Twelfth year of Yonglu, November.

Yue Chugo, Toyama Castle.

After reaching an armistice agreement with Uesugi Kenshin, Li Xiao led the army back to Toyama Castle, rewarded him for his merits, and held a banquet to entertain the wealthy clans before disbanding the army.

At this time, heavy snow has fallen in Yuezhong, and winter has officially arrived.

Li Xiao placed the three major reserve units that suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Vietnam-China in this time in Toyama Castle to rest and spend the winter.

In this Vietnam-China battle, Li Xiao's three major reserves and Uesugi Kenshin's banner were clashed, and the casualties were generally more than 30 percent.

This casualty ratio, when replaced by the strength of ordinary wealthy clans, is basically between 5 and 10 percent, and it collapses.

And Li Xiao's standing even if he suffered such a huge price of casualties, he could still continue to fight again, which has to be said that Shima Katsumeng, Jimbo Nagaken, Kinoshita Koichiro, and Fujido Takatora were well-trained before.

Therefore, when the wealthy families in Vietnam saw Li Xiao's three standing combat forces, they were dumbfounded one by one, and they didn't even believe that there was such a strong army.

As a matter of fact, with the standing army, unlike the superiority of the peasants and soldiers, after a hard battle, if the unit is still in existence, rests and recuperates, the battle will be on a higher level than before.

Throughout the history of the world, the iron army has gone through countless bloody battles and fought out, and it has become stronger and stronger.

As long as the backbone of the army can be preserved, and after the number of soldiers is expanded, they can be trained, and their strength can definitely be raised to a higher level.

The only bad thing is that the establishment is destroyed, the fire is gone, and nothing exists.

Taking advantage of this winter, Li Xiao not only rested, but also expanded the three standing teams into five reserve teams.

First of all, Li Xiao separated the cavalry team of Qi Benbei, followed the example of the Takeda Army, and set up a reserve composed of independent cavalry.

This reserve is still led by Masahiro Tsuchiya, who is only 16 years old and has become the general of the reserve alongside Koichiro Kinoshita.

This newly formed horseback riding equipment will be all inserted with the sun and moon double pattern of the flag fingers, directly mobilized by Li Xiao, so it is also named the sun and moon equipment.

The newly formed Sun and Moon Reserve was expanded from the original 200 cavalry to 500 cavalry, becoming Li Xiao's fourth reserve team.

The fifth reserve is a large reserve led by Rui Costa.

Since the agreement was reached with Torres and Floys, the Portuguese missionaries had already opened churches in Vietnam and Central to accommodate believers.

After receiving Li Xiao's strong support, the Portuguese happily gave Li Xiao all kinds of assistance, including the right to purchase iron cannons and large cylinders.

Although Li Xiao has the ability to produce large cylinders, because of his low technical ability, he can only build some mortars at most, and the direct-fire cannon has reached the sky by the time the six-pounder cannon reaches the sky.

The Portuguese were different, if it weren't for the Japanese terrain restrictions, Li Xiao asked the Portuguese to buy an eighteen-pounder gun, and they would have agreed.

However, Li Xiao thought about it for a while, as long as it was not an attack on Odawara City, only a nine-pounder cannon or a twelve-pounder cannon would be enough to sweep all cities in Japan in the general sense.

What's more important is the price of the eighteen-pound cannon, which is too bad for Li Xiao, and the Portuguese dare to call it out.

So Li Xiao only bought one twelve-pounder cannon and five nine-pounder cannons from the Portuguese.

As for the rest of the six-pounder guns, they will continue to be produced by Rui Costa's half-hung factory, anyway, the local six-pounder guns, except for the easy exploding, there are no big shortcomings.

Because of the increase in the number of large tubes, it is not suitable for the large cylinder team to be used as a subordinate flag.

In fact, it has been proved that Japan's reserve system during the Warring States period is not suitable for the needs of future wars.

A reserve of 300 to 500 men was well equipped, including a cavalry team, an archery team, an iron artillery team, and a spear foot light team, so it was good to deal with skirmishes, but when it came to large-scale joint battles, it was not taken.

That's why Oda Nobunaga specially drew out the iron artillery corps attached to each reserve unit in the Battle of Nagashino, and formed an iron artillery corps of 3,000 people to bombard the charging Takeda Army head-on, and finally achieved great success.

And with the improvement of Li Xiao's strength, it is no longer a hundred-person level, a thousand-person level, similar to a small fight with the township chief's armed fight, and it will be commonplace for Li Xiao to deal with such a joint battle of more than 10,000 people in the future.

Therefore, Li Xiao must form an independent large barrel and ride for large-scale battles.

At that time, the Swedish army of Gustav II had not only a small-caliber artillery corps belonging to the company, but also a large and medium-caliber artillery corps directly under the team, and later created an independent artillery regiment, which was a pioneering achievement in military history. …,

After the expansion, the large cylinder team was still led by Rui Costa, with a total number of 350 people.

After the two new reserve teams were formed, Li Xiao was also in the original three reserve teams, and Li Xiao was also reorganized.

First of all, in the sequence of the Western Phalanx, Li Xiao made adjustments.

Originally, there was a phalanx in the west, and the standard sequence was 240 people, of which 80 people were light with iron cannons, 160 people with light guns, and finally the iron cannons were lightly distributed on both wings, arranged into a 30*8 phalanx to meet the enemy.

Li Xiao's adjustment did not adjust the number of people, but increased the number of iron artillery ashigaru in the western phalanx, and reduced the number of gunashigaru.

After the adjustment, the iron cannon ashigaru is 96 people, and the spear ashigaru is 144 people, which is still a phalanx of 240 people.

