The semi-finals and finals of the ground list are compared to the command of the opponent, and the semi-finals are in the morning, with Ma Luan, Nan Jiyun, Wang Sili and Li Guiren competing for the finals.

Before the audience arrived, the candidates had rushed to the examination room, and under the auspices of the examiner, the lottery was grouped, and the result of the draw was a group of Ma Ling and Li Guiren, and a group of Nan Jiyun and Wang Sili, respectively, to compete for the finals.

Soon after the draw was completed, Xuanzong and all the ministers of civil and military affairs and envoys from various countries came to the stands, and Zhao Ziliang immediately led a group of officials to meet them.

"Greetings to Your Majesty!"

Xuanzong sat on the throne with a golden sword and raised his hand: "No courtesy, flat body!" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Xuanzong looked at Zhao Ziliang and asked, "Zhao Qing, how are you preparing?" Ready to start? ”

"Your Majesty, you can start at any time!"

Xuanzong waved his hand: "Then let's start!" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded to Zuo Yuanwailang, and Zuo Yuanwailang walked quickly off the school field to preside over the semifinals.

Soon there was a sound of neat footsteps on the school field, and the soldiers and horses of the brigade entered from the entrances at both ends of the school field, led by a general wearing armor, each with 2,000 men and horses, and the two teams of soldiers and horses stopped at a distance of 300 meters, and the generals who led the team rode their horses and ran down, and Ma Lu and Li Guiren took over respectively.

Xuanzong asked: "Zhao Qing, let's talk about it, who is on the field today."

Zhao Ziliang introduced: "Your Majesty, the first group of duels is Ma Lu and Li Guiren, Ma Lu is twenty years old this year, but after the martyrdom, his grandfather Ma Zhenghui official worshiped the right Weiwei general, and his father Ma Sheng, led the army Cao to join the army for the right division, both of them died in the border pass, Li Guiren is a Hebei clan, and he has visited famous teachers since he was a child to learn the art of martial arts. Although he was born as a civilian, few people can match him with his martial arts. The semi-finals of the ground list mainly compete in the command ability, each side has 500 cavalry, 500 archers, 500 spearmen, and 500 sword and shield soldiers, a total of 2,000 people. ”

A minister immediately asked: "Mobilizing the imperial court soldiers and horses to fight them will inevitably cause huge casualties, how can General Zhao be so careless of human life?" ”

Zhao Ziliang glanced at the minister with an idiot look, and explained to Xuanzong: "Your Majesty, the weapons of the generals and soldiers who participated in the war drill have not been opened, and the weapons are painted with paint. Whoever is cut on it will have a paint mark, but all the soldiers and generals who have a paint mark on their body indicate that he is dead, and they must automatically withdraw from the battlefield, bows and arrows are blunt, and wrapped in a cloth bag, and there is also a paint dip, whoever shoots, whoever has a mark on his body, the soldier must also automatically withdraw! ”

Xuanzong laughed. nodded: "Zhao Qing is thoughtful, so good!" So let's get started? ”

"Yes!" Zhao Ziliang saluted and immediately ordered the semi-finals of the ground list to start immediately.

The previous Ground Ranking exam also tested the battle of command in battle, but there were not so many troops. There are only 200 people, and this semi-final directly increases to 2,000 people, which is also a big test for the four candidates who participated in the semi-finals, after all, there are more soldiers and horses. The more the general's commanding ability is tested.

Since they had already taken the test for the battle of commanding the formation, the four candidates all had some understanding of some of the flags of the Tang Army's military formation command and the arrangement of troops. However, the examiner has already assigned a standard-bearer and a herald to the candidate, so there is no need to worry about poor command.

Under the order of Zhao Ziliang, the first group of the semifinals finally began.

Ma Xuan crossed the sword, shield and pikemen, with a distance of one meter between the soldiers, and deployed the archers in the rear, and the cavalry in several columns on the left flank; Li Guiren, on the other hand, deployed the sword and shield soldiers on the left side of the front, and the spearmen on the right side of the front, leaving a passage in the middle for the cavalry to pass through quickly. Half of the archers were deployed at the rear of the spearmen, half at the rear of the sword and shield men, and the cavalry at the center and rear, so that the cavalry could support them at any time.

Li Guiren's subordinates gave the order to attack, "Order, the sword and shield soldiers on the left flank advance!" ”

The herald immediately issued Li Guiren's order, and after the standard-bearer received the order, he quickly waved the flag, and the left-wing sword and shield soldiers in the school field immediately stepped on neat steps and quickly advanced with swords and shields.

Seeing this, Ma Lan immediately ordered: "Order, the sword and shield soldiers on the left side advance!" The archers move to the left flank! ”

The order was quickly conveyed, and both sides were the first to dispatch their troops on the left, so that Li Guiren's sword and shield men attacked Ma Lu's right flank spearmen and sword and shield men, while Ma Lu attacked Li Guiren's right flank spearmen with sword and shield soldiers and archers.

In this way, the spearmen on Li Guiren's right flank were dangerous, after all, Ma Lu's attack troops were sword and shield soldiers and spearmen, both of which restrained the spearmen.

A few minutes later, after the two sides made contact, Li Guiren's spearmen suffered considerable losses, and Ma Lu's sword and shield soldiers and spearmen also suffered some losses, but the losses were not large.

