When Wei Liaoweng set off for Jinghu, the entire Jinghu region was under the siege of the Mongol iron cavalry, the prefectures and counties trembled before the bloodthirsty slaughter of the enemy, and the people died or fled in the thousands under the gallop of the nomadic cavalry. By the time Wei Liaoweng began to return to the capital, the situation on Jinghu North Road and South Road had largely stabilized, and although the losses were heavy, the vitality was not exhausted, and the dilapidated state city was quickly renovated, and the scattered people were quickly resettled. What made him feel even more gratified was that a group of young generals led by Zheng Yunming stood out in the conquest of blood and fire, and the Great Song Dynasty could withstand such a blow from the Mongols for many years, but what he was most afraid of was losing hope. Zheng Yunming, Wang Deng, Yang Luo, Bai Yijie, these young people full of vigor are the hope of the Great Song Dynasty and the bright future of the Great Song Dynasty.

This is also the most important thing for him to anxiously prepare to rush back to Beijing and face the report of the Son of Heaven. After all, the Son of Heaven also needs a hope.

When Wei Liaoweng was about to set off, the important officials of the entire Xiangyang City and tens of thousands of people came to see him off. He stayed in Xiangyang for less than a month in total, and the people certainly did not appreciate his kindness in governing the government. Instead, I hope that this rare court official can reflect the situation on the ground here to the central government in a timely manner. Since ancient times, the local sufferings can only be understood by the princes of the temple through the words on the recital, and if a central official can directly hear what he has seen and heard to heaven, the effect is much more real than a thousand recitals on the Jinghu Lake.

Before stepping onto the boat, Wei Liaoweng shook hands with the officials one by one and said goodbye.

For Zhao Kui, his parting words were urging, Zhao Kui's family was burdened with the shame of Zhao Fan inspiring the Xiangyang rebellion, and it could only be washed away with the deeds of serving the country with loyalty.

For Zheng Yunming, it is more of encouragement and admonition.

"In ancient times, young talents have all gone through many twists and turns in training, so that they can hone their strong character and sufficient talents." Wei Liaoweng took Zheng Yunming's hand and said: "This first step you have taken, the entire Great Song Dynasty, no, since ancient times, there are only a handful of people who can be as smooth as you, but the journey of life is very long, some people have a very smooth start, but the end is miserable, some people have been depressed for decades, but they shine in their later years, I hope you don't become arrogant because of the current achievements, relax your efforts, you must know that Lu Dao, this is Xiangyang, is the gateway to the world, any bit of your complacency can not only be seen by the imperial court, but also seen by Mongolia." ”

Zheng Yunming bowed down and arched his hand: "How dare you not do your best, tremble, and defend Xiangyang for the country!" ”

In fact, at this time, the entire Jing'e Deputy Governor was the most unexpected, and it was estimated that Zheng Yunming himself was the most unsuccessful for Jinghu.

Yang Luo was entangled in the affairs of the reconstruction of the city defense and could not do anything else, squatting on the construction site from morning to night every day, under his strict supervision, Xiangyang City changed little by little, the city wall exposed less and less rammed earth, the lot of bricks slowly increased, and the towering bell and drum tower in the city has gradually taken shape. Not only in the city, the moat outside the city has been widened to dozens of zhang, not to mention that the ladder can not reach the city wall, the moat has really become a moat, Yang Liang's craftsmen invented a three-boat bottomless boat, connected by three sampans, connected by wooden beams, paved with wooden boards, can be freely in the moat, transport weapons and materials.

Wang Deng urged the defenders of Xiangyang City to practice day and night, and he had to worry about dealing with all kinds of quarrels and complaints caused by this. Under the heavy physical training, all the officers and soldiers complained of hardship, and even the Jing'e army began to spread Wang Deng's new nickname "Living Yama King". However, Wang Deng did not back down, and still insisted on strict training, in addition to training the soldiers to jump deep trenches in double armor, but also urged them to practice building fortifications under the rain of arrows, and facing the high ground to attack. Every day, there are generals who take the petitions of the soldiers to the Yamen of the system department to complain to Zhao Fan, asking the king of the living Yama to lighten the means and let the defenders of Xiangyang have a chance to take a breath, and the system only pushes everything on the Jing'e army, so Wang Deng trained hard during the day, and at night Ge Huai went to various military camps to invite the soldiers and generals to drink and eat, and pulled into the relationship, and finally maintained the relationship between the Jing'e army and the army.

Lu Xunzhi was busy replenishing the armor and weapons of the various armies, and the Tulong Army was only 5,000 people until the beginning of the war, while only two adults of the infantry could wear armor, and the rest had no armor protection and could only rely on shields to protect themselves. In the battle of last year, the casualties were actually not small, but because the Tulong army had strict military discipline and there was no frequent collapse of the Song army, there were no large-scale casualties. Subsequently, the Tulong Army was recruited twice, and its scale was more than doubled compared to before, and there was naturally a shortage of armor and ordnance.

After Zhao Kui arrived, he opened four arsenals for the Jing E army, including 100 famous divine arm crossbows, with a total length of three feet and two inches, made of mulberry wood. The string is two feet five inches long, made of hemp rope and wire, the crossbow machine is purely cast in copper, the arrow wood is very short, only a few inches long, and various fancy arrows are made of iron.

Zheng Yunming is the first time to see this legendary and famous weapon, he asked Lu Xunzhi to organize crossbowmen to perform, the divine arm crossbow is the so-called stepping crossbow, is to put the crossbow body against the ground, pull the bowstring up, and use the strength of the whole body to open the bowstring. When firing, it can be held in your hand or placed on a rack to launch. Zheng Yunming taught people to fire ten crossbow arrows in a row, five out of ten arrows, and they could still penetrate the thick elm wood at a distance of 200 steps.

