The king on the Great Wall

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Chapter 669 Developing Strengths and Avoiding Weaknesses and Landau Horse Racing

The coping strategy of the people of Hewan in the face of the Western Expedition Master is very simple: trade space for time, actively prepare for the decisive battle, and strive to seize the best time and place for the decisive battle.

This strategy was quickly implemented after obtaining the approval of the majority. Most of the river bends began to carry out extreme cavalry mobilization and day and night gathering and cooking. The atmosphere of war preparation even touched Oldtown, who wanted to repeat the old tricks: Margaery Tyrell's mother, Allerly Hightower, wrote to her natal family herself, asking her father, Margaery's grandfather, known as "Old Earl Leighton Hightower, the old man in the town, explained the principles of gunpowder and thermal weapons in detail, and analyzed the pros and cons of participating in this battle, successfully impressing this old otaku who had planned to be a fence sitter and devoted himself to academics. Let him let go of power, allow his son to lead the vassals of the Hightower family, and give "all support except sending troops" to the Hewan coalition forces.

Regrettably, so many exciting news did not shake the black-clothed demon from the Great Wall at all. The Western Expedition Wang Shihun steadily advanced westward along the Rose Avenue without being disturbed. Two days earlier than expected by the people of the River Bend, they crossed the eastern border of the Highgarden Territory and formally entered the territory directly under the ruling family of the River Bend.

As far as Aegon and the people of the River Bend are concerned, they have already been attacked by the Queen's Western Expeditionary Army, with Highgarden behind them, and there is no way to retreat. His in-depth policy, stretching the supply line to an unsustainable level and thwarting the strategy of supporting war with war also brought huge logistical pressure to the main force of the more than [-] Western Expeditions he led.

The decisive battle can no longer be delayed - no matter who it is!

And the consequence of this sense of urgency projected into reality is: the frequency of encounters between the two scouts suddenly increased by an order of magnitude, and the traces of large-scale enemy troops finally appeared in the blocked investigation of the Western Expeditionary Army. At the edge of the range, the smell of gunpowder in the air climbed step by step, and finally reached a suffocating level.

……

On the basis of maintaining a certain defensive force in the south against Dorne and the north against the west, the people of Hewan finally squeezed out more than [-] troops on the front line of Gaoting, including more than [-] cavalry and the remaining gold regiments. , a total of [-] troops.

The defeat at the Battle of the Blackwater River not only allowed the Golden Regiment-Hewan Allied Forces to see the power of hot weapons, but also made them aware of the dangers of decentralized command and princes doing their own way.In the face of unprecedented external pressure, in order to avoid exhaustion of internal debates and order chaos caused by no one order, at another military meeting shortly after the strategy was determined, the nobles of the Reach and the supporters of Aegon Jr. unanimously agreed on a plan. Proposal: imitate the enemy's military system, temporarily reorganize and gather military power, and hand over the entire river bay army plus the Golden Regiment to a headquarters composed of a small number of decision-makers...unified command.

It never occurred to the Tyrells that the power they had dreamed of over 300 years as rulers of the Reach would be a blessing in disguise after a bad defeat and be forced out by the enemy.For the sake of internal unity and to make up for the psychological imbalance caused by the losses suffered by the Allied forces during the Battle of the Blackwater River, the Duke of Tyrell, at the suggestion of his daughter Margaery, recruited Aegon's prime minister, Jon, and the Golden Company. The head of the regiment entered the core decision-making circle of the headquarters, and handed over the military power to King Aegon in name and to a certain extent. Under the banner of the latter's true dragon, the unified dispatch of the entire army was finally truly realized.

Once the ownership of the command is settled, everything will go smoothly.

After carefully studying the characteristics of gunpowder weapons and the force structure of the Western Expeditionary Army, the headquarters determined the core idea of ​​this defensive battle: make use of strengths and avoid weaknesses.

"Long" is: fighting locally, with a crushing advantage in terms of military strength.

