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Xiao Tianjian looked at the surrounding terrain, nodded and said, "It's good to come, let them come over!" This place is nice, we are waiting for them right here! The order went down and ordered the brethren to wear armor, and then the procession was spread out to meet the enemy in a phalanx! Wang Chengping's cavalry is ready to respond at any time! The archers are on the left flank of the phalanx, ready to be ordered at any time! ”

With Xiao Tianjian's order, the soldiers and generals who came with them immediately took action, and put on the various armors they brought with them in an orderly manner, and then the soldiers immediately retreated with the accompanying mules, horses and vehicles, and the soldiers assembled according to the orders of their respective officers, transformed from the marching army to a hollow phalanx, and after marching forward for a while, blocked this official road. *..!。 *

And this time the formation was somewhat different from the formation they used in the past, several sentries were arranged to the four corners of the phalanx, forming four musket phalanxes, while the pikemen were assembled in a dense formation in the center, Wang Chengping's small group of elite cavalry was placed at the rear of the team, as the preparation of the phalanx and the force of the assault, as for the more than 200 archers who had just been formed by Orion, because they had not received the formal training of the Xingtian Army, they could not be incorporated into the phalanx, In order not to disrupt the tacit understanding between the warbands, they were ordered to line up on the left side of the team and use them as a reserve force.

Xiao Tianjian used his time in Shuangfeng Village to often discuss with Gao Su on the application of infantry arrays, and learned more knowledge about the Western application of infantry tactics from Gao Su.

And Gao Su, as Xiao Tianjian's tactical adviser at the moment, did not skimp on what he knew, and told Xiao Tianjian about some of the tactics of the infantry phalanx he knew during his time as a mercenary, and Xiao Tianjian adjusted the original phalanx used by the Xingtian Army through what Gao Su said, making it closer to the phalanx used by the Western army at present.

In this regard, Xiao Tianjian does not care about the use of the doctrine of taking, after all, the application of the Western infantry phalanx to this era has a history of decades or even nearly a hundred years, and once this kind of phalanx was created, it played a great role in the war of the West, and it was rapidly popularized, and it became the main mode of combat of major countries in the West, which must have its rationality.

From the very beginning, Xiao Tianjian began to respond to this trend, simplifying the configuration of the arms in the army, mainly focusing on the construction of pikemen and firearms, supplemented by a part of the sword and shield soldiers, so that the composition of the army is closer to the composition of the Western army, although in the application of the initial phalanx, the Xingtian Army is somewhat plausible, but on the whole it still played a good combat effectiveness, several times against the strong enemy, the Xingtian Army has not suffered any big losses, and with a strong desire to fight, repeatedly fought against the enemy and won the victory, This also shows that such a phalanx tactic still has quite strong combat effectiveness in the face of an enemy dominated by an old-style army on the land of China.

Therefore, after receiving Gao Su's help, in the past two or three months, the Xingtian Army has devoted itself to improving the tactics originally used, making them closer to the phalanx tactics used by the West, in order to exert greater combat effectiveness.

Whether it was in the battle of Tianlongzhai, or in the battle of Shifo Temple, or even in the battle of Shiqiao, the Xingtian army used some tactics to a greater or lesser extent, or seized the advantageous terrain and other strategies, and finally won the victory with the weak.

However, today's situation is different from the previous wars, this time the Xingtian Army is completely active, to take the enemy outside the imperial gate, head-on to meet the enemy twice their own size, this battle can be said to be a test of the Xingtian Army's training during this period of time, whether the specific can achieve the desired results, for the future development of the Xingtian Army is very important.

And Xiao Tianjian is full of confidence in this, in his opinion, after such training, although the strength of the Xingtian Army has not increased much, but the combat effectiveness has increased by at least more than 50%, with their current state, in the face of this ragtag army composed of officers and local villagers, he has a very good chance of winning.

When the soldiers of the Xingtian Army obeyed the order and had just formed a phalanx along the official road, a cloud of smoke and dust was raised in the distance on the official road in front of the army, and they quickly approached their location.

Wang Youtian rode on a red horse, led three hundred cavalry under his command, galloped on the official road at medium speed, since he was ordered by Niu Tai, went out to open the way for the brigade of men and horses, he led his troops to leave the main force of the official army, galloped towards the direction of Yangcheng, along the way they also found two or three groups of thieves on horseback near the official road, probes to observe them, so he immediately sent people to pursue them, and the thieves are also very cunning, knowing that the strength is not good, they do not fight them head-on at all, as soon as they see him send people to pursue them, they have turned their horses and left, Soon he was gone.

And Wang Youtian was also afraid of falling into the trap of the thieves, and did not dare to let his subordinates stay too far away from his own team of soldiers and horses, so after they were dispersed, he recalled the soldiers and horses sent back to his team.

After more than half an hour's march, he finally spotted an enemy army in front of him blocking their way in this relatively flat area.

And he led his troops to a position about a mile and a half away from the enemy, and raised his hand to stop his men, so the cavalry gathered the reins of their horses and looked at the enemy on the opposite side.

