After finally finishing lunch, Yang Yuanzhi still wanted to talk to Qiu Yizhi, but his grandson Yang Jin beside him dragged Qiu Yizhi away: "Brother is really patient. He said what he said to grandpa all morning, and still wants to talk to him all afternoon. There are good things in my room, brother, come play with me for a while!”
Yang Jin's words really touched Qiu Yi's heart. As a junior, he had to listen to the old prime minister's teachings, and he had to look like he was diligent in learning and seeking knowledge, but at the same time he couldn't show any impatience. This was really not Qiu Yi's frivolous and lively personality. So, Qiu Yizhi pretended that she couldn't resist Yang Jin, said "I'm sorry" to Yang Yuanzhi, and was forced out of the house by Yang Jin.
The two walked through the garden paths and finally found a small house under a large Erythrina tree where two or three people hugged each other.
Yang Jin said to Qiu Yizhi: "Brother, we are here." He also ordered the maids and servants standing on the left and right of the door to step back and not disturb him, and then he personally opened the door and let Qiu Yizhi into the house.
After entering the room, Qiu Yizhi glanced around and saw that the furnishings in the room were very simple, just a bed, a desk, and an armchair. It looked like an ordinary child's sleeping place, but she didn't know that Yang Jin had just Where is the "good stuff" in the mouth.
The owner of the house, Yang Jin, the young master of the Prime Minister's Mansion, seemed to have guessed Qiu Yizhi's thoughts. He smiled slyly at him, leaned under the bed, and dragged him out from under the bed with great effort. A wooden box about three feet long said to Qiu Yizhi: "The good things are in here. Brother, please open it and take a look."
Qiu Yizhi didn't know what Yang Jin was trying to do, and was afraid that he would play some prank to scare her, so she carefully opened the box and took a closer look. The box was filled with countless wooden figures in a dark row. Qiu Yi's childish heart was still intact, so she took out one and looked at it carefully: this little man was carved from fine jujube wood. He was about an inch long, and each of his faces was lifelike. The wooden man in his hand was riding a horse on his crotch. Holding a sword in his hand, he seemed to be a general.
While Qiu Yizhi was observing, Yang Jin had taken out the box full of little figures, squatted on the ground and laid these little figures flat on the ground one by one. Qiu Yizhi was familiar with military affairs. He could see at a glance that Yang Jin was not playing with these exquisite wooden figures at will, but was arranging a very organized formation. He stood silently and looked at the young master of the prime minister's house seriously. game.
After a while, Yang Jin stood up and said, "Brother, give me the general in your hand!" After saying that, he took the wooden figure from Qiu Yizhi's hand and placed it among a bunch of wooden figures, "Brother, look at the formation I put up. Is it awesome?”
Qiu Yizhi looked down from a high position and looked carefully. He saw that the total number of these wooden soldiers was about five hundred, with infantry, cavalry, archers and other types of troops. If they were replaced by real people, they would also be a very capable team.
Looking at the formation, it is different. It turns out that the marching formation has been established for thousands of years. It is nothing more than the infantry in the front, the archers in the back, and the cavalry on the two wings. Then, according to the number of soldiers and the situation of the opponent, the width and thickness of the formation are extended. some articles. However, Yang Jin used these villains to form a "long snake formation". The difference was that the infantry, cavalry, and shooters were arranged at intervals, which was refreshing to Qiu Yizhi.
Looking at this pile of lifelike puppets and warriors, Qiu Yizhi seemed to have a tense scene of the two armies confronting each other on the battlefield in his mind. In an instant, tens of thousands of horses and horses came and went, flesh and blood flying everywhere, Qiu Yi's ears could faintly hear drums beating, horns blaring, and the sound of killing shook the sky, and his nostrils seemed to be filled with the choking smell of blood.
Yang Jin pulled Qiu Yizhi's sleeves hard, dragging him back to reality from the imaginary battlefield, but asked: "Brother, what do you think of my formation?"
Qiu Yizhi smiled and said: "Brother, do you have any pen and ink here?"
"Of course!" Yang Jin said, taking the rice paper and writing brush from the desk in the room.
Qiu Yizhi took it, tore a piece of rice paper several feet long into pieces half the size of a palm, and used a brush to draw circles, squares, triangles and other shapes on it, and explained: "These circles are infantry. The squares are the shooters, and the triangles are the cavalry." As he said this, he spread the pieces of paper flat on the ground to form a formation.
"Our army is known for its stability in its actions. It adopts an ordinary formation, that is, the infantry goes first, the archers follow, and the cavalry supports the two wings. The difference is that the infantry of Youyan Road have heavy armor and sharp swords. They are known as the 'Dangya Camp' '; the archers behind them all use sophisticated crossbows, their range is comparable to that of Turkic cavalry archers, and their power is slightly better; the cavalry mounts on both sides are all good and famous horses on the grassland, and they often compete with Turkic elites. His horsemanship alone is definitely not inferior to that." Qiu Yizhi said with a bit of pride in his tone.
