The first rain after autumn came, and after all, Shanshan came.

The swarthy young man returned from the wounded barracks with a lot of concern, and the autumn rain had begun to sporadically, dripping on the metal armor, sliding to the ground, and then being sucked into his arms by the loess, turning into raw essence.

Loess is the kindest and the most affectionate. She didn't say a word, silently let people work on her body, people greedily took it from her, everyone has been eating loess all their lives, we have the essence of the loess conceived, eat their own strength, tossing day after day, but never asking the feeling of the land.

In the end, the earth ate a bite, and after a bite, there was nothing.

People eat the land for a lifetime, and the land eats people!

Even if there is a thousand-year-old iron threshold, there must be a soil steamed bun in the end!

Almost every day, people in the wounded battalion were buried in the soil to give the last bite to the soil.

"I don't know if I'll eat the soil one day!" The swarthy young man sighed in his heart, looking at the current situation of Suiyang City, it is no longer just difficult to describe in two words, God knows how long it can last!

Thinking about it like this, he had already returned to the barracks where he was. In the courtyard of the barracks, the dozens of newly recruited chicks are standing in the courtyard at this time, just now listening to the officers' lectures, they have a half-understanding of some of the discipline requirements in the army, at this moment they are familiar with each other, head to ear, this pile of piles, obviously there are two black nest heads of the lower belly, so that this group of chicks is not so timid, the sense of belonging is doubled, and the state is also lively.

The young proprietor and the other three young sergeants had already completed the formalities of the roster at this time, and each baby also pressed a red fingerprint on the roster, and this bright red fingerprint was like a soul mark drawn by the judge of the prefecture, and sooner or later it would have to be returned. When the swarthy boy returned, several people took these recruits to the ordnance office to get their uniforms, and began to officially put on the life-threatening protective clothing.

Although the armor is thick and can save lives, the arrows are tricky and specialize in shooting people.

If you don't wear armor, the arrow won't shoot you, if you wear armor, the arrow will try to shoot you, but whether you are a new soldier or a veteran, if you are targeted by a cannibalistic arrow, it will kill you.

It's just that these little chicks don't know this truth yet, they are still excited, especially for more black nests in the future, full of longing and expectation, they don't know that the two corn black bumps they ate this morning are likely to be the last meal they have eaten in this life.

Of course, they are the chicks of the thirteenth and fourteenth, where do they know how long a life is, they don't know, even the swarthy boy and the young owner don't know, but Zhang Zhongcheng knows. No one knows better than him how many walks he has to walk, how many people he has to meet, and how many nests he has to eat. Therefore, whenever the roster of personnel is passed down below, looking at that person's name, whether it is killed in battle or newly recruited, Zhang Zhongcheng silently recites that person's name in his heart, and every name and surname in the roster is a debt of human life that he has to bear.

In his life, if there is really the Nine Yin Mansion, he must go down.

A group of people from the Shaodong family took these recruits to the ordnance camp, and along the way, these dolls who had never seen the world looked around, and they had to sigh no matter what they saw. For example, the most common ones on the school field, the stone locks and stone burdens used by the soldiers to practice strength, the straw man targets used to practice archery tied to the wooden stakes, and the neatly placed long soldiers and short blades, they see what they say, one by one, they scramble, always trying to appear that they know more than others. Further back, I passed the war horse camp, and those sheds were tied to the legendary war horses.

After all, it is a child of a poor family, although I heard adults say that donkeys and mules look very similar to horses, and donkeys and mules in the fields are also common, as for real horses, only occasionally those young masters in the landlord's family will go out to greet relatives or something will get a few real horses to mention their identity, but they are also common people's horses, although they are much more expensive than ordinary livestock, but after all, they are all inferior, and they are the same as these people, they are all inferior goods. But now I see these military horses, all of them belong to the emperor's family, listen to those old men say, this horse can be exchanged for dozens of acres of land, the gold is very expensive, but it is much more valuable than our small lives.

