Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2438: Record of the Western Expedition (V) Victory over Suzdal! (7K long chapter)
As the sun approached noon, the cool breeze from the Oka River gradually became hotter, and the two armies, looking at each other from a distance, could not help but feel a little restless.

Alexei looked towards the east, as if he saw Erdemutu's Mongolian cavalry rushing in, breaking through the Polish-Russian coalition's front line, and "entrusting" the Tsar to him. Before that, the cold blue light of the Ming army's flintlock barrels would illuminate the final charge of the Polish Winged Hussars.

However, the facts were different from what Alexei had expected. Erdemutu did not take the initiative to attack like the Mongolian cavalry in his mind. Instead, he relied on some chariots that he had never seen before to form a square battle formation, and it seemed that he was planning to defend.

Chariots? Why did the Mongols use the tactics of the Bohemian Hussite heretics? Alexei was confused. However, despite his confusion, he soon discovered the difference between the Ming army chariots and the Hussite chariots.

First of all, unlike the Hussite chariots, which were mostly converted from ordinary agricultural vehicles, the Ming army's chariots looked new and should have been made temporarily, but they were tall and long, like a low movable wall. At the same time, this "wall" undoubtedly had a row of fairly dense firing holes, about eight per vehicle - no wonder they had to build such a long vehicle.

Secondly, unlike the Hussite chariots which often used chain links to strengthen their defenses, the Ming army's chariot formation did not use the chain link tactic, but instead arranged them horizontally separately, with the front and rear not completely connected - a cannon was placed in the middle of each chariot, and chevaux de frise were placed about ten meters in front of the cannon.

The only thing that puzzled Alexei was that the Ming army's chevaux de frise were not placed in rows, but only in front of the artillery. After thinking about it, he felt that there was only one possibility - the Ming army's chariot formation might still be used for attacking, so as long as the chevaux de frise blocked the front of the artillery, otherwise it would hinder the advancement of the chariot formation in the later stage.

Finally, the Ming chariots did not have as many miscellaneous weapons as the Hussite chariots - the standard equipment of each Hussite chariot included two axes, two shovels, two pickaxes, two hoes, two shovels, two hooked spears and a hook chain [Note: Source: "German Medieval Army"].

The weapons and equipment of the Ming army looked very simple. Alexei held the Venice telescope and could only see the Wanli Type 3 rifle with a bayonet more than a foot long sticking out from the muzzle. This made him wonder, could the Ming army fight with just this one weapon?
Obviously, he couldn't see what was happening behind the chariots. In fact, on the other side of the side carriages, behind the three rows of infantry required for the Ming army's three-stage attack, there were two teams of soldiers wearing only one layer of light armor. Their battle formation was relatively sparse, and at the feet of each person were three wooden boxes lined up vertically - each box contained twelve palm mines, or hand grenades.

That's right, as a disciple of Gao Youshi, Erdemutu did have some "secret techniques passed down from master to master". For example, this group of secretly trained "grenadiers" were specially selected by him from the "Western Sentinel Elite" of his father Bahanaji's direct line. They were all Mongolian warriors with extraordinary arm strength, and each of them could throw a grenade at a distance of more than twenty meters.

[Note: 60 zhang is more than 30 meters. The modern standard for our army's grenade throwing is 35 meters for passing, 40 meters for good, 50 meters for excellent, and 102 meters for a master. However, the highest record of our army is as high as meters. It feels like this hero is no longer a human being.]
Like Alexei, Erdemutu was also looking at the Polish-Russian coalition forces through binoculars. He skipped the 15,000 Russian riflemen in the front and turned his attention to the Polish Winged Hussars in the rear, the elite Polish army that Gao Youshi had instructed to be careful with.

The silver wings of the Polish Winged Hussars were reflected in the lens, flickering in the sun. These Winged Hussars had taken off their wings (modern mainstream military historians believe that the wings of the Winged Hussars would not be used in combat), but they retained the feather decorations on their heads. These feathers did not make Erdemutu feel emotional. What he was really staring at were those four-meter-long lances that were as dense as hedgehogs.

