Chapter II Standing Army

Uncle Ji Buyun, one of the five rulers, is the largest and most luxurious personal mansion in Haotian City, consisting of six stone buildings connected together, and the courtyard is full of various flowers and trees. The residence is divided into inner and outer houses according to height, and the three outer houses on low ground are used for guards, kitchens and receptions respectively, and the inner house is used for living, and Ji Buyun lives on the east side of the inner house.

Almost every visiting highlander admired Buyun-sama's mansion, but the adult did not care, always saying that it was just a simple stone house and quickly changed the subject.

Ji Buyun originally thought that his uncle was modest, but a year later, when he really saw the mansions of the dignitaries of the Central Plains Empire, he realized that his uncle's house was really just a simple stone house compared to these people's residences.

When he got home, his uncle was already resting, and Ji Buyun had to wait for tomorrow to find another chance to persuade him.

That night, Ji Buyun had a strange dream, dreaming that a group of white monkeys with four tails surrounded him and tore and bited, the largest of which was particularly vicious, it looked strange, the white monkey had a tiger's head on its body, and a tuft of red hair on its head, as if it was wearing a crown, and a slap almost hit him in the face. Ji Buyun brandished a golden bamboo sword, blocking east and west, embarrassed, seeing that he was outnumbered, he had to turn around and run, and those monkeys were chasing after him.

Just as the monkey is about to catch up with him, he is awakened by Anyah's knock on the door and wakes up to find himself sweating profusely.

Anya lives downstairs from Ji Buyun and is nominally his guard, but in fact she is more responsible for helping him with some daily chores, such as waking him up every morning. Today is Ji Buyun's main shift, he should go to the Senate in advance to arrange the sentry and patrol routes, for safety reasons, the temporary sentry posts and patrol routes change every day. After hurriedly washing up, he didn't even have time to eat breakfast, so Ji Buyun and Anya went straight to the senate.

On the way, they met a standing army, dressed in imposing black robes and carrying the famous highland spears on their shoulders, lined up in two columns to meet them.

The most important weapon of the highlanders is the highland spear, this spear is two feet long, and the shaft is made of the trunk of the white beech tree characteristic of the snow-capped mountains in the southwest. This beech tree grows very slowly, it takes decades to grow to the thickness of an egg, the tree is dense, hard as iron, but very light, it is an ideal material for making spears, a spear shaft after dozens of processes such as drying, baking, grinding, etc., often take several years to make.

The basic tactics of the standing army of the Highlanders were spear formations based on this spear.

These standing army soldiers should be the guards of Lord Ao Zhiwu. The Standing Army of the Highlanders had eleven legions, which were stationed in three barracks at six important passes ranging from 200 to 800 li away from Haotian City, and those passes were the only way to Haotian City, and only the plenary session of the Senate could mobilize the standing army. However, as the commander of the standing army, Lord Ao Zhiwu has the right to lead the guards directly under him.

To be honest, after a long period of training as ants, Ji Buyun, who was proficient in hand-to-hand combat, could hardly understand what effect the two-zhang-long spears in the hands of these soldiers could do against the assassins who were close at hand, if someone assassinated Lord Ao Zhiwu closely. Therefore, the real guard work of the lord should be undertaken by the guards who wear short knives around him, and these spearmen play more of a ceremonial role.

When he arrived at the Senate, the time was just right, after Ji Buyun arranged the temporary sentry post and patrol, he deliberately added a three-person sentry post in front of the Senate, and sent two more patrols to the square.

After arranging these, Ji Buyun went to report to his immediate boss, Ao Xian, the captain of the garrison, as usual. The captain never revealed his age to anyone, and his face was about forty years old, and he was a close branch of the Ao family who had been in the army for generations, and it was said that he was two generations higher than Lord Ao Zhiwu in the long house.

The Janissary Senate garrison had 15 squadrons of 900 soldiers, one main squadron, six deputies and seven captains, plus nearly 1,000 squadron leaders, squad leaders, internal affairs, and guards. The captain is responsible for coordinating and liaising with the five-member ruling committee and the Praetorian Guard headquarters, and the six deputy captains are responsible for the day-to-day guards. The six deputy captains are divided into two types: the main shift is responsible for the day, the deputy is responsible for the evening, the day is on the day, and the rest is two days. He is not busy at work and has a lot of free time, Ji Buyun is very satisfied with his current position.

Captain Ao wears the same blue robe as they did, but with a black strip added to the robe to indicate that he was from the Standing Army.

After listening to the report, he was very satisfied with Ji Buyun's arrangement, he knew that according to Lord Buyun's idea, it would be a matter of time before Ji Buyun took his place, so he never hesitated to praise Ji Buyun on any occasion, hoping that when Ji Buyun replaced him, Lord Buyun could arrange him in an ideal position.

