Although all of the above are important, they should not be considered complicated and difficult to grasp. On the contrary, all this is very simple. It does not need to use too much ingenious art, but only needs to have the ability to keenly judge various phenomena, courage, firm and consistent spirit, and the vigor to dare to do something. A vigorous spirit, in short, must possess the heroic spirit we often talk about. In this regard, the commander rarely needs knowledge from books. If he can learn a little knowledge, in addition to books, more must be done through other channels.
If you want to carry out the main battle, if you want to actively and confidently carry out actions in the main battle, in addition to having confidence in your own strength, you must also have a correct understanding of the inevitable laws. In other words, you must be born with The courage to come, and the keen insight gained from a wealth of life experience.
The best teachers are brilliant battles, but don't let theoretical prejudices obscure these battles like dark clouds, because although sunlight can pass through dark clouds, it will also produce refraction and discoloration. Sometimes these prejudices will spread like miasma, so crushing these prejudices is the urgent task of theory, because intellectual errors can only be eliminated by reason.
Strategically use the means of victory
Maximizing the preparation for victory is hard work, and merit is made in obscurity by strategy. In this regard, the strategy has hardly received any praise, and only by using the victories that have been achieved can the strategy show its brilliance and glory.
What will be the special purpose of the battle? What will be its impact on the entire military operation? How to win in various situations? Where is the final position of victory? We will discuss this series of issues later. However, if there is no pursuit in the battle, any victory cannot have a huge effect; no matter how short the development of the victory is, there will always be a preliminary pursuit time. This is true in all cases. In order not to repeat this point, we want to briefly talk about the task that will inevitably follow after the victory is decided.
When the enemy abandons the battle and withdraws from the position, the pursuit of the defeated enemy begins. As for the alternate advancement or retreat actions of the two sides that occurred before this, none of them can be called pursuit, but only attributed to the course of the battle itself. At the moment when one side abandons the battle and leaves the position, although the victory has been confirmed, its scale is often small, and its effect is not obvious. If you do not pursue the day to expand the victory, then victory in many ways will not have a more positive impact and greater benefits. As mentioned before, through this pursuit, you can obtain the spoils that are used to reflect victory in most cases. First, let's talk about this pursuit.
All activities on the eve of the battle are urgent. Therefore, usually before entering the battle, the physical strength of the armed forces of the two warring parties has been greatly weakened. The army may be exhausted, because long-term fighting requires a lot of physical strength. In addition, the winner is not much better than the loser in terms of scattered forces and scattered formations. Therefore, it is necessary to rectify, gather the separated personnel, and replenish ammunition for the soldiers who have run out of bullets. All this puts the victor in a critical moment as well. This is what we have said before. If only a subordinate part of the enemy force is defeated, they are likely to be contained by the main force, and they may also receive powerful reinforcements. Obviously, the victor is in danger of losing victory at any time. In this case, the winner realizes the danger and will immediately stop pursuing, and at least establish a pursuing limit. Even if the victor does not have to worry that the loser will receive assistance, in the face of the above-mentioned crisis, it will greatly limit the victor’s pursuit power; even if the victor does not have to worry about losing victory, unfavorable battles may still occur, vested interests It may still be reduced. In addition, the physical needs and weaknesses of soldiers will inevitably put more pressure on the commander’s will. Thousands of soldiers under the command of the commander all need to rest and replenish their physical strength. They all have requirements for temporarily stopping the offensive and avoiding danger. Only a few people, like the commander-in-chief, can see and think of farther goals; only they have the leeway to exert their strength, and after completing the necessary tasks, they can think of even greater results. In the eyes of others, these results are already glorified victories. Luxury. However, there will be people around the commander who will reflect the voices of thousands of people, because the vital interests of the commanders at all levels will be faithfully passed on to the commander. What's more, the commander's own spirit is also very tense, and the body is also very tired, which will more or less weaken his inner activities. Therefore, because of this kind of human nature, what people actually do is often much less than what they can do, and only the part required by the honor of the Supreme Commander is done. This can explain why many commanders hesitate to continue to expand the victory after winning the victory with superior forces. In our opinion, the initial pursuit after victory is generally limited to the day, and should not exceed that night at the latest. Because after this time, you have to rest, so you must stop the pursuit under any circumstances.
