The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 230 Preparations Before the Great Battle (Thanks to the guild leader '立根在破岩中' for the alliance leader)

As orders were issued from Baizhang Pass, the entire Long'an Prefecture began intensive preparations for this great battle.

In Pingwu County, the main base in the rear, troops were being moved around, raising clouds of dust.

Upon receiving Jiang Han's order, Li Zicheng did not hesitate at all and immediately divided his troops in two.

He personally led 300 troops from his headquarters to Shiquan County to take over the defense.

His nephew, Li Guo, led the main force, escorting three thousand warhorses, and marched in a grand procession to Jiangyou to hand over the troops.

According to Jiang Hanxin's account, Shiquan County, which was defended by Li Zicheng, was likely to face a fierce attack from a detachment of government troops.

Although it was only a detachment, Li Zicheng's current forces were not in a position to withstand it head-on.

He had only three hundred soldiers, five hundred militiamen, and two hundred Langsheng he had just brought back from the snowy region.

To replenish his troops, Li Zicheng immediately ordered the conscription of able-bodied men from nearby villages to join the army and intensify their training as soon as he arrived in Shiquan County.

He would have to contend with the government troops in the mountains of northern Sichuan for several months, so he had to make thorough preparations in advance.

Meanwhile, Li Laowai had already led his troops to Jiangyou ahead of schedule and officially took over this gateway to northern Sichuan from Liu Ning.

He had a fairly large force, with seven hundred soldiers and nearly two thousand militiamen.

But having more people isn't necessarily a good thing; Li Laowai's defensive tasks were much heavier than Li Zicheng's.

Unlike Shiquan County, Jiangyou is located in the mountains, which provides sufficient strategic depth and natural defense.

The county town is surrounded by plains, and apart from the Fu River that flows around the town, it has almost no natural defenses.

Therefore, upon assuming office, Li Laowai immediately ordered large-scale construction outside the city, including digging trenches and building earthen walls, in preparation for a tiered defensive tactic of layered defense and step-by-step resistance to deal with the fierce battles that might follow.

Zhao Sheng, the chief administrator stationed in Pingwu County in the rear, was extremely busy.

He held the logistical lifeline of tens of thousands of soldiers on the front lines in his hands, and could not afford to be careless in the slightest.

With a light stroke of the vermilion brush in his hand, he could represent the mobilization of massive amounts of military equipment and provisions.

Thousands of grain carts, fully loaded with husked rice, flowed continuously from warehouses in Pingwu and Qingchuan to the hands of generals at the front lines.

He even moved his office to the vicinity of the Ministry of Works' Iron and Steel Department. In his spare time, he would urge the foreman Chai Yu and his craftsmen to work hard to make horse harnesses for the soon-to-be-established cavalry unit.

Fortunately, Chai Yu was prepared.

When the Marshal was busy with the matter of the relics in the Ministry of Works, he taught them a work method called "assembly line".

A seemingly complex high-bridge saddle is disassembled into several parts, including the front and rear bridges, saddle seat, and saddle straps.

Among them, key components requiring skilled craftsmanship, such as the load-bearing and shaping saddle bridge, are handled personally by the most experienced veteran craftsmen.
As for other relatively simple accessories, such as leather saddles, girth belts, and fixed saddle spikes, these can be left to new apprentices to make.

Finally, a specialist will assemble and test the parts.

This new operating method has greatly improved the production efficiency of horse harnesses.

However, the half-suited cotton armor and horse armor were more troublesome.

Cotton armor not only requires the thick cotton cloth to be repeatedly starched and dried with tung oil and chemicals beforehand, making it hard and thick.

Furthermore, the armor plates need to be sewn onto the inner layer piece by piece, and the tightness of the leather buckles needs to be adjusted to ensure that they fit the horse's body without affecting its running.

The whole process is very time-consuming and must be done by an experienced craftsman.

But military orders are absolute, and the artisans in the Ministry of Works could only work in three shifts, day and night, to rush the production.

As for the horse lance and such, forget about it for the time being.

