Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 586 Backup
Under the scorching sun, the drills continued.

A group of soldiers stepped forward, running in small steps.There was a sudden sound of the horn, and everyone picked up their bows and arrows.

The off-string arrow flew out and landed on the straw man in the distance.

This was repeated until the sound of the strike was heard, and the soldiers stopped and slowly gathered in formation.

Zhu Shuzong stepped forward and checked each straw man.

He looked very carefully, and checked the landing point of the feather arrow on each straw target.

In the examination of the Guochao army, archery is the first, more than anything else, everyone must be able to archery, after all, there is no professional archer team.

Grass shooting on the move is an important training subject that tests the accuracy and speed of soldiers shooting in sports.

On the battlefield, the situation is complicated, and you will not always be given the opportunity to shoot on the spot-there is also the assessment, and it is also the case of long stack static shooting.

"Not very good!" Zhu Shuzong returned to the high platform expressionlessly, and said to the coaches: "In the past, the commander-in-chief was in charge of the Iron Lindu, and he killed the rebel general He Gongya in Jinyang. His subordinates came from Heyang, Zhaoyi The town’s old pawns climbed over the wall, raised their hands and shot. After shooting, they rushed forward, and then the arrows were extremely accurate, and the arrows bit the flesh. What is it like now?”

The coaches left them speechless.Back then, they were all veterans. Some people had seen battles more than a dozen times. Killing people was as common as dressing and eating.These are all recruits in front of them, and they have only been trained for two years. Can they compare?

A good archer can be cultivated in three to five years?What's more, this archer can't practice bow all the time, he still needs to practice basic martial arts such as spear and spear, and he also needs to learn a kind of short weapon.In addition, special weapons such as long-handled axes, hooked sickle guns, maces, mo knives, epees, etc. must be picked and learned, and practiced diligently.

To put it bluntly, there are no classifications for Guochao sergeants, there are too many skills to learn, and the training period is too long.

In fact, until now, all the feudal towns have more or less faced the problem of insufficient reserves.It is not that there are not enough people, but that there are not enough qualified sergeants.

The speed of war consumption must be faster than your cultivation.A rookie who knows nothing, recruited from the field, let him have strict discipline, prohibit orders, be familiar with the golden drum flag, and form a few commonly used military formations with the robes and others. It will take almost a year. The Tutuan folks have achieved it when they have a certain foundation.

Therefore, after a large number of government soldiers were consumed, the generals of the feudal towns gave priority to the state soldiers to supplement them. If the state soldiers were not enough, they would replenish the county and town soldiers, and the county and town soldiers were also exhausted.

There are about [-] state soldiers in the fifteen prefectures of Lingxia, and there are no county town soldiers. This reserve source of soldiers is actually not enough.

However, Marshal Shao often ordered subordinates, vassal towns, and grassland ministries to select and send them over, which was also a major source of supplementation.

The soldiers collected on the battlefield will also be screened and used.

These are the three major sources of the Xia army's strength, and it has been operating on this system so far.

However, as the intensity of the war became higher and higher, it was no longer the kind of small fights in the northwest, and the consumption became very intense, and the proportion of self-cultivation became larger and larger.

A few months ago, the coach had the yamen send [-] new recruits to the river, both on foot and on horseback, mainly to supplement the war losses of the various yamen soldiers. years long.

After the 1 people were sent away, there were only [-] "semi-finished products" left to be trained in the yamen by the coaches, so another [-] new recruits were urgently recruited, divided into three batches, and the training was carried out according to different progress.

This is the "Continuation Army" of the training army, a designation that once appeared and then was discontinued.

Among the 5000 trainees, 5000 have started to learn advanced subjects such as grass shooter on the move, 1 are still undergoing basic spear and knife training, and [-] have just become familiar with the rules of the army and have practiced several times in formation .

The 16 recruits are not very old, generally within 18 years old, and most of them are only [-]-[-] years old, who were born before Shao Shude left the town of Xiazhou.There are both Fan and Han people, mixed with locals and foreigners.

Their childhood was relatively difficult, but when they got older, life gradually improved, and when they reached the stage of growing up, their lives had already improved significantly.Now when he joined the army, his family has even undergone earth-shaking changes.

They are lucky, because they were able to have enough to eat when they were teenagers, but they are also unlucky, because people who were born ten years later than them have a better life, they can eat milk when they are young, and they can eat some meat from time to time. When they grow up, their bodies will be stronger and taller than them.

There is nothing wrong with the loyalty of this group of people. Before they entered the big dye tank of the army, they were far from domineering and arrogant. It is necessary to consider the social atmosphere or consensus, and hastily transplanting the military management system of the Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties to restrain the big soldiers at this time will cause a huge backlash.

The system, after all, is implemented by people.If the atmosphere is like this, no matter how pure a person is, they will be affected to some extent. Warriors are not emotionless machines. If you say that you are strictly required not to open your mouth and rebel, why should people listen to you?In the barracks, the general atmosphere was like this, everyone usually talked about which officer was good, which officer was not good, whether he should be hacked to death, and so on.Subconsciously, "Mengxin" and "Xiaobai" who don't understand anything will also become domineering warriors.

The change of the atmosphere cannot be achieved by one or a few people, nor can it be restrained by the system.This will take a long time and requires a change in the social consensus, that is, everyone realizes that this is not good, and it is not good for everyone. Only with this consensus can the atmosphere be changed.It's not that someone raised his arms and said what kind of system to implement. Within a few years, the army will be pure immediately, can resist the pollution of the whole society, and maintain a small circle of purity within himself. The officers who implement the system, like the political commissars, fully understand The meaning of the chief officer is to completely protect the interests of the chief officer, without any selfishness, and rely on lip service to convince the domineering warriors with the knives in their hands.

