The Lingshui Horse Farm in the north of Longxian County, since the kingdom and others burned down the wildfire, the horse farm has been abandoned, recently the valley re-garrisoned, more than 2,000 men cut down the riverside trees here to become houses, Zhangjiachuan's material vehicles and horses were continuously transported, and more than ten days of time to set up the prototype.

At first, only a few hundred people enlisted, but with the expansion of the scale of recruitment, it finally reached a huge number of more than 1,000 in early February, and with the completion of various supplies and buildings, Ma Yue ordered the recruitment to be stopped.

This is February of the seventh year of Zhongping, some time ago the Son of Heaven issued an edict to abolish the name of Zhongping, which was called the first year of Chuping and granted amnesty to the world.

It was precisely because of the amnesty that Ma Yue had the opportunity to recruit more than 1,000 soldiers, giving him the opportunity to quickly set up a new army.

In the early morning of this day, Ma Yue ordered everyone to gather in the center of the racecourse, and more than 1,000 people blocked the entire racecourse, and climbed the high platform that was built, Ma Yue raised his hand and said: "Presumably all of you understand that the establishment of the Liangzhou Private Army this time is for my horse someone's part. ”

The Liangzhou recruits under the stage stood together in a mess, and they all quieted down when they heard the words, waiting for their flags, although they knew that they were the private soldiers of the state shepherd from the day they were recruited, but they were still very curious about the flags, and there were many people of insight, who had long been interested in flags similar to the Flying Bear Army under Dong Gongzhongying and the White Horse Yicong under General Gongsun of Youzhou.

Who wouldn't have imagined that today's miscellaneous army composed of Liangzhou refugees and alien Qiang people will also have a day when their commander, the former auxiliary general Ma Yue, will be powerful in the world?

I saw Ma Yue raise his hand and wave, Ma Chao, the major general of Liangzhou standing under the stage, immediately resisted and went up, and the thick Zhangba giant wood with the mouth of the bowl was lifted lightly in the palm of the young general, and he stood on the high platform with a 'bang', and a roll of black flags was tied to the pole. Ma Yue dragged the banner with his backhand, and the black big silk was covered with a bang, and the red letters on the black background were majestic.

"Liangzhou Armor Coverer!"

Almost at the moment when Daxu hung down in the wind, a literate person in the army had already read it, and then he looked at each other, looking around at the cool men with yellow faces and thin muscles and wearing linen robes and leather jackets...... Armorer? Where is the appearance of a samurai?

Even Ma Chao, who was resisting, had a fever on his face when he heard the discussion below, he wanted to give Ma Yue's subordinates a name such as Liangwu Riding and Jinqi, but he didn't want Ma Yue to be stunned and give such a big name...... Armor coverers, where are a thousand sets of armor, that is, leather armor is difficult to have with the financial and material resources of Liangzhou.

Listening to the noise in his ears, Ma Yue shook his head quietly, he had already expected such a reaction, Ma Yue raised his palm to suppress the doubts of everyone, looked at the eyes that looked at him, Ma Yue said loudly: "The land is barren, all industries are withering, and I have no soldiers under this state herd except you, I want to form an army with huge armor, heavy horses and heavy armor." But Ma couldn't even find a weapon made of fine iron in the state and county arsenals. ”

"We have found iron ore, the number is pitiful, scattered in the mountains and forests of Zhangjiachuan, even if there is only a little, I will equip you with the sharpest weapons and the strongest armor in Liangzhou. Although today we can only stand in the cold wind in leather jackets, looking at this ridiculous 'Liangzhou Covered Armor' flag in this old horse farm with nothing but wood, there will come a time when I will let you go into battle fully armed, and make the enemy troops five miles away tremble because of their unsteady footing with the heaviest sound of horses' hooves, and I will make you able to block the sharpest weapons and slash. I will make you an invincible army, and any enemy will be nothing but a chicken and a dog in front of you, and you will be crushed at the first blow! ”

These more than a thousand tragic figures, just standing in front of the black big black behind Ma Yue, some of them want to see the moment when Ma Yue said, now standing on the high platform of the young state pastor waved his arms, they rode their horses and swords, they brandished the brightest and sharpest swords, rode the most fierce and strong wild horses, and the toughest and heaviest armor raged on the battlefield, every inch of land that the iron hooves ran through was shattered by their arrival, and every enemy trampled on was broken, scattered, and fled because of their roar. Get on your knees and beg for mercy.

Some people don't think so, they understand that they can't see the moment that Ma Yue said, they will eventually be like any general in the world like a private soldier, covering the lord to travel around during the war, picking up a hoe to work in the lord's fields and ridges in his spare time, eating the high-grade fine millet that the Han soldiers in the state and county can hardly expect, and taking the best military salary in Liangzhou...... That's where they really come in.

But in any case, Ma Yue's words were spoken, and many soldiers shouted, and then they saw a picture that shocked their eyes.

With a wave of his hand, dozens of carts that they thought were carrying food and military pay marched in amid the jingling of the bells, and then the soldiers moved down one heavy set of wooden armor after another, as well as those wooden arrows and weapons.

