Confucianism in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 28 Soldiers' Skills

Xiayang, one of the three counties in Hexi, is located in the south of Xiashan Mountain and north of Yanghe River, so it is called Xiayang.

The army of Wei came to Xiayang from the Meng family along the Jinshui River. This place is only more than [-] miles away from Anyi. As the only way for the Qin army to retreat to Puban, Lord Xinling chose this place as the main battlefield.

There is a saying in the use of soldiers, I dare not be the master but be the guest, I dare not advance an inch and retreat a foot, it is said: There is no action in the line, no arms in the crowd, throwing invincible and holding no soldiers.

First be invincible, waiting for the enemy to be victorious.

Lord Xinling climbed up and looked far away, looking at the plain in front of him, with a trace of solemnity in his eyes.

Fu Nian was at Lord Xinling's side, and said, "Your Majesty, are you worried about the Qin army's attack?"

"The Qin army's bravery is far superior to ours. This battle will be a bitter one. If the enemy cannot be stopped in this battle, the offensive and defensive power will be different.

At that time, the Qin army can attack the enemy with coercion when advancing, and withdraw from Puban when retreating. In this way, it will be difficult for our army to break through the Qin army, and it will be difficult for our army to achieve its goal this time. "Mr. Xinling said.

"I'm afraid that once our army is defeated, the coalition army's hearts will be broken."

This battle is the key to his plan, no mistakes are allowed, he must ensure everything is perfect, otherwise the success will fall short.

He believed that Meng Ao would never let go of such a critical opportunity.

He has always regarded Fu Nian as an existence of the same level as him, and he asked, "Nian, do you know why I chose to fight the Qin army here?"

Fu Nian looked at the mountains and rivers under his feet, and replied: "The land with four fortresses is good for defense; the suburbs extending in all directions are good for war; defense is worse than war, and war is worse than skillful change.

Xiayang is the throat of the three places, enough to order Anyi, Jie, and Puban to control the Qin army. "

"Lord Xinling is trying to force the Qin army out."

"Exactly." Lord Xinling nodded, he was very satisfied with Fu Nian's answer.

"Tell me, how should this battle be fought?" Lord Xinling said.

"The king's strategy is not comparable to ordinary people, so Nian will use the king's strategy to talk about it." Fu Nian said.

"What you want is the method of warfare in which the center blossoms. Use our army to lure the enemy to attack and hold the Qin army until our follow-up reinforcements arrive. If we can hold on until then, the Qin army will be defeated."

The concept of this method of warfare is to stick to a certain strategic area, induce the enemy's troops to move towards one's own side, and cooperate with the friendly and neighboring troops to carry out anti-encirclement against the enemy. When the time is ripe, cooperate with the friendly and neighboring troops to attack the enemy and wipe out the enemy's troops.

"As you said, the key to this battle is whether our army can withstand the fierce offensive of the Qin army until the reinforcements arrive." Lord Xinling said.

"However, there is no danger to defend the plain, how do you say to resist the Qin army's offensive?" Lord Xinling asked again.

"Soldier skills, learn hands and feet, use equipment, accumulate organs, and use the victor in offense and defense, and seek the opportunity to use the weak to defeat the strong." Fu Nian said.

Lord Xinling looked at Fu Nian appreciatively. Although Fu Nian was young, he was a man of real talent and learning. He said, "I know your temperament. Since you made such a statement, you must have a countermeasure."

Fu Nian knew that he was serious, and immediately told what was in his heart.

.........

In the northern suburbs of Xiayang, soldiers of the Wei army were tamping the earth. Piles of gravel, gravel, laterite, and lime were dug into the pit and stirred, then piled aside, poured a layer of mud and tamped it with a block.

The so-called block building is to use two wooden planks to sandwich a space when building a wall. The width between the two planks is equal to the thickness of the wall. Layer by layer.

This kind of rammed earth used to build walls is also called tricolor soil, and most buildings in the Qin and Han Dynasties were made of rammed earth.

In the middle of the walls on both sides, there is a width of 120 feet, and the Wei army's main formation is arranged here.

There are two reasons for the width of 120 feet: First, the defense line is very long compared to the number of troops under its jurisdiction, so it is not enough to build tents and move temporary troops without hindrance in view of the current situation of deploying troops along the entire line. The width is necessary.

The second is that when the Qin army launched an attack on the defense lines inside and outside the Wei army, it was beneficial for the Wei army to attack quickly.

Under the mound in the west, Zhang Tan looked like a supervisor. He observed and pointed at the same time. He shook his head and sighed while pointing, looking very professional.

A Wei soldier raised his head from the trench and said, "Hero Zhang, we have already dug deep enough, don't we need to continue digging?"

Zhang Tan glanced at Wei Bing, and said, "You don't understand, we haven't completely dug it yet, and we still need to reinforce it. If this area is dug up, we can add some minor repairs."

