Chapter 117 Decline Before War

Xiao Tianjian looked at the surrounding terrain and nodded, "Come on, let them come over!" This place is good. Let's wait for them here! Pass the order to make the brothers wear armor, and then the team unfolds and arrays to meet the enemy! Wang Chengping's cavalry will respond at any time! The bow and arrow team lives on the left wing of the phalanx and is ready at any time!"

With Xiao Tianjian's order, the accompanying generals immediately took action and dressed up the various colors of armor they brought with them in an orderly manner. Then the soldiers immediately retreated with the mules and horses and vehicles, and the soldiers gathered according to the orders of their respective officers and changed from the marching army into one. A hollow phalanx, after moving forward a little, stopped the official road.

And the formation this time is different from the formation they used in the past. The firearms in the sentries were arranged to the four corners of the square array, forming four musket square arrays, while the long gunmen gathered in the central position in a dense formation, and Wang Chengping's small team of elite riders were placed behind the team. As the reserve and assault force of the phalanx, as for the more than 200 bow and arrow teams that have just been formed by the Orion, because they have not received the regular training of the Xingtian Army, they cannot be integrated into the phalanx, so as not to destroy the tacit understanding between the corps, so they lined up on the left side of the team as a reserve. Use of power.

The change of this phalanx is caused by Gao Su. Xiao Tianjian used his time in Shuangfengzhai to often discuss the application of infantry arrays with Gao Su, and learned more knowledge about the application of infantry tactics from Gao Su.

At present, Gao Su, as Xiao Tianjian's tactical consultant, was not stingy with what he knew. He told Xiao Tianjian about the tactics of some infantry phalanxes he knew when he was a mercenary. Through Gao Su, Xiao Tianjian adjusted the phalanx originally used by Xing Tianjun to make it closer to the present Western army. Use the phalanx.

In this regard, Xiao Tianjian doesn't care about the use of narmism. After all, the application of the Western infantry phalanx has been in this era for decades or even nearly a hundred years. Once this phalanx is created, it has played a great role in the war in the West, and it has been quickly spread and has become the main one in the West. The country's main mode of warfare must be reasonable.

From the beginning of the formation of the Xingtian Army, Xiao Tianjian began to adapt to this trend and simplify the allocation of arms in the army, mainly focusing on the construction of spear soldiers and fire soldiers, supplemented by some sword and shield soldiers. In this way, the composition of the army is closer to the composition of the Western army, although in the application of the initial phalanx, the Xingtian Army is a little similar. Yes, but on the whole, it still has played a good combat effectiveness. After several times against strong enemies, the Xing Tianjun has not suffered any great losses, and has repeatedly won against the enemy with a strong desire to fight. This also shows that such phalanx tactics, in the land of China, facing the enemy dominated by the old army. Hou, it still has quite strong combat effectiveness.

So now, with the help of Gao Su, Xing Tianjun has been committed to improving the original tactics in the past two or three months, making it closer to the phalanx tactics used by the West, so as to exert greater combat effectiveness.

After all, from the formation of the Xingtian Army to the present, there have been some clever elements in the previous battles. Whether in the battle of Tianlongzhai, the battle of Shifo Temple, or even the battle of Shiqiao, the Xingtian Army has more or less used some tricks, or seized the dominant terrain. And other strategies, and finally win with a weak victory over the strong.

However, today's situation is different from the previous wars. This time, Xing Tianjun took the initiative to attack. He wanted to face the enemy twice as much as his own outside his family. This battle can be said to be a test of Xing Tianjun's training during this period. Whether it can achieve the ideal effect can be achieved for Xing Tianjun in the future. Development is very important.

And Xiao Tianjian is full of confidence in this. In his opinion, after such training, although Xing Tianjun's strength has not been increased much, its combat effectiveness has been increased by at least 50%. In their current state, he has a good chance of winning in the face of this miscellaneous army composed of officers and soldiers and local villagers.

When the officers of the Xingtian Army obeyed the order and just unfolded into a phalanx along the official road, a while later, a piece of smoke and dust rose in the distance of the army's front official road and quickly approached their position.

Wang Youtian rode on a jujube red horse, led 300 cavalry under his command, and galloped on the official road at medium speed. Since he was ordered by Niu Tai to open the way for the brigade, he led his troops away from the main force of the army and galloped towards Yangcheng. Along the way, they also found two or three thieves riding horses near the official road and probed. His brain observed them, so he immediately sent people to chase them, and the thief was also very cunning. Knowing that his strength was not good, he did not fight with them head-on at all. As soon as he saw him sending people to chase them, he left one after another and soon disappeared.

And Wang Youtian was also afraid of being trapped by the thief, and did not dare to let his men stay too far away from his troops and horses, so after dispersing him, he recalled the troops and horses sent to the team. In his opinion, these thieves' exploration of horses are not worthy of his too much attention, and what he has to do now is to open the way for the people and horses of the later brigade and investigate as soon as possible. Clear the location of the enemy and the deployment of troops.

After more than half an hour of marching, he finally found that an enemy had stopped them in front of him in this relatively flat place.

