warring states careerist

Chapter 905 The Cowardly People
After a little deployment, he handed over the command to others, and returned to the account by himself, continuing to look at the map and the various situations gathered by the scouts.

He didn't underestimate the enemy, and even kept in mind from the very beginning what Shi told him to pay attention to the enemy.

But he thought carefully about all the experience he knew. The scouts had already released information on the battlefield that controlled a range of [-] miles; Where the wings meet, the crossbowmen are in front; on the opposite side, at most one hundred cavalry can be gathered...

He couldn't think of how he could lose this battle, because Shi told him that it is difficult to have many miracles in the real world, so he couldn't find a reason to lose.

According to what he thought, there was no artillery and they were still defending in a circular formation on the plain. When marching, the scouts were not sent too far, so that there was no time to change the formation and choose a more suitable defense. His own strength was still superior and there was even a cavalry division Thousands of cavalry should settle the battle within two hours at most.

When the battle really started, Liuzhi realized that he had still overestimated the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, peasants and soldiers of Chu State County.

Only two quarters of an hour after the shelling started, Shen Gong's nearly [-] soldiers were already on the verge of collapse, so that the cavalry cruising beside them were a little at a loss, not knowing whether to pursue them or take the opportunity to rush in.

The advent of gunpowder brought another change.

Before the appearance of the gunpowder accessory, the bronze cannon, the round formation combined with the chariot and the archer was indeed a nearly invincible means of defense.

The dense formation often means that it is difficult to break the formation.

But the Mohist attaches great importance to copper cannons, and most of the content learned by army officers can be summed up in one sentence: cavalry can easily break through loose and weak formations, and in order to fight against cavalry and infantry, they must form phalanxes; phalanxes are easily killed by artillery ; Phalanx can resist cavalry, but it is difficult to resist the salvo fired by musketeers; if musketeers want to launch salvo, they must make the formation as weak as possible and widen the front to exert maximum firepower; the wider the front is drawn, the thinner the front It is not easy to be bombarded by artillery and cause too many casualties; the wider the front, the easier it is to be dispersed by cavalry...

This is a very basic thing, basically belonging to the compulsory courses of Mohist military schools at all levels. As for more advanced things, more complicated formations, left and right wing mobilization, etc., they are basically based on this The more profound thing is how to "keep the wonderful use of these basic things in one mind".

[-] infantry, relying on chariots to form a defense, and there are muskets, bows and crossbows shooting outside. Although the cavalry on Sishang are fierce, they are helpless.

But the cavalry had nothing to do, which meant that for the artillerymen and the deployed musketeers, this was a training-like killing, and four or five heads might be smashed if they lit the match with their eyes closed.

The shelling for a quarter of an hour was a devastating blow to Duke Shen's troops.

In fact, not many people died, but the formation has been scattered, people's hearts have been confused, and failure is inevitable.

At this time, the infantry of the two divisions hadn't moved yet. They were still waiting for the artillery to continue the bombardment, and then let the cavalry try to charge.

Now it seems that there is no chance for these infantry who came from afar to march for a day.

In the Shen Gong formation, Shen Gong, who was still talking about the battle formation with a smile on his beard yesterday, could no longer laugh.

From the battle to the defeat, it may not even be an hour. I didn't even see the opponent's infantry attack, and the more than 1 people I brought were about to be defeated.

This has completely broken him.

He felt that he was not an extremely pedantic person. When the Mo family started selling matchlock guns, he managed to buy a lot of equipment from some merchants as an arsenal, and he did not forget to form a musketeer troop when performing martial arts in winter. .

Because of these muskets, the people in Shendi were in a difficult situation: the Mo family only collected food, copper, gold, silver, mercury, cotton, dung and nitrate, etc.

No jade, no beads, no all kinds of exquisite utensils.

Merchants generally don’t want these things, because some unknown merchants told Shen Gong that what the merchants need now is real gold and copper, which can be exchanged for currency on Sishang. It’s not that pearls and jade are worthless. It must be worth money, but many chambers of commerce in Sishang do not accept these things as equity.

