choke element

Chapter 1015: Not Enough (Part )

"alert!"

At Zhang Pingliang's command, the light cavalrymen took out their hunting bows. Those with outstanding archery skills threw away the reins with their other hands, threw off their leather gloves, and then held four arrows between their five fingers, ready to perform the trick of shooting arrows in succession at any time.

This is the southeast corner of the Mongolian Plateau, the end of the Yinshan, Yanshan and Daxing'anling mountain ranges. Large tracts of mountains and lakes on the plains have been left in the south by the cavalry, such as Yehuling, Gouluo Salt Pond, and Camel Mountain and Baihaizi that we passed yesterday.

From Yehuling to the north, human-built buildings are rarely seen in the high winding mountains, and only a few remains of military camps can be found occasionally.

Decades ago, when the Jin Dynasty was at its peak, this was an important passage for the Jin army to enter and exit the grassland. From Wanyan Zongbing, a famous general at the founding of the country, to Jiagu Qingchen, a famous official who was both civil and military during the Mingchang period, they all led their elite troops deep into the grassland and burned and killed any tribe that disobeyed them.

With the dynasty's core military power strong and its generals well versed in military strategy, this was the best way to curb the growth of the grassland people. Unfortunately, the Jurchens all became useless, and the people who filled the Jin army were forced to come from all over the country. People who were forced to join the army naturally did not have a strong desire to attack, and the military expenses that were exploited for years could not support equipment that could adapt to the grassland environment. Therefore, this area was less and less visited.

When dusk fell, the soldiers looked around. The surrounding terrain was undulating, with knee-deep dead grass everywhere, and the dead grass was covered with gray-white snow of varying thickness. In the distance, near the mountains, there were continuous woodlands. The trees swayed gently with the sound of the north, making rustling sounds, like crouching monsters, carefully sharpening their claws.

The night was very dark, and the light of the stars and the moon was dim. In half an hour, it would be pitch dark. This would be the best cover for the soldiers.

Zhang Pingliang and his men were now assigned the second round of scouting missions. After receiving the order at Yehuling, they first headed westwards until they found no large groups of Mongolian cavalry near Baishuipo. After shaking off some small groups of cavalry, they turned northeastwards along the mountains and hills.

During this process, the weather became colder and the environment became worse, while the battles became more frequent. Groups of foreign cavalrymen fought closely with Zhang Pingliang's troops as if they were risking their lives. The cavalry lost more than 20 good soldiers in two or three days, accounting for 40% of the total number of people on this trip. Zhang Pingliang had to choose to hide in hills or jungles during the day and continue marching at night.

There were two short and two long bird calls coming from the front, repeated rhythmically twice.

The cavalry generally relaxed as the front was safe and they could rest for a night.

"We should have passed the direction where the Tartar scouts are densely packed. If we go further, we may be able to find the enemy's main force." Zhang Pingliang's right-hand man Shan Ji said, "However, this also counts as rushing into the enemy's encirclement."

Zhang Pingliang smiled and said, "As scouts, we should go deep behind enemy lines. Besides, the Tartar encirclement is quite loose, so it's nothing. In two days, we will turn around and go back to rest."

The officers around him all nodded slightly.

Since the army went out of the border, the main force of the Mongolian army has not appeared. It is obvious that they want to repeat the old tricks and use the two major advantages of geography and climate to torture the enemy. But everyone is very calm about this, because the army has too much supplies to carry with them on this trip north. Everyone goes out to scout and works hard for ten days. When they return, they have everything they need and don't have to worry at all.

While the officers were talking, the other cavalry found a depression. They did not light a fire, but relied on the tacit understanding they had learned from their daily training to control their mounts in a circle in the dark. They only used specific whistles to convey information.

The soldiers all looked a little tired and lazy. They chatted with each other in the middle of the night, and the officers did not forbid them. There was no order to march in silence, so there was no need to worry about this matter.

Another of Zhang Pingliang's subordinates, an officer nicknamed Monkey, patted his forehead and said, "By the way, do you want to torture the Mongolian cavalryman we captured on the way today?"

Zhang Pingliang nodded: "I almost forgot, bring it here!"

The monkey turned around to pick up the man, and as he turned around he casually said, "The black Tartar has a nice set of warty armor. After we interrogate him and kill him, we have to strip the armor off."

In fact, after capturing the prisoners, they should have stripped off their armor first. But the Mongolian cavalry they encountered during the day were planning to conduct a reconnaissance mission, and the fighting was very fierce, so the soldiers fought and retreated, and did not care about it.

Zhang Pingliang didn't know about this wart armor. It was when he returned from his first patrol and inspected the captured items that he accidentally took out one, and it was recognized by a staff officer. The staff officer was an old man from the same clan as Wang Shixian's subordinates, born in Gongchang Prefecture, and was very familiar with the military equipment of the Xia Kingdom.

According to him, this wart armor was produced in the Xia Kingdom. Its iron color is dark blue, so clear that you can see your hair in it. It is soft, thin and tough, and is the best quality among iron armors. In particular, the forgers of this armor deliberately left a small piece at the end of the armor plate unforged, which is slightly protruding like a wart. This kind of armor is the unique craftsmanship of the Xia people's skilled craftsmen, and it is not easy for outsiders to imitate.

After learning the origin of the armor, the soldiers generally took it seriously.

