From Chief to Ball

They need to know the situation of the battle in order to determine what they should do. It is easy to say that the people of Xiacheng are defeated, but if the people of Xiacheng win, they must beat the dogs in the water. Otherwise, the people of Xiacheng will question whether they have betrayed the covenant. Coming out of the city with the momentum of victory, it would be a headache to repeat the chaos in Fengcheng.

For a while, "mo", a place that had just been named for only a few days, became the focus of the struggle between the two ethnic groups.

There was a flood there a year ago, and there was only one clan settlement nearby, which could not be called a city, with a population of 5000.

Since the people from the construction department arrived here early in June, the place has begun to change.

Through the reputation gained from last year's disaster relief and hard currency such as part of Xiacheng's currency and metal farm tools, the lower-level civilians of the clan here were hired to build a defensive camp centered on the original small pier.

It is said to be a camp, but it has only been a month, and the overall building does not look like a city with strong defenses at all.

The entire camp is roughly semicircular, with the pier as the center and facing the river. The biggest difference from other cities is that there is no tall outer wall, because there is no time to build it.

Chen Jian also knows that this era has the advantage of a tall city wall. The problem is that it can't be built in such a short period of time, and this is just a strategic springboard. There is no need to invest a lot of resources here.

The outermost layer of the entire camp has a layer of earthen walls as high as a person, which can be easily crossed.But the interior is not a flat river, either a low rammed earth wall, or a mud pond canal that was excavated and filled with water.

The entire semi-circular strange city is full of ground that is divided by mud ponds and ditches. It looks like a city that was not built with any intention.It's just that there are no houses in this city, only various streets and courtyards divided by rammed earth walls, and various roads spread around the pier as the center.

Build walls where walls can be built, and dig ditches where walls cannot be built. Make sure that each passable road will not exceed eighty steps and will be blocked by rammed earth walls or ditches. It is only suitable for hand-to-hand combat and not suitable for battle formations. .

Every hundred steps or so, there will be a mud tower built of wood as a commanding height within a hundred meters nearby to observe the surrounding situation.

Near the pier is a warehouse, and there is also a wooden tower more than six steps high, which is used to observe the movement of the entire city. It is about [-] steps away from the outer edge, and it is impossible for the best archer to shoot here.

Near the warehouse is the only large open space where many people can gather. Except for the wide square in the pier area, there is no open space where hundreds of people can gather.

From the very beginning, Chen Jian hadn't planned to fight Qiong Xi here, he just wanted to delay the time.

Dongyi people are good at shooting and have many people. This is Dongyi's advantage.

There are war horses in Xiacheng, but the best riders are under the jurisdiction of the White Horse at Yangguan in Xiacheng. They are responsible for raiding the grasslands and looting every year. There are not many good riders here; there are chariots in Xiacheng, but there are not many of them.

He didn't have the confidence in a decisive battle in the field, and he didn't want to leave all the limited Xiacheng people here.

There are few people in Xiacheng, they are not good at shooting, and many workshop workers experienced battle for the first time, which is Xiacheng's weakness.A good shooter is not cultivated overnight, at least it takes three or four years. Such veterans are the backbone of Xiacheng.

However, Chen Jian also saw the four biggest advantages of Xiacheng: the most disciplined spearmen in the phalanx from both sides of the river to the coast of the East China Sea; gunpowder bombs that can be thrown within thirty steps; morale; a propaganda department embedded in each organized army.

The strange appearance of this city, which was used to delay time for defense, was not only due to time constraints, but also to maximize the four advantages of Xia City.

Using the ditches rammed earth walls and ditches as natural flank cover, spearmen don't have to worry about threats from the left and right, and only need to face the enemy in front.They hadn't faced a real war yet, and Chen Jian wasn't sure if they could keep their lines even in the first battle.

Using the division of the rammed earth wall made it impossible for Dongyi's archers to shoot directly, because the line of sight was blocked and they could only choose to shoot.

Using the divided troops that cannot be deployed on a large scale takes advantage of approaching and throwing gunpowder weapons, and at the same time prevents the Dongyi people from deploying all the troops, and can only form a tactic of refueling and fighting.

If it is a defensive defense regardless of whether it can be retreated, this tactic will not be able to defend at all, and will only collapse.But Xiacheng is not without a way out.

This is not Xiacheng, not Yucheng, it didn't even have a name a month ago, it's just a place where you can throw away at any time and take a boat and retreat.

Turn a large-scale confrontation into a small-scale conflict where troops cannot be deployed, and if they cannot be defeated, they will not be able to display their superiority in numbers. It is enough to delay until Qiongxi knows that there are people in the hinterland who are harassing the news.

This is a test of the morale of both sides, but the main group of spearmen on Chen Jian's side has just acquired the status of human beings, and the propaganda machine he owns is publicizing the reason for fighting every day. Friends who work together, eat, live, train and live together.In addition, Yucheng has no city walls at all, and this group of people will not have the thought of collapsing if the outer walls are broken, as long as they can organize effective defenses.

This is an unavoidable situation, because there is no time to build defensive fortifications with high walls, and he would like to build walls if he had time.

Since the soldiers began to assemble here in early June, they have started training. People above the centurion need to be familiar with the terrain to ensure that they have a way to advance and retreat.

Chen Jian wants to let Qiongxi know the strength of Xiacheng's army, but he doesn't want to fight him head-on with the power in his hands: If he is not strong enough, even if Qiongxi knows that he has gone around the hinterland of Dongyi, Qiongxi will not worry; There were too many casualties in the fight with Qiongxi here, and they didn't have the strength to capture the city of Dongyi even if they went around the hinterland of Dongyi.

