Seeing that everyone understood the truth, Zhang Xian summoned everyone to sit down at home, and continued while drinking tea:

"The official knows that everyone has just returned home, and they are all tired and sleepy, but the official still wants everyone to work harder, and they must do it immediately. We now have 3,000 strong soldiers, according to the establishment of my Great Song Army, 500 people are battalions (called generals), five battalions are generals (called commanders), our 3,000 brothers now urgently need to change their identities, otherwise it will be very troublesome in the future, after all, the huge team cannot nest in the mountains forever, this time it was reported by my uncle to raise private soldiers, intending to rebel, it is a lesson, so this official has sent someone to Lu Wenhuan Lu Lord to ask for a commander's establishment, it is estimated that a month later, the appointment will come down, this official is naturally the commander, Wang Jiaotou, Niu Dameng is the deputy commander, Jiang Wei is the left general, Fang Kun is the middle general, Li Jinde is the right general, our generals are all 1,000 people, that is, twice the regular establishment of my Great Song Dynasty, and it is impossible for us to let Lord Lu Wenhuan pay for the extra expenses, so the official will be responsible. ”

After Zhang Xian finished speaking, he looked at Wang Fu and said:

"In the three months before the appointment letter came down, we have to temper our family brothers, Wang Jiaotou still needs to work harder, you are always responsible for suppressing bandits, picking out those evil bandits, stubborn bandits, Jiangyang thieves and other bandits, and we can only use half of the bandits' strength to attack them, don't forget, our family brothers are one in a hundred strong men, if one person can't even destroy two or three bandits, then fight against the more ferocious Tartars, we have no chance of winning, We must let the brothers temper the iron-blooded military soul in the flames of war. ”

After listening to Zhang Xian's words, everyone smiled, after all, this change in identity means that he will be a member of the official family in the future, Wang Fu nodded with satisfaction, after all, he can finally lead the army to fight again, Fang Kun also smiled:

"In the past, my father was in the forbidden army, and he only heard of those who ate empty salaries, but our adults are good, but they have subsidized the imperial army."

Zhang Xian listened to Fang Kun's words, and also had a deep understanding, the Great Song Dynasty army was bloated, composed of the forbidden army, the box army, the township soldiers, and the Fan soldiers, and the people also had native soldiers and archers, which was equivalent to the civil defense regiment of later generations, and the forbidden army, as the guard force directly under the emperor, was responsible for the security of the imperial city garrison and the combat mission of important city defense, and Lu Wenhuan belonged to the forbidden army. Relatively speaking, the forbidden army is incomparable to other armies in terms of training, equipment, pension, and combat ability, but at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the forbidden army and the Mengyuan army fought, and were defeated one after another.

Zhang Xian shook his head, sighed, and continued: "Fang Kun, in the troubled times, many things cannot be counted on by the imperial court, so you can only rely on yourself. By the way, those Persian craftsmen should be treated preferentially in life, and the wine and meat are enough, Li Jinde, you know how to arrange troops and formations, and you also have a lot of experience in ordnance, then you are responsible, and the official will give you a principle, requiring them to make two kinds of return artillery, one is a large siege cannon, the projectile weighs 150 catties, and the range is 300 steps; A small return cannon, the projectile weighs ten pounds, the range is 400 paces, and it must be lightweight, a soldier can carry the march. When they made it, and taught our craftsmen, they gave each of them ten ingots of gold back to Persia, and if they couldn't make it, they would stay in the Great Song Dynasty forever. ”

Li Jinde agreed very happily after hearing this, but Niu Dameng scratched his scalp and said:

"I said, my lord, we have also seen this small return cannon by the river, they use ships to load, that volume we are tired to carry, an ordinary soldier is really difficult to carry the march, besides, I see that their range is already a hundred zhang, close to two hundred and fifty steps away, it is already very remarkable, when encountering Tartar cavalry, if there are a dozen or so return cannons, it is enough for their strikers to lose their armor, if they increase the requirements, I am afraid that they will not be able to build these Persian craftsmen!"

