Mrs. Wu sent Yuan Xi out and closed the door, feeling torn between her conscience and her desires.
She understood that she didn't have many options left for him at the moment because she had no bargaining chips at all.
Yuan Xi had already made enough concessions to her, because if Yuan Xi really used force, Mrs. Wu could die with loyalty, but what about Ah Xiang?
But Yuan Xi never mentioned Ah Xiang from beginning to end, which showed that he didn't want to, or didn't care about his daughter threatening him.
But if the child is born...
Mrs. Wu pressed her lower abdomen gently, as if she could feel something that was not there, and she felt mixed emotions.
As soon as Yuan Xi went out, he noticed that several gazes that were staring at the house disappeared in an instant. The sounds of footsteps, closing windows, and low calls were heard one after another, and then disappeared one after another.
He shook his head and went back into the house. He saw Zhen Mi leaning against the window, looking at him with a half-smile, and said, "Did the Madam agree?"
Yuan Xi smiled bitterly and said, "Whatever you agree to, just let it go."
"She is also a miserable person. From now on, tell Zhaoji and the others not to ask questions that they shouldn't ask. Let her live in peace."
After hearing this, Zhen Mi nodded thoughtfully, "I understand."
Two days later, Yan Rou rushed back from Yongnu with more than 4,000 soldiers under his command.
Yuan Xi and Tian Yu went to the camp to check and found that half of them were cavalrymen, all of whom were skilled in riding, shooting and horse riding.
Yuan Xi thought that Yan Rou and Xian Yu Fu did not hide their skills. Looking at their longbows and swords, he knew that they were the best fighters. According to the cavalry to infantry ratio of 1:5 in the north, it was not easy for them to gather nearly 2,000 cavalry.
Most of these cavalrymen were border residents in the north, and most of the horses they rode were raised by themselves. The horse breeds were quite good. Youzhou was a place that produced good horses, and it was rich in tall and big horses, which were conducive to charging into battle. Therefore, the extremely famous Wuhuan cavalry appeared.
Taishi Ci once mentioned to Yuan Xi that when he was young, he fled to Liaodong to avoid disaster, and learned the tactics of the Wuhuan and Xianbei cavalry, which improved his own archery skills to a very high level.
The only thing these cavalrymen lacked was that almost none of them had armor, and most of them wore leather jackets.
Yuan Xi turned around and asked Yan Rou: "Isn't Youzhou a place where iron is produced? Why don't they wear armor? Is it because armor is too expensive?"
Yan Rou explained: "That is indeed part of the reason."
"Also, most people think that wearing armor makes it very inconvenient to ride and shoot."
"Among these two thousand cavalrymen, there are several hundred Wuhuan cavalrymen, who are only armored at key points because they are responsible for charging, while the others are responsible for harassment."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi asked, "Is the tactic of the Northern Cavalry to use bows and arrows to harass the enemy from a distance, and then use the cavalry to charge when the enemy's formation is disrupted?"
"It's difficult to coordinate these two types of cavalry, right?"
"Why can't we both ride and shoot and charge at the same time?"
Yan Rou nodded and said, "Your Excellency does understand this very well."
"It actually comes down to the issue of armor."
"Charging requires armor, but after putting on armor, most people's archery speed and flexibility will drop sharply."
Yuan Xi asked, "Even if armor can significantly reduce casualties?"
Yan Rou smiled bitterly and said, "The purpose of horseback archery is to avoid contact with the enemy. Once you are within the enemy's shooting range, you must be extremely alert. Try to stay away from the enemy."
"At this time, mobility and flexibility are more important than protection."
Yuan Xi asked, "Brother Yan, do you know about the battle at Jie Bridge?"
"If I were to lead two thousand cavalry to replace Gongsun Zan's White Horse Volunteers, do you have a better idea?"
Yan Rou knew that Yuan Xi was testing her, so she did not dare to be negligent and began to think hard.
He couldn't help but take this seriously. The name of the Yuan family's fierce tiger was extremely famous, and he had defeated the White Horse Volunteers several times. Yan Rou didn't dare to respond casually, for fear of being considered as perfunctory.
He thought for a while before looking up and saying, "Although I have some ideas, I'm afraid it's impossible to do it given the current state of the cavalry."
Yuan Xi said, "Tell me about it."
Yan Rou said, "Remember that it was Qu Yi's vanguard who defeated the White Horse Volunteers in the battle of Rijie Bridge."
"The White Horse Volunteers charging into the battle formation was a mistake in the first place. We can't say that the leader Yan Gang was incompetent. He suffered because he didn't notice the powerful crossbowmen under Qu Yi. He only wanted to crush the enemy's morale with a charge, so he fell into the trap."
"If it were me, I would only be able to use light cavalry to harass the enemy's flanks and rear, and then have the Wuhuan cavalry break in from the side. I would never face the enemy head-on."
Yuan Xi asked again: "What if the other side also has cavalry?"
Yan Rou listened and smiled bitterly: "Then it will depend on whose armor is stronger, whose weapon is sharper, and whose morale is higher."
"In the end, it still comes down to the infantry, which is the decisive factor in determining victory or defeat on the battlefield most of the time."
"The White Horse Volunteers were defeated because their troops had only one function. After being suppressed by the enemy, they were completely unable to respond to the counterattack."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi said, "Brother Yan, what you mean is that all types of soldiers on the battlefield must work together. If any one of them goes wrong, it may lead to failure?"
Yan Rou lowered her head and said, "This is just a naive idea of mine."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi sighed and said, "Brother Yan is right, but there is a big problem."
"It is already extremely difficult to train a single type of soldier, let alone the coordination between several types of soldiers."
