People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 116 Heavy Armored Cavalry
"Master, please look here. Our army has been training for a long time, and today we can say that it has achieved initial results!"

On the parade ground, following Wang Dang's order, an officer in armor soon left the formation leading a horse and stood in front of Xu Chen.

Wang Dang also confidently showed Xu Chen the results of his training.

"Among our regular troops, except for the 1,000 officers, the rest are heavy armored vanguard battalions. Every soldier in the vanguard battalion is equipped with this kind of standard equipment. Each of them wears a set of fish scale armor and a ring-handled sword.

Moreover, among the vanguard camp, one thousand people were equipped with an extra war horse, a lance, and a crossbow. Even the war horses were protected by leather armor.

According to your standards, the soldiers in the Vanguard Battalion are all taller than 170 cm and heavier than 140 kg. They are well fed and well-drinked during daily training, so there is no need to worry about their combat effectiveness.

With this heavily armed vanguard battalion, I am confident that I can break through all enemy formations. Even if you want me to overthrow the Han Dynasty right now, I will do it for you, Master!"

It is certainly impossible to overthrow the Han Dynasty court with only these two thousand vanguard battalions. Xu Chen would not take such boasting seriously, but it is true that these two thousand vanguard battalions are enough to fight. They will definitely be the ace troops of the Yellow Turbans in the future.

With the addition of a new standing army, the core officer system must not be abolished. Xu Chen directly assigned 500 people to the Vanguard Battalion, and recruited another 1,500 young and strong people to form a standing army of 2,000 Vanguard Battalions. So part of the standing army is the officer battalion which is the backbone of the army, and part of it is the Vanguard Battalion which is the army's strongest combat power.

He walked over, looked around the officer twice, patted his fish scale armor, pulled out his ring-handled sword and knocked it, and Xu Chen nodded with satisfaction.

Finally, he pointed at the crossbow and looked at the officer: "This crossbow was improved by the Engineering Institute according to my method. Although it can fire continuously, its practicality still needs your most intuitive experience. Tell me what you think?"

The officer's face brightened when he heard this, and he began to answer.

"Report to the Master, our army has tried both the small crossbows prepared by the officers and soldiers for horse archery and this improved repeating crossbow during training. The small crossbow has a slightly higher power and range than the repeating crossbow, but the repeating crossbow is much more efficient in firing. Our soldiers have discussed this a lot and all think that the repeating crossbow is better in comprehensive comparison."

Whether something is useful or not ultimately depends on the user's experience. With the officer's words, Xu Chen felt a lot more relieved.

The crossbow has been used since the Warring States Period, and it is still one of the mainstream equipment today. Its usage rate is not inferior to that of bows and arrows, and is even higher. Even in horseback archery, there is no shortage of crossbow riders.

Not to mention large equipment like the bed crossbow, a single-soldier crossbow is stronger than a bow and arrow in both range and power.

However, a powerful crossbow cannot be used on horseback, otherwise the string cannot be strung. One can only use a small crossbow with smaller power and range. Now Xu Chen has improved this small crossbow into a repeating crossbow.

This repeating crossbow was made by Hu Tao under the guidance of Xu Chen. It is now put into mass production. Even though its power is a little smaller, it can still play its last role in this era when the rate of armor wearing by the army is extremely low.

When the cavalry in the vanguard camp are not wearing heavy armor, they can use crossbows to shoot while riding, and they can become a thousand light cavalry.

If they were to wear heavy armor and equip with lances, they could charge into the enemy's formation and lead a thousand heavily armored cavalrymen.

In this way, equipment can be flexibly replaced according to combat needs, and with the addition of another thousand heavy armored infantry, it can cope with most current battlefield situations as long as the difference in troop strength is not too great.

Wang Dang stepped forward and said, "In Youzhou, there are both infantry and cavalry soldiers. In addition, there are also Hu people. These are our future opponents. Now that we have the Vanguard Battalion, no matter who we fight, we at least have a way to deal with them."

Upon hearing this, Xu Chen nodded. In fact, the distribution of troops in Youzhou was much more complicated than that in the Central Plains.

The Central Plains mostly emphasizes infantry, and cavalry is a powerful supplement to combat power, but it is not the basic combat power of the army. This is not the case in Youzhou. Because of the existence of nomadic cavalry, if you want to stand out here, you must have elite cavalry, such as Gongsun Zan's White Horse Volunteers.

Now, the Yellow Turbans have begun to prepare for a more complicated situation in the future.

Although gunpowder is available today, it is not so easy to use due to limitations in smelting technology and production. It can be very effective in specific scenarios such as breaking through city gates or from a high position, but it cannot be used as a mainstream weapon for the time being.

In order to put together this 2,000-strong heavy armor vanguard battalion, Xu Chen re-smelted all the weapons and equipment seized along the way, and also subsequently opened an iron mine and smelting plant. It took more than half a year before it was finally completed.

This vanguard battalion was armed to the teeth, fully equipped with weapons and armor, with top-notch soldiers and a strong fighting spirit. They were definitely the elite among the elite.

"There is no secret to making the army fight well. Just give them the best equipment, increase the frequency of training, and keep them well fed and well-drinked, and their morale high. Although it is very expensive, I have done it. How they fight later depends on you."

