18th century total war

Chapter 323 The Battle of Sparta

Obviously, the London government is not that crazy yet. After all, the King's German Legion in this world only has a strength of more than 5000 after several rounds of military expansion.

The purpose of the British commander is very simple, to ensure his side's vision of the battlefield and force Aristotle to launch a decisive battle.

Because of the encounter with a small group of troops, the Greek Defense Forces were no match for the British King's German Corps. As long as the gap in strength was not large, the Greek Defense Forces were the targets of a beating...

In this way, if Aristotle wanted to break through the blockade of the British King's German Army, he could only send a large force. Once the large force came out, the chance of a decisive battle was sent to the British commander.

What the British generals laid out was a conspiracy. Unless Aristotle led his troops back to defend the city, he could only suppress the large forces.

If Aristotle led the Greek Defense Forces to disperse in various cities to defend, then the British commander would probably laugh out loud...

The reason is simple. The King's German Legion that landed this time dismantled a large number of artillery from the wealthy Royal Navy ships.

If the Greek Defense Force shuts itself into the city defense, the British army can calmly deploy these large-caliber naval guns, blasting the Greek Defense Force into doubt.

Competing with artillery, the Greek Defense Force is a grandson in front of the British army...

Coupled with the fact that the British army has a large amount of Indian cannon fodder, it is absolutely possible to use human lives to bulldoze the scattered cities bombed by artillery.

The British army has the upper hand in the two most important aspects of siege - firepower and manpower. Naturally, they hope to fight a few hearty siege battles.

The most important thing is that in the siege battle, the Indian servant army's supervision is more efficient, and it is not easy to be completely defeated and cannot be prevented.

British commanders knew this, how could Aristotle not?
The Indian servants who landed wantonly were no secret to Aristotle. With so many people landing, the British spy organization could not hide it no matter how awesome it was.

It didn't take long for the reconnaissance battalion of the King's German Legion to discover the main force of the Greek Defense Forces.

On the Laconia Plain in southern Greece, the main forces of the two sides formally encountered each other.

The Laconia Plain is the area where the Spartans lived and lived in the ancient Greek city-states. At that time, the proud Spartans did not build high walls to protect their residences like other Greek city-states. The city-state of Da is open and built on the plains of Laconia, completely undefended!
Spartan warriors are the only self-defense forces of the Spartan city-state.

Then, shortly after Sparta defeated Athens and dominated Greece, it was wiped out by the Thebes, and later became a slave of the Macedonians...

The Thebes proved with facts that a purely militarized society may not always win.

Alexander the Great even proved with facts that only a professional army is needed, and whether civilians are militarized has little effect on the outcome of the war.

At that time, the world empire Persia was destroyed by Alexander the Great. The most important reason was that the Persian Empire failed to build a strong professional army from beginning to end.

The Persian army was useless against Alexander except for its numerical superiority.

Now, Aristotle intends to defeat the hateful English invaders where the Spartan city-state fell.

The Spartan spirit was popular all over the world in Li Wei's previous life, but it is not popular in Greece in this era. In the eyes of many Greeks, the Spartan spirit is to imprison people's thoughts and squeeze people's bodies. It is worse than the monarchy. To fall behind the decadent anti-human system...

On the contrary, Athens in the ancient Greek city-state era was highly respected by the Greeks.

The artistic treasures left behind by the city-state of Athens have always been a tireless hobby of the Greek rich.

On the horizon, the Union Jack raised high gradually appeared in Aristotle's telescope.

Aristotle looked at the Indian soldiers in cheap cloth gowns, which looked nothing like military uniforms. Only the soldiers in the first row held muskets, and all the soldiers in the back were a combination of spears and knives. A sneer sneered at the corner of his mouth.

"The British are still as arrogant as ever, this is a victory you personally gave me!"

Afterwards, Aristotle held up the binoculars and glanced in the direction of the two wings of the British army's front. His face suddenly became embarrassed, and he gave up his plan to turn around from the flanks.

