"Three thousand infantry and one thousand wolf cavalry?" Zhang Xun looked at the scout's report and couldn't help but wonder.
This number did not exceed Zhang Xun's estimate of the total strength of Quac City, but...could it be that there were only a thousand people in ambush?
Thousands of people want to sneak attack on their generals and use a beheading tactic? Are you so arrogant?
But then Zhang Xun shook his head and said: "They must have used laborers, right? Hehe, it's a little clever."
The laborers formed by Cheng Ji have no combat effectiveness, but they are used to show off and walk with the real army, so they will not be easily exposed.
However, once there is a real battle, the labor union will collapse instantly, which will easily disrupt one's own military formation...
"That's good. In this way, nine out of ten soldiers and horses in the city will be eliminated. As long as we defeat them, Qu'a can defeat them with a snap of his fingers!" Zhang Xun became a little excited.
As for why Chen Gong takes the risk?
Zhang Xun had no doubts about this. After all, in his opinion, it was only a matter of time to conquer Qu'a. For him, it was delayed for a month or two because of the heavy pressure on the consumption of military rations. But for the enemy, it was a matter of time.
It's a matter of life and death, so of course we have to make a bet!
Not long after, Chen Gong came to the other side of the agreed-upon battle formation and also began to build a platform. Zhang Xun also had time to wait as promised.
By the time Chen Gong's men set up the platform, the appointed time was almost here.
When the time came, Zhang Xun first heard a provocative war cry, and then the two armies began to line up under the command of flags and drums...
"Phalanx? Hehe, are we going to use new soldiers to make up the numbers?" Chen Gong saw Zhang Xun's thoughts on the high platform and immediately knew that Bai Gong's plan was effective.
At this time, Chen Gong had already completed the "Horns" and was just waiting for Kaifeng to see blood. However, with four thousand against twenty thousand, he still gave up the fire attack. It was a bit reluctant to face the enemy head-on with the water attack, so Chen Gong's idea was
Make a fight.
Shi Ling Zhang Xun understood that siege could not win quickly, and then induced the opponent to join the fight.
Although in the war, it is too idealistic to believe that the opponents are all Song Xianggong and that they will respect the rules of the battle, but... even if the other party will regret it and send reinforcements, since it is a fighting formation, other soldiers will definitely fight with them.
The same as before, they are still some distance away from the place of battle.
In this way, you can make a time difference!
And Duke Bai's previous false ambush undoubtedly caused Zhang Xun to divide his troops to ambush again, further reducing the timeliness of reinforcements.
At the same time, when I saw in Chen Gong that Zhang Xun actually chose the "square formation", I knew that there must be a large number of new soldiers in the opponent's formation!
Phalanx does not refer to a real square array of 10,000 people, but to small arrays, forming a stable square as a whole, with more troops on the periphery and less troops in the center, with a balanced attack and defense...
And the other type, the array is arranged around the flags and drums to form a circular defensive "circle array", which is the most basic tactics.
It is generally suitable for new recruits and old and weak soldiers - Han Xin chose the square formation during his "last battle", and used the terrain surrounded by water on three sides to avoid being exposed to changes in the opponent's military formation. He could only face the enemy head-on, and at the same time it also restricted
The army on one's side was routed and defeated in the end.
But now in the open terrain, the changes of the phalanx are limited, and Chen Gong, from Zhang Xun's previous strategic style, determined that this should be a very good person, and it is impossible to choose such a basic military formation as the "phalanx" for no reason!
Chen Gong only has four thousand men on his side, and one thousand Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry hang alone outside the main formation. They don't need Chen Gong's command, they only need cooperation. Lu Bu's tactical intuition will guide him to attack the enemy's weakest point and seize it.
A fleeting opportunity.
The three thousand Qu'a spearmen were divided into eighteen formations, all eight levels deep, and they moved quite neatly.
The real Macedonian phalanx is sixteen levels deep. During the battle, the three or four rows in front point their spears forward, and the depth behind them points diagonally towards the sky...
In the military formation style of the Han Dynasty, the sixteen-layer infantry array was too redundant and could easily be targeted, so Chen Gong only used eight layers.
After all, in terms of tactical concepts at this time, the Central Plains had already adopted military formations composed of arrays as the mainstream. In this way, with the array as a unit, the military formations were more varied, instead of the entire army being piled up in one array for a head-on confrontation.
At this time, Zhang Xun was on the high platform and saw Chen Gong's infantry. The weapons they held were indeed very strange. It was not that Zhang Xun had good eyesight, but that the spears of these two or three people were really eye-catching.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, even the prototype of Zhang Fei's eight-foot-long snake spear was not eight feet long, but a one-foot-long pole with an eight-inch tip, which was one-third shorter than the one before Qu Ajun.
And they did it right away!
"It's inexplicable, one inch long, one inch strong... But how can the infantry attack with such a long weapon? Ha... the skills stop here! The front army advances..." Zhang Xun didn't take it seriously, ordered the flag drummers, and played a steady
Signal for advancement.
Although half of the military formation is new recruits, but... on Qu'a's side, except for a thousand wolf cavalry, aren't the others all new recruits?
Zhang Xun thought to himself that even if there was no deceit among Chen Gong's troops, they were indeed soldiers. With his absolute advantage, there was no reason to lose.
I saw Zhang Xun's phalanx slowly moving forward. The formations in the front were also composed of veterans, and the new soldiers were spaced apart in the formation behind.
As for the formation chosen by Chen Gong, Zhang Xun was stunned when he saw it: "This is... the fish scale formation? Isn't he commanding new recruits? No, he still has a lot of servants mixed in! He actually chose the fish scale formation?"
Zhang Xun couldn't understand it for a while, so he could only attribute it to being mysterious, and at the same time, he tried his best to adjust his mentality first.
"Don't underestimate your opponent too much. The lion must fight the rabbit with all his strength!" Zhang Xun warned himself.
When the two armies began to fight, Zhang Xun chose the most basic square formation - in order to take care of most of the recruits in the formation.
Both sides placed their cavalry outside the entire military formation, but Zhang Xun divided the two thousand cavalry into four teams and placed them on both wings of the square formation as support, while Lu Bu's thousand cavalry were like swords hanging high.
Still keeping the overall position on the right side, slowly press up together with the infantry.
The characteristic of the square formation is that it is solid on the outside and virtual on the inside, capable of both offense and defense, while the fish scale formation is usually divided into several sections. Each section itself, both front and rear, has a dense formation, but the gaps between the arrays are very large, and it is easy for other arrays to be separated.
Being divided, it is also easy to divide the enemy!
Zhang Xun didn't quite understand why Chen Gong chose this formation, but a tentative confrontation began immediately.
I saw Qu'a's spearmen, under the command of Chen Gong, gradually began to insert themselves into Zhang Xun's formation, not worrying about the numerical disadvantage at all.
The attack method of Zhang Xun's square formation is just the simplest "sparse formation" - that is, gradually sparse the formation and use it to move!
Therefore, it is easy to be embedded in the "Fish Scale Array".
However, Zhang Xun is not in a hurry. His side has an absolute numerical advantage. Even if they are separated from each other, at worst, they will fight separately!