According to the "Celebration of the Birthday of the Holy Monarch in the 22nd Year of the Eastern Era" reported by the Ministry of Rites, after the military parade, it was originally a military exercise. But only the 2,000 forbidden troops who were read were the only ones who practiced martial arts. While the military exercises were forbidden, the other armies and brigades had to exit the inner city in turn according to the designated routes, and return to the barracks to wait for their orders. If the Son of Heaven had not been particularly gracious, he had to leave the outer city before Shinshi, and he had to withdraw from on the same day, and each ministry had to report the planned march route to the military headquarters within three days, and only after obtaining permission could it be removed and returned to the establishment......

However, the Son of Heaven suddenly proposed to ask the Yanshan Guard to practice martial arts, which was completely outside the arrangement of the Ministry of Rites. The matter was in a hurry, and the Ministry of Rites Shangshu couldn't find any good excuses for the time being. But the stunned look on his face was only in an instant, and it returned to normal in the blink of an eye, straightened his clothes, and said calmly: "The minister respectfully restores the Holy Monarch." The Yanshan Guards were neat and brave, and they were just making them perform a big battle to inspire the army and the people. However, the forbidden army is an extraordinary army that can be compared, this is the Son of Heaven's own army, shouldering the heavy responsibility of guarding the palace, if the Yanshan Guard takes the lead, it may provoke discussion among the government and the opposition. The military department Shangshu Cen Shu also said: "The minister seconded the proposal." I would like to restore the Holy Monarch, whether it is the forbidden army or the garrison of Weizhen, in the final analysis, they are all the soldiers and horses of our Great Zhao, and there is naturally no need to divide who is in front of and who is behind in the usual martial arts competition. But today is the day of the birthday celebration of the Holy Monarch, if the garrison of Weizhen seizes the opportunity of the king's enthusiasm, I am afraid that it will chill the hearts of the soldiers of the forbidden army. ”

Emperor Dongyuan listened to them with a smile on his face. The two six-part Shangshu, who are also vice ministers, opened their mouths and closed their mouths to "restore" and "refu", and the whole text is full of great truths, and it is impossible to refute them. Turning around and looking left and right, Zhang Pu and Xiao Jian's civil and military ministers were all wooden and silent, and the three Shangzhu countries in the clan, led by the king of Qinghe County, were lying on the battlements of the city wall and pointing at the Yanshan guards muttering, as if they didn't notice that the Son of Heaven was talking, in this case, teach him how to insist on his own opinions? He had no choice but to laugh and say, "It's that I'm thinking about things to the left." Okay, according to the meaning of the two Qing families, the forbidden army will first practice martial arts, and then look at the military appearance of the Yanshan Guard. ”

This time, the king of Qinghe County heard it. He waved his hand and said very heroically: "The Son of Heaven announced the system: the forbidden army exercises martial arts!" ”

With his words, the four cyan flags on the wall were continuously waved left and right, and the guards and soldiers above and below the city shouted in unison: "Forbidden army exercises!" From near and far, it was transmitted to all directions. At this moment, countless people have gathered outside the square in front of the imperial city, and it doesn't matter what they can't see, listening to the golden gongs and drums shaking the heavens and the earth, everyone is holding their breath and calming one by one

The three battalions of the forbidden army had already been preparing for the military exercise, and they lined up the finished word formation on the square in front of the imperial city, and saw the point set up in front of the Dacheng Gate, and the general of the forbidden army waved the red command flag in his hand, and there was a thunderous roar when he landed. The leading general waved the command flag again, and with the command of the officers leading the exercise, the two thousand soldiers of the forbidden army suddenly stepped forward in a horizontal row, and suddenly the column moved forward. The red flag on the platform was waved back and forth, and the two thousand suddenly gathered into a group, and then a shout spread out in a circle like a ripple from a stone thrown into a pool, and the spearman in front of the sword and shield soldier in the back archer in the innermost, slowly dispersed into a large circle. The soldiers constantly adjusted their positions with the orders issued at various levels, and finally formed a regular hexagonal shape, which was the six-flower array created by Li Jing, a famous general of the Tang Dynasty!

