Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The three territories owned by the Zhu family and his son have a special population age structure.

Take Daming Township as an example——

Ages 0 to 14, accounting for 33.6%.

Those aged 15 to 40 account for 58.2%.

Those aged 41 to 55 account for 6.7%.

Over 56 years old, accounting for 1.5%.

Especially the refugees brought back from Shaanxi rarely see the elderly, and they have died of hunger and disease in their hometown.

The high proportion of children is mainly due to the fact that in recent years, under Zhu Guoxiang's governance, the birth rate and survival rate of newborns have been very high.

After the 300 archers trained by Ju Ming were sent home, more than 90 people came to Daming Village with their families.

Tong Ershun's brother is one of them.

His elder brother fell ill and died. Before he died, he asked Tong Ershun to bring his father, sister-in-law, nephew, and younger brother to surrender.

My father is not yet 50 years old, his hair is already gray, and he is now farming in Daming Village.

Tong Ershun married his sister-in-law and became the mainstay of the family.

This year, my younger brother Sanshun is also 16 years old, and it is time to arrange marriage.

But Tong Sanshun is very picky because he studied in the village school. He knows hundreds of words and can add, subtract, multiply and divide. He has been assigned to work as an apprentice in the warehouse and wants to marry a woman with better conditions.

"Er Shun, come with me!"

"okay."

Tong Ershun ran out quickly. It was Jiang Yong, his neighbor's eldest brother.

When his brother was still alive, he worked as an archer with Jiang Yong and followed Zhu Dutou to suppress the bandits. The relationship was pretty good, both families came to Daming Village, and Jiang Yong always took good care of Tong Ershun.

The two of them didn't go far when they met a few more villagers and walked towards Heifeng Village together.

"Brother Jiang, what are you doing?" Tong Ershun couldn't help but ask.

Jiang Yong said: "The miscellaneous taxes imposed by the government are getting heavier and heavier, and there are thieves in every village. My husband asked Brother Zhang to practice more village bravery."

"Can I also be a village hero?" Tong Ershun was very excited.

Although the village warriors did not receive military pay, they had good food during the training and their families could get some tax reductions.

If you reach the rank of captain or above, you can also be rewarded with land.

It's not just reclaimed wasteland, it's mature land that has been cultivated!

Villagers can apply to reclaim a lot of wasteland based on their own circumstances. If you cultivate five acres, you can keep four acres after it is fully cultivated, and the remaining one acres will be used as public land in the village.

These public fields were usually cultivated by tenants, and occasionally they were given rewards.

There is no shortage of tenants, because land reclamation is too laborious, and the output in the past few years was not high. Newly arrived immigrants often open up wasteland and plant a small amount of crops, while at the same time cultivating mature fields to support their families.

New immigrants who are too far away from mature fields are even picked up by boats during the busy farming season and transported to mature fields several miles away.

Jiang Yong whispered: "I am a veteran, and I can be promoted to captain this time. If you are an honest person, don't be a soldier, and come to my team to be a fire soldier."

"What is a fire soldier?" Tong Ershun asked.

Jiang Yong said: "Each team is assigned a fire soldier, who usually has to carry iron pots and dry food. When fighting, he holds a knife in his hand and cuts off the thieves' ears to count their heads. The fire soldiers also collect the stolen goods captured by the team first. , and leave it to the commander for distribution after the war. If the thieves rush into the team, the fire soldiers will have to fight with their swords. Don't be afraid, they usually can't rush in. Your brother and I have a good relationship, so I won't put you in danger."

Tong Ershun suddenly realized: "I'm just here to help my brothers."

"That's what I mean." Jiang Yong nodded.

Everyone went all the way to Heifeng Village, and Tong Ershun came here for the first time.

But they heard the rumble of horse hooves, and the cavalry had already started training.

The horses in the village are not very good. Most of them are roosters bought from other places. There are only more than 20 horses in total.

