Chapter 554 553 Arrogant Soldiers and Brave Generals

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

The earliest direct record of "stacking formation" can be found in "Records of the Years Since Jianyan", which describes the scene of reviewing Wu Lin's troops.

Lin reviewed the troops in Hechi and used the new battle formation method. In each battle, the long spear was in front and could not sit up; the second strongest bow was the strongest bow, and the second strongest bow was kneeling to wait; the third strongest bow was the divine arm bow.

When the enemy fought within a hundred steps, the divine arm was fired first; at seventy steps, the strong bow was fired at the same time; the second formation was the same.

All formations were limited by chevaux de frise, connected by iron hooks, and replaced when they were injured.

When they were replaced, drums were used as a rhythm.

The cavalry sent out two wings to cover the front, and the formation was completed and the cavalry retreated, which was called "stacked formation".

The generals secretly discussed and said: "Will the army be annihilated here?"

Lin said: "It is an ancient order to bind the troops. It is in the military law. You don't know it. There is no better way to get the remaining meaning of chariot battle. If the soldiers are calm, they can hold their ground. Even if the enemy is sharp, they can't resist.

Fang Guan knew the advantage of chariot battle and could use it in the plains and wilderness, but he didn't know the method of chariot battle, so his defeat was inevitable.

The enemy cavalry is good at charging. If not, no one can resist it!"

These two sentences, especially the latter one, are quite critical, because they directly point out the motivation and purpose of Wu Lin's creation of "overlapping formation" - to restrain the Jin cavalry who are good at charging in the plains and wilderness.

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

Adequate horse supply is the basis for building a strong cavalry. In contrast, the cavalry of the Song Army is very pitiful.

The Northern Song Dynasty was already seriously short of horses, and after the Southern Song Dynasty lost Shaanxi, "the Sichuan-Shaanxi horse system was blocked" and "horses were extremely difficult to obtain", which forced the Southern Song generals to find ways to make up for this defect, and the stacking formation came into being.

In fact, the infantry formation composed of spears, bows and crossbows has existed since ancient times.

Although this general principle has not changed much, its specific implementation process has been very different in different historical periods.

For example, the order of the infantry formation in the Tang Dynasty was first the crossbowmen, then the archers, and then the spear and swordmen. After the bow and crossbow attack, the archers 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 between arms became more and more detailed and strengthened. This situation gradually changed, and the order of queue arrangement appeared, with spear and sword hand-to-hand combat weapons in front and bows and crossbows and other long-range projectile weapons in the back.

The "Four Changes of Infantry Practice" in the Northern Song Dynasty military book "Wu Jing Zong Yao" records:

One drum, straight spear and sword. At the second drum, the spearmen and swordmen all sit down, the archers and crossbowmen stand up, the commander strikes wood, and the archers and crossbowmen shoot three arrows each. The drum sounds, and they move forward a little. After shooting three arrows, the commander moves forward at the drum sound, dragging the spears and swords, and the archers and crossbowmen follow, until they reach the boundary flag. At the drum sound, they straighten their spears and swords; at the next drum sound, they all sit down, the archers and crossbowmen stand up, and shoot three arrows. After that, they stand up again at the drum sound, lowering the spear heads, and retreat to the old place at the gong sound. At the first drum sound, they straighten their spears and swords, at the second drum sound, they sit down and release their clans, at the third drum sound, they straighten their spears and swords again, at the fourth drum sound, the flags and guns are the same as before, and the drum sound stops.

This is actually a simulation of the actual combat situation. When the enemy is still far away, the spearmen and swordmen sit on the ground to give the archers a clear view, and the archers attack; when the enemy approaches, the spearmen and swordmen stand up to fight, fight hand-to-hand with the enemy, and protect the projectile soldiers behind them.

This arrangement is very similar to the "stacked formation".

But the difference is that the infantry formation arrangement in the Northern Song Dynasty emphasized "the formations can accommodate formations, the teams can accommodate teams, the curves can accommodate curves, and the people can accommodate people. They come and go without fighting and chasing, and the long can match the short, and the short can match the long." The arrangement of spearmen and crossbowmen is complicated, and the formation changes are also complicated.

The Southern Song army made large-scale simplifications according to actual combat requirements, and mostly used large-scale "pure teams" with 50 to 60 people in a team. A team of spears is pure spears, and a team of crossbows is pure crossbows. Then several teams of the same type of soldiers are gathered together to form a small formation of pure spears or pure crossbows. The small formations are arranged in the order of melee soldiers in front and projectile soldiers in the back.