If someone was stabbed by this kind of lance, there would be no doubt that he would suffer a huge penetrating wound. Not to mention the direct damage to the internal organs, the bleeding alone would be enough to ensure that there would be no survivors.

Erdemutu had fought European cavalry for the first time the year before last, against the Russian Cossack cavalry. But the Cossacks were actually more like East Asian cavalry. In addition to their matchlock guns, their close-combat weapons were sabers similar to Mongolian scimitars (note: there is still a difference, in fact, it is more like a combination of Mongolian and European swords). Therefore, when he first saw the Polish Winged Hussars' super-long lances, Erdemutu subconsciously became cautious.

An inch longer is an inch stronger. Such an extra-long lance certainly brings the advantage of "killing the enemy first", but what Erdemutu couldn't figure out was - how to pull the lance back after piercing the enemy? Is it impossible to pull it back?

Erdemutu had these doubts, in fact, he could blame his teacher Gao Youshi for not being responsible enough, because Gao Youshi did know the reason, but because he was too busy assisting in the government, he did not tell Erdemutu all the details, and only asked him to be careful about cavalry charges.

In fact, the Winged Hussar lance is made of light wood (such as pine) with a hollow structure, a heavy metal spear tip at the front end, and the overall center of gravity is moved forward. In this way, when charging at high speed, the kinetic energy of the lance is concentrated on the spear tip, and after stabbing the target, it will break or fall out of the hand instantly due to the reaction force. This design not only avoids the recoil force from injuring the rider, but also eliminates the need to pull back the lance - it is a consumable designed for a single charge.

Since the weapon was designed in this way, the tactics must have been designed accordingly. The winged cavalry's charge was not to kill a single soldier, but to tear the enemy's line with a lance "spear wall" in a dense formation (usually a wedge formation) to create chaos. Even if the lance only penetrated one person, its impact was enough to knock the target away and destroy the formation of the soldiers behind him - similar to the bowling effect.

In this case, the Winged Hussars also had close combat weapons, which were their sabers. The blade of the Polish saber was also curved, but not as curved as the Mongolian saber, so it could not rely solely on horsepower to "mow grass while dragging the saber". The Polish saber was more suitable for chopping on horseback and was designed for melee combat, and could quickly harvest infantry that had lost the protection of the formation.

If the charge fails to completely defeat the enemy, the Winged Hussars will quickly withdraw from contact, return to their own lines to collect spare lances (logistics carriages carry a large number of lances), and prepare for the next charge.

This tactical cycle of "charge-break-charge again" relies on rigorous training and horse endurance. A typical example is the Battle of Kirholm in 1605, where the Polish Winged Hussars broke up the Swedish phalanx through multiple charges.

If compared with the use of spears by other cavalry, the lance of Western European knights was also designed for single use, but it was more ceremonial (tournament lance). In actual combat, it was often difficult to switch weapons flexibly due to the heavy armor; the Ottoman Sipahi cavalry used throwable short javelins, sacrificing penetration in exchange for medium-range harassment capabilities.

In short, the special feature of the Winged Hussars is that they maximized the "one-time charge" and were a special type of soldier that combined the flexibility of Eastern European light cavalry with the destructive power of Western European heavy cavalry. To some extent, this was also a "local adaptation" approach taken by the Poles, who were located at the junction of Eastern and Western Europe - after all, only such a type of soldier could take into account both "pacifying the enemy" and "suppressing the enemy".

The midday heat was distorted by the sound of war drums, and the fine sand rising from the Oka River Plain was like golden mist. Erdemutu's 12,000 heavily armed cavalry had been deployed exactly according to Qi Jiguang's chariot formation. Six thousand armored soldiers dismounted and connected 120 side carriages end to end to form a hollow square formation with a side length of several hundred steps.

There is a cannon placed between the front and rear of the vehicle. The solid bullets used for the first shot have been loaded, but in addition to the fixed gunpowder, the rear of the gun vehicle is filled with shotgun shells - this is for intensive killing of close-range enemy troops.

