Chapter 1593: If This Were Real Combat

"Your Majesty's sage wisdom is a gift from Heaven, a saint unseen in a thousand years. We need only bow our heads and obey your commands to sweep across the eight wildernesses," Li Huanghe said, full of reverence. "Wherever Your Majesty points, we shall strike. If I grow too old to go, I shall send my son, and then my grandson, until the entire world becomes the royal domain of the Great Han."

"Such spirit is excellent, but merely bowing and obeying will not suffice — waging war still requires using your own mind." Zhao Song smiled again, then raised his horsewhip and gave his white horse a sharp lash. "Alright, hurry inside. His Highness the Crown Prince is watching from above!"

The Crown Prince's inspection and the arrival of the highest-ranking officers further inflamed the cavalry's morale in the valley. Ignoring the fatigue of both horse and rider, they spurred their mounts on and continued their rapid gallop, charging through the valley like a high-speed crimson whirlwind, as if they could tear apart everything before them.

Just then, at several exits of the valley, the figures of infantry companies loomed in and out of the sandy haze. They too wore red uniforms and advanced with uniform steps to the beat of drums, shifting formations from time to time at their officers' commands.

Leading the way was the direct regiment sent by the Liaodong Army. Their physiques were the tallest and their uniforms the brightest, and many bore medals from past campaigns on their chests. Because they were long accustomed to the sight of cavalry charges, they remained composed despite the overwhelming spectacle, marching at an almost constant pace into the very center of the valley while cavalry swirled all around them.

Next, soldiers from other units, led by their officers, followed the guides into the valley. They converged into the Liaodong regiment's square formation, like red tributaries flowing into an ocean, making the crimson square larger and larger until it became a dazzling scarlet patch.

The cavalry was bold and vigorous, the infantry steady and composed. Watching intently through his telescope from the mountain peak, Hashimoto Sanemura had forgotten his earlier embarrassment and was utterly shaken.

"Envoy, what do you think of our Great Han army?"

"The cavalry charges swift as the wind; the infantry advances deliberate as the forest. I once read descriptions of mighty troops in military texts, but only now, seeing this with my own eyes, do I truly understand what those words mean!" Hashimoto Sanemura praised from the heart.

The Crown Prince frowned slightly. He had expected the other party, after witnessing such drills, to compare the soldiers of their two nations and assess their relative strengths and weaknesses. Instead, he received only a few vague platitudes. Still, the Japanese court nobles had neglected military matters for centuries, so one could hardly demand too much of them — being able to recite a few lines from the military classics was already decent enough.

"Many thanks for your praise, Envoy," he replied coolly, then extended a hand toward the soldiers down in the valley. "There is something even more intense to come."

Just as he said, after Zhao Song and the regimental commanders joined the infantry formation, the cavalry gradually came to a halt, then regrouped their forces to the rear flank of the formation, resting and restoring their horses' strength while awaiting further orders.

Meanwhile, the infantry, urged on by their officers, swiftly arrayed themselves into battle formation.

The Great Han army had placed great emphasis on formation drills ever since its founding days, and it did not abandon this tradition even after seizing the realm, still treating battle formations as an essential, regularly practiced subject. Thus, soldiers who had served for many years had developed physical habits and could form up with ease.

However, because they operated in different combat zones and terrains, each corps of the Great Han army had developed its own unique combat methods and tactics, and their formations had acquired subtle differences. After the initial assembly, Zhao Song paid close attention to the problem of unified command. Having secured the agreement of the two regimental commanders, he ordered that the Liaodong Army's tactics and formations take precedence, requiring the other two regiments to adapt to their drill manuals, so that the entire brigade could fight in a unified manner and exert maximum power.

Still, because the integration time had been short, the coordination of the other two regiments was still a bit raw, and there was some minor confusion during formation, costing a little time. But in Zhao Song's view, the current coordination was already quite good, showing that the two young regimental commanders had trained their men effectively.

Zhao Song rode his horse unhurriedly to the open ground in the center. Dressed in full military uniform, a gleaming silver badge pinned to his chest, his face stern, he had the bearing of a great general at a glance.

He wheeled his horse in a circle on the spot and surveyed the formations on both sides — every one of them stood in strict readiness, as if on the eve of battle.

He waved his hand, and the orderlies from every formation immediately galloped to his side. These orderlies were all very young, outstanding graduates of the Military Preparatory Academy.

The Great Han army had strict military discipline and placed the highest value on prompt obedience to orders, so the position of orderly was extremely important. Moreover, orderlies ordinarily stayed by the side of commanders and commanding generals, allowing them to observe these officers' command methods in the most convenient way, temper themselves on real battlefields, and accumulate their own experience. Thus, it was a tradition of the Great Han army to place the best students of the Military Preparatory Academy at the side of generals, and their promotion was very rapid.

"How are the preparations everywhere?" Zhao Song loudly asked his orderlies.

"Reporting to the Grand Commander, our position is ready!" the young orderlies shouted back.

