"The formation method is actually very simple. To put it bluntly, it is the battle formation. " Sharpwiner said bluntly. Liu Qing is an expert in the War Theory and Strategy Research Department of Chinese Academy of Military Sciences. He knows a lot about China's ancient military formations. This interview with me is mainly about the mystery of the military array.
Every military formation in ancient China in history is almost mysterious. In the confusing shadows of swords and swords, thousands of troops or one and a half soldiers on the battlefield can act together as long as there is the command of the golden drum horn or the signal of the feather fan, thus generating infinite strength and superhuman energy. Depending on the array, the weak can win the strong, and the small can win the big. Even lifeless sand trees can be used to kill enemies. For example, in the eighty-eighth chapter of Water Margin, the Liao army laid a "Taiyi mixed sky array", so that the officers and men of the water margin who have always been able to fight well suffered three defeats, and even the black whirlwind Li Kui jy was captured alive. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lu Xun of Soochow defeated Liu Bei in the battle of Yiling. All the way to the gates of Bai Di, Zhuge Liang entered the "Eight Arrays" made of stones, and finally the whole army was wiped out. Lu Xun himself escaped by the mutual affection of Zhuge Liang's father-in-law. In "Big Sky Array", the Liao army that invaded the Central Plains set the Tianmen Array to fight Song Jun. Although Marshal Yang Liulang of Song Jun used a large number of elite soldiers and became familiar with the mystery of Tianmen Array, it was still difficult to crack it. It was not until Longmu was defeated that it was broken.
These superb formations are dazzling and desirable. But in the process of talking with researcher Liu, my idea was gradually subverted. In Liu Qing's view, the array in the story has been highly mysterious, which is far from the array that really appeared in history.
So, what is the real formation in history? How did it come into being and develop? We are familiar with the Long Snake Array, Liu Ding Liujia Array, Jiugong Bagua Array, Bamen Jin Suozhen and so on. Under the narrative of Liu Qing, I approached this eternal mystery step by step.
From hunting formation to ancient army formation
Array method was produced in ancient wars in order to demand unified command and coordinated action on the battlefield. Its purpose is to let every soldier exert his strength as much as possible. As early as ancient times, in the process of apes gradually transforming into adults, the most primitive array method has been produced.
Speaking of it, the origin of array method has a deep origin with hunting activities. The earliest fighting opponents of the ancients were not people, but wild animals. In the process of hunting, for weak animals, the ancients should pursue or ambush the formation, while facing wild animals, they should adopt defensive formation, with the strong walking in front, the mother leading the cubs in the middle and the young and middle-aged on both sides. This very effective defense team against the attack of wild animals constitutes the most basic formation method of the ancients.
Even if human civilization develops to a certain extent, the relationship between this array and hunting activities is still clearly visible. During the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, military training was mainly accomplished through hunting activities. Because there is almost no difference between hunting formation and fighting formation, and hunting activities with strong entertainment can also improve the cooperation ability between people.
Not only the Han nationality in the Central Plains, but also the ethnic minorities in the border areas are accustomed to directly using the battle formation of fighting wild animals in the battle. According to the Records of the League of Three Dynasties to the North compiled by the Song Dynasty, when the envoys of the Northern Song Dynasty visited Akuta, the leader of the Jurchen nationality, every time they saw him hunting, they shot arrows with their generals to determine the hunting positions of soldiers from various tribes, and then used the hunting opportunity to practice the array. This hunting formation was further enriched and developed in the later battles between Jurchen cavalry and Liao Army and Song Jun, and became a two-wing flank formation.
The earliest army formation was "one army formation", as the name implies, the soldiers who participated in the war only formed a large army formation. Because there is almost no room for tactical changes in the battle, the first army array was quickly replaced by the second army array, the third army array and even the multi-army array. In the war, these different military formations have different division of labor. Some military formations are used to lure the enemy, some are responsible for decisive battles with opponents, and some are used to outflank opponents.
From the point of view of arms, the earliest array method used in war should be infantry phalanx. However, the army array with mature organizational form, convenient application and diverse names in the early days is the chariot battle array after the chariot was produced. The popular time of Chezhan military array was from the middle and late Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty.
