65. Preparations for war

Chapter 65 War Preparation
Starting from the end of July, Alda held several consecutive military maneuvers, after all, it was no longer a third-rate pirate group that would be dealt with in the upcoming war, but the military force of the nobles in another territory, so it was necessary to adapt in advance.

In order to be able to flexibly use the troops on the battlefield, at Paul’s suggestion, the staff began to try to use linear tactics, specifically: each infantry battalion was lined up horizontally, the battalion of each spearmen company was 6 rows deep lined up, each company is responsible for two rows; musketry company is deployed separately, 3 rows lined up, a platoon is responsible for a line.

Compared to the now popular square formation tactics, the front of Arda’s army was wider and the depth became smaller. The wide fronts could create a kind of semi-enveloping effect, and with more and more muskets equipped, it would be more and more effective in dealing with dense square formations, and could output a large amount of firepower to the enemy in a very short period of time.

Compared to this world common ten thousand people team, thousand people team such a large battle clusters, like the company and platoon such a smaller scale of force formation, can provide more opportunities for the lower commanders to play the subjective initiative, of course the premise is that there are a large number of qualified middle and lower officers in the army, Paul is very sure that there is no other power in this world like him as much attention to the training of middle and lower officers, in order to cultivate qualified lieutenants and non-commissioned officers he even established a military school specifically for this purpose, the brains of the lower ranked officers in most countries’ armies were not much better than the big headed soldiers under them.

Given the poor hit rate of smoothbore barrels, musketeers were not allowed to fire at will until they heard an officer’s order, and in practice there were generally two ways to do so: wheel fire or flank fire.

In practice, there were two ways to fire: in rounds or in unison. When firing in rounds, three rows of soldiers would fire from front to back, and while one row was firing, the other two rows would be aiming or reloading, and so on, to keep up a constant output of firepower.

When firing in unison, the first platoon of soldiers half-kneeling to shoot, the second row of soldiers and the third row of soldiers standing to shoot, so that all the soldiers can be a simultaneous unison fire, this unison fire, although it can not maintain uninterrupted fire, but the European history of the war has proved that, in the launch of the charge climax of the enemy approaching a few minutes of a burst of heavy fire, its effect is very good.

Soldiers of a flush can be rigorously trained spearmen to implement the impact of adequate preparation, Paul’s previous life read a paragraph on the information that: such a flush of fire, not only can give the enemy a greater kill, but also to the enemy can be three times the previous single volley of fire to bring the effect of fear and shock, can be greatly thwarted the enemy’s courage, the reason is very simple, for the average person, a long lasting The reason is simple, for the average person, the shocking and terrifying effect of one long-lasting thunder will be greater than the sum of the shocking and intimidating effect of 10 intermittent thunderclaps.

Paul thought that against the improvised soldiers of the local lords, he would be able to break them down with a single volley of fire.

Soldiers in the first platoon undoubtedly need to have great courage, so a reward mechanism called “courage allowance” was created, standing in the first platoon of soldiers will receive three times the daily salary of the generous reward. In order to protect the soldiers in the first platoon, the Ministry of Equipment took great pains to purchase and build a batch of iron armor, so that these warriors could boldly lead the brothers in the back forward with confidence.

In order to eliminate the soldiers’ fear of the main long-range weapon of the current era, the bow and arrow, the Ministry of Equipment also mobilized the people to improvise 100 wooden bows, which were used to fire thin wooden sticks with cloth wrapped around their heads. Of course, they were not comparable to real qualified war bows, but they were enough to simulate the effect of firing a hundred arrows. During the exercise, rows of soldiers held up simple wooden shields, stepped on the drums, and moved toward the “enemy” in a neat pace, during which anyone who could not withstand the psychological pressure and retreated or rushed to charge would be punished severely.

In order to give full play to the role of artillery, the concept of “infantry and artillery synergy” was also raised, of course, Paul’s so-called “infantry and artillery synergy” is very simple to say: artillery bombardment after the infantry rushed, infantry rushed after the artillery bombardment.

But this is still very test of artillery mobility, in order to improve the speed of artillery movement and timely support for the infantry, each battery was configured with four horses, two horses for pulling the guns, two horses for pulling ammunition, the artillerymen in addition to practice to improve the speed of the launching, but also to practice how to quickly unloading and unloading of artillery and launching positions. In addition, the infantrymen had to be able to overcome the fear of the shells fired by their own artillery whistling over their heads, and the artillerymen had to be able to get a rough idea of the relationship between the different elevation angles of the artillery and the range and even the trajectory of the guns, or else it would be a bad idea to hit their own men.

After a few maneuvers, a set of fighting styles applicable to Arda’s army was worked out:
When the enemy took the initiative to launch an attack, the artillery carried out long-range fire strikes against the enemy, destroying the other side’s battle formation, when the enemy approached further, the musketeers and the artillery that changed to loose bullets carried out medium-range fire strikes against the enemy, killing and wounding a large number of the other side’s living forces, during which the musketeers used rounds of shooting to ensure the continuity of the firepower, when the enemy charged to the front of the formation, the spearmen went up to the front to start a physical fight with the enemy, if the enemy was big, the musketeers went up to bayonets to join in the physical fight, and if the enemy was large. If the enemy force is big, the musketeers will join in the battle with bayonets, and if they are evenly matched, they will kill and maim the enemy at close range under the protection of the spearmen, and the artillery is responsible for slowing down the enemy’s follow-up force.

When Alda’s army took the initiative to attack, the artillery firstly used long-range firepower to destroy the enemy’s formation deployment, so that the enemy couldn’t gather effectively. When the artillery was firing, the musketeers were in the front and the spearmen were in the back to move towards the enemy’s position, and when they were close to the enemy’s army, the musketeers fired a round of mass casualties to kill each other and dampen the enemy’s morale, and then the spearmen launched a charge to rout the enemy’s army.

In the previous battles, many veterans who were not fit to remain in the army because of their wounds had been reassembled, and they were dispatched to be stationed in various villages and towns to set up and guide the training of militia organizations with the assistance of the local farmers’ associations. In Paul’s plan, the militias would become an important part of the Arda military system as a reserve force.

The reason for strengthening the training of the militia was because in the wars between the lords of this era, there was a notorious but effective war strategy – sending small groups of troops to raid and plunder the other side’s towns and cities, to cut down on the enemy’s population and economy, and ultimately to force the other side to submit.

While the army strengthened its own forces, Cecil, who was in charge of the intelligence system, was also not idle, as people in this era had little sense of secrecy, and it was easy to figure out the dynamics of those few traitors in Baildin.

Intelligence showed that Viscount Ebout and the other two barons had returned to their own fiefdoms to recruit soldiers, while Viscount Angelo continued to sit in Butua, and he would recruit soldiers in the name of the lord’s house in the direct territories of the Garnard family, and based on the projections, the size of the army that the four could gather was around 2,000 to 2,500 people.

For those who just put down the hoe farmers, Paul is naturally not care, the only thing that makes him a little worried is that the enemy team has more than 20 knights, unlike the Gladman family’s “watered-down pork”, but it is the real knights, the collection is not a small cavalry force, and the individual martial arts is very strong.

“Isn’t it time to practice the hollow square formation?” Paul suddenly remembered this.

(End of chapter)