Chapter 757 Military Plane
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 28th, at the end of the morning, I was in Dongyang Pavilion.
Six armies of the Taishan Army have crossed the Luoshui River. The one that has advanced the deepest into the battlefield is Zhang Nan's Peng Sheng Army. Their sentry cavalry has come into contact with the Yuan Army and successfully blocked the enemy's lines of communication.
Following the Peng Sheng Army was Li Wu of the Guangwu Army.
The Guangwu Army is a branch of the Seventeenth Forbidden Army. It was expanded from the Iron Armored Army under Li Wu's control at that time. Its military establishment is fully staffed. There are many children from Bohai, Pingzhou, and Liaodong counties in the army, and there are combat soldiers. There are 4,630 warriors, including 18 gold medal warriors.
The Guangwu Army was one of the later ones transferred to Gyeonggi from Jizhou. Both the morale and combat readiness of the personnel were relatively at their peak, and they were full of energy.
This time he crossed the river with the Peng Sheng Army, just to be the second echelon behind the Peng Sheng Army.
A little to the west of the Guangwu Army was Guo Mo's Leopard Tao Army. They rushed to Dongyang Pavilion at about the same time as the Peng Sheng Army.
After arriving, Guo Mo led the Leopard Tao Army to occupy the west side of Dongyang Pavilion, with the purpose of serving as the right wing of the Holy Army.
This is not because Guo Mo is so noble, but because this is how the formation was set up before the war.
Behind Guo Mo's army was Xie Bi's Wei Bo army, which was also the only second-line army among the six armies across the river, but no one dared to underestimate them.
And the people of Wei Bo's army are also very energetic. Their flags are waving, their morale is high, and they are fighting incessantly. They are like an army eager to fight and want to tear the enemy into pieces.
They are located northwest of Dongyang Pavilion, and their main task is to control the Luoshui ferry and protect the western passage of the army.
These are the four armies near Dongyang Pavilion, with a total number of about 20,000, including 3,000 cavalry. They are distributed near the battlefield, constantly killing Yuan Jun's sentry cavalry.
To the east of Dongyang Pavilion, there are two armies. They are the last batch to cross the river. The two armies are Wei Zhou Fengxiang's army and Zhang Da's Xiongwu army.
Both of their armies were stationed beside a huge forest, protecting the east side of the entire army.
Judging from the layout of these six armies, Zhang Nan is basically the main force resisting the front on the Dongyang Pavilion side. Judging from the backgrounds of these six army generals, these six people are almost all Zhang Chonglin was an old brother back then.
Needless to say, Zhang Nan and Zhang Da were both members of the Zhang clan in Dasangli, while Li Wu and Xie Bi were one of Yang Mao's swordsmen back then, and the other was a descendant of an aristocratic family who was brought back from the gate of hell by Zhang Chong. Wei Zhou and Guo Mo are also old men in the army. It can be said that those on the battlefield in Dongyang Pavilion at this time are all from the Yuancong sect of Yishui.
These people are naturally rich in military experience, so Zhang Chong chose Zhang Nan as his main formation on the Dongyang Pavilion battlefield, because his qualifications and abilities can make these Yuan Cong respect him.
After the six armies arrived one after another, Zhang Nan at Dongyang Pavilion began to arrange the military formations and arrange the six armies according to the Crane Wing Formation.
Previously, Zhang Nan had obtained enough battlefield information through the scattered sentinels.
Judging from the current situation, there should be only a portion of the enemy's front guard in front of him, numbering about 15,000 people. However, there is no trace of the enemy on the left and right wings of the battlefield.
In other words, although looking at the entire war situation, the number of their Taishan Army is at a disadvantage, but in the Dongyang Pavilion battlefield alone, their Taishan Army has the advantage in terms of military strength.
In his past fighting career, Zhang Nan knew very well that when he had a local advantage, he must seize the opportunity.
Therefore, Zhang Nan decided to set up the Crane Wing Formation.
The so-called Crane Wing Formation is one of the eight major formations in the Art of War. The generals of the Taishan Army are proficient in the layout of these military formations due to battlefield experience and systematic education.
Among them, Zhang Nan especially loves the Buhe Wing Formation because it is the only one that actively attacks and is also used to form an encirclement against the enemy.
With his own formation in the middle, he then stretches his wings to capture the enemy from both sides, and finally approaches from his own formation to form a final encirclement of the enemy.
To put it simply, this is a tactic of outflanking the left and right, but the tactic sounds simple, but in fact it requires very high capabilities of the generals in each main formation.
Because when the team is marching, only by maintaining a tight formation can the enemy not take advantage of it.
Because the enemy is not a fool. When he sees you encircling you, he will stand still and will definitely break through from both wings. Therefore, the Taishan Army's outflanking front troops on both wings must be able to block the enemy's breakout.