Chezhan originated in Xia Dynasty, and it was not until the late Shang Dynasty that a certain scale of combat style was formed. Its main equipment is a wooden chariot driven by two or four horses. There are three soldiers on the vehicle, which are arranged in left, middle and right directions. The left soldiers hold bows and arrows, the right soldiers hold long weapons such as bows and spears, and the middle soldiers control horses and drive them. Under normal circumstances, the chariot is moving slowly with the slow drum on the premise of maintaining a wide formation. When approaching the enemy, the left army shot the enemy with bows and arrows, and when the chariots of the opposing sides staggered, the right army fought with long weapons until it abandoned the car and fought hand-to-hand.
Each chariot is also equipped with a certain number of infantry, because simple chariot troops have limited influence and are easily eliminated by flexible infantry without the protection of infantry. This mixed formation of chariots and infantry can give full play to the overall power, and it will cause great psychological pressure to the enemy before confrontation.
The "land of thousands of cars" and "land of thousands of cars" we usually hear are the criteria for judging the strength of a vassal state. However, although the chariots are huge and magnificent, they are not invincible. The reason was that the chariots at that time were quite slow and the formation was rigid.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the scale of the chariot battle was expanding day by day, gradually getting rid of the original convention that both sides lined up first and then fought, but paying more attention to the suddenness of the battle, thus further enriching the content of the chariot battle, affecting the changes of the chariot formation, and some more classic formations appeared, among which phalanx and flying geese were the most common.
Square array is the oldest and most basic formation. Its formation is neat and square, like a rope, forming a square or rectangle, forming a broad front. Sun Bin thought that the phalanx should be "thin in the middle and thick in the square", that is, the troops in the center of the phalanx are sparse and the troops around it are dense. There are few troops in the middle, so you can bluff; There are many troops around, which can defend against enemy attacks. Flying Goose Array, also known as Bird Array, is a kind of fighting formation that spreads horizontally and the left and right wings are arranged in a stepped forward or backward direction. The forward formation is V-shaped, just like the two arms of an ape extending forward. It is used to outflank the roundabout formation, but the rear defense is weak. Backward is an inverted "V" shape, which is used to protect the safety of wings and rear.
The contradiction and actual combat between vassal States promoted the continuous progress of array law. In 54 1 BC, Shu Wei, a general of the State of Jin, met Di Jun. Because of the narrow battlefield terrain, the huge chariot could not be unfolded. Shu Wei boldly reformed and "destroyed" the chariot, mixing the soldiers and infantry on the chariot. The emperor, who is used to traffic jams, scoffed at this, but he was defeated.
With the extension of the combat area to the mountain water network, especially with the crossbow (far more powerful than bow and arrow) equipped troops in the Warring States period, the infantry can effectively contain the impact of the chariot on a wide front, making the chariot lose its former glory and have to withdraw from the war stage.
The prosperity of infantry needs the enrichment and development of infantry tactics. Because the infantry has always existed as an appendage of the traffic array, the initial reference for the layout of the traffic array after the revival of the infantry can only be the traffic array, such as the square array and the strict array, and then gradually develop various arrays.
During the Warring States period, there were many infantry formations, which were summarized by military theorists at that time. 1972, a large number of bamboo slips were unearthed from the No.1 Han Tomb in Yinxingshan, Linyi, Shandong Province, including the long-lost Art of War by Sun Bin. In Sun Bin's The Art of War, there are 10 general arrays: square array, circular array, cone array, yan zhen, hook array, mysterious array, sparse array, several arrays, fire array and water array. It should be pointed out that the latter two are special tactics and the first eight are array methods.
