From the pure blood dragon clan, I started to become a human being

Early in the morning, at Hengshui City on the border.

There is a Wengcheng just north of the Lower City District. Usually the headquarters of Wei Jingtang's Fenwu Army conducts drills here. No matter how wealthy a horse merchant is, he has to leave the city from both sides with a letter from the Ministry of Revenue. Otherwise, no one can guarantee that the soldiers can control their temper with so many carts full of goods.

Compared with the four camps of 5,000 people outside the city, Wengcheng is the real foundation. All 3,000 cavalry are here, and the remaining 2,000 heavily armed infantry are stationed in the upper city area, acting as a mainstay to suppress the prominent families and major martial arts sects.

The cavalry mainly wears light armor, and Hengshui County obviously cannot afford to support heavy cavalry. Despite this, horses are still the treasure of the Fenwu Army, and they usually eat better than the soldiers.

When they arrived at the parade ground, the general was drunk, and the two trusted captains who supported him were not much sober either. They had been drinking all night, and all three of them were defeated. Fortunately, someone knew that they had important things to do during the day. Otherwise, with winter approaching and the Northern Mang cavalry about to attack, the mere attendance would be enough to make the three of them tired.

Ning Shijian followed the young master, carrying two jars of wine. He knew that his position was more like a family general than a servant.

"Drinking makes my skin itchy, it's so refreshing! Brother Jiang, the weapons in the warehouse... I'm in charge. The standard is five, and you can take as much as you want as long as there are no more. I have 1,600 cavalrymen under my command, and there are many good ones. You can pick three to take away. General Wei said he doesn't care about you. We soldiers are responsible for our own life and death." The general narrowed his eyes and waved his hand.

Less than 20 to 30 years after the unification of the Spring and Autumn Period, the military system of Liyang still remained somewhat chaotic. Basically, five people formed a squad, ten people formed a detour, fifty people formed a battalion, two hundred people formed a company, led by a captain, and eight hundred people formed a school, with a captain as the chief officer.

One thousand six hundred people served as generals, of the sixth rank.

Three thousand two hundred men served as Lieutenant Generals, fifth rank.

The number of people was beyond the reach of the Ministry of War, and with the example of Northern Liang and the two Liao dynasties, the management was not so strict. Northern Liang was the most excessive, and they even created the term "Grand Colonel". Even the appointment of officials was decided by the Northern Liang system itself, and the central government watched on coldly.

According to the established plan of the top leaders, the first thing to do after the unification of the military system was to reduce the power of the feudal lords. Both things were hot potatoes left by the old prime minister. No one could say for sure whether Prime Minister Zhang Julu would eat them himself or leave them to his successor.

These 3,000 cavalrymen were all elite troops selected from the six vassal kings of the Zhao clan. They had two deputy generals, one of whom was Huang Lou, who was still drunk, and the other was Zhang Caomang, a pseudo-King Kong realm commander who was actually a private soldier.

As for the lieutenant general who was supposed to be in charge of the two men, he was even less so. The cavalry and heavy infantry were the basis for Wei Jingtang's words.

In the northern part of Jizhou, there is not only this one army. There are 20,000 people stationed in Yinyao County City to the west of Hengshui City. There are more than 80 forts scattered between the two county cities and in the north.

At first, they built forts to save themselves, but later they became too powerful to be controlled. The Li family, the common lord of the 80 forts, had more than 5,000 private soldiers. They did not need to salute when they saw General Fenwu, and they never listened to orders or announcements. However, due to their leading positions, they were the ones defending the territory after all, and several generations of county magistrates never cared about it.

"The weapons can be delivered according to the standard. I just want an extra bow." Jiang Yuan said.

"Take it." Huang Lou seemed very generous.

"Sergeant Jiang, the army divides archers into three levels: upper, middle and lower. Above this level, those who can shoot a stone bow are called tiger archers, and those who can hit 70% to 80% of the target at a distance of 120 steps are called sharpshooters."

