Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 2 Great Teaching Field

"Dong dong dong..."

At six o'clock in the morning, when all the fog dissipated, the dull sound of drums could be heard in the large teaching field, and the equipment used to test the skills of the school's military attache students was also brought up.

Wooden stands, archery targets, bow stands, long bows, long knives and guns... these things were brought up one by one, and the last thing to appear were more than a hundred Hequ horses brought from the Royal Horse Supervisor.

"Your Majesty, the subjects of this examination are archery, horse riding, and spear shooting. First, archery on foot, then on horseback, then on horseback, and finally on archery with spear."

On the school platform, Xu Huizu, who was the Duke of Wei and the governor of the Central Military Command, bowed to Zhu Yuanzhang and told the truth about the subjects of this assessment.

Zhu Yuanzhang slightly chinned his head and said nothing more. When Xu Huizu saw this, he turned around and asked the guards to pass the order.

The commanders of the guards understood this and immediately asked their men to go to the ten hundred-man phalanx to deliver the order.

A quarter of an hour later, as the drums stopped and the horn sounded, the first ten people in the first row of each centurion walked out, and a total of 100 people walked to a distance of fifty steps from the first row of targets.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Gaoxu was not nervous, but relaxed and at ease.

He had already done enough homework before the school examination began, and was familiar with each assessment content and standard.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had very strict requirements for the examination of military attachés and soldiers, which was different from the 600 people in the outer defense post.

In the Kyoto Division Health Center, there are 5000 people in each health center, and 1000 of them are regularly selected for examinations.

Zhu Yuanzhang required that the cavalry must be good at riding horses, good at archery, good at using guns, and good at using knives.

Infantry must be good at using lances, crossbows, and muskets.

If they pass the examination, the soldiers who participated in the examination and their superior military attaches will receive rewards.

The rewards are mainly treasure banknotes, five coins will be rewarded for one qualified item, and six coins will be rewarded for those who pass multiple items in a row.

If a large number of soldiers are unqualified, their superior military attaches will be punished, mainly by suspension of pay or demotion or dismissal, but soldiers will not be punished.

Even if some soldiers failed the test, Zhu Yuanzhang would give the failed soldiers [-] coins.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang's tolerance did not cover everything. He had extremely high discipline requirements for his soldiers. Once things like singing and playing football happened in the army, there would be cruel military laws to punish the offending soldiers.

Zhu Yuanzhang had such high demands on his soldiers, not to mention his demands on military attaches. However, as a military attache's son who would inherit the official position of his father's generation in the future, his heart was full of anxiety.

For example, right now, when hundreds of military attachés' children walked to the lime line, most of them were sweating nervously, and only a few of them were calm and composed.

In front of them, six hundred archery targets were staggered, placed at fifty paces, eighty paces, one hundred paces, 120 paces, 150 paces, and 160 paces.

Such a scene undoubtedly put great pressure on the military attache's children, and this pressure came from the standards set by Zhu Yuanzhang for the Ming army.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's standards, each Ming army man held twelve arrows, six of which must meet the corresponding standards.

Among them, the standards for military attaches and soldiers are different.

According to the military attache's standards, the bow holder must shoot to a maximum distance of 160 paces, and must hit the target at a distance of [-] paces, but it does not necessarily have to hit the bull's eye.

The standard for soldiers is that the bow holder must shoot to a maximum distance of 120 paces and hit the target at a distance of [-] paces.

If you want to meet such a standard, you must first have requirements for a bow holder.

The Ming army divided the archer's pulling force into four levels, from top to bottom: tiger force, upper force, middle force, and lower force.

Among them, the strength of a tiger requires pulling a strong bow weighing more than 120 kilograms, which is about 158 ​​pounds or more in later generations.

Because it was too difficult, even the Ming Dynasty, which had millions of troops, could not gather a hundred people.

In addition to the tiger force bow, the next top force requires the use of a 120-jin strong bow, the middle force is between 74 and 96 kilograms, and the lower force is between 75 and [-] kilograms.

Those who take these bows to take the exam must not only be able to draw the bow, but also have to hit the target with six of the twelve arrows.

This description may not be intuitive, but based on Zhu Gaoxu's previous archery experience in archery halls, the bows used by novices in later archery halls are generally 16-24 pounds, and rarely exceed 30 pounds.