Ordinarily, with Zhao Song's current rank of brigade commander, he was not entitled to the title of Grand Commander. But now Zhao Song was leading an independent force; although his strength was only a brigade, he was already a commanding officer in his own right, and the army had a tradition of elevating the title of the chief commander, so those around him now addressed him as Grand Commander.

"Good, have them begin at once!" Zhao Song immediately gave the order.

Then he rode off in the direction he had come from, joining the regimental commanders, while the other orderlies galloped at full speed in different directions toward each formation. Because Zhao Song was at the center of the formations, they all reached their respective formations at roughly the same time.

Then, as if several stones had been dropped into a calm pond, every formation stirred with very obvious commotion. At their officers' commands, the infantry squares transformed again, the soldiers with pikes and muskets splitting into small hollow squares, three ranks of soldiers enclosing patches of empty ground like walls.

The artillery positions were shielded behind these hollow squares, submerged within the layer upon layer of the crimson ocean.

Next, the cavalry battalions began moving again. But unlike their earlier furious gallop, their movement now was very slow, as if they were strolling at leisure. Yet though their pace was slow, the cavalrymen on horseback were extremely tense. They kept glancing at the gaps between the formations, gauging the distances and assessing the mettle of those infantrymen.

Imperceptibly, their speed increased, from a walk to a trot, and finally to the same sweeping momentum as before. The crimson storm swept toward the crimson squares, making Hashimoto Sanemura's heart pound wildly as he watched from the mountain peak.

"Hold them! Hold them!" Officers everywhere relayed the commander's order. "Absolutely do not let them break through, and absolutely do not let them approach the artillery positions!"

"Orders received!" The soldiers everywhere answered in unison. Their voices merged together, resounding through the entire valley, briefly overpowering even the thunder of hooves pounding the earth, and igniting the flames of passion in every heart.

Yet the thunder of hooves striking the ground grew louder and louder, and the distance to the infantry formations shrank. In the blink of an eye, the two forces were about to collide.

"Boom!" From the rear of the infantry formations, the roar of cannons suddenly erupted. Field guns of various calibers in the Great Han army thundered all at once. To facilitate the army's movement and marching, the Great Han had always emphasized making cannons lighter, striving to reduce weight while maintaining power. This seemingly contradictory demand had, on one hand, spurred the various Great Han arsenals to pursue technological development, frantically improving manufacturing processes so that barrel walls grew thinner and thinner and weight correspondingly lighter; and on the other hand, the army's gun carriages had become increasingly advanced, capable of faster loading, unloading, and maneuvering.

At the same time, to facilitate logistics, the Great Han Army was now mainly equipped with two standardized types of cannon. One was the howitzer — large caliber, long range, great power — used in pitched battles to strike enemy lines from a distance, though because it was difficult to move it was generally kept behind the battle lines and deployed under the direct command of the commanding general. The other was the crouching-tiger cannon — light, nimble, and capable of rapid maneuver — serving as mobile firepower for the infantry, able to provide support everywhere, used to bombard the enemy when closing for battle and shatter their formations. This type of cannon was allocated to each infantry regiment and could be commanded by regimental and battalion commanders on the battlefield.

Today, because it was a drill, the cumbersome howitzers had not been brought into the valley; there were only some crouching-tiger cannons, and they were not using live ammunition. Even so, the simultaneous roar of over twenty crouching-tiger cannons was still terrifying, completely drowning out the sound of hooves pounding the earth, as if an earthquake had suddenly struck. This roar reverberated through the mountain valley, shaking not only the utterly unprepared Hashimoto Sanemura until his heart raced with fear, but even slowing down many of the warhorses.

However, the Liaodong Army's warhorses had all received special training in the military camps since they were young, and their resistance to cannon fire was far stronger than horses from other regions. So they quickly recovered their earlier speed and forcibly charged toward the infantry formations.

The surging torrent swept forward, carrying an unmatched, awe-inspiring might toward the formations. Even Hashimoto Sanemura, watching from a distance, trembled at the sight — how much more so the infantrymen who bore the brunt of it? Even knowing in their hearts that this was only a drill, even knowing that these cavalry were not numerous, the sight of a crimson wall rushing at them with terrifying speed, with no way to avoid it, still made hearts quail. In the frontmost ranks, the soldiers' faces began to turn pale, and their hands sweated, making the grips of their weapons even more slippery.

Yet the soldiers in the front ranks, who came from the Liaodong Army, had long witnessed large-scale cavalry charges. So although they were tense, they still stood firmly in place. Several ranks of them maintained the square, raising their weapons upright — from a distance, it looked like iron flowers blooming before the battle flags, glittering with blinding light.

The cavalry charge drew closer and closer, while the infantrymen stood rigid with heads lowered, as if rooted to the spot. Just when the two crimson masses were about to collide, this contest of wills finally reached its conclusion. Right before crashing into the formations, the cavalrymen abruptly halted their charge. Some even reined in their horses right in front of the blades. The horses reared up one after another, whinnying as they wheeled sharply, then charged toward other formations.

