Even though Li Xuan didn't attach much importance to traditional bandit leaders or martial artists like Li Zhai and even Fang Dongquan, this didn't mean that he didn't want to get a real general to share the pressure on his military affairs.

Nowadays, in the Tang Dynasty, there are many generals, all kinds of general soldiers, generals, thousands of households, and so on, and Li Xuan himself can't remember how many of these nominal official systems have been issued.

However, among such a large number of generals in the Tang Dynasty, there is actually no truly qualified general.

Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren and even Wang Danxu, although they have already served as captains in the new army and have commanded the Tang Dynasty Wang Division to fight many times, they are still essentially a bandit leader, if you are welcome, in terms of military quality, they are not even as good as the dozen and a half officers that Li Xuan is training.

At least those half-grown sons who were born in the Guards and are currently serving as deputy captains, captains, and other positions, have already undergone a full year of training, and have been personally taught by Li Xuan in the past month.

When Li Xuan taught them, in addition to teaching them some basic astronomical and geographical knowledge and mathematical knowledge, he also taught them some limited military knowledge that he knew.

Although Li Xuan's own military knowledge was messy, it was much better than the bandit combat methods that Fang Dongquan and the others rushed up into.

However, these half-sized officers are still too young, and the military knowledge they learn is also a mess, and it is unlikely that these people will directly serve as senior officers without a long period of experimentation and combat accumulation.

I can't find any qualified generals here, so it's not surprising that Li Xuan hit Zeng Ziwen with his idea, even though this Zeng Ziwen is an indigenous, but he has systematically studied many ancient military books, and he has never eaten pork and seen pigs run away from a Jiangmen family.

Considering that the Ming army in this era itself was an army that combined cold weapons and hot weapons, if Zeng Ziwen had help, Li Xuan felt that his new army would be easier to train.

Moreover, Zeng Ziwen was originally a senior general of the Ming army, and he was very familiar with the combat habits of the Ming army, and with his help, the new army of the Tang Dynasty could better understand its enemy: the Ming army.

It's just that although Zeng Ziwen never resisted after being captured, he never gave in, and Li Xuan persuaded him several times in the past six months to no avail.

Considering that the last time he personally persuaded him was before the Ming army entered the mountain, and it had been two months since the calculation time, Li Xuan was thinking about whether this person would change his mind.

If he changes his mind, it will naturally be a good thing, if he still doesn't change his mind, then Li Xuan won't lose anything and continue to be closed.

Anyway, this person can't be released, killing it and wasting it, just keep it locked up, and he won't be short of food alone.

When Zeng Ziwen heard the guards say that Li Xuan was going to summon him, his bearded face changed his expression several times in a short period of time.

The guard couldn't help frowning when he saw that his face was full of beard and the clothes on his body were in tatters!

And it didn't take long for someone to come in with a basin of water, not only the basin and other toiletries, but also a brand new set of clothes, and the guard didn't say much after putting these things down, just told him to freshen up and go out.

Zeng Ziwen watched the guards go in and out, still did not speak, but silently shaved his beard with a knife, and then changed into new clothes sent by the guards after grooming.

When he reappeared in front of the guard, the guard glanced at him, and then showed a satisfied expression: "This is like a word, otherwise in front of Your Majesty, Your Majesty will still think that we will abuse you!" ”

Zeng Ziwen still didn't speak, but silently followed the guard towards the wooden house 'Imperial Palace'.

But although he didn't speak, his mind stopped turning, and when he heard that Li Xuan was going to see him, he guessed that Li Xuan might be thinking of him again and wanted to recruit him.

Then the guards brought him new clothes and asked him to freshen up, which confirmed his suspicions.

I thought that when Li Xuan persuaded him a few times before and wanted to recruit him to join Datang, this was the case without exception.

It has been two months since I last saw Li Xuan, and too many things have happened in the past two months, and these things have loosened Zeng Ziwen's original insistence.

The reason why Zeng Ziwen refused Li Xuan's solicitation was that he believed that the so-called Tang Dynasty would undoubtedly be defeated, and the officers and soldiers of the imperial court would easily defeat these pseudo-Tang thieves.

But the last time he was taken to Longhua Town, he saw something that made him think it was impossible, something that was enough to make him change his original intention.

These things are not that the Tang Dynasty Wangshi did not fight, or they robbed Longhua Town, nor did they rob thousands of people when the Tang Dynasty returned to the division, and it was not because the Ming army took the initiative to withdraw from the mountain because Longhua Town was in danger of being completely lost.

It's the performance of that Guard!

Strictly speaking, it was not the entire Guards, but the performance of the more than 20 musketeers in the Guards that shocked Zeng Ziwen.

At the beginning, Zeng Ziwen was still a prisoner, but when Li Xuan had to stay by his side and act with the army, he saw with his own eyes that there was only a musket team of more than 20 people, and through the musket is shooting, plus the bayonet charge, he cooperated with the spearmen to defeat hundreds of officers and soldiers.

