On the military map, the entire army commanded by Zhao Liang, the King of Jingchu of the Song Dynasty, has been identified by the small flag.

This military map has been made very detailed and is the product of mastering accurate measurement and drawing techniques. It was unimaginable during the Xuanhe Rebellion more than 200 years ago. Even if the Republican Army, which had the best staff, would not have such an accurate map. Even if Wu Haogu took action personally, it would not be able to draw it.

But now, this high-precision military map of 10,000 to 50,000 is only standard for the command of the Western Song Dynasty's brigade level and above Army Combat Forces.

The 200-year era of great navigation and the struggle between nations has greatly promoted various technologies. Especially military technology can be described as "radar progress".

In the army of the three Chinese heroes, cold weapons have long been found, probably only the cavalry's sabers, cavalry's rifles and infantry's bayonets are left. The clamp gun that once dominated the battlefield has been completely replaced by flintlock smoothbore rifles, and the further rifled rifles have become quite popular and have become the killing weapon for scattered soldiers and light infantrymen.

Artillery technology has also made great progress. In the Great Zhou and Eastern Song dynasties, bronze cannons had long since left the market. Instead, they were iron cannons made of gray iron or white iron. They were strong and lightweight. They were standardized and standardized during the production process, so they were extremely reliable.

In addition, howitzers, long cannons (cannons), short cannons (karen cannons), and mortar cannons were designed according to different battlefield needs. There was also a rocket launcher that was not a cannon but was named after the name of artillery.

As for the gunpowder used by artillery, the progress will be even greater.

In the Great Zhou and the Eastern Song Dynasty, under the guidance of naturalists, the formula of gunpowder was not only more reasonable, but also the purification technology of nitrate and sulfur that constituted gunpowder was also more clever. At the same time, the emergence of mechanized crushing, mixing, pressing, drying, grinding and other processes also made the gunpowder produced in the Great Zhou and the Eastern Song Dynasty excellent in quality, allowing the artillery to exert its maximum power.

The progress of shells is also significant. First, the solid shells are made more well-made, and the surface of the solid shells polished by the machine is smooth, and the gap between the gun barrel is smaller, so the range and accuracy have been greatly improved.

Second, the technology of shotgun and flowering bullets has gradually matured. The effective range of shotgun weighing 6 kilograms has increased to 250 steps! The flowering bullets fired by howitzers and mortars have wooden bullet holders and wooden fuses, and the casting of the shells is also more sophisticated. There are also shrunk bullets that combine grenades (flower bullets) and shotgun into one, which is so lethal that it is harmful to the world!

Not only the muskets used by infantry and artillery are improving, but even the war horses under the cavalry have developed rapidly over the past 200 years.

Breeding technology under the guidance of biology is of great significance to the breeding and breeding of war horses. Now the military horse farms of the Great Zhou and the Eastern Song dynasties can cultivate different types of military horses according to the needs of the battlefield, and can be "standardized and mass-produced", that is, every bred military horse has very similar genetic characteristics!

The war horse is no longer one in a hundred or one in ten, but has a "pass rate" of more than 90%.

The army, which had high-quality war horses and horse-drawn horses and eliminated armor, had its mobility greatly improved. This improvement allowed the more than 20 two Song coalition forces commanded by King Zhao Liang of Jingchu to fight a unimaginable mobile war in the early years!

It is not easy to talk about the prince of Zhao Liang. He was the cousin of Zhao Mian, the son of the Western Song Dynasty, and he is over 60 years old. He has inherited the throne of Jingchu for 30 years, but he has not enjoyed a day of debauchery and indecent life.

From the age of 10, he was sent to Wudang Mountain Youth Military Academy by his cruel father and received harsh military education. From then on, he began his military career for half a century.

Of course, he was not the only one who worked in the army at the age of 10. Most men from the Western Song Dynasty who came from military aristocratic families came like this.

He entered the Young Military Academy at the age of 10, entered the Huashan Military Academy at the age of 18, and officially entered the army at the age of 22. Then he started from the platoon leader and climbed up step by step, dedicating the best time of his life to the battlefield and the army. He was also lucky and would enter the Privy Council Military Academy before he was 30 years old. He would then become a member of the "Huashan Sect Staff".

Only after becoming the "Huashan Sect's Staff" can one be qualified to slowly squeeze into the top leaders of the army and become generals or even marshals.