The "short" is: The Queen's army has high morale, hot weapons and dragons (possibly appearing).

To deal with dragons, you must prepare a dragon hunting crossbow. It goes without saying that it can provide morale support and psychological comfort even if you miss the shot.But on the issue of how to face the large forces of the Western Expeditionary Army, they have no experience and history to learn from... After several rounds of brainstorming and discussions, the coalition headquarters implemented the core idea into specific implementable details——Summary There are roughly three aspects.

[-]. Appropriately lengthen the width of the front.

As the former territory directly under the King of the River Bend, the High Court Territory occupies the most geographically superior position in the River Bend Plain—it is not only wide and fertile, but also flat.You can see the terrain at the end of the sky when you raise your eyes. While making the locals safe from danger, it also makes it fair for foreign enemies to have no terrain to "get stuck", leaving the intruders with less room for micro-manipulation.The decisive battle took place in this area, and the River Bend Allied Forces could deploy and mobilize at will, but the Queen's Army had no available terrain conditions to protect their flanks or rear—the River Bend people could arrange formations arbitrarily, lengthening or shortening the width of the front.

What is the front width?

Simply put, it is the distance from the leftmost wing to the rightmost wing of the legion, and in-depth exploration involves the balance between contact surface and depth, the compromise between maneuverability and command and mobility, and the choice of attack and defense-arranging formations, tending to a In one aspect, other aspects will inevitably be affected accordingly.

In this case, the strength of the Allied Forces at the Bend is about three times that of the Queen's Army. What does this mean?

This is a math problem in elementary school. The most obvious answer is: when the front width is the same, the river bay army is three times as deep as the queen army; and when the depth is the same, the river bay army is three times as wide as the queen army— —The former means that the side with more people is stronger and more durable when the front is tough, while the latter means that the side with more people can outflank the side with fewer people without thinking.

This is the fundamental reason why wars are usually won by the side with more people, and the victory with fewer people can be boasted and praised.

Given that the Queen's Army has artillery that is just ahead of them, the most correct choice is naturally to rely on the crushing advantage of troops to lengthen the front line, take advantage of the width of the left and right wings, and bully the opponent with a larger contact area.

The artillery of the Land Grant Army is sufficient to give an overwhelming advantage on a medium-sized battlefield with a scale of [-] people.But as long as the battle line is stretched beyond this threshold-Iger will face two difficult choices:

[If the battle line is not stretched equally, the left and right wings will fall into the danger of being outflanked; and if the front line is extended, the formation will be insufficient in depth due to the disadvantage of troops and it will be easy to be taken away by a breakthrough wave. 】

[If the firearms are concentrated in one place, it is tantamount to releasing troops without artillery; and if they are scattered, the original amazing power of the firearms will be greatly diluted...]

Too many people—this is a bit of a military version of "one force and ten meetings". This seemingly mindless move of lengthening the width of the front instantly covers both strengths and weaknesses, and at the same time achieves "utilization force superiority" and "weakening the threat of thermal weapons".

Second, recognize the reality and make trade-offs.

The long front can affect the tilt of the balance of victory to a certain extent, but it is only a little bit higher in the direction away from defeat: no matter whether Iger disperses or concentrates the artillery, the artillery is the artillery. With the existence of the gods and Buddhas who block and kill Buddhas, the front-line troops without equal weapons will suffer more or less casualties and morale blows when bombarded, which will cause damage to combat effectiveness and ultimately affect the outcome of the battle.

In response to this grim reality, Lando Tully, who can no longer lead troops due to disability and can only serve as a staff officer, put forward a refreshing idea: Since the power of gunpowder is invincible, then don't try to stop it at all!If it is impossible to win the frontal battlefield, why not give up quickly and look for opportunities from the flanks and rear?