Regarding the record of the number of people in Wu Lin's formation, the main infantry formation has "520 spearmen of the armored army, 2200 bowmen of the divine arm, and 220 flat shooting bowmen", and the left and right wings each have "217 flat shooting bowmen and 64 divine arm bowmen".

Judging from the number of personnel in the weapons system, it should be a formation organized by gathering several pure teams, with long spears in front and crossbows in the back.

In fact, such a formation was also a reference in the Ming Dynasty. The formation of the Ming army infantry imitated this method, but some archers had become musketeers.

This is also where the Mongolian cavalry was helpless when facing the well-prepared Ming army infantry phalanx. They could only use the speed of war horses to rush the marching Ming army, and it was difficult to compete with the Ming army on the front battlefield.

After all, people cherish their lives.

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

However, given the current conditions of the Ming army, such infantry phalanxes are actually rare, and perhaps only the regular barracks under the generals and deputy generals of each town can barely do it.

Other guards lacked food and wages and neglected training, and had long been abandoned.

The reason why generals like Ma Fang and Qi Jiguang could shine in this era was not necessarily because their tactics were the most sophisticated. After all, most of them were derived from the experience of their predecessors, which were also recorded in the "Da Ming Hui Dian". The fundamental reason was that they made up for these shortcomings.

Although the other guards led by Yu Dayou could not completely solve the problems of food, salary and training, they also made up for them to the greatest extent in the war, so as to improve the morale of the soldiers in battle.

In fact, the basic quality of the Ming Dynasty guardsmen was still there, otherwise Yu Dayou would not have been able to lead the local guardsmen to participate in battles and win.

"Ma Fang's army is equipped with a large number of repeating firearms such as "three-eyed guns" and "five-eyed guns". In terms of combat thinking, Ma Fang has taken "quick to control quick" to the extreme.

Giving full play to the advantages of the government army in firearms technology, the gun cavalry, cavalry archers, and swordsmen cooperated with each other during the battle, and repeatedly charged and killed, so as to "make up for the shortcomings of cavalry and archery."

In addition, every winter and spring, Ma Fang would send small detachments of elite cavalry to carry out counterattacks on the Mongolian grasslands, with the goal of robbing horses and burning pastures to destroy the Mongolian combat resources to the maximum extent.

When the Mongolian army goes south to invade, it is important not to retreat and defend passively. Instead, it is necessary to conduct long-distance attacks, cut off the Mongolian army's retreat, and gather and annihilate the effective strength of the Mongolian army. "

"Ah, that's it. Use your strengths and avoid your weaknesses to arrange your troops."

After Wei Guangde introduced what he knew about Ma Fang's cavalry charge formation, King Yu clapped his hands and praised him.

"In the past, I only thought that the cavalry was just a frontal charge. Whoever's men were braver would be able to defeat the enemy. I didn't expect that we still had to form a good formation.

Also, although the formation will loosen a bit when charging, after all, the positions in the front and back will not change.

With the musketeers on the periphery and the crossbowmen in the middle, a group of cavalry and Tatars were brought down before the battle to demoralize the enemy. It's no wonder that Ma Fang's troops were able to win consecutive battles. "

Wei Guangde talked about it in a little more detail before, and many of them were actually things Zhang Juzheng had not thought about.

Zhang Juzheng had read the military books, but he had only a partial understanding of many of them. The same was true for King Yu.

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

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

After the Tumu Fortress, these two times, the Mongolian cavalry was only a hundred miles away from the capital. Who knows which day their soldiers and horses would really hit the walls of the capital.

"It seems that Ma Fang's tribe really fell into the trap of luring the tiger away from the mountain. An Dahan avoided Ma Fang's tribe and attacked Xuanfu."

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

The army was outside. In fact, although Wei Guangde didn't think Ma Fang's tribe would be in much trouble at first, he still felt uneasy without any news.

Wei Guangde's words made King Yu, Zhang Juzheng and others seem to understand the real strength comparison between the Ming army and the Luqi, and they felt that the Ming army was not really useless.

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

A common situation that often occurs in border forts is that the captive cavalry invades and besieges the city, and the surrounding Ming army comes to rescue. The captive cavalry often sneak attacks and ambush the advancing Ming army, and then take advantage of the situation to attack the city.

Well-trained soldiers can naturally adjust their formations and complete battle preparations quickly after the scouts warn. The Tatars saw that the Ming army was fully formed and had no chance of winning, so they immediately rode away.

And more often than not, the queue was still scattered when the Tatars charged in front of them, and they were directly scattered and collapsed.

If things go on like this, the fear of the cavalry among the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty will be infinitely magnified, thinking that the infantry is really unable to compete with the cavalry.

Looking through the history of the Ming Dynasty, there will be many written records of the scene where the cavalry retreated voluntarily due to the Ming army's formation.

