Chapter 35 Car array

The day after Kachar arrived in Liangzhou, Yang Yi's letter also arrived. Zhang Mai saw that Satuk became so powerful and had the intention to deal with him, but Yang Yi said in the letter that in a situation like Satuk, he could not defend, but could only attack, and said that Satuk must have many internal problems now, so he must urgently need to expand externally. Next spring, when the snow melts, it is time for Satuk to use troops to the outside world.

It was early in the morning when the letter arrived. After Zhang Mai was overused and was very tired after the meeting last night, he asked Ma Xiaochun to read it to him. After reading it, Ma Xiaochun said, "Governor Yang's letter is a bit strange. He said that there are many problems within Satuk, and he also said that he urgently needs to expand - since the internal work has not been done well, how can he have the strength to do the outside world? Will he miss something wrong?"

Zhang Mai opened his eyes and his body was tired, but from his eyes, he could see that his spirit was very clear: "Yang Yi did not write missing words - because there were many internal problems in the Uighurs, he had to expand externally. There was no way out if he just defended. If it were the case, I would do this."

Ma Xiaochun said: "Would we want to fight him if we say this?"

Zhang Mai knocked the wooden table with his hand and said, "Come to Guo Shiyong, Li Bin, Cao Yuanzhong and Murong Guiying to discuss matters."

Soon the four of them arrived. After reading Yang Yi's letter, Murong Guiying said, "Governor Yang said so much, I deeply agree with it."

Guo Shiyong and others also nodded, Cao Yuanzhong said: "The question now is, where will Satuk attack next year?"

Li Bin said: "The areas where our army borders Satuk are one in Ningyuan and the other in Beiting. Ningyuan is blocked by mountains and rivers. Satuk could not capture it even if he gathered the coalition forces of various countries. Now that Governor Guo Luo has been in operation for so many years, the defense must be more stringent. Even if Satuk spreads all the Uighurs' forces south, it may not be possible to break through. However, we have not been able to maintain our efforts on Beiting for a long time, and the Khitans in the East will advance west at any time. Although there is a change in the Uighurs in the Lingxi West, according to the agreement between Khitan and Arslan, it is necessary to support a Uighur leader to restrain us. As for whether Arslan to restrain us or Satuk to restrain us, it is actually no difference. If he attacks Beiting with the Khitan and east and west again, even if we have defense this time, Beiting will probably struggle. I suggest that we increase troops to Beiting immediately."

Cao Yuanzhong said: "I agree with Li Sima's proposal. Now that the first batch of new recruits have been trained, will a general be sent to Beiting?"

Murong Guiying secretly observed Zhang Mai's expression. Seeing his frown slightly, he knew that Zhang Mai would never send out the new recruits in batches. He said, "If it is a defensive battle, the sufficient force is enough, and it is not necessarily the better. Beiting's military farms do not provide much extra grain. In the past year, due to the war, the herdsmen were in trouble, and their harvest was not good. If they wanted to transfer food from Gaochang and Yizhou, one more soldier would have to pay more food. I think it would be better to send Cao Kun, Jiangshan, Xue Yunfei and others to Longquan and Zheluomanshan City to replenish supplies nearby. Once there is something to do, they can arrive in a few days."

Zhang Mai nodded slightly, Guo Shiyong said: "The army needs to fight in a cluster to play its greatest role. If the elite troops are separated, the overall combat power will inevitably be weakened. Murong Chunhua is not a famous general in the city, and using the palace soldiers as the main force in the city is both wasteful and unnecessary. We might as well mobilize a group of militias to garrison Beiluntai City, so that Murong Chunhua can be liberated by the troops used to defend the city."

Zhang Mai nodded slightly again and said, "Then let's do it like this. But Cao Kun and others don't need to move."

After the generals went to do their own things, Ma Xiaochun noticed that Zhang Mai's expression was not very satisfied and asked, "Marson, are the words of several generals not your wish?"

Zhang Mai breathed a sigh of relief and said, "One thing, they have also asked how to deal with the problem, but..."

He didn't continue to say it, Ma Xiaochun said: "But they didn't say how to get ahead of the problem."

Zhang Maiha smiled, looked at Ma Xiaochun, and said, "You have a good idea in your mind. Well, it's good... They can think of how to deal with problems and carry out the implementation. But the kind of opinions that surprised me are what I most expect. However, there are not many such people in our army..." Zhang Mai narrowed his eyes and looked out the window: "There is only Zheng Wei by my side now, but he doesn't know much about war."

