Ancient formations

Many recruits who have just entered the army do not understand the training of the troops, believing that the neat queue of troops in modern warfare has no role at all in actual combat, especially for recruits who are active in thinking and have relatively high academic qualifications. And the grassroots officers who lead the team often do not know the meaning of the queue training. As a result, there are a series of negative effects such as inactive training. I'll talk more about how queues are generated...

The queue is not created in a vacuum, the appearance of the queue is of practical significance... If you trace back to the source, the distant relatives of the modern queue should be the "array" of the era of cold weapon warfare, when it comes to "array", we may often think of "Yang Jiajiang", "Water Margin" and other commentaries, what "Tianmen Array", "Eight Gate Golden Lock Array", "Binary Mixed Array" depicted in the old one. During the battle, as long as the enemy general rushes into the formation, the formation will fly sand and rocks, black fog will be filled, shouting and killing, and thus being trapped in the formation. In short, in the eyes of us ordinary people, it is mysterious... In fact, this is a myth of the ancient military formation, and it is nonsense to cater to the taste of the public. . .

"Formation" exists, and the formation is a kind of configuration of battle formation, which was produced under the conditions of short-handed combat in ancient wars in order to require unified command and coordinated action on the battlefield. Ancient China paid great attention to formations, and there were books from generation to generation. According to Jin Yuguo, a doctor of military science who has studied ancient military formations in China, the definition of "array" is as follows: The so-called "array" means that when the army is put into battle, it arranges the battle formation according to the specific conditions of the terrain and the strength of the enemy and us. In other words, a formation is the arrangement and combination of various battle formations. The earliest formations are believed to have originated in the hunting activities of primitive societies. The arrays used in our slave society have been mostly lost in the passage of time today, and we can only simulate and study the arrays at that time through ancient texts... The following author will introduce some typical or more detailed formations...

During the Warring States Period, "Sun Bin Art of War" collected the culmination of the ancestors, and summarized the ancient formations before the Spring and Autumn Period into ten formations. These "ten arrays" are the square array, the circle array, the sparse array, the several arrays, the cone array, the goose-shaped array, the hook array, the Xuanxiang array, the water array, the fire array, etc. The water array and the fire array talk about the tactics of water warfare and fire warfare, not a simple battle formation, so Sun Bin Ten Formations actually only have eight basic battle formations...

Phalanx: The policy is the most basic formation of the army in the era of cold weapons. The large phalanx is composed of small phalanxes, which is called "the formation in the array", Sun Bin believes that the phalanx should be "thin and thick", that is, the strength in the center of the phalanx is small, and the troops around it are more. There are few troops in the middle, and you can bluff. There are many troops around, which can better defend against the enemy's attack, and the phalanx is a relatively balanced formation of attack and defense. The command and other golden drum flags are generally deployed at the rear of the phalanx.

Circle Formation: The Circle Formation is for ring defense. The Golden Drum Banner was deployed in the center and had no obvious weaknesses.

Sparse formation: The sparse formation is the evacuation of the battle formation, and the square array and the circle formation can be dredging into the sparse formation. The sparse formation increased the distance between the ranks, through many tree flags, weapons, straw men, and more torches at night, showing strong strength with a small number of troops.

Several formations: Several formations are dense battle formations, concentrating on defense and offense.

Cone formation: It is a battle formation with a cone of strikers, the cone formation must be sharp and fast, the two wings are strong and powerful, and the enemy can be attacked by the elite strikers in a narrow front, breaking through and cutting the enemy's formation, and the two wings expand the results, which is a formation that emphasizes offensive breakthroughs, and the cone formation is also called the peony formation.

Goose-shaped formation: The so-called goose-shaped formation is a kind of battle formation that is horizontally deployed, and the left and right wings are arranged forward or backward in echelons, and the forward is a "V" shape, just like the arms of the ape stretched forward, which is a formation used to outflank the roundabout, but the defense of the rear is relatively weak. If the two wings are more mobile cavalry, then when stationary, they can get the protection and support of the infantry in the center, and can give full play to the power of the attacking cavalry to increase the suddenness. Alexander's battle in India was an approximation of such a formation.

Hook formation, the front of the hook formation is a phalanx, and the two wings are bent backwards into a hook shape to protect the safety of the flanks and prevent the enemy from attacking the rear command of the golden drum in a roundabout way.

Xuanxiang Array: This is a kind of false formation to confuse the enemy, the queue is very far apart, most of the flags, the drums are endless, simulating the sound of military vehicles marching, and the sound of foot soldiers is noisy, as if the number of troops is huge, and various methods are used to deceive the enemy.

