At dusk that day, led by Li Xiao, several coachmen, pulling several carriages full of armor and weapons, returned to the pier of no return with him. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Li Xiao was greeted with bursts of enthusiastic cheers.

Seeing the fine iron scale armor and the fine spear and sword, everyone in the pier was full of shock and joy on their faces, and Tian Wei and Wang Yishou were even more smiling.

Only cavalrymen who have been on the battlefield will understand how important it is to have such fine armor and good weapons.

"Li Baihu, a good armor, it really makes people happy, and you have a way to get it!" Tian Wei rubbed his hands excitedly.

"That is, who is our Deputy Li, and the heroes among the people! Hmph, I'm right to Li Baihu, but I'm convinced! Wang Yishou added repeatedly.

With a smile on his face, Li Xiao immediately ordered to start distributing armor to everyone, each soldier received an iron scale armor, and the original four pieces of cotton armor of Tian Wei, Wang Yishou and others were taken back and temporarily stored in the warehouse.

"From now on, all soldiers will wear iron scale armor and start armor training. This iron scale armor is well-made, and it is not easy to come by, you must cherish it, and it cannot be easily damaged, do you understand? Looking at the group of recruits who were happy to wear the brand-new black iron scale armor, Li Xiao shouted proudly.

"Understood, thank you Hyakohe-sama!" The shouts of excitement below were like a burst of thunder.

Praise Wu Liang was on the side, looking at the high-spirited Li Xiao with a smile, his face full of admiration.

Being able to successfully get these armor and weapons, Wu Liang knew how much money Li Xiao had saved.

The market price of such a well-made iron scale armor is at least 160 taels, 33 pieces are 5,280 taels, and those spears and knives are counted at 15 taels each, and there are nearly 1,000 taels of silver in total. Coupled with the bow and arrows that count 10 taels of silver each, Li Xiao's trip to ask for people only cost more than ten taels of gold to open up the joints, but he obtained a total of almost 6,500 taels of armor and weapons for the pier of no return!

This is truly an amazing achievement.

This Li Baihu is not only good at martial arts, but also has the ability to engage in relationships, but he is really not to be underestimated.

At present, the armament that Li Xiao still needs is the armor required to buy 23 war horses and 20 horses, if the price of each horse is 50 taels, and the armor of the whole horse is 150 taels, the total cost is only 4150 taels.

Li Xiao still has nearly 8,000 taels of silver on hand, in addition to these expenses, there are more than 3,800 taels of silver that can be used for daily expenses, according to the premise that the estimated monthly food expenditure is about 480 taels, Li Xiao's existing silver money is enough to supply about 8 months of daily expenses! In this way, the operational pressure borne by Li Xiao is much smaller.

In the following days, Li Xiao arranged for Tian Wei and Wang Yishou to take two sentinels Chen Li and Duan Shidi brought out from Zhongtun to the junction of western Liaoning and Mongolian tribes to buy smuggled horses.

These two people, who have been observed by Li Xiao for many days, are all young sentinels with good character and quick response, so in this horse-buying operation, Li Xiao asked the two to accompany Tian Wei and Wang Yishou.

Chen Li and Duan Shidi, seeing that they were valued by Li Xiao so much, were inexplicably surprised, and they all assured Li Xiao again and again that this trip would be successfully completed.

After Tian Wei and the others set off, Li Xiao took over the daily training of soldiers again.

Time seems to have started on this day and entered the fast lane.

There are indeed not too many bright colors in the strict and repetitive training life, only the progress of the soldiers day by day, which makes Li Xiao secretly happy and excited.

After three days, soldiers can begin to stand in an even straight line.

After five days, the soldiers were able to start making left and right turns, and were able to start jogging in formation en masse. At the same time, Li Xiao sent Wu Liang to Jinzhou City to order the flags and golden drums that were completed. At the same time, he bought 25 saddle saddles from Jinzhou City, and spent a total of 400 taels of silver at the price of 16 taels each.

From the sixth day, Li Xiao immediately began to train the soldiers to understand the flag language, as well as the common sense of combat to march with drums and retreat.

