Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 692 Cavalry and Infantry Formation

Some say that the Jin army was an army mainly composed of cavalry.

This sentence is correct or incorrect.

Strictly speaking, the traditional elite cavalry of East Asia should have been equipped with three or even five battles.

Mounting a horse and carrying a spear allows one to charge into battle, while drawing a bow enables one to harass. Dismounting and wielding a spear forms a square formation, while grabbing a sword and shield allows one to scatter.

How can someone be called an elite if they aren't an all-rounder?
In addition, the Jin Dynasty liked to temporarily conscript soldiers, which led to the saying that the Jin army consisted of a small number of elite troops plus a sea of ​​garbage.

The Song army's initial military ideology was the same, but after the Jingkang Incident, due to the change in the war's adversaries, the marshals of various war zones had no choice but to adapt.

Unlike Yue Fei's strategy of large-scale, sweeping advances and decisive battles, the Wu brothers adopted a defensive counter-attacking approach due to the complex terrain of Sichuan, Hanzhong, and Longyou.

In practice, this involved occupying a position that forced the Jin army to attack, then using crossbows in conjunction with the terrain to inflict heavy casualties on the Jin army, and finally launching a counterattack after the Jin army was exhausted.

Guided by this idea, Wu Lin's improved stacking formation was quite unique.

The first row consisted of long-spearmen who spent most of their time sitting on the ground, their spears held at an angle.

The second row consisted of archers and crossbowmen, kneeling on one knee and waiting.

The third row consists of archers, standing and waiting.

During this period, if conditions permit, the cavalry will provide cover on both flanks and set up barricades in front of the spearmen.

When the enemy forces charged to within a hundred paces, the archers fired first, followed by the other crossbowmen.

This formation cannot be considered entirely useless, but it is not the same as the three-stage attack touted by later marketing accounts, and its combat power cannot be equated.

The fundamental reason is that shooting a flintlock musket requires little physical strength, while drawing a bow and releasing an arrow or cocking a crossbow requires strength.

A skilled archer will find his arms weak and nearly exhausted after firing twenty arrows in rapid succession.

Therefore, it was almost impossible to expect archers to engage in melee combat after bombarding the enemy with a large number of arrows.

Therefore, both commanders and ordinary soldiers are mentally prepared that in a battle, they can only choose between long-range shooting and close combat.

Compared to the brutal close combat, long-range shooting is so much more comfortable.

This led to an increasingly distorted development of Wu Lin's Song army, which possessed incredibly strong long-range firepower but increasingly weak close-combat capabilities.

Historically, Wu Lin's troops were initially invincible because anyone would be afraid of seeing so many archers.

Moreover, with the example of the weeping prince Wanyan Salihe before them, no one would let their sons die in vain again.

The reason why Wanyan Zhang was able to defeat the veteran general Yao Zhong in Yuanzhou was because he saw through the essence of the formation and really seized the opportunity.

Wanyan Zhang dispatched one force to bypass the Song army responsible for hand-to-hand combat from the flank or rear. He then led another force, heavily armored and fiercely engaged in battle, defeating the Song army in melee combat. The entire Song army was thrown into chaos.

Although Wu Ting's troops were elite, they were still trained by Wu Lin himself and were an army mainly composed of archers.

However, unlike the other Song armies, this force of 5,000 infantrymen had a large number of horses and mules, allowing them to maneuver and fight on horseback.

They were not very skilled at mounted combat and were not good at cavalry warfare, but they could rely on their strong mobility to quickly move to places that the enemy did not expect.

Zhang Wen had already led a thousand soldiers and quickly occupied the two hills around Mawei Slope. Then, no more than two miles away from Wanyan Liang, he dismounted and formed a battle formation on the two hills.

This move completely stumped Wanyan Liang.

In his view, the Song army only had two tactics.

Either the Song cavalry would charge head-on across the plains, or the Song infantry would form ranks at a distance and slowly advance onto the hill.

Therefore, Wanyan Liang did not allow the Jin army to occupy the high ground first.

But who would have thought that the Song army would pull such a stunt?
In this way, wouldn't the Jin army directly lose the advantage of terrain and suffer a minor defeat in the first encounter?
At this moment, Zhang Wen was also covered in sweat.

"Form ranks! Form ranks! This damn terrain! It's too damn flat! Everyone, send half of your men out and hold them up with your spears!"

"Barricades?! Where am I supposed to find barricades for you? Do I look like a barricade to you?!"

"Archers, conserve your strength! Prepare for melee combat!"

"call!"

"drink!"

Although the weather had cooled down considerably, Wanyan Wangxiang's forehead was still instantly covered in sweat in the face of this situation.

