Starting from Qinzhou to Taozhou, Lanzhou is a must-pass place.

Along the way, Lu Xiaoxian would often see groups of sergeants, assembling in an orderly manner in the direction of Taozhou.

A procession of more than 500 people walked along the post road, mixed with pack horses and donkeys, and although the procession was not neat, it was very orderly. The men were expressionless, no one was making noise, and they marched forward on foot.

I don't know that this is the first team encountered by the dart team along the way, Long Zhuang is very experienced, and led the dart team to quickly overtake from the left side of the team.

Lu Xiaoxian rode on his horse, and when he passed by this team, he carefully looked at these people on the march, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

After walking a long way, he still looked back at the team that was gradually distancing himself from time to time.

After retracting his gaze, Lu Xiaoxian looked at Guo Zhen, who was riding a horse parallel to him: "Lord Guo, these people in Gangdi are all government soldiers, right?" ”

The reason why the Tang Empire is strong is inseparable from the fact that it has a strong army.

The Tang Dynasty army followed the "government soldier system" created during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the biggest feature of this system was that it realized the integration of soldiers and peasants. The state granted part of the state-owned land to the peasants for cultivation, and in return, the peasants were obliged to serve in the army. After the peasants became government soldiers, they mainly farmed at home, went to the army to receive training during the agricultural gap, and fought in the army when there was a war. For the state, the greatest advantage of the government military system is that it can maintain a large army at a very low cost. For the peasants, in the absence of war, being a soldier was exempt from taxes and spent most of the time with their families. It is also very ideal.

In the tenth year of Zhenguan, Taizong set up Zhechong Mansion as the grassroots organization of the army. The Upper Mansion is 1,200 people, the Central Mansion is 1,000 people, and the Lower Mansion is 800 people, and the soldiers in the Folding Prefecture are all government soldiers. The structure of Ochichong Province is a group of 10 people, a team of 50 people, a brigade of 100 people, and a regiment of 200 people. These soldiers included both cavalry and infantry.

Datang has a total of about 633 Zhichong Mansions, with a total army of more than 600,000 troops. Among them, 261 Zhechong Prefectures are located in Guannei Province, and most of the rest are located in Hedong, Longyou and Luoyang in western Henan.

After listening to Lu Xiaoxian's question, Guo Zhen shook his head: "He is definitely not a government soldier, he may be a unity soldier sent by Qinzhou!" ”

The main military force of the Tang Dynasty is the government soldiers, in addition to the government soldiers, there are also the Beiya Forbidden Army, which is specially responsible for guarding the palace ban, the border guards who are specially guarding the border areas, and the recruiting and unity soldiers under the command of the state assassins.

The Northern Ya Forbidden Army was directly subordinate to the emperor, and the quality of the soldiers was high, and many of them were children of aristocratic families.

The border guards generally adopt the conscription system, and the soldiers are all professional soldiers, and their combat effectiveness is significantly stronger than that of the government soldiers.

Conscription is an army formed by temporary conscription, also known as recruitment. Generally, rich families and brave people are selected to act. The equipment for the conscription is provided by the person himself or by relatives and neighbors who fund each other. Since the government soldiers mainly went to Beijing to guard the army in different parts, and the number of soldiers engaged in the conquest was limited, the conscription was mainly carried out for many conquests. In that year, Gaozong conquered Liaodong and sent more than 500,000 troops at a time, more than half of which were recruits.

The solidarity army is a local armed force that is not separated from production for a long time, and is equivalent to the militia of later generations. Unity soldiers are not included in the army, and they will return to their hometowns to cultivate after the end of their military tasks.

However, the Beiya Forbidden Army, the Frontier Army, the Recruiting Army and the Unity Army are all supplements to the government soldiers, and the main military force of the Tang Dynasty is still the government soldiers.

"How can you be sure that they are not government soldiers?" Lu Xiaoxian asked with interest. "How so?"

"It's very simple, just look at the weapons and armor they carry!" Guo Zhen said eloquently, "Although the soldiers of the government also bring their own dry food, the weapons and armor are of uniform specifications and high quality, and they are all supplied by the weapons depot of the Zhichong Mansion. Conscription and unity are different, the Oshichong Mansion does not provide them with any weapons and equipment, everything is prepared by themselves! ”

Lu Xiaoxian nodded, what Guo Zhen said made sense.

Thinking about it carefully, those people just now really didn't have unified weapons and armor, and they looked all sorts of things, and there were even many people with axes and wooden sticks, as if they had prepared their own ones, so it seems that these people were indeed not government soldiers.

Lu Xiaoxian became even more curious, and then asked: "Even if they are not government soldiers, how can you conclude that they are unity soldiers and not recruits?" ”

"Although both the recruits and the united soldiers bring their own weapons and equipment, most of the recruits are from wealthy families, and they have the conditions to prepare better weapons and equipment, although they are not as good as the government soldiers, but they are not much worse. Among the team just now, the weapons were inferior, only a messy leather round shield, and there were few pack horses, most of them were donkeys. There are no eyes on the battlefield, and most of the solidarity soldiers are poor people, if it weren't for the lack of enough silver, who would joke with their lives? Recruiting soldiers is different, they will buy as many spears as possible, as well as strong enough iron shields, and many people will even buy horse lances from the government. On top of that, they buy decent mounts instead of donkeys to carry their gear! ”

Guo Zhen is right, in the era of cold weapons, a sharp attack weapon is necessary to fight. At the same time, it is also necessary to have a strong defensive weapon, so as to improve your probability of survival. Otherwise, the sword has no eyes, and as soon as you go to the battlefield, you will be cut into sticks by others, and you will still be beaten.

On a battlefield where swords are flying, it is no different to let these united soldiers who are not wearing armor and weapons to attack the enemy, which is no different from sending them to death. As a result, no commander was willing to ask for inferior "irregular" solidarity soldiers, who were generally sent to do drudgery such as transporting heavy supplies.

After listening to Guo Zhen's detailed introduction, Lu Xiaoxian suddenly had a different kind of thought.

"What kind of boundary is this?" Lu Xiaoxian asked.

"The front is Guangwu County, and after Guangwu, there will be two hundred miles to Taozhou!"

"Guangwu?" Lu Xiaoxian muttered a sentence in his mouth, and then asked, "Is there a Zhichong Mansion in Guangwu County?" ”

"There is Zhichong Mansion in Guangwu County, and Zhichong Mansion is located in the county seat!" Guo Zhen replied without thinking about it.

Lu Xiaoxian nodded slightly, and directly instructed Guo Zhen: "Lord Guo, you inform General Chen, we will rest in Guangwu today and stay in Guangwu for a day tomorrow!" ”

"Huh?" Lu Xiaoxian's brainless words made Guo Zhen not react for a while. It's only noon, are you going to rest?

These days, everyone has been rushing non-stop, and Guo Zhen thinks that Lu Xiaoxian wants to arrive in Taozhou as soon as possible. Seeing that he was about to arrive in Taozhou, he just wanted to rest in this Wenwu County, and he would stay for another day tomorrow.