Because the flags on both wings are the King's German Regiment, all wearing bright red military uniforms, black tall hats, and flamboyant feather decorations on them...

Well, back in the days of queuing in Europe, a feathered hat was considered an honor and only a few elite troops were allowed to wear it.

The reason for this tradition is that putting a feather on your head really attracts attention. Whether it attracts people from the front is unknown...

Secondly, this kind of hat is so expensive!
Those are feathers!

How many cute birds do you have to kill to get it all together?

How can the cost not be high?

Many troops even asked for feathers of one color, which is even more of a disaster for this type of bird...

Humans are such cruel creatures, keen to base their favorite things on the suffering of other species.

Of course, human beings have launched countless times of wars against each other, let alone against other species?
The British King's German Legion did not have many troops, but Aristotle immediately gave up his plan to touch his brow.

The two sides fought with more than 20 troops, and the entire Laconia Plain was packed to the brim, and the defense lines on both wings had stretched to the valleys outside the plain.

There are only two ways to outflank and outflank, climb over the mountains and climb to the enemy's rear!

Even if the soldiers have this perseverance, the frontal battle is almost over when they climb over...

The second method is to forcibly break through the defense lines of the enemy's two wings, penetrate in and flank the main force of the enemy's front.

The previous reconnaissance encounters between the two sides have proved that the Greek Defense Forces are really not the opponents of the King's German Legion...

According to the confession of the surviving soldiers of the Greek Defense Forces, the soldiers of the King's German Legion feared the marksmanship the most.

The marksmanship of the King's German Legion made them suspect that they had encountered the French Wehrmacht!

Yes, the proudest part of the King's German Legion is their marksmanship and reload speed.

The King's German Legion is more inclined to use firepower to destroy opponents than to enter into bayonet hand-to-hand combat. In fact, the British King's German Legion is very suitable for light infantry. When they cooperate with other British troops, they are generally used as mountain soldiers and light infantry. .

Although there was no British Red Shirts to cooperate this time, the number of Indian servants was sufficient, and the British King's German Army naturally did not need to be the main force.

In addition, Aristotle also found that the British army arranged artillery on the two wings, and there was not a single British artillery in the Indian servant army in the center!
Not even an ordinary mortar can be seen!

Is this disbelief in the Indian servant army, or is it planning to use artillery to cross fire?
However, many of the artillery of the British army are large-caliber naval guns dismantled from the warships. The range is far enough, and it is safer to arrange the two wings with the British King's German Legion.

This naturally also increased the difficulty of breaking through the two wings of the British front.

Of course, the main force in the middle of the British front is not without advantages compared with the two wings. At least Aristotle has not been able to see the end of the Indian servant army through a monocular, and it is densely packed with Ah San's turbans!

"The British trained these Indians well, but they didn't turn around when they walked in the queue."

Aristotle murmured inwardly.

Between the ranks of the progressive Indian servants, there are British officers in bright red uniforms.

These British officers were all riding on horses. Aristotle estimated that the reason why he failed to see the British cavalry was that the horses were all distributed to these British officers!
Around the ranks of the Indian servants, there are Indians who are obviously dressed more gorgeously and have the appearance of military uniforms. Even Aristotle, a layman who does not understand the Indian servants, can see the identity of their grassroots officers .

Among a group of Indian soldiers in cheap cloth robes, it is really conspicuous to be dressed like this, and it is easy to be recognized by Indian soldiers.

In the era of queuing and shooting, the reason why the uniforms of officers were more gorgeous and special than the other was to make it easier for soldiers to distinguish.

Anyway, the performance of muskets in this era is not enough to support long-distance sniping within sight range, and officers don't have to worry about being sniped before the battle is over.

Of course, this does not include those junior officers who accompanied the soldiers to the front.

In the army of the era of queuing and shooting, the higher the rank of the officer, the more special the uniform and hat he wore.

The generals even wore ribbons on themselves.

In fact, such things as medals and ribbons were passed down from Europe.