This is the first class of the Great Song Dynasty weapon, the Jin people started with a bow and horse riding and shooting, the archery skills are superb, in the battle with the Song army, all the arrows are not missing, the Song army shooters are the first to strength, many brave soldiers can open a hundred catties of strong bows, and the waist is a few stone hard crossbows, but they do not pay attention to shooting relatives, that is, the practice of aiming, often only with a strong bow and a hard crossbow salvo when fighting against the enemy, hoping to repel the enemy with a rain of arrows. Therefore, the war with the Jin people always suffers, only the divine arm crossbow is in front of the array, firing short arrows is both accurate and ruthless, the Jin people are extremely afraid, and it is listed as the two strongest weapons in the Song Dynasty together with the heavy axe that breaks through the iron cavalry.

Even the Mongols could not ignore this kind of weapon, etc., in several tough battles in the northwest of Fancheng in the west of Xiangyang City, the Divine Arm Bow burst forward and fired, and the Mongolian cavalry was killed by the Divine Arm Bow Many people. Even the Mongolian troops who returned north said to each other: "There is a general's cannon in Jiangling, and there is a divine arm bow in Xiangyang, and you can't go to both places." ”

Zheng Yunming handed over these 100 crossbows to the general archery army, who was already itching, and selected a hundred crossbowmen from them to equip the Divine Arm Bow, and transferred them directly to the personal soldiers in front of the tent, which was personally controlled by the deputy commander.

This is to follow the practice of the Jinghu system envoy, Zhao Kui got 300 crossbows, selected experienced crossbowmen from the army, and called the pro-effect god arm archers, commanded by Zhao Kui's tooth general Hu Bao, and left under the account of the envoy as a personal soldier.

Zhao Kui added more than that, and Jiangling's deputy envoy Bei Zhijie sent a hundred utility soldiers, all of whom were brave men wearing a full set of armor. Moreover, the armor on their bodies is slightly different from ordinary armor, in addition to the normal scarf, iron armor, iron cloak, and Luo ring waist armor, they also come with face armor, large masks, handguards, leg guards, and even copper wire and iron gloves. This set of equipment, is the time of the Bei Zhijie commissioned Zheng Yunming to build, Bei Zhijie believes that the future war between the Song and Mongolia is most likely to be a contest between attacking and defending the city, in order to break through the Song army city defense, the Mongols must form a large number of heavy infantry for the siege of the city, and the Song army used to restrain these monsters, the best is to establish their own heavy infantry team, so entrusted Zheng Yunming to make equipment to strengthen the existing infantry protection, Zheng Yunming then based on the armor of the Italian city-states of the Renaissance in the later Western Renaissance, Iron handguards, iron arm guards, chest plates, leg guards and other parts should be manufactured in the shape of China, and then combined with the old armor to create a super-first-class infantry armor that protects more than the armor of the Xining Chaobu people.

However, this kind of armor is also extremely cumbersome, and its weight is about equal to that of Xining Bu Ren Armor, and it has to be a strong man with one hundred miles of utility to be able to put on it. In addition, the price of Duanpingbu Renjia is also high and scary, even with the status of Beizhijie Jiangling Shouchen and Jinghu Deputy Envoy, he can only equip 200 people, 100 Xiangyang Zhao, and 100 himself.

This is not surprising, even in the Renaissance city-states of Milan and Venice, where the economy was prosperous, the country's power was at its peak, and gunpowder weapons were beginning to appear, and the status of heavy armor on the battlefield began to rise, the hoplite samurai equipped with a full set of infantry armor were only a very small elite. These men are often used as trump cards at the most critical moments, such as the trapping samurai who charge the enemy directly in foot combat, and the combatants who climb the walls first in siege battles.

Zheng Yunming personally created the Duanping Bu Man Armor, but the headquarters did not have the equipment. For the soldiers of the Jing'e Vice-Metropolitan Commander's Division, who worked hard to equip the 3,000-collar iron armor, the number was the first requirement, and these gorgeous armors were suitable for use to show off their strength, but they were not suitable for large-scale replenishment of the front-line troops who were almost naked and fighting the enemy. Fortunately, under Lu Xunzhi's strict supervision, qualified armor and equipment were produced in a steady stream, and all the newly made ordnance was engraved with the names of the craftsmen.

Lu Xunzhi did more than that, his greatest achievement was to extensively check the account books of Jinghu households, and according to Zheng Yunming's arrangement, he formulated a plan for armor protection training and a plan for mobilization of husband and service. In the past, the government transferred husband and wife, either temporarily hired or forcibly transferred to the countryside at will, which was not only inefficient, slow to act, but also greatly disturbed the people.

Now Lu Xunzhi compiled a detailed mobilization plan for the Zhuang men of the whole Jinghu according to the account books of the people's households, and each Zhuang Ding received a mobilization card representing the identity of the husband, and after the start of the war, the army sent special mobilization officers to go deep into the countryside with the local government to carry out the mobilization of the husband, the means were simple and the mobilization speed was very fast, and in the first simulated mobilization, 200,000 soldiers were concentrated in Xiangyang. The significance of this method is so great that later historians have linked the results of the previous Xiangyang Wars with the popularization of this method in Jinghu, "there is no Xiangyang without the law of land to follow the people, and there is no Great Song Dynasty without Xiangyang."