Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 246: Wind Movement (Part )

"The Spanish landing force has about 1300 to 1400 people, including musketeers, spearmen, and five cannons, but the other side has no cavalry. After they landed, they immediately cut down many trees and built a simple defense line to cover the landing site..." Deng Kun, deputy captain of the cavalry squad, reported while gesturing with his fingers on a simple map, trying to clearly show the situation of the Spanish.

"What is the approximate ratio of their musketeers to spearmen?" Mo Tianhai interrupted his report, looking at him with burning eyes, a hint of urgency in his tone.

"Proportion?" Deng Kun was stunned for a moment, as if pondering the meaning of the word. "Oh, proportion... The Spanish musketeers and spearmen are roughly 40:60 in number. And the spears they wield are very long, at least ten... oh, about three or four meters long."

"A 40:60 ratio?" Mo Tianhai looked at him in surprise.

Is your cavalry squad's reconnaissance intelligence accurate?

Isn’t it said that the European armies had a high rate of firearms equipment during this period?
How come more than half of the Spanish landing force consisted of spearmen?
Deng Kun seemed a little depressed by the other party's questioning. He said in a low voice, "We observed in the woods for half a day. We did see a lot of spearmen disembarking from the boats, but relatively few musketeers..."

"Well, we may have overestimated the Spanish's weaponry." Zheng Lihui, who was standing beside him, touched his nose and said with a wry smile, "The Spanish phalanx they created in the early years seemed to have a large number of soldiers equipped with cold weapons, but we don't know the exact proportion."

"Previously, when we asked the Spanish sailors about their army composition and weaponry, they were vague and gave us many different versions. But overall, it seems that the Spanish army has a mix of cold and hot weapons."

"However, we didn't expect their ratio of cold and hot weapons to be so high. Well, I guess it's because they're a colonial garrison, and they only deal with Indian riots on a daily basis, which are considered minor security battles, so they don't have many muskets."

"If the Spanish army's firearms equipment rate is really so low, do you think the tactics we have formulated can still be used?" Mo Tianhai pondered for a while and looked at several Marine officers present.

Before the war, the Marine Corps had undergone two rounds of emergency expansion, and its strength had increased to more than 500 troops.

After hearing that the Spanish fleet had arrived at his doorstep, he immediately recruited 450 armed militiamen, further expanding the total force to nearly 1,000 people.

In addition, the Xinhua Decision-making Committee also ordered more than 20 surrounding Indian tribes to send men to join the war and organized and mobilized more than 400 servant soldiers to serve as the "sharp force (cannon fodder)" of the Xinhua army.

Moreover, after military mobilization, the nearby cities of Guangfeng and Xinning also assembled hundreds of armed militiamen each. In addition to ensuring the defensive security of their respective cities, when necessary, they could also pull them all over to join the main force of Shixing City and engage in a decisive battle with the Spanish landing forces.

Therefore, in terms of the number of troops, the military force that Xinhua can mobilize far exceeds that of the Spaniards.

Even at the expense of necessary industrial and agricultural production activities, Xinhua could mobilize 3,000 to 4,000 troops to absolutely crush the Spaniards.

Because the Spaniards took two years to organize an expeditionary fleet, Xinhua's military industry department was able to produce a large number of weapons and equipment.

At present, the Xinhua Marine Corps is equipped (in stock) with a total of more than 31 "Type A" flintlock rifles, light land combat cannons, more than spears, more than bows (mainly equipped for Indian servants), and a large number of homemade grenades (hand-thrown clay pot bombs).

In addition, Xinhua Military Industry also produced more than 300 pairs of cavalry infantry breastplates and more than 1,000 iron helmets for equipping Marines.

It can be said that in order to deal with the invasion of the Spanish army, Xinhua has almost exhausted all its strength in the past two years, and even sacrificed the production of some civilian goods in order to strengthen the scale of military production, wishing to arm every soldier in Xinhua to the teeth.

According to previous tactical drills, the Xinhua Marines used the enemy as their imaginary enemy and mainly used line infantry tactics. They relied on the performance advantages of their own muskets to play a line-up shooting game with the enemy.

