Nordic military service immigrants

In the Thirty Years' War in Europe, when a man led an army into the main battlefield in Germany, people laughed at him as a "snowman", meaning that he was a fragile man from a distant snow country, but soon, people found themselves wrong. He advanced all the way in Germany with subtle tactics and appropriate strategies, defeated the imperial star Tilly, dealt a heavy blow to the invincible General wallenstein, and gained control of the Weixi River and the Elbe River, paving the way for the rise of his country. What he did was tantamount to hitting the mocker in the face: who dares to call him a snowman easily? He is the Swedish King Gustav? Adolf. Gustav Adolphus, commonly known as Gustav Adolphus, was the sixth king of the Vaasa dynasty in Sweden. During his reign, Sweden's fragile politics, economy and military were strengthened, and it became a powerful country in northern Europe from a weak country. He himself, because he created new tactics and strategies, had a far-reaching impact on modern European military, and was called "the Nordic lion" and "the father of modern war". History books respect him as a famous military commander and military reformer. As an outstanding strategist, Gustav is proficient in various military technologies, and he is very skilled in the use of infantry, artillery, cavalry, siege warfare and fortifications. He also has superb observation and judgment on the terrain. He is an excellent combat command expert, but what attracts the attention of the world is his military reform. This article is about his achievements in military reform. Before that, we must first understand the situation in Sweden when he succeeded to the throne, which is the reason and basis for his commitment to military reform. 1. Gustav's military reform is the general trend. First of all, force is one of the important means of state power. Gustav ruled in the first half of the17th century, when Europe was in the transition period from feudalism to capitalism. Countries began to realize the importance of the state, trying to get rid of theocracy and gain their own independence. In this process, in order to expand its territory, economic interests and political influence, the country not only relied on cunning diplomatic means, but also resorted to force more, which was more obvious in the Thirty Years' War. To learn about the Thirty Years' War, please refer to the link below. However, when Gustav took over Sweden, it was difficult to defend himself, let alone dominate Europe. Including economic and cultural backwardness, military strength is naturally weak. Outside, because of the battle for the throne (when Gustav's father Duke Carl was alive, his nephew sigismund served as the king of Poland and Sweden respectively, and Carl seized the Swedish throne and became Carl IX, and sigismund was always bitter), Sweden and Poland fought endlessly; For the control of the Baltic Sea, Sweden is in constant conflict with Russia and Denmark. In this case, self-protection cannot be achieved by civilized administration and elegant diplomacy. Only a strong army can guarantee a strong country. Secondly, there is a good foundation for military reform. Externally, the complicated situation facing Sweden did not scare Gustav, who is 0/7 years old. The ambitious and brave monarch personally led his own army and took the initiative to March into the Three Kingdoms. The first battle was Denmark, which ended in failure in Sweden, but Gustav, who learned from the lesson, won the wars with Russia and Poland and finally reached a settlement with the three countries. After years of war, especially the eight-year war of resistance between Sweden and Poland, Gustav's army has withstood the baptism of actual combat and become a powerful force. On this basis, it is natural to make it more optimized and advanced. Internally, he adopted a series of preferential policies to protect people's livelihood and develop the economy. On the one hand, he gave farmers autonomy to avoid excessive oppression and exploitation by nobles, thus preserving the effective strength of the kingdom. On the other hand, he made use of China's rich copper and iron resources to vigorously develop metallurgical industry, allowing industrialists such as blacksmiths and gunners to refuse military service within six years. The development of metallurgical industry promoted the prosperity of other manufacturing industries, accelerated the growth of economic strength, and solved the demand for weapons and equipment in the war. Driven by the above factors, Gustav, who was brave in pioneering and innovative and unwilling to stick to the rules, began to invest national financial resources in national defense construction and devoted himself to the reform of the military system. Second, the main measures and achievements of military reform 1. Reforming the mercenary system at that time, Europe was used to the mercenary system. Using mercenaries has advantages, that is, saving manpower and material resources and having professional combat skills, but its disadvantages are more obvious. They have no national consciousness and will not be loyal to anyone forever. Everything is money-oriented, and whoever bids the highest will go with him, which leads to their instability on the battlefield. Gustav started the conscription system, set up a standing army with free peasants as the main body, and made every effort to build this army. In order to ensure the combat effectiveness, he trained them strictly and systematically, entered the guard team for excellent training, and then was sent to various companies as backbones. In order to strengthen soldiers' sense of belonging, the army was organized in provinces, with place names as the serial number. In order to strengthen discipline, he formulated strict rules and regulations, and all acts such as robbing, insulting women, creating chaos, and running away from the enemy will be sentenced to death; The army cannot disturb the people, the camp should obey the arrangement of local officials, and farmers have the right to arrest soldiers who disturb the order; Soldiers can also appeal to their superiors or directly to the king and so on. In this way, Sweden has a standing army with stable quantity, high quality and strong fighting capacity in a short time. 2. Improve weapons and equipment and improve spears. The traditional spear is 5 meters long, so the user is not easy to turn around and the spear is easy to be cut off. In order to change this disadvantage, Gustav shortened the spear to about 3.6 meters and put an iron sleeve on one end. Improve firearms. At that time, Gustav attached great importance to the humble firearms in traditional tactics. He not only increased the number of firearms used by the army, but also invented a new type of musket. The old matchlock gun weighs/kloc-0.5 to 25 Jin, so it is very inconvenient to fire at the tea stall. Gustav managed to reduce the weight to 1 1 pound, the length of musket to 4 feet, and then to 3 feet. Gears