In May of the forty-third year, Xia Guo completed his oath and crawled in the direction of Sucheng like a turtle at a speed of twenty miles a day. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The distance between the two cities was only four or five hundred miles, and there were one or two small towns along the way, and the strategy of who supported whom in the vicinity had already been chosen.

It seems that there are many alliances in Awadake, but piling tens of thousands of people in one place is not a sign of military strength in this era, but will naturally turn into a chaotic disaster.

The army that Su Yue cobbled together was already the elite of each city, with eighty noble chariots, many warriors, and many clan leaders or armored warriors composed of relatives, which can be said to have concentrated the noble blood of dozens of clan cities, and everyone was good at fighting.

On the other hand, on the Xia Kingdom's side, counting up to three generations, they were either slaves or lowly commoners, and the only wave of nobles in the Xia Kingdom who had a tendency to become nobles was killed by Chen Jian seven years ago, and those who survived were all squatting in the mines to mine.

The elites of both sides are all gathered here, this battle Suyue must be fought, Sucheng is difficult to maintain for too long to support such an elite army of more than 10,000 people, there is nowhere to grab and nowhere to eat, especially some nearby cities have taken refuge in view of the strong Suyue army, and there is no way to start.

The land is vast and sparsely populated, and there is no point in turning around, except for the cities, there are basically no people in the countryside, and fighting on the battlefield has become the only option.

It's just that at a distance of four or five hundred miles, the Xia army is like crawling, and they camp after walking twenty miles every day.

The men of the construction division followed the expedition, replenishing food along the river, transporting all kinds of shovels, hoes, etc., and every afternoon before the sun set, they began to dig pits, place deer grates, dig wells, and bury pots.

On the 18th of May, the scout cavalry returned that there was still a distance of eighty miles from Su Yue's army, and then a summer rain fell.

The Xia army remained motionless for three days, waiting in the camp until the weather completely cleared on the fourth day, and the mud on the land was dried, and then slowly moved forward.

The scouts of both sides had already engaged in battle, and the armies of both sides were making final preparations, and by the 25th of May, when the armies of the two sides were not more than ten miles apart, the two sides seemed to have a tacit understanding, and spent the last peaceful night.

As if it is the reincarnation of fate, this is a plain, and there is a huge valley thirty miles next to it, and there is a spring in the valley for all seasons, called Spring Valley, which is the place of the decisive battle at the beginning of the conclusion of the Huasu Alliance.

When the first rays of sunlight fell in the morning, Chen Jian looked at the empty grassland in the distance, there was no commanding heights such as mounds nearby, and there were no river forks to block and divide the terrain, if it was not good for the Xia army to fight a defensive counterattack.

The Xia army only has more than 4,000 people, but there are more than 10,000 on the opposite side, and it is this kind of large plain, which allows the other side to calmly deploy its troops, and it is very likely to break through from the flanks to form an encirclement.

Chen Jian was a little worried, this was also his first time commanding a large-scale field battle on the plains, and his previous victories were either similar in numbers and technical advantages, or terrain advantages, and he had always been uneasy about his field level.

The soldiers in the camp were unaware of their king's worries, and ate a simple breakfast as they did every day.

The artillery of the Thunder Guards were checking the gunpowder, the musketeers were collecting the arquebuses and checking the lead bullets, and the camp was quiet, with the occasional sound of sharpening the blades.

The scouts had been sent out to make sure there were no hidden ambushes or reinforcements within thirty miles of the area.

At midnight, the scouts returned, and there was already movement on Suyue's side, and the soldiers were gathering to prepare to move forward, and there were no ambushes or reinforcements nearby, at least not within thirty miles.

The dew had been dried by the sun, the lilac morning glory had spread its petals, the camp smelled of cooking smoke, and a few campfires were still burning.

The soldiers all thought that Chen Jian would rely on the camp to refuse.

However, Chen Jian looked at the sky and was sure that it should be good weather, so he called the herald.

"Beat the drums, go out of the camp, and line up outside the camp."

"Ji Xia, we have few people, with the help of the camp to refuse, it is best to wait until the enemy is tired before going out to counterattack. There are wells in the array, water is constant, and there is enough food. ”

Jian Chen shook his head and said, "When others fight, it's not up to us. What if they surround and don't fight? What if they wait until it's raining? Besides, even if the victory is won, it will take time to launch a military formation from the camp, and the enemy will run away. ”

"Go out and fight, don't hope for victory or defeat on the enemy's way."

The battalion officers or generals around him didn't say much, and there was a dull drum beat in the camp, and the company commanders of each company restrained the soldiers, walked out of the camp in order, quickly lined up, and checked their weapons.

All kinds of baggage were left in the camp, leaving only more than a thousand non-field baggage auxiliaries to defend.

The soldiers formed a marching column in a column of four, and the scout riders roamed in front to prevent harassment from the opposing scouts.

The speed of the column was much faster than that of the horizontal formation, but Chen Jian did not dare to use it in battle, fearing that he would not be able to spread the formation in case of the enemy's panic, so he would be directly crushed by the enemy.

However, the training of the Xia army was strict, and the most threatening long-range weapon of the opponent was only a bow and arrow with a range of 100 paces, so it could be deployed in formation when it was about a mile away from the enemy.

…………

When the two armies were three or four miles apart, they could already see each other's flags and soldiers like black dots from a distance.