And what is embarrassing is that in this area of research, it is indeed the Japanese who occupy the leading position, and in many of the Three Kingdoms games and films produced by Japan, we can see the shadow of Sun Bin Shizhen...

During the Three Kingdoms period, after Zhuge Liang entered Shu to pacify the Southern Barbarians, the main combat object of the Shu army was mainly Cao Wei's infantry cavalry combined troops, and the combat area was mainly mountainous, and Shu lacked horses, so Zhuge Liang rehearsed the "Eight Formations".

The Eight Formations were actually formations that had existed long before the Three Kingdoms era. Sun Tzu has eight formations, and Sun Bin also has the "Eight Formations" chapter in "Sun Bin Art of War", and the eight formations are commonly used in combat training in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhuge Liang proceeded from the reality of Shu infantry as the main force, innovated the real formation on the basis of the original ancient eight formations, drew the formation map, and finally formed the "eight formation map" to train the Shu army.

The so-called formation diagram is to draw the formation into a figure, draw it on the brocade, paper, on the ground or pile it up with sand and gravel to form an intuitive physical object, which is the formation diagram. Zhuge Liang's text recording the formation has not been handed down, and the eight formation diagram has been lost in the Tang Dynasty. But it is said that Zhuge Liang once made eight formations of stones, it is said that the remains of the eight eight sixty-four piles of stones by the fish belly river, is the eight formations left by Zhuge Liang, combined with a few words about Zhuge Liang's eight formations, for reasonable simulation, modern soldiers believe that the eight formations are a kind of group phalanx, each eight formations have eight small formations distributed in the eight directions around the central formation, the center of the eight formations is the general, the golden drum banner, and the soldiers and horses directly under it, this is the middle formation. Each small array has code names such as heaven, earth, wind, clouds, dragons, tigers, birds, snakes, etc. This is the saying in "Li Tang Asks Right" that "the number of formations is nine", so the Song Dynasty also called the eight formations the nine army formations.

The formation of each direction is six small formations, the middle formation is sixteen small formations, and the entire large phalanx has a total of sixty-four small formations, which is just in line with the number of eight eight sixty-four piles of stone relics in the fish belly river. After the large phalanx, there may be twenty-four small formations composed of rangers, for a total of eighty-eight small formations. These small squares can be:

Cavalry, infantry, convoys, composed of dozens to hundreds, the front row for the crossbowmen, the middle for the long weapons, the back row for the short weapons (sometimes the order is also different) eight formations in order to delay the enemy's attack, give full play to the power of the Shu army's crossbowmen, in the defense also set up the chariot, antlers, thistles and other obstacles.

Zhuge Eight Formations belong to defensive formations, the advantage is that there is no weakness in deployment, any direction is attacked, the overall large array does not need to make fundamental changes, one is attacked, the two adjacent formations can automatically become two wings, protecting and supporting the attacked array. But the shortcomings are also obvious, first of all, such a complex Zhuge Eight Formation requires a lot of time to train, and the mobility is poor, in order to maintain the integrity of the formation, it is not allowed to run when it is forward, and it is not allowed to run when it is backward. This is the "before is the back" in "Li Tang Asks Right",

The future is the front, the front has no speed, and there is no retreat". Therefore, the eight formations are a very conservative formation of defensive nature. Without a big defeat, it is also difficult to achieve a big victory. Zhuge Liang went out of Qishan six times, and Jiang Wei also attacked Wei many times, without major defeats and no major victories, and it cannot be said that it has nothing to do with the Shu army's use of eight formations to fight.

But I personally think that the above is only the foundation or prototype of the Zhuge Eight Formations, because relying on such a rigid formation, it seems impossible to compete with Cao Wei for decades without defeat with the weak strength of the Shu State, and it is not commensurate with the position of the Zhuge Eight Formations that has been praised for thousands of years, and the combat area belongs to the mountainous environment, and the Eight Formations are more suitable for infantry to fight in the plains... Therefore, I personally believe that there should be many changes in the Zhuge Eight Formation, and when there are restrictions on the position, such as ditches and trees, they should be adjusted according to the actual situation. And when marching, there should be various changes in formation when attacking, but due to the limitation of information, it is quite difficult to study Zhuge Liang's eight formations in depth... And I personally think that the so-called Zhuge Eight Formations is not only a combat formation, but through the training of the "Eight Formations", the Shu Army's operational guiding ideology, establishment, and training will be infiltrated into the Shu Army. . .