Zhao Liangjiang, who had participated in at least 60 battles for 50 years in the army, was as famous as the best general in the Western Song army. He is now ranked in the Marshal's Mansion and has the highest military rank in the Western Song Dynasty.

Moreover, as the Prince of Jingchu, he was very rare to gain the trust of Zhao Mian, the official of the Song Dynasty, and served as the chief general of the Western Song Field Army for a long time. This time, he was ordered to command the coalition forces of the Song Dynasty to launch a sudden attack towards Kaifeng Prefecture!

In order to maximize the suddenness of the battle, Zhao Liangjiang did not even wait for the 400,000 army to complete the assembly, but commanded 210,000 coalition forces to cross the Song (Western Song) border between Dengzhou and Nanyang, and rushed to the Nanyang Grand Basin.

The Henan Legion of Zhou State was caught off guard. A division on the front line of Nanyang was defeated, losing thousands of people. The remnants retreated into the Nanyang Daling Castle to defend. After Zhao Liang left a brigade to guard the Nanyang Daling Castle, he led his troops to attack Fangchengshan behind Nanyang Daling Castle. After a few rounds of fierce attacks, they broke through the Fangchengshan defense line of the Zhou army and surrounded the Fangchengshan between Fangchengshan and Xionger Mountain.

After leaving a division to besiege Fangcheng Grand Bastion, Zhao Liang general commanded the remaining 180,000 troops to cross the low Fangcheng Mountain and headed straight to Ye County, a key area north of Fangcheng Mountain.

After Zhao Liang's army surrounded Ye County, a large number of Zhou army clusters appeared in the direction of Xiangcheng north of Ye County and the direction of Yancheng east of Ye County.

A major battle seems to be about to start between Ye County, Xiangcheng and Yancheng!

"The Lonely King has decided!" General Zhao Liang took back his eyes from the military map, and then gently swept over the two Song coalition generals in the tent.

He paused, "The two Zhou troops must destroy all the way before the two groups of Zhou troops completed their meeting!

To this end, we must divide the troops into two groups! We will advance quickly towards Xiangcheng with the main force, and fight between Jiangdian Town and Rufen Town south of Xiangcheng.

At the same time, he used vacant soldiers to force Yancheng, making great efforts to make the enemy mistakenly think it was the main force and adopt conservative arrangements."

General Zhao Liang spoke very slowly, but his words revealed an unquestionable majesty. The generals of the Eastern Song Dynasty present nodded repeatedly without raising any objections.

If the Western Song Dynasty and the Eastern Song Dynasty have any military advantages in the Great Zhou Dynasty, it is undoubtedly a veteran general.

After the last Central Plains War, the army of the Eastern Song and Great Zhou had never fought any wars. Moreover, due to the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, the military aristocratic classes of the two countries had been very economically declining and became an existence affiliated with capitalists.

Moreover, the two countries have actually given up the military service system linked to land, so there is no professional soldier class who has served for a long time, which has had a certain impact on the combat effectiveness of the cavalry of the two countries.

In addition, the two countries do not have the class of gun doctors, so the light infantry of both countries is far inferior to the Western Song Dynasty.

Therefore, General Zhao Liang judged that in the early stages of the outbreak of the war, the Western Song army, which had elite soldiers and generals, had certain advantages. This period was also a critical period when the Western Song and Eastern Song teamed up to defeat the Great Zhou.

If the commander of the Western Song Dynasty could not seize the favorable opportunity, boldly use his troops, and wait until the Great Zhou completes mobilization and training. Millions of well-equipped and well-trained armies could undoubtedly make the Great Zhou unbeaten.

As long as the Great Zhou is unbeaten on land, their navy has a high probability of defeating the Eastern Song Navy. After all, the number of main ships of the Great Zhou Navy is 50% more than that of the Eastern Song Navy!

Moreover, the shipbuilding ability, merchant ships and sailors of the Great Zhou were far greater than that of the Eastern Song Dynasty, and it was basically twice as advantageous. The overseas colonies of the Great Zhou Republic were more and more wealthy. Its homeland also included islands such as the three Japanese provinces and large peninsulars such as Goryeo Province. It is natural to have stronger maritime capabilities.

"If you have no objection," said Zhao Liangjiang, "then I will start assigning tasks!"

"Prince, we have no objection. Please give orders!" The person who spoke was a lieutenant general from the Eastern Song Dynasty, who was in his early forties this year.

He has never been on a real battlefield. To him, General Zhao is a person who exists in military textbooks. What other objections can he raise?

