Wu Yingying also had to hold back his nausea, and said with a smile: "The army is outside, and the grain and grass in the rear are all entrusted to Brother Liu. ”

Liu Chengxun immediately took Wu Yingying's hand and replied impassionedly: "As long as the waterway of the Yangtze River is unimpeded, General Wu wants people to give people and things to people, even if the treasury is emptied, he will never let the soldiers in front lack food and clothing." Then he looked around again, leaned close to Wu Yingying's ear and whispered: "General Wu and the Black Cloud Army should be careful this time, although the Black Cloud Army is good at fighting, but the reputation of the battlefield is supreme and the reputation of the friendly army is not small, General Wu must not be a stepping stone for others to become an official and become a knight." ”

Wu Yingying didn't know what he meant by this, and asked in great surprise: "There is such a thing? If Heiyun doesn't care about the safety of our army, what should it be?"

Liu Chengxun smiled slightly, and said again: "When I see General Wu, I am in love, and I don't care about the shallow words, General Wu needs to judge the situation, if you can't do anything, you can withdraw from the army first, with Your Majesty's faith in General Wu, at most it is just a small punishment." ”

Wu Yingying said in his heart, Nantang was destroyed in the hands of these people, but he had to make a moving look and said: "Thank you Lord Liu for your advice, if there is really that day, I hope that Lord Liu will say a lot of good words for me in front of His Majesty." ”

Liu Chengxun smiled: "This is natural. Seeing that Wu Yingying seemed to be moved, he didn't say much, and babbled about some things in the palace, saying that it was rare for the harem lady to sew clothes for the soldiers on the expedition, which showed that His Majesty had high hopes for the Jinfan Army.

Wu Yingying smiled and said goodbye to him, and came back to distribute winter clothes and baggage with Xin Gu Xiao Jiu and others.

Although the other soldiers were selected first, the concept of hierarchy still made everyone consciously leave a most beautifully embroidered robe to Wu Yingying, which was a red brocade robe, embroidered with the pattern of the tiger descending the mountain on the chest and back, and the belt was a simple fish and dragon pattern, which looked particularly powerful after wearing it.

Compared to Xiao Jiu's appreciation of fine stitches, Xin Gu frowned while picking up the winter coat made of brocade fabric: "These clothes are not resistant to wear and tear, and they will rot quickly in the wild, far inferior to the leather jackets in the Northland. Wu Yingying smiled: "This is not a prairie, there are few camels, horses, cattle and sheep, so you can wear whatever you have." He turned his head to Xiao Jiu and said, "The expedition is imminent, have our army's weapons, armor, baggage and other items been fully equipped?"

Xiao Jiu frowned and said: "The reward in the palace plus the armor handed over by the two armies of Shenwei and Heiyun, our army now only has two hundred pairs of iron armor and five hundred and thirty-one pairs of leather armor, most of the soldiers have no armor, the Song people's bows and crossbows are strong, as long as two or three rounds of arrows are placed, I am afraid that the soldiers without armor will be injured." ”

Wu Yingying touched his chin and said: "What you said is very reasonable, but I think that the armies in the south of the Yangtze River, except for the Black Cloud Capital and the elite soldiers of the Divine Guard Army, almost all of them are armored, and a new army like our army can be issued more than 700 pairs of belligerent armor is already an outlier." ”

Xin Gu said: "If there is no armor, it doesn't matter if there are horses, the cavalry will kill them in one go, and the Song people will be scattered before they release three rounds of arrows, but unfortunately there are fewer horses." ”

Wu Yingying looked at this Khitan who couldn't open any pot with some annoyance, and asked Xiao Jiu again: "You said that the Song people's bows and crossbows are so powerful, in addition to adding battle armor, are there any other ways to defend themselves? Or can our army always move outside the range of the Song army's bows and crossbows, and then take advantage of the night to win hand-to-hand combat?"

Xiao Jiu said: "If it is so easy to win in hand-to-hand combat, what is the Song army afraid of? It's just that in addition to the powerful bow and crossbow, the Song army also has infantry soldiers who specialize in hand-to-hand combat and cavalry who raid by surprise. After speaking, his face darkened.

Wu Yingying thought to himself, his grandmother's, the Song people already have such an advanced multi-arm combat routine, what am I doing here?

Cai Shun didn't know when he walked into the tent, and quietly listened to the discussion of Wu Yingying and the three of them on the side, and couldn't help but interject at this time: "Our barbarian soldiers in Shu all use rattan armor, which is not only difficult to penetrate, but also very light, and it is very powerful!"

