rear camp and have not been dispatched again recently.
If the Musketeers really wanted to go near the Daheishan defense line, Sun Bing would be unlikely to follow because the terrain easily exposed their whereabouts. Fortunately, the enemy did not seem to intend to attack, and after marching for a while, they turned south towards the coast. In this way, the marching route was actually a large circle around the mountain forest where Sun Bing and others were hiding, from the front of the mountain to the back of the mountain, covering a total of about ten miles.
This place is only seven or eight miles away from the temporary base of the Marine Corps near the coast, but the reinforcements will definitely go to the observation point in the direction of the Qing army camp first, and then they can follow the markers all the way around here. Sun Bing estimated that even if he rushed slowly, it would take at least two hours for the reinforcements to arrive here. Now we can only hope that the enemy will stay here for a day and a half, so that we can have enough time to prepare for action.
The change of environment made Bayano feel a little relieved. He originally planned to let the soldiers complete the march on foot, but then he thought about it. There was still a certain thickness of snow in the wild, and walking more than 20 miles round trip was too much. It was inhumane, but the ride was arranged in the end. Of course, the main reason lies in the identity and background of these soldiers. If the training conditions are too difficult, there will be a group of big shots that Bayano cannot afford to offend who will be dissatisfied with him afterwards.
Baiano finally chose a place at the foot of the mountain that was similar to the training ground, a col with a flat bottom. The subject he will arrange for the musketeers to train today is the advancement and retreat of the combat formation during the battle. This is also a tactical subject that has troubled the musketeers for a long time. There will always be people who cannot keep up with the pace of the march, leading to chaos in the entire formation. .
The tactics that Bayano taught to this musketeer team of the Qing army were the relatively "advanced" line infantry formations of this era, that is, the tactic of queuing to kill, which is still the most important combat method among Haihan's ordinary troops. It's just that the Haihan Army's combat thinking has always been to avoid head-on confrontation with the enemy in the open space. Even in plain areas, they will try to create bunkers. Therefore, most of the time, they rely on defenses to fight the enemy, and the performance of the weapons is used. Suppress to gain advantage on the battlefield.
The use of this combat method requires excellent battlefield command and coordination capabilities, civil engineering and construction capabilities, excellent weapon and equipment performance and other conditions. Even if contemporary opponents know that Haihan's combat method is more efficient, it will be difficult to imitate it.
According to the tactics mastered by Baiano, if the horizontal team wants to maintain a neat formation during the march, it must march according to a fixed stride length and frequency, so as to achieve consistent speed and slowness. In order to help the soldiers master this rhythm, this musketeer team is also equipped with two drummers, and the drum beats are used as the marching rhythm standard of the team.
Bayano's requirement for soldiers is that they must obey orders on the battlefield and follow instructions to advance, reload and shoot. If a soldier in the front row falls, the people in the corresponding position in the back row must take the initiative to fill the vacancy to ensure the density of firepower output. Not affected. Of course, if there is someone who is afraid of death and turns around and runs away or falls down and pretends to be dead when he hears the gunshot, he will definitely be included in the elimination list.
For Bayano, the advantage of these Qing soldiers is that they are very brave. Almost all of them are ruthless men who are not afraid of death. They have been trained as soldiers since they were young, and they basically have no fear of war. These soldiers even reminded him of the ferocious northern barbarians on the European battlefield. It seemed that races that grew up in the north would have a stronger willingness to fight.
However, at this time, Spanish infantry square tactics still included spearmen, but the Qing army regarded this musketeer team as a treasure. All personnel were equipped with war horses, and they could not maintain sufficient mobility with spears. . Moreover, according to the thinking of the senior officials of the Qing army, the standard for forming this musketeer team is to compare with the opponent's configuration. Since the Haihan Army has not included spearmen in the army, it means that this type of military configuration is not smart enough and should be decisively abandoned. . I have to say that the idea of the senior officials of the Qing army was very smart, and they were fully aware of the advanced status of the Haihan Army in tactics. However, what they did not know was that the Haihan Army also had spearmen as a unit in the early days. To cooperate with the Musketeers. The reason is that the weapon performance and the number of musketeers at that time did not meet the tactical requirements of line infantry, so the relatively primitive Spanish square formation tactics could only be adopted, with a small number of musketeers paired with spearmen, combining long-range killing and attack. Distance combat ensures that the overall combat effectiveness of the team will not be greatly affected by changes in combat distance.
