Chapter 266 Change of formation
Guan Yu successfully beheaded again, and this time the effect was better than before.
After Zhang Yue's death, his tribe collapsed. However, the tribe of more than 300 people was already discouraged without Lang Jun. In addition, they were already inside the enemy's army, and they were surrounded by enemies wherever they looked. , the inner fear has reached its limit.
After the first person abandoned his weapon and fled, the retreat could no longer be stopped.
In real cold weapon battles, morale has always been the most decisive factor. Regardless of whether you are holding a ring-shaped knife or a big bamboo stick, killing people is still the same. But morale determines whether an army dares to fight. An army that dares not to fight will be useless.
It is different from the wars described by ordinary literati and historians. That kind of war involves back and forth between the two sides, full of wits and ups and downs. It is very interesting, but it is all illusion and a story.
In real history, many confrontations often do not lead to face-to-face fights, because one party almost always flees due to mass panic before the war begins.
Everyone is afraid of death, especially when they see others running away, so only military discipline can keep soldiers calm before a battle and not retreat due to panic.
The largest number of prisoners and kills in a war never occurs during battle, but occurs during pursuit when the enemy turns around and flees.
This is the reason why Zhang Chong regards general discipline as the most important, so he vigorously cultivates middle-level and junior military officials, makes them literate, and lets them join the military academy.
You can indeed learn something in the Military Academy, but the identity is far greater than the specific content learned. Most of the teachers in the military academy are senior military officials and celebrities in the army, and even Qu Shuai Zhang Chong will give lectures from time to time, so these military officials have another layer of aura as Qu Shuai's disciples.
The purpose of this halo is to allow military officials to better enforce military discipline.
Military discipline is dead. It is a dead thing written there. It is only alive if the soldiers abide by it and the officers enforce it. So why did the soldiers obey it? That is to respect the military officials, to be able to trust them, and to be fearful. They must understand that once they abandon Paoze and run away alone, they will be punished even if they go back. And only in this way can all the sergeants work together to form an army.
But unfortunately, Zhang Chong understands this, but the dead Zhang Yue does not understand this, and even most powerful people do not understand this. Their war is to recruit good disciples, give them weapons, and promise some property. La went into battle.
After Guan Yu successfully beheaded the enemy generals, he did not choose to pursue these defeated soldiers. Instead, he used the horn to call back some of the cavalrymen who had been killed. He didn't have time to chase these fish belly. A more intense battle was still waiting for them.
The defeated soldiers who were lucky enough to escape ran towards the Han army, but more injured people were abandoned on the battlefield, and no one cared about them.
The destruction of Zhang Yuebu here quickly caused a chain reaction. Yang Kebu, who originally attacked with him, soon felt the pressure.
Because the enemy troops planned by Gao Ya's department were gone, they quickly mobilized their mobile forces and began to outflank Yang Ke's department on the left.
So, under the drumbeat of the leading military officer, Gao Ya's department focused on the leftmost military column, and the entire army began to turn left as a whole.
Yang Ke's troops, who were still fighting fiercely with Chen Guang's troops, were shocked. They had never seen an army change formations like this. What they saw was that the soldiers at the front of the bandit army on the left were standing still, taking bigger and bigger steps as they went back. By the time they reached the end, all the soldiers were already running.
But just like that, these bandit troops were roughly maintaining a formation. They were rushing like a tide. When they got closer, they saw that the tide had turned into walls.
Soon, the exclamation of Yang Ke's soldiers was replaced by panic and begging for mercy. The Gao Ya tribe who had completed the change of formation began to erect their spears directly on the left side of Yang Ke's troops, and began to assassinate these Han troops in the chant.
Originally, Yang Ke's troops came to attack the Taishan bandit's waist, but now they are attacked from the waist by the Taishan army. What do you think this is?
In this fatal stabbing, Yang Kebu could no longer maintain his formation. Seeing the sharp steps stabbing his robe to death, and seeing these steps getting closer and closer to him, the steps began to panic. They looked eagerly at their own military officials, hoping to get some military orders, but these people only knew how to use sticks to force them to continue to defend, and there was no other way.
This is good, some tribesmen didn't even see their own military officials. It turned out that these people went to protect their husbands.
At this time, the tribesmen didn't know whether to continue moving forward or turn around and stay back, so they could only follow their own instincts.
So, collapse, collapse again.
But these tribes didn't know where to retreat from, so they could only flee in all directions. No matter where they fled, as long as they got closer and closer to these Taishan thieves.
