Facts have proved that when there is no other sound plan to implement, "a headache for the head and a pain in the foot" can be an emergency choice. At the very least, after the officials decided to adopt a strategy of turning a blind eye to the practice of "buying their own people", the smoke from the shacks outside Licheng became thicker. Therefore, in the last half month of the winter of the ninth year of the cold Great Cause, the number of people who died of freezing and starvation in Qi County was far less than in the previous half month. Although the appearance of the children of the good families and the people who gathered in the county after the beginning of spring did not match the description in the military book at a glance, they did not rise up after all.

In the spring of the tenth year of the great cause, Taishou Pei Caozhi was once again commended by the imperial court for being good at meeting the people. The county's move to owe the imperial court grain last year was also stopped because the two elders were good at operating. The people of the county are praised for being too virtuous, and the officials love the people like sons. Although these parents are not necessarily worse than the other county officials.

And the officials of the surrounding counties were not so lucky. Their Taishou did not have such a hard backer as Pei Ju and Pei Yun in the court, and there were no generals in the county who could compete with Zhang Xutuo and Qin Shubao. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Tuwanxu and Yukuluo, they had to transport the last bit of grain in the treasury to the eastern capital. The court is considered to have taken care of it, but the people's lives can't go on. Especially those wandering outside the city, a blizzard can freeze to death in the hundreds.

When the government does not give them a way to live, it is no wonder that the people take risks. From December of the ninth year of the Great Cause to February of the tenth year of the Great Cause, Beihai, Gaomi, Langya, Lu County, and the entire eastern part of Henan were full of beacon smoke. In mid-February, after the imperial court's conscription order was issued again, not only did the displaced and poor people who could not survive rebel one after another, but even some large families had to raise anti-flags.

In order to ensure that the precious spring ploughing opportunity was not destroyed by the rogues, Zhang Xutuo kept a thousand soldiers in the barracks every day. This part of the people are all cavalry, and although the breed of war horses is very poor, the ordnance and armor are the best among the entire county soldiers. They were usually trained in the form of government soldiers, and the crops at home were taken care of by the county designated personnel. The fighting skills of the soldiers were guided by Qin Shubao, Luo Shixin, Li Xu, and Dugu Lin in turn, but the changes in the battle formation and the cooperation between each other were trained by Zhang Xutuo himself. The equipment and physical condition of the soldiers were far inferior to the Xiongwu battalion that Xuzi had led before, but their morale was very high. Even if you accidentally fall off the horse, as long as your arms and legs are not broken, the next moment you will definitely sit on the carved saddle with a blue nose and swollen face.

"Their wives and children, fields and houses are all here, and there is no other choice but to work hard!" During the training break, Zhang Xutuo pointed to the city wall close behind him and explained to Xuzi. The emperor did not fulfill his promise last year to recruit Zhang and Li to lead the army to attack Liao after the peace of Qi County, which made both of them feel a little regretful. But as time went by, the regrets in the hearts of the two were slowly diluted. Especially Zhang Xutuo, as if he had decided that he was a life to deal with rogues in his life, and he never complained in front of others. In private, he often enlightened Xuzi and persuaded the other party to stand on the front and not to keep thinking about going to Liaodong to make contributions.

"Actually, we are also doing our duty as generals here. Fighting with the Goguryeo is also a war, and fighting with the Liukou is also a war, and the difference may not be as big as you think. Look at it," he said, his finger always proudly pointing at the green wheat seedlings in the fields and the hunched busy farmers, "If there were no people like us, how could the people of Qi County live a peaceful life!" ”

"Lord Tongshou said it very well, and the last general now also thinks that it is good to protect the territory and the people!" Li Xu replied with a smile. As long as he doesn't think about the "goods" that are sold in the "human market", most of the time he is very satisfied with his current life. There are not so many tense fights, and there are not too many intrigues. Whether he was in the army or on the way home, the eyes of those around him were full of respect. The land of Qilu has a martial style, and the county soldiers admired the young man's skillful horsemanship and sharp sword skills. And the people in the city knew who was protecting them, and they were very grateful to the people whose hometown was thousands of miles away but fought for Qi County.

"The kid can't help it!" Zhang Xutuo laughed, his eyes narrowed into a line, and a bright gaze shot out from the gap in his eyelids, as if he could illuminate all the secrets in Li Xu's heart. "When I was as young as you, I had a lot of strange ideas. But a military general is a military general, and if he insists on interfering in the affairs of civil officials, it will inevitably be thankless. There are some things that you can't make better, and trying to make them worse is a good choice! ”

"The last general once heard about the achievements of the adults that year, and I have always admired it in my heart!" Li Xu arched his hand and slapped the other party's ass with a smile. Deep down, he really admired the old general in front of him. Strict management of the army, decent people, brave combat, can also share weal and woe with soldiers, know how to protect the interests of subordinates. Such an old general with both ability and political integrity is already very difficult to find in Dasui. Therefore, most of the time, Xu Zi and Qin Shubao and others even regard Zhang Xutuo as a life model, rather than a top boss.

