warring states careerist

Chapter 860 The Battle of Hidden Sun ([-])

It was the beginning of November when Shu Pu Mi and others arrived at Zhaoling, and the weather was already very cold.

The Chu army has built a camp in front of Zhaoling, and the main force of the Wei and Han coalition forces have also arrived and built a camp.

The fighting forces of the two sides have been assembled, and the number of field troops of the Wei and Han coalition forces is about the same as that of Chu.

The Wei and Han sides assembled nearly [-] field troops. Although the Wei and Han coalition forces attacked Zheng this time, there were only so many who could really fight on the front line.

If there were more, it would be easy to cause loopholes in the front line, and the Chu army would seize the opportunity to break through.

The Chu-Mo coalition forces are nearly [-], and the numbers of the two sides are not much different.

The advantage of the Wei and Han coalition forces is a group of heavy infantry. Wei Guo was the first prince to use infantry as the main force in the battle. When the Wei family conquered Beirong, it had already adopted infantry tactics before it was named a marquis.

After Wu Qi trained in Xihe, the heavy infantry fighting in formation became the pillar of Wei's military strength.

The Wei and Han armies had a total of 26 infantry, [-] bronze cannons, [-] chariots, [-] elite warrior knights, some light cavalry, and [-] elite archers.

The infantry is dominated by spearmen, and the matchlock gunners are used as the auxiliary force of the spearmen. They use dense square formations and move slowly.

The Chu army is because the Mo family helped to organize and train the new army. The composition of the army is not the same as that of Wei and Han. Output power, while the spearman mainly plays the role of covering the arquebus.

The Chu-Mo coalition army has a total of [-] cavalry, including [-] elite chariot cavalry that belonged only to the king of Chu.[-] Sishang irregular cavalry, plus [-] infantry knights.

In addition to the artillery supported by the Mohists, the artillery of the Chu-Mohist Allied Forces has an advantage. There are 42 bronze cannons in total, 24 of which are supported by the Mohists, and there are also eight fast and mobile small cannons dragged by riding.

Chu also had 120 elite archers and [-] chariots.

The rest are infantry, and part of the infantry is the king's army directly under the king of Chu. The number is slightly more than [-]. They are all based on the new army model helped by the Mohist. The number of musketeers is slightly more than that of spearmen.

Except for the king's division directly under the king of Chu, the rest are all the divisions of Chen Cai, following the path of the Wei and Han coalition forces, with a thick spear formation covering the musketeers.

Insufficient training, Chen Cai's division cannot form the same discipline as Wang's division, and it is difficult to make tactical actions such as quick turns and alternate advances, so they adopt a more cumbersome but more solid defense as long as they don't move. formation.

With the advent of gunpowder, and the ensuing military reform and the emergence of semi-standby armies, the width of the battlefield became wider and wider.

In the original war, the countries had to form formations, because if they did not form formations, it would be impossible to control tens of thousands of troops, and if the soldiers were too loose, they would be easily broken through and prone to chaos.

It was necessary to rely on phalanxes to control the troops, so that all ministries could hear the call of the drum.

Sishang can set up a slightly weaker front to increase the width of the battle, extend the width of the front, and thus maintain the same length of the front under inferior forces, which does not mean that the rest of the vassal states can do the same.

On the ninth day of November, when the date for the battle arrived, the two sides began to walk out of the camp to deploy troops and prepare for the battle.

Now that it is confirmed that this is a small-scale controllable war, the battlefields of both sides have also been fixed.

The direction of Luyang, Yecheng, Yuguan and the opposite Weihan city are all on the defensive and will not be put into the battlefield, so there is no strategic maneuver and various plans.

After breakfast early, Chu State took the lead in setting out to camp, and the formation was deployed at about nine o'clock in the morning.

The left wing of the Chu people is the division of Chen Cai, and the central army is the main force of the Chu king's division with eighty chariots, as well as the elite Che Guang knights of Chu.

On the right wing of the Chu people were the Mohist cavalry and [-] infantry equipped with twelve bronze cannons.

The rest of the bronze cannons were concentrated in the Central Army of Chu State.

Chen Cai's division on the left wing of the Chu people adopted a dense formation, so the width was the same as that of the opposite side, but still left a reserve team of 3000 people.

The width of the central army of the Chu people is actually larger than that of the Wei and Han coalition forces, but each brigade has one-third as a reserve team, so the overall width is similar to that of the Wei people.

In front of the Chinese army, there are two thousand elite archers from the state of Chu. They are lined up behind the artillery gap, and will use their rate of fire advantage to cooperate with the artillery to open the gap on the opposite side.

On the opposite side, the Wei and Han coalition forces deployed all their forces. Except for a part of the directly subordinate reserve team, all the infantry were arranged in a dense military formation, which was well-proportioned.

Here is a plain, and there is no great terrain advantage, but the Wei and Han coalition forces have the upper hand, which can be regarded as a slight advantage.

Wei Han's bronze cannons were mainly concentrated in the central army, and the chariot soldiers were hidden on their right flank, which is the direction of the Chu people's Chen Cai's division. At the same time, ten bronze cannons were deployed on their right flank.

The Wei and Han coalition forces are on the defensive, which is in their favor.

