"The biggest threat to the Xiliang army is cavalry ......"

In the Chinese military tent, Xu Shu's slightly low voice was echoing. Although more than ten letters of information related to the battle of Zixian have been sent, the personal account of the person concerned still has irreplaceable value.

The major threat raised by Xu Shu sounds like nonsense, but the generals present here are all generals with considerable status in the Qingzhou Army, and of course they can hear that Xu Shu has another mystery in saying these words.

The Qingzhou army is not only a strong cavalry, before Wang Yu officially established the hussar army, the cavalry of Qingzhou has always been in an auxiliary position, and the real decisive soldier is the infantry. After sweeping Yuan Shao, the importance of cavalry increased day by day, but the Qingzhou infantry did not pull down, no matter against the enemy's infantry cavalry, they had considerable experience.

In the battle where Yu Ban annihilated Qian Man at Horseshoe Beam, the tactical execution was quite standard.

First, destroy the enemy cavalry formation with a strong bow and crossbow, and then weaken the enemy's impact with shield arrays and spear arrays to resist the enemy's cavalry charge. When the momentum of the enemy horse slows down, it is the turn of the axeman. The cavalry, having lost their speed, had no advantage over the foot soldiers armed with long knives and axes.

As long as the tactics are implemented thoroughly enough, at least in the head-on confrontation, the Qingzhou infantry are not afraid of cavalry.

Although the proportion of cavalry in the Xiliang army is relatively high, the living habits of the Qiang people are actually closer to those of the Han people, and there is no way to be like Xianbei and Xiongnu, where all the people are soldiers and the whole army is ridden.

Among the 300,000 Xiliang troops, the proportion of cavalry accounted for less than 30%. Although this number is not small, considering the lack of equipment in the Xiliang army, these 80,000 or 90,000 cavalry are not even light cavalry. Can only be regarded as a Ranger who is similar to a scout.

In addition, these cavalry were not used intensively. Instead, as the elite of the guards, they were scattered in the hands of various leaders. Among them, the strongest Ma Teng and Han Sui have less than 10,000 elite horsemen under their command.

If it cannot be used intensively, a small number of cavalry will pose an extremely limited threat on the battlefield. Considering that before Ma Chao's counterattack, he had fought with Han Sui for a round, not considering the casualties and escape in the internal strife, after Ma Chao was defeated by Han Sui, the cavalry under his command was only about 10,000 at most.

On the side of the Qingzhou Army, although Pan Zhang lightly advanced against the enemy. But he was not carried away by the earnest mood of meritorious service. He himself rushed to the front, but there was Ma Zhong behind him, so when attacking the Zhuqiang camp, the array of the army was always very intact.

The comparison of combat power is like this, as far as general common sense is concerned, Ma Chao's counterattack, let alone the reversal, should not even be able to win Pan Zhang and Ma Zhong. Even if Pan Zhang's department is defeated, it is the end of the crossbow. It is impossible to pose a major threat to Xu Shu's own team again.

Since it was Ma Chao who won in the end, there must be some of the statements in it.

"The cavalry under Ma Mengqi is all spear cavalry!" Under everyone's attention, Xu Shu's statement began to involve details that were not in the military newspaper.

"Spear cavalry? It's in the Battle of Juma Water. The kind used for iron riding? Lu Qiling asked in surprise.

"In terms of the length of the spear alone, it is indeed the same."

Xu Shu nodded and affirmed Lu Qiling's statement: "They are also holding spears that are two feet and four feet long. When charging into battle, you can use the length of the spear to destroy the spear and shield formations of our army. The spears of the foot soldiers were about the same length. However, it can only passively bear the impact, although it will not be killed or injured by the enemy horseman. Weakening the impact of enemy cavalry, but the effect is reduced considerably. ”

"What about the bows and crossbows in the army? Could it be that you put the Xiliang people in front of you so easily? "Lu Qiling has experienced the battle of Juma Shui throughout the whole process, and knows the advantages and disadvantages of the spear cavalry in detail.

