Chapter 758: Survival
After the flying cavalry left, Zhang Chong began to inspect the front and rushed back to the military tent.
At this time, in the big tent, Nuo Da's sand table had been pulled up, and more than thirty staff were constantly moving the small flags on the sand table based on the news sent from the front.
This huge sand table is the result of this period of time of the staff team. They traveled around the riverlands and made this huge sand table out of clay embryos.
Among them, Luoshui and Yishui are represented by two silk satins. They lie across the sand table and divide the enemy and us.
The various armies of the Taishan Army are represented by their respective legion flags.
It can be clearly seen that except for the six armies that have moved forward to the south bank of Luoshui River, the remaining eight armies are all distributed along the bank of Luoshui River.
These eight armies were arranged on the bank of Luoshui, stretching more than ten miles from east to west, with no head or tail visible at all.
This is still the result of only more than 40,000 people lined up in a line. Yuan Shao's troops on the opposite side are almost twice as many as theirs. If they were lined up like this from north to south, it would take half a day just to send orders.
Therefore, for the convenience of control, Zhang Chong's own central army only directly dispatched four armies, and the remaining four armies in the west were directly dispatched due to the ban.
Before the ban, he led six armies with 30,000 men southward to the Longmen area, looking for opportunities to attack Yuan's rear. Unfortunately, the scale of the war soon exceeded original expectations.
After a steady stream of Yuan's troops moved north, it was difficult for the Taishan Army to lurk in the southern mountainous areas. Therefore, in order to prevent being surrounded by Yuan's troops, Yu Jin decisively retreated to the Luoshui area with his army to strengthen the strength of this defense line.
Yu Jin's decision was right. Yuan Shao had indeed discovered his traces at that time, and the other side was indeed discussing how to encircle him. However, Yu Jin ran away decisively before taking any action.
At this time, the four armies under Yu Jin's command were Zhao Jian's Tiance Army, Duan Xiu's Zhenwu Army, Xu Zhong's Longxiang Army, and Luo Gang's Weiwei Army.
Among these four armies, three were from the former Central Guard Army system, which was Yu Jin's old department. Only Luo Gang's Mighty Army was from the former Right Army system and was only transferred to Yu Jin's command during this war.
But even so, Luo Gang admired Jin very much, which ensured that Yu Jin had sufficient dispatching capabilities for the four armies under his command.
At this time, Xu Zhong's Longxiang Army was placed on the far west side. This unit was the top battalion of the Central Guard Army in the past. Its leader Xu Zhong was a heroic man who defected to the army after the Yingyang War. He seemed to have little reputation. But he is Yu Jin's beloved general.
He is the only two people in the Taishan Army who have served as generals of the sudden cavalry and the chief general of the independent army. The other one is Xu Huang, the flying tiger general in the army.
As a general who is good at both foot and cavalry, Xu Zhong has a force of about a thousand cavalry under his command. This force is twice the size of the ordinary army, and it is also at the forefront of the No. 17 Forbidden Army.
Yu Jin placed Xu Zhong on the far west side, also wanting to use this force of sudden cavalry.
Before the war, he, Zhang Nan and a group of staff conducted the last military intelligence exercise with the king. In their game play, Yuan's army may take advantage of its superior numbers to adopt roundabout tactics.
The most important direction is west.
This is not a guess made by Zhang Chong and others, but a judgment based on the real situation on the battlefield.
In the war at this time, a typical phenomenon was the "right wing collapse", which meant that victory or defeat often occurred in the direction of the right wing.
The reason behind this phenomenon is not complicated. It is that when the enemy's and ours' battle lines come into contact, due to the ubiquity of right-handers, the battle lines will shift to the right.
Therefore, some clever commanders will do the opposite before the war begins, that is, concentrate their forces on their left wing, increase the depth and width, and move the military formation on their right wing backward.
Therefore, once a war begins, the enemy's right wing will take the lead in engaging its own left wing, and at this time, the enemy's left wing has not even seen its own right wing.
At this time, on the enemy's right wing, they should have been the main direction of attack, but they suffered from the reinforced left wing, which would make them unable to withstand it. So once the right wing collapsed, the left wing that had not yet engaged in the war did not even dare to move forward, thus resulting in a total collapse.
This is what military strategists often call oblique tactics.
This is what Zhang Chong and the generals judged. The enemy will definitely implement such tactics because the number of enemy troops is large enough.
Generally speaking, when the number of people is about the same, the width of the military formation becomes longer and the depth becomes thinner. This forms two basic forms of military formations, either a deep and deep military formation or a wide frontal formation. Military formation.
Both of these have their own advantages.
The deep phalanx uses resistance lines as well as impact, because the source of the phalanx's advance is the squeeze from the rear, so the more people in the back row, the greater their motivation to move forward.
The phalanx with a wide front is conducive to outflanking. They have a longer front to go around the enemy's flank to form an encirclement.
But unfortunately, Yuan's army could rely on its numbers to form a large depth and a wider front, thus forming a two-sided flanking attack on the right wing of Taishan's army.
