After coming back from Dengzhou, Gu Haotian had a few rare days of leisure.

But the so-called leisure is also relative. No, he was blocked by Zhou Yunqing and Teng Jian at the door of his house early this morning.

"What's the matter, you two are in a hurry?"

"Swords, sabers, I cavalry can't always carry spears to fight."

Gu Haotian teased them unhurriedly, but the two of them were in a hurry.

Recently, the three infantry battalions were all equipped with new-style Tang knives, and the long knives were aimed at, destroying the withering momentum and envying the other battalions.

The cavalry battalion is now also a big business, there is still a lot of surplus in one war horse, the three hundred miners from Jinling Town have entered the teaching camp, after February, the cavalry battalion can reach 1,000 people, but what makes Zhou Yunqing most dissatisfied is the weapon.

Before, the cavalry battalion used spears, and Zhou Yunqing didn't have any ideas, but as soon as the new horizontal knife appeared, his eyes were hot. Galloping horses and raising swords, sweeping thousands of troops, it makes people's blood boil when they think about it. Now that the weapons of the three battalions have been completed, and the weapons workshop is idle, he is anxious to find his junior brother for weapons.

In fact, in the history of China, the weapons used by cavalry were mainly spears, especially for heavy armored cavalry, and spears were standard. The tiger and leopard riders of Cao Wei of the Three Kingdoms, and the Xuanjia riders of the Li clan in the early Tang Dynasty, seem to be spears. After the Yuan Dynasty, the scimitars of the steppe cavalry swept across Europe and Asia, after which the scimitar gradually became the main weapon of the cavalry.

As for the elimination of spears by modern cavalry, Gu Haotian attributed the reason to the emergence of firearms, which caused the heavy armored cavalry to lose its role, and the light cavalry became the mainstream, so the light scimitar naturally became the main weapon.

But Gu Haotian didn't follow this senior brother's meaning, he asked:

"Senior brother thinks that the horizontal knife must be more suitable for cavalry than the spear?"

"Of course."

"In the Sui and Tang dynasties, horizontal knives were the most popular, why haven't you heard that the Tang Dynasty iron cavalry uses horizontal knives?"

"It's-"

Zhou Yunqing was stunned when asked, but in fact, he was taken into the ditch by Gu Haotian. In the Tang Dynasty, the horizontal knife weighed nearly ten catties, and the cavalry generally fought with weapons in one hand, and in the process of high-speed sprinting, there were a few people who could support it.

However, now Liangshan's Tang knife is no longer the other knife. According to the existing technology, it is not impossible to produce a cavalry version of the Tang knife weighing four or five catties as a sample of the cavalry knife of later generations. Gu Haotian actually has a position for cavalry in his heart, that is, a flexible and fast mobile force, so it is imperative to be equipped with cavalry knives, and he has even drawn a sketch with reference to the 65-style cavalry knives of later generations.

The reason why he had a spear and knife debate with Zhou Yunqing was because Gu Haotian didn't want to completely give up the heavy cavalry before the appearance of effective firearms, he thought of the Jin people's Tiefu Tu, there is no perfect way to win at the moment, and heavy cavalry to balance heavy cavalry may be a choice in this era. Zhou Yunqing, as the battalion commander of the cavalry, Gu Haotian could not let him have the concept of favoring light and heavy cavalry.

"Senior brother, the long soldiers and the short blades have their own strengths, just look at where they are used, you are the commander of the cavalry battalion, if you don't have a correct judgment on the cavalry combat strategy, what should the people below do?"

"I ......"

"What Senior Brother thinks is nothing more than a saber, in fact, I have already considered it, and now that I am here, I will follow me in and see the same thing as you."

With that, Gu Haotian turned around and took the two of them back to the study in the front building, and then took out a drawing from the drawer. Zhou Yunqing and Teng Jian hurriedly surrounded them, but saw that what was painted was a long knife, with a gauntlet and finger covers, the blade was about three feet long, the blade was slightly curved, the tip was thin, and the two sides were slotted, and the whole shape was a miniature version of the Tang knife.

"Senior brother, this is the saber of our cavalry battalion." Zhou Yunqing asked in surprise.

"This knife is based on the craftsmanship of the mountain weapons workshop, and it weighs about four catties after it is made. However, it was only suitable for light cavalry combat, and heavy cavalry was still suitable for spears. ”

"Senior brother and Teng Jian brothers are the first battalion commanders of the cavalry battalion, shouldering the heavy responsibility of cultivating seeds for the Liangshan cavalry, and they can't ignore the balance of the military branches based on personal preferences, leaving regrets in the future."

Gu Haotian said something serious, Zhou and Teng were both deeply shocked, and they also thought that they were a little unstable. Zhou Quqing felt deeply, thinking of people who were several years older than his junior brother, but he was still so frizzy, and thinking of the lesson when his father left, he suddenly felt embarrassed.

"What the junior brother said is very true, but we are a little ill-considered, and we must pay attention to it in the future." With that, the two got up and wanted to leave.

"Since you're here, let's go to the weapons workshop together to see when the knife over there will be made."

When the two saw Gu Haotian pick up the drawings and invite them to go to the weapons workshop together, they were secretly happy in their hearts, although they realized their shortcomings, but the new saber was something they dreamed of after all.

In the ordnance workshop, Tang Long, Sha Tong, Chu Hong and others all thought that there was no difficulty after reading the drawings, and said that they could take out a sample knife after three days.

Zhou Yunqing and Teng Huan were overjoyed, and said that they would immediately go back to select some men to practice the new swords as light cavalry, and then go back to the camp without looking back.