These wooden armors are two circles larger than the usual iron armor, those weapons are also average, the workmanship is extremely rough, but they are extremely heavy, a set of armor has a weight of thirty catties, which is even more than the weight of more than six hundred iron armor pieces to form the armor. Those weapons were also average, and the wooden ring knife was only slightly lighter than the iron ring.

There are also several sets of various stone locks and iron locks, and more are still being made in the ironmaking department.

"From today on, Major General Ma Chao will be the heavy cavalry general of the armor coverer, and Yan Xing will be the light cavalry general of the armor coverer, and there will be two military marquis under him appointed by themselves." Ma Yue announced loudly, tilted his head and said to Guan Yu: "Yun Chang, you will take Meng Qi and Xingba's soldiers and horses to train, just practice like the Changshui Army, supplemented by iron ropes and stone locks, and after a month, ask them to put on wooden armor and charge around the horse farm, and gallop around, the first four percent of the finishers will be selected into heavy horses, and the rest will be incorporated into Xingba's light horses." ”

"No!"

The weight of the wooden armor and the wooden knife is nearly forty catties together, and the Lingshui Racecourse is more than ten miles in a circle, and it is not a joke to charge ten miles and then travel ten miles.

Subsequently, the Qiang soldiers from Zhangjiachuan sent more than ten slaughtered pigs and sheep, and the broth after cooking in Dading was almost snatched up by this class of hungry and cold sergeants, and then under the leadership of Guan Yu, various military formations, hand-to-hand combat, combat combat, and cavalry and archery training began.

In the days that followed, Ma Yue was stationed in the Lingshui Horse Farm, training with the sergeants every day, eating and sleeping together, riding horses through the mountains together, running across the plains, swimming across the Lingshui, shooting with wooden arrows, and fighting with wooden knives. In addition to returning to Longxian two or three times every ten years to accompany Cai Yan, who was alone in the empty house, even so, he would ride his horse in the dark the next morning on the path between Longxian and Lingshui Racecourse, and rush to run with the sergeants in the morning.

In addition to this way of sharing blessings and hardships, one meat soup for three days and one meat for five days, Ma Yue didn't know what other way to train an army that only obeyed and believed in himself.

The reason why it is necessary to form such a division as the 'Armor Coverer' can be said to be the result of Ma Yue's conquest over the years. The most important military culture of the northern cavalry, or the most effective method of warfare, is to concentrate a small number of cavalry or infantry, and directly attack the opponent's commander's own formation from the most appropriate angle, or directly tear open the gap to kill the enemy commander, destroy the enemy's commander, so that the enemy's formation loses its command, and is forced to rout and achieve victory.

To put it simply, it is a simple 'capture the thief and capture the king first', this tactic is suitable for a variety of situations, especially for princes like Ma Yue who control the territory. The conditions required are not complicated, as long as there are enough elite vanguard troops, supplemented by a large number of military formations, to seize the most opportune opportunity to storm the enemy army, the enemy army can be easily defeated.

And Ma Yue has mastered the most difficult part of this tactic - a fierce general with unparalleled bravery.

Whether it was Ma Chao or Guan Yu, Yan Xing or Xu Huang, or Gan Ning, their bravery was enough to act as the sharpest knife and lead his troops to victory.

This is also the original intention of Ma Yue to recruit this army, Liangzhou now does not need much of those troops composed of ordinary soldiers, the finances of the two counties and four counties to maintain the standing 6,000 troops in various places, plus the expenses of each general and the construction of the state and county have been stretched, thanks to the large amount of wealth absorbed by each general to maintain a sufficient number of private troops. In short, Liangzhou can no longer afford to raise a large number of troops with ordinary combat power.

Even if he gathers the strength of the whole Liangzhou, he is afraid that he will be able to raise 50,000 private soldiers, otherwise why would Han Sui send one war after another at the expense of his corporals and soldiers.

Because he can't afford it!

Ma Yue can only use his only financial resources, with the best military salaries and ingredients to support a group of elite soldiers who may reach 5,000 or 6,000 in number in the future, personally master this army that only belongs to him, and rely on his strong combat power to deter and gather those small princes who are like Ma Wan and Cheng Yin who have private troops to fight for themselves, so that he can be sure to recover Liangzhou.

The iron-making division under the control of Liu Gang and Pei Hui relied on the iron ore picked up in the mountains and fields to slowly smelt iron and make ordnance, and this predicament was initially improved with the transportation of 3,000 catties of iron and stone by Pei's chariots and horses in Hedong in early March.

However, just when Ma Yue brought the training of more than 1,000 private soldiers of his own to the right path with great fanfare, the selection of 400 heavy cavalry and 700 light cavalry was completed, and he entered the systematic training, the keen Ma Yue suddenly smelled the smell of war.

A sudden earthquake covered seven counties in the eastern part of Liangzhou, the most severely affected Longxian earth and stone houses collapsed, nine gaps appeared in the city wall, three aftershocks killed and injured three percent of the people in the city, and the entire Hanyang County was full of mourning.

With the return of Tanma, the two counties that were least damaged were Jincheng County, which was the base camp of Han Sui, and Longxi County, where the Song brothers were entrenched.

Ma Yue clearly realized that the Liangzhou earthquake that occurred in April of the first year of Chuping was likely to trigger an even bigger 'earthquake' in Liangzhou.

The enemy is strong and I am weak, and a war is inevitable!