The Zhang family's eldest son took his eldest son and the town soldiers and rural soldiers from the same village. After eating the morning meal that day, they set off for Liangzhou.
His eldest son is still a bit young, only seventeen years old, and he was originally not qualified to be a town soldier.
However, a brother of the Zhang family's elder brother died in battle outside Mapaoquan Village in Guanzhong, so he was able to shelter an heir who entered the town army.
Originally, his brother's child was only five years old. After a few years, he could be sent to Minqin County to study in the academy specially opened by the king for the children of the war dead, where he could read Braille and learn martial arts.
But misfortunes never come singly. By the time the Zhang family's son returned home, his brother's only son had been ill and had died for four or five months.
So after the general's application and the review of the Bingcao Yamen, the eldest son of Zhang family Dalang was rewarded with a set of three-layer armor, a horizontal sword and a pair of bows and arrows, and was subsequently recruited to serve as a soldier in Wuwei Town.
This was all earned with his brother's life. The Zhang family's son had already decided that if his eldest son could live past the next year, he would not let him go to war, and would adopt him to continue his legacy to his brother.
"Yeah! Look, the people from Shangbaima Village are here, and Brother Wang is here too."
On his first expedition, the excited eldest son pointed at a group of men in the distance and shouted to him.
The elder Zhang family man looked up and saw a strong man with ape-like hands among the group of horses coming out of Shangbaima Village.
The strong man led three horses, one for charging into the battle, one carrying his armor and stomach dry food, and a pretty little lady sitting on the back of the other horse.
The word "brother" cannot generally be used indiscriminately, because it can be an honorific for an elder brother, or it can also be a title for a father.
But for this strong man with ape-like hands, the young people in Shangxiabaima Village like to call him Brother Wang behind his back.
The reason is that the girl on the horse behind Brother Wang is the daughter of a strong man named Wang. She is the best in appearance and figure in the two villages. She is also good at serving soup and rice, and can raise more than a hundred or more in a year. A pound of fat pig.
A girl who is in good health, can cook, and does farm work very efficiently, and if she is good-looking, she is a hexagonal girl in the rural marriage market at this time.
The eldest son of the Zhang family is no exception. The reason why he wants to go to the battlefield is because he wants to get a reward and come back to marry this young lady from the Wang family.
"You son of a bitch, don't you want your eyes? You don't want me to pluck them out for you and stomp on them!"
The eldest son of the Zhang family was so fascinated that he didn't even know that the strong man named Wang had walked in front of him.
There was a burst of laughter all around, but the younger laughter was mixed with a bit of a sour and wanting to hit someone.
The young lady from the Wang family was not shy. She looked at the young boy from the Zhang family and suddenly smiled.
"Why are you so thin? When you go to the battlefield, you can't breathe without rushing to kill?"
The boy from the Zhang family suddenly turned red and turned around to pull off the leather armor on the horse's back, still yelling.
"So-and-so is not thin, so-and-so is good at archery, and so-and-so has armor. If anyone dares to come in front of so-and-so and charge to kill him, he will be killed with a flying arrow!"
The eldest son of the Zhang family stretched out his hand and pinched the eldest son's ear. The pain was so painful that he just screamed. Then he pushed gently in front of the strong man named Wang.
"Both the armor and the bow were given by the king. I inherited the protection of a certain Erlang. I am a bit younger, but my archery skills are still good. On the battlefield, my brother will help me keep an eye on it. I can be beaten or scolded!"
The strong man of the Wang family nodded, he knew why the Zhang family did this.
Because Da Lang of the Zhang family is a jumping soldier, a heavy armored soldier who is responsible for rushing into the formation when spears are stabbing each other.
The strong men of the Wang family focused more on the crossbowman aspect. The Zhang family's son was good at shooting and was from the same hometown, so he must be assigned to his subordinates.
"It's easy to say! It's easy to say!" After saying this, the strong man from the Wang family turned around and pulled out a tall young man from behind.
"This is the second son of a certain brother. He is very strong and can use guns, sticks, swords and axes. Brother Zhang also helps to look after him."
The elder man of the Zhang family nodded. The nephew, a strong man from the Wang family, was about the same height as him.
"When I go this time, the team leader said that he will probably be given a cotton-padded armor. When the time comes, I will let the young man from the Wang family wear the pierced armor."
This is a great kindness!
A good pair of armor can greatly enhance the survival rate of soldiers, and can also increase the chance of obtaining military exploits. The strong man of the Wang family solemnly handed it over.
"I also went to see the team leader and asked him to get a pair of Persian chain mail for Xiao Lang."
The two battlefield veterans immediately formed an alliance to help each other, making the young men around who had no elders in the army envious.
In all walks of life, even if you go into battle to kill people, you still have to fight hard!
For example, young people like Zhang's eldest son and Wang's nephew are in great need of help in terms of adaptability on the battlefield, not to mention that the armor stomach can improve their survivability.
Many recruits who are new to the battlefield, no matter how well they have practiced, will panic when they see a bloody fight.
Many people even lose awareness of the things around them at some point.
However, on the battlefield, military discipline is extremely strict. Sometimes it is not a deserter, but if you subconsciously walk a step slower, or if you don't hear the sound of drums and horns and go in the wrong direction, you are very likely to be stabbed by the Silver Sword Officer holding the battle. .
With the help of veterans to control and remind, various accidents on the battlefield can be avoided.
