Although Black lost nearly 100 men before engaging in battle, Black still had a clear advantage in numbers, so on the face of it, Black still had a better chance of winning than Red.

However, after the two sides engaged, the soldiers of the black side withdrew from the battle one after another, while the soldiers of the red side suffered almost nothing, much to the surprise of the generals watching the battle from the stands. Only then did I cheer up and carefully observe this battle.

Because the Mandarin Duck Formation is a column formation, the first to engage the opponent are the two shield bearers and two halberd soldiers in the forefront, but their main task is not to attack the enemy, but to cover the pikemen behind them. The spears used by each pikeman are of an elongated type, with a length of more than five meters, allowing them to stab enemies with great lightness, even when they are behind shieldmen and halberders.

And behind the queue of the mandarin duck array, there are four crossbowmen, although the distance between the two sides is only a dozen meters at this time, not the distance between the bows and crossbows, but there are their companions in front of them to cover, so the crossbowmen can also fire their bows and arrows without scruples, hitting each other, and at the same time there are javelins thrown by double-edged axemen. As a result, Black's soldiers were either "killed" by pikemen or shot by crossbowmen, and had to withdraw from the battle.

At this time, Black's Zhao pawn understood a little, and tried to bypass the shield pawn and the halberd pawn to attack from both sides, but there was only a distance of five or six meters between each column of the red side, and it was difficult for Black to have a chance to outflank him from both sides. And even if a few people can break through the front row of soldiers, there are still two double-edged axemen waiting for them on the red side. The double-edged axe can be used with one hand, and it can also be held with both hands and slashed, although it is reduced in weight, it is also much heavier than weapons such as guns and halberds, and the power is also huge, so they are also "killed" one by one.

As a result, after the fierce battle between the two sides, Black continued to have soldiers "killed" and withdrew, while Red only had one or two soldiers "killed", and Black's numerical advantage was rapidly decreasing.

The entire confrontation training lasted only more than half an hour, and with a long horn sounding, both sides stopped and separated. After the count, Black had 304 "killed" while Red had only 53 killed, an average of just over two per squad.

After the results of the statistics came out, the generals in the stands were also dumbfounded, because in the battle between the nations, when fighting head-to-head, unless the difference between the main generals of the soldiers on both sides is too large, the losses are basically the same. The real losses are mainly incurred after the defeat, in the process of defeat. And now the two warring sides have not decided the winner, but only interrupted. And Black's casualties were four or five times more than Red's, and this result was indeed a surprise to all the generals. Even Li Mu was shocked.

Because there have been successful examples of training cavalry troops on the plateau, Li Mu also has some confidence in training infantry on the plateau, and at the same time he is quite looking forward to it, but he did not expect that such a result would occur. You must know that although the cavalry is still a new branch of the army, the infantry has been developed in China for more than 1,000 years, and the use of experience, theory and tactics, and infantry arrays are already very rich, and the mode of operation that should be there is basically there, and in this case, the plateau can make another breakthrough and design a new infantry array and tactics, which is indeed not easy. Moreover, the power of the Mandarin Duck Array is almost terrifying.

Now that the Zhao army has been training a new type of cavalry, if the Mandarin Duck Array is popularized and used in the Zhao army, it will multiply the combat effectiveness of the Zhao army, even if it is a powerful Qin army, it is not the opponent of the Zhao army. For resisting the future attack of the Qin army, he can be a little more sure. Therefore, Li Mu was also very happy.

Because of the gold taken out by the plateau, plus Li Mu's own gold, the military expenses have been settled, so since the last time the palace came out, for more than two months, Li Mu has never entered the palace to ask to see King Zhao, and every day he goes outside the city to drill the army, and simply lives in the barracks, and only occasionally returns to live in the mansion in Handan City. and also took the time to go to the well camp to arrange the construction of fortifications.

And Zhao Wangqian has been addicted to wine for more than two months, ignoring the government and politics, and handing over all the major affairs of the court and politics to Guo Kai, and Guo Kai can not only set up some obstacles in military spending, but also has no other way to take Li Mu, so it is all peaceful for the time being.

However, for more than two months, Li Mu's heart has been very depressed, and sometimes he pretends to be smiling. However, after seeing the infantry trained on the plateau, Li Mu's heart was indeed a lot more comfortable. Therefore, he nodded again and again, and said: "Gao Yuan, I didn't expect you to train infantry, and you are also very good, not under the training of cavalry, you see how much time it will take to train all the Zhao army according to the mandarin duck formation, and it will be able to complete." ”

Gao Yuan said: "General, I am afraid it will be difficult to train all the Zhao troops according to the mandarin duck formation." Although the power of the Mandarin Duck Formation is very great, it cannot only rely on the Mandarin Duck Formation to cover the world, there must be other tactics to match, and even the current batch of soldiers' Mandarin Duck Array tactics have not been trained, and the Mandarin Duck Formation also has two formations: the Five Elements Array and the Three Talent Formation. And the Mandarin Duck Array also has some specific weapons that need to be manufactured. Otherwise, the power of the Mandarin Duck Formation will also be greatly reduced, so I think it is better to send a small number of soldiers to train and cooperate with the cavalry and other troops on the battlefield. ”