Liu Qing said that among the eight formations, except the square array and yan zhen, the circular array is used for defense; Sparse formation is an evacuation formation. By increasing the distance between rows and columns, by erecting more flags, weapons and grass men, it shows its powerful strength with a few troops. On the contrary, several formations are dense formations to concentrate on defense and attack; The cone array is shaped like an awl, with a sharp front and a wide back. It can attack the enemy on a narrow front through elite forwards, break through and split the enemy's formation, and expand the results with wings. It is a formation that emphasizes offensive breakthrough; The front of the hook array is square, and the two wings are bent back into a hook shape to protect the safety of the flank and prevent the enemy from attacking the place where the golden drum is commanded; Xuanxiang array is a false array that confuses the enemy. The queues are widely spaced, many flags are erected, and drums are heard. It also simulates the sound of soldiers marching, creating the illusion of a large number of troops through the noisy sound of soldiers, so as to deceive the enemy.
After the maturity of the infantry array, the development of the Chinese army array did not stop there. A new factor prompted it to continue to develop, and cavalry was ushered in the vast battlefield.
The advantage of cavalry mobility is very obvious. Especially after the invention of the stirrup, cavalry no longer had to worry about the problem of unstable sitting immediately, making cavalry a new force on the battlefield. The earliest cavalry can be traced back to "Khufu riding and shooting" in the Warring States period. At that time, Zhao had begun to learn the combat methods of nomadic cavalry in the north. By the Han Dynasty, the disadvantages of the infantry phalanx in the Central Plains were exposed in front of tarquin who invaded the north constantly. So the Han Dynasty also adopted cavalry units.
From ancient times to the present, cavalry tactics are only frontal assault and circuitous. But it is precisely because of these two characteristics that it is impossible for the cavalry army array to stress the orderly advance and retreat of soldiers like the infantry army array. Time has entered the world of Wei and Jin Dynasties, and armored war horses began to gallop on the earth. On horseback are heavily armed soldiers, which are heavy cavalry. However, although heavy cavalry was more defensive, it was at the expense of mobility, so in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, light cavalry became the mainstream again. Although there was a revival of heavy cavalry in Liao and Jin Dynasties, the time was too short to be ignored. In the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolian light cavalry marched across Eurasia, while European heavy cavalry (armor thickness was far from that of China) hardly fought back.
I once read an article on the Internet. The author thinks that the extensive use of cavalry in the war has caused a devastating blow to the development of infantry array. When I mentioned this sentence, Liu Qing gave a negative answer.
He believes that it is not a long-term solution for the Central Plains Dynasty to use cavalry against nomadic cavalry in the north. On the one hand, the source of war horses in the Central Plains is limited, and the quality cannot be compared with that of nomadic horses; On the other hand, the Central Plains is dominated by farming, and no matter how you practice it, riding is not as good as the nomadic people in the north. Therefore, the main way to fight against nomadic cavalry and Central Plains armed forces is still to cooperate with orderly array, which also promotes the continuous development of array.
Among all the formations, I am most familiar with Zhuge Liang's eight formations. In fact, there were eight arrays before Zhuge Liang, Sun Tzu and Sun Bin, which were widely used in combat training in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhuge Liang innovated the Eight Arrays because he and Wu fought in puddles and paddy fields, and the other side's forces were mainly water army and infantry. When his main combat target changed from Dongwu to Cao Wei, his enemies were mainly cavalry and infantry, and the terrain changed from puddles and paddy fields in Jiangdong to mountains, while Shu lacked horses. In order to adapt to the fight against mountains and cavalry, Zhuge Liang reformed the ancient eight-array map and made the array map.
The so-called array diagram is to draw the array method into a figure, draw it on brocade, paper, ground or pile it up with sand to form an intuitive object. The written records of Zhuge Liang's array law have not been handed down, and the eight-array map has been lost in the Tang Dynasty. However, it is said that the remains of the 8864 piles of stones left by Yudu River are the eight arrays left by Zhuge Liang.
Combined with a few words about Zhuge Liang's Eight Arrays, modern military strategists believe that the Eight Arrays is a kind of group phalanx, and the center of the phalanx is the middle array, which is composed of generals, golden drums and flags, and directly affiliated military forces. In eight directions around the array, there are eight small arrays, named after heaven, earth, wind, cloud, bird, beast, dragon and tiger. This naming is equivalent to what division and regiment we are naming now. It is entirely for the convenience of command, and there is no essential difference in combat functions.