The banner on the platform changed again, the six-flower array was in chaos, the soldiers dispersed and reassembled with the password, more than 240 straight knife men lined up in three rows of horizontal formations in the front, and then formed the first eight and 42 phalanxes, and the remaining 100 soldiers or bows or crossbows wandered between the formations, one by one, this is the founding general of this dynasty, Wang Zhen, founded several arrays of "broken horses". However, the large cavalry formation specially designed to deal with the cavalry of the Turbulent Cavalry was six miles in width and depth and twenty-four miles in circumference when it was really unfolded, and a total of 34,000 and 23 other cavalry soldiers were required, which was obviously not suitable for layout in front of the imperial city. At the moment, the broken cavalry formation of the 2,000 forbidden army is just a show. However, perhaps because the Yanshan Guards took the lead, the forbidden army participating in the exercise, from the generals to the non-commissioned officers, all held a nameless fire in their hearts, even if it was a large army formation of 2,000 people with 30,000 people, it also showed a bit of serious and murderous spirit, especially the tiger roar when the large array was completed into a knife hand to collect the knife, which was even more neat, and immediately won the cheers of the city and the city.

Although the vast majority of people on the city tower had seen the Great Cavalry Breaking Array, today's drill was obviously better than in previous years, and they couldn't help but nod their heads in praise. Emperor Dongyuan also bowed his head frequently, and asked the king of Qinghe County with a smile: "Uncle Huang thinks that these forbidden soldiers are better than the Yanshan guards?" ”

"Very good, very good!" How could the King of Qinghe say anything unpleasant at this time. He stroked his pale long beard and said, "The forbidden army is worthy of being the head of my Great Zhao army, this broken cavalry array has rules and laws, materialism and magnificence, even if it is a drill, the sword is not out of the sheath and the arrow is not off the string, it can also make people want to see the sword light and sword shadow in the array!" ”

Emperor Dongyuan let out an "oh", twisting the black beard under his chin and not speaking. Of course, he can trust the words of the king of Qinghe, but the old emperor's uncle is a good soldier and knows the soldiers, but he has never really led soldiers, nor has he been on the battlefield, and no matter how much praise he has, he can't compare to the understatement of Xiao Jian and Yang Du, these veterans and famous generals. As soon as his eyes turned, he happened to see Shang Cheng talking to Sun Fu, so he greeted and said, "Zida,"

Shang Cheng hurriedly stopped talking and walked over to give a military salute to Emperor Dongyuan.

"Zida, what do you think of these forbidden soldiers?"

"Holy Lord. These are good soldiers! Shang Cheng praised loudly.

"Oh, Zida thinks the same? What's so good about them? ”

Shang Cheng grinned. They all said that they were good soldiers, why did Emperor Dongyuan still hold on to him? What's so good about these soldiers? They're good because they're good soldiers! But he couldn't say this to Emperor Dongyuan, so he had to say: "This, Yiyichen doesn't read much, and he can't say a word about Wen Xuan's good and obedient words." In short, these are good soldiers. "At least these forbidden army drills are very good......

Fortunately, Emperor Dongyuan did not continue to ask. Emperor Dongyuan nodded, neither looked at King Hejun nor Shang Cheng, looked at the forbidden army that was retreating in the square under the city, and changed the question and said: "It has been nearly a hundred years since General Wang Hao created this broken cavalry array, and was set up by Emperor Gaozong as a necessary formation in the army, right?" But in the past hundred years, my Da Zhao and Tu Ji have fought countless battles, but this array is rarely used on the battlefield, but I don't know why? ”

The king of Qinghe County pondered and said: "It takes more than 34,000 people to unfold the large cavalry formation, and it takes a lot of time, so the general generals are reluctant to spread this formation on the battlefield. This is one of them. Second, the situation on the battlefield was ever-changing, and the fighters were only in the middle of a moment, and in order to capture the fighters, it was impossible for the commander of the army to place nearly half of the cavalry behind the formation, so it was not surprising that this formation was rare in the battle against the Turks. In addition, the more soldiers in the formation, the more difficult it is to unify the order, and the large array of broken cavalry and the arch guard rangers, the total strength is close to 40,000, and it is inevitable that there is a defect that the arm cannot make the finger. ”

