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Chapter 904: Best and Worst Preparation

This formation seemed to be comprehensive, but in fact it had weaknesses everywhere, and each side had only a quarter of its combat power. If the enemy concentrated its forces to attack one side, there was a high chance that they would get close at night when visibility was not very good.

Once they were within the range of arrows, the musketeers who were not wearing any armor would suffer heavy casualties, and the musketeers on the other three sides would be unable to help at all unless they were deployed to fill the gaps.

But what if the other side is attacked again? If the attack is pulled out again, only two sides of the mouth shape will be left, exposing the defenseless interior, which is very dangerous.

The Eight Banners Army, accustomed to horseback archery and frontal combat, really did not want to huddle together waiting to be attacked. That would be very passive, and they would suffer great losses if they did not have time to deploy their formation, which would be equivalent to being beaten in vain.

"So you have to learn, and you have to learn seriously. One day the Eight Banners Army will also be equipped with muskets. This is no longer the era of conquering the world by bravery. Even the most fearless warriors will be no different from scarecrows when faced with bullets and artillery shells.

If you don't want to be punished by military law, return to the headquarters immediately to control the emotions of your subordinates and be ready to attack at any time to receive orders. By the way, tell your subordinates well that if there is another case of being burned by gas lamps, I will deal with it. I am serious!"

Huang Taiji's abandoning his troops and running here to ask questions was clearly a violation of military discipline. If a cavalry charge was needed at this time, the Eight Banners Army would not even be able to find its commander-in-chief, thus wasting the opportunity to fight.

Hong Tao suppressed his anger and gave him another chance. Curiosity is a good thing, but it has to be done at the right time. At this time, the most basic requirement is to do your job and stay in your position.

"Boom boom boom... Boom boom boom..." Just as Huang Taiji was scolded and left, several loud noises came from the east, which were particularly loud in the dark wilderness. Then there were dense crisp noises and rifles opened fire.

Hong Tao climbed up the roof in two steps. The east had become a hell. Under the illumination of the firewood pile and gas lamps, the dense cavalry were being whipped by an even denser rain of bullets, and fell to the ground layer by layer.

Some riders no longer wanted to charge, but they were forced by their companions behind them and could not stop even if they wanted to. They could only scream to welcome the baptism of iron and fire, and then turned into a cloud of blood mist and returned to heaven.

"Alas... I was looking forward to the bright moon, but it shines on the ditch. Why bother? It's not like I haven't tried before. If I knew who was the commander of this battle, I would cut him into pieces!"

Judging from their attire, these riders were not regular Khanate troops, but rather tribal armed forces, that is, herders, farmers, and craftsmen controlled by the emirs. They really didn’t know how the Ming army fought, and it was too late to know now.

Soldiers would never stop firing when the enemy appeared in their field of vision, and officers would not give the order to cease fire. As a result, as many as came died, so fast that many people could not react. Most of them died in confusion and were cannon fodder.

If the other party is a soldier, Hong Tao will not only not feel sad, but will join in, holding up a special rifle and shooting hard. This is a war, a game between soldiers at the cost of their lives.

But when the target of shooting is changed to civilians, the game becomes a massacre, and it cannot be stopped. This feeling is very bad, so whoever drives the civilians to the battlefield must be punished, the highest level of punishment, enough to warn future generations!

The battle started quickly and ended quickly. In front of the cannons loaded with shotgun shells, the high-speed charging horses and riders were completely powerless to resist, and the reloading speed of the rear-loading field cannons made the original possibility become a luxury. At this time, the rifle became a supplementary weapon, and could only be used to select those who had escaped the cannonball attack by chance.

After the charging troops were crushed layer by layer like materials fed into a feed inlet, the army on the south side flashed to both sides, released the Eight Banners Light Cavalry that were ready to go, and carried out the final harvest of possible defeated soldiers around the battlefield.

An hour later, the battlefield returned to calm. The firewood pile was extinguished, leaving only a dozen gas lamps on the periphery as sentinels, dotted like stars as if echoing with the stars in the sky.

