prosperous age

The stacking method is a new method of warfare created by Wu Lin, a famous general in Sichuan and Shaanxi in the Southern Song Dynasty, during his long-term struggle against gold.

The direct record of the "stacking array" was first seen in the "Records of Years since Jianyan", which described the scene of reviewing Wu Lin's soldiers and horses.

Lin's military parade in Hechi uses a new method of battle formation. In every battle, he takes the spear in front and cannot sit up;

When the enemy fights to within a hundred paces, the god arm will strike first; at seventy paces, the strong bow will strike concurrently; the second formation will be the same.

All formations are limited to rejecting horses, connected by iron hooks, and replaced when they are injured.

In case of replacement, drums are used as festivals.

Riding out two wings to cover the front, the formation is formed and the cavalry retreats, which is called "stacking formation".

The generals whispered and said: "Is the army wiped out here?"

Lin said: "There is an ancient decree to restrain the army, and there are military laws, but you don't know it. There is nothing more than this to get the rest of the chariot battle. If the soldier has a determined mind, he can hold it to the full. Although the enemy is sharp, he cannot be defeated.

Fang Guan knew the advantages of chariot warfare, which can be used in the plains and wilderness, but he cannot use the method of chariot warfare, which is definitely suitable for defeat.

The enemy's cavalry is good at running, no, there is no one who can resist! "

These two sentences, especially the last one, are quite crucial, because they directly point out the motivation and purpose of Wu Lin's establishment of the "stacked formation" - to restrain the cavalry of the Golden Army who are good at running in the plains and wilderness.

The purpose of the Song Army on the Western Front, represented by Wu Lin, inventing the "stacked formation" was to restrain the cavalry of the Jin Army in the plains and wilderness, and this tactical goal served the strategic goal of counterattacking Qinlong.

A sufficient supply of horses is the basis for building a strong cavalry. In contrast, the cavalry of the Song Army is very poor.

There was already a serious shortage of horses in the Northern Song Dynasty, and after the loss of Shaanxi in the Southern Song Dynasty, "the horses in Sichuan and Shaanxi were unreasonable" and "horses were extremely rare", so the generals of the Southern Song Dynasty had to try to make up for this defect, and the formation method came into being.

In fact, infantry formations composed of spears, bows, and crossbows have existed since ancient times.

It's just that although this general principle has not changed much, the process of its specific implementation has been very different in different historical periods.

For example, the order of foot formation in the Tang Dynasty was the crossbowman first, the archer second, and the spearman second. After the crossbow attack was over, the crossbowmen in the front row of the queue had to pick up the short weapons they carried with them and participate in hand-to-hand combat.

But in the Song Dynasty, due to the development of the recruitment system, the professionalization of soldiers became higher and higher, and the division of labor among the arms became more and more detailed and strengthened. Crossbows and other long-distance projectile weapons are arranged in the rear queue.

It is recorded in the "Picture of the Four Changes of Infantry Practice" in the military book "Wu Jing Zong Yao" of the Northern Song Dynasty:

One drum, straight gun knife.On the second drum, sit with guns and knives, stand with bows and crossbows, Hou hits wood, and shoot three arrows from each bow and crossbow.The sound of the drums, less progress.After three more shots of arrows, Hou drums sounded and he moved forward, drawing a gun and knife, followed by a bow and crossbow, and stopped at the boundary flag.Hearing the drums, straighten the spears and knives; and drums, all sit down, the bow and crossbow stand up, and shoot three arrows.After hearing the drum, stand up again, hang the head of the spear, and retreat to the old place after hearing the gold.One drum is for straight guns and knives, the second drum is for sitting and Jiezu, the third drum is for straightening guns and knives, the fourth drum is for flags and guns as before, and the sound of drums stops.

This is actually the situation in the simulated actual combat.When the enemy is still far away, the spearman sits on the ground to give way to the crossbowman, and the crossbowman outputs the attack; when the enemy approaches, the gunman stands up to fight the enemy hand-to-hand, protecting the projectile units behind him.

This arrangement is already very similar to "stack".

But the difference is that the arrangement of infantry formations in the Northern Song Dynasty paid attention to "lines between lines, lines between lines, lines between lines, and people in the world." Short and long", the arrangement of gunmen and crossbowmen is complicated, and the queue changes are also complicated.

However, the army of the Southern Song Dynasty made large-scale simplifications based on actual combat requirements, using a large-scale "pure team" of five or 60 people as a team. A team of guns was pure guns, and crossbows were pure crossbows. Gather together to form a small formation of pure guns or pure crossbows, and then arrange the melee arms in the front and the projectile arms in the rear among the small formations.

Regarding the records of Wu Lin's number of people in the formation, the main infantry formation has "two of the five hundred gunners of the armored army, two hundred and two of the divine arm bows, and two hundred and two of the flat shooting bows". , God arm bow 210".

Judging from the number of personnel in the weapon formation, it should also be a formation formed by gathering several pure teams and then organizing them in the order of long spears in front and bows and crossbows in the back.

