The struggle of the reborn prince

Chapter 150 Three

Although Zhao Tun received Zhongshu's warning, he didn't take it to heart. In order to review the results of the winter training, he scheduled to convene all the generals stationed in Hedong for a big review on March [-]th.According to the road division, Hedong is divided into four roads: Bingdai (Taiyuan), Zelu, Lanshi, and Linfu. There are [-] generals in total, and six generals participated in the review this time.

This review Zhao Tang did not engage in parade exercises, queues, formations and other ostentatious displays as usual, but held a live-fire military exercise code-named "Hand in Hand", with the third general in Hedong's plan to save money. In order to control and command the Six Generals of the East River, the red side and the Zhongyong Army are the blue side. The two sides launched a "big war" under the abandoned city of Jinyang. The collision of different military ideas.

The exercise is divided into six games, which are attacking fortifications, defending the city, surprise attack, anti-sneak attack and logistical support, array confrontation and attack.It took only six months for the prince's pro-army to complete the battle, so the generals in Hedong are still full of confidence in winning the exercise. After all, they have been fighting for a long time, and it is psychologically difficult for a group of recruits who have not smelled blood At least it has an advantage.At first they were discussing whether to save some face for the prince, and not let him lose too much, but after a tough battle, their faces were stepped on by the prince, and they twitched a few times bitterly.

The battleground for attacking the fortified city was chosen to be the south city of the abandoned city of Jinyang. Although it was destroyed there, the main structure was still there. Zhe Kecun sent two generals to defend the city and quickly restored the city defense facilities, but the loyal and brave army who attacked the city only sent one general to defend the city. Bing, according to the previous theory of offense and defense, the ratio of offense and defense should be at least 2:1, but this time it was reversed.After the battle started, the Blue Army's offensive caught them by surprise. Fierce artillery fire, locust-like bullets, rumbling explosions, and incendiary bombs set off a raging fire. . .These never-before-seen methods quickly destroyed their city defense facilities and also broke their confidence.An hour later, when the city gate was blasted open by artillery fire, there was no need to keep defending. According to the assessment of the generals, the firepower preparation had already wiped out half of their defenders, but the prince's side had not yet moved. .

In the next few battles, although the generals of the Red Army racked their brains and tried their best, the result was still pale. They attacked the city by themselves, and all their equipment was destroyed. In the end, he was counterattacked by the blue army defending the city, almost annihilating the entire army; when he attacked the camp at night, he was copied by the opponent, and his general was assassinated and kidnapped by the "spies" of the Red Army who entered the camp, and his military plan was stolen. , the soldiers in this battalion were almost "mutinied" instigated by rumors; everyone later thought that they could only make a fuss about dealing with the Red Army's weakest combat power, and sent out the strongest generals to attack the Red Army's transportation line. A Red Army supply battalion with more than 500 people lived in it, and they fought for more than a day to lose soldiers and generals, but they didn't eat it; in the last battle, the strength of both sides was equal, and everyone thought that the Red Army's guns and artillery could not be used this time. Fighting with knives and guns may still have a chance of winning, but it is still defeated in front of the cavalry charge of the loyal army like a wall. . .

At the end of the ten-day exercise, all the generals in Hedong were amazed by the flexible tactics, strict discipline, and powerful weapons of the Zhongyong Army. No one dared to mention invincibility in front of the Zhongyong Army. 'The status, the prince has also become a veritable commander-in-chief of Hedong, the real leader of the army!

. . . . . .

Just as Zhao Tun changed the situation in Hedong, news came from the Intelligence Department——Liu Fa's army was defeated in Tong'an City.

In the spring and March of the first year of Xuanhe, Liu Fa, one of the generals of the Six Northwest Routes, Xihe Jinglue, once again received an attack order from his father-in-law Taiwei Tongguan: to continue to attack Shuofang City with the power of victory, that is, Lingzhou, Xingzhou, the hinterland of the Xixia capital. state area.As soon as Liu Fa's army arrived in Tong'an, the soldiers and horses were exhausted, and before they had had enough rest, they encountered the Xixia army led by Jin Wang Chage of Xixia. As a last resort, a large-scale encounter kicked off.

Brother Cha knew Liu Fa's brave strategy well, so he divided his army into three formations to wait for the Song army's front army, and another group of elite cavalry iron kites waited for an opportunity to climb the mountain from the rear to the back of the Song army, intending to make Liu Fa's army suffer from the enemy.At this time, Liu Fa made a fatal mistake. He made a misjudgment in choosing the camp site. He did not choose to camp on a high mountain where he could observe and attack the enemy from a condescending position. Settling down the camp, perhaps this was done because it was conducive to the development of the formation tactics that the Song army was good at, but he ignored the combat effectiveness of his own army after the long march at this time, and the choice of this location became the key reason for the final fiasco of this battle.

After the battle began, the disadvantages of the Song army after marching all the way began to be revealed, while the Xixia army was waiting for work, and the advantages became more and more obvious, and they continued to launch new attacks. At this time, Yang Weizhong's front army was finally broken and ripped into the central army. The Song army lost the front army's guard. At this time, the back cavalry sent by Chage to attack the Song army also made breakthrough progress. Liu Fa's rear army, Jiao Anjie, was hard to resist. They retreated steadily and fell into the left army. war.

