Chapter 704 Returning to the old place

Chapter 704 Returning to the old place

Chapter 704 Returning to the old place
The Zhongwu Army now has about 5,000 people.

On the 21st, their entire army was mobilized and had a military exercise with the 3,600 soldiers from the 12 defense units of Luonan Prefecture who had assembled there.

There are many martial arts performance subjects.

The first formation was at the foot of Ganchengwu Mountain, where they fought in a field formation and were torn to pieces.

The second formation was to control the mountain road and fight a defensive battle relying on the favorable terrain, but was defeated again.

On the 23rd, the troops moved to Yunzhongwu.

The third formation confronted the government troops across the river along Ganshui, but was defeated again as the government troops found a shallow ford and forced a crossing.

The entire martial arts performance lasted until dusk. Everyone was exhausted, and the Zhongwu Army was covered in dust and dirt.

The soldiers from Luonan Prefecture smiled but said nothing, and privately said that the Zhongwu Army was still "peasants."

In fact, the best battle of the Zhongwu Army was the first large-scale field battle, which made the Luonan soldiers have to work harder.

The last two formations, due to the terrain, could not deploy a large formation and mainly relied on assaults of hundreds or thousands of people, so they were badly defeated.

To put it bluntly, their individual martial arts skills were not good enough, and their team coordination was not as good as that of the Luonan soldiers, so they were crushed in all aspects - in small-scale battles, the effect of the desperate assault by fully armed elite soldiers was too significant.

"Are you convinced now?" Shao Xun asked as he flipped the meat over and rubbed it with oil as the meat was sizzling over the blazing bonfire.

"I don't accept it." Shao Shen said helplessly, "The soldiers of the Zhongwu Army have to farm on weekdays and have no troops. How many times can they train in a year?"

Shao Xun smiled and handed him a piece of barbecue.

The income of farmers in this era not only comes from the fields, but also from side jobs.

Mulberry weaving is the most typical sideline job, usually done by women reeling silk, spinning yarn and weaving cloth.

Men also have side jobs, raising livestock is one of them - "If you raise chickens, pigs, dogs and pigs at the right time, you can eat meat when you are seventy."

Farmers also often take the chickens and ducks they raise in their yards and the fruits and vegetables they grow to the market to sell.

If you have bamboo or elm trees planted at home, you will also give them some rough treatment.

In addition, fishing, lotus picking, hunting, weaving, etc. are all side jobs that can earn income, and even include selling labor and doing odd jobs for wealthy households.

These side jobs require a lot of time during the slack season.

The more times you conduct concentrated training, the less their income will be, which is a contradiction.

The advantage of full-time professional soldiers is that they are supported by others and can focus on training without distraction.

The soldiers of the government need to go to the fields to help out during the busy farming season, but they basically don't have any side jobs during normal times. They are very idle and have plenty of time for training. How can they be compared?
However, among all the troops under Shao Xun, the only two troops that really had all-professional recruits who did not need to work at all were the Silver Spear and Black Shadow troops.

The Yicong, Luoyan, Zhuosheng and other armies had to graze their own horses and even grow a little grain in case there was a shortage of fodder in the year and the horses had difficulty surviving the winter.

They also run some orchards, vegetable plots, and pastures to provide themselves with supplies, making them a semi-professional army. Their food and wages are only about two-thirds of those of the Silver Spear Army and the Black Gun Army - they have to provide the remaining one-third on their own.

Of course, the personal troops, which currently number more than 1,400, are all professionals.

To put it bluntly, there was not much custom of professional recruitment in this era. Everyone was half farmer and half soldier, and even the palace guards had to take turns farming.

"Don't be discouraged." Shao Xun gave Pei Lingyan and Sima Xiuyi a piece of meat each, and continued to say to his nephew: "The Zhongwu Army is considered to be the most capable among all the peasant soldiers. In the valley of Huixiban, bones are exposed in the wild. Thousands of people have died in the past ten years. It is really not easy."

