Ma Cheng looked at the letter sent by Qi Biaojia and smiled contemptuously. But now there is no guy with stinky feet around Ma Cheng, Zhang Guozhu stayed in the camp, Wang Xian did not follow, and Ma Cheng only had Gu Yong, Tian Boguang, and An Zhennan by his side.

Gu Yong and Tian Boguang are both military Hans, and An Zhennan is a Yi person from Guizhou, and they can't understand the Han dialect, let alone the twists and turns of the Han people. So Ma Cheng laughed for a long time, and no one came up to ask funny: "Why is the big handsome laughing?" ”

Seeing that these three guys were like wood, Ma Cheng sighed secretly and said, "Gu Yong, you go and tell the sergeant who delivered the letter, when the first ten days are over, there will be a decisive battle outside the town!" ”

Gu Yong nodded and went out to convey Ma Cheng's order. Ma Cheng then said to An Zhennan: "An Zhennan, you were a general of the new army before, and this time you commanded the Shenji Battalion for the first time, tomorrow you will fight for the first time, don't embarrass the governor!" ”

When An Zhennan heard that he was going to fight for the first time, he said excitedly: "Please rest assured, the last general will definitely win the first battle!" ”

Tian Boguang is in charge of the cavalry under Ma Cheng, this cavalry can cost Ma Cheng a lot of effort, not to mention the horse weapons, even the daily ration of these 10,000 horses is astronomical.

Although Ma Cheng was a rural person in his previous life, he didn't know much about horse breeding. Ma Cheng's family used to raise cattle, so Ma Cheng naively thought that raising horses and raising cattle were similar. However, when the cavalry was actually formed, it was discovered that the war horse was completely different from the farmer's horse.

War horses in order to maintain physical strength is not fed grass, can only feed soybeans and black beans and other grains, if there are oats is the best, but also to add eggs to the feed, for the war horse to gain weight, and eat three meals a day, in the middle of the night to get up and add a supper.

What the fuck is that a horse breeding? It's better than the food of Ma Cheng's Shenji Battalion. Although Ma Cheng's new army has three dry meals a day, they dare not guarantee an egg per meal, not to mention that Ma Cheng now stipulates that in order to reduce the pressure on food, Ma Cheng must have one meal a day with potatoes and corn as the staple food.

Originally, after the Battle of Nanjing, Ma Cheng got more than 30,000 war horses left by the Qing army, and Ma Cheng thought that he could form 30,000 cavalry. But the reality is that it took all the horses to form 5,000 cavalry.

In addition to the cost of war horses, what makes Ma Cheng even more headache is the selection of cavalry. Cavalry was a technical branch in ancient times, probably similar to the tank soldiers of later generations. In addition to being able to ride horses and shoot arrows, you also need some veterinary knowledge to solve some minor problems encountered by war horses.

However, Ma Cheng's subordinates are all farmers, and they are all good at farming, and they can be qualified after several months of training with muskets and cannons, but this cavalry is absolutely not good without five or six years of training.

Ma Cheng had no choice but to use the Mongols and the surrendered Han army flag on a large scale, and the Manchurian Ma Cheng did not dare to use it, but the Mongols had no problem. The 20,000 Mongol cavalry brought by Duoduo, although most of them were Mongol Eight Banners, but a small number were the sworn enemies of the Manchurians, the cavalry from the Chahar Department.

Chahar is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, has always been the central Mongolian ten thousand households, at the same time 30 years ago Chahar Lin Dan Khan because of the struggle for the dominance of the Mongolian steppe, and Huang Taiji became a mortal enemy, the two sides have fought many times, in the summer and autumn of 1634, Lin Dan Khan died of smallpox in Qinghai grass beach (Mongolia and Manchu Qing bad things I described in detail in another book "Splendid Late Ming Dynasty", here will not copy and paste, you can see if you are interested

See! ）。

After the death of Lin Dan Khan, the six tribes of Chahar surrendered to Huang Taiji, but the seeds of hatred have been planted, how can it be so easy to dissolve?

This time, the Chahar cavalry who followed Duoduo on the expedition all came to the Sunit tribe, this tribe is not ordinary, it was the cowardice of Genghis Khan's side, the elite of the elite, and this time the leader was Sunit Taiji Susai's youngest son Amuhe.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Chahar cavalry is not inferior to the main force of the Mongolian Eight Banners, the Horqin Department has intermarried with Manchurian nobles in the past dynasties, and it is an absolute cronie, so the status of the Chahar cavalry in this southern expedition is very low.

Although the battle was very hard, Amu didn't have any extra thoughts at first, because the Manchu Qing at this time was too powerful, and it was definitely not something that a hundred thousand Chahar people could fight against.

Amuhe followed Duoduo from Xi'an to Nanjing, the original movement war became a positional war, or the bloodiest siege war, if it was just a war Amuhe was not too afraid, the Mongols were born warriors, and dying on the battlefield was to return to the embrace of immortality. But what makes Amuhe unbearable is the climate here in Nanzhili, which is rainy in spring, hot and humid in summer, typhoons in autumn, and even more cold in winter. Because of the humid air, although the absolute temperature in winter is not as low as that of the Mongolian steppe, the cold and damp can freeze to the bones. The lack of adaptation to the climate, coupled with being a second-class citizen, made the Chahar cavalry begin to complain.

With physical exhaustion and low morale, can this kind of army still win battles? Therefore, when Ma Cheng launched a decisive battle, the cavalry of the Chahar Department did not hesitate at all, and all surrendered to Ma Cheng with Amuhe.

