The Maojin knife from the late Jin Dynasty

Chapter 363 Chapter : Cautious Temptation

Wang Sang did not dare to be careless after listening to Liu Min's words, so he sent Xu Miao as a vanguard to explore the road. He also warned Xu Miao that the road to Xinye was suitable for ambushes, so he should be more careful.

Xu Miao obeyed the order and led his soldiers forward. Soon he encountered Mao Bao. The two sides fought. Mao Bao was somewhat stronger than Xu Mao in terms of command ability and personal force.

However, the overall quality of the soldiers under Mao Bao's command was somewhat worse than that of the troops under Xu Miao's command. Of course, the most significant gap between the two sides was in armor and weapons.

The weapons technology between the two sides has now widened the generation gap. After all, Liu Tai's army's weapons have developed into steel-making after years of exploration, but the weapons and armor of Mao Bao's soldiers are still basically in the category of iron.

So although at the beginning, Mao Bao led his own soldiers to charge into the battle, instantly opening up the situation.

But as Xu Miao calmed down and dealt with it patiently, Mao Bao found that his army was gradually losing ground, and decisively faked a defeat that turned into a real one, and evacuated.

Although Xu Miao was eager to pursue Mao Bao, he sent someone to report the matter to Wang Sang first.

But he still commanded the army to pursue, but during the pursuit, Xu Miao ordered,
"When pursuing, you must ensure the integrity of the army team and maintain the most basic military formation. Do not pursue too deep. If you encounter the woods, you must stop. Do not pursue them in!"

After hearing the order, the soldiers also maintained the smallest formation as much as possible with the assistance of their respective commanders and military commanders.

This caused Xu Miao's army to be pulled apart due to the pursuit, but it did not completely disperse the army.

"Although the overall military formation of this army is scattered, it still maintains the military formation in every detail. Whether the soldiers usually train well or the general who leads the army is cautious and difficult to deal with, we want to lead them into the forest and set them on fire to cover them up. It’s not possible anymore!”

Tao Kan stood on the hillside observing the situation on the battlefield and said, "When General Mao enters the woods, just let the soldiers fight out!"

Upon hearing this order, Tao Zhan nodded and started to prepare.

Just as Tao Kan expected, Mao Bao retreated into the woods, but the army led by Xu Miao did not enter rashly.

Because even if there is no reminder from "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Liu Tai has repeatedly emphasized that Lin Mo enters during the war, especially when the other party's military structure is still there, fleeing into the woods, let alone being careless.

First send soldiers into the forest to investigate clearly. It doesn't matter if the enemy escapes. I am really heartbroken for the losses you have caused.

Because Liu Tai understands the value of every soldier, he has always emphasized not to take unnecessary risks for them.

Of course, the more important thing is that Liu Tai emphasized that the strength of his army lies in the organization and the military formation on the ground. If it enters the forest, the military formation cannot be deployed, which will put his own people at a disadvantage.

Therefore, Xu Miao was not careless and stopped the army while sending his soldiers into the woods to check whether it was safe.

After all, even if the enemy troops escape from the woods and still have Xinye, and if they escape from Xinye, they still have Xiangyang, if Tao Kan has the ability, he won't even have to defend Xiangyang.

The other side began to rectify the formation confusion caused by this chase.

Even if the small army commander and Jun Shi maintained the most basic formation of the military formation, if the large formation collapsed, even if the small army formation was not in chaos, it would be easy for others to take advantage of it.

But just when Xu Miao was reorganizing the military formation, Tao Kan's order was issued. The soldiers blew the horns and beat the war drums. The Jin army soldiers rushed out from both sides, intending to take advantage of Xu Miao's military formation before it recovered. Plan to annihilate it.

Xu Miao couldn't help but look ugly. He was both happy and excited. Fortunately, he didn't rush into the woods rashly.

But after Tao Kan gave an order, Tao Zhan and Gong Deng's armies came out from the left and right sides. They wanted to completely defeat Xu Miao before Xu Miao could complete the reorganization of his army. It would be great if they could eat Xu Miao in front of them. but.

Therefore, not long after, I saw two elites rushing directly towards Xu Miao's army.

It has to be said that Tao Kan's two soldiers are elites. Even the weapons in their hands, even if they don't have the latest forging technology in Liu Tai's hands, are inferior to the standard weapons of Liu Tai's army.

Not to mention, their commanders wore fish scale armor and ordinary soldiers wore leather armor, which made their defense level much higher.

In an instant, Xu Miao's army suffered a heavy loss.

