How much time does it take for an army to prepare for battle? It is necessary to see whether the structure and military discipline of the army are perfect, and more importantly, to see how much the head of an army will control the army.

Xiang Liang has decided to take out the elite army of 8,000 soldiers, and the so-called 20,000 regular troops are from Huizhang County and Huiji County, which were originally trained by the Qin State.

The 8,000 soldiers were composed of officers selected by the Xiang clan during the defeat of the original Chu State, and many warriors were secretly recruited later, each of whom was a fierce warrior. Among them, almost 2,000 people are equipped with iron weapons made by the Long Clan, these iron weapons are very sharp, and if you kill them with bronze weapons, there may be a gap in the iron weapons, but the bronze weapons will inevitably be cut off.

The Long family is also a big family in Huiji, they are friends with the Xiang family, and their family is not only good at managing gold, but there is no shortage of martial arts men in the family, such as Long He is a representative, in addition to Long and Long Que, Long Jun The two brothers also serve under the Xiang family.

Xiang's emphasis on the Long family is not to value its martial arts, fundamentally speaking, it is actually to pay attention to the Long's ability and financial resources, Long's gold management workshops are no less than ten, but the main thing is to build bronze weapons, and the output of iron weapons is limited by technology.

At present, it is not only the Long clan in Huiji County who can make iron weapons, many families actually make iron and build iron weapons, the difference is that the quality is not as good as the Long clan. In the Central Plains, most of the weapons used by the armies of Zhao and Qi were iron, but because the technology was not up to par and was full of various shortcomings, the reason why they used iron weapons that were not up to the standard was purely out of helplessness.

The Central Plains has always been an area inhabited by the Chinese people, and the local minerals have been almost consumed in thousands of years of mining, and there is almost no material for copper mines, and the technology of building materials has been developed to the peak of bronze smelting, so only relatively unqualified iron weapons can be used.

If Lu Zhe wanted to, he could also change into iron weapons like Zhao Jun and Qi Jun, but after the actual yàn, the iron weapons and bronze weapons made were cut each other, and the embarrassing thing was that the iron weapons, which were ahead of the era, were cut off by bronze weapons. Therefore, the iron weapons equipped with the "Iron Age" have not been put on the agenda.

The dragon clan was not very skilled in iron-making technology, that is, it increased the density of iron to enhance the hardness, and the dragon clan controlled the right temperature and hammering skills for iron-making. After mastering the right temperature, continuous tempering, that is, forging and refining, is almost a method of tempering. This technology developed and matured in the Western Han Dynasty because the technology from the Western Regions flowed into the Central Plains, and later derived the technology of 100 steelmaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

This technical threshold of Bailian was actually touched in Yuecheng in Nanjun, but the craftsmen did not find the element that increased the density of iron, so no matter how much they tested, they could not change the shortcomings of iron brittleness and fragility. The best way to increase the density of iron is to add an element called silicon carbide, just like bronze requires tin and carbon, but there is no such thing as "chemistry" at the moment. There is not even a shadow in the element table, so I can only rely on experiments again and again, and try my luck in a blind way.

The iron forged by the Long clan was black, and when two thousand soldiers wearing iron armor and holding long swords and shields appeared, they looked at a glance a group of samurai wearing khaki robes and black armor outside, and they were listed at the front, followed by six thousand soldiers who were also wearing khaki robes but wearing bronze armor.

Xiang Yu has not yet fully developed, and now he is just a young boy in his early sixties, who is riding on a war horse with a spear in his hand. On the left and right are Xiang It and Xiang Lai.

The three of them were also wearing iron armor, but the iron armor on their bodies was obviously several grades higher than that of ordinary soldiers, and the original black iron was polished to dark silver, and the patterns of birds and beasts were inlaid with gold juice. Xiang Yu's pattern is a tiger's head, and Xiang It and Xiang Lai are the mythical Qiqi. The three of them had cloaks and pins on their armor, and the scarlet cloaks of the war horses were waving in the wind, and the helmets on their heads each had a colorful colorful feather bell.

Behind Xiang Yu, Xiang It, and Xiang Lai were about 800 cavalry. The armor on these men was knight's bronze armor with skirt armor, and they also had black cloaks on their backs.

The guy in the hands of the eight hundred cavalry was a six-meter-long cavalry spear, and the yellow cushion on the horse's back helped a long sword five inches into the horse's neck. At this moment, they held the reins in one hand and spears in the other, and followed closely behind the three Xiang brothers.

In addition to the 8,000 soldiers and 800 cavalry, the 20,000 soldiers in khaki robes were all wearing leather armor, and the weapons in their hands were basically three-meter-long spears, and only 3,000 men had bows in their hands, quivers on their backs, and a sword hanging from their waists but only one and a half feet (hanging stabs, elongated daggers).

Nearly 30,000 troops slowly left the camp under the leadership of Xiang Yu, and they continued to advance to the sound of war drums, stopping about two miles from the disorganized Huanchu camp.

In addition to sending this absolute elite army in the Chu army, Xiang Liang also transferred 60,000 people to divide into two formations on the left and right flanks.

Huan Chu's corners, the camps on the left and right have long been breached, and now only the main camp remains.