And Li Jing in the Tang Dynasty was based on the Zhuge Eight Arrays, compiling and practicing the Six Flower Arrays... The so-called six-flower array is a formation like "six flowers". The Chinese army is in the center, the Chinese army is distributed around the front army, the left army, the left Yu Hou army, the rear army, the right army, the right Yu Hou army, according to the "Li Wei Gong asks right" record, the six flower formations have a circle formation, a square formation, a curved formation, a vertical formation, a sharp formation and other formations, these five formations each have five changes, a total of 25 changes, the general can adopt different formations according to different enemy conditions, terrain, offensive and defensive needs. This is also one of the reasons why I think Zhuge Liang's "Eight Arrays" will have various changes...

Due to the threat of the northern nomads, the Song itself lacked sufficient quantity and quality of cavalry, in order to counter the nomadic cavalry with the main infantry force on the plain. Therefore, among the dynasties, the Song Dynasty is the dynasty that attaches the most importance to the array... However, the Song Dynasty implemented the "general from the middle of the emperor", every time the general went out to fight, the emperor must "draw a formation, rule the temple to win, give discipline, remote control is cheap, the commander complies, and the nobles supervise"... In order to better control the generals who lead the troops into battle, the generals are often awarded the formation map before the troops are dispatched, and the specific tactics of the front line are stipulated in the deep palace. Therefore, after the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty, most of the wars against the ethnic minorities in the north ended in failure... Since the Song Dynasty, the development of the formation has gradually tended to be conservative. According to the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts", the main formations commonly used by the Song army are the Chang Formation, the Pingrong Wanquan Formation, and the Eight Formations of the Dynasty. . .

Constant formation: The Northern Song Dynasty army often divided the troops into various parts such as forwards and guards, and the formation composed of each part was called "permanent formation". In other words, the Northern Song Dynasty army often divided the troops into various parts according to their tactical objectives, formed a "permanent formation", and then combined them to fight. It includes the following formations: vanguard formation, strategy vanguard formation, large formation, front formation, east and west kidnapping horse formation, landless division of horses, rejection of the rear formation, strategy palace rear formation, etc.

The vanguard formation is a battle formation composed of forward troops. The forward units resemble the modern avant-garde units. The task of the vanguard is to "rush to the front, trap the strong formation, and attack the sharp division", so the Northern Song Dynasty, like the previous dynasties, "select elite soldiers and place the vanguard array".

The vanguard formation is a battle formation composed of troops that respond to the vanguard, "placed behind the vanguard formation". This formation is led by a "cavalry general". When "the vanguard resists the enemy or the army is not strong, the vanguard is planned to respond" to control the enemy's "rush".

The Great Array, also known as the Central Army Formation, is a battle formation composed of the main horse and infantry troops. Generally long formations (columns) or phalanxes. When arranging the formation, "with the rifle and knife hand of the infantry army in front, mixed with side signs, javelins, when the formation is combined with cloth, wooden horses, or occasionally with a cart, it is called 'the foot soldiers'". And the strong bows and crossbows are arranged behind it. At the same time, "four gates were opened in a burst, and the cavalry was in them, waiting for the battle, that is, opening the door and letting the team out." In short, the main force was in the form of a "car battalion" and lined up on all sides to defend against the enemy's "sudden galloping". When it is time to play, open the doors on all sides and let the "team" play.

Front:

It is a strange soldier deployed in the "front of the Chinese army". "Wujing General Essentials" said, "When the enemy is in the right position, the decisive victory is in the surprise army, and the front and back can be corresponding, then the victory is always won and undefeated". "Wujing General Essentials" also quoted the method of grasping Qitu and the Liao army's formation after the wind, and believed that the number of odd soldiers should account for about 1/3 of the number of soldiers in the large array.

East and West Kidnappers:

This is a kind of arrangement that directly protects the large array, "for the left and right flanks of the large array". The reason why this array is placed is because "Yi Di uses soldiers, each bow and cavalry is violently gathered, and the large array is biased, and one side cannot defend it, then there is a rush to the trouble, because of the abduction array, thinking that it is rescue". The number of troops in this formation is also based on the number of soldiers in the large formation, and it is temporarily selected.

No Place:

It is a mobile unit controlled by the large array of the Chinese army. It is arranged around the "Great General's Camp Array" and "Prepared for Urgent Drive". Its troops are commanded by each (battalion-level unit?). ) to be drawn from the team. The number of mobile units is "temporarily separated, and there is no fixed number".

