I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 539 Zhu Houxuan’s Tactical Guidance
Zhu Houxuan's words made everyone fall into deep thought, and many people felt that it made sense the more they thought about it.
Gradually, many people figured it out. They had not thought outside the box to think about this problem before, because they were equipped with armor when they served before, and now they feel panic and insecure without it, but they did not think that the enemy they faced this time was different from the previous ones.
The Guards is an army with a high degree of firearms, and has always been equipped with the most advanced firearms of the era. Most of the Guards' tactics are formulated around firearms.

For a long time, the enemies faced by the Guards were nomadic cavalry who were good at shooting.

In the age of matchlock guns, and even in the current age of flintlock guns, the firing speed of muskets is lower than that of bows and arrows, and the range is not much better than that of bows and arrows. Moreover, bows and arrows can be projectiles, and can be arranged in many rows to shoot arrows simultaneously, unlike muskets which can only fire from the front row. Therefore, bows and arrows are stronger than muskets in terms of firepower density.

But during this period, the European army gradually eliminated the crossbow units. The reason was very simple: the bow and arrow had poor armor-piercing capabilities!

This can be seen from the way bows and muskets are fired.

Therefore, when Zhu Houxuan equipped the Imperial Guards with weapons and equipment more than ten years ago, he focused on one core idea - strong armor and sharp guns.

Solid plate armor can effectively defend against bows and arrows, while matchlocks and flintlocks have powerful armor-piercing capabilities.

This configuration gave the Guards an advantage when fighting against nomadic armies.

My solid plate armor can block a dozen or twenty of your arrows, and I am still alive and kicking, but can you block one of my arrows? Even if I let you wear solid plate armor, can you block one of my arrows?

Because of this, the Guards relied on strong armor and sharp guns, strict discipline and strong fighting will to sweep across tens of thousands of miles in a dozen years.
From the Mongolian Plateau to the Caspian Sea, this set of tactics is invincible.
As a result, a path dependence has been formed. Without strong armor, many officers feel at a loss and cannot fight.
If the Old Guards were to wear their uniforms and use flintlock rifles to fight the nomadic army now, they would surely lose miserably, because the firing rate and firepower projection density of bows and arrows are much greater than those of today's flintlock rifles.

The guards probably only fired a few shots before being shot into pieces by the nomadic army with bows and arrows.
In this case, the importance of armor is unquestionable, but now the enemy they face has changed.
When both sides are highly equipped with firearms, whoever wears armor is an idiot.
When the Guards were first established, they were equipped with matchlock rifles, which had a very slow firing rate. In order to increase the density of firepower, the soldiers were required to practice using bows and arrows. However, as flintlock rifles became more popular in various units, the Guards completely eliminated bows and arrows.
There are many reasons for this, the most important of which is that the firing rate of the flintlock rifle has increased, and there is no need to use bows and arrows to make up for the density of firepower projection.

Secondly, the training cost of bows and arrows is too high. A good archer needs to train for one or two years before he can shoot well and become combat-ready, but a musketeer only needs two or three months of training to become combat-ready.
Furthermore, the cost of using bows and arrows is not low, no lower than that of muskets. The cost of manufacturing, storing and transporting feather arrows is not low.

Moreover, archery is a physically demanding activity. In a battle, an archer may not be able to shoot more than a dozen arrows and needs to rest for a while, while a musketeer may fire twenty bullets and the barrel of his gun may become red. He only needs to wait for it to cool down, and the physical energy consumed is not high.
It is precisely because of the above series of reasons that the Guards have completely eliminated bows and arrows. Even the remaining 20,000 soldiers in the capital have eliminated bows and arrows. Therefore, even if the Guards discovered the weakness of the old Guards who were not wearing armor, they could not find enough archers to shoot the old guards into hedgehogs.

With the reminders from the people around them, more and more people came to their senses. In the next battle, the armor seemed to be of little use.
"Your Highness!" Ma Desheng raised his hand.

"You say!" Zhu Houxuan pointed at Ma Desheng and said. "Although the firing rate of the flintlock rifle is relatively high, hand-to-hand combat is still unavoidable in previous battles. At this time, it will be difficult for us to fight without armor," said Ma Desheng. As a winner of the first-class hand-to-hand assault medal, he is very experienced in hand-to-hand combat.

Zhu Houxuan nodded. Ma Desheng was right. Even if they were equipped with flintlock rifles, their accuracy and rate of fire were still not high enough. Hand-to-hand combat was still inevitable in the current battle.

In fact, until the 19th century, many armies still believed in the creed that "bullets are stupid, bayonets are heroes". Even during the Anti-Japanese War, there were still many hand-to-hand combats.
Once you enter the hand-to-hand combat, the role of armor will be highlighted. With armor, you can really beat ten people at once.
"You can fly a kite!" Zhu Houxuan replied immediately.

"Flying a kite?" Ma Desheng asked doubtfully.

"If you find armored enemies rushing towards your troops, and your firepower cannot stop them, you can command your troops to retreat and create distance between them, and then shoot," Zhu Houxuan said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You don't think they can catch up with you while wearing forty or fifty kilograms of armor, do you? If they catch up with you without armor, will you still be afraid of fighting them in hand-to-hand combat at that time?" Zhu Houxuan continued.

"Uh" Ma Desheng was speechless and had to admit that what Zhu Houxuan said made sense.

Everyone present carefully pondered Zhu Houxuan's words, and suddenly realized that in the subsequent battle, not wearing armor would be an advantage.
Then everyone looked at Zhu Houchun differently. Zhu Houchun had not shown any military talent in the past ten years. Today, they really looked at him with new eyes!

"This is the first time in this era that a war of this scale and form has been fought. It is normal to feel overwhelmed because you have no experience. However, we are running out of time now. We need to quickly gain an advantage in the next war, so I need to give you some tactical guidance."

Tactical guidance?

If Zhu Houxuan had not performed as he did just now, many officers would have certainly sneered at Zhu Houxuan's tactical guidance, but now they are looking forward to this so-called "tactical guidance"
Zhu Houxuan looked around at the officers around him and said, "In fact, the tactics in the era of firearms were very simple. They just lined up in neat and compact formations and exchanged fire with the opponent. I call it linear tactics."

(End of this chapter)