After the twentieth day, on the tenth day of January in the second year of the king of Chu.

Yingdu, side hall.

A huge sand table was placed in the middle of the main hall. Several ministers stood in the middle of the hall, on the left, Qu Yuan, Zhang Yi, Tang Fu, Zhuang Ji, Zhaoyang, Jingyang; On the right, Shangguan Dafu, Jin Shang, Fan Huan, and Jing Que.

Xiong Huai threw the bamboo slips on the table in front of him to the sand table, and said: "Sure enough, the princes will send troops after a month. ”

Zhang Yi carefully picked up the bamboo slips on the ground, unfolded them, and read them word by word: "Qin sent 100,000 troops to attack Wuguan, Wei Han Zhou sent 100,000 troops to attack Luyang, Qi sent 80,000 troops to attack the remnants of Huaisi Chu, Yan, Lusong and Sishang sent 90,000 troops, and cooperated with the Wei army in the land of Huaisi to defeat the army commanded by our Xiang Jun, and the Yue Kingdom sent 40,000 troops, and marched west along the road of King Wu to break Chu, in a vain attempt to break through Yingdu. ”

After finishing speaking, he closed the bamboo slips, handed them to Zhaoyang next to him, and showed a solemn expression, saying: "A total of 410,000 troops, this, there were not so many soldiers when Xianyang was broken back then." ”

After reading it, Zhaoyang took a cool breath and said: "This, Qin Luo's commander Yu Liji, the commander of the Han army Shen Cha, the commander of the Wei army, the rhino head Gongsun Yan, and the heir of the crown prince, Kuang Zhang, the general of the Qi State, the general of the Yan State, and the general Zhao Slip of the Yue State." These are all good at commanding troops! This, this, it seems that he is determined to destroy my Chu State. ”

Subsequently, this bamboo slip was passed down gradually, and everyone read it and was shocked by the information reported above.

Xiong Huai looked at Tang Yu and said, "How is the Tiger Ben Army practicing?" If I'm not mistaken, it's been almost a year now. ”

At the beginning, Xiong Huai pulled the Huben army down and trained secretly in the Yunmeng camp, and only when he pacified Jing Shao, he pulled it out to fight, and never showed up the rest of the time, and when he pacified Jing Shao, he claimed to be Xiong Huai's own personal guard army plus the Hanzhong army trained by Zhaoyang.

Tang Wu stood up and arched his hand: "King, the morale of the Tiger Ben Army is magnificent, the fighting spirit is high, the soldiers are elite, and the generals are good at fighting, but there are only 100,000 people, and they have not experienced a battle, so they dare not say how powerful the battle is. ”

The training of the Tiger Ben Army is a plan made by Xiong Huai himself, practicing fighting in the morning and forming in the afternoon, and coming to run long distances in the evening, running around Yun Mengze is a common thing.

Let's talk about the soldier equipment of the Tiger Army, all of them are equipped with iron armor made from Wancheng, which is similar to the fish scale armor of the Song Dynasty, but it is not as detailed as the fish scale armor of the Song Dynasty, but in this era, the armor is already considered top.

Speaking of shields, the Tiger Ben Army abandoned the cowhide shields often used by the Chu army and even this era, and divided the shields into two types, one is the large shield used by the shield armor soldiers, which is made of rough iron, which can resist the stabbing of ordinary bows and crossbows, which are more penetrating weapons. The other is the shield used by the charging soldiers, this kind of shield pays attention to light and practical, so Xionghuai uses a circular shield, which is light and durable.

In terms of weapons, the original Chu army was only equipped with long and short swords, and the use of spears was very rare, so Xiong Huai widely promoted spears to the troops. Because the use of chariots is relatively small now, and the state of Chu is not rich in war horses, the infantry is not as fast as spears.

Back to the topic, Xiong Huai couldn't help but praise Tang Wu a little after hearing what Tang Wu said, because Tang Wu was not arrogant or discouraged, he was modest and cautious, and this kind of thinking was still relatively rare in the current Chu State.

"So, how do you meet the enemy?" Jingyang threw out this question.

For a while, the people on the field were silent, now the situation is really difficult, Xiong Huai has 100,000 in Tang Yu's hands, 70,000 in the Hanzhong army, and 150,000 on Xiang Jun's side, adding up to more than 300,000, and the combat effectiveness is not guaranteed.

Xiong Huai looked at the sand table in front of him and said slowly: "The coalition forces are advancing in many ways, isn't this just what I have to wait for?" ”

Doctor Shangguan asked with a confused face: "I don't know what the king means?" The coalition forces are attacking from multiple directions, and our army is bound to divide its troops to resist the enemy, so that the enemy has the initiative and can lead our army by the nose. ”

"That's a mistake!" Xiong Huai stood up and walked to the front of the sand table.

"How about the coalition army attacking from multiple directions, and our army can gather the main force to attack its army on one side, and then attack the soldiers in other places after defeating it?"

Xiong Huai's idea is actually a diagonal attack tactic in military thinking, this tactic is that when the enemy's strength is generally superior to our army, our army can create a local advantage, put the main force into this local battlefield, form an absolute superiority over the enemy's strength on the local battlefield, take the lead in breaking through this line of army, disrupt the enemy's square inch, and then attack the enemy army on the other way, and eat the enemy army respectively.

