Wang Feng's invitation confirmed Zhong Youpeng's previous judgment, and this was indeed the first destination of their trip - a camp of the "Flying Dragon Army".

Because he had been mentally prepared before, Zhong Youpeng was not surprised after hearing Wang Feng's words, and Shi Shiran walked out of the carriage. After being stunned for a moment, Zhong Shiwen also got out of the carriage behind his father, and raised his eyes to look at the camp like a small city in front of him.

The first thing that catches your eye is a protective ditch and a tall, fortress-like structure. However, unlike the fortress shape commonly seen in this era, this huge fortress is neither square nor round, but presents a polygon that resembles a twinkling star. At every corner of the polygon, soldiers armed with unknown weapons can be seen guarding them. Even if Zhong Shiwen didn't know much about military affairs, he could see that the positions of these corners were carefully chosen, and the soldiers on them cooperated with each other to attack the attacking enemy from multiple directions, and its effect was basically the same as that of the horse noodles built in some big cities, except that this fortress brought the effectiveness of the horse noodles to the extreme.

However, Zhong Shiwen also found that the fortress only covered a gate of the camp of the "Flying Dragon Army", and although the parapet walls extending on both sides of the fortress were equally tall, they were still built in the common, ordinary way of building walls. However, the parapet wall was not as thick as the city wall, and at intervals there was a star-shaped fortress similar to the gate but smaller in size.

What Zhong Shiwen saw then was a suspension bridge spanning both sides of the ditch, and on the side of the star-shaped fortress facing the avenue, a gate had been opened, as if waiting for the arrival of their father and son. On the left and right sides of the gate, a row of mighty warriors stood. They were dressed in strange styles, but very well cut, and looked very spiritual, and they held strange-looking weapons in their hands, and they stood opposite each other, as if they were welcoming the arrival of their father and son.

Just as Zhong Shiwen was pondering this peculiar fortress and the clothes and weapons of the soldiers of the "Flying Dragon Army", he heard Wang Feng say on the side: "Father-in-law, this is the north gate of the 'Xianglong Fort'. Please ask your father-in-law to go into the castle with your son-in-law. ”

Seeing that Wang Feng invited him again, Zhong Shiwen first put down his thoughts, followed his father, and followed Wang Feng into this mysterious camp.

Walking into the base, Zhong Shiwen looked around and found that the camp was very large, with rows of houses scattered and orderly among them, and a team of young men in colorful clothes were carrying out various exercises that he had seen or had not seen before in the wide open field. The voices of the leaders and the responses of the young men came and went, making the whole camp very lively. However, although there are constant sounds coming from the barracks, unlike the noise of a noisy town, there is a feeling of enthusiasm and energy. In this kind of environment, people will involuntarily have an impulse to try, want to integrate into those masculine young people, practice with them, sweat together.

Zhong Shiwen was infected by the warm atmosphere in the camp, and he had some thoughts of wanting to blend in, but Zhong Youpeng, who was next to him, was far more calm than him. However, when Wang Feng introduced to him that there were more than 1,000 people in front of him, and it was the recruits of the "Flying Dragon Army" who were being trained, he was still affected by these vigorous young people, and his heart fluctuated.

"High morale and surging enthusiasm", this is Zhong Youpeng's first impression when he saw those young people in the training ground. Compared with the "security team" I saw the day before, these "Flying Dragon Army" recruits in front of them were obviously more combative and energetic. Without morale, no matter how diligent the drills, how well equipped and how proficient the art of war is, it is impossible to achieve victory in battle. It can be said that these recruits of the "Flying Dragon Army" in front of them have high morale and have the basis for victory.

After watching for a long time, Zhong Youpeng calmed down a little, and then pointed to the recruits of the "Flying Dragon Army" on the training ground, and asked Wang Feng: "The virtuous son-in-law just said that these young men who are training are all recruits who have just been recruited by the 'Flying Dragon Army', and the total number is around three thousand. And this 'Xianglong Fort' covers a vast area, and there are a lot of houses built in it, and nearly 10,000 people can live in the old man's opinion. The virtuous son-in-law had also told the old man before that the 'Flying Dragon Army' had formed an army of 6,000 troops. The total number of new recruits and veterans is also nearly 10,000. In this way, could it be that the entire army of the 'Flying Dragon Army' is stationed here? In this way, will it seem that the troops on the side of the 'Liangyuan', which you and other brothers value very much and rely on as the foundation, are empty? Or do you and the other brothers have other liliang in their hands, even if they don't have the protection of the 'Flying Dragon Army', they don't have to worry about the loss of their fundamental land? ”,

Zhong Youpeng's words seemed to be for Wang Feng and the others, reminding them not to forget the safety of the fundamental place on which they relied very much. In fact, when he said this, he thought more about the fear that his son-in-law and his brothers would have reservations about him, and conceal Liliang, who was even stronger than the "Flying Dragon Army", so that he could use it to protect himself when the situation was not strong.