Some chambers of commerce go to the south of Chu to trade, and they earn a lot of profits and dividends every year. If you invest ten gold today, if you are lucky, you can get three gold and hardware next year. Even if you know the value of pearls and jades in exchange for currency, if you collect a hundred gold, even if you can sell a thousand gold in the future, when will you be able to sell it?If it can't be sold within 20 years, in case some profitable chambers of commerce in Sishang raise exclusive shares during the period, it will still be lost after all.

Shen Gong had no choice but to find a way to get money from farmers and fiefdoms to buy arms and weapons, not only for the state of Chu, but also for himself and his family.

Besides, it's not the money for firearms. The nobles like pottery on their necks, and they have to spend money to buy them, so they can't live without them; Wearing the embroidery of the mulberry forest of the Song Dynasty, I can't live without it; the nobles buy some 璆琳珠 from the far west as funeral objects, and I have to prepare for it, and I don't believe in the principle of thin burials of the Mohist school...

Shendi has neither copper mines nor gold mines, and does not know how to do business, nor does it disdain to engage in such lowly industries. Apart from using orthodox aristocratic methods to get money from farmers tied to the land, where can they get money?

Many profiteers came forward and said: "If you don't hand over the profits of the local salt and iron to our franchise, pay as much gold and copper every year, and order to prohibit others from selling here, I can smuggle you some guns every year."

Not only talking, but also doing, and immediately spending a lot of money, how can Shen Gong not accept it?

Huchuan, Shanze, everything that belongs to him must be taxed or franchised, so he accumulated about [-] muskets.

For these [-] muskets, no one in the fief complained. Those profiteers raised the price of salt extremely high; they lowered the price of grain to an extremely low level. Sishang, who is sucking excess profits hundreds of miles away and dispatching witches from time to time to treat the people and spread drugs, will only resent the unkind profiteers and fiefdom kings who only know self-interest.

And these [-] matchlock guns, Yu Shengong said, was already the limit.

Before the death of the last king of Chu, he was not allowed to have a cannon himself, and the Mohists were also strict about this, but he didn’t have a cannon in his hand, and he couldn’t cast it himself—the bell-maker who really knew how to cast bells, either went to The kings of various countries either go to Sishang, one can give land fiefdom and noble status, and the other can give money, morality and spiritual material satisfaction, what can he give to a little Shen Gong?
Sishang thought he could sell matchlock guns, so Shen Gong could buy them; Sishang thought he couldn't sell guns, after all, he didn't have enough copper to expand his army, so Shen Gong couldn't buy them.

Putting together such an army, if there is no Mohist chaos, he may still be able to continue to maintain his position with those monarch partners in the era of centralization and reform.

But at this moment, Shen Gong found that everything he had done seemed meaningless in this tide of the times.

He can also be regarded as a person with a long history of family education, and he also knows many secrets of the nobles.

According to what he thought, from yesterday when he saw the cavalrymen of the Mo family suddenly appearing, his strong men cut off their wrists and formed a circle to defend themselves until two quarters of an hour ago, he had done nothing wrong, and he felt that he could be called a famous general.

But how come the battle is over in less than a quarter of an hour?

The crossed copper cannons roared on the opposite side, and each bombardment would make the already crumbling formation more fragile, and it might disperse at any time.

This is at most his strengths and his own weaknesses. You can still lament that the Mohist school is nothing but sharp firearms. After all, gunpowder was first invented by others.

But from the early morning when the Mo family was preparing to attack, to the formation of the pawns like a neat forest, and then spread out like a rushing river, he knew that he would never be the opponent of this powerful army on the opposite side.

Not for anything else, just because it took only two quarters of an hour for the infantry to deploy from the Phalanx to the two wings.

And if it is his master Shen, it may take at least an hour for the same movement from assembly to unfolding.

