"Defend the city and demolish the house first?" Zhou Ping was a little dizzy by Chang Zongtian's words, so he had to smile bitterly twice and said: "Then I'll go and mention it to Wang Du first, and see if it's okay!" ”

"Okay, hurry up on this matter!" Chang Zongtian hesitated for a moment, and said in a low voice: "Zhou Prison, I am often a rough person, if there is a sentence that I don't listen to, I will say it first, if it is not good to listen to the prison, you have to forgive me!" ”

"What do you say?"

"Righteousness is not in charge of wealth, and compassion is not in charge of soldiers! This should be the heart of the Lord should be hard, good for himself, and good for the sons and daughters below. It's okay to imprison you, but you're a little soft-hearted, and you'll be a good man if you go to our Western Army for two years. ”

Looking at the back of Chang Zongtian leaving, Zhou Ping's face couldn't help but have a wry smile, since he crossed over, there were no less than hundreds of lives in his hands, he thought that he had completely adapted to this era, but he didn't expect that the veteran ruffian in front of him still felt that his heart was too soft. Compared with the next Jingkang years, how to look at the current second year of Xuanhe is also a peaceful season, is he really strong enough to deal with the next blood and fire?

"Strong, or destroyed!" Zhou Ping couldn't help clenching his fists and muttered to himself in a low voice.

When he came out of the prince's Wu Yamen, Zhou Ping's mood was much better. As Chang Zongtian said, when Wang Ziwu heard Zhou Ping's request to requisition and demolish the houses within 30 zhang of the city wall, he readily agreed, so that Zhou Ping's reasons for preparing in advance were all in vain. Zhou Ping couldn't help but laugh at himself in his heart, I'm afraid it was thanks to the rumors that Fang Fang La's cruel treatment of the captured officials made that Wang Dutong already frightened, as long as he could keep this Xiuzhou City, I am afraid there was nothing he was unwilling to do.

And what surprised Zhou Ping even more was that there were 5,000 scattered copper coins that followed, and when I asked Chang Zongtian, I knew that this was a reward in advance, which was already a common practice in the Song army, not to mention beheading, trapping, and capturing the flag. Even the archers bent their bows and shot arrows with a reward, and when the war was fought, the officers stood beside the archers with copper coins, and when the archers shot an arrow, the officers threw the money of the arrows at the archers' feet, and the price was clearly marked, and no credit was given. This "advanced" incentive mechanism made Zhou Ping dumbfounded, and in his memory, even Carthage, which was famous for its mercenaries, and Renaissance Italy, did not refine the salary system to this level. It is no wonder that the Northern Song Dynasty would rather give Liao 500,000 silver silk coins every year than war, looking at this way of fighting, let alone 500,000, even if it is 5 million, it can't afford to spend a few battles.

"Can that be done?" Zhou Ping asked with some hesitation.

"Absolutely!" Chang Zongtian replied: "The national dynasty has been fighting like this for more than a hundred years, even if it is the previous dynasty, before going to war, you have to give pickle money, clothing, battle money, and bow and crossbow money to fight before you can fight, as long as the reward is given, don't mess around, let's fight the western thief in ten battles and win seven victories!" Seeing Zhou Ping's puzzled look, he had to continue to explain, it turned out that although the reward system of the Northern Song Dynasty sounded very strange, this money was not so easy to get, and the selection and training standards for soldiers were very strict.

Take the criteria for selecting folk archers in the first year of Gaozong Jianyan as an example: the upper class is more than one stone and one bucket or nine buckets of horse shooting, the middle is more than one stone of infantry shooting or eight buckets of horse shooting, and the inferior is more than nine buckets of infantry shooting or more than seven buckets of horse shooting, and the selection standard of the forbidden army is to hold one stone and five buckets of bows, sixty infantry shots, and six shots and three hits. In the Song Dynasty, one stone was ninety-two kilograms, equivalent to ten buckets. In other words, even ordinary militia archers are selected according to the criteria for their ability to use at least eighty-three kilograms of strong bows in foot shooting. As for the Forbidden Army's archers, the standards are even more stringent, requiring them to be able to use a strong bow of more than 124 kilograms, and at a distance of about 90 meters, they can shoot three targets in six shots. This kind of strict requirements, even in the Northern Song Dynasty, which was extremely common in the shooting club, was able to become a non-commissioned officer of the forbidden army.

The founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty established this military system with the consideration of supporting first-class warriors with high treatment, coupled with the armor provided by the Central Plains far beyond the technical level of the surrounding countries, to defeat the enemy on the battlefield. This can also explain why in the early days of the Northern Song Dynasty, in the wars with the Liao State and the Western Xia, the cavalry was not dominant, but they liked to fight field battles and offensive battles so much. Second, the Son of Heaven spent so much money to raise these strong men, so he couldn't let them hide behind the city wall and eat military salaries for nothing. Of course, with the advent of peacetime, this strict standard will definitely be loosened, and the forbidden army around Bianjing may not be worthy of the name, but the Western army, which has fought with the Tanguts for decades in the northwest border, still maintains a fairly strong combat effectiveness. Compared with the Song army, the population of the Western Xia Kingdom was much smaller, and after civilization, it was naturally impossible to select enough soldiers with such a high standard, and the soldiers' equipment was not as good as that of the Song army. It was only because the command system of the Northern Song Dynasty that stacked roofs and beams limited the power of the army that the Western Xia could maintain a relative balance, so after Jin destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty, he once asked a Han officer in the Western Xia: "Which is braver between the Xia people and the Song people?" The officer replied: "Song Renyong, but the top and bottom are different, and Fu can win." ”

