Steel Dynasty - Chapter 93

[Chapter 93 Qingzhou Army]

In the dim night, the businessmen who came to visit Xiao Ming left one after another.

Xiao Ming asked Lu Luo to hand over the bills recorded by Lu Luo to Li Kaiyuan. These businessmen are only making verbal promises now, and there is still a question mark as to whether they can be realized.

But he didn’t care that they would breach the contract, because with the introduction of the membership system, these businessmen no longer had any reason to use the banners of lords and princes to ask for favors.

And he used this system to not only standardize the status and code of conduct of merchants in the chamber of commerce, but also to obtain a lot of benefits for his fiefdom.

News of the membership system quickly spread among businessmen.

In order to obtain the glass distribution rights in advance, many businessmen did not hesitate to spend money and made donations to the chamber of commerce to obtain the qualifications to obtain the goods in advance.

And those businessmen who do not have sufficient funds can only look at the Chamber of Commerce and sigh, hoping to slowly accumulate and one day be among the members of the Chamber of Commerce.

In a short period of time, merchants flocked to bring a large number of donations to the chamber of commerce, and some materials began to enter Qingzhou.

“Your Highness, your move is really powerful. Just one membership made these businessmen cough up a lot of money. Unexpectedly, the Cao family in Jiangnan couldn’t sit still this time and directly donated a bronze membership.”

Tuojiang Wharf, Li Kaiyuan Looking at the cargo ships entering the dock one after another, he excitedly said to Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming also didn’t expect that the glass this time would actually catch the big fish of the Cao family. For so long, the Cao family had kept a distance from Xiao Ming, but he didn’t expect that they would not be calm this time.

“The Cao family used to look down on petty profits, but now that the glass is out and the membership system promises to sell technology, the Cao family is naturally tempted,” Xiao Ming said.

A Bronze Member needs to donate a lot of things, and this time the Cao family is very generous, which makes Qingzhou’s treasury a lot fatter.

“But the Cao family’s business is all over the world. If they are allowed to get the glass in advance, they will definitely make a lot of profits in the short term.” Li Kaiyuan said.

“We don’t care about this. No matter what, they will always pay money for the goods they take from us. The more they sell, the more we make.” Xiao Ming was in a good mood during this period. This time the glass was added The membership system once again provided him with a lot of funds and labor.

The construction of Qingzhou can continue to advance at a trot, otherwise it can only move forward at a walking pace.

This time Xiao Ming came out, one to see the donated materials, and the other to see the training situation of the Qingzhou Army.

After chatting with Li Kaiyuan for a while on the dock and instructing him to organize merchant ships to sell glassware as soon as possible, he rode to the Qingzhou camp.

In this short period of time, the production of the steel workshop has not stopped. On the contrary, due to the skill of the craftsmen, the production speed has greatly improved. Now it has delivered Qingzhou Army plate armor and 3,000 sets of weapons. In another month or two, Qingzhou Army estimates that This will allow each soldier to have a set of plate armor.

In addition to plate armor, the workshop also delivered a thousand swords, five hundred sets of crossbows, and some shields and knives.

When they arrived at Qingzhou Camp, Xiao Ming heard the shouts of Lu Fei and the soldiers outside the door.

He went in and saw that Lu Fei and his soldiers were practicing battle formations.

In ancient wars, combat capabilities were basically reflected in battle formations, and the role of individuals in such hand-to-hand combat was very small.

Therefore, there is a huge gap in combat effectiveness between soldiers who have been trained to form battle formations and those who are stragglers.

A dense and disciplined battle formation of 5,000 people can easily defeat several times the number of enemies. This is where the victory of more with less often comes from.

Lu Fei asked the soldiers to practice the square formation at this time. This is the most basic formation. There are also circular formations, cone formations, wild goose formations, etc. On the battlefield, the generals will learn to change at any time according to changes in the battlefield situation. Battle formation.

And this time is the time to reflect whether the general is an excellent general.

However, this time Lu Fei was practicing the square formation at any time. Xiao Ming took a quick look and realized that this square formation was not for ordinary battles.

Seeing Xiao Ming coming, Lu Fei shouted “stop” and then walked towards Xiao Ming.

“Your Highness frowned, is there something wrong with this battle formation?” Lu Fei bowed and asked.

Xiao Mingzhi’s status as the Grand Governor of the Six Prefectures was in charge of the military affairs of the six prefectures. His status as the vassal king also allowed him to manage all government affairs in the fiefdom.

And Lu Fei is just the captain of Qingzhou, and can be said to be Xiao Ming’s direct subordinate.

Therefore, Xiao Ming has the right to command when it comes to military training.

“The crossbowmen in the front army, the spearmen in the middle army, and the swordsmen in the rear army. This kind of battle formation is used to deal with cavalry,” Xiao Ming said.

“Your Highness also knows battle formations?” Lu Fei asked curiously.

Xiao Ming curled his lips and said, “I am proficient in any battle formation. Lieutenant Lu, please don’t underestimate me.”

Lu Fei looked surprised, “So, His Highness can also train troops?”

Xiao Ming did not dare to You’re bragging, knowing battle formations and training soldiers well are two different things.

He said carelessly, “I’ll talk to you about this when I have time. This time I’m here to check the soldiers’ equipment.”

Speaking of this, Lu Fei suddenly became excited, “Your Highness, look, these soldiers are wearing plate armor. , Just this momentum is enough to scare the enemy.”

In the military camp, five thousand soldiers were neatly arranged in ten square formations, with a visual effect similar to that of a school recess exercise gathering.

But the difference is that the plate armor on the soldiers and the cold light weapons in their hands make them look murderous.

Seeing these soldiers who were armed to the teeth, a feeling of heroism suddenly arose in his heart.

From now on, he will no longer need to fear the wealthy Qingzhou clan, nor will he need to give up profits to worry about them. The powerful Qingzhou army is enough to crush any wealthy clan that dares to threaten him.

“Well, it is indeed powerful, but this is not enough. Training must also keep up. Such excellent equipment cannot be wasted.” Xiao Ming said.

These plate armors were forged from the highest quality steel in the iron and steel workshops through repeated forging hammers. He was confident that the quality of these plate armors would not be lower than the quality of modern plate armors from the 17th century.

Even because of the maturity of technology, the quality of this batch of plate armor will be higher.

“Your Highness, leave this training to me. If Your Highness is not satisfied after three months, Lu Fei will come to see you. But Your Highness, the second batch of new troops is about to enter the camp. What do you think of this equipment?” Lu Fei rubbed his hands. Hehe smiled.

Xiao Ming was helpless. This Lu Fei was always talking about his profession now. When he saw him, he asked for equipment. He said: “There will be no less equipment. Every soldier will have it, and there will be a thousand more in a few days.” “A war horse, you leave some soldiers to build a cavalry?”

“A thousand war horses?” Lu Fei grinned from ear to ear and said, “Your Highness, where did you get so many war horses? What I need most now.” The cavalry was at a disadvantage when we fought with the barbarians. The barbarian cavalry ran fast and shot accurately with bows and arrows. We couldn’t catch up with them, couldn’t hit them, and suffered heavy casualties.”

(End of this chapter)