Chapter 843 Fuhu
Niu Jianhu squatted in the pine forest by the Nantan River, silent, like a sculpture.
Outside the forest.
The Nantan River crosses a canyon here, and a small road along the river valley at the foot of the valley meanders. This is a road less than one foot wide.
A member of the army came to Niu Jianhu.
"Nong Tianshun's 12,000 troops are coming here."
"Be more specific." Niu Jianhu looked serious.
Joining the army quickly pulled out a dagger, and gestured on the ground, "Nong Tianshun's twelve thousand men walked and rode, but they were basically young and strong, and they didn't bring any old, weak, women or children, and they didn't carry any luggage. Only some of the mules accompanied the army."
"They were about two thousand men in one battalion, five infantry battalions, and one cavalry battalion."
Niu Jianhu quickly calculated, "The road is narrow, two people in each battalion will walk one by one, if the road is one foot wide, then four people will line up; if the road width is one foot wide, six people will line up, and the road width will be two feet wide, eight people will line up. "..." The road Niu Jianhu mentioned does not refer to the ordinary road surface, but refers to as long as there is dry and walkable ground on the left and right sides of the road, it is included in the width of the road to calculate and arrange marching.
Marching is a very complicated matter. One of the key things is the length of the marching path. In short, when marching, you must first plan the number of people in each row according to the width of the road, as well as the distance between the front and rear, and the distance between the troops. According to the distance between them, reconnaissance and horse detection, cavalry patrols, etc. must be arranged accordingly.
Just like when Yang Guang conquered Goguryeo, he sent 1.12 million troops, which were divided into three groups, and the left and right groups formed twelve armies each, plus a large number of auxiliary troops and grain transporters. It took a full forty days for all the troops to set off, and the armies joined each other end to end, more than 960 li in front and back.
This is the long march of a million-strong army, which is as high as thousands of miles, which is very terrifying.
As the second generation of generals, Niu Jianhu is also familiar with military tactics. He has been in the army for a long time, so he is quite clear about these things.
Taking the road by the Nantan River in front of us, from Pazhou, Nong Tiangui's soldiers and horses can only have four people in a row at most, and if they are cavalry, they can only ride two.
There are strict standards for marching soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. For example, the distance between each row of infantry is seven feet, and the distance between each row of cavalry is one foot two.
Fubing An infantry regiment of 200 men, not counting the logistics mule and horse convoy, has a marching length of thirty-three feet, while an infantry battalion of 800 men has a marching length of about one mile.
If it is a camp of 2,000 people, the marching radius is three miles.
Of course, if it is an elite unit, the distance between infantry can be shortened to one step, which is about 1.5 meters.
According to this data, Niu Jianhu was able to quickly deduce the length of Nong Tianshun's 12,000-man team. He had five infantry battalions with 10,000 men. Ten thousand divisions and four divisions are one step, which is 2,500 steps, and five hundred steps are one mile, so a five-mile-long team must be drawn.
Add two thousand cavalry, two thousand divided by two times one step, and it is two miles long.
The 12,000 people, even if the battalions were not separated, would have to be stretched to a length of six miles.
And in the nearby canyon, the road is less than a foot wide, which means that the team will be doubled, which is at least twelve miles long.
Based on the normal marching speed, it takes about ten miles to march in an hour, which means that the distance between the rear army and the front army is more than an hour.
Of course, these data are all based on the data of the elite soldiers of the Tang army. In fact, Nong Tianshun’s barbarian army includes Judingman and Zuoximan. They are not professional troops, but a combination of various tribes. It was originally made up of hunters, blacksmiths, silversmiths, miners, farmers, slaves, and so on.
When an army like this is marching, it will definitely not be able to maintain a good tacit understanding, especially between the various troops, there must be some distance between them.
Especially when passing through some dangerous road sections, it may also cause congestion and so on.
In order to ensure that the army is not chaotic when marching, the Tang army has always required that the army march on the road, rest neatly for ten miles, dry food for thirty miles, and board and lodging for sixty miles.
Otherwise, a large number of soldiers and horses may be left behind as they walk, and they must continue to rest to bring the troops together and maintain their combat effectiveness.
The larger the army, the more people and horses, the slower the marching speed, because the team has to be constantly organized along the way.
Based on this calculation, Nong Tianshun's 12,000 troops may be regarded as the vanguard of the barbarian army, but it is estimated that the journey will take about fifteen or even twenty miles.
The real one-word long snake formation.
Niu Jianhu drew a long curved line on the ground.
"This is Nantan River, this is Thunder Cloud Valley."
The Nantan River is not very wide, but there has been a lot of rain recently and the river is quite deep. Although there is no need to build bridges and build ships, you must be careful when crossing the river, after all, the depth can reach the chest.
Some dark pits can even be submerged above the head.
Niu Jianhu brought three thousand people, and the other party had twelve thousand.
