stubborn thief

Chapter 164 Faster and heavier
Liu Chengzong has been busy in Shaanxi until early April.

The Lion Camp has been stationed in the valley of the Dianshan River to the south of Crouching Tiger Mountain.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to bury his subordinates and resettle the wounded soldiers, Liu Chengzong and several post chiefs had plenty of time to sum up their post-war experience.

Liu Chengzong mainly found two things.

In the battle with Aimu, they suffered very few direct casualties in the hand-to-hand night attack.

More than half of the casualties came from the cannons in the southeast corner of the post city. The narrow terrain of the Wen'an post river valley made the cannons extremely powerful. One cannon could hit all over the subway, and even sprayed directly into the river two hundred steps away. On the other side of the mountain.

Auxiliary soldiers with uneven armor can hardly resist this kind of damage.

The auxiliary soldiers of the Lion Camp all have armor, but most of them don’t have a complete set of armor. Some wear a helmet, some wear a lock, some directly wear a shoulder or sleeveless armor, and some wear armor under the cotton jacket. skirt.

"Why is that?"

In the tent of the Chinese army in the camp, Liu Chengzong was puzzled by this question: "Our armor is sufficient, unless someone sells the war profit."

In the early days, armor and weapons were stored in the work post as war profit, and as the lion camp distributed rewards, the sergeants in the camp set off a wave of panic buying in Huojiabao.

Anyway, their money is not very useful for spending, so that from top to bottom, the whistle chief is willing to pay for the armor of each team, and the captain is also willing to buy armor for his subordinates.

This is even more so when it comes to Zhanbing. The Lion Camp entered Shanxi and only robbed a fort to earn 2 taels of income, which gave them a very bright prospect.

Bringing extraordinary hope to the Lion Camp, the soldiers are willing to exchange all their money for armor and weapons, wishing to arm their auxiliary soldiers to the teeth in order to survive the next battle.

Good days are ahead.

Liu Chengzong summarized the sales and expenditures of the work post and the supply post in those days. Although the whole battalion was not fully armored, the battle profits were enough for most of the auxiliary soldiers to wear full armor.

And they have a set of rules for distributing war profits based on rank and military honors. Except for the battalion, no one will be rich, and there is no possibility of snapping up all the armor.

But in battle, that's not what troops appear to be.

"No, no, it's impossible." Cao Yao waved his hands one after another, and said, "The soldiers in the battalion are all surrounded by the sentry camp, and there is no chance of contacting anyone. Besides, I haven't met anyone else. Who are they going to sell to?"

Yang Yao also said: "The armor of my auxiliary soldiers in the civil war is enough, but the auxiliary soldiers don't wear them when fighting. They just wear two pieces and go into battle. I always think that they are not well trained as soldiers."

"General, it's the same with my back post."

Wang Wenxiu also echoed her words, tucked her beard together and shook her head and said: "If you dare to climb the city wall, you can wear a cape. Every time you go into battle, you don't have time to talk about it, but when you talk about it in the next battle, it just goes away, and the problem is not cured. "

Just when several whistle chiefs were very confused, Cheng Yun was a little unconfident, he thought for a long time before whispering: "Brother, I may know what's going on."

Chengyun glanced at the Jiujiu warriors sitting next to him, sighed, raised his head and said, "They can't wear it, and I have armor, but I can't wear it. The auxiliary soldiers... may not be physically stronger than me."

Not only Liu Chengzong was stunned, but all the military officers Cao Yao, Wang Wenxiu, and Yang Yao were stunned.

Shangtianhou, who was sitting on the side, took a deep look at Chengyun, nodded to Liu Chengzong and said, "Yes, I'm too embarrassed to say it, but I can't wear full armor if I let Chengyun tell me."

"Can't you?"

Cao Yao's eyes widened and he said, "When I first joined the army, my body weighed forty pounds in Henan, so nothing happened!"

Liu Chengzong figured it out, everyone has their own curse of knowledge, and he didn't think about it at first.

It's like saying that he can open a war bow of [-], [-] or even [-] jin, and saying that a person is weaker, so the first thought in his mind is whether it can open [-] jin or not?

But in fact, without training, most people can't even drive thirty catties.

They are all veterans who are used to armor, and they don't even think about the fact that someone can't wear armor, because they think that they can't wear armor, and those little weak chickens feel tired and tired after wearing it, and want to be lazy.

This is completely different from what Shangtian Monkey and Chengyun said that they can't wear armor.

Moreover, the physical fitness of these two people is not bad in the auxiliary army. At least Chengyun has not suffered from hunger during the four-year drought in northern Shaanxi.

This is the same as when Cao Yao first joined the army. The young man in the last years of Wanli had enough food and drink in the army, and his body got used to carrying heavy weights after two months.

The auxiliary soldiers among the refugees are different.