The Chu army lined up again to prepare for battle, there was a shout and howl in the Huan Chu camp, and the war drums that should have sounded were sounded a short time late, but the troops under Huan Chu who should be assembled to meet the battle were slow to move, and the troops in some areas did not have the slightest intention of participating in the battle, only the troops brought by Ji Bu were preparing for war in the voice of the commanders of all ranks.

Huan Chu and Ji Bu, who were halfway through the discussion, walked out of the big tent of the Chinese army and saw such a messy appearance, Huan Chu saw that his face was even worse, and Ji Bu frowned.

"Duke Huan," Ji Bu was speechless, he was deeply afraid that his troops would be affected by those damn guys, "the troops who dare to fight should not stay with such a chaotic army. ”

Although the words were very polite, Huan Chu knew that this was the truth, otherwise the troops of Stable Dìng would be disturbed by those chaotic troops. He sighed: "Do what Commander Ji says." ”

More than 13,000 troops brought by the Huan Chu Army and Ji Bu, who still have a firm combat mentality, began to consciously widen the distance from those chaotic troops, and the right leaders who had long lost their sense of combat naturally discovered this situation, and when the Chu army was lined up and could launch an attack at any time, individual right leaders and their subordinates wanted to come up, a small number of them fled to the back with their subordinates, and more right leaders led their troops to stay in place.

The troops of the right leaders who were preparing for battle were warned not to rush into battle, how could these right leaders listen to any warnings, they only knew that the Chu army was going to attack again, and if they wanted to leave their lives, they should seek refuge, so they kept walking.

Xiang Yu looked at the front of him, some people preparing for war, some fleeing, and some people staying in place stupidly, and sneered: "Look, this is the army we are going to attack, it's really a bunch of bugs." ”

Xiang It and Xiang Lai glanced at each other, Xiang Yu has always been proud of his peers in the clan, and this pride is because the elders of Xiang Liang's generation treated Xiang Yu and Xiang Zhuang favorably because Xiang Chao followed his grandfather to death. However, Xiang Yu really has the capital to be proud, after all, there are basically no people in his generation who can compare with Xiang Yu in terms of bravery, although Xiang Zhuang, who is treated like the same, is also proud and humble, so they have no ill feelings towards Xiang Yu and Xiang Zhuang.

"They fought on their own." Xiang Lai is talking about Jib's crossbowmen shooting arrows at the rebels whose repeated warnings were ineffective.

The person who gave the order to release the arrows was Huan Chu, he was not ruthless, but the battle array could not be disrupted. Besides, those people obviously don't listen to orders, how can they let the runaway situation be brought under control if they don't shoot a batch?

"Listen to them all!" Huan Chu looked at the surrounding rebels who were dumbfounded: "If you don't want to fight against the thieves with us, you can stay where you are and don't move." If you are willing to fight against the thieves with us in order to survive, you will assemble on the flanks and wait for battle. If there are those who attack the military formation, there will be no forgiveness! ”

The army is a wonderful group, if they don't mess up, it's fine, it's extremely difficult to stabilize after the chaos, and with the experience of disobedience, there will be no more loyalty.

Xiang Liang was also sneering, and he said to one of the right leaders next to him: "You go up and shout, tell them that they want to attack the troops of Nanjun without being attacked by our army." ”

The right leader should go to shout at the "promise", he told the gang of Huan Chu who obviously lost their control of zhì power, Xiang Liang Gong was merciful, leaving them a way to live, when the army attacked, they could exchange the heads of the people from Nanjun for survival, and at the same time kill Huan Chu and Ji Bu, no matter what their previous status was, they would immediately be rewarded with five hundred gold, and they could serve as generals in Chu State.

After listening to the rebellious army, they looked at each other, and they heard Huan Chu shouting over there What is it to kill people with a knife, Xiang Liang has already fought several times and will not leave them a way to live.

Xiang Yu, who had never received the order to attack, looked very impatient: "The enemy army is in chaos, and it only takes one charge to defeat it, so why waste time on my uncle." ”

Xiang Lai, who was a few years older, explained: "Uncle is using a trick to make the enemy troops who were originally in one camp kill each other. ”

Of course Xiang Yu understands, he just thinks that there is no need for that, and before he can speak, there has been a burst of shouting and killing, and sure enough, there are rebels who attack under the temptation of Xiang Liang, but there is no formation and no cooperation, and hundreds of rebels who attacked first ran out of a distance, and they were all killed by Yu Arrow in the middle of the charge.

"Don't listen to Xiang Thief's nonsense, he just wants us to have internal strife and finally wipe us all out." Huan Chu was both angry and ashamed, this is his troops, a bunch of idiots who were dizzy after being fooled by the enemy army.

Ji Bu was a little anxious: "Duke Huan, the situation is quite unfavorable for us, please give the order to fight and retreat, and distance the rebellious army, otherwise wait for the Chu army to charge, we will resist the Chu army head-on, and there will be a rebellious army inside at any time from the flank......"

The commander of the Nanjun army is Ji Bu, but Lu Zhe explained in advance that he respected Huan Chu, so there was this scene.

Huan Chu naturally knew that Ji Bu was just polite and asked him to give an order to maintain his dignity, otherwise Ji Bu would have to retreat no matter whether he gave the order or not.

"Retreat ......" Huan Chu was extremely aggrieved: "Fight and retreat to open the distance!" (To be continued......)