From Chief to Ball

"So you have to fight hard, not only for your own merits, but also because I am determined not to compromise with them. If you can't beat them, I have to invite them back. I am also afraid of death, so I can only send them back. If you sell it, An An will be my nobleman with peace of mind."

The soldiers all laughed, but they did not forget to hold their spears or heavy muskets tightly.

"Let's go. In the evening, mutton soup with white noodles, one catty of wine per person, and a good meal. The company captains of each company stay here, and the stewards and soldier committee members will calculate how much you have left for food expenses, and report to them collectively." Come up, what do you want to buy these two days, the Supply and Marketing Department has tried its best to gather it for you."

Everyone waited for the company captains of each company to shout the slogan of disbanding, and dispersed in small groups. The propaganda team next to them had already set up a stage and began to perform some dramas. The girls from the medicine class in the distance were preparing cotton cloth and All kinds of herbs, busy but not messy.

Chen Jian took the list of each company and compared the number and equipment.

A field group of 400 people in total is composed of the new generation of the Xia Kingdom, and they are generally equipped with spears and muskets.

There are 150 people in the spear company and 80 people in the musket company. There are 28 companies in total, with a total of 200 people. This is the main force to maintain the front.

Musketeers don't wear armor, and the captain of the first row of the spear company wears a simple layer of armor.

The 300-man Habayashi Guards are shock cavalry with stirrups, spears and bronze swords, and are covered with a layer of armor. They are not equipped with long-range projectile weapons such as bows and javelins.

The 300-man black-clothed guards are shock heavy infantry equipped with swords and shields. When necessary, they also throw cast iron ignition bombs to blow up gaps before charging, or they need to make up gaps in their own front lines.

Leihuowei is an artillery unit, the earliest contact with muskets but not much use.Eight portable cannons fired three catties of iron pellets, and seventeen smaller cannons fired one catty of iron pellets or crushed iron sand.

This can be regarded as the most luxurious army in the world at this time. Regardless of weapons and equipment, most of the soldiers can write their own names, can recognize those Qiyin characters, and can add, subtract, multiply and divide within hundreds.Company officers are all graduates of military classes, or veterans who have fought several battles, and have systematically learned simple tactical skills.

Seven years, or more than seven years, from the school when he was a child to the collective work in a slightly larger farm or workshop, plus five years of training, Chen Jian can say that this army has the entire world at this time. Discipline and resilience at their best.

Even if this army is gone, as long as Yucheng still has the advantage of ships, relying on those workshop workers, miners, and farmers in collective farms, a group of disciplined recruits can be organized in half a year, but it is not necessary.

Once this battle is won, muskets will replace bows and crossbows and become the long-range projectile weapons of this ethnic group in the future. The price of making a qualified crossbow is not cheaper than a musket, let alone owning regular wrought iron. After the method, the crossbow is a crooked road without gunpowder, and the bow from single body to recurve to compound power is getting stronger and stronger in front of gunpowder, so there is no need to go.

When flints and bayonets appeared, it was basically impossible for nomads to change the course of history—there was also cotton, and the jungles in the northeast could be cultivated for a long time. The 600-year technological advantage was enough to give birth to the best places. population into arable land.

Although there are many clans in cities and towns that oppose Xia, as long as the field troops controlled by Suyue are wiped out, and iron tools and tools are used to open the way, distribute cattle, send iron tools and liberate slaves, everything will be ruined, and there is no need to fight against each other. In order not to compromise after the fight, taking away this group of old-fashioned priests and relatives is the best ending. At least within [-] miles around Yucheng, you don’t need nobles, you only need officials to govern them. Over the years, the Xia Kingdom has cultivated enough reserve bureaucrats.

……

In Sucheng, Suyue is also carrying out the final pre-war mobilization, and the crimes about Xia Kingdom mentioned in the oath are only for those relatives and noble priests.

Facing the forest of spears, bows and arrows, chariots, and iron armor bought with a lot of grain and copper, Su Yue was also very excited. After talking about honor, ancestors, and close blood, the only thing he could say was That is, "defeat Yucheng and destroy Xia County, each person will be given an iron pot, each person will have a cow, an iron plowshare, and three slaves."

Then there was a burst of cheers.

After saying this, Su Tang, the son, was worried. He knew too well what the Xia State army in Yucheng looked like.

Finally, after Su Yue finished all this, Su Tang found his father and asked, "Father, do you think you can defeat Ji Xia?"

"Perhaps. But there is no other way. I thought that Jixia would attack Dongyi, but after waiting for three years, he still hasn't gone. There are more and more people in Xinhua City, and in another five years there will be another army." An army that can fight in the field alone. What else can you do besides fighting? You also know how many people in Xia Kingdom can read and count? How many know more than our priests? How many officials they call ?”

"Can he use so much for a Xia country? If he doesn't need it, if I don't beat him, he will come and beat me. If we wait a few more years until the soldiers from Xinhua City are trained, he will start a war with Dongyi in Xinhua City , using words such as family unity to force us to send troops to the east, shall we go or not?"

"No, he can unite with more cities and drive me down in one fell swoop. Who else dares to become the leader and high priest of the tribes?"

"Go ahead, how can we be his opponents compared to enlisting those Dongyi slaves and civilians? One extra person will give Xia Guo more power. What can we do if we want to oppose him ten years later? Let's fight Dongyi The more the Yi beat the people, the less they captured some slaves. He beat the Dongyi, but he was able to go there with officials and tools, and killed all the relatives and priests, leaving slaves and lowly civilians. After five years, those people became slaves. A person who farms, reclaims and smelts land in the Xia Kingdom."

