Chapter 570: Eight Formations

Liu Chengzong himself hadn't expected entering Guanzhong to be this easy.

Back in Qinghai, he had secretly imagined entering Guanzhong ten thousand times in his mind, but reality proved that human imagination is still far too impoverished.

His army split into six columns, marching through barren mountains and bare ridges, advancing almost entirely unhindered. Every garrison force they encountered assumed he was coming for a pitched battle and all of them fortified their walls and defended in place. As a result, the six columns just like that, effortlessly, went from Qingshui County up onto Pan Ridge Pass.

The strategically vital Liupan Mountains would be crossed within days.

This was an exceedingly bizarre affair, because given the state of the Marshal's army up in the mountains, the Ming army didn't even need to do anything — just having someone come nearby would have brought Liu Chengzong more than enough trouble.

Yet precisely no one did.

Because Liu the Lion discovered that this time, when leading the army, he could clearly feel that marching, maneuvering, and commanding were not smooth enough. They had marched barely over six hundred li and troubles were already endless.

He knew where the problem lay. The problem was that the brigade commanders were all back guarding the home front and setting up defensive lines. He alone was leading two brigades and ten battalions, fourteen battalions in total. Although whether old brothers or surrendered officers and troops, all were now his direct subordinates, and leading troops wasn't what stumped him.

But the endless problems cropping up during the march — even though his energy was prodigious, ranking among the top figures, with two brigade commanders and ten colonels reporting in twice a day, the issues he had to consider and resolve stuffed his head to bursting.

Mental exhaustion was only secondary. The main thing was that the command hierarchy was too flat, bringing many unnecessary burdens and risks to the army. Besides, with so many things to worry about, omissions were inevitable. By the time they reached Guanshan Grasslands and were crossing Bapan Mountain, the army's problems became apparent.

That actually made Zhang Tianlin feel embarrassed. He hurriedly helped him up, saying, "Please rise, quickly. This isn't something very important or difficult."

Then did I kowtow for nothing?

Seeing his astonishment, Zhang Tianlin couldn't help laughing. "Back then it was just that simple. The so-called Eight Formations is simply a square formation of four vertical and four horizontal. At its smallest, eight men will do; at its largest, you can deploy eighty-seven battle formations."

Fortunately, the two didn't remain silent for long. Someone soon broke the awkwardness.

Zhang Tianlin laughed. "I've already told you the origin of the name Eight Formations. It has nothing to do with the Eight Trigrams. Even by the Tang dynasty, its name was still Eight Armies and Eight Formations, not Eight Palaces and Eight Trigrams Formation. The so-called Eight Trigrams is nothing but later generations forcing far-fetched associations. Otherwise, what would the battlefield have to do with us? The most capable generals would be those fortune-tellers and grave-diviners."

Zhang Tianlin shot Liu Chengzong a glance, thinking to himself that it was still this Minister of Rites whose work wasn't thorough enough, lacking in prestige.

Even now he felt that the greatest reason for Shu's downfall among the Three Kingdoms was Zhuge Liang's excessive obsession with individual soldier weapons, sending Pu Yuan to Xie Valley to cast three thousand blades.

The trouble brought by more men rises exponentially, because the wells, firewood, and horse fodder on the land — those seemingly ubiquitous things — are limited in quantity. Once the troops passing through a place in a short time exceed the land's carrying capacity, the time soldiers spend on daily tasks multiplies.

"So it's just a unit banner designation. Since it's merely a title." Tang Jiaying was still somewhat dissatisfied with this. The answer made his kowtow feel like a terrible loss. In his heart he still felt Zhang Xianzhong was hiding his true skill, so he asked, "Grand Marshal, I've heard that beyond the Five Beasts there are also the Eight Trigrams. What are those?"

That name comes from the ancient legend of the Mount Chang Serpent. The serpent was named Shuairan and had two heads. Touch one head and the other would bite back; they would rescue each other. Sun Wuzi used it in his Art of War as a metaphor for those adept at using troops.

The form of the grand formation diagram changed, but ultimately, the line of thought is continuous and inherited.

The Eight Armies and Eight Formations had three formations on each face, defending in every direction. The Three-Talent Formation commonly used by the Ming army today, by contrast, has roving cavalry screening ahead, the vanguard strike force seizing the initiative, the leaping assault troops immediately charging in, and the stationary reserve supporting or outflanking directly.