The exchange ratio between the poundage of longbows in the Ming Dynasty and the poundage of modern times is 1:1.3. Therefore, the minimum standard for Ming soldiers to draw a bow is about 52 pounds in later generations, and the maximum is more than 158 pounds without a cap.

This conversion also shows how exaggerated the draw force of the bows and arrows used by soldiers and military attachés in the early Ming Dynasty was.

For generals who have been training all year round, unless they are extremely talented, most of them will stay at the level of medium strength, while low strength is the common bow power of soldiers, grassroots military attachés, and elite soldiers.

In Xia Li Gong, Zhu Yuanzhang set the standard for military officers' children to take the school entrance examination at sixty pounds, which is 78 pounds in later generations.

Faced with such standards, if a person neglects to practice, it will be difficult to pass the exam.For example, right now, when a hundred military attachés in the cathedral came forward to pick up their bows and arrows, many of them were immediately unable to fully draw the [-]-pound bow.

Some people are so embarrassed that they cannot even draw five points from a sixty-pound bow, let alone shoot twelve arrows.

This scene made Zhu Yuanzhang blush on the school stage, and the military attachés and civil servants on the left and right were also very sad.

During the Hongwu period, there was no peace. Instead, troops were used against the southwest and north. There were not many military attachés who were good at fighting.

But the problem is that, from the current point of view, the performance of these first batch of military attache children seems difficult to support the Ming Dynasty more than ten years later.

"I can't even fire the bow with high strength..."

"Most of the kids these days just know how to have fun, so it's not surprising that they can't drive."

"If it doesn't work, then they should revise their essays instead of coming to this great teaching place to embarrass their fathers."

"I can't even fire my bow, so how will I deal with the invasion from the northern barbarians and southwestern barbarians in the future..."

"Ugh……"

"..." Listening to the words of the military attache and civil servants in his ears, although Zhu Yuanzhang's expression did not change significantly, Zhu Yunwen and Xu Huizu beside him could clearly feel his dissatisfaction.

"Four out of twenty are qualified!"

While Zhu Yunwen and Xu Huizu were still thinking about how to explain, the military attache below reported the results of the first batch of children.

Among the 100 people, only 24 qualified. This surprisingly low number once again made the surrounding military attachés and civil servants sigh.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not speak, but looked at Xu Huizu to continue.

Seeing this, Xu Huizu could only bite the bullet and let the military attache's children come forward one by one.

"Eight out of ten qualified!"

"Nine out of twenty!"

"Seven out of thirty"

"Forty-one!"

"Twenty have..."

Rows of military attache disciples went up, and rows of people were brushed down. Nine rows of disciples went up, but 270 four people were selected. Most of them could only shoot the lower force bow, and the middle force bow was less than one-tenth, and the upper force bow was less than one-tenth. There are only a few people in Li Gong.

With such results, if the exam hadn't just begun, Zhu Yuanzhang would probably have walked away.

"Let's see again. If it doesn't work, I'll take the school gun test first, and then I'll leave..."

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the row of military attachés who were the last to appear, and sighed to himself.

"My dear brother, come forward!"

At the same time, as the leader of the last row, Zhu Gaoxu also walked to the lime line.

At this time, Zhu Gaoxu was 15 years old, and he was the youngest among the children of military attachés.

He has a good appearance and figure. Thanks to the excellent genes of his father Zhu Di and mother Xu, he was five feet five inches (15cm) tall at the age of 176.

The only thing that made him sad was that his predecessor was dissolute and had a few scratches on his face, so he was not liked by his grandfather.

In comparison, his eldest brother, who looks fair and round, and is polite in words and deeds, is one of the grandchildren who is most liked by his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Your Highness, do you use a matching bow or..."

Walking to the lime line, the examiner in charge of the exam came up and asked Zhu Gaoxu.

He was born in the Xu Mansion, so he knew that his Highness had been very strong since he was a child, so he asked here, but he didn't have high hopes.

The standard infantry and bows in the army are all very powerful, and they are quite sufficient for young soldiers who train regularly. Moreover, His Highness is only 15 years old, so it would be wrong not to change...

"Give me a 130-pound bow!"

(End of this chapter)