"Well, next spring at the latest!" Liu Cheng looked at Zhao Wende and said with a smile: "I hope that this time in Daningwei to build a city, Huang Taiji will personally lead the army to the battle!" ”

Zhao Wende grew his mouth, and in his opinion, Liu Cheng's self-confidence was indeed a little excessive. www.biquge.info It is true that Liu Cheng has won several previous encounters with the Later Jin forces, but these victories were either won by the subordinate forces of the Later Jin, or they had a huge advantage in military strength and special circumstances. And if Huang Taiji personally led a large army to come, then the situation would be another matter - you must know that since Nurhachi raised his army, the Jurchens have not lost a single field battle with the Ming army, and Liu Cheng's total strength will not exceed 40,000 now, and the total strength of Houjin has exceeded 100,000, although it is impossible to devote all of them to this front.

Liu Cheng saw the surprise of his subordinates, he smiled, turned his head to Hao Shaoqi and said, "Shaking the flag, let me ask you, what is the most important thing about the confrontation between the two armies?" ”

"Morale, naturally, my lord!" Hao Shaoqi hesitated for a moment and replied.

"Great answer! What about other than that? ”

"The command is the same!" Hao Shaoqi thought about it, and finally came up with an answer. Liu Cheng also saw that his guard leader was not very good at this topic, he smiled and turned his gaze to Zhao Wende: "Jiansheng, in my opinion, when the two armies face each other, the victory or defeat depends on which side can put the superior forces into that decisive point, and then from point to line, from line to surface, and finally win the victory." This could be a hill, a riverbank, a basin, or even a grove. And this point is in motion, for example, when the enemy tries to cross the river, the high ground by the river is this point, because there it is possible to launch a counterattack on the enemy who has just crossed the river and is in disarray, to defeat him, and drive him into the river; And if the enemy has already crossed the river, then the location of this point is not on the high ground by the river, because from there it is already difficult to threaten these well-formed enemies. And my job is to observe the situation between the enemy and the enemy, look for opportunities, and wait patiently when the opportunity does not come; When the opportunity arises, generously put in the reserves, seize this point, and thus win the victory. Because on the battlefield, only the army that maintains the correct battle formation can accept the orders of his commander and complete the corresponding tactical actions, and the army that has lost the formation will not only be unable to do anything on its own, but will also block the path of the friendly army and disrupt its own formation, which is harmful and useless. Therefore, the victory or defeat of the war does not simply depend on the number of people, but on the mobility and coordination of the movement of the army in various battle formations. In other words, no matter how many troops the enemy has, as long as his generals can't make their troops move in the correct battle formation, they will only be beaten passively! I can gather my armies and smash them one by one, do you see what I mean? ”

"It's still a little confusing, but most of them understand!" Zhao Wende's face is very exciting, he was able to succeed in the imperial examination, and was favored by Yang He and Liu Cheng successively, he is naturally quite outstanding in terms of intelligence. It's just that what Liu Chengfang just said is a bit ahead of the times, as if a person who has just walked out of the dark room to the sun will be dizzy and a little unacceptable. In fact, what Liu Cheng said so much is actually a very simple truth in military science: victory belongs to the side that can concentrate the maximum superior forces at decisive points, and in order to achieve this, it is necessary to improve the mobility of one's own army on the battlefield in an organized manner. The side with superiority in this area can often defeat an enemy army that is numerically superior, but less mobile. (Weber gives an example here: Epaminonda, the commander of the ancient Greek city-state of Thebes, did not divide his forces evenly in his war against the Spartans, but placed the main force on the left flank at the cost of weakening the center and right flank, so that when engaging the enemy, he could overwhelm the enemy on the left flank.) Obviously, the effectiveness of this tactic depended on whether the left flank of the Theban army was able to break the enemy's right flank before the enemy broke through his center or right flank, and in order to ensure this, Ibamida made the left flank stand out during the engagement, and the right flank and center dragged back to delay the engagement with the enemy, forming a diagonal line, which is also the origin of his famous tactical name. Moreover, compared to the phalanxes of other Greek city-states at that time, the phalanx infantry of the city-state of Thebes was lighter equipped to improve mobility. ）