Listening to these little cubs, they looked at the mighty military horses with boundless envy, and their mouths emitted bursts of emotion and praise, and the few of them couldn't help but turn their heads to those stables. There would be about one hundred and sixty or seventy horses tethered to the stable, which was almost the entire number of horses they had. Before the start of the war, Xu Tai Shouguang collected more than 2,000 military horses, you know, more than 2,000 war horses are such a huge amount of wealth, when An Lushan paid tribute to the emperor when he offered only 3,000 horses, it is conceivable that Xu Yuan and Zhang Xun made such a careful plan for Suiyang, but unfortunately later Song Yanzong divided more than 700 horses, leaving 1,23, and then with the progress of the war, more than seven months of turns, only less than 200 horses remained, and the more than 1,000 high-headed horses have been fed with the loess of the master of the expedition, Horse leather shrouded.

These war horses in the entire city defense war, by Zhang Zhongcheng they skillfully used the art of war, played an unprecedented role, if the high wall and deep river is the foundation of the perseverance, then these war horse cavalry is the spiritual pillar of the city defenders. They were seen as encouragement and hope by the whole city.

According to military common sense, the defending side of the city is in a weak position, and it basically does not have the conditions to go out of the city to annihilate the enemy, not to mention that the enemy is more than ten times larger than itself like Suiyang City. However, Zhang Zhongcheng Xu was too dangerous to defend the army, far-sighted, combining attack and defense, they learned and used the famous examples of defending the city in the history books, and thus created a variety of methods and tactics to confuse the enemy soldiers, adding up the virtual and the real, and was born under the siege of more than 100,000 troops, not only the defense was almost perfect, but also many times with cavalry out of the city gate to attack the camp, lightning before the battle, burning the opponent's camp, intercepting and killing the opponent's backup grain and grass, etc., even miraculously forced the other party to retreat again and again, and again and again to inspire the morale of the Suiyang army and people. In everyone's heart, they think that if it weren't for the lack of people, General Nan Jiyun would not be able to reproduce the courage of the champion Hou of the Han Dynasty!

Therefore, these people guarding Suiyang City not only did not have the fear and abandonment after being besieged like those in the history books, but they all had a high fighting spirit, always looking forward to going out of the city to kill the enemy. These cavalry led by Nan Jiyun gave all the defenders great confidence. In their hearts, they unanimously agreed, not to mention that you are only a hundred thousand thieves, if we have enough thousands of war horses for General Nan, we city people will not bother to go up to the city wall at all, and directly open the city gate, step on the tall horse, raise the horizontal knife in our hands, and ensure that the enemy will not be able to lift his pants to kill more than 100,000 people. It's a pity that the thieves don't open their eyes, there are not so many military horses to use, and now they can only hold their breath, but fortunately, in this city, let the thieves taste grandpa's archery, and if you can't shoot seventeen or eighteen transparent holes, you will be lucky and live for so many more days. Zhang Zhongcheng advised everyone that at this moment, they have to compromise and defend the city, and wait for the emperor's side to free up his hand, and when the time comes, the army will press the border, and the inside and outside should be combined, so as to ensure that none of these rebels besieging the city can escape.

It's just that what the soldiers and civilians defending Suiyang don't understand is that more than seven months have passed, and the emperor hasn't freed up his hands to rescue, so anxious to wait, it's really a desperate person!

The horses in the stables were fat and strong, and they seemed to be human, and they all wanted to run out of the city, so that they could follow their masters and trample on the fearless rats who were besieging the city. It's just that the horses don't know that their owners can't be like them. They eat fodder wheat straw, and they are full, and the owners cannot eat grass, and they can only starve next to each other without food.

A group of people left the stable, came to the ordnance department, at this time the ordnance department was full of people, more than two hundred recruit dolls chirping, holding mighty armor military boots in their hands, each of them was gossiping, showing off to the people around them, as if the chick cub had changed into a majestic general on the battlefield, and the head of the enemy general in the army was cut off, like a bag to get something!