Damn it, why are all the Song soldiers we're facing now tough opponents? Where did those Song soldiers who collapsed at the first touch in the Huai River region go?

However, Wanyan Wangxiang also knew that those who could serve as surprise troops to carry out missions must be elites, but he still couldn't help but have wild thoughts, wondering if he was having a bad year and had offended the Grand Duke Jupiter.

"Wang Xiang!"

Seeing Song cavalry charging out from behind the hill, Wanyan Liang shouted, "Take the Han light cavalry and push them first!"

"Here!"

Wanyan Wangxiang immediately raised his spear and pointed at the two men beside him: "Hu Yu, you take your troops and go harass them first. Sun Zheng, Liu Yan, you two come with me!"

Hu Yu was the Guanzhong general who had just pointed out that this place was Mawei Slope. He dared not delay upon hearing this, and led more than four hundred Han cavalrymen to disperse and advance, using bows and arrows to disrupt the Song army's formation.

Hu Yu and the others understood that the reason they were sent out to fight first was because Wanyan Liang was worried that they would turn against him after seeing the troops sent by Wu Lin. So he wanted to let both sides fight and inflict casualties before he could feel at ease.

However, the kindness of the Song Dynasty and the benevolence of the Western Army were things from decades ago. For Hu Yu and other young people, the Song Dynasty was just a figment of their fathers' and grandfathers' imaginations, and their youth was almost entirely spent with the Jin Dynasty.

People change, especially when the older generation steps down and a new generation rises. New ideas and moral values ​​are determined by the environment in which the new generation grows up, rather than being directly inherited.

This is also why Yu Yunwen felt that this was the last chance for the Song state to recover the Central Plains.

The northerners who marched south from the Central Plains to reclaim lost territory, and the elders who remained in the Central Plains eagerly awaiting the return of the imperial army, will all be mercilessly worn down by time.

In the new generation's worldview, the world is inherently divided between North and South, so why risk death and annihilation to change it?

Now is a critical point of transition between the old and the new. As a result, there are many people in the Kansai region who are secretly in cahoots with Wu Lin, but there are also quite a few who want to serve the Jin Dynasty.

The men from Guanzhong, represented by Hu Yu, belong to the latter group.

Therefore, when facing the Song army, although Hu Yu was somewhat afraid of Wu Taiwei, whom his father and grandfather had mentioned, he was not afraid at all as long as Wu Lin did not come in person.

"I am Wu Ting! A general from the Guanzhong region! You all..."

Wu Ting, leading over a hundred personal guards, leaped out from between two small hills, brandishing his spear and shouting his name in a show of force.

Before he could finish speaking, Hu Yu roared, "You motherfucker!"

While cursing, Hu Yu's hands were not idle. He directly drew his bow and shot an arrow at Wu Ting's face.

The two were only thirty paces apart. Wu Ting did not expect Hu Yu to be so disrespectful. Caught off guard, he could only turn his head slightly in haste.

"squeak!"

The arrow made a teeth-grinding sound as it rubbed against the helmet, sparking a series of flashes, before veering off course in another direction.

Wu Ting, adjusting his helmet, roared in fury: "You son of a bitch! You're asking for it!"

After saying this, Wu Ting led his personal guards and charged forward.

Hu Yu's original intention was to harass the Song army. Seeing this, he had no intention of engaging Wu Ting in a head-on battle. Instead, he dispersed into groups of five to ten men and fired arrows to harass them.

Zhang Congjin, accompanied by more than twenty personal guards and carrying a long sword, watched this scene and sneered.

One of the guards asked in a low voice, "Steward, should we go and help?"

Zhang Congjin shook his head: "Hehe, these light cavalry should have been dispersed in the first place. If General Wu can't even handle this little thing, then what's the point of the Northern Expedition? He should go home and coax his children."

However, after only two laughs, Zhang Congjin's smile turned self-deprecating.

The Han Chinese man carrying the banner with the character "Hu" clearly had an accent from Guanzhong. When they saw the Song army that had come from the north, they did not surrender immediately, but instead charged straight at them.

Uncle's plan went wrong!

Even if the people of Guanzhong did not have a strong sense of belonging, they felt even more so towards the State of Song.

Thinking of this, Zhang Congjin couldn't help but look at the large Zhang-character flag behind him.

Something is still not right.

The people of Guanzhong don't recognize the Jin and Song dynasties, so why don't they recognize the Zhang family of Guanzhong? Why didn't they even ask a single question before starting the war?

"Steward...Steward...Look ahead." The guard's voice trembled slightly, waking Zhang Congjin from his reverie.

Zhang Congjin quickly turned his head to look.

When he saw the enormous Golden Banner pierce through the smoke and dust and appear on the battlefield, the smile on his face suddenly froze.

(End of this chapter)