Zhao Jun barracks, Wu Wu Field.

The two teams of Zhao Jun stood opposite each other, wearing red and black clothes, but the number of people was not equal, there were only more than 300 people on the side wearing red, while there were more than 600 people on the side in black, and the gap was at least more than double.

And the arrays of the two sides are not the same, Black is still a traditional phalanx queue, with hundreds of people as a square, a total of six phalanxes, divided into two rows, the front row of phalanx soldiers use spears, the back row uses swords and shields, neatly and neatly. The red side, on the other hand, lined up in a column. The number of each team is fifteen, and they are arranged in two columns, and the distance between each team is about four or five meters, and the weapons used are also different, such as shields, halberds, axes, bows, crossbows, etc., which makes people look a little chaotic.

At this time, Li Mu and the generals took their seats on the high platform of the martial arts arena, looking at the obviously unequal two sides in the audience, the faces of the vast majority of people showed a look of surprise, because in the eyes of the vast majority of people, the number of people on the red side is small, and the array weapons are not uniform, this battle is almost certain to lose.

At this time, Gao Yuan came out and said: "General, you can start, please give an order." ”

Li Mudao: "Gao Yuan, is the gap between the number of opponents too big, I think it is better to make the number of people on both sides equal, so that the comparison is fairer." ”

Gao Yuan shook his head and said with a smile: "Please rest assured, since it is a formation, it is natural to be able to win more with less, so as to show the subtlety of the formation, if the number of people on both sides is equal, there will be no need for a formation." ”

Li Mu said with a smile: "Okay, since you are full of confidence in your formation, then I won't stop it, let's take a look at the subtleties of the formation you have trained." By the way, what is the name of this formation of yours? ”

Gao Yuan said: "It's called the Mandarin Duck Array." ”

Hearing this name, all the generals in the stands couldn't help laughing, and Yuan Xuan said: "Doctor Gao, I've heard of the Eight Formations of Heaven and Earth, Dragons, Tigers, Snakes, and Birds, and I've never heard of the Mandarin Duck Formation. ”

Gao Yuan also smiled: "Because this formation is the same left and right, it resembles a mandarin duck companion, so it is named, but if you underestimate this formation because of this name, you will suffer a big loss." ”

Yuan Xuan also smiled: "Okay, I really want to see what is so powerful about this mandarin duck array." ”

In fact, nearly 2,000 years later, the Mandarin Duck Array was created by Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general, which is a small formation that integrates many weapons and gives full play to the effectiveness of various weapons.

The mandarin duck array created by Qi Jiguang is a group of eleven people, with a captain, two players, two wolf cage players, four pikemen, and two palladium players. These eleven people form an organic whole and cooperate with each other to fight. And there are also changes in the Five Elements Array, the Three Talents Array, etc., which are extremely powerful in infantry combat, and they cannot be solved for hundreds of years after Qi Jiguang and until the end of the era of cold weapons.

Of course, the plateau is not a complete copy of the mandarin duck array created by Qi Jiguang, although the power of this formation is huge, but the plateau will not blindly copy the rigid routine, after all, the times are different, and the combat environment is also different. The Mandarin Duck Formation created by Qi Jiguang was mainly to fight against the Japanese Invaders, although the personal combat effectiveness of the Japanese Invaders was strong, but the main weapons were short weapons such as katanas, lack of long-range weapons, no cavalry, etc., so Qi Jiguang did not add long-range weapons such as crossbowmen to the Mandarin Duck Formation.

In fact, Qi Jiguang did not blindly set the mandarin duck array in any environment, and when Qi Jiguang was guarding the north in the later period, he made some modifications to the mandarin duck array, and added long-range firearms such as handcuffs and bird guns, so that the power of the mandarin duck array was greater, and it also had a certain ability to fight against the cavalry. It's just that when Qi Jiguang was stationed in the north, there were not many battles that really happened, because the mandarin duck array was in the northern battlefield, how much power it could exert in the cavalry attack against the nomads was not tested in actual combat. However, with Qi Jiguang's talent, he shouldn't be bad there.

Gao Yuan only made some modifications according to the principle of the Mandarin Duck Formation, first of all, the number of people was expanded to a team of 15 people, and there was still a team leader, who was responsible for commanding the whole team. At the head of the array are two shieldmen, who use a large shield that is more than four feet tall to protect the whole team, and a new sword that allows them to engage in melee combat with enemies.

The wolf cage is a weapon that is actually a kind of bamboo that is a specialty of the south, and it is simply a weapon with a lot of branches and branches that can attack a wide range. And now the plateau can't find a similar weapon for a while, and it's too late to cast, so for the time being, two halberd soldiers are used to replace the wolf cage hand. Behind the halberdmen, there were still four pikemen, and after the pikemen, the two palladium-bearers, the plateau was replaced by double-edged axemen, each with a small round shield and five javelins. The four additional people are two archers and two crossbowmen, who are responsible for long-range attacks, and each person is also equipped with a sword, which can be used in close combat.

