Xu Xingxia had just returned to his residence, and before he could sit down, someone came to report: "My lord, the two commanders of the Tianxiang Army, Bai Xuefei and Gao Yanfei, have already arrived. [Full text reading]"

Bai Xuefei was a little unconvinced in the Black Mountain Camp at the beginning. As for Gao Yanfei, he was the leader of the Qiang tribe, and his original name was Puprak Aldo. Gao Yanfei is his Chinese name. The two of them are the chief and deputy commanders of the Tianxiang Army determined by Xu Xingxia. This time, he called both of them to his side, just to personally understand the situation of the Tianxiang Army.

The Tianxiang Army is a force that Xu Xingxia values very much. It was the first specialized mountain combat unit of the White Coats. The establishment of this mountain unit is, of course, closely related to the upcoming combat mission of the White Clothes Army. As the territory controlled by the White Coats continued to expand, there were more and more mountainous areas. Fighting in mountainous areas, ordinary cavalry and infantry are not competent. Judging by the experience of later generations, it was necessary to have specialized mountain combat units.

From a long point of view, after the Yarkand Kingdom and the Green Mountains, it is the Three Kingdoms of the Western Regions, that is, the territory of the Three Queens of the Western Regions. These regions, later known as Central Asia, were mountainous in size. In many places, there are no decent roads. It seems that a considerable part of the area controlled by the Kingdom of Khorasan is the area of Afghanistan in later generations. Even the army of the US imperialists will suffer a lot here, let alone the army of 400 years ago.

Fighting on these rugged, complex, and bumpy terrains, if you don't have enough mountain combat troops, you will definitely suffer. Hundreds of years ago, the Tang Dynasty army was defeated at Talas and had to relinquish control of Central Asia, causing Central Asia to fall to the Middle East countries to the west. This is a huge regret in Chinese history. Now, of course, Xu Xingxia can't let this regret continue.

In the near future, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau next to Gansu Town is a huge roadblock. The Ming Dynasty's jurisdiction over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was basically a surname of the Prison Prefecture, which nominally belonged to the Ming Dynasty, and in essence was completely readable. Obviously, Xu Xingxia is also not satisfied with such a relationship. He was definitely going to send troops to the Tibetan Plateau. It's a pity that due to the altitude, ordinary armies simply can't fight in places like the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Just climbing the mountain, I don't know how many people will die of exhaustion.

"Let them in!" Xu Xingxia nodded and said.

A moment later, Bai Xuefei and Gao Yanfei both came in. As the chief and deputy commanders of the Tianxiang Army, the two were obviously a little nervous in front of Xu Xingxia. This tension became even more evident after the defeat of the Tatars and Mongols by the White Army. There is no way, they feel more and more that Xu Xingxia is becoming more and more powerful.

"Sit down and talk." Xu Xingxia said kindly.

The two of them sat down in an orderly manner, did not squint, and tried their best to keep their waists straight. Since receiving Xu Xingxia's order, the two have conducted a strict training on their appearance. How to walk, how to stand, how to sit, are all trained almost as a conditioned reflex, and can be completed without going through the brain at all.

Originally, according to the rules, they should have taken the initiative to report the situation of the Tianxiang Army. It is estimated that due to nervousness, the two of them, after sitting down, did not even speak. It felt as if there was so much pressure that they couldn't speak. On Bai Xuefei's forehead, there were even faint beads of sweat.

Xu Xingxia had no choice but to say: "Bai Xuefei, you say it first." ”

Bai Xuefei nodded hurriedly and began to report in a hurried voice.

As the commander of the Tianxiang Army, Bai Xuefei has arrived in Gansu Town for a period of time and officially took over the Tianxiang Army from Gao Yigong's hands. The training base of the Tianxiang Army is in Ganjun Fort near Ganzhou City. It was originally a thousand households, and after simple repairs, it became the base camp of the Tianxiang Army. In the vicinity of Ganjun Fort is the rugged and complex terrain of Baicheng Mountain. The main training subjects of the Tianxiang Army are all carried out around Baicheng Mountain.

Obviously, for the mountain combat troops, the Tianxiang Army does not have a very clear concept from top to bottom. Their training subjects were formulated according to Xu Xingxia's instructions. Xu Xingxia's basic requirement for the Tianxiang Army is the training of endurance and will. All other subjects can be put aside for the time being. Endurance and will are the most basic, but they are also the most difficult to do. Without years of training, it is impossible to hone it.

In order to hone the endurance and will of the troops, the training of the Tianxiang Army was indeed too hard. In the words of the warriors, it is to climb the mountain every day. There are many, many mountains to climb every day. Every day, I have to carry a lot of equipment and climb many, many mountains. Sometimes, it is not strange that I am so tired that I faint directly on the mountain road. The originally barren Baicheng Mountain, due to the existence of the Tianxiang Army, all the mountain roads have become extremely slippery.

