I Build an Aircraft Carrier in the Ming Dynasty

On the 16th day of the first lunar month, Wu Changqing took the main force to Changzhou. He was going to put the battlefield on the plain to the northwest of Changzhou.

Although the decisive battle on the plain was beneficial to the Manchu cavalry, it was also beneficial to Wu Changqing's firearms.

If the battlefield is set up in other hilly areas, it is not easy to find a battlefield that can hold hundreds of thousands of troops, and it is not easy to set up a formation on the mountain, and it will not be able to exert the power of the fire gun army.

Although the defense of the city can occupy the land, it is difficult to expand the results. When the enemy cannot attack, you can retreat and turn around. When they came out to chase through the narrow city gate, the enemy army would have long since disappeared.

Moreover, Wu Changqing's main goal is to destroy the enemy's cavalry, which cannot be achieved by guarding the city of Changzhou. Unless the opponent's brain is flooded, it is impossible to send cavalry to attack the city.

After comprehensive consideration, Wu Changqing still chose the plain battlefield. He chose to seduce the enemy to the plain for a decisive battle, thus effectively killing the enemy's cavalry.

After walking for three days, the army arrived in Changzhou.

So far, nearly 60,000 main troops of the Wu army have been hoarded in this area, and simulation exercises have been carried out.

This time Wu Changqing mainly practiced the hollow phalanx of the Fire Gun Army, which was specially designed to deal with cavalry and was very effective.

A hollow square is a dense formation of dozens of people, or one or two hundred people, and a space of more than ten meters should be left between the small squares to facilitate the passage of cavalry.

This formation is very confusing. The first time I encounter a cavalry general in this formation, I will suffer a big loss 100%.

This messy and loose formation seems to be easily overwhelmed, suitable for cavalry assault. But in fact, these gaps that seem to be weaknesses are precisely the death traps of the cavalry.

The reason is actually very simple, because horses are also creatures, they are also afraid and have a desire to win.

If it was a phalanx of infantry with no clear space, the horses would have no choice but to rush through. Under such a shock, both the cavalry and the infantry would suffer heavy losses.

The infantry was even worse. Facing the cavalry that charged at high speed, most of the soldiers collapsed. When their formation collapsed, the cavalry was ready to slaughter.

But now the hollow phalanx has left a lot of blank space, so those charging horses can't help but avoid those dense crowds and rush to those blank areas.

That way the infantry wouldn't get hit, and of course the horses would be fine.

If it was in the previous era of cold weapons, the infantry in this hollow phalanx had no ability to fight back, and could only let the cavalry shoot arrows or chop, shuttle back and forth to bully, it would be better to set up a solid square to be tough.

But now the main force of the Ming army is the fire gun army, and the fire gun army can shoot from a long distance.

After putting those cavalry in the phalanx, you can close your eyes and shoot at close range, as long as you are not blind, you can hit 100%.

As for those cavalrymen, they could only watch themselves being shot by the Fire Gun Army, and they had little power to fight back. Whether they are fighting back with bows and arrows or slashing with sabres, their killing efficiency is comparable to that of fire guns.

In that case, the cavalry's choice is very likely to continue to charge, trying to rush out of the phalanx as soon as possible, rather than thinking about fighting back.

In this way, the cavalry with the roaring bulls turned into a group of rats crossing the street that could only be beaten.

A simple hollow square, the effect is so overbearing. And the magic of this phalanx is known only to Wu Changqing in this era.

In the original history, the earliest hollow phalanx appeared in the Napoleonic Wars in Western Europe in the 19th century. Napoleon, who was originally mighty, was also defeated by this phalanx.

Of course, this seemingly simple hollow phalanx is not easy for soldiers to be skilled at.

When the infantry found that the cavalry began to charge, they basically only had 30 seconds to adjust the formation. After this time, the cavalry was in front of them.

Moreover, even if the formation is adjusted, the soldiers in the formation are under enormous psychological pressure.

You must know that most people will be nervous when they come to the stage to give a speech, not to mention the impact of thousands of troops.

That feeling is like a person standing in the middle of a highway, and then there are cars passing by constantly. In that environment, let alone reloading, it would be nice to keep your legs from shaking.

And Wu Changqing is now trying to adapt them to the scene of the habit of their training.

As long as these soldiers get used to this kind of situation and can't run around in the face of the enemy cavalry charge, then it will be a nightmare for the cavalry.

On the first day, the troops were all practicing switching formations.

It was originally a linear formation, that is, a straight line of soldiers lined up in rows. Then switch from this linear array to a hollow square array, and the time must be within thirty seconds.

This difficulty is still quite high, and thanks to Wu Changqing's troops who often practice this kind of coordination, they can initially fulfill the requirements. For other armies, to switch formations in such a short period of time would be 100% messy.

The conversion of the formation was initially completed, but it still took too long, and it took a full minute.

This time is fatal, you must speed up, you must practice more.

This kind of transformation is not a high-tech job. As long as you practice a lot, after practice makes perfect, the speed will naturally increase.

After that, the training entered the next stage, which was to simulate the battlefield.

Wu Changqing's 2,000-strong cavalry force simulates the charge of the Qing army's cavalry, and then the fire gun army switches

Formation, let the cavalry pass through the hollow.

This kind of real simulation has certain risks. At the beginning, the cavalry did not rush very fast. After slowly coming a few times, and after the soldiers got used to it, they began to speed up.

Even with this step-by-step training method, there was still an accident during the training. One cavalry fell to the death, one cavalry was seriously injured, three fire gunmen died, and two horses were lost.

This little loss is within Wu Changqing's tolerance, so he continues to practice.

He wants to practice until the nerves of these gunnery soldiers become numb, and he wants them to calmly reload and shoot when they see horses as fast as motorcycles rushing towards him.

Does the general's phalanx really have a miraculous effect on the enemy's cavalry?

In fact, Liu Hansan and others still have certain doubts about this, although from the simulation situation on the scene, this phalanx is indeed beneficial to the infantry.

However, when it comes to the real battlefield where blood is seen, the situation will definitely become more than ten times more complicated than the simulation.

In that case, these infantrymen can calmly maintain the formation and fire back?

However, Wu Changqing's prestige in the army is very high at present. He said that if this formation is to be adopted, it must be adopted.

As subordinates, all they have to do is to cooperate fully, find loopholes in them, and make better suggestions.