1,300 iron cavalry arrived near Huangzhou in a blink of an eye, at this time Zhao Ta was no longer hidden, the team was speeding on the official road, and when they encountered the Xihe soldiers blocking the road, they rushed directly to kill them, and it didn't take long to cross into the boundary of Xining Prefecture.

I saw that the undulations of the plain had increased, but it was still full of greenery, birds and flowers, and fertile soil.

It can already be seen that some farmland is cultivated near Huangshui, these are the reward fields, which are the rewards for the Tibetan generals and familiar households to take refuge in the Great Song Dynasty, and they have been implemented since the sixth year of Shenzong Xining.

Iron rode non-stop, went straight to Xining City, and when it was about to approach, he had already seen the horse farm, not the dilapidated depression of a few years ago, but orderly, neat, and enthusiastic.

Zhao Ta only built a horse farm in Longyou, let Zhe Hanmei and Fan Hu instructors, Hong Qi took the dirty clothes from Tokyo to help the people take care of it, and then he returned to Tokyo, Zhe Hanmei still lived here for a while, expanded the horse farm to three, and then left.

Now the scale of the horse farm has become larger again, roughly speaking, there are as many as five, but Zhao Ta knows that there are actually two more near the West Sea.

At this moment, he could hear the neighing of horses in the distance, and the noise in the field, he bowed his head slightly, although Liu Suiyun often reported the situation of the racecourse in his letters, but he never saw it with his own eyes.

After stopping for a while, Zhao Tan led the people to continue to Xining Prefecture, and it didn't take long to see Xiongcheng standing, tall and magnificent, like an ancient giant beast, lying under the white clouds and blue sky, in the endless lofty plateau.

At this time, there were many people riding horses in front of the city gate, and when they saw the banner of Zhao Tan's team, they immediately straightened their waists and blew the ancient horn, and the desolate voice immediately echoed in front of the ancient city, fluttering under the sky.

With the sound of the horn, the two city gates in the east direction of Xining City were all opened, and the unique music of the plateau was played inside, and then two teams of people and horses came out.

Zhao Ta ordered the iron cavalry behind him to stop and squint at the two teams.

The first team was led by Liu Suiyun, followed by Yang Zhi, Luda, Xu Ning, Shi Jin, Hong Qi, and a group of heroes from the Broken Jade Building.

Among the people in the Broken Jade Building, Jian Suyi was the leader, riding a lamp alone for thousands of miles, dressed in white, sassy and heroic.

And next to Jian Suyi is a red horse, on which sits a famous woman, eyebrows like distant mountains and daisies, cheeks like peach blossoms in March, bright eyes and bright teeth, looking forward to life, waving at him, who is not Xiao Min.

Zhao Ta smiled and looked at the other team, but this team was led by Ouyang Bei, Ouyang Bei was dressed in armor and robes, sitting on a horse, different from the previous good gag and habitual scoundrel appearance, his expression was serious, his aura was magnificent, but he had a bit of a general's demeanor.

And behind Ouyang Bei, there was a group of infantry, this group of infantry was two or three thousand people, and they looked very strong and strong, and they did not wear the clothes of the Great Song Army, but wore a strange armor.

This armor is not gold and iron, nor bamboo cloth, but seems to be made of mountain vines, and the color is not uniform, there are red, black and yellow.

The appearance of this rattan armor is similar to that of chain mail, and it is divided into several parts, a part of the body, which covers the front and back ribs, a part of the arms, which protects the big arms and small arms, and a part of each leg, which reaches the knees.

Not only that, but in addition to wearing rattan armor, these infantry also held Teng shields in their hands, which were round, looked very tight, and were also available in various colors.

Zhao Ta couldn't help squinting when he saw this, this is the rattan armor sent by Dali, which has been sent to Longyou one after another since the year before last, until last winter, 10,000 have been delivered.

The color of these rattan armors is different because of the different vine species, among which the dark red color is the best, which is the top grade, and the black and yellow ones are slightly worse.

However, Zhao Ta doesn't care too much about this, after all, they are all rattan armor, no matter how bad they are, they can go there, the effect is actually the same, there is no dark red rattan armor that can withstand the knife and gun, but black and yellow cannot, it is probably red and easier to preserve, with a longer service life and greater toughness.

As for the rattan shield in the hands of the soldiers, it is actually called a rattan card, and the shield is a use, but it is more than twice as light as the ordinary wooden shield, and the shield is twice as light on the battlefield, and it can save life at critical moments, after all, the effect is the same, but the weight is much lighter, and it is more convenient and fast to use.

Zhao Ta nodded slightly at the front at this time, and the front immediately shouted: "Respectfully invite the prince to enter the city, respectfully invite the prince to enter the city......"

Zhao Ta smiled and ordered: "Let's enter the city!" ”

The 1,300 iron horsemen behind him responded loudly: "Yes, Lord Wang!" ”

Half an hour later, Zhao Ta sat in the lobby of the governor of Xining Prefecture.