Those people came from serious hunger, and eating enough food for a few months or even half a year cannot make up for the consumption and damage to the body of long-term hunger.

In fact, their bodies are still recovering, and their bodies are still preparing for the next drought.

"I understand. The several sentry chiefs all went back to ask the auxiliary soldiers. If it's because they can't wear it, they have to find a way elsewhere."

Liu Chengzong was unwilling to accept this situation.

May I ask which general does not want his soldiers to be well-armored?

He wished that the whole army could wear it and reach the top level of military equipment of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty, or even the top level of military equipment in the early Ming Dynasty.

Because he came from the frontier army, he knew the situation of the frontier army the most. In order to deal with the perennial invasion of northern Mongolia in the Ming Dynasty, military development became more targeted.

War horses have changed from full armor to half armor or even light armor, and armor has also changed from the heavy armor of [-] catties for foreign soldiers to the medium armor of about [-] catties today.

The cavalry used soft bows, long arrows, fast horses and light knives as their main weapons, and the infantry used three-eyed gun plugs, nine and ten lead as their main fighting methods.

A large number of small field guns use shotgun and solid ammunition to kill rangers at close range.

Military thinking is a compromise between mobility and protection.

The guards dispersed separately. Cao Yao could see that Liu Chengzong was unwilling to accept the status quo, followed him out of the Chinese military tent and found an excuse to return, sighing, "Why didn't I think of this before?"

"In the past, I didn't deserve to think about it before. Before fighting the second guards of Fenzhou and Pingyang, where were there so many armors?"

Liu Chengzong asked a question, and shook his head: "It was not surprising that the auxiliary soldiers wore less clothes in the past, but now they all have armor, and they wear less clothes, which makes them stand out."

"What are you going to do?"

As Cao Yao said, he came up with an idea: "I think it's better to take the armor with you, and let them practice wearing it when they are not fighting. If they practice a lot, they will be able to wear it."

Liu Chengzong waved his hands freely and said: "I'm not too worried about this. I'm just thinking about the troops. We are all frontier soldiers. What we learn and use comes from the imperial court."

"No one knows what's going on in the east, but after decades or even hundreds of years, these things in the three sides of Shaanxi have worked out a way to deal with the northern captives."

Liu Chengzong sat cross-legged on the carpet of the Chinese military tent, raised his hand and pointed in front of him: "Our opponent is not the northern captives, but the brisk officers and soldiers."

He put his hands together and separated them in front of his face: "Either, they are lighter and faster than them; or, they are heavier and more ruthless than them."

After finishing speaking, he closed his fists and said with a smile to Cao Yao: "There is no country that is always strong and weak. If we conquer the world one day, we will still have to deal with the Eastern captives."

Cao Yao listened to the previous words very seriously, and he simply took the last sentence as a joke, he said with a smile: "It will not be our turn to think about the Eastern Prisoners in a while, do you plan to go lighter or heavier? "

Cao Yao meant to be a cliché.

For a long time, Liu Chengzong's performance was very novel and strange to him.

He had never seen Liu Chengzong worried that the peasant armies from all walks of life would be wiped out by the government army. In fact, everyone was worried about this issue, only Liu Shizi never thought about it.

He is also not as keen on looting and expanding troops as other leaders.

Cao Yao has thought more than once that as long as Liu Shizi is willing, he can annex seven or eight leaders at any time, and it will be no problem to directly expand the team to eight battalions.

But Liu Shizi didn't do this, and Cao Yao felt that it was Shizi who deliberately didn't do this, and tried his best to suppress Shiziying to form his own consciousness, so as not to let Shiziying push him away.

For a whole year, they didn't stay anywhere except Xingzihe, and the team wandered around, always doing what the lion wanted them to do, and what they did.

Instead of running out of food, you have to grab one before you grab one.

This gave Cao Yao the feeling that Liu Shizi never worried about the immediate things, but he was very worried about the things in three to five years.

And the other bosses are exactly the opposite.

Others worry about what to eat next meal, other than that, it’s okay if the sky falls; he doesn’t worry about what to eat next meal, he’s just preparing for the sky to fall.

Liu Chengzong didn't know Cao Yao's thoughts. He frowned and considered for a while, then raised his hand and said, "My idea is that the soldiers are heavier and more ruthless, and the auxiliary soldiers are lighter and faster."

"I plan to ask the auxiliary soldiers to remove the armor from the armor and put it on the soldier's uniform, on the chest and back, if they really can't wear a full set of armor."

Liu Chengzong said, while gesturing on himself: "Twelve to three catties, wear a helmet, make armbands with notches on the face, don't delay archery and blunderbuss, so the whole body equipment weighs about thirty catties."

As he said that, he took a deep breath: "If the thirty catties can't be carried anymore, I can't help it. If I can't protect it, I will ask for blessings and try to live until I can carry it."

