Chapter 47: The March

  "City Management Army?!" Lü Bu's eyebrows rose slightly, what kind of strange name is this? Generally, elite troops are named after their place of origin, such as the Pingzhou Iron Cavalry, Danyang Troops, Qingzhou Troops, and then there are those named after tigers and wolves, like the Tiger Leopard Cavalry. But he had never heard of one called "City Management".

  "Are you saying he's still there practicing his stance?" Lü Bu asked with feigned ignorance.

  "Yes, sir!" The messenger replied with his head bowed. "Now it's not just practicing standing at attention, but also marching in step!"

  "What's going on?!" Lü Bu was taken aback, what is this thing now.

  "It's like this, it's like this!" The orderly was practicing the garrison troops' drill in the big camp.

  "Marching in lockstep?!" Lü Bu's eyebrows furrowed even deeper as he watched the messenger's every move. If it was said that they had previously practiced standing at attention, Lü Bu could still understand this as proper military discipline, with orders to be carried out to the letter - after all, Liu Mang had already executed a soldier.

  But now that the standing and walking practice is over? If it's a battle formation, there's still some room for excuse, after all, some formations require coordination. But does that guy even know what a battle formation is?

  Lü Bu is really weird, what is this kid thinking! Cao Cao has already clashed with Yuan Shao at Guandu, so when Lü Boss left Xuzhou, not only did he not send out pursuit troops, but also let the surrounding Cao army give way to him. He didn't want Lü Boss, this fierce tiger, lurking around his side, letting him go while monitoring him at the same time.

  With the pursuing troops gone, it was just in time to give Lord Lü a chance to rest and regroup. Lü Bu's men were not only concerned with the ambush and the Pingzhou Iron Cavalry, but also Liu Mang's City Guard Army.

  Lü Bu was right, Liu Mang's tactics were indeed simple and straightforward, his warfare wasn't the ever-changing One-Character Long Snake, nor was it the powerful Goose Formation, and it definitely wasn't the defensive Round Shield Formation. These might be strong, but Liu Mang just didn't understand them at all.

  So he can only use square arrays and walk in positive steps of square arrays.

  "Milord!" Just as Lü Bu was deep in thought, the main tent flap was lifted and a majestic general strode in. "Milord, Han Yang has taken away 200 warhorses from me!" There were less than 6,000 warhorses in total, and Zhang Liao had planned to form three units of Bianzhou Iron Cavalry, but now it seemed impossible to form even one unit. He didn't dare speak directly with Liu Mang, as most of the horses had been brought by him, so he could only speak with Lü Bu.

  "Huh?!" Lü Bu was stunned for a moment, and when he ordered the formation of the City Guard Army, he had given an order that all military supplies would be taken directly without needing to report, but who would have thought that this little guy would actually use it.

  "He wants to form a cavalry?!" Lü Bu thought for a moment, no way, two hundred war horses, his city guard army had a thousand men, did he want to ride himself? Even if he added the officers, ten or so war horses would be enough, let alone the fact that Liu Bei took away those precious war horses.

  What's the use of a few hundred cavalrymen? Even if they were heavily armored, it wouldn't make a difference with less than a thousand men.

  Lü Bu was still thinking, when Gao Shun also came in to report: "My lord, Han Yan took away three hundred giant shields from my camp. These giant shields are precious treasures, light and thick, spears and big knives can't pierce them, even a rain of arrows can be withstood. Each one is treasured by me, but now Liu Mang has taken away three hundred giant shields at once, Gao Shun's heart hurts, so he also came to Lü Bu."

  "He still wants to take three hundred giant shields?! These giant shields are only suitable for heavy infantry, and only the vanguard of the phalanx formation needs them. What is Liu Han Yang thinking? First he wants war horses and now he wants giant shields?"

  At this time, another of Zhang Liao's personal soldiers came over and whispered a few words in his ear. Suddenly, Zhang Liao's voice grew louder: "What? He even took away the 800 long spears of the cavalrymen? Look at this, my lord!"

  Lü Bu is really getting a headache, what is Liu Han Yang doing? You took the cavalry long gun for nothing. That thing is not good for close combat at all, even if you are building a cavalry, you should take two hundred, now eight hundred.

  "Lord Gong, you've arrived. Are you also here to report something? Speak! What else did Liu Han take from you?" Chen Gong had just stepped into the main tent when he was stopped by Lü Bu's question, his face full of puzzlement, and only smiled after Lü Bu explained clearly.

  "I'm not here to tattle," Chen Gong said with a smile, shaking his head. He had come only to tell Lü Bu that they should set out tomorrow, but he hadn't expected this turn of events.

  "Right, you didn't mention it and I almost forgot. It seems that Han Yang also took away 700 bows and arrows from Chen Deng's hands!" Chen Gong interjected.

  "This Liu Han is driving me crazy, if I don't beat him up every day, he'll play this trick on me!" Lü Bu was also very curious what this Liu Mang was doing. With a thousand soldiers, why do you need so many war supplies?

  Eight hundred long spears, three hundred giant shields, two hundred war horses, what kind of four unlikes can be formed? These plus a few more can form an army of five thousand.

  Liu Mang actually managed to come up with something that doesn't look like anything at all.

  Two hundred war horses, all given to one hundred personal soldiers, each with two horses, maintaining sufficient horsepower. The explosive power of the Arabian war horse itself is high, and giving these personal soldiers heavy armor and long spears can be said that as long as they don't fight a large-scale war, they will absolutely be able to protect themselves.

  Three hundred giant shields, Liu Mang also equipped the cavalry with them, which is the same treatment as the Pingzhou Wolf Rider. The remaining two hundred giant shields were assigned to a company by Liu Mang. If the two hundred giant shield soldiers formed a shield array for defense, they would be able to protect this thousand people absolutely.