The other side was a little flustered, and when it was about four miles away, it stopped and prepared to start the formation.

Once the marching formation is attacked by the enemy, it will be fatal.

In Su Yue's opinion, this was the most dangerous time for the more than 10,000 troops, especially the Xia army on the opposite side was moving extremely fast, and the team was not scattered, worried that his army would be attacked by the Xia army before it could be deployed.

The order was handed down, the archers were arranged in front, and the riders were scattered on both flanks, ready to withstand the onslaught of the Xia cavalry.

Several chief priests gathered around Su Yue, looking at the Xia army that had slowed down in the distance, and there was a slight fear in their hearts.

"It is said that Xia Jun is strong and proud, and this is true. I thought they would defend the camp and wait for us to fight back when we were tired, but I didn't expect Ji Xia to rely on these three or five thousand people to fight against us in a dignified manner? ”

"Their soldiers are well trained, and they don't have to stop to walk a hundred paces, which is exactly what we can't do. We need to be three miles away to form a team, but they are not in a hurry, we seem to have a lot of people, but the initiative is in the hands of Xia Jun. ”

"They're going fast, and that's a headache. Once our army formation is deployed, it is several miles wide, and the left and right movements are chaotic and slow, but the Xia army can support quickly. Walking fast and not chaotic, these three or five thousand people can also be used by ten thousand people. ”

Su Tang studied in Yucheng for a long time, and after Chen Jian determined that the problem of reunification could not be solved by peaceful means, he no longer poisoned him by all kinds of despicable means, so he evaluated the army of the Xia Kingdom with what he saw and heard in Yucheng.

I have talked about tactics and strategy in Yucheng, but the things I talked about can only be used in tactics at this time, but not strategy.

Su Yue also often heard his son talk about this, and he also knew that the other side could deploy troops more slowly than them with the advantage of discipline to deal with it, and said with a wry smile: "This is also a matter of no way. It is the best way to fight Ji Xia here, it is impossible for Ji Xia to rescue those cities in the north, and it is difficult to say whether they can defeat the army of the three cities of Ewei Xia. ”

"If you besiege the farmstead city on the other side of Yucheng, which is close to Yucheng, Ji Xia can easily gather an army of 10,000 people, even if it is not as elite as these soldiers, but Xia Guo is like a military camp from the farm to the workshop, and then to the winter canal, from beginning to end, even if the more than 10,000 people pulled out can't be impacted, they can be defended with a spear."

"If I take the army north and attack the two cities of Ewei, not to mention the distance, once I leave, Ji Xia will go east in an instant, even if the city is newly built with walls and trenches, can it really stop the Xia army?"

"Ji Xia attacked Dongyi eight years ago, and he could force Qiongxi to return to the army, that was because there were boats on the big river to transport them by water, and Dongyi was in the lower reaches of the big river, and Qiongxi had to save it."

"Now Xia County is in the Cao River, and it is the upper reaches of the big river, and the water transportation is countercurrent, and it may not be able to beat the ships of the Xia Kingdom. Traveling thousands of miles by land, I'm afraid that I will be attacked before I reach Sucheng. ”

"Raiding grain and grass? Grain and grass are directly transferred from Yucheng; Tempting the Xia army to ambush? There were many scouts in the Xia army; Lure them deeper? Ji Xia walked like a turtle, twenty miles a day, and when he arrived, he dug a ditch and cut wood......"

"Retreat into the city without a fight? Ji Xia led people to burn the fields everywhere, but it still didn't work. Tang'er, you've learned so much in Yucheng, I'm afraid you won't be able to use it. ”

"From the time when Ji Xia built the city in Yucheng ten years ago, we were wrong. This is a fortress of tens of thousands of people, and it is useless to have any strategy, only to defeat Ji Xia in the field. If he hadn't been allowed to build a castle in Onozawa in the first place, he would have had to advance southeast from the distant Kusagawa River if he wanted to defeat us, and by the time he reached Awajo, he would have been exhausted. ”

"I've only figured it out now, Ji Xia was ready to do something big from the beginning, and he stuck Yucheng here, and he was stunned to get so many people. The only thing I don't understand is what is he for? He talks about the unity of relatives all day long, is there really such a person? ”

Everyone shook their heads and said, "None of us thought that there was such a thing as iron in the world, let alone gunpowder." Originally, if we thought that the Xia Kingdom was strong, we could move away, but now that there are ridges of land in various cities, we are reluctant to leave. ”

Su Yue sighed, and there was a sound of horns and the creak of chariot wheels beside him, looking at these familiar warriors and nobles, he suddenly ordered: "The matter has come to this, there is only a battle to the death." Everybody, get on board,"

The noble warriors of the clan cities boarded the chariots one after another, which was the main force of the Suyue army, followed by the foot soldiers of each city, which was the key to Suyue's victory.

Eighty chariots, two hundred and forty brave men from various clans, plus three thousand soldiers who followed the chariot onslaught, this is the elite in Su Yue's hands, a force used to decide the victory or defeat.

Ten years ago, it would have been a formidable force that could beat any clan, with an unprecedented shock class and a powerful chariot to match the soldiers, and it would be an invincible force on the plains.

Correspondingly, the aristocratic riding in the car, the countrymen on foot, and the tactics of fighting in one go also ensured the superior status of the nobles.