On the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, the sky was gloomy and snowy. Before dark in the morning, Li Xingzhou got up and went out. Apart from the clothes inside, the takeaway was covered with leather armor and fur cloak.

The reason why I left now is that I don’t want to make a statement or disturb anyone.

At the entrance of Tubi Villa, there were 250 new troops, 50 direct guards led by Wei Li, 50 auxiliary soldiers, more than 100 mules and 50 pack horses carrying ammunition, gunpowder, and artillery, and were waiting in line in the snow.

The new army was wearing a warm fur cloak, a new military uniform, and a fur glove. They hung a safe grenade, ammunition bag, bayonet, and bedding and felt on their backs. They had never seen this outfit, nor did they see the Shangzhi personal guards, and they were all whispering.

There were indeed only fifty personal guards in Shangzhi, but because they were wearing iron pieces and armor, each of them was equipped with a horse, they all needed the bedding, felt, etc. to transport them.

This is one of the differences between soldiers in the Firearm Age and elites in the Cold Weapon Age. It is also the biggest point. Firearms only need ammunition and a gun to form combat power. The total weight is less than ten kilograms, and they don’t have to wear armor.

But elite soldiers like Shangzhi Qinwei can have dozens of kilograms of armor alone, and the heaviest heavy infantry, Tiefutu, Tie Harrier and other elite soldiers, can have sixty or seventy kilograms of armor alone.

This means that one person fights, at least two or even more auxiliary soldiers help.

New troops do not need it, because the firearms are light and have great killing power, so soldiers can bring their own items to live and be self-sufficient.

The elite cavalry of the nomadic peoples can defeat most troops by one man, two horses, or even three horses when raiding for a long distance.

In fact, there were many outstanding cavalry generals in the Central Plains, and this transformation originated from the dynasty of Emperor Wu of Han.

The Central Plains dynasty's foreign nomadic peoples began to change from strategic defense to strategic offensive. Wei Qing and Huo Qubing of the Han Dynasty rushed thousands and tens of thousands of miles at every turn, killing the Xiongnu royal courts, and then developing to the Tang Dynasty. A group of famous generals represented by Su Dingfang developed the tactics of large-scale long-distance cavalry raids to the peak.

Unfortunately, in the Song Dynasty, the country had no horse farming land, no Liaodong Plain of the Han Dynasty, and no Hetao Plain of the Tang Dynasty, there would be no large-scale cavalry corps like the Han Dynasty that could be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. It would be impossible to have the strategic depth of tens of thousands of miles as the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, cavalry is indispensable, and the key to replacing cavalry is not firearms, but strategic transportation.

If one day, Jingguo would run cars and trains everywhere, he could give up the cavalry, otherwise it would be impossible.

Similarly, if one day all soldiers can use helicopters and transport planes to deliver, land transportation will be eliminated.

To put it bluntly, the ability to deliver troops is strategic ability. As for whether it can be fought, it is tactical ability. Strategic crushing can make up for tactical shortcomings, but in turn, the superiority of tactics cannot make up for strategic failures.

The most famous examples are Germany and Japan in World War II. There are also Liu Bang and Xiang Yu in the Battle of Chu and Han. Xiang Yu was brave and able to lead troops, so in terms of tactics, he always had the advantage. Liu Bang was not Xiang Yu's opponent in front of the battle.

But in terms of strategy, Liu Bang's vision is obviously longer-term and his pattern is higher.

So after Xiang Yu won one battle after another, he was still led by Liu Bang and ran away. So what people saw was that Xiang Yu always won the battle, but he lost and beat himself to death...

If you win a battle every day, you can’t win. Can you play?

It seems incredible. I am invincible in the world. I will win battles all my life and finally kill myself? But if you look at the macro situation, you will find that Xiang Yu was indeed tricked by Liu Bang, running around and exhausted to deal with it. This is the crushing of strategy to tactics.

Later, Mongolia conquered the world, and the Mongols had advantages in tacticality. Moreover, Temujin, Kublai Khan and others were indeed very talented and proficient in strategy. This was probably related to their running around, crossing the world, having many knowledges and wide vision.

The Song Dynasty, which was in a stable corner, lost to the top leaders, both the Southern Song and Northern Song dynasties, without strategic vision at all.

Otherwise, in the early days of the Battle between the Song Dynasty and Mongolia, the Song Dynasty actually produced several powerful generals at one time. In addition, it had developed economy and leading equipment, and recovered a large number of lost land.

But over time, it was like Xiang Yu back then. He won a battle with labor and capital, and he was awesome! But as he fought, he couldn't beat it anymore, and he lost.

Therefore, cavalry is a must. Without trains and cars, without large-scale cavalry, it means being in a strategic passive state. Unfortunately, he still lacks a general who can help him train cavalry.

