Chapter 7 Chapter 6 Wars of the Seventeenth Century Gustav Adolphus Cromwell and Turenne

We now turn to one of the great wars in modern history, the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648.It is interesting that in this long war there was not a single decisive battle. The most famous episode of the war was the final stage of the struggle between the Swedish king Gustav Adolf and Wallenstein.For Gustav Adolphus who died in the decisive battle at Lucerne.As a result, the possibility of forming a large-scale Protestant alliance headed by Sweden was completely dispelled. If it was not for the participation of the French and the assassination of Wallenstein, then the result of the Battle of Lucerne might lead to the unification of the Germans. In that case, the unification of Germany would be three hundred years earlier than it actually was.

However, such results and possibilities are obtained by indirect methods.The only famous battle of the war ended in the defeat of the Germans, who had previously been the superior side.Although Wallenstein's war machine was much weaker than that of the Swedes, and he was not very good at taking tactical advantages from favorable strategic situations, he was victorious.This is because, before this battle, he had achieved a real advantage in reality.It should be noted that this advantage of his was the result of three consecutive moves of various indirect routes.These indirect route actions even changed the entire course of the war.

In 1632, Wallenstein was reappointed as the head of the then non-existent army, and he used his prestige to recruit a mercenary army of about 40,000 in three months.As the Swedish army of King Gustav Adolf was sweeping Bavaria, the authorities issued an appeal for immediate rescue, but Wallenstein did not rush there immediately, but turned around and headed north to deal with Gus of Saxony. Duff's weak little ally.He drove the Saxon army out of Bohemia, and then attacked the country.He even forced the elector of Bavaria to lead his own army to join him, which made Bavaria's defense appear weaker on the surface.However, Wallenstein's calculation was completely correct, and that's how he mobilized Gustav.Fearing the destruction of his weak ally, Gustav had to withdraw from Bavaria and hasten to rescue the Saxons.

The troops of Wallenstein and the Elector of Bavaria joined forces before Gustav's army arrived. Gustav, facing the combined forces of the enemy, had to retreat to Nuremberg.Wallenstein immediately followed, but found that the Swedes were waiting in full force, so he thought: the opportunity for holding a battle has been lost, and another method must be tried.He didn't dare to use his recruits to attack the elite Swedish soldiers, so he chose the terrain to dig trenches for defense. On the one hand, the troops could rest safely, and on the other hand, he used light cavalry to control Gustav's supply line.Wallenstein now persisted unswervingly in his tactics: ignoring the challenge of the Swedish king, he failed many attempts to attack the position with little success, and at the same time threatened the Swedish army with starvation.In this way, although the military significance is relatively limited, the political influence is great.Word spread throughout Europe that Gustav had failed this time.Although Gustav was not annihilated, the myth of Gustav's invincibility, created by a series of major victories in the past, was completely bankrupt.This will inevitably weaken his control over the Germanic countries.Wallenstein correctly used his relatively limited forces to achieve a higher strategic goal.

Gustav set off from Nuremberg again, heading south into Bavaria.Instead of following the pursuit, Wallenstein turned north and marched again towards Saxony.This is another very clever move.As before, he used this maneuver to mobilize Gustav, forcing Gustav to turn around again and pursue him.However, Gustav also acted very quickly, and soon returned to Saxony, leaving Wallenstein too late to force the Saxons to conclude a separate peace treaty.A very violent battle ensued at Lucerne.The Swedish army used their tactical success to redeem their strategic defeat.But the price was heavy, and their commander was killed in battle.In this way, the ideal of the Swedes to organize a grand alliance of Protestant countries headed by Sweden was finally shattered.

This grueling and costly war dragged on for sixteen years before it came to an end.It reduced the whole of Germany to ruins, and gave France the dominance of Europe. Comparing the English Civil War from 1642 to 1652 with the wars in continental Europe in the same century, there is one obvious difference, that is, all British wars strive for decisive victory.Defu wrote in his book "Memoirs of a Knight": We never set up camps, never dug trenches, and never relied on the danger of rivers and narrow roads to hold on.The greatest motto in war is: where there are enemies, we will fight them there!

The first civil war in England, in spite of its good offensive spirit, dragged on for four years.This is because none of the battles resulted in a decisive victory.In 1646, the fire of the war was finally extinguished, but there were still many red horns of the royalists, and their embers were still there. Therefore, only two years later, due to the conflict among the victors, the war was revived. , and its raging flames burned even more violently than last time. Originally, the offensive spirit in this war was very obvious, but its outcome was so uncertain. Why?Studying this, we can point out that this is mainly due to the fact that in each campaign both sides repeatedly resorted to direct attacks, interspersed with operations which we would call mopping operations in today's terminology. It has only a partial and temporary effect, so the result of the war can only be that both sides have exhausted their strength.

