28

Zhou Dazhu escorted Zhang Ergouzi and Dong Zhuangzi to Yongcheng County, the closest county town to their cottage, where to purchase the materials they needed for the cottage.

The others who stayed in the cottage were continued to train by Li Zixiao.

After Li Zixiao came back, after summing up the experience of the two battles on the mountain, he also felt that they had a very serious problem, that is, the lack of long-range weapons.

Wang Zirui is also clear about the biggest shortcoming of his spear battle array, that is, he is afraid of the blow of long-range firepower, even if he has the protection of the sword and shield soldiers, it is still not enough.

In the battle of the rout of Wangjiabaozi, they were able to win to a large extent because they were caught off guard by those officers and soldiers, so that they had no chance to fire arrows.

Coupled with those routs, they had never encountered this kind of spear battle array designed by Li Zixiao, rushing up one by one and being stabbed down by rows of spears, this is the strength of the team.

If they hadn't been a sneak attack, let those officers and soldiers be prepared, as long as a few archers let out their arrows, as long as they caused casualties to them, they would not have waited for the rout to approach, and they would have been defeated because of the quality of their own soldiers.

And to deal with the enemy's long-range firepower, since ancient times there have been only two ways.

One is to have long-range firepower such as archers or firecrackers in your team, and when fighting, they will output long-range firepower to suppress the opponent's long-range firepower.

The second way is to have everyone wear armor and use armor to resist the enemy's bow and arrow attacks and reduce their own casualties.

However, the second way is passive defense after all, not Wang Zirui's favorite style, he is more inclined to fight violence with violence, the first way to take the initiative to attack, and better is to combine the two ways, both offensive and defensive.

But under the current conditions of the cottage, Li Zixiao can't do it in either way, and archers can't be trained in a day or two.

This is also why Li Zixiao hopes that when Zhang Ergouzi recruits people, he can recruit some veterans who were once official, he doesn't expect these veterans to charge into battle, but looks at their archery skills.

As for the formation of firecrackers, don't even think about it, they don't even have the ability to make firecrackers, and they haven't even captured a firecracker, how to form firecrackers.

It's just that there are some armors, but there are only a dozen pairs of simple leather armor looted from Liujiabao, and the protection ability is really not very good.

Therefore, at this time, Li Zixiao could only sigh in the air, this matter could only be put aside for a while, and when their cottage strength grew a little stronger, he would find a way to make up for the team's shortcomings.

Fortunately, in a short period of time, he implemented the strategy of Taoguang and obscurity, slowly accumulating strength, not attracting the attention of the government, as long as he was given a certain amount of time, he believed that everything would be there.

Li Zixiao thought about this problem while walking in the cottage, and unconsciously came to a warehouse where the cottage placed sundries, which was a small wooden house, in which other materials other than food were placed.

I happened to see Old Master Wei holding a tattered battle jacket in his hand, shaking his head and walking out with a look of pity.

"Old Master, what are you busy with?" Li Zixiao stepped forward to say hello.

"Great boss, I am here to inspect the battle jackets of these officers and soldiers we have captured, see how to repair them, and put them on for our soldiers, otherwise it would be a pity to put them there.

However, I didn't expect that the jackets of the officers and soldiers of this government would be so rudimentary, and even cut corners, which were not as good as the leather armor we captured. ”

Old Master Wei said with an indignant face.

"Oh? yes, I'll see. Li Zixiao took the tattered battle jacket from Old Master Wei and looked at it carefully.

This is a set of Mandarin Duck battle jackets equipped with the standard equipment of the Ming Dynasty official army, which is really not good, that is, a set of tattered ordinary cotton jackets, although it can provide a little defense, but it is only limited to defending against bows and arrows shot from a long distance.

When faced with a spear and a big knife, this tattered mandarin duck jacket alone will not play much role at all.

However, they seized a set of tattered cotton armor from the officer, but it was just this set, which was put on by Li Zixiao very unceremoniously, and there was no extra one for others to wear.

Moreover, after getting that set of cotton armor, Li Zixiao took a closer look and figured out the defensive ability of this cotton armor.

