A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 354

In August of the 12th year of Chongzhen.

There is a wilderness from the north of Yongning City to the Jinghubao mountain area. The terrain here is flat, dry and lacks rivers and canals.In the past, some military households lived here, but a few months ago, all the original residents moved out, and the entire area of ​​tens of miles was designated as a military restricted area, as a training ground for the Shunxiang Army.

Many of the military camps of the Shunxiang Army are located on the west mountain in the northwest of Yongning City. There are densely packed camps, which look like a castle.

The military camp is set up here, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. At the foot of the mountain is the Qingshui River, which is convenient for drinking water.The training venue is located in the wilderness in the north of Shanxi, which makes it very convenient for the large-scale training of the Shunxiang Army.In fact, there is a martial arts arena outside the east gate of Yongning City, but Wang Dou thought it was dilapidated and small, so he abandoned it long ago and opened up another venue.

At this time, standing on the west mountain and looking north, one can see the smoke and dust billowing on the wilderness at the foot of the mountain, and the thunderous sound of horseshoes.Nearly a thousand cavalrymen maintained a strict formation and charged in the wilderness. Except for the officers, they all wore cotton armor and spread out in a numbered formation. The front row held spears, and the rear rows held shining sabers.

When marching, the officers kept yelling at them, asking the sergeants around them to keep the formation in order, and no matter whether they were men or horses, they should try to form a straight line when charging.As the horses accelerated, they rushed towards the targets in front of them in wave after wave, each marked fat scarecrow.

The target was getting closer and closer, and the spears in the hands of hundreds of cavalry in the first two rows were protruding densely, and the horses passed by each other, and the spears in their hands stabbed the scarecrow's vital parts one after another.Many people held their guns falsely and let go just before they were stabbed.

Even the spears in the hands of experienced people pierced the "fragile and not many bones" target's neck, so when they passed by the scarecrow, the spears in their hands were still firmly in their hands.

Obviously, when the cavalry is charging at high speed, it is extremely difficult to practice the technique of being able to play false stabs and let go instantly.Even playing stabbing at the neck, not attacking the imaginary enemy, there are solid armor guards, strong rebound and easy to get stuck in the chest and abdomen of the spear, all are the hundreds of veterans in the front row who have been in the cavalry for a long time.

The rest of the cavalry who came up several rows had no choice but to wave their sabers obediently. After passing by the scarecrows, some scarecrows were "decapitated", and some scarecrows were split into two parts and became two parts.However, there were also many sabers that fell to nothing, without any results.

After the "shock", these cavalry fell into a "melee", or swung their sabers and slashed at the scarecrows, or drew handguns from their saddles, aimed and fired at the scarecrows.They were all firing live ammunition, and there was a constant crackling sound, and the smoke and flames of the handguns continued to rise.

"Those veterans are already good, but the new cavalry needs more training."

Surrounded by all the generals, Wang Dou looked at the field situation more than 100 steps away from the cavalry training. He watched Li Guangheng's cavalry training, and said thoughtfully.

After the reorganization of Li Guangheng's department was completed a few months ago, it has a complete cavalry department with nearly a thousand sergeants.There are hundreds of veteran cavalry who have been training since Chongzhen ten years ago. They have also experienced the fierce battle of Chongzhen 11 years ago, and their combat power and psychology have made a qualitative leap. The cavalry dragged their feet.

"General Mingjian, you only need to give the general half a year to fight against the Dongnu cavalry army, and the general will not be afraid at all."

Li Guangheng, commander of the cavalry, said loudly beside Wang Dou, his words were full of confidence.

In the cavalry battle with the Qing soldiers at the beginning of the year, Li Guangheng's cavalry broke through Oboi's cavalry like a broken bamboo, which greatly increased Li Guangheng's confidence.Facts have proved that the cavalry with strict discipline and strict formation, even if they are not good at riding, their own cavalry still has a good chance of winning against the cavalry who are skilled in horse bow and horse in the Shangqing Kingdom.

So after returning to Bao'an Prefecture, the sergeants were adjusted again. In the next cavalry training, Li Guangheng's requirements for the formation of the formation were even more stringent.