When I was younger, it was a long way off. Zhang Xutuo thought with squinted eyes. First, he accompanied General Shi Wansui to quell the rebellion of the Qiang people, and then accompanied Yang Su to quell the rebellion of Yang Liang, the king of Han. In addition to being brave, he also left a name of 'strong and loyal' in the imperial court. At that time, he was also full of sympathy for the enemy, and hoped that the imperial court would do more good deeds and stir up less popular uprisings. But over time, people will gradually understand their position and responsibilities.

"The responsibility of our generals is to pioneer and protect, and as for how to govern the country, civilian officials have more experience than us. Although the people of the Great Sui Dynasty have had a hard time in recent years, there is at least an order with the imperial court and the government. You have also seen the virtues of those rogues, they are very loud, but what they do under their hands ......" The old general shook his head and did not continue. He wanted to leave a little time for Xuzi to ponder and comprehend for himself. The old general is very optimistic about the arms of the newcomers, and occasionally even has the idea of passing on the mantle. In his opinion, it is not wrong to have a little compassion, and if a military general blindly pursues the pleasure of killing, he will never achieve much.

Only with good thoughts in our hearts can we have the courage to eliminate evil. Only those who know how to cherish can know how to guard. At this point, Zhang Xutuo felt that Dugu Lin was not as good as Li Xu, because of his noble birth, he had developed an empty nature since he was a child. Luo Shixin is not as good as Li Xu, he is too ruthless, both to the enemy and to his brothers. Qin Shubao is a good general, but he is too old, only six years younger than himself. The Great Sui Dynasty has just been established for more than 30 years, and there are still a long ...... days ahead.

Not far away, there was an earth-shattering shouting and killing sound, which drew Zhang Xutuo's gaze away from Li Xu. Qin Shubao was leading people to practice tactical cooperation with Luo Shixin and Dugu Lin, and he led more than 200 cavalry to the front of the array formed by a group of scarecrows, and Luo Shixin and Dugu Lin feinted to attack the flanks to avoid the enemy's flank soldiers and horses from cooperating with the Chinese army. The soldiers did a great job, they lined up in the shape of three spears under the leadership of the commander, one vertical and two horizontal, the vertical one quickly passed through the "enemy formation", and the two horizontal ones advanced diagonally, and the outer layer of straw men neatly "culled" a layer. Immediately afterwards, Qin Shubao pulled out a corner flag from behind his back, waved it vigorously, and led the cavalry to step into the scarecrow array again. The other two cavalry armies were reversed, crisscrossing from the flanks.

This is a typical cavalry-on-infantry tactic, using the powerful attack and defensive capabilities of heavy cavalry to charge, repeatedly striking key parts of the enemy's army, such as near the general flag of the Chinese army, in the hope of minimizing the opponent's morale and disrupting the opponent's command. The light cavalry, on the other hand, ran quickly before the enemy's formation, looking for weak points and harassing the attention of archers and generals. Once the first assault of the heavy cavalry was completed, or the middle of the attack was blocked, the light cavalry struck according to the weak points they had found, in order to extend the results or reduce the losses in the direction of the main attack.

The county soldiers couldn't muster too much heavy armor, so the two hundred armored cavalry under Qin Shubao's command were the elite of the elite. Both of them and the horses were equipped with armor, with a total weight of more than sixty catties, and only the eyes of the people and horses in front of them were not wrapped in leather and iron. The weapons in the hands of the heavy cavalry are all long lances, and the blades are three feet away, and they can cause huge damage if they stab and sweep. In addition to the lance, each person also had a short soldier, or axe, or iron mace, hanging under the saddle, which could be used to deal a fatal blow to the enemy when the lance broke or lost its effectiveness.

The cavalry of Luo Shixin and Dugu Lin were not equipped with horse armor, and the leather armor on the soldiers was very thin, which could only ensure that they would not be directly shot by stray arrows. The brethren also had a wide variety of weapons, ranging from lances and riding spears to the luxury of the children of wealthy families, while most of the poorer families habitually used the horizontal swords of the infantry. They mainly won on the battlefield with speed, and Zhang Xutuo, based on the experience gained from actual combat, judged that as long as the light cavalry did not take the initiative to stop, it would be difficult for the archers to shoot them directly when the two armies were engaged.

"Uncle Bao, pay attention to the rhythm of the attack!" Zhang Xutuo looked at it for a while, put his hands on his mouth and shouted loudly.

