Usurpation of Mongolia: My father-in-law is Genghis Khan

Chapter 57: Light Cavalry Against the Xixia Iron Harriers

More than 1,200 Xia swords, 1,000 divine arm bows, and 500 sets of Xixia wart armor.

Even for the huge Western Xia Kingdom, it would be painful to acquire these equipments.

Now, all the benefits have gone to Zhao Shuo.

Of course, Zhao Shuo is not the kind of person who would eat alone. He plans to invite Mu Huali to drink privately and give him a few divine arm bows, Xiaguo swords and so on.

However, before he had the chance to speak to Mu Huali, Subutai took the lead.

"Ashuo, slow down, wait for me!"

The post-war summary meeting ended. Zhao Shuo had just walked out of the Golden Tent when Subutai shouted from behind.

Zhao Shuo stopped and said, "Shuchitai, what's going on?"

Shuchitai hurried over and explained, "I want to buy you a drink to thank you for saving my life."

"Then you really have to treat me to a nice drink." Zhao Shuo smiled faintly and continued, "But is it just the two of us?"

"No. I also invited Mu Huali and Zhebie. The four of us haven't been together for a while, so let's take this opportunity to have a few drinks."

Subutai was not a bad person.

He even admired people with abilities the most. Zhebie's archery skills were far superior to Subutai's, and the two had a very good relationship and were close friends.

A large part of Zhao Shuo's archery skills were taught by Zhebie.

At the beginning, when Mu Huali and Zhao Shuo were just rising to prominence, Subutai's status was far above theirs, and he took good care of them.

In this way, although the four people had a big age gap, they had a good relationship before and often drank and chatted together.

If it weren't for this friendship, Zhao Shuo and Mu Huali would not have offered to help him.

It was just that Zhao Shuo had acted too quickly, and Shuchitai had become competitive, which was why he made such a mistake. Now Shuchitai had completely calmed down and sincerely invited the three of them to drink.

The grassland warriors were not particular about comfort. The best roasted lamb, sprinkled with some of Zhao Shuo's refined salt and paired with kumis, was a rare delicacy during battle.

The four of them drank and ate meat while recalling the years of war that led to the rise of Mongolia, and the atmosphere gradually became lively.

While drinking, Subutai also sincerely apologized to Zhao Shuo and Mu Huali again. He was indeed stubborn this time.

After expressing his regret, Subutai took a sip of his wine and let out a long sigh, "I heard that the Western Xia army, in addition to the Xia sword, Western Xia wart armor, and divine arm bow, also has the Poxi Army and the Iron Harriers."

"The Poxi army is very small, only about two hundred men. They miniaturize their catapults and mount them on the backs of Bactrian camels. In battle, they unleash fist-sized stones, dealing a fatal blow to the enemy."

"But I just can't figure it out. A catapult is launched by someone pulling a rope. Even if it were miniaturized, it wouldn't be possible to launch it from the back of a camel, right?"

He had already obtained a lot of information about Xixia by questioning Xixia captives.

"Right!" Zhebie was also very curious and asked, "If this Poxi Army is useful, why are there only 200 of them? If it's useless, why does the Xia Kingdom maintain such a small Poxi Army? Is there another explanation for this catapult on the back of the camel?"

"I do have an idea," Mu Huali said. "The Divine Arm Bow's name is a bow, but it's actually a heavy crossbow. Even though the Poxi Army fires stones, they don't necessarily use catapults, right? Perhaps it's also a heavy crossbow?"

"clever!"

Zhao Shuo glanced sideways at Mu Huali and gave him a thumbs up.

Later generations have two theories about the catapults used by the Xixia Poxi Army. First, they were not the human-powered catapults common in China, but rather torque-powered catapults. Second, they were actually miniaturized Song Dynasty crossbows, designed to launch fist-sized stones.

However, the torsion catapult only appears in Western historical records, and there is no clear record of it in Eastern historical records. In this case, the catapult of the Poxi Army is most likely the second possibility: a miniaturized crossbow.

