From Chief to Ball

Red Fish didn't know what the purpose of throwing those heavy stone balls was. She just introduced the items to be competed step by step.

When Weihe was still laughing at the meaninglessness of this kind of competition, more than 50 people in Xiacheng had already started training on the training ground outside the city.

Most of the more than 50 people selected are sword and shield soldiers, and they are tall and long-handed, extremely majestic.The stone balls in their hands were not regular, but they weighed about the same size.

This is the new training content of these sword and shield soldiers after autumn. They didn't adapt to it at first, and their arms became a little sore and swollen after a short time of training.

Someone once asked Chen Jian the same question as Wei He asked.

"Jixia, whether it's archery, running or even impact, these are all prepared for future wars. But throwing stone balls... er, it's projectiles. What's the use of projectiles?"

Chen Jian looked at the toilet outside the city and said with a smile, "Just practice it, it will be useful in the future."

How far the future is, this sword and shield soldier doesn't know. In his opinion, what Jixia said will always come true. The only thing that hasn't come true is the connection between the toilet and the roar of thunder and lightning. future.

He didn't connect these two things that would happen in the future. After listening to Chen Jian's explanation, he continued to train while waving his numb arms.

These sword and shield soldiers are the 50 people with the strongest personal combat and strength in the entire city. Everyone who is selected is very proud. They are the first batch of "new troops" in the city.

The number of the new army is only 120, and all of them are selected. In addition, 30 people are selected from the white horses who have not yet returned, and some people are selected from the wolf belts. The number is about one hundred and sixteen.

They are not the same as the soldiers in the past. The soldiers only have more training than the auxiliary soldiers, and they still need to produce and work in normal times.

And this batch of new troops is completely off-duty, training every day, completely separated from productive labor, all food and drink comes from the public property of the city, and they must undergo rigorous training regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

A new army of 160 people is the limit that Xiacheng can bear. Counting some half-time managers, the number of full-time and half-time people in the entire Xiacheng is close to [-]. Counting the population of slaves and wild people, the proportion of people who are out of work It has reached a terrifying thirty to one ratio.

The combat effectiveness of professional soldiers and conscripted soldiers is not the same. Chen Jian is very clear about this, but 160 full-time soldiers need nearly [-] catties of food and [-] catties of meat every year to ensure the consumption of training and basic survival. A year ago, all the tribes combined could not be guaranteed.

Fortunately, cities were forcibly transitioned from matriarchal communes to primitive countries. The family is not the most basic unit, and can be deployed and distributed through the city's public property and tribes, so it is possible to maintain such a high proportion of off-duty personnel.

These new troops are a new class created abruptly by Chen Jian. They can be regarded as the military aristocrats in the city. Of course, this class is still in its infancy, and it doesn't realize that it has to fight for its own rights and trophies. distribution problem.

But with the growth of the war and the new army's power, they will inevitably surround Chen Jian, and will not consider the interests of the original tribe, but will regard these comrades who do not belong to the same tribe as part of their own class, and strive for their own interests. interests, or even completely betray the interests of the clan.

After they become the strongest standing military force in the city, these people will start to think, why are the spoils distributed to the tribe?Why can't it be distributed to individuals?If I have enough slaves, can I live well without a clan?

Different from the previous soldiers recruited by various tribes, the survival of these new troops only depended on the cities, so they would be the most enthusiastic about centralization and disintegration of tribes, and they were also the basic support for Chen Jian's future plans.

In this era of change and turmoil, Chen Jian not only wanted to seize the interests of the rest of the clan, but even gave up part of the interests of his own clan—not betrayal, but forcing these people from being members of the clan to being citizens of the city— —What you give up is only the interests of the clan as a whole, not the interests of the members of the clan.When people realize that they are citizens of the city, the interests of the clan have nothing to do with these people, so Chen Jian doesn't have to worry that he will suffer a huge backlash.

These new troops haven't thought so much yet, but they already feel the difference between themselves and the rest of the city.

Their barracks were outside the city, and more than 30 newly built houses completely disrupted the boundaries between the tribes. Five people lived in a small house, and the corps leader was elected to take full charge of the soldiers' daily training and life, even including eating. Do things like this together as much as possible.

Their food is also better than the rest of the city, mainly because some meat and fat are much more than the rest of the city.

Before getting an order, it is strictly forbidden to leave the new military camp five hundred paces around, and those who violate it will be whipped.Different from the rest of the tribe, these new troops rest for two days every ten days, and they can go to the women in the city, or use some daily necessities such as food and soap that are distributed more every ten days to go to the market to exchange items.

These people are not used to this kind of life at first, but the harsh enforcers will whip them to get used to it.Chen Jian will not come forward to stop these people, but he will go to the place where these people live to visit these people after they are whipped. Sometimes people have to report to him when they are sick, and he will bring the prepared sick number and extra meals. .

Try to make the soldiers here aware of a problem: it is the laws of the army that punish them, not a certain person. On the contrary, Chen Jian, as a military leader, will also ask his relatives and make them aware of the difference.

There is also a special person in charge of the daily training. They have to get up very early in the morning, sing a battle song of holding hands together, and then the corporal leader will go to get breakfast.

The biggest difference between the daily meals and the people in the city is that there are a lot of boiled beans and fish. Chen Jian tries his best to ensure their protein needs.