Chapter 34 Exploration

On the sixth day of July, the scouts released reported that Qiongxi's army began to march towards this side, but they had a lot of scouts, and they walked very carefully. They controlled the area about [-] miles away from the army, and it was impossible to ambush.

And the ships returning from the downstream also reported on this day that they had harassed the cities of Dongyi, and the other party had sent people to report.

The people from the construction department have also selected the support point in the hinterland of Dongyi and are building it. The people from the transportation department have also begun to transport a large amount of military supplies and food along the river to the support point in the hinterland of Dongyi.

Chen Jian calculated the speed of the other party, estimated the speed of the messenger, and estimated that he would be here for at most two or three days.

At that time, no matter what Qiongxi thinks, he will not follow in Qiongxi's footsteps.Qiongxi wanted to continue to attack the city here and refused to retreat, but it was up to him to toss, and he would follow his own strategic intention to go down the river.You hit yours, I hit mine, anyway, you can't beat Yucheng at Qiongxi, and I, Chen Jian, am not the leader of the tribes of Dahe. Me, as long as I get a victory, it is enough to usher in enough prestige.

The propaganda department began to make the final preparations for the propaganda, conveying Xiacheng's strategic intentions to every soldier's ears, so that they have full confidence in the upcoming war, and they are not going to fight to the death here.

Compared with the confidence of the soldiers, the relatives and noble children of the other cities who followed the expedition were more curious. Chen Jian left them at the end and did not give them the task of attacking and killing. Opportunity allows them to make great achievements.

Most of the relatives and precious children are actually just children, so they are full of enthusiasm, but some of them have their eyes wide open and full of vigilance.

As far as Xiacheng's strategy is concerned, everyone can actually think of it, but it is nothing to them.The problem is that when you think about it, no city has such organizational power to fulfill its strategic intentions. This is the most important issue.

Everyone knows that soldiers are expensive and fast, and everyone knows that attacking the enemy must be saved, but what they think is if they put it in their own city, can they complete the mobilization and rapid response within half a month?If you put it in your own city, can you complete the battle across hundreds of miles while maintaining the integrity of the system?

Obviously not, they are waiting and watching, if Xia Cheng does it this time, he must follow the reforms after returning to the city, otherwise no one will be able to compete with Xia Cheng in more than ten years.

In the past, they just thought that Xiacheng's system was weird, and the power structure didn't look like any other city, but when the war came, the efficiency of this bureaucratic system quickly threw off the old clan governance in other cities. The city is gathered together from top to bottom, and everyone is preparing for the war, busy but not chaotic.

At least now it seems that they are busy and not chaotic. The only thing these people doubt is the combat effectiveness of those soldiers who used to be escaped slaves. In their view, slaves are the group of people with the least combat effectiveness. Xia Cheng puts his hope on these people Is it really possible?

Perhaps, war can only be used to declare the result.

……

On July [-]th, Qiong Xi's army had approached fifty miles away, and Chen Jian withdrew all his riders.

These riders will not follow the army eastward, because the horses are not good for transportation.

This time the expedition is all infantry, he will not bring cavalry and chariot soldiers, and he will not choose to fight or ambush in the hinterland of Dongyi.

The riders camped upstream, about a dozen miles away from Mo, and basically they would not participate in the battle, they only needed to show up at the right time as a deterrent, and were ready to run back to Yucheng by tactical mobility.

On the second day after the rider gave up going out to investigate, scouts from Dongyi had already approached Mo, and Chen Jian also slaughtered the last batch of sheep in the city to reward the soldiers. Down the river.

The singing at night was free and easy and uplifting, but not nervous.The veterans who participated in the war followed Chen Jian all the way from Caohe to this place. Most of the recruits were escaped slaves trying to survive, and death was already a little numb to them.

On the morning of July [-]th, a mist hung over the river bank.

After the mist cleared, the Dongyi army stopped three or four miles away from Momo and began to build their own camp.A large number of soldiers were on the periphery to prevent the Xiacheng people from sneaking up on them when their camp was unstable. Unfortunately, the Xiacheng people on the opposite side seemed to be asleep when the mist cleared, and there was no sound.

Qiong Xi looked at the strange camp in front of him from a distance, and was sure there were people there, because there were soldiers guarding outside, and black and white flags were flying.

There were boats constantly coming and going on the water of the big river behind. He had heard the name of the sailboat, but this was the first time he had seen it.When I saw a boat going against the current, I couldn't help but praise it, as if I thought of something but couldn't grasp it.

The leaders of the several clans looked at the Xiacheng camp in the distance, and said with a smile: "I heard from those people that Jixia is very resourceful and good at fighting, but it seems that's it. We didn't take advantage of our unstable foothold. They also gave up the advantage of their summer city horses and chariots, and shrank there like a tortoise. Could this defeat us? In my opinion, they can be defeated before dark."

Qiongxi also felt weird, if the opponent didn't want to fight with him, just retreat back to Yucheng, why did they send troops here?If you want to fight yourself, what is it to shrink there?Spending time with yourself?Follow up and attack when you run out of food and retreat?If you really want to do that, you don't need to do this. Their scouts have horses and have a wide range of inspections. They just go out when they want to withdraw their troops.

He had never seen such a way of fighting before, and he was a little confused for a while, but he didn't underestimate the enemy, instead he was very careful.