Chang Zongtian saw Zhou Ping frowning and thinking there, and thought that this prisoner had never seen the world, and he was dizzy to see so many rewards at once, if he made too much money and annoyed the red guy below (a contemptuous name for being a soldier), it would be bad if he didn't work hard when the thief came, so he hurriedly persuaded in a low voice: "Zhou Prison, according to the convention, half of the officers here, you can take a third of the officers' share, and the sons and daughters' share are indispensable, otherwise it will be troublesome if you don't work hard to start a war." Tong Dashuai has always been generous, as long as he is leveled against the thief, the derailment points will be covered up for the following. ”

Zhou Ping was stunned for a moment before he reacted that Chang Zongtian was reminding himself not to eat too ugly, and if he wanted to fish, he would wait until the battle was over and then go to other channels to fish, as long as it was not too much, Tong Guan would definitely support himself, and he couldn't help but be embarrassed for a while, he didn't expect that he had just been mistaken like this, and hurriedly coughed twice and said: "Then send it down according to the convention, my share will also be moved to the camp, and tell the sons and daughters that there will be a heavy reward for those who capture the flag and kill the generals!" ”

"Whoa!" Chang Zongtian responded, raised his head and secretly looked at Zhou Ping's face, and said in a low voice: "Prisoner, in fact, it is very good for you to take out half of it, otherwise if you don't take a penny, it will not be easy for other officers to take it, but it will not be good!" ”

"Okay, just do what Chang Yu says you say!" Zhou Ping nodded a little blushing, he didn't have no soldiers, but after all, unlike an old army ruffian like Chang Zongtian, he knew the very mature unspoken rules within the Western Army. It's okay to command operations, but when you encounter these things like sharing spoils and rewards, you will be confused, but this kind of thing is closely related to the combat effectiveness of the army, and there are many things in history that cause mutiny because of the lack of meat in the food given to soldiers before the war, the wine is sour, the clothes issued are shorter, and the warp and weft are thin, and the result is a mess of loss. If I don't know, I don't even know when I poked the big basket.

"Chang Yu waits!" Zhou Ping stopped Chang Zongtian, who was about to walk away: "You divide my share in half and give half to the meritorious soldiers." Half of it is sealed, and don't tell anyone else, and if there is anyone who has nothing to do with the king, take it out privately as coffin money. ”

Chang Zongtian's eyes lit up, and there was a little more respect on his face, and he bowed down and said, "Your Majesty must obey the military order!" ”

Six days later, that is, in the first month of the third year of Xuanhe (1121 AD), Fang La, who called himself "Holy Father", took the 60,000 troops of the general Fang Qi Buddha to attack Xiuzhou in the north.

Xiuzhou City. In addition to the south gate, the other three city gates have long been closed, the houses outside the city have long been demolished, the wells have been filled, and the trees have been cut down so as not to be used by the enemy forces outside the city. On the official road, the fleeing people who were crowded into the city in an endless stream a few days ago are also difficult to find, and it is a scene of a big war approaching.

Zhizhou Yamen.

"Prison Zhou, so the army led by the royal capital commander has arrived in Guangling fourteen days ago?"

Wang Ziwu, who had a worried face, asked in a low voice.

"Exactly, the army led by the royal capital arrived in Guangling fourteen days ago!" Zhou Ping replied respectfully, only the muscles in his cheeks twitched a few times. The reason is very simple, it was only half an hour after lunch, and this was the fifth time that the Wang Tongjun in front of him had asked himself the same question, as a guest army and a subordinate officer, Zhou Ping had to try his best to pretend that he had not noticed the other party's gaffe at all, but deep down, he had already begun to doubt that he could not defend the attack of Zhu Fangla. It's not that he thinks the combat effectiveness of Fang La's army is high, but he has begun to doubt whether this Wang Tongjun will drop the chain at a critical time, for example, when Fang La's army besieged the camp outside the south gate, if this Shangguan suddenly closed the city gate and the army was in chaos, it would be over.

Perhaps he also felt that his performance was a little excessive, Wang Ziwu smiled bitterly and said: "Prison Zhou, it's not that the official is afraid, this land south of the Yangtze River has not been war-torn for many years, and the defenders in the city have not even seen a few bandits in the past, but there are enough food thieves, enough millions!" ”

"Please rest assured, Fang La is just relying on a small plan to confuse a group of ignorant and foolish people, gathering people to make chaos, Xiuzhou City is high and deep, well-equipped, and there are reinforcements outside, it will definitely be able to hold it!" Zhou Jian tried his best to comfort: "In fact, this kind of thing is not a war, not the more people the better, the more people eat and drink, and it is difficult to command and dispatch, there are no people who know soldiers among the thieves, and the commander of the army only watches the battle from the city, and looks at us and other thieves!" (To be continued.) )