The horse lance was a top-tier heavy weapon for cavalry in ancient times, and its production time and complexity far exceeded that of ordinary spears.

A qualified lance takes two to three years to make, with a very complicated process. It is said that "one lance is worth ten spears, and only generals and commanders can use it".

With Jiang Han's current financial situation, he can't afford to deploy heavy cavalry for the time being.

Among all the generals, Liu Ning had the most arduous task and the greatest pressure in organizing the cavalry.

Although all of them were skilled in horsemanship and archery, they did not need further basic training.

However, the horses used as warhorses must undergo rigorous selection.

When it comes to selecting warhorses, the army has its own widely circulated set of rules:

"Four large, three high, and two small; two long, two short, and one flat; strong hooves, elegant bones, and a crane-like shape; small ears, large eyes, and a broad chest."

Among them, the "Four Greats" are big eyes, big nose, big breasts, and big scrotum.

Large, bell-shaped eyes symbolize a large heart and strong endurance;
Large nostrils allow for easy breathing, which is beneficial for long-distance travel.
The large two-pole pulse points (on both sides of a horse's chest) indicate a broad chest and sufficient lung capacity.
Large pouches (muscular structures in a horse's shoulders) indicate strong shoulders and good load-bearing capacity.

"Three highs" refers to the height of the crown of the head, the knees, and the horseshoe bones; "two smalls" refers to the small size of the ears and the small size of the three ridges of the nose.
It was precisely because of these intricate characteristics that the ancients were able to accurately classify horses into three grades: superior, middle, and inferior.

Although the requirements for judging horses are very complicated, Liu Ning did not spend too much time on them.

Back when the warhorses were being handed over on the snowy plateau, Li Zicheng personally conducted a rigorous selection process for these horses, eliminating inferior ones mixed in with them.

Don't forget, Li Zicheng started out as a courier and spent most of his time on horseback.

He was naturally familiar with the art of judging horses.

However, a fine horse is not necessarily a qualified warhorse.

After the cavalrymen were assigned their warhorses, the first thing they needed to do was to establish trust between the riders and their horses.

This process requires extreme care, even more so than when taking care of elderly people.

First, familiarize the horse with human voices so it can understand commands; then gently tap its flanks with soft bundles of grass to keep it calm.
Then, use your hands to gently pat its back, abdomen, shoulders, and hips repeatedly, so that it gets used to its owner's touch.

Finally, lead the horse by the reins until it gets used to following your steps, without neighing or jumping, before allowing it to be saddled. Saddled horses are not simply a matter of shoving the saddle onto their backs.

To gradually eliminate a horse's instinctive resistance to riding, you need to repeatedly saddle and unsaddle it while it is completely relaxed.

Once the cavalrymen are able to mount their horses smoothly, they can train the horses to obey turning and strengthen their conditioned reflexes to the pressure of the reins.

Furthermore, horses are naturally sensitive and timid animals. The noise, fire, weapons, and corpses on the battlefield can easily cause them to panic and lose control.

Therefore, desensitization training is of paramount importance.

Since ancient times, horse training has emphasized "gradual learning," which means gradually eliminating the horse's fear by constantly simulating battlefield elements.

Therefore, since taking over this batch of horses, Liu Ning has been conducting sensory desensitization training on them to adapt to the stimulation of the battlefield.

First, there is basic visual desensitization.

First, erect five-colored flags a hundred paces away, so that the horses can observe them from a distance and become accustomed to the colors;
Then, the distance was reduced to fifty paces, and the infantrymen, waving their flags, rode in front of the herd of horses.
Ultimately, a soldier must be able to charge directly in front of a horse with his weapon in hand, and only if the horse remains unmoved is he considered to have passed the test.

Once the horses have fully adapted, they will burn wet grass to create thick smoke, simulating complex environments such as battlefield smoke.

(First, a five-colored flag was erected a hundred paces away, and the horses were ordered to watch it; then, when it came within fifty paces, the flag was waved and the riders galloped away; finally, the riders were ordered to charge forward with spears and halberds.)
Next comes auditory desensitization, which aims to reach a level where one is "unfazed by drums, cannons, and thunder."

