The time has entered late April, the busy farming season has ended, and the off-farming period has begun in the North when soldiers are recruited to practice military archery.
In order to prepare for the use of troops in the coming year, the Beidi County Lieutenant's Mansion has been very busy recently. Heifu also often summons the county lieutenants, military historians and priests to gather together to arrange tasks for them. From time to time, some golden sentences come out in the meeting.
For example, this sentence.
"When facing a battle, there are three things to consider when joining forces. The first is to obtain the terrain, the second is to obey the discipline of the soldiers, and the third is to make use of the weapon!"
As soon as the county lieutenant said this, the clerks who were in charge of the meeting minutes immediately copied them onto jute paper.
Heifu asked the officials to digest this sentence, while he picked up the cup and took a sip of the wolfberry and chrysanthemum water that his wife had made for him. After a while, he slowly said:
"The Art of War says that people often die where they cannot and defeat where they cannot. Therefore, in the art of war, teaching war is the first priority."
The so-called soldier obedience is to increase the training of soldiers so that they know the golden drum flag and are proficient in fighting skills so that they will not be confused and overwhelmed when they go to the battlefield.
Beidi County is a border county, so it has standing army soldiers and county soldiers, but not many. The county capital Yiqucheng has one thousand, the two border passes of Xiaoguan and Wushisai have five hundred each, and the remaining six counties have
, each has five hundred, but the total is only five thousand.
At most half of these county soldiers can be mobilized during the battle, so the main force of the war is not them, but the garrison soldiers recruited temporarily. The number of households in the North County is more than 30,000, and the population is less than 200,000. Compared with Heifu's
My hometown, Nanjun, is much worse, and half of it is a Rongdi people. Fortunately, the people here are strong, and the people are more active in joining the army. With three households and one village, it is easy to recruit more than 10,000 people.
In addition to the county soldiers and garrison soldiers, there are also cavalry and servants from the Rong tribes such as Dayuan, Wushi, Chaona, Yiqu, etc., which can make up 3,000 people.
Based on this calculation, the maximum number of troops that Beidi County can dispatch is 15,000.
According to the orders issued by Qin Shihuang to Longxi and Shangjun, the war may start next year, and Heifu must seize the time to train them.
"Beyond the fortress, there are mountains and hills, many mountains and plains, vast fields. In this land of chariots and cavalry, there are not even ten infantrymen."
Heifu has set the tone for this war. Chariots and cavalry will be the decisive factor in whether he can achieve a great victory, so he decided to increase the number of chariots and cavalry in Beidi County, especially the cavalry.
The 3,000 troops and cavalry gathered by each military branch were temporarily recruited and led by tribal leaders to participate in the battle. They did not need to be trained by county lieutenants, and Heifu did not want to rely too much on them. He planned to use 300 good men from the North who were skilled in riding and archery as his troops.
The core is to train a cavalry composed purely of Qin people equipped with high saddles and stirrups on the pastures of Yuzhi, Yiqu and Jingyang. The number of soldiers is not too high, just a thousand!
Heifu's plan is to have Bailu, the grandson of Yuzhi County, train three hundred good men in half a year, teach them cavalry tactics, and familiarize them with high saddles and stirrups. When autumn comes, he will further recruit hundreds of people from the county who are capable of riding horses and archery.
The young men and women of the good family are enlisted in the army, so that one person from the good family can teach two people, and the army will be ready in the summer next year...
As for the training of other officers, soldiers, and apprentices, Heifu decided to take care of it himself.
After talking about "the pawn gets used to it", Heifu emphasized the "utility of the weapon".
"If the weapon's blade is not sharp, how is it different from a bare-handed fist? If the armor is not hard and tight, how is it different from a commoner's clothing? If a crossbow cannot shoot from a distance, how is it different from a short-hand soldier? If the shot cannot hit, it cannot penetrate, it is different from a weapon without arrows.
What's the difference? Therefore, the art of war says: If the weapon is not good, use it to kill the enemy!"
Heifu went to the county in spring and inspected the arsenals of each county. Generally speaking, he was quite satisfied. Beidi County is located in an important position. Xianyang often transports weapons and arrows here, but most of these weapons are bronze and iron soldiers.
less.
When the forging of iron weapons of the Six Kingdoms in Shandong was relatively mature, Qin still used bronze because it could be mass-produced. Although it had reached the pinnacle of bronze weapon manufacturing, there was a problem: Beidi County was short of copper and tin!
This means that Beidi County's weapons can only rely on the Xianyang arsenal and the iron mines in Qixian County. Although it is not far away, once a war breaks out, the front line stretches for thousands of miles, and there is no arsenal in front to supply weapons and arrows in time.
Clusters may become a hidden danger.
When Heifu inspected the counties, he discovered that there was an iron mine in a place called "Yiju" at the intersection of Nishui and Jingshui in Niyang County. There were also some small workshops in the area that could make iron farm tools. After investigation, it was found that
The scale of the iron ore is not small. If it is mined on a large scale, tens of thousands of kilograms of good iron can be produced every year!
So after negotiating with the governor, Heifu made a request to Qin Shihuang: set up iron officials in Beidi County, move blacksmiths from Guandong to Beidi, mine and smelt iron, and produce iron weapons nearby to make up for the shortage of frontline weapons...
