The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

It didn't take long for five thousand fast riders to approach Xinzhou ten miles away.

At this time, Tan Ma came to report again, and Yan Dao found something strange. Although the flags were fluttering in front and the sound of drums and gongs was endless, not a single soldier of the Song army was seen.

Didn’t you see the existence of the Song Army? Wanyan Lou's room couldn't help but look surprised when he heard this. Since there was a sound coming out and no one could be seen, he must have used something to cover his eyes.

He thought for a moment, and even though he was extremely good at military affairs, he still couldn't figure out what kind of medicine Song Jun was selling in his gourd.

If you want to stage an ambush and sneak attack, the soldiers will hide, but it is impossible to raise any flags, beat drums and gongs, wouldn't that mean you are exposed?
And if you want to face a confrontation directly, you should also set up a formation and have a plan for whether to charge or defend.

But now there is such a strange scene, and it is really hard to figure out the reason.

The deputy general next to him, Servant Sanheda, said: "General, I think the Song soldiers are playing tricks to delay."

Wanyan Loushi was noncommittal: "Don't make any wild guesses. You'll know if you get closer and take a closer look."

He ordered the army and horses to slow down and move forward. Within a moment, he saw the flag blocking the road ahead.

This thoroughfare is almost completely blocked, with mountains on one side making it impossible for horses to walk on it, and rivers and hills on the other side making it impossible to walk due to unfavorable terrain.

The flags were waving in front, and the end could not be seen at a glance, and it was unknown how many miles it extended. The sound of gongs and drums came from it, and it sounded like many people were beating.

A thin mist seeped through the four gaps in the flag, making it blurry and shadowy, making it difficult to see clearly who was under the flag and who was not there.

"Where is the fog coming from at this time?" Pusan ​​Heda wondered.

"It's probably man-made..." Wanyan Loushi said calmly.

"People... created the fog?" Pusan ​​Heda patted his forehead: "When did the Song army become so cunning and use this kind of blinding method? Could it be that they want to ambush and attack?"

Wanyan Loushi shook his head: "Sneak attacks are not like this. Our troops are all fast horses, and our scouts are extremely smart. How can we make a sneak attack so easy? What's more, even if the sneak attack failed, it would be impossible to stop our army from going south!"

"Then what tricks are the Song troops playing?" Pusan ​​Heda wondered. He was also a Jurchen veteran. He had fought against Liao and Song since Wanyan Agu started his army, but he had never encountered such a situation before.

Wanyan Loushi looked at the flags fluttering in the distance, the white mist was slightly filling, and said calmly: "We must have set up a formation."

"Formation? General, what is the formation?" Pusan ​​Heda scratched his chin. He understood the military formation, but he didn't know what the motionless formation meant.

"Formation..." Wanyan Loushi looked a little complicated. He had read Sun Tzu's Art of War of Song Dynasty, knew that formations existed, and understood the use of power.

"The formation is to train soldiers into a special formation within a fixed range, place them inside, and use the shape, position, traps, and direction changes inside to strangle the enemy soldiers and horses entering it. This can usually have the effect of "Less is better than more."

"It's so complicated, how can we defeat more with less?" Pusan ​​Heda was stunned: "General, my Jurchen son can defeat ten of them at one time, and there are ten thousand of them that are invincible. Can I defeat more with less in this battle?"

Wanyan Loushi sighed: "It's a thing of the past that there are thousands of people who are invincible."

After hearing this, Pusan ​​Heda also remembered the defeat in Tokyo in the previous battle report, and said angrily: "It cannot be said that the fourth prince was negligent and the opponent took advantage of the loophole. The difference in military strength is not huge, how could he be defeated so easily."

Wanyan Loushi didn't say anything. He was thinking about winning with less to win with more. Could it be that the number of Zhe family soldiers who came here was very small and they wanted to win with their formation?

However, he always does not care about the number of enemy soldiers. As long as he takes action, he will go all out and leave no chance to the opponent. Therefore, the number of troops on the opponent's side will not affect his judgment and plan for the war.

And this formation... Although he knew the formation and had some understanding of it, he couldn't arrange it, and he had never seen it in person.

The Sun Tzu's Art of War he read was obtained from the Liao Kingdom. The Jurchen tribe did not have this kind of military book. Sun Tzu's Art of War discussed the formations and their characteristics, but did not record even how to arrange a formation.

So although he knew about this thing, he knew it but didn't know why, because he had never seen it before, not in books, and never encountered it in reality.

Wanyan Lou's room began to ponder. Pusan ​​Heda did not dare to disturb him and waited quietly.

In fact, Wanyan Lou's family once heard from a Han official in the Liao Kingdom that there was also a book called Sun Bin's Art of War, which recorded various battle formations. However, this book was hard to find, and even after searching the Liao Kingdom, he could not find it, so he gradually gave up on it.

After all, formations were mostly used in ancient times. They have gradually disappeared from the battlefield over the past millennium. Nowadays, no one can use them in battles. He thought that it was because of the changes in fighting methods that the formations were eliminated from the battlefield.

