Song Yi

Chapter 416 New Tactics

Naturally, Wang Gui and the others had never heard of new terms such as fortress warfare in Du Wenhao's words, and looked at him with some doubts.

Cai Que said: "General Du, if the war ends, we will suffer too many casualties. I'm afraid... the Empress Dowager will not agree."

Du Wenhao said: "Of course, we are not afraid of getting into a war, but we must try our best to avoid getting into a war. Because we are not sure of winning now, it is not appropriate to expand the war. If we want to force peace through war, we are fighting. At the same time, if they propose peace talks, they can be allowed to negotiate on the border, and at the same time, use the victories on the battlefield to force them to make concessions, which is called war to force peace.”

Everyone nodded slowly.

Han Zhen stroked his beard and said, "General Du, the first two you mentioned were used by our army in the previous battles against Xixia and Daliao, but you should know that the effect is not satisfactory after studying previous battles. "

"That's because there is no third rule!" Du Wenhao said with a smile, "We used to use strong walls to clear the field, and we also emphasized long-term and protracted warfare in our thinking. Seeing that the enemy army is about to collapse at the first touch, they will show off their power, thinking that they are invincible in the world, and lead the army to drive straight in. They don't know that the enemy army is luring the enemy to go deep. As a result, they are wiped out by the enemy's concentrated superior forces! The most important part of my tactic is, It’s on the third article! Only when the third article is implemented and implemented, will it be effective to fortify the wall and clear the country.”

Lin Xi, deputy envoy of the Privy Council, said: "General Du, the first two points are easy for us to understand, but the last point is what you mean by encroaching on... the fortress. Can you explain it in detail and how to implement it?"

When Du Wenhao studied the experience and lessons of previous battles against Xixia, he had repeatedly thought about how to formulate strategies and tactics if he commanded the battle against Xixia.Now that he has finally entered the Zaizhi, he has the right to make decisions, so naturally he will not be humble.Determined to use this local war to test whether its own strategic thinking works, and prepare for the next step of organizing larger-scale campaigns.

He went on to say: "While strengthening the walls and clearing the wilderness, build war camps on the border, station a man and horse in each war camp (100 people per army in the Song Dynasty), enclose the war camps with horse-rejecting guns, etc., and dig Juma ditches around. and other defensive fortifications, long-range bed crossbows, god arm bows and other strong crossbows are mainly used in the battle village, and there are beacon towers for reporting beacons, and enough food and drinking water are stockpiled. We gathered five hundred steps between the battle strongholds, because our magic arm bow has a range of about 250 steps (about 380 meters), so that the enemy army enters the range and can use crossfire to wipe out the enemy..."

Huang Lu asked, "I'm afraid this is inappropriate. The enemy can use trebuchets to attack the Zhanzhai from a long distance, or concentrate their forces to attack the Zhanzhai? What should we do then?"

"Don't worry, I haven't finished yet. My large army is deployed not far from the front line of the battle stronghold. The cavalry team is deployed in the front. Those who can quickly respond to the attack will have a large force behind. In this way, the battle stronghold has an enemy situation. The beacon tower lights up the beacon, and the rear army immediately reinforces and fights decisively with the enemy. It should be noted that our rear army can no longer divide our troops, we must concentrate our superior forces in one place, and we can't make the mistake of dividing our troops and advancing rashly. This tactic is to fight at every step , with the battle stronghold as the tentacles, it is not only an attacking fortress, but also a forward detection post. At the same time, with the infantry of the large corps, which is superior in number, as the backing, attacking the whole line bit by bit, nibbling away and advancing step by step, forcing the enemy to have a frontal battle with me, Let us take advantage of our army's large numbers of generals, and fight more with less. If the enemy flees, we must not pursue them, because we are advancing step by step, and those who are greedy for meritorious deeds, regardless of whether they have made meritorious deeds, will be executed for disobeying military orders!"

They had never heard of this kind of warfare, Lin Xi asked: "Then how to push forward and eat away?"

