On the evening of that day, Ni Liang led the Cavalry Brigade of the Guardians and the First Brigade to Yingshan County through Wuyang Pass, but they did not enter the city, but stationed outside the city. The next morning, Ni Liang entered the city to meet the emperor. Zhao Bing considered that they had been on the road for several days and the weather was humid and hot during the day, so he still rested during the day as usual, taking advantage of the time when the sunset was coming to the cool morning.

In the evening, he drove out of the city and met the army and set off again. Sun Kai followed him back to Suizhou. In order to ensure safety, after leaving the city, Zhao Bing was persuaded to enter the car. In the evening, except for the stars and a bright moon, there was nothing good to watch. Therefore, he was really lonely, so he asked Wang Yinglin and Sun Kai to talk in the same car.

"Sun Kai, your unit is close to the Jingxiang War Zone and knows more about the situation. Have you heard any news?" The imperial car was modified and was more stable than the war chariot. It also had eight horses to pull the car, and the inside was more complete. Of course, it was not as good as the modern high-end RV. The three of them sat around a few times, and a small yellow door brought tea. He looked at Sun Kai and asked.

"Your Majesty, our army has been besieging Jingxiang for more than three months, and it has not made much progress. The generals have some discussions in private!" Sun Kai didn't know what the emperor wanted to know, and it was not easy to discuss friendly forces, so he did not dare to speak nonsense.

"We monarchs and ministers speak in private, so there is no need to worry about it. I will not settle the score later. Wang Xiang is not a talkative person. Just say something bluntly!" Zhao Bing heard his speech hesitantly, and understood that he had some concerns, so he said with a smile.

"Well, my subordinates are talking nonsense!" Sun Kai nodded, "All the generals said that Jingxiang now has concentrated the sixth, seventh and eighth third army of the imperial guards, and suffered minimal losses in the early battles. Then, the Second Cavalry Division, the Second Artillery Division and the Ezhou Squadron of the Inner River Naval Division. In addition, some state troops assisted, the total force was 150,000, while the enemy troops in Xiangyang area were only five thousand households and more than ten thousand households nearby, with less than half of our army's strength. It was supposed to be a destructive force to seize Xiangyang, but it was difficult to understand."

"Well, you continue!" Zhao Bing nodded. He dispatched troops to strengthen the Jingxiang battlefield several times, just to fight and decide quickly, which echoed the battlefields of Lianghuai. However, it eventually failed, resulting in the Dong Group being too prominent and had to give up attacking Kaifeng and turn to defense.

"My subordinates also talked to the generals in private, thinking that Jingxiang was ineffective in fighting for a long time, and there were several main problems." Sun Kai said, "One, the troops on the battlefield of Jingxiang were slow to move and even missed the opportunity to attack. As a result, spring rain continued in April, causing the river to rise, causing difficulties in crossing the river to attack. Second, the generals had conflicts and were dissatisfied with each other. The wind rumored that Jiang Zhishuai summoned the generals several times to discuss the matter, but the debate continued, and it was difficult to agree, and they all dispersed unhappily. Third, some people said that although Jiang Zhishuai had strategies, it would be useless to not cooperate with several generals."

"What else? Don't hide your head and tail. What I want to listen to is the real situation!" Zhao Bing heard that Xu Kai was deliberately downplaying Jiang Jin's ability problem to avoid being suspicious of being arguing about Shangguan, so he lowered his face and said.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Seeing that His Majesty's face was unpredictable, Sun Kai did not dare to hide it anymore, "Everyone said that Jiang Zhishou was in a position to command several generals. It was entirely up to His Majesty to remember the kindness of the Dragon and did not replace him..."

Although Zhao Bing was able to learn about the situation of various departments from the secret reports of the Bureau of Affairs, it involved more of the ideological dynamics of personnel, whether there were corruption, corruption of officers, embezzlement of money and grain, abuse of power, and that he would not spy on information involving military command without a decree. He was also very at ease with Jiang Jin. In addition to providing guidance on strategic issues and major decisions, he did not interfere in specific command, and what he knew was obtained from relevant battle reports.

However, Zhao Bing also felt that something was wrong with Jingxiang. The army of more than 100,000 equipped with firearms had not been able to conquer Xiangyang for more than three months. Especially when he issued three orders to conquer Xiangyang as soon as possible, the Song army had not yet attacked the core area of ​​Xiangyang, and even the outer encirclement was not closed, so that the Xiangyang defenders could still receive external assistance. Therefore, this was one of the reasons why he insisted on personally expeditioning.

What Sun Kai said now made Zhao Bing feel that the problem was even more serious. The sixth and seventh armies deployed in the Jingxiang area were not in command, and these three armies could be said to be his basic cadre troops, and they were reorganized from the imperial guards in front of the hall in Qiongzhou. What he relied on was the Second Cavalry Division, the Second Artillery Division and the Inland River Water Army directly under the Privy Council. Things were like a joke.