The spear is not suitable for the use of light cavalry, and the light cavalry uses more, in addition to the war knife, that is, the Zhangliu tassel spear and the horse lance. The role of the spear is mainly in the impact at the beginning of the engagement, and it is not enough to see the fighting.

The light cavalry had no armor to protect them, but the target was large, and if they charged with a spear, slowing down in the first charge, they would be weakened in the rear. Even if you have to charge with light cavalry, the main way is not to charge, but to attack at the same time as the enemy's flanks are swept by like the wind, and the men and horses are staggered, that is, the so-called crossing the horse and slashing.

Light cavalry with a spear is a burden, let alone an extra-long spear.

Of course, with the advantage of the Western Liang Army in terms of troops, it can be used in this way to fight for attrition. However, the bows and crossbows with a very high equipment rate in the Qingzhou army are not ornaments, and the light cavalry is most afraid of the dense accumulation of bows and crossbows.

Even if tens of thousands of cavalry attack at the same time, as long as there are more than 5,000 bows and crossbows in the array, they can greatly weaken the enemy in the process of charging. Before the official contact, the formation of the enemy cavalry is fragmented, and no matter what weapon is held, it cannot pose a threat.

A wry smile overflowed at the corner of Xu Shu's mouth, and he gave an answer with difficulty: "The damage caused by the bow and crossbow is very limited, because the cavalry of the Xiliang Army ...... Equipped with a large amount of paper armor. ”

"Paper armor?" All the generals were taken aback, and Zhao Yun asked as if confirmed: "Is it the kind that our army used in the past?" ”

"Hmm." Xu Shu nodded.

Wang Yu suddenly asked: "Yuan Zhi, you said a lot of vagueness, what about being more specific?" ”

"The cavalry of the Ma and Han divisions is equipped with the whole army, and the other men and horses are also equipped with at least half of the cavalry." In this regard, Xu Shu had already been well established and answered very quickly.

"So much?" Tai Shi Ci had a look of surprise on his face, "Doesn't that mean that there are at least 50,000 paper armors in the Xiliang Army?" Where did they get so much paper? If Cao Cao is about the same, how can the Xiliang army ...... Hey? It's ......"

"Hmm." Regarding Tai Shici's question, Xu Shu gave an affirmative answer: "It should be Cao Cao's support." ”

"Fifty thousand pieces of paper armor, it's still the kind of human and horse harness, even if it's Cao Cao, it's impossible to take it out easily, right?" Tai Shici's eyes widened, and he couldn't speak: "Could it be that the paper he bought at a high price before the war and the paper he made himself were used for this?" ”

"Looks like that's it......"

Wang Yu sighed and took over the conversation: "It is worthy of Cao Cao, with this extraordinary courage alone." is enough to deserve his fame. From this point of view, Yuan Zhi's battle was clearly lost to Ma Chao. In fact, it was the joint effort of losing to Ma Chao and Cao Cao, which is indeed not unjust. If you want to dig deeper. This is not a mistake on the part of the general. ”

The information that the Xiliang army was equipped with a large number of paper armor was not written in the military newspaper by Xu Shu before, and Wang Yu also understood his intention to do so. The massive outflow of Qingzhou paper took place with the acquiescence of Wang Yu, and Qingzhou benefited a lot from it, but in a sense, it also strengthened the enemy's strength.

Wang Yu dared to do this, of course, he also had the corresponding certainty, but he never expected it. The paper armor that Cao Cao spent so much money to make was not kept for his own use, but all of it was used to arm the Xiliang army!

From a practical point of view, Cao Cao's approach is the most cost-effective. The Xiliang Army is poorly equipped, but there are many troops, and arming the Xiliang Army with the cheapest paper armor will be very obvious to the improvement of strength. But the Xiliang Army is not Cao Cao's subordinate, just an ally, and supporting a few thousand corpses is a great favor. Tens of thousands of ...... in one breath

"Tsk...... The root cause is that the general underestimated the enemy. Wang Yu waved his hand and stopped Xu Shu and prevented him from exculpating himself. Quickly assess the current situation in your mind.