Pick the ones with the worst training and equipment from the coalition forces and place them directly opposite the Queen's Army's front line, and arrange the remaining elite on the left and right wings away from the artillery fire and directly behind the first line-in this way, when the Queen's Army uses the artillery's When the force defeats the front line of the Hewan coalition forces, the remaining intact wings wider than them and the remaining elite in the rear can form a natural pocket formation, engulfing any troops that Iger sends to pursue!

Artillery has just appeared on the battlefields of this world, and the word and concept of "cannon fodder" has not yet appeared.But in any case, the group of unlucky guys proposed by Duke Tully are the de facto cannon fodder troops.If Iger participated in this meeting against himself, he would definitely be amazed and applaud on the spot: Isn’t this the ice-fire version of Tian Ji’s horse racing—Randall’s horse racing?

Artillery soldiers are their own upper horses, and cannon fodder are the lower horses of Hewan people!

Don't look down on cannon fodder, they have many tasks and functions.

The first is the "duty": Since casualties and morale damage are inevitable, then simply allocate a part to bear all the negative effects - using the isolation between cannon fodder and elite troops, the coalition command can effectively control the panic of "cannon fodder" within a specific area. Within the range, to avoid interfering with the combat effectiveness of the entire army; and the dedicated retreat passages set aside between the elite troops of the second line in the rear can prevent the rout of the troops caused by the first round of engagement from engulfing the entire field and leading to the collapse of the entire army.

The second is barriers and cover: the front line of the cannon fodder troops, even if it is only a thin line, is more than enough to prevent the infiltration of the Queen's Army's reconnaissance forces. Coupled with the cannon fodder in the front holding up the banners, the main force in the rear dies down, and there is no way for [-] cannon fodder to pretend to be [-] main forces. Any difficulty, on the basis of attracting artillery fire, can also divert the attention of the enemy commander, so that Iger's vigilance in other directions will be greatly reduced; if you are lucky, you may be able to consume the limited breath and bombing of the dragon ——If the Queen rides a dragon into battle.

The last is the bait: If the Queen's Army obediently goes to the local area and uses artillery to bombard the place, that would be the best, but if Iger can hold his breath and doesn't attack first, this layer of cannon fodder will also be under the orders and leadership of the commanders Initiate an active charge... Of course, the end result will undoubtedly be a defeat.And the fake rout is the easiest situation to seduce the enemy to launch a full-army attack. Once the Queen's Army launches a full-army charge to try to end the battle, the real main force deployed about a mile behind the cannon fodder will cooperate with the left and right wings. Swallow them like a big sack.

Use your trump card well.

If the cannon fodder is the lower Si, the elite infantry is the middle Si...then the upper Si of the people in Hewan is undoubtedly the more than 2 cavalry.

With the equipment, quality and morale of the Queen's Western Expeditionary Army who have fought all the way without a single defeat, if only relying on the pocket formation of more than 6 infantry to cooperate with each other, it is very likely that "although the enemy army was successfully surrounded, it was turned into victory by the center." extreme cases.At this time, the more than 2 cavalry who had received emergency "de-sensitization special training" and initially adapted to the roar of firearms became the trump card that determined the victory.

The headquarters divided the cavalry into two groups: one group was divided into two and placed on the two wings of the infantry line, serving as a left-behind defense. It was under the unified command of the base camp headquarters. rout.The other group wanders on the side of the battlefield not too far away, looking for the best opportunity to cut in under the leadership of the independent commander.

There are two types of scenarios:

If Iger lengthens the width of the battle line to make it difficult for the river bay cavalry to turn around and outflank, the independent cavalry will return to the main battlefield to serve as the flanks, and the left behind cavalry will move to the center, leading the infantry to attack the enemy's central army. fight an upright battle;

And if Eiger wisely gave up the "front width contest" with the Hewan coalition forces, the left-behind cavalry would firmly guard the front line and merge with the [-] infantry to form an iron felt. Attack at the same time at the right time-like a powerful hammer, smashing the mighty Queen's Western Expeditionary Army on the iron felt!

