Ping An Biography

"Your Highness is on the wall." Wei Bin shouted to the soldiers, and when they all looked up, he said, "He came to the battle with a general and no fear of arrows, and he wanted to stand where the brothers could see him." !"

The west wall of Gaodu County is three feet and one foot high. People at this height can not only see it, but also see it very clearly.The long spears used by the Suzaku Army were one foot and five feet long, and two long spears could reach the top of the city.

Zhang Ning was wearing a field gray military uniform, a light blue square scarf on his head, a leather belt with a gold buckle, and only a breastplate, sitting on a chair at the head of the city; he had a long sword in his hand, holding the hilt, The top is clubbed on a brick floor.The biggest function of this sword is decoration and props, basically there is no practical use.If Zhang Ning needed to fight with a sword, there would be nothing to fight in this battle.

It was originally a peaceful and clear morning, because the army array was set up, and some sand and stones in the wind were hovering in the air, creating a chilling atmosphere, as if there was an invisible haze under the scorching sun.

The enemy army was not far away, and there were about five football fields separated by one mile in the open field. Looking from the top of the city, there were dense groups of fully armed soldiers entering the battlefield one after another. The movements were very clear, and even the largest The "Zhu" on the flag is also vaguely recognizable.For a while, it was unclear whether all the 6000 officers and soldiers had entered the battlefield, but the opponent's momentum was obviously more spectacular because of the large number of people. If the queue was not so dense that it was like going to a market, it would not be surprising that thousands of people stood together all over the mountains and plains.

At this time, Lao Xu pointed to the northeast, leaned over to Zhang Ning who was sitting on the chair, and said: "There is no large group of cavalry in the enemy's formation, and they may be deployed somewhere, waiting for the opportunity to enter the battlefield. From the point of view of my subordinates, they It is very likely that they will come out of the forest over there and rush forward quickly, intending to catch us off guard."

What Old Xu said made sense. The extremely fast tactical mobility of the cavalry obviously gave Zhu Yong a great advantage.

Zhou Mengxiong reminded lightly again: "Zhu Yong must not know that our artillery can shoot as far as one mile, so he stepped forward to form an formation. If the artillery suddenly bombards the enemy's formation at this time, the enemy's formation will be chaotic before it can stand firmly. If you get off your horse, your morale will be greatly affected."

Zhou Mengxiong is also very insightful.But Zhang Ning has not spoken up to this point, let alone gave an order; so what Zhou Mengxiong said is just a suggestion.

Zhang Ning did not explain the reason to them. Although he is not a taciturn person, he seems a little silent at this time. It is not difficult to talk to people. It is just that talking with his brain will inevitably affect his thinking. At this time, he does not want to show the slightest of malfunctioning.It seems that there are so many people on the battlefield, and the damage of cold weapons is limited, but it is not impossible to decide the victory in an instant; maybe at this moment, you are sitting on the top of the wall and giving orders, and the next moment it will be Prisoner of the ranks.

It is important to hit the enemy's morale, but since Zhu Yong does not know the range of the cannon, it is more important for Zhang Ning to catch him by surprise at the right time.This decision was temporarily learned from the enemy. Zhu Yong placed the cavalry in an unknown place. Isn't that the same consideration?

Many people in his subordinates believed that the biggest advantage of the officers and soldiers in this battle was the number of troops, but Zhang Ning's personal idea was "initiative".In order not to be defeated at the beginning of the battle, the Suzaku Army formed a dense phalanx with infantry. This kind of infantry phalanx cannot afford mobility anyway, and is destined to be on the defensive side; you can repel the enemy's attack, but one Wars are hard to defend and win.

... There are too many people in a place one mile away, and I don't know who Zhu Yong is inside.The battle has not yet begun, but the contest between the two sides has actually begun.

From the crowd in the distance, some cavalry ran out sparsely, gathered in front of the formation, and then walked towards this side slowly.The tentative attack was also a contest in the first round; it seemed that Zhu Yong was a straightforward person, getting straight to the point, and not doing boring things such as finding an emissary to persuade him to surrender.Everyone knows that the two sides have nothing to talk about, either you die or I die.

The sound of the drum was at the right time, as if it was the foreplay of a competition, urging a bloody performance to be staged.

However, there is no audience in this performance, and the people present can't stay out of it. Although there are so many people, it is inevitable that it will be a bit lonely.If you look around from the top of the city, there is silence inside and outside the city. There is no pedestrian in the small streets and alleys, and only sparrows are left in the lonely.It seems that Gaodu City is a dead city without residents, and it seems that there are only fighting in this world, and there are no people.In fact, even if the war is imminent, there are still many people in the city, and not everyone has a place to escape; otherwise, where can the strong men who carry stones, roll logs and burn firewood inside the city walls find them?

Because the army is attacking the city, the city itself belongs to the government, so the people in the city have no desire to defend the city at all. They are forced to do anything to help the defenders. To force them to do things is to carry construction and such.The generals of the Suzaku Army were defending a city that they didn't need to defend, a city that didn't care about their life or death; the lone army probably was like that.

