A loud noise rang out all night at the Zhangshui edge.

It was hundreds of blacksmiths beating day and night by the river.

This kind of noise disturbs people's hearts, but no one is really upset by it, because they all know that in this thick fog are countless armor weapons and arrowheads.

In such troubled times, iron is strength and stability.

It's not just the noise, but when the blacksmiths struck a piece of iron with a sledgehammer to make it into a cuirass, the whole earth shook, often to the distress of the nearby fishermen who were fishing by the Zhangshui, because the fish were scared away by the shock.

In this way, the smoke and dust of soot, the shaking of the earth, and the noise that filled the world, this kind of inconvenience demonstrated the supreme power of this era, and also indicated that the war machine of the Taishan Army began to be launched.

As early as the Taishan army was stationed in Yecheng, this huge workshop had been built on the north bank of Zhangshui. Thanks to the technical reserves of the Taishan Army in the Taishan area, and the conscious absorption of craftsmen in the process of turning to war.

The Tarzan Army's workshop soon exploded in production capacity on armor, arrows, and iron farming tools. Thanks to the division of labor and the application of water and energy, as well as the use of coal, the workshop is now almost ten times more efficient than the Han army.

This is still the workshop is still in the production capacity climbing stage, it is estimated that after waiting for about half a year, with the proficiency of the division of labor and the addition of craftsmen, the efficiency of the Taishan Military Workshop can be doubled.

At that time, what an ironclad army the Han army would face.

From here, we can also see Zhang Chong's layout vision. To develop the smelting industry, there are three things that are most inseparable, one is iron, one is coal, and the other is water.

And it just so happens that Yecheng has all three things. Yecheng and Handan in the north are famous coal and iron capitals both now and in the future.

Coupled with the continuous Zhangshui, this Yecheng is really the foundation of the royal industry.

Therefore, thanks to such innate conditions, the Taishan Army created countless combat readiness materials in the winter and spring for four months.

The most numerous of these are missed arrows. The blacksmith made the arrow's head, the carpenter's shaft, and finally the woman's assembly and storage in the city's arsenal.

In a war, the most consumed is the miss.

Although the arrows are theoretically recoverable, no one will try to pick them up in battle. In this way, in order to ensure a continuous rain of arrows, it is necessary to carry a sufficient amount of arrows.

The proportion of archers in the Tarzan army is very high.

On the one hand, Zhang Chong attaches great importance to the long-range strike ability of the bow and arrow, and in this era, whoever can kill and wound a large number of enemies at a distance of 100 steps has already won half of the battle.

Therefore, whether it is Zhang Chong's personal martial arts performance or the graduation banquet of the previous martial arts students, the bow and arrow art is regarded as the top priority.

But archery skills are not ordinary people can know, mostly some mountains and hunters, and this aspect of the Taishan army is not lacking, whether it was in the Taiyi Mengshan Mountains, or the Songshan area, or the current Taihang Mountain area, the Taishan army is consciously absorbing these soldiers with archery talents.

But with archers, bows and arrows also become a difficult point. At present, the mainstream bows and arrows of the Han army are compound bows, that is, good bows composed of wood, horns, and tendons.

This kind of bow and arrow, with strong strength and good accuracy, was used for thousands of years until it was replaced by firearms.

But this kind of bow and arrow is very good, but it is not good at one point, that is, the production cycle is too long, it takes a year.

Before the Taishan army switched to war, how could there be an environment to make bows in advance, so there was a situation where there were more people and fewer bows behind.

In the end, Zhang Chong had no choice, on the one hand, let the craftsman battalion start to stock up on making bows and arrows now, and on the other hand, he began to find a transitional bow and arrow, that is, a longbow.

This longbow shined in the hands of the English, and in the later battle of Agincourt, 6,000 French knights were annihilated, all of whom were famous military nobles, and died under the longbow of the English peasants.

Although the longbow is good, it has high requirements for the quality of wood, but now Yecheng, and even the whole of Hebei are surrounded by forests, and it is no problem to find straight up wood.

It's also quite difficult to summon so many shooters who can pull such high tensions. If you want to pull a bow so high and so strong, you have to have those shoulders and arms.

However, the original shooters of the Taishan Army have been supplemented with high nutrition for several years, and their physique is enough to meet this condition. As for the newly recruited mountain marksmen, they will definitely not be able to pull it.

So they can only use the old bows that the old shooters have eliminated.

