The first performance of the hand crossbow was not satisfactory.
The reason is not the hand crossbow itself, but Zhang Xi's training.
The soldiers of this era did not have any concept of mutual cooperation between arms. They still followed the idea of formation in the previous military formations. A group of people gathered together, ready to carry out human sea tactics at any time.
Zhang Xi also had no experience and thought this situation was normal.
No problems were found during daily training, but when Zhang Xi tried to divide the 150 people under Kou Feng's account into two camps for a confrontation drill, he discovered that there was a big problem with the distance between the team's formations. .
It was fine in the beginning.
The long card soldier puts up the long card to block the opponent's bow and arrow, the wolf sword soldier raises the wolf sword to distance himself from the opponent and blocks the opponent's sight at the same time. It is also good for the spear soldier and the waist sword soldier to cooperate with each other to kill the enemy.
It wasn't until some smart commanders realized something was wrong and chose to fight in a roundabout way that the problem really arose.
One is that the formations between the teams are too compact, which makes them very inflexible when changing formations. Weapons often collide with each other or even fall off.
The other was a short-sword soldier who was supporting the team. He was supposed to fire a hand crossbow as soon as the formation was changed to stop the enemy from approaching, and rush forward to engage in hand-to-hand combat... But as soon as he fired the hand crossbow, he discovered that all the crossbow arrows were hitting his brother. Not to mention his body, he rushed over and fought hand-to-hand without finding the enemy. Instead, he collided with another team of his own, and was easily disrupted by the enemy who completed the detour.
Zhang Xi looked at the soldiers in the field who were killing more each other than the enemy with a headache, and sighed silently.
There's nothing you can do about it, it's your fault.
The key is that he doesn't even know what kind of separation and distance should be maintained, which is the most suitable for the Yuanyang Formation to exert its power.
Fortunately, Zhang Xi is not the kind of person who works behind closed doors. He went out personally, called all the chiefs together and asked for their opinions.
These people are on the front line of command, so they naturally know very well where their team's command is not going well and where it is getting in the way. Although they may not necessarily know the reasons, they can always tell them.
Zhang Xi found someone to record it, went back to analyze it, and then kept trying to find the appropriate array distance.
Then, in response to the lack of long-range firepower of each team shown in the drill, Zhang Xi felt that each archer should not be allowed to fight separately. He must first gather these archers, and then deploy them back to each team after shooting the bows and arrows. Go to the same team... Just like this, it will test the coach's timing of calling and disbanding the archers, and whether the archers can return to the team as soon as possible and quickly cooperate with their teammates to transform into swordsmen.
Once this is not possible, even if these lone archers are equipped with waist knives, they will only fight alone on the battlefield without any threat. As a result, the team will lack the means to kill the enemy at short distances. When the enemy gets close, they can only have short-distance soldiers. Use your hands to fill the position. At this time, once the flank or back is attacked, it will be difficult to look at the head and tail.
You don’t know if you don’t train. Once you train, you will find a lot of problems.
Sure enough, if you don't understand Qi Jiajun's training methods, it's impossible to train Qi Jiajun just by looking at them.
Zhang Xi was trying, comparing the theories in "The Art of War" and constantly trying to change various formations based on his own memory and practice.
Finally, Zhang Xi found a suitable array distance and readjusted the array so that archers could quickly join the formation and become swordsmen, or if it was too late, short swordsmen could temporarily fill in the positions.
Keep trying, keep discussing with Kou Feng, and then record it. After finally forming the rules, the rest is training.
Continuous training not only trains each soldier's responsibilities, but also trains their formation changes. The most important training is how to quickly merge with the nearby team to re-establish a combat team after attrition occurs on the battlefield.
The Yuanyang Formation has a very big advantage, that is, each soldier only needs to do one thing well, and the formation can operate smoothly.
The long-sword soldiers are responsible for blocking bows and arrows, the wolf-sword soldiers are responsible for sweeping the wolves left and right, interfering with the opponent's formation and increasing the distance, the spear-soldiers are responsible for distant enemies, the waist-sword soldiers are responsible for approaching enemies, and the short-sword soldiers are responsible for supporting and coordinating.
Once there is attrition on the battlefield and the team cannot maintain its combat effectiveness, it can merge with nearby teams and continue to perform its duties. There is no need to worry about unclear responsibilities due to a bloated formation, which will affect the combat effectiveness.
There is no need to worry about the battle after the merger. The main thing is how to judge the combat effectiveness of your own team on the battlefield, and how to communicate with neighboring teams in the shortest possible time to quickly complete the team merger.
This requires training, otherwise with the quality of these soldiers, there is a real possibility that they will not be able to merge and will instead break up the formation of their teammates.
After a busy month like this, it was finally time to compete with the team trained by Zhang Fei.
The result... Zhang Xi was very disappointed, he lost.
Although it took a lot of struggle, it failed.
From the very beginning, the team commanded by Zhang Xi was inserted into the gap between formations by the team commanded by Zhang Fei, and was quickly divided into two parts, making it impossible for Zhang Xi to command both sides at the same time.
To make a digression, Zhang Fei saved face for Zhang Xi. The intervening team did not choose to go straight to Zhang Xi. Otherwise, Zhang Xi would have been captured alive on the spot and the exercise would have ended.
Zhang Xi's team lacked effective command and was divided into two parts. Although Zhang Xi and Kou Feng struggled hard for a while, they were unable to resist Zhang Fei's team. After being dealt with one by one, they declared failure.
Zhang Fei was also surprised.
This time he won, but it was not easy at all.
