Song Dynasty

Chapter 257 Niu Gao ([-])

Niu Gao is a standard northern hero, with the most heroes in Lianghe. A hero like him has built up his strength since he was a child, traveled the rivers and lakes, and is also familiar with the Song Army's tactics.

When training Xiangyong every day, he also uses the methods of the Imperial Army of the Song Dynasty.

The field army of the Song Dynasty paid attention to heavy armor and hard crossbows in combat. Each battle formation was not too thick. Surrounded by Zhou's soldiers, there was no room for maneuver, and they could only push forward involuntarily.

To use an analogy, the Song army's formation is a huge stone roller, which is mercilessly crushed forward with its strong armor in every battle until there is no more enemy in front of it.

In this way, the army of the Northern Song Dynasty maintained a very high winning rate in foreign wars.Of course, this way of playing like a tortoise shell is really clumsy. Even if you win, you can't pursue the defeated enemy, and the beheading rate is also frustratingly low.

But the Wang Shenjun in front of him actually did the opposite. The troops were disbanded into small teams of a dozen people, with loose connections with each other. Once such a team was pulled into the battlefield, they fought on their own. When the enemy concentrated their forces and rushed, wouldn't they immediately collapse ?
Seeing this, Niu Gao couldn't help frowning in one place, forming two big pimples between his brows.

How could his expression deceive Wang Shen, and he smiled: "Bo Yuan doesn't take our army's tactics seriously?"

Niu Gao: "Don't dare..." He was also surprised that the Sizhou Army has always been defeated in every battle for more than a year, it is so majestic, and he is yearning for it in Henan.However, the situation in front of him was too strange for him to understand.

Wang Shen: "Boyuan, we are all a family now, so it's okay to talk if you have something to say."

Niu Gao: "Military envoy, pardon... the last general has the guts to say that your formation is too strange, and I'm so stupid that I can't understand it. However, if you really use it on the battlefield, if you meet Jurchen Tartars, I'm afraid it will cause bad things. "

Wang Shen laughed: "Indeed, this formation alone cannot be used in large-scale battles. If that's the case, I'm afraid that a certain number of elite soldiers and powerful generals will not be enough to accompany him. However, the magic of formations exists There is no single-minded formation in the world. It needs to change from time to place and from person to person. In fact, this formation was specially designed by me for Zhongxiang’s Mani demon.”

"The demon Zhong Xiang heard that our Sizhou army came to Hunan and gathered the main force to fight against me in Lizhou, but unexpectedly our army won several games in a row. Zhong thief saw that he was beaten head-on and was beaten by our army. It was broken into pieces and entangled with me relying on water, nets, lakes and swamps. Our army was annoyed by it, and followed it with small groups against small groups. However, it suffered a lot."

Niu Gao was surprised: "As strong as the Sizhou army, will it suffer under the hands of Mani monster?"

Wang Shen: "The battlefield is ever-changing, and no one dares to say that he is a general who will win forever. Most of our army is from the north. They are not familiar with water and boats. Every battle can only be confined to land, so there is little room for maneuver. And Zhong Xiang's demons have lived on this Dongting Lake since they were young. On the battlefield, they come and go by boat. This situation is really a bit like Jurchen cavalry, who can outflank and intersperse in the shortest time. In this way, we The army is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of tactical initiative. Moreover, in the battle on the water, the iron armor and strong crossbows can't be used. If you don't change the formation, you will be beaten piecemeal. A formation hoping to restrain Mani Monster's troublesome style of play."

Hearing Wang Shen's words, Niu Gao recalled the waterway he traveled all the way, and thought about it for a long time.Then he sighed and said: "What the military envoy said is very true. There are rivers and swamps everywhere, and the enemy can come and go whenever they want. It is really a bit like the Qingqi of the Jurchen Tartars. It is indeed a headache. Moreover, compared to the two rivers Fighting against the Jurchens, Hunan is even more troublesome. The terrain here is divided into small pieces by the river, and many times the troops are drawn into long lines by river embankments and ridges, even if they want to form a large formation It’s also impossible. If you were the last general, you would have nothing to do when you encounter such an enemy. However, I think the general’s newly trained small formation is not surprising except for the strange weapons in the hands of the soldiers.”

As he spoke, he turned his attention to the Sizhou soldiers who were practicing.

Wang Shen pointed to the first small formation that was being practiced and began to explain.

I saw that there were only 12 people in each of those strange formations, forming an inverted triangle.

At the front are two card players. These two card players not only have different shields in their hands, but also have different soldiers in shape, age and spirit.

On the left is a piece of ten long cards about 1.5 meters long, which is held by an experienced soldier.

Wang Shendao: "At the front of the team are two card players. The main task of the long card player is to cover and block the attack of the bandit army, and there is no way to do it. Generally speaking, they are filled by courageous and experienced people. Unchanging courage."

The other sign player held a small buckler in his hand.

Wang Shen continued: "In addition to blocking the enemy's attack, this little buckler also needs to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy when necessary. He is the strongest martial artist in the team, and is the pivot for the team to turn defense into offense."

Behind the two card players is a person holding a red flag, no need to ask, it is naturally the captain.

On both sides of the captain is a soldier holding a strange weapon that is one foot long.

This weapon is very strange, with a sharp spear point at the front, but there are one-foot-long iron branches growing around the gun barrel, like a duckbill like a steel knife, held in the hand like an open iron bamboo branch.

