Itself, just came to Miaojiazhuang to have a look, the purpose was not to see Miaojiazhuang anything, it was for 4,000 sets of step armor, but after seeing the longbow and the fortress, Han Qi didn't care about any step armor, compared with epoch-making weapons, step armor is actually not that important.

In the Liao and Song dynasties, in fact, the four major powers all had a strong cavalry team, the Tielin Army of the Liao State, the Iron Harrier of the Western Xia, the Tiefutu of the Jin State later, and the Jingsai Army in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty.

These are all heavy cavalry, in the era of cold weapons, the most perfect army, taking into account mobility and protection, in the era of cold weapons, heavy cavalry is like a tank, one or two, play a role not only, once it is thousands, in the field, no one force, can compare with this.

It's a pity that in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, competing with the Liao State, accompanied by Taizu Taizong's, the most powerful Jingsai army, was only thirty or forty years old, and it disappeared.

That's right, during the Northern Song Dynasty, to be exact, in the Northern Zhou Dynasty of the former dynasty, because the Northern Zhou Dynasty was still weak, so horses were not a problem, and on this basis, a powerful Jingsai army was laid for the Northern Song Dynasty, but when the Zhao and Song dynasties dominated the world, whether it was the Southern Tang Dynasty, or other countries, the five dynasties and ten kingdoms were unified because of the Northern Song Dynasty, and when he became a powerful unified country, the surrounding countries would inevitably be threatened.

The Liao State is like this, itself, doing it in the north, laughing at the Central Plains, now, the Northern Song Dynasty has unified the Central Plains, and even has a huge threat to him, if it is not for the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun that he once obtained, he has the advantage of geography and military strength, maybe it will be over.

In the early days of the Liao and Song Dynasty disputes, there were mutual victories and defeats, but sitting on the Central Plains, the slowly growing power made the Liao State very jealous.

Later, after the Liao and Song Dynasty in the Yuanyuan Alliance, there was no war for decades, some were just threats, with a single covenant, is it possible, there is not enough national strength as a backing, how is it possible, backward will be beaten, in later generations is a wise saying, in the feudal society of cold weapons, under the law of the dark jungle, it is also inevitable.

From the time of Taizong, it was already very difficult to obtain horses from the Liao State and other nomadic peoples, and by the time of the Western Xia rebellion and the rebellion of Tibet, it can be said that the entire place where horses were produced in East Asia was completely cut off.

Without horses, this is a nightmare for the army, horses not only represent strong mobility, but also represent strong strength, cavalry for the infantry's natural restraint, so that the infantry can not resist at all.

It was in this situation that the infantry armor appeared, selecting sturdy men and using strict training to make them wear such heavy equipment as the starting armor for resisting the heavy cavalry.

The heavy infantry formed a position, in the positional battle, can indeed fight with the heavy cavalry, which is the most gratifying and proud place in the Northern Song Dynasty, but the success is also Xiao He, defeat is also Xiao He, the heavy infantry overemphasizes the protective power, and ignores the attack power and mobility.

Big but not dead, often in the initial battle, generally a small victory, but after the victory, can not expand the results, even if the positional battle wins, the opponent has a horse, turn around and run, can not catch up at all, once the heavy infantry has any flaws, caught by the cavalry, under a victory, all the previous results, are in vain.

As a privy deputy envoy, Han Qi knew this very well, but on the premise that he could not obtain war horses on a large scale, he could only do this, and he must have a backbone to resist the soldiers of the surrounding countries.

But the longbowman is different, although his mobility ability is not strong, but if he cooperates with the horse, he can still play a role, and use the horse to maneuver, this has been considered, the Northern Song Dynasty is not less horses, but the horse breed is too weak, when the horse and the transport horse are okay, when the war horse, especially the war horse of the heavy cavalry, it is not good at all.

The equipment of the heavy infantry is heavier than that of the heavy cavalry, and it is impossible to get on the horse at all, and if he really takes off his armor, just the process of wearing armor is enough to make him die countless times.

But the longbowman is different, his whole body is very lightly equipped, he can move quickly after getting on the horse, and at the same time he is extremely aggressive, as long as there is a certain amount of protection, such as cavalry and infantry, give them the area to shoot at, with the terrible of the longbowman, he can project tons of damage.

This is the advantage, this is Han Qi's understanding of the longbowman, the longbowman is much stronger than the heavy infantry in terms of mobility and attack power alone.

The fortress is another aspect, the protection has been done to the extreme, so that the ability of the Northern Song Dynasty to defend the city has been brought into full play, and even the cost is so close to the people, so emotional.

For this reason, Han Qi even lived in Miaojiazhuang for 2 days, and learned about the longbow and the fortress in detail, among them, there was also Zhao Xin's use of the Spanish phalanx and the use of the battle formation in later generations, giving the longbow team some imagination, simple, and beyond the military cognition of this era, which made Han Qi fascinated.

