"It is up to man to plan things, and it is up to heaven to make things happen. The art of war is cloudy, first for oneself invincible, so as to wait for the enemy to win. ”

Zhao Xingde groaned: "Haikou is rampant, and there are internal responses in Guangzhou and the sailors, and now at this level, I am only six or seven points sure." Regardless of whether the Haikou invaders come or not, Guangzhou's construction of the city to defend the sea and the training of the state army and regimental training are all top priorities. If you can't lure them in this time, it's up to you to do it in the future. ”

His tone was gloomy, and Chen Gongju also nodded, sighing, "I hope." ”

The suppression of bandits was originally a water mill, not as good as the confrontation between the two armies, but the sharp rise in the DPRK and China, the war in the river was tight, and the joint water division itself had many unpredictable factors, so Zhao Xingde decided to fight quickly and use deception to lure the big water eater into the army. Regardless of whether they succeed or not, the joint naval division will ride the wind to the south at the end of the year, sweep the strongholds of the Great Food Merchants on the South China Sea Route, and directly smash the ports of the Red Sea, so as to deter and contain the Great Food Princes with the navy.

"This is the order of Xingning County, Luo Lie's word Zigang, the first year of Jingkang, after Brother Zhao left, Zigang temporarily lived in Wanghai Tower."

Chen Gongju paced half a step to the side as he spoke, letting a man in Tsing Yi holding a food box behind him.

The man put down the food box and bowed his hand and said, "Xiaguan Luo Lie, I have seen Lord Zhao." ”

Zhao Chen and the others originally said that they would find someone with a similar appearance to confuse the ears and eyes of the Haikou spies. However, Zhao Xingde didn't expect that Chen Gongju actually found a county magistrate. He looked at it at a glance, Luo Lie's physique was somewhat similar to his own, but Zhao Xingde had a gentle face and a short beard on his lips. Luo Lie has a thick beard on his face, and he looks very rough, compared to Zhao Xingde, he doesn't look like a jinshi but a martial artist. Seeing Zhao Xingde's surprised eyes, Luo Lie smiled slightly, put down the food box, reached out and tore off his beard, and then attached the short beard on his lips, his skin was slightly dark, and his body was burly, this time he had a beard, and Zhao Xingde was seven or eight points similar. If the two of them change their robes again, others will not be able to see that this is a transfer of flowers and trees if they do not come close to take a closer look.

Zhao Xingde thanked him and said with a smile, "In this way, there is Lord Lauro." ”

"You don't have to be polite." Chen Gongju said with a smile, "Yuan Zhi, you don't know, Zigang is also both civil and military, if it weren't for the urgency of time, he would have to ask Yuan Zhi for his experience in firearms and battle formations." As soon as he said this, Zhao Xingde realized that Luo Lie must be a member of the Li Society, and he had a great relationship with Chen Dong and Chen Gongju. After the departure of the South China Sea Naval Division, the Great Food Haikou may besiege Guangzhou at any time, and if Zhao Xingde cannot return to the Naval Division in time to preside over the overall situation, he may have to delay major events. Therefore, Zhao Xingde was not polite any more, hurriedly changed his robe with Luo Lie, and put his torn beard on his face, how could he look like Luo Lie when he came in just now.

Chen Gongju looked at it for a long time and felt that there was no flaw, so he left Luo Lie to pretend to be Zhao Xingde in Wanghai Tower. The real Zhao Xingde pretended to be a servant, and went out of the Zhizhou Mansion with Luo Huan, and went straight to the Qingyuan camp's station in the west of the city. After the Liao army invaded the south, the imperial court allowed all localities to raise their own food and salaries to expand the training of the state army, and many localities also organized the strong men of a county into a regiment, and the people of the same clan into a team, using clan, hometown, and family affection to unite the regiments. This is not the case with the Qingyuan battalion, Luo Huan originally planned to go north to join Zhao Xingde, so most of the recruits were heroes who were willing to leave their hometowns and go outside. Luo Huan had a high prestige in the camp, and when he returned to the camp, the soldiers along the way saluted, and the officers took the initiative to greet him.

Luo Huan introduced the situation of the Qingyuan camp while beckoning the officers along the way to come to Zhao Xingde. The Guy Qingyuan camp is different from other camps, Luo Huan even sold his family property in order to raise food and salary, and he also recruited the heroes in the camp. Therefore, although Luo Huan did not concurrently serve in the military, the officers in the Qingyuan battalion still regarded Luo Huan as a general, and the command was held by Luo Huan's younger brother Luo Tong's capital, and the state school never sent a military envoy down. Such a situation is very common in regimental training in various localities and in state armies formed by regimental training and training.

"See Lord Luo," a scar-faced officer smiled at Zhao Xingde, "This brother is born?" ”

"This is Zhang Bao and Zhang Dutou." Luo Huan said to Zhao Xingde, and then beckoned Zhang Baodao, "This is Lord Xing's military envoy." ”

"Your Excellency the New Protector?" Zhang Bao glanced at Luo Huan with some surprise, and wondered: "Lord Luo is not afraid of the sky and the earth, why is he so polite to the new protector?" Odd? It seems that this Xing Protector has a lot of background. He had a plan in his heart, so he gave Zhao Xingde a deep salute according to the number of etiquette in the army, and said: "The last general, Zhang Bao, see the envoy of the army." ”

Zhao Xingde didn't know the little Jiujiu in the officer's heart, and nodded to him. While following Luo Huan, he observed the situation in the Qingyuan camp with great interest. He has been in the army for a long time, and this is a habit that has been formed for a long time. The physique of the Qingyuan camp is very strong, there are two teams of people practicing the array on the school ground, three teams of people practicing spear stabbing, occasionally resting in the middle, some people sumo wrestling, and some people are trying to lift stone locks, and there are bursts of cheers from time to time. Zhao Xingde nodded secretly, although the officers and soldiers had not passed through the battle formation, they had a lot of momentum in their gestures. After a turn, he had a judgment in his heart. Subsequently, Luo Huan summoned the officers and announced that the battalion would move to Xuwenzhai in Leizhou Prefecture and set off tomorrow morning. All the officers obeyed the order, and none of them were dissatisfied and questioned.

