Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 22 Preparing for the Battle
After contacting the Beihang Camp, the Tiande Army came into operation.

Li Shao from Lanzhou sent people a lot of supplies, including food, horse materials, arrows, bowstrings, medicinal materials, and equipment.It is said that it was transferred directly from the treasury, but it seems to be old and of average quality, and some are not even usable at all.

I don't know how that Dou Han was a Jiedushi before. One of the treasury officials counted as one, and it was absolutely right to behead all of them.But, alas, forget it, the world is like this, just use it, it's better than nothing.

Jia Jingsi, the envoy of Kuilan's army, also asked that envoy to pass a message to Hao Zhenwei and Qiu Weidao. It had no other meaning, just to watch and help each other and fight against strong enemies together.

The former military envoy was dismissed because of his defeat in the war. The new officer, because of his background as a literati, is not very convincing. He has no money to invite people to buy people's hearts. When the Tiande army arrives, they will meet and help each other.

To show his sincerity, he specially sent twenty horses, fifty pairs of iron armor, and a batch of guns, lances, knives, bows, cards and other weapons.

To be honest, this skill is not small, especially the fifty pairs of iron armor, it is really powerful.This will be the world's vassal town. If an army has a [-]% armor rate, it can be called a strong brigade.Note that this nail refers to iron armor, not relatively cheap leather armor.Fifty pieces of iron armor were taken out, which was indeed a great sincerity. Even Hao Zhenwei was a little moved when he saw it.

Hao Zhenwei still respected Qiu Weidao, the nominal number two in the Tiande Army, so he also shared what he received, including five horses, ten pairs of iron armor, sixty lances, and several swords, spears, and bows. shipped to the camp.As a military commander, Shao Shude is of course responsible for handling these materials.

Counting the ten armors they got back this time, Shao Shude and his small group already had a total of 21 armors.Not to mention, continue to distribute to the team leader and fire leader under him.

Well, Guan Kairun has been relatively low-key recently, and he is more polite and respectful when he encounters him, so I will give them two pairs. Shao Shude was too lazy to deal with it internally.

Step lance is good stuff!Tiande officers and soldiers are generally tall and strong, and many of them have worked hard on weapons such as guns and Shuo.

Shao Shude thought for a while, and decided to transfer all the people who were familiar with the steps to the front and back teams from where he started. Counting the fifteen steps he had before, he could almost form two complete teams. The admiral is a powerful booster—he has also read some Romance in later generations, and the name of the Silver Gun Effect Festival Army is like thunder.

The replaced long spears are collected together as reserve weapons, and those knives, spears, bows, and cards are handled in the same way.

Fighting is an activity that consumes a lot of energy, and the weapons will be worn out or even damaged if you meet a few times on the battlefield.

Generally speaking, after the battle, these worn weapons are sent to the baggage unit for repair by the people in the military artisan camp.But what if there were no military craftsmen at the time?Or the situation is urgent and you can't make it slowly?At this time, whether there are spare weapons that can be replaced immediately may be a matter of life and death.

Ordnance reserves, the more the better!
After receiving the military supplies, food and grass, and hearing that there might be rewards later, Tiande Army immediately made up his mind.

Hao Zhenwei also knew that at this time, he could no longer "turn in" at will, otherwise the imperial court would be in turmoil, and wouldn't he be able to clean up your lone army?As a result, the Tiande army repaired the city wall and trained it well.

A few days ago, they had captured quite a few prisoners of the Shuozhou Army, and had forcibly annexed the rest of the Zhelu Army. With the addition of a large number of auxiliary soldiers that had been brought in before the war, this team should really be rectified, otherwise it would have no combat effectiveness.

Shao Shude's capital is not big, just over 200 people, but he attaches great importance to it and pays close attention to training.Every five days, he practiced with the troops, which not only improved his skills, but also became one with the soldiers, increasing his prestige and affinity.

When not going out for exercise, he sometimes calls his subordinates for training, for example, he is training in the queue today.

"One word horizontal formation changes to the left and one team becomes five fire techniques, move!"

"One word horizontal formation changes to the right and one team becomes five fire techniques, move!"

"One word horizontal formation changes to the middle team into five fire techniques, move!"

"Five fire vertical formation changes forward into one word horizontal formation, move!"

"Five fire vertical formation changes backwards into one-word horizontal formation, move!"

Following Shao Shude's orderly password, the trainee sergeants changed their formation according to the password.

The so-called horizontal formation of one character turns to the left and one to five fires is actually quite understandable, that is, a team of 50 people first stand in a horizontal formation of one character, then keep the fire unmoved, and the rest of the fires turn left and go to the back of the fire. , align and stand still, arranged in five lines, one fire line.The right and middle are also similar exercises. As for the vertical formation of five fires, it turns forward into a horizontal formation, which can be understood literally, just to restore the original horizontal formation.

