Chapter 12: Fight
Chapter 12: Fight (Additional chapter for the leader Jiong Jiong Mu Zuolang)
(I checked and found that there are four more alliance leaders today. Thank you readers for your support. I was planning to pay back the overdue chapters tomorrow, but I already owe six overdue chapters to the alliance leaders. I will pay back one chapter first, and will pay back the remaining five chapters slowly starting tomorrow. Thank you again.)
"Hua La La!" The leaves of the armor tree made a clanging sound, which was pleasing to the eye.
"Not bad." Shao Xun looked at the iron armor on his body and smiled with satisfaction.
This is a collared sleeve armor, which is the most popular iron armor at this time.
It appeared in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang improved its craftsmanship: "I ordered the workshops to make five-fold armor and ten-fold spears for them."
As we all know, it was very difficult to keep technology secret in ancient times. Therefore, the Zhuge Zhuo sleeve armor, which was more sophisticated than the original, quickly spread and became popular during the Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasties.
Until the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhuge Liang's sleeve armor was still regarded as a treasure.
From the materials unearthed in later generations, it can be seen that this iron armor is in the shape of fish scales, with the chest and back connected together, and there are tube sleeves from the shoulders down, with the cuffs above the elbows.
In addition to the tube-sleeve armor, there is also a tube-sleeve armor made of leather, which is shaped like a turtle's back. Therefore, when "armored soldiers" are mentioned in general books, they are not necessarily wearing iron armor, but may also be wearing other protective gear such as leather armor. Armor and armor are not completely the same.
Shao Xun was very satisfied with the tube-sleeved armor he was wearing, but he always felt that something was missing.
He remembered several things he had received yesterday.
A bright red military uniform, the style of which he had specifically listed, was finally made by craftsmen in the manor.
The name of the military uniform is gao jiàn, which includes "a red cape on the head, boots and trousers, a sword held in the left and right hands, a bow and a robe, and arrows inserted in the chest."
Simply put, the military uniform has a sword on the left side and a place for the quiver and bow tip on the right side, and is matched with a "jiangpa" (a red headband, the original version of the Japanese "menstrual belt", red) tied on the forehead, and hakama on the lower body and boots on the feet. It is very practical. After putting it on, one looks like a general or a military governor of the middle and late Tang Dynasty.
The Wei and Jin armies had independent "archer camps" and "crossbow camps", and they did not design combat uniforms specifically for archers and crossbowmen. In the Tang Dynasty, all soldiers were required to be able to shoot arrows, participate in close combat, and use both long and short weapons. Therefore, the design of military uniforms was relatively complex, and the bow, a standard weapon that everyone had to carry, was even more important. In the Tang Dynasty, especially in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, there was no special archer camp in the army, because in theory everyone was an archer.
God knows why Shao Xun is so familiar with the Luqianfu. Anyway, he thought about it for a long time but couldn't remember the reason.
But this kind of combat uniform is really easy to use. You draw your sword with your left hand and pick up the bow with your right hand to string and calibrate the bow, then pick up the bow and put an arrow on it. There is also a special place on the left arm to tie a small round shield, and you can also insert a long sword or a heavy sword on your back. When you are not using the bow, you usually hold a spear in your right hand - if you think the spear is too light, you can specially make a lance, which you can use to knock and sweep the enemy's spear during combat.
All in all, it's very convenient and feels like you're armed to the teeth.
"The team leader looks really heroic in his iron armor." Squad leader Huang Biao grinned from ear to ear, stood beside him arrogantly, glanced at the other teams with a provocative look, and said.
The people he swept past all lowered their heads.
Shao Xun also glanced at it.
These soldiers are too docile. Even when their superiors withhold their food and wages, they dare not resist.
This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. In today's chaotic world, the disadvantages are more obvious.
Husband fights with courage.
The soldiers have no ambition, so how can we expect them to explode?
Facing the enemy's sharp blade, do you dare to strip off your clothes and armor, go into battle bare-chested, and charge forward?
There were 500 people in the building, and he couldn't see anyone who dared to do this.
Difficult.
"The owner of the building is here." Someone suddenly shouted.
A horse-drawn carriage rumbled over in the distance and soon stopped in front of the formation.
The owner of the building, Mi Huang, came in hastily from some gathering place, dressed in a tall hat and a wide belt.
The breeze blows gently, his clothes flutter, and he wears wooden clogs, looking extraordinary.
