Xu Tong's words fell into Zhang Yuejing's ears, and Zhang Yuejing truly felt that Xu Tong was extraordinary.
In fact, the plan to change the military's combat methods was proposed by Su Yonglin at the end of the fourth year of Hongwu.
This draft is currently being consulted among senior generals of the Ming Army, and is being discussed secretly in high-level meetings at the General Staff Headquarters, and has also been handed over to the planning department for mathematical calculations.
Su Yonglin decided to change the way the army fights, starting from the Shenji Battalion.
He needed military generals to put forward their opinions and planners to provide mathematical support to establish a new military phalanx model and a musket phalanx that could maximize the power of the arquebus in the age of arquebuses.
How to allocate the number of musketeers, pikemen and crossbowmen, and how to arrange the positions of musketeers, pikemen and crossbowmen. These are all science and require calculations of large amounts of data and mathematical support. They are not just a slap on the head. will appear.
All effective military formations and combat methods in history are supported by mathematical calculations.
Su Yonglin also pointed out that at the moment when new weapons were born, although the enemy was not equipped with artillery and muskets and could not cause equal damage to the Ming army, the Ming army could not rest on its laurels and must change the way the army fought.
Su Yonglin began to propose a change from the solid phalanx of the era of swords, guns, swords and halberds to a hollow phalanx, and began to design ways to maximize the power of firearms.
Although the current firearms phalanx is useful, the design goal of the phalanx is to target the cold weapon army. Once the opponent is also equipped with guns and artillery, the current phalanx cannot continue to be used and must be changed to adapt to the times.
It is inevitable that the Ming army will be fully weaponized. Although the enemy does not know when they will be equipped with muskets and artillery, it is only a matter of time.
Rather than passively making changes, it is better to proactively carry out reforms and keep abreast of the pulse of the times.
Zhang Yuejing looked at Xu Tong and felt more and more that this young man not only had tactical ability, but also strategic vision. He was a rare military talent. .
"Where are you originally from? What did you first do?"
Zhang Yuejing asked curiously.
Xu Tong was stunned for a moment.
"Ah? Oh... I am from Hebei. I was born as a tenant farmer. I joined the army in Hebei. I followed the chairman and participated in the battle to march into Yanyun to encircle Zhongdu. Later, I became a squad leader and platoon leader, then joined Fuxing Hui, and then was transferred Follow Director Zhao south and open up a base in the Southern Song Dynasty."
"In other words, you didn't read before joining the army?"
"How is it possible to study? I have tried my best just to not starve to death. Fortunately, my family is only a family of three, and we can barely eat and not starve to death. How is it possible to study?"
Xu Tong smiled helplessly: "I learned reading and calligraphy in the army, and the rest I learned in the revival meeting. Otherwise, I would be blind now."
Zhang Yue nodded.
"Me too, so have you studied military affairs before?"
"I learned a little bit in the army and the Fuxing Association, and my test scores were pretty good. Then I entered the Military Affairs Department of the Fuxing Association as an intern. I worked there for half a year. I just became a regular, and then I was selected to go south."
Xu Tong smiled: "I was a little scared when I made the decision to go south, but now I feel that it was the right decision. Without this decision, I might not have been able to grow up to this point."
"Indeed, war is the best catalyst for talent."
Zhang Yuejing said with a smile: "This is what the chairman said to me. It means that although we are not old, we have experienced enough wars. In this way, we can accumulate more war experience and become more capable at a faster speed." Qiang, Comrade Xu Tong, you are very good, I feel that your development will be very good in the future."
"This is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to do something for the Ming Dynasty, the Renaissance Society and the people who are suffering in the Southern Song Dynasty, so that they will not continue to suffer."
Xu Tong sighed: "You don't know how many unscrupulous things these bastards have done to cause trouble for us. I hate it when I think about it! I wish I could rush into Xiangyang City now and kill Wang Yan." Tear it alive!"
Xu Tong told Zhang Yuejing what Song Jun had done before Zhang Yuejing and the others arrived, making Zhang Yuejing frown.
