Chapter 40: New Weapons (I)

Jia Xu and the others went down to make their own preparations, and soon the messenger sent to Luoyang set off with an expedited level of 800 miles, and the messengers who informed Youzhou, Jizhou and the Sili School Captain Department also set off in an expedited manner of 600 li, and as for Ding Yuan, he directly used flying pigeons to pass the book. Soon, Ding Yuan sent a reply, saying that he had ordered the county soldiers of all counties to gather in Yunzhong in accordance with Lü Bu's suggestion, and began to recruit young men from all over the country, strengthen the city, and assist in defending the city.

Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, who was far away in the capital Luoyang, soon received this urgent military report of 800 miles at the first time, and more than 200,000 Xianbei iron cavalry came to attack, but it was the largest war against the Han in the northern grassland peoples in decades. The last time Emperor Ling of Han sent troops to fight against the Xianbei people was six years ago, when the great leader of Xianbei Tan Shihuai was still alive, and the three-way Han army was finally wiped out and all defeated by the Xianbei people.

This time, the Xianbei people attacked again, how could they not make Emperor Ling panic, he immediately convened the civil and military officials Deyang Hall to discuss the matter. After reading Lu Bu's military emergency report, the leaders of the two major factions, Zhang Rang and He Jin, rarely reached a unanimous view in the face of foreign enemies, and expressed their approval of Lu Bu's request, and asked His Majesty the Emperor to issue an order to let Youzhou, Jizhou, and Sili Lieutenants quickly discharge reinforcements and reinforce Yunzhong, and it should be under the unified command of Lu Bu, after all, Lu Bu's military talent was obvious to everyone last time.

It can be decided by Lu Bu on the spot, and he should quickly collect grain, grass, military salaries, equipment and materials to supply the front line. To the south of the state is the division of the school captain, and after crossing the Yellow River is Luoyang City, if you lose the state, there is no danger to defend. Hearing that the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty all agreed with Lu Bu's request, Emperor Ling of Han made up his mind.

Immediately issued an order, promoted Lu Bu to the general of Duliao, temporarily the governor of the state, Jizhou, Youzhou, Sili Lieutenant Department of the border counties and the military affairs of all ethnic groups, granted the silver seal green ribbon, and the right to make decisions on the spot, and at the same time issued an order to Youzhou, Jizhou, Sili Lieutenant Department, and the state of the Assassin and Sili Lieutenant, on the day of receiving the order, immediately sent reinforcements to raise grain, grass, military salaries, equipment and materials to supply the front line. After the reinforcements of all departments arrived in Yunzhong, they had to obey the command and dispatch of Lu Bu, and all the operational matters of Xianbei were taken care of by Lu Bu, Ding Yuan Zuozhi, and Gao Wang was still the supervising army.

Lu Bu and Ding had already received the content of this decree before the angel who conveyed the holy decree, and Li Su had already used a flying pigeon to pass the book and report the content of this holy decree. Lu Bu did not let Li Su come back, because Li Su still needed to focus on Ma Yuanyi, the leader of Taiping Dao, and others, recently, perhaps the day of their actions was approaching, and Ma Yuanyi had more frequent contacts with the eunuchs and officials of various ministries in Luoyang City.

Li Su has already mastered a lot of specific information through informants, and even has their correspondence, Lu Bu has to admire Li Su is indeed suitable for intelligence work, he told Li Su not to startle the snake, secretly continue to collect witness evidence, wait for a more suitable time, and now still focus on the war against the Xianbei people.

Ding Yuan has led the county soldiers and part of the garrison border troops in the counties of the state to come to Yunzhong to join Lu Bu, but there is not much left of the border army, and the defense has been slack in recent years, and in many areas, the Eastern Han Dynasty has given up, and the population has moved back to the interior, so naturally there is no border army stationed.

Lu Bu ordered Gao Shun to build a lot of new camps on the plain east of the old camp, because there will be reinforcements from Youzhou, Jizhou and Sili Captain Department in the future, and the specific logistics and supply matters are busy with Song Xian, Lu Feifei and others, and Lu Feifei's women's battalion has been more and more responsible for logistics work.