Gu Haotian fell there alone and smiled bitterly, fortunately, he happened to have something to order, so he took the opportunity to gather the relevant people in the workshop and issued a new production task - plate armor.

Armor can be said to be the second life of a soldier in the era of cold weapons, and its quality directly affects the soldier's chance of survival on the battlefield. However, the iron armor of this era was too heavy, which affected the flexibility of soldiers' combat, and the protection ability of leather armor was too poor to give people security.

Gu Haotian was also talking about heavy cavalry just now, when he thought of the plate armor of medieval European cavalry. However, he did not pursue the kind of iron jacket that put the whole person in, his idea was to use the existing iron smelting and forging technology in the mountain to make a high-strength, high-toughness, light-weight steel sheet, which was embedded in leather armor to protect the important parts of the body, so as to achieve the purpose of protection and improve flexibility. As for heavy cavalry and light cavalry, heavy infantry and light cavalry, the inlaid area of steel sheets can be appropriately increased or decreased according to the needs of operations.

"Everyone, whether it is a saber or a plate armor, the core component is the steel plate, and any problem will be solved if the steel plate is passed, you can imagine a soldier with a weight of more than ten catties, and a soldier with a weight of dozens of pounds to fight, in fact, he has won before the battle, please here."

After that, Gu Haotian bowed his hand to all the craftsmen present.

"I will live up to the trust of the petty officials!"

And a group of craftsmen, under the leadership of Tang Long, also spoke loudly.

The armor workshop and his party not only solved the saber problem, but also had eyebrows about the armor, and Gu Haotian couldn't help but feel good.

It was three days in a blink of an eye, and on this day, Zhou Yunqing sent someone to invite Gu Haotian to the camp early in the morning, but he took people to guard the weapons workshop early.

The cavalry battalion was stationed, Zhou Yunqing and Teng Jian all ran out, and only the new cavalry leader Aliqi was gossiping with Gu Haotian.

"Brother Arich, are you used to living here? But someone is not convinced of you? If anyone is disobedient, just tell me, and I will clean him up. ”

"Whoever dares to disobey me will ...... him"

Aliqi wanted to say that he was "convinced", but when he thought about it, in the past few days, he and Sun An, Su Sheng, Yuan Lang, Zhou Yunqing, etc., after competing openly and secretly, there was no victory, and several times he was faintly defeated, so he took back the word "defeat".

But as a rare master on the grassland, Aric refused to admit defeat, so he said firmly.

"The cavalry here is too poor in horsemanship, compared to our steppe men, hum ......"

Gu Haotian knew that Aliqi couldn't let go, and it would naturally be fine in a few days, and he didn't mind, and was about to say something, but he saw Zhou Yunqing and Teng Jian and others holding a few sabers, and rushed in.

"Senior brother, this knife is so good, the cavalry battalion is like a tiger!"

I saw him pull the knife out of the sheath with a "dang" in front of everyone, but I saw a cold light flashing, and the three-foot Qingfeng was already standing coolly in front of everyone's eyes.

Gu Haotian took a closer look, it was exactly what he had originally designed, and he was thinking about finding a place to try his blade, but he heard Ali Qi say coldly.

"It's just a show."

"Dare to compare!"

When Zhou Yunqing heard this, he immediately became angry.

"Why don't you dare?"

Seeing Aliqi stand up slowly, he glanced at the thin saber, grasped the scimitar with him tightly, and walked out with his head held high.

"Humph! And let you be arrogant for a moment. ”

Zhou Yunqing immediately followed out with a knife.

On the training ground, the two horses pulled the distance, and then the two shouted at the same time, and the horses accelerated to the other party's gallop, and in an instant, they heard a sharp sound of "dang", and the two horses had staggered.

"Hah! Ha! Ha! Battalion Commander Zhou's saber, can it still be used? ”

Before Alich could turn his horse's head, he burst out laughing triumphantly.

"Captain Aric should first look at his scimitar and see if it is still strong."

Zhou Yunqing had already tried knives in the military workshop, so he naturally knew its quality.

"Camp Commander Zhou is too careful, and he will take another knife."

Alich was so confident that he turned his horse and raised his scimitar, and was about to pick up speed again, when he felt a glaring gap in the sun's edge. Anyway, he quickly reined in his horse, withdrew his scimitar, and was surprised to find that the blade not only had a large gap, but also several cracks and spider webs extending around the perimeter.

"Captain Aliqi, look at my knife."

At this time, Zhou Yunqing had already driven his horse to his side, and then a sharp and long knife appeared in front of Aliqi's eyes.

"How so! How so! ”

Aliqi muttered to himself, still not believing.

But Zhou Quqing was ecstatic, and after the confrontation of the new saber by the master of Aliqi, there was no doubt about its quality.

He rode his horse to Gu Haotian and shouted excitedly, "Senior brother, please give a name to the sword." ”

Gu Haotian was stunned for a moment, and suddenly remembered that he had given the name "Tiger Tooth" to the Tang Dao of the Chongbu Battalion, and this guy wanted to remember this stubble. Helplessly, after a little thought, he said:

"Light cavalry, horses like lightning, swords like thunderbolts, let's call them thunderbolts."

"A horse is like lightning, and a knife is like a thunderbolt."

Seeing Zhou Quqing's excited shout, he rode out of the horse, and suddenly lifted the frontier, the horse screamed violently, soared up, and the snowy long knife on the horse's back plunged straight into the sky. In an instant, this man stood on the wide training ground, like a sculpture.