Genghis Khan took another look at the straight knife held by Mu Huali in both hands, held it in his hand, weighed it, and waved it twice more.
His wrist is extremely thick and powerful, so when he swings the sword, he does not move much, but the blade swings very quickly, causing a sharp sound of breaking wind.
After using one handle, he took the second and third handle and swung them continuously. Different from the junk collected from the Jin Kingdom's arsenal, the ridges of these three knives are extra widened and thickened. The power when slashing is obviously greater, but due to the effect of the center of gravity, it is not Very tiring.
More importantly, the specifications and feel of the three knives are almost identical.
Genghis Khan noticed this keenly.
Before the establishment of the Great Mongolia, the level of craftsmanship on the grasslands had always lagged behind. Even the Liao Kingdom, whose ruling area spanned thousands of miles of grassland from east to west, mainly relied on the Bohai people in the northeast and the Han people in the Yanyun area for its smelting.
Looking at the resource endowment of the grassland itself, there is no shortage of iron. However, iron smelting requires a large amount of charcoal as fuel, and the forest on the grassland is extremely unevenly distributed, mostly in the mountains on the east and west sides. And tribes migrate with water and grass nomadically, and it is impossible to mine and smelt iron in one place. So almost no tribe has the ability to smelt metal.
Some nobles occasionally got a sharp iron weapon, and some even kept it as a family heirloom; while ordinary Mongolians used bone arrows and wooden sticks to fight with others. As a result, blacksmiths had a very high status on the grasslands. Genghis Khan's name, Temujin, was taken from the tribal leader of the Tatar people, and its original meaning was "the ironsmith."
After the rise of Genghis Khan, he gathered craftsmen from many tribes under one management, and through wars with the Xia Kingdom and the Jin Kingdom, he captured a large number of craftsmen. After the Year of the Dog, the Jin Kingdom set up mines along the Monan boundary trench. All the weapons fell into the hands of the Mongols, which greatly increased the equipment level of the Mongolian army.
As trophies and rewards, metal weapons and armors began to be distributed in large quantities to ordinary Mongolian soldiers, especially Genghis Khan's most elite Qixue army. Their various equipment and equipment were complete and sophisticated, far exceeding what they had previously seen. The hostile Jin Kingdom regular army.
However, because captive craftsmen everywhere are producing familiar weapons, the equipment of the Mongolian army cannot be said to be of uniform standards. Whatever the craftsmen make, the soldiers use.
When craftsmen from the Han region made straight knives, they used straight knives. When craftsmen from Xixia and Bahe made similar curved knives, they used curved knives. So when Genghis Khan convened a meeting of generals, the generals The weapons he carries are also cross-shaped, long and short.
And this Dinghaijun regime, which is far south of the Jin Kingdom but has reached out to Liaodong, can send two spies at random to carry such uniform specifications and self-made weapons?
Ordinary Mongolians have limited vision and knowledge and do not understand what this represents, but Genghis Khan knew very well that this represented huge war potential!
Genghis Khan held the knife and looked left and right. The Great Shaman Huoerchi immediately understood his intention and walked out of the golden tent quickly.
After a while, he turned back again.
The person who followed him in was Zha Balhuo, who was a head taller than an ordinary person and had gray beard and hair.
Zhabal Huozi is a Saiyi from the Western Regions. According to his own words, he was already eighty years old when he drank the water of the Banjuni River with Genghis Khan, but he can still sit high on the back of a camel. Heavily armored and dancing, trapped in formation and galloping as fast as flying.
He was also one of the few people who received special permission from Genghis Khan to hold unsheathed weapons in front of the Khan.
Genghis Khan raised the straight knife in his hand and said, "Come, try this knife."
Zha Balhuo didn't say much. He drew his sword in his hand and suddenly dropped it.
The two knives collided and sparks flew everywhere.
The broadsword in the hands of Zhabal Huo Zha was a high-quality product specially selected from countless seizures last year. When cutting those inferior knives, there was even a record of one swing or two. The fixed knife of the Ding Navy was naturally not as good.
But if you look closely, where the two knives collide, there is only a slight gap in the blade of the straight knife. I guess five or six more hits won't necessarily affect the enemy's kill.
