After welcoming Liu Huai and his entourage to the military office, Yu Jingyang said: "You have worked hard from afar, and you have a good rest in the rear office." Today, the soldiers and horses of this dynasty outside the city defeated the Khitans, and there was no big battle for a few days. I prepared the documents for the general to check. ”

Liu Huai said: "Tens of thousands of Khitan soldiers and horses outside the city, and our army only came with cavalry, and the rest of the soldiers have not yet arrived, and it is not a matter of a few days to relieve the siege." The first thing to defend a city is to have soldiers, and the second is to have food, and no city without soldiers and food is useless no matter how strong it is. This He Dianzhi is the grain and grass officer of the camp, and you and the officials will go with him to inspect the grain in the city. This is the most important thing, and there is no delay. ”

Yu Jingyang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately, he was greedy, blaming the low price of grain outside, and he had not sold military rations privately. Otherwise, the investigation will be problematic. didn't dare to slack off at the moment, and ordered someone to take He Sanlang to inspect the grain and grass.

After the banquet was decided to be held in the evening, Yu Jingyang retreated, and Zhou Su said to Liu Huai: "I look at this Yu Dujian, his eyes are flickering, his words are unknown, and he doesn't look like a good person." Since the commander has come to take over the defense of the city, why not take away his military power, train the army, and hold the city? ”

Liu Huai said: "We only have 100 people into the city, and the defense still depends on the original soldiers and horses here. If he seizes the power of the capital supervisor as soon as he comes, he is only afraid that people's hearts will be disturbed and accidents will occur. We're already in the city, so if we're careful, what big can happen? Defend the city first, and the rest will be discussed later. ”

In the Song army barracks, Du Zhongxiao prepared a banquet to reward the meritorious soldiers today. At the same time, all the sergeants in the army were ordered to add one more bowl of wine and one more piece of meat to each person's meal today than in the past. All battalion commanders and above will attend the celebration banquet.

Thirteen Lang held his head high, very proud. Since he came back with the corpse in the sea, he could no longer hide his pride, and he knew that it would be different from now on. The military exploits of beheading generals and capturing the flag, especially generals with such a high status, are rare in the Song army. With this military merit in hand, the position of the master of the cavalry of his own camp Tianxiang Army is about to sit down. Haili is the Khitan Sixth Academy general, a middle-level general, but not comparable to a small leader.

Everyone sat down, Du Zhongxiao raised his wine and said: "In the first battle with the Khitan today, Wudu commanded the generals to capture the flag, and led the army to enter and exit calmly in the Khitan army, which can be described as a complete victory." Everyone, have a drink and congratulate General Wu! ”

Everyone raised their glasses together and congratulated Shisanlang.

Thirteen Lang picked up the wine in front of him, raised his head and drank it all, and said: "Today's beheading, the Khitan who interrogated him knows what kind of military general of the Sixth Academy he is, and he has always been brave. He rushed at me, intending to fight me. But he didn't want me to take the riding gun and come out, and he took his life with one shot, and finally became a fool. I want to come to the underworld, but I can't tell how I died. I'm not afraid of anyone with a knife and gun in front of the Thirteen Lang Formation, but I obviously have a gun on my body, which one will fight with him? Rushing into battle is something that is done with a head, so naturally it must be clean and neat! ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Yes, that's how it should be!" Why use knives and guns when you have guns? Why use a gun if you have a cannon? It's all the same thing. To engage the enemy, it is not only about killing and wounding the enemy, but also about saving yourself. Only in this way can we fight stronger and stronger, and the enemy will become weaker and weaker. ”

Shi Quanbin got up, toasted Shisanlang with a glass of wine, and exclaimed: "The dynasty established itself as a country, and fought with the Khitan several times, although there were small victories, but it was difficult to hide the big defeat. Since the alliance between Lanzhou more than 40 years ago, the two countries have calmed down, and there has been no more war. But the Khitan people are brave and good at fighting, and everyone knows that it is difficult to resist. To put it mildly, this has become the heart disease of this dynasty. Today's generals captured the flag in front of the battle, heartily and happily. This big victory, should be congratulated by the general, congratulated by the court! ”

Thirteen Lang thanked him with his hands and looked at everyone with a smile, becoming more and more energetic.