The ultimate use of this tactic was the Battle of Austerlitz commanded by Napoleon, first abandoning the plazen heights that were conducive to defense, and the Russian-Austrian army misjudged this move as a retreat of the French army. Then it took the initiative to attack, and the main forces of the attack in the south were four to one, and quickly suppressed the French army on the west bank of the Goldbach River, and had already crossed the river.

Later, at about 9 o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon saw through the morning fog that was gradually dissipating that the Russian army was automatically withdrawing from the Platzen Heights, so he immediately ordered the 4th Army to turn to the offensive with two divisions on its left flank, and quickly capture the heights from the north side of the Platzen Heights. Although the other division of the corps, which was working with the 3rd Army on the right, against the main forces of the coalition forces, was not very strong, since the Russians had already withdrawn from their positions, they were progressing smoothly and occupied this point after only a short battle.

As soon as the Platzen Heights were lost, Alexander realized his mistake and, with the assistance of Kutuzov, ordered all the reserves to be brought up in an attempt to retake the heights. As a result, a fierce battle was fought near the heights. The cavalry on both sides made a very fierce charge. At one point, the Russians regained ground during the repeated battles, but were forced to retreat when the light cavalry of the French Guards arrived in time. After that, the Russian army once again threw in cavalry and once again carried out a fierce counterattack. Seeing that the army may be pressed back again. At the last moment, Bessière led part of the heavy cavalry of the Guards and rushed from the flank of the Russians, causing the Russians to be in disarray.

In this way, the Russian army carried out four fierce counterattacks in a row, but they were all repulsed by the French, and by about 11 o'clock at noon, that is, after 2 hours of tug-of-war, the Russian army was finally unable to counterattack on the Platzen Heights. Immediately afterwards, the French army turned to the offensive, cutting the Russian-Austrian forces from the center of the position, dividing them into two parts, north and south, which could not cope with each other. The main forces of the coalition forces, located to the south, were completely exposed to the fire of the French troops occupying the Platzen Heights.

At the same time, the fighting in the northern sector was fierce. The 5th and 1st armies of the French army, with the cooperation of Murat's cavalry corps, stubbornly repelled the repeated onslaughts of the two armies of the coalition and held their positions steadily. Having weakened the Coalition's offensive capabilities, Murat's Cavalry Corps and Lana's 5th Army fought back decisively, driving the Coalition forces north back to Austerlitz.

The coalition forces were completely routed by the French in the central and northern parts of the entire front. Only in the south, the main force, still pinned down by part of the forces of the 3rd and 4th French armies, was between the Platzen Heights and Lake Zachan, in an unfavorable situation of isolation and prominence. Its left flank was marshland and lakes, and its right flank and flank were threatened by the French army occupying the Platzen Heights, and the situation was even more critical. Napoleon was extremely keen to detect and quickly take advantage of this favorable opportunity. After seizing the Platzen Heights, he quickly transferred his artillery to support the French counteroffensive on all fronts.

Napoleon commanded the main French forces to carry out the final assault on the flanks and flanks of the three corps of the coalition on the southern flank. The French shouted and swept down the slopes of the heights. Faced with this irresistible torrent, the coalition forces quickly collapsed. Only a few fled in the direction of Brno, and most of them were compressed into the marshy area between Lake Zachan and Lake Monitz. Among these personnel, there are not many escapes. They were driven to the freshly frozen lake, crowded with men and horses, carts, and cannons; At this time, the French artillery on the Platzen Heights began to bombard the lake fiercely. In an instant, the ice shattered, people fell into the water, and it is said that thousands of people died at the bottom of the lake. In such a completely passive situation, the coalition soldiers had no choice but to lay down their arms one after another and became prisoners.

The crushing defeat of the coalition forces is already very clear. The collapse of the entire coalition army was unstoppable. Even the attendants of Francis and Alexander, who did not care about the emperor's safety, left the two supremes on the road and fled for their lives. It may be said that it was the short days of winter that saved the lives of the two emperors and allowed them to escape from the French army. In the fierce battle, the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Kutuzov, was wounded and almost became a prisoner of the French army.

At 4:30 p.m., it snowed lightly. Napoleon rode his horse to inspect the battlefield, and the Battle of Austerlitz ended in a brilliant victory for the French.

Therefore, the oblique attack tactic is very useful when the forces are at a disadvantage.

"I don't know how the king wants to break the enemy?" Zhaoyang asked again, "Our army's combat strength is uneven, unlike other countries, all of them are elites." ”

Zhaoyang also thought of this method, but, in his opinion, the Chu army was not as elite as the Tiger Army, and the Tiger Army did not know what the specific combat power was.

Xiong Huai raised his head, looked into the distance, and said, "I can only fight hard, wear a widow's edict ,.................."

"Rank, this battle is related to the survival of Great Chu, I hope we will work together, the future of Chu State, please!" Xiong Huai said earnestly.

"The minister will not fail in his mission!"

(End of chapter)