When the First Civil War began, the royalist army was based in the west and midlands of England, while the parliamentary army was based in London.But the royalist army suffered a disgraceful defeat when they advanced to the Tusiban Green in their first attack on London.Later, this was often referred to as the Valmy of the English Civil War.This automatic retreat of the royal army was due to the fact that before the attack began, the main forces of both sides had fought a bloody and fruitless battle in the hills of Edezh, so that spiritual forces worked, and the attack was ended without bloodshed.

Since then, the royal army has used Oxford and its nearby towns as the backbone of its combat base.For quite a long period of time, the fighting in this area was peaceful, and both sides stationed their main forces on the border without any major actions.At the same time, in the west and north, there were many isolated detachments engaged in constant melee.This was delayed until September 1643.The serious situation facing the besieged city of Gloucester compelled Lord Essex to come to the rescue with the main force of the Parliamentary Army.He took a circuitous route around Oxford.This gave the royalist elements the opportunity to cut off their retreat.Then there was a direct confrontation at Newbury (that is, twenty-five kilometers west of Reading), but again without decisive results.

The massive consumption of supplies during the war could have prompted the two sides to negotiate peace.However, King Charles I of England made a huge political mistake.He was the first to make peace with the Irish rebels.The purpose of this peace treaty was to use Catholic Ireland to subdue Protestant England.As a result, Scotland, which belongs to the Presbyterian faction, also rose to participate in the struggle against the King of England.With a Scottish army to check the Royalist forces in the north, the Parliamentarians regrouped their forces and prepared to attack directly on the Oxford area.The attack, again, produced no significant results, except the capture of a few forts near Oxford.In fact, at this time, the King of England could order Rupert to urgently drive his troops northward to assist the Royalist troops in the north in order to deal with Scotland's attack.Unfortunately for Charles, his troops suffered a tactical defeat at Marisden Moor, which prevented him from taking advantage of the strategic situation in his favor.There was no gain in victory either.Since the direct attack on the Oxford area had no results, and the Parliament faction suffered a great mental blow, the number of deserters in the army increased day by day.It was only because there were still some men as determined as Cromwell that there was no strike for peace as the opposing sides exhausted each other.Fortunately for the Parliamentarians, things were even worse on the part of the royalists, whose internal crisis was worse than the external blow.The enemy was thus mentally and numerically inferior, and they survived only because of strategic mistakes made by the Congressional faction.It was not until 1645 that the royalist army was defeated at Nasibi because of the re-establishment of a new army by Fairfax and Cromwell.But despite this decisive tactical victory, the war dragged on for another year.

