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

Chapter 601 A mistake
Guo Xun immediately knelt down and bowed deeply, and said with tears of gratitude: "Thank you for your trust, Your Highness. I will do my best and work hard until my death!"

"Mr. Guo, please stand up..." Zhu Houcong personally helped Guo Xun up, looking like a harmonious relationship between a king and his subject.

"Your Highness, I have seen many Jingnan troops in and outside Nanjing. To be honest, the current Jingnan troops can defend against the attacks of the Imperial Guards, but if they want to fight the Imperial Guards in the wild, I am afraid they are not strong enough. If we want to succeed in the Jingnan Campaign, we cannot just rely on defense, we must also attack, so the Jingnan troops must be able to fight the Imperial Guards in the wild..."

Guo Xun's words made everyone stop laughing. Fighting the Imperial Guards in the wild? A person's reputation is like a tree's shadow. The Imperial Guards are best at fighting in the wild. But everyone had to admit that what Guo Xun said made sense.

“Don’t be discouraged, everyone. As I just said, the technology of warfare has advanced, the situation on the battlefield has also changed, and the previous field combat experience of the Guards is no longer useful. What matters in field combat now is who is more determined and who can bear more casualties…” Guo Xun saw that the atmosphere was a little off, and hurriedly tried to make amends.

"I have always heard that the morale of the Guards is high and they are fearless on the battlefield. How can we make our troops more determined and fearless than the Guards?" Zhu Houcong looked at Guo Xun and said, he had grasped the key point of the problem.

"Your Highness, do you know why the Guards are so fearless and brave?" Guo Xun said.

"Speaking!"

"First, the invincible spirit and sense of honor from more than a decade, as well as the patriotism instilled in us every day; second, the high and full salaries; third, the extensive training, which has turned combat into an instinct..." said Guo Xun.

"Spirit and material are the basis for the Guards to endure huge casualties. Training is the basis for the Guards' combat effectiveness. Spirit, material and training are indispensable. Coupled with excellent equipment and correct command, we have the current Guards..." Guo Xun continued.

Everyone present nodded slowly, with solemn expressions on their faces.

"Material and training are easy to deal with, but what about the spiritual aspect?" Yan Song couldn't help but ask. He didn't think that instilling some subtle words of truth in the soldiers would make their spirits as firm as steel. If that were possible, then soldiers armed with Confucianism would conquer the world...

The spiritual aspect is the most difficult to resolve. The Guards relied on years of indoctrination and repeated victories to resolve this issue, but they do not have the time or conditions to do so now!
Everyone's eyes fell on Guo Xun again, because Guo Xun now looked confident...

"The Guards is the right way, but it's time-consuming and labor-intensive. However, after studying it for a few years, I came up with a quick way..." Guo Xun said with a smile.

"Tell me quickly!" Zhu Houcong, whose appetite had been whetted enough, said quickly.

"I came up with this method when I was training horses and wolves. It can also be used to train people. The principle is the same. That is to use strict military law and strengthen corporal punishment of soldiers during training, so as to numb the soldiers' spirits and make them fear the whips in the hands of officers more than the enemy's bullets and shells..." Guo Xun said proudly without hiding anything. The people present thought carefully and felt that Guo Xun's words made some sense, but they still had doubts...

"Can you use your method to train better soldiers than the Guards?" Zhu Houcong asked doubtfully.

"No!" Guo Xun said bluntly.

"Then you said so much..." Yan Song suddenly became a little anxious...

"Although my method cannot produce soldiers like the Guards, it can be accomplished quickly. The combat effectiveness of the trained soldiers can be 80% of that of the Guards. The population under our rule is far greater than that in the north. If we can continuously train such soldiers, the Beijing court will undoubtedly be defeated!" Guo Xun said firmly.

Zhu Houcong looked at Guo Xun, a little distracted. Guo Xun's words made him feel somewhat fresh. Yan Song had told him before that Zhu Houcong's perverse actions forced the southern gentry to rise up in rebellion, and that the South would surely win because the South was much stronger than the North. However, he did not elaborate on how to use the South's power to defeat the North. Guo Xun's words today seemed to provide a direction for using the South's power.

When Zhu Houcong came to his senses, he suddenly saw that everyone's eyes were on him. He pondered for a moment and said, "Guo Qing's method makes sense, but it still needs to be tested. I will give you 20,000 soldiers. I want to see the effect in a month."

Guo Xun was overjoyed and patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Your Highness. I will definitely fulfill my mission and train a strong army for Your Highness."

In fact, Guo Xun's method was a blessing in disguise to some extent.

The tactic of line shooting, or line infantry shooting, is extremely inhumane. This tactic requires soldiers to line up in neat and tight formations and shoot at each other with large-caliber muskets at intervals of dozens of meters. This kind of battle is extremely bloody and requires soldiers to have a huge tolerance for casualties. See who can hold out until the other side collapses. If this is not inhumane, then there is no such thing as inhumane.

Training soldiers to carry out such inhumane tactics generally requires inhumane methods.
As Guo Xun said, it is time-consuming and laborious to train soldiers who can execute the line-up shooting tactics like the Guards. He is right, because in the 18th and 19th centuries when line-up shooting was most popular, European countries used anti-human methods to train their line infantry.
Among them, the British Empire was the best. The line infantry of the British Empire was nicknamed lobster soldiers by later generations because they wore red uniforms and tricorn hats. They were also called the Redwood Army. The Redwood Army's forte was to line up in strict formations and withstand the enemy's guns and artillery. The comrades around them kept falling down, and the soldiers behind them did not hesitate to make up for them. They endured the casualties and walked to a distance of 20 to 30 meters away from the enemy. At this distance, there was no problem of missing the target. Then they fired a volley to cause huge casualties to the enemy. Most of the troops could not bear such huge casualties and collapsed, or they collapsed psychologically after watching the Redwood Army slowly collapse. Finally, the Redwood Army rushed forward and ended the battle with bayonets.

From the above description, we can feel how inhumane this mutually destructive tactic is, but the officers of the British Empire are happy to do it.
How did the British Empire's Redwood Army solve the problem of fighting will and ability to tolerate casualties?

Could it be that everyone shouted "God save the Queen!" together, and then everyone's morale was boosted, and they had an extremely strong will to fight and the ability to endure casualties?
(End of this chapter)