Your Majesty, please spare Diao Chan; your yang energy is too strong.

"You two don't have to follow the training methods described above exactly."

"Do it according to your own ideas."

"This is just something I've been using as a reference."

Zhou Heng waved his hand.

The training methods we use now are still quite different from those of this era.

Zhou Heng does not believe that modern training methods are necessarily suitable for ancient times.

We still need to be realistic.

These two men were also great generals in their time, and they had unique insights into training methods.

There's no need to insist on following Zhou Heng's idea.

We should learn from each other's strengths and make up for each other's weaknesses.

"promise."

"My lord, if there is nothing else, we shall take our leave."

"The training methods recorded here are completely unheard of by us."

"Now that I have obtained it, I am overjoyed."

"We must study it thoroughly and combine it with our training methods to build a powerful army for our lord."

Having just learned modern training methods, the two of them couldn't sit still for even a minute.

He immediately wanted to take it back and study it carefully.

After all, such a training method is truly unprecedented.

"Very well, generals, please proceed."

"Subordinates retire."

..............

"Zizhong, what is the current configuration of our army?"

After the banquet, Zhou Heng did not immediately immerse himself in the pleasures of love.

Instead, they summoned Mi Zhu.

"We now have 10,000 warhorses. Based on the minimum standard of two horses per person, we can build 5,000 cavalry."

"However, nowadays, the common practice is for one person to ride three horses in order to maximize the advantages of cavalry."

"One person with two horses is still a bit lacking."

"So if we were to form a cavalry force, we should be able to form around three thousand cavalrymen."

"We have enough warhorses, but we still lack armor, even though we captured Xiapi and seized a lot of military equipment."

"But the number of armored vehicles is still no more than a thousand."

"Without iron armor, cavalry can be easily defeated by spearmen, making it difficult to bring out the advantages of cavalry."

"Therefore, our armor is still quite lacking."

"We did acquire quite a few leather armors, numbering around five thousand."

"There are countless types of long spears and other weapons, which are enough to make up for the weapons needed by our 20,000 troops."

"With 100,000 shi of grain, there is no need to worry about food supplies for the time being."

"However, it is still far from enough if we want to develop it into a strong army."

"Moreover, we only have soldiers, not auxiliary troops."

"Even if auxiliary troops are included, the shortage is still enormous."

Mi Zhu thought for a moment and then said.

Xiapi was, after all, the capital of Xuzhou, and it had a considerable stockpile of grain, weapons, and military equipment.

Now that it's in Zhou Heng's hands, he'll naturally use it all to arm his troops.

But that's still far from enough.

Because both infantry and cavalry need a large number of auxiliary troops.

At the very least, it should be one-on-one, and for cavalry, it should be one-on-three.

This does not include logistics.

Building a large army in this era requires more than just soldiers.

All kinds of weapons and armaments, and auxiliary troops are indispensable.

Do you really think Cao Cao had an army of 830,000 when he attacked Jiangdong?

Having 200,000 would be good; the rest are mostly auxiliary troops.

The most typical example is the Tumu Crisis during the Ming Dynasty.

It is said that the Ming Dynasty lost 500,000 troops.

However, according to later investigations, the actual number of soldiers lost was only 80,000, or some say 180,000, but in any case, it would not exceed 200,000.

The rest of the personnel were mostly auxiliary soldiers.

Of course, this doesn't mean that auxiliary soldiers aren't soldiers, but their combat effectiveness is still somewhat inferior to that of regular troops.

Zhou Heng's army now consists only of combat troops, but no auxiliary troops.

This is a big problem.

There are also items like armor, and the shortage is even more extensive.

"Ah."

Zhou Heng nodded.

"Leaving aside the issue of auxiliary troops for now, how long would it take to replenish the armor needed for the cavalry?"

Mi Zhu pondered for a moment: "Although our Mi family has strongholds in various states and owns many blacksmith shops, fine iron is extremely rare in this era. I have ordered people to purchase it in large quantities, but the results are not obvious. If we rely solely on ourselves to forge it, I'm afraid it will take at least a year to replenish all the cavalry's iron armor."

"If the infantry were also fitted with iron armor, it might take ten years to complete the replacement."

Zhou Heng frowned: "That's taking too long. What if we mine the iron ourselves?"

"There won't be much change. After all, if we were to mine it ourselves, it would still require a lot of manpower and resources, and the speed would be limited."

Mi Zhu shook his head.

The Mi family owned their own iron mine, but iron ore mining technology was extremely difficult in that era.

The cycle is too long.

It also requires a lot of manpower and resources.

For Zhou Heng, who is currently facing a shortage of supplies, this situation is somewhat counterproductive.

"Don't worry about how long the cycle is or how much manpower and resources it requires."

“I only ask you this: what if we had an inexhaustible supply of refined iron?”

"How quickly can you forge ten thousand sets of armor?"

Zhou Heng waved his hand.

In this era, mining iron ore was indeed very troublesome.

An army of 10,000 might not be able to mine much refined iron even in a year.

But Zhou Heng came from a later era and had more advanced mining methods.

It can shorten the time by at least five times, or even more than ten times.

"If there is enough refined iron."

“I can mobilize the Mi family to bring in a large number of workers from various states. In a maximum of three months, we can build 10,000 iron armors.”

Mi Zhu said confidently.

It should be noted that the Mi family has been in business for generations and has a large number of shops and strongholds in various states.

Among them, the ironware shop is of paramount importance.

The number of workers it possessed, when combined across all the states, was countless.

If we had a continuous supply of fine iron, forging iron armor would only be a matter of time.

"it is good."

"I'll figure out the matter of refined iron and guarantee you a continuous supply."

"You should transfer all your workers to Xuzhou now."

"All salaries will be paid at three times the previous rate."

"I have only one requirement, not just for my cavalry, but also for my infantry, that everyone wear iron armor a year from now."

Zhou Heng waved his hand and said.

What he really wanted to do was to transform all his cavalry into the Ironclad Cavalry.

In that case, they would be invincible in this era.

Even though he was born a commoner, he could still stir up a storm.

Because in the face of absolute power, everything else is insignificant.

However, he also knew that this was not very realistic.

The amount of refined iron needed to forge the Iron Pagoda was simply astronomical.

It's not something that can be achieved in a short period of time.

...........