Lu Bu and Ding Yuan discussed, and when the army was assembled and fought against the Xianbei people, Ding Yuan would sit in the clouds and lead the county soldiers to stay in the rear, because the combat strength of the county soldiers was really not flattering. Ding Yuan initially wanted to go into battle with Lu Bu in person, so Lu Bu painstakingly explained to him the importance of sitting in the rear, maintaining stability in the rear, and ensuring the supply of grain and grass, all of which must be handled by people he can trust. And it also needs Ding Yuan to appease Gao Wang, so as not to be constrained by him at a critical moment.

Ding Yuan also understood these truths, and later he didn't insist on his own opinions, but he still said to Lu Bu that it would take time for the army to assemble and finally go out, so why not let these county soldiers and border troops also receive training for recruits trapped in the camp, so that they can also improve their combat effectiveness a little.

And among these county soldiers, there is a young general, Ding Yuan highly recommended it to Lu Bu, saying that it is both civil and military, and it is worth cultivating, Lu Bu is very interested in Ding Yuan's recommendation, and I also want to know which Niu X character is this again. agreed to let these county soldiers go to the training base of the trapping camp to receive new training, and when the time comes, he will also go to meet the young general that Ding Yuan said for a while.

As soon as he finished discussing the training of the county soldiers, Guan Hu came to see Lu Bu, saying that he had already made a few things that Lu Bu had given to the craftsman camp before, and asked Lu Bu to check the effect. Lu Bu was very excited, this is really timely rain, the war is coming, this is the pillow that I want to sleep, he invited Ding Yuan to go to the craftsman camp with him.

Outside the old camp in the clouds, there is a mountain that has been opened up as a test base for the craftsman battalion, and there is a battalion of trapped soldiers stationed around it, a highly secret unit. Ma Jun was very excited to welcome the arrival of Lu Bu and Ding Yuan, and led them to the new equipment trial site.

Lu Bu and Ding Yuan walked into the field, and the first thing they saw was a strange-shaped two-wheeled chariot parked on the field, similar in shape and size to ordinary chariots, but several rows of sharpened wooden sticks similar to spears were installed on the guards on both sides of the chariot's carriage, and the guards on both sides were also higher than the carriages of ordinary chariots.

Ma Jun explained to them that this was a mobile horse-rejecting chariot, which could be used to charge the formation, or it could be placed in front of the formation when defending, and used as a horse-rejecting stake. This has no technical content, after reading Lu Bu's sketches, Ma Jun quickly made it, the process is also simple, and it doesn't take much to modify ordinary chariots, the craftsman battalion has built dozens of vehicles, and it will soon be able to build enough for a hundred.

Lu Bu felt that this was simply a primitive tank, specially used to restrain cavalry, especially the lightly armed cavalry of the various tribes in the grassland. He asked Ma Jun, how many people can be carried in the chariot? Ma Jun said: "Because of the addition of guards and repellent pistols, so the weight has increased a lot, in order not to affect the mobility, the chariot pulled by two horses has a maximum of three crew members, it is recommended that two people, one of them is a coachman, and then carry a halberd or crossbowman." ”

Lu Bu thought about it for a while and said: "I suggest that when rushing into battle, it is best to have two people on it, a coachman and a halberd, but the horse pulling the cart should be fully equipped with iron armor, and the head and torso must be protected by iron armor, and the iron armor is thick enough to prevent the bow and arrow from fifty zhang away, and the crew should also be fully armored, and the helmet should have a protective face, so that when rushing into battle, it can not be affected by the bow and arrow, and move forward with all its might, and the horses can be blindfolded." ”

Lu Bu paused for a moment and continued: "But in this way, each car needs to be equipped with four horses, two horse-drawn carriages, two horses into the carriage to carry the armor of horses and personnel, the guard plate of the carriage can also be made detachable, usually also used to carry the pack horse, if the two horses are not enough, you can add a pack horse, the two horses that charge the battle try to choose the Hexi horse, the Hun horse is short, the weight is not good, in the future, there are conditions, or use more horses in the Western Regions." ”

Ma Jun wrote them down one by one, he felt that Lu Bu had more whimsical ideas than himself, and he couldn't keep up with Lu Bu's thinking jump. He promised to arrange the test immediately, and the armor of the horses was ready-made, because according to Lu Bu's conception, the trap camp had recently trained a new battalion of ironclad heavy cavalry, which was being trained, and Jin Riyan commissioned craftsmen to make a battalion and made a lot of horse armor. Lü Bu agreed that this battalion would be used to test new chariots, and if feasible, the battalion would be expanded into a regiment, equipped with a battalion of heavy cavalry and a battalion of chariots.