The lord hunted down by the game

Chapter 278 Tactical Reform
Duan Qirui's behavior completely angered the people in England - of course, Duan Qirui didn't care at all!

In Duan Qirui's eyes, the Brits in this world are a bunch of backward scum.

The backwardness here does not only refer to weapons and equipment, but also to various tactical concepts.

You know, even if the old sleeves made in Hanyang have been mass-produced and used in the army, the British army still loses more when facing Duan Qirui's Beiyang Army.

The main reason for this is that the combat thinking of the British army is still in the era of queuing and shooting.

In fact, the emergence of the Mini rifle did not bring about a tactical revolution in Europe, because the Mini rifle was still a front-loaded rifle, and its rate of fire was not much different from that of a flintlock rifle.

The increase is nothing but effective range and hit rate.

Therefore, the dense formation tactic of queuing and shooting is still very effective. The only change is that the combat distance has become longer, and the short-range three-stage salvo tactic has been abandoned.

However, the traditional queuing and shooting tactic is still playing its role in the European battlefield, and it is regarded as a classic by the generals of European countries.

The reason is very simple. The Minie rifle with a higher hit rate and longer range makes the lethality of dense formations more terrifying, and can defeat the enemy or be defeated more quickly...

Naturally, those great powers with well-trained troops can achieve better results by using the queuing shooting tactics after replacing them with Mini rifles!
Because of this, the queuing shooting tactic did not decline at all because of the appearance of the Mini rifle, at most it increased the proportion of light infantry and skirmishers.

In the history of Yuri's previous life, until the breech-loading gun appeared, the queuing shooting tactics were not outdated. Even in the early days of World War I, the Frenchman still held his head high and proudly lined up like a rooster to charge...

As expected, he was killed by the Germans and was stripped of his armor...

True skirmish tactics came of age only during World War I.

Even with the large-scale popularization of machine guns, the tactics of queuing and shooting are still regarded as classics by various countries, and they are stubbornly used. They even put forward a famous tactical theory: as long as the density of troops when charging exceeds the density of machine gun firepower, infantry can use dense formations Overwhelm the enemy's machine gun firepower network...

Coincidentally, at that time, European countries had completed modernization reforms, compulsory military service system, and the number of troops was terribly inflated. Hundreds of thousands of troops went to the front line at every turn...

The density of infantry clusters exceeds the density of machine gun firepower.

It wasn't until the Frenchmen encountered the terrible German army with advanced industry and high machine gun configuration during World War I that they knew that this tactical theory was completely suicidal!

The previous success was only because the party in control of the machine guns had too few machine guns!

Of course, even after Yuan Shikai's severe beating, the British government's inertial thinking attributed the failure to the backwardness of weapons and equipment, and did not see the backwardness in tactics.

At any rate, the Beiyang Army was also a unit that absorbed the war experience during World War I, and completed the offensive tactical reform of the skirmish line.

It has a leapfrog advantage over the queuing and shooting tactics!

Therefore, even with the replacement of weapons, the British army was still repeatedly defeated by Duan Qirui!

All the way to downtown London!

The British army who has been defeated repeatedly has finally been awakened. No matter how stubborn the tradition is, it will be broken under successive defeats. Even if the British army is insufficiently trained, there is no weakness in equipment and strength, and even has an advantage in strength. , why is it always defeated?

In order to make up for the lack of training, the British government continued to increase the size of the supervisory team and the punishment of the supervisory team to prevent the recruits from retreating. After being defeated inevitably, the British government finally began to find reasons from other aspects.

As a result, the British government discovered that Duan Qirui's Beiyang Army used completely different tactics from its own when fighting.

The Beiyang Army has never used dense queuing and shooting tactics!
Every charge is scattered like light infantry.

The British army has actually discovered this a long time ago, and there are even clever British generals who have tried it.

It's a pity that the dense phalanx and skirmisher tactics in the era of queuing and shooting are completely different in terms of army organization.

The basic combat unit of the dense phalanx lined up for shooting is the company level. A company of more than 100 people forms a phalanx, which can be commanded by only one chief officer and a few aides.

But if a company of more than 100 people is turned into a skirmish line, the front line will be stretched.

When there is no firefight, the orders given by the company commander can still be conveyed through the messengers and adjutants. Once there is a firefight, the long line of skirmishers will instantly collapse the company commander's command system!
It was also difficult for the lieutenants under the company's chief officer to effectively command and fight the scattered more than 100 people. As a result, after a company exchanged fire, it was easy to fall into the situation of fighting on its own. It would be strange not to be beaten by the Beiyang Army...

In contrast, the Beiyang Army has perfected the officer system of companies and platoons at this time.

When a company of more than 100 people forms a skirmish line to attack, the company commander does not need to line up to command one by one, and the platoon leader does not need to command each squad, as long as he issues combat tasks.

A squad of more than a dozen people becomes the basic combat unit.

Even if more than a dozen people are scattered, the squad leader can command them, at least the soldiers under his command can hear him shouting on the battlefield!

If it were a company commander, it would be impossible for the more than 100 people under his command to shout loudly and hear all of them...

There was no radio communication in this era, so skirmish line tactics were useless for the British army who had not established a complete squad rehearsal command system.

It's a pity that this attempt was only the decision of a single British general. After the British general made a mistake and was defeated, he was dismissed because of "random command".

Because the fighting power of the dispersed British army is not as good as that of the densely formed phalanx!

Under the tactical phalanx of queuing up and shooting, at least the British army can achieve unified command from top to bottom. Under the straggler tactics, even the command is messed up.

This made the British government not pay attention to the tactical reform at the first time, until Duan Qirui came to the city, the British government finally realized its mistake!
I have tried everything that should be tried, and failed without exception, so there is only one way left. All the staff follow the example of the Beiyang warlords and change the entire British military system!
Establishing a squad, platoon, and command system is easier said than done, and it will not be completed in a short time.

Fortunately, the British army had enough cannon fodder to resist Duan Qirui on the way to attack, allowing the British government to take the lead in establishing a command system for the Queen's Guards to complete the squad rehearsal.

At the same time, the short-term killing of a large number of British prisoners of war also made the British soldiers sad. The British soldiers guarding the city of London have become desperate for the road to surrender.

Writing a book is not easy, I hope all readers can come to the starting point to support genuine reading, thank you.

(End of this chapter)