There were still some officers under Yang Ke who were still performing their duties. They tried to use scolds and sticks to get the retreating soldiers to regroup. But unfortunately, these soldiers no longer obeyed these officers, and they overran their own officers. The commanders, some even drew their swords at each other, so these military officers could only shut up in the end and retreated together with the defeated troops.
All this happened so quickly. Yang Ke, who was fighting at the front, was abandoned by his own troops on the battlefield before he could react.
At this time, he looked at everything behind him blankly:
"I'm making progress here step by step, but why did I fail?"
He was at a loss, but his guards were not. They immediately wanted to pick up Yang Ke and retreat with the soldiers, but it was a pity that it was too late.
A burly armored soldier, also wearing three layers of armor, led a team of armored soldiers to surround Yang Ke. All he saw was that his eyes were wide-eyed and bloodshot, and he said bitterly:
"You've killed so many of my brothers, and you still want to run away?"
The burly soldier who said this was the right-wing general Chen Guang. He had been conducting the whole song from the corner of the formation before. He could only watch the Han general wreaking havoc in the formation. Now that the victory was determined, he naturally wanted to take revenge. Then he led the soldiers to surround and kill them.
After a while, Chen Guang's armor fell off and he vomited blood. He held Yang Ke's glaring head in his hand and spat:
"Unexpectedly, the little thief is quite brave."
Then he tied his head around his waist.
Yang Ke died, but the battle continued. The officers of Gao Ya Department and Chen Guang Department worked together to strangle the remaining Han soldiers. They marched across the ground strewn with corpses and wounded, stabbing any enemy who dared to stand in front of them.
The injured Han soldiers who fell to the ground were struggling and wailing. Many of them were praying to the Taishan Army to save them. Later, when they saw that the Taishan Army was still marching and did not fall on them with the butcher's knife, they began to pray to the Taishan Army to give them some water. .
People will become very thirsty after losing a lot of blood.
Most of the Taishan troops ignored the prayers at their feet. Only a few of them were kind-hearted. After thinking for a while, they threw their water bags to them, then turned around and chased Pao Ze, leaving the Han troops behind him to pay attention to him. grateful.
Guan Yu in the formation paid close attention to the progress of the left wing. At this time, the front of the phalanx was supported by sufficient troops. Although it could not go any further, it had already established a firm position among the Han army, and they would fight directly on the front line. The left wing didn't know why, but no Han troops came to attack, but Guan Yu didn't think much about it. Anyway, the troops came to block it, and the water came and the soil flooded. At this time, it was the right wing that could disturb Guan Yu. There were only 400 soldiers there, and they were attacking 500 soldiers on the opposite side. Unexpectedly, with that elegant and magical stroke, the whole army changed their formation decisively to the left, overwhelming the Han soldiers on the opposite side in one fell swoop.
In fact, Gao Ya was able to do this, and it was inseparable from Zhang Chong's training of the new army. In addition to training formations, the training subjects also included walking in step, turning between steps and stops, and turning between marches. Only veterans of the Taishan Army can accomplish these training subjects.
And once such a change of formation can be achieved, it will indeed be a success. And the most striking thing about this battle is that such military decisions are often ordered by the commander-in-chief, and the ministries below just follow the orders. If the scene just happened in the Han Army, it would at least be a military order from the rank of captain, but in the Taishan Army, Gao Ya gave full play to his own initiative and made his own decisions.
From here we can see that Zhang Chong has been fully effective in training mid-level military officials since he established the military academy.
Guan Yu admired the stop of the right wing's advance, full of the beauty of order, but soon his eyes narrowed because he saw the second formation of the Han army's right wing coming over in darkness. He was worried that the left wing would suffer a loss and was about to give the order.
……
Time goes back to when the Gao Ya Department just started to change formations to the left side of Yang Ke's Department. At this time, Huang Wan was drinking water on the Han army's military vehicle. He was old and couldn't drink honey water after all. His eyes were too dim to see the battle ahead, so at this moment, he was drinking water while listening to the aides next to him to introduce the battlefield situation.
Suddenly, Kuai Yue shouted:
"It's not good."
The sudden sound scared Huang Wan to the point where his water trembled. In his heart, he complained that Kuai Yue was still young, unsteady in his work, and prone to being startled. In addition, he had a surly temperament. If he did not change his character, he would be in trouble in the future.