Because the three military commanders were not unified, no one could convince anyone or others, which led to the fact that they each made a decision on the issue of capturing Xiangyang, which was difficult to achieve with their own strength. Jiang Jin could not suppress them, so he wanted to formulate a plan that everyone could accept, but it was so difficult. So the battlefield of Jingxiang reached a deadlock, and then he missed the dry period of the Han River, making it even more difficult to attack Xiangyang.

In addition, according to Sun Kai's knowledge, the combat effectiveness of several armies in Jingxiang is much worse than that of the Jiangdong army, especially the officers lack the command ability. It is rumored that Pan Nian, the commander of the Sixth Army, and Wu Longqi, the commander of the Seventh Army, actually relied on his subordinate Sima to join the army to command. Because he couldn't figure out the accounts, he didn't know how many soldiers a square formation needed, how long a battlefield could be controlled by each platoon, and even couldn't understand the current new map, so he had to explain it to him.

If the generals and generals do this, the officers below will naturally not take the initiative to learn, and they also rely on their subordinates to join the army and Yuhou. The biggest role of the officers who have returned from the martial arts lecture hall is to help Shangguan look at pictures and write documents. The officers who have communicated with other armies are all military advisors and staff work, and they have no power to command the troops independently.

Zhao Bing was also extremely shocked when he heard this. He reviewed twice in the past year in the spring and autumn. Because the Huguang General Administration Department was far away from Lin'an, the deployment was scattered, and the dispatch was inconvenient. They all transferred the front guards and the Jiangdong army, while the Huguang General Administration Department was supervised by the Privy Council, and the Zhidao Department organized the reviews themselves. Even he could not understand the real combat power of each department, and he thought that everything was like this!

Zhao Bing knew very well that the battle between the two armies was not like in the war film. In order to catch people's attention, it was a very important scene. Or add some generals to fight alone to cheer up the show; then with a command, the infantry lined up in close formations and rushed towards the enemy, and the archers' rain of arrows kept shooting on the shield, and finally the infantry of both sides met in close combat.

So I took it for granted that the ancient generals seemed to be able to fight, occasionally attack with fire, or know to ambush the enemy. Zhao Bing can tell you clearly, don't be too naive! If you fail the course for many years and travel back to ancient times, you can only stand in the front row and be a soldier. Although being a military commander would not require you to have a high level of mathematics and a complete score in linear algebra, if you are not good at math, you will definitely not be able to command the army well.

Because it is a headache for the commander to arrange thousands of soldiers in a reasonable formation. After all, every step on the battlefield is related to life and death. When it comes to the battlefield, it will be more complicated to arrange the formation.

For example, how many rows should an infantry team stand in? In order to ensure that each infantry will not swing a knife or stabbing during combat, it may hit friendly forces and accidentally hurt comrades, how much combat space should each infantry have? This requires calculation. This is still when a special formation is not used. When using the iconic geese wing formation or fighting against enemy cavalry charges, the formation configuration will be different. As a commander, on-site response ability is essential.

On the other hand, the specific position of soldiers also involves mathematics. An army, a division, a regiment, or even one, there are many spearmen, swords, shield soldiers, and crossbowmen. How should you arrange the formation and allocate the soldiers' battle positions to ensure that they can all exert their respective maximum combat power. At this time, you have to go through a series of slightly more complicated calculations, otherwise you will be in a mess.

The depth of the formation is also a problem. For the simplest square matrix, how to ensure that the number of rows in the horizontal direction and the number of columns in the vertical direction are equal or the difference is very small, and how many longitudinal intervals between soldiers should be left to leave room for steps to ensure that more front-row personnel can be put into battle, and can also surround the fragile flanks of narrow formations.

Now that the New Song Army has entered the age of firearms, muskets have become the protagonists of the battlefield. The formation that attaches importance to hand-to-hand combat has fallen behind, and the infantry formation has also changed. Line infantry tactics have replaced traditional infantry tactics. To ensure the sustainability and density of firepower, the most common one is the so-called "three-in-one strike". After encountering the enemy, the soldiers in the rear row will go forward, and the number of rows changes from six rows to three rows. Immediately afterwards, the soldiers in the first row shoot on knees, the soldiers in the second row can be bent down to shoot, and the third row shoot on standby, so that all musketeers can perform a round of firepower volleys when necessary.

At the same time, the distance between each infantry battalion also requires: the distance between each square array should be large enough so that they have enough space to deploy into linear arrays. Of course, this is just a general situation. In many cases, it has to be changed according to the specific battlefield terrain, and precise and fast calculations are also required.

The era of counter-cavalry online infantry is still very important. If you observe that enemy cavalry is charging towards your own side, then infantry should form a hollow anti-cavalry phalanx in a very short time, and sometimes even have to line up the troops into more complex solid phalanx to deal with the enemy's cavalry threat. The transformation of formation is like building blocks. How to put building blocks of different specifications into a suitable large phalanx, and at the same time, it also needs to be calculated to maximize combat efficiency.

These are just basic skills that an officer must master, so he cannot learn arithmetic well. A grassroots officer is not qualified, let alone a senior commander who commands thousands of troops and cooperates with various troops...
Chapter completed!