Xiliang's spear and light cavalry tactics should have existed originally.

In history, Cao Cao was defeated by Ma Chao, and he also said something like this: Although a thief has a spear. Ann can stab? The princes but the walls are strong, and the thieves retreat. Meaning: The guns and spears of the Xiliang army are powerful, but as long as they are guarded by deep trenches on their side. I'm not afraid that he can do weird things.

There is a saying in later generations that Ma Chao's Qiang soldiers used the spear tactics of the Macedonian phalanx. But as far as Wang Yu knows, combined with what Xu Shu said, Xiliang's spear is actually equipped by cavalry.

Of course, it is impossible for the Xiliang army in history to have paper armor, but as long as the number of this kind of spear light cavalry reaches a certain level, and the mountains and fields launch a desperate attack, no matter how well-trained troops suddenly encounter it, it will definitely be difficult to please.

Although Wang Yu has a way to break the paper armor, but now that Ma Chao has integrated the Xiliang army, even if there is no paper armor, the number of spear light cavalry as high as 80,000 is not easy to deal with, not to mention that there are more than 100,000 foot soldiers to help in the battle?

This battle is really a bit troublesome, do you want to give up and merge the state?

Just as he was hesitating, Wang Yu suddenly heard Tai Shici's voice, and raised his eyes to see that the latter was biting his ear with Xu Shu.

"Yuan Zhi, you said in the military situation that Ma Chao is very brave, did he personally lead the team to charge into battle? In that case, why are you so stupid not to mobilize the crossbowmen and concentrate on shooting him? If he is cast in iron and copper, he can make a few nails on his body. ”

Tai Shici has a very loud voice, but he is unconscious, and his whispering is actually similar to someone else's formal speech. This time, though, he was asking the right question. Shoot people and horses first, capture thieves and capture kings first, instead of trying to figure out how to break through the army of more than 200,000, it is better to focus on how to deal with Ma Chao.

However, any military general who likes to personally lead troops into battle can greatly boost his own fighting spirit, and at the same time provide the opponent with weaknesses that can be targeted. Back then, Xu Rongpo Sun Jian used this trick. Because of this, Wang Yu himself gradually retreated into the background in the past two years, and handed over the responsibility of charging into battle to the generals under his command.

In addition to Wang Yu, the princes who like to lead the charge by themselves are only Lu Bu, Sun Ce and Ma Chao, who are now facing him. Because it is not universal, Wang Yu did not change this idea for a while.

"Ma Chao is in battle, and he does like to charge first, but his tactics are special, and he is not always at the forefront. Instead, when the battle was going well, he hid behind, encountered a stalemate or unfavorable situation, and led his personal guards to suddenly kill and break the stalemate, and after the troops behind him regrouped, he retreated, and it was difficult to make targeted sniping. ”

Xu Shu's answer vetoed this possibility. Judging by the speed with which he answered, eighty percent had tried a similar method in the battle formation, but it didn't work.

"This guy is really not ordinary cunning." Tai Shi Ci said depressedly: "In this way, if you want to break the Xiliang Army, wouldn't you have to fight hard?" ”

Xu Shu silently did not answer.

For so many days after the war, he has been reflecting and planning a counterattack, but he has never been able to do so. Unless Wang Yu ordered a large-scale mobilization in Jizhou and also assembled a large army, it would be difficult to defeat the Xiliang army head-on.

The generals were also silent.

To defeat the strong with the weak, there must always be some opportunities. Ma Chao does not divide troops, he is only willing to fight head-on battles, and there are no obvious weaknesses in his tactics, how can such a battle be fought?

In the silence, Wang Yu suddenly spoke, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he said amazingly: "It's certain that you will be hard-hitting, but Ziyi, this battle may not be as difficult as you imagined." ”

Everyone was stunned, and looked at Wang Yu in unison, after the latter said this, he didn't mean to explain, with the inexplicable smile on his face, how to look at it is unfathomable.