However, after all, Han Qi had to take care of the rebellion in Baozhou, he could not be in Miaojiazhuang for a long time, after learning about the longbow and the fortress, he finally saw the main purpose of coming over this time, 4,000 sets of step armor in the afternoon of the next day.

Looking at the flickering light and packed according to the maintenance method of the forbidden army, Han Qi was very satisfied, he didn't even disassemble it, under professional maintenance, there could be no problem, 4,000 sets, for the next siege operation, it is not a small role.

got the step man A and loaded the car in Miaojiazhuang, Han Qi had no need to stay anymore.

Unexpectedly, when he came to Miaojiazhuang, there was such a harvest, when he left, he was given 300 longbows, and a long team of archers, of course, the longbowmen just agreed, and then they would follow the newly made longbow, set off together.

Han Qi brought enough troops, but there were not many archers, 500 longbowmen, in absolute safety, could exert the power of 5000, which was very helpful to Han Qi.

The 4,000 sets of infantry armor taken away can organize 4,000 heavy infantry infantry, in this case, the other teams must be tilted, then the archers are the best, and those who can be selected into the archers have enough strength, and they can also fight when they wear the infantry armor.

It's just that in the siege, the archers are the top, and the suppression of the archers will bring huge casualties, and the emergence of the longbow team has changed this problem, to a certain extent, Han Qi also hopes to expand from the 500 longbow team, and draw 1000-1500 people from the forbidden army to form a longbow team together, and really feel the power of the longbow team in the siege battle.

Defending a city is defending a city, and attacking a city is a siege, and besides, can the effect seen in the exercise really be shown on the battlefield, even if it is possible, it will have a huge impact.

As for the problem of switching from short bow to long bow, in Han Qi's opinion, it is not a problem at all, the forbidden army of the 12 armies he selected is all first-line forbidden army, that is to say, it is elite, they are all elite archers, as long as they are trained a little, they can use longbows, but there are so many longbows.

In fact, there are still 300 longbows in abundance, that is to say, 1,500 archers are selected to form an archery team with the longbow team, only 1,200 are missing, and they will go all out in Miaojiazhuang, plus some craftsmen supported by Han Qi, it can be completed in a maximum of 10 days.

Han Qi also needs to wait for Ouyang Xiu, 10 days is acceptable, he just brought back, 300 longbows and 20 longbow instructors, and the rest will wait until 10 days later, follow the longbow team and the newly built longbow, and set off together.

Before leaving, Sun Ji also received an instruction from Zhao Xin, he pondered for a while, and finally explained it to Han Qihe.

This is a gift from Zhao Xin to Han Qi, that is, the method of breaking through Baozhou City.

The reason why Han Qi did not attack and was waiting for Ouyang Xiu was not that he wanted to delay the fighter, the key was that the siege cost was huge, if Ouyang Xiu could persuade the rebels to surrender, it would be a great joy and large-scale casualties were avoided, which was acceptable to Han Qi and the forbidden army.

However, there is one thing that must be considered, if Ouyang Xiu can't convince the rebels, then they will almost certainly attack, this possibility is not small at all, and it is very large.

Baozhou is the capital city, is located in the Liao-Song border of an important town, look at the situation of the rebels, must be defended, trapped beast fight, they are almost impossible to escape, under the cauldron and sinking the boat, how much harm will be caused.

The stubborn army, to break through, needs at least one to one casualties, which will make the number of casualties of the forbidden army reach an alarming level, the most important thing is that this is the best time, if the proportion of casualties is larger, or even say, after one or two mistakes, the rebels seize the opportunity and have an advantage.

This is not impossible, it is even very likely, Wei Gui's performance all the time has also proved that even if his official position is not high, he has a very good set of skills in leading troops to fight, which Han Qi also recognizes.

Even if Han Qi is undefeated, as long as he captures Baozhou in a short time, the problem will be big.

This is the Liao-Song border, although it has been controlled, it has not been known by the Liao side for the time being, but this is a huge weakness, as long as it lasts a little, the Liao State will always find it, once it attracts the attack of the Liao State, it is not a good thing for this side, it can be said unceremoniously, what kind of consequences will it eventually cause, it is really immeasurable.

Whether it is itself or on the basis of the Northern Song Dynasty, we must end this rebellion as much as possible, and the sooner the better.

However, any siege city, as long as there are no internal problems, it is impossible to conquer it in a short time, especially on the premise that Wei Gui has already prepared.

Turning the impossible into possible, it is the magic of the traverser, Zhao Xin's strategy to let Sun Ji hand over is a quick attack strategy, for this era, even the era of cold weapons, can not solve the problem, Zhao Xin has just mastered a method that can quickly attack the city.