In fact, up to now, the content of Li Xiao's training has been some seemingly basic military common sense, but these training methods, which always seem to emphasize collective action and are quite boring and boring, are the essence of achieving an elite army. Although Li Xiao trained all cavalry, these basic trainings were extremely important for their future growth and strength.

Only through this kind of training, which seems to be boring but can gradually change the physical and mental well-being of the soldiers, can we truly improve the neatness, unity, and cohesion of the troops. Li Xiao believed that the actual combat effect of the team he had trained in this way would definitely be much stronger than that of the Ming army in the pure ancient sense at this time.

Eight days later, at noon, Tian Wei, Wang Yishou and others returned smoothly with a large number of horses.

A large group of tall and sturdy horses, white, black, blue, red, and flowers of all colors, formed an irregular circle, trotting towards the pier of no return, and the horses continued to neigh and jump, which filled the whole herd with vitality.

"Deputy team, these days, I waited to go to the outer wall of Dafu Fort, and arrived at the smuggling horse market located by the daughter river, but it was the trading place of the Mongolian Karaqin Department, and after some bargaining, I bought 25 suitable war horses for 45 taels each, all of which are strong horses, and newly nailed horses, but there are 2 more horses than originally arranged, which is also to prevent the horses from getting sick or dying, and they can be replaced in time." Tian Wei took the lead in running to Li Xiao, finished this paragraph in one breath, and then unscrewed the kettle and poured a few mouthfuls of water.

"Vice, the Mongolian who sold the horses saw that we were all trading in cash, and his heart was happy, and he was swept away by the two rabbit cubs of Shi Di and Chen Li during that time, and he actually sold two ordinary pack horses to us at a price of 10 taels each, half sold and half gave away, so that this time the horse was bought for a total of 1,145 taels of silver. In addition, the cost of going back and forth on the road is about 15 taels, and the remaining silver taels are here, please take a look at the deputy team. Wang Yishou took over the conversation with a smile on his face, and after finishing speaking, he took out the remaining silver taels from the horse and returned them to Li Xiao.

Looking at the obviously dark and thin faces of Wang Yishou, Tian Wei and others, Li Xiao accepted the money, looked at the four subordinates with satisfaction, and then said: "Everyone works hard, but after driving the horses back to the stable, our team will arrange a banquet for you to pick up the wind and wash the dust." ”

When the four of them heard this, their faces were full of joy, and they immediately drove their horses into the stable without mentioning it.

After a while, a simple but real banquet was lined up, and Li Xiao arranged for Wu Liang, Tian Wei, Wang Yishou, Chen Li, and Duan Shidi to sit together.

After a few people sat down, Li Xiao personally poured wine for them, which made everyone feel quite flattered.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Li Xiao then told them his next plans and arrangements for the cavalry.

"Ladies and gentlemen, now that the cavalry team that this official wants to build has begun to take shape, the basic training of each soldier has been completed, in the next few days, Tian Wei and Yi Shou can start training these soldiers to fight on horseback, these soldiers can ride horses, but the combat skills are lacking, I hope you will step up your training, at the latest within two months, so that everyone must be familiar with the essentials of horse combat." Li Xiao instructed the two.

Tian Wei and Wang Yishou's eyes lit up, after more than half a month, they could finally enter the real cavalry training. The two of them immediately stood up, and said loudly in unison: "I will obey the orders of the deputy team." ”

Li Xiao smiled, motioned for them to sit down, and then said to Chen Li and Duan Shidi, who were sitting on the side: "You two have been doing well recently, so let's do it, this team appoints Chen Li as the deputy captain of the heavy cavalry team, and Duan Shidi as the deputy captain of the light cavalry team, and the monthly salary of each person is set at 3 taels and 5 yuan, assisting Captain Tian and Captain Wang respectively." ”

Chen Liduan and the two of them got up with joy: "I'll thank you for your cultivation." ”

Tian Wei on the side interjected: "My lord, but I don't know when to order the horses and armor of the heavy cavalry?" ”

When Li Xiao heard this, he hurriedly asked, "Tian Wei, you ask like this, but you know how to make this horse armor?" ”

Tian Wei smiled and scratched his head: "When I was in Lord You Shiwei's army, there were a few heavily armored cavalry in the camp at that time, and the horses were also armored, so I learned a thing or two below. These cavalrymen are all small full-armored armor, divided into armor, tail, chest, chicken neck, curtain and other parts, which can be freely assembled, but it is very convenient. ”

Li Xiao listened to Tian Wei's story, but he was groaning in his heart.