In fact, this kind of formation was also used as a reference in the Ming Dynasty, and the formation of the infantry of the Ming army was modeled after this method, except that some archers and crossbowmen had become gunners.

This is also where the Mongolian cavalry will be helpless in the face of the well-prepared Ming army infantry phalanx. They often can only use the speed of their horses to rush to the marching Ming army, and it is difficult to compete with the Ming army on the frontal battlefield.

After all, people cherish their lives.

Facing the well-equipped and well-trained Ming army, they were killed in large numbers before they met, and the Mongols would also collapse.

However, given the current conditions of the Ming army, such infantry phalanxes are actually rare, and perhaps only the main battalions under the commanders and deputy commanders of the towns can barely do it.

The other guards, lack of food and pay, lack of training, have long since been abandoned.

The reason why generals such as Ma Fang and Qi Jiguang can shine in this era is that their tactics may not be the most exquisite. The reason is that they make up for these shortcomings.

Although the other guards led by Yu Dayou could not completely solve the problems of food, pay and training, they could make up for it to the greatest extent possible in the battle, so as to enhance the soldiers' fighting spirit.

In fact, the basic quality of the guards of the Ming Dynasty is still there, otherwise Yu Dayou would not be able to lead the soldiers of the local guards to participate in battles and win victories.

"Ma Fang's army is equipped with "three-eyed blunderbuss" and "five-eyed blunderbuss" and other bursting firearms on a large scale, and in terms of combat thinking, Ma Fang has brought "quick to quick" to the extreme.

Taking advantage of the superiority of the officers and soldiers in firearms technology, the firearms cavalry, cavalry archers, and swordsmen cooperate with each other in battle, and charge and kill repeatedly, so as to "make up for the shortcomings of cavalry and archery."

In addition, every winter and spring, Ma Fang would send elite cavalry to form small teams to carry out counter-assaults on the Mongolian grasslands, with the aim of looting horses and burning grasslands to destroy the Mongols' combat resources to the greatest extent.

When the Mongolian army invades the south, it is forbidden to retreat and passively defend. Instead, it is necessary to attack long distances, cut off the Mongolian army's back, and gather and annihilate the Mongolian army's vital forces. "

"Ah, so that's how it is. Make the most of your strengths and avoid your weaknesses."

After Wei Guangde introduced the Ma Fang cavalry charge formation that he knew, King Yu clapped his hands and praised.

"In the past, I only thought that the cavalry was just a frontal charge, and whoever was brave enough to defeat the enemy would be able to defeat the enemy. I didn't expect to have to form a good formation.

Also, although the formation will loosen when charging, after all, the front and rear positions will not change.

With the musketeers on the periphery and the crossbowmen in the center, they knocked down a group of cavalry and Tartars before they fought against the enemy, and it was no wonder that Ma Fang's troops were able to win consecutive battles. "

What Wei Guangde said earlier was a little more detailed, many of which Zhang Juzheng hadn't thought about.

Zhang Juzheng has read military books for nothing, but he doesn't know much about many of them, and King Yu is similar.

After all, the Ming Dynasty in this period was not facing a peaceful environment. The threat from Mongolia in the north was increasing day by day, and the pressure on the Ming court was also constantly increasing.

Under such an environment, the courtiers were forced to read two more military books involuntarily.

After the civil fort, that is, these two times, the Mongolian cavalry was only a hundred miles away from the capital. Who knows when their soldiers and horses will really hit the capital wall.

"From this point of view, Ma Fang's department really fell for the trick of diverting the tiger away from the mountain. My answer is to avoid Ma Fang's department and sneak attack on Xuanfu."

Yin Shizhen's words finally brought back the focus of discussion.

The army was away, although Wei Guangde didn't think that Ma Fang's troops would encounter much trouble at first, but he was still worried if there was no news.

Wei Guangde's words made Yu Wang, Zhang Juzheng and others seem to understand the real power comparison between the Ming army and the Luqi, and it seems that the Ming army is not really useless.

As long as the leading generals are good, the Ming army has the ability to defeat the Mongolian Tartars head-on.

What often happened in the frontier fort was that the captive cavalry invaded the besieged city, and the surrounding Ming army went to rescue. The captive cavalry often ambushed the marching Ming army, and then took advantage of the situation to attack the city.

Well-trained soldiers can naturally adjust their formation quickly after the scouts warn, and complete the battle preparations. Seeing that the Ming army is complete and has no chance of winning, the Tartars immediately pulled their horses and left.

What's more, when the Tartars charged in front of them, the queue was still scattered, and they were directly scattered and collapsed.

If things go on like this, Ming soldiers' fear of captive cavalry will be infinitely magnified, thinking that infantry really cannot compete with cavalry.

Go through the history of the Ming Dynasty, and there will be many written records of the scene where the cavalry were forced to retreat actively due to the formation of the Ming army.

This kind of battle report will only be scoffed at by the civil official group, and it will be regarded as a false report of military exploits.

