On April 27, in the northern part of Anhui Province, on the outskirts of Lingbi County in the eastern part of the Huaibei Plain, the 60,000 guards of the Gongwei Jing Division were killed by the 10,000 Yan troops who were not afraid of death.

The incompetence of the generals made it impossible to fight for many years, and the soldiers who had lived in the capital for a long time were suddenly in chaos. Some people raised their weapons to meet the enemy, some turned around and followed the commander, some howled and killed King Yan, some ran to the Lingbi military camp, many fled to a place where there was no one, and a few people stood stupidly in place at a loss, in short, they were all fighting on their own.

Zhu Neng, who came later, saw the opportunity and immediately commanded 20,000 Yan troops to surround it, and immediately killed the pro-army of the Son of Heaven, who was the best-paid and highest-ranking on weekdays, threw away their armor and cried for their father and mother.

At this time, Sheng Yong used all the soldiers and horses of Lingbi to come to the rescue, and Chen Hui's 20,000 cavalry roared out and killed thousands of Yan troops on the spot, so that Zhu Neng was repulsed, and Zhu Di gave up the tempting idea of directly capturing and killing Chen Yu.

Who knew that the praying mantis catching cicadas and yellow finches were behind, and Zhu Gaoxu, who was ambushed in the dense forest, led tens of thousands of ambush soldiers to the end, forming a flanking attack on the official army.

As a result, after a bloody battle, the official army gradually lost its support at first, Chen Yu threw away all the supplies and fled on horseback, Chen Hui defeated Zhu Gaoxu's cavalry, and Sheng Yong's Shandong army was not highly moraled, and gradually retreated into the camp, Chen Hui was forced to rush to Anhui, Sheng Yong ordered to block the fortress gate, and continued to hold out.

On the battlefield full of dead bodies, the Yan army was cleaning up the mess, and Zhu Di frowned and thought about the next step. Suddenly, Zhang Yu walked over with a happy face and said, "The 80,000 official troops led by He Fu were defeated by Shizi and Xu Hao on the way here, killing and capturing 40,000 people. Otherwise, this time it will be in danger. ”

Zhu Di said in surprise: "They brought the troops over?" ”

Zhang Yu nodded and said: "Just a hundred miles away, there are fifteen thousand troops, including the Shenji Battalion of the dog and Xu Hao's Liaodong Army, waiting for Chitose's order." ”

Zhu Di's face was a little unpleasant, although he won the battle, he injured 10,000 enemies and lost 8,000 himself, and he killed more than 10,000 soldiers. There were only more than 30,000 enemies killed and wounded, among which there were almost no dead in Sheng Yong's department, and most of the dead were Chen Yu's Beijing army. However, the eldest son and Xu Hao defeated 80,000 officers and soldiers with 15,000 people, and they were miraculously unscathed.

It's a firearm again, Zhu Di understands too well what Xu Hao is relying on, thinks about it and says, "Then the king will lead the troops to continue to advance." Ordered the prince to besiege Lingbi. If they can trap the main force of the thief army here, they have made a great achievement. ”

In the military tent hundreds of miles away, Zhu Gaochi, who was sweating profusely, was soaked inside and out, and it was difficult to take off the royal family's face, so he asked with a fat round face: "What should I do with the prisoners, I can't send them away, and it's not appropriate to take them with me." They were all southerners, and I was worried that they were going around plundering the local people. Falling grass is a coward. ”

Xu Hao handed over a set of changed military uniforms, and said with a smile: "It will be much cooler to change into this, and it will be cooler to untie the military discipline buttons, don't wear suffocating robes and coats." ”

Zhu Gaochi pointed to Zhang Fu, who was dressed in armor, and said with a smile: "Now I look much more pleasing to the eye, but I am wearing heavy armor, it is really hard for your Shenji Battalion." ”

Zhang Fu raised his hand to wipe the sweat on his forehead, and said with a wry smile: "The prince is not allowed to wear a new military uniform, there is no way." No wonder Xu Hao is reluctant to fight with dozens of pounds of armor, and he doesn't even like the cuirass cast in steel, and now I feel too inconvenient. ”

Xu Hao said with a smile: "Unless you are wearing a hard steel plate, a bullet can penetrate any existing armor, so either replace the whole army with the most valuable tortoise armor, or wear cloth clothes to go into battle easily, otherwise the meaning is the same, and you can save money on building and maintaining armor." The musketeers relied heavily on logistical supplies, and the money was used to open factories to train wagon soldiers who delivered supplies.