Rejection:

Also known as the "Queen", it is a battle formation composed of rearguard troops, which is deployed behind the large formation of the Chinese army to prevent the enemy from attacking from behind. The Song people believed that in the case of "the system of the military formation, the grain road is in the rear", in order to prevent the "grain route from being cut off", it is necessary to refuse the rear formation. The "General Essentials of the Martial Arts" said that Song Taizong's failures in several battles against Liao were all related to the "grain route" being "cut off" by the enemy. Therefore, starting from the true sect, attention should be paid to placing "the palace of soldiers" so that "it can be used in a hurry, so that there is no danger of suffering from the enemy".

"Rear Formation": It is a battle formation composed of troops behind the Palace. It is set up between the rear-end and the main force.

Pingjung Wanquan Array:

It was personally made and awarded to the general by Zhao Guangyi, Taizong of the Song Dynasty, so it was quite valued. The Pingrong Wanquan Array is composed of five armies, about seventeen miles square, (I personally think that this phalanx is so extended in depth, it can compress the space for the enemy's cavalry to maneuver) to deploy the main infantry in the center of the formation, strengthen the chariots, form three chariot battalions to enhance the infantry's defensive ability and attack ability, and deploy the cavalry in the front and rear left and right to serve as a guard and cover the central array... This was a conservative defensive formation, so that the Song army, with the infantry as the main force, could fight against the northern nomadic cavalry on the plains.

The large array of the Chinese army is composed of three phalanxes, which are the main force of the whole array... The circumference of each phalanx is twenty miles (equivalent to 360 steps× 20 = 7200 steps). Every five steps is a "land division", each "land division" is a large chariot, 22 infantry defends, and there are 5,000 people living in the square formation, and each square is divided into 36,680 infantry. The three phalanxes totaled 110,000 and 40 men, plus 240 Jiawangzi (i.e., observers and Chen Wang's sentinels), for a total of 110,280 infantry...

The front and the rear (i.e., the front and the rear), two columns of cavalry each... There were sixty-two cavalry teams in the forefront, each with fifty horsemen, a total of three thousand one hundred cavalry. Sixty-two teams of thirty cavalrymen each, for a total of 1,860 cavalrymen. There were 4,960 cavalry in two columns, plus 40 cavalry from scouts (scouts), for a total of 5,000 cavalry. There were 10,000 cavalry in the front and rear formations...

East and west formations (i.e., left and right flanks), two columns each. One hundred and twenty-five teams in the forefront, fifty cavalry in each team, for a total of six thousand two hundred and fifty cavalry; One hundred and twenty-five regiments of thirty cavalrymen each, for a total of three thousand seven hundred and fifty cavalry. There were 10,000 cavalry in each formation, and 650 cavalry from spies, for a total of 20,650 cavalry...

The total number of troops used in the Pingrong Wanquan Formation was 140,903 (110,280 for the main infantry, 30,650 cavalry for the front, rear, left and right formations), and 1,440 large chariots for the defense of the chariot battalion. The front of the large army in this array is about 17 miles wide (the front and depth of each phalanx are five miles each, and the phalanx is separated by one mile); The front and rear formations are sixty-five steps on the front of each team, and the front is about 11 miles and 70 steps (65 steps× 62 = 4030 steps, equivalent to 11 miles and 70 steps); The left and right formations, each team occupies an area of 50 steps, and the front is about 17 miles and 130 steps (50 steps× 125 = 6250 steps, equivalent to 17 miles and 130 steps). . .

Eight formations of this dynasty: According to the records of the "Eight Formations of the Martial Arts", the so-called eight formations of the Northern Song Dynasty refer to the square formation, the circle formation, the Mu formation, the chong formation, the Fuzhi formation, the wheel formation, and the goose-shaped formation, a total of eight formations...

