Following Zhang Pingliang's order, the light cavalry took off their hunting bows one after another. Some with outstanding archery skills threw away the reins with their other hands, waved off their leather gloves, and then held four arrows between their five fingers, ready to perform the stunt of consecutive arrows at any time.
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This is the southeastern corner of the Mongolian Plateau, the end of the three mountain ranges of Yinshan, Yanshan and Daxinganling. Large tracts of mountains and lakes in the wilderness have been left to the south by the cavalry, such as Yehu Ridge, Gouluo Salt Pond, and yesterday
It passes through Luotuo Mountain and Baihaizi.
From the north of Yehuling, there are very few human-built buildings on the high winding mountains, and only the remains of a few military camps can be found occasionally.
Decades ago, when Daijin was strong, this was an important passage for the Daijin army to enter and leave the grassland. From the famous general Wanyan Zongbi at the founding of the country to the famous minister Jiagu Qingchen who was both civil and military during the Mingchang period, they all led elite troops here.
Go deep into the grassland, catch a disobedient tribe and burn them to death.
When the core force of the dynasty was strong and the generals were well versed in strategy, this was the best way to curb the growth of the grassland peoples. Unfortunately, in the end, all the Jurchens became useless, and those who filled the Jin army were forced to come from all over.
Those who are forced to join the army will naturally not have a strong will to attack, and the military expenditures that have been expropriated for years cannot support the equipment that can adapt to the grassland environment. Therefore, this area has become less and less popular.
When dusk fell, the soldiers looked around. The surrounding terrain was undulating, with knee-deep dead grass everywhere, and the dead grass was covered with gray-white snow of varying thicknesses. In the distance, there were continuous woodlands and trees near the mountains.
With the whine, the north swayed gently, making a rustling sound, like a lying monster, carefully sharpening its claws.
The night is very dark this night, and the light of the stars and moon is also dim. In half an hour, you will be unable to see your hands. This will be the best cover for the soldiers.
What Zhang Pingliang and others accepted now was the second round of scouting missions. After receiving the order in Yehuling, they first went west and went to the vicinity of Baishuibo. They did not find large groups of Mongolian cavalry, but they got rid of some small groups of cavalry.
After the entanglement, it turned northeast along the mountains and hilly areas.
During this process, the weather became colder and colder, the environment became worse and worse, and the battles became more and more frequent. One after another, the foreign cavalry seemed to be desperate for their lives, and they fought more and more closely with Zhang Pingliang's troops.
When they arrived at one place, the cavalry lost more than 20 good riders in two or three days, accounting for 40% of the total number of people on the trip. Zhang Pingliang had to choose to hide in the hills or jungles during the day and continue the march at night.
Two short and two long bird calls came from ahead, repeated twice rhythmically.
The cavalrymen generally relaxed. The front was safe and they could rest for a night.
"We should have passed through the direction where the Tatar sentries and cavalry are densely packed. If we go further, we may be able to find the enemy's main force." Zhang Pingliang's right-hand man Shan Ji said: "However, this can be considered as breaking into the enemy's encirclement."
Zhang Pingliang smiled and said: "As scouts, we should go deep behind enemy lines. Besides, the Tatar encirclement is quite loose, so it's nothing. In two days, we will turn around and go back to take a good rest."
All the officers around him nodded slightly.
Since the army left the fortress, the main force of the Mongolian army has not appeared. It is obvious that they want to repeat their old tricks and use the two advantages of geography and climate to torture their opponents. But everyone is very calm about this, because the army is carrying too much supplies when it goes north this time.
Yes. Everyone went out for a sentry inspection and worked hard for ten days. When we got back, we had everything we needed, so we didn’t have to worry at all.
While the officers were talking, other cavalrymen found a depression. The people did not light a fire, but relied entirely on the tacit understanding of their daily training to control their mounts to form a circle in the dark. They only used specific whistles to convey information.
The officers all looked a little tired and a little lazy. They chatted all night long, and the officers did not prohibit it. There was no order to march silently, so there was no need to meddle in this nosy matter.
Another of Zhang Pingliang's subordinates, an officer nicknamed Monkey, patted his forehead: "By the way, do you want to torture the Mongolian cavalryman you caught on the way today?"
Zhang Pingliang nodded: "I almost forgot, bring it over!"
The monkey turned around to pick up the man. As he turned around, he casually mentioned: "The black Tatar's armor is pretty good. After the trial and slaughter, you have to peel off the armor."
In fact, after capturing the prisoners, they should have stripped off their armor first. However, the group of Mongolian cavalry that they bumped into during the day had the intention of spying hard, and the fight was very fierce, so the soldiers fought and retreated, not paying attention.
Zhang Pingliang didn't know about this Hao Zijia. It was the first time he returned from sentry duty. When inspecting the seizure, he accidentally took one out and was recognized by a staff officer. The staff officer was an old member of the same clan under Wang Shixian.
He was born in Gongchang Mansion and was very familiar with Xia's military equipment.
According to him, this war armor was produced in the Xia Kingdom. Its iron color is green and black, and the crystal clear hair can be seen. It is soft and tough. It is the top grade among iron armors. Especially the hand who forged this armor deliberately left a hole at the end of the armor piece.
The small pieces are not forged and stand out like warts. This type of armor is the unique craftsmanship of the Xia people's skilled craftsmen and cannot be easily copied by outsiders.
After knowing the origin of this armor, the soldiers were generally wary.
Even if everyone is generally equipped with light armor produced by their own country, it is always good to have more life-saving things, let alone such good things?