……

Once these three targeted tactics are put into practice, the people of Hewan will practice the core idea of ​​making use of their strengths and avoiding their weaknesses to the extreme. And through their mouths, it was conveyed to the ears of all the soldiers, and the tense and depressed atmosphere in the mighty coalition army camp was unexpectedly swept away, and a bit of fighting spirit was ignited.

This was a fateful battle, and even Mace Tyrell, the "Master Inflatable Fish" who has always been recognized as incompetent, made a rare public remark.

"The land of the people of Hewan is inviolable. This time, the damn night watchman must come and go!"

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Chapter 670

There was a light rain in the early hours of the morning, and it didn't stop until dawn. The rising sun broke through the blockade and slowly rose from the horizon, and the vitality followed by the light was scattered to the endless river bay plain.A hazy layer of water vapor quickly evaporated from the humid near-surface, slowly rising to high altitude, refracting a majestic rainbow across the sky.

With the evaporation of the remaining water droplets on the leaves, the weeds and crops on the vast field began to rise up and compete for the sun as before; and in the shade in the crevices of the rocks, next to a few small uncontested fungi, A lucky vole who has survived the harsh winter is also poking his head out of a hidden hole, planning to prepare breakfast for his entire litter of cubs.

The beautiful and peaceful spring morning scene was broken by the terrifying erectus ape at the next moment-the rumbling sound of the ground came from far and near, and the mother field mouse was scared to shrink back into the hole far away, and the dust was scattered everywhere. The horseshoes arrived later, regardless of wild and domestic, trampled all the plants along the way into the mud and crushed them into pulp, as if they were declaring their ownership of this land with violence.

The sky was completely bright, and the gate of the Queen's Army camp was slowly opened. The scout cavalry of the brigade, who had eaten their first meal early, swarmed out in full armor with spare horses, and scattered in all directions as usual, clearing the way for the army to explore the way westward. .

Behind them, the [-] Western Expeditionary Army also began to dismantle the tents in an orderly manner, and unhurriedly moved out of the camp.

It has been half a month since Wangling stepped into the river bend. They have fought all the way, and have not encountered any large-scale resistance except for sporadic harassment along the way. Although their spirit has been dragged down a bit, their confidence in victory has become more and more inflated: at this speed, In two days, they will be able to camp under the city of Highgarden and enjoy the wind on Tyrell's horse farm!

……

In the middle of the huge camp, Iger, who had just finished his breakfast, walked out of the large tent of the Chinese army and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, but he was not as brainless and optimistic as the soldiers at the grassroots level.

Things are not going well.

This kind of "not good" does not mean that the battle cannot be won, but that the balance of victory is constantly shifting to the middle...or to the opposite direction.

Two months ago, at the end of the Battle of the Blackwater River, if the Queen's camp had given up on King's Landing, turned around and directly took advantage of the victory and chased the lead tail into the river bend, the chances of winning were ten to ten, and the opponent probably would not even be able to fight back.

However, in Eiger, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, they fought another naval battle and assaulted fortifications on land and sea respectively, took a short rest and subdued the western border, and then formulated a general national policy and stabilized the situation in the kingdom—in short, it took a little time to digest what had already been done. After giving Aegon and Hewan a chance to breathe with the spoils in their stomachs, their winning percentage dropped slightly to [-]%.

Immediately afterwards, the Hewan people not only did not lose their fighting spirit, but also managed to produce gunpowder, and began to mobilize the entire Fengdao - [-]%.

Under the command of the United Command, the nobles on the front line took the initiative to retreat, scorched the earth, traded space for time, and chose the most correct response strategy - [-]%.

The supply line connected to the king's land was harassed by the river bay cavalry after it was detoured until it existed in name only. "The exhaustion of [-] soldiers eating horse chews quickly dragged the Western Expedition into a logistical quagmire...

