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

Chapter 86: A year and a half later, strength increased dramatically
After sending Lu Zibu and Xin Lu to the grassroots for training, Zhao Shuo did not lead his troops to war for the next year. Instead, he stayed in his fiefdom, developed internal affairs, and trained his soldiers.

A year and a half passed quickly, and it was early summer again, the season when the grass and water on the Hulunbuir grassland were the most abundant.

"Your Highness, Princess, the Black Cavalry should have eight hundred men, and we have eight hundred men. Please review them!"

"Your Highness, Princess, the Baru Battalion was supposed to have 1,087 men, but we've actually got 1,086. Please review them!"

"Your Highness, Princess, the Night Owl Guards are supposed to be 160 strong, and we're actually here. Please review them!"

……

Now, more than a year and a half has passed since Zhao Shuo returned from his campaign against the Tumati people.

Zhao Shuo specially held this military parade to test with Hua Zheng the results of the military training after a year and a half of peace.

Today, the Black Cavalry has expanded to 800 people, all riding black horses.

As I said, it is easy for the Jin Kingdom to produce 10,000 armored cavalry, but it is impossible for it to produce 10,000 Iron Pagoda soldiers.

Zhao Shuo seized a large amount of Xixia armor, but was only able to expand his Black Cavalry to 800 people.

The upper body is dressed in Xixia wart armor, and the lower body and horse are dressed in armor.

In fact, there is only a small difference between the Iron Pagoda of the Jin Dynasty and the Iron Harrier of the Western Xia Dynasty, except for the wart armor.

One of them is the Iron Harriers of the Xia Kingdom, who could use grappling hooks to tie people and horses together, so that even if the warriors were injured or died, they would not fall off the horses.

Secondly, the Jin Dynasty's cavalry armor featured a "parasite," a broom-like structure placed on the horse's tail to protect the rider's back. The Xixia people believed that heavy cavalry should charge forward without hesitation, so why would they need to protect the rider's back? Therefore, the parasite was removed and replaced with a "throat guard" at the horse's neck.

Zhao Shuo ignored all that and equipped himself with everything from "Hook," "Parasite," and "Gauntlet." He even had his workshop add a face mask to each set of armor.

In this way, the Black Cavalry soldiers only have their two eyes exposed, which maximizes the protection of the Black Cavalry soldiers.

The Black Cavalry's main weapon was the mace, a wooden club with a date-pit-shaped head and iron nails placed on it, resembling wolf teeth, hence the name mace.

Now this army has replaced its muskets with weapons that contain more iron - iron caltrops.

There is no way. This era is different from the Tang Dynasty. The steel production of both the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty is too high. Their cavalry and infantry are very likely to wear heavy armor.

Therefore, if the Black Cavalry wanted to crush the enemy with overwhelming force, their primary weapons had to be heavy weapons, such as heavy lances, iron caltrops, heavy axes, iron hammers, or maces. Heavy lances were still too light, so Zhao Shuo thought about it and decided to choose the iron caltrops, known as the "King of Armor Breakers," as their primary weapon.

The secondary weapon is a Xixia cold-extracted steel scimitar made using Xixia sword craftsmanship, and a Qing bow.

In addition, a repeating crossbow, made by Sun Wei from a lightweight version of the Shenbi bow, was hung on the side of the warhorse. Although it still couldn't be strung on horseback, it could fire seven arrows at a time.

After continuous collection, the number of tendon and feather armors on the grassland has reached 5,400.

But like the Black Flag Army, they faced a shortage of brave warriors. The Flying Eagle Army had only expanded to 1,500 men. The Baru Battalion, originally numbering around 2,000, had been constantly replenished and depleted, especially after the brutal Battle of Keyi Gate, leaving it with just over 1,000 men. Zhao Shuo, after much deliberation, decided to train them into a mounted heavy infantry unit, specifically for offensive operations.

The special forces were officially renamed the Night Owl Guards. They not only consisted of eighty Tumati people who were good at jungle warfare, but also eighty warriors suitable for special operations selected from Zhao Shuo's original subordinates.

Special operations not only require good physical skills, but also special talents. Some are particularly good at finding their way, while others are good at imitating the calls of various animals and birds. Some have extremely strong eyesight or hearing...

Zhao Shuo divided these people with strong skills and special abilities into teams according to the principle of complementarity.

The 160-man Night Owl Guards were divided into 16 teams.

Among all the armies under Zhao Shuo's command, the Night Owl Guards received the highest pay, even surpassing the Black Cavalry. For the warriors who joined the Night Owl Guards, it meant immense honor.

Each of them can call himself a "Night Owl".

In addition to the "Flying Eagle Army", "Black Flag Army", "Night Owl Guard" and "Baru Camp", Zhao Shuo also has an ordinary army of 3,000 people, half of whom are wearing iron armor and half are wearing leather armor.

Zhao Shuo had achieved the greatest military exploits during the campaign against Western Xia, and had received the largest share of the spoils. Even replacing all the ordinary soldiers with iron armor was possible, but he needed the most agile light cavalry, wearing leather armor.

A year and a half passed, and Zhao Shuo's workshop grew rapidly. The number of artisans and their families reached 2,800. The repeating crossbow and the Xixia cold-brewed scimitar were both products of Zhao Shuo's workshop. In addition, the workshop added two more key products: soap and glass.

Soap is fine, but glass is a killer for making money.

Moreover, with glass, can the telescope still be far away?
However, the glassware had just been developed and had not yet been sold to the public. Zhao Shuo only gave some samples to close Mongolian nobles.

Zardusht Amir has not been heard from since he agreed to Zhao Shuo's request to search for Alama and Damascus knife smelting technology, and no one knows how his progress is.

Lu Zibu thrived among the nomadic herders. While his horseback riding and archery skills were still not as good as those of ordinary Mongolian warriors, he was now quite capable, no longer a weak scholar. He not only learned Mongolian but also mastered the Mongolian script, which Zhao Shuo had created.

Lu Zibu not only taught the children of the tribe to write Mongolian, but also wrote letters for the herders and helped them resolve disputes. He had accumulated considerable prestige within a radius of two to three hundred miles. An old shaman even considered passing on his legacy to him.

When Xin joined the Mongol caravan, he initially had difficulty communicating due to language barriers. However, with his exceptional learning talent, he not only learned Mongolian and Naiman, but also mastered some Khwarezmian and Persian, and began to thrive.

However, compared with his goal (to achieve extraordinary achievements within two years and impress Zhao Shuo), there is still a considerable gap.

The Mongol Empire was relatively peaceful.

During this year and a half, in addition to recuperation, Temujin mainly established post stations leading to various parts of the country to facilitate Mongolia's control over the country.

By the way, Jochi's second son Batu had just been born. This man, destined to make the entire West tremble, was still a babe in swaddling clothes.

Tolui's eldest son, Mongke, the Mongol Khan who died in Diaoyucheng in history, was also born. He was three months older than Batu.

All in all, nothing major happened in Mongolia in the past year and a half, except for a vicious diplomatic incident.

(End of this chapter)