In addition to taking into account defense during the march, it is also necessary to form close coordination with other friendly forces, otherwise the enemy may break through the cracks.
Therefore, the Crane Wing Formation is a military formation that everyone has heard of and learned, but rarely used. But coincidentally, the six armies of the Taishan Army on the Dongyangting battlefield at this time were suitable for completing such an arrangement.
These six armies are veterans who have experienced many battles and can maintain a certain density during the march; and the military leaders of the six armies are also familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of the Crane Wing Formation, and know how to check for leaks and fill in the gaps, and cooperate with each other. .
What's more important is that each army has enough assault cavalry. They travel between the armies and report the position of each army to their respective military leaders at all times.
In this way, after comprehensively judging the situation between the enemy and ourselves, and in order to seize favorable opportunities, Zhang Nan decided to take the initiative.
At this moment, a "Zhenhe" flag began to slowly rise on the Dongyang Pavilion sentry in his own formation. After seeing this flag, the flags and drums stationed outside the pavilion also began to raise the flag. At the same time, the sentry riders resting at each sentry point They also mounted their horses and ran towards their respective military formations.
In the vast Dongyang Pavilion wilderness, countless sentry riders came and went, and they shouted:
"Chinese military order, deploy crane wing formation."
After receiving the news, the military leaders began to dispatch their battalions and began to slowly change formations.
This is the last formation before the war. Once the armies start to set off, it will be extremely difficult to change the formation. So the other five military leaders knew that a war was coming.
The first to complete the formation was the Leopard Tao Army on the left. Among them, the general flag of their leader Guo Mo had begun to move forward. Surrounding this general flag were various military flags, and the lights of countless soldiers illuminated the sky. .
Then, the Xiongwu Army on the right also began to complete their formation changes. Under the leadership of their military leader Da Da, they began to advance directly in a large horizontal formation.
The advantage of this horizontal formation is that a longer horizontal plane can be used to intercept enemy troops in this direction. The disadvantage is also obvious, that is, once the enemy chooses this direction to break out, the depth of this formation will be extremely difficult to stop.
So Zhang Da had already told Wei Zhou in the rear that if the enemy broke out from his direction, he would intercept it from behind.
Therefore, on the fourth day of the day, the Taishan Army took the lead in making an attack posture, intending to encircle Zhang He's army.
……
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 28th, at the beginning of the sixth month, Zhang rushed to the formation.
At this time, two hours have passed since the Taishan Army set off from the front line. From Pingdan to Yuzhong, the remaining eight armies of the Taishan Army have also completed the battlefield layout. There are several miles between the east and the west, and the flags of the Taishan Army are everywhere.
At this time, Zhang Chong was riding along the battle line with his generals to observe the morale of each army.
Zhang Chong was still wearing linen clothes and shoes as usual, except that he had a yellow scarf tied around his forehead.
He rode his beloved horse "Tabai" and waved to some officials in front of the battle from time to time. It was obvious that those people recognized Zhang Chong.
This was actually not easy, because Zhang Chong did not bring his own big banner, and the number of generals behind him was not large.
But these officials at the lowest level of the Taishan Army recognized Zhang Chong, which shows that Zhang Chong's face was familiar to many of these people.
As the mountains shouted "Long live", Zhang Chong continued to run along the front line. Tabai is a mature sweat horse, golden all over, but at this time it has also become a spotted horse, with mud spots all over its body, which shows the mud of this battlefield.
Zhang Chong's inspection of the front this time was to experience the battlefield situation in detail. The result was very clear at this time, that is, at least for now, the Taishan Army was not suitable for launching a group cavalry charge.
But this was within Zhang Chong's expectation. He had his own ideas.
Behind Zhang Chong, there were about forty cavalry following, including Xun You and Tian Feng. They were the masterminds of this war, and they also followed Zhang Chong to see the situation on the battlefield.
The rest of the people were all generals who were fighting against each other. These people followed Zhang Chong calmly and were not affected by the atmosphere before the battle.
Zhang Chong was walking when he suddenly heard Tian suggesting to him:
"Your Majesty, I have a plan."
Zhang Chong just finished greeting an official with whom he had chatted before. When he heard Tian Feng's words, he turned around and asked:
"Oh? Tell me."
Then Tian Feng explained the method he thought of.
He suggested that while the enemy army was fighting a decisive battle with his own side in the River Land, he could assemble a cavalry force from the upper reaches to go around Yuan Shao's main formation on the south bank of the Yishui River and behead him.
Zhang Chong thought for a while and felt that this strategy was not very good. This is not because he is pedantic and insists on pursuing something upright, but because he knows very well that the main formation of the army commander must be very tight and cannot be attacked by a small number of sudden cavalry.
