Chapter 103 The September Beacon Fire Shocked Chang'an

"Heaven descends on the people, and they must first suffer their minds, strain their muscles and bones, and starve their bodies and skin!"

Li Shimin's mind is extremely tenacious. Since he became the governor of Bingzhou, Li Shimin has devoted himself to training the new army, of course, the name is still Xuanjia Iron Cavalry, and the establishment is still more than 30,000 people. The sun in Taiyuan in September is still like fire, the earth seems to be roasted to cracks, and the autumn tigers are raging, which makes people unable to lift their spirits.

Hou Junji's dozens of instructors are holding a thumb-thick bamboo whip, under the scorching sun in the phalanx that is being practiced with ill intentions, seeing which action is not standardized enough is a whip, if the beaten person can't bear the pain, humming or rubbing it with his hands, he will immediately attract a heavier whip.

Thousands of soldiers, shields in one hand and spears in the other, stood straight and motionless against the scorching sun, letting sweat slide down their faces like beads of broken thread. For pikemen, the shield weighing more than ten catties is purely superfluous, but Li Shimin feels that it is very necessary to have a shield. The pikemen are the nemesis of the light cavalry, and once the pikemen are in formation, even the most elite cavalry can only fight for casualties and exchange lives with the pikemen.

Li Shimin found that in fact, the armor of the hook and sickle lancers under Chen Ying's department was not necessarily as strong as the armor of the Xuanjia cavalry, but in terms of combat effectiveness, the Xuanjia cavalry really couldn't catch up. Of course, after careful analysis, Li Shimin found that the biggest difference between the Xuanjia cavalry and the hook and sickle cavalry was two things, one was discipline, and the other was an extra shield. The shield is really not a big deal for Li Shimin. Taiyuan City is also Li Shimin's hometown, and it is still a breeze to get thousands of shields.

As long as the pikemen were given a shield, the Turkic cavalry would be very uncomfortable when facing the pikemen. Although the shield was no more than six feet long and three feet wide, it could protect most of the pikemen's vital points.

Hou Junji corrected the soldiers who acted irregularly from time to time, and those who were disobedient were waiting to be cleaned up. However, under Hou Junji's training, the discipline of the officers and men of the New Army was greatly improved.

These wooden spears were extremely envious of the robes next to them, who were practicing assassination.

Although assassination training is more physically demanding, anyone who has ever stood in a military posture knows that they are relatively more willing to practice stabbing.

Right next to this phalanx, a phalanx also composed of pikemen is holding a spear, with the officer's command again and again to the stakes in front of the stump, this group of actions they have repeated no less than two hundred times, so tired that they can't lift their arms, but the damn instructor still doesn't have the slightest intention of letting everyone stop, they have to think of themselves as an unconscious robot, when the password sounds, even if they are asleep, they will be stabbed out as if they are trying back!

Presumably, those tired dogs are very envious of the wooden people next to them who can stand there motionless, right? Of course, the wooden people were also very envious of them, and it was too uncomfortable to be motionless like this.

Duan Zhixuan trained the Xuanjia cavalry according to the method left by Zhai Changsun. In order to exercise the courage of the cavalry soldiers, he lined up with some of the archery soldiers and shot arrows at the Xuanjia cavalry with bows and crossbows.

Of course, these arrows are all removed, but the crossbow is very powerful, even if there is no arrowhead, once it hits the face or vital parts, it will cause certain casualties.

However, in order to train an iron-blooded strong army like Chen Ying, who can grit his teeth and bear huge casualties and charge against the enemy's dense arrow rain, Li Shimin still strictly trains soldiers according to this method.

After more than eight months of training, the new Xuanjia Iron Cavalry had already formed an army, but the Turks had not moved, which made Li Shimin feel lonely.

Taking the initiative to attack the Turks, this is Li Shimin's idea. He sent seven letters to Li Yuan in a row, but Li Yuan's reply was the same, don't be impatient.

