Everyone knows that in the course of combat, there is almost no difference in material losses between the winner and the loser, and sometimes the loss of the winner is even greater than that of the loser. The heaviest loss of the loser only occurs after the retreat, and the victor cannot have this kind of loss. The surviving troops, depressed, were dispersed by the cavalry. The tired soldiers fell to the ground and abandoned the damaged artillery and ammunition carts. The undamaged troops were unable to advance quickly due to poor roads, and were chased by the enemy's cavalry. At night, the small unit lost its way and fell easily into the enemy's hands. The results of this kind of victory mostly appear after the victory has been determined. In this case, the following explanation must be made to make it clear.
In fact, in addition to material losses during the battle between the two sides, there are also mental losses, such as mental stimulation, contusion, and even collapse across the board. Therefore, whether the battle can continue, we must consider not only the damage of troops, horses, and artillery, but more importantly, the damage to order, courage, confidence, and internal connections and deployment. In this case, spiritual power plays a decisive role, especially when the material losses of both parties are basically equal, it is these spiritual powers that play a decisive role.
It is very difficult to compare the damage to the physical strength of both parties during the battle, but it is much easier to compare the damage to the mental strength. The following two points can clarify this comparison: first, whether the combat area is lost; second, whether the enemy’s reserve has an advantage. Our reserve team is less than the enemy reserve team, which shows that we use more troops to ensure the victory of the war, which leads to the enemy's spiritual advantage. This situation often makes the commander feel distressed and underestimates his own troops. the power of. But the main problem is that the troops after a long battle will almost be like burnt out cinders. The bullets are exhausted, the formation is scattered, the physical strength and energy are exhausted, and even the courage is greatly frustrated. For such troops, let alone the reduction in their numbers, even as an organic whole, they have fallen far short of the previous ones. Therefore, we can measure the loss of mental strength according to the consumption of the reserve team.
The two main reasons for the decision to retreat were the loss of the area and the lack of reserves. Of course, in addition to these two major reasons, other factors will also cause the troop to retreat, such as the connection between the troop and the troop, and the destruction of the entire combat plan.
Any battle is a kind of contest, they are carried out by the way of bloodshed and destruction by the material and spiritual power of both sides. Which side has the most power left, he is the winner.
In the course of battle, the main reason for determining the victory or defeat is the increase and loss of mental power. After deciding the victory or defeat, the mental strength will continue to be damaged, and it will not reach the extreme until the end of the whole action. Therefore, damaging the enemy's spiritual power is also a better way to consume the enemy's material power to obtain benefits, and the real purpose of fighting is to obtain such benefits. When the army formation is chaotic and unable to coordinate actions, the resistance of individual units will be useless. When the courage of the entire army is frustrated, the original tension of not being afraid of danger and striving for gain or loss will become relaxed. At this time, for most people, danger will not only inspire courage, but will become a maddening punishment. Therefore, once the army sees the enemy's victory, their strength will be frustrated and their spirit will be greatly reduced. It is simply a fantasy to rely on danger to inspire their courage.
The winner must take advantage of this favorable opportunity to gain real material benefits from the crowd. Because only such material benefits are the most real and reliable. It is necessary to know that the mental strength of the loser can be gradually restored, the formation can be re-established, and the courage will rise again; and the winner can only retain a very small part of the spirit. Even a very small part of the advantages obtained cannot be retained in some cases. Especially in very rare cases, due to the strong vengeance and hatred of the loser, it will make the winner feel terrified. On the other hand, in terms of killing, capturing the enemy, and capturing enemy weapons, no one can erase the benefits that a victor has.
If it is said that the main loss during the battle is the casualties, then the losses after the battle mainly include the damage and loss of artillery, and the capture of personnel. The former loss exists between the winner and the loser, but the amount is different, while the latter loss is completely different. It usually only exists on the loser. At least the loser's loss is much greater than the winner.
Therefore, the captured artillery and captured personnel are the real trophies under any circumstances, and at the same time can be used as a measure of victory, because they can clearly see the size of the victory. Even the size of the victor's spiritual advantage can be seen clearly from this aspect. If you compare it with the number of casualties, you can see it more clearly. Therefore, sometimes captured artillery and captured personnel can also generate a new kind of spiritual power.