The relatively sober captain started to introduce the man without any arrogance on his face. He had heard from his superiors at the dinner table that General Wei had personally recruited this man, so he must be an extraordinary person.

"Only a brave and strong general can use a two-stone bow. If you can use a three-stone bow, even if it's only more than two dou, as long as you are willing to go to Kyoto, you can get a real power as a shooting captain. The prerequisite is still to hit seven or eight targets in a hundred and twenty steps, and you are allowed to activate the Qi."

Jiang Yuan turned and looked at the family general.

"Just two stones, but my archery skills are not very good." Ning Shijian replied with a fist.

"Help me get the five-stone bow." Jiang Yuan said.

The captain glanced at the training ground and saw that many of the Fenwu cavalrymen who were training were looking over here.

"Captain Jiang, what if something goes wrong..." "Just go if I tell you to." Huang Lou punched his confidant. So what if he couldn't pull him away? Isn't it normal to have no strength after drinking too much?

The captain bowed and took his leave, accompanied by Ning Shijian.

A moment later, the only two five-stone bows in the armory were taken out. One of them was a treasure that Zhang Caomang had confiscated when he was wandering around the world. A standard military bow costs about eighty taels. In the long run, arrows are actually more expensive, costing sixty or seventy coins each. It was for this reason that there was a famous saying before a general in the Spring and Autumn Period.

"Arrows are too expensive. Let the infantry take over."

After the bow and arrows were obtained, Ning Shijian was responsible for stringing them. In order to preserve the strength of the bow, the string had to be removed for regular maintenance. Such a five-stone bow took half a year from material selection to production, and cost no less than three hundred taels of silver, which was more expensive than several houses in the lower city.

Jiang Yuan took the bow and plucked the string. The one hundred and sixty acupoints in his life made him much stronger than other warriors of the same level. The flow of his Qi was unimaginably deep. Although it was only accumulated bit by bit, the effect was undoubtedly a qualitative change.

In the heart of Beimang, there lived a Beiliang warrior who could use a six-stone bow and shoot one arrow a day, and could endanger a Vajra realm warrior within three hundred steps.

The horn-head arrow is put on the string, the head is made of iron, shaped like a needle, four inches and two points long, the shaft is made of poplar wood, and the feathers are carved feathers.

As this precious carved bow was pulled, the gradually tightening sound could be heard within ten steps, and the process did not seem to require any effort at all.

Ning Shijian had already placed ten copper coins on the wooden rack three hundred steps away, and then ran away quickly.

Jiang Yuan loosened his fingers, and ripples appeared visible around the bowstring.

The arrow on the corner had long disappeared. Huang Lou was shocked and sobered up immediately.

The arrow shot almost straight ahead over a distance of 300 steps. The archer's strength was obviously more than that. There was an explosion of thunder on the parade ground, and copper coins exploded. The arrow continued to move forward with unabated momentum and went straight into the boulder used as a horse tie. There was no tail feathers visible, and the front was covered with cracks.

The four war horses on both sides raised their hooves and neighed wildly.

The sharp sound of swords breaking through the air is still ringing in my ears.

Most of the soldiers on the parade ground did not see clearly what happened.

"Arrows won't work." Jiang Yuan said. Without good arrows, no matter how strong you are, the final effect will be very different.

"There are black iron arrows in the warehouse, but there are only three. Take them away, no one can use them." Huang Lou smiled helplessly. Black iron arrows are rare in the world, and there are more of them in Beiliang. These three were taken back by Zhang Caomang.

Jiang Yuan nodded. He could only pull the five-stone bow thirty times before he was exhausted, but the Saint Thief could recover his strength very quickly.

"Is it okay for me to go to the north for a walk?"

"General Wei said you can do whatever you want, but this cavalry is our family's wealth. Even if you gain military merit in the future, I can't give you all of it. At most, I can send you some skeletons, and you can handle your own troops."

"Got it. I'll return the head first."

(End of this chapter)