As the saying goes, if you put up a recruiting flag, there will be people who eat food. Since ancient times, China has had a small land and a large number of people. It is not easy to make a living. So when the Han army's recruiting flag was put up, a large number of idle people swarmed in.
Yes, but most of these people are lazy, second-rate, bachelors, scoundrels, treacherous, slanderous, and of low quality.
A truly good boy from a good family is not willing to eat food and serve as a soldier, and will be looked down upon by his fellow villagers.
But this time it's different. Shi Mou's good water irrigates the land. It's an industry that a family can hardly accumulate in a lifetime. No matter how old-fashioned the old antique is, he can't help but be tempted. The young people are even more itchy.
One tael of silver a month covers food and clothing, and the military salary is not touched at all. When you return from the army after three years of service, you will have thirty-six taels of silver, which is enough to marry a wife and build a new house.
The temptation was so great that some scholars couldn't help but have the idea of joining the army. However, their motivations were different from those of the common people. Scholars had the world in mind and longed to get ahead. The normal imperial examination route was not available, so they had no choice but to put all their skills into practice.
I have learned from the emperor's family. Everyone has seen what the King of Han has done since he came out of seclusion, and everyone understands that he is an ambitious and capable hero. If you follow him, you will be granted the title of a marquis or a general.\
The Han army camp outside Luoyang City is bustling with people. Some are happy and some are sad. In the past, recruitment was very simple. To put it harshly, as long as it is an individual, the threshold for the Han army is very high. The age requirement is eighteen years old.
Children of good families who are between the age of twenty-five and twenty-five must be healthy, able to distinguish left from right, and must have a guarantor. Those scoundrels will not look down on them at all.
One man served as a soldier, and the whole family benefited from it. He had ten acres of good irrigated land, and he was exempted from taxes for three years. When he entered the military camp, he was immediately given a full set of quilts. It was winter, and all the clothes were thick war jackets and red-brown Songjiang cotton.
The material is stuffed with cotton wool and is much warmer than their own clothes.\
The recruits put on their new clothes and gave their old cotton-padded jackets to their families to take away. The young men were all full of energy and joy. The entire Henan Province only recruited 10,000 people, but the number of people who signed up was far more than this number. Every recruit was
They can't help but be proud of being one of the best young men out of ten.
The 6th recruit continued to enter the camp, and what awaited them was a sumptuous meal. Dumplings stuffed with pork, cabbage, and tofu were served in a huge basin. It was enough! There were garlic cloves in the bowl and vinegar in the dish. Each person had a big bowl.
, you can eat as much as you want.
White flour dumplings stuffed with vegetables and meat are a good thing that can only be eaten during the Chinese New Year. As the saying goes, lying down is not as good as it is, and dumplings are not as delicious as dumplings. Just smelling the dumplings, the saliva of these new recruits is like a waterfall.
Normally, under the command of the gang leader, they lined up to receive the bowls and chopsticks, filled them with dumplings and squatted on the ground to eat. For a while, there were loud snapping sounds of lips hitting each other, mixed with choking sounds and burps.
Those who knew it were the recruits eating, but those who didn't know thought it was a pigsty.\
After eating so hard, they were so drunk that half an hour later, the recruits came out with bloated stomachs. Eight out of ten were burping. The soldiers could actually eat dumplings on their food.
My comrades who are soldiers know this and are not envious to death.
The recruits who had eaten a full meal walked three times along the school grounds under the leadership of their commanders. After digesting the food, they returned to the military camp to rest. There was a large, brand-new quilt with the warm smell of the sun, and a long bunk bed.
With a thick mattress, the conditions are much better than at home.\
Before the recruits could finish praising them, something even more surprising happened. The kind-hearted bannermen brought hot foot-washing water and asked them to wash their feet. The recruits were moved to tears. This is not what it means to be a soldier.
, it’s like falling into a nest of blessings.
That night, every recruit had a smile on their face when they went to bed.
…
The recruits trained for three days, which was nothing more than some queue drills. It was simple and boring, but the recruits were still happy. Walking on the school field was more comfortable than working in the fields.
The Han army specially selected some eloquent recruits and sent them home to promote the benefits of being a soldier. They were all natives of their hometowns. The words coming from their mouths were more effective than official-stamped proclamations. Such a propaganda was great.
It's incredible, wearing a big cotton-padded jacket and eating dumplings all day long is like a fairy life. The fellow villagers tried their best to join the army through connections. Even the well-to-do people who had a little hard work at home couldn't bear it anymore and came to the Han army camp one after another.
forward.
The so-called recruitment of 10,000 soldiers is just a starvation strategy of the Han army to compete with the Eastern Zhou Dynasty for the world. How could tens of thousands of soldiers and horses be possible? Henan is a province with a large population. It is easy to recruit 100,000 strong men. If you have money, silver, and the support of the people,
It would be a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity to expand the army aggressively.
Therefore, the King of Han was moved by the enthusiasm of the people to serve, and specially approved 5,000 recruits. However, the conditions were higher than before. They were required to be able to read numbers and write their own names. The results were even better than expected. Many recruits not only
I can write names and recite the Three-Character Classic of Hundreds of Family Names.
The five thousand personnel is just a cover. In fact, the Han army has quietly expanded to more than 30,000 people. Adding the original 25,000 troops, the total number reaches 60,000. The quality is not bad. With time, it will be able to train
Send out a strong army.\
But time is already running out. According to intelligence from the capital, one hundred thousand Zhou troops have already set off. If they go fast, they can reach Henan in a month. These soldiers must have basic combat effectiveness as soon as possible.
