Chapter 349 348 Unicycle

"One chariot and forty soldiers form a team; thirteen teams combined form a small battalion; ten small battalions combined form a large battalion."

After seeing Yu Dayou's idea for the military vehicle camp, Wei Guangde murmured.

Continuing to look down, I understand what a combination of forty people in a chariot is all about.

The forty men Yu Dayou assigned to each vehicle were not pure infantry, but a mixed-arms team. He now advocated a low-cost strategy of winning with infantry surprise troops, which was similar to the strategy Wei Guangde saw in Zhejiang when he saw Qi Jiguang train new soldiers.

Wei Guangde was also famous for Qi Jiguang's tactics in later generations, which was the Yuanyang Formation. A small group of soldiers used a variety of weapons to cooperate with each other to kill Japanese pirates.

The battle formations are versatile and can be used to surround and suppress individual Japanese pirates, or to confront or even attack and kill large groups of Japanese pirates. This also allowed Wei Guangde to understand why later generations praised the Mandarin Duck Formation to such a high level.

Needless to say, the battle formation designed by Qi Jiguang must have been extremely effective, otherwise it would not have been passed down to future generations and become a myth.

However, when Wei Guangde went to Hangzhou to oversee the execution of Wang Zhi, the recruits had not yet engaged in large-scale actual combat, so Wei Guangde was not in a position to brag to Qi Jiguang in front of Emperor Jiajing.

Moreover, when he came into contact with Qi Jiguang, Wei Guangde keenly discovered that there was a deep relationship between Qi Jiguang and Hu Zongxian.

Although Wei Guangde and Hu Zongxian met several times and everyone was polite, Wei Guangde stood on the side of King Yu and was naturally hostile to the officials of Yan Song's line, or King Jing's line.

Qi Jiguang seemed to have boarded Hu Zongxian's ship, so there was no need for him to make wedding clothes for his enemy and praise him in front of the emperor.

Yu Dayou's chariot formation consisted of ten infantrymen on horseback, twenty cavalrymen, one chariot, and ten infantrymen, a total of forty people per team.

When encountering the enemy, use chariots to line up in front. The sergeants on the vehicles fire bows and mortars. The infantry on horseback ride out into the formation. When the distance is close enough to intersect with the enemy's horses, they fire muskets and bows. After that, they return to their own formation. If there is an opportunity, they will The cavalry took the opportunity to rush into the enemy formation and kill them, while ten infantrymen were responsible for beheading them.

The chariot is a one-wheeled vehicle with a spear mounted on the front. It is light and easy to transport and can be lifted by a few people if it encounters a pit.

"A wheelbarrow?"

Wei Guangde touched his head and then turned out the last page of the letter. On it was a wheelbarrow pattern drawn with a brush.

However, the unicycle designed by Yu Dayou is still very different from the unicycles Wei Guangde has seen.

The wheelbarrow used by Yu Dayou has a wheel diameter of four feet and six inches. Two large logs are laid vertically, each one foot and two feet long. There are three small logs across the two large logs for transportation, and there are three ropes for hanging on the shoulders.

A six-foot-long piece of wood was placed across the front of the car and two small straight logs were installed vertically as a barrier.

The car is equipped with four large gun heads, one large Buddha machine, two shields, two small moon flags, and one cloth curtain.

There is a vertical log in the middle of the rear of the car, which is equivalent to the steering wheel of the car, and is held by one team officer. There are two brackets in front of the car, which are lowered to serve as the frame when parking. There are two iron cones behind the car, which are inserted into the ground when parking. Equivalent to a ship anchor.

The total weight of the vehicle itself, plus the muskets, license plates, guns, etc. on the vehicle, does not exceed 300 kilograms. Sixteen people are required to carry it out in groups, so even rough and dangerous roads can be passed smoothly. Each vehicle cooperates with each other, forming a formation when moving, and forming a camp when stopping.

However, there is a shortage of horses in the border town. Yu Dayou's idea of ​​thirty horses per carriage is only an ideal situation. In actual operation, it will definitely be greatly reduced.

For example, horse-mounted infantry can almost only stay in the imaginary stage. The court does not have enough supply of military horses, and they will only be infantry in the end.

Of course, Wei Guangde also understood the reason why Yu Dayou had as many as 30 cavalry, "asking for high prices and paying back the money on the ground."

No matter how simple he designs the military formation, if the court approves it, a large part will be cut off, and strategic resources like horses will definitely bear the brunt.

When Wei Guangde thought of this, he couldn't help but smile. General Yu also learned bad things.

At first, Wei Guangde felt strange when he saw Yu Dayou asking for ten mounted infantrymen. Can a unicycle outrun war horses?

What do you need so many cavalry for?

Those mounted infantry might as well just arrange for the infantry to go up directly. What means of transportation are needed? Not all chariot soldiers walk on two legs.