So under normal circumstances, it is difficult to hold on. But the Taishan Army has cavalry, which is why Yu Jin arranged Xu Zhong here.
When the second-line troops move to the battlefield on the south bank of Luoshui later, Xu Zhongbu will change into a deeper formation, and then use the sudden cavalry of this formation to attack the enemy's left wing, making it impossible for the enemy to form an encirclement. If the army dares to change its formation during the process, it will suffer a head-on attack from the army's sudden cavalry.
This is the role of the cavalry. It is not just as simple as breaking out of the formation. Its strong mobility alone determines that it can perform well.
Then counting from Xu Zhong's Longxiang Army to the east, there are Zhao Jian's Tiance Army, Duan Xiu's Zhenwu Army, and Luo Gang's Mighty Army. Their four armies will enter the battlefield from the ferry and pontoon west of Luoshui.
About two miles east of Yujin's front army, there is Zhang Chong's main formation and six armies under his command.
They are Zhao Yun's Crane Control Army, Xu Huang's Flying Tiger Army, Guo Song's Flying Bear Army, Wang Han's Xiaoqi Army, Chen Huan's Shesheng Army, and the combined forces of Zhang Zhen, Zhu Ling, Gao Shun and others. Mixed army.
Behind these six armies are the ten battalions of the Taishan Army's assault cavalry, totaling five thousand cavalry. Half of the assault cavalry have been sent to each army. The most are a thousand cavalry, and the few are three to five hundred. They are used for decisive battles. .
Among the five thousand cavalry, there were about a thousand armored cavalry, including the cavalry general Pang De and the deputy general Zhang Liao. There are four thousand riders left, namely Tian Jun, Li Hu, Li Fu, Li Bi, Yan Gang, Ma Wu, Xu Rong, and Cheng Pu. Among them, Tian Jun is the most handsome.
Finally, there were the Hengchang generals surrounding Zhang Chong's tent. They numbered five hundred and were responsible for the contact between the Chinese army and the other armies on the battlefield.
At this time, the eight armies of the Taishan Army on the north bank of the Luoshui River were arranged east and west like this. After crossing the river, they would also arrange their formations according to this general direction, but the specific formations would not start until they crossed the river.
All Taishan troops are waiting, waiting for the final moment.
Quietly.
……
On the south bank of Yishui River, Yuan Jun's general formation.
At this time, as the three armies of Zhang He, Li Tong, and Li Zheng moved across the river, many of the military tents here were empty, but the remaining military tents were still blooming in the vast fields on the south bank of the Yishui River like a bustle.
This time the military formation was arranged by Ju Yi. Of course, he can only do these top-level plans now.
Previously, Yuan Jun did not plan like this, because at that time, the Taishan Army on the opposite side was more conservative in attacking, so Yuan Jun's formation at that time did not have many regulations, and they all camped along the Yishui River.
But later, when the news came that the Taishan Army suddenly attacked the Guanxi Army, Ju Yi believed that they could no longer camp in such a haphazard way, otherwise if the enemy army followed the same tactics again, Yuan Shao's main formation would be in danger.
In terms of fear of death, Yuan Shao was no different from ordinary people, so the Yuan family camp on the south bank of Yishui soon made great adjustments.
He first deployed a sentry of 2,000 men in the upper reaches of the Yishui River as his first sentry wall to block enemy cavalry attacks.
Then, let Yuan Shu's army be deployed about two miles south of the sentry wall. On the one hand, it can provide backup for the sentry wall, and it can also serve as the marching direction for Yuan Shu's troops to enter the battlefield in the Hejian Land.
In his opinion, Yuan Shu's 30,000 troops must be used for sure, and the attack direction is upstream of Yishui River, which will directly threaten the Taishan Army on the battlefield from the southwest.
Five miles east of Yuan Shu's camp is Yuan Shao's main formation. Its main formation roughly stretches for ten miles along the ridge path of the remaining mountains of Wan'an Mountain, then there is a steep valley to the north, and then it extends to the south.
If the Taishan Army's assault cavalry could break through Yuan Shu's defense line, they would fail here.
Ju Yi built a solid position on the high ground above the valley and placed all Chunyu Qiong's central guards in this position.
Yuan Shao's own top five armies were arranged in a line along the mouth of the valley, guarding Yuan Shao's middle army in the middle. It can be said that there are 40,000 troops here, and they are Yuan Shao's most elite.
Then to the north of the general formation is Zhou Xin's left guard army of ten thousand people. They will be the second wave of river crossing troops. At this time, they have already moved to the south bank of Yishui River, waiting for the order to cross the river.
Originally, Ju Yi wanted to send Chunyu Qiong's Central Guard Army there as the second wave to cross the river, because in his opinion, if he just wanted to defend this highland, it would be enough to rely on the Fifth Army. There is no need for as many as 40,000 people.
After all, victory can only be achieved by defeating the enemy on the battlefield.
But as expected, this suggestion was rejected by Yuan Shao. He continued to leave the 15,000 people of the Central Guard Army in the highlands, and it was enough to only let Yuan Shu and Zhou Xin cross the river.
After all, the two armies combined have enough for 50,000 people to completely suppress the Taishan Army.