In fact, the Tang Dynasty was now fighting the Tibetans in Ganzhou and Suzhou, and the Western Turks and the Western Regions were also eyeing each other, and Li Yuan did not want to start a war with the Eastern Turks at all.

Even when he encountered a small Turkic cavalry attack, he avoided it without fighting.

Even though Li Shimin was reluctant in his heart, there was no way. Practicing every day, Li Shimin felt that one head was bigger than two.

At this moment, Li Shimin said to the eldest grandson Wuji: "Wuji, go out for a walk with me!" ”

The sun in the sky is scorching, and the wind in the air is hot. However, the people of Taiyuan are very happy, because September is also the harvest season.

In the scorching heat and unbearable ghost weather, countless farmers are naked-chested in the field wielding sickles, harvesting wheat quickly, the sun makes their skin red and even bursting, their work must be very hard, but everyone is full of energy, the thin body seems to have endless strength, one acre after another is slammed, the wheat is beaten into bundles, and then quickly put on the ox cart, pulled to the wheat field for threshing.

Due to Chen Ying's reasons, fertilizer began to be promoted, and Li Yuan ordered farmers everywhere to adopt additional fertilizer, although the output of phosphate fertilizer was too small, and it was basically monopolized by the major families. But generally still get a lot of fertilizer use. These fertilizers are basically organic fertilizers. It is a kind of fertilizer made by aerobic fermentation and decomposition of various animals, plants, all kinds of orange stalks, fallen leaves, grasses, animal and plant residues, and human and animal manure as raw materials, mixed with each other or mixed with a small amount of soil in proportion.

This fertilizer is also fermented by silt from the Qingli ditch and a large amount of fallen leaves. Through the fertilization of the field, the yield of crops in the field has been greatly improved, and the original yield of one acre of land can be counted as high yield. But now, even if it is an inferior coarse field, through fertilization, three stones can be harvested, especially the best ripe fields, and the yield per mu of some fields has exceeded four stones and five buckets. Farmers are not afraid of hard work, and what could be more joyful than the rewards of their hard work?

A small group of knights galloped over, and the peasants who were working in the fields shouted: "His Royal Highness King Qin has come down!" Everyone stopped what they were doing, looked at the side of the road, and saw a general in green clothes riding a tall horse and leading a team of fierce soldiers, galloping straight to the field.

When he came to the edge of the field, Li Shimin jumped off his horse and jumped into the field, and an old farmer was taken aback and shouted: "His Royal Highness the King of Qin, this is unacceptable!" The fields are dirty, don't stain your boots! ”

Li Shimin smiled slightly and said, "The boots are dirty, just go back and wash them...... I came to see the harvest in the field, how is it, is the harvest okay? ”

The peasants rushed over and said excitedly: "Your Royal Highness King Qin, this thing is too useful, and the harvest is too scary!" Two or three stones were harvested in one acre of land! ”

The eldest grandson Wuji walked up to the pile of cut wheat, reached out and grabbed an ear of wheat, put it in his hand and weighed it, and shook his head at Li Shimin.

He had been to Chen Ying's experimental field in the Qing forest, where the ears of wheat were a little larger than here. Li Shimin looked at the old farmer and asked, "How many stones?" ”

"There are three stones, but four stones and five buckets! Oh my God, the grass people have been dealing with crops all their lives, and I have never seen such a good harvest! The old farmer smiled brightly.

Li Shimin frowned, squatted down and plucked a wheat that had not been harvested, he didn't mind that it was full of dirt at all, and carefully observed the root system of the wheat, he looked at the root system of the wheat, and then looked at the eldest grandson Wuji and said, "Wuji, have you found a problem?" ”

Eldest Sun Wuji nodded.

The peasants looked at Li Shimin, the king of Qin, with a worried face, Li Shimin was the son of the emperor's old son, and these peasants felt that they were great people when they saw the county order, and they might not say a word to them.