Li Xiao has read the history books and remembers that this small full suit is a heavy cavalry costume that existed in the Song Dynasty, and it is an improved version of the large full suit armor. In fact, in ancient China, the most famous is the large full armor, under this kind of clothing, the curtain of the horse's head, the chicken neck of the neck, the armor on the horse's body, the chest swing, and the horse's buttocks are connected together, which is impermeable, and is not inferior to the Western heavy armored cavalry. Among them, the typical representative of the large full suit is the Eagle Army of the Liao Dynasty, the Iron Harrier of the Western Xia, and the Iron Futu of the Jin Dynasty.

It was only later in the battle that it was discovered that this kind of large full outfit that was connected into one was far less suitable than a small full outfit that could be combined separately. The biggest advantage of this small full outfit is that when the horse is also given enough protection, the required vest part can be added or subtracted at will according to the needs of the battle situation, so as to be more suitable for complex terrain and the mobility needs of the actual battlefield.

"Very well, the horse armor used by our heavy cavalry can also be determined to be this kind of small full suit." Li Xiao opened his mouth and said.

"Deputy Li, I heard you say that our army's heavy cavalry will be used to charge the formation, and there is a suggestion in the fall, that is, if the cavalry is so densely charged, the tail can be removed, and the armor body can be reduced to the saddle, and the armor leaves can be retained in other places. After all, the heavy cavalry is the impact of the front, and there are light cavalry on both sides to cover the flanks and rear, the rear half of the armor and tail behind this side are not needed, which way, the armor required by the horses can be reduced a lot, save production costs, and can save horsepower, which is conducive to the sweat of the horses, greatly improving the speed of the horses to rush and run fast, but not very good? Wang Yishou's eyes flashed, and he hurriedly added on the side.

Li Xiao fell into thought again.

He knew in his heart that Wang Yishou's opinion was extremely insightful. If a group of heavy cavalry can be created in this way, it will definitely be much stronger than the so-called heavy cavalry of the Jurchen Tartars now.

Because the current Tartars, compared with their self-proclaimed ancestor Jin Dynasty, although there are so-called heavy cavalry, the degree of clothing of men and horses is too bad. The current Jurchen Tartars, in addition to the real elites such as the white swing tooth soldiers and the Bashiku leader, can wear cold forging armor and iron scale armor, the general heavy cavalry wear chain mail inside, cotton armor outside, cotton armor decorated with copper nails, iron leaves in the middle, and must also be watered to let the cotton absorb water during the battle, increasing the ability to defend against guns, slingshots and arrows. The horse armor is at most only two places, the curtain and the chicken neck, both of which use a thin layer of cotton armor, and a very small number of horses have a swinging chest, and the armor body and tail part, which is absolutely none. Rao is so, this kind of heavy cavalry in the early and middle Qing Dynasty has unlimited scenery, from Liaodong to Guangdong, from the northeast to the northwest, almost invincible. The specific tactic is that after the heavy infantry infantry destroys the front, these so-called heavy cavalry, from the side or around the back to impact the Ming army's battle formation, often rush and collapse, which can be called a hand-to-hand capture, never missed, after breaking the formation, what is often followed is a one-sided slaughter. The reason why the Ming army fought every battle, it was extremely difficult for any soldiers to escape, and most of them were killed by these Tartar heavy cavalry or other light cavalry.

"The two of you have a very good opinion, so let's do it, tomorrow I will go to Jinzhou City with Mr. Wu, find a blacksmith shop, and let him make a set of style vests first, if it is indeed easy to use and effective, then go and customize the armor of the remaining 19 horses." Li Xiao looked around at everyone and finally came to a conclusion.