Zheng Yunming's principle is that if it were not for the fact that the shortcomings were already particularly obvious or really inefficient, he would not have easily proposed amendments to the practices of this era. Only the local people at that time could understand what was done for the sake of the people, and whether this practice was in line with the productivity and technical requirements of the era. What Zheng Yunming needs to do is to carry out gradual progress on the basis of local practices. This is the most realistic way to do it at the moment.

For example, the single-story city wall was expanded to a double-storey wall. But this is not easy to do, because the amount of green bricks will be twice as much as in the past. If it weren't for Bai Yijie's slight success in renovating the Ezhou coal mine, if it weren't for Zhang Zhengyi's reduction of the transportation cost of providing special coal from Ezhou to Xiangyang Prefecture, and if it weren't for Zheng Yunming's increase in the price of coal purchased by Xiangyang Prefecture, and if the government subsidized part of the money and then sold it back to the brick-burning workers at the market price, even the small change of the brick wall from a single layer to a double layer would not have been realized.

And even so, Zheng Yunming could not wrap all the walls of Xiangyang City with double-layer city bricks, he could only use the method of focusing on key areas, covering some weak parts of the defense such as several city gates and four corners of the city wall with double-layer wall bricks.

In addition to the city wall, Zheng Yunming also built a bell tower and a drum tower in the city as an organ to dispatch soldiers and command the army and civilians. Before, there was no bell and drum tower in Xiangyang City, and the drumming and bell were all carried out on the city gate tower, but considering that in the event of a war, the city gate tower would most likely be hit by the enemy's artillery fire, and it was necessary to build another command system in the city.

There are also details such as adding new secret passages and hidden caves in the urn city, as well as reinforcing the city gate, Zheng Yunming also took the trouble to send people to carefully design and arrange them one by one.

When the next time the Mongols came to Xiangyang City, Zheng Yunming had to be foolproof.

"The only thing that can compete with the thousands of cavalry of the enemy is our tall walls." Zheng Yunming said to everyone: "Let those Hu people see what it means to be impregnable!" ”

At dawn the next day, the people of Xiangyang City were surprised to find that the entire Xiangyang City had become a busy construction site, and countless servants began to work on the defense and reconstruction project of Xiangyang City under the escort of the sergeants of the Tulong Army. On the other hand, the garrison of Xiangyang still did not relax its drills, and in addition to some of them still practicing physical exercises to patrol the city with lotus halberds, various armies also began to practice combat skills and phalanx combinations.

Some soldiers of the former army of the Zhenwu Army carried out siege drills next to the trench near Tanxi, and the soldiers were all wearing two layers of armor, with a layer of leather armor inside and a layer of iron armor outside, practicing jumping the trench, although from time to time someone fell heavily at the bottom of the ditch, but under the strict order of Shi Gang, the former commander of the Zhenwu Army, no one dared to complain.

In the east of the city, Meng Jing led the Zhongshun Army, an army composed of the fierce and brave northern elites of Dengzhou, Tangzhou, and Xinyang, who were conducting phalanx drills. In the last days of the Jin Kingdom's imminent demise, most of the elite of the Jin Kingdom were commanded by Hengshan Gongwu Immortal. Wuxian escaped in the battle of Sanfeng Mountain, collected the defeated troops on the road, all of them were the remnants of the Jin country's hundred battles, and their people were called 100,000, entrenched in Dengzhou, Tangzhou and other places, the Jin Emperor ordered Wuxian to attack Jinghu in the south, trying to take Shangluo into Sichuan as a safe place. Meng Hui, who was the deputy commander of Jinghu at the time, led 8,000 people to meet the army of Wuxian and broke the army of Wuxian in the northeast of Xiangyang. Then he took the initiative to attack Tangzhou and Dengzhou, broke the twelve Wuxian troops in a row, and completely defeated the Wuxian troops, and the Wuxian only took a few horses to flee in a hurry. And Meng Hui selected more than 20,000 elite soldiers of the Jin State captured in Tangzhou and Dengzhou to form the Zhongshun Army, which was actually the most elite army assembled in the north.

His combat skills were not only far superior to the original armies of the Southern Dynasties, but even superior to the two armies under Zheng Yunming. A clear example of this is that when the Loyal Shun Army unfolded the phalanx, it was not only able to use the oblique stab grip and the droplet grip that Zheng Yunming admired, that is, to raise the tip of the spear horizontally and shoot it downward. It can also suddenly turn into an iron ox ploughing spear in battle. The soldier suddenly crouched on the ground and thrust the enemy with his iron spear. This is a trick specially used to break the enemy's cavalry, and it is used to stab the hook and sickle and the hemp knife out of the hook and cut the horse's leg during the battle, which is the infantry's life-sacrificing tactics to fight the enemy's iron cavalry with courage.

But these training scenes are far less eye-catching than the drills outside the north gate. Not only the people, but even the officials and ladies in Xiangyang City also took advantage of the excitement to watch the drill of the selected cavalry, which is known as the first in Jinghu.

A group of cavalry lined up in a column and ran in small steps on the avenue, with the leading general general changing the team flag lightly, the cavalry team immediately expanded into a horizontal team, rushed towards the straw man target, after a fierce knife and spear stabbing, many straw man targets fell into the loess. The cavalry continued to march forward in small steps, coming to the dense antlers, a group of cavalry dismounted first and formed a formation with shields, the other cavalry held bows and arrows to cover, and dozens of sergeants with heavy axes turned over and dismounted to cut off the antlers, and the commander of the army commanded loudly commanded the cavalry to rush through the antlers and make the last sprint towards the red flag at the end.

