Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 261 Maodian
Xie Tong just sat down in a hut shop in the eastern suburbs of Fuping County, ready to eat.

Suddenly there was a dog barking.

Xie Tong turned his head to look, but saw on the other side of the narrow stream, an old bitch was swimming across the river with a puppy in its mouth.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid there may be rebellious soldiers." The attendants who were sitting scattered on the ground outside the store drew their swords, guns and infantry bows, and said nervously.

Shannan Xidao was raging with flames, chaos and soldiers scattered, and they did not know how many life and death crises they experienced along the way.Although I have stabilized a lot after entering Fengxiang and Guanzhong, my nerves are still tense and I have not relaxed.

The owner of the shop also rushed out from the back kitchen, muttering as he walked: "There are Xia soldiers in charge, where are the rebellious soldiers in this year?"

The sound of horseshoes came clearly.

Soon, a large group of cavalry appeared on the other side of the river.They held their banners high, their armor was bright, and they galloped across the fields in a loose formation—the spring sowing had not yet begun, and the fields were empty.

"Grandpa, it really is a rebel, let's go!" The owner's son hurriedly packed his things, in a hurry.

There were already cavalrymen wading across the river, and Maodian was even more nervous.

"Don't panic, the brown military uniform is Xia Bing." The shopkeeper squinted his eyes and looked carefully for a while before reaching a conclusion.

"Ah..." The owner's son stayed there.

"Hurry back and make steamed cakes, these guests are waiting for them." The shop owner kicked his son, then smiled at Xie Tong: "Don't worry about diners, this is the army of the king of Lingwu County, don't disturb the people, don't worry .”

Xie Tong pretended not to notice, stopped to look outside, and saw a large group of cavalry jumping into Qianxi in batches and orderly, just like dumpling.On the side of the creek, there are already dozens of rangers, scattered far away, shouting and galloping.

"This cavalry pawn looks good." Xie Tong said with a complicated expression: "Compared to the people on the grassland, how does it compare?"

"Prairie herdsmen, I'm afraid they are not as good as them." Xie Yanzhang gathered dozens of people under his command and formed a small circle to guard the Maodian.

Although many grassland herdsmen can ride horses and shoot arrows, their daily life is hard and their work is heavy, so they may not have much time for military training.Therefore, every prairie hero will find a way to raise a large number of full-time professional cavalry. These people have cattle and sheep to worship, and they don't have to worry about life, so they can train continuously and are very elite.

Once there is a war, these full-time professional knights will be the core, and a large number of herdsmen will be entrained to go out together.If the cavalry trained by the Central Plains dynasty encountered ordinary herdsmen, there was no need to worry, they could fight—of course, if the training of these Central Plains cavalry was also neglected, then forget it.

The team in front of them is obviously an elite professional cavalry!
Xie Yanzhang watched intently.

He is also a cavalry general. It is not easy for the Xuanwu Army to form some cavalry. He tried his best to buy horses from Hebei, and then run horse administration in Henan to raise horses.

King Wu Xing is obsessed with the cavalry.

This stems from the fact that he witnessed the bravery of Li Keyong's cavalry when he was begging for Huangchao in Guanzhong, and he was deeply impressed.After holding festivals and proclaiming martial arts, the first thing to do is to form and expand the cavalry team.At that time, there were only a few hundred riders, led by Pang Cong.

Now it has gradually expanded, and Pang Cong has also been promoted, and Li Di, Hua Wenqi, Li Si'an, Wang Tan, and Xie Yanzhang are divided into leaders, each with hundreds to more than a thousand riders.The whole army adds up to about [-] cavalry. Considering that the Xuanwu Army has only [-] cavalry in total, this proportion of cavalry is already very high.Looking at the surrounding towns, apart from Li Keyong in Hedong, no one should have more of them.

Among several cavalry generals, Li Si'an and Wang Tan are the chief and deputy cavalry generals of Ta Baidu. They have hundreds of cavalrymen, all of whom are highly skilled and brave to fight.

I thought they were very strong. After all, they were selected warriors from various armies. Although many of them changed to horseback riding halfway, their combat skills were superb enough to make up for their lack of riding skills.Compared with Tabaidu, Xie Yanzhang felt that the Qianqi under him had to be thrown away, and he would lose if he fought more or less.