After hearing this, Yan Rou hesitated to speak.
When Yuan Xi saw this, he said, "General, please tell me everything you know."
Yan Rou said, "The method of training soldiers is indeed the most important factor in determining the strength of soldiers."
"But the envoy seems to have made this matter a little too complicated."
"Please look at these people in front of you, sir. They have not received much training, but they were able to follow me, Xianyu Fu and others to defeat Gongsun Zan's general Zou Dan and kill thousands of people."
Yuan Xi became interested, "How did Brother Yan do it?"
Yan Rou hurriedly said, "Your Excellency is also a man who knows military affairs. It would be presumptuous of me to ask you to give me some advice."
"I know that my abilities are very limited, so I used the simplest method."
"Concentrate all your strength and focus on breaking through the enemy's weakest point."
"I was at the front of the battle. The strength of the enemy and I was about the same, but our mentality was very different."
"Zou Dan needs to defeat us and then go to Yijing to support Gongsun Zan, so he must not only win, but also cannot lose too much."
"That's not the case with me."
"I just need to defeat him regardless of the losses."
"So I told the soldiers that they could go home if they won this battle."
"After paying a huge price to charge into Zou Dan's army and bringing both sides into a life-and-death struggle, the soldiers on both sides had no choice but to move forward if they wanted to survive."
"Under this kind of pressure, Zou Dan's soldiers obviously began to worry about gains and losses. Even if they win, there is still an unknown battle in Yijing waiting for them."
"My soldiers are different. If they win, it's the last battle."
"So the situation gradually became one-sided, and I gradually accumulated the advantage, and in the end Zou Dan was defeated."
"Forgive me for being blunt, but at that time, it was all just a mix of small groups fighting, and no military coordination methods could be used."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi seemed to understand something.
The example Yan Rou gave was actually very extreme. He put both parties on the same level, and then they punched each other to see who would fall first.
In a real battlefield, there are too many things that require deep thought, from the psychology of both sides, to the mentality and goals, to the comparison of the bottom line, to the coordination of small units.
First of all, from the perspective of psychological game, both sides on the battlefield must know themselves and the enemy. If they want to restrain the other side, they must make the other side misjudge.
What Yan Rou said was that when the strength of both sides was transparent, use the strongest force to penetrate the enemy's weakest point.
If the enemy naturally knows this, then they will have to make plans before the battle and hide their own strength in order to confuse the enemy.
Show weakness and hide your strength.
Just like when Qu Yi defeated the Baima Yicong, he hid his vanguard soldiers behind shields.
This caused Yan Gang to misjudge, thinking that the soldiers behind the shields on the opposite side were just ordinary soldiers. However, when he got closer, he found that the soft persimmon had turned into a hard nail, and thus he stepped into Qu Yi's trap.
Finally on the battlefield, it was a large-scale melee as Yan Rou had said, with both sides clashing and only three or five people able to take care of each other. At this time, the combat power based on this number of people determined victory or defeat on the battlefield!
A word suddenly popped up in Yuan Xi's mind: Qi Jiguang's Mandarin Duck Formation!
Although the enemy army on the opposite side is not Japanese pirates and cannot forcibly use Qi Jiguang's troops and weapons, the principle is the same.
Just like spear formations are not suitable for mountains and sword and shield soldiers are not suitable for plains, in complex terrain and complex situations, the cooperation of several types of soldiers can exert strength greater than that of the same types of soldiers.
In the complex terrain of Montenegro, large-scale military formations may backfire, and cooperation between small teams will play a greater role!
After I go back, I will have to have a serious talk with Ju Shou about the issue of military training.
Finally, it is a psychological game between the two sides.
It is best to make the opponent misjudge and reveal their flaws. These skills rely on pre-war planning. Many times the outcome of a war is decided before the battle.
The reason why Yuan Xi was so anxious was that the time left for him was too short and the opportunities were too few. He would most likely have to face the Black Mountain Army alone next.
But so far, he has hardly fought any major battles relying solely on his own strength.
From defeating Tian Kai, Gongsun Zan to Sun Ce, the Yuan army was the main force, and Yuan Xi was only auxiliary.
As for defeating the Black Mountain Army that launched a surprise attack on Beixin City, they relied on defending the city and counterattacking, using rumors to accidentally shake the enemy's morale, which led to victory in one fell swoop.
But things were different next. Yuan Xi had to rely on his own troops to enter Black Mountain and face Zhang Yan, who was as famous as Lu Bu and was known as the two flying generals, and hundreds of thousands of Black Mountain troops under his command.
Jizhou might send troops at that time, but with Yuan Shang still around, Yuan Xi could not expect the other party to help him wholeheartedly. Instead, he had to guard against the other party trying to trip him up.
To deal with the Montenegrin Army, we need to take multiple approaches in order to gain a big advantage with a small one and seize the few chances of victory.
When Yuan Xi thought of this, he thought that if it weren't for the situation, he really didn't want to send troops so hastily, but this was also a difficult period at the beginning of his business and there was no way to avoid it.
When Cao Cao started his career, he faced much more difficulties than himself. He had to go through a series of bloody battles and gradually improve his strength before he could finally stand out among the competition among the princes.
The waves wash away the sand, and the fire refines the true gold.
Yuan Xi wanted to open up a passage to the south from Youzhou, so he could only use the Black Mountain Army as a raging fire to test his own capabilities.
Whether it will be turned into real gold or burned into nothingness by then depends on your accumulation over the years!
Thinking of this, he said to Yan Rou sincerely: "There will be a big battle in Youzhou next, please help me, Brother Yan."