Li Guiren frowned, and immediately ordered: "Order, order the cavalry to break through from the middle of the enemy army and attack the archers in the rear of the enemy army!" ”

"No!" The herald agreed, and the order was immediately delivered.

The sound of rumbling horses' hooves came out, and Ma Ling saw that the opponent's cavalry was killing from the middle, and the forces on his left and right sides were staggered, and the troops at the junction were very weak, and if they were attacked by the cavalry, they would inevitably collapse, so he immediately ordered: "Order the left spearmen to move to the center, as the first line of defense to block the opponent's cavalry attack, and order the right wing spearmen to move to the center as the second line of defense to block the opponent's cavalry, and the archers will stare at the opponent's cavalry, and they will also enter the firing range and scatter freely immediately!" ”

Because there was enough room for movement in the middle, Li Guiren's cavalry attacked quickly, and Ma Lu's spearmen had just moved to the center before they could form a spear formation and were crushed, but fortunately, the spearmen of the second line of defense had already been deployed in a long spear formation when Li Guiren's cavalry rushed over.

If there is any type of infantry that can restrain the cavalry to a certain extent, it is only the pikemen, although Ma Lu's pikemen suffered considerable losses, but finally blocked the impact of Li Guiren's cavalry, and his archers continued to scatter freely when the opponent's cavalry entered the firing range, which caused great casualties to Li Guiren's cavalry, after the cavalry lost speed, the lance posed a huge threat to the cavalry, and Li Guiren's cavalry continued to withdraw from the battlefield.

Ma Lan breathed a sigh of relief, he knew that it was time to launch a counterattack, and immediately ordered: "Order the cavalry on the left flank to attack, bypass the spearmen on the right flank of the enemy army and attack the archers in the rear of the enemy army!" ”

Li Guiren's right-wing spearmen were pinned down by Ma Lu's sword and shield soldiers, and they had already suffered heavy losses before, so where could they allocate extra forces to intercept Ma Lu's 500 cavalry at this time?

Li Guiren could only watch as Ma Lu's 500 cavalry easily bypassed the edge of the right flank spearmen and inserted themselves into his rear to massacre his own archers, although the 500 archers carried out long-range strikes against Ma Lu's cavalry under Li Guiren's orders, but after all, the archers were too scattered, and they were not frontal straight line attacks, so their lethality was limited.

Both sides racked their brains and used their own means, this battlefield is not big, it is very intuitive, and the number of troops is small, both sides can quickly see each other's deployment, there is no need to worry about the convenience of intelligence, and the main test is the ability of both sides to make decisions on the spot and arrange troops.

In the contest between Ma Lu and Li Guiren, Ma Lu won by a narrow margin.

It was the first time for the people and most of the officials to see the confrontation between the two armies so intuitively, which made the vast majority of the audience feast their eyes, not only the common officials, but even many nobles and royal relatives were the first time to see the confrontation between the two armies. In this way, a game was formed between the giants through the conductor Ding duel, and the game also had a lottery head, allowing the audience to watch, so as to collect tickets.

Of course, at this time, I will not mention it for the time being. After the group of Ma Lu and Li Guiren competed, it was Nan Jiyun and Wang Sili's turn.

Through Zhao Ziliang's introduction, Xuanzong and the ministers learned about the personal information of Nan Jiyun and Wang Sili, Nan Jiyun will not say anything, he was introduced by Zhao Ziliang to enter the army from a small soldier, and was promoted to the captain because of his merits, and Wang Sili is a Goguryeo native and a lieutenant colonel.

Since both of them were officers in the army, they were more familiar with the Tang Army's establishment, military formation, and command and banner language than Ma Lu and Li Guiren, and they were more comfortable in commanding than them.

Nan Jiyun gave full play to the characteristics of pikemen to restrain cavalry, stared at Wang Sili's cavalry, stared at the opponent's pikemen with archers, stared at the opponent's sword and shield soldiers with cavalry, and used sword and shield soldiers to deal with Wang Sili's pikemen.

This kind of arrangement made Wang Sili suppressed everywhere, and he couldn't use it at all, every time he moved, he was quickly pressed and beaten by Nan Jiyun, not to mention how aggrieved Wang Sili was.

Xuanzong in the stands laughed loudly, and the ministers of civil and military affairs were also fascinated.

Xuanzong pointed to the field and asked, "Zhao Qing, why was this Wang Sili beaten?" The deployment of this Nan Jiyun's forces seems to be chaotic, but it is always able to strike quickly."

Zhao Ziliang said: "Wang Sili's command ability is much worse than Nan Jiyun, Nan Jiyun is very familiar with the characteristics of the troops, and often comes first, and he himself is a person in the army, he is very familiar with giving orders, and his decisive ability is very strong, so that he can command the army like an arm·······."

"I see!"

Wang Sili finally lost, and he lost very badly, very depressed, he almost didn't have the strength to fight back, just like two people playing chess, the level is not at the same level.

After the semi-finals in the morning, Xuanzong was very happy to watch, and said to Zhao Ziliang: "Zhao Qing, pass on my will, there are two more in the afternoon, right?" ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "Yes, Your Majesty, Wang Sili and Li Guiren will compete for third place in the afternoon, and the last game is the final between Nan Jiyun and Ma Lu to compete for the first place!" ”

Xuanzong happily commanded: "Tell them, compare well, give full play to their full strength, no matter who wins or loses, I will have a heavy reward!" ”

"Yes!" (To be continued.) )