Ping An Biography

Later that night, Zhang Fu rode his horse back to the battlefield again.The rebels have retreated into the city, leaving behind a dilapidated old camp.The unfinished camp was completely destroyed, and the watch tower was burned to charcoal, and it is still smoking.Many things were looted, tents and other things were burned to black.In the setting sun, only people's groans of pain can be heard, and the soldiers carrying the wounded are walking heavily, just like a disaster-stricken place.

"Damn it, run away when we are not prepared to fight!" A military general cursed angrily, "If there is no Jiujiang City, let's see where the son of a bitch goes, I will have to fight him!"

Some of the aides said nonsense afterwards, "This battle was unexpected. We didn't expect that the rebels would dare to go out of the city to attack us. Otherwise, the result would be much better."

Marquis Xue Lu of Wuyang, who had suffered a lot, said in his heart: Even if it is fought like this, it is not bad, at least most of the troops retreat calmly, and after the defeat, they can calmly stop the enemy from pursuing, so they can only be regarded as defeated and not wiped out.

Another aide might feel that blaming the failure on being "unprepared" was putting the blame on Shangguan, so he said calmly: "The rebel army is really a group of bandits with sharp weapons. It’s better to gather|kill.”

Zhang Fu turned his head and called Chen Lin, today's chief general, Chen Lin lowered his head in shame and said, "The last general is here."

"What do you think, is there any strategy against the enemy?" Zhang Fu didn't seem to want to ask for guilt, and his tone was very relaxed.

Chen Lin said: "If we open a field battle, the final general really has no good strategy for a while. But just now Commander Wang complained about 'consuming with them', which is somewhat reasonable... When the rebels retreated, they took away the wounded and corpses, and we can't count them However, according to what the general saw with his own eyes on the battlefield, the number of casualties of the rebels is not much less than ours. If the main force of our army has arrived, we can form a front and rear formation and take turns to face each other. , and can’t bear the casualties. It can be broken.”

Zhang Fu nodded and said: "Through a pitfall, you will learn your wisdom. You are right. The old man also has some words. Listen to them. I declare that a large soldier is not a good soldier in a cavalry battle; the foot battle is a little weaker, but this battle kills the most bandits. It was an infantry battle, and the main reason for our defeat was heavy shelling. Therefore, the enemy's strength lies in the artillery. Breaking the artillery array will increase our army's chances of victory by a few points.

The method of breaking the cannon array can be cavalry.But today, General Chen's tactics of using cavalry to charge into the formation were inappropriate.The cavalry soldiers must swim outside the battle formation, waiting for the opportunity to move, and only when they find the right place to cut the knife will they strike, just like a butcher cutting a cow. "

Zhang Fu picked up a stone on the ground and threw it casually, "The shell will always fly up first, and then land, the height is different. The enemy's heavy artillery is guarding the formation, and the muzzle must be upward, otherwise it will not hit the front Our own people? The smaller the formation, the closer the gun muzzle is to our own people, and the greater the angle of elevation, the farther the shells will hit the ground before hitting our army. If we attack from all sides, their strength is limited, and the formation will be smaller Therefore, the artillery can't hit the front; if the enemy expands his formation, there must be a gap to take advantage of, and the cavalry seized the opportunity to attack at that time.

And I attack from all sides, and I can also divide the enemy's firepower, and infantry combat is also an advantage.Therefore, the meaning of the old man, the method of destroying the bandit army lies in the 'encirclement'... Do you understand? "

The generals were so dazed, and Zhang Fu's words were too convoluted. Could it be that our British prince has learned badly from literati?Zhang Fu frowned and pointed at one and asked, "Do you understand?"

The general said in astonishment: "The British public taught that the way to defeat the bandit army is to siege."

"That's all." Zhang Fu said, "It's just a little bit of truth, the old man will teach you to understand when I have time."

He raised his horsewhip and pointed at the corridor between Baishui Lake and the Yangtze River, "Don't build the barracks, build fortifications there; and on the south side, on the south bank of Baishui Lake, build a fort. Hold it, and wait for the army to cross Poyang Lake first." Stand firm."

The generals said: "The last general will wait for the order."

……

A group of people were also discussing in Jiujiang Governor's Xingyuan. Feng Youxian said: "The cavalry of the Xuanda soldiers of the puppet dynasty are too fierce. If they were not stopped by the cavalry in the end, our cavalry would have to drive all the officers and soldiers of the battalion to Poyang Lake."

Yu Qian said: "The frontier army of Xuanfu Datong has been dealing with Tartar soldiers for a long time, and they are skilled in horse warfare, while General Feng's cavalry regiment is mostly from the south. It is only reasonable that they can hardly win with hard training."

Zhang Ning also opened his mouth and said: "The archers of this army should not be underestimated. In the past, we could completely suppress bows and arrows with firearms, but the elites of the Northern Army used strong bows and crossbows, which were not comparable to the bows and crossbows used by the guards in the interior. I We inspected the casualties before and found that many people were wounded by arrows, so we can see that. We must be more careful when we go out of the city, and we must not be bitten and unable to escape."

In a few days, the scouts of the Suzaku army discovered that the army was repairing fortifications on the land corridor in the west of the city, and also in the south.The last time I went out to fight in the city, it was mainly to win a lottery to boost morale.

He had already seen the combat effectiveness of the Jiujiang Army in the Poyang Lake water battle, so he never dared to entrust the important places to the Jiujiang Army at this time.This group of people can't fight, and they are afraid of losing their fortifications. It's really unusable;Zhang Ning quickly figured out how to use them.

The forts and fortifications outside the city required a large number of troops to be thrown into them, and the units of the Suzaku Army were used for supervision. During the period, soldiers from the Jiujiang Army were deployed, and they were always qualified as cannon fodder in the fortifications.In fortifications, it is different from battle formations. Even if someone runs away, it can effectively stop the situation, instead of engulfing a group of people as soon as someone runs away.

The peripheral fortifications are mainly decided by Zhang Ning. He inspected the situation many times and found it very useful... But it is not as strong as imagined and has to wait for the actual combat test. After all, he has never had such experience, and what he does is all based on imagination and inference.He just thinks that it is foolish to defend a city and pin its hopes on one city wall, and should defend the periphery and expand its depth in consideration of concentrating troops as much as possible.

For example, the fortifications in the west of the city lean on the city wall on the left and Baishui Lake on the right, and only one side will be threatened.On the hillside in the middle of the fortifications, an earthen wall fortress was built, and troops were deployed to deploy artillery.There are two ditches surrounding the north of the fort, and a waist wall is built behind the ditch. The officers and soldiers have to use ladders to attack; even if a line of defense is lost, it is very easy to counterattack from the second wall behind. The walls are lost, and troops can be sent to regain them from the fortress on the mountain. The difficulty is the same.Zhang Ning felt that it would be no easier for the government and army to take down this fortress than to take down the city wall of Jiujiang.

What if the officers and soldiers ignore this fortification?Then when they attack the west gate, they will suffer constant attacks on the flanks.Going around to the north gate is not enough. The north gate is close to the river, and there is no place to deploy too many troops. If you retreat, you will fall into the river.In this situation, if the officers and soldiers wanted to attack Jiujiang from the east, they had to take down the earth fort first.