Seven days later, Zhang Ye received the Modao blueprints urgently sent from Chang'an.

It has always been Guo Song's wish to build a powerful Modao army, and the role of the Modao army is not only to attack cavalry, but also to play an important role in infantry, ambush operations, and attacking city gates.

In Lingzhou, the Hexi Army collected more than 500 sets of heavy armored infantry equipment in the warehouses of several major families, including Modao and heavy armor, making the number of heavy armored infantry of the Hexi Army reach 1,500 people, followed by 1,000 sets of Mo knives and heavy armor sent by Zhu Zhu in order to redeem Xiao Guan, so that the number of Modao Army can reach 2,500 people.

But Guo Song's goal is to hope that the number of heavy infantry will reach 5,000 people, of course, this is not something that can be done in a day or two, to achieve this goal, you need the most clever craftsmen, you need a lot of high-quality pig iron, you need to improve the level of metallurgy, and a lot of financial support, it can be said that the Mo knife is the product of the peak of the Tang Dynasty's national strength and metallurgical forging technology.

If Hexi can build the Mo knife, then the metallurgical forging technology of the entire Hexi will be on a higher level, which can play a huge role in promoting the forging of other weapons.

"Fighting a war is actually a contest of national strength!"

When Guo Song visited the Ordnance Department, he said to the surrounding officials: "If one of our war knives can be used ten times, and the opponent's war knife can only be used three times, then our pig iron can be used in more aspects, such as forging more Mingguang armor, and at the same time can create more weapons, on the contrary, the other party will gradually face the situation of no weapons available, in addition, the forging technology is improved, each of our soldiers' weapons can be sharpened like clay, our armor is stronger, and the attack and defense can be greatly strengthened. We have a better chance of winning. ”

The forging camp of the Ordnance Department is located in the south of Cangcheng, close to the Zhangye River, covering an area of about 1,000 acres, which is divided into two parts: smelting and forging, hundreds of iron-making furnaces, more than 1,000 blacksmith furnaces, and there are also material and process test camps and craftsman training camps.

The smelting here is mainly to refine the crude iron and blister copper transported from the mine to produce products such as hard iron, wrought iron and steel, and also to refine copper, which is mainly used to cast copper coins.

Guo Song and the officials came to the experimental camp, there are only about 20 craftsmen here, they are all top knife craftsmen, the three top knife craftsmen recruited by Guo Yuniang are making Mo knives, and more than 20 people on both sides are watching and learning.

An official who is proficient in technology introduced to Guo Song and the officials: "There are two ways to build a Mo knife, one is to clamp steel with 100 refining, and the other is to cover the soil and burn the blade, the knife made of 100 refining and clamping steel actually has three layers, inside is the heart iron, that is, the hardest and sharpest steel, but the hardness of the heart iron is enough, but the toughness is relatively poor, and it is easy to break, so the outside should be sandwiched with a layer of hard iron on the left and right, pig iron with a slightly lower carbon content, and then the outermost wrought iron, although it is not hard enough, but the toughness is excellent. Hard iron and wrought iron are fused together, which is a hundred refining sandwich steel. ”

"What about the Dirt Burning Blade?" Guo Song asked again.

"Back to the envoy, covering the soil and burning the blade is to cover a part of the blade with secret soil, only calcining the blade part, and then quenching, the advantage is that there are no steps so complicated, saving manpower and time, but it has very high requirements for technology, especially quenching technology, which is extremely difficult, it is easy to fail, and the knife is broken when it falls on the ground, which is equivalent to all scrapping."

"Which one are you going to do?" Pan Liao asked next to him.

The official bowed down and said: "We still plan to use the 100-refining steel clamping method, the technology has matured, although it is time-consuming and laborious, but it is easy to succeed." ”

Guo Song groaned for a moment and said, "I will put forward a point of view, called' For example, our army uses Mo knives, which are extremely sharp and invincible in the world, but the enemy army uses extremely inferior weapons, which is a bit like killing chickens with cattle slaughtering knives, so we can't do it behind closed doors, we must collect intelligence from armies around the world, and then study the weapons in various places, and then decide what kind of weapons we build to deal with, of course, if the cost is not high, we can create a large number of high-quality weapons, I am not opposed, but if the cost is too high, the time is too long, we need to consider. ”

Pan Liao cautiously said, "Then do we need to establish an Weapons Intelligence Agency to be responsible for this matter?" ”

Guo Song smiled: "That's what it means, I'll arrange this matter." ”

Everyone went to visit the bow and crossbow workshop and the armor workshop again, and before leaving, Guo Song called the official in charge and said to him: "We must train as many high-level craftsmen as possible, and now good armorers are extremely sought-after in all feudal towns, and they are protected, and it is difficult for us to dig them up, so we can only rely on our own training." ”

"The humble position has been working hard to cultivate, before it was because there were no high-level craftsmen, this time there are three high-level knife craftsmen, we can speed up, please rest assured, the humble position will definitely do a good job."