Zhang Xian listened to Niu Dameng's words, and Zhang Xian, who came through, naturally knew that the historical records recorded that the return artillery in the battle of Xiangyang City, the large siege gun fired one hundred and fifty pounds of projectiles, which has reached two hundred and fifty steps, that is, a distance of nearly four hundred meters, a cannon down, the sound is like thunder, the Xiangyang city wall made of boulders will collapse a big hole, hit the city wall archway, just one shot, let the archway turn into ruins, and later, after the improvement of Meng Yuan and Han craftsmen, the final range of the return cannon will reach 300 steps and 30 steps, 500 meters; The final range of the small return cannon also reached 400 paces and 600 meters; Later, the Mengyuan court won the world, and almost never encountered this kind of siege in Xiangyang again, and abandoned the large-scale siege return cannon after not using it for a long time; And the small return cannon, the Mengyuan generals felt that one person could not pull, two people wasted, and had to use a horse to transport, not as simple and practical as the individual bow and arrow, although the later improved small return cannon achieved high power, long range, single carrying, but, at that time, the Tartar had won the world, not used at all, in order to prevent the people and the enemy from obtaining these return artillery, the Mengyuan court ordered the destruction of the drawings, no longer to manufacture and develop the return artillery, so far, the once prominent return cannon fell into the curtain of history.

So, of course, Zhang Xian knew the military value of this return gun, and said:

"What Niu Dameng said is also right, not right, right, because the return cannon we see is at this level for the time being, but people's ingenuity is forced out, and the reason why they can win the battle is nothing more than that people are forced into a desperate situation, which will stimulate several times the combat effectiveness and intelligence of the usual, so the official absolutely believes that they can create the return cannon I want. It's not right, it's Niu Dameng, your use of the return cannon is wrong, if the small return cannon only uses a dozen or so to block the enemy's strikers, do you think this official will go to such great lengths to force them? To block the enemy's forward, a few tripwires and pitfalls are enough. ”

Niu Dameng nodded with a look of understanding, and Zhang Xian continued:

"The third thing, this officer needs an invincible cavalry in the world, fighting with the Tartars, no cavalry is not good, with cavalry can not win is not good, I have asked Wang Jiaotou the situation of the Tartar cavalry, now I will tell you about my plan, the cavalry is not as good as the infantry, training needs to take time, effort and money, the reason why the Tartar cavalry is powerful, is because they have lived on horses since they were young, and they have mastered the technology of war horses, compared to my Song Dynasty cavalry, they are born to train for more than ten years, plus they often need to hunt with bows and arrows, It is also equivalent to training mounted archery skills for a long time, which is their strength. However, they are not without shortcomings, their first shortcoming is their horses, Mongolian horses are resistant to cold and fatigue, in order to survive in the bitter cold land of the north, this is an advantage, but their horses are smaller, poor collision ability, speed not to mention compared with sweat and blood BMW, even compared to the Persian horse, it is also a poor day, then the Persian horse must have heard of it, the height and strength, explosive power and impact power are not comparable to those Tartar short horses? Therefore, the official will give everything he has and find a way to buy Persian horses, and for the time being he intends to ask for 5,000 Persian horses. ”

After listening to Zhang Xian, everyone grew up with their mouths, including Wang Fu, because this famous Persian horse has been a world-famous BMW since ancient times, with a strong physique and a very fast impact speed, but good things are naturally expensive, if you want to say that it is just expensive, it is still far away, if you go to Persia by land, it will take two or three years to trek back and forth through mountains and rivers, and it will take more than half a year even if you go by sea, but there are so many big ships there to transport horses?

