"Let's talk about the situation of the copycat soldiers and horses first!"

Chao Gai saw that everyone had arrived, so he didn't delay much time, and said directly.

At present, it is not only Xu Guanzhong and Xiao Jiasui who have just gone to the cottage, they are not familiar with the situation of the cottage, he has been out during this time, busy recruiting leaders and so on, and he is really not very clear about the specific development.

Hearing this, Lin Chong stood up, smiled at Chao Gai and said, "Brother, today's cottage soldiers and horses have undergone earth-shaking changes compared to before."

Lin Chong was the leader in charge of the military, so it was naturally up to him to report at this time.

"Now my soldiers and horses in Liangshan are divided into infantry army, horse army and water army according to the type of army. According to the rank, it is divided into the main army and the deputy army. On the basis of my brother's instructions, I made some slight changes: as soon as the new army went up the mountain, it was first assigned to the new barracks, and after the new army passed the examination, it was transferred to the deputy army, and the deputy army participated in the examination and selection of the regular army before entering the regular army camp."

Hearing this, Chao Gai nodded appreciatively. Lin Chong's approach is more refined and proper. is worthy of being the head of the forbidden army, and it is indeed a professional practice.

"Among them, the infantry army is the most, and the horse army and the navy army are relatively small. Once someone goes up the mountain, they will first be assigned to the new military camp of the infantry army for training, and then they will be assigned according to their ability, and if there are brothers suitable for the horse army and the navy, they will be transferred to the horse army and the navy system."

"Today's infantry army, the regular army alone, has exceeded 5,000; The deputy army has 12,000 men, and the current new army, including those that have not been assessed, has about 15,000 men. ”

"Five thousand?"

Hearing Lin Chong report this number, Chao Gai, Xu Guanzhong and Xiao Jiasui were all shocked, but the reactions of the three were different.

Xu Guanzhong and Xiao Jiasui glanced at each other, and they both saw the surprise in each other's eyes. Originally, they thought that with the momentum of Liangshanbo now, there must be a lot of people and horses, but they didn't expect that there were only 5,000 regular troops. Even, both of them had a strong question in their hearts, with such a small number of regular troops, how did Liang Shanbo attack the city of Qingzhou Mansion before?

But Chao Gai's reaction was diametrically opposite, but his eyes suddenly widened, and he looked at Lin Chong and said, "How can there be so many?" ”

Seeing this, everyone couldn't help but laugh dumbly. And Xu Guanzhong and Xiao Jiasui were even more hesitant, they really couldn't figure it out, with only 5,000 regular troops, Chao Gai would actually think it was too much? With Chao Gai's courage and courage, how can he be so "petty"?

Seeing the expressions of the two, Lin Chong immediately knew the hesitation in the hearts of Xu Guanzhong and Xiao Jiasui, and immediately explained with a smile: "The two brothers don't know, my Liangshan's main army is not the same as other forces. ”

"Previously, we did not separate the new army, but the new army was counted among the secondary army. Later, according to the actual needs, the elder brother of the king of heaven raised the standard of the army's assessment in a straight line, and the current deputy army's training intensity and requirements will definitely not be lower than the standard of the forbidden army. And the standard of the regular army, in the words of Brother Tianwang, is a real field army! ”

"Field Army?"

Obviously, Xu Guanzhong and Xiao Jiasui really feel a little new about this term. It was Xu Guanzhong, who traveled south and north, saw a lot of things, and had never heard the name of this field army.

Moreover, you don't have to think about it to know that with Chao Gai's person, it is obviously not groundless to propose the name of this brother.

"The origin of this field army is still proposed by the elder brother of the Heavenly King", Lin Chong then explained: "To put it simply, the standards of the field army in all aspects are not much higher than the standards of the deputy army, the requirements are higher, stricter, and more attention is paid to the quality of the soldiers. For example, the training intensity of the field army in peacetime is definitely more than twice that of the deputy army! ”

"More than twice the intensity of training?"

Even if he didn't know much about the specific training content of the Liangshanbo army, with Lin Chong, the head of the 800,000 forbidden army, in charge of the overall responsibility, how could it be worse. Besides, Lin Chong has said that the deputy army is the standard of the current forbidden army. Although the current overall combat effectiveness of the forbidden army is also good, it is actually caused by many system problems such as redundant soldiers and redundant officials, after all, the forbidden army is also an army stationed in Beijing, and there are still a lot of combat power.

And at present, the training intensity is more than twice as high, and the field army trained by this training, that is, the regular army, if it is against the forbidden army of the imperial court, isn't it like chopping melons and vegetables, like a bamboo?

In an instant, Xiao Jiasui and Xu Guanzhong couldn't help but think of a Great Song Dynasty that made everyone feel like a pillar - the Western Army, and then looked at Chao Gai in front of them with a shocked expression.

As if knowing what the two of them were thinking, Chao Gai smiled, looked at the two of them and said with a smile: "At present, this field army is still in the initial stage, and this field army will definitely have to fight long distances, rush operations, and continue to fight in the future." It must be able to fight tough battles and win battles. After all, the opponent we are waiting for is not a simple Song Dynasty forbidden army, and sooner or later we will have to compete with the steppe iron cavalry of the Khitan and Jurchen tribes. ”

"Even, not to mention the distance, as far as the nearness is concerned, it is not impossible to confront the Western Army. Since it is to be on par with the Western Army, then at least the quality of the army should be on par with the Western Army. If you simply ban the army, it is better to surrender early, so as not to waste the lives of these soldiers and brothers! ”

Even though they had thought of it before, but when they heard Chao Gai say this, Xiao Jiasui and Xu Guanzhong couldn't help but be taken aback.

