Cao Pi may still be depressed, thinking that he lost unjustly, but in fact, he doesn't know that for this battle. In order to frustrate Cao Jun's spirit, Wen Ping has been training according to Liu Cong's requirements for almost a year. Originally, it was to prevent Cao Cao from going south when Liu Cong attacked Yizhou. It's just that Cao Cao has never used troops against Jingzhou, so Liu Cong used it in this sneak attack on Xuchang.

This kind of battle formation is not Liu Cong's whim. Wen Ping is a veteran of the battlefield, so he naturally knows the power of this battle formation. First of all, a row of large shields provided good cover for the companions behind them from being harmed by the cavalry. It can also paralyze the enemy army, making it difficult for the enemy to see the layout of the battle formation.

And there is also a place for using two very sharp iron and wooden rods against cavalry.

Liu Cong was inspired by the Tang Dynasty's experience of using Modao on a large scale against ethnic minorities.

Mo knife is a two-edged long knife, heavier, about 50 catties (lifting Mo knife weighs 50 catties to take the city. The thief will enter, Xing raised a knife, and counted, as seen in the New Tang Dynasty book Zhang Xing's biography). Since the Mo knife appeared in the Sui Dynasty, 1 jin of the Sui Dynasty is only equivalent to 220 grams of modern times [1], and 50 jin of the Sui Dynasty is equivalent to about 22 catties of modern times, but this is still a very heavy actual combat weapon. The Tang Dynasty army was heavily equipped.

The Tang Empire became the center of the world at that time through enlightened politics and strong military power, from the unification battle in the early Tang Dynasty to all the internal and external wars in the Tang Dynasty, there was a weapon that had an unprecedented impact on later generations in the history of cold weapons - the Tang knife.

The Mo knife in the Tang Dynasty knife is used as an important war material and equipment for the army, and in the middle of the Tang Dynasty as a military utensil, it is strictly forbidden to make private and private collection, its predecessor is the Han Dynasty Shaofu made by the horse sword, although its function is said that the Han Dynasty horse sword to the Southern Xiongnu also contains the military purpose of helping it to "Li Wu Festival, business war attack", but because the casting process of this sword is complex, it must be forged into a sharp blade on both sides, and the middle is thick, and the process is more complicated, so the entire Han Dynasty basically only stays in the stage of serving the ruling class in the court and has not been used for military purposes.

"Book of Han" volume 67 "Zhu Yun Biography": "I wish to give Shang Fang a sword to cut off a horse, and cut off one minister to kill the rest." "Shi Gu said: Shang Fang, a subordinate official of the Shaofu, is an offering to the imperial utensils, so there is a sword for cutting horses, and the sword can be used to cut horses. The Mo knife is double-edged, and the handle is four feet long. After the Tang Dynasty, there are few traces of Modao in historical books.

Tang Mo knife began to be popular before and after Gaozong's disclosure to the tenth year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty. At first, the Modao was used to fight against the Turkic cavalry, and later it was popular in the armies to deal with the "Four Yis" of the Tang Dynasty, which was dominated by cavalry. In the Tang Dynasty, the perfect system of the festival made the army's equipment and training to be regularized, and the Mo knife became one of the main combat weapons of the Tang infantry, becoming a conventional equipment, and the establishment of the system made the towns recruit troops and horses, and established the cavalry of the middle and large universities, and the cavalry played an important role, which made the weapon of the restraint cavalry - the Mo knife was popular until the late Tang Dynasty.

There are many ways to use the Mo knife, and in the history recorded by the Confucian scholars who were more emotional than rational and did not attach importance to combat, there were only two ways to use the Mo knife, slashing and wielding. But rational analysis is not. Let's talk about splitting first, according to the history books, Mo Dao entered like a wall, and then chopped and killed together. Because for soldiers, holding the sharpness of their weapons in front of them can effectively boost their morale......

Well, it's to give yourself courage! So, what is a normal, plausible attack? He held the knife in front of him, but his arm was bent, and the remaining force of the forward stab flowed out. The bright Mo sword is like a wall, on the one hand, it can effectively boost the morale of its own soldiers, and on the other hand, it can also deter the enemy very seriously. The deterrence brought by the wide and sharp Mo knife to the enemy is far from being comparable to the narrow spearhead and spearhead.

When you get close to an enemy, stab them with force, or slash, chop, or slash if necessary. The Mo knife is 8-9 feet long and has a sharp tip, so the stab should be a common attack method of the Mo knife, otherwise it would not explain why it was created with such a sharp tip. The Mo knife is a long-handled waist-to-waist combat knife, known as a wall-propelled sword.

According to the Tang Dynasty's "Law of the Guards of War", the main combat methods of the first are recorded: among them, the armies are divided into archers, crossbowmen, garrisons, battle strikers, horse troops, jumping, strange soldiers and so on. Whenever the battle began, and the enemy was at one hundred and fifty paces, the crossbowmen began to fire; When the enemy was at sixty paces, the archers began to shoot arrows; When the enemy has advanced at 20 paces, the crossbowmen will fire their arrows and hold their swords and sticks (i.e., swords, sticks) and fight with the front team.

If the battle situation of the infantry in front is not smooth, the jumping, the odd soldiers, and the horse army can meet the front enemy attack, and the heavy infantry will retreat and prepare for reinforcement after rectification, if the jumping, odd soldiers, and horse army attack are unfavorable, all the infantry troops (in addition to the heavy infantry equipped with Mo knives, the army in the Tang Dynasty military system also includes shield bearers who defend against long-range weapons such as bows and arrows, and light infantry with short weapons) must cooperate with the horse army to fight at the same time.