While thinking, Li Xingzhou ordered the Shangzhi personal guard to be led by Wei Li to be the vanguard. The new army took him back and set out to the camp outside the city.

Wei Li and his group of Shangzhi's personal guards were very excited and did not want to be several times more bandits than theirs.

This is not surprising. All the Shangzhi Little Guards are good players from the imperial guards, and they are proud of themselves and are not afraid of the enemy several times. However, the Shangzhi Little Guards also means that they have no chance to make achievements.

Because they are the emperor's personal guards and the last barrier to the entire country, they will have the opportunity to make achievements unless the emperor personally leads the expedition or the enemy enters the imperial city.

Even though the King of Wu rebelled ten years ago, the emperor had no chance of going to Zhi's personal guards. The rebels were blocked by King Xiao in Wu Pass.

In short, it is rare to have such a chance to go into battle to kill the enemy. Whether it is Wei Li or Shang Zhi’s personal guard, they are all very excited.

After the army slowly set off, Li Xingzhou took Meixue and was about to catch up. After walking a few steps, he saw several people standing under the old dead tree in front of the door.

It was the queen who supported the old emperor, with felt on the ground and in the snow. He Zhao and Fu'an were accompanying him. Two little eunuchs stood behind with lanterns, one of them had a little lame feet.

Li Xingzhou walked over and said, "Greetings to the Emperor, Empress."

The emperor had no expression on his face: "Remember what I said, before the twenty-five, no matter whether there is a result or not, he must come."

He nodded.

"Go, go, go and come back early, and when you come back, I... have something to say to you."

The queen took his hand and handed a beautiful porcelain bottle to him: "This is a good ganoderma pill provided by the imperial doctor in the palace. It is bitter and cold in the mountains, so don't be cold. Eat one every morning and evening to keep the cold."

Li Xingzhou nodded, "I'm leaving." He Zhao said nothing.

He pulled Meixue, and Meixue hissed obediently, turned around and thought about leaving the south of the city.

...........

Then, they gathered in the Xiang army outside the city. There were 500 regular troops, 300 auxiliary soldiers, and 120 horse plaques. They had already gathered under the leadership of Gan Lin and were escorted to the baggage and grain waiting for them.

Then, the army joined forces and left Jiangzhou City at dawn and headed north.

After the sky was completely bright, the snow stopped. The road was wide and easy to walk on. The road was paved with stones and could pass the carriage. After all, this is the main road, and it is convenient for the army to walk. You can encounter pedestrians from time to time on the road. When you see the army, you are so scared that you hide on the side of the road.

The Shangzhi Qinwei and the Xiangjun were both very curious about the new army with strange clothing and equipment, and kept looking around and whispering.

By the time they were burying the pot to make rice at noon, they had already reached the junction of Danshui and the river at the foot of Taihang Mountain.

Li Xingzhou looked at Danshui, which was more than ten meters wide, and felt uneasy. This river supported countless people and buried countless people.

Danshui is the center, with many villages and cities on both sides of the east and west. The Danshui is also buried hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Qin and Zhao countries thousands of years ago.

The troops stopped and rested. Shen Lin took the opportunity to come to him and bowed and said, "Prince, my subordinates still don't understand. I'll draw 200 infantry troops into musketeers? But in this way, there are less than 100 infantry troops in the wing army."

"Are there any Shangzhi personal guards? There are fifty of them, and they can get a hundred people together." Li Xingzhou said.

"It's not enough. The paths in the mountains are narrow, and the mountains are covered with heavy snow. There are not many roads that can be walked, so I can only pull them away from each other. At that time, there will definitely be close forces. If the infantry ahead can't stand it, something will happen.

Furthermore... Prince, there are more enemies than us. If you don’t have a small path, you just force people to unite, which is very unfavorable to us..." Shen Lindao.

Shenlin is indeed very insightful. In the era of cold weapons, the area of ​​the enemy is very important, so the loose and disconnected front and back are very important, and the closer the better. There are fewer people and more people on the opposite side. If the opposite side is scattered, they will have a chance.

But when the mountains are blocked with heavy snow, if the two sides fight, their troops will inevitably be concentrated, and they cannot detour in the small way, restrain them, and they can only face the enemy head-on.

This is very unfavorable to them, because there are at least two thousand Black Mountain bandits, and I don’t know if they have all of them out.

Shen Lin's idea is right. He is not as blindly optimistic as Wei Li, but Li Xingzhou has his own plans. The reason why he sent troops in winter is that he will not wait for next year and fight unexpectedly. Finally, there is another important point that his new army and the army of this era are the opposite!
Chapter completed!