Brigadier General Qi Lianghou, a traditional cavalry and archer general, was very dissatisfied with this exercise and even complained to his colleague Digu about it.

However, the senior officials of the Guards and even the Army are very satisfied.

Although the process of this exercise cannot be compared with actual combat, it still fully reflects the advantages and disadvantages of cuirassiers on the battlefield.

Especially the impact that broke out against the old traditional cavalry made them intoxicated.

As for what Brigadier General Qi Lianghou complained about, Lieutenant General Qian Tai also heard about it, but he was not angry about it and even expressed his understanding.

Indeed, it was the request of the referee that the 8th Cavalry Brigade was unable to escape and was forced to engage in a hedge battle with the 4th Cuirassier Regiment.

But this exercise was originally about watching traditional cavalry play various wind formations, a combination of bows and arrows, and cavalry artillery.

Rather, it depends on the cuirassier's ability to charge into battle.

Because when it comes to kite flying, the Chu army still has a lot of dragoons. These dragoons are better at flying kites than traditional mounted archers.

The range and armor-breaking capabilities of muskets are not comparable to those of bows and arrows, not to mention that when dragoons fight, they dismount and fight directly in formation.

With the existence of line tactics, let alone the light cavalry that mainly rides and shoots, even the heavy armored cavalry may not be able to charge over.

And the cavalry artillery thing, although the traditional cavalry cavalry is equipped with cavalry artillery, and it performs well in actual combat, but the same is true for dragoons, and even the cuirassiers in the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment.

He will not fight alone, but will go to the battlefield with a bunch of cavalry artillery.

Therefore, when it comes to testing cavalry artillery, mobility and shooting ability, the Chu army's cavalry units are very good at it.

Therefore, the cavalry artillery will be removed from the exercise, and we will not engage in dismounted formation combat, but focus on formation charging drills that rarely occur in actual combat.

The Fourth Cuirassier Regiment's ability to rush into battle has obviously been recognized by the top brass of the Guards and the Army.

"Although large-scale cavalry charges are relatively rare now, the Dongbu people we faced had a large number of cavalry from the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and they also took a large number of cavalry from the Mongolian tribes. The battle of these cavalry

Many methods are still in the era of traditional cold weapons!"

"From this, what we can predict is that when they are unable to break through our interception and attack our sides and rear by cavalry shooting, they will most likely struggle to launch a large-scale cavalry attack. Therefore, the cuirassiers are very powerful.

Heavy cavalry with battlefield assault capabilities have important battlefield value!"

Qian Tai's positioning of the cuirassiers has always been very clear, which is to have assault on the battlefield, especially in large-scale battles, to intercept enemy cavalry and even launch counterattacks.

To put it bluntly, in Qian Tai's view, this kind of cuirassier is used for anti-cavalry operations.

As for the enemy's infantry, of course we have our own artillery to deal with them.

The effect of the exercise is quite good!

Lieutenant General Song Qilin, Chief of Staff of the Third Group Army, also agreed with Qian Tai's words: "As long as the enemy's cavalry can be blocked from our own infantry and artillery, then other battles, whether it is siege or head-on confrontation with the enemy, will be

Our infantry and artillery are both invincible."

"To intercept the enemy's cavalry attack, mobility is one aspect, and impact capability is also a very important aspect!"

"The former dragoons, the developing hussars, and the original traditional cavalry had sufficient mobility, but their impact was still too poor."

"In the past, many of our dragoons were often invincible during the shooting phase with enemy cavalry. However, because they lacked impact capabilities and were not more maneuverable than their opponents, I often appeared

After the military dragoons dismounted and fought on foot, the enemy cavalry rode directly around to avoid the array of our own dragoons and looked for other weak points to attack. This also resulted in the dragoons being passive!"

"There are also some braver enemy cavalry who often approach quietly, then start riding fast at a relatively long distance, and finally launch a charge directly in a very small window of time. This also results in our dragoons often not having time to dismount.

The horse formations eventually forced our dragoons to fight them on horseback, and our losses were considerable every time!"

"But this cuirassier is very good. Although it is not as mobile as the light cavalry, its short-distance maneuverability on the battlefield is still good. Even if the enemy wants to retreat temporarily, they can take advantage of the opportunity to rush forward."
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"And the impact ability is even better. The effect of this intensive charge formation is great!"

"I have seen intensive charges of hussars in actual combat before. Although the formation is also close, due to the lack of protection and the use of sabers as the main weapon, the casualties during the charge are not small."

"The intensive charge of the cuirassiers has a much greater impact. We can fully expect to see them directly tearing apart the enemy's cavalry formation on the battlefield, forming a spearhead, and then driving other cavalry to follow up, thereby expanding their advantage!"

Lieutenant General Song Qilin continued to look at the exercise report in his hand as he spoke, and finally said: "Our army should also develop this cuirassier!"

General Zuo Yingzhe, commander of the Third Group Army, said at this time: "It is not easy to do this. Everything else is easy to say, but this horse is not easy to solve!"

"Now we can only get some better Central Asian horses from the Yarkand Khanate in the Western Regions. There are only a few thousand horses every year. However, although ordinary Central Asian horses are taller than Mongolian horses, they are not enough to become important horses.

The mounts of the cavalry have to be selected from the best. It is estimated that there are only a few hundred horses this year. It is very difficult to maintain a fourth cuirassier regiment!"

As he said that, Zuo Yingzhe glanced at Qian Tai. It was this man who had long seized the way for the Yarkand Khanate to import horses for the Guards. He said that the Guards were the emperor's army and were of great importance.

Priority must be given to protecting horses.

As a result, most of the thousands of horses that the empire obtained from the Yarkand Khanate in the past two years were taken away by the Guards.