There were a total of 10,000 Chahar cavalry brought by Amuhe from Mongolia, and after several battles, there were still more than 7,000 left, and after the baptism of the climate in Nanzhili, only more than 3,000 people survived.

Although these people are not many in number, they must be elite if they can survive after previous battles, Ma Cheng was organizing cavalry at this time, and happened to learn that Amuhe and the Manchus were mortal enemies, so he immediately lured Amuhe to lead his subordinates to join his cavalry battalion.

With the addition of the Mongols, plus some selected prisoners of war of the Han military flag, as well as Ma Cheng's selection of grassroots officers who can ride horses, together to form a cavalry unit, this cavalry is not only equipped with cold weapons such as bows and arrows, armor, etc., but also a large number of hot weapons such as three-eyed guns, if you don't count the number of people, it is probably the most powerful cavalry in East Asia.

The commander of this cavalry unit is Ma Bao's nephew, Ma Cheng's henchman, and the chief soldier Tian Boguang, he originally thought that he was the absolute main force, and he would definitely use himself in the first battle this time, but he didn't expect Ma Cheng to choose the Shenji Battalion led by An Zhennan. Tian Boguang hurriedly stood up and asked: "Marshal, General An, they are all infantry, and the last general is the cavalry, this time... ”

Before Tian Boguang finished speaking, Ma Cheng interrupted him and said: "Your mission this time is to protect the flank of the Shenji battalion, and Bendu sees that there is also a cavalry on the opposite side, and they are from your cavalry battalion!" ”

Tian Boguang heard Ma Cheng say this, and he didn't dare to fight, so he had to clench his fists and receive the order.

On the tenth day of the fourth month, Ma Cheng got up before dawn, and after finishing his meal, he began to lead the soldiers out of the camp and lined up. Today's formation of Ma Cheng's discharge is a standard musket queue, and the 5,000 Shenji battalion is divided into five phalanxes, each square

The array is ten horizontal columns, and each column is a hundred households. Artillery units were lined up behind the Shenji battalion for fire support. The cavalry battalion stood on the left side of the Shenji battalion this time, which was used to guard against the sneak attack of the cavalry units of the Luwang Army.

Ma Cheng's side was ready, and the gate of the Luwang military camp on the opposite side opened, and 30,000 soldiers rushed out. Qi Biaojia's Chinese army has 50,000 people, but these 50,000 people are counted as people, and the real combat troops are a little more than 30,000. At the same time, because of the poor command and communication in ancient Chinese wars, in fact, the army that the commander could really command was only about 30,000 people, and no matter how many commanders there were, there were few generals like Han Xin.

Qi Biaojia's formation in this area is a slash formation, which has a little advantage, that is, the head and tail can echo each other, playing the head and tail, playing the tail and the head and tail, and playing the middle and the end together, which is a classic formation for the side with a large number of people to deal with a side with a small number of people.

Qi Biaojia took advantage of the opportunity of the whole team to take a look at the formation of the Ma Cheng army on the opposite side, which made Qi Biaojia very surprised, because Ma Cheng had never seen such a straight line formation.

Although Qi Biaojia is a civilian official, he has also read several military books, which say that the combat formations include square formations, circular formations, sparse formations, several formations, cone formations, goose-shaped formations, etc., but what kind of formation is Ma Cheng lined up?

Qi Biaojia asked the officer behind him, "Do you know what formation Ma Cheng used?" ”

A general soldier thought that he had read a few military books, and when he heard the governor's question, he hurriedly said: "Back to my lordship, Ma Cheng should use a long snake formation!" This formation works like a giant python attacking, attacking fiercely! ”

Although Qi Biaojia has read the book of soldiers, he also knows a little about it, he has heard the formation of a long snake there, and he listened to the magic of the chief soldier, and hurriedly asked: "How can such a formation be broken?" ”

"My lord, the mobility of the cavalry on the two wings is the most important in the long snake formation, so the best way to break the long snake formation is to limit the mobility of the two wings, so that they can't take care of each other."

So, the best way is: pinch its head, clip its tail, and cut its waist! The detailed method is to set a trap in our infantry formation, use two infantry phalanxes to cooperate to prevent the movement of the opponent's cavalry on both wings, so that it cannot exert its ability to move and be flexible, and then use the strong heavy cavalry to launch a strong impact on its snake-bellied infantry, so that its formation is scattered and disorderly! In one fell swoop, the infantry phalanx was defeated and the long snake formation was cut into three pieces, so that the long snake formation was fighting on its own, and it could no longer fight with the cooperation of the three parties, and the formation would not attack and break itself! ”

Qi Biaojia listened to the head of the general soldier, and asked with great joy: "What is your name?" ”

When the general soldier heard the governor ask about him, he hurriedly said: "Lord Hui, the last general is called Chen Zhen, the hereditary Zhapu is a thousand households, and now he is the chief soldier of Pinghu!" ”

Qi Biaojia nodded again and again after hearing Chen Zhen's words: "It turned out to be behind the door!" Mr. Chen, how do you say this battle will be fought? ”

"My lord, it's easy! The opposite line is full of infantry, and there is no shield hand to protect them, so you can use cavalry to disperse them, and the cavalry on the left can send heavy infantry to pinn them down, and when our cavalry wins, they will be destroyed in turn! ”

"Okay, today's battle is that the governor has appointed you as the commander, and now you are promoted to the commander of Jiaxing, do a good job!"

Chen Zhen was overjoyed when he heard Qi Biaojia say this, and quickly knelt down and thanked: "Please rest assured, the general will definitely win!" ”