The general has not yet returned the edge, and the huxiang disciples are full of heavenly mountains. The newly planted willows are three thousand miles, attracting the spring wind to cross the jade pass - Zuo Zongtang
Zuo Zongtang, one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, was also the god of war in the late Qing Dynasty, internally, he participated in the Pacification of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, and externally, he was involved in the recovery of Xinjiang, and rarely lost in his life.
Zuo Zongtang's ability to achieve such achievements was inseparable from his ideas at that time, and this minister who founded the Foreign Affairs Movement had a very strong ability to accept new things in the West, especially in weapons and equipment, Zuo Zongtang's troops were rarely equipped with guns in large quantities at that time, which was reflected in zuo Zongtang's western expedition.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > foreign guns and cannons into the Qing army</h1>
The Opium War completely broke the Qing Dynasty's self-confidence in the Eight Banners soldiers, and in the face of powerful weapons, the previously unstoppable cavalry became the easiest living target to hit, and every time a battle occurred, it often only took an hour or two to end.
And this also made many ministers see the power of foreigners' weapons, if they want to defeat others, they must work hard to learn the strengths of others, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War has become the best touchstone.
At home, with Li Hongzhang as the leader, a large number of officials began to try to equip their troops with new weapons and learn new tactics, and indeed achieved miraculous results, and among these new troops, naturally included the Chu army under Zuo Zongtang.
Because all the purchase of new weapons at that time was carried out privately, the specific number of each unit could not be counted specifically, but during Zuo Zongtang's Western Expedition, his true strength was exposed, and according to a record, the number of various types of firearms in Zuo Zongtang's western expedition at that time reached a staggering 20,000.
Not only that, the guns mentioned in this recital were very advanced breech guns at that time, and such firearms were conventional weapons in service even in western armies, in addition, Zuo Zongtang's troops also had a large number of breech guns.
However, the number of guns does not explain the problem very intuitively, and to know the real combat effectiveness and advanced degree of Zuo Zongtang's troops, it is necessary to have a very important data, that is, the proportion.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > terrible Chu army</h1>
In a unit, the most able to express combat effectiveness is the proportion of new equipment, when a unit of 10,000 people has 10,000 new weapons, and his combat effectiveness of more than 100,000 troops has 10,000 new weapons, then zuo Zongtang's Chu army, what is the proportion of equipment for new breech guns?
Putting aside some special branches of the army, the official understanding of the Chu army at that time was about 70,000 people, and the configuration of 20,000 breech guns reached about 30% of the whole, which was very high, and even high by some Western armies.
And this is only the breech gun, if you count the breech gun that Zuo Zongtang already has in his hand, the gun configuration of the Chu army can almost reach 70% or more, and this combat effectiveness can be completely fought hard with the same number of Western armies without falling behind, and the combat effectiveness is very fierce.
In contrast, the target of Zuo Zongtang's western expedition was Agubai, and the number of equipment was slightly inferior.
In terms of overall strength, the number of Agubai's soldiers reached 50,000, and the Chu army that fought Zuo Zongtang with yi waiting for labor can be regarded as equal, but in terms of equipment, Agubai's equipment is more than a little worse.
At that time, Agubai's army also had a large number of firearms and weapons, but they were all flintlock guns that were even more backward than the breech guns, both in range and power were much worse, belonging to the weapons of the same era as the bow and arrow, although after learning the news of Zuo Zongtang's departure, the British timely aided him with ten thousand British rifles, and the overall equipment gap was still very large.
If in terms of firearms, Zuo Zongtang achieved a steady victory, then in terms of heavy weapons, Zuo Zongtang achieved crushing, in order to achieve large-scale, long-distance killing, Zuo Zongtang also carried three types of heavy weapons: splitting mountain cannons, lifting guns and breech guns.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > heavy weapon in the Chu army</h1>
If the breech gun represents the advancement of the Chu army, then the split mountain cannon and the raised gun represent the backwardness of the Chu army.
The split mountain cannon originated from the Qianlong period, it is an uncompromising parallel cargo weapon, the overall power is very poor, and it is even better to directly throw some explosives, but the split mountain cannon has two major advantages, so Zuo Zongtang carried a large number of them in this western expedition.
On the one hand, compared with the breech gun, the price of the split mountain gun is very cheap, even if it is purchased in large quantities, Zuo Zongtang will not be distressed, but can save military expenses to buy more breech guns.
On the other hand, the split mountain cannon is very easy to carry, no matter what kind of terrain can be unimpeded, in contrast, the seemingly powerful breech gun is very dragging on the long march, so Zuo Zongtang's western expedition only carried 20 breech guns as decisive weapons to use.
Similar to the split mountain cannon, Zuo Zongtang carrying a gun is also considering the road of this western expedition, the gun can be understood as a large size, requiring two people to use a large firearm, although the gun is relatively backward, but the victory is huge at close range, not only has penetration, the bullet shot is still a fan, can cause a devastating blow to the cavalry and heavy infantry.
However, these are not Zuo Zongtang's killer skills, Zuo Zongtang's biggest killer skill is the Gatling machine gun purchased by Hu Xueyan before the expedition, which was a real world-class weapon at that time.
Unlike the water-cooled heavy machine guns of World War II, the Gatlings at that time were still "bulky" weapons, which needed to be equipped with two wheels on the side to move, but in contrast, the Gatlings were much more terrifying, and the full-power Gatling could even shoot directly through the stone walls, and the real effect on the battlefield was better than the breech gun.
It has to be said that advanced equipment is an important factor in Zuo Zongtang's victory in the Western Expedition, but according to the current perspective, the equipment of the Chu Army can be described in four words: the combination of earth and ocean.
In the impression of many people, the last years of the Qing Dynasty have always been the representative of backwardness, but in fact, many people, especially many officials of the Qing Dynasty, are trying to connect with the world, new guns, new warships have been owned, and the Qing Dynasty once had combat effectiveness comparable to that of Western powers.
But unfortunately, it was the national strength that ultimately decided the war, and the fragile national strength of the Qing Dynasty eventually let the ideas of these generals be in vain, just like Zuo Zongtang's favorite Gatlin.
As a user, Zuo Zongtang personally witnessed the huge power of Gatling, a fully loaded Gatling machine gun, which could annihilate at least three thousand Taiping Heavenly Kingdom troops, and in land warfare, Gatling at that time was invincible at medium and close range.
Unfortunately, compared with the power, Gatlin's burning speed is also terrible, every battle, Gatling's consumption of bullets, equivalent to at least three hundred breech guns, and the Qing army at that time, even if the Qing army at that time had heavy weapons such as Gatling, in the end it was still trapped in the supply of bullets, unable to exert the power of these weapons.