Report to your lordship! The commander of the city guard accepted the battle letter and agreed that the herald who would rush over outside the city tomorrow turned over and dismounted in front of Zeng Hua and said loudly.

Zeng Hua nodded, waved his hand to signal the herald to retreat, and then turned his head to Advisor Liu next to him and said, "Who is the commander of Lingju City?" ”

"The original Zhang Guan Department will be Gu Cheng and Guan Wei. After Zhang Guan's death, they supported their son Zhang Sheng in Cangsong, led the Hezhou soldiers to fight with the Song brothers' Shazhou army and Zhao Chang and Zhang Tao's Wuwei army under the city of Guzang for more than a month, and at the end of July, they heard that our Beifu had gathered troops to Liangzhou, intending to crusade, so they ceased war with Guzang and returned to Hezhou. Liu Gu, the left member of the Privy Council, replied.

"They retreated to Hezhou to guard the east gate of Liangzhou?" Zeng Hua asked a little surprised.

"Yes, the great general, judging from the banners and scattered texts played by Gu Cheng and Guan Wei, they are going to guard the east gate of Liangzhou and defend Liangzhou to the death." Liu Gu said in a deep voice.

Zeng Hua listened to Liu Gu's answer, and looked at the third son of the old man intently, but secretly thought in his heart that he was eight points similar to his father, and more like their father Liu Yi than his two brothers.

"Zizhan, do you think this is a bit ironic, but it is the Hezhou army who is willing to be born and die for Liangzhou." Zeng Hua turned his head and looked at the Beifu army who was marching in line and said.

"General, maybe the Hezhou army has become a loyal minister of the Zhang family in Liangzhou, but it has become a traitor to the imperial court." Liu Gu said with a smile that he had inherited Liu Yi's intelligence, and he was the most talented of the three brothers, and he was much more "knowledgeable about current affairs" than the two brothers.

"Yes, loyal and traitor. Who knows? Zeng Hua grabbed the reins in his hand, and Hot Wheels snorted a little dissatisfied.

"My lord, Liangzhou is now a battle of trapped beasts, and it will be impossible to escape destruction no matter what." Liu Gu raised his head, and his gaze shifted from the map in his hand to the side of the avenue, where thousands of Beifu troops converged into several black torrents, and were heading westward.

"I know Zizhan's confidence, the Privy Council has been planning to attack Liangzhou since the ninth year of Yonghe. You don't know how many times you have deduced the strategy of attacking the cool on the sand table. Zeng Hua said with a smile. His gaze was the same as Liu Gu's. failed to pull back from the torrent of the vast ocean-like army, "The map of Liangzhou in your hand is probably more detailed than the map of Guzang Zhangjiadi!" ”

Liu Gu smiled, holding the map in his hand and continuing to look into the distance. Indeed, in addition to making a lot of money, the merchants of Beifu who are running around all over the world are also shouldering the "heavy responsibility" of collecting intelligence. Since Zeng Hua taught the proportional method and contour method of the middle school geography society, he improved the mapping method of Beifu on the basis of the mapping methods of the time, such as the six bodies of cartography and the drawing of the square. In accordance with this set of "advanced methods", the scouts of the Horse Exploration Division and the Scout Cavalry Department who followed the merchants of Beifu have mapped the terrain of all parts of the world one by one in the past ten years. There is even a topographical sand table in the Privy Council for each state in Jiangbei. Campaign strategy can be deduced on it.

The Privy Council had a similar role as a general staff, issuing military orders in the event of war, and directing the mobilized arms and units to fight against predetermined targets. Therefore, Liu Gu and Rongye Wang always led a group of "elite officers" who were promoted and transferred from various combat units, and according to the various information they collected, they studied and re-studied the imaginary enemy around Beifu, and then worked out corresponding strategies.

Since Zeng Hua taught the "Prussian Soldier Chess Deduction" he learned on the Internet, the Privy Council found that this battle could still be fought like this, and the approximate outcome could be obtained by calculating and deducing it on the sand table. As a result, the Privy Council emptied the arithmetic talents of several colleges and universities such as Chang'an University Hall. Zeng Hua sometimes wondered. On one side of the Privy Council were numerous staff officers who deduced there. On one side, hundreds of people are holding a large number of abacus and a small number of slide rules (which must have been invented and improved by the protagonist) to calculate the parameters of the factors on both sides, which is a bit like the Chinese atomic bomb in the fifties of the twentieth century.

For the first time, I deeply realized that the science that Zeng Hua read every day was the military institution of the Privy Council, which may be a satire and joke on history and science. Zeng Hua sometimes thought triumphantly. Sun Tzu raised the Chinese military to the philosophical level, and he can be regarded as raising the Chinese military to the scientific level, Sun Tzu is called a martial saint, why will he be honored by future generations? Martial Immortals?

Through calculations, the Privy Council discovered how to make Liangzhou perish in the fastest time.