The cotton armor of this era was actually made of coarse cloth sandwiched with cotton, and after the coarse cloth was sewn with cotton, it had to be soaked with water, spread on the ground and steady, and then dried.

The better cotton armor is also decorated with iron sheets, which are nailed to the cotton armor with copper nails to enhance the defense power, which can effectively defend against long-distance arrows and musket attacks, and also has a certain cold protection effect in winter.

The cotton armor seized by Li Zixiao is quite old, and the red cloth outside has seriously faded, and I don't know what year it was made.

Although there are also some pieces of iron in the cotton armor, it is obvious that there are corners when making it, and only a few pieces of iron are nailed in the vital parts, and the other parts are not nailed at all.

What made Li Zixiao even more speechless was that even the few pieces of iron were rusty, and even a few were missing, which didn't play much protective role at all, at best, it was a little stronger than nothing.

"This thing is really useless, it's better to make our own cotton jackets, and when Dong Zhuang comes back from buying a batch of cotton from the county this time, we have cotton cloth in the cottage, and the battle jackets made are much stronger than this, so throw them away."

Li Zixiao looked at the tattered mandarin duck jacket in his hand, threw it directly to the ground, and said disdainfully.

But Old Master Wei hurriedly picked it up and refused to throw it away, muttering in his mouth that it could be dismantled and redone, it was a pity to throw it away, after all, it was the older generation, thrift was their virtue, and Li Zixiao did not stop it.

After Li Zixiao and Old Master Wei left, they slipped to another wooden house in the cottage, which is the 'hospital' of the whole village, and the only Langzhong in the village, Li Langzhong, is here to tinker with his traditional Chinese medicine, and the injured soldiers in the cottage will find him for treatment.

Because of the large number of medicinal materials that Li Zixiao and they snatched from Liujiabao last time, Li Langzhong has been busy configuring his unique secret recipe recently, which can stop bleeding and reduce pain, promote blood circulation and eliminate blood stasis, etc., Li Zixiao saw that Li Langzhong was very busy, so he didn't bother.

Jingle Bell......

Li Zixiao came to a simple workshop shop with black smoke, and there was a clanging sound of iron, a big man with a frank chest and an open back was holding a sledgehammer to beat a red-hot iron embryo, and there were two young apprentices next to him to help.

This is a blacksmith shop that has just been built in the cottage, and there is a blacksmith who has joined their cottage, Master Zhang.

"Master Zhang, how is it, this new stall is still used to it." Li Zixiao smiled and walked into the blacksmith shop and greeted the big man.

"The big boss, the shop here is very good, it has just been opened, and it is still running-in, I am very happy to be able to do my part for the cottage, and this iron is my family's old business, and I guarantee to play high-quality weapons for the big boss."

Master Zhang, formerly known as Zhang Chuancheng, has been a blacksmith for generations, and his iron-making skills are superb, and he was the first batch of blacksmiths who were recruited to the cottage before.

"Okay, we'll be back soon with a batch of iron, and we'll hand it over to you then.

At present, you mainly focus on building spear heads, and slowly run in first, we don't have enough spears in reserve, so we expect your blacksmith shop to build spear heads for our cottage in the future. ”

Li Zixiao also expects that in the future, the cottage will attract more and more blacksmiths, and when the time comes, they will build their own weapons, and weapons must not be controlled by others, without weapons, how can they fight.

On the other side of the blacksmith shop, is where the carpenter is located, at this time several figures are busy, they are responsible for building guns, after all, at this time, the main class of the cottage is still mainly pikemen, so there is a great demand for gun barrels.

After walking through the new workshops in the cottage, Li Zixiao looked at the scene of the hard training of Wei Hongzheng's subordinates on the cottage playground, and Li Zixiao smiled.

At this time, the cottage is full of vitality, which is a force that belongs to him, a vigorous force, and a good start. Although this force is still very weak now, he is confident that under his careful care, he will soon grow into a behemoth.

When this behemoth utters his first roar, it will surely shock the world!