He drank tea, his demeanor was calm, and he listened to Liu Suiyun's report on the situation in Longyou in recent years, as well as the movements of the Xihe soldiers in recent days.

Although Zhao Ta has been exchanging letters with Longyou in recent years, there are some details that cannot be described in detail in the letter, but at this moment, it is much clearer to listen to Liu Suiyun, and he raised a lot of questions, and Liu Suiyun answered them one by one.

Unconsciously, more than two hours passed, and the sky had turned to the afternoon, Zhao Ta sat on the chair and stretched, and said, "Mengshu, you have done a good job, you have worked hard all these years." ”

Liu Suiyun said with a smile: "The prince still needs to be polite to his subordinates? I think the prince seems to be a little tired, and now that the banquet has been prepared, the prince will use the banquet first or rest for a while? ”

Zhao Ta thought for a while, and suddenly said, "Backyard...... Nothing, right? ”

Liu Suiyun was stunned when he heard this, then came to his senses, and said: "It's nothing, it's okay, the princesses are fine, and the little prince is fine, no, Princess Xiao learned that the prince was coming, so she had to go to the city gate to greet her, and her subordinates couldn't stop her, but Princess Xiao had martial arts and could ride horses, and her subordinates couldn't get out of the side of the matter, so they agreed to go together." ”

Zhao Ta touched his chin when he heard this, thinking that it was okay, he looked up at the hall, but Xiao Min was not there, and wanted to go back and forth to inform the others, so he said: "Then let's have a banquet first, you can't let everyone go hungry just because this king is tired." ”

Liu Suiyun said with a smile: "The prince is sympathetic to his subordinates, and Suiyun admires him." After speaking, he went out to give the order for a banquet, Zhao Ta sat on the chair and thought quietly, and after a while, the banquet was set up in the Zhizhou Mansion.

This Zhizhou Mansion is the largest mansion in the whole Xining City, it was originally the palace of the King of Qingtang, and later the Great Song Dynasty captured Qingtang City, and it was changed to the state capital Yamen.

The banquet is naturally all under the lineage, there are one or two hundred people, more than a dozen tables, the wine is the plateau specialty barley wine, the dishes are cattle, sheep and birds, although it is not as exquisite as the Central Plains, Jiangnan and other places, but also has a different flavor.

However, because the situation in Xihe is unclear, I don't know if Xizhou has received a military order from the imperial court to send troops north to attack Liao, and if it is not, will it come to Xining to besiege the city, so everyone did not drink too much, even Luda only drank five bowls, and usually asked for at least ten bowls.

When the banquet was over, Zhao Ta left only Liu Suiyun, Lu Junyi, Ouyang Bei and Zhang Xian, and the rest were called to rest.

At this time, it was still early, he took out a piece of paper from his arms and handed it to Liu Suiyun, and said: "I have pondered it in the past few years, the army structure of the Great Song Dynasty is a little too complicated, which is not conducive to command and mobilization, so I have come up with a new set of army formation methods, you take it and take a look, and try to use this method to reorganize the army in the shortest possible time." ”

Liu Suiyun was stunned, he didn't expect Zhao Ta to want to reform the formation of the army, he hurriedly took the paper and looked at it carefully.

Zhao Ta said: "The progressive number of the Great Song Dynasty army from low to high is basically based on the five-five system, and after the army such as Longwei Shenwu is divided into left and right compartments, this is the old law of the five dynasties, although Emperor Taizu changed slightly, but it has not changed much, and it is no longer suitable for today's world, so I upgraded it to the ten-ten system, and re-ordered the title." ”

Liu Suiyun nodded and watched, and the more he looked at it, the more frightened he became, because Zhao Ta's new method looked very rough, but it was simple and easy to understand, much easier to understand than the original customization in the army.

The so-called ten-ten system starts from the lowest level of the system, each level is composed of the number of ten, and the ten levels are grouped together to go up to another level system.

Among them, the smallest formation is the "team", a team of 10 people, with a team leader and a team deputy.

Then the ten "teams" were divided into "battalions", with 100 people in each battalion, and a battalion commander and two deputy battalion commanders.

The 10 "battalion" groups are "guards", with 1,000 guards for each guard, one guard commander and three deputy guard commanders.

The 10 "guard" groups are "armies", with 10,000 people in each army, and one army commander and three deputy army commanders.

The 10 "army" groups are "divisions," with 100,000 people in each division, one division commander and four deputy commanders.

In short, from low to high, the system is organized according to the team, battalion, guard, army, and division, and each organization has a chief officer, and the number of adjutant officers increases according to the increase of the system.

The smallest team had only 10 people, and the tallest division had 100,000 people.