The firing holes on the carriage walls revealed the black barrels, and the bronze animal-headed buttstocks of the Wanli Type 3 flintlock rifles were pressed against the shoulders and extended out of the firing holes, making the outside of the side carriage look like an iron hedgehog; the 6,000 cavalrymen in the formation were still in armor, standing next to their war horses, and the war horses were still chewing alfalfa, as if they had to eat their fill before preparing for the upcoming battle. Their horseshoes tapped lightly in the ruts, like muffled drums waiting for spring thunder.

Perhaps the defensive posture of the Ming army stimulated the Polish-Russian coalition, making them feel that they had the upper hand in momentum, and the Polish-Russian coalition's front line was the first to surge. Fifteen thousand shooting troops advanced in three rows, with the snake-shaped stocks of their matchlock rifles connected to their shoulders in a long gray-black chain.

These infantrymen, who had frightened the Swedes in the Livonian War, were now advancing steadily. By the way, in addition to relying on the tall and strong Russian gray animals and equipped with long-handled axes, the shooting army's matchlock gun tactics were similar to those of European countries. They usually fought in a way of kneeling shooting in the front row, standing shooting in the middle row, and reloading in the back row after entering the shooting range, but lacked the rapid rotation tactics of the Ming army's three-stage shooting tactics.

Of course, this was related to the relatively backward level of matchlock technology of the Russians - because the loading was too slow, their tactics simply became three rows of people firing a round at the same time in low, medium and high shooting postures, and then charging in close combat with long-handled axes.

"The range is two hundred steps!" The lookout in the Ming army struck the gong to remind the enemy of the distance.

"First row, aim and prepare to fire!" Erdemutu waved his command flag on the roof of the car, and the officer in front immediately gave the order.

Aiming is aiming, shooting is shooting. Aiming is to remind the first row of musketeers to concentrate, stare at one person, and shoot immediately after receiving the order.

However, even though the effective shooting range of the Wanli Type 3 was increased again, Erdemutu did not open fire immediately. Instead, he waited until the enemy approached 150 steps before he ordered the first shot to be fired.

When the faces of the soldiers in the front row of the shooting army could be roughly seen by the Ming army, the first round of Ming army volleys suddenly exploded: the sound of flintlock rifles firing was as dense as frying beans. Although the shooting army was well-equipped in Russia, it was well known that the finances of the Tsarist Russia had never been good from the beginning of its founding to its demise, which was also reflected in the army.

The so-called elite Russian shooting army wore the traditional Russian ankle-length kaftan uniforms and the traditional Slavic kolpak conical hats, but they did not wear armor in battle. This meant that as long as the Ming army's projectiles hit the shooting army soldiers, they would definitely cause effective casualties - if not death, then injury.

The Ming army's first round of volleys came so early and immediately caused dozens of casualties, which was obviously beyond the expectations of the shooting army, because their muskets were not even within the range, let alone the effective shooting distance.

The shooting army immediately became confused, but the Russian noble officers, who saw the opportunity quickly, immediately stopped the commotion with a roar, forcing the shooting army to continue to move forward. In this precious gap, the second row of Ming soldiers calmly stepped forward to replace the first row, and once again pointed their guns at the approaching shooting army.

"Second column, fire!" As Erdemutu's central army flag waved, the frontline officers immediately ordered the second round of volleys. There was no doubt that the casualties of the shooting army this time exceeded one hundred.

Yan Zamoysky was watching in the center of the army with a shudder. He was familiar with the weaknesses of the matchlock guns and had also heard Alexei's report on the advanced firearms of the Ming army, but he had never seen such a fast "round shooting tactic" and found it hard to believe their killing range.

When the firing corps' fuses were finally lit, the distance between the two armies had been shortened to a hundred steps, and the third round of shooting by the Ming army began to reap lives. Lead bullets penetrated the linen uniforms, and the front-line soldiers of the firing corps fell one by one.

Jan Zamoyski was worried whether the Russian officers could still suppress the shooting corps and continue fighting, so he intended to send the Polish supervision team forward. However, just as he asked the supervision team to line up, he suddenly heard a series of roars - it was the Ming army's artillery that spoke at the right time and fired the first round of solid bullets.