In his perception, although a lot of new cavalry troops have been recruited, there are hundreds of strong cavalry in the original department, all of which meet the requirements of the unity of man and horse and can charge into battle.With these old troops as the vanguard, the new army marched forward in a rigorous formation. No matter whether they were facing Dongnu or rogue bandits, no matter how good their personal riding skills were, their scattered formation would not be a match for their own cavalry.

Hearing Li Guangheng's confident words, Wang Dou smiled slightly, and Gao Shiyin behind him said loudly: "I said, Lao Li, are you too ruthless in your drills? The boys under my command were not killed or injured on the battlefield. You let them Riding a horse is a lot of disabilities, my troops are infantry, not cavalry, you can't train them like you train cavalry."

It seemed that Gao Shiyin had been dissatisfied with this issue for a long time, and at this time, taking advantage of Wang Dou's presence, he took the opportunity to explode.

After hearing Gao Shiyin's words, Wen Fangliang and Zhong Xiancai, who were beside Wang Dou, looked at each other with deep approval.

Now Wang Dou's army, including the general headquarters and the general headquarters of Qian, has a total of 920 sergeants, including 400 soldiers.Excluding Sun Sanjie's supply department, he currently has six infantry soldiers and one cavalry soldier, totaling more than [-] people.

In Wang Dou's plan, it would be best if all these thousands of people could be trained as cavalry. If not, the six infantry would also have to be trained to learn how to ride horses to improve the mobility of their army.

So in the past few months, apart from the Han Dynasty in Laishui and Zhong Tiaoyang in Baoanzhou, Wen Fangliang, Zhong Xiancai, Gao Shiyin, and Yang Guodong in Yongning After the sergeants dismounted their horses, Li Guangheng's subordinates taught them how to ride horses.

For the training of these people, Li Guangheng also trained the cavalry in the same way as before, throwing people on the bare horseback for three months.Although all the infantrymen with horses were able to ride horses proficiently after a few months, Gao Shiyin was extremely dissatisfied at the cost of many people being injured and disabled.

Hearing Gao Shiyin's words, Li Guangheng glared, and said angrily: "Mr. Gao Qian, I will train the sergeants according to the general's teaching. If Mr. Gao Qian thinks that the general will treat the soldiers harshly, you can suggest to the general that your troops ride horses. Practice, Ben will no longer intervene."

Seeing his angry look, Gao Shiyin was not willing to show weakness, and also shouted: "Old man Li, don't think that you have killed your son-in-law, you can vent your anger on my subordinates, I..."

Li Guangheng's eyes turned red suddenly, and he remained silent like a deflated ball.

"Damn!"

Wang Douji yelled, but Gao Shiyin realized that he had made a slip of the tongue and quickly shut up. Seeing that Wang Dou was angry, he quickly knelt down like a defeated rooster.

Wen Fangliang coughed and said in a low voice: "Old Gao, after you have said this, why don't you plead guilty to Mr. Li Qian and the general?"

Wang Dou glanced at Gao Shiyin and Li Guangheng, and frowned. Gao Shiyin's mind was as rude as his appearance, and he just said something that didn't mean what he said, and the punishment was nothing more than that.

But Li Guangheng... It seems that since Han Zhongzhan's death, his temper has become much irritable. It is heard that he often drinks heavily and even punishes soldiers physically. .

He said indifferently: "Chi Zhenfu, Mr. Gao Qian speaks out of nothing and attacks his colleagues, how should we deal with it according to the law?"

Chi Dacheng bowed to Wang Dou, and said coldly: "Yi Lv, the twenty army sticks should be held accountable!"

Wang Dou shouted: "Execute immediately!"

Chi Dacheng said: "The next official takes orders."

As soon as he waved his hand, several high-ranking and three-thick sergeants from the Zhenfu Division came up, pushed Gao Shiyin down, took off his pants, and beat his army sticks.

There was no sound in the field, and even the sergeants who were training not far away were startled by the situation here, and whispered.Seeing the eyes of all the officers sweeping over, they hurriedly started training separately again.

The heavy military stick hit him, but Gao Shiyin was silent. Li Guangheng stared blankly, seeing that Gao Shiyin had already been beaten with ten military sticks, he hurriedly clasped his fists to Wang Dou to plead for mercy: "Mr. I will intercede for Mr. Gao Qian."

Wen Fangliang, Zhong Xiancai, Zhao Xuan, Wen Daxing, Sun Sanjie and others also interceded, and the executioners also stopped to see what Wang Dou meant.