The Ordnance Department is the most surplus place in the entire city defense military department, and the armor and blades here are piled up, on the one hand, thanks to Xu Taishou's abundant preparation in the early stage, and some of them were captured by Zhang Zhongcheng during the war.

Datang is rich and has attracted the attention of the world. Recalling the heyday of the Kaiyuan Dynasty in the past, Xiaoyi especially hid thousands of families. The stability and peace of the decades before and after the Kaiyuan Dynasty created a strong country and a rich people in the Tang Dynasty, so the entire Tang Empire was more than enough in terms of food and weapons and armor. Ordinary sergeants alone are all iron-clad and hard bows, and the blades of knives and guns are also high-quality, shining with cold light. The crossbows prepared in Suiyang City are even more varied, including the Wei Wu Twelve Stone Crossbows, the Qin Crossbows, the Han Six Stone Crossbows, and the Zhuge Repeater Crossbow, which one is comparable to the Tang Crossbow. There are also many large bed crossbows and car crossbows used for siege. The arrows are neatly arranged and piled up. There are many kinds of arrows, there are light arrows, heavy arrows, blunt arrows, armor-piercing arrows, rockets, sentry arrows, and the arrows of the opposite thief are also abundantly seized, thousands of variety.

According to the general military practice, there are more than seven months to defend the city, and the arrows prepared in Suiyang City should have been stretched thin, but just looking at the current scene, there is not much left as the enemy guessed, and it is simply inexhaustible! Speaking of which. I have to mention Zhang Zhongcheng, he is really a god!

As early as when Zhang Zhongcheng was still that small county order, the world heard that An Lushan rebelled, Zhang Xun immediately raised the banner of righteousness to resist the thief, he was in Yongqiu when the city was urgent, so that the fox tide was also many, and the arrows were not enough after defending the city for a period of time, so he learned from the late Han Dynasty overlord Sun Quan grass boat to borrow arrows, ordered people to tie hundreds of straw men, and then put leather armor on the grass man, tied the straw man with a rope and hung it on the Yongqiu city wall, beat the war drums, so that the fox tide was really suspicious, thinking that Zhang Xun was going to send someone to steal the camp at night, and he was in a hurry to fire ten thousand arrows, When the rain of arrows fell, Zhang Xun ordered the people to pull back the straw man, and the flag died down. A few hours later, they did the same, and in this way they got tens of thousands of arrows in one night. After that, he combined the virtual and the real, and gained more.

After arriving in Suiyang City, he was even more cunning, so that Yin Ziqi knew that Linghu Chao was deceived, but he had to follow in his footsteps and suffered heavy losses. So this is also the confidence that Suiyang can hold on for more than seven months and still have extraordinary combat power.

The more than 20 instructors, the young owner and the swarthy boy, received a set of armor equipment for each recruit according to the roster of recruits and the garrison soldiers of the Ordnance Department according to the warrior standards, and after the distribution, everyone was asked to adjust the size of the armor according to the height, fat and thin. After more than an hour of commotion, it was finally distributed. Each recruit received a set of armor and equipment that suited him, and he didn't pay attention to the drizzle, everyone was flushed and excited, looking at the bright armor in his arms, he didn't feel heavy at all, and he couldn't wait to put it on immediately, and then shake the majesty.

Seeing that everyone was in place, each team leader and instructor gathered their own departments, re-divided into four teams, braved the red sun and drizzle, and returned with a full load. After returning to the barracks courtyard, the young owner, as the leader of the group, beckoned everyone to rest for a while, and he asked the swarthy young man to lead a group of people to the empty barracks, and settled the beds for the child soldiers to stay, and after lunch, they gathered in the courtyard and began to receive formal training.

The black nest head of the lunch made these dolls excited again, eating hot rice soup and soaking rice, and then looking at the neatly stacked armor, the recruits were like ants on a hot pot, hoping that the instructor would quickly give the order, so that they could wear the majestic bright armor earlier.

Finally, in the anticipation of this group of children, the young owner gave an order, and all the people immediately brought armor to the courtyard to practice.