Riding skills are also relatively poor. Sentry and sending messages is enough, and chasing down defeated troops is also good, but frontal combat is difficult.

Zhang Guangdao himself rode a fine horse, the daughter of Cornucopia and another mare. The mare is also a real war horse. She has given birth to two litters and is now pregnant again. The veterinarian is taking care of her carefully.

After the gathering was almost complete, Zhang Guangdao finally began to form a team.

There are 5 people in a team, with the shield or long player as the team leader.

A team of 12 is composed of a captain, fire soldiers and two teams of soldiers.

There are 49 people per sentry, consisting of the sentry commander and four teams of soldiers.

A capital of 100 people is composed of a captain, a deputy captain and two sentry soldiers.

The five capitals form one battalion, with a total of more than 500 people.

The battalion officer is called the commander, and is also equipped with flag bearers, trumpeters, doctors, carpenters, tailors, etc. (the firearms unit will also be added in the future).

Zhu Guoxiang asked Daming Township to expand the army to 800 people, and Zhang Guangdao directly expanded the army to nearly 1,100 people, forming two full battalions and a cavalry team.

There are only a little over 5,000 people in Daming Township, and the five-to-one draw seriously affects production.

Excluding the elderly, women and children, most of the young and middle-aged were drafted into the army, and they did not take into account Zhu Guoxiang's advice not to draft the only son in the family.

Fortunately, they are all trained during the off-season. Only a few workshops and shops are left to maintain the operation of Daming Township.

Shi Yuangong, Deng Chun and others were responsible for investigating the news in Sichuan Gorge, and they had returned during the Chinese New Year.

Shi Yuangong served as secretary.

Deng Chun served as the commander of the first battalion, and Xu Ning served as the deputy commander.

Sun Lan served as the commander of the second battalion, and Hua Rong served as the deputy commander.

Sun Lan is a veteran who followed Ju Ming in suppressing bandits. He brought his family to join him four years ago. He performed extremely well in smuggling and was promoted by Zhang Guangdao. Moreover, this person knows several big characters.

Xu Ning and Hua Rong were military officers in Tokyo, and their martial arts skills were quite outstanding.

But they were outsiders and underqualified. Being the deputy commander is already considered an extra promotion. Zhu Guoxiang spoke behind his back.

As for Yang Zhi, Lin Chong and others, they all went to Jintan Village in Yangzhou and Tiemao Village in Jinzhou, and they would form their own troops separately.

Tong Ershun got a knife, a pair of armor, and a helmet from the army.

The armor is half-body leather armor, covering only the vital parts, and the helmet is also an ordinary rattan helmet.

Tong Ershun suddenly didn't want to be a fire soldier anymore. He wanted to be a combat soldier because it looked more majestic.

The soldiers all wore rattan armor and war skirts made of rattan that extended to their knees. The rattan helmet was also different. A circle of cloth fell down, and iron pieces were hung on the cloth to protect the neck.

Tong Ershun looked at Jiang Yong and found that Brother Jiang had become a warrior.

Brother Jiang had a spear in his hand and a bow and arrow on his back. After putting on his armor, he looked majestic.

For several days, Tong Ershun was confused.

In addition to one hour of physical training every day, the rest of the time is spent familiarizing with commands.

As a fire soldier, he only needs to know Jiang Yong's pennant.

But when captains like Jiang Yong identify higher-level flags, the soldiers must also become familiar with them. The soldiers are not required to memorize it, but they still need to have the basic concepts.

There are also various orders with sounds: gongs, drums, trumpets, and whistles.

There are three types of trumpets: horn, trumpet, and polo.

The boluo is a musical instrument made of conch, and it can also be made of other materials. The "big blowing conch" is what it is.

There are all kinds of flags and various musical instruments. Not to mention soldiers like Tong Ershun, even captains like Jiang Yong have difficulty adapting.

The training lasted until the sixth day, and finally everyone made no mistakes.

But just this once, someone made a mistake in retraining.

