Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 45, The decisive battle begins

Duke Shanguo was fooled.

After he led his troops away, Ma Laohei led his troops into the camp of Duke Shanguo.

After killing thousands of people, Ma Laohei set fire to the granary and left calmly.

After hearing the news, Duke Shanguo rushed back to help, but it was too late.

When Duke Shanguo returned to the camp, most of the military camps had been burned down and there was no way to save them.

When his soldiers saw this scene, their morale inevitably dropped.

The old hand of the Duke of Shanguo tightly grasped the sword in his arms.

At this time, Duke Shanguo faced two choices.

One is to withdraw the troops temporarily and fight again after regrouping the troops the next day.

The second is to gather troops, burn our boats, and start the decisive battle in advance!
Duke Shanguo hesitated for a long time about these two options, and finally chose to fight a decisive battle in advance.

This was a very risky move. The camp was burned down and all the food and grass were gone. Now the soldiers under his command were only able to fight once.

If we fail, it will be a great defeat.

If it were in the past, Duke Shanguo would never have made such a choice.

He once lost twelve games in a row in Liaodong, but he was able to regroup every time and drag down his opponents by relying on the powerful national strength of Daxi.

But now is different from before.

The emperor was already very dissatisfied with him. If he knew that he had withdrawn his troops, he would definitely force him to return to the capital. By then...

So now the Duke of Shanguo has no other choice.

He had to force the battle.

Duke Shan looked at the soldiers around him, drew his sword, and encouraged their morale:

"Don't give up, soldiers. Although our army's main camp was burned, we still have strength. The enemy commander has left the city now. This is a godsend opportunity. The enemy's artillery camp is trapped in the stone pond, and the reinforcements are blocked at the Pearl Bridge. The enemy commander is helpless like a tree with broken branches. We will fight bravely and defeat them in one battle. We will win without a doubt!"

After a series of sophistry by the Duke of Shan Guo, the soldiers under his command actually regained some morale and shouted:

"We must win, we must win!"

At that moment, Duke Shanguo mobilized all his forces to attack the troops led by Fang Yong.

As the sun sets, the two sides meet in the middle of Shitang Town and Zhuqiao Town.

The decisive battle officially begins.

At this time, Fang Yong had a total of 55,000 soldiers under his command, divided into the left wing, center army, and right wing.

Duke Shanguo led 84,000 soldiers under his command, also divided into the left wing, the center army, and the right wing. However, unlike Fang Yong, Duke Shanguo set up an additional rear army of 5,000 men.

The battle begins, and there is no general.

The generals on both sides used flags to command their troops and began fighting.

Ji Xiao's new book says that when attacking or fighting a war, there are three things that come first.

The first is the military formation, the second is the morale of the soldiers and officers, and the third is rewarding merits and punishing mistakes.

There is no need to say much about the morale of the soldiers and the rewards and punishments here, let's just talk about the military formations.

What is a formation? It is the formation of soldiers. Maintaining a stable formation is extremely important in battle.

A stable formation can boost the morale and courage of soldiers in battle; on the contrary, if the formation is scattered or even routs, even the bravest soldiers will be affected.

Secondly, what is the so-called formation?
The formation here does not refer to a certain formation, but the command of generals.

The command of generals should not be restricted to the specific form of the battle formation, but should be constantly changing according to the situation on the battlefield, so as to use their own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses.

To put it simply, it means maintaining the formation of the army through the military formation; at a certain time in the battle, let more of your own people attack fewer enemies; use elite soldiers to attack the enemy's weak points; use superior arms to fight against the enemy's inferior arms.

To break the surface with a single point, and to exchange a small number of casualties for greater combat results, these combined together are the effect of the military formation.

When it comes to commanding battles, Fang Yong is confident that he is no weaker than anyone else.

[Talent: Military Strategy (Mastery)]

【Progress: 10/1000】

【Effect: Command with confidence, as if pointing to the palm of your hand. 】

War drums rumbled.

The soldiers on the left wing attacked first, with spearmen and shieldmen advancing forward, and archers shooting from the rear.

The two armies came into contact and a fierce battle broke out instantly.

The government troops were well-trained, but their morale was low.

Fang Yong's men were fearless and brave, but due to their limited training, they were not as skilled in combat as the government troops.

Each side had its own strengths and weaknesses, and after fighting for a while, there was no clear winner.

Fang Yongsui gave orders to the central army and the right wing army to press forward and launch a full-scale attack.

Duke Shanguo also ordered the central army and the left wing army to fight Fang Yong.

At this time, Fang Yong's talent at the level of mastery of military tactics was revealed.

He could get an overall view of the situation when an army of tens of thousands of people was fighting, and just like a computer, he could accurately find the advantages and disadvantages of all places.

The battle between the two armies on the battlefield is composed of several small battles. If it is divided more finely, each soldier is a battle point.

And with so many battle points, Fang Yong can take in all the pros and cons in his mind, no matter how big or small.

This is definitely not something that ordinary humans can achieve.

Even a famous general can only focus on a few more important points and it is impossible to control the overall situation.

But Fang Yong can.

For example, a certain team was defeated by the enemy, and the defense was insufficient in a certain place, resulting in a slight disadvantage.

It is impossible for a normal general to pay attention to all the small things like this, and there will definitely be some negligence.

Sometimes, it is just such a small disadvantage that gradually ferments and turns into a big disadvantage, and eventually the enemy tears a gap and breaks up the formation, causing a defeat.

But this problem will not occur here with Fang Yong.

He made up for all the disadvantages in the battle through careful planning and issuing orders.

Before the war, Duke Shanguo deliberately deployed all the strongest shield soldiers in the central army. Although their shields looked inconspicuous, they were all made of the best steel shields.

The purpose of the Duke of Shan was to use this to stop the attack of Fang Yong's main force.

At the same time, the most skilled archers among General Shanguogong were deployed at the rear of the right army. Although there was no change in number, their attack capability was directly improved to a higher level.

Duke Shanguo wanted to catch Fang Yong off guard and tear open the defense of Fang Yong's right army.

Normally, even the most experienced general would not be able to notice this situation immediately.

It will definitely take some time of fighting before we can realize the Duke of Shanguo's arrangement.

But Fang Yong was different. He noticed these two points as soon as the war started, and then made adjustments immediately, making all the preparations of Duke Shanguo useless.

Duke Shanguo was extremely shocked, he even suspected that there was a spy in the army.

The battle lasted from afternoon to evening, and the sun gradually set.

There was no sign of defeat on Fang Yong's side. Instead, the army of Duke Shanguo was torn into gaps again and again, and Duke Shanguo could only rely on his numerical advantage to fill the gaps.

Soon, the sun set completely.

The ancients had very poor night vision, and many people were even night blind, so it was very inconvenient for the army to fight at night.

The warring parties used torches to illuminate the area as they fought.

The command system at this time was severely hindered. The soldiers could not see the flag signals, and the generals could not see the soldiers clearly.

Generals could only learn about the situation on the battlefield through human communication.

This approach obviously has great limitations.

The battlefield changes rapidly, and it is difficult for the commander to make the right judgment.

It was in this situation that Fang Yong's extraordinary ability was truly revealed.

He could actually judge the situation on the battlefield by the fire and the shouts of killing, as if it was an innate ability.

Even he found it hard to believe at first, but after verification, he found that this ability was indeed correct.

In this case, the position of the Duke of Shan Guo should be...

Fang Yong looked towards the northwest corner.

"Send the order!"

(End of this chapter)