"Where will the war?"

"You can fight," Zhang Mai said with ease: "Yang Yi, Xue Fu, and... the former Aluo..."

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In addition to the training of Guzang Grassland, Guo Shiyong was also responsible for the military transfer of the Military Affairs Office. After he returned, he mobilized 300 militia leaders and asked them to rush to Beiting.

It turned out that after Shule's offensive and defensive battle, the Tang army trained a group of "military heads". In fact, according to the formal name, it should be called the deputy fire commander of the militia, the deputy militia deputy captain, and the deputy militia deputy captain. Each of them has considerable defensive experience and organizational skills. They also have the experience of quickly training ordinary civilians into a militia who can assist in defense. Each person can quickly organize a team of dozens of people, hundreds of people, and three hundred militia chiefs, which is enough to organize a defensive force of tens of thousands of people to guard a city and maintain a considerable scale of transportation troops. Because these militia deputy fire commanders, deputy team commanders, and deputy captains, they are usually faced with lower-class civilians, so these people are commonly called "militia chiefs".

Usually, the Tiance Army did not raise militias, but it raised thousands of "militia heads". These people were not good at field combat and the unit's combat effectiveness was not very high. However, they could quickly organize a cooperative warfare group of more than 100,000 people, so Zhang Mai regarded them as a treasure.

The principle of using militia heads is to let them go to the war site and "recruit on the spot". However, Guo Shiyong considered that Yang Yi might have other arrangements, and suddenly remembered the group of Liangbei surrendered troops who had just been resettled - that is, Xiu Tu and Baiting, who had just conquered Guo Wei.

After the two tribes arrived in Liangzhou, the officials temporarily placed them in the western suburbs of Liangzhou City, preparing to start spring and choose another location for them to go to Ansheng. Guo Shiyong suddenly remembered them and thought: "These people have just surrendered, and I don't know if they are really convinced. It may not be appropriate to put them between the elbows of Liangzhou. If they still ask them to go back to Tu Ze, they are afraid that something will happen again, so why not let them move to Beiting." Since they wanted to migrate to Xiu Tu and Baiting, even Mingwei's mansion was recruited. Although Guo Wei won a victory and made a big splash, in Guo Shiyong's eyes, he was just a deputy commander who was born in a "not the right way".

After the signing order was issued, Guo Wei did not take the order and said, "I am Marshal Zhili, so I cannot be transferred away like this."

After hearing the reply from his subordinates, Guo Shiyong said angrily: "How dare you, a deputy commander, not to obey my orders?"

After Cao Yuanzhong was promoted to general, Guo Shiyong was also promoted. He is now in charge of the central military power. He is the highest-level general in the army except Zhang Mai. At this time, a recruitment order was issued, and a mere deputy militia chief Guo Wei did not accept it. How could he not be upset?

Yang Sanggan next to him suddenly said, "Actually, it makes sense that he does not obey orders."

Guo Shiyong said angrily: "What's the point!"

Yang Sanggan said, "His Mingwei Mansion is the militia mansion, and the militia is half a level lower than the military mansion, so he is the deputy commander. However, this militia mansion is newly created by the marshal and the military command has not yet been registered, so in theory it is not our jurisdiction."

Although the Tang army of Tiance gradually matured at this time, it was still in the entrepreneurial stage. Therefore, Zhang Mai often created some new organization and system according to needs. If this new organization and the new system can adapt to needs, it will be retained and developed into regulations. If it does not meet the needs, it will be eliminated.

The Tang army of Tiance only raised militias but not militias, so Guo Wei's militia palace was an experimental and temporary organization and had not been included in the plain text. In theory, it really had to be approved by Zhang Mai.

Guo Shiyong is an old-fashioned soldier. Although he was angry, he still acted according to the rules. He had no choice but to send someone to find Zhang Mai. Zhang Mai then remembered Guo Wei, so he asked Ma Xiaochun to pass the order and let Guo Wei take the order. Soon Ma Xiaochun came back and said, "Marcel, that Guo Wei is really a martial artist who doesn't know how to advance or retreat. I'll pass the order. Guess how he answered? He actually said that he had something halfway through the work, and hoped that the Marshal would give him more time. Marshal, are you funny? He is a little deputy commander, and he has to bother the Marshal for a little bit of things. The Marshal has a lot of time to talk to him. I have scolded him and asked him to quickly dismantle the broken cars and go to the Military Office to obey the order."

