Rest Period 3

“Ah, first take a look at what I’ve researched.”

Saying this, Zhuge Liang spread out the silk he was holding at his side. Befitting Zhuge Liang, who was said to have skill in painting as well, the silk had a very detailed military deployment diagram of the Battle of Hetao drawn on it.

“I’ve drawn a deployment diagram based on rumors and your battle report, but I’m not sure if it’s accurate.”

Zhuge Liang’s drawing contained not only the basic central circle formation and six outer square formations of the Six Flower Formation, but also added annotations.

Skimming over it, I saw he had properly recreated the 3-row formation of vanguard-main force-cavalry. In the annotations that seemed to be traces of research, it was written what weapons would be suitable, and not just how to move the soldiers, but also analyzed the ideological principles and rationale contained within.

These were traces showing how deeply he had studied the Six Flower Formation.

“From what I’ve seen, the Six Flower Formation largely divides the army into seven, simplifying the Eight Formation Diagram which transforms endlessly through the combination and separation of 49 formations, while fully incorporating the essence of the Eight Formation Diagram in the 3-row formation that makes up each unit. It was good that it secured more flexible maneuverability than the Eight Formation Diagram by dividing the army into seven. However, it seems to try to overcome the difficulty of meticulous coordination that accompanies this by relying on the skills of the generals of each unit.”

Perhaps Zhuge Liang is someone who not only enjoys debates and likes discussions, but simply loves talking itself.

Zhuge Liang explained his analysis while pointing out one by one the diagrams of the Six Flower Formation he had drawn.

His analysis was correct in almost all aspects. Zhuge Liang had seen through the weaknesses arising from not yet fully recreating the original Six Flower Formation, based only on written reports.

And Zhuge Liang had even brought measures to complement such weaknesses of the Six Flower Formation.

“I heard that at the end, two units almost collapsed, unable to withstand Cao Zhang’s charge.”

“That’s right.”

“According to the report, it was because support from the central army was delayed in order to draw Cao Zhang to the rear and attack the Wei army in the front, but in my opinion, support should have come from the left and right even if not from the central army.”

What Zhuge Liang pointed out was something that Li Jing, the creator of the Six Flower Formation, was also aware of.

So among the 6 armies forming the exterior, he placed more troops in the left rear army and right rear army than in the four armies of front, rear, left and right, to support the left and right armies respectively.

He slightly entrusted the role of supporting the central army, which had the most troops, to the left and right rear armies.

From the start, the name “Yu Hou Jun” (虞候軍, Rear Guard Army) used the characters for “help” (虞) and “observe” (候), meaning an army that helps and observes.

“The Chancellor’s point is truly correct. I too was thinking of placing emphasis on two of the six outer armies as left and right rear guard armies.”

“As expected. It seems I gave too hasty advice.”

“Not hasty at all. If you have any advice, please give it by all means. As you know, Chancellor, since the Six Flower Formation has its origins in the Eight Formation Diagram, every word from you is invaluable.”

“Haha, thank you for saying so.”

After that, a question and answer session continued where Zhuge Liang asked about what he had analyzed, and I answered.

His questions were ones that struck at the core, enough to make one think “as expected of Zhuge Liang”.

After exchanging words a few times, Zhuge Liang nodded as if his curiosity had been satisfied.

“My questions end here. Now I want to hear from you. From what I’ve heard, the Six Flower Formation is incomplete, so what do you think the completed version would be like?”

“It’s almost everything we’ve discussed, Chancellor, but…”

“But? Go on, tell me.”

I thought he was like an immortal on a cloud, but today I’m seeing a lot of Zhuge Liang’s human side.

At Zhuge Liang’s urging, like a child pestering for a gift, I spoke without further delay.

“I’m thinking of changing the organizational structure.”

“The organizational structure?”

“Yes. Previously, due to the urgent situation, we followed the existing structure, but I plan to adjust the structure to fit the Six Flower Formation.”

Currently, the soldiers’ organizational structure is in the order of Wu-Shi-Dui-Tun-Qu-Bu-Jun.

In terms of numbers, it becomes 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, and above. The Eight Formation Diagram also follows this structure as is.

However, Li Jing, who created the Six Flower Formation, introduced a very unique organizational structure and formation, namely the triangular formation (三角編隊).

Three Dui of 50 men are bundled together to form a battalion (大隊) of 150 men in total. And five battalions are gathered to form the first row, the vanguard.

In the second row, the main force, 11 Dui are placed in a single horizontal line, with 10 cavalry units placed at each end. In the last third row, the mobile force (奇兵), 10 Dui are placed in the same single horizontal line.

This is the basic deployment of the Six Flower Formation.