After talking about their work, they stood in the corridor on the second floor of the Senate while observing the patrols in the square, while talking nonsense, and from time to time there were the Praetorian Guards of the internal guards and the guards of the senators passing by.

Inadvertently, Ji Buyun mentioned the standing army he saw in the morning.

"Arrogant, flashy waste. He muttered.

Ji Buyun immediately realized that he had accidentally touched the sore spot of the captain, he was the only Ao disciple who came to the Praetorian Guard after leaving the standing army.

The basic service period of the standing army is five years, and generally the children of nobles such as patriarchs and tribal elders will immediately retire home to inherit the ancestral business, get married and have children after the expiration of the service period, if they have no intention of developing in the military circles, and the highlanders usually get married after completing their military service, so the normal marriage age is after the age of 25.

The captain retired after 18 years of service, and he had already held the high-ranking military position of regimental commander, and originally planned to fight in the military circles for the rest of his life, but it is said that he had to retire because of his disagreement with the commander of the standing army, Lord Ao Zhiwu, on the arrangement of the military formation, and after many conflicts, he felt that his future was bleak.

After retiring, on the one hand, he did not have a suitable occupation, and on the other hand, he really liked the life in the barracks, so he deigned to come to the Praetorian Guard and served as the captain of the garrison of the Senate. The Ao family was extremely disdainful of his behavior in joining the Praetorian Guard, and almost severed the family relationship with him, and he did not care about it, and worked diligently.

"10,000 Praetorian Guards against 10,000 standing troops, who do you say will win?" he asked Ji Buyun.

"Standing Army. Ji Buyun's answer was taken for granted, the Praetorian Guard had a total of only 6,000 people, and they were responsible for guarding tasks, with simple equipment and insufficient training, which was not suitable for combat at all.

"If I command, it must be the Praetorian Guards who win. ”

His words made Ji Buyun slightly surprised, I don't know if he deliberately belittled the standing army or if he really had superhuman abilities.

His Captain Ao has a fanatical hobby of the military formation, since he became the first expert of the highlander military formation, after he met the ants through Ji Buyun, the two got very close, and between words, Captain Ao often showed respect for the ants.

"You know the fiasco in the Thirty Years' War, right?"

Of course, I know that it was that fiasco that directly contributed to the marriage of Ji Buyun's parents, which led to his birth as a half-highlander in this blood-based highlander society.

"Ji Heng's method is actually not the best way to defeat the standing army's spear formation. ”

Even the legendary god of war Ji Heng didn't care, and Ji Buyun was now convinced that his captain was deliberately belittling the standing army.

The standing army of the highlanders has experienced a hundred battles, and in the past three hundred years, only one real defeat has been achieved under the command of Ji Heng, the god of war in the Central Plains, during the thirty-year war.

Ji Heng, who always wears a bronze mask and goes into battle, no one has ever seen his true face, is a war genius who has not been seen in a hundred years, after thirty years of war, he commanded the army of the Central Plains Empire to fight against the grassland barbarians, seven battles and seven victories in one year, seven times were annihilations, and the steppe barbarians, who had always been unruly, were forced to bow their heads and sue for peace with the Central Plains Empire.

The strange thing is that Ji Heng, who swept away the highlanders and the steppe barbarians and made immortal contributions to the Central Plains Empire, only had a brief highlight moment in the empire when he triumphed, and then quickly disappeared from the political arena. Come quietly, go silently.

Some people say that he was murdered by his opponents because he was caught in the internal struggle of the royal family, and some people say that he retreated bravely and returned to the mountains and forests.

The highlanders worship the strong, and they have always admired Ji Heng, a war genius who can defeat them in the field.

"The standing army has great shortcomings in its basic structure and troop allocation, overemphasizing the impact of the offensive and neglecting the protection of the weak side, and the most fatal thing is the serious lack of mobility capability. ”

The basic tactical unit of the standing army was the corps, and a legion consisted of nine thousand men, of which six thousand heavily armed spearmen, two thousand lightly armed auxiliaries and one thousand cavalry.

In the middle are three phalanxes composed of 2,000 spearmen, each with 200 columns of 200 columns in each phalanx, 10 rows in the front, the spear tips of the soldiers in the first four rows are forward, and the spear tips of the last six rows of soldiers are tilted upwards on the shoulders of the people in front, and the free hands are responsible for throwing javelins forward, and the three phalanxes are closely combined to form a spear wall of 600 columns.

After the battle began, the spearmen trotted and attacked in a neat formation under the cover of the auxiliaries, and countless spears crossed each other to attack the enemy, whether it was cavalry or infantry on the opposite side, it was difficult for any flesh and blood to resist this huge impact.