Zhang Mai was stunned and asked, "What a broken car?"

Ma Xiaochun said: "He led hundreds of people to play several large carriages in the suburbs. He also asked someone to ride a horse to rush into the carriage, and I don't know what he was doing. There were also a few craftsmen measuring with rulers next to him."

Zhang Mai pondered and said, "Let's go and have a look."

Ma Xiaochun was stunned, but Zhang Mai was very quick to take the throne of sweat and blood and run towards the suburbs, asking Ma Xiaochun to lead the way. When he arrived, Guo Wei and others had not cleaned up yet. The fields were covered with wood and iron pieces. In addition, there were three large carriages invented by Sadi - but they were all very worn out, and they were three that were almost abandoned.

The hundreds of people cheered when they saw Zhang Mai: "Marcedes-Master! Marshal!"

Guo Wei also came to welcome him quickly. Zhang Mai looked at the wood chips all over the floor and asked, "What are you doing?"

Guo Wei said: "The marshal previously allowed me to train independently, so I took a little thought to see if I could train a car formation."

"Car array?" Zhang Mai then remembered that when he asked Guo Wei to form Mingwei Mansion, Guo Wei asked how to train. He did say that he would make the decision - this sentence was equivalent to authorizing him.

"Yes, it is possible that the soldiers of the Modao and Battle Axe who do not need to be tempered and can block the chariot formations of galloping cavalry in Pingkuan areas without using only ordinary militia. If they can be trained, I think it will be very useful for frontal combat."

Zhang Mai's eyes lit up as soon as he heard this.

The core area of ​​the current Tiance Tang army's struggle is the broad Beiting grassland, and the two major enemies they face are Khitan and Uighurs, both known for their cavalry. The Tang army relies on them to fight against them, one is cavalry against cavalry, that is, fighting each other, and the other is bows and crossbows against cavalry. If the city is effective and field combat is excellent, it will only weaken the opponent and cannot win. When it comes to the melee stage, it will still have to rely on cavalry, or Modao Battle Axe Formation. However, Modao Battle Axe Formation not only has high requirements for weapons, but also higher requirements for the source of troops. Therefore, the cavalry of the Tiance Army can increase by tens of thousands within a year, but it is difficult to increase the Modao Battle Axe Formation by several thousand.

If there is really a powerful formation that can quickly increase the number of people to curb the charges of thousands of cavalry in Pingkuan area, it will greatly improve the advantages of the Tiance Tang army when facing the Khitan and Uighurs!

But Zhang Mai immediately thought of another question and shook his head and said, "The chariot soldiers were eliminated a long time ago." After he came to this era, he also heard Guo Shiyong and Yang Yi talk about some ancient war examples, and knew that the chariot soldiers were popular in the Zhou Dynasty. However, the rise of light cavalry and strong infantry gradually declined, especially after the invention of stirrups, the chariot soldiers were quickly eliminated by history.

Guo Wei said: "The chariot soldiers I think of are not the kind of chariot soldiers in ancient times." He then said his thoughts. What Guo Wei received was the experience of the army, not from the paper military strategy. He relied on his talent and experience, and was good at adapting to local conditions, according to the conditions of the times, and according to the conditions of the object. The chariot soldiers he wanted to train this time were actually a chariot array. According to his idea, it was to connect the chariot head and tail, erect a shield that could be folded and placed on the shaft, and set the chariot array open when the enemy was in the enemy. Four shields could be formed to form a temporary iron city! The folded shield can be retracted and expanded, and a little can be closed and released, and the infantry can be out of the line to assassinate the approaching soldiers. The crossbowmen inside the chariot array can attack the enemy without any scruples. If the enemy cavalry is defeated, the cavalry will circumnate from the back and rush out to defeat the soldiers! The chariot soldiers can also change horizontally to vertically and come from behind.

Although these are just ideas and there are still many technical needs to be discussed with craftsmen, Guo Wei's ideas have basically taken shape. This is indeed a slightly trained militia can be arranged. However, cavalry, infantry, crossbowmen and even the original firearms that have just been tested can be included in this formation, which is clearly a very powerful comprehensive formation in the era of cold weapons!