The artillery fire seemed to be delayed, but this was deliberately delayed by Erdemutu - he observed that the Polish army in the rear was gathering a small group of infantry, and guessed that this might be the Polish supervision team, so he ordered to fire at the rear of the Polish-Russian coalition forces.

The Polish supervision team was dispersed by this round of artillery fire before it could play a role. Although the hit rate was indeed not high due to the long-range solid bullet bombardment, it also forced the Polish supervision team to be unable to gather.

Yanzamoyski was so angry that his eyes turned red, but he was unwilling to lose his own troops in the "enemy country" for nothing. He also saw that the Rifle Corps seemed to be more tenacious than he expected. Although the formation was a little messy, there was no sign of collapse. So he rolled his eyes and ordered the supervision team to retreat. At the same time, he also ordered the Winged Hussars to keep their distance - to avoid a second round of artillery fire on them and cause heavy losses.

However, the Ming army's artillery only prepared one round of solid bullets, and immediately replaced it with shotgun shells after firing this round, and began to fire at the shooting army that was gradually approaching after the first round of volleys. The power of the No. 3 cannon shotgun shells was much stronger than that of rifles at medium and short distances. A single shot fired dense and sharp fragments, which were like the sickle of the god of death to the unarmored shooting soldiers, plowing blood grooves in the ranks of the shooting soldiers. Before the strong men carrying one-meter-long crescent-shaped battle axes got close, 30% of them had already fallen.

"Charge! Use axes to split their iron shells!" Since the formation of the Shooting Army, has it ever suffered such a severe blow in such a short time? Therefore, the roars of the commanders of the Shooting Army's front army rang out almost at the same time. And they themselves took the lead and charged with the soldiers.

The remaining 10,000-odd shooting soldiers were also furious, throwing down their matchlocks and swinging their axes to rush towards the side carriages. Some of them had simple Orthodox icons carved on the wooden handles of their axes, looking kind and benevolent, but the axe blades were aimed at the Ming army's chariot formation.

When the first battle axe hit the thick elm baffle of the side carriage attached to the iron sheet, the bayonets of the Ming army stabbed out from the shooting holes like lightning. The tips of the bayonets, which were strong enough to pierce armor, did not care what they stabbed, or even whether they hit the target or not. They just kept stabbing out, retracting, and stabbing out again, back and forth.

Amid screams, the blood foam of the front row charge sprayed on the wall of the carriage, drawing a distorted death totem. As the corpses piled up, the Slavic warriors behind not only did not retreat, but became even more bloodthirsty, stepping on the corpses of their former comrades and trying to jump over the top of the side carriage and directly into the inner side of the Ming army's chariot formation.

Erdemutu snorted coldly and ordered another flag to be waved. The officer in front immediately gave orders, and the bayonets of the second row of soldiers were raised diagonally upward. Occasionally, some shooting soldiers who leaned their heads upward to climb over were faced not with gaps in the defense, but with a bayonet array as bright as snow. Before they could even get angry, they were stabbed through the body and fell back to the outside of the side carriage.

Erdemutu calmly observed the battle situation in the battle formation. Although the shooting army's close combat charge was fierce, it was blocked by the steel barrier formed by the side carriages and bayonet arrays. There were at least three layers of corpses piled in front of each chariot.

At this moment, he suddenly saw through the telescope that the Winged Hussars in the Polish center began to move, and the silver-winged battle flag drew a neat arc in the sun - this was a signal that the Polish commander was ready to use his elite troops to reap the endgame, although Erdemutu did not think that it was already a "endgame" at all.

"Open the left and right wings!" His command flag pointed to the connection between the side cars.

Six chariots on each wing of the square were quickly dragged away by oxen and horses, revealing a passage two or three feet wide. Six thousand heavily armed cavalry had already finished loading their muskets in the formation, and the breath of the horses sprayed on the backs of the necks of the soldiers in the front chariots. When the sound of the wing cavalry's charging hooves came like thunder, the Ming cavalry poured out from both wings like an iron stream, the gluttonous patterns on the iron tools of the horses' heads glowed bloody in the sun, and the muzzles of the Wanli three-style short muskets were aimed at the flanks of the wing cavalry.

