September 26, the first hour of noon.

On the north bank of Qishui, an infantry force of 1,500 men, lined up in a neat and slightly loose rectangular formation, slowly advanced from west to east.

The regimental training commander Lu Datou carried the barrel of the spear in one hand, and the Yanling knife on his shoulder with the other hand, and hung a pack of packed armor on the scabbard, and hurried away with a sigh of breath.

The armor in the bag is not his own, it is a comrade-in-arms who was slightly injured, and his own armor is still wearing on his body.

In order to prepare for the possible attack of the enemy at any time, Zuo Dusi asked all the soldiers who were not injured to march in armor and be ready to change formations to respond to the enemy at any time. This slows down the march even further, and it is also a severe test of the recruits' willpower.

"Boss, there are still twenty miles back to the county seat, if the thief cavalry really surrounds us on the plain, how can it be good. You said why don't you take advantage of the fact that there is no enemy situation in the vicinity and travel lightly. ”

A pro-soldier next to him was a little weak, gulping down the water filled in the bamboo tube, and complaining with a slight wavering.

"Xu Scar, no matter how much you talk about it, I won't smoke you! How dare you question the military order of the capital! Now I look at the thief army, but as long as the cavalry appears in the sky, a cup of tea will be in front of you, and you have to change formations and put on armor, can you have time? ”

Lu Datou said, and rewarded his own soldier with a scabbard in a measured manner, smashing the other party.

Originally, they were all dock laborers in Huangqikou Town. When Shen Tongzhi recruited the group for training, all the dock workers with clean resumes and sound bodies were basically recruited.

So today, Zuo Zixiong is going to burn the strong wall of Huangqikou Town, and the resistance is not so great, who let the strong men in the whole town eat the imperial grain.

Lu Datou was the most powerful of the dock workers, and hundreds of people followed him at the beginning. After joining the army together, Shen Tongzhi was also eclectic in using talents, and after testing Lu Datou's strength and water nature, he gave him a general position, which made him very grateful to Dade.

In the battle just now, his team experienced the fiercest melee battle in the whole field, and five robes were killed, and he himself relied on great strength to stab three rogue cavalrymen to death with his spear, and the spears were all broken, so he had to pick up one from the corpse of the dead robes and continue to use it.

Lu Datou could see that the brothers were more or less confused. The victory made everyone less afraid, but he had doubts about the arrangement of tactical missions, and he had to find ways to boost morale along the way.

Lu Datou was beating Xu Scar, by the way to convince other comrades-in-arms, a few war horses galloped by, Lu Datou hurriedly ordered the brothers to stand up, and when he turned around, he saw that it was Zuo Dusi who came to inspect in person.

Seeing that the captain spearman was listless, Zuo Zixiong also attached great importance to it, and Le Ma stopped:

"Lu Datou! Why is the formation so scattered, but what are the difficulties? If there are wounded soldiers who are injured, they should report it in time, and if you don't rely on you to help your subordinates carry armor, they will accept your feelings! ”

Lu Datou immediately stood up: "Go back to the capital...... No, nothing difficult. I have been encouraging and comforting the brothers according to what you have just explained, saying that Liu Xiong has fallen for Lord Tongzhi's trick and has been disabled this time. Even if he dares to come back to retaliate, his combat power will only get weaker and weaker. ”

Zuo Zixiong nodded, so he didn't say anything more.

All this was also explained to all the hundreds of households under his command before he set out, so that they could take advantage of the victory in the early morning, strike propaganda while the iron was hot to boost morale, and clearly explain the advantages of our army to every soldier.

In this way, when the follow-up field battle is fought again, the soldiers will not be easily afraid.

Zuo Zixiong has led the troops for many years, and although he has not systematically read the art of war, he is very clear about the psychological thoughts of the soldiers. He knows very well that in the first few battles of a new army, confidence is always the most important thing, more important than weapons and training.

The key to victory or defeat is not after the start of the war, but in the encouragement of the people before and between the war. Not only must you be able to kill the enemy, but also be able to blow, blow the encouraging effect of a human head into three or five, and fully tap the potential.

