The Mo family chose to build a fortress against the Chu State in the Yicheng area north of Echeng because of the special topography of this place.

The feudal monarchs of the Huaibei Central Plains of the Chu State wanted to support, and it was impossible to climb over the Dabie Mountain, and even if they did, the number of people who crossed it could not be too many.

If you don't cross the Dabie Mountain, you have to capture the important town of the Huai River occupied by the Mo family as a hub, and the affairs over there are not under the control of the six fingers, and I believe that the troops left in the Sishang Jianghuai will take care of the rear of the flanks.

This support army of Shen Gong and Jiuzi should be the last support army that the main force of Chu can rely on in the short term.

The current strict defense of the Sixth Division, coupled with the number of artillery guards on the sandbank that the Chu State was shocked by, and the Mo family's behavior of attacking the city of Hucheng Daye within a few days, all made the Chu State believe that the Mo family had transferred the main force to the south bank of the Yangtze River.

In fact, only the Sixth Division was stationed on Shazhou, and only two companies of the combat engineer brigade stationed together were left in Jiangbei, and the Chu people could not attack it, and according to past experience, there must be the main force of the Mo family.

In this way, the position of Shen Gong and Jiuzi Guo is no longer important, it is better to gather this force covering the flank towards the main force and defend it here.

The scouts of the Xie Xuan Army had already taken control of the battlefield east of Ba Shui, and the hydrological situation in the upper reaches of Ba Shui was well known.

Liuzhi left a total of two divisions of troops and some recruits and militia and logistics for follow-up support, stationed in the large battalion to guard the south bank.

After deceiving the Chu people, the main force immediately assembled and headed north.

He personally led the only formed cavalry division, two infantry divisions, and a formation artillery brigade to the north first, and the main forces behind gathered and approached, crossing the river in batches.

After the six-fingered sappers set up the pontoon bridge, the cavalry immediately crossed Ba Shui and went straight to the place where Shen Gong marched.

He ordered that if Shen Gong was negligent in his defense, the soldiers would be quick and take advantage of Shen Gong's forces to break the enemy with one blow.

A cavalry division has more than 7,000 cavalry, and if Shen Gong's troops are not deployed, it is likely that a single attack will completely defeat Shen Gong's troops.

However, if Shen Gong was prepared, the cavalry patrolled the vicinity, forcing Shen Gong to turn to defense on the spot, and the infantry and artillery under his leadership would follow and encircle and annihilate Shen Gong and the troops of the Jiuzi Kingdom.

The follow-up main force must be steady and steady, build a formal pontoon bridge, and occupy the hill to camp and settle down, and prepare for the movement of the Chu army.

At the same time, an elite company of the advance battalion was dispatched, and after crossing the river, it rode and maneuvered to attack the direction of Yicheng.

If you encounter a heavy transport team of Chu people along the way, if there are few people, they will attack and kill, and if there are many people, they will withdraw, so as to frighten the Chu army and intimidate the logistics of the grain and the way to retreat.

Fifty miles away from the camp of the state of Chu, the army of Duke Shen and the state of Jiuzi was advancing.

This is not the new army of the king division of the Chu State, but a local county soldier and peasant army, with obvious remnants of the old era.

Chariots, baggage carts, and chariots were arrayed, and the baggage carts were loaded with grain and grass, and the vain soldiers slowly followed.

The only difference from the previous one is that some of the apprentices are equipped with arquebuses, which are the best choice for projection classes under the collapse of the rural shooting system after the collapse of the Ida system, compared to the number of archers in the past.

There are so many troops that can be used in the hands of Shen Gong, after the Mo family captured several cities in Huainan before, Shen Gong also immediately sent troops to rescue, but he was introduced into a trap and wiped out, so that the feudal monarch of Huaibei no longer dared to rescue with thousands of troops.

If you don't dare to rescue with thousands of troops, you can only wait for the various feudal lords to gather troops to organize an army, and it takes time to organize an army, and the vicinity of the Mo family bought the most needed time for Sishang.

Although only a few thousand people were eliminated, its strategic significance was extremely significant, making Feng Jun think that the Mo family's mobility was so good that the rapid support of thousands of people was to throw meat to fight dogs, and did not dare to move lightly.

Now that the army of Marshal Shen has passed through the three passes and arrived in Hubei, the troops are stationed in Jiuzi, plus the thousand and five soldiers of the Jiuzi country who have been forcibly recruited, this is all he can take.

Including the soldiers of the two divisions of his headquarters, there were only 17,800 people, of which no more than 3,000 were brave soldiers, and the rest were conscripted peasant soldiers.

Shendi is an important place in the Chu State, and Shen Gong is also a veteran hereditary nobleman of the Chu State, and he still has some experience in warfare.

The surprise attack of the cavalry division of the Xie Xuan Army was not successful, and after being discovered by the scouts, Shen Gong threw away about a thousand people with the courage of a strong man to break his wrist, and then surrounded the chariot to form a formation to defend himself.

But Shen Gong's support army could not move.

With such a cavalry nearby, if you move, you will die, and you can only have a chance if you form a formation and wait for the main force of Chu to come to the rescue.

He formed a formation near the water, so that the sergeant was not cut off from the water source and died of thirst; There was also food on the wagon, and the army held out for ten days without any problem.

In the barracks, Shen Gong was not panicked, stroked his long hair, and said to the generals: "As a general, you must not know the battle." Those who know the formation must not know how to form a formation, and they must not know how to break the formation. Only when you know how to attack can you know how to defend. ”

"When our army marches, and the enemy attacks quickly, it will form a circle."

