Chapter 59 Section 5 Song Army Changes

The Song army paid attention to the formation of troops in combat, while the Liao army paid attention to flexibility in combat.Therefore, the Liao army did not take the Song army seriously.At the beginning of the battle of Gaoliang River, the Song army took the initiative to provoke and angered the emperor of Liao. This time, the emperor of Liao decided to go south in a large scale.So, how can the Song army resist the Liao army's iron cavalry with only one formation map? Song Taizong defeated Youyun, the Song army withdrew, and the Liao Dynasty was endless.In order to retaliate against the Song Dynasty, Emperor Jingzong of Liao ordered his army to go south and fought a fierce battle with the Song army in Mancheng, Hebei today.When the two armies were fighting fiercely, the emperor of the Song Dynasty did not come, but the emperor's formation map arrived, and the Song army deployed the formation according to the formation plan.The emperor gave a map of eight formations, and asked the soldiers to form eight groups, with the distance between each group being more than a hundred paces.The Song army is queuing up, looking to the left, counting one, two, three, four, five, the formation has not yet been completed, but seeing the Liao Kingdom Qingqi, the soldiers are divided into two groups, and the Song army is outflanking the rolling yellow sand.The Song army was not completely lined up, and the distance between the formations was more than a hundred steps, which was very convenient for the Liao army cavalry to intersperse and encircle.The generals and soldiers of the Song Army had expressions of fear on their faces, and the timid soldiers had already thrown away their weapons and ran away.Isn't this sending you to death?

Under such circumstances, the two deputy commanders of the Song Army told the coach to quickly change the formation and not follow the emperor's formation plan. welcome.The coach said that it must not be like this. If the emperor blames it, who can bear it?Soldiers should lose their heads if they lose their heads. If a man dies in battle, he should be shrouded in horse leather.If they don't shroud their bodies, the three of us will have to.The two deputy commanders said, you quickly order the change of formation, the emperor blames it, and we both take responsibility.When the coach was still hesitant, the deputy commander ordered a change of formation, and the soldiers of the Song army quickly formed a group, changing from the original eight formations to two formations, and stepped forward to meet the enemy. They won a complete victory and drove the Liao army back. Hurry up and report to the capital to plead guilty.Sorry, I won the fight.I changed your formation, but I still won. This is a death penalty. The Son of Heaven is wise, and I deserve to be punished for this crime.

According to historical records, after the Song army changed its formation, the Liao army "successfully lost, and the defeated troops all went to the west mountain and threw themselves into the pit valley" (Volume 10 of "Continued Zi Zhi Tong Jian").The soldiers of the Liao army fell into the mountain stream and died, countless.As soon as the formation changed, the Song army immediately became effective and defeated the Liao army.Liao Jingzong wanted to take revenge on the Song Dynasty, but was defeated by the Song army.But the generals of the Song army had to plead guilty to the emperor. I'm sorry I was wrong, I won the battle, I'm sorry.

This time Song Taizong was very magnanimous, as long as you know your mistakes, your crimes will not be punished.Why not punish?The reason is very simple, one of the two deputy commanders is the emperor's brother-in-law and the other is the emperor's brother-in-law, both are relatives of the emperor.So the two of them dared to change the emperor's formation and change to someone else, even if they had the guts of a bear's heart.Naturally, the emperor couldn't deal with his brother-in-law and brother-in-law, and they also won the battle, so let's forget it this time.But it does not prove that other people can change the emperor's formation map at will. In the future, they must fight according to the formation plan.Soon, another battle broke out between Song and Liao, and the Song army still fought according to the formation plan. What would be the result?