Seeing Zhang Guangdao still continuing to practice flag orders, Shi Yuangong couldn't help but said: "General Zhang, is it time to practice military formations?"

Zhang Guangdao shook his head: "There's no rush."

Shi Yuangong was extremely surprised. Although he didn't know how to fight, he had seen Xiang armies from various places. Those Xiang soldiers were considered elite if they could recognize orders, but Zhang Guangdao planned to follow the orders and prohibit them.

At this moment, there is no formation at all on the school field.

Many soldiers stood in a crooked group in small teams. But as soon as the order came out, under the command of the officers at all levels, the chaotic soldiers were able to respond quickly.

After practicing for half a month, Zhang Guangdao began to train the formation.

A month later, the Yuanyang Formation was combined with the order, and the formation took action according to the order.

In the blink of an eye, it is the busy farming season again. In order to ensure agricultural production, the soldiers of the two battalions can only take turns.

One battalion practiced for three consecutive days, and the other battalion went home to do farm work, and so on. Neighbors must help each other, especially helping soldiers who are training to harvest food.

Zhu Guoxiang inspected various fields all day long, and the li chief, Bao chief, and A chief reported their work at any time.

Taking a field as a unit, whichever field's grain matures first will be harvested first by all farmers in the field. The work points are calculated based on the number of people and days. Each family has a different number of acres. With mutual help, some people must have more work points, and these people will be given material rewards afterwards.

He had to train troops and produce, so Zhu Guoxiang could only do this, but he was able to train the grassroots armor-protecting organization.

After the busy farming season, we still practice in rotation.

Each soldier has three days of training and three days of rest. During the rest period, he can do his own thing.

This kind of training intensity has exceeded that of the Forbidden Army.

Of course, if you follow the system, the Forbidden Army's training is still very good.

After Wang Anshi's political reform, the Forbidden Army drilled twice a day and had to train for ten days in winter. When enforcement was at its strictest, the Imperial Guardsmen would rather go to war than stay in the school grounds for training.

Even the people in the Gyeonggi area, Wang Anshi, used Baojia as a unit to train militia during slack periods.

In order to avoid military training, ordinary people even committed suicide. Due to various deductions from the officers, the militiamen did not have enough to eat. They had to bring their own dry food on the way back and forth, and were even transferred to work for free by the officers.

Wang Anshi hasn't stepped down yet, this kind of training method can no longer hold up, and the imperial army is slacking off in revenge from top to bottom.

The soldiers in Daming Township are very active. There is not much work to do in the slack season anyway. During the training period, they eat three meals a day, and they don't cost anything to eat.

However, the food was consumed very quickly, and Zhu Guoxiang had to go to the next few villages to buy food.

After three consecutive months, facing the rapidly decreasing food reserves, Zhu Guoxiang ordered to change to training every five days.

At the same time, the smuggling trade also resumed, and a group of soldiers were selected to take the peasants to sell tea in Shaanxi.

It was not until winter that the people were completely idle, and Zhang Guangdao once again ordered the entire army to train.

"Dong dong dong dong!"

A thousand soldiers heard the drum and moved, and the commander issued orders to his subordinates according to the flag order of the central army.

Each capital, outpost, and team passed messages at different levels and took different military actions. It was a little stagnant at first, but gradually it became smoother, and I really followed the instructions.

Of course, this is just a training exercise, and you will definitely transform when you go to the battlefield.

You must have experienced several wars before you can perform more perfectly. If you don't see blood, you will always be just a recruit.

But this was enough. Shi Yuangong looked at the army in front of him. Although there were only a thousand people, he seemed to have an army of millions.

One thousand elites are enough to sweep across Lizhou Road.

After capturing a county, you can immediately launch an army. You can fight all the way and have tens of thousands of troops.

Taking down the four roads of Sichuan Gorge can raise more than 100,000 troops.

Among the more than 100,000 troops, only 10,000 such elites need to be trained, which is enough to separate the entire Sichuan and have a glimpse of the world.