It didn't take long for Aristotle's field of vision to be filled with densely packed Indian soldiers. Unlike the British King's German Army, which could see the end of the queue, Aristotle couldn't see the Indian servants no matter how he looked. At the end of the army, there are too many people on the other side...

Of course, the British generals on the opposite side of Aristotle were also frowning and thinking about the same thing at this time, the Greek Defense Force had too many soldiers!
It's so dense that you can't see the end at a glance!
At this time, Gulag, who had just stopped on the front line, suddenly heard an officer who was also a Sudra, but was promoted to second lieutenant because of his good performance, shouting the words he had heard countless times.

"No one is allowed to retreat on the battlefield, and those who retreat will be killed immediately by the troops behind.

You have the right to kill and kill the troops who have returned from the defeat in front, you will not be punished, and you will be rewarded with extra meals after the battle! "

If you look down at the Indian servant army from the sky, you can find that the Indian servant army is divided into sections, each section has a total of 1 people, covering the entire frontal battlefield evenly, but the depth is only a few rows.

There is a distance of about a hundred meters between each section, which happens to be the maximum effective range of the flintlock gun!
The British generals took great pains to stimulate the fighting morale of the Indian servants. Leaving aside the various post-war victory rewards, the war supervision system alone is full of cruelty.

The rear row is the front row supervisor team, which has unlimited sniper power over rout soldiers, and there will even be rewards for killing rout soldiers!

Of course, you have to ensure that you don't become a defeated soldier before the battle is over, in order to receive the reward...

In order to ensure that these Indian asan can be the killers, every ten thousand people in the battle division are people from the same state or region.

In this way, Indian soldiers in different ranks come from different places, and even their languages ​​are different.

The Indian subcontinent has never been a unified country, and even the Mughal dynasty is still a long way from unifying the entire Indian subcontinent.

Therefore, the Indian subcontinent was divided into many Gutubang kingdoms, and different Tubang kingdoms still hated each other.

For these Indian untouchables, the split Indian soldiers in front were not their compatriots, and might even be their enemies. Naturally, they would not have any scruples when they took action.

Of course, it is precisely because the Indian subcontinent is so disunited that it was easily colonized by the British.

The Far East Empire, Manchu and Qing Dynasty, was also backward and decadent, because it was a unified country, and it was never fully colonized by European powers, but only became a semi-colonial country.

This is the difference between a united nation and a divided nation.

Gulag was lucky. He was in the fifth battle column. Since he was surrounded by dense crowds of his own people, he couldn't see where the enemy was. At most, he could see the soldiers in the front row of the battle column butt……

The field of vision of soldiers on the battlefield is completely different from that of the commander holding a telescope behind him. Soldiers on the battlefield cannot see the overall battle situation at all, but can only see the situation around them.

This is why officers are the link of command in the army. Without good officers, no matter how elite soldiers and wise generals are, they cannot form a strong combat force.

The British military naturally understands this, so except for the low-level officers with a high casualty rate, they are all British officers to ensure the transmission of orders from top to bottom.

all...

The sound of shelling was constantly circling in Gulag's ears, and he couldn't tell whether it was the enemy's artillery or his own artillery.

He heard from other companions that there are some powerful people who can distinguish the quality of the enemy's artillery from the difference in the sound of the artillery.

Of course, Gulag only heard about it, he had never seen such a person with his own eyes.

Gulag only held the broadsword in his hand, the rumble of cannons and the faint sound of military whistle and musket fire from ahead let him know that the battle had begun.

It's just that he, who is in the fifth fighting line, can't see any signs of fighting. He can't keep staring at the butt of the person in the back row of the fighting line in front.

At this time, Gulag no longer envied those companions with muskets, because holding muskets meant standing in the front row, which was a terrible position in Gulag's eyes!
He is no longer an Indian who knows nothing, at least he knows that white Europeans fight with bullets flying around, which is completely different from the army of Indian princes and nobles!
(End of this chapter)