If we can make everyone in the enemy believe that they have fallen into our army's plan, and if we can also make our soldiers believe that the enemy army has fallen into our army's plan, we will have won 80% of this battle before we have been fought.

Zuo Zixiong was very cautious, he didn't just listen to Lu Datou's words, but very cautiously randomly selected a few soldiers in this team who looked demoralized, and asked them as he went, asking them why the enemy army lost so badly in the early morning, and asking them what the enemy army had defeated because of Lord Tongzhi.

The soldiers who were drawn did not embarrass Lu Datou, they all answered one by one, and Zuo Zixiong nodded with satisfaction.

The last thing he asked was Xu Scar, who was reprimanded by Lu Datou just now, Xu Scar seemed to be a little resentful of his injury and the death of Pao Ze, and after answering, he couldn't help but question Zuo Zixiong slightly:

"Toji-sama! Let's keep saying that the thief army was deceived by Lord Tongzhi's plan to lure the enemy, so they ran so far and sent it to us to kill in vain.

Then it is also in the plan of Lord Tongzhi to let us recruits be pikemen, to carry the charge of the rogue cavalry, and to create a chance to kill the enemy for the cronies who hide behind as musketeers? His plan is to fill the hole with our cheap lives? ”

As soon as these words came out, the 100 people nearby all pricked up their ears, and they couldn't help but stir slightly.

Indeed, "the clever calculation of one's own generals" is very morale-boosting, but the part of the soldiers who can be used as bait and responsible for "deceiving and luring the enemy" will not feel good.

Because of this, the troops responsible for luring the enemy in ancient and modern times must be the most elite soldiers, otherwise they will not be able to withstand this psychological pressure at all, and mutiny is possible.

Zuo Zixiong's face changed, he wanted to punish Xu Dao Scar, but he knew that serving the public at this moment was the most important thing, and he couldn't expand the resentment of the recruits. At that moment, he said selflessly:

"The specific tactics have nothing to do with Lord Tongzhi! It's all the general's improvisation, and the same knowledge is that Lord Wenqu is a descendant, as long as you think about those big political strategies!

As for the task distribution of the soldiers, it is also based on each person's talent, physical strength, and martial arts.

You want to be a firecracker, so why didn't you miss the target with three arrows during the recruitment assessment? But if you know how to shoot, it won't be like that! Since the pikemen are assigned, then they will kill the enemy well and make meritorious contributions, and the rewards and punishments will be clear for the adults, and when the army is expanded in the future, it will naturally be promoted to a more important position and better weapons will be allocated.

The future is earned by everyone, and there is no seniority or nepotism in our army, and everything is based on ability! Speak by merit!

For example, this General Lu, he personally stabbed to death three thief cavalry today, after returning to the city, I will naturally transfer the merit book to Lord Tongzhi in detail, if he wants to be transferred to command the firecrackers, Lord Tongzhi will definitely agree! You didn't hurt a single enemy, and you didn't save your comrades, so why did you transfer you! ”

Zuo Zixiong's words were strict, and the recruits next to him, who were originally confused, slowly came back to their senses and completely accepted the status quo.

As long as you play well, you still have a chance to change your troops and upgrade your equipment!

Believe this for the first time, and go back to see how the Tongzhi Lord will cash it out.

As soon as Zuo Zixiong finished boosting his morale, there were bursts of exclamations from the front army, and sure enough, it was the rogue cavalry after a short rest in the morning, regrouping and starting a roundabout outflanking.

"Array!" Zuo Zixiong roared sharply, allowing the troops to quickly fine-tune, forming a trapezoidal formation transformed from the Spanish phalanx.

The normal Spanish phalanx, in a decisive battle on the Great Plains, required that there be spears facing outwards on all sides, and the musketeers would be able to move forward between the spears.

At this moment, because one side is against the river, it only needs to be trapezoidal, and it is in the shape of three sides, and the side by the river is the longest bottom edge, so there is no need to deploy personnel, and the top edge and two waists are slightly narrower to meet the enemy.

Zuo Zixiong had just adjusted his formation, and Liu Xiong's cavalry had already surrounded him from three directions.

Liu Xiong himself led three or four hundred cavalry to block the easternmost side, that is, between Zuo Zixiong and the county seat of Qizhou, cutting off Zuo Zixiong's advance direction.

