Chapter 37: Encountering a nobleman on the road

"What is Uncle Jiang referring to?"

An Yi's current regimental training envoy is unceremoniously poor, even if someone is willing to give him two tassel guns now, he will gladly accept it.

"Come with me, I'll show you."

Jiang Yun didn't answer Anyi, but just motioned for him to go out with him. The two walked out of Jiang Yun's mansion, led the horses, and rode towards the outside of Chengdu County.

After coming out of the city gate and riding for about three or five miles, he came to a camp. The camp was very simple, the gate was a patchwork of several rough wooden planks, and three large storehouse-like houses stood in the camp, and the ground was scattered with weeds all around.

Seeing Jiang Yun and An Yi coming, an old man came out of nowhere, walked forward quickly, bowed down and said, "I don't know that Jiang is coming, the little old man has not prepared ......"

Jiang Yun waved his hand, interrupted the old man's words, and said with a smile: "The old wine officer doesn't have to prepare, go and open the camp gate, I will be named to deal with some miscellaneous items in the camp storehouse." ”

Lao Suo bowed his hand, turned around, and pushed open one of the two wooden doors with great difficulty, dodged aside, and invited Jiang Yunhe to enter.

Jiang Yun walked in with comfort, and said to him: "This was originally the forage field of the garrison generals of Chengdu Prefecture, but it was abandoned later, so it was given to our battalion as a warehouse. As a result, after our battalion was ordered to change the guard, no one cared about it here, leaving only an old sergeant, who had stayed here for nearly 20 years. ”

An Yi looked at the three big houses in front of him with locked doors, and asked Jiang Yun with some doubts: "Then what are stacked in these barracks now?" ”

"Firearms!"

"Firearms?"

Jiang Yun smiled and said to An Yi with a greeting face: "Don't be surprised, these three warehouses are all filled with firearms, but most of them have been damaged. ”

An Yi was still a little puzzled, and he asked: "Uncle Jiang, the imperial court should have some control over firearms, even if they are scrapped, they can't be discarded at will, right?" ”

According to the system of firearms in the Great Xia Dynasty, damaged and discarded firearms should be collected to the local ordnance treasury, which will reissue new firearms to the corresponding army according to the quantity.

"Don't be a good nephew, almost everyone in the elite army of the Liao people has firearms, isn't this the biggest irony of the imperial court's firearms management system?" Jiang Yun chuckled lightly, he knew very well in his heart that the so-called imperial court had long been forgotten by these people. The cost of firearms is high, and the oil and water in them are naturally expensive, and they are all recycled in accordance with the regulations.

An Yi also had a little helplessness in listening to Jiang Yun's words, after all, in this smoky Great Xia officialdom, if you follow the etiquette everywhere, you will become an outlier.

As Lao Suo opened the door of the storehouse, all kinds of firearms, large and small, had been piled up, some of them were incomplete, and some of them still looked intact.

An Yi turned over and dismounted and walked into the warehouse, picked up a firearm under his feet and looked at it, the barrel of the gun had been blackened, and it seemed that it had been used for a long time. He picked up his gun and took aim in front of him, the barrel of his gun still in good condition. He turned around and asked Jiang Yun with the gun, "Uncle Jiang, this gun can't be considered damaged, it looks like it can still be used." ”

Jiang Yun said with a wry smile: "When there was a firearms battalion in Chengdu Mansion before, I am afraid that they were the ones with the smallest number of people, because the maintenance cost was too high. So much so that later the command had to order the firearms battalion to be dispersed into small flags and distributed among the battalions. Now, except for the standing firearms battalion in the Zhili area, other places are basically extinct. Take our Sichuan as an example, the small firearms banners of the prefectures and counties I came into contact with are just to scare the bandits and the people, and the basic tactics are probably still stuck in the Gaozu era one or two hundred years ago. ”

Jiang Yun said this, and An Yi agreed very much. First of all, the existing firearms cannot absolutely suppress the cavalry that comes and goes, and secondly, the high cost also limits the scale of firearms battalions in various prefectures and counties and border towns, which are also two more important factors that lead to the lack of progress in the development of firearms and their tactics. I'm afraid that the mountains of firearms in front of me were discarded here for these two reasons.

However, when he heard Jiang Yun say this, he seemed to feel that this Jiang Yun seemed to have the same unusual thoughts about firearms as Jin Mingyin, so he asked with great interest: "Uncle Jiang, listening to you, you seem to have studied firearms and their tactics?" ”

Jiang Yun smiled and waved his hand, and said modestly: "Where can I talk about any research, but I am more interested in firearms, relying on what I have seen and heard in the army over the years and a few related books that I have observed, and I am just showing off in front of my virtuous nephew." ”

An Yi saw that he was so humble, so he didn't continue, but silently wrote down this Jiang general in his heart. Then he walked out of the warehouse and looked at the other two barracks, which were all like this, so he pointed to these three "firearms mountains" and said to Jiang Yun: "Uncle Jiang, I want all these firearms, how about I send someone to get them tomorrow?" ”

Jiang Yun nodded, "I'll make a deal with the old wine officer, and then you can arrange someone to pick it up." It's just that I can't support you in terms of food, it's really out of my strength, and I hope that my nephew won't be weird. ”

An Yi arched his hand at him, with an expression that Jiang Yun didn't care, and said to him: "Uncle Jiang said something, I am already grateful to me for these firearms." ”

"The virtuous nephew is now also regarded as a minister in the same palace as me, I was blessed by the old prefect at the beginning, and now that you have just arrived in Chengdu, what can I help with in the army, although it is mentioned."