"My lord, the Longcheng general Jiang Nan led 20,000 Mobei cavalry to attack Juyancheng (now Ejina Banner, Inner Mongolia), and once he succeeded, he went south along the weak water (now the Narin River in Inner Mongolia and the Heihe River in Gansu), and directly took Jiuquan County, dividing Liangzhou and Shazhou into two; Qinghai general Yao Jin led 30,000 cavalry troops from Qinghai Prefecture out of Zhangye County and surrounded Guzang from the west; General Le Changshan led the soldiers of the Beidi County and the garrison of the Xiang army with a total of more than 10,000 cavalry, crossed Helan Mountain, west to Yeze and Xiutuze, and then went south along the Gushui River (now Shiyang River), captured Xuanwei (now Minqin, Gansu), and surrounded Guzang from the north. Liu Gu said as if he was endorsing.

"Then Zhang Shou and I led an army of 60,000 cavalry out of Jincheng Pass, first Kehezhou Zhucheng, and then surrounded Guzang from the south and east, and finally closed the door and beat the dogs, conquered Guzang in one fell swoop, and took Liangzhou." Hearing this, Zeng Hua couldn't help but speak.

"The general remembers it so clearly." Liu Gu said with a smile.

"How many soldiers and horses can Liangzhou gather, how much combat strength there is, how many city passes can be guarded, how many soldiers and civilians can be supported by the mature wheat fields in Liangzhou in this autumn harvest season, the restrictions on marching and the requirements for supplies on the terrain and roads of Liangzhou counties, the combat effectiveness of infantry and cavalry coordination and siege equipment, and how many casualties can be caused by wars of different scales to us and Liangzhou, I am afraid that these have already been calculated by you." Zeng Hua also said with a smile.

"Yes, the Great General, the Privy Council's chances of victory in the battle of Liangzhou are based on these foundations. However, no matter how good the Privy Council's chances of victory are, it must rely on the soldiers in front of them to fight back with a knife and a gun. Liu Gu was still like that, sitting on a horse and holding a "Nanzheng paper" map looking at the marching army in the distance.

"It's good if you know, if you can win by calculating, the Privy Council might as well ask some god operators to come. It seems that Zizhan still understands the duties of the Privy Council. Zeng Hua nodded.

"The Privy Council only formulates strategies based on the intelligence of the enemy and us, and the specific war still depends on the efforts of the officers and soldiers of each department. In fact, his subordinates have long found out. Only with the cooperation of the military system formulated by the adults and the military academy established by the Privy Council can the war games of the Privy Council have a chance of winning. Only when these three are used together can they play the greatest role. Liu Gu turned his head and looked at Zeng Hua's silhouette in front of him with reverence.

"Why did Zizhan say that?" Zeng Hua asked without looking back as if he was testing Liu Gu.

"Only by training soldiers with the military system formulated by adults can they be like arms and fingers, which is the foundation; Only non-commissioned officers and officers who have studied and trained in the military academy can understand the strategy of the Privy Council and their superiors, and can they be flexible and adapt to the situation in the war and complete the entire strategy. Only the first two conditions are met. Only in our Privy Council can we rely on the intelligence of the enemy. According to their own reality

Wargame deduction. However, the wargame deduction practiced the real battle to the greatest extent and the sergeants were trained. Liu Gu thought for a moment and then said.

Zeng Hua nodded and said approvingly: "Good man, your Privy Council left sign is not in vain. ”

Zeng Hua knew in his heart that although Liu Gu did not say it in detail, he could already be regarded as a talent if he could realize his intention to set up the Privy Council and his relationship with the army under the conditions at that time. You must know that you have made this set according to the three major Prussian military magic weapons that you learned on the Internet, the military academy, the general staff, and the war games. People relied on this to fight all over Europe, and then went down in history with the three major inventions of modern military science. I carefully improved these things and brought them into this era, but they were too ahead of the times, and I don't know how much time it would take Beifu to digest.

"In ancient times, some people used stones and wooden strips to draw a game to demonstrate the formation and calculate the battle, but they did not expect that the general could take this deduction to such an extreme, relying on various intelligence to analyze and calculate the results of the war." Liu Gu exclaimed.

"The common conditions of both friend and foe are the map sand table and time; Differing forces and distributions are the first condition; The combat effectiveness of the enemy and the number of casualties that can be inflicted are the second condition; And the dispatch strategy of the officers and generals is the coping condition, and these are the war games. But in the face of complex situations. Our calculations are limited. Any hypothetical strategy and actual results are calculated numerically, and the results obtained may not be consistent with our original intentions. Zeng Hua said meaningfully.

"My lord, I understand. The Privy Council's wargames are only analysed and extrapolated in the actual selection and decision. to estimate and find vulnerabilities. Whether or not you can really win a battle still depends on the soldiers. Liu Gu replied with a smile.

"Okay, then why do you say that the defenders of Lingju City agreed to go out of the city to fight?" Zeng Hua suddenly asked.