And he really couldn't think of a better way... Although the coalition forces now don't know the reality of the Zhou army in the direction of Xiangcheng and Yancheng, they are actually fighting a battle of no confidence that they don't know.

But the overall situation is indeed as Zhao Liangjiang said, but it is only beneficial in the short term.

If you are too cautious, you will miss the opportunity. When your opponent is ready, the trouble will be great.

Zhao Liangjiang's arrangement was actually completely correct! His quick action completely hit the enemy's weakness... It was not that Zhou State blindly launched the war without sufficient preparation.

It is because the Zhou army had not fought for decades, and the officers could not get into the state for a while. Moreover, they were not used to such a fast-paced era of invincible offensive and defense. Although the senior management of the Zhou army also knew about it.

But knowing that it is one thing, and developing a brand new tactic that suits the actual situation of the battlefield is another.

The Zhou army still likes to rely on battalions for deployment, and they do not concentrate large corps on mobile warfare, but fight in divisions or army units.

In the concept of the officers of the Great Zhou Dynasty, a field army composed of three infantry divisions, an artillery regiment, a cavalry regiment, an engineering regiment and a baggage regiment is enough to stand alone. Even if it encounters several times the enemy, it is enough to rely on favorable terrain for defense.

Therefore, on September 16 and 17, the two Zhou troops that appeared south of Xiangcheng and west of Yancheng were two armies affiliated to the Henan Army of the Republic. The numbers were the 18th Army of the Republic Army and the 19th Army of the Republic Army. Both armies were the "standing troops" of the Republic Army, and they were the backbone and elite troops serving as strategic duty tasks. Even in peacetime, they were all fully equipped with a large organization of more than 50,000 people. The equipment was even more sophisticated. One army had as many as 25 artillery companies, and had 150 artillery pieces of various types. In order to drag so many artillery and ammunition trucks and repair vehicles, one army had thousands of horses with artillery alone. In addition, there were countless baggage vehicles, horses and war horses.

When an army starts moving, it’s so powerful!

On September 18, 226, such a vast army was blocked by an even larger number of enemies in the area of ​​Jiangdian Town south of Xiangcheng.

The person who commanded the 18th Army of the Republican Army was Lieutenant General Wuyuan Town, the "Royal and Brave", and his commander was Colonel Han Shantong.

On the evening of September 18, the two were shocked by the Ming camp of the Song Dynasty coalition, which appeared on the southern plain, like a starry sea on the ground.

That night, both sides went to the Ming camp, and the two armies were about 10 miles apart, with lanterns and bonfires, and spots filled the wilderness.

Between two "star seas", one big and one small, it is pitch black. Occasionally, rockets pass through the starry sky, and a ball of fire bursts out between camps in the wilderness or the Great Zhou Dynasty, leaving a shiny afterimage and then returning to peace.

This is a harassing attack by the Western Song army using rocket launchers!

Wuyuan Town and Han Shantong made the next day's combat deployment in Zhonghejiyi, and then ordered people to blew the night trumpet and got up to patrol the camp.

When they left the central army's tent, they saw the flames passing by the rockets from the air. Both of them frowned slightly. This rocket belonging to the artillery was only three or four miles in range, and it was very convenient to launch. Although it had no accurate head, the harassment effect was excellent.

Without sending a large group of people to search, it is impossible to expel enemy rocket soldiers operating under the cover of night. And sending a large group of people means that a night battle may be fought.

The night battle is obviously unfavorable to the Zhou army, which is relatively small and not as powerful as the opponent's elite.

So Wuyuanzhen and Han Shantong would rather let the troops endure the harassment of enemy rockets than take the risk of attacking.

As for the fight back with our own rocket soldiers, it is not within their plan, because that will also trigger a night battle!

Tonight, the number of Western Song cavalry and gun doctors scattered in the wilderness and wheat fields must be less than a small number!

After retracting their eyes from the air, the two began a routine night camp patrol.

The Zhou army has not yet escaped the influence of the "battalion era" and attaches great importance to camping. Even if it is just a temporary camp, it will be stacked and carefully built. There are no shortages of village walls, trenches, towers, watchtowers, and artillery towers. The time for camping is much stronger than the elites of the Western Song Dynasty, and it is comparable to the Eastern Song army.

The reason for this is not only that the Zhou army's ideas are a bit old, but also that the main source of the Zhou army has changed from peasants to working class, and there are also many construction workers among them, so the construction level is of course high.
Chapter completed!