are used for launching, so there is no need for a bracket at all. In order to cooperate with the new firearms, he also invented a paper magazine, that is, a magazine with quantitative charge, which contains carefully weighed gunpowder and pellets, which can save loading time. The improved musket is lighter, easier to load, and the firing speed is much faster than that of matchlock, reaching more than 1 round per minute. Reform artillery. Traditional artillery weighs about half a ton and needs to be loaded by two or three carriages, so it is extremely inflexible to move on the battlefield. Gustav's idea of transforming artillery is to reduce weight and increase flexibility. He invented a gun weighing only 400 Jin, which can be carried by a horse or three or four people, saving time and effort and being much more convenient to use. The artillery cartridge has also been improved, and the loading and launching speed is faster. Change clothes. Infantry gradually abandoned traditional armor and only used helmets, making individual combat more light and flexible. Gustav was also the first to put forward the unification of soldiers' clothing, even if it was only the unification of color. His army is called "Blue Brigade" and "Yellow Brigade" and so on. Swedish army 3. Innovating tactical strategies and optimizing formation preparation. During the Thirty Years' War, Gustav defeated the German famous Tilly in Brittenfield and became famous in World War I, becoming the "Nordic Lion" in people's minds. At that time, it was with his improved combat team that he won the Spanish phalanx used by Germany. This phalanx crushes the enemy with great depth and is known as the "flower of infantry", which has been popular in Europe for a hundred years. According to Wang Feng's Biography of Gustav Adolphus, in the Battle of Breitenfeld, the number of German phalanxes ranged from 13 to 18, and each phalanx 1500 to 2,000 people, with spearmen in the middle, musketeers in the four corners and cavalry on the two wings. A square of 1500 people, maybe 50 people wide and 30 people deep. It is designed for all-round defense, but its disadvantage is that it is too heavy to change the formation in time according to the actual situation, lacks flexibility and is easy to waste firepower. Schematic diagram of Spanish phalanx Gustav's infantry battalion has 408 people, with 265,438+06 spearmen in the middle, 36 people wide and 6 columns deep; There are 96 musketeers on both sides, with a width of 16 and a depth of 6 columns. Under special circumstances, it is also possible that musketeers are distributed on the same side. Under normal circumstances, there are another 96 musketeers as a backup. Several such infantry battalions form a T-shaped brigade (as shown below), the scale and composition can be adjusted at any time according to the situation, which is much lighter and more flexible than the Spanish phalanx. Gustav's sketch map of infantry brigade attaches importance to coordinated operations. Gustav not only mixed various arms into a formation, but also paid attention to the coordinated operation of infantry, artillery and cavalry. In combat, musketeers usually receive a password of "two columns in parallel" The last three lines step into the first line, and the original depth of six columns becomes three columns. Then the first row knelt down, the second row bent down and the third row stood. At one command, the musketeers volley, ensuring strong firepower concentration and giving full play to the advantages of firearms. The musket volley is generally to attack the enemy when the musketeers reload and change their medicine before launching the charge. Gustav was also a pioneer of artillery. 1623 created the first artillery company, 1629 expanded to an artillery regiment composed of six companies, four of which were artillery companies and gunners, 1 company was an engineer, and the rest 1 company was responsible for explosive devices. At the same time, Gustav also strengthened the role of cavalry. He often arranged the cavalry behind the infantry front and mixed with the musketeers. During the battle, gunfire and smoke filled the air, and the cavalry rushed to the center of the enemy line under the cover of smoke, disrupting its formation and retreating quickly. When the second round of artillery fired, they attacked again, but this time the direction of attack became the enemy's wings, and so on. When the cavalry retreat, the musketeers will also provide fire cover. The result of the coordinated operation of infantry, artillery and cavalry is to fully make up for the weak links of loading and retreating, and give full play to the firepower and sprint strength. 4. Improve the supply system. At that time, the European army used the method of "fighting to support war" to supplement military supplies, that is, every time it captured a place, it blackmailed or even burned and looted to obtain military expenses and military supplies, which caused great disasters to the people. Gustav sometimes practiced "fighting to support the war", but in general, he made local governments, churches and nobles pay for it, and resolutely prohibited soldiers from burning, killing and looting. Therefore, although he was an unexpected guest, he was welcomed by people in some areas. More often, Gustav's army relied on fixed supply lines. He built warehouses along the way and assigned special personnel to manage them. Some of the grain and other materials in the warehouse were shipped from Sweden, and some were raised by allies. On the one hand, it reduces the number of vehicles in the army, on the other hand, it does not need to disturb the villagers, thus ensuring the discipline of the army and improving its combat capability. During the Thirty Years' War, the Swiss army gave full play to Gustav's military thought, especially in the Battle of Breitenfeld. He bashed the invincible German army head-on, making the whole of Europe sit up and take notice of the Swedish army, and he himself got the title of "Nordic Lion". After the war, Sweden made a lot of profits, not only expanding its territory, but the Baltic Sea almost became Sweden's inner lake, and it jumped from a small country in a remote and bitter place to a European power. More importantly, under the influence of Gustav's military concept, a new world war mode is taking shape, and the era of all-round firearms war is coming. Its pioneers will undoubtedly be praised by future generations. Napoleon once spoke highly of him, thinking that he could be compared with Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar. Because of his unique ideas and advanced tactics, all the soldiers in Europe have honored him as "the father of modern war". (Image from the Internet) References: Nordic Lions: Biography of Gustav Adolphus, Wang Feng Military Reformer: Gustav Adolphus, Cheng Jinming/KLOC-European Military Reformers in the 0/7th Century-Gustav Adolphus, Gustav of Zhang Xiaoxiao? Adolf ii era: the combination of infantry and artillery, t? n？ Dupuy (USA)