  Eight hundred long spears, minus one hundred given to the cavalry, were all assigned to the remaining seven hundred soldiers. The same was true of the seven hundred sets of bows and arrows. Long spear troops fought as gunners in close combat and as archers in distant battles.

  One thousand men formed a square array, with one hundred close guards as cavalry to protect the flag.

  But someone asked, can the cavalry guns brought by Liu Mang be used on infantry? Indeed, regular infantry cannot use cavalry guns at all. Once they engage in close combat with the enemy, the cavalry gun is unable to exert its strength. Even for cavalry, after the cavalry spear pierces the enemy's body, they will pull out their war knife for close combat and retrieve the spear later.

  But Liu's formation was different. The first row consisted of giant shield-bearing soldiers guarding the front wing, behind which were seven hundred long spearmen, arranged in twenty rows of thirty-five men each.

  The soldiers in the first row generally half-squatted, with their long guns aimed forward, while the second-row soldiers placed their long guns on the shoulders of the first-row soldiers, and so on. This can enhance the lethality against enemy troops head-on. The essence of the entire phalanx tactic lies in all soldiers working together, advancing in unison, and those who flee will be severely punished.

  So Liu Mang is so strict with the standing formation, and will not tolerate anyone who disobeys orders, because a single person's avoidance may lead to the entire phalanx being breached, and then broken through by the enemy.

  That's the famous Macedonian phalanx, with the phalanx facing the enemy head-on, and those hundred cavalrymen are Liu Mang's mobile troops, protecting the flanks from being attacked on all sides.

  These soldiers are no match for the famous Han Dynasty troops, such as those who broke through the enemy lines, or those from Danyang. There were also the Big Halberd Troops, the Vanguard, the White Eyebrow Troops, and the elite troops of Qingzhou!

  Compared with Liu Mang's military strength, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao are even more powerful, let alone Ji Yi, Liu Guan, and Zhang.

  The only thing that can rival them is tactics, unity and cooperation, only then can we achieve our goals. If those elite troops are tigers and wolves, then the current city management army is a flock of sheep, but once the sheep charge forward in unison, even the tigers and wolves must retreat.

  One thousand people using their strength in one place will be stronger than five thousand people each using their own strength.

  When the city was under construction, Lü Bu responded to Liu Bei's military preparations and took whatever he wanted. Naturally, he wouldn't go to interfere with Liu Bei because of Gao Shun and Zhang Liao's report. The next day, the army began to set out, and Lü Bu was also curious about what kind of troops Liu Bei had formed. During the entire army's departure, he rode his horse towards Liu Bei's camp.

  As soon as I entered the camp, I saw a neat and tidy square formation, just like it had been cut out neatly, not a thread too much or too little.

  Liu Mang was seemingly saying something in front of this square and upright great formation, Lü Bu couldn't help but draw his horse closer.

  "Today, we will leave here and end our rest and enter our journey!" Liu Meng said.

  As soon as this was said, the soldiers below all had a hint of joy on their faces, because they had been treated cruelly by Liu Mao for several days, doing nothing and not even practicing any martial arts, just four movements: standing, marching, raising guns, and putting them down.

  These soldiers were almost suffocated, now they can finally rest.

  "Laugh on, laugh on, be happy, be as happy as you can!" Liu Mang also knew that these city management soldiers had been oppressed for too long, and this was exactly the effect he wanted.

  "Aren't you guys complaining about the dullness and boredom of training? Don't you want to change up your training?" Liu Mang said with a smile, but this smile made all the city management soldiers feel a bit afraid, because every time Liu Mang showed this smile, nothing good would come of it. Sure enough, Liu Mang dumped down a large pile of cotton bags, which were originally used for loading grain and hay, but had been borrowed by Liu Mang and modified with two additional straps sewn on with needle and thread - 1,085 of them in total.

  "Are these the cloth bags that Madam made a few days ago?!" Lü Bu looked at those cloth bags, in the past few days, his wives had been busy, it was Liu Mang who brought this kind of cloth bag to add straps on them, several women were busy running around.

  What does he want to do?!

  Liu Mang picked up a cloth bag and walked to the side of the rocky slope, putting in one or two stones at a time until the entire bag was full, then Liu Mang demonstrated by putting the bag on his back.

  Those two straps are for carrying on the back, Lü Bu was a bit puzzled.

  "Each of you, take a sack from the front, fill it with stones, bring your weapons and armor, let's go!" Liu Mang shouted loudly "Did you hear that?!"

  "Understood!" they shouted in unison.

  Carrying stones while marching? Has Liu Hanyang gone mad? We still have dozens of miles to reach the next campsite, and our armor and weapons are already a heavy burden. Now we're carrying stones too?

  Lü Bu was about to go forward and stop them, but unexpectedly the soldiers below took the initiative to receive the cloth bags under the leadership of their respective officers, filled them up on Luanshi Slope, and carried them on their backs.

  "Very good, very good!" Liu Mang was very satisfied that no one questioned him this time.

  "I too have been carrying heavy loads across the wilderness just like you! All cavalrymen dismount! You go and carry rocks for me as well!" Liu Mang said.

  "Yes!" A hundred close guards also took the cloth bags and loaded them with stones, and all the war horses carried things like tents used for camping.

  "Fall back!" Under the sunlight, Liu Mang was the first to lead the way out of the camp, and the city guards also retreated with him.

  Lü Bu watched Liu Mao walk away, and couldn't help but worry, muttering to himself "Can he really become a great general by training troops like this?!" After saying that, Lü Bu laughed at himself, thinking that he was being too sentimental.