As a general, this truth is still clear.In the battle of Yinyang seven years ago, the combined army of Chu and Mo defeated the combined army of Wei and Han. It was because at the last moment, King Chu, who was the reserve team, completed the formation change at a speed that stunned the combined army of Wei and Han. He knew this change very well. What does speed mean.

He even thought that the speed of the Mohist's elite transformation and deployment was at least as fast as that of the Chu king's master back then, but he didn't expect it to be so fast.

If the strength of the troops is the same, what else is there to fight?
However, as a nobleman, he still has the spirit, and the spirit of facing the enemy with his sword!
Thinking of this, he called out to all the servants and nobles around him, and said loudly: "Today's matter is bound to fail, and if you die, you will die."

"But the king entrusted us with the land and the people, and will support me with enough salary to take care of my lowly business. This is what raising scholars should be used for today. At this time when the society is in danger, we need to let those who have no king and no father in the Mo family know , What is loyalty! What is courage!"

He drew his sword and shouted loudly, got out of the chariot and fought on foot, with more than fifty soldiers around him, all willing to repay the king with death.

At that time, the battle formation was broken, Shen Gong was the first, and many of the defeated soldiers fled from him in panic. Shen Gong raised his sword and killed more than ten people in anger. As a result, the Mo family without a king or a father entered Jianghan directly from the Huai River and could not stop it. This is the crime of the people who do not want to die and desire profit! All the people can be killed!"

More than [-] people around them showed their supernatural power and hacked to death more than [-] rout soldiers at once.

At that time, Duke Shen's beard was swollen, his battle robe was red, bloodstains were dripping on the two-foot sword, and there were more than a hundred corpses piled up around him, guarded by soldiers, Duke Shen was like a god of war, stepping on the corpses of defeated soldiers, he was unparalleled.

Immediately he led more than fifty soldiers out of the chaotic crowd and rushed towards thousands of soldiers of the Jiexuan Army who raised their guns.

Three hundred paces away, the company commanders of each company of the Jiexuan Army looked at the crowd of people who were not afraid of death in the distance, and shouted in a tone that seemed mechanical: "Raise the gun!"

The sound of drums accompanied by slogans was transmitted to the ears of every soldier, and the selected front row soldiers silently raised their muskets that had already been loaded, aiming at the dozens of people rushing.

On the hillside, the dispatch order was pointing to those nobles who launched a desperate attack to remind Liuzhi to see.

Liuzhi took a sip, and said with a smile: "Death is the easiest. There are many incompetent people who can do better when they are alive, but they don't do it when things come. When they die, they suddenly feel that everything they didn't do well before was destroyed. Covered up by his fearlessness of death. In fact, this is the most cowardly thing."

"It has been 30 years since we rose from Sishang. Thirteen or four years since Heze League. Seven years since Fengchihui. What have they done? They have done nothing for so long, but they want to be heroes at the end of the day?"

"If you really have the so-called loyalty and bravery for the community, handing over benefits, land reform and granting land, training new troops, centralizing power, casting artillery and training soldiers... If you use three-thirds of your thoughts on coups and counter-revolutions, why bother today ?”

Looking at the charging figures, Liuzhi found it even more ridiculous. He shook his head and said, "Order, after the battle, we will screen out the nobles among the captives and ask them to dig pits, and organize the captured farmers to visit the nobles to dig pits. It’s not good, so I don’t hesitate to laugh at it. I suggest that the Xuanyi Department send some more eloquent and proficient in Chu language. What else can you do as a silverfish? The corpses of all the nobles and soldiers are gathered together and buried together, and they must not be separated."

"Clean the battlefield as soon as possible, let the captured prisoners build their own camps, and publicize our policies. Those who are willing to run will run, and those who are not willing to run will stay here. After I defeat the Chu army and capture the king of Chu, I will deal with them. Stay two It is good for a company to guard the prisoners here, assemble as soon as possible, march south, and rest until the main camp."

(End of this chapter)