It can also be seen from this that Yuan Shao has no intention of crossing the river at all, and he even has no intention of letting his direct descendants cross the river.
But he can cross the river, but he must let his good brother cross the river.
So, in the camp, when he smiled and asked Yuan Shu to get ready to cross the river, he heard a big "surprise" like a thunderbolt.
……
"Say it again, say it again?"
At this time, Yuan Shao's smile could no longer be maintained. He looked at Yuan Shu with his head lowered and wished he could strangle him to death himself.
It turned out that when he asked Yuan Shu to prepare to cross the river, the man looked helpless and innocent.
He told himself that his 30,000-strong army was just a figure on paper, because many of the people in it were heavy soldiers and strong men. These people also traveled a lot on the road. The number of people who could actually be used in combat might be three armies, or so. About ten thousand people.
No, this good brother's original words were "Ten thousand soldiers capable of fighting". Doesn't that mean that the real elite soldiers may only be in the thousands?
Looking at what Yuan Shu himself introduced there, there were only three generals, all sitting behind him, namely his central general Ji Ling, his former general Wenpin, and his rear general Liu Xun.
At this moment, Yuan Shao was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood.
Aren't you cheating on your brother? You can report as many soldiers as you have. If he sets up a military formation based on your 30,000 soldiers, you will suddenly lose 20,000 soldiers. How do you deal with this?
Originally, including Yuan Shu's 30,000 men, the second wave of troops he arranged to cross the river was 50,000, but now there are 20,000 less, so the strength is no longer advantageous.
Originally, our own combat power was not as good as that of Taishan's army. Now that we no longer have the advantage in numbers, how can we fight this battle?
In fact, this really cannot be blamed on Yuan Shao. He has no binding force on Yuan Shu's troops, so he can only serve as many as Yuan Shu has.
In fact, Yuan Shu reported 30,000 people, and he used 30,000 people to replenish grain, fodder, and armor.
When he thought about this kind of decisive battle, he would give himself free money. Yuan Shao really wanted to strangle Yuan Shu to death. Why did the Yuan family in Runan give birth to such a thing.
But what can Yuan Shao do? He could only comfort himself. Fortunately, Yuan Shu was honest now. It would be even worse if the war started.
After thinking about it, Yuan Shao could only turn his attention to Chunyu Qiong in the end. It seemed that he would have to be allowed to cross the river in the second wave.
But don't worry, let's see how the North Shore fight goes, maybe we can win first.
……
Both Yuan Shao and Zhang Chong were looking at the river between them, and there, the battle that attracted everyone's attention had indeed begun.
It's just that it's different from the original Taishan army's attack and Zhang He's army's defense. At this time, Zhang Nan must immediately change his tactics.
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 28th, Sishi, Dongyang Pavilion.
When Zhang Nan decided to surround Zhang He's army with the Crane Wing Formation on both sides, a major piece of information suddenly came from the east.
Thanks to the sentinels widely deployed on the battlefield, Zhang Nan quickly received the news when Yuan's troops began to appear in the east and southeast.
In this way, if they continue to surround Zhang He's tribe with the Crane Wing Formation, they will be outflanked by both internal and external forces when the enemy's follow-up troops arrive.
At this time, Zhang Nan's forehead was covered with sweat. He was already fat, but now that the sun was up, he was even more sweaty.
He casually wiped his forehead with a piece of cloth and asked Xunqi:
"What was the reaction of Zhang He in front?"
Na Xunqi replied:
"Previously, a group of enemy sentries rushed into the front camp, but they were driven back by our assault riders. There was no movement after that. And they have never sent out sentries to the east, so we don't know where they are yet. Reinforcements.”
At this time, Zhang Nan had two choices before him. One was to shrink immediately, build a tight defense around Dongyang Pavilion, and then wait for reinforcements from the north bank to arrive.
This choice is relatively safe for Zhang Nan's troops, but it is not conducive to the overall strategy.
Because once the enemy troops calmly surround them, the entire battlefield situation will become passive and beaten. How can the Yuan army on the south bank be mobilized in this way?
Zhang Nan knew the strategic plan set by the king, so he must continue to maintain the offensive posture and put continuous pressure on the enemy.
So the last option before Zhang Nan is to fight!
At this time, Zhang Nan shouted to the guards around him:
"Where's the map?"
A young general quickly took out a map from his pocket and laid it flat on the back of a robe.
Zhang Nan pressed the map and frowned. He pointed at a place with his fingers, and then asked the sentry rider who came over:
"Have the Fengxiang Army and the Xiongwu Army come into contact with the enemy now?"
Sentinel Cavalry Reply:
"Not yet."
Zhang Nan clapped his hands and shouted:
"Okay, immediately order the Xiongwu and Fengxiang armies to change direction, and move the entire army eastward to occupy Lijiabi!"
He said harshly:
"Tell Zhang Da and Wei Zhou to block the land to the east. Even if they die, they will die on Lijiabi!"
"Go! Hurry!"
The sentry rider did not dare to delay, so he chose the fastest horse and galloped towards the south.
This time it's life and death.