The strength and formation used in the eight formations refer to Li Jing's formation... That is, each formation was formed with a total of 14,000 horse-mounted troops. Among them, the infantry army was organized into 200 teams, each team of 50 people, totaling 10,000 people; There were 80 teams of horses, 50 people in each team, and 4,000 people in total. Each type of formation is divided into seven armies, such as the Tang Dynasty army, the middle army, the left and right Yu Hou, the left and right, and the front and rear. In each array, "every ten people are in a row, all facing each other, and their backs are inherited". "One pawn occupies two steps, one horse and two steps". In addition to the round array (because it has the same shape and different name as the wheel array), the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts" has a formation diagram. The names of the troops in each formation map follow the Tang Dynasty... The "garrison" in the figure, that is, the "foot soldiers" of the Northern Song Dynasty (the so-called foot soldiers, that is, these troops are in the early stage of the formation, occupy enough territory, prevent the enemy from rushing into the formation, protect themselves calmly, and after the formation is completed, it is to maintain the shape of the formation, often composed of crossbowmen as the main force, we listen to the commentary or look at the old, there are often archers who shoot the feet, which is for this reason); The "battle team", "war team", "jumping team", and "strange soldiers" in the picture are the soldiers in the Northern Song Dynasty and the landless division of troops... The names of the seven armies in the picture also follow the military vocabulary of the Tang Dynasty, such as: Right Yu Hou and Right Army, that is, the vanguard and pioneer generals of the Northern Song Dynasty; the front army and the rear army, that is, the left and right rib generals of the Northern Song Dynasty; Zuo Yuhou and Zuo Jun, that is, the queen of the palace and the general of the palace of the Northern Song Dynasty.

The eight formations of the Northern Song Dynasty are called eight formations, but because the circle array and the wheel array are the same array and different names, there are actually only seven kinds of arrays. Looking at the names of the eight formations, the diagram of the seven formations, and the explanations made in the "General Essentials of the Martial Classics", it can be seen that the names of the eight formations are not much different from the previous generation, but they are essentially different from the previous generation in terms of the arrangement of various formations. The ancient eight formations are all changes in the arrangement of the main forces of the army, and the so-called "eight formations of this dynasty" in the Song Dynasty, in addition to the circle array and the wheel array, the main force is always lined up in a phalanx of defense around the perimeter, but with a small number of troops, in the front and back of the main phalanx, make some symbolic changes, in order to attach to the symbol of the ancient meaning, which is completely different from the ancient eight formations. It can be said that the eight formations of this dynasty can be said to be a kind of deformed phalanx...

Although the eight formations of the previous generation also had defensive formations, they were mainly offensive formations, and the "eight formations of this dynasty" of the Song Dynasty, in essence, all became defensive formations on all sides. In other words, the main forces of each formation still did not depart from the mode of pure defense, and they did not inherit the offensive spirit of their predecessors. The emergence of this situation cannot but be said to be related to the conservative military thinking of the Northern Song Dynasty that adopted a purely defensive one.

Of course, this is also related to the threat faced at that time, because the Song Dynasty was different from the previous generation, lacking cavalry, and facing the northern nomadic knights with strong mobility, so the two wings and the flank and rear directions were always threatened, and the formation facing the defense on all sides such as the square array and the circle formation was indeed a roundabout outflanking of the defensive cavalry, while the ancient eight formations were set up in a wild goose shape, cone and other formations with the main force, which was an offensive formation facing a certain direction, and the defense of the flanks was greatly weakened (in fact,

Personally, I think that the ancient eight formations are a combined formation, and each part is arranged into the ancient eight formations, and then a larger formation is formed... Among them, there should also be a variety of changes between the formations, but today it is impossible to test, and these things are the essence of our country's ancient formations. It's just the skin of our country's ancient array... In the absence of sufficient cavalry, it seems impossible to use the formation of infantry to attack the highly mobile cavalry, because when the battle situation is unfavorable, the cavalry can break away from the battle at any time, or attack the flank and rear direction in a roundabout way, so it is appropriate to take a phalanx or a circle formation to defend the cavalry in the field... The mistake of Song's eight formations in this dynasty is that it shouldn't have so many flowers, if the phalanx can work with flowers, why complicate things, you have to make a nondescript eight formations... It seems that this is also the product of the literati who are detached from the actual battle array... Of course, it is not excluded that the formation diagram of the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts" may be inaccurate...

The cavalry in the Song army was very lacking, accounting for only one-seventh of the total number of the whole army, and three or four out of ten of the cavalry were often horseless (in "Li Weigong Asks the Right", Li Jing advocated setting up wooden horses in the cavalry camp to facilitate cavalry training and dismounting, I really don't know if this is because of the lack of horses or because of habits, but it may be the source of modern saddle horses). . . The highest has been eight or nine out of ten without horses. For example, Liu Guangshi's army of 52,000 people only has more than 3,000 war horses, which shows how short the Song army is of horses... In addition, Song horses are smaller, generally about 1.36 meters, and they are not considered big horses by current standards. Han Shizhong once presented a horse to Gaozong, "five feet and one inch high, Yun Feiren dared to ride", about 1.58 meters, and this is a rare horse in the Song Dynasty... In order to deal with the nomadic cavalry, the Song Dynasty put a lot of effort into the formation, trying to resist the cavalry in the field... During the Two Song Dynasty, I personally think that there are two formations worth mentioning... That is the crossbow array and stacked array of the Song Dynasty...