As mentioned earlier, in the war and in the retreat after the war, the mental strength frustrated can be gradually restored, and sometimes it can even be restored intact. But this only applies to a small part of the whole. As for the large part of the whole, that's another matter. Even if this is possible for most of the military, from the perspective of the country and government to which the military belongs, there is almost no such possibility. For the country and the government, when they judge the problem, they start from the overall situation, and the evaluations they make are almost without any personal bias. According to the amount of spoils obtained by the other party, compare these spoils with the number of casualties, it is not difficult to find The degree of weakness of one's own army.
In short, although the weakening of mental power has no absolute value, and it may not be shown in the final result, we still have to pay attention to it. Sometimes the weakening of spiritual power can become a very important factor, which overrides all other factors. . Therefore, weakening the enemy's mental power is often an important goal in military operations, and we will discuss this in other chapters. But here, we need to study several basic aspects of it.
As the number of defeated troops increases, the mental effect of victory will increase, but the mental effect will increase in a greater proportion, that is, both in range and intensity. It is easier for a defeated division to restore order. If it is allowed to lean on a larger army, it will easily regain its courage, just as it is easy to warm up with frozen hands and feet close to the body. Although the mental effect of failure has not completely disappeared, it is no longer visible to the enemy. Of course, if the entire army fails in a battle, it will be powerless. Because it will lead to the collapse of every aspect of the entire army. Therefore, the heat emitted by a large fire cannot be compared with the heat emitted by a few small fires.
The comparison of forces between the two sides can also affect the spiritual effect of victory. Winning more with less not only kills two birds with one stone, but also shows that the victor has a greater and more comprehensive advantage that discourages the defeated. But in fact this effect is very hidden. At the beginning of the operation, it is often impossible to accurately estimate the actual strength of the enemy, and there may be errors in the estimation of its own strength. In addition, the party with the superior strength can also deny this gap in strength, or conceal all the strength of the superiority for a long time. the truth. In this way, he can prevent adverse mental effects due to this. At that time, this kind of spiritual power that was deceived by vanity and strategy and produced more victory with less was mostly discovered by people in history after the passage of time. Therefore, this undoubtedly adds luster to this army that wins more with less, and its commander; however, this spiritual force has no effect on the historical event itself that has long since become a thing of the past.
It should be said that the captured personnel and artillery are the main signs of victory and the final crystallization of victory. Therefore, we must pay special attention to this point when organizing battles. Here, destroying the enemy by means of killing is only a means.
What kind of influence this point can have on the deployment of battles is not part of the strategic category; however, this point is closely related to the decision-making of the strategy to the battle, which is mainly manifested in how to protect oneself and at the same time threaten the enemy’s back. On one issue. If you can protect your own back and threaten the enemy's back, you will certainly be able to capture more enemies and capture more artillery. In many cases, it is difficult to do this without a sound strategy and only relying on tactics.
To be forced to fight on both sides of the enemy is undoubtedly dangerous; if there is no retreat, it will cause more serious danger. Both of these situations can lead to paralysis of the army's movement and weaken its resistance, thereby affecting the outcome. Especially in the event of defeat, these two dangers will greatly aggravate the loss of the army, and even bring the loss to the limit, that is, the entire army will be wiped out. Therefore, being threatened behind can cause very serious and unimaginable consequences.
Therefore, in the entire combat process, especially in the various parts of the battle, people naturally think of protecting their own back and threatening the enemy's back. This instinct is inevitable to win and defend against attacks, and the concept of victory here cannot be equated with simply killing and wounding the enemy.
We believe that working hard to protect ourselves and trying to threaten the enemy is one of the very urgent tasks in the battle, and it is a task that must be achieved. In any battle, in addition to a simple hard charge, the above two or one of the measures must be taken, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous. Even the smallest troops must first consider their retreat before attacking the enemy. In most cases, people think more about cutting off the enemy's retreat.
Although this is an instinctive requirement, it is often not smoothly implemented under complex and changeable circumstances, and when encountering difficulties, it is often necessary to sacrifice this point and obey other more important considerations, etc. If we are concerned about this If the problem is studied in detail, it will be too far from the topic. Here, we only need to make people clear that this instinctive requirement is a universal law in battle.
This instinctive requirement takes effect everywhere and often makes people feel its pressure, so it has undoubtedly become one of the centers that all tactical and strategic maneuvers must surround.
