warring states careerist

Chapter 867

Commander Wei Han knew very well that his defeat was a foregone conclusion, even though it seemed to ordinary people that the outcome was still unknown.

The most important thing in this battle is not the Mohist cavalry, but Chu's infantry.

In other words, it is the battle of the times for the entire Chu State's new military system against Wei and Han's heavy infantry phalanx that began with the fight against Shan Rong.

The bow and crossbow were replaced by heavy matchlock guns, and there was no difference in the military system in essence. The heavy-step phalanx was the basis for Wei to rule the roost.

The Mohist cavalry can only crush their own left wing, the infantry is the one who really decides the outcome, and the four or five thousand Mohist cavalry are not enough to complete the sweep and outflank.

The Pythagorean formation is a common tactic used by Wei and Han. In the battle of Daliang City, Wu Qi used this tactic, and cooperated with the martial arts knights with stirrups, to defeat the main force of the Chu State in one fell swoop, causing the death of the ruler of the Chu State.

The use of this tactic requires three prerequisites.

First, the enemy's troops are evenly deployed.

Second, it is not possible to set up the formation at the beginning, but to use it quietly in the process of formation confrontation, and concentrate the troops on one wing.

Third, a certain flank of the enemy army is the weak point of the entire army, that is, the easiest direction to break through.

The initial formation of the Mo-Chu allied forces met these three conditions.

The left wing is the fragile newly formed division of Chen Cai, which is the weakness of the whole army.

The entire force is almost evenly distributed, and the force is not concentrated in a certain direction.

In the formation confrontation, the main general Wei Han completed the right wing to meet the enemy and the main force to concentrate through the alternate retreat of the left wing and the rotation of the entire front.

This tactic is used well; or if it is used by famous generals such as Wu Qi, Wu Zixu, and Sun Wuzi, it can be famous in history.

But if it is not used well, or if it is used by a general who has a little less grasp of the battle situation and both sides of the battlefield, it is likely to be laughed at.

Use it well, use less to win more, and wipe out the enemy army.

If it is not used well, it will be self-defeating, the main force will be surrounded by counterattacks, and the entire army will be wiped out.

In the battle of Daliang City more than ten years ago, Wu Qi used the Pythagorean formation to win in one fell swoop, and the power shocked the south of Chu. The reason is that the formation of Chu State at that time was still the original structure of the left, middle and right armies, and the main force was still chariot soldiers and disciples. .

Wu Qi fought against the chariot soldiers with bronze cannons, gathered the main phalanx on the flanks, assisted in breaking down the Chu people's flanks with martial arts knights, and the main infantry completed the outflanking from the flanks.

At that time, the Chu army had clearly seen Wu Qi's plan, but there was nothing they could do: the flank defense was breached, there was almost no reserve team, and the opposite side of the flank could not rush through the large formation of the Wei army. In the end, they could only watch tens of thousands of troops being detoured by the flank Made dumplings.

But now, it is completely different from more than ten years ago.

The flank had already been broken through, but it only took a quarter of an hour for the Chu army's reserve team and Wang Shi's new army to complete the deployment after the breakthrough, and used a salvo to deter the momentum of the Wei and Han phalanx, making it possible for the Wei and Han main forces to gather in the direction of the flank for a short time. There is no possibility of a breakthrough.

It's not that they can't break through, the number advantage is still the same, the problem is that breaking through now and breaking through after two hours are completely different.

The battlefield is changing rapidly, not to mention one or two hours, even a quarter of an hour, there may be a situation where the outcome may change.

Indeed, the Wei and Han coalition forces now have the upper hand on the right wing. Even if the Chu army's Wang Shixin army can block the gap on the left wing, they will eventually be defeated.

But the same is true, the strength of the right wing of the Wei and Han coalition forces means the fragility of the central army and the left wing.

It is said that if you double to the right, you will be left widowed, and if you double the front, you will be widowed behind.