But later, Haihan gradually solved the problems of weapon performance and troop strength, and decisively abandoned the spearmen in the regular army, but he still retained this combat unit in the militia establishment.
Of course, the Qing army did not deploy spearmen in the musketeers. In fact, there is another reason that is not humane to outsiders, that is, when fighting the Haihan army, there is rarely a chance to shorten the combat distance to the killing range of the spearmen. Equipping the musketeers with spearmen doesn't seem to have much practical significance other than blocking bullets. For the Qing army, it would be better to equip more cavalry, which would be at least more effective on the battlefield than spearmen with extremely poor mobility.
But in addition to the advantage of bravery, these Qing soldiers seem to have more shortcomings that give Bayano a headache. The most troublesome thing is that these people are used to a free-flowing fighting style. The military units that all need to be uniform are extremely uncomfortable. They are more eager to charge in the traditional way on the battlefield instead of taking small steps forward. After loading the ammunition, they have to wait for the commander's order before they can fire. This also makes the soldiers extremely puzzled. Why can't they just fire after loading the ammunition? Isn't this waiting time a waste of time for the fighter?
Many details of line infantry tactics are difficult for these Qing soldiers to understand. This is completely different from the concept of combat in their consciousness. Even if they know that this is an advanced tactic used by the enemy, they are not familiar with these basic tactics. It's still hard for a guy with muscle to accept it.
This difference in combat concepts has made this musketry team unable to fully meet Bayano's requirements during training. It always stumbles on details. Either the marching steps are not neat enough, or some people turn around after the order to turn is given. Going in the wrong direction makes it difficult for the entire formation to maintain operational requirements.
This kind of rule of order and prohibition does not seem to exist for these Qing soldiers with background. They will not fully follow the instructions of the Spanish instructors during training. Even if Bayano commanded them to win a battle before, he will not can fundamentally change their minds.
Of course, in the previous ambush battle, they only hid in the forest and did not really form a combat formation. There was no marching or formation change, and there was no exchange of fire between the enemy and them. Just one-sided shooting of opponents. In this special fighting situation, the line infantry tactics they usually practiced almost did not work at all. Naturally, it was impossible for these Qing soldiers to change their original views.
Baiano wanted to persuade these guys to change their inherent ideas, but the problem was that it was difficult for him to communicate with his men on a deeper level. This is not only because of the huge differences in concepts between the two sides, but also because of the language barrier.
Communication between him and the Qing soldiers needed to be carried out through a translator, but the problem was that the translator was a candidate provided by a middleman, and he was only proficient in Manchu and Spanish, so it was difficult to accurately convey the ideas of both parties. Even with a dedicated translator, Bayano, as a commander, can often only communicate with his subordinates in a continuous manner, which is very troublesome.
Although Bayano's salary as an instructor in the Qing army was good, he also knew that this job had too many problems that he could not handle. Now not only the Qing army, but also the top brass of the Qing state have high hopes for this army, believing that as long as the army expands, it will be able to fight Haihan. However, Bayano understands that this is just wishful thinking of the Qing army. If on the frontal battlefield, Facing the Haihan Army, this musketeer unit whose training level is not up to standard will probably die soon.
Of course, as the commander of this unit, he must stand with the soldiers when going into battle, and according to the rules, he must stand in the first row to direct the fire, so if this unit is destroyed, then he Should die earlier than most people here. Therefore, regardless of whether it is public or private, he must try to improve the combat effectiveness of this unit through training.
Since it is difficult to change the soldiers' minds through communication, Bayano can only use the clumsiest method, which is to increase the amount of training. Using a large amount of repeated training to allow soldiers to form conditioned reflexes to various instructions, so that they have no energy to consider the specific meaning of each tactical detail arrangement, this is the solution Baiano can currently think of.
When training near the camp, Qing army generals would often come over to give pointers. Bayano did not want senior military attachés to intervene in his work during training, so he took the troops to a farther place. I no longer have such worries, at least my ears are much quieter.
Sun Bing felt relieved when he saw the Qing troops dismounting en masse on the mountain and then starting their daily training. Usually this kind of queue training lasts for more than half a day. The Qing army traveled more than ten miles to this place to train today. They would definitely not leave after practicing for a while. Now they can wait for the backup to arrive.
Sure enough, two hours later, when the reinforcements arriving from the temporary base met Sun Bing, the Qing troops at the foot of the mountain were still conducting formation training. There were also some people building camping stoves nearby, apparently planning to bury the pots here to make rice.
(End of chapter)