By the way, there was an iron workshop in Beidi County, so it was convenient for Heifu to ask craftsmen to tinker with some small inventions that would shine in the war against Hungary.
However, afterward, Heifu felt that these were all precautions, and even a bit icing on the cake, because he heard from Wu Shiluo that the Xiongnu's metallurgical industry was more than a little behind that of the Central Plains...
As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there are many relics of bronze civilization on the grasslands. The Huns also smelted bronze. Weapons and horse gear such as copper knives, bronze swords, copper arrowheads, copper axes, and bronze horse bits were very common.
However, compared to the demand, its quantity is really scarce. A small number of the Xiongnu's copper and iron are produced by themselves, and most of them are imported from the Central Plains and the distant Altai Mountains. They are valuable. In the hinterland of the Xiongnu, sometimes a small copper knife can be
In exchange for a cow, some ordinary Huns herdsmen had to use stones as blades and bones as clusters.
Therefore, in terms of armor and soldiers, the Xiongnu's weakness is China's strength.
Since transporting copper and iron outside the frontier can make a fortune, during the melee between the seven kingdoms in the Central Plains, the copper and iron from Qin, Yan, and Zhao all flowed out of the frontier. However, as Qin destroyed Yan and Dai, the Huns obtained copper and iron from the Central Plains.
, then decrease rapidly!
After Heifu came to Northland County, he intensified his blow to the smuggling trade.
"Even a needle is not allowed to flow out of the customs!"
At the end of the meeting, Heifu gave the thief Cao a death order. Once the Great Wall garrison discovers a smuggler intending to cross the border, he will kill him without retaliation!
Forget it, Heifu added another one: "The soldiers on the border can take all the stolen goods and property obtained from private smuggling!"
The thief Cao Peng was stunned, his teeth were chattering a little, this county lieutenant is really cruel!
As a result, the border guards will be extremely happy to shoot any smugglers who dare to cross the border and seize their belongings. Until the war begins, no one dares to approach the Great Wall openly, and the Wuzhi will be the only ones qualified to trade out of the border.
Merchant.
This harsh order will definitely make the border merchants complain, but Heifu has no time to pity them. Border merchants can be used by Qin or the Huns. If these smugglers betray inland intelligence for profit, it will also be a troublesome matter.
.
Not every businessman can be as patriotic as Xian Gao.
After Hei Fu finished drinking a pot of wolfberry and chrysanthemum tea in his hand, the meeting was considered over. He had arranged for everyone to take care of the two matters of soldiers obeying the customs and making use of their tools. However, Hei Fu did not take care of the top priority, "getting the terrain".
mentioned.
Heifu left this matter to Chen Ping and the Wuzhi caravan to investigate. They left the fortress at the end of last month. It has been more than a month now. They should have penetrated deep into the Xiongnu Henan region. I don't know where they are now?
…
Chen Ping and his party were still staying at the Xiongnu grazing land at the foot of Helan Mountain. Chen Ping was not worried about his intentions being exposed. After all, the Wushi caravan came every year. Touman Shanyu also invited Ushiyan to visit Touman City.
, don’t be afraid of not letting go.
What interested him was that before the caravan set off, Wu Shiyan was invited to the big tent by Moton. It was said that there were only two of them in the tent. This kind of scene to avoid outsiders was usually used for secret talks...
The two county soldiers who were arranged by Hei Fu to protect Chen Ping were slightly worried.
"Will U Thiyan betray us?"
Chen Ping was not afraid at all, and said with a smile: "If Wushi didn't understand which side of the business is more profitable, he wouldn't be as rich as he is today, but..."
He thought maliciously: "In the past ten years, the goods that Wu brought out of the customs may have been mixed with copper, iron and other contraband..."
This is what Chen Ping got out of Wu Shiyan yesterday. Wu Shiyan insisted that he reported it to the Shaofu and occasionally brought some copper and iron items to the Xiongnu to win their trust and facilitate trade and exploration.
enemy situation.
This trip to the fortress was no exception. With the permission of the county guard and the county lieutenant, Wu Shi brought a hundred small copper knives to Modu. However, the Huns still felt that this was too little and not enough for one tribe.
Therefore, Chen Ping guessed that Maodun invited Wu Shiyan to have a secret discussion this time, and the discussion was about whether Wu Shi could transport another batch of copper and iron weapons to the Xiongnu in the second half of the year...
In the afternoon, Wu Shiyan came back, his mouth full of the smell of mare's milk. After entering the camp, he didn't say anything. After everyone set off, and halfway through the journey, when no Huns could hear or see him, he asked Chen Ping to come over and said to him:
"Prince Moton came to talk to me. As expected, it was about the smuggling of copper and iron and gold items out of the country!"
Chen Ping smiled, and his guess was right. Unexpectedly, Wu Shiyan said again: "But this time is different from usual. What Mao Dun wants is not only ready-made copper and iron utensils. He actually asked me if I could get it from the plains."
, bring some craftsmen who can mine, smelt, and cast tools to the Xiongnu! He will buy them with a lot of money!"
Chen Ping stopped laughing and looked back at the other Xiongnu tribes in Helan Mountain where the tents were lined up. He couldn't help but be surprised.
"In time, will Maodun become a hero of the grassland? At the age of eighteen or nineteen, he can actually understand that it is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish!?"