This newly cleaned up barracks is a courtyard surrounded by wings on three sides, the place is still quite spacious, the last batch of soldiers who have lived in have been on the battlefield for more than a month, and there are no people on weekdays, but today's empty courtyard suddenly poured in so many recruits, but it seems to be full of vitality.

The first thing in the training is what these chicks have been waiting for for a long time:

"Armor".

Because the number of armor was already abundant, and the war was protracted, many people with armor died, and even more equipment was left, so now everyone in Suiyang City is equipped with Mingguang armor.

"Mingguang armor" is also the standard configuration of the Tang Dynasty sergeants, there are several styles, the earliest appeared in the late Han Dynasty, but not as rich and exquisite as the current style. The Mingguang armor has been polished with very bright armor, but now because of the wealth of the country and because of the smelting and building technology in the Western Regions introduced to China, the armament forging technology has been greatly improved before, and it is no longer the simple iron armor of the Han Dynasty. At this time, the Mingguang armor piece is tight, the force is reasonable, the head, neck, shoulders, hands, arms, chest, abdomen, legs, feet are complete, the protection and aesthetics are greatly improved, and it is really "the light of the sun, the world is bright".

Shaodong family used to hear the blacksmith say that the whole set of Mingguang armor is made of a combination of iron and leather, each armor is made of 1,590 pieces of fish scale armor and 644 pieces of long strip armor, the chest and back armor from the previous plate shape to metal round protection, better protect the wearer's chest and abdominal internal organs, these safety parts, metal round guard compared with the previous plate armor structure, through the oval structure of the protruding form of the difference, increased the force buffer, greatly weakened the bow and arrow and spear penetrating force, As much as possible, the puncture wounds and internal shock injuries suffered by the wearer are minimized, and armor piercing is equivalent to having a superpower that is equal to ten. And each piece of metal round guard is extremely smooth, like a mirror, the dazzling light reflected in the sunlight is not only beautiful, but also can deter the incoming enemy, those defenders of the Tang border pass can destroy countless countries, among which the excellent armor and weapons are indispensable. A complete set of armor requires thirty or forty craftsmen, and it takes more than half a year of effort to complete, and the cost is very expensive, and the top half of the military horse is almost topped.

Of course, the Mingguang armor that they are now equipped with as standard for these recruits is not a complete equipment, after all, a full set of complete armor is not unworthy of the army, but it is too heavy. Generals like Nanji, Yunlei, and Wanchun, who are thousands of enemies, are the most complete armor they wear. From the red tassel on his head, to the combat boots on the soles of his feet, a complete set of armor weighs more than forty pounds, not to mention the hairy boy who is a big fart now, he is a normal adult, without professional training, he can't run a few steps away in such armor, let alone go into battle to kill the enemy.

The task assigned to them now is to teach these children how to wear armor, how to go to battle, and how to survive the rain of guns and arrows. It can be said that if you wear armor on the battlefield, you will have a few more lives, and in the same way, if you wear armor, your life may also be harvested faster. This is like the contradiction of the Chu people in the city, although it sounds ridiculous at first glance, but under the careful taste, it is more helpless and unknown sadness.

Taoism talks about yin and yang bearing the burden, Confucianism talks about the cycle of heavenly principles, and explains karma, all of which are like this!

Although the armor of the Suiyang garrison is the same as that of the entire army of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Zhongcheng added a small change on this basis, he asked everyone to wear a silk lining, don't underestimate this silk underwear, this thin silk material, in Zhang Xun's heart, it is a grace that can save his life.

Silk no matter in which era, is a real luxury, far after the Yanhuang period, as close as the rice fat of the Tang Dynasty is no exception, the value of silk is equivalent to real money, has always been the upper class of the wearing standard. Not only because it has a soft texture and bright colors, but also because it is "expensive". Ordinary people wear coarse cloth clothes spun and sewn by their own women, and the color is also pulped into black and gray such a dirt-resistant and cheap hue, and no one will dye the cloth into fancy colors such as red, red, green and green. These clothes, pants, shoes and socks made of coarse cloth only meet the original role of covering shame and keeping warm. There are even more unbearable families who don't even have this coarse cloth, and the family can only wear sackcloth, which is not known to those rich people who are used to wearing silk clothes.

