Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 372

Zhang Jia Dalang took his eldest son and the town army and town soldiers from the same village, and set off for Liangzhou after eating court food that day.

His eldest son is still a little young, only 17 years old, and he was not supposed to be a town soldier.

However, a brother of the Zhang family Dalang died in battle outside Ma Paoquan Village in Guanzhong, so he was able to shelter a son and join the town army.

Originally, his brother's child was only five years old, and when he was a few years older, he could be sent to Minqin County to study in the academy opened by the king for the heirs of the war dead, to learn Braille and learn some martial arts.

But misfortunes never come singly. When Zhang Dalang returned home, his brother's only son had already fallen ill and died for four or five months.

So after the general's application and the review of the Bing Cao Yamen, the eldest son of the Zhang family Dalang was rewarded with a set of three-layer leather armor, a horizontal knife and a pair of bows and arrows, and was then added to Wuwei Town as a soldier.

This is all in exchange for his brother's life. Zhang Family Dalang has already decided that if the eldest son can survive the next year, he will not let him go to the battlefield, and he will continue the incense for his brother through adoption.

"Yeah! Look, the one from Shangbaima Village is here, and so is Brother Wang."

On his first expedition, the excited eldest son pointed to a group of troops in the distance and shouted to him.

Dalang Zhang looked up, and saw that among the strong men and horses coming out of Shangbaima Village, there was a strong man with two hands.

The strong man was leading three horses, one was used to charge the battle, the other was carrying his armor and dry food, and on the back of the other sat a delicate and pretty lady.

Generally speaking, the word brother should not be used indiscriminately, because it can be used as a respectful title for elder brother, or as a title for father.

But for this strong man with long 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 surnamed Wang. She has the best appearance and figure in the two villages. Pound big fat pig.

A girl who is in good health, can cook, and can do farm work neatly. If she has a good appearance, she is a hexagonal girl in the rural marriage market at this time.

The eldest son of the Zhang Family Dalang was no exception. The reason why he was clamoring to go to the battlefield was because he wanted to get a reward and come back to marry the young lady of the Wang family.

"You son of a bitch, don't you want your eyeballs? Don't want me to pick them out for you and trample on them!"

The eldest son of the Zhang Family Dalang was so engrossed that he didn't even know that the strong man surnamed Wang walked up to him.

There was a burst of laughter around, but the younger laughter was mixed with a bit of sour taste of wanting to hit someone.

The young lady of the Wang family was not shy, so he looked the Zhang family boy up and down, and suddenly smiled.

"Why are you so thin? On the battlefield, you can't breathe without a charge?"

The Zhang family boy blushed immediately, turned around and was about to pull the leather armor on the horse's back, still yelling.

"A certain person is not skinny, a certain person is good at archery, and a certain person has armor, whoever dares to charge in front of a certain person will finish him off with a flying arrow!"

Da Lang of the Zhang family stretched out his hand and pinched the eldest son's ear. The pain caused him to scream, and then he pushed it lightly, and he pushed it in front of the strong man surnamed Wang.

"Both the armor and the bow were given by the king, and they were under the protection of a certain Erlang. He is a little younger, but his archery skills are still good. On the battlefield, my brother will help me watch the point, and I will be beaten and scolded!"

The strong man of the Wang family nodded, he knew why the Zhang family Dalang did this.

Because Zhang Jia Dalang is a jumping soldier, a heavy armored soldier who is responsible for rushing into the formation when spears stab each other.

On the other hand, the strong men of the Wang family focused more on the crossbowmen. Zhang Dalang's son was good at archery and was from the same village, so he must be assigned to him.

"It's easy to say! It's easy to say!" After the strong man of the Wang family finished speaking, he turned around and pulled out a tall young man from behind.

"This is the second son of a certain brother. He is strong enough to use spears, sticks, knives and axes. The brother of the Zhang family will also help take care of him."

Da Lang of the Zhang family nodded, the nephew of the strong man of the Wang family was about the same size as him.

"This time, the team is saying that it is very likely that someone will be equipped with cotton armor. When the time comes, the armor will be worn by Wang Jiaxiaolang."

This is a great kindness!
A good pair of armor can greatly enhance the survival rate of soldiers and increase the chances of gaining military exploits. The strong man of the Wang family bowed his hands solemnly.

"Someone also went to look for the team leader, and said that he wanted to get Xiao Lang a pair of Persian chain mail."

The two battlefield veterans immediately formed an alliance to help each other, and envied the teenagers who had no elders in the army around them.

All walks of life, even if they are going to kill people, they have to fight hard!

For example, young people like Zhang's eldest son and Wang's nephew, not to mention that armor can improve their survivability, but in terms of adapting to the battlefield, they all need help.

Many recruits who are new to the battlefield, even if they practice well on weekdays, will panic when they see bloody fights.

Many people even lose awareness of their surroundings at some point.

But on the battlefield, the military law is extremely strict. Sometimes it is not quite a deserter, but subconsciously walking a step slower, or not hearing the sound of drums and horns and going in the wrong direction, it is very likely to be hacked by the silver knife officer .

With the help of veterans to control and remind, we can avoid various accidents on the battlefield.