"Circle formation, so the regiment also. The chariot is the city, and the pole is the wall, which is divided into eight directions. The elite soldiers were in the gaps in all directions, the soldiers were surrounded by the chariots, and the bows, crossbows and muskets were lined up in front of the array. ”

"If the enemy attacks, there will be a head everywhere and a tail everywhere."

In the past, this was a secret of the nobility, and if you can master these truths, you can worship them.

The generals and soldiers did not immediately bow their heads to listen, and when they saw that after the formation was formed, the Mo cavalry really could not break the formation, and they were greatly amazed.

Shen Gong said again: "Those who defend the formation, you must not know the way to break the formation. ”

"If it is a round formation, and the food is sufficient, I will use the circle formation to take Xu, because I think it is solid, and the enemy wants to attack it, and the people of the three armies will be divided into four or five, or Fu and feint to the north, and show their fear. If I see the enemy fearful, I will divide it and ignore it, because if I destroy the solidity of my formation, I will be in danger. The enemy drums are raised together, the five teams are all together, and the three armies have the same benefits, and the circle can be broken. ”

"It is the method of guarding the circle formation, and we must treat the enemy with solidity, and we must not chase lightly or let go of the formation."

He said so much, in fact, it can be summed up in one sentence.

Once the enemy suddenly encounters, forming a circle formation is the safest, and the enemy wants to break the formation, there is only one way, that is, to disperse the troops, attack from all sides, and then feint to retreat. Once the circle kick feels that this is an opportunity to pursue, and turns the attack into the lead, causing the entire circle formation to disperse, then the attacking side takes advantage of the chaotic period of the formation change to suddenly attack again, and the circle formation will be broken.

If you want to hold the circle, you should not take the initiative to attack, and do not pursue when you see the enemy retreating, but you must hold on for a few days, and after making sure that the enemy is really tired, you can change the formation and counterattack.

For the peasants and soldiers with extremely poor discipline, only the formation is the way to ensure the battle, and once the formation is broken, it is easy to have a unique move to kill a hundred.

Judging from Shen Gong's experience, these soldiers and generals around him have the ability to fight against a hundred.

…………

Outside the round formation, the cavalry division that did not take advantage of Shen Gong's march was resting, but only let a few companies continue to harass in front.

The commander of the cavalry division looked at the round formation under Shen Xuan from a high place, shook his head and smiled, and said to the representative of the division and ink around him: "The giant often says that most of the bloodline nobles are now dry bones in the grave, and they don't even have the ability to fight, so they really have no need to exist. ”

"The dry bones in the grave, old and decayed, broken with one blow, and do not know how to change, will be captured by the rising generation."

The representative of the master ink scholar looked at the circle array announced by Shen Xuan, and also smiled: "Yes, there are dry bones in the mound." When we were in Takayanagi, we went deep into the grassland, and we often borrowed cars to set up a circle. But what do we rely on to set up the circle? ”

"With our bronze cannons, muskets, and a cavalry ready to attack, we can tear apart the enemy if we seize the opportunity."

"This old nobleman wants cannons or cannons, cavalry and no cavalry, and sets up a circular formation, is this waiting for death?"

He pointed to the distance and said, "Eight miles west of this place, there is a water land. If I were for him, I would have fought with all my might, formed a formation and retreated slowly, and retreated eight miles to change formations in the place of the water. ”

The commander of the cavalry division said with a smile: "Shen Gong's troops are not our first division, surrounded by cavalry, they form a formation and retreat eight miles while fighting?" If these soldiers with dry bones in the grave really want to be so able to fight, can we push them all the way from Hongze to here without even encountering any decent resistance? ”

"He shouldn't have set up a circle, it's a dead end. The era they were familiar with had passed. ”

After laughing at the stupidity of the other side, the commander of the cavalry division made a few more circles, told the soldiers to rest on the spot, and the various brigades took turns to be on guard, trying to attack, and luring to see if the other side would rush out.

After teasing like this for most of the day, in the afternoon, Six Fingers arrived with two brigades of infantry and an artillery brigade, resting on the spot and choosing a decisive battle tomorrow morning.

Six Fingers' opinion was similar to that of the commander of the cavalry division, and the unanimous conclusion was that he was facing a group of dry bones in the mound.

The enemy is expected to be wide, and the material is a little too wide.

In such a place, they have no artillery, no advantage in projection forces, no elite cavalry, and the moment they form a circle, they declare defeat.

According to Liuzhi's thoughts, if he encounters such a situation, there seems to be no better way.

But the question is...... The set of things of the Mo family is placed there, but the nobles dare not learn, refuse to learn, have no way to learn, and refuse to give up their feudal rights, then these people should be eliminated, it is really impossible to keep up with the times even in the war, then it is really useless except to catch Sishang singing and dancing.

Early the next morning.

Six Fingers didn't use any kind of strategy, but put on a formation that might be the easiest one he had ever fought in these battles.

Two infantry divisions left three brigades as reserves, and the rest of the infantry echelons were deployed.

The artillery brigade formed artillery positions on both flanks of the front to form cross-flank fire, and the cavalry division divided two brigades to detour to the rear, and the rest were deployed on both flanks.

He didn't even want to command this boring, massacre-like battle, and waved his hand: "The artillery will bombard for an hour." The bombardment was scattered, the foot soldiers fired a volley forward, and the cavalry pursued. Each department does it in accordance with the regulations of weekday training. ”