Waterloo was Napoleon's last battle.
Engels once commented on Napoleon's Waterloo war plan: "This war plan is a near-perfect masterpiece. ”
If it's very beautiful, why does it end up failing?
That's what war resistance is at play. The so-called resistance to war, that is, at any time, anywhere, it is possible to encounter some unexpected and irresistible resistance by manpower, although it does not need to be through direct confrontation, it can become an obstacle to war in a relatively flexible and easing way, and directly lead to the final defeat of war.
Napoleon
At the beginning of the Battle of Waterloo, napoleon continued to pursue the British army led by Wellington after defeating the combined forces of Britain and Prussia with a destructive force, but just when he was about to win a great victory, sudden snow fell from the sky, hindering Napoleon's march, and Wellington also took the opportunity to quickly retreat to the Waterloo area to build a defensive offensive.
After that, there was the Battle of Waterloo, which was repeatedly studied by successive military theorists and sat firmly at the top of the negative textbooks of major military academies.
Although Napoleon's army also had problems in this campaign, the lack of duty of major generals, and the low quality of the officers and men of the temporary organization, the last straw that overwhelmed Napoleon was the impact of the bad weather that could not be changed by manpower at that time.
Because the "Hundred Days Dynasty" was very hasty in preparation for war and had no time to deal with the resistance to war brought by nature, "Waterloo" became a military synonym for the military that, although the plan was perfect, it eventually lost the city of Mai.
The French literary scholar Victor Hugo issued such an exclamation when he was hanging on the ancient battlefield of Waterloo, saying: "A few more drops of rain or a few few drops of rain determine the success or failure of Napoleon." Just a dark cloud crossing the sky against the season is enough to bring a world to its knees. ”
Of course, this is only an idealized sentiment of a culturalist, because war is never so orderly. If you can't think through the difficulties and make complete preparations, and hope that any time and place are favorable and you will cooperate with your own plan, this is simply a fantasy.
Hugo
Because, before the war, you may make the plan very perfect, but the plan can never catch up with the change, and the resistance to the war is also like a shadow, which requires the combat commander to always know it.
So, how do you overcome this problem?
In addition to thinking of the difficulties more complicated and the preparations more adequately, Clausewitz also said: "War exercise is the lubricating oil to reduce the resistance of war." That is to say, it is necessary to strengthen actual combat drills.
However, there are often not many opportunities for actual combat, and it is impossible for ordinary countries and armies to be like the United States, who will often find some weak and small countries to train their hands, and as a righteous division, the only way at this time is to do a good job in actual combat drills in peacetime, and through this method to overcome war resistance, so as to "train like combat and fight like training."
So, where should this kind of actual combat drill start?
In practice, this resistance mainly contains four aspects: the first is the danger. Swords and swords are everywhere, and blood and sacrifice are about to be shed at any time, so this danger will bring great psychological pressure to the combatants; the second is fatigue. He is not only an intellectual work, but also a physical work, which consumes a lot of human physical strength and energy; the third is that the intelligence is not accurate. War is full of fog; the fourth is difficulty and accident. War is full of all kinds of accidents, all kinds of accidents.
This is the specific direction and important starting point of the actual combat exercise. The most important of these is the spiritual factor, which is what we often say: "The military is not too hard to collapse, and the political is not hard to defeat itself." Politics addresses the spiritual element.
Napoleon once famously said: "There are only two great forces in the world, the sword and the heart, and in the long run, the sword is always defeated by the heart." ”
Clausewitz likens the relationship between spiritual and material factors to a knife, saying: "The material factor is only the handle of this knife, and the one who can really kill people and see blood is the spiritual factor, he is the blade of this knife." ”
Among various spiritual factors, Clausewitz greatly respects the role of military martial virtue, which is what we often say: "Those who are officials must have official morality, those who are teachers must have teacher morality, those who are doctors must have medical ethics, and those who are soldiers must have martial virtue."
So, what is Wude? "For individuals, it mainly refers to the spirit of complete dedication and superb military technology; for the army, it mainly refers to the style of uniting and fighting, the style of bravely moving forward, and the spirit of victory and defeat."
Wude has five elements: one is bravery, the second is loyalty, the third is unity, the fourth is strength, and the fifth is ability. Only with these five points can this unit have martial virtue and can it accomplish many great feats. Because "military martial virtue is one of the most important spiritual forces in war."
Clausewitz
The Ancient Roman Empire was a very large empire in ancient history.
Ancient Rome was able to build an empire because its Roman legions were very powerful. During the republican period, this legion cherished honor, loyalty and unity, bravery and sincerity.
But why did the Roman Empire later perish?
There are many theorists in the West who are exploring this reason. Jomini analysis said: "In the era of Sipia, that is, the republican period and peak period of Rome, the soldiers of the Roman legions did not feel fatigued when they fought under the scorching heat of Africa, so they were daunting. However, when he later fought in the cool and pleasant weather of Germania and Gaul, he suddenly felt that the armor was too heavy, and the end of the Roman Empire came. ”
In other words, they were able to build an empire because of the martial virtues they possessed, and the eventual demise of the empire was also because they lost them.
Warriors of the Roman Empire in armor
Therefore, in contemporary times, our Chinese military attaches great importance to the cultivation of core values of military personnel. It is required that all servicemen must be loyal to the party, love the people, serve the country, dedicate themselves to the mission, and advocate honor, which is to cultivate the martial virtue of our contemporary Chinese soldiers.
Of course, the cultivation of martial arts is not only a matter for the army, but for the whole country. Because the deep foundation for the formation and development of an army rank lies in the martial spirit of the nation and the national character of a nation.
Clausewitz said: "The reason why an army can have a bold spirit may be because this nation already has this spirit." "In ancient times, our country had the so-called Han and Tang dynasties, and in modern times, our national character began to have weaknesses.
Therefore, we began to call on us to build a young China, to be flesh and blood, and the country also began to attach importance to constantly injecting our national nature with the national genes of daring to struggle, daring to sacrifice, and daring to win. It began to declare war on the phenomenon of "false brides" and the phenomenon of "rice circles", and completely corrected the new four phenomena of "feminization of men, childization of women, pets of children, and aristocratization of pets".
Revolutionary soldiers of the new era
In addition, there is another negative phenomenon that many people in contemporary society are happy to deny the various heroes in our history, and the smear of heroes by these historical nihilists is a great destruction of our Chinese national character. Because when the style of advocating heroes declines day by day, the martial spirit of a nation will gradually be corroded.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said, "A nation's character is judged not only by what kind of people it has cultivated, but also by what kind of people its people choose to pay homage to." ”
Therefore, the rise of our contemporary China is not only to enrich the country, not only to strengthen the army, but also to strengthen the people.
I wonder what you think about that? Feel free to leave your insights in the comments section!