Zhuge Eight Arrays have strong adaptability, and can be deployed according to local conditions, whether at the top of the mountain, at the foot of the mountain or on the ridge. Eight arrays pay attention to mutual coordination and cooperation, and any phalanx in the array can get the response of other small phalanxes when attacked; At the same time, the eight-array tactics are very effective, whether it is a detour to the enemy or a positive containment and breakthrough. The soldiers who form a small phalanx can be cavalry, infantry and motorcade, ranging from dozens to hundreds. The crossbowmen in the front row have long weapons in the middle and short weapons in the back row (the arrangement order is occasionally different). In order to delay the enemy's attack and give play to the power of the crossbowman, obstacles such as rushing cars, antlers and iron thistles were also set up in the defense.
Zhuge Eight Arrays belong to the defensive formation. The advantage is that there is no weakness in deployment. When attacked in any direction, the whole large array does not need to be fundamentally changed, and the adjacent two-wing array can automatically become two wings for protection and support. However, the shortcomings are also obvious. Such a complex formation requires a lot of time to practice and has poor maneuverability. In order to keep the formation intact, you can't run forward or run violently when you retreat. You need to "do before and after, do before, without speed, without hesitation." Therefore, the eighth array is a defensive and conservative formation, and it is also difficult to win a big victory without a big defeat. Zhuge Liang went out of Qishan six times, and Jiang Wei attacked Wei many times, without great defeat or great victory. It can't be said that it has nothing to do with the battle of the Shu army's eight arrays.
In the infantry formation against cavalry, it is worth mentioning the "overlapping formation method" explored by the generals in the Song Dynasty in actual combat. In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu Lin, a famous gold fighter, resisted the nomads from Hanzhong for more than 20 years. According to the tenacious and strong impact of nomadic people, he divided the army into two arrays, each with three rows of soldiers. The first row is holding a pike and squatting to meet the enemy, the second row is a crossbowman and an archer kneeling to meet the enemy, and the third row is an armed archer standing and shooting at the enemy. In addition, there are cavalry to cover the wings.
This array is a typical defensive array. When fighting, the last two rows shoot enemy cavalry in turn. When the enemy rushes to the front, the first platoon leader gunner will stand up and fight. The front array is exhausted, and the rear array continues to fight instead of the front array. This formation method overcomes the weakness of Song Jun's lack of toughness, and enables him to always maintain a strong fighting capacity against the enemy. Moreover, the three rows of soldiers do their best and do not interfere with each other, which can maximize the role of each soldier.
From "A Long Snake" to "Mandarin Duck in the Water"
In the ancient battlefield, the importance of the army array is not just as simple as resisting the impact of cavalry. For the side whose individual combat capability is weaker than the opponent's, the army array is the main source of morale, even the only source. Only by staying in formation can we not lose confidence in fighting.
From ancient times to the present, the greatest casualties and achievements on the battlefield are not in the organized confrontation with stable formation, but in the melee after a formation is destroyed. Therefore, whether you can take the lead in destroying the opponent's formation has become the key to success or failure.
Sun Tzu's Nine Points of the Art of War wrote: "Therefore, those who are good at using soldiers are as frank as they are sincere. Straight, the snake of Changshan, hit its head and tail, hit its tail and head and tail. " This song "Long Mountain Snake" named "Frank" has inspired the grandson a lot. Since snakes can take care of each other from beginning to end, what about the "one-word long snake array" it follows?
The layout method of "one-word long snake array" is to arrange all your troops into a small square array from beginning to end, which is connected back and forth and is long and tortuous, mainly used for defense. The biggest advantage of this formation is that it is very sensitive to cooperate with each other. Attacking its central part, if the strength is not great, its head and tail troops will be surrounded and quickly split the opponent's troops; Attack its tail, and its head and center will attack each other's flank; Attack its head and its tail and center will attack from the other side.
Snakes are vicious, but like anything in the world, they will eventually be cracked. "The snake hits seven inches", and seven inches refers to the center of the snake. The central part of the long snake array, also called snake gall, is the center of the army array, which is also the command core. As long as the command core is captured, the Long Snake Array loses its power.