Genghis Khan only felt numbness in his wrist, so he quickly changed his hand to hold the knife and flicked his wrist twice.
"What a knife!" He exclaimed in admiration and asked again: "A group of ordinary spies can carry such a knife. Is it possible that the Ding Navy can mass-produce such a knife?"
Mu Huali suddenly decided to kill someone, but the soldiers acted quickly. The two houses were full of flesh and blood, otherwise, we could interrogate the prisoners and find out the news.
Fortunately, after he took control of the Beijing Road, he used many Han generals to infiltrate Liaodong, so he immediately bowed his head and said:
"Around the month of Yang'er, Shi Mo and I also led our troops to the east to recruit the remaining troops of Brother Yelvliu. During this period, we fought with the Jurchen He Shi Liehuanduan's troops. There were also many close subordinates of He Shi Liehuanduan who used such knives. . I specially sent people to inquire about it. Guo Ning, the navy of Nading, used salt, medicinal materials, cloth and weapons produced in Shandong to continuously exchange war horses with the northeastern hinterland. However, one good horse can only be exchanged for three such swords. Liaodong The Jin Army may not necessarily hand over all the horses for their own use, so they don’t have many knives and equipment.”
"A good horse for three knives?"
Genghis Khan breathed a sigh of relief.
There are many horses on the grassland, so horses are very cheap. But horses are important livestock after all, and the exchange price is really not low.
In war, knives are inevitably subject to violent collisions and are consumables. No matter how well you protect your knives and how much you cherish them, when it comes to fighting, don't you just use as much force as you need? When life and death are at stake, who would consider protecting the knife? You must protect your own life first.
Therefore, the more bravely they fight, the faster their knives will be damaged. Some warriors will break two or three knives in one battle. Some warriors even have empty hands in the middle of the fight, searching everywhere on the battlefield for swords left behind by the enemy. Many soldiers like to carry clumsy weapons such as maces and iron bones with them to avoid such situations.
If one horse can only be exchanged for three, knives of this price are not widely equipped by ordinary soldiers anyway. It seems that the craftsmen of Nading Navy are good at fine workmanship, but their output may not be very large.
"This Guo Ning defeated Tuo Lei and Chiju Prince Consort last year, and defeated Chen Nayan's men this year. They can produce sophisticated weapons and exchange them for war horses. They must be strong enemies. After we attack Zhongdu, you We need to send more manpower to stay here and closely observe the direction of Liaodong to prevent the navy from repeating its old tricks and crossing the sea to attack."
After a pause, he had a new idea: "No, we can't wait for the enemy to attack. Prince Consort Bitu and Zhebie will arrive soon. You give them some Han and Khitan troops. Let them go to Liaodong. Find a way to contain the power of the navy!"
"As you command!"
Mu Huali received the order and then thought of another thing.
This matter was jointly raised by several Han ministers when he was discussing strategy with his subordinates a few days ago. Mu Huali thinks it makes sense.
So he asked: "Great Khan, why are we attacking Zhongdu this time?"
"What?"
"When the troops retreated at the beginning of the year, the Jurchens presented princesses, gold and silver, silk ribbons, boys and girls, and three thousand horses. Now, after a few months, the troops have sent out again. I'm afraid there will be some confusion in the local area. Should we have A reason to declare to the Central Plains? In this way, the soldiers and civilians in the Central Plains can know that the responsibility lies with the Jin Kingdom, not us; our Mongol army is to punish the unjust, not to raise troops for no reason!"
The smile on Genghis Khan's face suddenly disappeared.
He stared at Mu Huali for a long time, and the indifference and cruelty that ordinary Mongolian generals were used to seeing gradually appeared in his eyes.
It wasn't until Mu Huali fell to his knees covered in sweat that he said in a deep voice:
"You have been in the Central Plains for a few months, how come you have contracted the Central Plains people's pretentiousness? The entire land is the pasture of the Mongols. Do the herdsmen have to explain to the livestock what they want to do? We raise troops, Or not raising troops has nothing to do with the Jurchens! No matter what happens to the Jurchens, we will always seize everything they have!"
