Before the outbreak of the Great War, there was always a special silence. Around Bai Huze, almost no sound could be heard. The birds of the sky are gone, and the reptiles of the earth are gone. Even, even the wind disappeared. In the past, there was a wind blowing across the lake, causing ripples. Now, the surface of the lake is as smooth as a mirror, and there is not the slightest ripple in sight. Between heaven and earth, there was not the slightest sound, so silent that everyone could clearly hear their heartbeat.

White Tiger Ze, legend has it that there is a white tiger bathing here, and the pit left by its rolling has become a lake. Since then, fairies have come down from the heavenly steps to bathe in the lake. For many grassland peoples, this is a very moving legend. However, at this time, what everyone thinks of is not the beautiful and moving legend of Baihuze, not the admirable fairy, but about the ferocity of the tiger. No matter which side of the confrontation is, they hope that they are like tigers descending from the mountain, pounce on them at once, and eat the other party completely.

In fact, in the battle of the cold weapon era, you can indeed rush directly and start a melee with the other party, you don't need any formation at all, you just need to blindly rush forward and kill all the enemies you encounter. At that time, there was not much cooperation between the troops, at most it was swords, guns, swords and halberds in front, and archers in the back. If there is a ballista or something, it will be arranged for the ballista to shoot first to deter the enemy.

However, in the age of firearms, this was changed. The advent of firearms has brought more types of troops and more ways to fight. Musketeers, cannons, all new. Their appearance has changed the composition of the army a lot. There have also been tremendous changes in the recruitment of soldiers and the structure of personnel. In the end, the country's national defense strength has undergone a fundamental change.

Previously, it could take three years to train an archer. When recruiting soldiers, it is also necessary to select those with good physical fitness, crooked melons and cracked dates, and those who are not strong enough. Otherwise, even if you go to the battlefield, it will be a death. Now, to train a musketeer, it only takes three months. Moreover, in the recruitment of soldiers, as long as you can afford to hold a musket and have no major diseases, you are considered a qualified candidate.

The advent of artillery made the battle more bloody and dangerous. In the past, the divine arm bow and ballista of the Song Dynasty, and the return cannon of the Mengyuan army can be said to be powerful weapons. However, these weapons, in front of the cannons, can no longer be put on the table. Whether in terms of range or power, or in terms of devotion and utility, the cannon completely surpasses all other weapons. With the development of the times, the role of artillery is becoming more and more important. A lot of the fighting style revolves around artillery.

From the time of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, the mainstream combat method was to concentrate artillery to take the lead in attacking, blowing up a bloody road, opening a breakthrough, and then the main cavalry rushed up, breaking through the enemy's formation, disrupting the enemy's deployment, and even dividing and surrounding the enemy, and then the infantry of the brigade followed, expanding the results to the two wings, and finally won the battle. Two hundred years later, Napoleon took this approach to the extreme.

The tactics of the nomads are actually similar. Since there were no cannons, they would use their bows and arrows to fire in turns, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy until a gap was opened, and then a large number of cavalry rushed up, widening the gap, disrupting the enemy's deployment, and at the same time dividing and surrounding the enemy, and finally completely crushing the enemy. Genghis Khan's expedition to the west used such tactics to continuously defeat the enemy's heavy cavalry. Otherwise, with the strength of the Mongol archers, it would be impossible to confront the heavy cavalry of the Western countries.

It can be seen that the key to both tactics is to open a breakthrough. As long as the breakthrough is opened, the enemy can be divided and encircled, so that the enemy will fall into a state of chaos, so that the enemy will lose organized resistance, and the enemy will not have the ability to fight back. If the breakthrough cannot be opened, the two sides will be locked in a long standoff. This confrontation is absolutely painful. In addition to constantly consuming the manpower, material and financial resources of both sides, there is no other role.

Therefore, for a clever commander, the first thing to consider when arranging troops is how to avoid being broken through by the enemy, how to avoid being broken in by the enemy, and how to avoid being divided and surrounded by the enemy. If an enemy does break in, how can they be annihilated or expelled? This makes the layout of the barracks very complicated. For this, Xu Xingxia thinks he doesn't understand. However, he has an expert to assist.

