Time flies, time flies, and more than two months have passed in the blink of an eye.
…
"The first set of military boxing, breaking down the movements and preparing for fighting:
The first lunge and punch - Roar!
The second type of throat-piercing bullet kick - Roar!
The third posture is horse stance and horizontal strike - Roar!
…”
Outside the east gate of Baichengzi, thousands of soldiers lined up in the newly built military field and were practicing military boxing under the leadership of Qin Feng.
There are three sets of military boxing, which are composed of many actions including fighting, beating, grabbing swords, grabbing guns, and attacking. The steps are steady and powerful, and the movements are strong, which is very suitable for close combat.
After practicing military boxing, the soldiers began to conduct queue training, physical training, and tactical movement training... For a time, the dust in the school military field was flying, and various slogans went straight into the sky!
Looking at the hard-training soldiers, Qin Feng nodded with satisfaction, and then looked up into the air. The golden eagle Lightning was spreading its wings and soaring, and was constantly making various movements.
These actions have great meaning, including direction, number of people, moving speed, distance... and many other information.
To put it bluntly, having the golden eagle-lightning is equivalent to having a pair of clairvoyance. When fighting in the future, Qin Feng will be able to predict the enemy first and become invincible, hehe!
After watching for a while, Dong Tianbao and Han Shanjun were asked to continue leading the soldiers in training, while Qin Feng rode the fire dragon colt back to the city.
"Ding Dong...Ding Dong!"
A new weapons bureau was built in the northeast corner of the city. There were many craftsmen inside, sweating profusely, busy building various weapons, and the sound of clanging could be heard endlessly.
To form an elite division, not only the soldiers must train hard, but the weapons and equipment are equally important!
Therefore, Qin Feng sent a letter to Yang He, the governor of the three sides, and transferred a group of experienced craftsmen from Guyuan, Xi'an, and Fengxiang military battles. He also spent a lot of money to recruit a group of craftsmen, totaling more than 400 craftsmen. People formed a weapons bureau to build weapons and armor for soldiers.
The person in charge of this weapons bureau is none other than the former old neighbor—Old Man Hu!
Old Man Hu was originally a well-known craftsman in the Xi'an Military War Bureau. He was skilled in craftsmanship and was good at forging various weapons. He even knew how to forge artillery. He was sent to the Seven Kills Fort because he offended his boss because of his upright personality.
The last time Qin Feng went back to the Seven Kills Fort to pick up Jin Yuniang, he also invited Old Man Hu here and asked him to use his expertise and be responsible for making weapons.
Old man Hu was holding a heavy hammer and was forging a long knife by the stove. When he saw Qin Feng coming, he immediately put down the hammer, knelt down on one knee and saluted: "Young man, join the guard!"
"Uncle Hu, please get up quickly. When you see me in the future, you don't need to give me such a big gift. It's too intrusive!"
"You are now a guard master, how dare this old man be rude!"
"Uncle Hu, is my armor ready?"
"It has been built and is ready for you to take a look at!"
…
While he was talking, Old Man Hu asked someone to bring over a large box. After opening it, there was a brand new set of golden lacquered mountain armor, which consisted of a helmet, shoulder pads, breast shield, arm guards, belly guard... a total of more than 20 parts. It forms an overall protection from top to bottom.
Moreover, it is made of real materials and is extremely protective. It can block the shots of strong bows and crossbows at a distance of eighty steps. When fighting at close range, it can block the slashes of ordinary swords without breaking. It is also called "treasure armor". Not an exaggeration.
With the help of several soldiers, Qin Feng put on this set of golden lacquer mountain armor, looked at a bronze mirror, and tried it on with his hands and feet raised. Not only was it powerful and beautiful, but the size was also very suitable. It was worthy of its size. Armor made by oneself!
The only drawback is that the production process of this kind of golden lacquer mountain armor is too complicated, extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the cost is as high as seven to eight hundred taels of silver. Only high-ranking officers can afford to wear it.
Ordinary officers can only choose the next-level iron armor and chain armor. As for ordinary soldiers, they are all equipped with cotton armor!
After wetting the good cotton, pat it into very thin cotton sheets, then squeeze multiple cotton sheets into thick cotton pads, put iron sheets between the two layers of cotton pads, and fix them both inside and outside with copper nails... The cotton armor produced in this way is light in weight, strong in defense, cost-effective, and has excellent thermal insulation effect!
Today is the Little Ice Age, and the weather is extremely cold. Soldiers wearing cotton armor to fight are equivalent to wearing a cotton coat, which is quite practical.
Nowadays, the armies of the Ming Dynasty, Mongolia, and Jurchens are all equipped with a large number of cotton armors. To put it bluntly, cotton armors are the mainstream armor of this era!
According to Qin Feng’s design, the cotton armor of the Tianwei Army is mainly pure black, and is matched with different auxiliary colors according to different types of soldiers:
Musketeers - black and red!
Archer - black and white!
Card Swordsman - black and blue!
Lancer - black and purple!
Paramedic - black and green!
…
In this way, just by looking at the color of the armor, you can know the type of soldiers. This not only facilitates generals to command and fight, but also facilitates the assembly and cooperation of different arms.
"Uncle Hu, eight thousand sets of cotton armor, as well as matching swords, guns, shields, bows and arrows, matchlocks... How long will it take to build them?"
"Returning to the Lord Guards, if there are enough materials such as copper, iron, cloth, cotton, sinew... and the old men work hard day and night, they can be built in about three months. If the materials are not enough, it's hard to say. Well, it’s hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice!”