As it got deeper into the hinterland of the river bend, the local nobles' determination to fight to the end and the signs of preparing for a big battle to meet him became more and more obvious. After realizing the seriousness of the situation, we responded.The day before yesterday, he sent letters to both the north and south auxiliaries and King's Landing in the rear with a raven: ordering the new troops in the western territory around the ancient oak city to go south along the coastal road and go straight to the northwest of Gaoting, ordering those who had invaded the Baiyangtan area The Northland army also marched westward quickly to put pressure on the east of Highgarden, and at the same time asked the Queen for help, hoping that she could come in time with the dragon to participate in the most critical battle to unify the Seven Kingdoms.

It is too late to turn around, and forcibly maintaining the supply line will disperse forces and give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it. There are two options before Iger: either declare logistical tension, control supply and distribution, exchange morale for durability, and stick to the spot and wait for another There are three possible reinforcements to assist; either maintain the original rhythm and continue to advance, and the lone army will go deep into the wave and go head-to-head - the bet is that after winning [-] and [-], there will still be the strength to take Gaoting.

It is impossible for the capital of the Riverbend to be scorched. As long as the Tyrell family's winter reserves are obtained, they can easily overcome this difficulty!

After thinking about it, Iger didn't make a rash decision. Instead, he secretly summoned two witches, Melisandre and Jinvara, in the dead of night last night—asking them about the feasibility of "assassinating little Aegon with Shadow Binding".

Yes, dirty tricks.

Of course, Iger didn’t realize that there were red-robed priests available until then. He didn’t think about it at first, because it involved a “weighing the pros and cons” issue: Is it necessary to bet on yourself when the army is sure to win with dignity? The character design of the queen, the reputation of the queen, and the legitimacy of the Targaryen regime, to seek help from "evil law"?

Of course, it's not worth it to have a probability of failure of only [-] to [-]%.

But now the risk has risen to [-]% to [-]%. As an open-minded modern person, he naturally can't be the famous overlord, stick to rigid moral standards, and let go of this unique skill that can effectively end the war.

What is a pragmatist?Of course it is "I would rather be judged by morality than let Wu do an autopsy"!

***

After listening to Iger's inquiry, the intuitive Jinwala immediately understood his purpose.

"Shadow binding is indeed one of the skills that the Red Temple can teach, but not every priest knows it. In addition to requiring a certain amount of talent, years of hard training are required... Even with a lifespan that exceeds that of ordinary people, high-ranking priests They usually only specialize in a few specific spells, and the rest are just dabbled in. In this regard, Melisandre's attainments are far superior to mine and even most of the priests in the church. Let her answer the question of the agent. .”

"Shadow binding, as the name suggests, is a spell to manipulate and bind shadows." As Iger's old partner and follower, Melisandre did not hesitate at all, "But what needs to be explained is that the 'shadow' mentioned here It is not the shadow of light, but the "shadow life" supported by spell weaving. Due to the dark color of the shadow, it is easier to hide in the shadow, so it has become a rumor after appearing on the scene many times to complete the task mission. A spell that can manipulate shadows. Ordinary swords can't harm its shape, but magic means can easily take it..."

"There's no need to explain too many principles." Iger interrupted, he didn't understand and didn't want to learn, "Just tell me what conditions are needed."

"First of all, it takes a few days of preparation time - this is still in the current superior environment of magic power recovery. After casting the spell to summon the shadow, the caster has to use magic power and even flesh and blood to nourish it, so as to finally realize the shadow bound Target. In addition...the shadow binding technique also has a distance limit. If it exceeds the range of ability, the shadow may escape, dissipate, or fail to control—even though I have already entered the room in the shadow binding technique, I want to kill people thousands of miles away It's still a fantasy, at least it has to be within the range of eyesight. It would be the best if it can be close to a wall and upstairs and downstairs. In addition, artificially cultivated shadows have not yet awakened their intelligence, which is a kind of stupid Things, Bound Shadow is not simply "give orders to it, and then wait for it to return in victory", but requires the caster to manipulate it like a second body, every minute, every second, every movement and half a moment without stopping, Go to the destination step by step, almost accomplishing what the caster wants to accomplish by hand."

