Chapter 143 Changes in the Mode of War

The Russo-Japanese War in 1904 has been completely different from the historical Russo-Japanese War. Affected by the large number of heavy machine guns and the excavation of trenches by both Japan and Russia, the attacking party will suffer great casualties. This is not only reflected in the Battle of Lushun, but also in the Liaoyang Campaign. .

In these two battles, Lushun killed and injured the Japanese army with more machine guns and more complete fortifications than ever before. Just in the front position of the fortress, the Japanese army paid 15,000 people and forced the Japanese army to postpone it for more than a month or even reach Two months of total attack time.

In the direction of Liaoyang, the Japanese attack has also suffered a serious setback. In the two large-scale attacks launched in the past two months, the number of Japanese casualties has reached 30,000.

From the outbreak of the war to early September, the Japanese army has suffered more than 50,000 casualties in the northeast, and thousands of people have suffered from diseases such as athlete's foot.

The Russian army on the opposite side can't go there. The previous battle of the Yalu River, a series of battles in Jinzhou and Dalian on the Liaodong Peninsula in the middle, and the south offensive battle launched to rescue Lushun in June have caused great losses to the Russian army. In the later battle for the front position of Lushun Fortress, the Russian army suffered its own casualties. It is as many as thousands of people. As for the Liaoyang Campaign, it killed 1,000 enemies and lost 800, and the Russian army also killed and injured more than 20,000 people.

This is nothing more casualties than history. What really and history has greatly changed is the beginning of changes in the tactics of both sides. What Zhao Dongyun himself did not expect is that both the Japanese and the Russian army, after discovering the important role of machine guns in the war, both sides were equipped with heavy machine guns on a large scale, and The equipment of a large number of heavy machine guns has led to stronger front-line defense capabilities of both sides.

However, in contrast, the infantry offensive tactics and weapons of the two sides have not been changed accordingly. They still follow the line-line intensive charge tactics of the Franco-Prussian War, which leads to a problem, that is, once they mainly attack and launch an attack, they will be 100% Received huge casualties.

Zhao Dongyun, who returned to Jinzhou from Baoding, also took this opportunity to once again tell his new tactical concept to his group of direct subordinates: "With the general equipment of heavy machine guns, from 24 to 40 or even 70 or 100 in a town in the past, the defense ability of the army is urgent. Drama increases. At this time, if you continue to follow the infantry attack tactics of the Franco-Prussian War, you will encounter the embarrassment of the Japanese and Russian armies today. As long as they launch an attack, they will be slaughtered!"

It is not the first time that Chen Guangyuan and others have heard Zhao Dongyun talk about these so-called new book tactics, but today he listens with a more attentive attitude than ever, for fear of missing any word.

In the past, most of the so-called new tactics and strategic concepts that Chen Guangyuan said to Zhao Dongyun were just listening to, and then at most, he sighed, "I am worthy of being the youngest boss in Beiyang, and his knowledge is really extraordinary", and then showed some curiosity about various so-called new tactics, but often he will not be new ones. Strange things have actual attention.

In the past few years, although many people in Beiyang have heard Zhao Dongyun explain new tactics and so-called new strategic concepts, most of them have only heard a novelty. Except for some of Zhao Dongyun's direct subordinates who will study, most of the other friendly forces ignore it. .

The only difference is probably the heavy machine gun!

Many people only listen, but don't say or do anything. For example, Zhao Dongyun has tossed around the new infantry tactics for more than two years. Now only Zhao Dongyun has promoted them in his third town. At least Yuan Shikai did not support Zhao Dongyun's promotion of the so-called new infantry tactics.

And many times it's not that Yuan Shikai doesn't know whether it's good or bad, but that Yuan Shikai thinks more than Zhao Dongyun. At least Yuan Shikai was moved by the mortar Zhao Dongyun said, but when he found that a town needed hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, he gave up the idea, because now Yuan Shi Kai's top priority is not to equip mortars or even more heavy machine guns, but to get out the fifth and sixth towns before planning other things.

However, this Russo-Japanese War seems to have proved that the various tactical concepts proposed by Zhao Dongyun in the past have become a reality. Three years ago, who in China could have thought that heavy machine guns would become the weapon to determine the victory or defeat of a war?

With the Russo-Japanese War, Zhao Dongyun also felt the need for his officers to take their eyes off the Franco-Prussian War decades ago. As long as they look at the Russo-Japanese War, everyone will find that the infantry tactics during the Franco-Prussian War have completely backward.

Only heard Zhao Dongyun continue: "When the defensive ability far exceeds the offensive ability of contemporary infantry, there will be a stalemate in the Liaoyang War. The two sides begin to dig trenches and build an insurmountable front with machine guns and barbed wire!" At this time, if the infantry want to try to break through the enemy's direction, they must not use the intensive charge tactics of the Franco-Prussian War decades ago!"

