At noon on the same day, the white crane.

At this time, in the camp where nearly 400,000 troops of the Ming Dynasty were stationed, there was a misty smoke. Countless fireheads set up a cauldron and steamed the rice that had been transferred from the country three times and then steamed it in the pot; Jars and vats of mustard were also taken from the car, and the mud seals were torn open, and each person was given a little; There are also countless people wearing Ming military uniforms or clothes with southwestern ethnic customs walking into the camp with wild vegetables or wild things in their hands and handing them over to the Huotou Army to cook.

Among them, the most striking are some soldiers wearing steel helmets. These soldiers wearing steel helmets all spoke the official dialect of the capital, wore a red shirt with a hem to the knee, leggings tied around their legs, leather shoes on their feet, a musket in their hands, a fine simple knife on their waists, the sleeves of their shirts rolled up to the wrists to reveal the shirt inside, and epaulettes sewn on the shoulders of their right shoulders. The other soldiers who passed by all looked at them with envy and mockery.

These soldiers were all soldiers of the direct guard in the capital. Last year, Yun Xi began to 'firearms' the army, and at the same time invented steel helmets, and began to equip them with the upper straight guard. Up to now, due to the short period of time, only the four guards sent to Annam to fight this time, the Yulin Left Guard, the Jingo Front Guard, the Right Guard of the Government Army, and the Tiger Left Guard, have been fully equipped with firearms and steel helmets.

Yoon-hee has great expectations for Kami-nao-e-e. Yun Xi believes that in his lifetime, he will not see all the members of the Ming Dynasty equipped with firearms. Firearms are not only a high one-time investment, but the follow-up maintenance is also more complicated, and it is easy to break down compared with swords, even with the current financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, it is not enough to replace all the infantry with firearms.

Therefore, Yun Xi can only focus on cultivating the upper straight guard. His goal is to equip all 11 120,000 soldiers with firearms in the future, creating the world's first pure firearms unit. This number has exceeded the number of standing armies of any country before the introduction of compulsory military service in the Fula countries.

Yoon-hee built the upper straight guard almost exactly according to his impression of the musketeers of the Furak country lining up to shoot the era. According to the five elements of yin and yang, the Ming Dynasty belongs to fire virtue, so the military uniforms of the soldiers selected by Zhu Yuanzhang before are red. Yun Xi did not change the color of the military uniform of the Kamizhie in order to make it easier to distinguish between friend and foe, but in order to adapt to the use of muskets, he changed to the current style.

In addition to the musket, there was a strap on the back, which had numerous small pockets containing a preloaded powder roll wrapped in oiled paper containing a precise amount of gunpowder and a projectile. The strip used to compact the projectile with the gunpowder during loading is also hung on it.

Although Yun Xi would not let Kamizhie fight alone, and felt that there was no need to prepare cold weapons, the soldiers felt very uncomfortable that they did not have weapons capable of hand-to-hand combat, and finally had to equip them with Pak swords.

In addition, with the invention of grenades for various purposes, Yunxi has considered setting up a separate grenadier in each hundred households to further enhance combat capabilities.

All this makes Shangzhiwei a very special existence in the Ming army. Their weapons and equipment are different from those of ordinary armies, the style of military uniforms is different from that of ordinary armies, and the treatment of soldiers is different from that of ordinary armies. At this time, it had been more than a month since the Battle of Annam began, and even the Annam soldiers near the city of Duobang knew that there were Praetorian Guards of the Ming Emperor who were so extravagant that the whole army wore steel helmets and military uniforms were very luxurious.

But at the same time, the training of the upper guards is also the most complicated of the armies. Yun Xi has a forward-thinking concept, and will not let them take the detour that the country has taken, and it is the most standard queue to be shot at the beginning, which requires higher discipline than the traditional military formation; The maintenance of muskets was also more complicated than that of swords, guns, and halberds, and they had more to do than other guards. At the same time, because the army has not been formed for a long time, it still needs more training, even if they are still fighting with the Annanites, as long as they do not have the task of fighting that day, they will have to train in two waves. This made the soldiers of the other guards often laugh at them: look, these guys from the capital who think they are superior still have to practice every day.

Of course, the soldiers of the guards were dismissive of the people in the other guards. At this time, Li Sanzhou and Liu Degui, the soldiers of the Yulin Left Guard, looked at the other guards around them and said disdainfully: "Hmph, a group of country buns!" ”

"Look what they do? The two-month military salary is not more than a month for us, so what is there to worry about? Hey, look ahead, it's almost time for us to eat. Liu Degui said.

Their words were unfortunately heard by Zhang Fu, who was on patrol. Zhang Fu didn't reprimand the two of them, but just sighed and said to Sang Jing, who was patrolling with him behind him: "Commander Sang, it's not a good thing that the Shangzhiwei looks down on the local guard so much. ”

Sang Jing disagreed. The upper guard has never looked down on the local guard. The soldiers of the Shangzhiwei claim to be directly under the jurisdiction of His Majesty, and they can be regarded as forbidden troops, and they have always regarded the people of other guards as hillbillies, and the other guards have always said some sour things to Shangzhiwei, but they have never caused anything.