Silk fabrics are very different from coarse linen clothes, each silk product consumes a lot of silk and artificial craftsmanship, and the silk fabric has a variety of colors, different styles, the more bright and gorgeous the silk, the price of the corresponding rising boat, wear out others naturally know that the price is expensive, for those princes and nobles, it is a symbol of status, silent show-off, flowers and greens are golden and silver. Just like Gan Ning and Yang Guang, who use brocade as a cable, where they care about the brocade itself, what they care about is the blood and sweat of the "silkworms" and "people" in each silk thread.

Those who are all over Luo Qi are naturally not silkworm breeders.

Although Zhang Xun is honest and thrifty, after all, the family has an industry, coupled with fame, the wealthy royal family distributes silk materials to each official every year, Zhang Xun asked his family to make these materials into underwear, which is not visible to the outside when worn closely, and is much more comfortable than ordinary coarse cloth. Over time, he also developed a habit, and later put on his pen, put on armor, and habitually wore silk underwear. It is precisely because of this inconspicuous habit that Zhang Xun discovered an unexpected use of silk clothes between life and death.

It is said that at that time, Zhang Xun led the troops to stick to Yongqiu, so that tens of thousands of people in the fox tide department attacked under the city, Zhang Xun took the lead in the city wall to hold, the arrows on both sides are like flying locusts, you come and go, so that the fox tide department has a fierce general, the division from the soldiers outside the "Yimen", the archery is exquisite, about one hundred and twenty steps away from the city, take a bow and an arrow, in the middle of Zhang Xun's left shoulder, fortunately there is an armor block, but the arrow has still entered the flesh, although Zhang Xun suffered, but still gritted his teeth and insisted, raised his arms and shouted, his sergeants saw that their adults were wounded by arrows and did not fall, they were greatly encouraged, and fought bravely to kill the enemy. Nan Jiyun saw that Zhang Xun was shot by the enemy general, and he was even more ashamed, annoyed that he was not well protected, so he sent the full killing through the arrow and shot back to the general.

Seeing that Nan Jiyun was full of thunder when Zhang Xun hit the arrow, he grabbed the longbow of the person around him, took the arrow and pulled the bow, and the whole body was really circulating, gathering the power of heaven and earth in the personal domain field together, squeezing it into the entire arrow, following the direction of the air flow of the arrow, his eyes searched for the archery master on the opposite side like electricity, and from the power of heaven and earth contained in the opponent's arrow, Nan Jiyun judged that this person should be the same as him, and the shooting technique came from the same place. After a while, he locked on to the target in the enemy army, at this moment he didn't pay attention to the door, shouted "death" angrily, and shot at the other party with an arrow as soon as he let go of his hand, the earth-shattering arrow, full of Nanjiyun's anger, cut the void, burst out of a sharp sound of breaking the air, and the wind galloped through the steel helmet in front of the general's forehead, shot into the head and out of the back of the head, and the arrow carried the opponent's body, dragging the body of more than 100 catties from the horseback to the big tree behind him, nailing the general to the trunk, his feet hanging in the air, his eyes were round, Suddenly a life!

Ling Fox Chao looked at the beloved general who was close at hand, and at this moment, he was shot through one hundred and twenty steps away, and he was so frightened that he fell off the horse, and ran back with a stream of urine. The sergeants under his command saw that their invincible general was nailed to the tree, and the commander was even more frightened to flee, and saw that the momentum on the opposite side was like a rainbow, the Yongqiu City Gate Suspension Bridge had been half-fallen, and those elite horsemen holding sabers were ready to jump out of the door. As soon as the flag fell, the whole team seemed to be blind, panicked, and suddenly the whole army turned on their backs and was in chaos. The bow and crossbow department bore the brunt of the attack, threw down the bow and crossbow, and fled to all sides, the left and right sides are the cavalry department, and the rear is the long army department, and the men and horses on all sides lost the command of the battle formation, just like headless flies, running around without life, just looking forward to the farther away from the Yongqiu City as possible, colliding with each other, you come and go. The rider did not care about his comrades who tripped under his feet, and rode up, only urging the horse to run fast in order to save his own life. The long soldiers are also in a mess at the moment, their armor is heavy, and the long soldiers in their hands are very obstructive, they are hit by those lightly armed bows and crossbows, and they are even more angry and shouting for their father and mother, they throw down the guns and spears in their hands, just thinking about removing the obstacles in front of them, so that they can escape with their lives.

