"It's easy to say!" Someone next to him sneered, "How easy is it to shorten the distance between the two sides as soon as possible?" ”

"That is, when a firearm is fired, it is more than 100 paces away, and if you want to run more than 100 steps, it will take at least ten breaths, not to mention that the soldier has to wear armor and hold a weapon in his hand, where can he run so fast?" An officer with a bright silver heart shield on his chest said loudly, "What's more, I heard that the soldiers who came back this time said that this time the southern rebellion had already opened fire at a distance of two hundred paces, accurately and quickly, and at least ten times at two hundred paces to the two sides. ”

"Yes!" Zhao Ximin nodded, he was very satisfied with the words of the heart guard, "This general is right!" He said as he took two steps forward and arched his hand towards the heart guard, "What this general said is very true, at this time of the war, in fact, the main thing is a momentum, if the momentum can overwhelm the enemy, then even if your own troops are small, you can have an advantage to a certain extent." But if the momentum is lost to the enemy from the beginning, then no amount of people will be able to defeat it. Zhao Ximin looked at the face of the heart guard as he spoke, and sure enough, he saw that the other party showed a look of agreement, although the northern Yankee had a very bad attitude towards him, but the heart guard in front of him was still polite and courteous, not rude everywhere, which made him feel good.

"How do you think you should play?" The commander was a little impatient and tapped twice on the table.

Zhao Ximin hurriedly turned around and faced the commander with both hands and fists again, "Although the firearm is powerful, Nan Reverse has accelerated the firing speed at this time, but there is a shortcoming that firearms cannot avoid, that is, the hit is too low. Listening to his words, many generals next to him who were originally unconvinced did not say anything, and some even nodded with deep understanding. This time, our heavenly army suffered losses in the battle, mainly because of the rash advance, and more than 10,000 elite soldiers entered the narrow valley without warning. ”

Although Zhao Ximin said that he was not present at the scene, he also had a veteran of the previous army in the beaten northern army, and the veteran still suffered a loss in Shabak outside the port of Champong, so he took advantage of the chaos to flee when he heard the sound of musket fire at the beginning of the battle. Although this veteran said that he was afraid of death, he was very discerning, and after coming back, he ran to Zhao Ximin's side and told him the detailed battle experience, which also gave him a full understanding, and after deducing with a few generals in his tent for several days, he also had a lot of ideas.

"The long and narrow valley has been a taboo for soldiers since ancient times, and the Heavenly Army rashly entered the valley without sufficient reconnaissance, and has not carefully searched for whether there are enemy ambushes on the mountain beams on both sides of the valley," said Zhao Ximin with a heavy sigh, "The terrain of the narrow valley is not conducive to our army of real swords and guns to fight the enemy, because the distance that the soldiers can spread out in the same time is too short to quickly suppress the southern rebellion in terms of numbers; But the problem of the South is the opposite, and their firearms are able to exert their power in such a situation. ”

"What do you mean by that?" Even the commander has always been very wary of Zhao Ximin, but at this moment, he was still whetted at once, and even the officers who were talking about the yin and yang weirdness next to him were silent at the moment, pricking up their ears to listen to Zhao Ximin's words.

"Firearms are all about distance, and if the distance can be widened, the power of firearms can be fully utilized. The valley where the two sides fought this time was covered with thorns, weeds and shrubs, and the soldiers could not walk, so it was natural for them to panic when they were fired by the first round of firearms. And when the valley is narrow and the army is constantly moving forward, what do you think should happen if there is chaos ahead? ”

"Naturally, we should speed up the march and rush to the front of the enemy as soon as possible!" "That's right! Not to mention firearms, let the soldiers in the first row rush forward as fast as they can, then shoot a quick round with the musketeers in the queue, and then move forward with their swords and axes! ”

Zhao Ximin raised his right hand high, so that everyone looked at him without knowing why. "Today's battle, just as the previous brother Tai said, after the firecracker shot, the axe hand stepped forward, but the opponent's firecracker blocked the impact of the knife and axe hand, not only blocked, but also did not take a step back during the whole battle. I know that everyone thinks that firearms are nothing more than a powerful weapon, and that firearms will scatter as long as the enemy's sword and gun are in front of them. ”

The officers next to them did not speak, but the expressions on their faces clearly agreed with this point of view.

