Boat to Yangzhou. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Daddy was waiting at the dock with a few men in his armor, gray-haired, with a black blindfold over one eye, and the iconic iron-wrapped gun in his hand.

The veteran soldier is old, but once again he is wearing battle armor.

"Daddy, what are you?"

"If you want to go to Hebei to fight the Goguryeo people, I must go."

Daddy's expression was very firm, "I can not go to fight the Turks, Tubo, and Tuguhun, I can not care, but I must go to fight the Goguryeos." ”

"Dad, you're so old, and you're already a senior." Li Chao didn't care about the tiredness of the journey, and took his father's hand to persuade him.

The old iron spear was extremely stubborn at this time.

"I have made three expeditions to Liaodong, leaving more than ten scars in Liaodong, and my countless brothers in Paoze have died in Liaodong, and even several of my own brothers have died there."

Although he has already made a decision, his father is willing to go in the form of a volunteer.

The conquest of Liao during the Sui Dynasty made countless people in the Central Plains leave grievances, not only resentful of Yang Guang, but also more hatred of the Goguryeo people, when countless soldiers and people died in Liaodong, adding up to hundreds of thousands of people.

Daddy wants to go, and Li Chao can't stop him.

After hesitating for a long time, Li Chao nodded.

went ashore to rest and replenish, and local officials came to meet Li Chao. For these local officials, Li Chao only met once, talked a few words, and then returned home with his father.

Dad used to be from Yangzhou, but his family was average at that time. Later, he left his hometown and his family was ruined. When he was old, he was able to return to his hometown.

Before my father returned to his hometown, Li Chao sent someone to build a mansion in his hometown and repair the grave.

When the two returned home, Dad led Li Chao to the ancestral grave first.

There are the ancestors of the Zhang family buried, and Li Chao kowtowed one by one and burned a lot of paper money.

Returned to the manor and went to the ancestral hall again.

Because my father is now developed, he also helps the people of the original family. In the past, the people of the Zhang family have now built houses in the manor, set up a school, and invited a husband. The children of the Zhang clan can study for free.

Although the father has been given a surname and entered into the royal genealogy, it can be regarded as breaking away from the Zhang family. But with the Zhang family, they are still clan relatives.

When they got home, these clansmen of the Zhang family naturally came to visit, although many of the people who came were the elders of the Zhang family, Li Chao could only be regarded as a junior, but Li Chao was the prime minister of the dynasty after all.

For these clansmen who have no feelings, Li Chao is still very polite, Li Chao has no feelings for them, but his father has feelings for them.

"Xiangguo, many people came from outside, asking to see Xiangguo, saying that they wanted to volunteer to go with Xiangguo to fight Goguryeo."

Li Chao was a little surprised, his father was going to volunteer to fight Goguryeo, but he didn't expect that now another group of people said that they were going to fight Goguryeo.

"I'll go see them."

At the gate of Li's Manor, hundreds of people were focused.

There are old and young.

Those old ones claimed to be the ones who had conquered Liao back then.

In fact, these people can't be said to be old, many people are about the same age as their fathers, and even many of them are younger than their fathers, but they are a little old because of the hardships of life.

After all, they are indeed not old.

After all, the three expeditions to Liaodong were from the eighth year of the Great Cause to the tenth year of the Great Cause, and the distance between them is only fifteen years and so far. The government soldiers who were twenty or thirty years old at the time are only thirty or forty years old now. The older ones are only in their fifties.

"You're going to war?" Li Chao asked.

"We're going to fight Goguryeo and take revenge!"

These government soldiers are all veterans who participated in the expedition to Liao, and the expedition to Liao was huge every time, and many soldiers went to the battlefield with their fathers, brothers, sons and nephews, and how many relatives died there and did not come back.

Li Chao asked the young people again, "Are you going to fight the Goguryeo people too?" ”

"We want to avenge our father and brother!" The young men shouted. These people are the sons and daughters of the Sui army who died in Liaodong that year.

When I heard that Li Chao had appointed the envoy of Yanyun Jiedu and was going to the north to command the war with the Goguryeo and Turks, and that he was going to pass through Yangzhou, they all rushed here.

The enthusiasm of these people, the desire to participate in the war, made Li Chao a little confused.

After chatting with them for a long time, Li Chao almost understood what these people thought.

These people really want to fight the Goguryeo people and avenge their revenge back then.

Of course, this is only one of them.

It's too late for ordinary people to avoid the war, even if these veterans and the children of the veterans of the past.

These people want to go to war, the most important thing is because it is Li Chao who leads the troops.

Li Chao is an invincible general in Datang and a military god. Which time did Li Chaobing fail to win? No matter how many troops you lead, you can win in the end.

The generals who follow Li Chao can always make meritorious contributions.

Especially when Li Chao fought in battles, he always suffered very few casualties.

In this way, following Li Chao to fight, the danger is small, but there are many opportunities for meritorious service, who is not tempted by such a good thing.

Although the world is now unified, Datang still attaches great importance to military merits. Military merit is still the best way to get a knight or be promoted, if you can't get a knight, you can't be an official, at least it's easy to earn rewards.

There is no profit and it is not early, and these people are also shrewd. Moreover, they did have a grudge against the Goguryeo people.

Volunteers.

Li Chao remembered that in history, Li Shimin personally conquered Goguryeo in his later years, when the children of Chang'an enthusiastically signed up and volunteered to fight with the army.

Unexpectedly, now I have met these volunteers.

"Take them with you." Daddy said on the side.

With Li Chao's current official status, with a group of volunteers, no one can say anything, and if it is passed on, it will make people praise these veterans and teenagers for their loyalty and blood.

"Okay."