That is to say, two columns of iron cannons have been added, and two columns of guns have been reduced, and the battle is still in a 30*8 phalanx to meet the enemy, but the iron cannons in the first row of the front are ashigaru from the original ten people, increased to twelve.

The iron cannon fire on such a front is stronger.

This is also the result of Li Xiao's inspection of many joint battles, in fact, in history, with the maturity of the Western phalanx, and the more popular arquebus.

In the Spanish army, the ratio of musketeers to pikemen was also constantly adjusted, and the ratio of musketeers to pikemen in the initial phalanx was changed from one to two, to one to one, and finally reached the ratio of two musketeers and one pikeman.

This ratio also means that the role of the musket is becoming more and more important, gradually replacing the role of the pikeman.

Li Xiao's iron cannons are now bought from the Portuguese, and unlike the big barrels, the arquebuses sold in Portugal are still relatively cheap.

There is no way, the rise of Japan's three major iron cannon production centers, by the competition of Japanese local enterprises, the Portuguese businessmen who wanted to cross the ocean to sell iron cannons to Japan, and make a lot of money, have suffered a big loss.

That's why he sold all these iron cannons to Li Xiao at a slightly lower price than the market price.

This made Li Xiao make a lot of money, and he had a large number of iron cannons to expand his armament.

In fact, in this era, the production of iron cannons in Japan has greatly matured and spread, and there are also war-torn wars, and the daimyo who are eager to innovate everything attach importance to iron cannons.

Although the quality of the iron cannons produced by the three major iron cannon production centers in Japan is not as good as that of European arquebuses, the number of them is large, and the cost is decreasing.

The proportion of iron artillery in the military is increasing day by day, and it is still a luxury compared to the era of the Battle of Kawanakajima eight years ago.

At present, iron artillery is widely used in the Takeda, Uesugi, Oda, and Hojo armies, and the proportion of iron artillery in each reserve has reached 10% on average.

A variety of novel iron cannon tactics are also constantly being applied.

That is, the era when Li Xiao wanted to sweep everything with iron cannons like in the past is gradually passing.

And Li Xiao also expanded the three major reserves, anyway, he now occupies Yuechu, and grasps the key points of the land passage of the Hokuriku Province, as well as the sea trade of Iwase Minato in the Mitsu Seven Minato.

Now that he has new financial support, he is giving him the confidence to expand his army.

Li Xiao is also about to build a new army with a new look and add more to the battle with Uesugi Kenshin in Vietnam next year.

This is Li Xiao paying such a big price, and he also moved the great god Ashikaga Yoshiaki, in exchange for his opportunity to make a comeback in Vietnam this year.

If it is changed to next year, the situation will be even more sinister for Li Xiao.

The Shiina family has been disabled by the Uesugi family, even if it is not disabled, it is also scared by Uesugi Kenshin, if Kenshin fights in Vietnam again next year, the Shiina family can remain neutral and not fall to a rake, which is a blessing for Li Xiao.

As soon as the assistance of the Shiina family is gone, if Li Xiao is still the current military strength, Uesugi Kenshin can easily pull up the entire Echichu.

Li Xiao also expanded the Shengang, Snake Tail, and Qi Benbei.

First of all, in Kamioka, two units of the Western Phalanx were set up, each with 480 people, while Banner Benbei set up three units, with 720 people.

Kamioka and Snake Tail were both expanded into a reserve of 800 people.

After subtracting the cavalry team and the large cylinder team, the number of people dropped to 1,250 people.

Just when Li Xiao was recruiting new soldiers in Toyama Castle, he received a handwritten letter from Kai Takeda Shingen and Takeda Katsuyori.

The meaning of Takeda Shin Xuanxin is concise and concise, meaning that at present, Jiayue is harmonious, and there is no war in Hokuriku for the time being, so Li Xiaoqian returned to Jiafei for a trip. …,

As for why Li Xiao was allowed to return to Kai, although Takeda Shingen did not say, Takeda Katsurishi Shinjo had already explained the reason.

After Li Xiao covered Takeda Katsuyori's letter, he looked at the flying snow outside the window of the castle tower, and his thoughts were full of thoughts for a while.

History finally took a turn here under Li Xiao's careful consideration.

As mentioned in Takeda Katsuyori's letter, Takeda Shingen recalled all the generals and retainers of the Takeda Army this time to Kai, and even Li Xiao, who was stationed in Echichu, Masanobu Takasaka of Kita Shinano, and Masathiro Naito of Nishiueno, were no exception.

The intention was to let Katsuyori change the Miao character from Suwa back to Takeda in front of all the important ministers of the Takeda family, and officially confirm Takeda Katsuyori as the successor of the Takeda family.

In the future, after Shingen relinquished the position of the governor of the family, Takeda Katsuyori will inherit the twentieth generation of the Kai Takeda clan and officially take charge of the Takeda family, instead of being inherited by Takeda Katsuyori's son Takeda Nobukatsu in history, and Takeda Katsuyori is only in charge of the affairs of the Takeda family as a successor to Shinkatsu.

This time, Takeda Katsuyori can be said to be justifiable, inheriting the family governor's unification.

It's like in the original history, Takeda Katsuyori did not become the crown prince, and finally took charge of the Takeda family as the regent.

And this time, Takeda Shingen recognized the identity of Takeda Katsuyori's son-in-law, which is to confirm that Takeda Katsuyori does not have to go through his son in the future, but will be in charge of the Takeda family by himself.

In this way, Takeda Katsuyori will go further than in history, not only will the name be justified, but also the dominance of the Takeda family will be greatly increased.

This is Li Xiao's many years of hard work, he reversed the historical success, and helped Takeda Katsuyori succeed in ascending to the throne, so in the letter, Takeda Katsuyori is not only excited about the ideal becoming a reality, but also reveals his incomparable gratitude to Li Xiao......,