In addition, Wei and Han mainly use heavy infantry as the main force, and their formations are dense. Although they move slowly in wartime and need to cooperate with each other to avoid loopholes, they have advantages in standing in formation.

The coach of the Wei-Han coalition only understands the weaknesses and strengths of the Wei-Han coalition, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the Chu-Mo coalition, so he formulated a very targeted response.

The most capable troops of the Chu people are the central army and the Mohist cavalry on the right, and the marching speed of these two troops is very fast, far better than the heavy infantry of Wei and Han in the dense phalanx.

This is both an advantage, but if you can seize the opportunity, it might not be a point that can be used.

Because the left wing of the Chu people is the newly formed Chen Cai's division, which is still a dense phalanx formation, and it is incomparable with the right wing of the Chinese army in terms of morale and combat effectiveness.

The most important thing is that the marching speed of Chen Cai's division on the left wing of the Chu people is much slower than that of the central army and the right wing. If the Wei and Han coalition forces can take advantage of the different speeds of the Chu people's central army and the left wing attack, it is possible to complete the confrontation. The breakthrough of the left wing of the Chu people.

Once Chen Cai's division collapses, the Wei and Han coalition forces can quickly attack from the junction of the left wing of the Chu army and the central army with all their strength, forming an outflank.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Wei and Han coalition forces, the key to this battle lies on their right wing.

Therefore, when the chief general of the Wei-Han coalition formed his formation, he intentionally weakened his left wing and strengthened his central and right wings.

Relying on the form of the Chu people's active attack, using space in exchange for time, let your left wing take the initiative to retreat, tempting the right wing and the central army of the Mo Chu coalition army to rush to fight and make meritorious deeds.

At the same time, if the left wing of the Wei and Han coalition forces can take the initiative to retreat, they can use the point close to the right wing of the Chinese army as the axis to slowly rotate, so that the Chinese army does not need to be mobilized on a large scale, and all the troops are under the control of the Chu people. On the left wing, a partial force advantage was formed.

…………

The chief general of the Chu-Mo coalition army is the Great Sima of Chu. 20 years ago, the former Great Sima of the Chu State died in the hands of the Mohists, but now they are cooperating.

If the allied forces of Wei and Han wanted to take advantage of the favorable location, then Da Sima of Chu wanted to take advantage of the right time.

Different from the Wei-Han coalition's idea that the Chu-Mo coalition would take a breakthrough from the center and the right wing, the Grand Sima of Chu cleverly wanted to turn the Wei-Han coalition's geographical advantages into their own timing.

The allied forces of Wei and Han had the upper hand. It was already November, and the north wind was blowing. The Chu people were in the south, which was not good.

But Chu Da Sima saw another kind of fighter.

Once the war started, after the copper cannons and muskets of the two sides clashed for a while, there would be a lot of gunpowder smoke, and the Chu-Mo coalition forces, which were downwind, were originally at a disadvantage.

But if the central army and the right wing can take the initiative to attack, then once the wind blows, the smoke can easily cover the southeast of the battlefield.

At that time, the Mohist cavalry, those mounted artillery, and infantry knights can use the cover of gunpowder smoke to quickly maneuver to the side of the Wei and Han coalition forces.

It would be great if they could break through in one fell swoop, but even if they couldn't break through, the Wei and Han coalition forces would inevitably panic, and they would have to mobilize troops to support the left wing of the Wei and Han coalition forces.

Once the Wei and Han coalition forces are mobilized, then the Chu army has a chance to win, because the phalanx of the Wei and Han coalition forces is very strong when it is still, but once it moves, flaws will appear.

At that time, if the right-wing outflanking cavalry cannot open the situation, then the Chinese army will take advantage of the chaotic timing of the Wei and Han coalition forces to launch an attack, quickly break through the Wei and Han central troops, and defeat the Wei and Han coalition forces.

Of course, the battlefield is changing rapidly, but good fighters usually plan their own plans before the confrontation. Whether they can realize it is one thing, but the battlefield is changing rapidly and opportunities arise but they are not sure, but continue to follow the original plan. That is another time thing.

It is quite a coincidence that both sides set the breakthrough point on the left wing of the other side, but there are also some reasons for deliberately seducing each other.

At this time, whoever attacks is in a weak position. It is best not to attack lightly, but to play a defensive counterattack.

But someone has to attack first, and the Chu-Mo coalition seems to have an advantage, so although the Wei-Han coalition also set the breakthrough on the opposite left wing, they are preparing to use defensive counterattacks to mobilize tactics.

On the other hand, the people of Chu hoped to take the initiative to attack and use the attack to move the formation, so as to complete the transformation of the favorable location and time, and take advantage of the cold north wind and the smoke of the battlefield to make a big detour.

Both sides put the breakthrough point on the opponent's left wing. In fact, the essence of this battle is whoever's left wing collapses first, and whose left wing collapses and can delay the opponent's outflanking, whoever has a greater chance of winning.

Of course, the ever-changing battlefield cannot always develop in the direction of the commander-in-chief of both sides, and various accidents will occur, that is the so-called ability to make decisions on the fly.

Whoever can grasp the fighter opportunity when it appears can often reverse the defeat or win in one fell swoop.

A moment in the corner.

The first cannon fire on the battlefield came from the position of the Mo-Chu Allied Forces, and the battle that broke out in the Sun of Hidden Water officially started.

(End of this chapter)