New Shun 1730

This hint, at this moment; as well as the several wars between Britain and France in the past few decades; and the history of Dunkirk being demolished and rebuilt, built and demolished again, made it easy for de la Croux to I understand Dashun’s overtures and sincerity.

After being convinced that Dashun would definitely choose to send the British prisoners back to the UK and carry out the strategy of "spreading panic among those who witnessed the war" in the UK, de La Croux did not continue to argue.

In itself, the Toulon fleet only had a few ships.

A prince came from Dashun, and a newly promoted lieutenant general came from France. Their statuses were unequal.

Since this is the age of empires, each other's crowns and crowns must be recognized by each other. France sent him here, which in itself handed over the command of the war in the Mediterranean to Dashun, and de la Croux had no chance to fight.

So he immediately sent someone to pass the news of Gibraltar's victory back to Paris, and included Dashun's message.

This kind of matter should be left to the Duke of Choiseul or the king's small circle of friends of the king.

However, De La Cruz still feels quite gratified: at least Dashun's attitude on the Dunkirk issue shows that although differences between the two sides exist, there seems to be no difference in core interests, which proves that there are still differences. We can continue to cooperate.

After the matter was settled, de la Croux went to prepare.

The high-ranking officers on Dashun's side did not go to count the prisoners or anything like that. Instead, they continued to look at the mountains and rivers of the Mediterranean Sea on the rocky mountain of Gibraltar, feeling excited and filled with emotion.

Li Hao turned around and looked at the battlefield in the distance where the smoke had not yet cleared, and suddenly said: "Do you still remember the first time you heard about Gibraltar and the Dunkirk thing I just talked about?"

These high-ranking officers in Dashun, as classmates at the same time, gave almost the same answer.

"It was when we were in Weihai. When Xingguo Gong talked about the situation in Europe, the War of Spanish Succession, and the Battle of Blenheim."

"I remember that at that time, it was when wooden bullets for rifled guns were just developed, right? The Duke was talking about some tactical changes, talking about the relationship between weapons, technology, formations, and tactics?"

Chen Qinghai gave an accurate answer, and the others nodded and said, "Yes, that's it this time."

Of course Li Han was there that time.

Reminiscing, everyone looked back at the battlefield and exhaled, as if commemorating the passing of an era.

It was the days when they were young and trained together in Weihai, and their own youth.

Seeing this scene on the battlefield, I thought of Liu Yu's words about "the times are constantly changing". Although it was only "the times are changing" in a tactical sense, it can be profound when compared with those words. Feel the changes of the times.

I was in Weihai at that time.

Liu Yu just relayed Engels's evaluation of the Battle of Blenheim after getting the developed wooden support bullet rifled gun - after all, that was a strong man who could be responsible for writing military entries in the encyclopedia, Lao En The evaluation is quite accurate.

[This battle has special significance from a tactical point of view. 】

[It illustrates extremely clearly the huge difference between the tactics of that time and modern tactics. The same situation, namely two settlements in front of the flanks, which today would be considered one of the most favorable conditions for a defensive position, became a cause of failure for the armies of the eighteenth century. 】

[At that time, infantry was completely unsuitable for skirmishing, which was of an obviously irregular nature. Today, skirmishing can make settlements of masonry houses defended by elite troops almost insurmountable. 】

It concisely and comprehensively describes skirmishing tactics and line tactics, which are completely different situations when faced with the same battlefield and the same environment.

Dashun’s battle in Gibraltar was actually a physical demonstration of Engels’s evaluation:

There is a generational difference between the era of line soldiers and the era of skirmishers in terms of defensive tactics, defense systems, and trench tactics.

Dashun's skirmishers, a small number of skirmishers, in the defense of trenches, ring fortifications, and masonry strongholds, withstood several times the British troops attacking with line tactics.

The Battle of Gibraltar, judging from the casualties on both sides, was not a major war.

However, the tactical systems of the East and the West converge here, and those who have actually experienced this war, including John Mordaunt, who has committed suicide, have already seen some problems.

The old era, or rather the era of pure lines and formations, is over.

The bastion era is coming to an end.

Times are changing, and a new tactical change is about to begin. Whoever cannot keep up will fail.

Explosive bombs, skirmishers, as well as the transitional column shock tactics, the echelon configuration of trench defense, the increased proportion of rifled guns... and so on, even if it is not possible to immediately rewrite the tactical system.

But at least the dawn of a new era has emerged.

John Mordaunt, on the defensive side, wrote a letter of advice to London before he died, saying that times had changed.

The Dashun officers on the offensive side, as victors, also experienced the changes of the times.

The phalanx was vulnerable to explosive bombs.

Line attacks suffered heavy losses in the face of skirmishing tactics.

The bastion without a roof, the dense line tactics, and the distance were completely eliminated, leaving only a barrel that can withstand higher chamber pressure, a safer fuse, and a cheaper puller. Rifling machine.