Standing under the red flag, Liu Quanyang, the commander of the Election Army, said proudly to Wang Deng beside him: "What does the commander think about the drill of the Election Army? ”

Wang Deng nodded: "Yes, but it's not good enough, with ten cavalry like this, you can't beat one Mongolian cavalry." ”

Liu Quan said confidently: "You don't need to win one out of ten, as long as two thousand win against the Mongols and three thousand are enough." ”

Wang Deng's eyes widened, and he turned his head and said, "Isn't it a bit big to say that the rule is a little bigger?" ”

Liu Quan raised the whip in his hand and pointed at the cavalry force galloping on the opposite side, and explained the truth calmly.

"Soldiers are not expensive. This principle is even more evident when cavalry is several times stronger on the march than infantry. Dispersing cavalry in various places is far less powerful than concentrating them for large-scale battles. The Mongols were the first to use cavalry in ancient times, and they naturally understood this. But they have been in the Central Plains for more than 20 years, and they still do not change their nature on the grassland. When there is a war, a large number of people gather, and as soon as the war is over, they will disperse, and this pattern of fighting is still often seen today. When Meng Dashuai and I went to Caizhou to fight with the Mongols, we found that when they marched, they merged as one, and when they retreated, they scattered in all directions. It is not at all like the method of using cavalry in the Central Plains, coming out in large groups and returning in large groups. ”

"The Central Plains cavalry needs to do this because their riding skills and archery skills are not as good as the cavalry of the grassland." Wang Deng retorted: "Because they will not fight as soon as they are alone, a few peasants with hoes and forks can solve it." Even if the Mongol cavalry only formed a small group of three or five people, it could still ensure strong combat effectiveness, and it would not be a problem to deal with one or two hundred Central Plains infantry. With cavalry of this quality, it is the most correct way to fight when attacking as one group and scattering when retreating. ”

"But when I got together, it gave me a chance to choose the front team and win." Liu Quan said: "As long as the infantry can defend the city under the attack of the enemy, the enemy will inevitably scatter and retreat. Our cavalry can hold the enemy's return road, and fight against the Mongol cavalry in large groups against small groups, not ten against one, but twenty or thirty against one Mongol soldier, and with such a method of warfare, even 2,000 cavalry in Jiangnan can defeat 3,000 strong northern cavalry. ”

"On paper." Wang Deng and Liu Quan were already acquaintances when they were under Meng Heng's tent, and they no longer spoke tactfully: "Have you used this trick against the Mongols?" ”

"When the enemy invaded the border of Huangzhou this time, we used our brigade to ambush the enemy's retreating team and killed more than ten Mongolian cavalrymen." Liu Quan said: "When the Mongols go south next time, we won't have this only one gain." ”

"Of course, the premise is that you can first ensure that Xiangyang City will not be captured by the Mongols."

"You don't have to worry about that." Wang Deng said: "With Zheng Yunming here, there is Xiangyang." ”

Liu Quan laughed: "Jing Song has been in Zheng Guanren's ministry for a year, and he has been completely convinced by Zheng Guanren. Speaking of Zheng Guanren, I haven't seen him all day today, where did I go today? ”

Wang Deng's face suddenly became heavy: "He went to deal with the aftermath of the incident in the west of the city this morning." ”

A few days ago, a small piece of open space was newly opened in the west of Xiangyang City, which was used as a test site for Xiangyang gunpowder craftsmen to test new gunpowder weapons. Because this vacant land is located at the intersection of two streets, and there are two wells nearby, Zhao Kui named it Shuangjing Test Field.

The first test object ushered in by the Shuangjing test site is the "Iron General. No. 1"; The firing of gunpowder, from bamboo and solid timber to metal, was a decisive step in determining whether an economically advanced agricultural nation could defeat a powerful but economically barren nomadic empire. Zheng Yunming did not talk about these things when he asked the craftsmen of Xiangyang Mansion to study the new iron pipe launching weapons, but he only repeatedly emphasized: "Whether the new weapons can be successfully developed is not only related to the safety of Xiangyang City, but also related to the lives of your parents and wives in the city!" But if there are people who have succeeded in research and development, the government will not hesitate to reward! ”

The reward announced by the government is 10,000 yuan of money, 2,000 horses of cloth, a mansion in the best part of Xiangyang City, and 100 acres of fertile land outside the city. As long as the government can be provided with a qualified metal firearm, there will be a mansion in the city, a farm in the suburbs, and a large amount of cash to use. From a craftsman who barely made a living to a real rich man. Anyone who doesn't have hot eyes!

As far as the government is concerned, this reward is also powerful enough. Even the bounty given to the four princes and the fierce general Li Cheng during the Shaoxing period is nothing more than that. Recently, Zheng Yunming, the deputy capital of Jing'e and Hubei who quelled the Xiangyang Rebellion in one fell swoop and saved the country from fire and water in a crisis, received almost the same reward.

The hundreds of blacksmiths gathered in the city were ready to put down their other tasks and prepare to gamble their lives with all their might.