When most of the army's cavalry units, even the elite Fourth Cavalry Brigade in the northern frontier army, still used Mongolian horses, the three divisional cavalry regiments of the Guards plus a fourth cuirass

Cavalry regiments, these four cavalry regiments have all used Central Asian horses.

Not only that, even the officers' mounts and the horses used to convey military orders are all Central Asian horses.

To be honest, Zuo Yingzhe has strong opinions on this.

However, the opponent is the Guards, and the Guards have a special status. They always give priority to equipping them with all kinds of good things, and this horse is no exception, so there is nothing they can do.

But Zuo Yingzhe also heard that the empire was recently in contact with the Heshuote tribe, one of the four Mongolian tribes of Mosquito who entered the snowy area of ​​​​Qinghai. He couldn't figure out the details, but he heard that they were preparing to open up various trades. The empire would have follow-up plans.

It is possible to obtain a certain number of excellent war horses from this channel.

The higher-ups of the empire have been trying to win over several nomadic tribes or khanates in the northwest region.

In addition to the Yarkand Khanate and the Heshuote tribe, the empire is also actively in contact with the northern part of western Monan Mongolia controlled by the Eastern captives, that is, the three Khalkha tribes in Mobei Mongolia.

Although Mobei Mongolia has a close relationship with the Eastern captives, in the final analysis, the three tribes of Mobei Mongolia are not directly under the territory of the Eastern captives, but only temporarily surrendered to them as a vassal state.

Some important ministers in the empire believe that as long as the hoe is used well, there is no corner that cannot be dug down!

Well, this is just the first half of the sentence, and the second half: If you can’t dig it down, just knock it down!

For this reason, in the past two years, the empire has been carrying out various small actions in Mongolia and the Western Regions, constantly poaching people from the East through threats, inducements and other methods.

Not to mention, the effect is great!

For example, the Heshuote tribe, one of the four tribes of the Desert Mongolia that has entered the snowy area, is still nominally the leader tribe of the Desert Mongolia.

In the past, like the Yarkand Khanate, they had friendly relations with the Eastern Banished people. Later, when they saw the rise of the Great Chu Empire, they began to contact the Great Chu Empire in Europe.

It was different when the Yarkand Khanate took the initiative to defect to the Chu Empire from the beginning because of the threat from the Jungar tribe. They were still coy about it for a long time, and only recently contacted the empire for trade.

It is not an ordinary trade behavior among the people, but a bulk material trade led by the official participation.

Their war horses, cattle, sheep, livestock, wool and other specialties were exchanged for various daily iron tools, cloth, tea, military cold weapons and even matchlock guns from the empire.

This kind of strategic-level transaction would not be possible without the nod and push from the top management of both parties.

I won’t talk about the Yarkand Khanate and the Heshuote Ministry, but on the Chu Empire side, it is not any company that conducts bulk material transactions with the Yarkand Khanate, but the Ministry of Commerce and Trade.

To this end, the Ministry of Commerce and Trade has also set up two trading companies, which are responsible for trade with the Yarkand Khanate and trade affairs with the Ministry of Special Affairs. In the future, the Ministry of Commerce and Trade may open several more trading companies to use

What about the trade affairs with the other three Mongolian tribes in Mobei and the three Mongolian tribes in Mobei?

And this kind of official trade does not only exist in areas that are not controlled by the Eastern captives. Even in Monan Mongolia, which is actually controlled by the Eastern captives, there are actually widespread secret transactions with the Great Chu Empire.

.

It's just that it's not made public, it's all done secretly. The leader of the Dachu Empire is still the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, which is under the responsibility of the subordinate Xuanda Trading Company. However, many people in this trading company are actually people from the Commerce and Trade Investigation Department.

……

The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade is a very special organization. It is both a trade organization and an intelligence agency.

However, this organization has a low reputation within the Dachu Empire. It is far less famous than the Internal Affairs Section of the Hanlin Academy and the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Supervisory Academy!

Even compared to the Army's Military Intelligence Department, the Navy's Military Intelligence Department is much more low-key. After all, the two military intelligence agencies can tell at a glance that they collect enemy intelligence.

However, because the Commercial Investigation Department only operates in the territory of hostile forces, ordinary people and even most imperial officials have no chance to contact it, and they have never even stopped listening to it.

The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade usually works in non-friendly areas, which used to be areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty, and later Monan Mongolia. Even in Liaodong, which is controlled by the Dongji people, the figures of the Investigation Department can be seen.

They secretly smuggle various strategic materials in enemy-occupied areas, and at the same time collect all kinds of intelligence.

The intelligence they collect is more inclined to the strategic level, especially to things related to politics and people's livelihood.

For example, you can figure out the political leanings of the other party's top management, and then determine which one is to be assassinated, which one can be won over, and which one can be supported.

We also need to find out the other party's grain output and the output of various strategic materials, and check whether there is any money in the other party's treasury.

This information is basically public information and can be collected as long as you are careful.

Then they will summarize and analyze the news, and finally determine the true situation and trends of the unfriendly forces.

And this information will eventually be used to judge or even interfere with the opponent's strategic direction, and judge the opponent's war mobilization and maintenance capabilities.

In fact, no one in the outside world knows that they are doing this kind of thing. It is not like the Army Military Intelligence Department, who are doing it to everyone in the world, even those who are far to the west and are not yet bordering the areas controlled by the Da Chu Empire.

Geer knew that the Great Chu Empire had a military intelligence department that specialized in spying on all kinds of military intelligence, assassinating important generals, setting fires, looting and causing destruction, so bad that it oozed pus!

——

The trade between many tribes in Monan Mongolia and the Great Chu Empire was carried out secretly under the leadership of the Commercial and Trade Investigation Department, which was not well-known in the outside world.

This kind of secret trade also solved the shortage of many war horses for the Chu army.
To be continued...