Today, the officers and soldiers are wearing light paper armor, and as you can see, bullets can pass through two or three people in a row, as if they were not wearing clothes. ”

Zhu Gaochi said in fear: "The power of your musket is too amazing, in the future, the two armies will no longer have to fight each other, and they will be able to kill people from afar." ”

"Muskets also have limitations, when they encounter an enemy who is good at fighting, excellent generals, hand-to-hand combat cannot be avoided, and if they don't fight well, they will lose the battle." Xu Hao took a bowl of water and said: "This is an inevitable trend, whether it is a war with a musket or a sword, it is the same cruel and ruthless, there is no difference. Those captives, I told Mu Hui and Mu Yi to worry about them, don't worry, the Mu family is still very prestigious in the south. ”

Zhu Gaochi said happily: "Not bad." Someone will help me change into this uniform. ”

Seeing Shizi take off his ordinary civilian clothes and go into battle easily, Zhang Fu couldn't help but learn from him, and went out to change into his previous military uniforms, and the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion were already miserable, and they threw down their armor and put on relatively cool military uniforms.

Xu Hao deliberately tempered Zhu Gaochi, who had a good personality, and wanted to take him to the front line, in fact, Zhu Di ordered the same.

When the temperature cooled down that night, nearly a thousand muskets with four or five muskets were dispatched, and the Europeans were known as scouts of the dragoons, and the whole army followed behind.

Arriving at Lingbi in the early hours of the morning, Xu Hao did not rush to storm the official and military barracks with their backs against the cliffs, but set up camp around them, seized the time to reorganize the team, and focused the training on the exercise, which made Zhu Gaochi and Zhang Fu and other generals feel very novel, and the focus of the exercise was night operations, which was a piece of cake for the current staff department, and Xu Hao did not need to worry about it.

The soldiers of the musket and arquebus were separated, and they were still subordinate to the Shenji Battalion, and they were arranged in the Chinese army to be responsible for protecting Zhu Gaochi closely.

Every day, Mu Hui's warships came to deliver grain and grass supplies, and the imperial court sailors had been transferred to the Yangtze River, and the entire river was controlled by the Yan army

The flintlock musketeers of the Shenji Battalion are arranged in the front position, and the advantage of the flintlock pistols is that they can shoot in a dense formation, which can be fired without having to be separated by a person's width, and there is no need to take a long linear formation......

Xu Hao's 5,000 men were like this, and they began to adopt flexible and mobile modern tactics, with soldiers in a squad of 10 and a platoon of 30 people, with a regiment of 1,000 men as a combat unit, and they followed the banner in wartime. Obey the captain's command. The lieutenant will hold a pre-war meeting with the superior generals to clearly explain the purpose, tactics and strategic intentions of the battle, and so on. When fighting, there are heralds who convey orders according to the flag. It is also possible to issue military orders with traditional drum trumpets.

For this reason, Xu Hao hesitated for a long time, whether to give up the most mature Ming Dynasty combat system, and finally decided to organize the army in a modern way, because the era of cold weapons must respect ancient military tactics, and the appearance of muskets means that everything in modern times must be followed.

Regarding the army, Xu Hao is a half-baked layman, but he understands that the organizational structure of the ancient army has its rationality, and fighting a war mainly relies on personal bravery. It also attaches great importance to military discipline, formations and coordination, and there are more than 300 kinds of formations alone, which are naturally unnecessary for musketeers.

In ancient times, the army relied on remembering merits, relying on encouragement, relying on rewards, and relying on the personal prestige of generals to fight. Sometimes he has to rely on robbery and connivance to maintain fighting spirit and morale, so often when fighting, Zhu Di repeatedly ordered that the city must be besieged, and the division should not be stopped, in order to avoid forcing the enemy to fight hard. What I want to see most is the collapse of the official army and the flight.

And the modern army has put aside weapons, strict training and organizational structure, etc. The most important feature is the ideological soul, the erection of the concept of the state and nationalism, the advantage is the team spirit, relying on which various flexible tactics and efficient control of the army.