Before the drawbridge was stabilized, hundreds of murderous cavalry had already rushed out, their spears raised high, shouting in their mouths, and stabbing at high speed towards the nest of hornets in front of them. These hundreds of cavalry soon rushed into the enemy's army, and the weapons in their hands were like hot knives cutting butter, sharp blades cutting tofu, and killing several transparent back and forth. Those rebels only hated their parents for having a few legs less, even rolling and crawling, and finally lost thousands of lives, survived a small half, and returned to the camp, and more than 1,000 people fled on the way, this battle made the fox tide tremble, and regardless of the enmity with Zhang Xun, they only begged to be as far away from the madman named Nan Jiyun as possible, and more than 40,000 people were forced to be chased by more than 3,000 people to find their parents.

It is rumored in the world that Nan Jiyun is the first archery in the world, and he really deserves his name!

At the end of the war, Zhang Xun was helped into the inner room for treatment, and in everyone's uneasy worry, the medical officer opened the wound and found that although the arrow shot through the armor and entered the flesh for a few inches, it was not all submerged, and the most fatal barb was still left outside, although it was only a line apart, but it blocked life and death. According to the past practice, the strength of the armor-piercing arrows shot by a master of that level is very terrifying, and the tip and blade of the arrow can definitely form a penetrating wound, although there is an armor grid to block a huge amount of damage, but it is extremely lucky that such a result occurs. The arrow blade runs through, and the heavy one hurts the life, and the whole arm has to be scrapped, even if it is just into the flesh, it will cut out a large wound wound, and a larger wound needs to be cut out during treatment, and then dig out the arrow, so that whether it is the bleeding and destruction during the treatment, or the later maintenance to prevent infection, it bears a huge risk, and a generation of gods Guan Yunchang is because of the arrow wound on the arm caused by the combat power is not as good as before, and the difference between life and death is not trivial.

Seeing that the arrow barb was now blocked from the body, it was relatively easy to deal with, and they knew that Lord Zhang's injuries were much lighter than expected, and they secretly shouted in their hearts that God would protect them.

Zhang Xun also knew in his heart that he was very lucky, except for the blessing of God in the dark, he couldn't think of a better explanation than this, maybe God didn't let him die, and his life had to be kept. Taking advantage of the time to recuperate, he repeatedly studied the various factors that led to such a result at that time, combined with his own thoughts, consulted the medical officer, and studied the experiment together, and finally came to a whimsy, insisting that it was the inner silk coat that played the last layer of protection at that time.

The silk is fine, the toughness is good, although it is light and transparent, it is softer than ordinary cloth, and in the face of the rigidity of the arrow, it uses the softness to dissolve the last part of the force and reduce the wound surface. This is the explanation given by Zhang Xun, he said that everything in the "Daozang" is mutually reinforcing, and there must be a great sense between heaven and earth. After that, Zhang Xun ordered that when all sergeants put on armor, they must wear a silk underwear close to their bodies, and there must be no mistakes. He prayed that the thin silk robe would carry God's favor and save the lives of some of the city defenders.

But such a far-fetched explanation, in addition to talking about masturbation, I'm afraid it's difficult to deceive the ghosts!

Where do these children of poor families know these truths, they only sigh in their hearts, the official master is rich, and everyone is given a silk dress, fortunately, there is enough silk in the treasury, they can also be a big dog, wear silk clothes, luxury, and when they go back later, they have to give some bragging to their family members.