A crossbow array is a formation that carries out the power of a crossbow (a crossbow that is wound with a pedal and is more powerful than a crossbow with a winding arm in the hand). Divided into three columns, from back to front, the first row is wound, the second row is loaded with arrows into the crossbow, and the third row is aimed and fired... In use, after the third row fires, it returns to the first row through the gap between the two columns and winds it up, and after the second row enters the crossbow, it enters the aiming and firing state, and so on. Gain a sustained and dense ranged strike capability...

The stacked array was founded by the Wu brothers in Sichuan in the Song Dynasty, seen in the "History of the Song Dynasty", and it is also divided into three columns, with the sword and gun holding the long soldier in the front, the bow in the back, and finally the god arm crossbow or the pedal crossbow. . . This is close to the requirements of actual combat, when fighting, the whole army sits on its knees, when the enemy approaches to 100 steps, so that a god arm archer stands up and shoots it (this is for range), if you can enter the enemy formation, then the god arm archers are fired. When the enemy approaches to 70 paces, make a flat archer stand up and shoot it, and if you can enter the enemy line, then the flat archers will shoot... When the enemy rejects the horse, the spearmen will fight hand-to-hand with him... In this way, the use of long-range strike weapons to intercept and defend layer by layer, weaken the ability of the enemy's cavalry to maneuver quickly, and make it possible to resist cavalry in the field...

Let's talk about the formation of the Ming army... In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, due to the large use of firearms, the denser formation of the cold weapon era would cause greater casualties... In the southeast coastal zone, there are fewer plains and more mountains, and large-scale formations cannot be expanded. . . In the face of the threat of raiding on the southeast coast of our country, many of the Japanese are wandering samurai, with strong individual combat ability, using katana and other weapons, especially good at "jumping battle", using a relatively loose formation, and the Ming army is often passive when encountering fierce Japanese soldiers. Therefore, Qi Jiguang developed a small concentrated, large dispersed mandarin duck array, from a large array to a small array, from dense to evacuated, which is an innovation in the formation...

Qi Jiguang Mandarin Duck Array: 12 people are the most basic combat unit, this formation, the first two players, respectively, the long player, the rattan player (one of which is the captain), then followed by the wolf milling hand two, again four pikemen, and finally two short soldiers... When fighting, use rattan cards to protect long-range shooting weapons (at this time, the player faces the enemy, the rest line up in columns, and the rest hide behind the player,), with the wolf milling as the main offensive force, and the spear takes people's lives, and the short soldier is to prevent the enemy from entering, or the long soldier is tired of attacking... The mandarin duck array was successfully used in the re-anti-Japanese battle and achieved a great victory. . . The Mandarin Duck Formation is the most basic formation, and there are many variations. Like what

into a two-column mandarin duck formation, this is the basic formation;

the two ritual arrays that change from the mandarin duck array (the two armies are separated);

The junior talent formation is a horizontal team, that is, the formation of the two teams is turned into a horizontal team, and the captain holds the card in the center, one on the left and one on the left

Wolf milling,Wolf milling left and right for two spears with a card (in fact, there are other staggered arrangements of this team),Short soldiers in the back。。。 This was intended for combat use on relatively wide crossroads;

The small three talents are in a horizontal formation, "the wolf mills in the center, a long spear on the left and right, a short soldier and a card on the left and right of the spear, and a flat line", which is the formation adopted on the narrow road;

One head, two wings and one tail formation, the participating troops are divided into four parts, the former is the head, which is the main attacking force; The two flanks are surprise troops, protecting the flank and rear direction of the head, attacking the enemy's flank at the right time, and the tail is the strategy force (equivalent to the reserve), ready to reinforce in any direction...

The Qing Dynasty military formation, in the Qing Dynasty military formation, is worth mentioning is the various formations of the Taiping Army...