During the Thirty Years' War, the Highlanders relied on this tactic to defeat the Central Plains Empire's army many times with fewer victories, so that the Central Plains Empire's army once lost confidence in field battles with the Highlanders, until the emperor sent General Ji Heng from the imperial family as the commander of the army in the last year of the war, which completely changed the situation.

"Ji Heng used the formation of military vehicles to block the attack of spearmen in the battle of the Sunset Oasis, and although the method of cavalry to attack the rear in a roundabout way was very clever, it required a huge military advantage and material base, if the forces of the two sides were equal or less than the other party, this method was not applicable. ”

The Battle of the Sunset Oasis was an eternal pain for the once invincible division of the Highlander Standing Army, less than 1,000 of the more than 50,000 soldiers of the six legions escaped, and the rest were all killed. The thirty-year-long war between the Highlanders and the Central Plains Empire ended three months after Ji Heng arrived on the battlefield, and the genius did have extraordinary capabilities.

"Does the captain think there's a better way to deal with the spear formation?"

"Of course, the best way is to avoid the real and attack the weak, quickly turn to the two flanks when the spear array attacks, cut in from the flank of the spear formation, and as long as a thousand men cut in, you can defeat an entire standing army legion. ”

Ji Buyun thought about it, according to the common sense of the battle formation taught to him by the ants, what the captain said did make sense, the spear formation in a tight formation and full force forward attacked like a turbulent wave, but if the enemy really cut in from the flank, then, disaster came, the spearmen who were trapped in the tight formation could not turn around at all to resist the enemy who attacked closely, and at the same time, the soldiers in the formation pressed one body against the other, and it was impossible to escape, they could only wait to be killed.

However, after the Battle of the Sunset Oasis, the highlanders greatly strengthened the spear formation of the standing army, such as arranging reserves behind the battle formation, and adding two small light infantry squares in front of the two sides of the spear formation to protect the weak side and determine the position of the enemy's main force, etc., most of these measures were taken at the initiative of Lord Ao Zhiwu, and he also gained great prestige, and at the age of thirty-two he assumed the important position of commander of the standing army.

As if guessing what Ji Buyun was thinking, the captain continued to express his high opinion: "That fool of Ao Zhiwu thinks that he can make up for the defects of the spear formation by tinkering with reserves and light infantry, but he doesn't know that the most fundamental flaw of the spear formation is that it is not mobile enough, and the steering is not effective, and when it is attacked by a strong weak side, he can only be restrained and have no power to fight back. ”

As for the great disrespect of the highlanders to call him a fool by an adult, Ji Buyun was sure that the rumor that the captain was forced to leave the standing army because of a disagreement with Lord Ao Zhiwu on the layout of the battle formation was indeed true.

Coincidentally, Lord Ao Zhiwu, who was dressed in a black standing military robe embroidered with purple ornamentation, happened to be surrounded by four personal guards at this time, and walked down the wide staircase of the five-person consul hall on the third floor.

The Praetorian Guards standing on the verandah bowed down to greet the Lord, who smiled and returned the salute. Only the captain deliberately turned his head over, pretending not to see it, and the adults didn't care, and passed with a smile.

After the adult walked over, the mastiff captain glanced at his back with disdain, and when he turned his head to further express his insights on the battle formation to Ji Buyun, a herald ran over and told him that the five rulers were going to summon him, so he had to shrug his shoulders regretfully and abandon Ji Buyun.

The Praetorian Guards and guards in the corridor are talking about Lord Ao Zhiwu must have gone to visit the High Priest, and it is now an open secret that the Lord is interested in the High Priest, Ji Buyun has forbidden them, and it is very impolite to openly discuss the private affairs of the two adults in the Senate, and it is easier to cause unnecessary trouble for yourself.

In fact, Ji Buyun himself was also full of curiosity about the high priest, he only saw the graceful figure of the first beauty of the highlanders from a distance when he was on duty, and he failed to see the beauty. It is said that the high priest wore a veil all year round, and no one saw her face except the priests around her.

The unknown is always mysterious and the best, and perhaps that's why she's called the number one beauty of the highlanders.

The rest of the time was idle, and Ji Buyun took Anya to wander aimlessly around the Senate in the name of checking the sentry post.

The Senate is a typical representative of the megalithic architecture that the highlanders are proud of, and is second only to the Priest's Courtyard located on the Luoshen Mountain in the northwest ten miles outside Haotian City in terms of architectural scale. Although Ji Buyun works here, every time he looks at it closely, he will be sincerely amazed by its exquisiteness and grandeur.