OK.
The war was about to begin, and Yuan Feng was not panicked at all. After all, he was a veteran who had been fighting for many years. These days, he had been leading a group of subordinates to explore the terrain outside, leaving all matters in the rear to be handled by Li Qi.
A large number of people enthusiastically joined the army, including many excellent craftsmen. The requirements for these people can be relaxed appropriately. Carpenters, blacksmiths, veterinarians, cooks, tailors, masons, as long as they are craftsmen, they can make a bowl of food in the Han army camp.
Of course, the salary is not as high as that of a war soldier, but it is still extremely generous, with two slings of money per month, food and clothing, and belongs to the military craftsman series.\
Money was spent like running water in exchange for a large number of materials and personnel. Under the leadership of Li Qi, the staff worked very efficiently, manufacturing military uniforms, uniforms, flags, weapons, armor and vehicles, purchasing horses and livestock, building barracks, and repairing city walls.
Everything went smoothly.
Before you know it, it is already the twelfth lunar month of winter, and the first snow is falling on the land of Zhongzhou. The wind is biting, the roads are blocked by heavy snow, the rivers are frozen, and the grass and trees are withered. This winter is extremely cold, and the recruits finally understand it.
When it comes to the hardships of eating food and serving as a soldier.
Every day before dawn, Xiao Qi would be roughly called out of the warm bed to go out for exercise. Slowly, a whip would be slapped on his body. He would wear a cold iron helmet and hold a heavy spear and broadsword in the ice and snow.
Drilling, climbing on ice and lying in snow, but no one complained. The Han army did not force people to serve as soldiers. Those who couldn't stand the hardship and wanted to go home could just put down their weapons and leave. There were a lot of people outside waiting to come in to fill the vacancies, but the ten acres of land were
Have to hand it back.\
Ten acres of land is small, but the reputation is big. They are all strong young men in their prime years. They were sent home in despair. Where would they put their faces? So everyone gritted their teeth and persevered.
At the end of the first snow, the arms shipped from Shaanxi finally arrived. Carloads of saplings and muskets, dark and cold, with sharp bayonets dazzling people's eyes. I heard that these were craftsman supervisors hired from Xiliang.
The saying that Xiliang's firearms are the best in the world is also well-known in the Central Plains.
These muskets can only be equipped by the best soldiers. They have reddish-brown criss-cross cowhide armed belts, walnut wood butts that are smooth and warm, dark barrels, brass parts, and Fan Yang felt hats decorated with fiery red tassels.
Japanese and cowhide boots are the standard equipment of musketeers. Compared with the spears, broadswords and leggings cloth shoes of ordinary infantry, they are many times more powerful.\
The so-called best soldiers do not mean those who are physically strong, have strong martial arts skills, and can fight ten or eight people. Those kind of people are directly incorporated into scouts. The requirements for musketeers are firm will, obedience to orders, and simplicity and kindness.
During the war in Xiliang against Timur's army, Yuan Feng realized one thing. The most cost-effective unit was not cavalry or archers, but musketeers.
It takes at least a year to train a qualified cavalry. Including the cost of war horses, the cost of one cavalry is as much as ten infantrymen. The training of archers also takes at least half a year. Crossbows seem simple, but in fact they are quite difficult to master.
It takes a lot of effort, and the consumption of arrows is also a problem. A feathered arrow requires wood, glue, paint, feather arrowheads and other materials, and requires time-consuming processing by craftsmen, but its lethality is far less than that of a musket.\
The training of musketeers is the simplest. The musket seems complicated, but in fact it is not difficult to master. It is just a few steps of charging, loading, and shooting. Shooting a musket does not require too much skill, nor does it require accurate shooting.
, just line up and fire a volley.
The only difficulty is how to keep the queue orderly and the firepower continuous. This requires hard training of the queue and the prohibition of orders. The soldiers do not need to have their own thoughts. All actions can be obeyed by the captain's orders. If they are allowed to move forward, they will move forward and if they are allowed to retreat, they will move forward.
He just retreated, and when shooting, he loaded and ejected strictly according to the command. It was a completely mechanical action.
The recruits of the Han army have always been trained in formation, and it was not until the muskets were delivered that they began to perform martial arts in the true sense. On the school grounds, rows of soldiers kept charging and shooting under the command of the captain. For a while, the smoke filled the air, and the guns
The sound was deafening. On a nearby high slope, Yuan Feng and his civil and military personnel looked down at the training ground, filled with emotion.
"The little bastards have been trained like this. I wonder if they will be so scared that they will wet their pants if they actually go into battle." The person in charge of training the new recruits was the old military leader Wang Jinbiao brought by Yuan Feng from Xiliang. This old guy
I have been a soldier for twenty years and am quite accomplished in military training. I am saying something unpleasant now, but I am actually asking for credit.
"It's better to line up and shoot than to fight hand-to-hand with swords and spears." Another general said, and he was telling the truth. He stood with his brothers and fired, and at least he felt confident that if he were to fight with the enemy,
There is really no hope for these new recruits.
Another burst of dark clouds drifted across the sky. Yuan Feng looked at the sky and thought to himself, I hope God will protect me from heavy snow and wind during the war, otherwise the musket will become a fire stick.
There was a sound of horse hoofbeats, and a scout arrived from the front. He got off his horse and reported to Yuan Feng: "My lord, the Zhou army's forward has arrived in Kaifeng!"
book.
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