Lu Xiangsheng, who looked very happy, then put forward a request to inspect the barracks, mainly because he was curious about the bravery of the Shandong soldiers when they fought in Fengyang.

In the area of Fengyang Feishui, the Shandong soldiers beheaded the leaders of thirteen thieves, killed the Taiping King, and captured the sweeping king alive.

Zhao Yan had nothing to hide, and took Lu Xiangsheng to inspect the barracks.

The barracks were stationed outside the city, and at the moment they were in intense training, with pikemen practicing marksmanship, longbowmen practicing archery, and musketeers practicing loading......

"Order the assembly." Zhao Yan ordered Wang Wenyue.

"Yes." Wang Wenyue turned around, turned around and ran down, and soon the rallying horn sounded. The soldiers in the barracks hurriedly arrived with weapons in hand, and then lined up in a neat line at Lu Xiangsheng's stunned speed.

In less than three minutes, the soldiers in the barracks were already lined up in a large phalanx. Fifteen hundred pikemen were in front, arranged in three horizontal formations.

Each horizontal team has 500 people, and a team of 50 people is divided into 10 rows. The musketeers were behind, in a squad of 100 men, divided into 6 platoons. Longbowmen armed with longbows were in a row of 100 people, divided into 5 rows.

At the rear, 300 artillery men in groups of three, 100 guns in three rows. As well as 30 rocket crews, 30 rocket launchers were arranged in two rows.

A thousand cavalry, divided in two, were distributed on the flanks of the infantry.

"A row of reports...... The number of reports in the second row ......"

"One, two, three, four, five, six......"

"The number of people who should have arrived in a company was 250, but the actual number was 246, and 4 people were injured and recuperated......"

"Two ......"

"Triple ......"

The numbers were quickly counted, Lin Yi trotted in front of Zhao Yan, saluted and reported: "Tell your lordship, the cavalry battalion should have 1,050 people, but it was 1,005 people, 21 people were killed, 16 people were injured and sick, and 8 people went out to investigate......

Wang Wenyue also counted the numbers at this time, and came to report: "Tell your lord, the second battalion should have 3,100 people, but the actual number was 3,006, 65 were injured and sick, and 29 people went out to investigate......

"The big show begins." Zhao Yan ordered.

"Yes." Wang Wenyue and Lin Yi turned around and ran back into the formation. Lu Xiangsheng was dazzled on the side, the cold spear array, the cavalry and pikemen were all covered with iron armor, and the horses ridden by the cavalry were even stronger, and they were good war horses at a glance. There were also a hundred well-made artillery pieces behind the formation, as well as those rockets that had never been seen before.

A strong army is definitely a strong army.

"Denglai soldiers are so elite!" Lu Xiangsheng exclaimed in his heart, these soldiers looked well-equipped and full of spirit, which was not comparable to ordinary officers and soldiers at all.

And the speed of the assembly is so fast that it is simply stunning.

Especially the iron armor on those soldiers, I had also seen it on Zhao Yan's personal guards before, and Lu Xiangsheng originally thought that he could only equip his family.

Now it seems that it is a big mistake, there is no distinction between family members and discarded objects among these Denglai soldiers and horses, and everyone is equipped with the same equipment as those personal guards.

Looking back at his own guards and horses, his own soldiers and horses were compared with this Denglai soldier, just like turtles. Neither in equipment nor in training, it cannot be compared with the Denglai soldiers.

Before Lu Xiangsheng could come back to his senses, the phalanx suddenly turned around and faced the side of the stands, and there was an empty field in the distance.

Like a machine, it runs quickly and smoothly.

"Enemy forces are found, 1800 meters away." The rangefinder is located in the front, holding a telescope and a rangefinder to look out, and after the number is announced, a flag is immediately displayed behind it.

"The rocketeers are in position, 1800 meters ahead, at an angle of 45 degrees." The commander of the rocket company shouted loudly, and the rocketeers immediately began to adjust the angle of the launcher.

"No. 1 is in place......"

"No. 2 in place...... ......

"Ignition~!"

The rocketeer ignites the fuse of the rocket.

"Wow ......"

A piercing whistling sound suddenly sounded, and rockets on the launch pad suddenly flew out, dragging orange-red tailflames and white smoke to fly forward.

The sound ......of the explosion was incessant, and with the explosion, a fire suddenly broke out on the field 1,800 meters away, and the dead grass on the ground was burning.

"Enemy troops are 1200 meters away......"

"The artillery is in position, 45 degrees in front of it, a four-second fuse."

"Launch!"

"Boom, boom, boom, boom......" A large amount of gunpowder smoke filled the air, even blocking the view. I saw red cannonballs flying in the air, quickly smashing straight ahead.

Four seconds after the shells flew out, those shells exploded again, and suddenly waves of air and shrapnel flew sideways, and some shells exploded in mid-air, and when they exploded, they were like brilliant fireworks.

"Enemy 200 meters~!"

"First row shooting."

With the sound of "bang, bang, bang......", the musketeers opened fire forward.

"Second Row Shooting ......"

Two rounds of fire were fired in succession, and with a command to retreat, the musketeers quickly retreated from the four intersections.

"Longbowmen in position, four-level shooting...... Put ......"

"Woo Woo ......"