Compared with other young people, the two rookies of 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 become a fierce soldier on the battlefield again.

While the people from Shangbaima Village and Xiabaima Village were chatting, town troops and militiamen from other villages in Minqin County also rushed to join outside the county seat.

After the relatives were sent off, the town troops assembled according to the formation, and set off to gather in their respective camps.

The United Archers and Yi Cong Xiaoqi were also gathered by the county captain, and then the officers of the town army would choose them as auxiliary soldiers.

For the rest, some of the hundreds of county lieutenants in Longyou, Hexi, were selected to go out with the army, and they were also taken to manage them and do some dirty work.

At the same time, more than [-] miners in the Jingtieshan mine in Gannan did not go to work for the first time today.

Because today there will be officers from the town army, who will come here to choose the young man.

This name was originally used by Western Xia 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 son-in-law here is not a Han captive, but a death squad selected from the Jingtieshan mine.

But even the opportunity to be a cannon fodder death squad, the miners in the mine still cherish it very much.

Only those who have really stayed in the mine know what hell on earth is.

At this time of mining, there is no blasting method available, and the gunpowder developed by Cao Yanming is close to the level of black gunpowder, so it cannot be called explosives at all.

Moreover, because it is extremely precious, it is not even enough for the army to use, and it is generally reluctant to use it for mining.

With such a large scale as Jingtieshan, only [-] catties of gunpowder were approved by the right chief of the royal palace in one year, and it had to be approved layer by layer before it could be used.

Therefore, the mining of Jingtieshan is all done by miners' labor. Not to mention the difficulty of digging, even the mines dug out are almost no bigger than people.

Therefore, it often happened that miners were suffocated to death after going down the mine, or were crushed to death when the mine collapsed. As for other people who were exhausted to death, there are countless.

And they were originally rebels against Zhang Zhao or blood feuds like Ganzhou Uyghurs. Few people cared about their lives when something happened, and their status was even worse than that of livestock.

For these people, staying in the mine would mean death sooner or later, and being exhausted to death was the best ending.

But on the battlefield, although there is a high probability of being killed, there is also a small probability of making meritorious service and getting rid of the fate of miners.

The former can die early and be reborn early, and the latter can change the fate. It is worth a try anyway.

The person who manages the mine is Zhang Zhao's cousin, who knows Jing Tieshan Mine Manager and Jing Tieshan County Magistrate Yinzhu.

When Ma Yaozi rushed over, he saw that the iron ore in Jingtieshan was piled up like a mountain, but only a small number of steel furnaces for smelting ore were in operation.

Yin Zhuzhu looked at Ma Yaozi's puzzled eyes and gave a wry smile.

"There is no more coke! It is too difficult to mine coal. The mine has only been drilled for more than ten meters, and it is far from being able to quench thirst. This year's [-] catties of refined iron will definitely not be completed."

One hundred thousand catties of refined iron was the task Zhang Zhao assigned to Cao Yanming and Yinzhu.

Zhang Zhao originally planned to use the coffin to make two thousand sets of cloth-covered iron armor and some weapons after the [-] jin of refined iron was released this year.

As a result, less than [-] catties were produced, and the coke was gone, and the mining of coal was extremely difficult.

Ma Yaozi nodded heavily, this hundred thousand catties of refined iron is not a small sum.

Take the Tang Dynasty as an example, in the third year of Yuanhe (809) when the iron production was the highest, the whole world produced iron, which was 2 million catties.

It looks quite high, right? But this is iron, not pig iron or refined iron. As for refined iron, it is estimated to be 200,000 to 300,000 catties.

And even if it is Datang, such a high yield can only be maintained for a few years. In the years when Datang was subjugated, the output of the whole world was only 400,000 catties.

It can also be seen from the side that the iron armor is precious. Shi Jingtang does not know the details. If he knew that although the Guiyi Army only had 30,000 people, but there were thousands of sets of iron armor and thousands of sets of chain mail and chain mail, he would definitely put The Guiyi Army is the number one enemy.

However, Ma Yaozi is also unable to solve the problem of the Yin column, and he is not here to solve it.

On the contrary, the recruitment of the miners who hit the son should be done quickly, because the bodies of these miners have been damaged to a certain extent in the mine, and after they are recruited, they will have to be raised for more than ten days before they can be pulled out as cannon fodder.

. . . .

At the end of August, Zhang Zhao held a big banquet in Liangzhou, entertaining all the officers and soldiers gathered together.

A soldier was issued two feet of red silk and a bolt of fine white cotton as a reward, but this was verbal, and it would only be honored when he returned from the battle and did not violate military laws.

Subsequently, nine thousand town troops from five towns were enlisted, and 6000 people were sent to the horse infantry in Regret Shandu, for a total of [-] people.

Including [-] united archers, [-] Yicong Xiaoqi, [-] Jingtieshan mine slaves, and tens of thousands of civilian husbands, there are more than [-] people in total, known as [-].

Starting from Liangzhou, we first arrive at Lanzhou, then go east along the Yellow River to Huizhou, pass through Shapotou and Weining Plain, and go straight to Yanzhou (Dingbian, Shaanxi).

(End of this chapter)