With regard to the Second Civil War, the situation was quite different.At this time, Cromwell had become the central figure of the ruling, and the twenty-eight-year-old John Nanblint also became his important assistant.By the end of April, 1648, it had become clear that the Scots had formed a kingly army, ready to march into England to support the royalists.So, Fairfax immediately led his troops north to carry out the conquest.And Cromwell went west to suppress the royalist uprising in South Wales.However, as the Scots moved from the north to the south, new rebellions broke out among the royalists in Kent and the east of England, which kept Fairfax in that area.Therefore, there was only a very thin force in the hands of Nanblint at that time, which was used to delay the invasion of the Scottish army.However, he accomplished his task by acting in a most ingenious indirect route.As the Scots marched south along the West Coast roads, he threatened the enemy's flanks, and at the same time tried to prevent them from crossing the Pennines and joining the rebels in Yorkshire. Finally, on July 11, 1648, Cromwell took Pembroketown, and he marched north.Instead of attacking the Scots directly, he took a far-reaching detour through Nottingham and Doncaster, taking supplies along the way.Then, turning northwest again, he joined Nanblint at Atri.The Scots were deployed on the line from Wigan to Preston at this time, with 3,500 men led by Nangdell on the left side to defend.At that time, Cromwell had a total force of only 8,600 men, including South Blint's cavalry and Yorkshire militia.As for the enemy, their total strength amounted to almost 20,000 men.Cromwell first dragged the tail of the Scottish column in the Preston area, disrupting the enemy's march and forcing the enemy to turn around and resist his attack.In this way, the army led by Nangedel was completely wiped out in the Preston area.Afterwards, Cromwell took advantage of the victory to pursue and followed closely, causing the Scottish army columns to flee one after another, passing through Wigan, and retreating to Uttoxeter.Here, the militia from the central region blocked the way in front, and Cromwell's cavalry continued to attack behind. The Scottish army was desperate, and finally announced the surrender of the whole army on August 25, 1648.It was a decisive victory.As a result of this victory, the enemies of the Congress faction were completely crushed; the military was able to purge Parliament and bring King Charles I before the courts, where he was finally sentenced to death. Cromwell's subsequent attack on Scotland was actually another independent war.The war was being fought in a new way by Cromwell, with the aim of destroying the plans of the King's son, the future Charles II.At that time, Charles was planning to return with the help of the Scots to claim the lost throne.This war cannot be counted as a war that had a decisive impact on the course of history.However, it is an outstanding proof that Cromwell is good at mastering the indirect route strategy.When he found that the Scots forces under Leasley had taken favorable positions and blocked his advance towards Edinburgh, he engaged in only a contact skirmish to gauge the strength and disposition of the enemy.Later, when he was close to the target and felt that his supplies were scarce, he still had a strong self-control and resolved not to attack him head-on on terrain that was not conducive to him.He suppressed his desire for war deep in his heart, and he never took risks or took active actions until he lured the enemy to the open ground and before there was the possibility of launching an assault on the enemy's exposed flank.To this end he began to retreat towards Musselburgh and then towards Dunbar, thereby baiting the enemy and resupplying there.A week later, he returned the same way, distributed three days' rations to the troops at Musselburgh, and began a far-reaching detour.He was about to climb over the heights of the Edinburgh Downs and out into the enemy's rear.On August 21, 1650, Leslie cut off Cromwell's approach at Kirstorfen Hill.At this time, although he was far from his base, he still made an attempt to take an indirect route, determined to bypass the enemy by a detour.Later, Li Sri cut off his way in the Goga area.Under such circumstances, most generals will inevitably take a risky battle, but Cromwell is not such a person.He left the sick man on the spot, decided to retreat to Musselburgh, and then retreated to Dunbar from there, in order to lure Lisley to follow and pursue.At this time, some generals persuaded him to ship the troops and withdraw, but Cromwell did not accept it, and waited wholeheartedly in Dunbar.He counted on the possibility that the enemy might make a wrong move, and that he could immediately take advantage of it. However, Li Sri is also a brilliant opponent.The next step he took created greater danger for Cromwell.Leesley left the main road, rounded Dunbar during the night of September 1, 1650, and occupied the Downs and a series of other high grounds, thereby monitoring the road to Perwick.In addition, he also sent a detachment to occupy the so-called Shaoji Pass Road eleven kilometers south of Mount Dun.The next morning, Cromwell immediately found that communication between him and mainland England had been cut off.What's more serious is that he has felt the shortage of food and fodder, and the number of sick people is also increasing. Lisley's original plan was to wait on the high ground, and once the British broke through along the road leading to Perrick, they would immediately come down to deal a sudden blow.However, the priests sent by the Presbyterian Church were too happy.They really expected to see that the enemy would fall into a trap, and they were all the more determined when they saw signs that the English invaders might escape by sea.On September 2, a strong storm suddenly arose.The Scottish troops stationed on the bare Don Hill and other high grounds were too much to bear and could not hold on. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, they began to withdraw from the high ground and searched for houses near the road to Berwick. , to shelter from wind and rain.And in front of them, just concealedly, flowed a small Brock River, which emptied into the sea through the valley. Cromwell was with South Blint to see for himself the movement of troops in Scotland.The thought occurred to both of them at the same time that the situation was forming in their favour, which would allow them to gain an advantage and facilitate a surprise attack on the enemy.At that time, the left flank of the Scots was compressed between the Highlands and the small stream of the Brock River.If an assault is carried out on its right-wing troops, it will be difficult for the left-wing troops to give support.At the military meeting that night, Nanblint made a suggestion: immediately attack the Scots' right flank and try to defeat it, and at the same time concentrate artillery fire to suppress the enemy's left flank.The reasons he cited convinced everyone.Cromwell admired his initiative and assigned him to lead the charge.That night, with incessant rain and strong winds, the British took positions along the north bank of the creek.After disposing the artillery against the enemy's left flank, Nanblint returned to the other flank, his own left, and immediately led the cavalry attack along the coast.The English cavalry, and the infantry stationed in the centre, crossed the stream without much difficulty, owing to the suddenness of the attack.After throwing the reserves into action, though the British movement was once frustrated, Cromwell immediately pressed the enemy to the left on the sea flank, and drove them into a corner between the high ground and the stream. inside.At this time, if the enemy soldiers wanted to be rescued, they had to break up and flee for their lives.This time Cromwell caught the error of the enemy's overconfidence and immediately exploited it, tactically taking the indirect line of action, thus defeating an enemy twice as powerful as himself.Thus ended the war with honor.Throughout the war, Cromwell always rejected all kinds of temptations, and never gave up his indirect route strategy despite all difficulties. Dunbar's victory gave Cromwell the right to rule southern Scotland.As a result of this victory, the Presbyterian army was wiped out.However, in the north and northwest of Scotland, there are still some royalists who oppose Cromwell.Because of Cromwell's serious illness, the work of completely eradicating these royalists was delayed for a long time.At this time, Li Sri had another chance to breathe, and re-formed an army that supported the Royalist Party in the area north of Forth Bay. At the end of June, 1651, after Cromwell had fully trained his troops, he raised combat missions and resumed combat operations.His strategic plan is by no means inferior to any strategic plan in previous military history, no matter in terms of its depth of thought and calculation accuracy.This time, he had a numerical advantage for the first time, but the enemy was also very cunning, never leaving the forest and swamp terrain, thus protecting his weak flank and blocking the road to Stirling.If Cromwell could not break down the enemy's resistance in a short time, he would have to spend another harsh and difficult winter in Scotland.In that case, his troops will inevitably suffer great sacrifices and make the domestic situation worse.Moreover, it is not enough to simply drive the enemy back from his position.For such partial victories merely drive the enemy into the mountains, where they remain, still a scourge right under their noses. Cromwell's approach to this task can be considered a masterpiece.First, he stormed Callander House near Falkirk, thereby posing a frontal threat to Lisley.Next, he moved the whole army gradually across the Firth of Forth into the Perth area.In this way, they not only got around to the flank of Lisley's defensive line, but also controlled their approach to Stirling and occupied the hub of their supply base.However, by taking this maneuver, he also gave the enemy a way to the English mainland.This is the essence of his project, the expression of his artistic virtuosity.He went out to the enemy's rear.At this time, the enemy, facing the threat of hunger, began to break up and flee, but there was only a narrow passage in front of them.Someone on the enemy's side said: We were then forced to choose, either to starve to death, or to flee, or to rush with the remnants of our army to England.This latter course, though also extremely dangerous, might still have the potential of less catastrophe.Therefore, the Scots naturally chose the latter option, and they rushed south into England at the end of July. Cromwell had foreseen this move and made preparations to meet the enemy by means of the regime.He urgently mobilized all the militia groups, monitored all suspected members of the royal party, and searched the secret warehouse where the military supplies were hidden.The Scots moved south along the west coast.In order to track and pursue the enemy, Cromwell sent out South Blint's cavalry.At the same time, Halson was sent diagonally from Newcastle to Warrington, while Fleetwood led the Midlands militia to the north.Nanblint joined forces with Halson on August 13 after flanking the enemy.As a result, both armies began to engage the enemy, and fought and retreated, constantly delaying the enemy's advance.At this time, Cromwell braved the sweltering heat of August, marching thirty-two kilometers a day.He started off going south along the east coast, then turned southwest.In this way, the enemy finally fell into the trap, and at the same time was besieged by Cromwell on all sides.At this moment, Charlie changed his course decisively.He turned away from London to the Severn River area, but this only procrastinated for a few days and did not save his fiasco.On September 3, 1651, the anniversary of the Battle of Dunbar, Cromwell again won a brilliant victory at the Battle of Worcester. After the Thirty Years' War ended, and before the War of the Spanish Succession began, there were many wars.In these wars, the armies of King Louis XIV of France were on the one side, and the armies of most of the rest of Europe were on the other.Sometimes they fought together, sometimes they fought alone, but none of them achieved decisive results.The ultimate aim of these wars, and thus also their partial tasks, were as a rule limited.There are two main reasons for this uncertainty.One is that the development of fortification science has surpassed the progress of weapons, which puts the defense in an absolutely favorable position.This is exactly the same as it was at the