Jan Zamoyski made a fatal mistake. He thought that the bloody charge of the shooting corps had exhausted the Ming army's ammunition, but he did not expect that there was a complete cavalry reserve hidden in the hollow square.

As soon as the three thousand Winged Hussars spread their silver wings, they were met with a rainstorm of archery from the Ming army: the half-armored cavalry completed two rounds of volleys while running in a diagonal "staggered" manner, with lead bullets specifically hitting the bellies and hips of the Winged Hussars' horses and the soft parts under the knights' breastplates, including their legs. The horses of the Winged Hussars on the flanks fell to the ground in large numbers, and the knights were either crushed under the horse carcasses by heavy armor or had gunshot wounds below their hips, making it difficult for them to maintain balance with their guns and fell down on their own.

In this way, although the Winged Hussars' charge route was unobstructed, the "arrow" of the wedge formation became increasingly weak.

The commander of the winged cavalry immediately realized that something was wrong, and suddenly tilted his flag, giving up the idea of ​​breaking through the chariot formation head-on, and turned directly to the right of the two Ming cavalry groups. Obviously, he knew that although the 3,000 winged cavalry had a strong impact, they could not be divided - the enemy cavalry was divided into two wings, but each wing was similar to his total strength, so he could only defeat them one by one.

The armored cavalry on the right side of the Ming army was the Third Brigade of the Second Regiment of the First Naturalized Cavalry Army. The commander Qing Badu snorted coldly, turned around and glanced at the periphery of the battlefield, and ordered sternly: "Yile Duqi Taiji is over there, let's take the Poles around and die!"

After saying this, he did not even look at the Polish winged cavalry that was gradually accelerating and turning into a charge, and led his troops to turn right - he was originally on the right wing, and now continuing to run to the right looked like he was going to escape from the battlefield. (The above left and right are all discussed from the perspective of the Ming army.)
"Okay, okay, there is a road in heaven but you don't take it, there is no door to hell but you break in!" Yileduqi saw the Ming cavalry moving out from the periphery and knew that it was a critical moment. He was rushing back with his troops, but he didn't expect Qingbadu to be so wise and take the initiative to lead the elite of the enemy. He was overjoyed and suddenly raised his scimitar and shouted to charge.

Yes, although the Mongolian horses' charge force is not as strong as that of European horses, they also have a shorter time to change pace, and can even jump directly from slow pace to attack pace to launch a charge. This is more or less harmful to the horses, but when the outcome of the battle changes hands, the Mongols, who have enough horses, will not be as overly cautious as the Ming and Han cavalry.

Ileduqi's Qihe Light Cavalry suddenly launched a move. They passed by Qingbadu's troops who had run out of bullets. They fired freely at the Polish Winged Hussars with their short guns. Although the angle was not as tricky as Qingbadu's just now, they still killed more than a hundred Winged Hussars on the spot.

When the Stroganov family's private army lit the third fire in the baggage camp, the wind direction on the Oka River Plain suddenly changed, and thick smoke wrapped in sparks rushed towards the Polish camp.

The Ming army knew that this meant Alexei had launched a counterattack, so the Ming cavalry under Qing Badu, who had just escaped from the pursuit of the Winged Hussars, immediately put their empty muskets back into the holsters, drew out their fine steel sabers and rushed back.

These weapons forged from Jinghua's fine steel glowed faintly blue in the sunlight, and when they collided with the lances of the Winged Hussars, they were able to cut off the opponent's weapons directly - this was not surprising, as I said just now, the lances of the Winged Hussars were made of lightweight wood and were hollow, so a horizontal slash could of course cut them in half.

However, not every cavalryman could do this. More than 200 Ming cavalrymen were easily knocked off their horses by the charge of the Winged Hussars. Even the fine steel armor could not guarantee that they would not die - at least half of them were killed or wounded.

For the remaining half, some of the tips of the Winged Hussar's lances slipped due to the angle, and some of them hit the hardest breastplate. Before they could cause any damage, the lance body was broken.

