In November, a dam blocked the river water by the Si River and stored water into a lake, turning the upstream Pengcheng into an island in the lake.

On the shore, Li Li looked at the huge Liang army camp in front of him, looked at the hills called Hanshan and the river dam next to him, and fell into deep thought.

Because the dam is near Hanshan, it is called Hanshanyan. The Liang army of the Northern Expedition flooded Pengcheng by blocking rivers and storing water, just like when they built Fushanyan and attacked Shouyang.

The Fushan Imperial intercepted the Huai River (Huaihe River). The project volume was huge and the effect was indeed good. It made the upstream Shouyang defenders miserable. However, the Fushan Imperial soon collapsed after its completion.

This led to the transformation of the Huai River on both sides of the downstream into a Ze Kingdom, and countless people from Liang Kingdom were killed in the floods of dams. This water attack can be said to have killed 1,000 enemies and damaged 100,000 of them.

Now, this trick is used again, if...

Li Li carefully observed the dam and river and felt that it was unlikely that the dam would collapse.

The flow of Sishui is not as good as that of Huai River, and the dam is very thick. I think it will collapse in a short time. Even if the dam will collapse, the Pengcheng city wall soaked in water on the upstream will definitely be finished first.

Thinking of this, Li Li looked up at the distance and looked at the blurry Pengcheng city block in the north.

The Liang army's northern expedition was a place where military strategists must compete for - Pengcheng, Xuzhou, and also supported the newly promoted king of Henan from the flanks. It is said that this Qiaocheng, which was hundreds of miles west of Pengcheng, confronted the Eastern Wei army.

If possible, Li Li really wanted Hou Jing to be defeated and died, but it was meaningless to pin his hopes on the curse. Therefore, if he had to be busy with his own affairs, he would come to watch the battle.

The Liang army's northern expedition was huge. The Eastern Wei wanted to rescue Pengcheng and had sent a large army to go south to reinforce. There was no doubt that this was a strategic-level decisive battle.

Li Li felt that if he could watch, it would be very helpful for increasing his knowledge, even if it was just a glimpse of the leopard.

Therefore, he gave Xu Jian another "filial piety" and got an errand. Later, he was a diligent official and escorted Shaofu Temple and transported some supplies to Hanshan Camp.

Wu Xiang stayed in Jiankang, and his wife and brother Huang came with him.

Now, Li Li entered the Liang army camp as he wished and was able to observe the marching of the Liang State official army at close range and what the combat pattern was.

After careful investigation and observation for a few days, I gained a lot, which was a great eye-opener.

First of all, the composition of the official army was different from what he thought before: it was not a national standing army, but more similar to the form of "grouping":

The generals of each division are mostly the governors and county magistrates. The troops and horses are the private soldiers of the California county soldiers. The former is the elite soldiers, and the latter is the weak soldiers who make up the numbers.

These days, the governor, county magistrate, and county magistrate are both civil and military positions, and they are in charge of military affairs and dismounted to manage the people. They have to manage the local area and lead troops to fight, so it is normal for them to be recruited and followed the army to fight in the northern expedition.

The problem is that the commander has poor control over the troops of each unit. In other words, the commander can only order the generals (governors, county magistrates, etc.) who participate in the war. If the governor and county magistrate violate the situation, the commander will not be able to mobilize at all and control his subordinates.

The military disciplines of various troops were very poor. When the army set out to fight, many soldiers robbed along the way, as impatient as mice falling into rice jars.

It would be fine if the villages in Wei State were robbed, but as a result, they started to rob them before they even went abroad, and the people of Liang State were robbed.

The commander could not control the evil deeds of each unit. The dignified royal army was actually a bandit who was openly held on fire. At this point, the military discipline was corrupt. When the war broke out, the commanders of each unit would not obey the commanders.

There have always been only public instruments for private use, but not private instruments for public use, because in this way, the individual will lose, but the benefits will not be much.

Therefore, although the Liang army has a large number of troops, the interior is very loose and it seems difficult to work together.

Secondly, there were many women who followed the army to fight.

This woman has female relatives following the army, such as the concubines, maids, kabukis, or divisions, and soldiers' families.

There are also women with ambiguous identities, such as camp prostitutes who are in a miserable situation, Liuying who works in flesh-and-skinned business with the army, or civilian women who are accused by soldiers.