Jiang Wei looked at everyone in astonishment, and said:

"My lord, are you more cautious, this is good to buy a Persian horse, but it is expensive and far, with our current financial resources, at most we can buy a few hundred Persian horses, the distance is five thousand, the difference is not a star and a half, besides, this transport horses and horses that die of disease and water are not adapted, the main thing is that there are not many horses at a time. Moreover, we are now in the south, and the southerners themselves have few horsemen, and to train cavalry, where should we find soldiers who can compete with the Tartar cavalry? ”

I saw Zhang Xian nodding with a smile and saying:

"I understand everyone's feelings, but everyone must believe in this official, since this official said so, there must be a way to solve it. First of all, the official wants to build a large fleet from Yangzhou to the sea through the Yangtze River, the official has understood, my big Song sea ship, the largest is about 38 zhang long, about 16 zhang wide, more than 60,000 catties, a boat carrying 100 Persian horses is more than enough, a large sea trade fleet of 20 sea ships, one can bring back 2,000 Persian BMWs, even if there is some loss, the three sea trade down is almost 5,000 Persian BMWs, therefore, the official wants to do maritime trade business through Persia, my Song Dynasty porcelain silk was transported to Persia, and you can make several times the profit when you change hands. Even if it is to buy a Persian horse, it should be enough, that is, within two years, the official must have 5,000 Persian horses and 5,000 iron horses. ”

Zhang Xian took a sip of tea after speaking, thinking of the later Ming Dynasty Zheng He went to the Western Ocean, the largest treasure ship is about forty-four zhang long, about eighteen zhang wide, and carries more than 80,000 catties, but unfortunately the Song Dynasty has not developed such a huge treasure ship, but the cargo ship with a load difference of more than 60,000 catties will also be used. What's the point of that? Zhang Xian saw that everyone listened to it with relish, and they were all in a trance, and continued:

"Jiang Wei said about the cavalry soldiers, this question is good, if you want to say that I am a great Song people, land battles and formation battles can be said to be invincible in the world, this cavalry combat is indeed not our strong point, but don't forget, how can a living person let urine suffocate to death? At that time, the Han Iron Cavalry led by Huo Quzhi and Wei Qing were also Han Chinese, and after strict training, they also beat the ethnic Huns on horseback and fled, and they fled into Mobei and no longer dared to plunder our Han Iron Cavalry, which shows that it is not that our Han cavalry is not good at fighting, but that our training methods are not good, and now our cavalry equipment and protective gear are not good, and even our cavalry combat methods are not good. Therefore, we want to use Yi skills to control Yi, this official thinks, in order to defeat the enemy, learning the enemy's advantages is not a shameful and shameful thing, we can recruit the people of Fan, Yi people among the people of the cavalry and archery skills of the superb as a teacher, combined with the advantages of my Great Song Dynasty good at battle formations, strengthen and improve the cavalry protective gear, I don't believe it, the Mengyuan cavalry is iron! As long as you follow the plan of the official and forge an invincible iron horse in the world, you will also be like Huo Quzhi and Wei Qing who ride the horse in Mobei, seal the wolf and live in the sky, and be proud of the sky! ”

When Zhang Xian finished speaking, others may only think it is wonderful and speak uplifting, but only Wang Fu, the former god of war, has tears in his eyes, for decades, the god of war who has rolled out of the sea of blood in the corpse mountain, fought with the Tartars, and the lessons that were exchanged for the lives of thousands of soldiers, Wang Fu can't crack it, although Wang Fu has always been a firm main battle faction, and he is also the god of war with the most brilliant historical achievements, but Wang Fu understands better than anyone that the Great Song Dynasty can rule by crossing the river with the Tartars, which is already the limit of national military strength, with the current strength of the Great Song Dynasty, Drinking the Yellow River and returning to Kaifeng, maybe it's just a luxury idea that can only be had in a dream, I can't imagine that the young man in front of me can have such a big whimsy, can think of these ways to crack, if you really do what Zhang Xian said, why worry about the Tartar will not be destroyed, and the world will not be quiet.

Wang Fu turned his head, and a generation of iron men and war gods quietly wiped away a line of tears.