Du Wenhao was stunned: "It's simple. The battle village is not a city, but a temporary village composed of obstacles such as repelling carbine guns. It can be moved. The character-shaped battle line is divided into three rows. The last row starts to be dismantled, and moves to the front where the range of the double-armed bow is less than twice and starts to set up a camp. At the same time, the camp of the large troops stationed in the rear must move forward accordingly. This is how to move forward alternately. This is Cannibalize."

Cai Bian chuckled: "A battle camp has a capital of 100 people, and a battle camp is set up five hundred steps apart. May I ask General Du, the border between Song Dynasty and Xixia stretches for thousands of miles. How many troops is the general going to invest? Are you afraid that 100 million won’t be enough?”

"Hey, Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall, and it didn't surround the whole of China! It only needs to be set up in key parts and locations. The most suitable place for this is the first line of the Huanqing Economic Strategy Division!"

Du Wenhao has been studying the previous battles with Xixia during this period, so he is already familiar with the main strategic points of the enemy and us on the border. He ordered his soldiers to transfer the map of the Song Xia border, brought a table, spread the map, and pointed at the border. The Huanzhou area said: "This is the main battlefield where our army fought with Xixia, and it is the closest place to the capital of Xixia. It is only a few hundred miles away from Xingqing Mansion, the capital of Xixia. It takes two or three days to arrive at the army with horses and whips." It is near the capital of Xixia! Therefore, with Huanzhou as the general logistics base, all the war supplies are concentrated here, and the troops are mainly concentrated in this area. After clearing the hard walls in this area, we will start to build a battle camp from here along the line, and nibble at every step. .”

Han Zhen asked: "What if we advance to the enemy's town?"

"Forcing him to abandon the city by force!"

Everyone looked at each other, Lin Xi asked, "If forced?"

"First encircle three sides, leaving only the north retreat, bombard with siege cannons and other weapons, but do not forcibly attack the city. The rest of the area continues to advance. If the enemy invites troops to help, just encircle the reinforcements. If the enemy retreats, remember not to pursue. , continue to advance according to the deployment of our army. Seeing that the defending city is about to be surrounded, most of them will abandon the city and flee. Or surrender. The city can be broken."

Han Zhen thought for a moment, nodded and said, "With steady progress, I think this plan works."

Du Wenhao said again: "Our army advances step by step. Every step forward, it is one step closer to the heart of the enemy's capital. Xixia will be nervous, and sooner or later it will be forced to fight our army. A large-scale frontal battle , we will be able to give full play to our superiority in numbers. Once most of the enemy army is wiped out, or the capital of Xixia is captured, Xixia will collapse across the board!"

Cai Que said: "General Du's battle plan sounds very tempting. Hehe, it's just that our army has never implemented this tactic, so we don't know how effective it will be."

Wang Gui said: "I think it is feasible! Step by step, steady and steady, fortress warfare plus encroachment warfare, this can be done slowly and advance step by step, at least it is more practical than mobilizing tens of thousands of troops for a large-scale attack. I agree with this tactic! "

As the prime minister, Wang Gui expressed his approval, and other people began to weigh in their hearts.Although it was the first time they had heard of Du Wenhao's tactics, the basic idea of ​​the tactics was to take defense as an offense, step by step, and advance slowly. The traditional advantages of the Song army's defense are naturally easily accepted by them.They all nodded slowly.

Cai Que smiled and said: "This method of warfare is so novel, I'm afraid it won't work if someone else implements it. I recommend General Du for this battle. Generalissimo Ma, who will command a unified command. What do you think?"

Everyone naturally echoed in unison.Including Wang Gui, they all nodded and said: "General Du must take full responsibility to ensure that this method of warfare does not go out of shape."

Du Wenhao cupped his hands and said: "Thank you for your trust, my lords. I'm more respectful than obedient. I'll be the commander-in-chief of the army and horses in this battle. However, the Empress Dowager has already said that I will be responsible for the rectification of the army, so I definitely can't go to the front line directly." To command the battle, and to be honest, I am not familiar with the art of war. Directly commanding the battle, I am afraid it will not be easy to win. It is better to appoint another former enemy commander to be responsible for the front-line command of the battle."