In one sentence, Old Man Hu stated the biggest difficulty we are facing now, which is a serious lack of materials, or more accurately, a serious lack of money.
People from the weapons bureau have made statistics: a steel knife costs twenty taels of silver!
A horn bow costs three taels of silver!
A set of cotton armor costs eight taels of silver!
…
The most expensive one is the matchlock gun, which costs up to fifty-five taels of silver. It is also time-consuming and labor-intensive. Just drilling out a qualified barrel requires a craftsman to work for more than half a month.
Because of this, matchlocks have been introduced to the Ming Dynasty for decades, but they have been unable to equip the army in large numbers. Today, the army is equipped with firecrackers with short range, low accuracy and extremely unreliable.
Qin Feng didn't want his soldiers to go to the battlefield with cheap goods. That would be tantamount to taking human life lightly, but if he wanted to be equipped with sophisticated weapons, he would need a lot of money!
Before coming to Baichengzi to take office, Yang He, the governor of the three sides, approved military pay of 10,000 taels of silver for the purpose of forming a new army.
He also 'divided the stolen goods' and got tens of thousands of taels of silver.
If it were normal expenses, the money would be enough for more than half a year. Unfortunately, Qin Feng was so good at making things. In just over two months, he had spent almost all the money.
Eight thousand soldiers, each with a settlement fee of two taels of silver, a total of sixteen thousand silver.
In terms of military pay, the most elite Liaodong cavalry earn one and a half taels of silver a month and eighteen taels a year.
Soldiers of the Tianwei Army are paid twenty taels of silver a month, which is a quarter more than the Liaodong Cavalry. They are paid on time and never in arrears. What they are given is top-grade snowflake silver, not the deceptive variegated silver. .
In this way, the military salary is sixteen thousand taels of silver per month.
As for food, Liaodong soldiers eat two meals a day, with more porridge and less dry rice. They are basically half full. They can hardly eat meat once a month and drink wine once every six months.
The soldiers of Tianwei Army eat three meals a day, eat meat once every ten days, drink wine once a month, and have extra meals during holidays.
…
In addition to repairing the city wall, repairing the military field, building new barracks, forging weapons, purchasing war horses... those tens of thousands of taels of silver have been almost spent.
what to do?
Lower the treatment of the soldiers so that they no longer need to worry about being fed, eating meat, or using good weapons?
Qin Feng doesn't even want to be beaten to death!
You know, a powerful army is built with money. If you are reluctant to spend money, you cannot build a tiger and wolf army!
Tigers and wolves have to eat meat and drink blood... If they eat grass, they will become lambs.
Want more military pay from above?
Now the Governor-General Yang He is implementing the recruitment policy. Money is needed everywhere, and he wants to break a penny in half and spend it. If he reaches out to ask for military pay, it is equivalent to taking food from the mouths of the hungry people... Qin Feng cannot do this. thing! !
Ask the Xue family to borrow some?
Based on the relationship between the two parties, as long as Qin Feng opens his mouth, it will not be a problem to borrow one hundred and eighty thousand yuan. Relying on borrowing money to live on is not a long-term solution after all!
what to do?
After thinking about it, there is only one way: do it yourself and have enough food and clothing!
…
That night, Qin Feng found Han Shanjun.
"See Lord Guard!"
"Haha, there's no need to be polite, Brother Han, sit down and talk!"
"promise!"
"Brother Han, when you were third in charge, you often took people to Shanxi. You must be very familiar with the situation there. Now there is an important thing that requires you to make a hard trip."
"My lord, please give me your orders. I must do my best in this humble position!"
"That's it, we are short of money, I am ready..."
Qin Feng lowered his voice and told his plan.
Nowadays, the war in Liaodong is tense, and a large amount of military supplies that the Jurchens need are smuggled in by the eight major Shanxi merchants.
There are a large amount of military supplies. Instead of letting those traitors use them to support the enemy, it is better to borrow them yourself and use them!
Qin Feng's plan was to ask Han Shanjun to take a few people to go to Shanxi to trample the plates and find out the smuggling routes of the eight major Shanxi merchants, and then lead a battalion to intercept them halfway and snatch the military supplies.
In this way, it not only solves the equipment problem of the Tianwei Army, but also teaches those traitors and scum, and cuts off the military supply of the Jurchens. It can be said to be a good thing that kills three birds with one stone!
On the other side, Han Shanjun was stunned and stunned after hearing this.
Unexpectedly, Qin Feng was so bold and dared to take advantage of the eight major Shanxi merchants. It was... really admirable.
"If you want to reply to your lord, there is no problem in letting the humble post step on the plate, but Baichengzi is too far away from Shanxi. After the humble post understands the situation, he will send someone back to deliver the letter. The round trip will take at least more than a month. At that time, the eight major Shanxi merchants The smuggling team has already gone far away, and it might be too late to rob them along the way, right?"
"Don't worry, I have already considered this issue. In the name of camping training, we can lead a battalion of soldiers to the old site of Dongsheng City, which is next to the Yellow River and across the river is Shanxi. You can bring the Golden Eagle-Lightning with you. , once I figured out the situation, let it come back to deliver the letter. With the flying speed of the golden eagle, I could bring the letter back in a few hours. Then I immediately led people across the Yellow River, traveling day and night, to catch up with the smuggling team of the eight major Shanxi merchants. , let’s have another one-pot dish, hehe!”
"My lord, what a wonderful plan. I am so impressed by my humble position, haha!"
…
Next, the two discussed the specific action steps, determined that there were no problems, and started taking action the next day.