Unwilling to fail, Liu Fa regrouped the three armies, and launched the final fierce triangular offensive with the vanguard right army, the rear left army and the directly subordinate central army, trying to break through the encirclement. This battle lasted for more than seven hours from early morning to nightfall. , although the Song army never retreated timidly, but after all the journey, the soldiers and horses did not have enough food and rest, and coupled with the fierce battle, "the soldiers were hungry and the horses were thirsty, and there were many dead." In the end, Zhu Dingguo, the left army, was the first to be defeated, and the triangle offensive was triggered. Once it was broken, the Song army could no longer bear such a fierce battle. The whole army collapsed, and the commander Liu Fa was wrapped up in it.

Liu Fa led several cavalry to retreat in the dark, and the direction of his retreat was also very puzzling. He did not run in the direction of Lanzhou and Zhenwu Army, where Song Ying was located, but in the opposite direction, running for seventy miles overnight. He fled to a place called Zhuzhuyu in the hinterland of Xixia. Because of the dark and dangerous roads, he was eager to escape, and in a moment of panic, he fell down a cliff and broke his leg. Negative Zhan Bing found out, killed him, and took his head to ask Brother Cha for credit.

Brother Cha is indeed a talented general. Regardless of the fatigue of the soldiers, he made Liu Fa's head picked, and quickly sent troops to attack the Song army's backup troops and grain transporters.The Song army saw Liu Fa, a famous general who was brave and good at fighting, and the fear of Xixia, together with the most elite imperial army he led, all of them had nothing to return. Tong'an City was gained and lost again.

In the Battle of Tong'an City, the Song Army's [-] elite soldiers were completely lost. Together with Xiang Jun and civilian laborers, they lost a total of more than [-] troops. It also had a great shock to Bian Jiang's psychology, and he was afraid of Xi Xia.However, after Brother Cha obtained Tong'an City, he re-launched the siege of the Zhenwu Army. Zhenwu is the ancient bone dragon city built by Tong Guan. .

Zhao Tong was heartbroken when he got the news. After Tong Guan won the battle of reunifying Ancheng last year, he sent a letter to express his congratulations. It is a gradual strategy to gradually eliminate Xixia's vital forces and finally conquer Xingqing Mansion. In the official documents since then, he has persuaded Tong Guan many times, hoping that Tong Guan can listen to his opinions, and even willing to surrender his status and lead the elites of Hedong to go there in person. Lanzhou followed his command to participate in the battle, but they were all overruled by Tong Guan, the prodigal bird. In the end, they still failed to stop the wheel of history, and the tragedy still happened!

Although Tong Guan is an eunuch, he is still known as the most knowledgeable soldier in Song Dynasty today. He used the military and financial resources of Shaanxi and Hedong to fight against Xixia for several years, and he did achieve great results. In addition, it has gained a strategic advantage.However, he is still unable to get rid of the limitations of this era. The general is "strategizing" in the rear and has never been on the battlefield. Without a clear understanding, we still follow the old path of winning first and then losing.

If he knows that there are still companions in later generations, he may also feel a little relieved. During the Opium War in the late Qing Dynasty, Yang Fang, a famous general in Guangzhou, fought with the British and asked his troops to collect women's urine to break the British army's evil methods.During the Battle of Zhapu, the Qing soldiers wore paper masks, danced like gods, pretended to be monsters, and rushed to the British army, and they knew the result without asking.

Even the somewhat knowledgeable generals like Guan Tianpei and Lin Zexu, who were naive and ignorant when fighting the foreign devils, are also painful.When Guan Tianpei was confronting the British army, he asked his soldiers to run around the round hill behind the fort, in order to give the British army the illusion of increasing troops.He seems to feel that these foreigners are good at guns, but their intelligence is not much higher.We Chinese can fool these "foreign hairy boys" who look like gorillas with a little trickery.

Lin Zexu was not much better than Guan Tianpei in understanding foreigners.Because Lao Lin accidentally saw a foreign devil walking with stiff feet, he didn't seem to know that it was someone walking forward, so he arbitrarily believed that the joints of foreign devils were different from ours, and their knees could not bend.So he imagined that if he used a bamboo pole to poke the crook of the foreign devil's leg during the war, he would be able to knock the foreign devil to the ground easily.

Today's Mr. Tong is even more powerful, he regards his army as a magic soldier, and doesn't even consider the problem of the lone army's in-depth supply and retreat, and only wants to ask Liu Fa to lead the cavalry straight into Xixia's lair.Liu Fa was also in a daze. He was cautious at first, and then underestimated the enemy. As a veteran who has fought against Xixia many times, if he fights steadily according to the actual situation, if he can eat the army of Chage cautiously, then Xixia will have no capital to fight the Northern Song Dynasty. There is a danger of extinction, even if it fails, the whole army will not be wiped out, but if you don't believe in what if on the battlefield, Zhuge Liang is meaningless after the fact...

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