"This, I think, makes the defenders of the city feel desperate, so they simply fight to the death with our army and beg for a good time. Thinking that our army sent troops to Jincheng Pass on the tenth day of July, it was only half a month to this day, and the four towns of Donghe Prefecture were all forcibly conquered by our army, Gu Cheng, Guan Wei and others knew the strength of our army to attack the city and pull out the village, so they also knew that Lingju a lonely city could not be defended, it was better to raise troops and horses, rely on the city to line up, fight against the water, and win in danger. Liu Gu pondered for a moment and replied solemnly.

Zeng Hua laughed: "Fighting against the water, seeking victory in danger, I got to the point, but I still didn't get it all right." Mr. Sutsune, tell me about it. ”

Pu, who had been silent beside him just now, smiled, pointed to the front and said: "Gu Cheng and Guan Wei are both from Jinxing County (Zhi Yunwu) in Hezhou, and their subordinate soldiers are all from Hezhou. They knew that if they gave up Lingju City, Gu would not only be separated from Hezhou, but also open the south road, and would be directly under the threat of our army, but if they resisted stubbornly, then the tens of thousands of Hezhou people who fled to Lingju City would probably be burned with them. ”

"These two people are sorry for the Zhang family, and they are sorry for the elders of Hezhou, so it's better to face the outside of the city, and they will die and come back to life, whether they win or lose, it can be regarded as a relief." Park said slowly, as if he had been friends with Gu Cheng and Guan Wei for many years, and knew the characters of the two of them.

Liu Gu trembled in his heart, he understood that the important minister of the Northern Mansion in front of him was the best at analyzing the opponent's character through intelligence, and then formulating countermeasures and strategies based on this. Park's remarks just now were not made up randomly, but were calculated based on the information collected by the Tanma Division and the Detective Cavalry Department of Gu and Guan.

"Zizhan, do you understand?" Zeng Hua asked suddenly.

"General, I understand, the character of the opponent's general is also an important basis for us to deduce the war." Liu Gu replied solemnly.

"It is precisely in this way that the general is the head of an army, and his choices and actions determine the fate of the whole army. Character determines action, and action determines his fate. Zeng Hua coldly came up with a famous sentence of "modern version".

Looking at Liu Gu and Zhang Shou, Deng Yao, Cao Yan, Mao Anzhi, Zhong Qi, and a group of staff officers who had been listening next to him, nodded solemnly, Zeng Hua smiled. You can't fight the battle alone, the more capable your subordinates are, the more comfortable they are.

While Zeng Hua and others were arguing, Wei Xingguo rode over and reported loudly: "General, the vanguard of our army has set up camp twenty miles before Lingju City, and at this rate, the whole army can arrive at Shenshi." ”

"Okay, order the whole army to continue marching, and be sure to arrive at the forward camp on time." Zeng Hua ordered.

"Yes, the Great General!" Wei Xingguo replied loudly, then turned his horse's head and ran into the distance.

Looking at the team in the distance, Zeng Hua turned his head and asked Zhang Shoudao: "Of the 60,000 troops, 40,000 soldiers are soldiers from Qin and Yongzhou. I can trust Liufu with the soldiers of Yongzhou, I don't know if you Qinzhou soldiers can be relied on? ”

As the assassin of Qinzhou, he didn't care about the affairs of the government soldiers, because that was the duty of Xu Dang, the governor of Qinzhou. But Xu Dang's "crow's mouth" was left in Jincheng by Zeng Hua, so Zeng Hua had to ask Zhang Shou.

"Military master, Xu Dingshan was also brought out by you, and you also know his methods of training. Don't worry, military master, if the soldiers of Qinzhou Mansion have a soft egg, I will chop him first, and then chop myself. Speaking of this, Zhang Shou turned behind him and shouted to a group of Qinzhou Mansion generals and leading officers who were following behind, "You go back and tell the Qinzhou Mansion soldiers, if anyone is soft-legged in front of the general, he will lose my Qinzhou face!" Lao Tzu first dismantled his bones to cushion his back. Did you hear that? ”

"I heard you!" The generals shouted with red faces.

Zeng Hua and Park and the others looked at each other and smiled, what he wanted was this kind of confidence. In this crusade against Liangzhou, most of the troops were government soldiers from various states, even the Qinghai generals and Mobei, in order to train the government soldiers. In Zeng Hua's military system, the basis of the Beifu compulsory military system is the government soldiers. First of all, the militia military service that young and strong must undertake, and then select the elite from the militia to form the government soldiers, and then select the elite from the government soldiers to form a standing army-box army, forming a pyramid-style army composition, which Zeng Hua has long determined. However, due to the tense war at first, the result was that there were more soldiers in the box than in the government. Now, after several years of development, various systems have begun to improve, so the government military system has gradually improved, and it has become the pillar of the Beifu army.

And Zeng Hua is also ready to use this Liangzhou battle to test the soldiers of the government to see if the Beifu pillar stone is reliable.

With the neat and dull sound of marching footsteps, the 50,000 Beifu army slowly approached Lingju City like a black ocean. Zeng Hua rode on the Hot Wheels, looking at the flags in the sky, looking at the black all over the ground, and the weapons shining white in the sun, but he was secretly thinking in his heart, what kind of people are Gu Cheng and Guan Wei in the city?