Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 204 Retreat
The next morning, the sky was gloomy, the clouds were low, and the air was stuffy. The Red Army moved out of camp from Fengmuling, with the second infantry battalion in front, the fourth battalion and the auxiliary battalion in the middle, and the personal battalion in the rear, and retreated along the east bank of the Xiangjiang River towards Xing'an.

On the other side, the Ming army had already evacuated, leaving behind only broken weapons, scattered armor, fallen horses, and silent bodies. Qing scouts marched across the river, openly monitoring the Red Army. From time to time, several Qing soldiers would gallop past, seemingly delivering urgent military intelligence.

The army was retreating, and most of them were infantry, so it was impossible for them to retreat very quickly. It was more than 100 miles from Quanzhou to Xing'an, and if they forced a march, they could barely reach Xing'an within two days.

Danchu had a good sleep last night. He was full of energy and enthusiasm during the day and was in high spirits to talk to his friends on horseback.

"Yuqi, what is the topic of discussion in the Operations Bureau during today's march?"

The Red Army system requires discussion during marches. There are many forms of discussion. If you stop to rest, you can have a concentrated discussion in a sentry or a team; if you are on the march, you can have a dispersed discussion in a squad.

Although the Operations Bureau was the Red Army's staff agency, it also had to discuss during the march. The Director of the Operations Bureau, Yang Yuqi, replied: "Marshal, today's topic is, how to improve the hollow square formation when fighting the Tartars in the field?"

This was also a question that Danchu was concerned about. He gladly joined the discussion, walking side by side with seven or eight staff officers from the Operations Bureau. They had all personally experienced the Battle of Leigongling and had fought face to face with the Eight Banners of Manchuria, so they were very enthusiastic in the discussion:

"You can add auxiliary soldiers to the square formation, and let them carry the staking traps and ammunition. Before the battle, the auxiliary soldiers will take the staking traps and place them outside the formation. In this way, the Tatars' attack speed will be forced to slow down, and the Red Army can better exert its firepower and kill more Tatars before the hand-to-hand combat."

"The hollow square formation needs to change its formation, which has extremely high requirements for queue and discipline. The next step is to focus on strengthening the queue training. In particular, the four actions of changing the horizontal formation into a square formation, the square formation returning to a horizontal formation, the artillery moving into the formation, and the cavalry attacking from the inside of the formation must be repeatedly trained."

"The Royal Guards currently have six musketeers, three musketeer battalions, two Royal Guards battalions, and one cavalry battalion. In general, it is still too few. The square has four sides, so there should be at least nine musketeers, two musketeers in each row, and one as a reserve."

"This requires increasing the number of the Royal Guards. The Royal Guards are the main force of the Red Army. They lead the way in every battle and also cover the rear when retreating. Currently, there are only 2,500 people, which is obviously too few. In my opinion, there should be at least 3,500 more than the Infantry. There should be at least nine musket teams, all of which use new-style matchlock rifles and are equipped with bayonets. There should be at least four artillery teams, one sky-rocketing cannon team, one red-haired cannon team, and two mountain-splitting cannon teams."

"Spearmen are indispensable for the hollow square formation, but cavalry spears are shorter, generally about ten feet long. Infantry spears can be as long as eighteen feet long, but it is inconvenient to equip cavalry. It is better to give them to the auxiliary battalion for safekeeping, usually placed on a cart, and taken out when fighting."

"Not right, not right. The soldiers of the Royal Guards are all on horseback. They are not used to infantry spears in normal times. If they are used hastily in war, their martial arts skills will be unfamiliar and it will be difficult to be effective. Besides, the carts are already tight on transporting baggage, so how can they have spare capacity to transport spears?"

"The size of the hollow square is limited, and the number of auxiliary soldiers, cavalry, and artillery that can be accommodated is limited, so it is more suitable for infantry. For the personal guards, before the battle, the musketeers, archers, spearmen, etc. must abandon their horses and fight on foot, and the war horses must be gathered in advance. Or it can be done this way, the musketeers, archers, and spearmen form a hollow square at the front line, and the cavalry, auxiliary soldiers, artillery, etc. are placed behind the formation, keeping a distance from the hollow square."

……

Three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang. Everyone put their heads together and had a full discussion and exchange of ideas, which made Danchu quite satisfied.

"You have personally experienced the battlefield and can only have such insightful views. Yuqi, please take some time today to write a summary and distribute it to each camp for discussion. Collect their opinions and suggestions, and summarize them the day after tomorrow and give them to me for review."

"promise."

Danchu was in a good mood and rode to inspect the camps. When he arrived at the cavalry camp, the battalion commander He Guozuo had already come to greet him.