These contents may seem simple, but it is not easy to do in this day and age.First of all, you have to ensure that you have enough training time, so that these vulgar military men are familiar with this set, so as to form a conditioned reflex; secondly, officers are strict in governing the army and practice diligently. Lax, then naturally nothing can be guaranteed.

And these are just some of the most basic and simple queue routines.Some skilled generals in the army will also require training complex things such as various formations interspersed and positions, so that they can respond in time on the ever-changing battlefield.

These are all very difficult. In the early Tang Dynasty, training may be guaranteed, but in the middle Tang Dynasty, it has been somewhat lax.By the late Tang Dynasty, the Guanzhong, Henan, and Hebei vassals might have maintained a considerable level because of the constant wars, but many southern vassal towns had been in peace for many years, and they did not practice martial arts, and their training was greatly abandoned, and the decline in combat effectiveness was obvious to all.

In ancient battles, queues are the most basic things, perhaps even more important than martial arts.

The Tiande Army originally fought against the grassland tribes. Although the sergeants were not particularly elite, they were far stronger than ordinary troops. Otherwise, how could they defeat the enemy with a dignified battle in the initial battle of Zhonglingshui?
Xue Zhiqin's three-axes seemed reckless, but he had succeeded in breaking through to another army that was almost meaningless, but he couldn't beat the Tiande army.But then again, husband war, courage!The current mental state and internal cohesion of the Tiande Army are not comparable to those before.

After traveling thousands of miles, passively avoiding the battle, and absorbing a bunch of surrendered or defeated soldiers with the word "mourning" written on their foreheads. The number of soldiers increased, but the combat effectiveness declined.Hao Zhenwei was also a veteran of the army for many years. If he didn't take advantage of the time left to hurry up and train his soldiers, he would have eaten so many years of army meals for nothing.

According to the army of Kui Lan, Youzhou town attacked Weizhou a few days ago, so after Li Keyong and his son won the victory in Honggu, they first returned to Daizhou, and with the momentum of the victory, they threatened the troops of the towns who were going to the north to fight against each other. Dare to go north, then secretly divide your troops and rush to aid Weizhou, you must first fight back the troops and horses of Youzhou Town.

It can also be seen from this that the rebels are not strong enough, but there are only more than [-] people, but they have to defend Laochaoyun, Wei, and Shuo. At the same time, it showed a strong appearance, so that the main force of the officers and troops in the south were afraid and did not dare to join forces with the east and west to attack, which was completely walking a tightrope.

Alas, in the final analysis, the soldiers and horses in the towns are each carrying their own minds, and they are not aligned, and the rewards from the court are not in place, which makes things so complicated.In fact, as long as these relationships are clarified and the property and officials are rewarded in place, it is possible that only Hedong, Youzhou, and the Fan troops of the Yinshan Governor's Office will be able to wipe out the Li's father and son, the yet-to-be-formed Daibei military group.

But there is no way now.Lu Jianfang hangs up, so does Cao Dashuai, and Cui Jikang, the envoy of Xuanwei, is acting as an envoy, but he is a civil official, and the warriors will listen to him.I just hope he can hold on for this period of time as an agent, and don't let the towns and horses assembled in Hedong suffer another big defeat, preserve their strength, and slowly clean up the Li family and his son after a new and reliable general takes office.

From late September to mid-November, the Tiande Army had been training in the Zhelu Army City for fifty days.Li Shao, who is based in Lanzhou, has been officially appointed as the Hedong Observer. This person is indeed quite capable. For the past two months, he has been trying his best to provide supplies and food for the Tiande Army, ensuring their daily training and patrol needs.

The Tiande army was firmly anchored in the Zhelu army city, which also greatly reduced the movement space of the rebels in the Caocheng River area.You Yi dispatched Tian Xing's cavalry to operate outside every three days, intercepting the rebel rangers and messengers, and sometimes even went deep into the Mayi area of ​​Shuozhou to scout out the enemy's situation.

In late October, a court messenger came from the north, saying that the court's consolation messenger had arrived at Zhenwu Army, subdued the local defenders, and ordered its Yingcheng to defend itself, strictly investigate spies, and prevent the rebels from entering the country.

When the Tiande army heard the news, they cursed from top to bottom. When they passed through the Zhenwu army, they were guarded against them as if they were thieves. They didn't even send their saliva.Now, as soon as the imperial envoys arrive and the money is distributed, all of them are loyal to the imperial court.

Bah, what the hell!Poor Li's father and son who stayed under the surveillance of the Zhenwu Army are considered good men. Now they have all been beheaded and become the merits of others, tsk tsk, if I knew today, why was it in the first place?
In late November, there was heavy snowfall in Shi, Lan, Shuo, Yun, Xin, Dai and other prefectures, and the temperature plummeted.In this cold and freezing season, Li's rebels once again launched a large-scale southern invasion.

(End of this chapter)