Red Tang

In the early morning of the next day, the recruits of the Shence Army had already gathered in the school grounds.After a day of rush work, the temporary "fortress" has been erected.Hexi Army Jiedu Envoy Ge Shuhan sat on the handsome platform, ready to review the results.

The personal soldier cast a questioning look at his own commander, and when he saw the Lord Jiedu nodded silently, the personal soldier cleared his throat and said, "The commander has an order to carry out the drill according to the grouping earlier!"

Zhang Shouyu patted Li Kuo's arm and nodded slightly.The method of this actual combat exercise is siege warfare, which can fully reflect the combat effectiveness and execution ability of an army.According to the results of the transfer, Li Kuo's Suzaku Regiment was the attacking party, while the Qinglong Regiment's First Brigade, which was mostly composed of former court guards, played the role of the city defending party.Perhaps considering that most of the siege forces were inexperienced recruits, Zhang Shouyu, deputy lieutenant of Zhenwei, took over his position temporarily after talking with the captain of the Suzaku Regiment, and took command in person!

"Zhang Touer is mighty!"

"The Suzaku group will win!"

The faces of the recruits were filled with bright smiles, as if with this experienced Hexi Army officer, they would definitely be able to capture the seemingly "vulnerable" fortress in front of them.

"Don't yell, save your strength and go attack the city later!" Zhang Shouyu's angry beard was shaking, and he interrupted everyone's booing sharply.He didn't know why the commander-in-chief set the ratio of offensive and defensive personnel at such a figure.Three to one, heh!Even with more experienced generals, it is difficult to capture a strong city with only three times as many soldiers as the defenders.Zhang Shouyu raised his head and looked at the "Fortress" that had risen overnight in front of him, and smiled wryly.The marshal paid so much attention to the scheduling of the siege battle, it seemed that His Majesty was really going to attack Tubo.However, since you know that siege is the bottleneck of marching and fighting, why do you have to make it difficult for a group of dolls? The commander is too impatient.Although he thought so in his heart, Zhang Shouyu would not question his coach's decision.He is a soldier, and the bounden duty of a soldier is to obey. No matter whether the coach's decision is right or wrong, he has no right to question it.

"Wu Hai, Commander of the First Brigade, listen to the order!" Zhang Shouyu collected himself and began to assign combat tasks.

"The last general is here!" A handsome man with a swallow and a tiger's head jumped out and responded.

"You lead a brigade of brothers to attack from the front. No need to spare any effort, no matter what the cost, keep the defenders in the north of the city."

"Decree!" Wu Hai cupped his hands, took the command flag and turned to leave.

"Second Brigade Commander Tao Cheng listens to the order!" Zhang Shouyu tapped his fingers, squinting his eyes and looking at a small slope at the west end of the "Fortress".

"General please order!" Tao Cheng responded in a deep voice.

"Take the brothers from the Second Brigade to the small slope on the west side to open the lane, and go directly to the west wall. If you don't have enough cattail bags, go to the army to urge you to join the army. You don't have to worry about the frontal battlefield. Set up the lane for me, and go directly from the original Go up and kill." Zhang Shouyu finished speaking in a hurry, staring at the handsome flag fluttering in the wind on the fortress like a goshawk.

Tao Cheng was obviously also a veteran brought out by Zhang Shouyu, and he knew everything, so he happily took his orders and left.

As for the three brigades, Zhang Shouyu snapped his fingers and ran into trouble for a while.Because the commander wanted to fully absorb the Shence Army into the Hexi Army, after the reorganization of the Shence Army, many low-level officers from the original Hexi veterans were selected to serve as school lieutenants and brigade commanders in the Shence Army.But because of Secretary Gao's strong recommendation, Li Kuo, a young man, was the only brigade commander of the third brigade of the Suzaku Regiment.Zhang Shouyu was no stranger to this young man, and he was deeply impressed by his calm and resolute attitude on the polo field.It's just that the new army's fighting is different from polo games. One mistake may lead to the destruction of the entire army.After thinking for a moment, Zhang Shouyu decided to give the boy a chance.

"Li Kuo, Commander of the Third Brigade, listens to the order!"

"The last general is here!" The young man clenched his fists at the school captain and waited aside.

"Lead the people around the city wall, don't stop!" Deputy Zhang's order was concise and powerful.

"Ah?" The young man lost his voice for a moment. He really didn't understand why he had to do such useless work when the siege troops were already insufficient. Could it be that Chief Zhang didn't trust his own ability?

"Keep running until you see Tao Cheng and the others set up a lane from the west, and started the first charge." Zhang Shouyu stared into the boy's eyes, and said unhurriedly.He wants to make sure that this person has the ability to command troops. If he can't understand what he said so bluntly, then even if he risks offending Secretary Gao, he has to go to the commander-in-chief to speak out. In actual combat, he must not be left alone Lead an army.

"The general wants my troops to quietly jump up from the south side of the city wall when Brother Tao Cheng launches an attack from the west?" The young man asked tentatively, he seemed to have caught something in the other party's eyes.

A smile finally appeared on Zhang Shouyu's tense cheeks. This kid is very talented, and he did not disappoint him!