Matchmaking: This is a marching battle formation, similar to a modern marching column... When marching, they must be ordered to march in a leading formation, with two horses each carrying a banner and twenty-five men following them; 100 people will hold a long flag; 500 people will be a brigade commander; 2,500 people will be a handsome banner; 12,500 people will be a handsome banner... One army after another advanced. The wide road is divided into two rows, and the narrow road is a single row. . . In the march, once there is an encounter, the head and tail are bent and hooked, and they gather in an instant to form a circle. If the battle is unfavorable, the general will strike the gong as a signal to retreat, still hold the battle formation of the lead array, at this time according to the width of the road, divided into ten lines and twenty lines, but not diagonally to the side, but also must retreat, the lead formation is in a hurry, the enemy often can't catch up, that is, catch up, see that the team is not chaotic, and dare not chase hard...

Crab Formation: This is a battle formation with three parallel configurations, with a small number of people in the middle and a large number of people on both wings, which resembles a crab, so it is called a crab formation. This kind of formation is extremely flexible, and it also changes a lot according to the enemy's situation... If the enemy is divided into only two teams, the left and right flanks will be divided between the squadrons of the formation, and they will also be divided into two teams. If the enemy has a team in the front and rear, the strikers on the left and right flanks will be combined into one team, and the rear half of the left and right flanks will be combined with the middle team to be evenly lined up, so that the front team will respond. If the enemy's left team has a large number of troops, it will become a left formation. If the right team has more soldiers, it will become a right formation. If the enemy has four or five teams, it is also divided into four or five teams to meet the attack. Its big crab wrap small crab array is particularly famous, its method or first to fight with the enemy in a small array, and then out of the large array surrounding, or deceitful and luring chase, ambush soldiers, the enemy surrounded... Although the changes in the crab formation are complicated, the loss of the left and the benefit of the right, move the rear to the front, the magic of the use is that the commander will temporarily command according to the enemy's situation... The speed of its advance and retreat, opening and closing, only a few big flag bearers need to be skillful, and the whole army will rush there when the big flag is headed. Therefore, a military has a few big standard-bearers, you can command the crowd, slightly uneven, the outline is leading, and the crab array (a crab chela array) can be used to simplify and control the complexity, also known as the purse array, also known as the lotus tail array. )。。。

Hundred Bird Formation: This is a formation that uses suspicious soldiers. It is especially suitable for fighting the enemy in the wilderness of Pingchuan, with a small team of 25 people, the troops are divided into 100 teams, as if the sky is scattered with stars, so that the enemy is suspicious and does not know how many people there are, and each team has the same number of people, and does not know where to attack first, and cannot advance, and is defeated every result.

Lying on the ground: also known as the Crouching Tiger Formation, every time the enemy comes to chase, retreat to the place where the water is poor and the mountain is blocked, the commander gives the order, suddenly a big flag falls, thousands of flags arrive, and thousands of people are lying on the ground in an instant, silent, and accumulate morale. . . When the enemy army chased after him, he could not see a single Taiping army, he was wandering in surprise and suspicious, when the Taiping army gave an order, suddenly a big flag was raised, a thousand flags were raised, thousands of people were rushing in the wind, shouting and roaring, turning the face to the enemy, pounced on the enemy, and turned victory into defeat. The Taiping army has repeatedly used this formation in Changsha, Nanchang, Wuchang and other places to defeat the Qing army... Personally, I think that this battle array is also particularly suitable for frontal combat in the era of mixed cold and hot weapons... Because lying on the ground can reduce the frontal projection, reducing the lethality of the enemy's long-range firearms...

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used these formations with troops, and under the conditions at that time, it played a huge role. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom almost overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and there is indeed something unique about it... These formations have no ancients, and they are especially suitable for the military and technical conditions at that time, which shows that the reason why the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has such a big climate is that there must be capable people in it...

Most of the commanders of the ancient military formations were composed of golden drums, flags, cannons, horns, and heralds... Banner I personally think that there are four kinds of ancient military flags: the big flag, the trumpet flag, the general's recognition of the military flag, the flag for identification, and others...

Dayan, also known as 旄旆. Yinyin Mao, refers to the flag decorated with the tail of the yak, and can also be widely referred to as the precious flag decorated with animal fur and feathers. It refers to a flag with sharp horns at the end of the tail, mostly in the shape of a swallowtail. Such a flag is often possessed by a noble commander-in-chief of the armed forces on the side of the battle... When the commander fights, he often builds a big man with him... Therefore, sometimes, in the old storytelling, we often find that there are many judgments based on whether the boss is in the formation or not... And this is often the target of the enemy's concentrated attack, and often the officers and men of the whole army are always concerned about where the big is located... Whether or not it exists will even affect the outcome of the battle...