Because the miniaturization technology content of this bed crossbow is too high and the cost is extremely high, the Poxi Army only maintains a staff of 200 people.

As expected of the renowned historical figure Mu Huali, his simple guess was very close to the truth.

"Amazing!

Zhebei and Subutai nodded in unison, both feeling that what Mu Huali said made a lot of sense, and gave him admiring glances.

Later, everyone talked about the Iron Harriers of Western Xia.

"It is said that there are as many as 3,000 Iron Harriers of Western Xia. And what we in Mongolia lack the most is heavy cavalry. Ashu has only 500 Black Cavalry. It seems that we can only find a way to trap them and then slowly wear them down." Zhebie said with some concern.

As Temujin unified the grasslands, the Wanggu tribe grew bolder and bolder. He bribed Jin officials with large sums of money and obtained 280 sets of armor and cavalry equipment for Zhao Shuo, bringing the total to 500.

However, the number of five hundred heavy cavalry is still far less than that of three thousand Iron Harriers.

Zhebie suggested temporarily avoiding the Iron Harriers' edge.

Mu Huali shook his head slightly and said, "That's probably not possible. The purpose of our expedition this time is not to destroy Xixia, but to completely break the backbone of Xixia so that they dare not cause trouble when we attack the Jin Dynasty.

If we slowly wear down the three thousand Iron Harriers, the Xixia people will think that our hard power is not much stronger than theirs.

Furthermore, what if the 3,000 Iron Harriers attacked Genghis Khan's central army? Genghis Khan personally led his first expedition after ascending the throne, and was forced to move camp by the Xixia Iron Harriers. That wouldn't have been a good look.

Subutai said, "What should we do then? We can't let our light cavalry fight against the Xia Kingdom's heavy cavalry head-on, right?"

After suffering this great loss, he never dared to look down on the Xixia people again.

"Of course, we can't just fight hard."

Suddenly, Zhao Shuo smiled faintly and said, "Who says light cavalry can't defeat heavy cavalry? It just so happens that I recently formed a light cavalry unit called the Flying Eagle Army. This Flying Eagle Army is designed to target the Iron Harriers of Western Xia."

"real or fake?!"

"Can light cavalry defeat heavy cavalry?"

"Tell me quickly, what is going on with this Flying Eagle Army? I want to learn from it carefully." said Subutai.

The more ashamed and depressed he felt this time, the stronger his hatred for the Xixia people became. Now, among all the Mongolian generals, no one wanted to kill the Xia dog more than him.

Mu Huali and Zhebie also looked at Zhao Shuo with curiosity.

Zhao Shuo said: "Okay, you can help me with some advice..."

He briefly introduced the configuration of the Flying Eagle Army.

"Well, I don't think there's any problem." Zhebie made a quick judgment.

"As expected of Ashu, he is always able to predict the enemy's moves. With the Flying Eagle Army, I wonder how the Iron Harriers of Western Xia can be so powerful?" Subutai slapped his thigh.

Mu Huali thought carefully for a moment before saying, "I don't think there's any problem. However, to achieve the desired results, the training of the soldiers and on-the-spot command are extremely important. Ah Shuo, are you ready?"

Zhao Shuo said, "We started preparing half a year ago. The commander of the Flying Eagle Army is called Hai Rige, and he's quite capable."

"A Shuo himself said that he has some skills, and he is a rare rising star."

Mu Huali lifted a cup of mare's milk and said, "Ashuo will definitely defeat the Xixia Iron Harriers. Victory in this battle will definitely belong to Mongolia! Come, let's drink this cup to the bottom, to celebrate Genghis Khan and Mongolia!"

"Hello Genghis Khan! Hello Mongolia!"

The four of them raised their cups together and drank the kumis in them in one gulp.

Now that they had a way to deal with the 3,000 Xixia Iron Harriers, they drank more and more happily.

(End of this chapter)