"We need to dig another foot." Fu Nian said to Zhang Tan.

Hearing Fu Nian's words, Zhang Tan immediately returned the words to those Wei soldiers.

Fu Nian inspected the construction site, this was the first time he was responsible for the construction of fortifications.It was also the first time he was really in charge of the tactical setup, and Mr. Xinling adopted his suggestion.

Right now, the trenches in this land are intricately intertwined, criss-crossing, and even if the cavalry of the Qin Army came, it would be impossible to break through these trenches easily.

The key to the success or failure of this battle lies in how to set up the encirclement.According to ordinary people's practice of "surrounding the spot to fight for aid", the encirclement circle will never trap oneself, but Fu Nian's encirclement circle does the opposite, it just wants to trap oneself.

According to Fu Nian's idea, Wei Jun set up a siege network in Xiayang across the river, divided into two large circles, inner and outer.The inner defensive line was 31 miles long, and the outer circle was about [-] miles long. The middle of the two circles was the Wei army's preset battlefield, which was also a safe zone, and the narrowest point was [-] feet.

This width is necessary for soldiers to attack and move without hindrance. Moreover, even if they are attacked by the Qin army, if the Qin army cannot break through the previous line of defense, the Wei army on the inner line of defense can still operate safely because they are out of range.

After Fu Nian inspected Xiqiu, he went to the eastern suburbs. Han Huan was in charge of this area.

Part of the Wei army is collecting wooden trunks or hard thick branches, sharpening the front end, and then digging a four-foot-deep hole along the outside of the trench, and burying the sharpened front end upward.

In order to prevent these pointed trunks from being pulled out easily, these wooden trunks and thick branches are connected to each other before burying them. The pointed trunks are arranged in five rows to surround the whole line.If the enemy stepped there, he would be stabbed by sharp stakes.

In addition, Wei Jun also dug many four-foot-deep caves in the periphery, which are similar to wolf-hunting caves, and the shape becomes narrower towards the bottom.This cave is buried with sharpened and burnt wooden stakes, and the depth of the cave is reinforced with soil to one-third of the cave, and these sunken caves are covered with twigs or firewood.

For the purpose of defense, in addition to these two layers, another layer was added on the outside, and a wooden stake with a length of [-] cm and a hook at the front end was buried, and the ground was also covered with barbs.

The entire project is divided into two sides, inside and outside, and the same eleven-layer defense project as the inside is also implemented on the outside in the same order.

As the only safe channel connecting the two major battlefields of the Wei army, Fu Nian chose the west bank of the Yang River, which is near mountains and rivers, as the second battlefield.

Lord Xinling ordered Long Jia and Ji Huan to lead their troops to rely on the river to deploy an opening to restrict the flank breakthrough of the superior forces of the opponent.

Once the enemy enters this opening and intends to flank themselves along the river bank, the reserve team ambushing in the flanking mountains will close the river bank opening.

As long as the opening on the river bank is closed, not only can the enemy's offensive deployment on the right wing be disrupted, but the overall deployment of the opponent's two wings will also be shaken.

This place will become a meat grinder. It seems to be a breakthrough, but it is actually a death zone that lures the Qin army to attack continuously.

.........

"Report! General! We found traces of the Qin army in the north of Xiayang!" A detective rushed to the commander's tent and reported.

"How many miles is it from here?" Lord Xinling asked.

"About a hundred miles," Tan Ma replied.

In this way, it would be at most three days away from the Qin army's army pressing down on the border, and it would be possible to arrive in one day if they marched in a hurry, but Meng Ao would never fight with exhausted soldiers.

In the past few days, he ordered Ji Yanran, Yang Gongxie and other knights to keep a close watch on Qin Jun's movements.

The people from the Black Ice Terrace and the knights from the Six Nations have already gone through countless bloody battles in reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance.

Mr. Xinling walked out of his tent, came outside the camp, and looked at the defense line down the mountain. Although the defense line in the whole concept was not completely completed, it was basically completed.

A hundred miles away, the Qin army came surging like a black tide, a suffocating huge army.

General Meng Ao sits in the central army, wearing a red battle armor, majestic and imposing, with a pair of tiger eyes flashing with cold killing intent.

He looked to the south, which was the direction of Xia Yang.

Xiayang is a pivotal place, and the enemy army can go north at any time and cut off his food road, so he has to come, he has never been a person who sits and waits to die.

Besides, Xiayang is a large plain, which is suitable for his large army to attack.

Lord Xinling dared to choose this place as a battlefield, which shows his courage.

But he is not afraid of Meng Ao, as long as he can take the lead in defeating the Wei army's main formation, he can take the initiative and reverse the situation.

　In fact, I am a military strategist
　　
　
(End of this chapter)