Zhang Tianlin, hearing this, was surprised but delighted. He glanced at the map, braced himself against the table, and lightly tapped it twice. "The man filling Deng Qi's position has come. We'll devour him first, then go block Zuo Liangyu!"

Zhang Tianlin said, "Bapan Mountain is not easy to cross. We're blocking here. If you're worried about safety, arrange the troops' encampment like this."

On the contrary, it was precisely Tang Jiaying's explanation that allowed Liu Chengzong to very easily see the difference between the ancient Eight Armies and Eight Formations and the modern Seven Formations.

In reality, any peasant army leader who, during mobile warfare, consciously kidnapped scholars and was willing and able to spare idle time to study — as long as they didn't die, they were certain to achieve great things.

The remaining two were different. Ding Guodong, who always obeyed commands, and Tang Jiaying were both unwilling.

"No need to blow him to death. Just scare him enough to hold him for two days, let us cross over from Bapan Mountain, and bear down on Baoji to block him front and back. Then he'll have nowhere to run."

Hearing this, Liu Chengzong also laughed. So it wasn't that these battle formations were too difficult, but that the far-fetched terminology had become a smokescreen, making them fundamentally incomprehensible.

It's that simple?

Yet here was a man who could keep things buried in his heart. When he heard Zhang Tianlin ask his opinion on being assigned under Tang Jiaying's banner, the corners of his mouth drooped straight down — joy and anger written all over his face.

He didn't find anything unreasonable about the Yellow Emperor back then, campaigning across the realm, having roving cavalry in front, artillery formations in the rear, and arquebusier units in the middle. The Yellow Emperor's troops pushing Frankish cannons and wildly bombarding Chiyou — to him, that was perfectly reasonable.

Cast ten Frankish cannons, and would Qishan still need to be sortied three times?

"Mount Chang Serpent Formation."

Speaking of which, he actually had quite a few brigade commanders under him. Three were placed right at his side: one was Xie Qihu of the Mongol Brigade, one was Shi Xiang of the Lintao Brigade. But as it happened, both were characters who could only command their own troops.

And there was also the Minister of Rites, Liu Chengzong.

He never would have imagined that the Eight Great Kings' prestige and seniority in the marshal's headquarters were too shallow. Leading his own remaining thousand-odd old brothers of the Western Camp was fine, but assigning other colonels under his command — no one was willing.

Big Brother had gone to the Tianshan Mountains, Cao Yao was now in Gansu attacking Ningxia, Basang was garrisoned at Greater and Lesser Tsaidam Golmud, Yang Yao was in Hehuang watching the home front, and Wang Wenxiu was stationed in Lanzhou to guard against contingencies.

"For example, up to now, I've seen no fewer than twenty or thirty formation diagrams, all claiming to be ancient formation diagrams, yet most of them include cavalry. Where did cavalry come from in high antiquity? Even more outrageous is one named the Yellow Emperor's Grip Diagram. The paper looked quite old, but inside there were not only roving cavalry but also artillery and arquebusier units. Is that reasonable?"

They fought with their lives, and what they sought by following behind him was, if not to claim the merit of following a dragon, at least to rise above others — the room for advancement was vast.

"The Eight Formations have four regular and four extraordinary. The four regular are: Azure Dragon on the right, White Tiger on the left, Vermilion Bird in front, Black Tortoise behind — that is, Dragon, Tiger, Bird, Snake. The four dimensions and four corners are Heaven, Earth, Wind, Cloud. It's no different from one, two, three, four. Four faces, four directions — no matter which face the enemy comes from, meet them with the regular and win with the extraordinary."

As he spoke, he shot a puzzled glance at Liu Chengzong, thinking, you lead troops into battle and you don't even know this?

"These things are understood the moment they're taught, but if no one teaches you, you might never know them your whole life. Those who don't lead troops don't know what it's called; those who don't study don't know what it means... I'm a scholar leading troops. Want to know? I'll teach you."

But his worry was entirely unnecessary, a case of knowing himself but not the other. Did Master Liu the Seventh not know what sort of role he was? Leaving Tang Jiaying and Gao Yingdeng unused and having him carry the main load? He was thinking too much!