A rain of arrows suddenly shot out, and five hundred heavy arrows were as dense as leeches, cutting an arc through the air and shooting into the open space in front of them, all of which were plunged into the ground.

"Flat guns!"

"Kill~!" The pikemen in the front platoon stabbed their spears in unison, and the longbowmen in the back were shooting at the front! Arrows rain in waves.

At that moment, the musketeers who retreated behind pulled out their grenades, lit them and threw them with all their might.

"Boom, boom, boom......" was another violent explosion......

The artillery and rocket soldiers behind were still firing shells and rockets, and the field in front was raging, and the smoke and flames were everywhere.

Like a war machine, it is running extremely smoothly, striking at the imaginary enemy in front of it, which has been a process that has been practiced countless times.

Zhao Yan was very pleased that after two years of improvement, he had successfully built a powerful army.

And Lu Xiangsheng almost stared out a pair of eyes when he saw it, artillery, rockets, muskets, bows and arrows, spears, and the kind of grenades that exploded when thrown out were so powerful together.

Amid the charge of the infantry battalion and the rumbling hooves of the cavalry battalion, the curtain finally came to an end, and the soldiers were soon regrouped.

"Okay, okay." Lu Xiangsheng was so excited that he clapped his hands again and again, and sighed: "Looking at my Ming army, the strong Denglai soldiers and horses are the strongest. If all the soldiers and horses in the world are like this, why worry about the injustice of the thieves and the immortality of the Liaokou. ”

"Your Excellency is overrated." Zhao Yan said modestly.

"It's not an exaggeration to be the first, how did Zhijian train such elite soldiers and horses?" Lu Xiangsheng humbly asked.

"First of all, strict discipline and military law, then concentrate on the study of firearms, and then require a lot of money and food." Zhao Yan replied.

"How much food does it take to train such an army?" Lu Xiangsheng asked with concern, the scene of the big performance just now always flashed in front of him, which made him a little unforgettable.

"Generally, you have to train for a year before you can go into battle, and even if a soldier's salary is one or two a month, it takes more than 200,000 taels to become an army." Zhao Yan made a rough estimate, military salaries and military rations are still trivial, mainly because the cost of equipment is relatively large, but as long as Handan can produce steel, the cost of equipment will definitely be able to drop a lot.

"These soldiers and horses are trained by the lower officials in order to deal with the Jiannu in Liaodong, if you want to deal with the thieves, you don't need to use such an army at all, you only need strict discipline and military law, and the supply can keep up, you can be completely competent." Zhao Yan said to Lu Xiangsheng that the front-line troops in his hands were specially used to deal with the thieves, and the thieves were just training objects.

Zhang Buyun's plan for establishing second-line troops has been approved, and in the next three years, three bases will be established in the Central Plains, namely Yingzhou, Handan, and Nanyang, and 50,000 second-line troops will be raised in each of these three places.

"More than 200,000 taels!" Lu Xiangsheng almost choked to death by this number, but he very much agreed with Zhao Yan's point of view, it was indeed unnecessary to use such a well-equipped army to deal with the thieves.

"How did you get so much money and food?" Lu Xiangsheng asked strangely, if it was issued by the imperial court, it would be completely impossible, most of the military salary was gone out of the government, and he still relied on the gray income of being an official to support people.

"The lower officials' families are quite wealthy, and they rely on business to support the army." Zhao Yan said truthfully, if he hadn't made money by himself, he would have starved to death just by relying on the military salary of the imperial court.

Lu Xiangsheng nodded, and reluctantly gave up the idea of training such a strong army, which was really not enough money and food. However, his attention was soon drawn to the protection of the soldier.

When he came to one of Zhao Yanhou's guards, he knocked on the plate armor on his body, looked up and down again, and asked, "How is this iron armor compared to the armor?" ”

"The weight is lighter than that of the zhajia, and the protection is stronger, and Jiannu's bow and arrows can only be shot through within 50 meters, but most of them will also be stuck, and it is difficult for the soldiers to die." Zhao Yan said that the protective power of plate armor has been tested many times, and the bow and arrow of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are naturally the main way to test.

"Zhijian, can you lend me some craftsmen who make iron armor and firearms, if the equipment is improved, I can be more handy when fighting thieves." Lu Xiangsheng asked in a consultative tone.

Borrowing?

It is estimated that there is no borrowing and no returning. When Zhao Yan heard this, he immediately shook his head and said, "My lord, most of these iron armor and firearms are made of water, and the silver taels required are too huge, and I also lack craftsmen there. If you want, after the official returns to Shandong, he can make 20,000 pieces of iron armor for the adults for free and send them to them. ”

Zhao Yan naturally wouldn't let the manufacturing methods of these ordnance leak out, but in the face of a national hero like Lu Xiangsheng, Zhao Yan was rarely generous.

20,000 sets of plate armor, the cost is estimated to be more than 200,000 taels, after Handan produces steel, the cost should be able to be compressed to more than 100,000 taels.

With the protection of these iron armors, the combat effectiveness of Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army should be able to rise to a higher level!

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The second update arrives, calling for votes, thanks to zmxzxl for the 3000 urging votes, if you vote for more votes in the future, the highest will be 9000! After all, the speed of the code word in the historical text is slow, 9000 is definitely the limit, and 12,000 is impossible......

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