But Zhang Chong also felt that the cost of this was very low. Even if he couldn't kill Yuan Shao, he could still harass the enemy's rear, so he thought about it, but Cai Que ordered:
"Isn't Meng Qi always complaining about being idle in the armored cavalry? You ask him to select a hundred cavalry from the cavalry under his tent, and then lead him to go upstream to cross the river. Then tell him that his target is Yuan Shao."
If a group of people heard this order, they would definitely sneer on the spot:
"What, if you ask me to lead a hundred cavalry to kill the enemy's commander, will I think too highly of the general?"
But Zhang Chong knew Ma Chao, and this kid must have gone crazy with joy.
Then Zhang Chong ordered:
"Let him hibernate on the south bank, don't worry. Let Pound take over his original armored cavalry temporarily."
Cai indeed listened to the order, and then called a general of the sideways collision and asked him to pass the order to Ma Chao of the Chinese army.
When Tian Feng saw his plan, Zhang Chong accepted it with a smile on his face, and then he said:
"Your Majesty, when will we cross the river here?"
Zhang Chong did not answer, but first asked Meng Ju:
"How many troops from Yuan Jun have crossed the river now?"
Meng Ju has been paying attention to Fei Qi’s report, and he hurriedly told the latest news:
"Your Majesty, so far, the enemy's troops are very cautious in their deployment. Only Zhang He, who was formerly guarding the army, has crossed the river and is currently in position five miles south of the Holy Army."
Zhang Chong nodded and said to his staff, including Tian Feng and Xun You:
"Don't worry, our goal in this battle is to let the enemy's entire army cross the river, and then wipe out every one of them in the Riverlands. This will make it much easier to attack the Central Plains later. We will wait until they cross the river one after another. ”
This was the military strategy planned before the war, so Xun You and others nodded and understood.
Just when Zhang Chong was about to speak, a flying rider came from the southeast, covered with mud spots, and reported as soon as he came:
"Urgent report, the thief Li Tong's tribe has been found east of the Hejian Land, with a strength of about 20,000."
Just after I finished speaking, a horse came running from the southwest, also like rolling out of the mud. Report:
"Urgent report, the bandit Li's entire army has been found in the southeast of the Hejian Land, with a strength of about ten thousand people."
Two urgent reports have been sent, and half of the enemy's troops have begun to cross the Yishui River, so the current battlefield situation is not optimistic.
Sure enough, Tian Feng beside him frowned and said worriedly:
"Your Majesty, the number of enemy troops who have crossed the river so far is roughly 50,000, which is twice the number of our troops who have crossed the river. I'm afraid it will be difficult to support them."
Tian Feng's meaning is obvious, that is, reinforcements should be sent across the river now.
But Zhang Chong did not relent. Instead, he ordered the two knights who came:
"After you change horses, take my golden arrows and report the situation to Zhang Nan, and pass my command to his army to support him until the end of time."
There will be about three hours from now to the end of time, and there will be no reinforcements for the six armies crossing the river during these three hours.
So far, the Taishan Army's military strategy is very clear, which is to use the six armies crossing the river as bait to attract the main enemy forces to encircle them, in order to complete the battle in one battle.
So no wonder those who crossed the river were all the most elite troops of the Taishan Army. It turned out that a hard battle was waiting for them.
Of course, this is not what Zhang Chong wants to do, but it is what he has to do.
At this time, the only ones under his command who could shoulder such an arduous task were these six armies, and the other battalion leaders were barely interested.
The total strength of the Taishan Army on the Luoshui front line is about 70,000, divided into fourteen armies, but the quality of each army is uneven.
This is not to say that these Taishan troops are just pretending to be useless, but that the decline in combat effectiveness is entirely due to the combat situation.
From Taiyuan to now, the longest Taishan Army has been fighting for a year. These people are actually very tired both mentally and physically.
This does not include the attrition of some combat personnel. The combat effectiveness of many battalion heads has dropped significantly, so it is inevitable to absorb a lot of accompanying troops.
Take Zhao Yun's Department, for example, which previously served as the main force in fighting against Guo Si and Liu Bei's Kansai Allied Forces. Although their tactics were flexible and flexible, they suffered huge casualties in the final decisive battle.
Therefore, in order to restore the military strength within the establishment as soon as possible, the He Controlling Army absorbed about a thousand people from the army. Although these people had undergone preliminary military training, they could not reassure Zhang Chong.
In his opinion, no matter how well the new soldiers are trained, it will never be mentally adaptable to the war. Therefore, these military leaders who have recruited new recruits are best placed on the second line, so that they can have enough time to adapt to the battlefield environment.
So, Zhang Chong once again added to Er Yuqi:
"Tell Anan that the success or failure of this battle depends on his army, and ask him to complete the mission."
Eryu rode well, then called a dozen more companions, and galloped towards the south bank of Luoshui.
(End of chapter)