"Grand Marshal, this humble officer suggests, if it won't do, we should still summon Brigade Commander Wang back. Anyway, the army is stuck in the mountains. I reckon by the time he gets here we still won't have reached Baoji." Liu Chengzong said, "If this continues, there'll be chaos."

After half a day of congestion, the army of over fifty thousand had already fully assembled west of Pan Ridge Pass. At the foot of the mountain, they led horses and dragged mules, transporting supplies — a scene that could be called magnificent.

He was deathly afraid of being directly subordinate to Zhang Tianlin and then being sent to carry the main load. After all, among the many colonels in the marshal's headquarters, he was originally on the weaker side. He didn't seek merit, only sought no... only sought that when faults occurred, they'd be a bit smaller.

Zhang Tianlin shook his head as he spoke. He really hadn't expected the troops to collide into each other. The roads were simply too wide and too numerous, but dividing the troops to force open Pingliang for the march seemed unnecessary. Unfolding the battlefield in Guanzhong was advantageous to him.

Each of them felt they could keep the Eight Great Kings in check.

But the troops Liu Chengzong had led in pursuit had always been as few as seven or eight hundred, as many as three to five thousand. At that scale, there was simply no need to consider rapid troop concentration. That was all the men he had — what was there to divide into vanguard and rear?

Speak of the devil. At Pan Ridge Pass northwest of Longzhou, Zhang Tianlin was just studying a formation diagram when Tang Jiaying entered the tent and said, "Grand Marshal, fighting has broken out to the west. That Right barbarian sent a troop of cavalry to pursue Zhang Yichuan. The landmines were buried too scattered and didn't go off; they were driven back twenty li. But then the cavalry, at their most relaxed, stepped on a landmine, and rockets were launched from the mountain. The scout says the explosions were quite lively."

Because Liu Chengzong was not a scholar. He had neither read the Four Books and Five Classics, nor had he the chance to borrow the collected works and literary notes from the gentry's libraries. His understanding of history was extremely limited, his knowledge mainly coming from novels and operas.

Hearing this, Zhang Tianlin gave up. It seemed the marshal's headquarters' allure for those two former Ming officers consisted only of himself.

From Qingshui County to Pan Ridge Pass it was all mountain roads, twisting and turning, especially hard to traverse. Over a dozen battalions split into three columns. Upon reaching Qingshui County, to cross Bapan Mountain they had to merge. Originally there should have been those arriving first and those arriving later, crossing the ridge in order. Yet a blunder had been arranged: three battalions were crammed onto a mountain road too narrow to deploy troops, and were further blocked by the baggage train. The troops behind couldn't pass, and the troops ahead couldn't move.

Liu Chengzong's thirst for knowledge was exceedingly strong. Zhang Xianzhong had only mentioned it in passing, but Tang Jiaying immediately knelt and kowtowed. "Please, Grand Marshal, teach me!"

That's it?

What is meant by: strike the head and the tail arrives, strike the tail and the head arrives, strike the middle and both head and tail arrive.

"The ancients were people too, and their words cannot be fully trusted, because not every ancient understood military strategy. Most of the formation diagrams passed down today were made by later generations under the false attribution of past sages. Even if they truly are ancient formation diagrams, they have inevitably undergone modification."

Zhang Tianlin laughed upon hearing this and said, "It's not Wind and Cloud; it's Heaven, Earth, Wind, Cloud, Dragon, Tiger, Bird, Snake — from the Eight Formations. It's normal that you don't know; not knowing doesn't affect leading troops into battle."

Liu Chengzong was stunned. "Ah?"

The Marshal's headquarters had spread its operations too thin and too fragmented; these were the only men who could shoulder even a modest beam.

That young bandit Liu the Lion — he surrendered to Zhang Xianzhong and fought all the way up the walls of Ditai City, still carrying Ming army helmet tassels in his coat.

Among the Gansu Eight Camps, the only one who objected to that decision was Ganzhou Assistant Regional Commander Bee-Sting Zhang Zhen... Zhang Zhen was a commander with little ambition for advancement, and if not for the mess of Zhao Kebian assassinating the Guoshi Khan, with his own efforts he definitely still wouldn't be an Assistant Regional Commander by now.

The man felt deeply wronged and said, "Marshal, our Gansu brothers fight with their lives and give their utmost strength — how did we end up with some Ministry of Rites bureau director's errand?"