However, at this moment, I saw the opponent's flag flying, and everything was strange. Although I had never seen the formation, from the observation of the opponent's bizarre scene, I confirmed that this was the grand formation mentioned in Sun Tzu's Art of War.

This was really a shortcoming of his own. Wanyan Loushi remained calm, but felt a little confused in his heart.

Since this formation is the only way to go south, it must be broken to pass, but... he can't break the formation.

At this moment, we can't go back and take a detour to Jinning Army's Shizhou. Not to mention it will take a lot of time. Since this formation is set up by Zhejia, there might be one there, so we can't take the trouble to gamble on this chance.

Then he still had to find a way to rush over. He thought of this and said: "Follow me."

Pusan ​​Heda and a group of soldiers immediately covered him and moved forward. At this time, the flag was closer, and Bai Wu looked at it more carefully. He looked at it for a moment and said: "The fog is formed by steamed water, just to cover up the scene in the formation. "

Pusan ​​Heda said: "The general is really insightful. My subordinates thought about it for a long time and couldn't figure out where the mist came from."

Wanyan Loushi added: "The sound of gongs and drums is to disturb hearing. It is still far away now, and it can make people's hearts restless. If it really enters the formation, the sound will not only affect the general's command, but also interfere with communication and disturb the mind. But it’s very useful.”

Pusan ​​Heda was surprised and said: "General, if you are so insidious, how will you survive this... formation?"

Wanyan Lou's room was silent. He hadn't made up his mind yet, so he said, "Step back and let me think carefully..."

Zhao Tong sat with the generals in the temporary camp, told the story of the Jin army's kidnapping of horses, and asked everyone to express their opinions and come up with an idea.

This person said that he should try using a hook and sickle gun, and the other said that the hook and sickle gun would not work. The reason why heavy armored cavalry can be defeated is because the heavy armor has great inertia when it rushes forward, making it difficult to rein in the horse and even harder to turn around. But this kidnapping horse does not have these weaknesses, the hook and sickle gun Can't be broken.

Others say that they should dig horse pits and use horse ropes, but they don’t know where these Jurchen cavalry come from. What they found are suspicious soldiers. Is it possible to dig all the way forward? How much more to dig in front and come from behind from both sides?

Zhao Tong listened for a long time, and finally lowered his eyes. There was nothing useful that could be heard.

He drank a cup of tea, then glanced at everyone one by one, and finally turned back and landed on Wu Yong. In this expedition, he brought out both Wu Yong and Zhu Wu. These two people had been useless and had been put on hold for a long time. This expedition was divided into Hedong and Hebei, and the manpower was a bit hurried, so he brought all he could bring.

Zhu Wu was assigned to Zhang Xian because Zhu Wu's skills were mainly positive and he studied formations intensively, which matched well with Zhang Xian.

Wu Yong is regarded as a strange person, but in fact, calling him strange is to praise him. Starting from the birth plan of the robbery, all the plans he came up with were crooked, bad, poisonous, and even family-killing plans.

Many people in Liangshan were earned by his vicious tricks. Those tricks can be said to be extremely vicious and ordinary people can't even think of them.

Seeing Zhao Tong's eyes falling, Wu Yong, who was sitting upright, couldn't help but trembled, and turned to greet him with his eyes lowered respectfully.

Zhao Tong knocked the teacup on the table and said, "What does Jialiang think of this kidnapping horse?"

Wu Yong stood up after hearing the words, then saluted and said: "Your Majesty, I do have some opinions, but my opinions are too vulgar to be considered elegant."

Zhao Tong said with a smile: "There are no strategies to defeat the enemy. There are no tricks that are not worthy of elegance. Just listen to them."

Wu Yong bowed again, and then spoke cautiously: "Your Majesty, I feel that although this kidnapping horse is not a heavy horse, it is similar to a heavy horse. If you want to defeat it, you must follow the tactics used to deal with heavy horses."

Zhao Tong said: "What's the heavy riding technique?"

Wu Yong said: "Your Majesty, there are many ways to deal with light cavalry, but there are really none. There is also a hard charge and a hard kill. But to deal with heavy cavalry, we can only use horses. Although this kid horse is not a heavy cavalry, its body is also covered with steel armor and is heavily protected, but the horse is. There is nothing more than covering your face and protecting your belly, and you should also start with your horse.”

Zhao Tong looked at him and said: "This kind of cavalry is very mobile and can't defeat the enemy with hooks, sickles and spears. It's hard to pinpoint the enemy's route and position when trapped in horse pits and trenches. Is there any other way to deal with this?"

Wu Yong said slowly: "Your Majesty, I think there is only one way, and that is... use poison, use poison arrows!"

Use poison arrows? As soon as he said this, there was silence all around, and everyone looked at him.

Zhao Tong reached out and touched his bare chin, with no expression on his face.

Song Jiang reminded from the side: "Jialiang, this is a bit nonsense. Where can there be so much poison for smearing arrows?"