In fact, when Zhang Chong chose to arrange this kind of longbowman in the army, some military officials in the army, especially those with a background in the Han army, suggested that they use crossbows to supplement the ranks.

For example, the 1,000-person rhubarb crossbow team in Lu Zhi's hands before was a key force that determined the outcome of the battlefield.

But Zhang Chong thought about it and chose the longbow.

Without him, it's because it's cheap.

Another is that he himself used the rhubarb crossbow, although this kind of heavy crossbow with foot hair is powerful and has a long range, the rate of fire is still too slow, and it takes an average of one minute to shoot two crossbow arrows.

And what about the longbow? If you can't shoot ten arrows in a minute, you can't call a qualified archer.

Therefore, to form a real arrow loss cover, you still have to use a bow and arrow.

Zhang Chong's configuration for each archer was that he had to carry sixty arrows. There is one bundle for every twenty, two bundles on the back, and one bundle on the belt.

In other words, if the archers of the Taishan army want to attack intensively, it will take about half a quarter of time for a round of arrow rain.

As soon as half a quarter passed, the arrows carried by the archers were exhausted, and they had to wait for the rear baggage to send new arrows.

These data were obtained by Zhang Chong many times. He wanted to let every commander know these data, so that he could reasonably dispatch the archers' firepower.

In addition, Zhang Chong also had to let the commander know when to use what arrows.

The Taishan army was previously equipped with only one standard arrow, that is, a light arrow, which was mostly used to hit unarmored targets. However, as the Taishan army encountered the main force of the Han army, its armor rate was comparable to that of the first-class, so it was necessary to equip it with shorter and heavier arrow shafts to break the armor.

If the general does not know this information, the lethality will be greatly reduced.

In fact, these are the contents to be taught in the Taishan Military Armament Academy, compared with the art of war of gods and gods in the past, Zhang Chong summarized and summarized the party in later generations, and began to sort out a replicable scientific art of war, and these are just part of it.

These are the armaments prepared by the Taishan army, and another very important reserve is the preparation of grain and military supplies.

War has always been a war of materials, and food and clothing are indispensable.

So where do all these supplies come from? Of course, it comes from the common people, whether it is a field or a mouth, all kinds of materials are collected by the people.

But these things are all raw materials, and they cannot be counted as finished products.

And this process from materials to finished products was prepared by the Han family's own government-run workshop.

In fact, a very large part of the Qin and Han militaristic systems was due to direct control of such production. Hundreds of thousands of officials and slaves worked day and night to produce a steady stream of supplies for the empire.

But even then, this is only a regular military replenishment.

More often than not, the tax collectors will go directly down to the countryside and requisition the goods directly, and there will be no compensation at all. Sometimes, when the control is strict, these tax collectors will also give some scratched wooden chips to offset the payment.

The tax collector cracked the bamboo chip from the middle, and then one person took half of it, which means that he took it to the government office to exchange money. But in reality, these bamboo chips are useless at all.

This is the harsh government like a tiger, and the tax collector is like a tiger. Therefore, every levy is a break for the small people. This is also the reason why the Han army attacked the Xiongnu and was able to consume half of the world.

But these are the unpopular measures of the Han army, and the Taishan army, which started with hanging names and punishments, cannot do this. Once it is done, the people's hearts are lost.

But the army needs supplies, especially the armor soldiers of the Taishan army generally eat meat, where can these supplies come from?

It has to come from the hands of the common people, but the Taishan Army has introduced a system, that is, salt tickets.

That is, after the Taishan army requisitioned materials from the locality, a batch of salt tickets will be distributed, and at that time, the people of each community can exchange it for salt in the county.

In addition to these, the sub-farmers in the base areas near Yecheng, especially those who have formed agricultural cooperatives, need to undertake the task of supporting the front, on the one hand, transporting supplies, and on the other hand, forming stretcher teams to rescue the wounded.

But in any case, war is very draining on people's power, especially now that spring ploughing is imminent.

Why did Zhang Chong's Northern Expedition only reach the northern part of Zhao State? It is with this reality factor in mind.

But fortunately, this certain degree of consumption is undoubtedly cost-effective compared with the benefits to be obtained, and it can also be carried.

Fortunately, there was that batch of Ao Cangsu greatly reduced the burden on the people of Yecheng, otherwise the Taishan army would not dare to fight so frequently.

But the most important thing that the Taishan army has to face is not the collection and preparation of these combat readiness, but how to transport them to the front line.

In fact, the best mode of transport is, of course, by water.