"This is a wolf trap." Wang Shen explained to Niu Gao: "During the war, Zhang was in front of the battle to keep the thieves from approaching."

"Weird, weird!" Niu Gao couldn't stop saying.

Behind the wolf soldiers and the captain was a row of four spearmen. Naturally, there was no need to say what role the spearmen played on the battlefield.However, this spear is astonishingly long, the wolf's whisk has already grown considerably from one foot to two feet, but this spear is one foot to five.

There are two boring palladium hands behind the spearman. The boring palladium in the hands is not long, less than one foot long, so they are considered short soldiers.

Behind the boring palladium, there is an archer.

Wang Shendao: "The archers stabilize the formation and protect the front, the wolf traps protect the sides, and the archers attack from a distance. In this way, with all the long, short, near and far means, this formation has no flaws."

Niu Gao: "Military envoy, this kind of small formation commander is indeed something I have never heard or seen before, but I don't know what it's called?"

Wang Shen: "The name of this formation is Yuanyang formation, which I figured out a while ago." Sorry, General Qi Jiguang, let me plagiarize you first.

A few days ago, Zhong Xiang fought a guerrilla with him, which made Wang Shen very headache.Even though the back Wei army was brave and brave, they were still very embarrassed by them in unfamiliar terrain.

Wang Shen thought about it for a long time, especially after personally experiencing a sneak attack by a Manichaeism cultist, he was shocked by those monsters' disregard of life and death and their excellent martial arts.

Yes, although Zhong Xiang's army has threatened a large number of refugees, the army under him is rotten.But the thousands of followers at the core are all good at martial arts, and their martial arts are very special. They jump and intersect among the reeds in the water network and rivers, looking like apes.

This situation reminded him of the historical record of the Japanese pirates' invasion of the southeast during the Ming Dynasty. Inspired, he ordered people to build weapons, organize mandarin duck formations, and prepare to use a small team to break the small team.

Niu Gao: "But I don't know how effective this formation is on the battlefield?"

Wang Shen shook his head: "I haven't actually fought before, and I don't know how to do it, but I have to try."

Niu Gao also shook his head: "Military envoy, General Mo has doubts about your formation."

Wang Shen: "Why don't you give it a try, Boyuan?" He didn't have the slightest doubt about Niu Gao's ability to lead troops to fight, after all, it was recorded in the annals of history.However, how this person's martial arts is, it is inevitable that I am a little curious.

Moreover, to be honest, Wang Shen was also a little worried about how effective the mandarin duck array would be in a real battle.Why not let Niu Gao test the waters to see if there are any loopholes that need to be filled.

Hearing what he said, Niu Gao was also eager to try, thought for a while, and said with a smile: "Since the military envoy wants to test the general's ability, I dare not refuse."

Immediately, Wang Shen ordered his soldiers to change into weapons used in actual combat drills.The heads of the spears were all taken off, and the tips of the wolf's whisk and the boring palladium were also replaced with wooden ones.

As for the feathered arrows in the hands of the archers, they all turned into hammerhead arrows.

Then, Wang Shen ordered someone to bring a set of Suozi Armor for Niu Gao to wear next to his body, with a tie armor on the outside and an iron helmet with an iron mask on it.

Similarly, the soldiers in the mandarin duck formation also wear thick armor.

The big commotion here had already alarmed the other soldiers on the school field, hundreds of people gathered around and stood aside to observe.

Wang Shen: "Boyuan, what weapon do you use, come here and give General Niu a jujube stick."

Niu Gao waved his hand: "I don't need long weapons. Earlier I heard from the military envoy that most of the elite Mani monsters use long knives. They can leap several feet and look like apes. If I use long weapons, how can I tell whether the formation is good or not. The last general has his own mace, and in addition, give me the bow and arrows replaced with hammerhead arrows."

With a recurve bow and a bag of arrows on his back, Niu Gao waved the iron mace in his hand, and cast his piercing eyes from behind the iron mask to the group of twelve soldiers in front of him: "Be careful!"

As soon as the words fell, Niu Gao suddenly leaped forward, leaping high, like a goshawk swooping down on the long player.

A huge wind sounded.

The expressions of the surrounding audience changed at the same time. One must know that Niu Gao's equipment weighed at least forty catties, and ordinary people would be out of breath after walking a few steps in it.

But it was as light as a feather on this fat black general.

Seeing that he came fiercely, the two players in front were also terrified.

However, the long card player still gritted his teeth and greeted the long card in one fell swoop.

"Peng!" The iron mace hit the long card, and the long card player was shocked, his face turned red, and he almost fell to the ground.One can imagine how powerful Niu Gao's move is.

Shaking the front of the mandarin duck formation by himself, Niu Gao was about to take a step forward and tear open a hole.At this moment, a strangely long wolfwhip suddenly opened, and Niu Gao felt as if he had fallen into a bush of thistles. Although the iron mace in his hand hit the wolfwhip whistlingly, he couldn't exert any force at all.

The wolf's wand turned around, and easily dissipated the oncoming Pei Ran's huge force.

The two spears stabbed at each other with astonishing speed.

But Niu Gao didn't retreat, the iron mace in his hand flashed a ball of black light, knocking the two spears apart in an instant.

In his heart, he thought to himself: "This mandarin duck array is not very good!"

But at this moment, the small shield hit him and blocked his sight.At the same time, Buckler's dagger came and fell on him.

(End of this chapter)