Ichitoya, who was wounded, took the remaining half of the cavalry and went around to the rear of the left sub-male division and drove the tail from west to east.

The remaining six or seven hundred mounted infantry were loosely stretched directly north of Zuo Zixiong's division, distracting Zuo Zixiong's attention and defensive forces, and preventing Zuo Zixiong from leaving too many reserves to block the gap.

After everything was done, the two sides were still thirteen or fourteen miles away from the county seat of Qizhou, and they were at a stalemate there. As long as he moved a little more than two or three miles to the east, Zuo Zixiong would be able to see the tower at the west gate of Qizhou City, but Liu Xiong would obviously not let him withdraw to his position easily.

"Stay in formation and keep going!"

Zuo Zixiong waited for a while, Liu Xiong was surrounded like this, and if he didn't attack for a while, he would be consumed like this. Zuo Zixiong could only slowly move to the east in a trapezoidal phalanx.

In the state of maintaining a dense array, the troops may not be able to walk even five miles in an hour, which is a great drain on physical strength and concentration.

Enemy riders, however, can take advantage of their mobility and stand or sit. If Zuo Zixiong dared to chase them out, they would retreat, and it would be impossible for them to catch up with them with the benefit of horses.

And if the left Zixiong department is a little relaxed, Yidougu, who is old in military affairs on the opposite side, will also seize the opportunity and send dozens of elites who are good at riding and archery, and they will be harassed by throwing arrows indiscriminately from a distance of more than 100 paces.

Although it is almost impossible for these arrows to hit people, they can also make the officers and soldiers nervous for a while. A few dozen people swept around the formation, which could make hundreds of people wait for the formation and consume a lot of physical strength.

The officers and soldiers responded with bird guns, but because they were too far away, the lead bullets could not hit the loose rangers at all, and in half an hour, they only caught four or five shots, killing four or five elite cavalry archers.

The time went on until three o'clock in the afternoon. It's late autumn, and the scorching midday sun is still irritating.

The infantry moved around in full armor, and for most of the hour they had walked only three miles, but they were all sweating profusely.

There are only ten miles left from Qizhou, and the city tower can already be seen, but Zuo Zixiong's face is gloomy and terrifying.

"According to the information from the previous torture of the prisoners, when he arrives in Shen at the latest, Liu Xiyao's army of 10,000 or 20,000 will definitely rush to Huangqikou Town, and give him another hour to rush here.

Our army only has two hours at most to complete these ten miles and enter the city, and it must not be consumed in such a rapid and dense formation. Liu Xiong refuses to rush at my phalanx, so he has to take some risks and let him see some hope......"

When the hedgehog and the porcupine are curled up, it makes no sense to complain that the wolfdog does not come to bite him. After all, the wolf dog is not mentally retarded, and if he has no mobility and wants to break the opponent's teeth, he can only let the hedgehog loosen a little.

"The front army accelerates forward, loosens up the formation, and keeps a step away from each other! Only when you see the thief army charging can you meet the enemy! Ignore them without charging! Zuo Zixiong gritted his teeth and sold one more flaw.

In fact, these operations are not very in line with the art of war, but there is no way, if it is too in line with the art of war, the enemy with organic power advantage will not give you a chance to fight hard at all.

Even gamers know that when one side is very confident in opening a group to fight positional warfare, the other party is not stupid and will not come to pick up the group at all. At this time, it is indispensable to ask individual teammates to sell and pretend to be alone, so that the enemy will come to pick up the group.

As if they had been granted amnesty, the soldiers quickened their pace and began to hurry.

Liu Xiong and Yidougu on the opposite side were also overjoyed to see that the officers and soldiers had finally begun to "flee for their lives". They first kept a follow-up, and then Liu Xiong and Yidougu also informed each other of the situation with a herald cavalry, and set a countermeasure.

"Let Itogu take the lead over there! Rush the officer army tail! The enemy's formation becomes looser, the march is accelerated, and there will be no intention of fighting, chasing and killing from the tail, as long as it breaks through a little, the whole army will collapse! The officers and soldiers have been exposed to the sun for an hour, and they are already exhausted! ”