In the yamen of the teaching and reading chambers, Du Zhongxiao, Liu Ji, Yang Ji and several others were sitting and drinking tea. The Xinyang Army was its own tea farm, and the camp was in charge of tea production, and Changping Division sold it, and after the large-scale tea production there, it soon became the official tea of the two yamen. The characteristic of green tea is that it has a faint aftertaste after brewing, and the more you drink it, the more you taste, and the tea soup that is not like a group tea is a variety of surface skills that have little to do with the taste of tea. It is more convenient to sit and talk for a long time, or green tea, and everyone quickly gets used to it.

Du Zhongxiao said: "A few days ago, Nong Zhigao, who was in rebellion in Guangnan, broke through Yongzhou, killed officials, slaughtered people, and did many evils. After occupying Yongzhou, he had several ways to go. The first is to divide Yongzhou and become a country of its own. This fang once fought against Cochin, and Cochin hated it very deeply. If you don't occupy Yongzhou, there will be Jiaozhi in the south, and the mobilization of troops and horses in the north of this dynasty is a dead end. Either go north to attack Guizhou, if Guizhou is broken, then all Guangxi will be occupied. Yongzhou went to Guizhou to have a dangerous Kunlun Pass, and the barbarians did not have siege equipment, so they were afraid that it would be difficult to break through this dangerous pass. The nearest way is to go along Yushui and attack Guangzhou. If it breaks Guangzhou, it will be close to the sea in the south, imitating the story of the Southern Han Dynasty and standing on its own. In my estimation, nine times out of ten they will come east along Yushui. ”

Liu Jidao: "What I said is yes. To the east, Hengzhou and Guizhou are small cities, with no garrison and no city walls, which are difficult to defend. The thieves recruited exiles along the way, and once Wuzhou was broken again, it would be difficult to control. ”

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "Although I know this, I can't help it." Now is the time of May and June, when the miasma in Quang Nam is in full swing, and it is difficult for the northern soldiers and horses to go south. In addition to Guangzhou and Guizhou, Guangnan has no heavy troops, so I am afraid that it will be difficult to defend it. In my opinion, Nong Zhigao is afraid that it will be difficult to stop Guangzhou. Now the DPRK and China don't take this matter seriously, but just let Jingnan gather soldiers and horses to prevent thieves from going north, and prepare to suppress thieves with Guizhou soldiers and horses. When the thieves come to the city of Guangzhou, it will never be like this. At that time, the government and the opposition were shaken, and it would inevitably make the northern soldiers and horses go south. Where our camp Tianxiang army is, there is just a railway to assemble, except for the forbidden army in the capital, no one is more convenient than us. When you get to Yangyang, you can get on the train, and you can go to Gangneung. After that, you can take a boat all the way to Quang Nam through the Ling Canal. Tens of thousands of barbarians rebelled, just taking advantage of the emptiness of the imperial court's forces to attack the city and plunder the land, and it was not difficult to destroy the army as soon as it moved. ”

After Nong Zhigao occupied Yongzhou, the momentum broke through, and the southern part of Liangguang was almost white. A very important reason is that the area is sparsely populated, and there are no garrisons in various states and counties, and many of them do not even have cities. Except for a few important nodes in Yulin Prefecture and Wuzhou, no one went to other places to be officials, and the conditions were worse than those in Danzhou and Leizhou, where officials were exiled. When the weather is hot, it is not the locals, and the army of the north does not follow at all. Not to mention the army north of the Yellow River, even the army in Jingnan is not adapted.

It is precisely because of this that a small number of Han people who went south gathered near the county seat, and Nong Zhigao slaughtered the city all the way and almost wiped out. Because of the Nong Zhigao Rebellion, the development of Lingnan has been reclocked for many years.

Yang Jin has been in Jingnan for many years, and he has pacified the barbarian chaos many times, and he is a little tired, and he is not keen on going south to quell the rebellion. On the contrary, Liu Ji exchanged literature for martial arts, and was eager to go into battle to make meritorious contributions, and enthusiastically discussed Nong Zhigao's actions with Du Zhongxiao, planning to go south to quell the rebellion and make meritorious contributions after the autumn.

Historically, Nong Zhigao's rebellion was quelled by Di Qing, and the second hero was Liu Ji, who was the envoy of Guangnan East and West Road.

