Yu Da You's Du Lun Che (獨輪車) — Part 4

Entire war cart regiment was known as Da Ying (大營, large regiment), consisted of thirteen Xiao Ying (小營), or one hundred and sixty-nine war carts. With such a large number of war carts operating together, the regiment no longer had to be always on the defensive. Instead Yu Da You (俞大猷) opted for an aggressive tactics that bring the fight to their enemy.

Large Unit Tactics

Yu Da You's war cart formation (large), from 'Zheng Qi Tang Ji (《正氣堂集》)'.

Yu Da You's offensive formation was, again, very straightforward—the regiment was divided into three sections and deployed in three lines. The first section contained the most war carts and presumably employed similar tactics as its smaller counterpart, deployed in two ranks and fire by rotation. The second section, deployed twenty to thirty paces behind the first, protected the first section against enemy flanking manoeuvre. The third section, deployed ten paces further back, pointed its guns backward to protect the rear of the regiment. Numbers of war carts in each sections could be adjusted as the commander saw fit.



Other blog posts in my Du Lun Che series:
Yu Da You's Du Lun Che (獨輪車) — Part 1
Yu Da You's Du Lun Che (獨輪車) — Part 2
Yu Da You's Du Lun Che (獨輪車) — Part 3
Yu Da You's Du Lun Che (獨輪車) — Part 4
Yu Da You's Du Lun Che (獨輪車) — Part 5