Li Mu also nodded, and said, "You are very thoughtful, so let's do it, I will first pull out five thousand soldiers for training, and the weapons needed can be cast first." ”

Gao Yuan said: "Yes." ”

Li Mu smiled again: "Gao Yuan, now you have to train cavalry and infantry again, this burden is not light." ”

Gao Yuan was about to speak again, when a guard walked up to the high platform and said, "General, Mrs. Wenqing has something important and asks to see the general." ”

Li Mu was stunned, was it so difficult that something happened to Lin Wenqing again? He was about to rush to the camp outside the city to find him, so he immediately said, "Okay, invite her to my big tent and wait, and I will go to see her at once." The guard agreed, and immediately turned and stepped back from the platform. Li Mu said again: "Gao Yuan, Yinghong, you two accompany me to see Wenqing." ”

Back to Li Mu's Chinese army tent, the two sides saw that the courtesy was closed, and Li Mucai said: "Wenqing, you rushed here to find me, is there anything wrong?" ”

Lin Wenqing smiled bitterly and said: "The general hasn't been back to Handan City for almost a month, I don't know if there is a big incident in Handan City now, if the general doesn't return to the city, I'm afraid there will be a big chaos." ”

Li Mu was also taken aback and said, "What happened in Handan City?" ”

Lin Wenqing said: "Almost three months ago, the general built a plan to the imperial court, and we merchants came forward to buy grain from the Qi State to alleviate the disaster situation in our Zhao State. So the five merchants in our Handan City also united to form a trading house and went to Qi to buy grain. ”

Li Mu nodded and said, "Yes, is it so difficult that you haven't bought grain from Qi State?" "I can't help but think in my heart that if I really can't buy food from Qi State, then it will be troublesome. Because now another three months have passed, the grain stock in the treasury of Zhao Guofu has been basically emptied, and there is not much grain left in the people's stockpile, and the grain in the market has soared to more than 500 yuan per stone, and there is still no price in the market, and the few merchants who still have surplus grain are also sold in limited quantities every day, and only 50 stone is sold. But once it was listed, it would be snatched up, and now there was a famine in Handan.

However, the number of refugees outside the city is still difficult to increase unabated, and Li Muji has transferred 200,000 stone military rations from the Jingjing camp to help the victims, so that he can be regarded as avoiding the strong and stabilizing the situation, and there is no major incident, but small-scale looting, things still continue to happen. But relying on military rations can't last long, and it is difficult for Li Mu to pull out food from military rations to help the victims, so if he can't buy food from Qi State, then it will be difficult for Zhao State to sustain it anymore. After the opening of the country next year, there will be no great chaos.

Lin Wenqing shook his head and said: "The grain has been bought, and the first batch of 300,000 stone grain has been transported to Handan six days ago, and the second batch of 500,000 stone grain has also departed from Qi State, and it will be transported to Handan in half a month at most." ”

Li Mu also breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Isn't that great?" Able to buy food from the country of Qi. ”

Lin Wenqing smiled bitterly and said, "But as soon as this batch of grain was transported to Handan, it was not distributed according to the original agreement, but all of it was withheld by Guo Xiangguo, and then handed over to Yunjie Society to be sold in the market at the price of six hundred yuan per stone. ”

When Li Mu heard this, he was also taken aback, and said, "There is such a thing. ”

It turned out that when deciding to buy grain from Qi State, the merchant and the Zhao court had reached an agreement, because now the grain of Qi State is very excessive, and the price of grain is not high, one stone of grain is between fifty and sixty yuan, plus the cost of transportation on the way, manpower, consumption, opening joints, etc., the price cost of one stone of grain back to Handan is less than one hundred and twenty yuan. Therefore, after the grain was transported to Handan, the Zhao court purchased half of the first batch of 300,000 stone grain at a price of 150 yuan per stone for the army, disaster relief, etc., while the other half was sold by the merchants themselves, but the price of grain per stone could not exceed 180 yuan.

Before the disaster, the grain price of Zhao was about 80 yuan, so the grain price was suppressed within 180 yuan, which was basically within an acceptable range. And the businessman also had money to make, everyone was happy, and Zhao was able to survive this famine.

Yunjie Society is a medium-sized shop in Handan City, but the owner is Guo Kai's nephew Guo Yun, who is actually relying on Guo Kai's power to maintain its business, but now although the grain is purchased smoothly, it is deducted by Guo Kai and handed over to Yunjie Society for sale, and the price of each stone far exceeds the price set at the beginning, and it also completely destroys the agreement reached between the merchants and the imperial court. At the same time, it will inevitably destroy the current stable situation of free maintenance inside and outside Handan City, which is of course a big thing.