In 589 AD, the Sui Dynasty arrived in Jiankang (now Nanjing), the capital of the Chen Dynasty, in order to realize the reunification of the north and the south. Chen used almost all his troops and arranged a long snake array outside the city. When He Ruobi, the general of Sui Dynasty, learned about it, he only sent 500 men to attack the army, but he lost the first battle. Later, smoke screen was used to cover the troops' retreat, and more troops continued to attack the central part of Chen, breaking Chen's long snake array and capturing Chen's capital.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, a surging force suddenly rose on the northern grassland, and in the following hundred years, the world political and geographical pattern changed greatly. This is the Mongolian army led by Genghis Khan and his successors.
The Mongolian army is very active in combat, and its cavalry is a rare "flying army" in the world military history, with extremely fast offensive and defensive conversion ability. The array method commonly used by Mongolian army is "fish scale array". The fish scale array is named after the rank and shape of soldiers. In essence, it is a hierarchical combat formation of soldiers. Troops are generally divided into 3 ~ 5 levels, with fewer troops in front and more troops in the back. These 3 ~ 5 troops will attack in different levels.
Fish scale array also appeared in the west, but the large fish scale array founded by Genghis Khan is the most typical. Genghis Khan's large fish scale array is headed by Serenade's vanguard array, followed by the second and third echelons with more soldiers and stronger strength. First, the vanguard attacks the enemy formation. If the enemy's battle formation is not chaotic, the impact of the second and third line troops will begin soon. Once the impact is effective and the enemy formation is chaotic, the commander-in-chief will lead all his troops to pounce on the enemy and annihilate them all. If after several attacks, the army array still fails, retreat to lure the other side's battle formation forward. In the process of highlighting, some weaknesses of the other party will be exposed. Finding these weaknesses and returning to the headache is the advantage of Genghis Khan's large fish scale array.
Genghis Khan made a legend and myth, but "its prosperity is also prosperous, and its death is also sudden." After the ups and downs, the large fish scale array is full of lonely dust.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the historical drama of war and peace has been staged in the vast north. It was not until 100 years later that the north gradually calmed down, but unexpectedly, the southeast coast, which had always been calm, was in great trouble, and the Japanese invasion made the court sleepless.
According to historical records, the invasion of Japanese invaders in the Ming Dynasty originated in the early Ming Dynasty. During this period, Japan was in the split period of "Northern and Southern Dynasties", and some frustrated Japanese warriors often went to the coastal areas of China to plunder and harass. Decades later, the pirate group composed of samurai, ronin and businessmen has become very large. Due to the implementation of the sea ban policy in the Ming Dynasty, many China people who guarded the wide coastline but had no way out joined Japanese organizations in order to survive. In addition, the political corruption and lax border defense in the Ming Dynasty made the Japanese invasion more serious.
Just then, Qi Jiguang appeared. However, when the task of sweeping away the enemy fell on Qi Jiguang's shoulders, he soon discovered that the army provided by the Ming Dynasty was not only demoralized, but also had many bad habits. So he recruited more than 20,000 simple miners and farmers in Jinhua, Zhejiang, and trained a new army. In order to adapt to the coastal terrain and increase the pertinence to the enemy, Qi Jiguang invented a tactical array of collective mutual assistance-Yuanyang Array.
Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas are dominated by puddles and paddy fields, which are different from the vast northern plain and are not suitable for cavalry to charge in large groups. In view of this, the newly created Yuanyang Array emphasizes "the combination of long and short weapons" and "the combination of cold weapons and firearms". Take 12 as a team, the first one is the captain, the second two are armed with shields, the second two are armed with wolves, the fourth four are armed with spears, the fifth two are armed with short weapons, and the last one is a fireman. This weapon, Wolf Shield, is based on the upper half of Dazhu and its attached branches. Bamboo is two feet thick and ten feet long, and the sharp blade is one foot long at the top, which is used to harass each other. Firefighters are soldiers who specialize in firing rockets or explosives.
