Datang New Order

Now Yuguan has nearly two hundred soldiers from both capitals, and a hundred young and strong civilians. As long as the gate is closed and the construction is completed, in terms of military strength alone, the small Yuguan will be safe and secure.But Li Chengzhong knew that this was only superficial worry-free, and he was very clear about the virtues of these recruits.If the Khitans were really determined to attack the city, they would not need those complicated siege facilities, just attaching them with wooden ladders and ants would not be able to resist these refugees who were gutted by the Khitans.

Seeing that the closing of the gate was almost completed, Li Chengzhong didn't plan to take the huge risk out of the city again, so he planned to hurry up and train these recruits to defend the city.

Li Chengzhong first called together three team officers, Jiang Miao, Zhang Xingzhong, and Zhou Medao, for a meeting. In order to better implement his plan for defending the city, he wanted to break up Capital A and Capital B and readjust the organization.It stands to reason that he is currently the highest military officer in Yuguan designated by Zhou Zhiyu, and has the power to make temporary adjustments again, but the three team officers are all brothers who withdrew from Weizhou along with Li Chengzhong and came to Yuguan to guard the border. He didn't want to create a quarrel over this matter.

To Li Chengzhong's relief, the three team officers all supported his suggestion and expressed their willingness to obey the deployment.Li Chengzhong's suggestion is to divide the 180 soldiers in Jiadu and Yidu into five teams, of which two teams are spearmen, one team is sword and shield soldiers, there is also a team of archers and a reserve team.

Zhang Xingzhong and Jiang Miao each led a team of spearmen, each leading 50 men, to defend the front of the wall before the battle.Zhou Baedao led thirty sword and shield soldiers on standby on the city wall. If any place was tight or was breached by the Khitans, Zhou Baodao would lead people up to fill the loopholes in the defense.

Li Chengzhong also mobilized [-] recruits who could shoot bows and arrows to form an archery team, led by Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao, and climbed to the fortress on the hillside.The fortress was much higher than the closing wall, and it was difficult for the enemy to attack from the bottom up.Because the location of the hillside is slightly protruding, and the fortress overlooks the entire Guancheng, archers are arranged here, and their range can control the entire defensive front.In the end, the remaining [-] soldiers were handed over to Wang Dalang, and Li Chengzhong planned to stay by his side as a strategic preparation, and wait for the critical moment of the war before joining them.

After the teams were assigned, Li Chengzhong began training.His requirements for military training are very detailed and mechanical.

He asked the spearmen to be divided into groups, each in groups of two, to defend a wall crenel.One of them was the commander, standing on the front of the crenel, and the other was a member of the team, standing on the side of the crenel. When the enemy climbed the wall, the commander issued an order, and the two shot and stabbed together.He further decomposed this step, requiring that the commander must wait for the enemy to expose the body above the thigh before issuing the command.After the commander gave the order, the two men had to stab at the same time. Among them, the commander stabbed the enemy's chest, and the team member stabbed the enemy's thigh.Because the enemy is likely to hold a shield, the commander stabbing the enemy's chest is a feint attack, and the team member stabbing the enemy's thigh root is the real kill.For each gunman's step forward stabbing action, Li Chengzhong also performed a demonstration according to the bayonet action learned in the former army, and then asked two people to start repeated training.

Li Chengzhong didn't say too much about the melee soldiers with swords and shields led by Zhou Madao. He thought he was inferior to Zhou Madao in the use of swords and shields.He just emphasized to Zhou Paidao that the sword and shield soldiers should be formed into a group of three, and that when the time comes, they must move quickly, either to kill the enemies on the top of the city quickly, or to push them down the city wall.

Zhou Medao blinked, grinned and said: "Li Lang, don't worry, quick killing may not be possible, push down the city wall... there is some way."

Li Chengzhong didn't ask him too much what to do. He believed that Zhou Machete's martial prowess should be no problem. He had already experienced it during the retreat from Weizhou to the north.What he cared about next was the archery team led by Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao.The Khitan people are notoriously good at archery, and competing with their opponents in archery is a typical way to attack the enemy's strengths with their own weaknesses, so Li Chengzhong planned to train these archers according to the artillery coverage method he learned from the troops before crossing. …,

He took Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao to the city outside Yuguan, found many small stones and nailed them into the soil. These stones divided the ground under the wall from one step to one hundred steps into nine sections, and Li Chengzhong marked them in order .He explained to Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao: "When shooting, don't shoot indiscriminately. You each lead ten people to start practicing. Each time you shoot a volley, the two of you give the order to shoot ten arrows at the same time, covering a section."

Seeing that the two of them didn't seem to understand, he pondered for a while, and said, "For example, when Meng Da sees an enemy in a district, he will issue an order to let ten of your archers shoot arrows at a district at the same time. If the arrow can injure one enemy, the shot is considered a success."

The eyes of the two brightened, and they went back happily to organize their staff and start training.This method of archery does not require the archer to shoot accurately, and for these recruits, it can be mastered with a little practice.

As a result, a large-scale military training began in Yuguan. These recruits began to do repeated mechanical exercises according to their responsibilities, and there were shouts of killing in Yuguan.