That's the taste, too strong.
Some people like it very much, thinking that this is the demeanor that a scholar-official should have, standing in the wind, with his sleeves fluttering, unrestrained and uninhibited, gentle as jade. Standing with his hands behind his back, he has a plan in mind, and with the tapping of his clogs, he defeats the stubborn enemy.
You must have the feeling of being detached from the world, and seeing the masts and oars reduced to ashes while you laugh and talk!
Some people don't like it. Military management is a systematic and scientific project. It requires tedious and meticulous work, a lot of effort, and even requires you to eat and live with the soldiers and get smelly.
When going to the battle, they were exposed to the sun and rain, and slept on ice and ate snow.
When it came to the decisive moment, I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep at night.
It is normal to get stomach problems due to missed meals.
It is normal for hands to crack and ooze pus due to the cold in winter. Haven’t you heard that “the protector general’s iron armor is too cold to wear”?
It is inevitable that the skin is polished dark and rough by wind and sand. After all, when "the army is marching in the middle of the night with weapons clashing", "the wind is as cutting as a knife".
As for the scars on the body, they are inevitable whenever you go into battle.
Mi Huang's behavior was really speechless and unprofessional. But to be honest, there were too many people like him at this time - it's not that there were no sons of noble families who were willing to calm down and do things down to earth, but they were really rare.
It's just idle talk, it's so damn out of touch with reality.
There was another person behind Mi Huang, and that was Wang Dao, the military officer of Sikong Mansion who had been here before.
He put his hands behind his back, looked around, and then retracted his gaze after a moment, obviously not interested. Mi Huang stood in front of him like an attendant, smiling and saying a few words, but I couldn't hear clearly from a distance.
Director Wang listened patiently for a while, then waved his hand and said nothing more.
Mi Huang didn't care and walked to the front of the battle in wooden clogs.
A team of more than 500 people has been assembled, including a hundred new recruits who arrived a few days ago.
Mi Huang's gaze lingered on them for a while longer. After all, he was the one who sent them here, and they were all strong men who volunteered to serve in the army. Their quality was much better than others.
There is a huge difference between volunteering to join the army and not.
In the past, Ma Long recruited soldiers for the expedition to Liangzhou in Luoyang and set strict assessment standards, including physique, strength, archery, martial arts, willpower and other factors. After comprehensive selection, he got 3,500 people.
These 3,500 men volunteered to join the army in the hope of gaining wealth and fame, so they were able to endure hardships, had high morale, and strong psychological qualities. When they were surrounded by Hu cavalry and cut off from communication with the rear, they were still able to maintain their chariot formation, travel more than a thousand miles, kill a large number of Hu cavalry, successfully break through the encirclement, and arrive in Liangzhou.
If the soldiers were conscripted to fight and cultivate the land, they would not be able to do this if their retreat was cut off and they were completely surrounded. They would easily panic and eventually be annihilated. When infantry fight cavalry, it is the most basic requirement for the infantry to not panic and to fight calmly. Unfortunately, more than 90% of the infantry could not do this.
"The Wei Wu Infantry Order states, 'If there are people in the squad who don't advance, the squad leader will kill them; if there are squad leaders who don't advance, the squad leader will kill them; if there are squad leaders who don't advance, the Du Bo will kill them.' The imperial dynasty follows this, so there are Du Bos who train the troops and serve as the left and right arms of the leader." Mi Huang cleared his throat and said, "I am busy with affairs and cannot take care of military affairs myself. It's okay for a short period of time, but it's not appropriate for a long time, so I reported to the king and got permission to add two Du Bos..."
Du Bo, also known as "Du Zhan Bo Chang". This non-standard position, to some extent, is more like a supervisor of war within a building, with considerable power and responsibility. In the Jin Dynasty, Bo Chang began to become a permanent position, with some Du Bo managing a hundred men, and some managing two hundred men.
In a building of 500 people, the number of headmen began to become irregular. Generally, there was only one headman, but two or three heads were not uncommon. As the situation developed further, it would most likely become a permanent position between the team leader and the building leader.
Mi Huang originally requested to appoint only one Du Bo. After hearing about it, the military officer Wang Dao thought it was inappropriate and suggested that another person should be appointed to serve as a check.
Sima Yue was not very concerned about this army, but he would not offend Wang Dao, so he agreed.