However, Zhang Fu is a Shangguan, and Sang Jing will not refute his words, so he said a few words about it casually, and changed the topic: "General Zhang, the army has been blocked in Jiangbei for twenty days, Zhang Houye, have they come up with a way to break through Duobang City?" ”

"Well, no." As soon as he mentioned this, Zhang Fu also sighed and said: "Since Zhang Shuai commanded the troops to come to Baihe, Zhang Shuai, His Royal Highness King Jingjiang, Deputy Marshal Li, General Lan, General Mu, General Sun, and General Li have also braved danger more than once to go to the river to see the defense of Duobang City with clairvoyance, and they have also tried several times, but they have not succeeded. ”

"The last time I was on the table, General Lan said in frustration that now if you want to break through Duobang City, you can only fill it with human lives, and there are about 70,000 defenders in Duobang City, and there are nearly 30,000 soldiers stationed nearby, if you fight like this, I am afraid that you will lose 100,000 soldiers."

"100,000 soldiers?" Rao is Sang Jing expected that the storming of Duobang City would inevitably lose countless soldiers, and he still trembled when he heard this number.

"That's a loss of 100,000 soldiers." Zhang Fu said: "Now is not the time when 100,000 people are in a hurry, even Zhang Shuai can hardly make up his mind to storm Duobang City. ”

Sang Jing put himself in Zhang Wen's position, and felt that it was difficult to make up such a determination. The loss of 100,000 soldiers is not only that His Majesty may blame him, but the key is to let that army sacrifice? You can't use all barbarian soldiers, can you? The barbarian leader is not stupid, this kind of work that is completely life-threatening will not be done.

If you use the guards, now the ordinary soldiers know that Duobang City is not easy to fight, and whichever guard post is chosen as the vanguard, which guard post is likely to mutiny. Forcibly driving them to fight, Zhang Wen is likely to pay an unimaginable price.

Although news has come a few days ago that He Rong's troops were defeated near Yi'an City, losing nearly 40,000 soldiers, and also folding a commander; The news from Champa and other places is not very good, and the possibility that they will take advantage of the situation to capture the city of Duobang is not possible for a long time, but the determination is not so good.

Thinking of this, Sang Jing glanced sideways at the south bank of the river. He could not see the city of Dobang now, but it seemed to him that it was extremely fortified; Nguyen Renlie, the general of Duobang City, also seemed to be standing at the head of the city, looking at Jiangbei with a smile.

"The soldiers of the left guard of Yulin and the right guard of the government army have already eaten, let's go eat too." Zhang Fu said suddenly.

Sang Jing retracted his thoughts, followed him to a firehead army, received the same food as an ordinary soldier, got a spoonful of rice, and sat down under a big tree to eat. Sang Jing wanted to ask for more, but looking at the pot, the rice was already visible, so he could only stop. Now, because it is not easy to transport grain, although it is still sufficient, Zhang Wen has also ordered the whole army to save grain, and no one is allowed to waste it, and violators will be severely punished.

Sang Jing had just put a piece of rabbit meat in his mouth, chewed it and was about to swallow it, when he suddenly heard someone say: "General Zhang, Sang commands." ”

He hurriedly swallowed the rabbit meat, raised his head, and saw Xu Jingchang, the nephew of Xu Huizu, the Duke of Wei, standing in front of the two of them with a rice bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other.

After Xu Jingchang Yunxi chose the guard to go to Annan a few months ago, because the guard post was not among the expeditions, Xu Yingxu transferred him to the Yulin Left Guard as a thousand households and went with the army.

At this time, he looked at Zhang Fu and the others, put the chopsticks together and held them, and said: "General Zhang, Commander Sang, today I have three soldiers in a thousand households who are not lightly injured, and they can only rest in the camp tent and cannot practice in the next few days; Seven more soldiers were slightly wounded, and they had already been shown to the military doctors, and they should be bandaged and ointments should be applied, and they would be able to participate in the drill tomorrow. ”

"Got it. However, Xu Qianhu, I ordered all Qianhu to report this matter to me and Commander Sang every day, but I didn't say that you should report immediately after the drill. Report every day before dinner. Zhang Fu said with a smile.

"Where can you remember so many things every day? I'm afraid I'll forget about it in the evening, so I'll report it to General Zhang and Commander Sang now. Xu Jingchang also said with a smile.

Immediately, Xu Jingchang sat down beside them and continued to eat. Because of his background, he is not afraid of Shangguan, and most of the time he is very casual with them, that is, he respects the older generations and Xu Da and others.

Zhang Fu and Sang Jing were also unimpressed. Sang Jing and the Xu family can barely be regarded as world friends, and they have been very familiar with Xu Jingchang since childhood, and they chatted with him while eating at this time.

While they were chatting, Zhang Fu had finished eating the rice in the bowl, handed the rice bowl to the guards, and suddenly said to Xu Jingchang: "Xu Qianhu, after a while, you can go to the river with me to have a look." ”