But what does he see now?
Thousands of cavalry flooded across the creek.Although they are light cavalry, their equipment is good and their morale is high. Most importantly, their riding skills are really good. They grew up on horseback, right?

"Shop, are they really the soldiers and horses of the King of Lingwu County?" Xie Tong winked, and the attendant understood, immediately took out a piece of silk and stuffed it into the shopkeeper's arms.

"Others may not know about it, but someone has seen it before. It is indeed the cavalry of the king of Lingwu County, but I don't know which one. But all the troops of the Dingnan Army have cavalry, it's hard to say, hard to say." The shopkeeper accepted it with a smile on his face. He picked up the silk and said.

"Every army has cavalry pawns..." Xie Yanzhang outside the door also heard it, and felt a bit bitter in his mouth.

Qinghai Cong is better than the war horses of the Hedong Army, and better than the Khitan horses bought from Hebei.The king of Wuxing County once sent people to buy hundreds of horses, and all of them were added to Tabai Capital.

This will be a difficult army. I'm afraid there are more than ten thousand riders?Once they fight with them, how long will the Xuanwu Army's thousands of riders consume?And without cavalry, it is too difficult to fight!

Dozens of riders rushed towards Maodian, and then stopped neatly twenty steps away.A small school came over and asked, "Who are you waiting for? Why are you gathered here?"

"I'm a merchant in Henan, and I'm going to Shannan West Road to do business, and I'm about to return to Henan." A guide stepped forward and explained carefully.

"Leave quickly!" Xiaoxiao said without doubt: "All Zhongyong and brave will camp here, if you don't leave, you will be arrested as spies."

Xie Yanzhang listened calmly.The official language of this small school is not very good, maybe he was from the Qiang and Hu soldiers.This loyal and brave man actually has three thousand riders, could it be that they are all Hu riders?
The Xuanwu Army once studied the famous generals and their troops of the Dingnan Army. They knew that the King of Lingwu County liked to use cavalry, and he had two horse farms in Yinchuan, Yinzhou, and Yongqing, Fengzhou. Horses, riding horses for profit.It is heard that he also controls a large number of Fan tribes, and these Fan tribes should also provide horses regularly. The number of horses in the Dingnan Army is really enviable, and I am afraid that Li Keyong in Hedong can't compare with him.

The Dingnan Army is the enemy!

They have both the strengths of the Central Plains infantry and grassland cavalry. Once they fight, the tough infantry brigade is in the front, and the elite cavalry plagiarizes the enemy's rear, and the initiative on the battlefield will change hands.

Xie Yanzhang signaled his subordinates to put away all the equipment, then walked to Xie Tong, and said in a low voice: "Master, let's go. The Dingnan army has entered the pass, and this cavalry army called Zhongyongdu should be the vanguard. There is still a large group of people. If you don’t leave, you may have an accident.”

"Where is the east?" Xie Tong asked.

He used to be the governor of Shannan Xidao, but when there was a military turmoil, he thought of returning to the east.The king of Wuxing County also cared about the old friendship between the two, and sent his confidants to pick him up, planning to return to Bianzhou by detouring Hezhong and Heyang.

"Forty miles away is Liangtianpi. There is a post station where you can stay overnight."

"Then let's go." Xie Tong didn't hesitate, after tidying up a bit, he went on the road together with Xie Yanzhang and others.

"General Xie, when I saw Zhongyongdu just now, my face changed drastically when I saw you. Could it be that this cavalry army is very strong?" Xie Tong and Xie Yanzhang asked while riding their horses side by side on the eastward journey.

"Xuanwu army has four or five thousand cavalry, once they go to battle, they can't beat the three thousand cavalry." Xie Yanzhang said with a wry smile: "Perhaps our infantry is not weak, but the cavalry army has only a short period of time to form, and its foundation is not enough. It’s hard to compare. Most of the big racecourses in Guochao are in the Helong Prefectures, and a few are in Shuofang. There are very few other places.”

Xie Tong nodded.He can understand that once Hu Qi in the grassland is trained in accordance with the Chinese system, with excellent armor and equipment, delicious food and drink, and no need to work on weekdays, just hard training, then the combat effectiveness will be amazing.

What's more, the origins of these Huqi are not ordinary...