At this time, Zhao Dongyun paused for a while and added, "We can't do it now!"

The infantry exercise used in the third town in Zhao Dongyun's hand is different from the infantry exercise in several other towns in Beiyang, but it mainly strengthens the spacing width of infantry and the application of mortars and * direction. In essence, it is not much different from the infantry tactics of contemporary powers.

In fact, if you want to break through the machine gun defense line, it is no longer the task of infantry. In the late World War I, Germany's infantry tactics have almost reached their peak. The penetration tactics they made can't break through the machine gun and barbed wire network on the western front. What can really break through the machine gun defense is not tactics, but a weapon. That's the tank!

Of course, it was too early to say tanks today in 1904, and Zhao Dongyun did not expect that he could own tanks, so his very realistic subordinate officers stated a very important tactical concept:

"If we fight against the enemy, what are we going to do? Is it to break through the enemy's defenses? No, what we need to do is to let the enemy attack our positions and fortresses. As long as the enemy attacks our strong defense line, we will win half!"

Just as the army that can fire the first shot at the nearest distance can win in the era of queuing up to shoot, in the First World War, as long as the enemy can launch a death charge against your strong defense line, then victory will be readily available.

Of course, soldiers from all over the world are not all fools. They will certainly not foolishly hit the enemy's strong positions. Just like the Japanese army in Liaoyang, they also choose to make a circuitous attack when facing the Russian machine gun defense line.

So the remaining question revolves around how to intercept the enemy's detour and how to detour yourself!

However, after talking about the circuit, Meng Enyuan, who has always liked to attack instead of defense, frowned and said, "The circuitous force needs stronger firepower to launch an attack. In addition to mortars and * these indirect support firepower, if the machine gun cannot be directly pulled up to accompany the infantry to launch an attack, it will be suppressed by the enemy's machine gun firepower. It's hard to launch an attack smoothly!"

Hearing Meng Enyuan's words, Zhao Dongyun looked up with a smile: "This is indeed a problem. The existing machine guns are relatively heavy, but we can get machine gun support accompanying the infantry attack by equipping lighter machine guns!"

"Lighter machine gun?" Chen Guangyuan said, "Today's Maxim machine guns and the Hatchers machine guns of the French and Japanese armies are not light in weight, and I haven't heard that they have light models!"

Zhao Dongyun said, "Don't they have it, doesn't mean that there are no others? I have heard that there is a Madsen machine gun in Denmark some time ago. The empty gun is only about nine kilograms. Although the speed of fire and fire persistence ability are not as good as Maxim's machine guns, it is still a qualified infantry fire support weapon. I Fuyuan Machinery Factory has been asked to contact them.

Medson light machine gun, this machine gun can be regarded as the first practical and mass-produced light machine gun. It began to be designed a few years ago. This year, Denmark began mass production and officially equipped troops. As soon as it was launched, it attracted the attention of many countries. It was in the Russo-Japanese War, and Russia was the first time to buy machine guns all over the world. I placed an order.

However, it has not been long since the Madsen light machine gun appeared. Although it has attracted the attention of many countries, there is no large-scale equipment for the time being, and even Denmark itself is not equipped much.

Hearing Zhao Dongyun say that it weighs only about nine kilograms, they all showed a curious look. You know, the current Mark Qin machine gun is dozens of kilograms. Usually, let alone let soldiers carry them to accompany the infantry to charge, even the usual march has to be taken apart to let the horses carry mules or be carried in the carriage, but in fact In the war, it is not even as light as the 80mm mortar. Although the 80mm mortar needs to be transported by horses during the march, it is split and carried by soldiers in actual combat, and the transfer speed is relatively convenient.

Immediately, Chen Guangyuan, Meng Enyuan and others said that since they have this kind of offensive weapon, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and place an order to import!

But it's not that easy. As soon as the Madsen light machine gun was launched, it attracted the attention of various countries. Denmark's own orders, Russian orders, other European countries and even Latin American countries have been targeted. It is estimated that the orders have been piled up with Madsen's desks. Even if you want to get the goods now, it is estimated that It will be after next year.

Besides, the number of light machine guns in an army is far more than that of machine guns. Hundreds of heavy machine guns may be imported directly, but hundreds of light machine guns are often hundreds of thousands, and more importantly, this Madsen light machine gun is very expensive, and the specific machine gun is slightly cheaper. However, compared with other light machine guns in later generations, the price difference is very large.

For this expensive light machine gun, Zhao Dongyun never thought of relying on imports. His idea is to import a small amount as before, and then buy a patent to authorize his own production.