Zhong Youpeng asked very naturally, although Wang Feng felt that the other party had a purpose in asking this, but he couldn't think of what the other party's purpose was for a while. Therefore, he only thought about it for a moment, and then said honestly: "My father-in-law has misunderstood. Since our brothers are determined to conspire with their father-in-law against the great cause of Liao, then they will naturally put all their liliang into it, how can there be any reason to hide their liliang. Although the area of the 'Xianglong Fort' is large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of soldiers to live and train here, it is not the only place where the 'Flying Dragon Army' is stationed. At present, in addition to the 3,000 recruits stationed here, there is only one battalion of veterans drawn from other units of the 'Wyvern Army'. The battalion is responsible for keeping the camp safe on the one hand, and training the new recruits on the other. The rest of the 'Wyvern Dragon' were stationed in the Wyvern Village, not far from the 'Liangyuan'. When the father-in-law arrives at the 'Cool Garden', the son-in-law's cousin and other brothers may invite the father-in-law to visit.

As for the safety of the 'Cool Garden', our brothers dare not slack off. Unlike other industries that are only protected by the 'Security Team' Ding Zhuang, the guards of the 'Liangyuan' have always been served by the 'Flying Dragon Army'. On weekdays, more than 100 soldiers are responsible for patrolling and guarding. If something unexpected happens, the more than 100 soldiers can't protect the safety of the 'Liangyuan', then there are 6,000 soldiers of the 'Flying Dragon Army' behind them who can go to support at any time. After all, the two places were only a few miles apart, and the reinforcements were light and hurried, but they could arrive in half an hour. ”

"I see," Zhong Youpeng nodded.

After speaking, he paused slightly, and then continued to ask, "In that case, I wonder if the old man will be able to have the honor of seeing the veterans of the 'Flying Dragon Army' here today?" ”

"This is natural," Wang Feng replied, "Since our brothers have agreed to let our father-in-law look at the 'Flying Dragon Army', there is no reason to let your father-in-law only look at the new soldiers and not the veterans. Father-in-law and eldest brother, please, son-in-law will take you to see the drills of the 'Flying Dragon Army' veterans. It's just that the area of 'Xianglong Fort' is huge, and the veterans' station is far away from here, so it is more convenient for us to take a car. ”

As he spoke, Wang Feng stretched out his hand and made a gesture of invitation, leading the Zhong family father and son back to the place where the convoy stopped. After everyone got into the car, the group went to the depth of "Xianglong Fort".

The veterans' station is located in the "Xianglong Fort" near the south wall, and Wang Feng, Zhong Youpeng and others who entered the "Xianglong Fort" from the north gate basically crossed the entire fort before coming to the left side of the veteran barracks. Compared to the garrison of the recruits, the garrison of the veterans is a little more empty, and the area of the training ground is also larger. When Wang Feng and the others arrived, veterans of a company had just completed the queue training and were taking a nap next to the training ground, preparing for the next training later. When the company commander who led the team saw the convoy of Wang Feng and others coming, he hurriedly sent people over to inquire -- although the "Xianglong Fort" and its surroundings were extremely strictly investigated, and it was impossible for any people with bad intentions to get in, the company commander still habitually sent people over to investigate, just in case.

The soldiers sent over soon returned, and told the company commander that it was the twenty-seventh master who had come to inspect the camp with two guests. This company commander had already received a notice from his boss before, saying that the 27th Master was ordered by the 5th Master, the 7th Master and other leaders to bring two important guests to the "Xianglong Castle" to inspect today, and asked them to obey the 27th Master's arrangement, practice wholeheartedly, and never lose the face of the "Flying Dragon Army" in front of outsiders. Therefore, after receiving the report from his subordinates, the company commander did not dare to slack off, and ordered the soldiers to form a team while welcoming Wang Feng and the others.

At this time, Wang Feng and others had already gotten out of the car. After the company commander stepped forward to greet him, Wang Feng asked, "What training subjects have you been doing this morning, and what have you already done?" ”

The company commander replied, "Twenty-seventh master, my subordinates' training subjects this morning are queue and shooting. I've just finished the platoon training, and the next step is to shoot the train. ”,

Wang Feng nodded after hearing this, and ordered: "In this case, you will go back to the whole team, prepare firearms, and go to the shooting range in a while to perform live shooting for the master and the two distinguished guests of the master." ”

Although demonstrating live firing in front of outsiders has always been something that the "Flying Dragon Army" avoids as much as possible, because he had been notified by his boss to fully cooperate with the arrangement of the 27th Master, the company commander was slightly stunned, but still took the order without any objection.