As for Li Shimin, it is boundless.

The eldest grandson Wuji said: "Compost is still not as good as chemical fertilizer!" ”

Li Shimin is a very good learner, and he tested the fields from Chen Ying's clear forest, especially the yield impressed him. Chen Ying actually adopts a circular breeding system in Qinglin, using grass to raise cattle and horses, cow and horse manure plus feed can raise pigs, pig manure, and pig manure can be thrown into fish ponds to raise fish and shrimp. Moreover, wheat straw and sorghum poles do not need to be burned, and can be used to feed cattle and sheep.

In this way, the peasants have increased not only food, but also livestock. He copied Chen Ying's set, built farm tools, led the sergeants and farmers to build ditches, and used water to drain trucks to fight drought.

The wheat harvest has improved considerably, and a large number of waterwheels, bamboo canals, and irrigation wells have provided sufficient water to the wheat fields, and the harvest of many wheat fields has reached more than three stones, and some fertile fields even have as many as four stones and five buckets, which is quite rare.

But the harvest made Li Shimin not very satisfied, seeing that several fields were like this, Li Shimin couldn't help frowning, and said: "This yield is much worse than I expected." The yield in Qinglin is generally more than four stones, with the same seeds, the same technology, why is the yield so different? ”

The eldest grandson Wuji said with a smile: "We don't have enough fertilizer, and of course the yield can't be compared to that over there." Fertilizer is abundant, and it is difficult to get a good harvest. ”

Li Shimin sighed: "Alas, fertilizer! ”

He knew that the farmers could not be blamed for this, because in order to increase the yield, the farmers used all the methods they could, such as accumulating manure, making manure, collecting manure, and even digging up the silt in the pond and applying it to the fields, but the fertility still could not keep up. There are more than a dozen dumped fields in the Taiyuan Basin, as well as a large number of vegetables and fruits on the shallow mountains, all of which need fertilizer, even if they cut all the plants and trees on the mountains back and burn them into ashes.

Li Shimin clapped his hands and said, "It seems that if you want to have a good harvest, you need to raise more chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep!" ”

The eldest grandson Wuji said: "Especially cattle, we must raise more, so many fields, without cattle, we can't be busy at all!" ”

Li Shimin said: "Raising cattle is too slow, it's best if the Turks can come, let's fight a battle, grab some cattle and sheep, and the people of Hedong will have a better life!" ”

At this time, Li Shimin commanded more than 30,000 elite soldiers in the left and right guards of the East Palace, and more than 30,000 elite soldiers in the left and right divisions, as well as more than 30,000 men and horses in his newly formed Xuanjia Iron Cavalry, as well as the 24 Zhichong Mansion soldiers of the Bingzhou Governor's Mansion, with a total strength of 100,000 horses.

also survived this year's bumper harvest, otherwise it may not be able to afford it.

At this moment, the eldest grandson Wuji suddenly pushed Li Shimin: "His Royal Highness the King of Qin, His Royal Highness the King of Qin, three puffs of wolf smoke!" ”

The solitary smoke belongs to the smoke of peace, which is exactly what is written in the poem, the desert is lonely, and the sun sets on the long river. Two puffs of wolf smoke represent an enemy attack, but this scale must be less than 10,000 people.

In other words, it means that you need to call for support.

But the three puffs of wolf smoke are different. This represents a large-scale troop offensive.

Li Shimin had been waiting for the Turks to attack for a long time, and in fact, after the new army was trained, he had long thought about finding the Turks to train his hands. Finally waited for the Turks to attack, Li Shimin was not afraid, but shouted very excitedly: "Good come!" ”

Li Shimin ran like a fly, quickly flew in front of the war horse, jumped up, and rode towards the barracks.

However, the three puffs of wolf smoke spread the news of the Eastern Turks' large-scale attack to Chang'an with one beacon fire after another, and Li Yuan hurriedly convened the ministers to discuss the matter.