Compared with other young people, the two rookies from the Zhang family and the Wang family undoubtedly have a much greater chance of survival.
After fighting two or three battles and gaining experience, he will be a warrior on the battlefield again.
While the people of Shang and Xiabaima villages were chatting, the town troops and militia from other villages in Minqin County also rushed to meet outside the county town.
After letting their relatives see them off, the town troops assembled according to their organization and set off to assemble in their respective camps.
The united archers and Yi Congxiao cavalry were also gathered by the county captain, and then the officers of the town army would select them as auxiliary soldiers.
For the rest, some of the hundreds of county lieutenants in Longyou, Hexi, were selected to go with the army, and also managed them and did some dirty work.
At the same time, for the first time in the Gannan Jingtieshan mine, more than 7,000 miners did not work today.
Because there will be officers from the town army here today to choose the prince.
This name was originally used by Xixia to refer to the Han cannon fodder troops in history. Zhang Zhao thought this name was very good, so he used it in Longyou, Hexi.
It's just that the young master he bumped into here was not a Han prisoner, but a death squad selected from the Jingtieshan Mine.
But even the opportunity to serve as cannon fodder for death squads is still cherished by the slaves in the mine.
Only those who have actually stayed in a mine know what hell is on earth.
At this time, there were no blasting methods available for mining. The gunpowder developed by Cao Yanming was close to the level of black powder and could not be called explosives at all.
Moreover, because it is extremely precious, even the army cannot use it enough, and they are generally reluctant to use it for mining.
For such a large scale as Jingtieshan, only forty kilograms of gunpowder was approved by the right chief minister of the royal family a year, and it had to be reviewed and approved at all levels before it could be used.
Therefore, all the mining in Jingtieshan relies on the manpower of miners. Regardless of the difficulty of digging, the mines dug out are almost no bigger than a person.
As a result, it often happened that mining slaves were suffocated to death after going down the mine, or that the mine collapsed and was crushed to death. As for others, there were countless others who were exhausted to death.
And they were originally rebels who resisted Zhang Zhao or had blood feuds like the Ganzhou Uighurs. If something happened, few people would care about their life or death, and their status was not even as good as livestock.
For these people, staying in the mine will lead to death sooner or later, and being exhausted to death is the best outcome.
But on the battlefield, although there is a high probability of being killed, there is also a small probability that one can perform a meritorious service and escape the fate of a mining slave.
The former can lead to early death and early rebirth, and the latter can change your destiny. It's worth a try no matter what.
The person who manages the mine is Zhang Zhao's cousin, who knows the Jingtieshan mine and is also the magistrate of Jingtieshan County, Yin Zhu.
When Ma Yaozi rushed over, he saw mountains of iron ore in Jingtieshan, but only a handful of steel furnaces for smelting the ore were running.
Yin Zhuzhu looked at Ma Yaozi's doubtful eyes and smiled bitterly.
"There is no coke! Coal mining is too difficult. The mine is only a dozen meters deep. Water from afar cannot quench the thirst of the nearby. This year's 100,000 kilograms of refined iron will definitely not be completed."
One hundred thousand kilograms of fine iron was a joint task given by Zhang Zhao to Cao Yanming and Yin Zhu.
Zhang Zhao originally planned to produce 100,000 kilograms of fine iron this year, and then take out the coffin book to build 2,000 sets of cloth-covered armor and several weapons.
As a result, before the 20,000 kilograms were achieved, the coke was gone, and the mining of coal was extremely unsatisfactory.
Ma Yaozi nodded heavily, these one hundred thousand kilograms of refined iron was not a small amount.
Take the Tang Dynasty as an example. In the third year of Yuanhe (809), when iron production was the highest, the world's iron production was two million kilograms.
It looks quite high, right, but this is iron, not pig iron or fine iron. Specifically speaking of fine iron, it is estimated to be about 200,000 to 300,000 kilograms.
And even in the Tang Dynasty, such a high yield could only be maintained for a few years. By the time the Tang Dynasty fell, the world's output would only be 400,000 kilograms.
This can also show the value of iron armor from the side. Shi Jingtang didn't know the details. If he knew that although the Guiyi Army only had 20,000 or 30,000 people, it had thousands of sets of iron armor and thousands of sets of chain mail and chain mail, he would definitely Treat the Guiyi Army as the number one enemy.
However, Ma Yaozi was unable to solve the problem of the Yin Cylinder, and he was not here to solve it.
On the contrary, the recruitment of mining slaves must be done quickly, because the bodies of these mining slaves have been damaged to a certain extent in the mines. After being recruited, they have to be raised for more than ten days before they can be used as cannon fodder.
. . . .
At the end of August, Zhang Zhao held a grand banquet in Liangzhou to entertain the officers and soldiers from all walks of life.
Each soldier was given two feet of red gauze and a piece of fine white cotton as a reward, but this was only verbal and would only be honored after returning from the battle and without violating military law.
Subsequently, nine thousand troops were recruited from the five towns, and six thousand infantry troops were sent to Shandu, for a total of fifteen thousand.
In addition to the two thousand united archers, three thousand Yicong Xiaoqi, two thousand Jingtieshan mine slaves, and tens of thousands of civilians, there are more than thirty thousand people in total, known as fifty thousand.
Starting from Liangzhou, we first go to Lanzhou, then follow the Yellow River eastward through Huizhou, pass through Shapotou and Weining Plains, and go straight to Yanzhou (Dingbian, Shaanxi).