The initial stage of pursuit can be divided into the following types in terms of its degree:
First, chase with cavalry. This kind of pursuit is mainly used to threaten and monitor the enemy, rather than to chase the enemy, because in this case, hindering the pursuer's advancement is often only possible with smaller terrain obstacles. Although the cavalry is capable of attacking scattered troops in an army whose spirit has been shocked and weakened, it can only be used as an auxiliary unit when chasing the enemy’s overall army, because the enemy can use the cover of the reserve army to retreat and rely on it. Small terrain obstacles unite various arms to effectively resist. The only exception here is the completely disintegrated army that really flees.
Second, the pursuit of strong avant-garde composed of various arms. Most cavalry must of course participate in this pursuit. This pursuit can force the enemy to retreat to his defender, or the army's next position. Generally speaking, the loser will not have the opportunity to take advantage of this position immediately, so the winner can continue pursuing, but most of the travels of no more than one hour, no more than two to three hours at most, otherwise, the avant-garde will There are concerns about insufficient assistance.
Third, this is the most powerful one, and the victor pours all his forces into continuous pursuit. In this case, even if the loser can use terrain obstacles to stop the pursuit, once he perceives that the opponent is ready to attack or adopt circuitous tactics, he will automatically abandon most of the positions. As for his defender, he will not have the courage to resist tenaciously. Up.
In all three cases, even if the entire pursuit has not ended, if night has arrived, the pursuit will usually stop. As for the very few overnight pursuits, they must be regarded as extremely violent special pursuits.
If people think that night battles are more or less dependent on contingency, and when the battle draws to a close, the normal connection of all links and the normal steps of the battle will inevitably be severely damaged, then it is not difficult to understand why Both commanders will be afraid if they continue to fight at night. Unless the loser has completely disintegrated, or the victor’s army has extraordinary military ethics and can achieve victory with complete confidence, otherwise, all actions in the night battle can only rely on luck, and this is any commander, even the most impulsive. The commander did not want to take action. Therefore, it usually stops pursuing at night, even if it is decided not long before dark that the victory will be defeated. The dark night can directly give the loser a chance to rest and reintegrate the troops, or if he wants to continue to retreat at night, the dark night will help him get rid of the enemy. When dawn comes, it is also when the situation of the loser is clearly improving. At this time, most of the soldiers who broke apart returned to the army, the ammunition was replenished, and the entire army was restored to its original order. In this case, if he intends to continue fighting with the original victor, then this will be a new battle, not a continuation of the previous battle. Even if the loser does not get a better situation in this battle, it is still counted as a new battle, rather than the victor clearing the endgame of the previous battle.
Therefore, in the case that the victor can pursue overnight, even if it only relies on the powerful avant-garde force composed of various arms to pursue the pursuit, the effect of victory can be significantly expanded. The Battle of Leden and the Battle of Waterloo are the best proof.
All activities of this kind of pursuit are basically tactical activities. The reason why we talk about it is to make us more clearly aware that the effect of victory through pursuit is different from other effects.
In the initial pursuit, forcing the enemy to retreat to his next position is the power of all victors and is not restricted by future plans and circumstances. These plans and circumstances may greatly reduce the victory of the victor's main battle, but they will not hinder this kind of initial pursuit of victory. Even if we imagine that there may be such cases, at least such cases are so rare that they can be ignored in theory. Here, we must admit that modern warfare has opened up a whole new field of activity for the force of the army. In the past wars that were smaller and more limited, the pursuit, like all other activities, was bound to be subject to an unnecessary and customary restriction. For the commander-in-chief at that time, the most important thing was the concept of victory and the glory of victory, so that when they achieved victory, they rarely thought of how to truly destroy the enemy's army. In their view, the elimination of the enemy's army is only one of the many means of war, and it has never been the most important means, let alone the only means. Once the enemy hangs the sword, they will naturally insert their sword into the scabbard. In their view, once the victory or defeat is known, it is only natural to stop fighting; continuing to bleed means unnecessary consumption. This seemingly benevolent theory is actually a false theory. Although it is not the only basis for people to make all decisions, it can produce such an easily accepted and dominant view that both sides have exhausted their forces and the military It is impossible to continue to fight. If a commander has only one army, and this army will encounter unfinished tasks in the near future-in the offensive, every step forward will encounter this situation-then he will naturally cherish this very much. A tool for winning. However, it is obvious that this is a wrong estimation, because in the process of pursuing, the loss of oneself is much smaller than the loss suffered by the opponent. The reason why this view is repeated is that people did not eliminate the enemy. The army is regarded as the main task. Therefore, we have seen that in previous wars, only real heroes such as Charles XII, Marlborough, Eugen, and Frederick the Great, will still take strong actions immediately after the victory or defeat has been decided. Pursue, and most commanders will feel very satisfied as long as they occupy the battlefield. In modern times, the factors that led to wars have become more and more complicated, and the fighting has become more fierce, so that this restraint of conformity has been broken. As a result, the pursuit became the main task of the victor, thus greatly increasing the number of trophies. If in modern battles, there is no pursuitThe elephant still exists, so it is only a very isolated example, and this is often caused by some special reasons.