When engaging the enemy, the shield bearer and the halberd bearer are responsible for blocking the enemy and covering the attack of the four pikemen, and the double-edged axe men are projected with javelins, and if the enemy attacks from both sides, the double-edged axe men will be changed to melee combat to protect the flanks of the whole team. Crossbowmen, on the other hand, waited for the opportunity to shoot, depending on the situation on the battlefield, either by shooting from a distance with their crossbows, or by assisting the double-edged axemen to cover the whole team. In addition, if a companion in front of you is injured and killed, he will be filled immediately. At the same time, each squad should maintain a distance of five to six meters from each other, and keep their heads together.

In short, no matter how the number of people changes, they always insist on teamwork, give full play to the effectiveness of various weapons, cooperate with each other, and fight against the enemy as a whole. This is where the essence of the mandarin duck array lies.

However, although Gao Yuan also knows that the Mandarin Duck Array is a very powerful formation, but it is all seen from the almanac, after all, it has not really been used, so at the beginning, there is not much bottom in my heart, just formed ten Mandarin Duck Array squads, after more than a month of training, the power of the Mandarin Duck Array also began to play out, in the confrontation training, and the same number of opponents, the Mandarin Duck Array won a complete victory, according to the rules of confrontation training, a total of one hundred and seven people were killed on the other side, And he only injured thirteen people.

After doubling the number of opponents, the Mandarin Duck Formation was still able to win easily, killing a total of 157 opponents in almost half an hour of confrontation, while its own loss was 41.

At this time, Gao Yuan was fully convinced that the Mandarin Duck Formation was indeed a very useful formation in infantry melee combat. Only then did the number of soldiers trained expand, and after more than a month of training, a total of 60 Mandarin Duck Formation squads were trained on the plateau, with a total of 900 people. However, due to the time spent on training, there is no training for the Mandarin Duck Formation, the Five Elements Formation and the Three Talents Formation. But now it is also possible to present the results of the training over the past two months in front of the whole army.

In this match, Gao Yuan dispatched twenty Mandarin Duck Formation squads, a total of three hundred people, against the six hundred soldiers under Yuan Xuan. Because it is a confrontation training, the soldiers all use wooden weapons, and of course, the knives, double-edged axes and other weapons used by the soldiers under the plateau are just made by the carpenters in the army.

Li Mu nodded and said, "Okay, let's start." ”

With Li Mu's order, the soldiers on both sides immediately pushed forward according to their own queues. However, because this confrontation training was mainly to check the melee power of the Mandarin Duck Array, the Mandarin Duck Array did not stop to launch strikes with long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows first.

But when the two sides advanced to a distance of only more than 20 meters, the Mandarin Duck Formation launched the attack first, and the double-edged axe soldiers first threw javelins at the opponent.

Because both sides are using wooden weapons, the tips of the guns and halberds are wrapped in thick cloth, and the swords are blunt, but they are stained with white paint, and they are a white spot when they hit the person, but basically it will not cause much damage to the human body.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was only more than 20 meters, and the array was very dense, so the hit rate of sixty double-edged axe men throwing javelins was extremely high, and more than 30 people on the other side were hit and "killed", and then the crossbowmen also opened their bows and arrows, and the number of dead on the black side had exceeded 100 before the two sides engaged.

In this era, crossbowmen were basically formed separately, and only launched long-range strikes before the melee battles between the two sides. And once the two sides fought white-knuckle, the crossbowmen were basically fine, because they were afraid of accidentally injuring their companions, at most they would use the method of projectile to hit the opponent's rear formation.

However, there are very few people who mix crossbowmen with other arms. Because in general, crossbowmen are not very good at fighting, and once the two sides are in close combat, the bow and arrow will not play a role. Of course, when the battle is ready to be built, the crossbowmen will also rush forward to participate in the white-knuckle battle. And this time it was mainly to assess the melee combat ability of both sides, so there were no crossbowmen among the six hundred soldiers selected by Yuan Xuan.

The Mandarin Duck Formation is a mixed formation of a variety of weapons, and each squad is equipped with a large number of javelins and crossbowmen, so when the two sides first come into contact, they also have a big advantage. However, the red side did not start the long-range strike until the two sides were close to about 20 meters, which is not considered a violation. Moreover, there are many black players, and they don't care about that, but even the distance of 20 meters is enough for Red to strike first and give the opponent a dismount first.

However, the distance between the two sides was too close to each other, so there was only enough time for the crossbowmen to fire a single shot, and only a few archers and double-edged axemen were able to launch a second round. The two sides immediately engaged in a fierce battle.