A unique meal and a unique way of living, this is what seems to be different from the previous soldiers for the time being.

In the beginning, these people only practiced running endurance and queuing up, and they didn't even issue weapons. The various tests in the previous selection seemed to be of no use at all.

Most of these men were already familiar with queuing and discipline, and after a few days of training they grew weary and kept asking how they were going to fight in the future.

A few days later, fifty sword and shield soldiers were selected to start new training, and the rest were still queuing up there.

In addition to the previous training methods, the new training method of sword and shield soldiers is the newly added item of throwing stone balls.

Since Chen Jian named it Throwing Bomb, the purpose is of course the same. In the future, what they throw will definitely not be stone balls, but clay pots that can explode.

At the beginning, Chen Jian said that he wanted to use the toilet to let his tribe see the power of thunder and lightning, which originated from the idea of ​​gunpowder.The materials needed for gunpowder are very simple, saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur. The production capacity of the charcoal tribe is already sufficient, and saltpeter Chen Jian also has a plan. The sulfur was not found before, but the place where the various tribes gather is an extinct volcano, and there should be sulfur mines there. , maybe just hid and slept in a place where people couldn't find it in the city.

But a few days ago, some people who came back from Yancun brought Chen Jian some strange stones. They all knew the habit of wanting those strange stones, and the rewards have changed from clay pots to wheat flour now. .

The clansmen know that bronze is smelted from stone, so they know the importance of stone to the city, and the stronger the city, the better off they will be, so even without those rewards, they will still use all kinds of things they see occasionally Bring back the stone.

This time, the strange stone brought back has a light yellow color, and when it is lit, it will emit some pungent smell, which is very unpleasant.

Whether it smells bad or not has nothing to do with these stone pickers. They heard that drinking the blue water near the copper mine will kill them, but it doesn't affect the fact that some people used that kind of stones in exchange for rewards.

When this light yellow stone, which was easily broken into powder, was handed over to Chen Jian, Chen Jian readily rewarded them. Everyone had it, and asked where they found it.

This kind of stone is sulfur, and it is natural sulfur with good purity.

The corner of the latrine, which had been immersed for a year, began to show frost as the weather got colder. Although the efficiency of this was very low, Chen Jian had figured out how to expand the scale and increase the speed.

As a result, the three materials for making black powder are ready. As for whether it will lead history to an unknown situation, Chen Jian has never considered this issue at all. If you are afraid of east and west, the best way is to keep it as it is Squatting in the mountains to hunt, besides, this world has no history yet, and no one knows what will happen in the future.

Chen Jian didn't know the ratio of gunpowder, but he could write chemical formulas, so he could infer the theoretical optimal ratio of black powder, so he didn't rush to configure gunpowder, but started the reform of the military system, and first selected fifty A person who will be responsible for throwing black powder bombs.

It is autumn now, the salt pond has not been built yet, everything is on paper, even if it is built, the saltpeter will not be mass-produced until next summer when the temperature is high enough, so Chen Jian has to train a batch within a year New arms to ensure that gunpowder can be transformed into combat power when it is produced.

The pottery plus gunpowder will not be very powerful, because the hardness of pottery is too low, the cost of stone carving is too high, and the cost of bronze is even higher. Even if the pottery is added with preset fragments, it may not be too big. power.

But there will definitely be scary noises and fireworks, which will inevitably cause some confusion. A big firecracker can also hurt people if you are lucky, let alone a bomb with enough gunpowder in the plan.

Chaos is the greatest enemy of the army. The future task of these sword and shield soldiers is to create chaos in the enemy's neat army formation, thereby tearing a gap.

Not only them, the 160 new troops in the plan are all offensive and shock-opening gaps, and those defensive engagements are carried out by troops recruited by various tribes.

Chapter 30 New Army

In addition to these chaotic throwing sword and shield soldiers, Chen Jian also gathered all the carpenters and wheelwrights in the city, and spent more than ten days making a simple chariot.

The chariot was about six feet long and was drawn by two horses, because the more horses there were, the more difficult it was to control, and because the horses ran at different speeds, the more horses the slower the chariot was actually.

The standard configuration of the chariot is three people, the middle is the hand, and only carries a short copper sword. Usually, the main task is to control the chariot, and only get out of the chariot to fight on foot when the chariot is damaged.

The person on the right is holding an improved spear, which is somewhat similar to a halberd. It can be stabbed, and it can also use the hook to kill the enemy on the right during high-speed impact. At the same time, his task is to protect the chariot. Jump out of the car and pad the mud pit.

The reason for standing on the right is because the right hand holds the weapon, which can maximize the range of the assassination impact.

The person on the left side of the chariot holds a bow and arrow and a javelin, which is much easier than shooting on a horse. If the horse is bumpy and cannot use force, it can be easily dealt with by standing on the chariot, and it can be used to shoot the enemy before the impact. Throw short spears and javelins at close range.

There are wooden boards in front of the three people as carriages, which are covered with animal skins for protection. This is a heavy-duty impact tank, and it is mainly used to open the gap.

If the infantry wants to fight, they must form an formation. Once the formation is broken, the fate of the infantry is to be slaughtered. The war in this era mainly depends on who can tear apart the opponent's formation first.

Chariots have a huge advantage in the stirrupless era. Once charged, they can easily break through a not-so-close army formation.