beginning of the twentieth century when the machine gun first appeared.The second is that the army has not yet been organized into fixed corps and units, and cannot act independently. In sports and operations, the whole army usually has to be coagulated into a whole, so its assault force is limited, and it cannot disperse its activities to deceive the enemy. Move freely. Of these many wars, the famous French Fronde War, the War for the Crown, the Dutch War, the Holy Alliance War, etc., only one battle was decisive.Such was the winter campaign of Tourenne, the French commander in chief, between 1674 and 1675, culminating in the victory at Turcum.At that time, the situation in France was extremely dangerous.Louis XIV's allies left him one by one.The Spaniards, the Dutch, the Danes, the Austrians, and most of the German princes all joined the enemy's alliance.After looting the domains of these dukes and royal families, Durenni was forced to retreat across the Rhine.At this time, the Elector of Brandenburg was mobilizing his troops, preparing to join the royal army commanded by Brunville.Dureny, however, beat the Elector, and in October, 1674, stopped Brunville at Szechem.By this time, however, the Germans had entered Alsace and had established winter camps in market towns and rural settlements between Strasbourg and Belfort.This forced Dureny to retreat back to the Detville area. Thus was the stage set for Dureny to perform his art of command.He decided to launch the campaign in mid-winter, thus giving him the advantage of surprise from the first.In order to confuse the enemy, Durenni deliberately built a fortress in the central area of ​​Alsace, as if preparing to defend.Then he quietly drove all his field troops into Lorraine.Then, using the cover of the highlands of the Vosges Mountains, march southward at the speed of a forced march, and do everything possible to recruit supplementary troops from various villages and towns along the way.In the final stage of the march, he even dispersed his forces into small groups of activities to deceive the enemy's spies.Having made a hasty march along the ridge roads under ice-covered conditions, he regrouped his forces near Belfort, and without delay, plunged into Alsace from the south.At the beginning of the battle, he originally wanted to attack from the north. Relying on the strong force in his own hands, Brunville tried to stop Durenni at Mulhouse, but on December 29, he was quickly defeated.As a result, the French army rushed forward like a tide, rushing forward along the valley between the Rhine River and the Strasbourg Heights, dividing the German army into small groups. retreated north in the direction of Fort.Every force that tried to resist was cut off or surrounded by the French.However, when they reached Colmar, that is, halfway to Strasbourg, the Elector of Brandenburg led the German troops to build a fortification.Relying on the fact that he has a force similar to Durenni's, he defends there.However, all the advantages generated by the rapid attack, including material and spiritual, were seized by Durenni.He used these advantages skilfully, successfully taking the tactically indirect route at the Battle of Turkum.In this battle, what Durenni was determined to pursue was not to destroy the physical body of the enemy army in front of him first, but to consider how to destroy their morale.Such a result, in terms of the natural course of things, will inevitably cause the enemy troops to flee of their own accord.Dureny achieved this goal, and in just a few days, he wiped out even a single enemy soldier in Alsace. After this battle, the French soldiers went back to the winter camp in Strasbourg to spend the winter.They collected all kinds of supplies directly from the Rhineland area on the German side, and even as far as the Neckar River area.The Elector of Brandenburg returned to the country with his remnant troops, that is, to the city of Brandenburg, 60 kilometers southwest of Berlin.And Durenni's old opponent, Montgouri, was re-appointed in the spring of the next year and served as the commander-in-chief of the German Empire.Due to Dureny's pressure, Montgouri also had to lead his troops to retreat and occupied a position that was not good for him in the Saasbach area.However, at the beginning of the Battle of Saasbach, Dureny was killed by a shell.Immediately after Dureny's death, the course of the war changed. This winter campaign of Durreny stands out in its firmness, compared with many of the campaigns of the European wars of the seventeenth century.Why is this?In this era, many generals are good at the art of roundabout maneuvers, so they have a restrictive effect on each other.Their mastery of the art is about the same level, so that certain flanking maneuvers, which might have been successful in other ages, cancel each other out in this one.Only in this battle of Durenni can it be said that the goal of destroying the enemy has been truly achieved.As a well-known commander, Durenni has continuously improved his command art with the accumulation of his own experience.He fought more battles in his own time than any other general in history, and in his last campaign solved the problem of how to win victory in the seventeenth century.Therefore, the method he adopted is of special significance.And when he used this to achieve the purpose of combat, he did not violate the laws and regulations that have been regarded as the golden rule by the people of the past dynasties, that is, to regard a well-trained army as an extremely expensive wealth that must not be wasted at will. It appears that Durennie has learned from experience.He understood that, in order to achieve decisive results under such conditions, a good strategic plan was necessary, and in that plan the indirect line had to play a leading role.Before Durenni, the commanders always used the fortress as a base and hub when maneuvering, because for the field army, the fortress was also a supply warehouse to protect them.Durenni completely got rid of the previous combat base system, and combined suddenness and mobility, seeing this as the key to victory, and this combination also provided a guarantee for his own safety.This is a reasonable calculation, not a gambling game, because as long as the enemy's stability is destroyed materially and spiritually, there is sufficient guarantee for one's own safety.