On the artillery fort guarded by the Baoyi Army, Zhao Xingde was watching the battle under the sanitation of the generals. A herald of the Zhenguo Army rushed over and said to the ground: "General Zhao, the king invites our army to cooperate with the front army to attack the enemy's camp. ”

Before Zhao Xingde could answer, Lu Mingyu and Luo Xianshi suddenly changed color. Although Yue Fei is a privy envoy, in terms of name, Yue, Han, and Zhao are equal. Even if the Baoyi Army wants to march together, it should be mentioned by Yue Fei in a consultative tone. Although Wang Gui is Yue Fei's right-hand man, he is not qualified to be on an equal footing with Zhao Xingde. Since the Baoyi Army was stationed in Shuzhou, Wang Gui and Zhang Xian and other generals under Yue Fei's account frequently wrote directly to Zhao Xingde, as if they regarded themselves and Zhao Xingde as the same generals under the privy envoy Yue Fei. Perhaps Yue Fei himself did not pay much attention to these "details", this time the combined forces were decisive battle, in order to ensure smooth command, Yue Fei temporarily organized most of the foot soldiers of the Zhenguo Army into the front army, led by Wang Gui, and formed the middle army with Zhang Xian's Beiwei battalion and Yang Zaixing's white battalion, the Baoyi Army led by Zhao Xingde was temporarily called the left army, Han Shizhongheng Navy was the right army, and Niu Gao commanded a part of the Zhenguo army and some state and county volunteers as the rear army. Although this military trumpet and establishment were only temporary, they had already aroused the dissatisfaction of the generals of the Baoyi Army. Wang Gui himself invited Zhao Xingde to cooperate in sending troops, which aroused the anger of the generals.

"Even if you want to cooperate with the troops, it depends on Yue Shumi's face," Lu Mingyu shouted: "What kind of thing is Wang Gui?" He was full of anger and glared angrily at the flag officer of the Zhenguo Army who came to give the order.

The flag official was also stubborn, only kneeling on the ground to uphold Zhao Xingde, and did not glance at Lu Mingyu, although he did not refute it because of the difference between dignity and inferiority, but he had a sense of arrogance. This move made Lu Mingyu even more annoyed, and said to Zhao Xingde: "Dashuai, this Wang Gui is a person who pulls the tiger skin as a banner, we can't listen to him." ”

Zhao Xingde looked at the battlefield, the back battalion chiseled through the enemy formation several times, the Liao army that went out of the battle has been defeated, and the cavalry behind also seemed to be cowering, obviously the enemy's heart was shaken, and it was indeed a good opportunity to take advantage of the victory to expand the results. He lowered his head, looked at the officer of the Zhenguo Army lying on the ground, and Wen Yan asked: "Let our army cooperate with the front army to attack, can you have a look at Yue Shumi's general?" ”

The flag officer didn't dare to look up, and said stubbornly: "The last general doesn't know." ”

"I don't know you're still here?" Lu Mingyu had a seizure on the spot, and said coldly, "Spreading military orders in vain is a capital crime!" The generals were clamoring. Many of the generals of the Baoyi Army were bandits from Zhao'an, while the generals of the Zhenguo Army were born in the southeast camp, and the two sides had long had many new and old grudges, and they looked down on each other. Usually, the generals of the Baoyi Army thought that they could be on an equal footing with Zhang Xian, Wang Gui and others, but Zhang Xian and other generals of the Zhenguo Army despised them quite lightly, and Lu Mingyu and others had already held back a lot of anger.

Zhao Xingde raised his hand to stop the clamor of the generals, and said in a deep voice: "Since this is the case, let's wait for our army to ask Yue Shu for battle, and the front army will be separated from the front and back formations, and attack and break the enemy." As soon as the words fell, the officers of the Zhenguo Army were shocked.

