"Dear Lord Cheshire,

Military life was a little better than I had imagined. I'm used to life in Daisu. Thank you for the cotton clothes you sent to the soldiers of Daizhou. Everybody says it's very helpful. I also drank the new tea you brought, and I felt extremely warm in the cold winter. Everything is fine here, and I have not encountered any other wars except for the Khitan surprise attack I encountered when I first arrived. Don't read peace.

In addition, Yuan Jing said hello to his sister, so that Xiaohua did not have to worry about his brother. Yuan Jing is now being practiced by Uncle Xin and Yan Zhao every day, and his progress is extremely fast. I believe that in the near future, he will definitely become a leader in his own right.

I wish you peace, health, and prosperity.

Zhao Weiji from the Northland"

……

Unknowingly, Zhao Weiji has been living in Daizhou for more than two months. He was already basically familiar with the things in the army, and together with Yang Yanzhao, he became the general of the town guarding Daizhou. Yang Ye is more often in Yanmen Pass, and Daizhou City is basically held by Yang Yanzhao and Zhao Weiji.

Li Er was appreciated by Yang Yanzhao because of his previous performance. accepted Yang Yanzhao and Zhao Xin's rotational training every day, and basically took off a layer of skin. also made Zhao Weiji appreciate that there was also Spartan-style training in the East. But Li Er, who has basically supported all these trainings, has also made rapid progress, and his martial arts are no less than ordinary generals, but he still lacks some experience.

In addition, since Li Er has already begun to get ahead, he can't call Li Er so Er's name. Zhao Weiji named him Jiguang, the character Yuanjing. They are all taken from the name and words of Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general in the Ming Dynasty, hoping that he can sweep away Yidi like Qi Jiguang.

There is also due to the excavation of cotton products, Zhao Guangyi was crowned a prosperous Mingjun, auspicious and blessed. Zhao Guangyi also got off the donkey and began the promotion of cotton. Zhao Weiji, who learned of this, naturally did not let go of Zhao Guangyi, and immediately went to ask him for the first batch of cotton clothes. Considering the important surnames of Daizhou and Yanmen Pass, Zhao Guangyi did not shirk. So the soldiers here became the first beneficiaries of the cotton clothes.

Zhao Weiji, who gradually adapted to life in the army, also began to discover the problems existing in the army of the Song Dynasty.

First of all, starting from the Song Dynasty, Chinese soldiers began to change from amateur to professional. Originally, except for a small number of border guards, the soldiers of the Central Plains Dynasty were generally amateur soldiers who were half peasants and half army, working as farmers in peacetime, training in their spare time, and serving as soldiers in wartime. Since the Song Dynasty, once they were recruited into the army, they became professional soldiers, staying in the barracks for training in peacetime and participating in wartime. He is no longer engaged in farming, and is all supported by the state.

However, there are two major problems in this professional army: First, there are three religions and nine streams of everything. Later, there was a saying in the Song Dynasty called "Tree Recruitment Banner, Free Food, People. The army became a tool for disaster relief, and in the event of a famine, the imperial court recruited troops to prevent the peasants from revolting in a desperate situation. Although the current army has not yet reached that point, the complexity of the military source is beginning to appear.

Second, it seems that these generals of the Song Dynasty have not adapted to the changes brought about by the professional army, and they have no effective training methods. There are many ancient military books, but most of them are in the sense of strategy and tactics, and there is really not much mention of specific training. These generals have mastered the method of training the army in a short time, but they have not yet adapted to the professional soldier for a long time.

Secondly, starting from Song Taizong, the army implemented a change of military law, with the forbidden army stationed in Beijing and other counties, rotating inside and outside, and regularly returning to the Beijing division. According to the distance and proximity, the garrison troops in Jingdong, Jingxi, Hebei, Hedong, Shaanxi, Jiangnan, Huainan, Liangzhejiang, Jinghu, Chuanxia, and Guangdong were rotated for a period of three years for a period of one to three years. Soldiers stationed in remote areas are rotated for a period of six months. The garrison army was named as a garrison, a garrison, and a grain service.

Most of them are sent to inland prefectures and prefectures, which are under the jurisdiction of the local governors and prefects, and bear the surnames of the local security forces dispatched by the imperial court. The forbidden army that was sent to the border area was stationed, and it had the surname of the border guard sent by the imperial court to the border area. During the period of the garrison and berthing of the forbidden troops, their families are not allowed to accompany them, and they may return to their original places at the end of the period.

In this way, the normal conduct of training and command has been completely disrupted, and the training will always have to be started from scratch, and the officers will never be able to understand the soldiers.

Finally, the Song Dynasty was dominated by infantry, and infantry fighting cavalry was always beaten.

After understanding this, Zhao Weiji and the generals of the Yang family had a discussion, and the result was that as long as there was a more powerful law, everything would be in vain. However, since the law was promulgated by Taizu, it is impossible to abolish it for the time being. So their focus was on how to improve the combat effectiveness of the army in a short period of time.

On this day, Zhao Weiji asked Yang Yanzhao: "What is the best way for infantry to fight cavalry?" ”

"Generally speaking, it is difficult for infantry to fight against cavalry, but if you can use a large number of archers to snipe at a distance, you can slow down the speed of cavalry charge, so as to help infantry resist cavalry."

"However, it is difficult for archers to achieve a large number of long-range snipers nowadays."

"What about crossbowmen?"

"Crossbowmen have a problem with reload gaps."

"Okay, I see, I already have a way to improve the combat effectiveness of the army in a short time."

