The 30,000 elite divisions that accompanied Xia Xun to the Western Regions were selected from the Beijing camp, and this huge lottery activity was called "Selecting the Front" by the officers and men in the army.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the officers and men of the Beijing battalion were indeed the elite of the country, not only were their equipment far superior to the border army, but their combat effectiveness was also better than that of the border army.
On the battlefield, it is not the case that the army will be able to win the battle if it has an absolute superiority in numbers, and an elite army can completely win more with less and influence the situation of the war. 30,000 sharp pawns, the master of the hall will be Saihazhi, this is a Tartar official, when Zhu Di sent Xia Xunzhi to attack Daning, he had joined forces with Xia Xun to go first, and the two were old acquaintances.
When the army was about to start, Xia Xun rushed to the barracks, Saihazhi was informed, and immediately led the generals to meet them.
The army is about to set out for camp, and the elites of the three armies have been assembled.
As soon as the two entered the camp, they were greeted by a team of neatly draped light cavalry, a light cowhide armor, covered with mandarin duck battle robes, and a bright fiery red helmet on the mighty helmet, which was murderous and majestic This army, but the army that has really fought, far away, not to mention, four years of Jingjing, these people have participated in the war, even if the veterans and recruits who have survived a hundred battles are the same Le Ma and a station, the same solemn and silent, but the nature that comes out of them is a different momentum, that is the real murderous aura, this is after the first snow, it is early in the morning, the weather is cold, but standing in the middle of them, you can only feel the murderous aura of their body.
"Guogong, these soldiers are all elite soldiers on the battlefield of a hundred battles, there is no need to worry about cavalry and archery, laws and regulations, military discipline, etc., eating, living, traveling, walking, fighting, hiding, ambushing, all kinds of skills are proficient, these people can be used when they are transferred, as long as they adapt a little, they can cooperate with each other seamlessly."
It was Jing Feng, the deputy general who was on the other side of Xia Xun, who was speaking, and Saihazhi was brave and good at fighting, but he didn't know a lot of words, so the deputy general who was assigned to him was a Confucian general, and he was not enough to complement him, and when he introduced the 30,000 elites selected to Xia Xun, Saihazhi knew that he was clumsy, so he entrusted it to him.
"Well, what about the baggage?"
Xia Xun looked at the selected elite soldiers with satisfaction, and asked Jing Feng again.
"In addition to the horses ridden by the soldiers, there are also 10,000 horses, well, this is already half of the war horses in the Beijing camp."
Xia Xun nodded, and Jing Feng said: "Camp tents, cotton clothes, bedding, armor, weapons, arrows, gunpowder, medicines, are all ready, transported by the reserve soldiers and servants, as for the grain and grass, the soldiers only carry three rations, and the prefectures and counties along the way are responsible for supplying the needs, if there are only 30,000 soldiers and horses, the sweet and cool places are enough to bear, and there is no need to transport them from Beijing, so we don't need to transport many things, and we don't have to delay too much time on the road." ” Xia Xun smiled, shook his head and said, "The number of soldiers and servants is more than our 30,000 elite soldiers."
Jing Feng pursed his lips without a trace, and said in his heart: "This is not nonsense, the number of soldiers and servants has always been several times that of soldiers, this master knows about soldiers" thought in his heart, he didn't dare to say it in his mouth, but said respectfully: "Yes, because we don't need to transport grain and grass, we don't need many reserves and soldiers, and the number of soldiers and servants is probably only about 10,000 more than the soldiers."
Xia Xun sighed: "I know" He suddenly pulled the reins and said in a deep voice: "I don't want any servants, only 10,000 soldiers are left, so that they can carry some things that are really difficult for soldiers to carry, and all other items are carried and carried by the soldiers themselves."
Jing Feng said in surprise: "Guogong, this is the elite selected from the Beijing camp, they are going to go into battle to fight, let them do these jobs" Xia Xun smiled and said, "Do you think I'm overkill?"
Jing Feng hurriedly said: "The last general doesn't dare, the last general says" Xia Xun interrupted him and said: "The Western Regions are vast and sparsely populated, do you think that when you get there, as soon as the battle starts, the logistics and baggage can be as convenient and timely as now, our 30,000 elite soldiers, everyone is equipped with war horses, why do you think you want to defend the city, why choose the elite among the elite of the Beijing camp."
In the event of a war, they will be out on patrol and play a surprise role.
By that time, field battles would be a daily routine for them.
It is not comparable to guarding the city, someone sends food when you are hungry, someone sends water when you are thirsty, you take turns to rest in the city at night, and you are injured and Langzhong takes you down to wrap up your wounds and take medicine, they want to go to the Western Regions to really fight, the desert is full of walls, and it is difficult to see a wisp of people for thousands of miles, so you must learn to carry all kinds of materials needed for combat and survival, you must explore how to carry more materials, you must figure out how to tie up the rapid march so that you will not be lost, and you must adapt to the long-distance running, camping, eating and medicine, and wrapping up the wounds under the load situation From here to Gansu, they will pass through all kinds of terrain, the road is very long, ask them to carry these things by themselves, do these things, it is indeed very hard, but only in this way, they can practice abundant physical strength and strong endurance, in the upcoming battle, as much as possible to protect their own surname You just order it, this kind of behavior, I call it the training of the selection of the front has ended, the training has just begun, can be from Nanjing all the way to the Jiayuguan soldiers, I admit that he is the real sharp" "Grandpa Guo said it well" Saihazhi raised his flying beard, a pair of mung bean eyes shimmered, and said with unusual approval: "What Grandpa Guo said about fighting against our Mongols, I have never seen a soldier with a group of people waiting, this kind of old soldier, no matter how much he can fight, he will not be able to fight, and when he arrives in the desert grassland, he will be dragged down by people."