This expert is Lin Shenhe, the original staff general of Ningxia Town. Lin Shenhe has been a military household in Ningxia Town since he was a child, and like Xu Xingxia's background, he belongs to the kind of mud on the soles of his feet. He was diligent and studious, good at summing up experience, and was promoted to the position of general all the way. It can be said that his combat experience is quite rich. He also has a full understanding of all the details of the army. For example, camping or something, you know it well.

With his assistance, Xu Xingxia can let go and do something else. He had every reason to rest assured that no matter how bad Lin Shenhe was, he was not bad enough to betray himself to the Mongols. Xu Xingxia went to the inside of the barracks and walked out of the door. At this time, the Mongols were still gathering in the distance, and they had no intention of launching an attack for the time being. It is estimated that Lin Dan Khan's meaning should be to wait for all the troops to be assembled before launching an attack in one go.

The camp laid down by the white-clothed army is very close to Baihuze. This is for easy access to water. On the prairie, not everywhere, there is a water source. Each cavalryman actually carries a large water bladder to store water. In the vicinity of the battlefield, if there is a water source, it must be controlled to the death. Otherwise, if the water source is lost, the consequences will be serious. People can control a certain amount of water drinking, but war horses cannot. War horses need to consume 30 times more water than humans every day. If you don't have enough water, you can't go to war at all.

Similarly, the Mongol cavalry also controlled the northern side of Baihuze. The Mongols had a greater number of horses and needed to consume more water per day. If there is no lake to support it, it is dangerous. Lin Dan Khan is also well aware of this. No one knows how long the battle with the white-clothed army will last!

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

In front of the barracks of the white-clothed army, someone was urging loudly.

Xu Xingxia himself was also standing near the barracks, carefully observing the movements of the people in front of him.

Over there, the sappers of the white-clothed army are laying upside down horse piles. Due to the tight time and heavy tasks, the fighters of the engineer battalion were in full swing. If it weren't for the military uniforms on their bodies, they would have thought that this was a construction site somewhere in the Black Mountain camp. Originally, the side van was the best obstacle against the cavalry. However, the movement speed of the van was too slow, and Xu Xingxia did not carry it this time. However, in the face of the fierce cavalry of the nomads, the white-clothed army had to set up certain obstacles. If there are no obstacles, it is too dangerous to let the Mongol cavalry rush straight up.

After everyone's brainstorming, the problem was finally effectively solved. These wooden piles, inclined at about forty-five degrees, are the masterpieces of the sapper battalion. It's actually a dry stake with a sharpened end. The diameter of each root is about five inches, and the length is about one zhang and five feet. When in use, one-third of the stakes are buried in the earth, and the remaining two-thirds are tilted forward diagonally. The height of the tip of the stake is just in the belly of the horse.

One can imagine what the consequences would be if a high-speed galloping war horse hit the top of a pointed wooden stake. The wooden stakes buried at an angle can effectively block the impact of the war horses, and at the same time easily stab them to death. If someone falls down and hangs on a stake, the final result will definitely be a life. The corpses of stabbed dead people or war horses can form an effective obstacle to prevent the cavalry behind from continuing to attack.

To be honest, in the early days of firearms, cavalry could still win in the face of musketeers, and even abuse each other. A simple musketeer could not hold back the onslaught of a large group of cavalry, even if the musket was loaded with a bayonet. It was necessary to equip a certain number of spearmen, using spears to block the assault of the cavalry. The white-clothed army did not have spearmen, and these pointed stakes played the role of spearmen. Of course, it is not as flexible as a spearman. However, the cost of stakes is low! The use of inverted horse piles can save a lot of manpower.

The weight of a dry wooden stake is about fifty or sixty catties, and an ordinary war horse can carry about five of them. The stronger ones can carry six. The engineer battalion had 500 horses, which could carry 2,500 horses. If you continue to increase the number of horses in the engineer battalion, you will be able to carry more inverted horse piles. Thousands of inverted horse stakes are equivalent to thousands of spearmen, and with thousands of musketeers, they can basically block the attack of cavalry.