Zhang Mai was stunned when he heard this. After a while, he suddenly said: "No, this chariot formation has major flaws! It is very limited by the terrain and is not as strong as the cavalry and infantry. Well, it may be useful on a specific battlefield, but after using it a few times, the enemy has seen through the clever mechanism and can quickly think of a way to crack it."

After hearing Zhang Mai's comments, Ding Hao, Tian An and others were very disappointed, but Guo Wei didn't say anything. Zhang Mai patted his shoulder and said, "Don't be discouraged, you can actively develop new troops, regardless of success or failure, your spirit is worth encouraging. You don't have to go there in Beiting, so stay in Liangzhou." Seeing that the sky was dizzy, he said, "Go back."

He took Ma Xiaochun back. When he was leaving, Guo Wei looked at Zhang Mai meaningfully, looking like he wanted to speak but stopped. He didn't say anything after all, but this look made Zhang Mai unable to linger in his mind.

Seeing that he was about to return to the city, Ma Xiaochun saw that Zhang Mai was so depressed that he seemed to be unhappy, he wanted to distract him and said, "This man surnamed Guo is really, this kind of formation that is useless after a few times, why are he busy with!"

Zhang Mai smiled casually and said, "Even so, it is commendable. Cavalry, infantry, crossbowmen, these three basic troops have their own reasons for being bumpy for thousands of years. It is not so easy to invent a useful new troops."

Ma Xiaochun said flatteringly: "That's because he followed a good lord. If someone else had changed, he would have scolded him and drove him away!"

Zhang Mai laughed loudly, very happy, but when he thought of Guo Wei's eyes, he always felt a little disappointed in his eyes. Zhang Mai vaguely felt that Guo Wei was not disappointed by himself, but Zhang Mai!

He suddenly stopped his horse and jumped off the horse and let it eat grass. No matter where it was, he just looked at the sky and pondered. Ma Xiaochun did not dare to disturb him, and he and several guards also jumped off the horse and waited quietly beside him, and did not dare to come out.

I don’t know how long it took, but seeing that it was dark, Ma Xiaochun thought to himself, “In this night, danger is easy to occur.” Just as he was about to urge Zhang Mai to return to the city, someone suddenly spoke behind a pile of rocks, and said, “It really needs to be done? Although we have already gained his trust, he suddenly died suddenly, and afterwards, all the money belonged to us, and anyone with a discerning eye would doubt it.”

Another said: "Hmph! You know, if you know, we will all become rich after doing this. So what if we are suspected!"

Zhang Mai thought to himself: "It turns out that two slaves wanted to seek the money of their masters." Then he realized that he was standing in a rock, and Ma Xiaochun and others stood there without moving, just like a few wood. The horses were running more than ten steps away to eat grass. The sky was dark and the surrounding environment was as quiet as if no one was there. He stood on one side of a very wide pile of rocks, and the two slaves stood on the other side of the pile of rocks. They didn't know that there were people here, and they didn't know that the gap in the pile of rocks happened to leak the sound of words.

The man said before: "We have been honest for most of our lives. This time, it will be a thousand-year-old Taoist practice! In the future... in the future..."

The second person sneered: "It will be useless for such a small fight for a thousand years. Now, if you move him this time, you will win him completely, and you will be smoother in the future..."

When Zhang Mai heard "I will win him completely, and it will be smoother afterwards..." As if a flash of lightning flashed through his mind, he suddenly burst into laughter, scaring the two people to shout from the pile of rocks: "Who! Who!"

However, Zhang Mai still laughed and said to Ma Xiaochun: "Go and ask Guo Wei to see me tonight!"

Ma Xiaochun replied: "Yes!"

Although they broke through other people's secrets, that incident was naturally not worth laughing at for Zhang Mai. But the two slaves walked around and each took out their daggers, which shone coldly under the moonlight.

They approached and several guards moved their bodies. Only then did they realize that there were not only one person or two people on Shidui, but seven or eight people. They were shocked at the same time and screamed. One of them was very smart and shouted: "There are thieves, there are thieves!"

Ma Xiaochun smiled and said, "What a smart guy! He called us thieves. Since we are thieves, no one believed anything he said."
Chapter completed!