The real Bagua Array is actually an array of infantry against cavalry, and it is not so evil in itself.

In war, victory or defeat often does not depend on the absolute number of casualties on both sides, but on the morale of the soldiers, when the vast majority of the troops on one side fall into fear and lose the courage to continue fighting, it is also declared their defeat. And people are blind, and the so-called courage often depends on whether there are standing comrades around us and whether our side can maintain a complete lineup. As long as a battle formation is still intact, even if it is besieged, the soldiers around him can give the soldiers the incentive to continue fighting. But even the most complete battle formations are loose, because too close an array will limit the attack of infantry weapons, while the opponent's weapons can knock down several people at once. Therefore, there are still gaps between soldiers and soldiers in the battle formation, which gives the cavalry an opportunity to take advantage of.

Therefore, the overwhelming superiority of cavalry over foot soldiers is largely due to its indomitable momentum and powerful impact on the battle line. The orthodox cavalry tactics, the so-called "charging formation", are a hundred horsemen in unison, breaking through the opponent's battle line from multiple points in the front, reaching the battle, and then reining in the horse and turning back to counterattack. The effect of this repeated impact is not to kill, but to make the connection between any two soldiers on the other side in danger of being cut off by a horse at any time, so that a single foot soldier will have the illusion of being isolated, and the whole formation will be destroyed into a plate of scattered sand. In addition, when the cavalry charges, it is like a sickle cutting wheat, and the extremely high speed causes a huge amount of energy, and once a lone infantry is hit head-on, there will be no chance to block or counterattack. This fear of death becomes more pronounced under the influence of loneliness, which leads to the loss of the individual's will to fight, and then develops into the defeat of the group.

But in fact, this attack mode of the cavalry is full of bluff. Since their actual attack range is not larger than that of the foot soldiers, and the presence of their mounts causes the area of attack to be much larger than that of the foot soldiers, they can only use endless running and irregular routes, relying on instantaneous explosive power to attack the unsuspecting, lone foot soldiers. Once an infantry with guns and shields, leaning on each other, and waiting for battle, the cavalry often has no way to do anything and will easily bypass it. The cavalry slashed back and forth, creating confusion and panic, waiting for the foot soldiers to disperse and then reap one by one. Therefore, although the cavalry's assault route was irregular, in fact it tended to move in a direction with fewer people in front of them and weaker troops.

Shu Han is located in Sichuan, mostly infantry, he will march into the Central Plains one day, inevitably on the plain and Cao Wei cavalry fighting. On the plains, if the infantry wanted to fight the cavalry, they had to rely on battle formations. It was in response to this situation that Zhuge Liang developed a new type of Bagua Array.

The Bagua Array is actually a multi-arm battle array, which is divided into an inner array and an outer array, with a total of 8 directions. The outside is divided into eight peripheral arrays, such as the Sky Covering Array, the Ground Carrying Array, the Wind Lifting Array, the Cloud Hanging Array, the Dragon Flying Array, the Tiger Wing Array, the Bird Xiang Array, and the Snake Pan Array, so it is also known as the Eight Arrays! Among them, the heaven and earth wind and clouds are the main formation, which is the main soldier, and the dragon, tiger, bird and snake are the four formations as the surprise soldiers. If one of the formations is attacked, the neighboring formations will protect its flanks and keep approaching to kill the enemy with bows and crossbows. Each of the surrounding 8 large arrays is guarded by a general, which is led by Ma Zhong, the general of Zhengnan, Zhang Wei, the general of Anbei, Zhang Yi, Situ Dengzhi, the general Liao Hua, the general of the Protector Army, the right general Zhuge Dan, and the general Guan Suo of Anxi, each of which is composed of 6 small formations, a total of 64 small formations. The Chinese army is the command platform, composed of 16 small formations, Zhuge Liang led Sikong Yang Yi, Zhengbei General Wang Ping, Zuo General Jufu, Hubu Supervisor Meng Yan and others personally guarded.

The whole army has a total of 9 large arrays, including a total of 88 small arrays, each small array of 1,000 people, equipped with 200 shield soldiers, 300 crossbowmen, 300 hook and sickle soldiers and a small number of military cavalry.

The main tactics of the Bagua Array were that when the cavalry charged, the infantry consciously gave way and lured the cavalry to subconsciously concentrate on these routes. After the cavalry entered the formation, the infantry array was broken but not dispersed, gathering on both sides along the way, giving up the space in front for the cavalry to charge. And the core of this formation is that this path can be determined by prior drills, and through conscious guidance, the cavalry can be used to charge in a straight line on both sides of the battle formation, and become a circular route in the formation under the leadership of the infantry side! The Shu army continued to induce the enemy to charge, and the endless arrows and hooks would gradually consume the momentum and physical strength of the enemy cavalry. And due to the characteristics of the cavalry itself, they had to charge along this "safe" route. Over time, the enemy forces in the array will eventually be gradually depleted.

Then, if the cavalry risked their lives to charge the battle formation, the units in each small formation would cooperate with each other. The first row of the Shu army's battle array is composed of antlers, partial box cars, etc., and the front of the partial box car is equipped with a shield guard, which is operated by the shield soldier to defend against the impact. The second row is composed of crossbowmen, who use three-stage shooting to strike the enemy intensively, and the third group is composed of hooked sickles, who use hook and sickle guns to harvest the last wave of enemies that rush through the rain of arrows. If the enemy army is scattered, the Shu army will change or even close the road according to the situation, divide and surround the enemy army, and then be eliminated one by one.

Every part of the Bagua Array is specifically designed for cavalry, so that the cavalry in the formation will fall into endless running, be stabbed by unguardable arrows and crossbows, and even if they risk death to break through, they will be suppressed by the combined arms in the formation, and finally be divided everywhere and broken one by one.

This is the real gossip array!

Zhuge Liang thought about it day and night, sharpened his sword for ten years, and created this invincible battle array that shook the past and the present. This was because Shu Han did not have a strong cavalry, and it was simply impossible to cross Cao Wei's defense line and complete a large-depth movement battle. Zhuge Liang's only expectation was to fight a decisive battle with Cao Wei's army on the Great Plains, relying on the war monster he created to destroy Cao Wei's main force in one fell swoop. The arrangement of the entire formation is very complicated, and the mobilization is also very complicated. In order to let his army strictly implement the orders and coordinate like a machine, Zhuge Liang wrote the "Twenty-four Articles of the Art of War", and continued to practice and exercise in Shuzhong, just looking forward to one day being able to really come in handy.

Therefore, Sima Yi in history was "afraid of Shu like a tiger", not because he was incompetent, but because he knew very well how terrible the opponent he was facing. Sima Yi resolutely insisted on holding the war and the turtle war, and predicted and seized various strategic key points. He is not a tactician, he is a master of strategy and does not play with fire. It's a pity that all this passed away with the defeat of his plan, and everyone in Cao Wei didn't have Sima Yi's vision and couldn't see through Zhuge Liang's intentions, so they entered Zhuge Liang's "trap" step by step, and finally let Zhuge Liang usher in the long-awaited Battle of the Plains as he wished, so that his Bagua Array could finally see the light of day and leave a glorious page in the history books.