Shang Cheng nodded in agreement with the old general's words. The king of Qinghe was right, but unfortunately he didn't point out the key points. Since the beginning of the Gaozong Dynasty, the Great Zhao has pursued the military strategy of active defense, and has set up countless pass fortresses in dangerous places in the north. The number of troops required to set up a perfect broken cavalry formation is close to 40,000, including the ranger activity area that covers the flanks on the left and right, the front of the entire battlefield is close to ten miles, and the depth also needs to be ten miles, and it must also be a wide, flat and barrier-free terrain. It is that they have a favorable location, and there is plenty of time, and the big array is unfolded according to the drill code, but the enemy is not a fool, can it be that they will see Zhao Jun lay out the copper wall and crash into it? The most critical one is that the road traffic conditions in various parts of the north do not support the breaking of the cavalry array. Not to mention anything else, even in the Central Plains, just the timely assembly of 40,000 troops is very problematic, not to mention the eating and drinking of so many soldiers, just to maintain the smooth flow of grain roads will make local officials jump up and scold their mothers! He was busy in Yanshan for two years, building roads, building bridges, weirs, embankments, and digging rivers. Even so, the grain, straw, ordnance, and medicine left in the town could barely support the 20,000-strong army for three months of overseas operations. This must also be done by setting up military stations along the way, leaving troops to do their best to keep the roads clear, and less than half of the troops can actually fight on the front line.

In addition, he didn't like this broken riding array. This tactical formation is completely a defensive posture, and it looks stable and mighty, but from the perspective of actual combat, it has so many flaws that it is impossible to count the number of teachers. He sometimes even thought that Wang Hao's original intention in creating it might not be to use it to fight at all, but to use it to pat the emperor's ass. Since it had no market in the first place, it is naturally even less useful now. Although the military focus of Da Zhao in recent years has shifted from south to north with Dong Quan, Zhang Pu and their battles in the court, there is no doubt that Da Zhao's military strategy and national policy are shifting from active defense at home to active attack abroad. With the change of national policy, it is very likely that most of the future battles will take place outside the country, so a purely defensive tactical formation such as the Breaking Cavalry Formation will naturally have no place to use......

After the drill of the forbidden army, it was the drill of the Yanshan Guard.

As soon as the Yanshan Guards first appeared, they were immediately shocked

Fang Cai's forbidden army drill was based on the command order of the Wushi outpost camp early on, and the ranks were arranged in formation under the city, and most people only saw the generals and colonels commanding freely and the soldiers coming and going, but they didn't notice that the formation flag in it had not moved at all from beginning to end. In fact, the 2,000 forbidden troops were just performing around the formation flag with the order, which was far from the real platoon formation. But Yan Shanwei is completely different from the forbidden army. Guo Biao's golden helmet and iron armor stepped on the platform, and with a wave of the command flag in his hand, the two Yanshan Elementary School members immediately beat the two skinned drums on the corner of the stage. Three battalions of Yanshan soldiers stepped into the square to the beat of drums.

This time, it was a dark, short, and thin general who led the drill. Don't look at this person's appearance is not amazing, but his voice is not low, when he roared with his throat, the people who gathered around the square to watch the ceremony and watched the excitement also heard his orders mixed with a strong Yanshan accent:

"True (Lizheng)!"

With a click, fifteen hundred soldiers slammed their footsteps at the same time, and when they landed, they were stuck in the ground like iron nails wedged into a brick wall.

"Huichichigawa (turn left)!"

Fifteen hundred people did not move at all, their right feet were rubbed on the ground, and their bodies had turned in the direction of the imperial city, and then their right feet were raised and there was another "click" sound, and the soldiers of the three battalions turned around in unison like one person.