Li Chao thought about the meeting and finally agreed.

"These people will be organized into a volunteer army alone, and you will be in charge of it, Dad."

However, because these people are basically not government soldiers, if they are government soldiers, they don't need to seek the opportunity to make a name for themselves on the battlefield in this form.

If it's not government soldiers, there's a problem, they don't have equipment.

In addition to their lack of equipment, there is also a trouble, that is, among these people, except for some who have served as soldiers in the Sui Dynasty and participated in the conquest of Liao, most of the rest are children of peasant families, to put it bluntly, they are people who can't choose government soldiers.

In these years, the election of government soldiers also has to pay attention to the conditions, either the children of bureaucrats or landlords, at least they must be wealthy homesteaders, and ordinary people cannot be elected.

If they are not government soldiers, they lack training, not to mention the familiarity of military formations, and even the minimum martial arts, they are definitely not very good.

The regular government soldiers are basically equipped with a bow and are trained a lot in peacetime. But ordinary farmer's children, except for some hunters' children, how can ordinary people use bows. And things like bows and crossbows can't be practiced in three days or two days.

The rest of the swords and other kung fu are not something that can be learned in a day or two.

It's okay to bring them, and it's not even a problem to get them equipment, but the key is that they can't use the bow and arrow crossbow machine if they are given it, even if it is an ordinary knife brand, it is difficult to participate in actual combat without training.

Li Chao can take these people to the war and make meritorious contributions, but he can't take them to death.

"I don't know how to bow and crossbow and don't play the cards, give each of them a spear, and form a spear formation when fighting, which is also quite powerful." Daddy said.

Pikemen.

This can be said to be the lowest level of troops in the army, because the spear itself is cheaply equipped, and even if it is a new recruit, if everyone has a spear and a gun formation, the soldiers can still have some effect when they hug the group.

In the general army, especially in troubled times, there are fierce soldiers on all sides, and the most of them are pikemen.

Pikemen are also the least valuable troops, cannon fodder, and replenishment.

But when Dad said this, Li Chao remembered that pikemen are indeed quite rubbish, but don't they have gunpowder cartridges, they can upgrade these pikemen to musketeers, and if they are given grenades, they are still grenadiers.

Musketeers have an advantage, unlike archers, who have high requirements for the quality of soldiers, and do not need a long training cycle.

The spear volunteers are upgraded to musket volunteers, and their combat effectiveness can still be improved a lot.

Thinking of this, Li Chao made up his mind, and these volunteers should all be made into musketeers.

After listening to Li Chao's plan, Dad was still a little curious about what a musketeer was. Then Li Chao called Zhu Zhendong, and now Zhu Zhendong has become a musketeer, very hard, called to come, and very skillfully rehearsed what is called a musketeer for his father.

Add a bamboo tube to the spear, and the result is a musketeer?

This change amazed my father, but with his many years of combat experience, he also said that if he had never seen a musket, when fighting, such a firework spray would indeed have an unexpected effect. Even if you've seen it, it's still confusing when you're fighting.

For Li Chao, the musket volunteers are also simple to equip, one person and one spear, plus a powder cartridge plus a grenade, and a fire rope, and then it is enough.

At most, give them a helmet.

You don't need armor, you don't need a bow or a sword, you don't need a bayonet, you don't need a shield, you don't need a musket.

It is simple to equip and low in cost.

On that day, more than 130 volunteers were overrecruited.

Then, on the second day, more people came and asked to be volunteers, and when Li Chao left Yangzhou on the third day, the number of Dad's volunteers had reached more than 800.

But it wasn't over yet, as every time the canal went north, every time it stopped for supplies, there were bound to be many people who came to ask to be volunteers.

At this time, Dad also had to raise the conditions, as long as those young and strong guys even asked for some kung fu priority.

Going all the way north, passing by Qin Qiong's hometown, the volunteer army had already reached 5,000.

Li Chao also had to give Li Shimin a recital on the way, and reported the matter of the volunteer soldier in detail.

Li Shimin was very happy that there were so many volunteers who enthusiastically signed up to join the army, and the imperial court had previously determined that it would expand the army to 800,000, but this was only a plan, and it was necessary to select soldiers and train, and it was not known when the imperial court would complete the expansion of the army.

At this time, there were so many volunteers, in addition to providing them with food and drink, the imperial court did not need to pay additional food and salary, etc., which was much faster and more cost-effective than sending government soldiers from all over the Central Plains.

As a result, Li Chao, who got the imperial decree, also let go of his heart.

From Qizhou to Youzhou, recruiting troops along the way, and when he arrived in Youzhou, Li Chao had 20,000 volunteers in addition to the 5,000 Shenji battalion brought from Xiangyang.

20,000 volunteers, all the way to the training, each with a spear, plus a bag of gunpowder cartridges and a bag of grenades.

In order to make these volunteers look more powerful, Li Chao also specially issued a set of white robes to each of them.

The white robe was issued to distinguish it from the red robes of the government soldiers, and the white cloth was not dyed and was very cheap.

But in the end, there was a white-robed rebel army.

Wei Chi Gong in Youzhou City knew that Li Chao was coming, and rushed to the canal wharf with his generals to greet him, but before Li Chao's shadow could be seen, he saw a horse galloping over, and said with a frightened face that a large army appeared in the south, with twenty or thirty thousand people.

"Don't panic, that's Li Xiang arrived with the Shenji Battalion and the Volunteer Army." Wei Chigong was still calm, but he was also surprised in his heart, could Li Chao have recruited twenty or thirty thousand volunteers?

God, what are you recruiting so many people for, these people are not trained, what is the use of having more people?

He couldn't understand Li Chao's intentions for a while.