"But in this battle, the Southern Rebellion was speared by the firecrackers, some of whom held spears and some of whom held firearms. When the distance is long, they shoot with guns, and when the distance between the two sides is closer, they stab with spears. Zhao Ximin looked around at the surrounding officers and continued, "This is the tactic of special infantry attack!" Without preparation, the infantry would have suffered heavy losses in front of such a spear formation. In addition, the southern rebellion was even more prepared, ambushed the cannon on the mountain beam, and when the battle was at a stalemate, it suddenly fired fiercely near the commandery banner, taking advantage of the chaos to defeat the command of our army. In this way, the Heavenly Army has no leader, and defeat is inevitable. ”

"Then according to General Zhao's view, this battle can't be fought?" The commander spoke in a dissatisfied voice, and his voice was a few degrees higher.

"It's not that you can't fight, but you have to fight in a different way." Zhao Ximin hurriedly said, he didn't want to annoy his new boss, otherwise he wouldn't be able to eat and walk around. "If you want to crack this kind of formation, it's not impossible, but there is a formation in this world, there must be a way to crack it. Although there are spears that can block the impact of some infantry, but their number is limited, according to the soldiers who came back this time, the number of musketeers and pikemen in the southern rebellion is about one to one, so when they set up the formation, they do not have enough pikemen to protect the musketeers, such a formation can only be extended, forming two to six columns, and they can only face the frontal enemy when fighting. ”

The generals next to him were silent at the moment, and they were all listening carefully to Zhao Ximin's words, "Let's imagine, such a formation can only be facing the front, then the left, right and rear three parties must be empty, even if multiple phalanxes are combined, their firearm shooting will be seriously weakened, and when they encounter simultaneous attacks from multiple directions, they will inevitably turn to cumbersome." Putting pressure on them from the flanks while fighting is bound to make them scramble. It is conceivable that the reason why they chose that valley as a battlefield must have been carefully selected, our infantry is mainly infantry, and it is impossible to go around to their flanks to threaten their flanks, and the cavalry is even more unable to march quickly on such terrain, coupled with the unexpected ambush, naturally they will not be defeated. ”

Zhao Ximin said and went around in a circle in the field and continued, "Now that our army has lost a game, it is a big blow to the morale of our army, so our army must strive to fight with the main force of the Southern Rebellion in the shortest possible time, and defeat the Southern Rebellion as much as possible to save the morale of the army." ”

"Hmm!" The commander nodded, stood up and walked up to Zhao Ximin, and patted him on the shoulder, "Sure enough, it is worthy of being a famous general who has been confronting us for many years, and he can analyze this battle so clearly, and even more so analyze their tactics so clearly, it's rare!" There is such an extra tiger general in my heavenly army, and Annan Zhongxing is hopeful! ”

Zhao Ximin looked flattered and hurriedly bowed to the ground, "Don't dare, don't dare, the lower officials only know a little bit about it, and in front of the marshal and the generals, he will make an axe and offer ugliness." ”

"Hmm!" A sound came out of the commander's throat, and he continued, "Next, I am determined to have a decisive battle with the Southern Rebellion, which has been a long time, but I am not familiar with the terrain of the South, and I would like to suggest a thing or two from General Zhao's experience in previous years." ”

Zhao Ximin's head spun quickly, since he took refuge, he has been very suspicious, and the army under his command has been divided, and only one hundred and ten personal soldiers are still in his hands. Although he said that his official rank is still a general, he is already an out-and-out commander of the light pole, let alone fighting on the front line now, even if these "own people" suddenly attack to arrest themselves, they don't even have enough manpower to protect themselves. It has been many months since such days, and he feels that life is worse than death, but he has no way to change this situation, he can only bear it for life. Today's military council made him keenly see an opportunity, that is, to find a way to defeat the group of his former comrades-in-arms in the south.