This round of charge by the Winged Hussars cannot be said to be ineffective. At least this was the largest casualty of Erdemutu's troops after they were equipped. However, from the perspective of killing the enemy, none of the commanders of the Winged Hussars were satisfied. Fortunately, in this round of charge, the Winged Hussars still had the upper hand. The Ming cavalry suffered almost all losses because of the length of their weapons.

However, the Winged Hussars had no say in the ensuing battle. As the close combat began, the silver winged armor of a Winged Hussar was split at the side, revealing the pale back underneath. He never understood until his death why the steel from the East could be so sharp.

He was not alone. Other winged cavalrymen also felt the same threat. What was worse was that although European horse charges had advantages, once the battle turned into close combat, they could not withdraw and go back to get their lances and fight back - the Ming cavalry stuck to them like taffy, and they could not escape at all and were forced to engage in close combat.

However, the Polish saber, which was theoretically more suitable for chopping, was facing a huge challenge at this moment, that is... it was not as hard as the Ming army's saber. In a chopping match, it was often cut off by the enemy's saber, and then lost its weapon and became a ghost under the Mongolian scimitar.

The most dramatic scene occurred on the left wing. The 10,000 Kazan Tatar light cavalry finally determined that the advantage was entirely on the Ming army's side. They seized the opportunity to rush down from the hills and instantly joined the battle.

Of course, they had Erdemutu's order to "fight freely", so they would not foolishly fight with the long-axed shooting troops and well-equipped winged cavalry, but were attracted by the burning food carts and piled up spoils of war. Baturhaji's blue battle flag led the way, but his scimitar was not aimed at the main battlefield, but at the Cossack baggage train that was preparing to retreat when the situation was not good - those wagons full of rye were the "watching reward" tacitly approved by Erdemutu.

As for why the Cossacks hardly performed... This is not surprising. Although the Cossacks are fierce, they also have the style of the Mongols. They will never fight to the death unless they have no other choice. They are typical "bullies of the weak and fears the strong". This style did not change until the Napoleonic era, so that the Russian cavalry was extremely fierce and pulled very hard - Russia's allies often scolded the Russian cavalry for not fighting to the death, but Napoleon said that the Cossacks were the best cavalry.

In fact, Cossacks are always Cossacks. The reason for such polarized evaluations is simply that the people making the evaluations have different positions and their judgment standards are also very different.

Jan Zamoyski's horse was hit by a stray bullet in the chaos. He tore off his crooked feathered hat and watched the armored cavalry of the Ming army pour out from the two wings of the hollow square formation, forming a perfect pincer attack. The silver wings of the winged cavalry were broken in the blood mist, the axes of the shooting army were scattered all over the ground, and the conscripted peasant soldiers had already fled.

When he saw the Stroganov family's caravan flag rising in the fire, he finally understood: this battle had been a double stranglehold of conspiracy and blood and fire from the very beginning.

The water of the Oka River reflected the burning battlefield, and the Ming soldiers began to clean up the battlefield - most of the spoils would be distributed by Erdemutu and Yilduqi, and some enemy weapons or their own damaged weapons would be sent to Siberia to be melted into sharper weapons in the arsenal that was being built.

Erdemutulema stood in front of the pile of Winged Hussars' corpses, his fingertips running across a crack in the silver wing armor, where half a Ming army bullet was embedded.

He nodded. The armor of these winged cavalry was indeed good. It was difficult to penetrate them unless they were shot at close range. But, so what? This elite enemy force that the division commander personally told him to be careful of was also defeated by the cavalry of the First Naturalized Cavalry Army today.

According to the Prime Minister, although the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth has a lot of cavalry, there are probably only about 10,000 of them that can be considered elite winged cavalry. Today, 30% of the enemy's elite troops have been lost, so there is no need to worry that they will dare to look east easily...

Erdemutu was savoring his victory when he suddenly heard Ildukzi's voice approaching from afar: "Sir, Alexei is here to see you."
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PS: It’s a long chapter of 7K. I wish all readers a happy Labor Day and Youth Day!

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