Shi Quanbin sat down and said to Du Zhongxiao: "To be controlled, such a big victory, when Pegasus reports to the court." Not to mention rewards, the focus is to boost morale and make the court feel at ease. With this first battle, I knew that the Yingtianxiang army was by no means an ordinary soldier-horse ratio, and the Khitans were not invincible! ”

Du Zhongxiao thought for a while and said, "Yes." However, with this good news, we must defeat Yelu Chongyuan this time. As long as there is the slightest accident, it will inevitably cause gossip. I originally intended to fight a few more battles, so that I would be spared, and wait for the infantry army to come up, and the combination of infantry and cavalry could defeat the Khitan. ”

Shi Quanbin said: "Why don't you let the artillery come first?" The artillery of this army is the sharpest, with them, why not be afraid of the enemy! ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The regimental training, the cavalry is brave, the artillery is sharp, it is true." However, when the two armies fought, the most fundamental thing was the infantry. There is no infantry to be the anchor of the first army, and all other branches of the army have defects and hidden dangers. Today, the Khitan army has nothing to do with our ironclad cavalry, and it is enough to win with the infantry. Vehicles and livestock in the rear had to be assembled, and the transportation capacity was limited for a while, and the artillery had to wait for some days. ”

Shi Quanbin hurriedly said: "To be controlled, why is combat infantry fundamental?" Today, the cavalry of this army can defeat the Khitan cavalry, if there is artillery support, why not break the Khitan in one fell swoop! ”

Du Zhongxiao said heartily: "Regimental training, whether it is cavalry or artillery, although it is sharp, it also has obvious weaknesses. The artillery was afraid of close combat, and once the enemy attacked the position, everything was rested. The cavalry was afraid of antlers, equipment, and complicated terrain, and if they did not notice, they would easily cause a big defeat. Only the infantry army was stable in all directions, and although the attack was insufficient, the defense was more than enough. With infantry cover, the superiority of cavalry and artillery can be brought into play. The Khitan is a nomadic country, and every army must be accompanied by more infantry than cavalry, otherwise it will not be enough to deal with the situation. ”

Although Shi Quanbin also once commanded the army, he had never experienced a war, and he didn't seem to understand what Du Zhongxiao said. He slammed his palm and sighed: "It's rare to win such a big victory, it's a pity that you can't take advantage of the victory to attack and defeat the Khitan in one go!" This dynasty has lost more than many victories against the Khitan, and a few years ago there was no choice but to do anything about the party, this time the Khitan won a big victory, to be honest, many generals were afraid of the Khitans. In the eyes of many people, the soldiers and horses of this dynasty are not as good as the Khitan, not only the horses, but also the soldiers, the generals, the Han people in the Central Plains just can't beat the Hu people! ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded slightly: "What's the way, who has lost a lot and can't get it back." In addition, regardless of the forbidden army, the army has been defeated repeatedly abroad, but the territory is very majestic, and even many people think that the Han people will not fight, and even the Han people themselves believe it. ”

Since the late Tang Dynasty, the Khitan is a northern power, five dynasties after the Jin Shi Jingtang cut the clouds of the sixteen states, to the Khitan self-proclaimed emperor, this situation is difficult to return. Yelu Deguang received the sixteen states of Youyun, and the south conquered Bianliang, and the world domain town called him to come, and Yelu Deguang recognized himself as the lord of China. If the Song army is strong enough, with the strong strength of the Central Plains, of course, it can recover Youyan in the north and defeat the Khitan. But after the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, in view of the lessons of the five dynasties, the threat of weakening the army was focused on, and the military strength was not as good as a year after a few decades. Since Emperor Zhenzong, in the face of the threat of foreign generals, he can only continue to expand the size of the army and pile up numbers. With numerical superiority, large-scale warfare can also rely on continuous consumption of the enemy, drag the enemy down, and finally make the enemy retreat. This is the advantage of national strength, there is nothing unusual, after a thousand years, the difference between the combat strength of the national army and the aggressor is even greater than now, not all of them have dragged on to the final victory. But in a small war, there is no way. There were victories in skirmishes, no campaign victories.