"We can attack halfway, first let Nong Tianshun cross one-third of the troops, or half of them, and then we suddenly rush out, kill him by surprise, and kill his half of the troops on the north bank." A soldier who joined the army. suggestion.
"The other party has a long snake formation. Let's cut the snake by seven inches. First, let's put a third of the snake's head over there, and then we will cut off the second half, divide and encircle, and annihilate each one!"
Some soldiers thought that their task was to stop Nong Tianshun's forward barbarian army and buy time for General Qin Yong to fight Wen Mendong, so it was enough to strike halfway through and knock off the opponent's snake head, so as to ensure that he would not suffer too much damage .
After all, if all 3,000 troops are deployed on the north bank to fight, they can form a group to support them. However, if they are divided into several groups and ambushes separately, although they can cut the enemy at that time, they will be relatively scattered and easily outnumbered, which is more dangerous.
"Nong Tiangui is just a vanguard. If we really want to defend Jingxi Prefecture, we must be able to withstand Nong Sanniang's 50,000 to 60,000 troops. We must preserve our strength and not lose it easily."
Several soldiers who joined the army express their opinions.
Ox sees tiger pondering.
Qin Lang attached great importance to intelligence collection and analysis, tactical formulation, etc., so he set up the Military Intelligence Department, the Staff Department, and the Operations Department, etc., and transferred a group of experienced officers to join the army.
He not only made these enlisted soldiers for his camp, but also made the officers at all levels below make one, so that they can work together.
Of course, this will also lead to a small problem, that is, there are too many opinions, which will test the leader's decision-making ability.
Niu Jianhu has 3,000 people, but these 3,000 people are not all members of the South China Sea Fleet, let alone the elite of the Marine Corps. He only had a part of the elite marines. Previously, the marines landed in Taiping Port and scattered to Zhennanguan, Shixi, Xiping, and Gaoping. The ones he brought to Jiaozhou and then up the Jinjiang River were from the fleet. The sailors are the main ones, and there are some Jiaozhou Township Yongtuan Lian and Manding assigned to him by Li Daliang.
After meeting in Pingmeng, he got some Gaoping Tunding, Wuanzhou Xiangyong, and even a lot of young middle-aged men. In general, his 3,000 people are very mixed.
Fortunately, after fighting some battles, they cooperated tacitly, especially after seeing blood earlier, they are still brave and able to fight. In terms of equipment, it is not bad, but to be honest, it is patchwork after all, and it is far worse than regular soldiers.
Whether it is equipment, soldier quality, training or other aspects are much worse.
If there were 3,000 elite soldiers around, Niu Jianhu didn't have to think so much at all. He would just lie in ambush in the canyon with 3,000 people, and then rush out to cut him into pieces from the rebels.
"General, the barbarians are a mob, and they are even more chaotic. Moreover, they are now under great defeat. It is a time when people are panicking and their soldiers have no morale. On the contrary, we have won consecutive battles. Now our morale is high and our army's spirit is available. I think we You can safely and boldly divide the soldiers and horses into several groups to ambush the rebels..."
His reason is that the canyon is very narrow, and the width of the road can only accommodate a few people marching. This means that even if the barbarians have 12,000 troops, they can't use them at all in the canyon, especially their 2,000 cavalry are useless. Earth, there is nothing to be afraid of.
Don't say 120,000, it's 120,000. In this kind of terrain, you can't use it.
So even if the Tang army is divided into groups of 200 people, when they rush down the mountain, they face only a few enemies, and they can even form a superior force.
When the enemy's long snake array is cut off, it becomes even more impossible to look at each other from head to tail.
Taking the dot intercept line, of course Tang Jun has the advantage.
The vanguard of the barbarian army has crossed the Nantan River, but the rear army has not yet entered the canyon.
"Let's ambush an army here at the Nantan River, wait for a third of them to cross the river, then hide and kill them, attack halfway across the river, and cut off the snake's head first. Block the mouth of the valley, cut off the barbarian's tail outside the valley..."
In the pine forest, the ground is densely packed with the strokes of the soldiers.
Niu Jianhu's eyes are getting brighter and brighter.
"Very well, gather our 800 cavalry and put them on the north bank of the Nantan River. When the other party's snake head crosses the river, let the 800 brothers attack and chop off the snake's head."
There were 2,200 people left. Niu Jianhu divided them into 11 groups according to the 200-member group, and arranged them into the Shili Canyon to ambush separately.
"Agreed to use Fengyan as the name, and the beacon will rise and attack at the same time!"
Three thousand people fight twelve thousand people, none of them are elites, but when they meet in the narrow road, in addition to the brave man winning, they have to rely on tricks and calculations.
After an analysis, Niu Jianhu's confidence increased greatly. Although there are many barbarians, in this terrain, they line up in a long snake, and they have to stretch for more than fifteen or even twenty miles. It is difficult to connect at all. With the help of the special location of the canyon, even if the barbarians want to see each other head to tail, it is impossible.
"Fight well, and if you win, there will be rewards!"
(end of this chapter)