The Taishan Army also established a water division on the basis of the original Han Army's Wei County Boat Division, and then there was a Dahe Boat Division on the Puyang side.

But it is a pity that in the distance of 200 miles from Yecheng to Xiangguo of the Taishan army, there is no river that can be used by the Taishan army, in other words, if the Taishan army wants to go north, it can only rely on land transportation, then this cost is great.

If you go north to attack the four counties of northern Hebei later, all of them rely on land, not only will the maneuver be slow, but also empty of money and food.

Speaking of which, the Hebei region is worse here than the Central Plains region.

The water network in the Central Plains is dense vertically and horizontally, so it can be quickly maneuvered. However, because most of the rivers in Hebei originate from the Taihang Mountain area, and the Hebei region is a situation where the west is high and the east is low, so the rivers are naturally east-west.

Therefore, the connection between the east and west in Hebei is more dense than that between the north and the south.

In order to overcome this difficulty, Cao Cao also built several north-south canals. Now Zhang Chong is okay to fight Xiangguo, and in the future, he still has to dig the canal honestly.

But now, Zhang Chong can only let the chariot and horse camp step up the production of ox carts and carts, and make final preparations for the Northern Expedition later.

But this is also a helpless thing, the Taishan army was mobile before, so naturally there was no such consideration. If you don't have enough things, just hit a few dock walls.

But now that the Taishan army has sat down, if it wants to seriously fight an offensive and defensive battle, it has to face these. This is a necessary path to the maturity of power.

The first year of Chengtian, the first year of the republic, February 15.

After taking the oath, the commander Guan Yu led the left military academy of the department with 4,000 troops, 1,000 cavalry, and 10,000 Qingzhou soldiers, and headed towards Handan in the north.

After three days of marching, the army arrived in Handan to replenish a batch of supplies and camp men, and the army continued north, and the next day arrived at Congtai and set up a grain platform.

After that, Guan Yu ordered the two generals of the left army, Zhang Nan and Guo Mo, to lead a division of troops to attack Yiyang and other places in the north of Handan, and guard the grain route from Handan to the front line.

After that, the army continued to advance, and this process has not been disturbed by the Han army, and it is obvious that the opposite side has completely given up fighting with the Taishan army in the field.

The army arrived at the sleeping water on the second day, and the defense line built by Fu Zhu with his heart, Tantai and Yongnian sat on the sleeping water.

The first battle of this battle is coming.

When Zhang Nan and Guo Mo led thousands of elite soldiers to attack Yiyang, Yiyang ordered Cao Kun to abandon the city directly. This Cao Kun was expressed by Dong Zhuo back then, and he has never been able to win the hearts of the people in the city.

At this moment, the Taishan army is coming, what will he use to guard? So he abandoned the city overnight and fled.

Zhang Nan and Guo Mo occupied Yiyang without bloodshed.

And because the Eastern Expeditionary Army of the Taishan Army occupied the Quliang and Lieren areas in the east of Yiyang early in the morning, the east-west passage from Zhangshui to Yushui was blocked by Zhang Nan and Guo Mo ().

In this way, the entire Taishan army was completely protected on the right side of the grain platform in Handan, even if the Han army on the Julu side wanted to attack the supply line of the Taishan army around the rear

You must first pass through the defensive front that these three cities have built together.

In fact, the Han army's plan is indeed so.

As early as the beginning, Fu Zhu made an alliance with Guo Dian of Julu. The plan was to block the front of the Taishan army from the side of Fu Zhu, and then Guo Dian led his troops to attack the supply line of the Taishan army from the flank and rear.

Guo Dian also knows the truth of cold lips and teeth, and he has a tacit understanding with Lu Zhi, the frustrated master, so he has to help him no matter how reasonable or reasonable.

In addition, Guo Dian has always attached great importance to the northeast of Handan, and regarded it as a way for the Taishan army to attack Julu in the future. Therefore, when I learned that the Taishan army really went north from Handan as scheduled.

Guo Dian quickly took action.

At this time, a cavalry unit led by Gao Lan, a famous general of Hebei, was moving at high speed along the south bank of the river. Their target is Yiyang, where Zhang Nan and Guo Mo are located.

Yiyang, as an important city of Zhao State, must be occupied first as a base for advancement.

At this time, Zhang Nan and Guo Mo didn't know any of this at all, and at this time, the two of them were visiting a ruined wall under the leadership of a scholar dressed as a literati.