Generals recognize the military flag: Unlike Western civil society, the army lacks a sense of regimental honor, and most of the soldiers exist as appendages to the generals... Most of them don't have regimental flags, but there are flags embroidered with the general's surname to identify the troops... If the identity of the chief general is not noble enough, he may also use the handsome flag or the military flag instead of the general.

The trumpet flag, that is, the signal flag, is used to indicate the transmission of commands...

Identifying the military flag is used to distinguish between the enemy and the enemy... Such flags tend to be the most ...

In addition to the flags in battle, they often command the three armies with golden drums, cannons, horns and other instruments that can make a loud sound... "Hear the drum and advance, sound the gold and retreat", that is, the signal to attack when the drum is beaten, the gong is the signal to retreat, and so on...

The battle formation is the source of the soldier's morale, especially for the side whose individual combat ability is weaker than the opponent, it is necessary to pay more attention to maintaining the formation... Only by maintaining the formation can we give full play to the power of group combat... In this regard, our ancient times were much clearer than those of the West... Ancient wars, as in modern wars, had the greatest casualties and results not in organized confrontations, but after the destruction of the organized battles of the enemy... The array, on the other hand, is the external manifestation of the organization of operations. In other words, the slaughter begins only after the formation is destroyed... Therefore, when there is not much difference in strength and the two sides face each other off, the two sides of the battle often try to destroy the stability of the enemy's formation... For example, in the Spring and Autumn Period, in a confrontation between the Chu State and the Jin State, the Chu army forced the camp to set up a formation to prevent the Jin army from forming a formation. And the Jin army filled in the stove pit well, removed the camp tent, and finally removed the fence into a formation... In the process of arranging the formation, archers are often sent to occupy and control a certain area, and use long-range attack weapons to control a large area, in the words of the old sentence or the commentary, "shoot the position" to prevent the enemy from rushing into battle... When breaking the formation, or send strong warriors as the lead, break into the formation and then force the army to break through (the cone formation is more appropriate), the idiom said that the person who is trapped in the battle, refers to this... or lure enemy troops into difficult terrain... Or a roundabout attack on a weak part...

Here we can talk about the problem of the ancient generals carrying and charging... There are many people who are suspicious of the scene of the storytelling and the large number of generals receiving single slips in the old ... It is true that ancient generals took the lead or generals took the lead in charging... The earliest records should have occurred in the Spring and Autumn period... And in some periods, due to the lack of grassroots level in the army, poor organizational quality, and weak equipment, some well-equipped generals with superb martial arts skills have become the core of an army, and their life and death determine the success or failure of this army... For example, in the early days of the Three Kingdoms... There are many examples of generals going head-to-head, or galloping across the million-strong army, which is due to the fact that in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, after the Yellow Turban Uprising, a large number of elite troops were consumed. The armies of the various warlords lack grassroots organizations, lack training, and low morale, and can easily collapse when they encounter unpredictable situations, such as attacking camps, ambushes, running out of food, and fire attacks... During the Three Kingdoms period, there were several times when such a situation of winning more with less, and it is because of this... Defeat most of the untrained and integrated armies with a small number of elite and warlike armies, for example, in the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao's army collapsed because of a lack of food; In the Battle of Chibi, because of the fire attack, 800,000 Cao troops were wiped out; The battle of Yiling, because of the fire attack, defeated Liu Bei's Sichuan and Shu army... However, with the formation of the Three Kingdoms, all countries have reorganized and trained their armies, at this time, it is mainly based on the group combat of the army, and there is rarely a situation where some generals are heads-up, and the leading generals of various countries have also changed from the original focus on individual force to the transformation of focusing on the leadership and strategic ability of generals, such as Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Lu Xun, Jiang Wei, Deng Ai, etc. So, in this lack of grassroots organizations, it is normal for generals to go head-to-head... In the confrontation, whether it is a siege or a good position, the two sides are most afraid of the siege, if they do nothing, then the morale of the soldiers will drop significantly, and the formation will also be scattered to give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of... At this time, send a strong general to challenge the enemy, and if you win the battle, you can improve the morale of your own people...

The formations listed above are all typical or detailed battle formations in ancient China, but the development and changes of ancient battle formations in China are extremely complicated. . . The above list is just a leak... For example, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period Mixed Battle Formation, Zheng Guo Yanyue Formation, Wei Shu Phalanx, Wu State Infantry Array, Qin Dynasty Army Formation, Han Xin Five Army Formation, Tang Army Formation, Open Fire Weapon Array, Wuhan Iron and Steel Vehicle Formation, etc. And the car formation, cavalry battle formation, water combat formation, etc. are not mentioned...