The soldiers were so engrossed in training that it was hard to hear his orders amidst the earth-shattering shouts of killing. Zhang Xutuo rushed forward a few steps on his horse, came to the war drum in the middle of the school field, took the drum hammer from the soldier's hand, and beat it vigorously.

"Knock, knock!" The undulating drum beat pierced through the neighing of people and horses, and sent the old man's advice directly to Qin Shubao's ears. Qin Shubao vigorously held the lance with one hand, and with the other hand, he took out the second corner flag from behind him and waved it three times. The excited Iron Rider quickly retracted behind him, condensing into a knife, unstoppable.

"For the general, we must focus on the overall situation, and we can't be quick for a while. When the strength is strong, do not underestimate the enemy, and when the strength is weak, do not panic. While beating the drum, he pointed to Li Xu, who was following up.

"Cavalry is good at running, and foot soldiers are good at guarding danger. When the two armies meet, the one who seizes the opportunity is easy to win. If both sides of the enemy and us have formed a formation, then first explore their fiction and reality, confuse their strength, and attack their weakness......" The old general summed up in a low voice according to the actual situation on the field. A moment later, he ordered someone to wave the battle flag and withdraw to Qin Shubao.

"Take the trained brothers under your command to try, you are the master, Shixin and Chongmu are the auxiliaries, and the three light cavalry attack the formation, think about how to fight!" Zhang Xutuo pointed at the straw man array with a drum hammer and ordered Li Xu.

"Yes!" Li Xu took the order, got on the horse and left. The soldiers under his command were watching the battle from the side, and they were already scratching their ears and cheeks in a hurry. Seeing the Lord General rushing over on horseback, he immediately automatically photographed the queue.

"Brother Shixin, Brother Chongmu, you still bother the two of you to read my orders!" Li Xu took two hundred light horsemen under his command to join the team of Luo Shixin and Dugu Lin, and the two of them saluted and ordered.

"I am willing to kill the thief with Zhong Jian!" Dugu Lin and Luo Shixin returned the salute with their fists, and then ran back to their own army. Three groups of light cavalry lined up in a zigzag at maximum speed. The flag officer beside Li Xu contacted him backwards and received an order from Zhang Xutuo to allow the attack. He presented the command flag to his commander, and Xu Zi took the command flag and waved it to the left a few times, and then to the right several times.

With an earth-shattering shout, Luo Shixin and Dugu Lin rushed to the two wings of the "enemy army" again. The order Li Xu gave them was different from Qin Shubao's order just now, requiring them to retreat immediately after sweeping diagonally in front of the enemy, but they were not allowed to break through into the enemy formation.

"General Lee's tactics are weird!" Qin Shubao, who walked to Zhang Xutuo's side, commented in a low voice.

"I'll let him figure out how to break the formation by himself!" Zhang Xutuo stroked his beard and replied. For the generals under his command, he always spares no effort to cultivate their ability to take charge of themselves. "You carefully observe his tactics, Zhong Jian used to fight outside the Saiwai, and his experience is different from the experience we have accumulated!"

"It's not the same!" Qin Shubao replied in a low voice. Attracted by the cavalry in the distance again, Luo Shixin and the soldiers of Dugu Lin's subordinate had already begun to turn, and they swept half a circle from the "enemy formation" like the wind, and then quickly retreated. And at the moment when they withdrew from the range of the enemy's bows and arrows, Li Xu's men and horses just arrived, and the formation was not a compact longitudinal attack queue, but a loose horizontal formation. All the soldiers had their melee weapons on their horses, their heads pressed against their horses' necks, and they suddenly accelerated one hundred and fifty paces from the enemy.

The horses rushed forward at a gallop, and at a distance of about seventy paces, the direction of the team changed again, and everyone turned their horses' heads, from straight to diagonal, and then from oblique to sweeping, while rushing, while bending their bows and shooting, after each of them released almost three arrows, the distance between them and the enemy changed from seventy paces to fifty paces, and everyone suddenly turned their horses and withdrew like a tide.

One hundred and fifty steps away, Luo Shixin and Dugu Lin launched another feint. Li Xu and his brothers made a slight adjustment outside the range of the feather arrows, and rushed towards the enemy formation again. It is still dominated by feather arrow attacks, aiming at the aimless diffuse of the enemy array. Even during the retreat, there were people who kept immediately turning and attacking backwards.

"What kind of tactic is this?" Qin Shubao's eyes widened, he didn't expect such a way to play. Dealing with a slow movement and a scarce allocation of bows and arrows is a scoundrel. But this tactic cannot be said to be ineffective, Qin Shubao judged with his many years of experience in the army, if he continues to harass him repeatedly, within three times, the opponent's morale can be knocked out by half.

"The tactics of the Turkic wolf rider!" Zhang Xutuo stroked his beard and replied with great satisfaction.

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