The purpose of the right wing concentrating the main force is to instantly defeat the Chu people's Chen Cai's division with outflanking techniques and overwhelming momentum, complete the encirclement of the Chu people's left wing, and make the Mo-Chu coalition forces attack on three sides by roundabout flanks.

In order to achieve this goal, the strength of the central army and the left wing must be weak.

What is fighting is also time. From the beginning, the left wing deliberately retreated, which is to fight for the time difference.If the right cannot win before the left collapses, it is a loss.

The military strength of the two sides is almost the same, and the strength of the right wing means the weakness of the left wing and the central army.

The infantry of the Chu army are currently fighting hard between the central army and the right wing, which seems to be comparable to the anxiety of the left wing central army of the Wei and Han coalition forces, but it is clear that the Chu people have the upper hand.

According to the time it took for the Chu people to readjust their deployment on the left wing, and the shock of the thunderous blow just shown, the chance of the Wei and Han coalition forces to push forward has been lost.

It takes an hour to make a complete breakthrough: it takes more than half an hour to continue to maneuver and outflank, and if it is just a frontal attack, it will not be able to develop the superiority of troops and form refueling, so one hour is at least one hour.

However, the artillery advantage of the Mo-Chu Allied Army still exists. The heavy infantry formation of the Wei-Han Allied Army is most afraid of artillery, because the phalanx is too heavy, too deep, and the projection force is obviously insufficient.

Judging from the breakthrough of the Chu people on the right flank and the central army, even if the Mohist cavalry did not sneak attack, they would break through at most half an hour, after all, the troops were superior.

So when the Chu people's new army spent a quarter of an hour adjusting its deployment and stabilizing the left-wing defense line, the chief general of the Wei-Han coalition army knew that he had failed.

It is nothing more than the difference between a big defeat, a small defeat, or the destruction of the entire army.

If it is a small defeat, abandon the left wing, gather the central army, and hold on until dark, and you can always find a chance to retreat.

Retreat to Xudi, after repairs, refuse the city and defend, then Wei Han still has the initiative.

Do you choose to give up some of your interests and negotiate peace with Chu?Or do you not hesitate to launch an all-out war in Daliang, Xinzheng, Yangzhai and other places?The choice is in Wei Han's hands.

If the whole army is wiped out, then the Xu land cannot be defended, and the soldiers of the Chu State will reach Xinzheng, and the Wei and Han coalition forces will not have a single field force within [-] miles.

This battle was planned by Xu, who planned that Chu State would no longer have the strength to contend for hegemony in the Central Plains in 20 years, and that it was time for Wei State to get a respite to reorganize the Sanjin Alliance to fight against the Western Qin that had achieved results in the reform.

If from the very beginning, Wei Jian, Gongshucuo, and Han You had recruited Chu people into the group, and the three kingdoms would carve up Zheng, this battle would not be fought, and the situation of Sishang Mo family would be ugly.

However, the enmity between Wei, Han and Chu lasted for hundreds of years, and the battle between Jin and Chu lasted for the entire Spring and Autumn Period. How many times did fierce battles and diplomacy revolve around Zheng Guo?

How could Wei Han choose to seek skin from the tiger and carve up Zheng State with Chu State?Besides, even if it was said at the beginning to carve up, how could the state of Chu agree?
In the end, Wei Han didn't want to give what Chu State wanted, so they could only meet on the battlefield.

But now it seems that it is better to directly choose the few cities that Chu State wants, and not to eat alone.

Because after this battle, not only Xu land and others must belong to Chu, but Wei and Han's main force in the Central Plains also suffered heavy losses. At least for a few years, they had no strength to go south in the Central Plains, so they could only choose to defend.

But there is no medicine for regret in the world. I knew it would be meaningless to regret today. Before this battle, Wei and Han certainly hoped that the Chu army would be defeated in the first battle, so that Chu would be unable to touch the land of Zheng for a few years. Once it was stabilized, Chu would be even less Here's the chance.