The modern army pays more attention to military discipline and training, and pays attention to cultivating the military quality of low-level officers; there are many examples in history in which the modern army has completely defeated the ancient army, and it seems that the modern army is stronger than the ancient army, but there is no absolute in everything. There are many examples of modern troops being defeated by a single blow, and in ancient times, there were iron armies similar to modern times. For example, the army of the Qin Dynasty and Yue Fei's Yuejia army, according to records, Qi Jiguang's army could stand motionless in the rain for several hours.

There is also Zhu Di's Beiping descendant Yanshan Sanwei, after perennial training, often fighting to the most stubborn and then a soldier will follow the coach to fight to the end.

Xu Hao is to maintain a standing army system in order to be different from the hereditary system of military households, even if it has no effect, he has to pioneer and leave a system.

In order to instill the conviction of fighting for the country and the nation, the PLA political commissar imitated the political commissar of the People's Liberation Army and set up instructors and teaching brigades, so that ordinary non-commissioned officers could at least understand what was going on with their superiors. Take the current military attache system of the Ming Dynasty as an example, the governor's office of the five armies, with a number of governors, governors of the same knowledge, deputy governors, and governors of the capital, is generally called the governor to the outside world, and the ordinary people know what is going on? To put it bluntly, ordinary soldiers are pigs and dogs, as long as they obey orders and work hard.

The Ming Dynasty stipulated that the military department had the right to send troops but not the right to command the troops, and the governor's office of the five armies had the right to command the army but not the order to send troops. When there is a military operation, the military department asks to appoint a certain governor to lead the troops into battle, and assign the soldiers of the other prefectures, guards, and offices to its command.

When the military operation is over, the generals will return to the original governor's office, and the soldiers will return to the original work institute. This system is obviously aimed at preventing the loss of military power and deliberately restricting the authority of the generals, and the inevitable result is that they have to pay the price of greatly weakening their own military might.

Although Xu Hao had no intention of rebelling in this regard, he would not be foolish and loyal to the emperor at all, and there would be no life guarantee without the army, so he intended to privatize the army.

It is also an inevitable choice to create an army according to the name and structure of the army in modern times, even if it will cause warlords to divide and fight all year round, it is better than being ruled by the Manchu Qing for hundreds of years and being bullied by Western powers in turn, not to mention the Japanese devils.

There are talented people in the country, there will always be great people born to end the chaos and achieve great unification, no one can predict the consequences, Xu Hao can only rely on his own understanding to do things, plus his own selfishness. Preparing to abandon the Ming Dynasty's way of naming regions, cancel the structure of the five armies in the front, center, and left, and other armies, and wait for the future to adopt armies, regiments, battalions, companies, etc., what small flags and general flags are too awkward to hear.

In general, in addition to some changes in official positions and establishments, the focus is on developing and perfecting the tactical thinking and patriotic ideological system of the modern army, which must be tested no matter what, even if the military system of the Ming Dynasty already has a perfect system, the question is what to do?

Xu Hao scratched his head a little, he is not a thinker and military strategist after all, it seems that this aspect can only be messed up, or let time develop slowly, or let the people below brainstorm and improve according to practice, but unfortunately Mao Yuanyi, the author of "Wu Beizhi", has not yet been born.

Just as Xu Hao was thinking hard, because of the lack of military food, Sheng Yong's army could not support it for a long time. That night, officers and soldiers swarmed out of the gates.

For several days, the Yan army had to conduct a drill day and night, and soon the sergeant on duty at night blew the horn, and Xu Hao, who had not yet fallen asleep, came out of the tent, and rushed out of the tents one by one.

Xu Hao said: "Don't panic, beat the drum and order the whole army to fire on the spot." ”

After repeated exercises, the Yan soldiers rushed out of the line in a hurry, and the officers gave orders loudly, some of them raised their muskets, and some of them carried gunpowder projectiles and grenades. When the officers and soldiers ran closer, Zhang Fu's Shenji battalion took the lead in firing forward, and then 10,000 people fired intensively.

However, Zhu Gaochi's Chinese army lit braziers one by one, and a long fire rope was placed in front of the soldiers, and the smell of fire oil was permeated.

Tests have shown that the success rate of firing from arquebuses is more than 60 percent, while the success rate of flintlock pistols is as high as 80 percent.

The hit rate within 200 meters is very objective, but that refers to intensive shooting, and with the current level of craftsmanship, if you want to hit the enemy, you have to hit about 80 meters, and you have to hit within 50 meters accurately, and there is no hit rate at all if you exceed 100 meters. (To be continued......)