He also thought about it, which was entirely a trouble of being rich.

I think back when he was in Yuhebao, he wore a cotton armor with cotton rust armor, when did he worry about too much armor.

At that time, he had to know that one day he would worry about this matter, and he could wake up with a smile in his dreams.

Not only for him, but also for those auxiliary soldiers. In fact, at this time, most of the peasant troops are wearing clothes to go into battle, so there is no armor.

It would be nice to be able to snatch an iron hat to wear, and being a small boss might be the only way to get a pair of armor.

Cao Yao knew the structure of the shield. There were two handles on the back of the shield, through which the arm could pass. One handle was placed on the forearm, and the other was held in the hand.

And Liu Chengzong said that it does not affect shooting, that is, the hand passes between the two handles, and the bow or blunderbuss is used to shoot.

He thought about it carefully, nodded and said: "This shield is not bad. It just happens to be rounded on the outside, and it won't delay the slight bending of the elbow when holding the gun. But please remember to tell the craftsman specifically that the shield must remember to turn the sides."

The flanging in Cao Yao's mouth means that the edge of the round shield is slightly raised, so that when the arrow hits the round shield, it will be blocked by the edge in the end, so that it will not hit people.

"It goes without saying, I definitely remember."

Liu Chengzong responded with a smile, and then said: "There is one more thing, I didn't say it just now, this time more wounded soldiers died than before, and many of them died of fever after being injured."

The smile on his face was suppressed: "Ai Mu wiped gold juice on the blade and arrow before letting the officers and soldiers break through. Is there any good defense method for this kind of thing?"

The golden juice is boiled, and the bacteria itself is basically killed, but it is a very good breeding ground for bacteria, and some bacteria may grow in it.

The reason why Aimu used this thing could not be simpler. Nearly 2000 of them were besieged in the city for several days, and the feces could not be transported out, so they simply put them on the top of the city for defense.

When needed, mixed with boiling hot soup and poured down, the direct damage is not great, and the insult is extremely strong, which has a great impact on the morale of the siege troops, and the subsequent infection causes more deaths.

Cao Yao shook his head, no one has a good solution for this thing, even the armor can't stop it, the large area of ​​burns and subsequent infection make it difficult for the gods to save.

But then he thought of something, and said: "There is no way to smear poison on the knife, but not to be chopped, but to attack the city, I remember Donglu Youshan attacked the city. When I was in Liaodong, I saw a kind of tube ladder with four wheels. There is a wooden canopy on it to cover arrows and guns, and to keep out ten thousand enemies, and when the ladder cannot be lowered, the city is lacking and piled up with corpses, and a tube ladder is built to attack the city."

Liu Chengzong had never seen that kind of scene before, and the old thief Cao gave him a tragic siege plan with a few simple words.

The city was bombarded by artillery fire, and the corpses that fell from the ladder were piled up under the city, and a slope was built gradually.

He shook his head and said, "Siege is still difficult!"

"It's you who cherish your life too much. How many people in this world are destined to die."

Cao Yao paused, took a deep breath and said, "The Lion Camp has never fought a fierce battle. You have always been very smart. If you are difficult to fight, you hide. If you can't hide, you surround yourself. You don't want to let your people die, I know."

"But the fierce battle will be fought sooner or later, and the troops that can only fight against the wind will suffer big losses in the future. Everyone will die by then, and the Lion Camp..."

Cao Yao scratched the scar on his face, and said sincerely, "The Lion Camp can withstand much more casualties than you imagined. The officials and soldiers couldn't ask for more food for these people. There are too many people who want to work for you. They always beat these people. Bad fight."

Cao Yao smiled: "Our group of people have lost their talents."

Liu Chengzong smiled, Cao Yao's words reached his heart.

But this thing is beyond his control, he shook his head and said: "Wait, the fierce battle is coming soon. Didn't Master Gao say earlier that the two provinces are about to join forces? Even if you don't want to fight a fierce battle, you can hide but."

After finishing speaking, he waved his hand and said, "By the way, you can find Song Shouzhen for me later, and tell him about the fact that the battalion belongs to the normal team. , team leader, and superintendent, all must be literate and learn every day.”

Liu Chengzong shook his head and said, "There are still too few talents. Zhan Fubing will go back and wait. If there are [-] more literate people, we will arrange them too."

While the two were talking, Cao Yao hadn't started to complain for the junior officers under him when the voice of the Heavenly Monkey came from outside the tent of the Chinese army.

"General, good news!"

When the Heavenly Monkey came in, the dirty monkey rubbed its hands and sat cross-legged, greeted Cao Yao, and said, "The emperor issued an edict to transfer money from all over the country to Beijing, and the money delivery team from Shaanxi will take the Hexi Road, which is Fuzhou." Go to Yan'an Mansion and enter Yulin!"

　Good morning!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)