"It's enough for most to understand!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "That is to say, when I fight with Donglu, even if Donglu has more men and horses than me, as long as I can force them to be unable to maneuver normally, then I have a chance of winning!" Speaking of this, he stood up, took the robe sent by Hao Shaoqi and put it on, and said with a smile: "Jiansheng, some things are useless just talking, you follow me to see and see!" ”

Zhao Wende was also ignited by Liu Cheng's words, and said with a smile: "Yes, my lord!" ”

The two of them went out of the city gate and went to Liu Cheng's other business outside the city. Along the way, Zhao Wende knocked on the side and said a few words, but Liu Cheng just smiled and said nothing, and Zhao Wende stopped asking when he saw this. As Liu Cheng's confidant, Zhao Wende has also been to his other business several times, but some time ago he was ordered to go to Shaanxi and Nanyang, but this time he found that there were many more houses in the valley near Beiye, and there were more checkpoints on the road. Liu Cheng saw Zhao Wende's question, so he smiled and said: "I saw that there was some wasteland around, so I asked people to buy it, it is convenient to train generals and demonstrate weapons!" ”

"Training generals?"

"Not bad!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "I have no more than 40,000 soldiers and horses at the moment, if you talk about the number of soldiers and generals, don't say that it is not as good as the Ming Dynasty, even the Dongyu is far better than me." Training troops is not as good as training generals, if you can make the lieutenant generals in the army know how to dispatch soldiers and adapt to changes, you can win more with less. ”

"What your lord says is very true!" Zhao Wende responded casually, but he was a little disapprehensive in his heart, because in the ancient Chinese art of war, most soldiers have the saying that the foolish people drive them away, for example, in the Art of War, Sun Tzu has the saying that "the ears and eyes of the foolish soldiers can make them ignorant and make people not worry". Adapting to the battlefield is generally a skill that only generals need, and ordinary generals don't need to know too much about this aspect. For example, when Murong Shaozong, the general of the Eastern Wei Dynasty in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, was at war with the Liang army of the Southern Dynasty, because his own troops were at a disadvantage, he was afraid that the situation on the battlefield would be unfavorable and the whole army would be defeated. Seeing this, Murong Shaozong quietly explained: "The Liang army is strong, and the two armies are fighting on the battlefield, and the outcome is unpredictable. If the situation is not in our favor tomorrow, it will inevitably be defeated. But after today's advice, if the situation is unfavorable tomorrow, even if someone is defeated and flees, others will only think that it is a deception as agreed, and not only will they not flee, but they will scramble to attack the enemy pursuers who are deep in our formation! Murong Shaozong's approach is a typical example of "driving away the foolish", which is completely different from Liu Cheng's approach.

When the two arrived at Beiye, they changed their clothes and went to a valley behind, and they heard a cannon sound from the valley in the distance, and Zhao Wende couldn't help but wonder in his heart: Is it the red-clothed cannon that the adults rely on? However, in so many victories won by the adults, except for the siege of the city and the battle of Lingel, and the capture of Yue Tuo, the artillery did not play a big role, and the main reliance was on the bird guns and cavalry. Moreover, the Ming army did not use red-coated artillery in the battle with the Houjin army, but except for two times when Ning Yuan played a role in defending the city, it did not play a big role in the field battle, and the Houjin army also had red-coated cannons, why was Liu Cheng so confident?

Just when Zhao Wende was thinking, the group had already entered the valley, and from a distance, he saw a group of people coming up, and the two people led by him were limping when they walked, and they were not good at walking, but it was Thomas and Liu Zongmin. Without waiting for the two of them to salute, Liu Cheng jumped off the horse and said with a smile: "No courtesy, no courtesy!" Zong Min, you have made a great contribution this time, but unfortunately because of the need for secrecy, you can't write to the court to protect your official position, so you can only compensate you in other aspects. Is it 3,000 silver coins or 30 acres of good land on the other side of the Hetao, you can pick one yourself, how about it? ”

"Zong Min just did his duty, how dare he be rewarded like this!" Liu Zongmin hurriedly bowed down and excused himself, but Liu Cheng didn't want to let him, grabbed his arm, and helped him up: "Don't worship, do you know that the things you made are military weapons, worth the lives of thousands of soldiers, how can it be worth just three thousand silver coins?" When you go back, make a list of meritorious people and give me a reward, and I will reward everyone! ”