It's not nice to say, but it's stress-free for him to do. When he was in the south, his legion was considered to be the strongest army in the South Bank Army, although it was not as elite as Lin Zhaisan's army, but it had a terrifying number, enough to overwhelm Lin Zhaisan and Ruan Wei's army. And the South Shore Army is the most elite army in the entire South An, there is no one, so from that time on, he Zhao Ximin is the most beautiful figure in the whole South Annan, and the consequence is that countless people covet his status and strength and want to take the opportunity to bring him down. There were so many civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty, none of them were his friends, not even those who stood on his side, and the reason why he did not return to Hue for more than ten years in Jiezhen to report on his work and resume his life is also this, as long as he leaves Jiezhen alone, he will be killed in a minute.

Although this situation is not good, it has also cleared the psychological obstacles for him now - no one in the whole of Annan is kind to him, no matter who he goes to war with, he will not have psychological scruples, as long as he fights. Although he is now trying to give advice on how to fight his former comrades-in-arms, he has no psychological obstacles at all, and if he can eliminate as many southern rebels as possible, the more stable his position in the northern army will be, and the more southern Yankees' heads will be cut off, the more he will be able to show his loyalty to the Northern Dynasty, which is not a problem at all.

At this moment, Zhao Ximin's head turned desperately, and the map in his head brushed through his mind one by one, and soon selected a place, he stood up, tugged at his belt, and then said loudly to the commander, "Dashuai!" Xia Guan has been in the south for many years, and he is quite familiar with the terrain of the south. Saying that, he beckoned to call over a personal soldier of his own, and the personal soldier hurriedly stepped forward, untied the map cylinder on his body with both hands, bowed over his head and handed it to Zhao Ximin.

Zhao Ximin stretched out his hand to take it, opened the map tube, rummaged through it slightly, found a map, spread his hands and looked at it carefully, and then showed it to the commander. "Look, big man! This is the place where the lower officials think it is more suitable for fighting! ”

The commander leaned over and carefully examined the terrain above, and on the map was a city with "Bailai" written on it.

Bailai is a small city about ninety miles south of Jiezhen, the city is absolutely unknown, the population of the entire city and the surrounding agricultural population add up to no more than 10,000 people, and the city wall is old, just because the location of Bailai is neither close to the north nor close to the east where the Nanban has been plundered many times, so it has been perfectly ignored in the many years of the Civil War and several southern and northern invasions, not to mention the armies of the north and the south and the south for so many years, even the bandits are not very willing to patronize here.

Near Bailai is a large plain that is rare in the terrain of Annam, and it is reasonable to say that such a large plain should be surrounded by a large amount of arable land, and a large number of farmers will work in the fields all day long, but this is not the case at all. Except for the range within two or three miles of Bailai City, there is basically no arable land, and it is quite speechless to talk about the reason, there is a mountainous area near the Bailai Plain, and the whole terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast. Annam is located in the tropics, and the rainy season is long and the amount of precipitation is quite amazing, so every rainy season the entire Bailai Plain is baptized by a flood, because of the flood, the wide Bailai Plain has few trees except for large fields of wild grass.

The peasants of Annam do not know the cause of the flood, they just feel that this is a cursed land, and every time the newly opened fields are lush and green, when the harvest is about to be harvested, the crops in these fields will be swept away by raging floods, and after several years of competition, the farmers of Bailai soon completely gave up the action of expanding their fields abroad.

"It's the dry season, and there's little rain, so it's the best time for our Heavenly Army to enter the vicinity of Bailai. In addition, the local weeds are luxuriant, often large areas of grass with more than one person high, which is very beneficial for the army to conceal in between, and there is no river nearby, so there will be no trouble wading through the water, so Xia Guan felt that this place would be more suitable for a decisive battle with the southern counter. Saying that, Zhao Ximin handed the map to the commander with both hands, "Please also ask the commander to decide!" ”

The commander took the map, looked at it carefully, raised his head and said, "This place looks good, but at this moment, Nan Rebellion has just won a new victory, and it is the morale that is like a rainbow, Bailai is more than thirty miles away from here, and it is not on the way between Nan Rebel and our Heavenly Army, how can they make them willingly follow us to fight on the Bailai Plain?" ”