They knew before that according to Chao Gai's ambition and Chao Gai's courage, it was impossible to go without a plan. But at this time, hearing that Chao Gai actually planned to build a field army comparable to the Western Army, such a strategic vision was really enviable. No wonder Chao Gai thinks that these 5,000 people are a bit much, it turns out that this standard is really not ordinarily high.

"Brother, younger brother has a saying, I don't know if to say it or not?" , Xiao Jiasui suddenly clenched his fists and said to Chao Gai.

"Brother Xian, don't you want to say that even if it is simply strict and strengthens training, there is an absolute gap between the field army of Liangshan and the Western Army?" , Chao Gai asked with a smile.

"Not bad", Xiao Jiasui nodded: "Simple military training can indeed strengthen the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, but, to put it bluntly, it is still a bit of a suspicion of talking on paper." The bravery of the Western Army was the result of fighting with real swords and guns on the battlefield. That kind of quality on the battlefield is the real combat power! ”

"That's right! Brother Xiao is really a person who knows the army! Sprinkle family admiration! ”

When Lu Zhishen heard this, he immediately smiled heartily: "It's not that you don't sprinkle your family to bury your own field army, what Brother Xiao said is indeed the truth." The western army in the northwest frontier is accustomed to seeing blood, but this is incomparable to our field army! ”

Hearing this, Chao Gai nodded thoughtfully: "What the two of you said is good, this is indeed the disadvantage of our waiting." It's just that now, the field army we are waiting for is still in the initial stage, and our colleagues in military training should also pay attention to the sharpening of courage and courage. With Master Lu here, you can adopt some of the practices in the Western Army, but you can only adopt them, and they will all be greeted, I only have one sentence, the standard of the field army can only be high, not low. Since we have set up a field army, we should have the appearance of a field army! As for the specific measures, we will discuss them in detail later."

"Obey my brother's orders!"

Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen immediately replied with their fists clasped. Lu Zhishen was born in the Western Army, and the field army had been established, so he naturally became the first leader of the infantry field army, in charge of the training and assessment of the field army.

"In addition, today's horse army has nearly 2,000 war horses, and there is still only a deputy army, and there is no main army. The Ma Army was organized into four provisional battalions, with the Bian Xiang brothers leading the first temporary battalion, the dragon slayer Sun An brothers leading the second battalion, the blue-faced beast Yang Zhi brothers leading the third battalion, and the thunderbolt Qin Ming brothers leading the four battalions. ”

In fact, the current training of the horse army cannot be regarded as fully qualified, because the training of the horse army requires at least two war horses for each horse army brother. Fortunately, most of the war horses we waited for were good horses from the north bought by the Duan Jingzhu brothers, and their endurance was extraordinary. But even so, we also control the rest time of the horses, and occasionally train under the horses in their leisure time. It is precisely because of this that at present, it is only a deputy army, and there has never been a regular army. ”

"Looks like horses are still a big problem!"

Hearing this, Chao Gai sighed. The status and role of the Ma army on the battlefield is undoubted, but the cost of the Ma army is also extremely huge. Although he has long set his sights on the Ma Army, it has not been long since he really started to build.

Moreover, Chao Gai also knew that Duan Jingzhu had not stopped much since he went up the mountain. That's it, plus various ways of buying, and now there are only more than 2,000 war horses in the cottage. This pace of development is a bit too slow.

"In the training of the horse army, horses are the first and most expensive level. In Khitan and other places, there are a lot of horses, but now the northland also strictly restricts the flow of horses into the Central Plains, and this problem is really not easy to solve! Xu Guanzhong also nodded.

Horses, especially war horses, were important strategic materials, and they were strictly controlled by the Great Song Dynasty, Western Xia, and Liao States.

"Brother Xu, based on what you see, can I trade salt for some horses?" , Chao Gai groaned, and then suddenly thought of something, looked at Xu Guanzhong and said.

"That's right!"

Xu Guanzhong suddenly clapped his hands and said happily: "It's really my brother's thoughtfulness. Although there are many horses in the Northland, there is little salt. In comparison, this salt is much more expensive than horse gold. In the past, the Northland exchanged horses for cloth, salt and other goods from the Central Plains. Now that we have the king salt, we can sit on the ground and raise the price, and knock him well! ”

"What Brother Xu means is that we are waiting for direct trade with the Liao royal family, will this be too risky?"

Wu Yongyan said with some hesitation. After all, if it is a direct trade with the Liao royal family, not to mention whether it will be fanfare, I am afraid that it will not be able to hide it at this time, and it will definitely reach the ears of the Zhao official family at that time, and it will attract the attention of the Great Song Dynasty.

"Don't worry, just like the Great Song Dynasty, the Liao State is not an iron bucket, the waves are turbulent in secret, and the open and secret battles are endless. As long as I find a buyer, I won't worry! ”