This kind of battle report will only be scorned by the civil service group, thinking it is a false report of military exploits.

As the saying goes, "Those who are good at fighting have no great achievements." This is the truth. If you train too well and don't meet an opponent who is not afraid of death, you will lose the opportunity to make achievements.

"How long will the Xuanfu crisis last?"

Zhang Juzheng asked.

"If my prediction is correct, Ma Fang's troops will attack Beisha Beach. The march should take more than ten days. If something is wrong, it should take three to five days to return quickly.

It had been half a month since Ma Fang had left the customs, and he should have arrived near Beishatan by this time. Counting the return trip, the Tatars would only have two or three days to wreak havoc. I think by tomorrow at the latest, the Tatars would have withdrawn from Xuanfu.

Our move to urgently mobilize the Shanxi Town army seems to have been miscalculated. "

Wei Guangde replied.

"This time, it's always a one-sided move. If Ma Fang's tribe cannot encounter the Tatars on the return trip, we have to find ways to reduce the punishment for him this time."

Zhang Juzheng smiled bitterly.

"The encounter is nearly impossible."

Wei Guangde also smiled bitterly.

At this time, in a valley near Beishao Beach, Ma Fang was also learning about the situation outside at this time from the whistle.

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

Ma Fang said angrily at this time.

An Dahan ran away, so this time it was all in vain.

It's not easy for 20,000 people to go out for a trip. There is only one small nomadic tribe in Beisha Beach now. Even if they all are killed, it won't be enough for the battle.

"Commander, the main force of the Tatars entered the west a few days ago, and Anda Khan left only after that. Among them"

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

Liu Han, of course, was the former chief military officer of Datong. He was punished for the failure of the attack and was deprived of the title of chief military officer of Datong.

It's just that Yang Bo of the Ministry of War cherished his talent and tried every means to protect such a general who dared to take the initiative, so that he was not laid off and went home, but was transferred to the Xuanfu as a staff general. He has been with Ma Fang for the past two years.

"Where do you think they will fight?"

In recent years, Ma Fang was stationed in Xuanfu, and the targets of Tatar intrusion had to move westward to Yansui, Ningxia and other towns.

This time, Ma Fang still didn't expect that Altan Khan would dare to attack Xuanfu, but still thought about attacking the military town in the west.

However, even if he knew the target, Ma Fang couldn't lead his troops to the west to chase Altan Khan's army without a military order.

"Ge Jin, take your men to destroy the enemy in Beishatan, and the army is ready to return."

After arranging his thousand households to clear Beishatan, Ma Fang let the soldiers rest and prepare to return to Xuanfu.

The continuous victories really made Ma Fang a little proud at this time, and his pride grew inadvertently.

In fact, such signs had already appeared in the early years, but Wei Guangde didn't notice it. After all, the two of them mostly exchanged letters, so it was not easy to detect.

And two years ago, Xia Yang, the imperial censor of Xuanda, impeached him for "arrogant soldiers and brave generals, seeking credit and greed for war."

However, such impeachment memorials were suppressed by Xu Jie, the Prince Yu's Mansion at the time, and he was not punished.

After that, Wei Guangde even made friends with the inspectors of Xuanda and Shanxi to prevent such things from happening again.

Ma Fang could not have thought of it, but Liu Han, who had suffered a great loss, did not think so.

According to Ma Fang's order, while arranging the soldiers in the camp to prepare for the return journey, he was 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.

The camps and forts on the border wall of Xuanfu were often attacked by the Tartars, but they were all small-scale and short-lived. Most of them ran away before the Ming army could provide support.

Their target of looting in Xuanfu was also the property outside the fort, and they had no time to attack the town fort.

However, because of this, they were very familiar with the border wall of Xuanfu, and it was easy to find where it was suitable for a quick breakthrough.

Thinking of this, Liu Han couldn't help but think that if Altan Khan really found out when they were leaving the pass, he would send a large army to raid Xuanfu at that time and just rush south.

The forts in Xuanfu were completely powerless to resist, and could only defend the town fort tightly, but the people and property outside the fort had no support and could only be looted.

The worst thing was that the Ming army in Xuanfu had no mobile force and could not limit the scope of the Tartars' looting.

If the Tartars attacked Longqing, Yongning and other cities, I am afraid that the capital would be under martial law again.

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

If the Tartars were bolder, they could directly attack Longqing, sneak attack Juyongguan, and kill their way out of the pass from the Jizhen defense zone.

When Liu Han thought of this, sweat was already all over his forehead, although the temperature was already quite low at this time, and it was almost freezing.

Altan Khan had done many things like killing several military towns of the Ming army.

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