Wei Guangde still didn't know what Yu Dayou's letter said about the achievements of his chariot warfare method in the border towns. He didn't remember that he had heard of any good news from Datong recently being sent to the capital.

"Has the messenger been accommodated?"

Wei Guangde asked Zhang Ji next to him.

"It has been arranged to live in the front yard. He claims to be Lord Yu's servant."

Zhang Ji replied hurriedly.

"Go and have a look. If he doesn't fall asleep, ask him to come. If he falls asleep, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

Wei Guangde knew that these messengers often traveled day and night to carry out errands. Now there were bandits of all sizes in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. They were also very dangerous when traveling like this. It could be said to be a great physical and psychological test.

Not long after, Zhang Ji came back to report: "Sir, the lights are out in the house, you should go to bed."

"Then remind me tomorrow. I will go back to the house for dinner at noon."

The Hanlin Academy was not far from my home, so I stopped eating with my colleagues at noon. I went home to eat, met the messenger and asked about the situation in Datong.

Yu Dayou is smart.

Wei Guangde looked at the letter on the desk and felt happy.

Of course the imperial court wanted to find a way to defeat the Mongolian Tatars, and would definitely welcome the development of this new tactic to attack the enemy.

But Wei Guangde also knew that the court actually had another dilemma, that is, it didn't have much money on hand.

The financial difficulties of the Ming Dynasty are almost unsolvable, at least in Wei Guangde's opinion.

It is possible to solve it, but that would almost be against all the gentry and scholars in the world.

The Ming Dynasty court can now receive about 3 million taels of silver each year, of which nearly 2 million taels are military expenditures, all of which are supplied to the military pay of the Nine Frontiers. Even so, it is still slightly insufficient, not including the grain and other materials transferred from the south.

Even if the physical objects are collected, according to the official discount price, there will be more than 20 million taels of silver, which include grain, cloth, tea, etc.

It can be said that the extremely high military expenditure of the Nine Frontiers has always been a big problem that the Ming Dynasty court is eager to solve.

Why did Zeng Xian's plan to recover the Hetao as a barrier and obtain a source of horses at the same time not be passed, and he himself died? In fact, the most important reason is that his idea of ​​​​gathering a large army to fight and achieve success in one battle exceeded the Ming Dynasty court's ability to bear.

The Ming court could not pay for his military actions. It might be okay if he won, but if he failed, Emperor Jiajing could not bear the responsibility.

The establishment of a chariot battalion would also greatly increase the military expenditure of the border town. Although it was a sharp increase in the short term and would fall back in the later period, the increase in expenditure was an inevitable result.

According to Li Wenjin's idea, there must be certain risks in directly submitting a petition to the court for a decision.

The most important thing is that according to the meaning of Yu Dayou's letter, Li Wenjin had set up a chariot battalion for him, and it seemed that he had fought with the Tartars in the border area, but he did not see the result.

What would be the impact of sending something without actual combat effect to the court?

Yu Dayou thought of it, and Wei Guangde naturally knew that if he wanted to report his merits, he had to make achievements first. There must be a reasonable victory so that the court would think that the money was worth spending.

Wei Guangde wanted to see the messenger, naturally, to ask what the situation was in Datong, and the details of the battle between Yu Dayou's chariot battalion and the Tartars in the border town, and to consider how to deal with the matter based on this.

Now Wei Guangde felt more and more that he could serve as the Grand Marshal, and it seemed that many of the things he participated in were related to the Ministry of War.

Forget it, don't think too much.

Even if he was the Minister of War, he would not think about canceling his family's military status. If he could upgrade the hereditary hundred households to the hereditary thousand households and commander, that would be the goal.

At that time, even if the position was on the eldest brother's side, his own kid could get into the guard station if he was not ambitious, and at least he would have a meal.

Military status does not affect his family's becoming a landlord gentry.

At this time, the maid next to Xu Jianglan came over to remind him that it was late, and asked the master to go back to the house to rest early.

Wei Guangde put away Yu Dayou's letter, got up and walked out of the study and went straight to the bedroom.

The next day, Wei Guangde went home from the Hanlin Academy at noon, which was scheduled long ago.

In the flower hall of the outer courtyard, Wei Guangde met the messenger from Datong, Yu Dayou's servant.

He took a quick look at the man, who had dark skin and did not look like a military household in Datong, but rather like a person from the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so he asked curiously.

"I am Chen You, and I have been following the general as a personal soldier in Fujian, and now I am the general flag of the Datong military camp."

The man replied after saluting Wei Guangde.

"Oh, you have always been General Yu's personal soldier?"

Wei Guangde nodded and motioned him to sit on the stool next to him to talk.

"Is General Yu okay in Datong?"

Wei Guangde was too lazy to ask how these personal soldiers went to Datong, and thought it was probably arranged by Lu Bing at that time.

Then, Chen You briefly told Wei Guangde about Yu Dayou's experience after arriving in Datong.