From Li Li's perspective, this kind of army is more like a team that takes maids out on a tour, rather than a life-long battle camp.

Women who follow the army, Li Li can't think of any other purpose except for venting.

The military camp is the world of men. Based on human nature, Li Li can understand the needs of soldiers to vent their venting needs. Moreover, the main ways for the ancient army to maintain morale really included taking women to "relieve fire".

But how much combat effectiveness can be increased in addition to increasing the logistics burden?

The most direct way to motivate soldiers to fight bloody battles is to clearly distinguish between rewards and punishments. If you make meritorious services, you will receive rewards, and you may even have the opportunity to be promoted or divided into land based on military merits. Such motivation is the most effective.

However, the court could not give such a reward, and Li Li saw that these days, ordinary soldiers in the official army were either poor military households or ordinary people who were recruited to serve in the military.

These soldiers are like slave soldiers, which are equivalent to the cannon fodder they call later generations. They have extremely poor combat effectiveness, poor equipment, and extremely low morale, and there is no chance to change their destiny.

Even if you make military achievements, you will not be rewarded.

The combat-capable soldiers are basically the troops of the generals, that is, the private soldiers of the generals, and their loyalty is the man's master rather than the court.

The treatment of the division depends entirely on the mood of the man. The court cannot control it and does not want to control it.

Therefore, in order to appease the soldiers, the generals of various departments naturally acquiesced to have a large number of women accompanying the army in the military camp.

Even the generals themselves took the beauty and singer to war to enjoy themselves at any time. If the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam is crooked, who will control the soldiers below?

This is the situation summarized after Li Li's on-site inspection. He retracted his thoughts and pondered the current situation in Liang army.

Now it is October, Hanshan Weir has been built and has successfully stored water and flowed back into the upstream Pengcheng.

In theory, soldiers are very fast. The Liang army should attack Pengcheng before the main reinforcements of Wei State arrived, and then rely on the city to fight defensive battles and waste their lives with the opponent.

However, after Liang's army built a dam to store water, it entered a "hibernation state". It just watched Pengcheng soaked in water, and waited for the Wei reinforcements to approach, leaving nostalgic.

Li Li had never fought a war, but after seeing the situation on the spot, he felt that the water storage could be completed and the city could be sieged: he took a boat to get close to the city because the surrounding area of ​​Pengcheng had turned into a lake.

When the water rises, the height difference between the ship floating on the water and the city head will narrow. It will definitely be easier for the Liang soldiers who are sieging the city walls than usual.

Even if the casualties are greater, it doesn’t matter. Just take down Pengcheng before reinforcements arrive.

As a result, nothing was done.

Of course, this may be the intention to surround the reinforcements. As long as the reinforcements are defeated, the Pengcheng defenders will have no hope and will have to surrender.

However, when the Wei reinforcements arrived, the Liang army did not take the initiative to attack, and did not take advantage of the opponent's foothold and launched a strong attack, allowing the opponent to set up camp.

Li Li has never fought a serious war (clearing away the water bandits is not counted), but he has watched many movies and TV series in that life. After all, he knows that war is not a joke. Since he has sent troops, he must have a clear strategic and tactical goal and implement it.

Now, the Liang army has neither rushed to attack Pengcheng before the reinforcements arrive nor has they surrounded and attacked the reinforcements. If they were unaware of the situation, they would think that the Liang army was coming here for an outing on an armed outing instead of fighting.

On the side, Han Xi looked at the Liang army camp in front of him, feeling contempt: "Master Lang, according to the information he inquired, it is not that there are no generals who propose to attack Pengcheng, or take advantage of the fact that reinforcements have just arrived and have not yet established a foothold, and launch a fierce attack."

"But the coach seems to do nothing except drink in the big tent every day."

"So, what do you guys have to say?" Li Li asked, and Han Xi smiled: "I think it's so bad. Liang's army... will definitely be defeated miserably."

"How can I see it?"

"It's very simple. The coach is a coward and can't fight at all. Like a sheep, he meets the Eastern Thieves who are like wolves and tigers, haha."

After hearing this, Li Li felt uncomfortable when he looked at the huge military camp in front of him.

Once defeated, there were so many soldiers and so many young and strong soldiers in the army, and I don’t know how many people could escape back.