The most loyal martial arts students can't be selfless and obey orders, let alone old military officers.

Xia Jun's current ethos, like Xuanwu's, is relatively obedient and pure.This kind of ethos is the balance achieved under various conditions such as the history of the formation of the army, the general social environment, the personal will of the commander, the selfishness of the officer team, the interests of the low-level warriors, and the constraints of the system. It depends on which direction this dynamic balance goes. The result of the game between the parties.

If you accommodate the sergeant, then go in the direction of the extremely domineering warriors of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. If you hold on to the reins, they may go in a more submissive direction.This is a game, it's not that simple, and it won't be effective in the short term.

"These 5000 people will have to train for another year." Zhu Shuzong said without hesitation: "I have no face to send the unqualified sergeants to the commander-in-chief. If there is a big battle, I will supplement it from the state soldiers."

"Dutou, when the Zhen Guojun was formed, soldiers from various prefectures were drawn heavily, and the replenishment has been slow in the past few years. Wouldn't it be inappropriate to draw more state soldiers?" someone asked.

"That's right." Zhu Shuzong thought for a while, and then said: "Perhaps we can ask the chiefs of Hexi and Qingtang to offer some of their backs. These people are very skilled. As long as the army is trained roughly, they can go to battle. That's it. Well, anyway, if the soldiers are not trained well, I will not let them go even if the commander-in-chief personally comes to urge them. If envoys from various armies come to inquire, you can also say the same, don't be polite."

After hearing this, everyone secretly slandered.

Your daughter is the eldest daughter-in-law personally selected by King Xia. In the future, she will be the crown princess or even the queen when the country is founded. How dare you say that?The people who got into the yamen of the coach of the capital have no connections, how can they offend those generals?

"Go to the school grounds to work hard, and practice hard for me. Now that you have enough meat and milk, don't be afraid that they won't be able to practice, go!"

"I would like to follow the orders of the capital." All the coaches dispersed one after another.

After giving orders to his subordinates, Zhu Shuzong got off the high platform, rode a horse, and walked slowly along the wide school field, carefully watching the sergeants drill.

"The gun is so slow, if you fight in battle, you are already dead, do you know?"

"Why is the voice so low? Didn't you have enough to eat?"

"Why do you stab people in the chest every time? If he is wearing armor, can you pierce him?"

"Your spear skills are a bit good, but it's not enough. The general of the Baoyi Army, fighting in front of the battle, roaring like thunder, stabbing the thief's throat every time, never misses, you need to practice more."

"Hehe, it seems that you have practiced before joining the army, but you should not be self-confident. The king has a saying, 'The moon stick is a sword for a lifetime, and the sword is hidden with you'. Covering, you have to make sure to stab back and forth, steady, accurate, ruthless, and fast, and your martial arts will be at home."

"Your way of using a knife is wrong, come out for me and practice chopping a hundred times alone."

"Today I will teach you how to quickly string your bows and calibrate your step bows before the battle. I have listened carefully to each of you."

……

On the training ground, coaches, instructors, assistants, and drivers walked around, shouting constantly.

This is the true foundation of a feudal army and the basis for maintaining combat effectiveness for a long time.

It is not easy to train a qualified soldier, the cost is huge, and the cycle is long.But during the battle, tens of thousands of elite main forces may be lost in one day, which often makes everything they do a joke.

But it has to be done, and it has to be scaled up.

Now the production of grain, meat and milk in the town has increased greatly, which can support larger-scale recruit training.

The continuation army may be expanded to 5 people, and [-] skilled recruits are sent every year to supplement the battle losses.

In this way, under the long-term see-saw, the enemy must not be able to hold on, and can only shrink back and defend the city.Use the advantages of terrain and city to offset the gap in the personal qualities of his sergeants.

"Dutou, there is an ultimatum." A civil servant hurried to Zhu Shuzong's side to report.

Zhu Shuzong took the official letter, opened it and looked at it.

It turned out that the Flying Dragon Army had been fighting for a long time and suffered relatively large losses.Moreover, Shao Shude found that when he was originally formed, there were too many Tibetans from various tribes in Yinshan, and his quality was too poor. , Skilled recruits sent over.After the great river froze in winter, the Flying Dragon Army used battle as a substitute for training, and went south to harass Luo, Zheng, and Huazhou.

"It's just—" Zhu Shuzong was about to scold his mother, but when he saw the last line, Shao Shude planned to buy wine to entertain the generals in the twelfth lunar month, and asked Zhu Shuzong to bring his daughter. The princess had all kinds of rewards, so he held back.

"You will go to Coach Hu in a while and ask him to pick two thousand riders who can ride horses and send them to Anyi." When he said this, Zhu Shuzong blushed slightly.

So he added another sentence: "The commander-in-chief wants to send the flying dragon army to fight, and the military order is like a mountain. I dare not obey orders!"

"Obey!" The clerk left with a blank expression on his face.

Zhu Shuzong looked at the training ground in full swing, thinking that it was time to go to Wen Anyi for a while, and the expansion of the continued army was imminent.

It was also mentioned in the document just now that Heluo Jinglue envoy Li Tangbin personally supervised the battle and stormed Xiashi Fortress, which has been overcome.

The brutality of the battle is shocking.There were no fewer than 20 generals and chieftains of the various armies and chieftains of the tribe who were beheaded by Li Tangbin himself.After capturing this place, all the troops went down to Quemen and Baichao bases in a row, and arrived at the city of Xin'an County. However, the soldiers' front was blunted, so they had to retreat temporarily and build strongholds to defend.

It was time to make up for the war damage again, but it should not be from the continuation of the army, but from the troops of the vassals and towns, such as the Huazhou Army.

(End of this chapter)