According to the different terrain, Qi Jiguang's mandarin duck array can be divided into two groups: the big mandarin duck array and the small mandarin duck array. The big mandarin duck array is composed of several small mandarin duck arrays, which is like a duck to water in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. In fact, the secret of Yuanyang array is to offset the lack of individual combat capability through the mutual cooperation between soldiers.
Imperial Array and Daoism
Liu Qing, a researcher, has always stressed to me that the ancient array system in China can't be as complicated as that in literature, drama and film and television works, because China has been pursuing the military service policy of "the integration of soldiers and farmers" since ancient times, and farmers usually produce at home and are recruited in wartime. As for the professional soldiers, they also have to undertake the heavy task of reclaiming land. Therefore, they have very limited time to practice array every year, and they can only master and use simple and practical array in a short time. As for some too gorgeous formations, they are mainly used to cope with the emperor's review and the general's review. Although it is dazzling, the real value of confrontation is not great.
But in the history of China, some people did invent some strange arrays and even mystified them.
Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, was originally the military commander of the later Zhou Dynasty. He was given a yellow robe by the coup and also had some military talents. But after the throne passed to his younger brother Zhao Guangyi, the situation was quite different. Zhao Guangyi is a man who lacks military ability but is very conceited. He also put the highly centralized military system established by Zhao Kuangyin into concrete affairs such as arranging and deploying troops. Originally, you were away from home, and your life would not be affected. It is the minimum requirement of operational command to make adjustments at any time according to the changes in the situation between the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield. However, Zhao Guangyi, who lived in a secluded palace, gave the prepared array to the commander-in-chief before each invasion, so that he could abide by it and send civilian personnel to accompany him. Ironically, many of these formations were forcibly imagined by civilian officials sitting in the study without any military knowledge. For example, the general theory of Wu Jing, a military book compiled by the Song people, specifically introduced various useless array methods such as "eight arrays in this dynasty" and "the system of positive arrays in this dynasty".
At that time, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty had been strongly criticized by people. In actual combat, the generals of the Song Dynasty often resisted the imperial army array. For example, in the Battle of Song and Liao Dynasties, Yanjin of Song and Zhao risked violating the imperial edict and changing the array, and changed the eight arrays with scattered forces into two arrays, thus avoiding the tragedy of being surrounded by Liao army fighters.
What's more, after the Tang and Song Dynasties, there was such a phenomenon that the increasingly fierce spells in Taoism were attached to the array, which made the array that was originally wonderful to ordinary people become more mysterious, which also became the source of various stories about array in later literary stories.
Most of the ancients were superstitious, and generals who led troops to fight all the year round were no exception. They often regard some supernatural factors as one of the reasons for the success or failure of transporting troops to fight. Moreover, in ancient China, Taoism had a very close relationship with military strategists since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Laozi, the originator of Taoism, discussed many reasons for using troops in Tao Te Ching, which also contributed to the mystification of the array law.
In the process of discussing soldiers, some people consciously or unconsciously put some Taoist theories into Sun Tzu's Art of War. For example, Li Zhi, a military strategist in the Tang Dynasty, in The Silence of Taibai, put the eight arrays of heaven, earth, phoenix, cloud, dragon, tiger, bird and snake in one-to-one correspondence with the rest, birth, injury, poison, scenery, death, earthquake and opening the door of Taoism, and put the five arrays straight and square.
This phenomenon became more and more serious in the Ming Dynasty, and even many strange arrays such as Taiyi Eight Array, Taiyi Square Array and Liujia Array were born. These formations are closely related to time, direction and stars. The eight familiar array methods are divided into four birth gates and four death gates. The law makers said that if the unknown person enters the law from the gate of death, the whole army will be wiped out; If you don't attack from a specific direction at a specific time, even the birthday of the generals with troops doesn't match the date of attack and the five elements of attack, it will be defeated.
Obviously, these mysterious theories are far from the original intention of simple array and easy actual combat, and have become pure graphic games on paper.
Military strategists who really understand the law will naturally not believe these fallacies, and Li Jing, who invented the "Six Flowers Array", sneered at the magical power of Taoism when discussing the law with Emperor Taizong. But interestingly, Li Jing did not completely reject the art of Daoism and magic, because these mysterious theories, although of no practical value, can be used to confuse and shock opponents, or to boost the morale of their own soldiers and play the role of psychological warfare.