The practice movements of the spearmen are relatively simple, that is, to take a step forward and stab with the gun. However, these recruits have never done this kind of movement. It can even reach half a person's body.But this is not a difficult problem to solve. As long as you practice more, the accuracy will naturally be adjusted slowly. The most difficult part is to overcome the tension.

Facing the enemy, no one can avoid being nervous, but if you are too nervous to stab the wooden spear in your hand, it will be fatal when you are in battle.For this reason, Li Chengzhong divided these spearmen into two groups, one of which played the imaginary enemy, that is, the Khitan.He asked the soldiers to build some one-person-high platforms with soil piles on the ground, simulating the crenels of the city wall, and asked a group of two soldiers to stand on one side of the platforms, and let the Khitan soldiers hold their shields to jump onto the platforms, imitating the Khitans ascending the city. .

After a lot of practice, the soldiers gradually got used to this kind of stabbing, and they were no longer too nervous to stab the wooden spears in their hands.But then the problem came again, the soldiers couldn't help stabbing out their wooden spears when they saw the companion playing the role of Khitan showing their heads, without waiting for the enemy's whole body to be exposed.Li Chengzhong's solution to this problem is to take severe punishment measures. Any group that fails to achieve the desired effect will be required to do [-] additional push-ups.

Li Chengzhong didn't interfere too much in the training of the sword and shield soldiers. He was surprised to see that Zhou Chopper went to Minfuying to make ten large wooden shields. This kind of wooden shield can cover most of the body and needs both hands to lift it up.Then he saw these soldiers with wooden shields playing a game of bullying each other. After pondering for a while, he suddenly understood Zhou Machete's thinking, and couldn't help smiling.

The training of an archer is mainly a matter of opening the bow and exerting force, as for the aim, it doesn't matter much.Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao found some wooden stakes and placed them ten paces away, requiring the recruits to stick their arrows into the wood.Fortunately, these [-] soldiers were herdsmen outside the customs who were selected first in Jiadu and Yidu. Most of them had shot arrows before, and they passed the customs very quickly.Then the two summoned them to the fort and began to practice shooting arrows by area.Because the targets in each area are very large, there is no need to worry too much about the accuracy of the head. After finding the feeling, these recruits can basically shoot into the designated area, forming a slightly sparse arrow screen. I believe that with time, the effect will be better.

In the past few days of the big military training in Yuguan, the Khitan people sent out cavalry to investigate every day.These wanderers appear twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, at a distance of about three or four hundred steps from Yuguan, watching for a while, and then turning around and leaving.

On the first day, Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao asked Li Chengzhong for orders, rode on the horses unloaded from the carts of the civilian husbands, and rushed out of the city to challenge.These two are rangers from outside the pass, they are proud of their bravery, they are very good at riding and archery, and they want to catch some people alive.But the Khitans didn't fight at all, and when they saw the two riding out of the city, they drove away.The two rode cart horses, which were not comparable to the decent war horses of the Khitan people, so they couldn't catch up at all. After going out of the city to challenge twice but failed, they were simply discouraged and didn't ask for orders to go out. They just stepped up training their brothers . …,

When the closed gate was finally fixed at the gate and the closed gate was officially blocked, the Khitan Rangers never appeared again.Two days later, Li Chengzhong sent Wang Dalang, Meng Xuxing, and Jiao Chengqiao out to investigate, but they found that the Khitan army camp ten miles away was no longer there.

So the Khitans withdrew?Li Chengzhong couldn't believe it, so he invited Jiang Miao, Zhang Xingzhong, Zhou Medao and other military officers to discuss it. Everyone was completely confused about this, so he asked Feng Dao again.

After thinking for a while, Feng Dao told Li Chengzhong that the main camp of the Khitan people should not have been moved, and it is likely that they are still in place, and perhaps a bigger move is brewing.

"If they have follow-up actions, why haven't Rangers come over in the past few days?" Li Chengzhong was a little puzzled.

"The Khitan people have not really taken over the battle with us so far, so it seems unreasonable to evacuate here." Feng Dao explained, "In addition, these days, there is still not a single citizen who has escaped from outside the pass, which shows that the Khitan people The camp is still blocking the passage outside."

For Feng Dao's vision and judgment, Li Chengzhong has become more and more convinced, so he has stricter requirements when training soldiers, and when talking to several officers under his command, he often talks about the arrival of the Khitan people. , always remind everyone to be more vigilant and never relax.At the same time, he asked Wang Dalang to start investigating further outside.

Just when Li Chengzhong was intensifying his preparations, the Khitans had already pulled out their camp and left Yuguan. They followed the downstream of Xuanshui, waded through the clear and shallow tributary of Xuanshui, traveled [-] miles northward, and came to a camp.The camp was located by the water, and there were thousands of leather tents, large and small, covering the entire pasture.In the middle of the camp stood a huge tent. Whether it was the huge fine velvet carpet extending outside the tent or the precious eagle feathers on the top of the tent, they all exuded a luxurious luxury, showing the honorable status of the tent owner. .

The Khitan bearded man who had confronted Li Chengzhong at the foot of Yuguan City led his men to the side of the camp, hurriedly set up the tent, and then rushed outside the big tent by himself, asking to enter.