"Lord Chen is right," Zhao Xingde nodded and said with a smile: "The Qingyuan battalion is a strong general, and there are no weak soldiers under it. ”

"I can't afford it, I can't afford it," Luo Huan hurriedly said: "The adults praise falsely, and the juniors are ashamed." ”

"I said it deserved." Zhao Xingde waved his hand, so that Luo Huan did not have to be too modest, Luo Huan is the head of the Qingyuan camp, and he is shrewd and capable, therefore, Zhao Xingde did not interfere too much in the military affairs in his camp, but looked at the weapons behind the handsome case with great interest, he picked up a horizontal knife casually, and gently pulled out half of it, the blade body was crystal clear and visible whiskers, and the pattern was like waves layered on top of each other, which was similar to the pattern characteristics of "Hundred Steel".

"Good knives!" Zhao Xingde couldn't help but cheer and pulled out the entire horizontal knife.

The friction between the blade and the scabbard made a slight "pop" sound, like the sound of a young phoenix, as it had sounded countless times on the battlefield.

"Five-fold knives?" Zhao Xingde glanced at the blade of the knife again, and said in surprise: "It's actually an iron knife?" ”

Iron can only be obtained by repeated forging, and it cannot be tricked at all. Five stacks is the jargon of the iron field, after the good iron billet is burned red, it is folded and forged once for a stack, and after the first stack of forging, the weight of the iron embryo is usually only one-third of the original. The five stacks are folded five times in this way, removing almost all the impurities of the iron block, leaving behind a wave-like pattern of thirty-two layers. In the iron factory, wrought iron is the most hard, not only is it a hard work, but also depends on the quality of the iron billet. Although Zhao Xingde had the ability to make iron, he did not have all kinds of materials for later generations, and there was no other way to replace the arduous process of repeated forging for a while.

In Guanzhong, more than five stacks of wrought iron can be called iron. Eight stacks, ten stacks, and even hundreds of steels. However, in the battle formation, five stacks of iron are enough. Zhao Xingde often used a saber and was also a five-fold horizontal knife of the Ordnance Division. The first-class iron is often used to make a good knife, called a green steel knife, which is the sharpest. The second-class iron is used to create armor, called the Monkey Armor, which is difficult for arrows to penetrate. Arrows and firebolts, which are consumable weapons, will never be made of iron.

Xia Kingdom, Great Food, Turkic, Liao State, the so-called strong armor and sharp soldiers, most of them are made of iron, and you can know the truth and falsehood when you look at the pattern of the blade. Anyone who commits a counterfeit shall be punished with death. In the Song Kingdom, some people used potion to etch patterns, pretending to be iron, the imperial court repeatedly forbade it, and finally could only compromise, first from Guanzhong to buy iron knives and armor, and later directly from the Xia State to buy iron knives, iron armor. The Xia State did not prohibit the buying and selling of salt and iron, and the merchants were happy to exchange it for silk and porcelain from the Song Kingdom. Over time, almost all of the good swords and armor in Kanto were made in Guanzhong. However, these swords and armor are also extremely expensive.

When Zhao Xingde was in charge of Hebei, the Song State purchased 100,000 horizontal knives from Guanzhong, of which the five stacks of knives were only 5,000. In the Tokyo Garrison Division, except for the officers and the tooth barracks, it was only used to reward the warriors who fought hard to kill the enemy. I didn't intend to pull out a knife in the Qingyuan camp of the Guangzhou Prefecture Army, and saw that the pattern turned out to be the shape of a five-fold iron knife, and I was surprised, Zhao Xingde waved his hand and slashed, and the steel knife cut out the sound of breaking the wind, which was the feel of the five-fold iron knife in Guanzhong, and he couldn't help but praise again: "Good knife!" ”

Zhang Bao said on the side: "This is a knife that Lord Luo scattered his family wealth and donated by the villagers of Hexian County, and specially bought it from Shuzhong. ”

"I see." Zhao Xingde nodded and sighed, "Lord Luo has a heart." ”

"If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools." Luo Huan said angrily, "The soldiers cost their lives, so why should I spare my family wealth." ”

Zhang Bao next to him interjected: "As Lord Yue said, civil officials don't love money, and military generals don't hesitate to die, then the Great Song Dynasty can be prospered!" ”

He was quick for a while, Luo Huan remembered some stories about Bianliang, his face changed slightly, but Zhao Xingde nodded approvingly: "Xianggong Yue said this very well. He turned the knife sideways and looked at it, in the afternoon light, the pattern of the thirty-two layers was as vivid as flowing water, he glanced at Luo Huan deeply, and said in a deep voice, "The knife is a good knife, just wait to drink the blood of the enemy." With that, he put the knife back into its sheath.

In the afternoon of that day, the Qingyuan battalion packed up and settled their families. The next day, when the sky was light, more than 500 officers and soldiers gathered the whole team and moved to Xuwenzhai in Leizhou. The Leizhou Peninsula is the entire Guangnan Road and the southernmost point of the entire Great Song Dynasty. Even in the past, banditry was rampant, and even more so now. The safety of this trip is related to the entire Guangnan war situation, therefore, Luo Huan is very nervous, fighting fiercely every day, and grasping his subordinates very tightly. However, in front of Zhao Xingde, he still tried his best to show his composure.