The reason why he recognized the enemy army on the opposite side at a glance was very simple, he saw that among the people on the opposite side, there was a scarlet battle flag erected, there was no word on it, only a pattern of punishment with a shield axe, and this group of people was also dressed in a messy manner, all kinds of clothes and armor, helmets and helmets were also all kinds of colors, it was impossible for the officers and soldiers to be so mixed, if the only unified equipment of the other party was the strange leggings on their legs.

If you say leggings, in fact, it is not a new thing, even in this era, many people also play leggings, but the habit of playing leggings is mostly from the southerners, in the north, there are not many people who play leggings, and although there are many hilly and mountainous areas in Shanxi, there is still no habit of playing leggings, so this is very different from the common army equipment.

But this was not the reason why Wang Youtian's group of officers and cavalry were surprised, what surprised them was the formation of the thief army on the opposite side and the neatness of the opponent's formation.

Wang Youtian looked at it, only to see that although the thief army on the opposite side was mixed with clothes and armor, but the equipment was very simple, except for the rattan players with a column of shields in front of the formation, most of the team were all spears, and at the two corners of their queue were single equipped with firecrackers carrying bird guns, such a formation was very rare, Wang Youtian boasted that he had been in the army for more than ten years, but it was the first time he had seen such a formation.

It was only a little in front of the left flank of the other party's thief army that I saw a somewhat chaotic team of archers, but this team of archers was obviously different from these thieves in the main formation, obviously the thieves who formed the main formation were the main soldiers who had undergone a considerable degree of training, and the archers were obviously not armoured, and they should be temporarily recruited auxiliaries.

And what surprised Wang Youtian even more was the level of training shown by the other army's generals, after such a phalanx was formed, there was basically no other noisy sound in the army except for the officers' shouts, and the other party's thieves were in array, the queue was unimaginably neat, faintly exuding a murderous aura, even if he was more than a mile away from the thief army, the aura emanating from the thief army's array still made him and his subordinates feel a little depressed.

So Wang Youtian couldn't help but gasp, and his heart jumped a few times suddenly, a little unsure of what to do, so he hurriedly ordered to go down, let all his subordinates settle down, don't move, and see the enemy situation first.

But after Wang Youtian looked at it carefully, he felt even more strange, because this thief army was obviously very different from the thief army they had encountered before, and the enemy troops they encountered in the past, whether they were more or less, were all chaotic, only a few thieves were more sophisticated, and the rest were basically some homeless people who were temporarily entrapped.

The composition of the thief army in front of him is obviously different from those thief army, although this thief army also has auxiliaries, but the proportion of auxiliaries in its army is less than one or two percent, and the rest are all elite soldiers, so it seems that the number of soldiers on the other side has almost reached nearly fifteen or six hundred, and the total number of remaining auxiliary soldiers is only about twenty percent, and this is really the first time to see such a thief army.

In this way, although they brought 4,000 soldiers and horses, the number of real soldiers among them was not as large as the enemy army, which suddenly cast a shadow on Wang Youtian's heart.

And his subordinates also saw the thief army on the opposite side clearly at this time, and they all gasped, and couldn't help but dare not move forward again, let alone kill and disperse the thief army.

Originally, Wang Youtian was still a little impulsive when he led his troops to come this time, and when he was discussing in the army in the morning, when several colleagues proposed to camp on the spot to find out the enemy's situation before making a decision, he was still very disdainful, thinking that these guys were too timid and afraid, but in his opinion, with only 2,000 thieves, this battalion of cavalry under his command was enough to deal with them.

So after he led his troops to set off, he also fantasized that if he ran into the thief army, and the thief army was not strong, he simply didn't wait for Niu Tai and their main force to come, and he did the work and pulled it down, as long as he killed the leader of the thief army, the rest was to let him lead his troops to cover up in the back, and when Niu Tai and they arrived, the cucumber and vegetables were cold, and then the eunuch surnamed Wang would definitely play the court and give a special hand to his merits, and this merit would definitely be his.

But after he saw the appearance of this thief army clearly, it was like being splashed with a basin of cold water on his head, and his whole body was cold and cold, and he no longer had the idea of eating alone.

"Uncle, what should we do now? Do you want to test this gang of thieves first? At this time, a younger officer came to Wang Youtian's side and whispered to Wang Youtian.

"Temptation, are you blind? What a fucking pig brain! This gang of thieves doesn't seem to be good at stubble, we only have only 300 cavalry, and most of the opponents are spears. That's it, don't stay here, go back quickly to report the cattle guerrilla, and let him come over to make a decision! With our troops, we can't gnaw them down at all! Let the others go first, and if they can break up this gang of thieves, let's follow and pick up the leak!" Remove! After Wang Youtian's temples jumped a few times, he scolded the subordinate who called him uncle, and then ordered with a flick of his horse.

The cavalry of the three hundred officers did not say a word, but followed Wang Youtian to turn the horse's head, and without looking back, they ran back towards the road they came.