As for cold weapon troops, they were not absent, but they were mostly militia and Indian vassal soldiers, and served as auxiliary forces. When facing the enemy in battle, they were usually deployed behind the musket line. Only after the two armies engaged in close combat would the line musketeers give up their positions and rush to the front row to maintain the stability of the entire army's battle line.

In fact, in the eyes of the time travelers, as long as the output firepower of the line musketeers is large enough and the shooting frequency is fast enough, coupled with artillery bombardment, the enemy can be defeated before it approaches their own formation, and there is no need to use spearmen as a defensive force for the formation.

The greatest use of spearmen was probably to prevent enemy cavalry from breaking through the formation. However, the Spanish troops that had landed one after another actually had a large number of spearmen, with the proportion reaching a surprising 60%.

So should we change the troops' existing tactics?
"We don't need to change!" Zheng Lihui rejected the idea without hesitation. "Regardless of the Spanish army's equipment, or the ratio of cold and hot weapons, the trend of future warfare is that fully armed armies will eventually replace those with only partially armed armies."

"Since the Spanish only have a little over 40% of their musketeers, their firepower density will be far less than ours when they fight us. As long as we leverage our firepower advantage and disperse their musketeers, their remaining spearmen will become our targets for slaughter."

"What gives us the initiative on the battlefield is that the Spanish, constrained by their long-distance expedition, lack adequate cavalry. Given this, I suggest that we request the committee to requisition all of Xinhua's horses to form a 200-man cavalry brigade, striving to annihilate the Spanish landing force before the city of Shixing!"

Upon hearing this, Mo Tianhai nodded, agreeing with his opinion.

These people all came from the navy, and not only did they lack the necessary understanding of modern army tactics, they also knew very little about the European army in the 17th century.

The only impression I have is some ambiguous information I learned from repeatedly questioning the Spanish sailors who defected to Xinhua, as well as the scenes of line-up executions that I have seen sporadically in movies and TV.

Mo Tianhai and several others were appointed as the heads of the Marine Corps, responsible for organizing the various arms of the Xinhua Army. However, they were forced to do so, and had to grope their way forward based on their limited experience and knowledge.

During his time as a student, Mo Tianhai became the chief officer of the line infantry because of his outstanding physical fitness and the fact that he had won the title of model soldier in queue training.

Zheng Lihui was from Inner Mongolia and could ride a horse, so he became the head of the cavalry.

Artillery commander Zhang Lifeng, like the fort chief Wang Jiarong, majored in weapons systems and engineering, and naturally became the founder of the Xinhua Artillery.

Now that the war is about to begin, they cannot afford to be nervous or anxious.

If this goes wrong, it will not only be a matter of losing some troops, but it may also be a matter of life and death for Xinhua.

In this battle, we can only win, not lose!

"Although our strategic plan is to lure the Spanish into the hinterland and engage them in a decisive battle, we cannot allow the Spanish to land easily, and we cannot allow them to easily reach us."

Mo Tianhai took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "So, we must create some trouble for them and add some obstacles to ensure that we can gain a greater advantage in the decisive battle."

He glanced at everyone present and continued, "I suggest sending a small force to harass the Spanish landing force. We should take advantage of our musket range and inflict as many casualties as possible on them during the landing and while they are marching and stationed, thereby undermining their morale."

"At the same time, let those Indian tribes take advantage of their familiarity with the jungle terrain to launch unlimited attacks on the Spaniards, even setting up ambushes and shooting arrows to catch them off guard."

"We will also send out cavalry teams to take advantage of their mobility and harass them constantly, so that the Spaniards will be exhausted from defending themselves," Zheng Lihui added.

Mo Tianhai patted the table and said firmly, "Okay, it's settled! Everyone, do your job and make sure the deployment is completed in the shortest possible time."

"In this battle, we must not only win, but also win beautifully. We must let the Spaniards know that Xinhua is not a place they can easily touch!"

(End of this chapter)