Even if everyone is generally equipped with light armor produced by their own country, it is always good to have more life-saving things, let alone such good things?
In the past few battles with the enemy, not to mention the prisoners, even when killing the enemy on the battlefield, some knights stopped to strip the armor. The number of wart armors in the hands of the black Tartars was really large. They were obviously groups of people from the fallen countries in the Western Regions, but many of them were equipped with such excellent armor. They were really lucky!

Zhang Pingliang suddenly stood up and walked back and forth several times.

Pheasant asked: "Is there anything wrong?"

"That wart armor is a specialty of Xia Country. It is said that this kind of armor should be a good item only available to Xia Country's regular army. Even Xia Country itself wouldn't have many of them, right?"

Shan Ji laughed and said, "If that were the case, how powerful would Xia Kingdom be? Our Great Zhou's Military Equipment Supervisor only produces a few pieces of armor a year!"

"Yes. Then, it is not possible that there are tens of thousands of such precious armor flying around outside the country, everywhere?"

Shan Ji shook his head: "If there are really many rumors out there, we have fought for so many years and should have seen it long ago. We wouldn't have to be pointed out to us now."

"Then what virtue did the enemies we encountered during our two patrols, these people from the Mongolian vassal tribes, these running dogs whose countries were destroyed by the Mongols, have to be equipped with so many wart armors?"

At this point, Zhang Pingliang saw Shan Ji's bewildered face, so he waved his hand and said, "I'll give you half of the people. You should leave at night and reunite with our army as soon as possible. After reunion, just report one thing, which is what I just said, the matter of the wart. Go, gather the people, and set off now!"

at the same time.

In the main army unit not far from crossing Yehuling.

Guo Ning sat on the saddle, biting a large piece of mutton jerky. After taking a few bites, he smiled at the knights beside him and said, "Don't look at me like I'm stupid. I know the food in our army is delicious, but I haven't tasted the jerky made by the Mongolians for a long time. I occasionally eat a few pieces, and they taste really good."

"That also depends on your good teeth, Your Majesty."

"Yeah, if you ask me, this is not meat at all. It's just stone!"

"Don't say that jerky is like stone. Cheese is no different from stone!"

The servants complained.

Guo Ning laughed twice, stood up, looked behind him, and shouted at the top of his voice: "Are you ready? If you are, let's eat together!"

In the camps at the back, soldiers were lighting torches one after another, lighting up a large area. In one area, there was no camp, but a flat piece of land, which was illuminated by torches on all sides.

Surrounded by the fire, Xu Jin stood with his hands behind his back and a gloomy face, as if he didn't hear Guo Ning's shouting at all.

In front of Xu Jin, Lu Wusi held the last few pieces of iron fragments and handed them to Wu Xian one by one. Wu Xian, sweating profusely, took the pieces and placed them into the shape he had created on the ground.

"These three were found in the mountainous area outside of Yuzhou and Hongzhou. They were the ones used by the Mongols in their previous successive attacks on mountain strongholds. We speculated for a long time at the time and could not understand how the Mongols could have known how to make weapons like iron cannons."

Seeing the shapes gradually complete, Xu Jin said slowly: "When the Mongols attacked the mountain stronghold deep in Yanshan Mountain, they fired no less than 500 iron cannons. In order to fight against them, our army went north and prepared several more gunpowder weapons, as well as iron carts that could be quickly deployed and life-saving armor, which were more than doubled. Sure enough, they fought with our army and fired many more iron cannons. These two are what we collected after engaging the enemy."

Wu Xian pounded his waist, stood up and said, "Among the hundreds of iron fire runners, there were about forty or fifty that did not explode completely... To be honest, the reliability is not worse than the ones we made ourselves... Among the forty or fifty, the only five that were finally put back together intact by us were these five."

"Everyone, what can you tell from these five iron cannons?"

A circle of officers stood around Pingdi. They were of different ranks, but they were all experienced and knowledgeable veterans. After hearing Xu Jin's question, the officers talked in a low voice for a while. Someone hesitated and said, "If I'm not mistaken... these iron cannons are all from the Southern Song Dynasty. Most of them are the products of the Lizhou East Road Arsenal in Shukou."

Guo Ning threw the dried meat back onto the plate and stood up. "Song State? How is it related to Song State?"

The officer himself found it ridiculous and was so stunned that he could not say anything.

Wu Xian suddenly said, "To be honest with you, Your Majesty, during the Taihe period, Shuhu Gaoqi was the co-governor of Lintao Prefecture and fought against the Song army. I was under his command at the time and had seen many Song firearms. The Song people set up an arsenal in the East Road of Lizhou and produced a lot of iron cannons. Compared with the ones we use and the common ones used by the Song people, this kind of iron cannon is much smaller and is cast using the upper and lower mold method. What's particularly special is that the ignition point of the fuse of this kind of iron cannon does not have a protruding tubular thick lip, but a small round hole is directly opened on the wall of the cannon."

At this point, Wu Xian took a torch in his hand, squatted down slightly and gestured: "Your Majesty, please look, this is the small hole."

The prototype of the iron cannon mentioned here is a shrapnel excavated in the garden area of ​​the Fanjiayan Ruins in Diaoyucheng in 2013. It is made of white cast iron, with an estimated diameter of 10.7 cm, a height of 10.4 cm, and a wall thickness of 0.7 to 1.3 cm.