But the front-rank formations were all very solid. Several charges yielded no results for the cavalry, and they wasted their horses' strength in vain, no longer able to build up the high-speed charge they had just executed.

Watching the performance of these soldiers in the valley, the Crown Prince nodded slightly, then explained to Hashimoto Sanemura beside him.

"Envoy, this is only a drill, so they did not truly strike. If this were real combat, such a cavalry charge would likely result in heavy casualties. But as long as the formation is not broken, the soldiers will not rout. The cavalry will gradually, bit by bit, exhaust their edge against the formation, until they are finally worn down completely by the infantry — because we now have firearms and cannons, and the finest firearms and cannons in the world today." The Crown Prince explained while gesturing with his hands. "This is how our army counters enemy cavalry. The Mongols excel at mounted archery, but as long as our troops form up, they cannot break through and can only detour around us. And when they detour, they are continuously whittled down by the cannons and muskets in our formations, their casualties growing more and more severe, until finally they can only flee. Since the founding of our Great Han, we have fought the Mongol tribes again and again — I do not know how many battles — but we have never lost a single one. So now they are utterly terrified of us, and we beat them until they flee with their tails between their legs."

The Crown Prince's explanation unconsciously took on a boastful tone. He had studied military affairs under his teachers for a long time but had never had a chance to show off his knowledge. Moreover, he had always been extremely proud of the Great Han's military might, so naturally he wanted to take this opportunity to tell someone about it.

"Your Highness speaks truly. When I watched your army's cavalry charge, even standing so far away, my heart still quailed with lingering fear — one can well imagine the pressure the soldiers below faced…" Hashimoto Sanemura steadied himself, then wiped the sweat from his forehead. "That your army could remain utterly unshaken in such a spectacle is truly admirable. No wonder you can sweep across the Mongols…"

"Not just sweep across the Mongols. All the neighboring states that have shown disrespect to our Great Han have already been swept across by us — or will be swept across in the end." The Crown Prince replied with a confident smile. "The shogunate is, of course, no exception."

However, just as he was showing off to Hashimoto Sanemura, the situation down in the valley underwent a new change. The cavalry, which had been frustrated everywhere, regrouped under their officers' orders, ignoring the roaring guns and cannons, then threaded through the gaps between the forward formations and charged toward one formation in the rear.

During their probing charges in all directions, they had roughly figured out the positions of the formations and the strengths and weaknesses of the soldiers, and they had discovered a weak point. This formation was composed of troops under Regimental Commander Ma Tongji. They had previously fought in the mountains of Yunnan and Guizhou and could be considered elite troops, but because their enemies were generally remnant Ming forces and mountain tribes, the soldiers were still unaccustomed to facing massed cavalry charges.

When this ball of crimson flame rushed at them at extreme speed, the unprepared soldiers immediately fell into confusion. Although the leading officer issued orders nonstop, when the cavalry was about to crash into them, the soldiers in the frontmost rank still wavered. First one man toppled backward, then more and more fell, until finally a gap appeared in the formation.

More and more cavalry charged in, and the gap grew larger and larger. Soon the formation was finally broken apart, and on the ground appeared the corpses of many horses pierced through by blades, and even some soldiers trampled to the ground, rolling and wailing in agony.

Yet these cavalrymen paid no attention to the casualties appearing on either side. They charged straight toward the artillery position behind the formation and scattered the artillery guards.

They actually broke through?

The Crown Prince suddenly felt blood rush to his face, and he was furious. He had just been boasting about how peerlessly fine his infantry was, and in the blink of an eye they were broken through. Even though it was only a drill, it was still a loss of face.

"Go down and ask what happened!" he hurriedly ordered an attendant beside him.

Then, somewhat embarrassed, he glanced at Hashimoto Sanemura beside him, only to find that the other man's face bore no mocking smile. Instead, he had been holding his telescope the whole time, watching with utter absorption.

He had watched the entire cavalry charge just now. He truly had not imagined that these cavalrymen would actually dare to charge all the way into a formation standing in strict readiness, and then forcibly break through the line. Those blades were no mere decorations — they could really stab people to death.

These Great Han soldiers were so heedless of their own lives even in a drill! He could not help but click his tongue inwardly, looking at these elite troops with even greater admiration.

But no one else could understand his feelings. In the distance, Zhao Song watched as the cavalry reached the artillery position and shook his head slightly. "If this were a real battle, the artillery position would be finished. Even if we could annihilate all these cavalry, the losses would still be too great."

"Those worthless fools have shamed us all!" Because it was troops directly under his command that had made such a disgraceful showing, Ma Tongji's face had turned extremely ugly. "They actually let them break through! I will certainly teach them a harsh lesson!"

"Regimental Commander Ma, there is no need to be so angry. This is only a drill," Regimental Commander Bi Su said with a smile, consoling him. "To be fair, it is truly difficult for a single formation to block so many cavalry charges. And if this were real combat, these cavalry would have already suffered enormous casualties against the forward formations and would not be able to exert such great pressure again… Some problems are quite normal. Just train more in the future and it will be fine."

Three-day mini break — no updates. Resuming after work resumes.