Such examples are numerous in the history of ancient wars. Before Di Qing, a famous Song Dynasty soldier, attacked Kunlunguan in Guangxi, plague prevailed in the army, and the soldiers felt that the enemy was strong, so their morale was very low. Di Qing went on to tell them that he had prayed to God. If he throws all the copper coins in his hand into the sky, every copper coin he drops will be upside down, which indicates that God will protect the army from victory. If a copper coin is upside down, he will take it back immediately. Say that finish, Di Qing threw the copper coins into the sky. After the copper coins fell, the soldiers were shocked, and all the copper coins were facing up. In an instant, the whole army was in high spirits and high morale. Di Qing ordered all copper coins to be nailed to the ground and returned after victory. Later, he led the soldiers to attack quickly and returned home in triumph soon. After taking out the copper coins, the soldiers suddenly realized that all the copper coins were specially made, with both sides facing up!
It can be seen that the essence of Taoist magic is similar to a magic smoke screen, that is, he is still mysterious on the premise of knowing the cards. Of course, the basic condition for playing these tricks is that you must know your cards like Di Qing, or you will hurt yourself. Song Qinzong has such an example. The capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Bianliang, was surrounded by tens of thousands of Jin Dynasty troops. Seeing that the country was falling apart, Song Qinzong listened to Guo Jinghui and entrusted him with the fate of the Northern Song Dynasty. Guo Jing then found ten thousand soldiers, put on the special clothes of the heavenly soldiers and generals, opened the gate wide and went out to confront 8 jin j. Results 8 jin j a look, welcome, happy. They are thinking about how to open the city gate. Now Song Jun has taken the initiative to open the gate. Taking this opportunity, they set out, wiped out all the magic fighters and captured Kaifeng in one fell swoop.
The military array in the word is always mysterious, but the real military array outside the word is not mysterious. Most of the mystery comes from the intentional or unintentional exaggeration of the recorder or narrator, so the military array often evolves into a legend and then into a myth. Liu Qing thinks it's time to restore this array to its true colors. However, in the course of his research, he found that there are still some people who want to continue to render the mysterious tendency of array method. This happened to him when he recorded the program on TV. Because researcher Liu attached great importance to this misunderstanding, I emphasized my historical background and respect for history to him. He nodded solemnly to me.
This should actually be called array culture. After a moment of meditation, he added.
The array will be completely retired?
During the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, even in the middle of Qing Dynasty, China was still dominated by cold weapons, supplemented by firearms. With the spread of western firearms to the East, especially after entering the era of mechanized warfare, China's military array, which has been stuck for thousands of years, began to decline, and a new military array came into being. It is characterized by concentrated firepower and concentrated attack power, and it has banned the traditional military array characterized by intensive forces.
In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War that broke out in the 1950s of 19, both sides on the battlefield broke through the restrictions of the traditional array to varying degrees. Taiping Army's "Hundred Birds Array" is a formation specially created to reduce enemy fire damage. It takes the form of small teams, usually with 25 people as a team. Each team is dotted with birds and attacks the enemy from all directions at the same time. The opponents of Taiping Army, Xiang Army and Huai Army, absorbed the essence of Qi Jiguang's array thought, and even showed the trend of changing to the skirmisher line in the modern sense.
However, after the fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War, the traditional array method has completely lost its meaning of existence.
"Even so, this does not prevent us from seeing some shadows of ancient military formations from a certain angle or side in today's war." Liu Qing said to me: "Typically, after the tank was invented, it was mainly used to cover the infantry to conquer the other side's positions ... At this time, the tank is in a sense an armor or shield that covers the infantry's progress and can move."
Science and technology have changed the external form of war. Although some arrangements in modern warfare are similar or in the same strain as those in ancient times, great changes have taken place after all. Then, with the competitive development of nuclear bombs, firearms and military aircraft in various countries, will the array law completely retreat into the depths of history?
"As long as the ground war exists, the array method still exists." Sharpwiner answered affirmatively.