This has nothing to do with Chongwen suppressing the military, in essence, in order to eliminate the threat of military power to imperial power, the forbidden army basically no longer has senior generals. The high-ranking generals only have treatment, and there are many temperance envoys among the military generals, and the treatment is no worse than that of the chief executive, but they do not have the actual right to command the army. In the forbidden army, the commanders in the real sense of the word, the commanders of tens of thousands of people are almost fictitious, and the battalion commanders who really have the right to command the troops are almost fictitious. When a person joins the army, even if he goes from a non-commissioned officer to a military manager, and achieves the extreme of a general, he also has neither experience in leading a large-scale corps, nor in commanding a large corps in combat.

In order to stabilize the imperial power, Taizong adopted at least two fundamental methods. First, the treatment of military generals is stronger than that of civilian officials, but the promotion is slower than that of civilian officials, but once there is military merit, it is faster than that of civilian officials. The other is to turn the army, which needs the most organizational skills, into a plate of scattered sand. In the final analysis, it is a matter of organizational strength. Above the battalion, the forbidden army has no organizational capacity. It is not a question of the officer's ability, but that there is no organization in the system, and it is difficult to win the battle under the leadership of such an army immortal.

The fundamental reason for the civilian command of the army is not to suppress the military generals, but that the military generals are blank at the level of commanders, and the vacancies can only be filled with civilian officials. Civilian officials still have the concept of organization, and most military generals don't even have a concept, and the imperial court only teaches the map in battle.

Why is Di Qing valued by the emperor? It is believed that he has the ability to be the commander of the whole road, which is the straw that proves that there is no problem with the previous military system. Although when he was in the northwest, Di Qing had never won a battle as a commander, and he had done it in every position. Di Qing must be the commander of the Southern Expedition, that is, to have a record and prove that this is a qualified commander, a commander from a soldier to a privy lieutenant.

After bringing soldiers for several years, Du Zhongxiao has seen these things clearly. I am not familiar with military affairs, and I also know from the knowledge in my memory that the combat effectiveness of the army first comes from the strength of the organization. If the organizational ability is not good, how can the combat power be strong?

The basic organization of the battalion and field army is set at about 1,000 people, which is similar to the art of war in history, and it is a basic unit. However, the battalion commander of the battalion field army is not the battlefield commander, but should be at the next level. At the higher level, they do not directly command the troops.

Shi Quanbin's authorities are fascinated, and they still regard the Khitan people as tigers, and the color of the smell changes, but Du Zhongxiao will not. Today, when I watched the process of the Khitan people fighting, I knew that I had thought too much of them before. This reason is similar to the Sino-Japanese War in history, when the national army was almost invincible in the face of the Japanese army, not only the army, but also the people felt that the Japanese army was invincible. It wasn't until the other side came up that I realized how ridiculous this idea was. With the same weapon, the Chinese army can beat the Japanese army to the.

It's not that the enemy is too strong, it's that you're too weak. It's not that the Han people can't fight, it's that the army of the imperial court can't fight. These are two different things.

This is the imperial mental trick that some people admire, divide and conquer. was clever for a while, but the harm was endless, and finally he died and the country was destroyed. The army of the Empress Song Dynasty continued like this, because the emperor took a fancy to this set of ruling techniques, and would rather humiliate foreign enemies than poison the world. The emperors who did this, including those who did not have the name of an emperor but had the reality of an emperor, were also considered to be extraordinary, but those who were driven to the island due to bad luck were praised by many. But I don't know that for the real emperor, if there is no public heart, how can he protect himself?