Most soldiers fell asleep, snoring one after another. For them, mercy was a luxury, and every victory brought them one step closer to their service period, and they had a better chance of getting the job and land they deserved, as well as a generous retirement allowance.

With these gains, it will be very easy to build a house, get married, have children, and honor your parents, while ordinary people may not be able to do even one or two of them after working hard for most of their lives. At this time, it doesn't matter who the enemy is, and there is no need to understand why you shoot and kill your own kind. Whoever stands in the way is the destroyer of your happy life and deserves to be killed.

Eating well and sleeping well are the basic guarantees for a happy life. Even if you don't know where you are going, at least there will be a tough battle tomorrow.

In their dreams, most people can only dream about how they bravely killed the enemy, won meritorious service and received awards. As for how many corpses were lying a hundred meters away, they don’t care at all, and they can’t care about it.

"Your Majesty, Chief of Staff Ding sent someone to deliver a battle report. When the central army was attacked, his side was also attacked. It is estimated that there are several thousand people, all of whom are tribal armed forces. No Khanate troops wearing armor were seen. The specific details will have to wait until dawn to count."

Several gas lamps were still lit in the center of the camp, and all the officers above the rank of thousand gathered beside the emperor's carriage to summarize the battle that had just ended. At this time, a brave man from the Imperial Horse Guard came to deliver a letter, which was sent by Ding Shun from the west of the city.

"It seems that the Baiyi masters in the city are really anxious and have no other options, so they mobilized so many tribal armed forces to launch a night attack, hoping to make a last-ditch effort.

Although everyone fought well just now, I still want to remind you. Tomorrow's battle is likely to be bloodier and more inhumane, and what we are about to face is likely not the army, but the armed civilians.

Before the Western Expedition, the General Staff issued a Western Region Manual, which mentioned religious matters. Now I emphasize again that you are likely to encounter religious fanatics tomorrow. Their actions cannot be predicted by normal thinking, so you must be extra careful.

I have written down a few specific details and will have the soldiers circulate them tomorrow morning. First, everyone is an enemy, including women, the elderly and children. No matter where they are, never let them get close.

Second, do not enter streets and houses with too complex terrain. If you are sure that the enemy is holding their ground and refuses to surrender, and you must occupy the place, let the engineers use explosives to clear the way.

Third, be prepared to destroy the entire city. I will try my best to send people to persuade them to surrender, but it may not work. As the capital, it has special significance. If they don't surrender, they can only destroy it, because there is a big city ahead that needs to be conquered, and there may be reinforcements from the two khanates in the west. I don't have extra troops to garrison.

Fourth, always pay attention to the information sent by the hot air balloon. When you receive the retreat signal, you must drop everything and immediately organize the soldiers to withdraw as quickly as possible.

Fifth, no one is allowed to act alone, the smallest unit is why. When checking people, do not touch women's bodies, let alone lift their veils.

Okay, that's all, take the time to get some sleep. Don't be nervous, you'll get used to it after a few times. We may encounter more of this kind of situation in the west in the future, there are plenty of opportunities. "

At the end of the meeting, Hong Tao took the imperial notebook from Wang Chengen, opened a page and began to dictate. The officers also took out the same notebooks and carefully recorded every word. There were only a few exceptions, such as Huang Taiji, who understood Chinese but could not write Chinese characters.

The brief battle at night made Hong Tao smell something ominous. In his previous life, he had encountered a similar situation when the Song Dynasty was on a western expedition to the Hexi Corridor. The result was that the people in the city saw that it was hopeless to defend the city, so they set fire to it and the city was reduced to ashes.

As the capital of the Yarkand Khanate, where religious leaders lived, this possibility was higher than before. We had to make arrangements in advance so that the officers who had never experienced such a situation would be prepared and not be at a loss when the time came.

In fact, Hong Tao hoped that this would happen, so that everything would be resolved once and for all, saving himself from the need to kill people. But he couldn't say such things, because there is a saying that the upper class should set an example for the lower class, so as to prevent the officers from making massacres a habit.

(End of this chapter)