Especially our 30,000 elite soldiers, which were originally used as sharp knives, dragged a large group of people waiting behind, can this sharp knife still stab Lao Jing, just do what Grandpa Guo said, who dares to disagree, Lao Tzu will smoke his mother" Jing Feng was helpless, so he had to agree with a wry smile.
Further on, is the heavy cavalry, the horses under their crotch are more majestic, full of 4,000 people, sitting on a strong and incomparably tall horse, the armor is distinct, the saddle is neat, the saddle side is hung with a black lacquered cowhide riding shield, painted with a beast pattern, the right hand red tassel long lacquer spear pointed vertically to the sky, the gun barrel has the thickness of chicken eggs, the tip of the spear is a foot and a half, the blood groove is like a cold, reflecting the light and cold.
Further back are the firearms soldiers, the firearms on their shoulders, the bowls on the shelves, looking at the weapons in the hands of the light and heavy cavalry, but those who know that this firearm is powerful will not think so.
Xia Xun muttered: "Firearms, one day, will completely replace swords, guns, swords and halberds and become the mainstream weapons for victory on the battlefield, but it is not yet successful, it still has many flaws, such as the rate of fire, such as the influence of the weather."
Therefore, we have to make the most of its strengths and let it cooperate with other weapons in order to exert its maximum power.
Timur's soldiers were all brave and warlike cavalry, and their horses were as fast as the wind, and most of the Western Regions were flat horses, which were conducive to rapid attack.
If we use firearms against the enemy, even if we use a three-stage strike method, the enemy cavalry can be killed in front of us in a few breaths, and firearms are not enough to be feared, but if it is in the attack and defense of the city or when the two armies build trenches to face each other, firearms are more useful than bows and crossbows.
Even if you have excellent arm strength, how many arrows can you fire, and firearms, as long as you still have a little strength, you can use them.
At the same time, firearms are far stronger than arrows, especially artillery such as bowls, which have more than 100 projectiles and a wide range of casualties, so I deliberately chose this firearms soldier to come out, not to ask them to fight against Timur's cavalry, but to call them masters, teach Gan Liang and other castle soldiers, and learn to use firearms craftsmen to make many newly developed firearms.
Therefore, these 3,000 firearms soldiers do not need to participate in the training, they will leave the brigade, escort the firearms and gunpowder transport battalion, and rush to Hexi as quickly as possible to teach the troops of General Pingqiang's line to learn the use of firearms.
Therefore, they do not have to carry a load, and there are heavy cavalry, and they do not need to carry a load" Although Xia Xun came from later generations, he was not superstitious about firearms.
After so long in this era, he has clearly realized that in the current era, the mainstream of the battlefield is still cold weapons.
In fact, until the eighteenth century, firearms could not completely replace the role of fast horses and hard bows, and in the terrain suitable for cavalry, firearms were even at a disadvantage.
For example, in the eighteenth century, the line of the Prussian king Frederick the Great's line surname musket tactics fought all over Europe invincible, which can be called the pinnacle of musket tactics in the eighteenth century, and later generations could not even imitate its essence, but such a team encountered the Russian Cossack spear cavalry at that time but could not take the slightest advantage, and Xia Xun's era had just entered the fifteenth century, and firearms were far worse than then.
Xia Xun's words are exactly what Sai Hazhi wants, Lao Sai has fought all his life, so that he is used to spears and hard bows, riding horses and galloping, he can't look down on these so-called firearms soldiers who go into battle with iron cylinders, Xia Xun wants to move these thousands of people out and use them alone, which is exactly what he wants, of course he will not object.
The group continued to walk forward, inspecting the various arms as they went, and when they came to the end, Saihazhi said: "Guogong, we are about to set off, Guogong should give another instruction to the three armies" Xia Xun smiled and said: "From here to Lanzhou, there is still something to go, what kind of teacher do you swear, even if you give them enough strength and courage, when they go to Lanzhou, they will have premature ejaculation."
Saihazhi touched the back of his head and smiled awkwardly: "Well, the last general actually doesn't like this kind of trick very much, but before watching the Han officials send out the army, they all like to do this, and I thought that you also like Guogong, this and this sycophant slapped on the horse's feet, and the last general is not ashamed."
This Saihazhi's surname is really cute, Xia Xun and Jing Feng couldn't help laughing when they heard it, and couldn't help laughing.
The three armies hurriedly read it, Saihazhi immediately ordered to pull out, the army left the barracks, and Xia Xun rushed back to Jinling City to pick up Princess Ancheng.
He went to the Western Regions, with a stick in one hand and a carrot in the other, this Princess Ancheng was clearly a carrot given to Song Sheng by Emperor Yongle.
He was going back to the city to pick up the princess's Luan, and after crossing the Yangtze River, he would join Sehazhi's team.
After returning to the city, he first went back to his house so that he could pick up the two Guizi girls.
Xia Xun had just stepped into the door of the mansion with his front foot, and something happened in the backyard To be continued: