February 20, 259 BC.

On a plain about ten miles away from the south gate of Handan City, a new camp was built half a month ago, which was the base camp of the Northern Army, one of the two new armies newly established by Zhao State.

At noon on this day, Zhao Dan's carriage, escorted by thousands of palace guards, drove into the camp of the Northern Army.

As soon as he entered the gate, Zhao Dan saw the commander of the Northern Army, Le Cheng, who had arrived after hearing the news.

Le Cheng saluted Zhao Dan: "I've seen the king."

Zhao Dan glanced at Lecheng and found that there were still a few beads of sweat on the general's face, and couldn't help laughing: "It looks like General Lecheng is very busy."

Le Cheng was a little arrogant, and said with a smile: "The minister didn't know that the king was coming, so he was unprepared, but he made the king laugh." ”

Zhao Dan waved his hand, jumped out of the car, and said to Lecheng: "The widow is also a temporary idea today, come, and take the widow around." ”

Lecheng didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly led the way for Zhao Dan in front.

Because the rain season has just passed, and there has just been a light rain in Handan City in the morning, the road in the barracks is somewhat muddy and difficult to walk at this moment.

Le Cheng pulled his boots out of the mud with some difficulty, looked back with some apprehension, and found that although Zhao Dan behind him was also a deep foot and a shallow foot, there was no anger on his face, so he was slightly relieved and decided to let people level the road in the camp tomorrow.

Zhao Dan didn't think as much as Le Cheng thought, but while walking, he looked at the surrounding scene with great interest.

Although this big camp has just been built, it still looks a little shabby, but the camp tent buildings in the camp are quite orderly and orderly, which makes Zhao Dan nod secretly.

To see if a general will lead troops, you only need to go to his camp and see it once.

Zhao Dan walked all the way and found that many soldiers were practicing under the leadership of their respective officers.

Although there is no formation queue in this era, this does not mean that Zhao Jun is indifferent to these things, on the contrary, Zhao Dan has found that the main practice in the camp is collective cooperation.

No, right in front of Zhao Dan, a Zhao army's troops were conducting drills.

In the vast school field, hundreds of Zhao soldiers with armor and crossbows and swords lined up in several columns, slowly advancing in a marching posture.

Suddenly, in the center of the troops, a twenty or five hundred lord of the Zhao army, who was about forty years old, shouted: "When you meet the enemy in front, the enemy is a thousand steps away, and the archers are outgoing!" ”

Under the order of the two or five hundred lords, the marching column of the Zhao army immediately changed, and the left and right wings spread out at the same time, from the original "1" character to a "person" character in a short period of time, and then to the word "one".

At the moment when the queue was fully expanded, the two or five hundred lords issued another order: "The enemy distance is six hundred, and the shooter is wound!" ”

After receiving the order, the soldiers of the Zhao army took off the crossbows they were carrying from their backs, which were about an arm's length and needed to be stepped on with the strength of their feet, and the crossbow strings were fixed on the crossbow teeth at the crossbow before completing the entire winding action, which was also called "tensioning crossbows".

In a shrill sound, many Zhao soldiers completed the winding action, raised the crossbow in their hands and placed it in front of their right arm, and aimed ahead with the assistance of the crossbow machine on Wangshan.

Two or five hundred lords gave the order again: "The enemy is five hundred, shoot!" ”

At the moment when the two or five hundred lords gave the order, the Zhao Jun archers pressed the dial on the crossbow machine one after another.

"Whoosh!"

Hundreds of crossbow arrows were sent out in an instant, covering all the fronts of the Zhao army.

The order continues.

"One shot is finished, two are wound!"

The soldiers of the Zhao Army, who had just completed a launch, did not hesitate at all and continued to wind up.

"The enemy is three hundred, shoot!"

"Two shots, three winds!"

···

The phalanx of the Zhao army looked orderly, and the movements of the soldiers were very neat, and Zhao Dan nodded again and again.

Although he is not good at military affairs, Zhao Dan understands one thing very well, that is, the more like a machine army, the higher the chance of winning a battle.

Zhao Dan smiled at Le Cheng beside him: "What kind of army is this? ”

Le Cheng replied: "This belongs to Captain Nan of the Yulin Army. ”

The Northern Army has two armies, Yulin and Huben, and there are two captains in the north and south in the Yulin Army, and two captains in the Huben Army, two captains in the east and west, adding up to a total of nearly 40,000 troops with four captains.

Although the Northern Army is the army of King Zhao, it is obviously impossible for all the 40,000 troops to defend Zhao Dan, usually only 5,000 "half-colonels" are guarded by Miyagi, and the other troops are stationed in the Northern Army camp for training, and they are on duty once a month.

The reason why Zhao Dan established these troops was, of course, not on a whim, but - well, using history as a mirror.

The Han Dynasty was mainly divided into two major types of troops, the Beijing division and the local army, and the northern and southern armies established by Zhao Dan were built according to the Beijing division of the Han Dynasty.

Of course, even if you use history as a mirror, you can't blindly follow the trend, and Zhao Dan has a reason to do this.

In terms of geographical location, because Handan, the capital of Zhao State, is located in the Central Plains, which is not far from other countries, and there is a lesson from the previous few months when the Jin Dynasty invaded Yecheng to threaten Handan, it is natural to protect the capital of the country with heavy troops while taking into account the Central Plains.

In the past, although Zhao also had a standing army system, the standing army at that time was only 30,000 or 40,000 people, and the scale was obviously not suitable for the new situation of competing for hegemony in the world today.

After Zhao Dan's expansion, Zhao's standing army will increase to about 100,000 people, three times the original number.

With these 100,000 standing troops, then Zhao only needs to requisition manpower from each county in wartime, and it can easily pull out an army of 200,000 or even 450,000 with these standing armies as the team, which can meet the needs of tens of millions of troops participating in large-scale battles in the late Warring States period.

In order to ensure the combat effectiveness and combat morale of the standing army, Zhao Dancai did not hesitate to use high welfare as a temptation.

Of course, supporting such a force with such high benefits is extremely heavy for Zhao Guo's finances and resources in all aspects, but Zhao Dan is also prepared for this, and he already has a plan in his heart.

After watching the infantry drill, Zhao Dan went to see the cavalry for a while, and then went to the special "selection camp" outside the main camp under the leadership of Le Cheng to watch the selection for a while.

Although he had heard about it for a long time, Zhao Dan was still a little surprised by the crowd in the selection camp, the shouting in the school field, and the lively and busy scene: "There are so many people? ”

Le Cheng smiled and said: "The king doesn't know, there are actually fewer in the past few days, and the number of people in the first few days makes the ministers a little suspicious that the people from the entire Handan City have come." ”

Zhao Dan couldn't help but smack his mouth, it seems that what national honor is not as reliable as glory and wealth.

However, after seeing the grand occasion of this selection camp, Zhao Dan was also relieved, after all, in the Battle of Changping, the Zhao army also lost tens of thousands of soldiers, and it was the time when fresh blood was urgently needed to replenish at this moment.

After watching it all over the place, Zhao Dan left the camp of the Northern Army, and when he left, he specially told Lecheng: "Practice hard, don't slack off, you will soon have to wait for the day of battle!" ”

Judging from the secret report handed over by the supervisor and his own perception, Zhao Dan was still quite satisfied with the northern army commanded by Lecheng.

Just need to give it a little longer, Zhao Dan believes that this army will bring him a lot of surprises.

Of course, the rise of a country is not just about relying on the army alone, but also requires progress in internal affairs, diplomacy and many other aspects, and these are the problems that Zhao Dan is ready to solve in the coming days.

When these problems are almost solved, another expansion of Zhao can begin.