Since ancient times, the use of poison has not been prohibited in wars. No one can stipulate this. It is a matter of life and death. If you soften your heart, you will lose your life, your robe will fall, and your compatriots will suffer.

Especially when the two countries go to war, they will use all possible means, not to mention using poison, but also more ruthless and insidious methods. After all, there is no room for mercy in protecting the homeland and the country.

But on the battlefield, except for some generals who rubbed poison on their weapons or arrows, the soldiers below rarely did this.

Soldiers use another cruder method. Arrows are soaked in gold juice, and weapons are rubbed with gold juice. What is gold juice? It's shit soup, even boiled shit soup.

This golden juice is filthy and dirty. Once it infects a wound, bacteria will enter from the injured area, causing infection and inflammation. The medical technology at this time was not developed, and it was difficult to treat the infection. Although the death rate is not as fast as poison, but It will still achieve the same result as poison. War has always been so cruel and unscrupulous.

As for why the soldiers did not use poison to soak their weapons, but instead used gold juice, which was slower to take effect, it was because the cost and difficulty of refining and producing poison these days was too high and too difficult.

You must know that the most common poison at this time is arsenic, but arsenic is only effective if you drink it. Drinking less is not enough, and smearing it with a weapon will not have the desired effect, and it is not even as good as gold juice.

Other poisons are rare, and the one that seals the throat upon seeing blood is even more difficult to refine. It is impossible to produce them in large quantities because there are not that many raw materials and the technology.

It is not even an exaggeration to say that poison that can be used by 10,000 people is worth more than the 10,000 people themselves. Naturally, it is impossible to make it with effort, and it may not even be possible to make it.

Therefore, even if ordinary soldiers want to use poison, they can only use gold juice. Gold juice is easy to obtain, cheap and convenient. Even if the gold juice on the weapons evaporates, they can use local materials to directly create new ones, or even mix them. Soil, allowing weapons and arrowheads to be stained with as much dirt as possible.

Only some generals have the capital and qualifications to use poison. Generals are not able to use gold juice. It is too shameless and will make people laugh if you tell it.

At this moment, Wu Yong said to use poison, everyone was surprised, Song Jiang also warned him, because where did he get so much poison to smear the arrows with?

Zhao Tong looked at Wu Yong. He had also thought about using poison, but although he had some poison left by Ouyang Tuo, it was of little use and would not be of much use in the war situation.

"Where did the poison come from?" he said calmly.

Wu Yong bowed and said: "Your Majesty, there are several types of poisons. The kind that seals the throat when it sees blood and is suitable for wiping weapons is rare. Even if you want to get it, you can't get enough for the soldiers."

Zhao Tong snorted: "You know you can't get it, so why are you using poisonous arrows to shoot at the opponent's horses?"

Wu Yong said hurriedly: "But there is anesthetic available..."

"Napersin? What is that?" Zhao Tong asked doubtfully. He had read the Poison Scripture left by Emperor Taizu, but there was no explanation about narcotics in it.

"Your Majesty, there was a famous doctor named Hua Tuo in the late Han Dynasty. He once prepared Wufei Powder prescription, which could be used to perform craniotomy, abdominal dissection, cramps and bone scraping, all with the help of this anesthetic." Wu Yong said respectfully.

"Wu Fei Powder prescription..." Zhao Tong's eyes sparkled. He naturally knew this prescription, but it has been lost since Hua Tuo's death and has never appeared in the world again: "Do you have this prescription?"

"This... Weichen doesn't have it."

"You didn't say anything!" Zhao Tong put the tea cup down hard, causing the table to clang.

Wu Yong trembled with fright, thinking that this is really like accompanying a king like a tiger, and hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty, Wei Chen is just explaining the function of this anesthetic, and Wu Fei Powder is used for people, but Wei Chen is here to use it." A prescription for narcotics for horses.

"For horses? Can it paralyze horses?"

"Your Majesty, that's it. This prescription is not owned by a humble minister, but was researched by Huangfu Duan. He is good at treating horses, but there are some horse diseases that are ineffective with medicine and stone. Unless they are cut open with a knife, he developed this method for horses. The body's anesthetic is very effective on horses, but not very effective on humans."

"Huangfu Duan and Hong Qi are raising horses at the Hexi Racecourse. Are you sure you have a good recipe?"

Wu Yong said: "Your Majesty, I don't dare to tell you this. In fact, this recipe was only developed last year, because some herbs only grow beside the Yellow River. I personally saw that Huangfu Duan tried it successfully. He only needed to mix a small amount of concoction. It is used for The horse's body will be paralyzed in one area, so Wei Chen thought, if it is placed on top of the arrow, then even if the horse cannot be shot, it will only miss the edge, but if it is paralyzed for a moment, isn't it also an opportunity to defeat the enemy? "

Zhao Yu nodded and smiled. "Okay, okay. On the battlefield, every little bit counts and every little bit can change the course of the war. If this anesthetic is useful, then what does the Jurchen horse mean? Show me the recipe. If it really works, then you and Huangfu Duan will have done a great deed!"

(End of this chapter)