Compared to the general square formation, the triangular formation is somewhat inferior in terms of defense, but it has the advantage of being easy to respond to changes with high mobility. It’s especially excellent in transitioning from defense to offense.

Zhuge Liang’s Eight Formation Diagram also has stronger offensive aspects compared to the existing ones he referred to, and the Six Flower Formation was a formation that went one step further from there.

Defend first, attack later. It was perfectly suited to the Eight Formation Diagram or Six Flower Formation, which take responding flexibly according to the situation as their main principle.

“A triangular formation, neither circular nor square…”

After hearing my explanation, Zhuge Liang muttered softly as if chewing over the content, gently waving his feather fan.

“How did they come up with such an idea. It’s amazing, truly amazing. Mingjing, you really keep surprising me endlessly.”

“You flatter me.”

My conscience pricks me sharply. It wasn’t me who drew admiration from Zhuge Liang. The object of Zhuge Liang’s reverent gaze should be someone else, not me.

The praise Zhuge Liang spoke of should rightfully go to Li Jing, the genius who created the real Six Flower Formation 400 years later.

Unable to bear my heating face, I quickly changed the subject.

“Is there anything lacking in what you’ve heard, Chancellor?”

“Lacking? Haha, your jokes have improved. In my view, your Six Flower Formation has already surpassed my Eight Formation Diagram and can be said to have formed its own school.”

My face flushed even hotter at Zhuge Liang’s words that it was equal or superior.

Embarrassment at receiving praise for something borrowed from others. Yet the joy of receiving Zhuge Liang’s praise coexisted, making my facial muscles twitch on their own.

“By the way, when did you start devising the Six Flower Formation? Judging from the clear color of the Eight Formation Diagram, it must have been after you learned the Eight Formation Diagram from me.”

If I honestly said that I originally intended to use the Eight Formation Diagram as is but came up with the Six Flower Formation instead due to lack of time, Zhuge Liang’s gaze towards me would be unbearable.

‘Sometimes there are times when you need to tell a white lie.’

I believed without doubt that now was exactly that time.

“I came up with the Six Flower Formation around the time I arrived in Chang’an after learning the Eight Formation Diagram from you, Chancellor.”

“Oh, so it was after you had almost fully grasped the Eight Formation Diagram. What about the Eight Formation Diagram bothered you?”

“The Eight Formation Diagram is too complicated. Also, the proportion of cavalry is low. This has aspects that don’t fit our country’s military trend of increasing cavalry training through Xiliang.”

Zhuge Liang said that the Eight Formation consists of four regular formations (正陣) and four irregular formations (奇陣) combined.

The regular formations are the Heaven Covering Formation (天覆陣), Earth Carrying Formation (地載陣), Wind Raising Formation (風揚陣), and Cloud Hanging Formation (雲垂陣).

The irregular formations are the Dragon Flying Formation (龍飛陣), Tiger Wing Formation (虎翼陣), Bird Soaring Formation (鳥翔陣), and Snake Coiling Formation (蛇蟠陣).

Among these, using the Heaven Covering Formation as the basic formation and varying the formations according to each situation to draw efficiency in various environments and situations was the Eight Formation Diagram.

However, this is just talking about the large forms, like how the Six Flower Formation has circular, square, straight, and curved formations within it.

Just as the Six Flower Formation includes lower-level tactics such as 3-row formations and triangular formations, looking inside the Eight Formation Diagram reveals even more complex and subtle tactics.

Seeing that there are no records of the good formation of the Eight Formation Diagram being used in Shu after Zhuge Liang’s death, we can see that it was difficult to learn and implement.

Even after the Eight Formation Diagram was passed down to Jin after Shu’s fall, it’s said that only Ma Long and Jin Xia could handle the Eight Formation Diagram.

And the Eight Formation Diagram is composed almost entirely of infantry. There is cavalry, but very little.

It doesn’t fit the current situation of Han, which is smoothly supplying war horses from Xiliang and Nanzhong.

On the other hand, the Six Flower Formation had a large proportion of cavalry because it was created in Tang, which was of Xianbei origin though half-Sinicized.

‘That’s why the Six Flower Formation fit the Luanling Army, which has the most cavalry in Han after Ma Chao’s Light Cavalry General’s Office, better than the Eight Formation Diagram.’

Though the Eight Formation Diagram might be suitable right now because there’s a lot of infantry, considering that cavalry will increase as time passes, the Six Flower Formation would fit Han’s situation better than the Eight Formation Diagram.

But come to think of it after saying this, isn’t this deception?

In my view, the Eight Formation Diagram is hellishly difficult, but to prepare for the future, it doesn’t seem to fit well so I changed it – that kind of answer.

Just as I was about to open my mouth, belatedly thinking I should add some explanation or excuse, Zhuge Liang’s voice was one step faster.

“As expected.”