"They actually did such a thing. It seems that they are ready to stick to it for a long time. That's why they accepted young women to be ravaged by the army to vent their grievances. They exploited young women to divert conflicts within the army. How cruel. ...Do you have enough food over there? Do you need support?"
"We can still support it at the moment. Director Zhao is arranging to send those refugees to the rear and to our base area for resettlement. There are enough manpower there to take care of them for a while."
Xu Tong said slowly: "We had a good harvest last year, and our food savings are still enough. Saving one mouthful of food per person will not be a problem to support next autumn's harvest, so we don't need support at the moment."
"well done."
Zhang Yueying nodded, showing a slightly reminiscing look.
"It seems that boy Yucheng has grown up very well now. Back then, Yucheng was a complete fool. He did a lot of childish things and almost lost his life. But now he has become mature."
"Stupid Qing?"
Xu Tong thought about the mature and steady-looking Zhao Yucheng, and asked curiously: "Did Director Zhao also do very childish things back then?"
"That's natural. You joined the army in Hebei. You don't know what happened before. That boy Yucheng did a lot of childish things. The chairman taught him step by step. These... wait until this battle is over. I’ll tell you slowly after I’m done, actually it’s easy to talk about.”
Zhang Yuejing patted Xu Tong on the shoulder and said with a smile: "But don't say it. Although that boy Yucheng is your superior now, I think your future development will not be worse than him."
"ah?"
Xu Tong thought about that scene and suddenly smiled bitterly.
"Director Zhao is one of the people I respect. I don't dare to ask for such a thing. All I can say is...well, I hope that what I do in the future will be worthy of your expectations today."
Xu Tong nodded and gave a solemn military salute to Zhang Yuejing.
Zhang Yuejing said nothing more.
He clearly felt the huge energy in this young man - even though this "young man" was only five years younger than him.
Time soon came to the next day, the eighth day of April in the fifth year of Hongwu. Xu Tong returned to his army in the early morning to do his own thing.
Zhang Yuejing gave the order, and He Feihu led the Shenji Battalion to attack again.
It was destined that the Song Army's military camp was completely unable to withstand the Ming Army's artillery bombardment, so Zhang Yuejing felt that there would be no surprises today.
But anything can happen on the battlefield. No, the Shenji Battalion had already set off, and the Ming Army sentry scouts reported that there was no one in the Song Army's stronghold outside Fancheng.
The Song army retreated in full force.
Seemingly realizing the power of the Ming army's artillery and the difficulty of a head-on confrontation, the Song army voluntarily gave up on the third day of delaying the battle, and chose to withdraw its fresh troops to Fancheng, strengthen Fancheng's defense, and use Fancheng's tall and thick walls and wide moat to attack the enemy. against the Ming army.
"This is a wise move on their part."
After Zhang Yuejing learned the news, he nodded and said nothing more. Instead, he arranged for the army to attack in an all-out manner, demolishing the Song army's stronghold while moving the Ming army's position forward, closer to Fancheng itself.
Soon, the main force of the Ming army arrived at the gate of Fancheng. Looking at the tall and solid Fancheng tower and wide moat, Zhang Yuejing couldn't help but sigh at the huge advantage of artillery.
If there is no powerful artillery, if the Ming army still fights for Fancheng with the Song army in the traditional way, it is estimated that it can really last for several years, until the Song army runs out of food.
That would be too costly for the Ming army.
The emergence of artillery gave them another possibility, giving the Ming army the possibility to greatly reduce the war time.
Zhang Yuejing nodded to He Feihu, and He Feihu lined up the twenty-five general cannons he brought this time around the entire Fancheng wall, with all the troops behind the general cannons.
He was planning to use the general's cannon to open an eye for the walls of Fancheng. No matter how many days of bombardment, the walls of Fancheng would be blown to the point of collapse.
They would not take the initiative to attack, nor would they attack the city with ants. That kind of attack was too low-level, would cause too much damage, and would expose our own soldiers to the coverage of the Song Army's arrows.
Outside the effective range of the general's artillery, the Song army's longest-range weapon could not cause any effective damage to the Ming army, and could only stare blankly unless it took the initiative to attack.