Before this battle, the question of "who is stronger, us or the real military powers in Europe, and whether Dashun's tactical system is correct" has always been lingering over the heads of these senior officers of Dashun.

The Nanyang War was fought against the declining Netherlands, and there was basically no decent battle.

The Indian War was purely a case of bullying the weak with more troops, with 15,000 to 16,000 troops and nearly ten times the artillery.

Until the Battle of Gibraltar, it was considered a fight with the British standing army. The result was that both the attacker and the defender came to the conclusion that the tactical system might have to change again.

A group of officers lamented that the times were changing too fast.

This feeling is very subtle, not the kind that Songsu began to emit coal smoke and steam.

As soldiers, from a military perspective, they can also deeply experience this rapid change.

When they were young, they certainly knew what Dashun's military system and tactical system were like. Because they were either the sons of dignitaries or the soldiers of good families.

Waiting for the military reform to begin, Dashun began to equip flintlocks and bayonets, began to integrate artillery, and decided to win with artillery, phalanx, line, and volley.

From the Altai Mountains, fought to Japan, and then to Southeast Asia.

Then, in just a dozen years, new tactics such as rifled guns with wooden butt bullets, skirmishers and cavalry artillery combined with anti-cavalry, skirmishers plus column charges, shrapnel shells, tiger squat cannon revival, and batch deployment of troops in defensive trenches began to be promoted.

These people's understanding of "the times are constantly changing, the world's general trend is mighty, those who follow it will survive, and those who go against it will perish" should be said to be constantly deepened and strengthened in a form that they have to.

Just from a tactical point of view, they have sent away two eras.

Thinking of the various changes that have taken place in Dashun at this time, it is inevitable that they will have many sighs.

When "change" itself no longer makes people feel "uncomfortable", then how to change and what it becomes will gradually make people feel that there is no sense of "naturally wrong".

Although the way they felt the change was only through war.

But the key is that the three views they accepted imperceptibly made their cognition of "change" a very awkward cognition, and established a cognition that seems very strange in this era: it must be because of the change of A that B became like this; B became like this, essentially because A changed.

For example, the change of tactics is due to the change of weapons.

If the weapons have changed, but the tactics have not changed, they will encounter a scene of lining up in formations and attacking rifled guns and shrapnel defense positions, which will lead to a disastrous defeat.

This kind of cognition, if viewed narrowly, is not a big problem. If viewed narrowly, it is just military reform.

But for Dashun, the real big problem is that this whole group of people in the broad new school have been seriously influenced by the three views in a subtle way: what is the foundation and what is the superstructure or appearance. If the foundation changes, the superstructure must change, otherwise it will collapse.

From various things, all kinds of sacredness have been broken.

Officers broke many of the sacredness of the past through tactical changes, turning tactics into a boring science, a boring science that corresponds to weapons, morale, military pay, etc. Nothing is immutable, unchangeable, or unchangeable anymore.

Merchants broke many of the sacredness of the past through trade changes, turning sea voyages into a boring science, a boring science that corresponds to wind direction, longitude and latitude, ocean currents, the sun, the earth, time, etc. Nothing is immutable anymore, from gods to taboos passed down from generation to generation, all kinds of sacred things have been smashed.

Even some officials, in the reform of Songsu, broke many of the sacredness of the past, and turned taxation development into a boring science, a boring, immoral, and inhuman science that corresponds to interest, interest rate, land income, merger tendency, whether to buy land with silver or do business depends on the return, the relationship between infanticide and textile industry, etc. - For example, the change of the problem of infanticide in Songsu depends on the development of the textile industry, and the extremely cruel "contract workers", "child labor with nimble fingers" and "half of the wages of women working are collected by parents or parents-in-law" and other extremely dark policies corresponding to the feudal ethics and feudal moral reality without cultural revolution.

This subtle change is nothing more than the most profound feeling of these officers.

These officers, who are considered high-ranking officers in the Dashun navy and army system, naturally will not be moved by a battle of three to five thousand people.

But the changes in the times behind this battle made them feel inexplicably.

It was also the discussion about tactical issues such as skirmish tactics, line tactics, and excessive column charge caused by the rifled gun many years ago that made Li Li at this time know about Dunkirk, the scar of France, and some of the situation in France.

And after empathy, he proposed such a proposal to show goodwill to France, maintain alliance relations and mutual trust.

After sighing and reminiscing, Li Li mentioned Chen Qinghai's name and said: "This time when we go to London, the diplomatic side will be handled by Tian Ping from the Duke of Qi's family. He was sent to Britain as an ambassador at the beginning. He is familiar with this place. It can be said that the Duke helped him pave the way for his achievements in his early years. Who thought that the most glorious and most meritorious ambassador would go to Britain instead of Russia or France?"

"The army here is to deter and calm the situation. You lead the team. I think the French side will at least send someone with a title. The people here must also be of a level that can calm the situation. They must have some skills. It can also be seen as a look at the British navy. When we were fighting here, you were still at the Cape of Good Hope. I guess there was no possibility of a naval battle. You might as well go and take a look."