As he spoke, Qiu Yizhi slowly moved the entire formation forward and said: "Our army has advanced so far that it is within the shooting range of Brother Yang's shooters. However, the foundation of the 'Dangya Camp' army is to face the flying enemy." The locust arrows can be fired without any fear. The brother shooters are loosely arranged and the firepower must not be concentrated to cause significant damage to the 'Dangya Camp'." As he spoke, he continued to move forward with the formation, and then said:
"In this way, when our army advances thirty steps, the crossbowmen in the second row can shoot at Brother Yang's army. Crossbowmen are different from archers. Archers mostly shoot arrows upward and can bypass the infantry covered by the front row. The crossbowman shoots horizontally, which is far more powerful than the bow and arrow. When the time comes, the soldiers in the "Dangya Camp" in the front row will look at the flag and order to protect their backs with shields and kneel on the ground. The crossbowman will naturally shoot forward without any obstacles. I have said that this crossbow machine's arrows are extremely powerful. One hundred crossbowmen can fire more than ten heavy infantrymen in one salvo, and light infantry without heavy armor are even more vulnerable."
Qiu Yizhi took a breath and continued: "Little brother, in the formation, except for infantry, cavalry and archers cannot wear heavy armor. I am afraid that after a few salvos, most of them will be lost. Then our army only needs the infantry to be calm." Get up and move forward, with the cavalry outflanking the two flanks. With our army's superior strength, I'm afraid Brother Yang's defeat is already certain."
Yang Jin was very discouraged by Qiu Yizhi's words and pursed her lips: "Is the formation I have been thinking about for so long really so vulnerable?"
After hearing this, Qiu Yizhi realized that he had hurt the child's heart. He scratched his head and said, "That's not what you said. The Youyan army's sophisticated equipment and rigorous training are rarely matched in the world. No matter what formation the ordinary army puts in, It’s of no great use. But the formation that my little brother has studied has unexpected results when faced with an army of similar strength.”
Qiu Yizhi said, putting a pile of papers back to their original positions, and slowly advanced the infantry, archers, and cavalry in turn: "Our army did not expect that the opponent would arrange the horse infantry and archers in a mixed manner, and they would enter the shooting range without any attack." I know. As long as we concentrate our bow firepower and aim at one point, our army's formation will be unbalanced. When our army reacts and gets out of range, we can order the cavalry to charge immediately and take advantage of the confusion in our formation. If we break through the weak point just shot, our army can be cut into two pieces."
Qiu Yizhi took a breath and then said: "At this time, the infantry in the brother army can slowly advance under the cover of the shooters, and together with the cavalry that breaks through our formation, they will form a pincer attack from the front and back. Then the overall situation is decided."
Yang Jin became a little happier after hearing this, and asked again: "Is You Yan's army invincible?"
Qiu Yizhi shook his head and said: "If Youyan's army was invincible, it would have gone north from Shanhaiguan to wipe out the Turks and eliminate the great trouble for the Han Dynasty. In my opinion, only the Turks' cavalry and shooting can be called invincible. "
As he said that, Qiu Yizhi picked out the pieces of paper with circles and squares drawn on them, put them aside, tore up a bunch of pieces of paper again and drew triangle shapes on them, saying: "Brother, please see, all Turkic soldiers are composed of cavalry. But our army is based on infantry, and the few cavalry only play a supporting role. The Turkic cavalry are light and fast. If our army moves forward for one mile, they will not be able to cover ten miles. Even if our army concentrates its superior forces to fight for a decisive battle. , as long as the Turks get the message one day in advance, they will have already disappeared without a trace. If our troops advance rashly, they can quickly mobilize their armies and attack from all directions, and then our army will be in danger. "
Qiu Yizhi saw the little brother in front of him, who was less than ten years old, blinking his big black and translucent eyes and nodding, but she didn't know how much he understood.
And Qiu Yizhi didn't know whether he was holding back the fact that he hadn't talked to his adoptive father, master, third brother Zheng Miao and other brothers for a long time today, or whether he was feeling depressed because of his adoptive father who cared about his country and his country and strictly guarded the frontier. He was so angry at being framed by a cunning eunuch that he couldn't hold back his words.
He continued: "Even if our army wins by chance, it will not be of much use. The Turkic grassland is extremely vast and is not smaller than the size of the Han Dynasty. Although our army's force can be intimidated, it can never be effectively controlled. Even if the Turkic army is defeated by our army, After the main force is eliminated, within a few years, an equally powerful army can be raised, and then the victory or defeat will be particularly clear... "
When Qiu Yizhi said this, Yang Jin's bedroom door suddenly opened slowly, and Yang Yuanzhi's old voice came: "Young master's lofty views are really beyond the comprehension of me and other mediocre people who have been sitting in the study for a long time. As for the generals in the army, I think Except for General Zuo Dai Luanxiang, no one else has such insight!"
After Qiu Yizhi heard this, he was neither surprised nor polite. He just bowed deeply towards Old Prime Minister Yang and said: "These are what my foster father teaches the juniors on weekdays. As far as the juniors know, since a few years ago, After the Turkic Han Biximi was killed by my adoptive father and his entire army was wiped out, although it had been quiet for a while, in the past two years, its power has risen again, and it has continued to encroach on the territory of the Han Dynasty and the Bohai Kingdom. We really have to guard against it now. Apart from my adoptive father, there is no other person in the country who can restrain the Turks. This is not the time to destroy the Great Wall!" He shed tears as he spoke.
Hearing this, Yang Yuanzhi was finally moved by Qiu Yizhi's words. He took the crutch in his hand, vigorously poked the green bricks under his feet, and said: "I don't want these old bones, I will fight for this white head, but I also want to get rid of you." Lord Yan, please protect me!"
Yang Jin, who was confused on the side, seemed to hear something beyond the words, and said excitedly: "It turns out that my brother is the adopted son of Prince Youyan! I don’t know how many times my grandpa has praised my brother in front of me. Next time, my brother will go to the north. You must take me with you, we brothers will fight against the Tatars together!” (To be continued)