mtl008 Chapter 534 The Musketeer Version of "Mangudai"
Chapter 534 The Musketeer Version of "Mangudai"
While a terrifying moment unfolded on the streets of Guangzhou, a cavalry battalion in Shandong was engaged in a fierce pursuit of bandits entrenched in Mishen Mountain.
The main force of this band of bandits consisted of defeated rebel soldiers, veterans from the former Dongjiang Town, who had fought against the Tartars and were quite capable in combat. Their leader, Kong Lianshun, had once been a personal guard of Kong Youde. After the rebellion was quelled, these defeated soldiers had nowhere to go, so they became outlaws, taking over the territory of a band of bandits on Mishen Mountain and turning them into their henchmen. They merged the two groups, transforming themselves from a few hundred mountain bandits into a "giant bandit" of one or two thousand men.
Taking advantage of the fact that Shandong had just been pacified and the government was unable to carry out large-scale suppression, they plundered the passing people and merchants, and even robbed the government's caravans. They won many battles and never suffered a defeat. However, when Ma Wei's cavalry battalion arrived, they ran into a brick wall.
Ma Wei himself was a former scout in the border army, and his horsemanship, combat skills, and experience were all top-notch. Under his training, these grassroots Shandong cavalrymen made rapid progress in their horsemanship and wielded their sabers quite well; what they lacked was the opportunity to gain experience. When Liu Ye arrived in Shandong, he brought them a powerful weapon—a cavalry version of the Patriot rifle.
The development of this rifle also stemmed from Liang Xiaoming's idea. He drew inspiration from the cavalry carbine version of the 18th-century British Brownbes flintlock musket, shortening the barrel to a length between the army version and the pistol version, which naturally reduced the range. Although the range was shortened, the power within the effective range was not reduced, and the shorter barrel made loading lead bullets easier, allowing for faster loading even on horseback.
With such weapons, the cavalry battalion's fighting style became very similar to that of the world-renowned Mongol light cavalry.
From the rise of Genghis Khan until the mid-Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol cavalry was a formidable force, tactically flexible, intelligent, and brave, virtually invincible across Eurasia. Their primary weapons were the Mongol composite recurve bow and the scimitar; the former for ranged combat, the latter for close-quarters fighting. Against dense infantry formations, the Mongols would rout them with a barrage of projectile fire. If the enemy pursued, they would dangle their opponents like kites, firing back as they ran until the enemy collapsed—this was the "Mangudai" tactic that terrified Europeans. If the enemy fled, they could pursue from behind and relentlessly slaughter them with their scimitars.
At the height of the Mongol cavalry's power, their ability to fight at both long and short ranges, making them virtually unstoppable, was an unbeatable advantage. Whether it was heavy full-body infantry armor, double-edged swords, or Damascus scimitars, whether it was Song Dynasty heavy infantry or European knights, whether it was Mamluk cavalry or Cossack cavalry, they all fell under the Mongol's iron hooves.
Ma Wei's cavalry, trained for less than a year, was certainly no match for the Mongol cavalry at their peak. The difference in horsemanship was obvious—the Mongols were known as a nation on horseback, their horsemanship rarely matched—and mounted archery was not something that could be mastered in a year or two. These cavalrymen, who were farmers just six months ago, couldn't even hit their targets standing up, let alone on the bumpy backs of their horses. However, with the advent of short muskets, the gap in combat effectiveness narrowed considerably. Anyone of normal intelligence and with all four limbs could fire a musket with a little training; its power and range were comparable to mounted archers, and it could be trained in large numbers in a short time, unlike mounted archers who could take years or even decades to hone a single skilled archer.
When the bandits, mainly rebels, encountered this group of government troops, they didn't think much of it at first, assuming they were just ordinary soldiers. Their leader, Kong Lianshun, ordered his men to launch a direct charge, hoping to overwhelm the enemy with sheer force and rout them in one fell swoop. Back when they were rebels, they had relied on their superior horsemanship and individual bravery to defeat the local Shandong cavalry when fighting government troops; this tactic had proven effective time and again.
Unexpectedly, these soldiers were very cunning. Each of them had a pistol, and more than one, so they could switch after firing one. Before the bandits could get close, they opened fire without warning. After a series of gunshots, the bandits left behind hundreds of corpses, without even touching a hair on their heads.
Kong Lianshun was dumbfounded. A musket could be mounted on horseback? He'd only ever seen cavalrymen use bows and arrows, never muskets. He'd never seen anything like it. Instinctively, he sensed his opponent was no ordinary man. He whistled, signaling his men to run, but the enemy calmly pursued them. Both sides' horses were Mongolian horses from the northern grasslands, their stamina and speed roughly equal; after a long chase, they couldn't shake them off.
Enraged, Kong Lianshun raised his saber and shouted, "Damn it, brothers, being chased like a rabbit isn't a pleasant feeling! Turn around and give them a good beating!" The bandits turned their horses around and charged back. By the time they turned back, the enemy's pistols were already loaded, and another hail of bullets rang out. As the gunfire subsided, many more were hit and fell from their horses.
This is Liang Xiaoming's method of combining the musket tactics of European dragoons with the "Mangudai" tactics of Mongol cavalry. Each cavalryman is equipped with 2-3 short guns, pre-loaded with gunpowder and bullets. When encountering the enemy, they fire the short guns, with two or three guns firing in turn to maintain a relatively dense firepower, making it difficult for ordinary people to get close. When the ammunition runs out, they rein in their horses, retreat, reload, and continue the attack.
This sophisticated tactic actually originated with Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden's most outstanding king, who mastered this skill in battle against the Polish Winged Hussars. Liang Xiaoming improved upon Gustav's approach because he had a high-performance flintlock musket, while Gustav initially used a matchlock musket. In fact, the Guan Ning Army's three-barreled musket shares some similarities with this tactic; however, compared to the Guan Ning Army's three-barreled muskets that became useless after firing, the short flintlock musket with its fixed ammunition had a significantly faster reloading speed and firing rate, resulting in far greater tactical power and lethality.
Kong Lianshun, having served as Kong Youde's personal guard, was experienced in combat. He recognized that the enemy's fighting style consisted of only these three moves, and their horsemanship seemed somewhat clumsy, suggesting they were all novices. So he raised his saber and shouted, "Brothers, they only use this one move. Don't be afraid, charge forward side by side! Once we get close, they will definitely be no match for us!"
The bandits mustered their courage and, shouting and yelling, charged forward despite the whistling bullets. This method seemed to work; although some still fell from their horses, the opposing soldiers appeared to panic, turning tail and running after firing their shots.
Now Kong Lianshun and the bandits were energized and gave chase. The government soldiers were fiddling with something on horseback, moving slower than them, and the distance between them gradually closed; they were about to catch up.
At this moment, the officers and soldiers suddenly slowed down and ran to the left, facing the pursuers from the side, and raised their short guns—it turned out that they had slowed down earlier to load lead bullets.