"Ha!"

"The earliest formation was the Four Formations, said to have been devised by Feng Qian, a subordinate general of the Yellow Emperor. Heaven, Earth, Wind, Cloud; Dragon, Tiger, Bird, Snake — these appeared at that time. In truth, they were just substitute designations for unit names. You could swap them for A, B, C, D or One, Seven, Eight, Seven, or even the Rear, Front, Right, Center, Left that's popular nowadays — it all works."

Originally, I wanted to use that opportunity to have Tang Jiaying help me command the eight great camps of Gansu. After all, she holds the official post of Western Brigade Commander — might as well use her.

Zhang Tianlin saw that Liu Chengzong looked utterly baffled by his words, and only then realized that while his Minister of Rites wasn't exactly illiterate, his knowledge of ancient matters was limited — there was simply no way to get a conversation going.

"The Mount Chang Snake — this humble officer recruited scholars early on to read military texts aloud; I seem to have heard of it."

His formal study of culture actually only began after he raised his army. Though he had been learning from others ever since, the contents of his mind were still very limited.

Liu Chengzong nodded with sudden understanding, but then immediately asked again, "Then Marshal, what do these 'Wind' and 'Cloud' mean? That scholar before didn't know either; he could only read the text verbatim. After he finished reading, I was muddled and understood nothing."

Being assigned to Liu Chengzong's command — whether they were convinced or not, in their hearts most of them felt the Marshal was trying to sideline them. If things went badly, by the time they reached Baoji, thoughts of seeking amnesty and switching sides would sprout.

Liu Chengzong saw that Zhang Tianlin already had a deployment in mind and said no more. Only then did he notice the formation diagram on Zhang Tianlin's desk and asked, "Marshal, what is this?"

Firewood that originally could be gathered nearby now had to be found seven or eight li away. The water drawn from the wells was insufficient to distribute, so the time to light fires and cook was delayed. By the time everything was done, it was time for the next meal. After eating, it grew dark, and in the end they had traveled only seventeen or eighteen li that day.

Scout cavalry squad leader Ma Xiangjing galloped into the tent to report, saluted, and said, "Marshal, our army's movements are already known to the enemy. The northern enemy force, Tang Sizhou's division, is rapidly advancing south. Judging by their pace, they can reach Longzhou City tonight!"

As she spoke, Tang Jiaying drew a nine-square grid on the table: "This is the Four Formations, because it uses four formations, but in reality there are five. The fifth is in the center — it is zero. The commanding general occupies the center and controls everything, so it is also called the Grip-the-Odd Formation."

Hearing that Zuo Liangyu had suffered a setback, Liu Chengzong's sallow face brimmed with irrepressible delight: "So that Wang Ba has his day too. What a pity he's such a coward — he didn't lead the troops himself so I could blow him up!"

The problem was that Liu the Lion and Ding Guodong both had that mindset. Among the arrogant soldiers and fierce generals under Zhang Tianlin — Mi Layin, Wei Qian'er, Gao Yingdeng, Luo Rucai, Li Wanqing — every last one of them was a "Big Brother Liu," "Second Brother Heaven," "Grandpa Number Three Under Heaven" type. Could they possibly submit to Tang Jiaying?

"Forced analogy."

That was certainly not because they were skilled at kidnapping, or because they were guaranteed to learn knowledge of immense significance, but rather it signified that this person possessed extremely strong self-discipline.

Zhang Tianlin laughed again as he spoke, but it was a pity that Old Zhang simply could not grasp what he found funny.

Going to war with the Minister of Rites in tow — how glorious!

"I've already sent men. Hehuang is not being defended. I've ordered Brigade Commander Yang to hold a second line of defense — this natural barrier."

Then he couldn't help but feel relieved. The Mount Chang Snake Formation was not a columnar Single-file Snake Formation, but rather referred to a strategic disposition that facilitated the rapid concentration of forces in every direction.

That crew of demons and monsters didn't even treat Tang Jiaying, the Minister of Rites, as a key figure in the Marshal's headquarters; they merely regarded her as the mascot of the Dunta Ulus Khanate.

That Quota Star Tang Jiaying, at the very start of the troop dispatch, had even shamelessly come to Zhang Tianlin, wanting to borrow the Minister of Rites for his own grand camp to have some fun during the fighting.

Good evening!