Chapter 95： Hollow square

On the 16th day of the first lunar month, Wu Changqing took the main force to Changzhou. He planned to put the battlefield on the plain 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 put down hundreds of thousands of troops. It is not easy to form a formation on the mountain, and it will not be able to exert the power of a firecracker.

Although the defense of the city can occupy a favorable land, it is difficult to expand the results. When the enemy can't attack, they can retreat and go back. When they came out to chase through the narrow gate, the enemy would have disappeared long ago.

Moreover, Wu Changqing's main goal is to destroy the enemy's cavalry, which is impossible to defend in Changzhou. Unless the opponent's mind is flooded, it is impossible to send cavalry to attack the city.

Under comprehensive consideration, Wu Changqing chose the plain battlefield. Choosing to seduce the enemy to the plains for a decisive battle, thereby effectively killing and wounding the enemy's cavalry.

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

At this point, nearly 60,000 Wu's main forces have been hoarding in this area and have conducted simulation exercises.

This time, Wu Changqing's main exercise was the hollow square formation of the Fire Guns, which was specially designed to deal with the cavalry and was very effective.

Hollow squares are composed of dozens of people, or one or two hundred people, to form a dense formation. There should be a gap of more than ten meters between the small squares, so that the cavalry can pass through.

This type of formation is very confusing. The first time you encounter a cavalry general of this type, you will suffer a hundred percent.

This messy and loose formation seems to be easy to break down, suitable for cavalry impact. But in fact, these seemingly weak blanks 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 is an infantry phalanx with no blank areas, the horses have no choice but to rush over. Under such an impact, both the cavalry and the infantry will suffer heavy losses.

The infantry was a bit more miserable. Facing those cavalry rushing at high speed, most of the soldiers collapsed. When their formation collapsed, the cavalry could begin the slaughter.

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

In this way, the infantry will not be impacted, and of course the horses will be fine.

If it was the old cold weapon era, the infantry who put up this kind of hollow square formation did not have any 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 put a solid square formation to be hard.

But now the main force of the Ming army is the firecrackers, and the firecrackers can shoot at long distances.

After putting those cavalry into the square, they can close their eyes and shoot at close range, as long as they are not blind, they can hit 100%.

As for those cavalry, they could only watch themselves being shot by the Fire Guns, and there was almost nothing to fight back. Regardless of whether they fought back with a bow and arrow or chopped with a saber, their killing efficiency was compared with that of firecrackers, and they were all younger brothers.

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

In this way, the cavalry smashed by the bulls became a group of rats crossing the street that could only be beaten.

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

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

Of course, with this seemingly simple hollow phalanx, it is not easy for soldiers to be proficient.

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

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

You know, most people usually get nervous when going on stage to give a speech, let alone facing the impact of thousands of troops.

It feels like a person standing in the middle of a highway, and then there are cars flying by. In that environment, let alone reloading and shooting, it would be nice to keep your legs from shaking.

But Wu Changqing is now trying to adapt their training habit to this kind of scene.

As long as these soldiers adapt to such a situation, and do not run around when facing the enemy cavalry charge, then the next thing is a nightmare for the cavalry.

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

It was originally a linear formation, that is, soldiers lined up in a straight line. 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 often practicing this kind of coordination, this was able to initially complete the requirements. If you change to another army, you have to switch formations in such a short period of time, it will be 100% chaotic.

Initially completed the conversion of the formation, but it took too long, and it took a full minute.

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

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

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

Wu Changqing's cavalry unit of two thousand men simulated the charge of the Qing cavalry, and then the fireguns switched formations and let the cavalry pass through the hollow area.

This kind of real simulation has certain risks. At first, the cavalry didn't charge very quickly. After slowly coming several times, the soldiers started to speed up after they got used to it.

Even with this gradual training method, there was an accident during the training, which caused one cavalry to fall to death, one cavalry was seriously injured, and the firecrackers also died three and lost two horses.

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

He wants to train until the nerves of these firecrackers become numb, so that they will be able to calmly reload and fire 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 spot, this kind of phalanx is indeed beneficial to the infantry.

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

In that case, can these infantry keep their formation calmly and shoot back?

However, Wu Changqing's prestige in the military is very high. He said that if you want to adopt this formation, you must adopt this formation.

As subordinates, all they have to do is to cooperate fully, look for loopholes, and make better suggestions. The address of the latest chapter of the aircraft carrier I built in Daming: https://www.novelhall.com/book/149212.htmlI built the full text of the aircraft carrier in Daming to read the address: https://www.novelhall.com/read/149212/I built the aircraft carrier txt download address in Daming: https://www.novelhall.com/down/149212.htmlI read it on the mobile phone built by Daming: https://m.novelhall.com/read/149212/In order to facilitate the next reading, you can click \"Favorites\" below to record this (Chapter 95 Hollow Square) reading record, next time Open the bookshelf to see it! If you like "I Build an Aircraft Carrier in Daming", please recommend this book to your friends (QQ, blog, WeChat, etc.) ,Thank you for your support! ! (www.novelhall.com)