Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 457 New Soldier: [Mo Dao Soldiers]

Princess Shouyang frowned. Over the years, in order to consolidate the position of the young Khan, the negative consequences of continuously weakening the power of various Rouran parties also became apparent.

Faced with the rising Khitan tribe, the once powerful Rouran was actually defeated!

The Khitans were divided into eight tribes. It is said that the "celestial maiden" who had lived in the heavenly palace for a long time felt the boredom and loneliness of the heavenly palace, so she drove a green ox cart and went down the Huangshui River from the "plain pine forest".

Coincidentally, an "immortal" rode a snow-white BMW from "Mayun Mountain" along the Tu River eastward, letting his horse run freely.

The blue ox and the white horse met at Muye Mountain where the Huangshui River and Tuhe River meet.

The celestial maiden and the immortals drove away the green ox, loosened the horse reins, and gave birth to eight sons. Later, the tribe gradually prospered and was divided into eight tribes: Xiwandan, Hedahe, Fufuyu, Yuling, Rilian, Pixie, Li, and Tuliuyu, which were also the eight Khitan tribes.

The confluence of Huangshui River and Tuhe River is where the Khitan Khanate was located.

The Khitan actually also developed during the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China. It once grew into a small overlord in the Northeast, and then ran head-on into the Murong clan of Southern Yan, which was at its peak.

The result was that he was defeated by the Murong clan and fled back to the mountains in the northeast, never daring to go south again.

In recent years, it has begun to stir again. Has Erzhu Rong actually contacted this force?
Princess Shouyang was somewhat worried. As the Khitans rose in power, their plundering of the eastern and northern borders increased day by day. Many small and medium-sized tribes came to the royal court to file complaints and asked for justice.

If we fail to stand up, these small and medium-sized tribes will be dispersed. There is no such thing as loyalty on the grassland. If we follow you, the Rouran people, we will be plundered, and tomorrow we may become the Khitans who plunder you, the Rouran people.

Princess Shouyang looked at the people who were drunk. The current situation was the result of their own actions.

Ever since she discovered that strong liquor was popular on the grassland, Princess Shouyang asked the caravans to carry more strong liquor. This indeed stabilized the relationship in the royal court to a great extent. Those great nobles were all addicted to wine and sex, and no one came to compete for the position of Khan.

But in their current condition, they are unable to lead the troops into battle.

Princess Shouyang looked at Subai and said softly:
"Please ask Shopkeeper Subai to return to the Central Plains now and inform Lord Su of this news."

Subai crossed his hands and nodded, accepted this temporary task, and set off for Dingzhou with a few trusted men.
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Su Ze, who had received the news through reports from his entourage, was also surprised at the speed of Erzhu Rong's actions.

Khitan people.

I can only say that Erzhu Rong learns very quickly.

No, Erzhu Rong's envoy should have set out long ago, probably together with Erzhu Zhongyuan who was sent to Youzhou.

Khitan is the later Liao Dynasty.

Before Su Ze traveled through time, several Russian countries in the north were still calling us "Khitan".

However, the rise of this unfortunate nation was full of twists and turns.

First he ran into the Murong clan of Southern Yan, and later he met the butcher of the northern border, the heroic emperor Gao Yang, and his spine was broken again.

After that, during the Tang Dynasty, he met Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, who was at the peak of his career.

The result is predictable. The Khitan suffered serious damage this time, and it was not until the end of the Tang Dynasty that they recovered.

The Khitans were indeed a good partner. Not only could they cause trouble for Su Ze's grassland allies, they could also attack Youzhou and Yanzhou, leaving Su Ze stranded in the north.

And all this is exactly what Su Ze did to Erzhu Rong.

In the chess game of fighting for the dragon, you really can't expect the enemy to give you the opportunity to develop peacefully, and Erzhu Rong is not a weak player either.

But there is no way to attack right now.

The bitter cold in Northeast China at that time made it impossible to march, and at the very least we had to wait until the ice and snow melted in the spring.

Su Ze sent scouts and caravan followers to the northeast to investigate the situation and draw maps, and then turned his attention to the newly formed [Modao Legion].

After being equipped with the Mo Dao and heavy armor, Su Ze indeed obtained a type of soldier that was beyond this era - [Heavy Armor Mo Dao Soldiers]!
[Cold-blooded Heavy Armored Swordsman]

Name: Su Leng

Grade: Orange;
Effect: Calm and bloodthirsty swordsmen. This follower can greatly improve the morale of the swordsmen in the team.

Comment: "The snow blade is long and raised, and the coldness frightens the Hu riders."

Price: 800 wen tai and 100 baht coins, and a monthly maintenance fee of wen tai and baht coins is required. This unit must provide meat for three meals.

Su Ze then began to continuously summon the [Heavy Armored Stranger Soldier] series of followers.

However, the proportion of summoned followers in this Modao Legion is not up to standard, so it is not yet a legion recognized by the system.

But let’s build the framework first.

Su Ze selected a thousand brave men from the surrendered troops of Du Luozhou and Han Lou, equipped them with Mo Dao, heavy armor and powerful crossbows, and led them to train as Mo Dao fighters.

The Mo Dao can be said to be a magical weapon for defeating cavalry with infantry.

Li Siye, a famous general of the Tang Dynasty in later generations, used his Modao Team to defeat the Little Bolor Kingdom, the Shi Kingdom, the Nine-State Hu, and the Turks. In the bloody battles one after another, the Modao Team won the Anxi Army the reputation of being the strongest army in the world, and Li Siye was even called "the great general with supernatural powers" by the Hu people.