After hearing this, An Yi thanked him again, and then Jiang Yun said goodbye to him at the gate of the camp after explaining to the old wine officer who guarded the barracks.

It was already close to dusk when he came out of this camp, although Jiang Yun gave him a small surprise here, but in general, he still didn't get any food, firearms are just a means to strengthen his combat power now, and the eating and drinking of more than two hundred people is the most important, thinking of this, he also sighed heavily.

"The one in front is Huayang County?"

A strong shout came from the front, stopping the comfort who was about to fight back to Songling Village, he raised his head and heard the sound, a young general in white came to meet him, with a white dragon horse under his crotch and silver leaf armor on his body, followed by three or five cavalrymen in armor, very majestic.

"Are you...... General Zhao! ”

An Yi recognized the white-clothed young general in front of him, it was Zhao Lingfeng, a thousand households in the Fenwei camp sent by the King of Shu to help him that night when he was besieged and killed by Taketori in the Long'an Forest Farm.

Zhao Lingfeng stepped forward on his horse, arched his hand towards the comfort of the horse and said: "I haven't seen you for a long time, I heard that Your Excellency is now stationed in Chengdu County as a regimental training envoy, I wanted to go to visit you in time, but I didn't expect to meet here." ”

The old people were also very happy to see each other, and bowed their hands and saluted: "General Zhao is polite, he is new to the city, and he should be going down to visit the general." If the general hadn't appeared in time that night, I'm afraid An would have been killed by the traitor at that time. ”

Zhao Lingfeng said modestly: "Where is it, it is Your Excellency who has the courage to fight the thieves, and he is just acting on orders." When he saw An Yi walking alone outside the city, he asked heartily, "I wonder why the regimental envoy appeared here alone?" ”

An Yi talked to Zhao Lingfeng about the conflict between Qianyunlou and Zeng Ziren, as well as the intention to borrow food in the afternoon, but Jiang Yun's appearance was automatically omitted by him. He smiled bitterly: "When I first arrived in Chengdu, I offended two of the 'three divisions' of Sichuan Province, Brother Zhao, did you say that I was okay?" ”

After listening to him, Zhao Lingfeng also frowned with deep sympathy, and said: "This Zeng Ziren is a 'living Yama', relying on his own commanding father, causing trouble everywhere, and he is famous in Chengdu. Then he muttered for a moment, and then asked An Yi, "How much is the shortage of food on my brother's side?" ”

Hearing him ask, An Yi's eyes lit up, this Zhao Lingfeng and himself are only a few sides of each other, isn't he planning to lend himself food? He said admittedly: "Don't hide it from Brother Zhao, only the rest of the month's food and salary can be supported." ”

"In this way, I will help you with the problem of grain and grass, and I will give you some of the new grain that has just arrived in the afternoon in my camp as a favor. According to your two or three hundred people, it is enough for you to support half a year, but I am afraid that you will have to solve the problem of money by yourself. ”

is simply a noble man who sends charcoal in the snow, if it weren't for the fact that under this large court, he would have the heart to kneel down for him, and he was ecstatic and thanked Zhao Lingfeng: "It's enough, my brother really solved my urgent need like timely rain." However, after the surprise, he thought of another question and asked Zhao Lingfeng, "Brother Zhao's support for my grain and grass, will he offend others and implicate himself?" ”

Zhao Lingfeng laughed after hearing this, and said: "Brother, rest assured, I have more than 12,000 people with armor in the Fenwei Battalion, and it is not a big deal to support your two or three hundred people's food and grass." As for the others, I only know the Commander of the Guard and the Commander-in-Chief, but I don't know the Commander of Everything. ”

The Fenwei Battalion is under the command of the Chengdu Left Guard Commander, under the command of the Sichuan General Army, and is not subordinate to the Green Battalion, so naturally it does not have to be under the management of the Sichuan Metropolitan Command Envoy. Despite this, An Yi still felt very grateful in his heart, after all, he and Zhao Lingfeng were not very familiar, and they had no intersections, and he would remember this favor if he could act so righteously.

Thinking of this, An Yi turned over and dismounted, and made a deep bow to Zhao Lingfeng to show his gratitude.

Zhao Lingfeng hurriedly dismounted and held up An Yi's arms, signaling that he didn't have to do this, "Brother, go back to the camp with me first, I will send a few people to carry grain and grass, and you can take them to your camp." ”

"Good!"

After that, Zhao Lingfeng took An Yi and a few cavalrymen behind him and headed towards the Pegasus of the Fenwei Battalion.