The composition of the army is a young and strong labor force. Once the casualties are exhausted, it will cause great harm to the country. It is logical that a reliable commander should be chosen to lead the army. Even if you cannot win a battle, you must be wary of a big defeat.

Why did you let a mediocre person be the head coach?

In the past two years, Li Li has heard Zhang Ying talk about a lot of history, especially after his transiting south, the history of the Southern Dynasty, so he has some understanding of the Northern Expedition of all dynasties.

Now think about it carefully, since the Southern Dynasties' crossing south, the political significance of each Northern Expedition in the Southern Dynasties has exceeded the military significance. Therefore, the political factors for the determination of the candidate for the commander of the Northern Expedition are higher than the military factors.

Even the Northern Expedition has become the best way for powerful officials to gain reputation and even prepare for usurping the throne, so the significance of the Northern Expedition has gradually changed.

This is particularly evident in Liang State.

During the first period of Liang Kingdom and Tianjian, there was a huge Northern Expedition. As a result, the head coach did not choose famous generals in a hundred battles, but instead abolished the royal family - King Xiao Hong of Linchuan.

The reason for this arrangement is actually easy to understand: since the emperor cannot command the commander of the Northern Expedition Army, the position of commander of the Northern Expedition Army cannot be given to outsiders.

But the royal family that can be defeated will also threaten the emperor's status. The commander of the Northern Expedition Army has so many troops, and the emperor cannot sleep well, so he must restrain himself.

Then, it is best to choose a mediocre talent, equipped with a deputy commander who can fight, rely on his superiority to push over and fight steadily.

As a result, Xiao Hong was so scared that he fled south because of a night rain, which led to a complete collapse of the front line. The Liang army's massive northern expedition ended with an inexplicable defeat.

Afterwards, Xiao Hong, who was so handsome and cowardly, was not punished at all and was nicknamed "Xiao Niang" by the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Later, the most regrettable one was an expedition by the white-robed general Chen Qingzhi. At that time, the Wei State was in civil strife, and Emperor Liang asked Chen Qingzhi to escort the Wei State clan who fled south to the Liang State back to Luoyang.

I gave less than 10,000 troops, and it was obvious that I had to deal with it.

As a result, Chen Qingzhi fought all the way to Luoyang and was invincible. However, Liang State had no follow-up actions and did not provide Chen Qingzhi with effective support, which led to Chen Qingzhi's failure due to his lonely army and his army could not withstand the counterattack.

Now, Liang State has made a Northern Expedition again. The determination of the candidate for the head coach is determined by political factors. Only the "obedient" are chosen, not the "can fight".

The original candidate for the head coach, Xiao Fan, Wang Xiao of Poyang, had experience in commanding military operations of a certain scale during his tenure. When he was in charge of Yizhou, he had fought against the Wei State and quelled the rebellion.

The current head coach, Zhenyang Hou Xiao Yuanming, has a far worse resume in war than Xiao Fan, and Li Li is extremely unpopular.

Now, based on the inquiry, we can see that the coach is a mediocre person, can be an official, and can't fight.

The so-called "knowing to be an official" refers to "governing by doing nothing", which means the bureaucratic style of "doing more mistakes, doing less mistakes, not doing well", so it is obvious that Pengcheng has been "sucked" but there is no follow-up action.

Give up the advantage of first action, and the assault turns into confrontation. The suddenness of tacticality is gone and the strategic goals are unclear. What are you thinking?

Li Li was puzzled and couldn't understand it. Han Xi looked around and carefully used the words, and said to Li Li: "Mr. Lord, the villain's words are ugly, please don't mind."

"Tell me, it's not me who leads the troops."

"Uh... In the eyes of villains, Liang's army... from top to bottom, except for a few soldiers, they are probably afraid of field battles and have no confidence in winning."

"The generals of each division were probably looking for stability, so they could only hide in the military camp like a turtle shell and confront the Eastern thieves."

"This poor and useless commander is probably looking forward to Hou Jing from the west to defeat the enemy in front of him, and then advance eastward and encircle him. In this way, he can bully the less."

When Li Li said this, he suddenly realized: "So...how long do you think it can be confronted?"

"Wolfs eat sheep and don't need to confront each other for long." Han Xi said, and his tone became solemn: "Although the villain has only fought a war, not a general, but he has seen many of them."

"The Lord, the villain thinks that the official army will be defeated, so I ask the Lord to make plans early."
Chapter completed!