Training began with the most basic sounds of drums and gongs, gradually progressing to bursts of fire from muskets, volleys, and even the roar of cannons.

Whenever a horse is startled, the cavalryman needs to immediately soothe his mount by stroking it or feeding it.

The horses were considered successfully desensitized only when dozens of cannons roared in unison a hundred paces away and the horses remained calm and composed.

Finally, there is desensitization to smell and touch.

The smell of blood on the battlefield and the touch of corpses can also cause discomfort to horses.

During training, livestock are deliberately slaughtered, and their blood is smeared on bundles of grass for the horses to smell.
They would even spread sheep intestines on the ground and drive their warhorses to gallop over them repeatedly, so that they would no longer be afraid of the stench.

In the later stages of training, the horses are also made to get used to stepping on "corpses" made of straw in various shapes.

(Slaughter a sheep and take its blood, smear it on a bundle of straw, and let the horse smell it; spread sheep intestines on the ground and let the horse ride on them without fear of the stench. After more than a month, the horse will not be startled by the sight of a corpse or the smell of blood.)
Tactile desensitization is a more adversarial form of training.

During training, a large number of straw men holding wooden guns are placed in the horse farm beforehand.

The cavalrymen had to constantly control their warhorses, making contact with and impacting the straw figures to eliminate their fear of collision.

It will take at least one or two months to complete this series of desensitization training.

But it's not over yet.

Successful desensitization only means that the horse can be led into battle.

Afterwards, more complex combat simulation training will be conducted to completely solidify the horses' battlefield behavior into instinct.

As is well known, horses are social animals and are naturally obedient.

Untrained horses will instinctively keep close together when running.

On the ever-changing battlefield, such close proximity can be extremely deadly.

Therefore, cavalrymen need to train their horses to maintain a distance of about twelve feet between each other during a charge.

This allows for the formation of a cluster advantage while avoiding crowding, making it easier for cavalry to maneuver and move around.

Once the horses are familiar with the distance, the final step is practical training.

They selected several dozen elite cavalrymen, dressed in armor and armed, and simulated charging into battle.

They might feign defeat and flee, ordering their horses to pursue; or they might suddenly sound the gong to signal a halt, ordering their horses to stop abruptly.

If the horse becomes panicked, the cavalryman needs to tighten the reins, shout sternly to stop it, and then repeat the drill.

The way cavalry fought was definitely not like what is shown in later movies and TV dramas, where large groups of soldiers charged together.

After this series of training sessions, each cavalryman is highly skilled.

Unless absolutely necessary, it is unlikely that an attack would be launched against an infantry square that has already been set up.

Unlike the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had very few fully armed armored cavalry; most cavalrymen were skilled in archery and horsemanship.

Therefore, it also emphasizes continuous attacks by multiple tiers and small teams; it requires that if the front team fails to make a move, the rear team will follow, and the offensive will continue.

This places higher demands on the coordination between cavalry and their horses.

The whole process is a very meticulous and extremely lengthy one, and one cannot be impatient at all.

There's a saying that goes, "Impulsiveness breeds cowardice, while patience breeds a fine steed."

Therefore, Liu Ning is the most crucial link in the entire combat mission.

When Jiang Han will launch a general offensive depends entirely on when Liu Ning's cavalry can truly take shape.

Faced with such a heavy responsibility, even Liu Ning, a veteran of many battles, couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

There was no other way, so he gave him a firm order.

All of his cavalrymen, except when sleeping, had to stay with their warhorses at all times.

Even when eating, one must squat in front of the stable with a bowl in hand, eating and defecating with one's warhorse to build a bond.

　Thanks to the guild leader, Li Genben, for making 10,000 points today!

　　I'll post two chapters, each 2 words, first, then I'll finish this while I have a meal! I won't sleep until I've finished writing!
　　I've already taught you how to train cavalry. Remember to use it when you travel through time. You're welcome.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)