Cai Que said: "This... I'm afraid that it will be difficult for others to understand the general's combat thinking, and it will be bad if something goes wrong."

Du Wenhao said with a smile: "As long as the former commander-in-chief of the enemy deploys the battle according to my arrangement, it will be fine, because the battle idea has been finalized-first fortify the wall and clear the field within a hundred miles of the border, and then build a battle camp on the front line, and use a strong crossbow to fight back. The enemy, use beacon smoke as a warning; deploy cavalry on the second line to respond quickly, and deploy superior infantry on the third line to prepare for a battle with the enemy. That's all. The job of the former enemy commander is to deploy where to build a battle camp, and organize the deployment locations of the second and third lines , When the enemy is attacking, how to fight. Remember one thing, that is, you can only advance the battle camp forward steadily, and you can only passively defend the entire line, and you are not allowed to take the initiative. Slash! This is the iron discipline. In this way of fighting, the combat mission of the former enemy commander is relatively simple, and generally he will not make big mistakes. What do you think?"

Wang Gui has already agreed with Du Wenhao that the wedding date will be on the sixth day of the next month, and he is still waiting to marry his daughter. Naturally, he will not let Du Wenhao go to the front line to command the battle at this time, so he nodded and said: "I think what General Du said is very true. General Du is in charge of the overall reorganization of the army. This is a major event, and the Empress Dowager is most concerned about it. This set of tactics is characterized by step-by-step and steady progress. It does not involve complicated tactics, and ordinary generals can also be competent. But the general must be supervised and not rashly advance , so as not to be surrounded by enemy troops."

Cai Que said: "Then what is the former commander in chief of the enemy... Who should be in charge?"

Wang Gui thought for a while, and said: "Let's let Lu Gong, the Yushi Zhongcheng, a senior scholar, be in charge of this..., let's make the former enemy commander in chief, and Li Xian, the envoy of Xuanqing, will be the supervisor."

Du Wenhao clasped his hands and asked, "Master Prime Minister, do you dare to ask whether Duke Lu's work is a civil servant or a general?"

"Wen Chen."

"Where is this Li Xian? Has he ever led a soldier?"

"Forget it, I used to be the supervisor of the army when I was fighting in Xixia."

Du Wenhao thought for a while, tried his best to choose a good wording, bowed and said: "I think that it is better to use troops against the enemy, and it is better to be led by generals. After all, to lead an army in battle, one must be familiar with military affairs, be familiar with the art of war, and know how to lead troops. to be able to do it.”

Wang Gui and Cai Que glanced at each other, and Cai Que said: "General Du, civil servants lead the army, this is the ancestral training, it has always been like this..."

Du Wenhao carefully studied the gains and losses of the Song Dynasty's battles with Daliao and Xixia, and he knew very well that one of the reasons why the Song army was repeatedly defeated was that most of the battles were led by civilians who did not understand military affairs.However, if he said that bluntly, he would definitely offend the gang of chief executives. He was new to the chief executive, and he didn't want to offend too many people. After all, chief executives decide things, and the principle is that the minority obeys the majority.Just now these people have already backed down, agreed with his suggestion of using troops, and also agreed with his battle plan. The flag of the wind has already been stretched, and the relationship cannot be froze again on this matter.Moreover, this suggestion was made by the future father-in-law, Wang Gui, and it was even harder to refute. The only way to solve this problem was to find the Empress Dowager and ask her to change the decision.

Han Zhen said again: "How much is appropriate to send troops?"

Shangshu Zuocheng Cai Bian said: "General Du said that this method of warfare is to use superior troops as a backing. So I'm afraid it won't work if there are fewer soldiers. The humble staff thinks that sending [-] troops, what do you think?"

Han Zhen said, "Which general will be removed?"