Attacking the enemy in front and back is the ancestral tactics of the Song army. The large infantry formation was divided into two front and rear parts, the front line elite attacked, entangled the enemy cavalry, and the rear formation coordinated with each other to surround the enemy cavalry. Since the Taizu Dynasty, the Song army went out of the city to fight, and most of them used this method of warfare to ride on foot. However, the soldiers are divided into front and rear formations, and the mutual trust requirements of the generals of the two formations are extremely high; if they are suspicious of each other, the front battle will not be able to advance, and it is easy to delay the fighters, and if they do not save them when they see death in the rear formation, it is equivalent to trapping their comrades to death. Wang Gui, the commander of the former army, asked Zhao Xingde to cooperate in sending troops, and he did not plan to attack the enemy in front and rear, but the two armies were divided into left and right flanks, and attacked the Liao army camp at the same time. In this way, no one is worried about who is stumbling behind their backs.

The flag officer quickly reported the Baoyi army to the battle, Yue Fei asked the reason, knew the story, and agreed to Zhao Xingde's tactics with a slight groan. More than 6,000 infantry soldiers led by Wang Guisuo were the front formation, and more than 7,000 infantry soldiers of the Baoyi Army were listed as the rear formation. In this way, the goal of the battle was to inflict heavy damage on the enemy's main cavalry, rather than simply attacking the fortifications.

"Yue Shuai asked General Zhao to put state affairs first, don't worry about the royal system, after this battle, he should order the royal system to come and take the blame." The flag of the Chinese army is prostrate and respectful.

On the other hand, Yue Fei also sent a banner officer to inform Wang Gui of the latest dispatch, and ordered him to make meritorious service and immediately send troops to attack the enemy's camp.

Zhao Xingde nodded, and said to the flag officer: "Back to the Yue Privy, the Baoyi Army will go to the soup and fight the fire, and there will be no hesitation." ”

The surrounding generals looked at each other, and Luo Xianshi grinned and said: "Wang Guisu is arrogant and looks down on us, this time he asked him to hand over his back to our army, do you want to scare him?" Lu Mingyu nodded and agreed: "In the eyes of the king, which onion are you?" He can beat 20,000 iron horsemen with 6,000 people, but in fact, we don't need to worry about it at all. As soon as the two of them sang and harmonized, the generals showed a smile on their faces, and seeing Zhao Xingde's eyes slightly abrupt, they stopped talking and did not continue to ridicule the former army. Zhao Xingde immediately ordered all battalions to assemble, draped neatly, and ready to attack at any time to annihilate the enemy in response to the front army. The generals did not dare to slack off, and went back to transfer troops and send generals, and in a short time, more than 7,000 foot soldiers were pulled behind the fort, and with the help of the shelter of the fort, the whole army was on standby.

The marshal's military order came down again, and Wang Gui did not hesitate, and immediately commanded the front army to press forward. More than 6,000 foot soldiers had already been arrayed, and each commander of the Zhenguo army commanded more than 500 soldiers, of which 400 were musketeers, and the other 100 were long-handled axes and hook sickle gunners. This kind of arrangement is very convenient for cavalry to shoot from a distance and stab at close range. This is what the Zhenguo Army has gradually explored in the battle with the Liao cavalry since the confrontation in Shuzhou. Each commander of 500 soldiers lined up in a small formation, a total of twelve phalanxes, with pikemen and axemen on the periphery. Normally, before engaging the enemy, the small formations would converge into a thick large phalanx to resist the onslaught of cavalry, but as the large army slowly pressed forward, the distance between the small formations under the command of the Zhenguo army showed no tendency to shrink in the slightest.

"Strange, what does Wang Gui mean by this?" Luo Xianshi muttered. After a while, the commanders of the Zhenguo Army not only did not approach each other and became one, but the small formations on the periphery did not move, but the commanders inside were divided into two, and there were only more than 200 soldiers in each formation. The Zhenguo army usually drills effectively, exactly twenty small phalanxes, the military flag flutters and the army looks neat, as if the sky is full of stars and slowly moves forward, it is very good-looking, and it is better than the school reading in front of the temple in the suburbs of Bianliang.

Zhao Xingde's face showed a look of surprise, although the generals were not skilled in military books, they could also see that something was wrong.