It must be said that people with ability will never worry about food wherever they go.

After the official document of exiling Yu Dayou arrived in Datong, Li Wenjin saw that the court was dealing with Yu Dayou, the general of Zhejiang. Although he didn't know how Yu Dayou got into such a mess, he knew that Yu Dayou was good at leading troops to fight.

So after Yu Dayou and his party arrived in Datong, they were received by Li Wenjin. As for exile, it was exile here. Did they really want to send a general of a town to be a soldier?

Yu Dayou was also a person who couldn't sit still. After resting in the government office for a few days, he asked the governor Li Wenjin that he wanted to go out and take a look around Datong.

Yu Dayou's request was naturally allowed by Li Wenjin, who began to carefully check the various guards and border forts in Datong and inquire about the fighting methods of the Tartars from the grassroots soldiers.

With the introduction of the grassroots soldiers, although Yu Dayou was in the north for the first time, he roughly understood the main reason why the border town had encountered poor performance of the Tartar cavalry in recent years.

As he was used to leading troops, he naturally didn't want to stay idle at home, so he thought about how to narrow the gap in combat power between the Ming army and the Tatars, which led to the appearance of the unicycle.

"I saw in General Yu's letter that the unicycle was used in the border fort and the effect was very good. What's the matter?"

Knowing the whole story, Wei Guangde asked curiously again.

If there is a convincing record, the unicycle can still be mass-produced and equipped to the troops, but Wei Guangde has not figured out how this thing works.

How much combat power can the unicycle improve?

Wei Guangde expressed doubts about this.

"Sir Wei, Governor Li originally drew a group of troops from his standard camp and commanded them by my master. They camped outside the city for training, and at the same time they were exploring the tactics of using the unicycle.

At that time, a group of more than a thousand Tartars wanted to attack Niuxinbao on the east road of Youwei in Datong. When we heard the news, we were not far from Niuxinbao and we also had nearly a thousand people. In addition, Niuxinbao also had three hundred households under Youwei stationed. So my master sent someone to report the news to Datong City and took us to meet the enemy. "

Chen You introduced the encounter with the Tatars. In fact, it is better to say that it was not a battle, but that the Tatars were a little hesitant when they saw the strange attack sequence of the Ming army, and chose to run away.

At that time, the Tatars were besieging Niuxinbao. A large number of Tatar cavalry circled around Niuxinbao to find loopholes in the defense, and from time to time fired dense rain of arrows into the fort to cause casualties.

After Yu Dayou's chariot battalion arrived, they directly used unicycle chariots to attack the Tatar cavalry in a fan-shaped formation. When the Tatars entered the range of firearms, they stopped the chariots and attacked with the falconets and bird guns on the unicycles. A team of 200 cavalrymen behind the formation wandered around to protect them.

The chariots were tightly connected The Tatar cavalry could not break in alone.

The chariot was light, and no matter how the Tatars moved left and right, or attacked head-on, they always defended the enemy head-on. When the Tatars shot arrows, the soldiers hid behind the baffles to load ammunition and attack with the rapid loading of the falconet.

If the Tatars attacked in groups, the weaker route would be attacked and restrained by the Ming cavalry.

At this time, the Ming army in Niuxinbao also began to gather under the city and prepare to go out of the fort to help. Seeing that they could not find a way to defeat the enemy in a short time, the Tatars chose to retreat.

After listening to Chen You's words, Wei Guangde closed his eyes and thought for a while, and probably figured out the scene of that battle.

The strength of the two sides was actually quite close, and Yu Dayou's men There may be a thousand men and two hundred cavalry. This group of men and horses can be regarded as a strong army even if they are placed in the border town.

This way of fighting reminded Wei Guangde of the chariots he saw in Xuanfu.

The only difference is that the equipment made by Zeng Xian is a bit troublesome to attack and retreat. It needs to be pulled by pack horses. Although it can also be pushed by manpower, it can only be maneuvered over short distances.

If a small group of Ming troops fights against the Tatars, it seems that this unicycle chariot really has some miraculous effects.

If it is a major war, this unicycle chariot can only play a role in the local battlefield. After all, the shielding of a unicycle is always not as good as that of a four-wheeled chariot. Wei Guangde has carefully studied the use of that kind of chariot. It feels similar to the tactics of the Western Army before World War II.

At that time, tanks were used to accompany infantry, serve as firepower points and shields.

At that time, the border troops also viewed the large chariots in the same way, accompanying infantry operations and forming a camp to prevent the Tatar cavalry from raiding.

However, the difference from tanks is that it can be used as a defensive tool but not an offensive weapon. Unless the commander has a superior strategy and surrounds the Tatars and blocks them with a chariot formation, there is a chance to annihilate the enemy.

Yu Dayou's invention can be regarded as a light tank with a little defensive power. The key point is that this thing is light and can be used in offense.