Chase Si, the personal soldier behind Wu Yingying, glanced at him and said: "You are a Shu person, don't you know that Zhuge Liang burned the vine armor soldiers, as long as you use rockets, the vine armor soldiers will be wiped out immediately." After he finished speaking, Wu Yingying suddenly felt a thought flashing through his mind, and then Xiao Jiu said apologetically to Wu Yingying: "He is young and has short knowledge, and adults are ......" Wu Yingying waved his hand to stop him from continuing, and carefully thought about the thought just now twice in his heart, and a wave of ecstasy surged into his heart, shouting: "Yes, rattan armor, rattan armor is available!"

Xiao Jiu's face was a little embarrassed, he originally wanted to defend Cai Shun in everything, but the matter of the battle formation could not be sloppy, so he could only hug his fists and say: "My lord, the rattan armor is indeed afraid of fire, as long as the Song army uses rockets, all the soldiers wearing the rattan armor will have no luck." ”

Wu Yingying looked at him, and after a while, he said: "Do you know that there is a kind of thing called fire cloth in the Western Regions, this thing is not afraid of fire, and it is insulated, if it is used to cover the outside of the rattan armor, wouldn't it complement each other?"

Xiao Jiu didn't know what Wu Yingying was talking about at this time, Chase and Cai Shun both stared at Wu Yingying, obviously they had never heard of a cloth in the world that was not afraid of fire, but the Khitan Xin Gu patted his head and shouted: "I've seen this thing, it's best to use it as a tablecloth, no matter what kind of filth it is contaminated, take it to the fire and burn it, and after shaking off the ashes, it will be as white as snow." ”

"Have you actually seen this thing?" Wu Yingying didn't expect that Xin Gu, who seemed to be the most uninformed, actually knew about fire alkane cloth, that is, modern asbestos, and after seeing Xin Gu nodding affirmatively, Wu Yingying said: "Then you go to the sea market to find out, if there are any merchants in the Western Regions selling this thing, if there is, we want all of them, and we have to grab them." ”

Xin Gu replied loudly, and immediately ordered a pair of soldiers to pull the cart out, the sea market in Jinling is a place where foreign merchants from the Western Regions and other countries sell all kinds of exotic treasures, and it is also the place where Xin Gu and other generals hang out every day, and he has already seen a lot of such things sold by a merchant.

Wu Yingying and Xiao Jiu continued to discuss the preparation of various weapons and baggage for the expedition, and only at night did they see Xin Gu coming back dejectedly, most of the treasures of the Western Regions are rare in Jinling, so although there are quantities, they are not much, and they searched the entire sea market, and only found a few beautifully patterned fireane cloths, which were only enough for the vine armor of dozens of soldiers to cover them.

Seeing that Wu Yingying was suddenly lost, Xiao Jiu said: "My lord, don't worry about it, if you talk about the method of fire prevention, I also have it in Middle-earth, but just now I didn't think that it could complement each other with the rattan armor." ”

Wu Yingying couldn't believe his ears, and shouted at Xiao Jiu, "Is this true?"

Xiao Jiu said with a smile: "Of course, you only need to make a paste of wheat flour or rice flour, add resin and apply it to the paper armor, and it will be difficult for ordinary rockets to ignite." Shuzhong and Jiangnan both commonly use paper armor, paper armor is flammable, so this technique, adults casually ask a soldier in the army, I am afraid they all know this way to defend against rockets. ”

Wu Yingying was very excited when he heard this, and continued: "With rattan armor as the inside and paper armor as the surface, it is not only light and strong, but also fireproof, but so?"

Xiao Jiu smiled: "Exactly." ”

The two laughed together, although this kind of composite armor, which had never been seen in the world, had not yet been trial-produced, they suddenly felt that not only did they have hope of solving the problem of the lack of armor of the Jinfan Army, but also that this light and strong armor was likely to become a weapon to defeat the enemy.

Due to the lack of iron armor and leather armor, rattan armor and cotton paper armor are commonly used in the Jiangnan army, because rattan armor is afraid of fire, the general cotton paper armor is not strong enough, so the regular army disdains to wear it, a large number of piles in the treasury, Wu Yingying sent a letter to the military department, and at the same time repaired the book to show favor to himself Changde Palace History, from the treasury to pick up 2,000 sets of rattan armor and cotton paper armor that can be worn.

After everything was ready, Wu Yingying led 2,500 Jinfan soldiers to sneak out of Jiangning and go to Shaankou Village in Chizhou.