The order flag in Guo Biao's hand moved again, raised it above his head and fell, and then raised it above his head and fell, so three times, the war drums were thumping again, and the soldiers in the first row of the three battalions stepped on the drums; The soldiers of the second row of the fifth drum also marched forward; The soldiers of the third row of the ninth drum followed...... Every four drums, a row of sixty soldiers walked out; And at this time, the soldiers in front were still moving on. It wasn't until the soldiers in the penultimate row also took four steps that the drumming suddenly became dense and indistinguishable, and at this time, 1,500 Yanshan soldiers had already formed a standard drill formation. As soon as Guo Biao's order flag turned, the drum sound immediately became one long and two short. "Ponto, pun; Peng, Pengpeng", in the urging of the war drums, the first battalion of Yanshan soldiers went to the left and the other battalion went to the right, and the five hundred soldiers in the middle moved forward, and in the blink of an eye, it became a finished word array. The flag moved again, the drums stopped and the gongs were raised, and in the dense short sound of clanging, fifteen hundred soldiers turned around in unison, and in the blink of an eye, they formed three dense small phalanxes again at the place where they had just started. As the drums became two long and two long, the small phalanx turned into fifteen smaller phalanxes, followed by thirty smaller phalanxes, and then turned into three columns based on the small arrays, surging forward like fish scales in front and back; In the meantime, it has also changed from three roads to five roads, five roads to horizontal traffic, and horizontal roads to two roads...... The big array turned into a small array, the small array combined with the big array, the gongs and drums were staggered, the orders were undulating, and the soldiers came and went vertically and horizontally, which made people dazzled. Occasionally, they burst into a loud shout:

"Kill!"

Rolling on the ground like a thunderbolt on a sunny day is not only thrilling, but also heroic!

The people outside the imperial city just watched the excitement, and the people in the imperial city looked at the overall situation, and saw that the Yanshan Guards had unified their orders, but they all only felt frightened and moved. As the remaining three Yanshan battalions of the Eastern Yuan Emperor Xuanjiao also joined the exercise, the king of Qinghe County was also aroused, and he ran out of the city without even asking for the decree, and climbed to the point of the general in three steps and two steps, and took the command flag in Guo Biao's hand to command and dispatch in person.

Just as people thought in their hearts just now, the current training minutes of the Yanshan Guards are almost all Shang Cheng's initiatives. But he said that Yanshan's military drills were all due to Duan Xiu's hard work, and it was not all about pushing merit and people. On weekdays, he has to worry about both government affairs and military affairs, and many things can only sketch a general outline and then hand them over to others for detailed arrangement. In the matter of military training, Duan Xiu's contribution can be called the greatest, and now Yan Shanwei's training minutes are basically from Duan Xiu's hands, otherwise, with Shang Cheng's half-understanding of the "Great Zhao Water and Land Drill Code", as well as the tricks of military training, how could he train this mighty and majestic army in front of him? It is precisely because Yan Shanwei's training minutes are from Duan Xiu's hands, so from the dispatch of orders to the ban and punishment of foot soldiers, there are sufficient water and land drills everywhere. Therefore, although the king of Qinghe snatched the order flag in Guo Biao's hand, this had no effect on the Yanshan soldiers who staged martial arts in the square, and their every move, advance, retreat, gathering and dispersing were all based on the sound of drums and gongs, as for whether Guo Biao commanded or the king of Qinghe sent them, they didn't care. In fact, they couldn't have cared about that in the queue. At the beginning, there were not a few people who were whipped with military sticks when they raised their arms and legs and kicked the right steps, and everyone has encountered it when they practiced overtime and even ran laps with weights and were locked up on their stomachs with hungry stomachs, that is, they looked around in the queue, and were caught by the instructor either scolding or punching and kicking, these lessons were too deep, so deep that they had been completely engraved into their bones, as long as they were in the queue, they would only listen to the orders of the officers, and they would only pay attention to the sound of drums and gongs. As for everything else, hey, none of this has anything to do with their!

Three thousand Yanshan soldiers formed a formation under the city, and everyone on the city wall couldn't turn their eyes or turn for a long time. Even Zhang Pu and Emperor Dongyuan also held on to the green bricks on the wall, and recited the words that the king of Qinghe had just read over and over again:

One day the day is strong, invincible!