There are two supervisors, each in charge of half of the people, who supervise each other and compete with each other. This is very good.
"The number of soldiers in this unit is mixed. There are 561 of them now, so we divide them into 12 teams," Mi Huang continued.
Simply put, teams one, two and three are mostly composed of children and teenagers, and are fully staffed but slightly overstaffed; teams four, five, six and seven are composed of elderly people, and were originally fully staffed but are now short of more than twenty people; teams eighty, ninety and ten are composed of the best and strongest, and are also not fully staffed; teams eleven and twelve are composed of newly recruited soldiers, who are of relatively good quality and are fully staffed.
"Team leader Yang Bao has always been loyal and righteous, so he was promoted to the position of Governor."
"Team leader Shao Xun is an outstanding martial artist and a good leader, so he was also promoted to the position of Governor."
Mi Huang quickly read out the names of the two people, and then glanced at Director Wang.
Director Wang cleared his throat, stepped forward and whispered a few words in his ear.
Mi Huang looked embarrassed and whispered, "Yang Bao has limited ability and I'm afraid he can't lead the troops well. General Wang is overly flattering him."
Director Wang frowned, looking displeased.
He had met both of these people.
Yang Bao did not leave a deep impression on him. He was a timid warrior who had some martial arts and leadership skills at best, but he was not very capable. He had seen many people like him.
Shao Xun was a bit hard to figure out. Although he was polite, he gave him a bad feeling. He didn't understand at first, but after he went back and thought about it, he realized it: he didn't want to be servile to him, didn't fawn on him, and didn't put himself in the position of a lowly inferior person.
Wang Dao was born into the Wang family of Langya, one of the most prestigious aristocratic families in the north. In his daily life, he had long been accustomed to the fawning of people of humble surnames and humble families, and even more accustomed to the admiration and inferiority attitude of ordinary people when they saw him.
It is true that Shao Xun had no problem with etiquette. But what about outside of etiquette? He did not have any extra or "redundant" flattery to express admiration. In Wang Dao's view, this was rebelliousness, which made him dislike him.
This is a subtle emotion that cannot be expressed in words to outsiders, but it does exist.
Therefore, when it came to the Du Bo issue, he suggested adding a new one to check and balance each other. When discussing the responsibilities of the two Du Bos, he intervened again and planned to let Shao Xun take charge of a group of old, weak and disabled soldiers.
These were just trivial matters to him, and he did them casually. But he knew that for ordinary people like Shao Xun, they often determined their fate - a grain of sand on the upper layer could be a mountain when it fell to the bottom, which was unbearable.
"General Wang..." Mi Huang thought for a moment and said, "In fact, many squads are not fit for battle now, so they can be cut down. For example, the old men were ordered to return home during the reign of Emperor Wu. Now is the time to recruit people, but we can't do that. It would be better to let them farm in the fortress and guard against petty thieves, and no longer participate in training. It would also be a good deed to let them return home next year. How about taking care of the young children?"
Wang Dao was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "Mi Duhu is quite quick-witted."
Mi Huang's heart skipped a beat, and he felt that Director Wang's words were sarcastic, but after remembering Concubine Pei's promise, he gritted his teeth and said, "I heard that General Wang and Langya Wang Rui are close friends..."
Wang Dao's eyes narrowed when he heard this. He sneered twice, flicked his sleeves and said, "I have something else to do, so I'll go first. Mi Duhu can decide the matter here."
The Langya Wang family had a close relationship with the Langya Wang family and intermarried many times.
By this generation, Sima Rui and Wang Dao were close friends. But Sima Rui's camp was unclear. His uncle Sima Yao was even in the camp of Sima Ying of Yecheng, while Wang Dao's main company Ma Yue was in the camp of Sima Yi, the King of Changsha.
Sima Ying and Sima Yi currently seem to be getting along well and cooperating happily, but in fact their relationship is not harmonious and they will end up fighting sooner or later - Sima Yi deliberately wins over the Imperial Guards in preparation for a future falling out.
Mi Huang had already offended Wang Dao by speaking out. In his heart, he was actually a little scared. The weight of the Wang Clan of Langya weighed heavily on his heart.
However, the person has already been offended, so what can be done?
Thinking of this, he made a decision: to hand over the newly recruited 100 soldiers to Captain Shao Xun, and to lay off the others if necessary.
Life is all about making choices, that's all.
(End of this chapter)