But Xu Miao was unhurried. Even if the soldiers on the periphery were fighting with Tao Kan's army, Xu Miao continued to command his soldiers.

"Cone formation, cone formation!"

Xu Miao was the forward in Wang Sang's army, and he was best at cone formations.

And after these years of fighting, the cone formation has long been engraved in the will of his soldiers.

If another army were to face such an attack by Tao Kan's army during the change of formation, they would definitely suffer a big loss, or even be unlucky, and they might be defeated directly.

But for Liu Tai's army, the most indispensable thing is the will of the army. In other words, as long as military history continues, the will of the army will not waver.

Even if the entire army formation is defeated, as long as military history is still around and inspiring the soldiers, they can still fight even if they turn into small formations.

This made the combat resilience of Liu Tai's army quite terrifying, especially when they needed to change formations. Normally, such an army should have been defeated, but Xu Miao endured the battle damage and completed the army's mission. Changes in formation.

Moreover, it has turned into a cone-shaped military formation that is most suitable for killing. Xu Miao has no intention of compromising!
kill!

Xu Miao roared, and the Han army began to counterattack, and the soldiers under the conical formation rushed forward one after another.

Perhaps for them, there is no so-called retreat, but only the fighting consciousness of moving forward, moving forward, and moving forward again.

"What an elite army!" Even Tao Kan was a little surprised. Faced with the situation of being ambushed, this army first forcibly completed the change of formation at the cost of losing about one layer of soldiers, and this army The formation is still a cone formation that advocates attack.

Tao Kan knew that if he continued to fight, his army would not be able to take advantage, and even when the reinforcements caught up, he would suffer heavy losses. Therefore, Tao Kan did not hesitate, but decisively began to withdraw his troops.

After hearing the news that Tao Kan ordered Jin to withdraw his troops, Tao Zhan and Gong Deng evacuated decisively. These two armies were elites created by Tao Kan. To a certain extent, they could even be regarded as Tao Kan's private soldiers, so they had no control over Tao Kan. Although Kan's orders are not understood, he can still execute them and prohibit them.

When they attacked, they were aggressive like fire, but when they retreated, they were as fast as the wind. These soldiers quickly retreated into the woods.

This made Xu Miao extremely angry. What do you think I am? I can come when I want and leave when I want. I plan to lead the army into the woods to pursue him. However, the military historian next to him immediately came forward and said to Xu Miao, "Your Majesty once said that if you don't come in, you would rather lose the opportunity to pursue the enemy than put your soldiers in unnecessary risks.

Whether the general wants to go into the forest to pursue, a certain meeting will record the matter truthfully. Success will be the result of the general, and failure will be the fault of the general! "

Xu Miao couldn't help but frown when he heard the words of the military history beside him. To be honest, he really wanted to pursue, but now he calmed down a little.

Again, military history only has the right to record and make suggestions during wars. As for the final decision, it is the generals around them who make the final decision, such as Wang Sang, Xu Mao, and even any commander.

At this moment, Xu Miao took a deep breath and said, "First send scouts to investigate the safety of this forest. If there is any danger, we will set fire to the forest first!"

To be honest, Liu Tai's requirements for his army are not high, that is, to avoid unnecessary losses as much as possible, and then find ways to fight a head-on war with the opponent.

Because Liu Tai believed that an army relying on semi-industrialization and nationalism would be invincible in a frontal war, at least in this era.

Therefore, the order for the soldiers is to prevent them from taking risks as much as possible, but to encourage them to fight a frontal war.

Of course, Liu Tai would not object to making risky decisions for his generals, but he needed to make them understand their responsibilities.

Military History came back to remind him that it was Xu Miao's own decision whether to implement it or not. From a standpoint, Military History, which represented the imperial court, had the power to command, but in actual tactical command, the general's decision trumped everything else.

Xu Miao calmed down, looked at the woods in front of him, and issued a military order for investigation.

But after a while, the flames of the forest started to burst into flames, and the entire forest was burning.

There was a bit of cold sweat on Xu Miao's forehead. He understood that when the Jin army withdrew, they were already ready to burn the forest. Even the first defeated army was probably setting fire to the forest just to lure him into it. Forest.

Immediately after completing the pincer attack, he and his troops were probably trapped inside.

Xu Miao was not careless, but began to arrange people to draw out fire zones, waiting for the woods to be burned out, and at the same time reported the situation to Wang Sang behind him.

To be honest, at least the Jin army elites I have met so far are not weak.