For example, the Battle of Gershon and the Battle of Bautzen, the coalition forces were able to avoid defeat because the cavalry had a clear advantage; while the Battle of Grossberen and the Battle of Denaviz were because the Crown Prince of Sweden was unwilling to pursue the battle; the Battle of Langcheng , It was because the old Blücher felt unwell and did not pursue the chase.
The Battle of Borodino is also an example of this type. Regarding this example, we have to say a few more words, because in our opinion, it is meaningless to blame Napoleon alone; at the same time, we believe that this situation and other similar situations are very rare, that is, at the end of the battle. , The commander-in-chief was constrained by the overall situation. Admirers of Napoleon, such as Wodoncourt, Chambray and Segur, as well as some French military writers severely condemned Napoleon, blaming him for not using all his forces to crush the Russian army at the last minute, otherwise it would be enough to make the Russian army. The defeat turned into a complete failure. Here we do not intend to explain in detail the situation of the two armies at the time, otherwise it will be too far away from the topic, but one thing is very clear. When Napoleon crossed the Neman River, he led a total of 300,000 people to prepare all Invested in the Battle of Borodino, but in the end only 120,000 people participated in the Battle of Borodino. He may be worried that these forces are not enough to advance to Moscow, and Moscow seems to be the key to determining all issues. After this victory, he firmly believed that he could occupy the capital, because in his opinion the Russians could not launch a second battle within eight days. Napoleon had hoped to conclude the treaty in Moscow. If the Russian army can be defeated, of course there is a greater certainty to conclude the contract, but in any case, the most important thing is to reach Moscow, because if you can lead a strong army to Moscow, you can rely on this army to control the capital, and thus Control the entire Russia and its government. However, later facts proved that these troops who arrived in Moscow were not capable of accomplishing this task. However, if all of your own troops were consumed in the Battle of Borodino in order to defeat the Russian army, it would be even more impossible to achieve this. Napoleon knew this well. In our opinion, his choice is completely correct. Therefore, this situation cannot be attributed to the fact that the commander-in-chief is unable to carry out preliminary pursuit after victory due to the general situation. What is involved here is not just a pure pursuit problem. At four o'clock in the afternoon that day, the victory or defeat was determined, but the Russian army still retained most of its positions and did not intend to abandon it. When Napoleon relaunched his offensive, they were prepared to resist stubbornly. Although this kind of resistance was bound to suffer a complete failure, it would also force the opponent to pay a heavy price. Therefore, we can only include the Battle of Borodino in a type of battle that has not been carried out to the end, just like the Battle of Bautzen. But the loser of the Battle of Bautzen would rather leave the battlefield early, while the victor of the Battle of Borodino was willing to be content with half a victory, not because he was not sure whether the outcome was settled, but because his strength was unable to achieve a complete victory.
If we return to the topic, then, in our investigation, we have the following conclusions about the initial pursuit: the intensity of the pursuit determines the size of the victory; the second step to victory is the pursuit, which is even better in most cases. The first step is more important; strategy and tactics are close in order to use the tactical complete victory, which requires tactics to achieve a complete victory.
It is true that the initial pursuit is only the first step to realize the potential of victory, and only in rare cases, the effect of victory is shown in this initial pursuit. We have mentioned that other conditions determine the role of the potential for victory. We are not going to talk about these conditions here, but we can talk about the general situation of the pursuit to avoid repeating it in situations where it may be involved.
According to the degree of continuing pursuit, it can be divided into three types: pure pursuit, true pressing, and parallel pursuit aimed at obstructing the enemy's retreat.