This was not Wei Han's original intention, but a helpless choice forced by the Mo family.

In order to oppose Mexico and pro-Korea, Wei State did not dare to guarantee the independence of Zheng State; in order to prevent Xinzheng from building a new type of city defense like Dangshan Pengcheng, South Korea had to act in advance. With the threat of Mo, Chu, and Qin behind, Wei State had no choice but to take advantage of the trend to carve up Zheng State in order to obtain territory; Daliang City lost to Wei State more than ten years ago, making Song State no longer so important to Chu State, and the original and The important Zheng State established side by side with Song State became the bottom line of Chu State’s buffer in the Central Plains;

For Chu State, perhaps the choice of Song State's coup today was already doomed when Wu Qi captured Daliang City more than ten years ago.

The State of Song is very important. The people of Chu once shed too much blood for it, and it seems that the State of Chu will bleed again for it.

But in fact, Chu's situation at this time is not very important.Because the main beam was lost, and because Chu State chose to shrink and reform strategically to become stronger.

At this moment, the battle of Yinyang seemed to be at its most intense, but General Wei Han knew that the key to a big defeat or a small defeat was now the devious cavalry of the Mo family.

The nobles counterattacked successfully, and the nearest two pawn formations could form a defensive formation. The defeat of the left wing was inevitable, but the main force of the right wing could still form an formation to defend themselves until dark, so as to retreat.

The nobles failed to counterattack, the Mohist cavalry can go straight to the place where the central army and the main general are, the entire left wing of the central army will collapse within a quarter of an hour, there is no time to adjust the deployment, and the main force of the right wing will be harassed by the Mohist cavalry. Move, the central army and the right wing of the Mo Chu coalition army can use the marching speed they just showed to complete the outflanking, and a battle of annihilation is inevitable.

You can't even run, and if the heavy infantry formation doesn't adjust and coordinate with each other in advance, as long as they run, they will show their flaws, and the cavalry will be defeated if they seize the opportunity to charge;

Other than that, there is no third possibility, including a miracle... Even if the great Sima of Chu died suddenly, the Mo-Chu coalition would win.

…………

On the plain to the north, the Mohist cavalry were rapidly deploying under the command of the officer, adopting a formation different from the ones used before.

The eight small cannons that maneuvered with the cavalry were also deployed at a speed that stunned the nobles of the Wei state.

The artillery officers shouted commands, and each command was a set of standard movements. Those gunners had practiced it countless times, and they had already formed a mechanical habit.

More than a hundred elite cavalry infantry covering the artillery quickly formed formations on both sides of the artillery, forming a three-row formation.

These elite cavalry infantry were equipped with flint-fired muskets. They looked calm and did not look at the movements of the artillery covered by them at all, but mechanically listened to the password and raised their muskets.

boom……

bang bang...

The first soldier in the line fired his musket, then quickly lowered his head without looking at the situation ahead, quickly took out a paper-wrapped gunpowder from his body pocket, put the lead bullet on it in his mouth, and released the fixed amount of gunpowder from the gun. The front of the muzzle is loaded, and the lead bullet is spit out and stuffed into the muzzle.

Every movement has been trained hundreds of times, and each pack of gunpowder is proportioned, just like the workshop of the later Qin State for making crossbows.

The moment the first person fired, the comrades behind him also fired, reloading half a breath slower than him, the third person still did the same, and then it was the turn of the second person in the first row...

When the gunshots sounded, they continued into pieces without stopping, as if this was not a group of soldiers holding very primitive wrought iron rolled muskets, but a few soldiers holding firearms that never needed to be reloaded.

The continuous gunfire is connected together, which is not only intimidation, but also deterrence, and it is also a kind of cover for artillery.

When necessary, they will be divided into small teams with Sima as the unit, alternately covering the retreat or covering the transfer of artillery.

But now, all they have to do is to keep shooting, waiting for the impact of the cavalry.

(End of this chapter)