But Chi Dacheng said: "The law is brilliant, the general ordered the officials to punish Mr. Gao Qian, if it is not due to favor, why should our Shun Township army be an army?"

Wang Dou was silent and waved his hand, and the soldiers who appeased him continued to carry out the execution.After the twenty army sticks were beaten, Gao Shi's silvery buttocks were covered with bloodstains.He grinned, patted his buttocks and stood up, put on his pants, and saluted Wang Dou: "Thank you, General, for punishing me."

He gave Li Guangheng an annoyed look, and said, "Old man Li, I, Gao Shiyin, am sorry for you... Brother Han, we were also close friends at the time, and I feel bad when he left... What I just said was offended, excuse me."

Li Guangheng stood there for a long time, then suddenly gave a deep salute to Wang Dou: "General, when the general knew that he had returned from Julu, he became very irritable, and it violated military discipline. In a few days, the general will be on vacation. I would like to ask the general for permission to let the general go back to Baoanzhou to rest for a few days to calm his mind."

Right now, the thousands of Baoan Prefecture veterans around Wang Dou have unknowingly become full-time sergeants. In order to alleviate their needs in various aspects, the Shun Township Army has made regulations a few months ago.Regardless of whether it is an officer or a soldier, there are five days of rest every month, and they can go back to Baoanzhou to visit their family.

However, Li Guangheng was buried in the training ground all day long, and he hadn't returned to Baoanzhou to see his family for several months. He knew that his mind was wrong.He also gave birth to the thought of going back to Baoanzhou to see his wife and daughter, and quietly adjusted his mind.

Wang Dou nodded: "Mr. Li Qian drills sergeants every day. It's really hard work. You are allowed to go back to Baoan Prefecture for a one-month vacation."

Li Guangheng thanked him, and after he left, the department's affairs would be handled by the vice president, so nothing would happen.However, he still recommended a talent to Wang Dou to assist in cavalry training, and that was an officer named Liu Cang recruited from the Security Guard City a few months ago.

This Liu Cang has the official title of Security Guard Commander, and it is said that he is also good at riding.Wang Dou also had an impression of this person. After defeating Abatai's troops in the ninth year of Chongzhen, when he went to the Acropolis to meet Xu Li Yi'an, who was guarding him at the time, he had seen Liu Cang at the reception banquet.

At that time, he was few and wanted to be happy, drank alone and looked frustrated, but unexpectedly, he was taken in by Li Guangheng.

This is also a good thing, with subordinates helping to recruit talents, it also saves Wangdou a lot of energy.

……

"It's really more convenient to change the handgun to a self-propelled style. It doesn't need a matchlock, and it's easy to fire, but the misfire rate is a bit higher... But each cavalry is equipped with two to three handguns, but it also makes up for this deficiency."

Seeing the dull atmosphere in the venue, Wen Fangliang quickly changed the topic, and sure enough, everyone was attracted by him.

At this time, Li Guangheng's cavalry was still training. In the vast open field, besides the thousand cavalry of his troops, there were thousands of other cavalry training and forming formations.Everyone in the arena seems to have horses. The difference between the cavalry and the mounted infantry is that Li Guangheng's men's horses and their left arm shields are all dyed in a uniform red color, while the mounted infantry does not.

The cavalry were still fighting the scarecrow, and their pistols hit the scarecrow from time to time.The close-range firepower sent the scarecrows flying with debris.If it was the enemy on the opposite side, he would have died too early to die again.

After discussion between Wang Dou and Li Guangheng, the cavalry was equipped with cotton armor, long spears, waist knives and hand guns. The combat tactics were to use spears and sabers when charging, and use hand guns in melee.A large number of facts have proved that cavalry shooting at high speed is a waste of ammunition. It is better to use the impact force of cavalry to break through the enemy's formation and use hand guns.

Wang Dou originally thought that the caliber of the handgun should be increased, but he canceled this idea after training.When the two sides were in chaos, they were only a few steps away from each other. Even with the power of the pistol, within a few steps, it was enough to break through the opponent's heavy armor. If they fought against the Qing soldiers in the future.

If it is a bandit, the power of this kind of hand gun is even greater. It is very lethal to unarmored soldiers within ten or twenty steps, and its power can be compared with that of a horse bow.

(End of this chapter)