Xu Chen smiled, then looked at Wang Dang, and his expression became serious.

Now that the soldiers have been trained, they will naturally be sent out for a trial. If nothing unexpected happens, Xu Chen intends to take the severely damaged Youbeiping into his possession. Wang Dang naturally understands what he means and can't wait.

However, before Xu Chen made a decision, Tian Shitou sent him a piece of intelligence that disrupted Xu Chen's plan. "Master, our spies discovered unusual movements in Guangyang County. There are 3,000 Wuhuan cavalry stationed in Jizhong. After investigation, we found that they were recruited by the Han court and were to be under the command of the newly appointed Cavalry Commander Gongsun Zan. Their target of attack is us!"

Tian Shitou came in a hurry, looking very worried. This news brought him tremendous pressure.

Xu Chen and Wang Dang looked at each other. Although they had already prepared themselves mentally for this situation, they couldn't help but feel solemn when the time really came.

Things turned out just as Xu Chen had expected. The imperial court finally responded to the rise of the Yellow Turbans.

Even if the response was just an appointment and the recruitment of 3,000 Wuhuan cavalry, it was enough to make the Yellow Turbans feel enormous pressure. The Yellow Turbans, who had not been at peace for a few days, had to face even greater military pressure.

"Immediately recruit troops for war, step up propaganda, practice joint defense, and prepare military food and supplies!"

Xu Chen did not waste a moment and made a decision immediately. There was no time to think about Youbeiping at this moment. The top priority was to withstand the pressure from Gongsun Zan.

Gongsun Zan suddenly transformed himself from a county magistrate into a frontier commander. Even if he could not integrate all the forces of Youzhou, even five or six points of them would be enough to defeat the Yellow Turbans.

Of course, a war cannot be started just like that. Both Gongsun Zan and Xu Chen need time to make preparations before the war. However, it was during this process that things took unexpected turns.

However, a few days later, Tian Shitou brought back new news. The 3,000 Wuhuan cavalrymen recruited by the imperial court suddenly rebelled before Gongsun Zan could receive them. After looting in Ji, they ran back to their own tribe.

This sudden news confused Xu Chen. Later he learned that it seemed that the money and food promised by the Han court to the Wuhuan had not arrived, which eventually led to the Wuhuan's rebellion.

Although this reason seems a bit ridiculous, it is great news for the Yellow Turbans anyway.

Without the threat of the Wuhuan cavalry, it would be much easier for the Yellow Turbans to deal with Gongsun Zan.

Although this happened suddenly, it was not too surprising. Whether it was the Wuhuan and Xianbei in Youzhou or the Qiang people in Xiliang, they had always surrendered and rebelled, rebelled and surrendered again. Even if they submitted to the Han Dynasty most of the time, they could only submit to a certain extent.

The news of Wuhuan's rebellion relieved a lot of pressure on Xu Chen, but another person couldn't hold back because of it.

When the news reached Youbeiping some time later, Zhang Chun invited Tian Chou to his own manor. However, when the other party stepped into the living room, he obviously noticed that Tian Chou was not in a good mood.

It should be said that after the last war, Tian Chou has never emerged from his gloomy state, which shows how great a blow the last failure was to the Tian family and himself.

However, Tian Chou's mood is a little better than before. What makes him happy is that their request for help from the court has been responded to. Although the response is not too big and only the appointment of a cavalry captain, it is enough.

"General Zhang invited me today to ask about the matter of defeating the bandits. Now Gongsun Zan has been ordered to lead the army, and we only need to follow his lead. With the combined strength of the prefectures and counties, we will surely win in one fell swoop!"

Tian Chou's eyes brightened up, and he looked at Zhang Chun with a smile: "After the bandits are pacified, General Zhang will be able to return to Pinggu and resume his family business."

Restore the family business
A gloomy look flashed across Zhang Chun's eyes, and then he picked up the wine and drank it slowly.

As soon as he heard the name Gongsun Zan, he couldn't help but feel filled with anger. Originally, this cavalry commander should have belonged to him, but now it had fallen into the hands of Gongsun Zan.

I, Zhang Chun, have a sincere heart towards the imperial court and the Han Dynasty, but I have been treated so coldly!
Gongsun Zan, this loser, took advantage of everything and even let the Wuhuan rebel. If it were me, such a thing would never happen!
Recover the family business again. Haha, now I not only want the family business, I want more!

It was quiet for a while, and Tian Chou finally realized that something was wrong in the atmosphere. At this time, Zhang Chun spoke again.

"Before there was Xu Chen in Youzhou, and today there is the Wuhuan rebellion. Zitai thinks Gongsun Zan can still handle the situation? Neither of these two parties is easy for him to deal with." Although Zhang Chun had a smile on his lips, his tone was very indifferent.

Tian Chou frowned, squinted at him, and said, "The Wuhuan are greedy people, and rebellion is common. They will not be determined to oppose the Han Dynasty. In the future, if the court gives them some benefits, or they ask for some money, they will be quiet. In the end, the real threat is only Xu Chen."

Zhang Chun finally showed his true colors and sneered, "What if we add a certain Zhang Chun to the mix? Can Gongsun Zan still handle it?"

When these words came out, Tian Chou's face turned pale and he stood up in shock: "You want to rebel?"

(End of this chapter)