Next, let's discuss the general concept of victory, including at least the following three points:
(1) The enemy's material power loss is greater than ours;
(2) The loss of the enemy's mental power is greater than ours;
(3) The enemy was completely defeated and was forced to admit the above two points.
The reports on casualties from both sides must have a certain amount of water. There are not many true reports. In many cases, they are deliberately false reports. Even the number of trophies announced is not very true. It can be inferred from this that if the number of reported trophies is small, there may be no victory at all. If you want to measure the loss of mental power, you can only use the spoils as a measure, and there is no proper measure to measure it. Therefore, in many cases, the only conclusive proof of one party's victory is that the other party has given up fighting. So lowering the flag is tantamount to telling people that they were wrong in this battle and that the enemy was right, and they were willing to go down. This surrender and shame of the losing party is different from all other spiritual consequences caused by the loss of balance of power. It is an important part of the victory of the other side, because it happens to have a great influence on public opinion, as well as the people and governments of belligerent countries and all allies.
At the same time, we must make it clear that withdrawing from the battlefield does not necessarily mean abandoning the intention, even after a tenacious and protracted battle. If an outpost finally retreats through a stubborn resistance, we would definitely not say that it gave up its intentions. Including in a battle whose ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy's army, it is not easy to think that withdrawing from the battlefield means giving up the intention. For example, a pre-planned retreat is not a retreat in a pure sense, but an enemy retreat while still destroying the enemy. These issues will be discussed when we study the special purpose of combat. Here we just want to tell people that in many cases, it is difficult to distinguish between abandoning the intention and withdrawing from the battlefield. The impression of withdrawing from the battlefield inside and outside the army must be taken seriously.
For some ordinary commanders and troops, when they must decide to retreat, they are often unwilling to do so. Because if you continue to retreat in a series of battles, even if you do not fail in fact, others will definitely think that you are retreating steadily. The impact of this impression is very unfavorable. Because it is impossible for the retreat to express his special intentions to everyone, thereby eliminating this spiritual influence. Unless he discloses all his plans, it is difficult to avoid this influence. There is no doubt that this is completely contrary to his fundamental interests.
By recalling the Battle of Sol, everyone will notice the special significance of this concept of victory. In this battle, very few spoils were obtained, only a few thousand prisoners and twenty artillery pieces. At that time, after Frederick the Great considered the whole situation, he changed his plan of retreat to Silesia and deliberately stayed on the battlefield for five days and declared victory by this. As he himself said, he believes that using the spiritual effect of this victory is very beneficial to the conclusion of the contract. Although the contract was concluded in Lausitz’s Katolich-Hennesdorf battle and after several more victories in the Battle of Kerselsdorf, we must admit that the Battle of Sol was born. The spiritual effect.
If victory leads to a mental breakdown of the enemy, the spoils won will greatly increase. For the other side, the defeated battle becomes a tragic defeat. At this time, the spirit of the loser is often disintegrated, completely losing the ability to resist, and the final result can only be retreat and then retreat.
The Battle of Jena and the Battle of Waterloo are the best examples of this fiasco, while the Battle of Borodino was not.
The difference between a fiasco and a general failure is only in the degree of failure, we don't need to look for signs that divide them. However, recognizing concepts is an important part of clarifying theoretical concepts, and this must be clear. If we use the same word to express the victory achieved when the enemy fails miserably and the victory achieved when the enemy fails in general, it can only prove the shortcomings of our terminology and leave it to be solved later.
The meaning of fighting
In the previous section, we studied the absolute form of combat, that is, we studied combat as a microcosm of the entire war; next, we will study the relationship between combat and other parts from a broad perspective. First of all, we have to explore the directness of combat. significance.
Many people believe that since war is an act of mutual elimination by the two opposing parties, both parties only need to concentrate all their forces and then solve all problems through a large-scale battle. This is true in theory, and it seems to be true in reality. We do not deny that this view is indeed correct in many ways. If we insist on this view, it is not unreasonable to treat the first small battles as a kind of necessary depletion. However, the problem is not as simple as imagined.
If the military strength is divided, the number of battles will naturally increase, so we must discuss the direct purpose of each battle and the division of military strength together. However, most of these goals and battles with these goals can be classified. In order to clarify our argument, it is now necessary to clarify their categories.