"Thank you, sir!" Liu Zongmin saw that he couldn't refuse, so he had to thank Liu Cheng. Zhao Wende on the side couldn't help but be surprised when he heard it, he was an important staff member of Liu Cheng, and he knew very well that although Liu Cheng was kind to his subordinates, the rewards and punishments had their own moderation, beheading, trapping, going to the city, arrow wounds on his body, knife wounds, etc., all of which had corresponding reward standards, and he was by no means a person who rewarded and punished indiscriminately. For example, the reward given to Liu Zongmin is even higher than that of being caught in battle and ascending first in military merits, and only 10,000 enemies such as beheading generals and capturing the flag can compare with it. And looking at Liu Cheng's tone, in addition to Liu Zongmin, who is the leader, even other relevant personnel will be rewarded separately, and this reward is unbelievably high. However, he was very deep in the city, and decided to look at the situation and then decide whether to advise Liu Cheng.

Liu Cheng asked Thomas and Liu Zongmin a few questions, and then under the guidance of the two, he climbed a hill. The hill is located at the high point of the valley and offers an unobstructed view of the valley: a small river winds around the hill and encircles its north and east sides, a sparse forest on the south side of the valley, and a flat meadow on the west side that extends to the gradually rising slope. Liu Cheng smiled and turned back to Zhao Wende and said, "Whether it is offensive or defensive, this is a place to fight!" ”

Even if he was just a literati, Zhao Wende could see that this place was the key point to control the valley, but he knew that Liu Cheng had not brought him here just to teach himself a military terrain lesson, there must be more important things to say. So he just nodded and waited for Liu Cheng's next words.

"Zong Min, if it were you, how would you attack here?"

"Me?" Liu Zongmin was stunned when he heard this, and then smiled: "Since the adults asked me, I will have the courage to answer!" He looked at the situation around him, thought for a moment, and then said: "The west side of this hill is the flattest, and it is suitable for the movement of the brigade, and it should be the main direction of attack, but the south side should also send other troops, or surprise troops, or distract the attention of the defenders." On both sides of the northeast, wait to see how deep the river is, whether the bottom of the river is gravel or muddy before making plans! ”

"Not bad, not bad!" Liu Cheng smiled: "Even I can't answer better!" But the thing you invented has changed everything! Speaking of this, Liu Cheng said to Hao Shaoqi: "Let them prepare!" ”

"Yes, sir!" Hao Shaoqi answered, turned around to convey the order, and after a while, Zhao Wende saw more than a dozen carriages coming down from the hillock, and many straw figures were moved down from the carriages, these straw figures were specially made, similar to the height of ordinary soldiers, and the wooden stakes at the bottom were sharpened, and they went deep into the soil with a strong insertion. Seeing Hao Shaoqi arranging straw men under his command below, Liu Cheng suddenly turned around and asked Thomas, "Thomas, how do you see this straw man being placed?" ”

"Very good!" Thomas looked at the movements under the hill with an expert eye: "You see, Hao is a seasoned general, and he divides his army into three columns, which are arranged in a zigzag shape, so that they can move flexibly and protect each other, and behind these three columns he also leaves a horizontal formation, which should be an archer or a bird gunner as cover. ”

"Good!" Liu Cheng tapped his palm. He looked back at Zhao Wende and found that the other party was still a little puzzled, so he explained with a smile: It turned out that before the advent of automatic firearms, there were only three basic formations of infantry and cavalry: horizontal formation, column, and phalanx, and the rest of the formations were a combination of these three formations (in fact, the phalanx was also a combination of horizontal and column).

The horizontal team and the column have their own advantages and disadvantages, the horizontal team can maximize the development of troops, detour the enemy's two wings to achieve the purpose of encirclement, but the speed of the horizontal team is slow, in the rugged terrain formation is easy to be confused, broken, to cut off the opportunity for the enemy to cut off the encirclement, and the left and right ends of the horizontal team if the enemy's cavalry flank attack or detour, it is easy to collapse, so generally speaking, the length of a horizontal team will not exceed the range of an officer's voice, the head of the team is on one side, and the deputy team is on the other side as a backup, to ensure that you can maintain control of your subordinates, and stop to form your formation every time you move forward. (To be continued.) )