Later, in the Battle of Xiangji Temple to quell the Anshi Rebellion, Li Siye led the cavalry to charge, and he led the Modao team to charge again. The history books record that "when Siye was faced with this, both the man and the horse were killed."

However, according to Su Ze's research, no cavalry would be stupid enough to charge directly into the Mo Dao formation. After Su Ze's research, he found that the Mo Dao was actually a melee weapon used by archers.

The Art of War by Li Jing, Duke of Tang, described the formation of the Mo Dao against the Cavalry as follows:
"All the crossbowmen in the army, follow a certain number of troops, each with their arms tied, holding a sword and a club, and stand in front of their own battle team in a line, adjust the crossbows, and fight within a hundred steps of the enemy, firing crossbows at the same time; if the enemy comes to close, stop the crossbows when they are twenty steps away, hold the swords and clubs, and fight from the front of the battle team."

In other words, when the Tang army faced the attack of nomadic cavalry, the tactic they adopted was for archers to first shoot at the enemy cavalry, killing as many enemies as they could.

While waiting for the enemy to approach, the crossbowmen began to change their equipment, immediately transforming into a standard infantry, picking up the more than three-meter-long Mo Dao, and killing the enemy like hedgehogs.

Therefore, the Modao soldiers must be equipped with powerful crossbows.

However, when taking over Shu, Su Ze also summoned several followers of the [Zhuge Crossbowman] series, which should be the crossbowmen trained by Zhuge Liang back then.

Su Ze also set up a workshop to build powerful crossbows, and asked these followers of "Zhuge Crossbowmen" to train soldiers to use crossbows.

As for the remaining troops of Du Luozhou, Su Ze granted land to the old, weak, sick and disabled and dismissed them. He set up Zhechoufu in Dingzhou and Youzhou respectively and transferred officials from Guanzhong to manage them.

The New Year is approaching, Su Ze looked at the snow on the eaves. Today was the day when the first batch of grassroots officials from Guanzhong arrived in Zhongshan, and Su Ze took the time to meet them.

The young scholar leading the team was named Jia Zhi, a descendant of the Jia family from Liangzhou.

Su Ze was furious about two official corruption cases in Liangzhou and sent a censor to investigate. He executed a county magistrate named Jia. Jia was terrified, so Jia Zhi was sent to Chongwen Pavilion, becoming the first son of the Liangzhou gentry to study in Chongwen Pavilion.

Jia Zhi had originally lost all hope and thought that he had come to Yongle City as a hostage, but after he arrived at Chongwen Pavilion, he discovered that Duke Su seemed to really want to use Chongwen Pavilion to select talents.

Jia Zhi himself had a strong cultural attainment and had once studied under Qi Tai. After Qi Tai took office as a scholar of Chongwen Pavilion, he held a selection examination on the "Book of Filial Piety".

Jia Zhi ranks among the top.

This time Youding was in urgent need of officials. In addition to the outstanding officials transferred from Guanzhong, Chongwen Pavilion also recommended Jia Zhi and other scholars who had passed the examination to the Government Affairs Hall.

Suzette approved that all the scholars be appointed to official posts ahead of schedule and come to Youding to report.

This is how Jia Zhi met Su Ze.

Looking at these young faces, Su Ze was very satisfied.

Although the only item in the examination in Chongwen Pavilion is "The Book of Filial Piety", the fact that one can pass the examination among so many scholars is itself a reflection of one's learning ability.

Su Ze doesn't want these scholars to take up important positions right away. As long as there is a relatively objective standard, the scholars can continue in this direction.

After all, the imperial examination was just a selection exam for officials.

After the ups and downs and elimination in officialdom, such a huge empire will always be able to sift out suitable senior officials.

In the Han Dynasty, people also selected filial and honest officials, and there were a lot of famous officials, didn’t they?
The imperial examination selection method is not important; fairness is what is most important.

Su Ze looked at these young scholars, who were clearly divided into two factions based on their different backgrounds.

One faction is the children of aristocratic families headed by Jia Zhi. They have the largest number of people, and there is nothing that can be done about it.

In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination was still a toy for the powerful.

It was not until the Song Dynasty that people from poor families were allowed to enter the imperial court on a large scale.

But it is enough to select some children from poor families, or children of military households or merchants who have no family background.

After the New Year, these young scholars will be sent to the counties to fill the vacancies in the county magistrates and mayors of Dingyou and You states, and implement Su Ze's system of granting land to the soldiers and the three chiefs.

These young scholars had already been appointed as officials. They all wore green uniform official uniforms and came to pay their respects to Su Ze in unison.

This is also the unified regulation of Su Ze.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was no strict clothing system for officials.

The color of clothing is just a dress code that roughly distinguishes one's identity and status.

The color red can be divided into red, vermilion, and crimson, and this color can only be used by princes and nobles.

Green is the opposite of red and is often used among civilians.

Purple is a color often seen in the royal family. The covers of sedan chairs and chariots are purple, and the sealing mud of royal secret letters is also purple.

However, when attending court, officials simply wore colorful costumes according to the season, and it was a mess with no uniform colors or standards.

Su Ze established dress standards for Guanzhong officials in accordance with the standards of later generations, and granted them official robes when they first entered officialdom, thus unifying the dress system.

Officials who had just entered the officialdom wore green official robes, those from the fifth to the seventh rank wore blue robes, and those from the first to the fourth rank wore scarlet robes, which were red. Ministers who had made meritorious contributions could be specially granted purple robes.

This can quickly distinguish the ranks of officials from the color of their official robes, and at the same time stimulate the motivation of officials to climb up.

In the first interview, Su Ze still asked a question.

(End of this chapter)