The Highlander Senate is a complete complex located directly north of Haotian City, consisting of a senate, two curved transepts, and a huge square, made entirely of white marble masonry.

The Senate is a trapezoidal structure, 50 zhang long, 10 zhang high, 20 zhang wide at the top, 30 zhang wide at the bottom, divided into three layers. The first floor is the huge oval senator's meeting hall and the garrison duty room, the side halls on both sides are connected with the transept tower, which is the waiting area for the senators and the Praetorian Guard duty room; the second floor is the senator's rest area and the symbolic Praetorian Guard office area, the senior officers of the Praetorian Guard generally work in the Praetorian Guard barracks in the south of the city, and rarely come here; the third floor is the office area of the five consuls and the high officials such as the Great Si Nong, where the high priest has an independent side hall, and the small priests will come to clean it on time, and others are strictly forbidden to enter.

The floors and transepts are cleverly connected by cloisters and staircases, decorated with various reliefs, and at the corners are sculptures of highlander heroes.

All the reliefs are about the gods of Haotian, the most exquisite is the Senate Hall and the first floor of the foyer, the Senate Hall is finely decorated with the relief of Haotian's creation, including chaos, creation, man, and sacrifice four parts, and the first floor of the foyer is a typical relief of the image of Haotian with five arms, holding spears, shields, short knives, battle axes and javelins, the five iconic weapons of the highlanders.

Haotian God is the main god of the highlanders, it is said that he created this world and the highlanders, and Haotian City is named after him.

What has always been strange to Ji Buyun is that the costumes of these reliefs on the Hao Tianshen are very distinctive, either covered in armor or wearing clothes similar to those of the emperors of the Central Plains Empire, and none of them are wearing the robes unique to the highlanders. It wasn't until one day that an elder who was proficient in the history and art of the highlanders told him that these images of Haotian gods were originally designed to commemorate Emperor Xuanyuan, who was the founder of the Central Plains Empire, no wonder he was dressed like this.

Emperor Xuanyuan led the human alliance to completely defeat the demon race that had raged for thousands of years, and is the god of salvation that all human beings worship, and it is indeed appropriate to portray the god Haotian according to his image that no one has really witnessed.

Ji Buyun belongs to the direct descendants of Emperor Xuanyuan, and every time he thinks of this, he will be sincerely proud.

After lunch, the captain's guards found Ji Buyun and told him that the captain had an urgent official summons. When he arrived at the captain's office, he found that all the vice-captains had arrived.

The captain happily told them that the five-member consul had given them the task of gathering the elders and inviting the tribal elders, rather than being delivered by the heralds of the five-man ruling company itself, as was customary.

Ji Buyun quickly pondered, why could an errand and letter delivery job make their captain happy like this? Maybe this represents trust in the garrison, maybe it is a waste for the five people in power to think that there is no need for a ready-made Praetorian Guard herald system, but it is indeed a waste to set up another herald system. In either case, it's a good thing for the captain.

Later facts proved that their captain did have reason to be happy, and within two months, that is, before Ji Buyun returned from hunting bears, the five people in power disbanded their own herald system and completely handed over the herald task to them. As a result, the garrison increased by 200 men, and the captain also added the title of deputy commander of the Praetorian Guard, whose full title became deputy commander of the Praetorian Guard and captain of the garrison of the Senate.

Ji Buyun believed that this decision must have been made by his uncle, Lord Buyun Zhize, and in doing so, he saved money and increased the rights of the Praetorian Guard. It has been a tradition of the Council of Five for nearly a hundred years to continuously raise the status of the Praetorian Guard to fight against the standing army, although under the strong opposition of the standing army, the Praetorian Guard has never been able to obtain the right to be elected by the senators, and is only a capital guard force, but who dares to guarantee that one day in the future, the Praetorian Guard will not turn over and completely replace the position of the standing army?

The captain divided each tribe into the tribes they were responsible for conveying, demanded that they must be delivered within a month, and told them that they must not interfere with the normal guard duties, and if there were not enough people, they could ask him, and he would apply to the Praetorian Guard headquarters for transfer.

There are six tribes and the priest's house assigned to Ji Buyun, these six tribes are relatively close and the roads are relatively easy to walk, and the priest's court is even closer, and the captain is obviously selling favors to him. The Priest's House needs Ji Buyun to deliver it in person, and each of the remaining six tribes can send two groups of heralds, but now due to the increase in sentry posts and patrols, twelve more people need to be added. Ji Buyun made a request to the captain, and he happily agreed. After summing up all the manpower needed by the vice-captain, the captain decided to personally take the guards to the Praetorian Guard headquarters in the south of the city to apply for the transfer of men and horses, and told them that all the heralds would leave the Senate tomorrow morning with the documents of the five-member ruling committee.