After the greetings, Danchu asked, "What is the topic of discussion in the cavalry battalion today?"

He Guozuo was a Yao ethnic group with a low level of education. He even made a joke during the battle of Nanning last year. He forced Xu Biao to be killed, and in a hurry to report the victory, he only wrote the word "Xu" on a piece of white paper and drew a big cross to indicate that Xu Biao was dead.

"Marshal, the cavalry battalion will discuss the topic in the afternoon. Today's morning focus is on literacy. Instructor Tian has a unique idea. He engraved words on wooden tablets and distributed them to each team for study. During the march or camp, the soldiers can take out the wooden tablets at any time to memorize them."

In the Red Army system, each battalion had an instructor, who was similar to the military supervisor and disciplinary supervisor in the Ming army, but had broader functions. He was mainly responsible for propaganda, education, literacy, supervision, performance appraisal, and selection.

Although the battalion instructor is not the battalion commander, he can submit letters to the Instruction Bureau through the instruction line, so his power gradually increases. At the battalion level, the instructor ranks below the deputy battalion commander, but his actual power is greater than that of the deputy battalion commander, only below the battalion commander. The battalion commander, deputy battalion commander, and instructor are the first-level officers of the Red Army battalion.

At the battalion level, the battalion commander is the real chief officer and has unquestionable authority in front of the entire battalion. Below the battalion commander, the deputy battalion commander, the director of the camp affairs department, and the instructor are ranked in order. These four are the first-level officers of the Red Army battalion.

He Guozuo had a low level of education, so Danchu specially selected a staff officer from the Education Bureau to serve as an instructor in the cavalry battalion.

"Instructor Tian? Which Instructor Tian?" Danchu asked.

"That's Tian Yuan, the son of Jinxiu chieftain Tian Qi."

Danchu remembered that although Tian Yuan was the son of a chieftain, he had received a good education since childhood. After joining the Red Army, Tian Yuan was selected as a staff officer of the Education Bureau. He was quite capable and was a promising talent.

The Red Army attached great importance to the cultivation of talents. In addition to relying on schools, teaching teams, and military night schools, it has also begun to explore cross-appointments, placing those with potential in different positions such as commanders and staff for cross-training, so as to better discover and use talents.

"It's interesting to learn to read with wooden signs. Let's go and take a look." Danchu became interested, and He Guozuo called Tian Qi over to accompany Danchu on the inspection.

Danchu took a wooden sign, which was made of bamboo, about two inches long and one inch wide. The word "Earth" was engraved on the front, and there were only a dozen words on the back to explain its meaning: "Earth, opposite to sky, with soil on the left and earth on the right. It can be used for land and fields."

Tian Qi explained: "Marshal Jue, my battalion has eight people in one squad, divided into two groups, the squad leader and the deputy squad leader each lead a group. When marching and camping, each group is given a bamboo sign, which is collected every day and rotated."

He Guozuo added: "Tian Jiao is a thoughtful person. He set up groups below the rank of sergeant. The groups help each other learn in peacetime and fight side by side in wartime, making the organization more rigorous."

Isn't this a mutual aid group? Danchu felt that this kind of group was too advanced and had not yet been promoted in the Red Army. Unexpectedly, the subordinates spontaneously created a group.

"Very good," Danchu said with a smile, "The cavalry camp used wooden signs to teach soldiers to read and form mutual aid groups below the squad level. This is of great significance and worth promoting. He Guozuo and Tian Qi, you two should write a proposal on this matter and give it to me for review tomorrow."

"promise."

"I'll give you a topic for discussion. Can you shoot while riding and firing a matchlock?"

He Guozuo smiled and said, "Our cavalry battalion has tried this, and it is possible, but the barrel of the musket is too long, and it is very difficult to load bullets while riding a horse. Only a very small number of archers can fire the musket while riding a horse."

Danchu naturally knew the difficulty of firing a gun on horseback, let alone a matchlock gun. However, it was not impossible. A well-trained cavalryman could load and fire while riding.

In the early and middle period of the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners cavalry, who had undergone rigorous training, could skillfully fire muskets, also known as matchlock guns, on horseback.

"Although it is difficult, we will succeed if we do it. When the Yongning Company successfully develops the flintlock rifle, I will ask them to develop a carbine specifically for the cavalry. With this weapon, the cavalry battalion will be more confident in fighting against the Eight Banners of Manchuria."

Compared with rifles, carbines mainly use short barrels to facilitate cavalry loading and use, but their accuracy, range and power are slightly reduced.

He Guozuo was overjoyed and said, "Thank you, Marshal. The cavalry battalion will definitely fulfill its mission."

(End of this chapter)