"Wang Gui, do you want to die?" Lu Mingyu shook his head and said, "Still crazy?" "It is difficult for a column commanding infantry to withstand the onslaught of the cavalry of the Liao army. To deal with cavalry, the infantry formation has always been the more troops, the thicker the formation, the better, how can the troops be so thin? The Baoyi Army and the Zhenguo Army sat in the same boat, their lips were cold and their teeth were cold, and the generals didn't care about ridiculing Wang Gui for not knowing the soldiers, and a layer of melancholy appeared on their faces, and they couldn't wait to rush forward to teach Wang Gui how to fight.

"It's a sparse formation." Zhao Xingde thought for a moment, and finally recognized it: "This is the sparse formation in Sun Tzu's Art of War." ”

"Loose formation?" Lu Mingyu said curiously.

"Exactly." Zhao Xingde's eyes were a little complicated, and he groaned secretly, "If Wang Gui has practiced this formation by himself, it doesn't hurt if he wants to be on an equal footing with me and Han Henghai." "Sun Tzu's Art of War is to put the sparse array behind the phalanx and the circle formation, which is easy to practice and difficult to master, and generally speaking, the sparse array is only used to make a false momentum when the number of troops is small, however, if the sparse array is practiced well, it has the miraculous effect of restraining the enemy's elite advance. In the past, Han Xin set up a ten-sided ambush array, which exhausted the sharp energy of the Chu army, and evolved from the sparse array.

As far as the matter is concerned, if the Song army fights with the Liao army with an intact large array, the cavalry of the Liao army wanders outside the large array, and when they see that the situation is not good, they immediately raise their whips and flee away, and it is difficult for the Song army to take advantage of the victory to kill. But if the enemy is met by sparse formation, the cavalry of the Liao army will have to go deep into the Song army's large array, and the two armies will form a melee situation in which you have me and I have you, once the Song army defeats the Liao army, coupled with the cooperation of the rear formation, even if the main force of the Liao army is cavalry, it is difficult to escape, and heavy casualties are inevitable. It's just that the infantry army dealt with the cavalry army with a sparse formation, and it was either a big victory or a crushing defeat. Those who can really support the sparse formation in the left and right rush of the cavalry are all rare strong soldiers in ancient and modern times. On the battlefield, the sword has no eyes, there is no gold and steel diamond, and you can't do porcelain work. Ordinary infantry troops are scattered in formation, and they can only drink and hate under the iron hooves of healthy horses.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xingde's eyes couldn't help but become solemn, and he said to Luo Xianshi, Lu Mingyu and the others: "You wait to rectify your subordinates, once the front army is tight, we will rush to the rescue." The generals also knew that there was no joke in this matter, so they were solemn and ordered to go down to prepare. Because the artillery fortress blocked the view, the generals could not see the battle situation at the front line on their horses, and only advanced and retreated under the banner of Zhao Xingde on the fort.

In the middle of the river, on the tower of the giant ship, Han Shizhong was also observing the situation on the battlefield with a clairvoyant mirror, and when he saw the Zhenguo army approaching the Liao army camp with a sparse formation, he turned to the generals beside him and said: "The Zhenguo army has a big appetite, you are all optimistic, this battle is not simple." The leader of the troops must be Wang Gui, and the good students learn from others. ”

On the camp of the Liao army, Brother Temu lightly defeated the cavalry generals who defeated the battle. Although the cavalry of the Song people is strong, the number is pitiful, no matter how fierce the leopards are, they are not defeated by the wolves, as long as the troops take turns to invite them to fight, they are tired to death. Most of this Liao army came from various parts of the grassland, and hearing him say this, the morale of the army was also inspired. In the decisive battle on the grassland, only the cavalry was heavy, and as for the slowly approaching Song army's infantry formation, everyone didn't pay attention to it.

Brother Tiemu smiled at the left and right: "This southern barbarian has just won a game, and he went crazy, such a loose formation, what is it if he is not sent to death?" In Hedong, in Hebei, I have seen many thicker step formations than this, come, kill all these guys who are sent to death! ”