At this time Zhang Ning finally spoke, and he gave the first order to the messenger: "The messenger, the musketeers of each army are not allowed to fire without permission, and those who violate the law will be punished for disobeying the military law before the battle, and beheaded!"

The messenger ran to the edge of the city and loudly repeated the military order to the generals below.Prior to this, the Suzaku Army originally set up a command system that matched the golden drum and the flag, but many simple orders like the one just now could not be expressed with props, and many orders had to be shouted as a result.

Wei Bin, the commander of the left post, immediately shouted: "The cavalry who came came to test and harass. If they don't approach, the generals will order to fight back with bows and crossbows." Some melee infantry were also equipped with bows and crossbows. , mostly seized.

After a while, the first cavalry team of the official army approached, and began to trot over two hundred paces away.But they faced a line of defense consisting of two dense rows of spearmen. The spears as long as one foot and five feet stood there like spines on hedgehogs. Of course, the cavalry would not charge towards the spines; as expected, the dozens of cavalry Gradually spread out, and some of the cavalry in front jogged in a sparse array for forty or fifty steps, then stopped and started shooting | arrows.

There was a whistling wind, and more than a dozen sparse arrows fell into the Suzaku army's formation one after another. Because the crowd was too dense, there was no problem in hitting them, but the density was not enough to cause damage.There was only a "clinking" sound of metal collisions, and most of the arrows hit the broad-brimmed iron helmet or shoulder armor.Suddenly there was a muffled|hum, and one of the people in the purge fell down, like a small stone falling into Dongting Lake, without any extreme waves, and the camp remained motionless.

After a while, some people in the front put down their spears for the time being, took out their crossbows and loaded arrows, and then the crossbows fired back at the horse team. Unfortunately, the three of them were shot by the arrows and fell off their horses screaming in pain.The bows and crossbows in the back were fired one after another, and the two sides shot at each other at a distance of dozens of steps. The infantry had an obvious advantage.In less than half a stick of incense, the cavalry rescued a few wounded and turned around, leaving a few corpses in the open space.

Unexpectedly, after a while, one of the "corpses" on the ground struggled to sit up, probably just fell off the horse and fainted, and was mistaken for being killed in battle.He looked back, with a panicked expression on his face, and struggled to crawl west again, covering the arrow feathers stuck in his chest with one hand and tremblingly shouting: "Help me..."

Most of the Suzaku army lined up were infantry, and the soldiers were pruned, and they seemed very quiet after a little battle, so this cry full of fear and pain seemed extremely strange on the bleak battlefield.

After a while, drums and trumpets sounded in the distance, and there was a commotion of people and horses.I saw the camp started to move, and the tide-like crowd slowly moved forward. Looking around, there were clouds of flags and forests of weapons.Zhu Yong is finally about to attack, and the real battle has just begun.

The soldiers and horses advancing forward are mainly infantry. If you look carefully, you can tell that they are actually a square formation composed of four troops.A rough estimate might have been 2000 in total, maybe less than [-].Attacking head-on with twice as many troops, infantry against infantry, Zhu Yong's opening was lackluster, but well-behaved.

Whether it is the Suzaku army or the officer army, spears are the main weapons of the infantry. The advancing team is like a forest, but it is like a forest in the north that has lost its leaves in autumn.Like withered branches, maybe the deserted battlefield is due to such a situation?

The large group of people slowly advanced to [-] paces away, and the front row of the officers and soldiers fired a few arrows randomly into the air, and then stopped to straighten their formation.Even Zhang Ning on the top of the city can already hear the yelling and cursing of the other generals, and he can often hear various nicknames for women and genitals from the noisy voices.

The messenger on the top of the city shouted loudly: "Prepare for battle!" The drummer grabbed the handle holding the red cloth, swung his arms and began to beat hard, and the city was full of excitement for a while.

In the front row of the officers and soldiers were some light infantry armed with bows and arrows, and the queue was very sparse; while the queue at the back was mostly armed with long guns, and some of them held single-handed rattan cards, and they were lined up very densely, with almost no gap between shoulders and shoulders.Looking down from the city wall, you can see the dome of the iron helmet shaking, and there are feathers flying lightly, and there may also be chicken | or duck feathers.

A group of people began to move forward again, shouting to the sound of drums and horns, and there were still unscrupulous loud curses among them.

Next to the chair on the city wall, Zhou Mengxiong said lightly: "The battle of the 'Northern Army' has not changed for decades. The light soldiers in front will shoot a few rounds at a distance of seventy or eighty steps, and then quickly attack from the left and right sides. Running to the flanks, the light soldiers form a sparse formation to run faster. Immediately behind, the dense infantry formations wearing heavy armor and holding long soldiers will make an assault in an attempt to forcibly break through the opponent's army formation. Crowding people and martial arts are useless Yes, life for life, just see who lasts longer."