The so-called "a good fighter has no great achievements" is the truth. If you train too well, if you don't meet an opponent who is not afraid of death, you will lose the opportunity to make great achievements.

"How long will the Xuanfu's disaster last?"

Zhang Juzheng asked.

"If my predictions are correct, Ma Fang's troops should have marched for more than ten days to attack Beishatan, and it would take three to five days to quickly return to the army when they found something wrong.

It has been less than half a month since Ma Fang's troops left the customs. By this time, they should have arrived near the North Beach. Counting the return journey, in fact, the time for the barbarians to wreak havoc was only two or three days. Tomorrow at the latest, the Tartars would leave the Xuanfu.

It seems that we made a mistake in our move to rush the army of Shanxi Township. "

Wei Guangde replied.

"This time, it's always a bad game. If Ma Fang's tribe can't meet the Tartars on the return trip, we have to find ways to reduce his punishment this time."

Zhang Juzheng smiled wryly.

"Nearly impossible to encounter."

Wei Guangde also smiled wryly.

At this time, in a valley near the North Beach, Ma Fang was also learning about the situation outside from the mouth of the sentinel.

"I Da Khan moved westward three days ago, why didn't he report it in time?"

Ma Fang said angrily at this time.

I replied that Khan ran away, this time it was a waste of work.

It's not easy to come out with 2 people. Now there is only one small nomadic tribe in Beisha Beach, and even if they kill them all, it will not be enough military exploits.

"Commander, the main force of the Tartars moved westward a few days ago, and I Dahan left after that, among them"

Liu Han, the general under Ma Fang's tent, hurriedly reminded him.

Liu Han, of course, was the former commander-in-chief of Datong. He was punished for failing to attack and was deprived of the title of commander-in-chief of Datong.

It's just that Yang Bo of the Ministry of War cherished his talents and tried to protect this kind of general who dared to take the initiative. That's why he was not sent home from a job, but was transferred to the Xuanfu as a general, and he has been with Ma Fang for the past two years.

"Where do you think they will go?"

In the past few years, Ma Fang had been stationed in the Xuan Mansion, and the target of the Tartar invasion had to move westward to Yansui, Ningxia and other towns.

This time, Ma Fang still didn't think that An Dahan would dare to attack Xuan Mansion, but still thought about attacking the military town in the west.

However, even if he knew the target, it would be difficult for Ma Fang to lead his troops to the west and chase Alta Khan's army without a military order.

"Ge Jin, you take people to wipe out the enemies in the North Beach, and the army is ready to return."

After arranging thousands of households under his command to clear the North Beach, Ma Fang let the soldiers rest and prepare to return to Xuanfu.

The consecutive victories really made Ma Fang feel a little elated at this time, and her pride also inadvertently grew.

In fact, such signs had already appeared in the early years, but Wei Guangde didn't notice, after all, most of the correspondence between the two was by letter, so it was not easy to detect.

And two years ago, Xia Yang, the censor of Xuan Daxun, had impeached him for "proud soldiers and brave generals, seeking merit and greed for war."

However, such impeachment memorials were all suppressed by Xu Jie entrusted by Prince Yu's mansion at that time, and he was not punished.

After that, Wei Guangde made friends with Xuanda and Shanxi's inspector censor, in order to prevent such a thing from happening again.

Ma Fang couldn't think of it, but Liu Han, who had suffered a lot, didn't think so.

According to Ma Fang's order, while arranging the battalion soldiers to prepare for the return journey, they were also thinking about this matter.

Finally, when he thought that he would return to Xuanfu soon, he suddenly discovered that their biggest weakness in this battle.

Xuanfu's side wall camps were often attacked by Tartars, but they were small-scale and short-lived. Most of the Tartars ran away before the Ming army had time to support them.

The targets they plundered in Xuanfu were also property outside the fort, and they had no time to attack the town fort.

However, because of this, he is very familiar with the Xuanfu's side wall, and he is familiar with any place suitable for quickly breaking into it.

Thinking of this, Liu Han couldn't help thinking, if Al Da Khan really found out when they left the customs, and sent a large army to raid the Xuan Mansion at that time, just charge south to kill.

The forts of the Xuan Mansion were powerless to resist at all, so they could only guard the fort tightly, but the people and property outside the fort had nothing to rely on and could only be plundered by them.

Worst of all, the Xuanfu Ming army had no mobile force and could not limit the looting range of the Tartars.

If the Tartars harass Longqing, Yongning and other cities, I am afraid that there will be another martial law in Gyeonggi.

Longqing, behind it is Juyongguan, and in the past is Changping, not far from the capital.

If the Tartars were more courageous, they could attack Longqing directly, sneak attack Juyongguan, and break out from the defense area of ​​Jizhen.

Thinking of this, Liu Han's forehead was already covered with sweat. Although the temperature was already quite low at this time, a drop of water almost turned into ice.

I Da Khan has done a lot of things like this to kill and penetrate several military towns of the Ming army.

Thinking of this, Liu Han didn't dare to delay for a moment, and hurriedly got up and ran to Ma Fang's big tent.