"So troublesome?" Iger frowned, and suddenly understood why Melisandre in the original timeline needed the onion knight Davos to send her to Storm's End in a boat before he could do it. How terrifying is the shadow technique and how to kill it, you can only know the price and restrictions if you have experienced it personally, "That is to say, only when the two armies confront each other within a certain range, and I know exactly where the target is, can you succeed. ?”

"It's not about 'being able to succeed', but 'being able to do it'. As for whether it will be successful in the end, it depends on whether the enemy is paralyzed or not, and whether the two wizards that Clinton invited to protect little Aegon are true... The Shadow Binding Technique is difficult to perform, but if it is discovered, it is quite simple to avoid, obstruct or crack it."

"Understood, let's get ready first, whether to use it or not, wait for my order." After a short silence, Iger made up his mind, and then suddenly remembered, "Jinwala, Melisandre said that casting spells requires a lot Magic, can priests other than her, such as you, help speed up the process?"

"Yes, I am willing to help." The chief priestess of the Red God Sect bowed her head respectfully, and took the trouble to show her submission again, but when she raised her head, there was a ambiguous smile in her eyes, "However, Your Excellency, Proctor, let me remind you : As the spokesperson of the Lord of Light in the world, you are full of the pure energy of my lord R'hllor. If you personally participate and assist in this shadow binding ceremony, the shadow that can be cultivated can grow the fastest. Adults are also the strongest."

***

In the morning light, Iger was reminiscing about the absurdity, weirdness and freshness he experienced last night, but the piercing trumpet sounded through the clear sky, sharp and hasty, as if screaming: Warning!Enemy attack!

It was a bit unexpected, but the most feared thing in the strategy of holding a group and advancing steadily is a surprise attack, not to mention that the army is still in a strong camp at the moment. Iger stood there calmly, and after a while, he really waited for the report from the messenger.

"My lord, the scouts found the main force of the Hewan people five miles to the west, with a scale of 5 to [-] people. The whole army is in a horizontal battle formation and is slowly advancing towards me. In addition, there are also enemy cavalry on the east and south sides. , the number is unknown, and our scouts are stepping up their investigation!"

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Chapter 671 Desperate

"My lord, stick to it or fight?"

After a while, the generals of various armies hurriedly sent people to inquire.

Persevere or fight?That's a good question.

The Western Expeditionary Army already has the advantages of the quality of its soldiers and advanced weapons. If they still stick to their camps and don't get a defensive buff, even if the people of Hewan send millions of troops to take turns to attack, they can only use pebbles to hit rocks.However, the problem facing Iger now is: he has held the posture of "seeking the enemy's main force for a decisive battle" all the way in this western expedition. If he does not respond when the enemy comes to him, the morale that has accumulated for nearly a month will be exhausted. But the possibility is empty; if the enemy storms the camp and is repulsed, that's okay, but I'm afraid that if the Allied forces in the river bend do not attack, it will take three to five days until they run out of ammunition and food...

If you stick to the camp, you won't get any results if you win. If you can't fight, it will be a disastrous ending. This is a very simple choice of pros and cons. Iger made a decision without hesitating for a second.

"Release the air observation post, the logistics will continue to pull out the camp, the combat troops will set off first, and form a rolling formation according to the second set of plans!"

……

The low and plaintive bugle sounds, the sharp and piercing golden drums, the shouting orders of the officers and the cursing and complaining among the soldiers came and went one after another in the camp. Geb moved out boxes of propellant and shells, and the shapechangers who could control birds controlled birds of all sizes to fly into the sky...

Under the control of the grassroots command system based on the backbone of the Land Grant Army + the graduates of the Night Watchman Military Academy, the entire army quickly and methodically dressed, assembled, and rushed out of the gate, and began to form formations on the plain outside the camp, next to Mande River, arranged the formation that Iger specially designed for the west expedition to the river bend.

