Chapter Twenty-Three: Battle Formation

Walking to the wooden fence at the gate of the rear camp, Liu Heng said to Yang Yuan, "The rear camp is now in your hands. If you encounter any problems you cannot solve, you may come to the archer camp to find me."

"Understood." Yang Yuan, who had accompanied him out, nodded.

Liu Heng added, "And that Chen Daqing—he was the first to stand up and support us. Promote him to a petty officer. Let everyone see that those willing to follow us will be rewarded."

"I understand. It’s called..." Yang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Right, it’s called spending silver to buy donkey bones and horse bones."

"That is pretty much the meaning." Liu Heng smiled and continued, "One more thing!"

Yang Yuan looked at him.

Liu Heng went on, "The men in the rear camp need to be retrained. Use the same methods I used for the new refugee recruits. Those who perform excellently in training can be appointed as petty officers. If anyone tries to slack off or play tricks, do not show mercy; discipline them as necessary. If they prove truly incorrigible, you are authorized to execute them first and report later."

"Rest assured, Commander. With a blade at their throats, I don't believe they will dare to act out," Yang Yuan promised, patting his chest.

"I give you ten days. You must make these men in the rear camp look at least seventy or eighty percent like our new refugee recruits." Liu Heng hesitated before adding, "I have a feeling we won't be staying in this place for long. We must seize the time to train and strengthen our forces."

After leaving the rear camp, Liu Heng hurried to the training grounds for the new refugee recruits.

By now, three hundred refugees had been brought over by Chen Xunping and were resting under the shade of the trees.

As soon as Liu Heng approached, Chen Xunping spotted him and immediately came to meet him.

"Everyone is here, three hundred in total," Chen Xunping said, casting a glance at the lazy refugees hiding in the shade.

Liu Heng took a look and said, "Follow the old rules: have them assemble first, then bring over the prepared flatbreads in the baskets."

Excluding one squad of new recruits left at the rear camp with Yang Yuan and two squads guarding the provisions, the remaining seven squads were gathered here by Liu Heng.

After much consideration, Liu Heng had finally decided to train these recruits in the Spanish Tercio formation he had read about in books.

He had considered Qi Jiguang’s *New Treatise on Military Efficiency*, but as a wandering rebel leader, many of the necessary conditions could not be met, and time was short. The Spanish Tercio, by contrast, was simple and easy to learn. It was a classic formation that had once dominated Europe by integrating cold and hot weaponry.

Although he did not yet have firearms, he controlled the archer camp and could use archers as substitutes for the musketeers in the formation.

Leaving one squad behind to train the three hundred newly recruited refugees, Liu Heng personally taught the remaining six squads the Spanish Tercio.

He taught them the spear-thrusting tactics squad by squad, and from time to time, he would assemble all the spearmen into rows, coordinating them with the archers to form a battle line.

Fortunately, having already experienced basic formation and drill training, the recruits did not resist the new structure and mastered it easily. The only issue was that they often bumped into the archers and disrupted the formation during coordination.

However, this was not a major problem. As they familiarized themselves with their positions through repetition, the number of times the archers disrupted the spearmen began to decrease.

"Forward! Forward! Forward... Halt!" Liu Heng shouted.

The rows of spearmen marched forward with their spears held high, and upon hearing the command to halt, they all stopped and stood firm.

"First rank of archers... Fire!" Liu Heng commanded.

The archers crouching in the front rank released their arrows.

"Second rank of archers... Fire!"

The archers standing behind the first rank released their arrows as well.

Once both ranks had fired, Liu Heng shouted, "Archers, retreat to the flanks! Spearmen, advance!"

Following his command, the archers moved from the front to the flanks of the square, while the spearmen advanced step by step.

After many repetitions, the coordination between the archers and spearmen became increasingly fluid, and collisions grew rare.

When the battle formation required it, the archers eventually learned to move from the flanks to the front of the square and retreat back to the flanks to seek protection from the spearmen with ease.

The true Spanish Tercio placed musketeers at the four corners, but Liu Heng’s version, with archers on the flanks, was more akin to a Maurice square.

Had he not lacked a sufficient number of archers and artillery, he would have even attempted to set up a Gustavus formation.

Without suitable weapons or armor, Liu Heng could only train the spearmen and archers to coordinate in a way similar to the Spanish Tercio. He knew that given his current circumstances, this was the fastest way to improve the combat effectiveness of his recruits and earn the right to face Shi Yunhu in an open field.

He did not believe his recruits were particularly formidable after the battle with Zheng Daqiu. Their victory was entirely due to the darkness, the protection of the wagon fort, and the support of the archers from behind.

"What kind of formation is this? It looks strange; I’ve never seen it before," Chen Xunping asked curiously, standing nearby.

Liu Heng, naturally, could not tell him that this formation originated in Europe, so he said, "I figured it out myself. Our relationship with Shi Yunhu is delicate, and if these recruits learn this formation, we won't be at such a disadvantage when we eventually face him."

"Although I’ve never seen it, I feel this formation is quite good," Chen Xunping said. "When the whole formation was marching toward me earlier, facing those dense spear tips, I felt a chill. It felt like facing a barrier of anti-cavalry blades with no way to break through. But I do feel this formation is a bit clumsy; I fear it might suffer against cavalry."

Liu Heng knew this was true, but he had no solution.

This type of spear formation required heavy armor and iron-tipped spears to hold off charges, but he had no way to acquire heavy armor. Fortunately, Shi Yunhu also lacked equipment, so neither side had an advantage there.

In his view, compared to the disorganized rabble under Shi Yunhu, his imitation of the Spanish Tercio should hold its own.

Liu Heng did not personally train the three hundred newly recruited refugees, instead leaving them to one of the recruit squads.

The training consisted of the exact drills Liu Heng had learned during his own school military training. He made no deletions, passing everything on to the recruits and having them train the newcomers.

By May, the heat began to resemble the dog days of summer. After a few rounds of training, both the recruits and the newcomers were drenched as if caught in a rainstorm, their clothes clinging to their bodies.

Liu Heng had long since arranged for several large vats of boiled water to be prepared, with salt added to ensure no one would suffer from dehydration or salt deficiency during training.

Not far from the training site, two large pots were constantly boiling water, which was then cooled and brought to the men to replenish their fluids.

Although Liu Heng did not participate in the physical training himself, he had been shouting commands for most of the day, his throat feeling parched. He picked up a water bowl, scooped out a portion of the cooled boiled water from the wooden barrel, and drank it down in large gulps.

Only after three bowls did his throat feel somewhat relieved.

Just as he set the bowl down, he saw a man from the archer camp running toward him in a panic. The moment the man spoke, Liu Heng was struck with shock.