In these few battles with the enemy, not to mention taking prisoners, even when they killed the enemy on the battlefield, there were knights who stopped to take off their armor. And the number of war armors in the hands of the Black Tartars was really large, and they were obviously a group of people.
A group of people who were subjugated from the Western Regions, but many of them were equipped with such excellent armor. What a good luck!
Zhang Pingliang suddenly stood up and walked back and forth several times.
Pheasant asked: "Is there anything wrong?"
"The Xia Zijia is a special product of the Xia Kingdom. It is said that such armor is a good item only for the generals of the Xia Kingdom. Even the Xia Kingdom doesn't have many of them, right?"
Pheasant laughed and said: "If that were the case, how powerful would the Xia Kingdom be? How many pieces of armor can we forge in a year as the weapons supervisor of our Zhou Dynasty!"
"That's right. Then, wouldn't it be true that there are tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of pieces of this kind of precious armor flying everywhere outside the country's borders?"
Pheasant shook his head: "If there are really many rumors out there, we should have seen it long ago after fighting for so many years, and we wouldn't be receiving advice from others now."
"Then the enemies we met during these two outings, these Mongolian servant tribesmen, these lackeys whose country was destroyed by the Mongols, are so virtuous that they are equipped with many warzi armor?"
At this point, Zhang Pingliang saw that Pheasant's face was confused, so he waved his hand and said: "I will give you half of my men. Don't hesitate to leave overnight and rendezvous with our army headquarters as soon as possible. After rendezvous, only report one
The matter is what I just mentioned, the matter of Hao Zijia. Go ahead, gather your troops, and set off now!"
at the same time.
In the headquarters of the army not far from Xuehu Ridge.
Guo Ning sat on the saddle, holding a large piece of dried mutton and tearing it into pieces. After taking a few bites, he smiled at the knights beside him and said: "You guys, don't look at me like a fool. I know the people in our army
The food is delicious, but I haven’t tasted jerky made by Mongolians for a long time. I occasionally bite two of them, and they taste really good.”
"Then your Majesty must have good teeth."
"Yeah, if you ask me, where is this meat? It's just stone!"
"Don't say that jerky looks like a stone, cheese is no different from a stone!"
The attendants complained one after another.
Guo Ning laughed twice, stood up, looked behind him, and shouted at the top of his voice: "Are you okay? If so, let's eat together!"
In the row of tents at the back, the soldiers were lighting torches one after another, illuminating a large area. There was no tent in one area, but a piece of flat land was cleared, and the torches on all sides illuminated it brightly.
Surrounded by the fire, Xu Jin stood with his hands behind his back and a gloomy face, as if he didn't hear Guo Ning's shouts at all.
In front of Xu Jin, Lu Wusi held the last few iron fragments and handed them to Wu Xian one by one. Wu Xian, sweating profusely, took the fragments and placed them into the spliced shape on the ground.
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"These three were found in the mountains outside Yuzhou and Hongzhou. They were the ones used by the Mongols to continuously conquer the mountain strongholds. We speculated for a long time at that time and didn't understand how the Mongols knew how to make iron artillery.
arms."
Seeing several shapes gradually becoming complete, Xu Jin said slowly: "When the Mongols attacked the mountain stronghold deep in Yanshan Mountain, they fired no less than five hundred iron artillery pieces. In order to fight against them, our army went north and prepared several additional types of gunpowder.
Weapons, including iron chariots that can be quickly arrayed and life-saving armors, were also mobilized in more than twice the quantity. Sure enough, they fought with our army and fired many iron artillery pieces one after another. These two are the battle between us and the enemy.
After the battle, we collected them one after another."
Wu Xian thumped his waist, stood up and said: "Out of hundreds of iron fires, there are about forty or fifty that fail to explode completely... To be honest, this level of reliability is no worse than what we make ourselves...
…Forty or fifty years ago, these five were finally put back together completely by us.”
"Everyone, what can you tell from these five spliced iron artillery pieces?"
There was a circle of officers standing around Pingdi. Their positions ranged from high to low, but they were all veterans with deep qualifications and extensive knowledge. After hearing Xu Jin's inquiry, the officers chatted in low voices for a while. Someone hesitated and said: "If I didn't see it,
Wrong...these iron artillery pieces were all produced by the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, and they were mostly products of the Lizhou East Road Ordnance Institute at Shukou."
Guo Ning put the dried meat back on the plate and stood up: "Song State? How can it be related to Song State?"
The officer himself thought it was ridiculous and was stunned for a moment and dared not speak.
Wu Xian suddenly said: "To be fair to your majesty, during the Taihe period, Shu Hu Gao Qi Tong knew the affairs of Lintao Prefecture and fought with the Song army. I was under his command at that time and I had seen the firearms of the Song people. The Song people were on Lizhou East Road. We set up an ordnance station and produced many iron artillery pieces. Compared with those we use at home and those commonly seen in the Song Dynasty, this type of iron artillery is much smaller and is cast using the upper and lower method. What is particularly special is that the ignition point of the fuse of this iron artillery piece is There is no protruding tubular thick lip, but a small round hole directly cut into the wall of the vessel."
Having said this, Wu Xian took the torch in his hand and squatted down slightly to signal: "Your Majesty, please look at this small hole."
The prototype of the iron artillery mentioned here is shrapnel excavated in the garden area of the Fanjiayan ruins in Diaoyu City in 2013. The material is white cast iron, and its diameter is estimated to be 10.7 cm, height 10.4 cm, and wall thickness 0.7 to 1.3 cm.