........

Coming out of the military camp, Guo Song came directly to the barracks, in the barracks exercise ground, 1,500 newly recruited Mo knife hands are being trained intensively, the Mo Dao Army and the Scout Army are the best treated soldiers in the Hexi Army, the military is high, the salary is good, of course, the requirements are also the strictest, the figure must be more than five feet eight, that is, more than one meter eighty-five, can easily lift a hundred catties of heavy objects over the top, and run thirty miles with a weight of fifty catties.

Despite the strict requirements, the applicants are still like a cloud, the soldiers of the Hexi Army are generally tall, and there are thousands of qualified people in terms of height, and then select soldiers with great strength and good physical strength, and select the best of the best.

Fifteen hundred newly recruited Mo Dao soldiers shouted in unison, the sound resounded into the clouds, and the 1,500 Mo Dao swords were shining coldly and uniformly, they were practicing sword skills and collective combat, and they were training with the demonstration movements of Dutong Kangbao.

At this time, Kang Bao saw Guo Song and ordered the soldiers to rest and have lunch, and one soldier assisted him in taking off his heavy armor, and Kang Bao walked quickly to Guo Song's side.

"How's this group of soldiers?" Guo Song asked with a smile.

Kang Bao praised without hesitation: "Very good, the conditions are better than the first batch, now we have only been training for three days, but I think they can already go into battle to kill the enemy." ”

"They're far from experienced!"

"They all have the experience of fighting with the enemy, but they don't have the combat experience of the Modao Army, and they plan to start tomorrow to mix the old and new Modao Army, and then divide them into two teams to fight, so that after twenty days of continuous confrontation, the recruits will be able to leave the division."

"What about physical and strength training?" Guo Song asked again.

"Report to the Governor, we have paid special attention to strength and physical fitness in the selection, these 1,500 soldiers are selected from 8,000 soldiers of qualified height, strength and physical strength are the best, in fact, armor confrontation training is a huge test of physical fitness and strength, every day after the training, the soldiers will be exhausted."

Guo Song nodded and said: "Once our heavy armored infantry is powerful, the enemy army will slowly find a way to fight us, Duan Xiushi told me that the big food cavalry once organized a group of cavalry to use rope nooses to deal with the heavy armored infantry of the Anxi army, causing a lot of losses to the heavy armored infantry, for the soldiers of the Central Plains, I think we should be more careful of the shooting of the rhubarb heavy crossbow, the general ordinary bow and crossbow can not hurt the heavy armored infantry, but the heavy crossbow is different, especially the big yellow crossbow can shoot through the armor of the heavy armored infantry within a hundred steps, this is a threat that we must consider." ”

Kang Bao thought for a moment and said, "In this case, intelligence is very important, once the enemy army is found to use the big yellow crossbow, the heavy infantry needs to retreat in time. ”

"So I'm thinking about equipping the heavily armored guards with a large shield so that they can effectively participate in the protection of the heavy infantry."

Kang Bao's eyes lit up, and he gave a thumbs up and said: "This suggestion is very good, and you will definitely arrange it as soon as possible!" ”

At this time, several cavalrymen entered the barracks along the horse road, the leader was thin and small, but he was extremely light and flexible, it was Guo Yuniang, the commander of Tiance Tower, she received Guo Song's order and hurried to the camp.

Guo Song returned to the big tent of the Chinese army and smiled at Guo Yuniang: "There is another important task handed over to Tiance Tower." ”

Guo Yuniang hurriedly bowed down and said, "Please give your command!" ”

Guo Song sat down and asked, "Where are the spies in Xiazhou arranged?" ”

"Envoy Qiqi, a few of them went to Taiyuan and continued to open a store in Jinyang County."

Guo Song asked again: "What is the situation in Taiyuan now?" ”

"A few days ago, Taiyuan was searching for Zhu Tao's spies from house to house, and I heard that Zhu Tao's spies had infiltrated very badly, and one was arrested and a lot of confessions were collected.

Guo Song nodded, "The tasks I gave you are actually two, the first is to find out the number and equipment of the Taiyuan army, and the second is to find a way to get one or two swords and spearheads of ordinary soldiers in various feudal towns, and the Ordnance Department urgently needs this information." ”

"I understand the lowly position, and arrange it immediately!