"Wang Mi has been unable to do what he wants these past two years." Shao Shen got excited when he mentioned this. He said, "In the past few years, although I was not convinced, I had to admit that Wang Mi was indeed a good fighter. He fought to the river mouth many times. I could hear the shouting and killing even when I was standing on Jinmen Wharf. In the past two years, he lost Xin'an and Baichao cities in succession, and more than 10,000 people died. They were all old thieves from Qingzhou, Yuzhou, and Sizhou who had fought with him for many years. Now the Zhongwu Army is taking the lead. Give me another two years, and I will definitely be able to get straight to Xishi Fort and get out of these mountains."

"Xishi Fort is the Imperial Army's business, you just need to make a feint attack from the flank." Shao Xun said, "Back then, they fled at the first sign of trouble, allowing the Xiongnu to easily occupy it. How did we lose the land back then? Now we must take it back one by one, even if it means shedding blood and tears."

The imperial guards attacked Xin'an City and Baichaowu successively, resulting in heavy casualties.

Now they have to prepare to attack Xishi Fort. This is their destiny and it is also the debt they have to pay for their irrational rout that year. They cannot escape it.

After a large number of refugees were added, the imperial army was restored to over 20,000 people.

You know, even though the casualties in the past two years were extremely heavy, and many battalions were reduced to just a few seeds, and even though Shao Xun kept bleeding and transferred the imperial guards who had made military achievements to serve as palace soldiers, this army that nominally belonged to the Jin Dynasty still made considerable progress.

In short, even with a large number of new recruits, the Imperial Guards are no longer in a slack state. The improvement is all-round, with morale, military discipline, combat effectiveness, tactics, coordination between various units, battle experience, etc., all of which have improved to varying degrees.

To put it bluntly, its strength is even slightly beyond that of my nephew's Zhongwu Army.

"How many times have you been to Xin'an County this year?" Shao Xun asked again.

"There are always seven or eight trips. We just came back at the end of August." Shao Shen said, "Xin'an originally had more than 300 families of civilians left. This year, we resettled 2,000 refugees, including many Xiongnu from Jingu Garden. Baichaowu also resettled 1,600 to 1,700 families. There are too many things to do. It's better to fight a war."

"It is harder to pacify the people than to fight a war, but you can't just fight a war." Shao Xun said earnestly, "My Shao family is from a very poor background. There are few talents in the clan that can be used. You have to work hard."

In the Shao clan, the eldest nephew Shao Shen was the Huwei General, stationed in Yiyang and governing Yiyang, Xin'an and other counties. The five large forts of Yunzhong, Kinmen, Tanshan, Gancheng and Baichao managed by military students also obeyed his orders. He even had an army number under his command: Zhongwu Army.

His younger brother Shao Fan served as the commander-in-chief of the General's Office. He had several hundred people under him. His main responsibilities were to gather information, arrest spies and even monitor surrendered people.

Another cousin, Shao Guang, was originally a lieutenant of the Tuntian Army in Duyang, and is now the supervisor of the General's Mansion. A few days ago, Shao Xun asked him to concurrently serve as the magistrate of Liang County and take charge of the affairs of Liang County and Guangchengze.

There is also his nephew Shao Jie, who is even more distantly related. He is in his twenties and is an older transfer student of Liang County Martial Arts School. He was sent to Yecheng a while ago to serve as a county lieutenant. There are no others, at least the older generation and the clan members of the same generation as Shao Xun are not good enough, so we can only place our hopes on the next generation.

After Shao Xun's rise, the living conditions of the clan members were greatly improved. Many of them moved to Liang County, Chen County, Xuchang and Bianliang to live. Their children began to receive education, hoping that they would have the luck to produce some talents.

"Uncle, I saved that." Because Pei and Sima were present, Shao Shen only said vaguely.

Shao Xun was very pleased that his nephew understood what he meant.

Such a weak clan, and most of them are incompetent, will the Sima replace Cao happen again in the future? It's hard to say, but my nephew has this vigilance.

"If there is enough money and grain next year..." Shao Xun thought for a moment and said, "Give the Zhongwu Army a thousand soldiers, three hu of grain per month, and four bolts of cloth per year, and raise them and train them well."