Huang Wan here commented that Kuai Yue was unsteady, but he was suddenly frightened. Doesn't this actually mean that his Qi-nurturing skills were not good enough? Don’t you see, in the future, Sima Guang, who will be behind him for thousands of years, Sima Xianggong is very good at nourishing Qi. It is said that he, who was already fifty-one at that time, had reached the point where he remained calm. It is said that one time when Sima Guang was at work, a clerk suddenly rushed in with an urgent matter. He was startled when he saw the old minister sitting in danger, and quickly put his feet back, but because he was too hasty, he knocked over the candle and almost burned it. Here comes our Sima Xianggong. Even the petty officials were so frightened that their legs weakened, but our Sima Xianggong never made a move from beginning to end. This is how calm he is in the face of big events. Right!
Huang Wan snorted and asked:
"Alien, what's going on?"
Kuai Yue hurriedly replied:
"Lord, the Yang family's troops in Xingyang are about to collapse."
After speaking, Kuai Yue recounted what he had just seen to Huang Wan.
Because of the problem of vision, they actually did not see the fact that the other unit of the left wing's first formation, namely Zhang Yue's troops, had retreated, so at this moment they still thought that one unit had suffered a slight setback.
So Huang Wan shook his head and lectured:
"Be calm, don't be anxious, and let the children do the work."
Seeing that Huang Wan was so handsome and calm, Kuai Yue calmed down and continued to look down. But it’s even more incredible at first glance.
He shouted to Huang Wan again:
"The situation is bad, my lord, Yanshi Zhang's troops have retreated."
Huang Wan tensed up and asked:
"What happened?"
Kuai Yue shook his head and couldn't explain. He only said that he saw that Yanshi Zhang's banner was no longer on the battlefield, and there were still many defeated troops retreating towards the north.
Huang Wan opened his mouth, suddenly remembered, and asked:
"What about the first formation on the right wing, how was the battle?"
Kuai Yue observed again, and only then did they realize that the right wing was still only halfway through its movement and had not yet connected with the bandits.
When Kuai Yue told Huang Wan this, an abnormal blush suddenly appeared on his face, but no one noticed. Huang Wan tremblingly said:
"Order, wave the flag, order the second formation on the left to come forward to respond, and then order the first formation on the right to speed up. If anyone dares to patrol without the first, military law will be strictly dealt with."
After saying that, the flag soldiers issued the order, and the Xinqi rushed to the right wing with the military order just now. The order Huang Wan just passed to the right wing was too complicated, so Xinqi could only send it.
After Huang Wan gave the order, he asked his staff to continue observing the battlefield while he sat down and rested.
After the flag message of the Chinese army was sent to the second formation on the left wing, the two powerful tribes were a little puzzled, because according to the original plan, their soldiers were to be kept as reserves. When the Taishan Army's large formations on both sides came up to outflank them, they would Yes, why are you on it now?
Yes, Huang Wan arranged this before the war. He expected that as the opponent fell into his two wings and surrounded him, the remaining forces of the rebel army would definitely surround him from both sides. At that time, part of the Taishan army would be in the innermost part, part of the Han soldiers in the middle, and the remaining soldiers in the outermost part would be encircled. Taishan Army.
In order to prevent himself from being outflanked, Huang Wan's military order to the left and right wings was to only let the first formation move forward, and then wait until the remaining Taishan Army outflanked them, and then all the remaining two, three, and four columns would outflank them. This is a big trap and a small circle, annihilating the entire Taishan Army in one fell swoop.
But Huang Wan's dream failed to reality. The powerful soldiers in the first formation could not stop the prey in the inner circle. So why did they make a bigger circle? There was no choice but to let the second formation take over.
Thousands of people from the second line of the Han army's left wing began to move to the right side of the battlefield amidst the banners and drums of the military officials. Then they saw the Taishan Army chasing their own friendly forces northward.
As a result, they began to move faster, rising out of the ground like a red tide.
The Taishan Army who was chasing the enemy in the north saw the Han Army appearing on the opposite side. They were furious. They didn't know how to surrender and wanted to continue to resist?
Unable to bear it, the Taishan Army above had already lost its temper.
At this time, a general of the camp really blew the horn, asking the whole camp to continue the attack and take advantage of the situation to overwhelm the enemy. But the other generals immediately realized the risk of continuing to fight. At this time, due to the pursuit of the enemy, the troops of the two Qus had dispersed and could not form a strong formation. Under such circumstances, it would be extremely dangerous to attack the Han reinforcements. Dangerous.
So the other three generals issued the opposite military order. They beat the golden gong and ordered the troops to retreat. At this moment, three arrays of golden gongs overwhelmed the sound of the horns, and all the soldiers heard it as a signal to retreat.
So they left the retreating Han soldiers and withdrew one after another.
And all this was seen by Guan Yu inside the formation.
(End of chapter)