And he led his troops to run about a miles and a half away from the enemy and raised his hand to stop his men, so the cavalry stopped the rein and looked at the enemy on the opposite side.

The reason why he recognized the enemy at a glance is that the opposite side is very simple. Among the group of people opposite, there is a scarlet battle flag with no words on it. There is only a Xingtian pattern holding a shield and axe, and this group of people are also dressed in a mess. There are all kinds of clothes and armor, and helmets are also available in all walks of colors. It is impossible for serious officers and soldiers to be so mixed in equipment. If it is the only unified equipment of the other party, it is even the strange leggings on their legs.

If you talk about leggings, it is actually not a new thing. Even in this era, many people also wear leggings, but the habit of leggings comes from southerners. In the north, there are not many people who leggings. Although there are many hills and mountainous areas in Shanxi, they still do not form the habit of leggings, so this It is very different from the common military equipment.

But this is not the reason why Wang Youtian, the officers and cavalry, were surprised. What surprised them was the formation of the opposite thief army and the neatness of the opponent's formation.

Wang Youtian looked at it and saw that although the thief army opposite was mixed in clothes and armor, the equipment was very simple. Except for a row of rattan player with a shield in front of the battle, most of the team was full of long guns, and in the two corners of their queue were a single fireman equipped with a single gun carrying a bird. Such formation is very Rarely, Wang Youtian has been in the army for more than ten years, but it is the first time to see such a situation.

Only in front of the left wing of the other party's thief army, I saw a somewhat messy archer's team, but this archer's team is obviously different from the thieves in the main array. Obviously, the thief soldiers that make up the main array are the main soldiers who have been trained to a considerable extent, and the archer obviously has no armor. It should It is a temporary recruitment of auxiliary soldiers.

What surprised Wang Youtian even more was the well-trained level of the opponent's soldiers. After such a phalanx formation, there was basically no other noisy sound in the army except for the shouts of the officers, and after the other side's thieves lined up, the queue was unimaginatively. There was a faint murderous atmosphere. Even if he was more than a miles away from the thief's army, the breath emanating from the thief's army still made him and his men feel a little depressed.

So Wang Youtian couldn't help taking a breath of cold air, and his heart suddenly jumped a few times. He didn't know what to do, so he quickly ordered to go down and let all his men calm down. Don't move well. Let's see the enemy first.

But after Wang Youtian looked at it carefully, he felt even more strange, because this thief army was obviously very different from the thief army they had met before. In the past, the enemy they encountered, no matter how many or less, were chaotic. Only a few thief soldiers were more powerful, and the rest were basically Some temporary hostages.

The composition of the thief army in front of us is obviously different from those thieves. Although this thief army also has auxiliary soldiers, the proportion of auxiliary soldiers in its army is less than 10 or 20%, and the rest are tough soldiers. In this way, the number of soldiers on the other side has almost reached nearly 1,500,600, and the rest of the auxiliary soldiers The total is only about 20%. It's the first time I've seen such a thieves.

In this way, although they brought 4,000 soldiers and horses, the number of real soldiers may not be as large as the enemy, which immediately cast a shadow on Wang Youtian's heart.

And his men also saw clearly the thief army on the opposite side at this time, and they all sucked cold air one after another. They couldn't help but dare to move forward, let alone kill and disperse the thief army.

Originally, Wang Youtian was still a little impulsive when he led his troops to come this time. In the morning, when he was in the army, when several colleagues proposed to camp on the ground to find out the enemy before making a final determination, he was very disdainful and thought that these guys were too timid, but in his view, the two thousand thieves army, under his command This battalion of cavalry is enough to deal with them.

So after he led his troops to set out, he still fantasized that if he met the thief's army and the thief's military strength was not strong, he simply didn't wait for Niu Tai's main force to come, and he would do the work himself. As long as he killed the head of the thief's army, the rest was to let him lead his troops to cover up behind, and wait until Niu Tai and others came. After that, the cucumber dishes were cold. At that time, the eunuch surnamed Wang will definitely report to the court and write a special book for his achievements. This achievement must be his.

But when he saw the appearance of the thief army clearly, it was like being splashed with a basin of cold water on his head, and his whole body was cool, and he no longer had the idea of eating alone.

"Uncle, what should we do now? Are you going to test this group of thieves first? At this time, a younger officer came to Wang Youtian's side and whispered to Wang Youtian.

"Test your fart, are you blind? What a son of a bitch! This group of thieves doesn't seem to be a good stubble. We only have 300 cavalry, and most of them are long guns. If we hit them, won't we die? That's all. Don't stay here. Go back quickly to report the cattle guerrilla and let him come and make a final determination! With our troops, we can't gnaw them down at all! Let the others go first. If they can disperse this group of thieves, let's follow them to pick up the leaks! Withdraw!" After Wang Youtian's temple jumped a few times, he scolded the men who called his uncle, and then ordered him to arrive.

Without saying a word, the cavalry of the three hundred officers followed Wang Youtian to turn the horse's head and ran back to the road without looking back.