Of course, in absolute terms, such a number is still not enough. The number of Mongol cavalry was so large that 2,500 inverted horse piles could not completely block their attack. However, it only needs to stagger these stakes to effectively hinder their attacking speed. What Xu Xingxia needed was to reduce the enemy's charge speed and buy more time for the musketeers and trebuchets. The slower the Mongol attack, the greater the casualties they sustained.

It must be known that the galloping speed of the cavalry is very fast. It's like a speeding car, and when you turn, you need a minimum turning radius. Ordinary war horses need at least ten zhang of distance to turn completely. Therefore, it is only necessary to stagger the straight position of the stake at a distance of five zhang from the front and back to effectively block the cavalry's assault. If the Mongols were within five feet and could not turn effectively, they would crash into the stake.

In fact, the best way to deal with cavalry is the cavalry itself. Any other class of troops, when dealing with cavalry, has inherent deficiencies. Only the cavalry itself is the nemesis of the cavalry. The main force of the Yue family's army is the cavalry. When the Ming army rose, the main force was also cavalry. Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Lan Yu, and Fu Youde are all masters of using cavalry. If Xu Xingxia also had 30,000 cavalry in his hands, he would definitely fight against the Mongols. It's a pity that he doesn't have 30,000 people. There's no way, for the time being, it's just guarded.

"My lord, the stakes are all arranged." The commander of the engineer battalion came up to report.

"Good! You guys are doing a great job! Xu Xingxia's heart fell to the ground, and he subconsciously looked at the Mongolian camp in the distance. Over there, the sound of horses' hooves was constantly heard, and it was estimated that it was still being assembled. In fact, the cavalry of the white-clothed army is also constantly gathering. The white-clothed stragglers around Bai Huze were all concentrating in the direction of Bai Huze.

As long as the inverted horse pile is placed, Xu Xingxia is not afraid that Lin Dan Khan will go crazy. On the contrary, the more Lin Dan Khan went crazy, the happier he became. The combination of trebuchets, muskets, and inverted horse stakes will cause a lot of bleeding and casualties among the Mongol cavalry. It is estimated that in the next few days, the water of Baihuze may turn red!

"Liu Chuang, inform the others and reserve more water!" Xu Xingxia said.

…… At this moment, inside Lin Dan Khan's golden sweat tent, there was a scorching atmosphere. The golden saber handed down from the time of Genghis Khan hangs in the most conspicuous position behind Lin Dan Khan, and everyone can see it at first sight. All the Mongol nobles above the commander of a thousand men gathered around Lin Dan Khan, waiting for the order to attack.

In the official setting of the Mongols, there is also the existence of the commander. However, this position is generally replaced by other positions. Because those who can sit on the throne of the captain are remarkable. It seems that Gui Yingcha himself is the captain of ten thousand years. However, he has other duties. Most people call him other positions, and they don't call him Captain Wan.

Through the efforts of the scouts, the basic situation of the armies on both sides was basically clear. The total strength of the white-clothed army is about 10,000 people. On the Mongol side, there were about 24,000 people. When they set out from Guihua City, there were 30,000 Mongols, and they were constantly entangled with the white-clothed army on the road, and as a result, before they knew it, they lost more than 5,000 people. That's a pretty big number. What's more, this number also contains a considerable number of iron lance cavalry. Fortunately, Lin Dan Khan has ordered the continued transfer of troops from Guihua City, and it is believed that reinforcements will arrive soon.

"Below the centurion, kill Xu Xingxia and be promoted to three levels!"

"Below the commander of a thousand years, kill Xu Xingxia and upgrade two levels!"

"Below the commander of ten thousand, kill Xu Xingxia and upgrade to the next level!"

In order to defeat Xu Xingxia, Lin Dan Khan did not hesitate to reward himself. He waved his hands and sent huge temptations to each of his subordinates. Sure enough, the attractive rewards stimulated the officers at all levels below. They all can't wait to attack. Only the fierce general Tai Chiwu hesitated a little.

(To be continued)