The Hewan coalition has a large number of generals, and its average combat experience and quality are slightly inferior, but it is not considered a rabble, and it also has a home field advantage in local combat.It can be said that although the strength of the cards that Little Aegon and the Tyrell family can play is not high, the number is extremely large, and there is a lot of trial and error costs.In the face of such an opponent, it is tantamount to dreaming to perfectly resolve every move of his chess. Therefore, Iger's tactical thinking specially designed for this battle is highly consistent with the strategic concept of Xizheng, that is, : Discharge the panacea formation to respond to all changes with the same.

The water vapor floating in the air was dissipated and evaporated by the rising sun, and the beautiful rainbow gradually faded and disappeared.In the morning light that gradually increased in brightness, the Western Expedition army led by Igger West, Hand of the Queen, slowly bloomed like a steel flower centered on the camp stationed last night.

It had long been expected that they would be besieged when they went deep into the hinterland of the river bend. In order to avoid being attacked by half-crossing the river when they approached High Court, the Western Expeditionary Army led by Iger took the new barrel city with lightning speed. Turning sharply to the south, they crossed the river to the Mande River in a region with gentle water before the people in the river could react. After that, they continued to march along the river to Gaoting without deviating from the road.At this moment, the Western Expeditionary Army is advancing close to the river bank as usual. Apart from the fact that this action coincides with the spirit of "last stand" and can effectively curb the soldiers' fluke mentality by cutting off the retreat route, the most direct and important benefit and purpose is: The water blocked one of the enemy's outflanking directions, allowing the friendly side to concentrate on dealing with threats from other directions.

If the people in Hewan have also mastered the means of flying reconnaissance at this moment and can look down on the Western Expeditionary Army from above, they will be surprised to find that by the sparkling Mande River, the Western Expeditionary Army has listed a mighty...unheard, seen, and unseen, An incomprehensible formation: a total of about 4 infantry in the entire army were neatly divided into countless brigades and squads, and the countless teams formed nine evenly spaced large square formations—among them, the ones near the river bank were the most , There are four in total; a little farther away from the river bank - three squares between the first four squares, and three squares one hundred meters away to the south, two spaces between these three squares, and the last two squares.If it is 3+2+9, there are [-] square arrays in total, like three "pin" characters piled up in the way of two positive and one reverse, forming an isosceles trapezoid with the river bank as the base as a whole.

In the gaps between the three rows of large square formations, there are seemingly random but implicitly arranged remaining troops that are slightly smaller in number, but have stronger actual combat effectiveness and are more critical.These include: the Central Army Command + Reserve team is located in the middle of the gap between the first and second columns, enjoying the protection and protection of a total of seven infantry phalanxes in 4+3; the artillery and Wugou who are assigned to protect the artillery The combatant detachment is located on the west side of the headquarters at a distance of the entire phalanx, facing the direction of advance near Gaoting; the supply and food team is located on the symmetrical east side, in the center of the three phalanxes at the buttocks of the queue; a total of less than 3 troops The cavalry (mostly from the west) are located between the second and third ranks, surrounded by a total of five phalanxes of 2+[-], which are defensive and flexible.

Looking through the ancient and modern military books in the world of ice and fire and even the world of earth, it is difficult to find a battle formation that is exactly the same as the formation ordered by Iger today.The reason why he took such an unconventional way and found a new way is because the situation before him at this moment has never been faced by anyone: leading a large-scale army of the cold weapon era equipped with hot weapons to face an even more powerful army. A huge army in the era of cold weapons without hot weapons, and under the blocking of the latter, continued to attack High Court until the latter was taken.

Since the "question" is an unprecedented new question, there is naturally no answer that he can copy.Although Iger is not an orthodox graduate of a military academy, he has also deeply realized a truth through his long and short military career: there is no perfect formation, and it can only be formed according to the organizational strength of the army, the level of equipment training, the situation of the opponent, and the strategic goals of the enemy and the enemy. And adjust to the most suitable formation.