At the beginning, Zhang Fei did save face for Zhang Xi. He cut into the troops and did not attack Zhang Xi. However, Zhang Fei also withered. The troops he commanded were not ordinary troops. They were drawn from the Three Hundred Steps. One hundred and fifty veterans of many battles.
But later, Zhang Fei didn't feel that these 150 veterans of hundreds of battles had given him face.
Zhang Fei originally thought that an army that was easily divided and surrounded from the beginning, and lost its command, would be like chopping up melons and vegetables, and could be easily captured by just going through the motions.
It may not be possible to annihilate them all, but it is still easy to disperse these soldiers.
But Zhang Fei discovered that things were not as simple as he thought.
After the division, Zhang Xi's army did appear to be shaken and panicked to a certain extent, and fell into a situation of fighting on its own.
But it is also difficult for his troops to break into the military formation composed of these people.
Just stay a little further away, there will be sparse bow and arrow attacks.
While not fatal, it is annoying.
If you get a little closer, that long bamboo pole will be waving in front of you, making it impossible to deploy the formation closely, let alone create a local numerical advantage.
After finally getting close, they have to face the threat of spears and knives. If they make a roundabout way, the opponent will quickly change formations, and after changing formations, no matter how many people there are or how few, it doesn't seem to affect the operation of the formation at all, and they still have to fight. Facing the spear and waist knife, he didn't even know where the crossbow arrow came from.
Even after finally breaking up a team, the opponent was able to form a simple five- or six-man formation on the spot, or directly merge with nearby friendly forces to regain combat effectiveness.
In the end, Zhang Feijun was able to win because, on the one hand, Zhang Fei's commanding ability was more than a bit better than Zhang Xi's, and on the other hand, it was because a group of veterans who had fought many battles fought hard and won by relying on their battlefield experience.
In this way, Zhang Fei counted the army and found that more than half of the troops had been reduced. Such an army could no longer be used in the second battlefield.
So Zhang Fei was also very dissatisfied, very dissatisfied.
You are a bunch of old bastards who fought out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and you usually brag better than the other. Now you are better. You are fighting a group of new recruits who have just been recruited and have never been on the battlefield. You have worked so hard, and you have reduced your number by half... ....What's the use of you wastes?
But he won in the end, and now Zhang Fei knew not to lose his temper casually. He just glared at his friend Bu Qu fiercely, snorted, and finally did not turn around to find the whip.
He then went to see Zhang Xi and had to show off in front of this marching Sima.
Usually this guy always does the same thing, and claims to have learned the art of war... So what, he was still defeated by me, Lao Zhang, right? !
"Yuan Chang, you suffered a loss this time from me, Lao Zhang!" Zhang Fei said with a smile, but he didn't say anything too unpleasant, and instead helped Zhang Xi analyze the reasons for his failure.
It all started with that raid.
"I, Lao Zhang, know that you are familiar with the art of war, but I, Lao Zhang, also know that this is your first time in battle, so there will definitely be an opportunity." Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "So, I, Lao Zhang, will send People will surprise you at the beginning of the war and divide and surround your team, so that you can win easily."
After hearing this, Zhang Xi sighed silently and said, "General Xie showed mercy, and Xi has learned a lesson."
This is indeed Zhang Xi's problem. When he faced Zhang Fei's surprise attack at first, he hesitated in panic, and it was this hesitation that gave Zhang Fei the opportunity to attack.
This is a small-scale battle involving more than a hundred people. The scope of the battle is small and the duration is short. If you hesitate even a little, they will already be in front of you.
This is a matter of battlefield experience, and the loser is not unjust.
But Zhang Fei didn't come here specifically to laugh at Zhang Xi.
"But Yuan Chang, the formation in your army is quite good. It can be switched easily and can be merged with nearby teams at any time without affecting the combat effectiveness. It's quite good... It's that bamboo pole, tell me. , why use that thing?!"
Zhang Fei probed carefully.
Although Zhang Xi was still immersed in the frustration of failure and was not very interested, he still replied seriously, "Oh, that one is called Langzhen. It is indeed a bamboo pole. On the one hand, it can be used to interfere with local offensive formations. On the other hand, it can be used to interfere with local offensive formations. On the one hand, it can also embolden the soldiers."
"Huh? Be brave?!" Zhang Fei was puzzled.
He can see that disrupting the offensive formation, but what does it mean to be bold? !
"Yes, look, there is a pile of branches and leaves in front of you. The enemy's knife cannot cut it, and the gun will be caught. But you only need to look at the enemy's body to chop and barrel. This is your first time on the battlefield. Everyone can do it, so what are you afraid of?" Zhang Xi continued to explain.
Zhang Fei nodded silently, understanding.
After a while, Zhang Fei suddenly asked again, "Why don't those two people on the rear wing of your formation do anything on the battlefield? Isn't this a waste of military power?!"
"It's not that they don't do anything, it's that they don't need to do anything when nothing happens. Once something happens, they are the most important, especially in terms of formation changes and guarding the flanks..."
Zhang Xi continued to speak, while Zhang Fei also patiently recorded in silence.
After Zhang Xi finished explaining, Zhang Fei pretended to be suddenly enlightened and said, "Oh, that's true, and there's more..."
"No more!" Zhang Xi finally discovered that this guy came here to ask for training methods.
"I have written down everything you want to ask. It is in Kou Feng's military tent. Go and get it for yourself!"
"...If I hadn't told you earlier, I would have made Lao Zhang waste so much time talking with you."
This black guy...if he hadn't lost so badly and lost face today, he would have had a good fight with him.