Seeing that it was not early, Du Zhongxiao said: "This time I recruited a few people to come to discuss, if the imperial court let us go south to quell the chaos, what preparations should be made." First of all, the establishment of the military and the regulations will be discussed, and after the discussion, other matters will be discussed clearly. It was regarded as an exercise to reorganize the battalion with soldiers. What are the deficiencies, take advantage of the hot weather to rectify and make up. ”

Yang said: "What is there to discuss about the establishment? The forbidden army has a precedent, and it is just to do it. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The establishment of the forbidden army is based on the Pingrong Wanquan Formation, which is not in line with us. That is to fight in the northern plains, it is necessary to choose a place with flat terrain, with battalions as units, and line up according to the formation map. The two armies faced each other in a dignified formation, of course, there was nothing to say, and this formation was extremely useful. But when the two armies fight, what are the chances that they can be set up in a camp to fight each other? Most of the time, it is won by surprise soldiers, and battles are fought in encounters. Correspondingly, the establishment of the army should be suitable for both large army formations and dispersed operations, so that it can be divided into a combatable army. ”

Liu Jidao: "Besides, we are different from the forbidden army, we don't use bows and crossbows, and there are many guns and cannons in the army, so we should also have our own establishment." ”

The Pingrong Wanquan Array was made by Taizong in the time, there was a detailed formation map, and there was even a formation envoy sent by the emperor himself during the war, and the generals in front must be arrayed according to the formation map, and they must not be changed privately. Theoretically speaking, the Pingrong Wanquan Array lives up to its name, can really be listed, and has strong combat effectiveness. The formation of 100,000 people, neatly arranged, ordered and prohibited, no matter which direction has a strong defense and counterattack ability, it is a very good formation.

But in reality, there are too many constraints on this array. It is very difficult to have a great plain and the enemy to fight. This array is made to deal with the Khitans, but the Khitans are not fools, you have an array, they know that it is difficult to break through, why fight? Confrontation from afar, using light cavalry to harass deeply, this formation is self-defeating. In fact, the Pingrong Wanquan Array has almost no role in history, and the Khitans do not fight according to your routine.

The array is useless, but the formation of the forbidden army is based on this. The forbidden army takes the battalion as the basic unit, and the first battalion is a unit of the large array. These are well-practiced, but there is no flexibility.

The battalion is the basic unit of the forbidden army, there is a capital below, and there is a team below, whether it is fighting or stationing, it is a whole. The top of the battalion is the army, and the top of the army is the box, and the establishment is not fixed, and the power is used for management purposes. When going to war, troops were dispatched, regardless of the chamber and army, and were drawn from each army in battalion units, and commanders were temporarily appointed to lead the army to fight.

This way of formation has been proven, but it looks good on paper, and it is not of much use in actual combat. Because the establishment was set up in accordance with this, it led to confusion in command during wartime, and there were many chaos in the fight against the party. In history, the art of war when Wang Anshi changed the law was first created by Fan Zhongyan in Yanzhou because the establishment did not match the actual combat.

Du Zhongxiao said: "The establishment of the army must be organized according to actual combat. First of all, what is the basic establishment unit? There are two kinds of this: one is what is the basic establishment of the garrison during training, and the other is what is the basic establishment during combat. ”

Liu Jidao: "Judging from the past few years, there is nothing wrong with taking the camp as the basis. It's just that there is one point, there is an army above, and there are many battalions in charge, and there are many places that cannot be taken care of. Below is the capital, one battalion and five capitals, and the commander can only manage the capital, and the following is powerless. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Yes, there is actually a level missing below and above the battalion. When we were training, we never had enough troops, and it was not very obvious, but once the reorganization was full, this drawback became apparent. It is a basic principle that what the commander-in-chief can directly manage must be separated by one level. That is to say, to command the envoy to the team general, the army above to command the battalion commander, and there must be a level among them. In this way, we can be like an arm and a finger, and we will not be subject to subordinates. If it is only one level at the same time, the commander of the army will not know the military situation below in peacetime, and he will not be able to respond to the situation on the spot in wartime. ”

After the professionalization of the armed forces, the powers of the commanders were divided by specialized departments, and the corresponding management affairs were much less, and they had the energy to carry out fine management of the armed forces. There are too many units at the lower level, and their energy is limited, so they can only use the commanders at the lower level. It is difficult for many people to say good things to their superiors and cruel words to their subordinates, and they are easy to be deceived by their subordinates. Between the upper and lower levels, there should be more daily affairs, and a higher level is in-depth management.

As the basic unit, the formation under the battalion must be added to the hierarchy, five heads are a bit too much, and one is obviously too many ten team generals.