Whether it's command, advance or retreat, or judgment of the battlefield situation, I'm afraid it's all up to you, but the opponent's army also has the biggest shortcoming, that is, the army's equipment is more than one point behind!
There is no way. As the top general of this era, Tao Kan can do a very good job in running the army, commanding, and even judging the situation on the battlefield. But there is really nothing he can do about the basic materials of armaments!

You know, in order to solve the problem of materials science, Liu Tai filled in materials science with Ge Hong, a Taoist genius who appeared at least once in a thousand years.

Now Ge Hongdu is still thinking about the various properties of carbon and iron, and setting standards for the discovery of other elements.

The derivatives produced by the experiment include various ferroalloys with different purity and toughness. Even steel Ge Hong has produced several kinds.

But the problem is that there is still a long way to go between the steel produced by Ge Hong's laboratory and the steel Liu Tai wants to mass-produce!
However, Liu Tai has a direction for improvement, so every change of equipment can make the equipment more tough and sharp.

As for Tao Kan, even if he wants to try his best to make up for it in this regard, let alone quality, as long as the output can keep up with Liu Tai's steel production, it will be very good.

But the problem is that he can only let his elite troops wear leather armor instead of chain armor. At most, the basic generals under his command can have the opportunity to wear chain mail.

Can you blame Tao Kan? No wonder!

But since the Wang Dun Rebellion began, the Jin court has inevitably fallen into internal strife. Even if Sima Shao settled Wang Dun, the national power consumed by the internal strife in the past few years will not come back.

This allowed Liu Tai to take advantage of the first Wangdun Rebellion to attack north of the Yellow River. There had not been such a serious generation gap in the equipment between the two sides, but now, the gap in weapons and equipment between the two sides has obviously widened!
Tao Kan looked at the weapons Tao Zhan had snatched from the battlefield and couldn't help but remain silent.

He knew very well that if the opponent's weapons were stronger on the battlefield, more lives would be needed to close the gap!
"Father, the soldiers are ready!" Tao Zhan looked at Tao Kan still looking at the weapon and couldn't help but come over to remind him.

"Now that we are ready, let us evacuate Xinye as soon as possible. Everything that can be burned in Xinye will be burned!" Tao Kan said calmly.

Tao Zhan looked at Tao Kan's decision without hesitation, and couldn't help but said to Tao Kan, "Father, can't you keep Xinye?"

"The fall of Wancheng shows that the opponent's siege weapons exceeded our expectations. This time we attacked the opponent, but we couldn't gain any advantage, especially in terms of weapons. The gap with the opponent requires lives to fill.

Xinye City has few soldiers and cannot resist the opponent for long. The only thing we can rely on now is the Yangtze River and the fleet on the Yangtze River! "

Tao Kan shook his head and said, "Compared to the Han army we saw before, they are stronger, and they are powerful in all aspects!

The only good thing is that they don't have naval forces in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, otherwise this war would not have to be fought at all! "

Tao Kan looked at the blazing fire at this moment. The forest in Xinye had bought him enough time.

I was even more fortunate that before the battle with the Han army, after such a tentative war, I at least knew the gap between the soldiers under my command and the army under Liu Tai's command.

It was this gap that made Tao Kan feel that this war was really difficult to win, and he gave up the idea of ​​winning in the field.

But no matter how hard it is to fight, he still has to grit his teeth and persevere. After all, he has been deeply favored by the Jin court, and he still has a little advantage in geographical location and navy.

Not to mention defeating the opponent, but holding on to the opponent, Tao Kan is still confident.

Therefore, despite a fight with the Han army, Tao Kan decisively chose to lead the army to quickly evacuate Xinye, boarded a ship and fled to Xiangyang.

After Wang Sang's army waited until the flames were extinguished and arrived at Xinye, what was left behind was the small town of Xinye that was also set on fire, and the abandoned civilians of Xinye.

However, all their food rations were taken away by Tao Kan. Even the food in the farmland was ordered by the troops to trample it several times to ensure that no food was left.

Tao Kan knew very well that if he wanted to deal with Liu Taisan's righteous masters in Yanhan, he would have to weaken their strength as shamelessly as possible, even if it was just a little more.

But no matter what, Wang Sang fulfilled Liu Tai's order and occupied the north of the Yangtze River to prepare for the attack on Xiangyang. The Xiashui and Feishui from Xinye poured into the Han River. The Han River is the largest tributary of the Yangtze River and can be considered as officially entering the Yangtze River Basin. .

(End of this chapter)