"General Xie, when I was in Shannan West Road, I heard that the king of Lingwu County chose warriors from various tribes in the grassland to join the army. He got 3000 men, all of whom were skilled in bows and horses. Seriously. At first I didn't think the three thousand cavalry were so strong, I thought the rumors were too distorted, but now that you say it, Zhongyong should be a rare elite cavalry." Xie Tong said.

"In addition to the Zhongyong Capital, there are Iron Cavalry Army and Leopard Cavalry Capital. There are also many cavalry soldiers in each army..." Xie Tong looked up at the sky and said: "The grassland is a plate of loose sand, and the people of the Central Plains are blessed. Unify and establish a state system, that is Tubo, that is Turkic, not the blessing of the people in the Central Plains. Shao Shude unified the Hetao, Hengshan, Yinshan, and Hexi tribes. He is already a small sweat on the grassland, and he himself is the Tang Dynasty The county king and Jieshuai are both the leaders of the two families. If the Wuxing County king wants to annex the world, he should pay attention to him. He is more difficult to deal with than Li Keyong."

Xie Yanzhang agreed with this view, the role of cavalry on the battlefield is too great.

"Shao Shude went to Henan many times to recruit soldiers, can we also go to the grassland to recruit soldiers?" He suddenly asked again.

Xie Tong was stunned, and said: "Shao Shude is the king of the Tang Dynasty, the envoy of the Dingnan Army Jiedu. He went to Henan to recruit troops, and no one stopped him. If the Wuxing County King went to the grassland to recruit soldiers, I am afraid it will not be so simple. It is impossible to replace the northern tribes , it is also impossible in Helongshuofang, only the Khitan people in Yanbei can think of a way, but will the towns in Hebei give way?"

The Hebei feudal lords are next to Weibo Town.

Zhu Quanzhong sent someone to bring Yin Wanliang to Weizhou to buy grain. As a result, the person was killed and the silver was robbed. The relationship was very bad.

Recently, Wei Bozhen had internal strife.

Jiedu envoy Le Yanzhen built the outer city of Weizhou, with a total length of eighty miles.Le Yanzhen was terrified, and asked to resign as the commander-in-chief of Jiedu, and went to Longxing Temple to become a monk to avoid disaster, and the soldiers publicly recommended Zhao Wen (biàn) as the queen of Jiedu.

Le Congxun, the son of Le Yanzhen, was not reconciled, and led [-] troops to the city of Weizhou.Zhao Wen did not dare to go out of the city to fight, and was despised by the soldiers, and then killed again.

Don't have the guts to fight people in the field, but still want to be a Jiedu envoy?
As soon as Zhao Wen died, the sergeants gathered again, shouting and asking: "Is there anyone willing to be a Jiedu envoy?"

At this time someone stood up and said that they saw an old man with white beard just now and said (Luo) Hongxin should be the landlord, so everyone elected Luo Hongxin to be the governor.Luo Hongxin led his troops out of the city and fought with Le Congxun in the field, winning a big victory.

The people of Weibo Town are not to be trifled with!If you go to buy food, you will be robbed and killed, let alone recruiting soldiers, I am afraid that if you bring money on the road, you will be robbed before you leave Weizhou.

"Then the only way to do horse affairs is in Henan." Xie Yanzhang said without hesitation: "You and I will report to the king of Wuxing County together. If we don't manage horse affairs well, if Shao Shude gathers tens of thousands of horsemen and rushes over, everyone will just You can hide in the city and let it be plundered. Once or twice is fine, but if you come and rob every now and then, the people and property will be lost, so what if there is a strong city? If you don’t attack, you will lose your ears!"

"What General Xie said is true." Xie Tong said: "Shao Shude is going to enter the Shannan West Road. Zhuge Shuang is old, his soldiers will come. The loyal and brave cavalry just now may be the vanguard. Zhuge Shuang is old. Well, there are no good generals in the tent, but Wang Qianyu and Niu Li are considered capable, if the Xia army does not arrive, they will fall apart sooner or later. Once the Xia army arrives, it is hard to say who will own the foundation."

The sound of hooves gradually faded away.

On the land of Guanzhong, military flags are flying, and swords and guns are like forests.After two and a half years, the soldiers of the Dingnan Army once again set foot on this fertile wilderness.

(End of this chapter)