When he saw these musket teams in actual combat, what he saw was not more than 20 musketeers, nor did they defeat more than 100 Ming troops, and most of them were still young and strong.

He saw hundreds, if not thousands, of these musketeers, in close formation on the battlefield, and then marched forward in unison with muskets in hand, firing in turns at a distance of about eighty paces, and firing in a continuous manner.

At this distance, a fourteen-millimeter musket hit, even if the opponent was wearing light armor, but it was enough to deal a certain amount of damage.

As for bows and arrows, the lethality is much smaller at this distance!

It's just that at this distance, whether it is a musket or a bow and arrow, the hit rate of a single shot is basically zero, so it will adopt a covering shooting mode instead of accurate shooting.

However, if you enter a distance of 80 meters, the power of the musket will be greatly increased, and the 14-millimeter medium-caliber musket equipped by the Datang New Army can easily punch a hole in the iron armor.

If it is at a distance of fifty meters, even if the other party is wearing double thick armor, it is basically a dozen holes, and there is absolutely no reason to be spared.

If it is only power, the effective range is a little longer, but the musket is too bad in terms of the rate of fire compared to the bow and arrow, and if the archers of the family rush to a distance of seventy or eighty meters to shoot, the musketeers will be 100% defeated.

Even if the archer uses a large angle projectile, especially the British longbow, the musketeer will suffer if he shoots at a distance of 100 meters!

In other words, the rate of fire and the range of fire, in fact, the musket is not actually cheap.

But the musket is powerful, and this alone is enough to make up for the shortcomings in the rate of fire, not to mention that the effective range of the musket is farther than the ordinary bows and arrows used by the Ming army.

However, the power of the musket still did not let Zeng Ziwen put it in his eyes, and the power of those large-mouthed firecrackers in the Ming army was also great enough, not to mention that ordinary armor could not stop it, and the whole person could be smashed for you, but I didn't see these firecrackers completely replace bows and arrows.

Therefore, the power of the musket, and even the effective range is longer, Zeng Ziwen didn't pay attention to it, what really made him care was that these musketeers had only been trained for more than half a year from beginning to end, and it was not the kind that professional armies often trained.

How many years does it take for an archer to be trained? It takes ten or eight years to say the least, and most archers start practicing archery from an early age, so that they can become a qualified archer when they become adults.

However, these musketeers can be pulled out to fight after a few months of training, and the effect is not much worse than that of archers!

What does this mean? This means that if the Tang Dynasty has enough population, it will be able to pull out an army of musketeers in a short period of time.

Because the training of musketeers is so simple, it is not difficult to produce muskets if there are enough craftsmen, at least it is much easier than making bows and arrows.

Earlier, Li Xuan told him that when the Tang Dynasty was able to rely on these musketeers to rise, Zeng Ziwen still didn't believe it, but now, the persistence in his heart has been somewhat loosened.

Perhaps, there is a slight possibility!

Thinking about these things in his mind, he unconsciously arrived in the 'palace', this time Li Xuan still saw him in the council hall, but this time Zeng Ziwen did not find that no one else was present, only Li Xuan and a few guards were there.

Liu Bagou, why aren't they there?

Zeng Ziwen was a little puzzled, when he saw Li Xuan several times before, Liu Bagou and them were all on the side.

But it's okay if they're not there, so no one will force him to bow down to Li Xuan.

At this time, Li Xuan, who was above, also spoke: "Mr. Zeng, how are you doing recently?" ”

Hearing Li Xuan's words, although Zeng Ziwen did not bow down, he was not as arrogant as before, and said something that would anger people, but said lightly: "I'm worried, it's okay to be in the next place!" ”

When Zeng Ziwen spoke, he didn't say what he called Li Xuan, because it was not suitable to call Li Xuan emperor or other similar respectful titles, he couldn't pass the psychological level, but if he called him by his name or derogatory, it was estimated that the guards next to him would directly pull out their knives and cut him down.

So he simply doesn't call anything!

And the self-proclaimed official has also changed from the previous official to the subordinate, not because he is humble, but a month ago, he learned that he had been 'killed'.

At that time, the newly captured Ming prisoner told him very clearly that he had been honorably 'killed', and the government even sent people to his home to express condolences.

Everyone else is 'dead', and this official naturally can't be done.

Regarding the question of the title in Zeng Ziwen's words, Li Xuan did not delve into it, but continued: "I have been busy this month, but I haven't had a good chat with Mr. Zeng for some time!" ”

At this time, Zeng Ziwen looked up, but saw Li Xuan walking down from the dragon chair!

And listened to him say as he came down: "Recently, my new army in Datang has been formed, and I just fought a group of bandits a few days ago, I guess Mr. Zeng has also heard about it!" ”

Zeng Ziwen nodded and said, "I've heard a little!" ”

Li Xuan said: "I wonder if Mr. Zeng is interested in accompanying me to see the training of the new army?" ”

Zeng Ziwen didn't answer immediately, but pondered for a long time, and finally nodded: "Dare not obey your fate!" ”