Cai Bian said: "The battle started on Huanqing Road, so of course the soldiers on Huanqing Road were removed. It seems that there are nine generals in Huanqing's army. Right, General Du?"

Du Wenhao, as the inspector of the three government offices, after taking office, the first thing he needs to understand is how his troops are deployed across the country. Therefore, after a month, he has a clear understanding of the deployment of various troops, and nodded immediately. : "Lord Cai is right. There are currently nine generals and more than [-] troops deployed on Huanqing Road. There are more than [-] horses. However, about [-]% of them are Xiang troops, and about [-]% are Fan soldiers, Local town soldiers and local yamen archers."

Song Shenzong Yuanfeng reformed the system and changed the military system. He implemented the law of war and the law of formation. The so-called "general" military system is similar to the mixed army in modern society.It is mainly based on the forbidden army, and the local Xiang army, Fan army, township soldiers and archers of the local yamen are all incorporated into the establishment.Therefore, the number of each army varies from place to place, and the gap is very large, with tens of thousands more and thousands less.

Han Zhen asked, "Then how many of our imperial guards are there?"

"If I remember correctly, there are less than 4 troops in the Huanqing Forbidden Army."

Wang Gui frowned and said, "That's not enough. You can't send all the soldiers from Quanhuanqing Economic Strategy Division to the front line?"

Du Wenhao cupped his hands and said: "From my humble position, this is a protracted war, so we can't expect to solve the problem by relying on one army alone. At this time, we should implement a more military method, and include all the six army troops under the Shaanxi Six Route Appeasement Division. The scope of troop deployment for this campaign."

Han Zhen asked in surprise, "How many people are there in total?"

Du Wenhao was already familiar with these numbers, and he said with his fingers: "The Huanqing Economic Strategy Division is the most important frontal battlefield for our army to fight against the Xixia Army, so the troops deployed in this area account for about 30% of the country's troops. From 40% to 20%, the number is between [-] and [-]. Of course, this also includes arms such as the Xiang Army who cannot fight and can only transport food and other auxiliary tasks. The number of forbidden troops that can really fight is about [-]."

Han Zhen said: "20? That's too much, right? The invasion by the Xixia Army during this period is not more than 1 people each time, only around four or five thousand. We will use 20 troops to conquer, and we will kill chickens Use a sledgehammer, secondly, draw out the troops in other places, leaving the troops empty, and the enemy will take advantage of it."

Du Wenhao smiled and said: "Our army is deployed along the north of Huanzhou, the place closest to the capital of Xixia. Every step forward, it is one step closer to the enemy's capital. If the enemy harasses other places, we can't divide our troops and just continue to move forward." When the enemy's capital is in immediate danger, they will never dare to withdraw the troops protecting the capital and go to other places to attack. It is inevitable that our subordinates will stop it at the front. Therefore, other places should not be invaded by Xixia on a large scale, even if there are This kind of sign is only to encircle Wei and save Zhao, and it only involves our army's strength."

Han Zhen nodded and said, "That's not wrong."

Du Wenhao went on to continue: "As I mentioned earlier, using the troops of the Shaanxi Sixth Route Appeasement Division to participate in this battle is not to concentrate all the troops in this place, but to implement a system of changing troops in rotation. Simply put, it is These six groups of pacifiers must take turns to fight against the enemy. Every time two groups of troops are removed, the number of imperial troops who fight directly cannot be less than 5, and the Xiang army in charge of transportation is not limited to this limit. This is the limit. Taking turns in this way can prevent the general from getting too tired in a protracted battle, and secondly, soldiers from all walks of life in our army can take turns to go into battle, hone their combat strength, evaluate soldiers, and prepare for large-scale battles in the future."

Wang Gui praised: "That's a good idea! Take turns to play, every six months, and 5 people will go to battle in each round. Good!"

Everyone listened to the prime minister and agreed. They all understood the old man's protective character of protecting his future son-in-law, and this is not a matter of principle. The main reason is that this method is more in line with the needs of protracted warfare, so they all agreed with Du Wenhao proposal.

(End of this chapter)