"Well, let's do this. We don't have enough troops, and we don't have the capital to besiege the city. We can only win by chance." (Note 1)

"Decree!" Li Kuo gave a military salute and left after receiving the order.

Zhang Shouyu looked at the young man's back, feeling very relieved.

...

Since it is an actual combat exercise, it is natural not to be too rigid about the identities of the two parties.There are also many ladders for siege, as well as weapons.There is no shortage of feather arrows and "rolling oil" for defending the city.It's just that this feather arrow is a wooden shaft with its head removed and coated with flour; this boiling oil is the red dye that Mr. Joining the Army sent someone to collect in barrels in West Market.Marshal Ge Shuhan personally set the rules, three feathered arrows in the body and three white spots on the body will count as death.All soldiers who are poured with "hot oil" will immediately jump off the ladder no matter where they climb.However, the careful Lord Joining the Army had already laid thick layers of felt blankets on the bottom of the city wall, even if they fell from the "city wall" which was nearly twenty feet high, it would not hurt the bones.As for the weapon, the Vitex twigs picked from Nanshan were used, and flour was coated on it to make the Tang Dynasty's standard weapon-the horizontal knife.Consistent with the rules of Yujian, those who have three scratches on their bodies will be declared "dead in battle" and will not be allowed to fight again.After the war, no matter what the outcome of the battle, the chief generals of both sides must report the number of "deaths" on both sides to the commander-in-chief for analysis.

"woo woo woo woo..."

The horn of Xunyou had already sounded, Li Kuo simply told Zhang Yanji, Zhou Wuzui, Dou Qing, Pu Dazhui and other confidants about the tactics, and then trotted around the city wall with everyone.Because it was a siege battle, a "tragic" result was doomed from the first second the horn sounded.

Wu Hai's brigade was the main point of attack in this siege, so it was equipped with the most "ordnance".Wu Hai obviously has rich combat experience, so he didn't directly let the soldiers rush forward and overwhelm the opponent with numbers, but divided the only 100 people into three groups.The first group is responsible for fire cover, and the second group is responsible for holding a shield to protect the body's vitals for Paoze.The third group is the real siege force, each of them holds a ladder, and under the cover of Pao Ze, they must attack the city gate in the shortest time, and then it is just the beginning of the tragic game.

For some reason, Li Kuo felt that his blood was about to boil at this moment.Before hearing the sound of horn drums, he just felt solemn. It was not until today that he really understood why Gao Shi would write "The horns start camp and the general is already in the front line." Horns can only be understood by veterans who have shed blood.

"woo woo woo woo..."

What does the sounding of the trumpet signify?A rupture between the rulers of the two countries?Countless displaced poor?Or is it a universe drawn in charcoal on the map of the border between the Tang Dynasty and other countries?The young man has no time to think about all this, he can't stop, Deputy Wei Zhang said, we have to wait until Brother Tao Cheng attacks the western wall before launching the final attack...

"woo woo woo woo..."

The sound of horns sounded again, and Wu Hai, commander of the first brigade, gave the order to siege the city.A group of soldiers drew the hard bow of two and a half stones into a full circle, and shot it towards the sky obliquely above.In an instant, a net of arrows was woven in the sky and shot out towards the defenders on the city wall.

Under the cover of this rain of arrows, the soldiers of the second and third groups mobilized.Most of them are sons who have never seen blood before. Fang Qian just thought it was fun to hear his brigade commander explain the essentials of siege, and didn't take it too seriously.In their view, this is just a game arranged by their own coach to stimulate everyone's enthusiasm for training.

When the feather arrow hit the city wall, most of its strength had been relieved, but the defenders didn't dare to slack off a bit, and they used their protective gear to block the arrow.This moment of slack actually allowed Wu Hai's soldiers to advance more than twenty steps, and now they are only thirty steps away from the city gate.As long as you take the ladder, rush to the tower, and draw a few white marks on the defenders, you can take the fortress!With this thought in mind, in order to speed up, the recruits dispersed their formation and shot towards the heart of the fortress like arrows.

"Ah!" A few arrows shot at Ren Chaofan, a soldier of the first brigade. He lowered his head and counted, four white spots appeared!Before the boy could understand anything, he died heroically.Reluctantly turned around, and ran towards the command flag of his brigade commander with a face full of shame.

The defenders shot more and more feather arrows, wave after wave, wave after wave.There were more "casualties" in the second and third groups of the siege.Many recruits who haven't played enough are unwilling to "sacrifice" heroically and continue to rush forward.Halfway through the rush, I found my neck tightened. Looking back, I saw that Mingfa joined the army.The panic-stricken recruits had no choice but to be caught without a fight, and were dragged away from the battlefield by the burly enlisted adults like chickens.

"They are too anxious!" said Li Kuo, who had already run to the east side of the city after seeing such a tragic situation.

................................................

Note 1: Encircle with ten times one: There is a saying in the art of war, if the attacker is ten times the defender, it will be surrounded.

ps: This actual combat exercise was inspired by real CS. I don’t know if there was a similar exercise at that time.