When the enemy retreats, the Ma army must not pursue it easily, and it must be confirmed that the enemy is truly defeated before they can cover up and kill one after another. ** Combination of infantry and horses, offensive and defensive, infantry is the main frontal attack force for the frontal vanguard, cavalry is the side auxiliary, usually used to outflank the enemy or quickly impact the enemy position that is not stable, the infantry is equipped with bows, crossbows, and knives, and the cavalry is responsible for the assault and pursuit of the infantry after the battle.

As a long-handled broadsword, the Modao advanced like a wall to strangle the enemy's frontal living force (the enemy army was often crushed under the strangulation of the Modao heavy infantry), and was the main force of the vanguard infantry group to charge into battle, and together with the horse army and the odd soldiers, it constituted the main feature of the Tang battle.

From the history books, Tang Taizong's combat is very personal characteristics, the most like to choose the weak part of the enemy's formation, personally lead the cavalry charge, "the enemy is all defeated", a horse galloping in front, tens of thousands of cavalry followed closely behind the scene, today to think about, especially fascinating. In the early Tang Dynasty, a large number of cavalry was an important guarantee for the victory of the battle, and the infantry army in the middle period of the Mo knife like a wall to advance tactics, created a glorious war history in the Tang Dynasty, and also created the myth of the Mo knife.

Liu Cong's understanding of Modao is only limited to historical records. So he couldn't restore the real Modao. And even if it can be restored, it can't forge so many Mo knives. And Cao Cao in the north will attack Jingzhou at any time. So Liu Cong remembered to use a sharp iron rod instead of a Mo knife to assassinate the cavalry at the front of the enemy army.

The first and second rows of cavalry were nailed to death in front of the big shield, not only could not break through again, but also became a nightmare for the charging cavalry behind. The horses and knights who fell to the ground turned into stumbling horses and rejecting horses! This was followed by a series of wrestling horses. As soon as the front team was in chaos, the entire cavalry phalanx was in chaos. Then the spearmen attacked, trying to shoot the cavalry and horses that were following closely behind.

This was followed by the crossbowmen, whose range was about a hundred paces. In this way, at least they can't get close to the crossbowmen, they can only become their targets, and within a hundred paces, they will suffer heavy casualties! After such a few rounds, and then outflanked from both flanks with cavalry, and then the infantry phalanx began to push forward step by step, this kind of battle formation and tactics were naturally very powerful in the era of cold weapons.

In order to train this battle formation, Liu Cong even did not hesitate to use war horses to charge the formation to train the infantry's sortie time and reaction speed. A total of nearly 1,000 horses and two or three thousand soldiers were lost. In Jingzhou, which lacks war horses, it is already a very defeated behavior. However, to receive such an effect today, Liu Cong's efforts are worth it!

The defeat of Cao Pi's tiger and leopard cavalry with one blow not only eliminated Cao Cao's harassment of the villages and counties near Xinye, but also greatly boosted the morale of the whole army. On the contrary, Cao Cao's southern expedition to Sun Quan and Xuchang were attacked, and they were already in a hurry. Now the striker has been broken again. I believe that most of the soldiers in Cao's army will naturally think of the fiasco of Xiahoudun and Cao Ren back then! It has an absolute shocking effect on Cao Jun!

Guan Yu, Gan Ning, Liu Pan and others saw this battle formation for the first time, and it turned out that the infantry could really break the cavalry! It's just a clever use of the battle formation. Especially Guan Yu, seeing Wen Ping leading his subordinates to clean up the battlefield, he was also very happy. This literary appointment is really good, and it is not in vain that he will be a famous Chinese person to do the foremost for him, and he has worked hard to bring Cao Pi here.

The other generals saw Cao Pi's 20,000 tigers and leopards riding, and they were wiped out in a moment, and their hearts were finally steady, and now they understood why their lord was so confident to provoke Cao Cao just after seizing Yizhou! This was followed by infantry versus infantry, and the battlefield was closer to Xiangyang. These generals were even more confident in defeating Cao's army.

Soon, Liu Cong ordered all the generals to be summoned to discuss the next battle. Cao Cao's army still has more than 100,000. And the emperor and Xun Yu have entered Xinye City. Liu Cong started the idea of Cao Cao's infantry.

Cao Cao is destined to be Liu Cong's strongest enemy on the road to dominate the world and conquer the Central Plains, and it is almost impossible to bring Cao Cao to his knees with a single blow.

So it's a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity to weaken your opponent to the maximum! And how to kill Cao Cao to the greatest extent is to think of a way. The last time Cao Cao attacked Fancheng, a plague saved Liu Cong. Although Liu Cong is much stronger this time, if he fights with Cao Cao. It was still Liu Cong who suffered.

Cao Cao was able to mobilize nearly 300,000 soldiers in his own territory in a short period of time who could immediately enter the battle, while Liu Cong would transfer all the soldiers and horses in Yizhou at most, and remove the necessary defenses, at most 150,000 or 60,000. It's still the math. If he and Cao Cao fight one by one, as long as they fight to sixty or seventy thousand people, Liu Cong's whole situation will be very passive!

Therefore, completing Cao Pi's tiger and leopard ride is only the first step in this decisive battle, and Liu Cong has even greater ambitions.

In the first stage, all the generals and soldiers completed the tasks assigned by Liu Cong excellently, especially Liu Pan withstood the attack of tens of thousands of Cao troops on the eastern front and ensured Guan Yu's safe withdrawal to Xinye. Therefore, the generals are in a good mood, and they are no longer as sad as they were before the expedition.

But soon Liu Cong sounded the alarm for them!