Shao Shen was overjoyed.

Although he could control the money and grain of Yiyang and other counties and the five major forts, the matter of raising soldiers was still very sensitive. He didn't dare to do it without his second uncle's approval.

******
Shao Xun stayed in Yunzhongwu that night.

When I entered the dock, I found that most of the people here had been replaced.

In the beginning, most of them were refugees from Bingzhou, and later people from other places gradually joined in.

At this time, some families were ordered to move away, divide the land and buy houses, and become civilian households;

In some families, the men died in battle, and the women remarried with their children;
Some became conscripts and moved their families to other places;
Some of them had made contributions in the war and became soldiers in the government, and they also moved away;
Some even fled because they could not bear the oppression.

Nowadays, most of the residents in Yunzhongwubao speak with a Jizhou accent, and they have not been here for long, with the longest being only three or four years.

What remains unchanged is that the three docks in Yunzhong and the two docks in Gancheng and Baichao are still managed by military students.

This is a very good opportunity for them to practice after graduation - the fort is highly organized and much easier to manage than the scattered villages, which reduces the difficulty.

Thanks to the unremitting efforts of predecessors, relatively complete rules and regulations have been formed for managing docks. Newcomers can follow them first and generally will not make mistakes. After working for a year or so, accumulating some experience and having their own understanding of dock management, they can also make suggestions for improvement and enter them into the dock management charter.

When a martial arts student can manage a dock well, he can step onto a bigger stage.

"Is this the first dock you built back then?" In the clean and tidy room, Pei Lingyan stood at the window, overlooking the Luo River.

A fresh breeze blew across the river.

There are waves of pine trees on the Nüji Mountain.

The bright moon hangs high in the sky, illuminating the entire earth.

What a peaceful and tranquil country village!

"Yes. Without these forts, the first batch of Silver Spear Army cannot be supported. Without the first batch of Silver Spear Army, it will be difficult for me to accomplish anything." Shao Xun walked behind Pei Lingyan, gently put his arm around her waist, put his head on her right shoulder, and said, "Do you remember what happened back then?"

"what's up?"

"I asked you to borrow money to build the fort, but you said the mansion's money couldn't be used, so you gave me your dowry. I haven't paid you back yet." Shao Xun hugged the woman tightly and asked softly.

Pei Lingyan was a little dazed for a moment, it happened so long ago.

"It's just five hundred strings of cash and one thousand five hundred pieces of Hanoi silk." She said calmly.

"I didn't pay it back because I will never be able to pay it back." Shao Xun turned Pei Lingyan around, looked into her calm and gentle eyes, and said, "I will never be able to pay it back in this lifetime."

Pei Lingyan leaned her face against his chest and said, "Don't think too much. I am willing."

After hearing this, Shao Xun was silent for a long time and was speechless.

After a moment, he suddenly thought of something, took Pei Lingyan's hand and went into the bedroom next door, then stared at the ground and counted slowly.

"What are you doing?" Pei Lingyan asked curiously.

Shao Xun did not answer and continued counting. After a while, he found the target, took out the dagger and pried it a few times, prying out the floor tile completely.

Pei Lingyan watched quietly without disturbing him.

Shao Xun wiped the mud on the back of the floor tile and saw the word "Pei" engraved on it. He was overjoyed and took it to Pei Lingyan as if presenting a treasure, saying, "Hua Nu, look."

Pei Lingyan saw the words engraved on the brick at a glance and stood there in shock. Then she looked towards Shao Xun with her eyes moving, a faint blush appearing on her face.

"I missed you all those years ago, thinking about you day and night, so I engraved these words to commemorate you." Shao Xun looked at Pei Lingyan with burning eyes, took a few steps closer, and said.

Pei Lingyan turned her head slightly and said, "Go take a shower. You are all sweaty."

"Okay." Shao Xun responded quickly.

The evening breeze gently blows against the windows, and the night in Yunzhongwu is so charming.

(End of this chapter)