Liu Suiyun couldn't help but say after reading it at this moment: "Lord Wang, if you build an army according to this new method, you will know the number of troops at a glance, and it is indeed easier to distinguish than the original." ”

Zhao Ta took a sip of tea and said: "As for the baggage and grain cooking, these things are all set up with the thousand-person system of Wei, and there is no separate one below, because the number of battalions and teams below is too small, there is no need to stand alone, and it is written on the paper. ”

Liu Suiyun nodded and said, "Lord Wang, now we have more than 15,000 people in our own house, plus more than 1,000 cavalry brought by the prince, and counting the original state soldiers in Xining, we can barely go to two armies." ”

Zhao Ta shook his head and said: "You can't mix and calculate like this, the 10,000 people of the rattan armor soldiers are indeed enough for an army, but the other cavalry is cavalry, and the infantry is infantry, all of which must be separated, which follows the original system of the Great Song Dynasty, the horse army is the horse army, and the infantry army is the infantry army, right...... Subdivided in this way, if the number of people is not enough, then there is no need to set up an army for the time being, and after enough of it, it will increase a little bit upward. ”

Liu Suiyun said: "The subordinates understand, and the subordinates will ponder this matter after they go back." ”

Zhao Ta then looked at Ouyang Beidao: "It's not good to only practice bows and arrows over there, since you put on the rattan armor and picked up the rattan shield, you have to practice the knife technique, you are good at this, you have to teach more simple and effective, since you have a shield on your body, you don't need that kind of tricks to compete in the rivers and lakes, you want to kill people, resist the opponent half a time, and you can kill the opponent's killing method." ”

Ouyang Beidao: "The subordinates know that they have been teaching them sword techniques in the past few days." ”

Zhao Ta looked at Zhang Xian again: "You take the cavalry first, but now there are many horses and few horses, wait for the Xihe side to stabilize, and then select the cavalry from the infantry army to merge it." ”

Zhang Xian said: "Yes, Lord Wang." ”

Zhao Ta then turned his head to look at Lu Junyi: "Senior brother, the infantry army inside and outside the city is temporarily under your command, but some of them are surrendered troops, senior brother should be cautious, I will let General Lu assist you, and the two of you will discuss and act." ”

Lu Junyi said: "I know, General Lu is resourceful, and I will ask him more when the time comes." ”

Zhao Tan nodded, and looked back at Liu Suiyun: "Although Xining is controlled at the moment, there is still some chaos at the moment, but as long as you can control the city and go to the Xihe army to conquer the Liao State, everything can be settled." ”

Liu Suiyun said: "Don't worry, if you just defend the city, with the strength of the Qingtang Dynasty and the abundance of grain and grass, even if all the Xihe Army arrives, it will not be easy to break it!" ”

Zhao Ta squinted at him: "There are nearly 50,000 horses in Xihe, if all of them are here, how long can you hold it?" ”

Liu Suiyun thought for a while and said, "At least a year!" ”

Zhao Ta smiled: "That's good, I'm also a little tired, I have to rest early." ”

Liu Suiyun said: "I'll lead the way for the prince." ”

Zhao Ta nodded, and then walked out of the Zhizhou lobby and went straight to another mansion under the leadership of Liu Suiyun.

After walking for about a quarter of an hour, I came to the door of a mansion, but it was also a big mansion, which was built by Liu Suiyun when Ouyang Bei came to deliver the letter, and was temporarily used as Zhao Ta's palace.

Zhao Ta dismounted in front of the mansion, but watched Lei San run down the steps: "Lord Wang! ”

Zhao Ta handed him the reins of the red horse: "Are you still used to living here?" ”

Lei San scratched his scalp and sneered: "Where is there anything that the little one is not used to, as long as he can follow the prince, the little one has nowhere to go." ”

Zhao Ta entered the door with a smile, and when he saw that he got the news at the moment, many people ran out to greet him.

Xiao Min, Zhang Zhenniang, and Zhao Yuannu were in the head, and Zhu Xiuniang was holding Xiao Zhao Xi behind, and Xiao Zhao Xi saw him at this time and shouted loudly: "Daddy...... Daddy! ”

Then he suddenly broke free from Zhu Xiuniang's embrace, jumped to the ground and ran over.

Zhao Ta picked him up, looked left and right, and said with a smile: "It's darker, but it's a lot stronger, I haven't seen him for more than a month, do you think Daddy?" ”

Xiao Zhao Xi said: "I want to, I want to be a father, but it's not fun here, the child wants to ...... I want to go back to the capital. ”

Zhao Ta laughed and said, "I will go back, I will go back." ”

At this time, Zhang Zhenniang said: "Lord, the food has been prepared inside, just waiting for the prince to come back." ”

Zhao Ta touched his stomach, he hadn't eaten much at the banquet before, and chatted with Liu Suiyun for a long time, he was indeed a little hungry, so he nodded and said, "Okay, let's go eat together." ”

Later, when I arrived in the hall, I saw that a table of wine and food was already placed, so I sat down to eat and drink, and rested directly after eating, without saying anything all night.

(End of chapter)