After going back, Zhao Weiji spent seven days developing a new Yuanrong crossbow. The Yuanrong crossbow is also commonly known as the Zhuge crossbow. But one of the biggest problems with the Zhuge repeater in this era is that the range is too short and the force is too light.

Zhao Weiji relied on his knowledge of modern physics to improve this repeater, tripling its range and tripling its power. But one of the drawbacks of this crossbow is that it doesn't reload together and is much slower.

In order to improve this, Zhao Weiji introduced the three-stage shooting method to Yang Ye. This is a tactic invented in the later era of pre-loading smoothbore guns to compensate for the slow reloading speed.

The crossbow units were divided into three groups, the first group fired the second group, and prepared the third assembly shell. Through such rotations, the lack of slow reloading is compensated.

After Yang Ye tested the new repeater, he praised it greatly. But another problem arose, and the production of crossbow machines was too slow.

In this regard, Zhao Weiji proposed the standardization of assembly line production methods and parts. In fact, as early as the time of Qin Shi Huang, there was a method of assembly line production, and this is how terracotta warriors and horses were produced. Combined with the standardized production method of parts, the production efficiency of the crossbow machine has been greatly improved.

A month later, Daizhou had organized a crossbow force of 12,000 men.

"I don't know how effective the new type of troops is." Yang Yanzhao sighed.

"This new type of crossbow unit will be effective on the battlefield, but this is not a way to fight cavalry after all," Zhao Weiji said. He knew very clearly that the cavalry in the Cold Weapon Era had always been an almost invincible combat unit. The role of cavalry even lasted until the beginning of the era of hot weapons, knowing the production of heavy machine guns, cavalry officially withdrew from the stage of history.

At this time, the herald brought Yang Ye's order, asking to go to Yanmen Pass for a meeting, as if a Khitan army was advancing outside the pass.

"Everybody's here. We received reports that a Khitan cavalry of about 20,000 men was advancing through the pass. I'm ready to test the power of the new troops. What do you think? Yang Ye, who was sitting in the main seat, said.

"I think it's fine." Yang Yanzhao answered. "But it's better to ask the county prince of Anding, after all, this army was almost formed by him."

"What do you think of Anding Jungong?" Yang Ye turned to Zhao Weiji and asked.

Zhao Weiji thought for a moment and said, "Of course, it's no problem for the new troops to fight, but I need the cooperation of other troops. ”

"It's no problem to cooperate, the county lord, please." Yang Yanping, the big man next to him, said.

"I need five thousand infantry, centered to fend off the Khitan cavalry head-on."

"Is five thousand enough?" Yang Erlang asked.

"Five thousand is enough." Zhao Weiji continued: "Then divide the crossbow unit into two groups and arrange them on both sides of the infantry to snipe the local cavalry. There is also another 4,000 cavalry to be placed behind the crossbowmen. As soon as the Khitan cavalry approached or ran out of arrows, the crossbowmen immediately retreated, the cavalry outflanked from both flanks, and the infantry met them head-on. ”

The Song army quickly made a move according to Zhao Weiji's arrangement.

When the Khitan army approached, the Song army was already lined up and ready to attack. Soon the Khitan army attacked, but they were met by a rain of arrows three times as fierce as the bows and arrows they had previously received. And it was attacked by a rain of arrows when it was out of range of the bow and arrow.

On the Song side, due to the use of repeating crossbows and three-stage shooting, there were almost no intermittent firing before the arrows were exhausted. Moreover, the crossbowmen arranged on the two wings did not stand in parallel positions, but formed a certain angle. In this way, the rain of arrows forms a certain crossfire. The Khitan cavalry was miserable.

It hadn't been long since they had rushed out, and the Khitan cavalry had already been reduced by up to a fifth. And the speed of the impact has significantly decreased.

And the infantry of the Song army also advanced forward under the cover of the rain of arrows, constantly compressing the space for the cavalry to sprint. Just when the arrows on the Song army's side were basically exhausted. The cavalry behind the crossbowmen quickly outflanked the Khitan flanks.

The Khitan Iron Cavalry, which had always been known for its galloping, was suddenly controlled by someone, and its combat effectiveness was sharply reduced. And Yelu Yingji, the Khitan commander of this operation, immediately understood that this battle could not be fought, and immediately led the troops to retreat.

After the Song army saw the Khitan cavalry retreating, it only made a slight pursuit and stopped.

The new type of unit formed by Zhao Weiji was successful in the first battle, and he was naturally very happy. But what he didn't know was that his activity also aroused the interest of the other two.

……

In the Bianliang Palace.

"Your Majesty, this is a battle report sent by Daizhou."

"I'm really old, and I'm getting more and more inaccurate to see people, I didn't expect this kid to achieve so much success in two battles after only three months of going to Daizhou, although it's not a big battle, but it's enough to surprise me."

"Your Majesty, do you want to?"

"No, I'm going to see what else this kid is capable of that I don't know."

On the other side, Liaoning, Nanjing, Liaoxing, and the military festival envoy Han Derang's house.

"I didn't expect that there would be such a capable person on Song's side. But this method of warfare is also flawed. It's not the best way to deal with my Da Liao cavalry. A young man commented after reading the latest battle report at Yanmen Pass.

"Jerhimo, have you seen where the book I read before was placed?"

"General Hui, I'll help you put it back on the shelf, the fifth book in the third grid from the left on the second floor."

"Okay, I found it."

Zhao Weiji didn't know what kind of future this internal and external attention would bring, and at this time he had already begun to tinker with new things.

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