"Sooner or later, you have to fight, the sooner you fight, the better your chances of winning."

Su Tang sighed, and understood the helplessness involved, and suddenly asked curiously: "Father accuses Ji Xia of the crimes, does father really believe it?"

Su Yue shook his head and said with a smile, "How could you believe it?"

"Then father really believes in Qiongxi?"

"Of course I don't believe it. It's just that we lost to Qiongxi, and our family's wealth and rights can still be passed on. Is there any way for him to manage so many people from our Dahe tribe? Isn't it because he wants to win over some of us so that our clansmen won't be killed?" Too much resistance."

"But if we lose to Jixia, what can you and I do? Do we still have rights? There is nothing left. Jixia doesn't need us anymore, we are old, and he wants someone to be an official to rule over everyone. In ten years, groups of people can become officials."

"Books are good things, but they must be passed on among the families of our chief priests, and no one else is allowed to read them. This is a good thing. If everyone can read it, then we must destroy it."

"I thought of a good way. I may not be able to accomplish this way. I can only rely on you. Once the country of Xia is destroyed, burn all the books and kill all the people in the world who can read except us, the chief priests. Then Let the priests find a way to create a kind of characters, which cannot be written and remembered as easily as the characters of the Xia Kingdom, if they are so difficult, it will take five or six years for a person to read them.”

"In this way, only we can master these characters, and those humble people will never be able to understand the content in them. They have no time to learn this kind of characters. All knowledge is written in this kind of characters, can it still be unstable? ?"

Su Tang sighed, "This is not good for the tribes of Dahe."

"The Tribes of the Great River? What are those? Only leaders like you and the noble priests are qualified to say it. Some of those lowly people don't even have surnames, so what are they worthy of talking about the Tribes of the Great River? The Great River that Jixia said What the ministries and we are talking about is not the same thing at all, you have to figure it out."

"Forget it, you'll understand gradually. Take a day off and follow me tomorrow to fight Jixia."

Chapter 133 The Final Battle ([-])

In May of 43, Xia Guo finished his vows and crawled towards Sucheng like a tortoise at a speed of twenty miles a day.

The distance between the two cities is only four to five hundred miles, and there are one or two small towns along the way. It has already been a strategy of choosing who is nearby to support whom.

It seems that Awayake has many alliances, but gathering tens of thousands of people in one place is not a sign of strong force in this era, but will naturally become a chaotic disaster.

The army assembled by Suyue is already the elite of each city. Eighty chariots of relatives and nobles, many warriors, leaders of many clans or armored warriors composed of relatives, can be said to have gathered relatives and nobles from dozens of clans and cities. Bloodline, everyone is good at fighting.

On the other hand, Xia Guo, counting up three generations, were either slaves or lowly commoners. The only wave of Xia Guo who had a tendency to become nobles was killed by Chen Jian seven years ago, and those who survived were squatting in the mines. mining.

All the elites from both sides gathered here, and Suyue had to fight this battle. It would be difficult for Sucheng to support such an elite army of more than [-] people for too long. There was nowhere to grab or eat, especially in some nearby cities. In view of the strength of Auyue's army, Yi took refuge in one after another, and it was even more difficult to start.

The land is vast and sparsely populated, and it is meaningless to go around in circles. Except for the cities and towns, there are basically no people in the countryside, and fighting on the battlefield becomes the only choice.

It's just that for the distance of four to five hundred miles, Xia Guo's army is like crawling, and they set up camp after walking twenty miles every day.

The people from the construction department followed the expedition, supplied food along the river, transported various shovels, hoes, etc., and started digging pits, placing deer villages, digging wells, and burying pots every afternoon before the sun went down.

On May [-]th, the scouts reported that they were still eighty miles away from Suyue's army, and then a summer rain fell.

Xia Guo's army remained motionless for three days in a row, waiting in the camp until the weather completely cleared up on the fourth day, and the mud on the ground was dried, and then slowly moved forward.

The scouts of the two sides had already fought in advance, and the armies of both sides were making final preparations. By May 25th, when the armies of the two sides were less than ten miles apart, the two sides seemed to have a tacit understanding and spent the last peaceful night.

As if in the reincarnation of fate, this is a plain, and there is a huge valley [-] miles away. There is a spring in the valley that lasts all seasons.

When the first ray of sunlight fell in the morning, Chen Jian looked at the open grassland far away. There were no commanding heights such as mounds nearby, and there were no river forks to block and divide the terrain. It would not be good for Xia Jun to fight back defensively.

Xia's army only has more than 4000 people, but there are more than [-] on the opposite side. This kind of large plain allows the opponent to deploy troops calmly, and it is very likely to break through from the flanks to form an encirclement.

Chen Jian was a little worried. This was the first time he commanded a large-scale field battle on the plains. His previous victories were either due to the close numbers, technical advantages, or terrain advantages. He was always worried about his field combat level.

The soldiers in the camp didn't know their king's worries, and they ate a simple breakfast as they did during their daily drills.

Lei Huowei's artillerymen were inspecting the gunpowder, and the musketeers were receiving matchlocks and inspecting lead bullets. The camp was quiet, and occasionally there was the sound of sharpening their weapons.

The scouts have been sent out to ensure that there are no hidden ambushes or reinforcements within thirty miles.

At Chen Shi, the scouts returned, and Suyue had already taken action, gathering soldiers to move forward, and there were no ambushes or reinforcements nearby, at least within thirty miles.