It is said that Gao Yigong, Zhang Yunbao and others also went to Baicheng Mountain to observe the training of the Tianxiang Army, but as a result, they only watched for half an hour and quietly slipped away. They can't bear to look at it anymore. The training intensity of the Tianxiang Army, compared to their Lion Cavalry Army, is really amazing. If the Lion Cavalry and the Tianxiang Army fought, and neither side had war horses or muskets, it was estimated that the Lion Cavalry would be defeated. Those soldiers of the Tianxiang Army are all perverts!

Of course, the soldiers of the Tianxiang Army are not without fun at all. At least, all the prey of Baicheng Mountain has entered their stomachs. Baicheng Mountain and Qilian Mountain are connected, and the prey is very abundant, as long as they want, it is as much as they want. And with their mountain running level, it is not difficult to hunt down some prey at all. Almost every time they trained, the soldiers of the Tianxiang Army had to bring back a large number of birds and beasts.

When Bai Xuefei and Gao Yanfei arrived this time, they brought three precious sable skins to Xu Xingxia. This is a specialty of Qilian Mountain, which is not available in Helan Mountain. The fur of this sable is very valuable, and it can be sold for almost 10,000 taels of silver in big cities. Because the sable has a very high alertness, its vision is very sharp, and its sense of hearing is also very sensitive. And it runs fast and jumps at a high height, so it's hard to catch.

These three sable skins were all captured by the soldiers of the Tianxiang Army when they were training, and everyone worked together and used a lot of strength to catch them. Such a precious gift is naturally going to be given to the Supreme Chairman. This can be regarded as the first small battle feat of the Tianxiang Army. No matter what kind of troops, they are very eager to build up their military exploits.

Xu Xingxia took the sable fur and said with a smile: "Okay! I don't have to accept other gifts, I must accept this gift from Tianxiangjun! ”

The chairman of the Supreme Committee was so approachable, and he also accepted the gift of Tianxiangjun happily, Bai Xuefei and Gao Yanfei, they finally put their minds at ease, and they were not as nervous as they were just now. Their reporting is much more fluent and smooth. Before, they were worried that the chairman of the committee was an old-fashioned guy and refused to accept the gift of Tianxiangjun.

Of course, the Tianxiang Army cannot be composed entirely of Qiang people, and there must be some Han people in the middle. It's a pity that the attitude of the local Han people towards participating in the Tianxiang Army is indeed not very positive. The most fundamental reason is that I am still a little afraid of hardship. Joining the Lion Cavalry is obviously not as hard as joining the Tianxiang Army. The training of the Tianxiang Army, ordinary people really can't stand it. Therefore, the number of Han people in the Tianxiang army, which has an establishment of 3,000 people, is about 800 people. These 800 people were all recruited from some mountainous areas, which can be regarded as a little foundation.

The weapons and equipment of the Tianxiang Army are all in place. In addition to muskets, they were also equipped with a variety of strange weapons such as bows, flying cymbals, ropes, rope ladders, marching hammocks, tridents, mountain knives, animal traps, and sapper shovels. These weapons and equipment can effectively help them climb mountains and mountains and fight better. However, it is really a bit difficult to carry so much equipment when marching and fighting!

At present, the main training of the Tianxiang Army is still will and endurance, which is commonly known as crawling broken legs. Every morning, I get up and climb the mountain, from the foot of Mt. Hakujo to the top of Mt. Hakujo. This distance is at least fifty miles. It's all fifty miles of mountain roads, and if you think about it, you know how difficult it is. Under the high-intensity training, even some Qiang men were unbearable and complained a lot.

Xu Xingxia said with a smile: "Are there many deserters? ”

Bai Xuefei said honestly: "There are more than one hundred and thirty at present. ”

Xu Xingxia nodded thoughtfully and said calmly: "Yes, it's better than I imagined." I am still very pleased that Tianxiang Army can have such results. ”

He stood up, his face became serious, and he said awe-inspiringly: "Mountain troops, all they want are volunteers, they are willing to join, and they really like mountain combat. Reluctantly, or strongly, we'd rather not. You must pay attention to this when recruiting soldiers in the future. After recruiting into the team, if you don't want to stay any longer, don't stop them, let them go. People who are afraid of challenges, we don't want either. ”

"Mountain warfare, in fact, is not that scary. As long as our training reaches a certain level, we will be able to walk on the mountain road. I've heard that many of the soldiers of the Tianxiang Army can run a steep mountain road of fifty miles in just two hours, which is quite remarkable. For such soldiers, we must vigorously praise them, we must vigorously publicize them, and we must set them up as an example for the Tianxiang Army. Their excellent results fully show that human potential is unlimited. It's not that you can't do it yourself, it's that you don't work hard. ”

(To be continued)