The comparison of forces in this battle is: the Western Expeditionary Army is far inferior to the opponent in terms of the number of infantry, cavalry, and logistical support. The only two advantages are gunpowder and morale.In this river bend wilderness of Mapingchuan, facing overwhelming enemies, even if they win countless times, the enemy can calmly retreat under the cover of superior cavalry, and then make a comeback with the determination and willpower of defending the soil... It is exhausted to fight against it. When he ran out of ammunition and food and had no choice but to catch him, Iger chose to follow the teacher's instructions-"You hit yours, and I will hit mine."He gave up the extravagant hope of defeating the enemy once and for all in the confrontation between the two armies on the plain, so that the people in Hewan would no longer have the will to fight. The sense of crisis of "falling" and the psychological pressure of "unable to achieve the strategic goal" forced the opponent to find a flaw in his own turmoil, which brought him an opportunity to take advantage of.

But if you want to resist the enemy's obstruction or even intercept the forced march, the defensive power of the movement—that is, the ability to respond to the enemy's sneak attack while marching is the first priority. To achieve this goal, at least two points must be achieved: 1. Each army can receive its own military orders in a timely manner and be under its own command and management to deal with emergencies; 2. The overall external front of the whole army should be as short as possible, not only preventing the enemy from taking advantage of its strength, but also ensuring The ministries can coordinate with each other and protect each other.

From a mathematical analysis, the semicircular formation by the river is the optimal solution, but in fact, once the semicircular formation is formed, it cannot move at all, and does not meet the requirement of "movement", so... the trapezoidal formation becomes The final solution after a compromise between theory and reality.The distance from the troops on the edge of the third line on the outside of the trapezoid to the headquarters is similar. In addition to the convenience of sending orders and reducing the external contact surface, the trapezoid formation also effectively overcomes the inherent shortcoming of the rectangular formation "the right-angled part is the most vulnerable": if the enemy comes from the north, Mann The De River is the best line of defense, and if you attack from the south, you have to face a huge tactical depth layered on top of each other, and attack from any direction other than the north and south, and you have to face all sides on the three sides of the trapezoid. The magical modified version of the slash formation formed after the formations cooperate with each other... really is invulnerable, making it impossible for the enemy to speak.

Speaking of having no way to say it, if you turn the map upside down and look at it from top to south, everything will become clear: Doesn’t the trapezoid leaning against the river bank look like a huge turtle shell?That's right, Iger intends to command the army - like a tortoise, to go all the way down the river to Gaoting City under threat, to attack and take Gaoting in front of the soldiers of Hewan, and completely destroy the will of the people of Hewan to resist!

The idea is very clear, but the reality is not so simple: although the turtle shell is hard, it is not an ideal rigid body after all.The people of Hewan have an absolute advantage in the number of infantry and cavalry. If there are smart people in the opponent's command, they decide to use the infantry separately - using the absolute number of infantry as the anvil and the superior cavalry as the hammer. The outdated anvil-hammer tactic, under the pincer attack of 10 people, no matter how hard the turtle shell is, there is a danger of being knocked apart or even flattened by a hammer!

Faced with this potential threat, Iger's prepared countermeasure is: refuse.

Taking advantage of the artillery's huge range and deterrence advantages, the enemy infantry will launch bombardment as soon as it enters the range of sight, disrupting the rhythm of the infantry in the river bay, and making the "anvil" in the anvil-hammer binary structure If they can't take shape smoothly, the whole set of tactics will naturally collapse and go bankrupt... Next, [-] infantry will face cavalry who are smaller than themselves. With the cooperation of morale and combat strength advantages, the battle will be fought!

woo woo woo woo……

In the sound of a long signal, the Western Expeditionary Army completely completed the operation of pulling out the camp. After waving the flags to communicate with each other a few times, the tortoise formation composed of [-] Western Expeditionary Army slowly raised its feet and began to move steadily along the river. Moving westward, we took another solid step toward the final destination of Gaoting in the lower reaches of the river.