The range was not far from the training ground of the queue, separated only by a row of barracks and a tall and thick bomb wall. The action of the veterans of the "Flying Dragon Army" was also quite fast, and Wang Feng led the Zhong family father and son to find a suitable place to sit down on the edge of the shooting range, and they had already entered the firing position and began to check the weapons and ammunition under the command of officials at all levels.

Moments later, the weapon was inspected. The company commander ran up to Wang Feng and asked for instructions on how to conduct shooting training. Wang Feng thought for a moment and ordered: "The guests have a limited time to stay in the fort, and the demonstration of one class at a time is too time-consuming. In my opinion, I will go to the whole company and demonstrate to the guests the 'three-stage' shooting method of dealing with the dense line of enemy cavalry and infantry. ”

"Yes, the subordinate understands," the company commander took the order and left.

He trotted all the way back to the side of the queue and shouted to his subordinates: "All of them, the infantry company shoots in a standing 'three-stage' position, and begins to line up." ”

With his order, more than a hundred soldiers who were originally arranged in a neat phalanx immediately moved into action and rearranged into three rows. In each platoon, the platoon commander is on the right, the deputy platoon commander is on the left, and the other soldiers are in the middle of them. Soldiers are separated by an arm's length from each other, and platoons are separated by one step from each other.

After the queue was rearranged, the company commander ordered, "All of them, start loading." ”

As he gave the order, all the soldiers began to perform the same movements in unison—removing their guns, pulling the bolt, taking out a row of ten rounds from the magazine, pressing the bullets into the magazine, pulling out the bottom plate, and loading the bullets.

After a short but neat "click, click", all the soldiers finished loading their bullets, held their guns in hand, and waited for the next command from the company commander.

"All of them, the chest target in front of the target, the standing posture 'three-stage' shooting, prepare the ......, and put it."

With the third command of the company commander, the soldiers standing in the first row almost simultaneously put their guns to their shoulders, aimed at a row of chest targets one hundred and fifty paces away, and calmly pulled the trigger. After firing a bullet, the soldiers in the first row took a step to the left, pulling the bolt as they stepped back. When they retreated to the position where the third platoon of soldiers were standing, they had just finished throwing their shells and reloading them, and they could make the next shot. While the first row of soldiers retreated, the second and third rows took a step forward and repeated the movements of the first row of soldiers in turn.

This "three-stage" shooting method is actually the "three-stage shooting" in the previous life, but the military department's traversers applied the tactics originally used to make up for the long loading time of early firearms such as arquebuses and flintlock pistols and the difficulty of forming sustained firepower, to the "Flying Dragon Army" that was already equipped with rear-loading rifled rifles, so that in the absence of machine gun weapons, the "Flying Dragon Army" has a method that can provide continuous firepower to suppress the enemy's cavalry and infantry dense shock formation. By using this method of warfare, the soldiers of a company, a battalion, or even a regiment can roll in an orderly manner, forming a continuous firing process, weaving a net of fire in front of their own ranks, and not giving the enemy any opportunity to take advantage of it. As for the effectiveness of this method of warfare in actual combat, it has been tested in the battle against Dabaoshu in the previous year, and it has been proved to be effective.

However, for the Zhong family father and son, they did not know the origin of this "three-stage shooting method", nor did they know the process of the battle in Dabaoshu last year, let alone the weapon of machine guns. The only thing they knew was the situation after the more than 100 veterans of the "Flying Dragon Army" were practicing according to their commander's orders -- after a deafening "bang, bang" sound, not only was the row of so-called chest targets made of thick planks more than a hundred paces away completely shattered, and it became a cloud of wood chips. And a high gray wall dozens of paces behind the chest target was also smashed into debris. Fortunately, the wall was thick enough to not fall into the same fate as the wooden chest target in front of it.

Such a shocking scene made the Zhong family father and son stunned on the spot for a while, and even forgot to put down the hands that subconsciously covered their ears under the loud noise. It was only then that the father and son really understood why Wang Feng and his brothers would confidently say that even if the Zhou army's Northern Expedition failed, their anti-Liao move would definitely succeed. The reason is simple, the unprecedented sharp weapon, coupled with the more than 10,000 soldiers who used it, gave them such confidence and determination. It is precisely because of this that Wang Feng and his brothers do not care about the "security team" that is already a strong army in their opinion.

It's just that the "Qingyuan" brothers, who have such a strong army in hand, will really only focus on such a small space in the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun - this is the first question that Zhong Youpeng, who came to his senses, thought of first.