Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 067 Northeast Horn Company (Part 2)
On March 12, the 34th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, Li Yongfang and Mao Wenlong, who had received the news, rushed over from their respective posts. Then, Xiong Tingbi, who had been waiting impatiently in Liaoyang, did not even ask Li Chengliang to arrange a farewell banquet, and hurriedly led the team to set off.
It can only be called leading a team, not leading an army.
In addition to arranging two low-ranking officers like centurions for Xiong Tingbi to serve him, Li Chengliang also selected 500 elite military households to accompany him. However, when Xiong Tingbi saw these 500 " elite" soldiers, he immediately got angry.
Look at the appearance of these soldiers. Their faces are listless and their eyes are dull. The key is that they are dressed too exaggeratedly: it is already mid-March, and they are still wearing winter cotton clothes. It is fine to wear cotton clothes, but the whole cotton clothes are hardened. I don’t know how many years they have been worn. They exude a sour smell all over their bodies.
What's even worse is that you are military households. When a war breaks out, you have to fight, right? You have to have some kind of armor and weapons, right? What happened? There was no armor. Everyone had a sword, but when they pulled it out of the scabbard, there was no sight of a single blade that was gleaming with cold light and extremely sharp. Instead, many of the blades were already rusty.
"Li Zizhen! Where is Earl Ningyuan? I want to see him!"
"Master Xiong, please calm down. My father caught a cold yesterday and is unable to get out of bed to see to the government."
"Humph! Earl Ning Yuan can't get out of bed, are you trying to fool me like this?"
"Uh... I don't know what I did wrong to make Master Xiong angry. Could you please tell me?"
"These guys! Their eyes are dull, their clothes are half-naked, and what's even more bizarre is what they are wearing. Can they drive away tigers and wolves? Can they kill pigs and pigs? Li Zizhen, where did you find such creatures to make up the numbers and deal with me?"
"Haha..." After a bitter smile, Li Rubai responded without showing any weakness: "Lord Xiong, do you think these military households look ugly? Not elite enough? But the court has owed Liaodong for many years, and Liaodong has suffered from droughts in recent years, and the harvest has been poor. Therefore, the military households in Liaodong are generally poor. Their clothes and weapons are a bit shabby. Compared with the big Han generals in the capital, they really don't look good. But!" He emphasized his tone: "As long as they are properly commanded, my Liaodong men can fight hard. In terms of actual combat ability, five big Han generals may not be able to beat one of my Liaodong military households!"
"Humph! You sound nice, but I just need to say one word. Can you enforce the order?"
"Why not?" After saying this, Li Rubai turned to the five hundred soldiers and said, "Everyone, line up! Turn around! Forward!"
Following a few brief commands, the 500 soldiers were not very orderly, but they faithfully carried out Li Rubai's orders. When they reached the Liaoyang city wall, Li Rubai did not give the order to stop, and the 500 soldiers directly stuck to the city wall and continued to move forward.
Seeing this expression, Xiong Tingbi's expression eased a little and he nodded. Li Rubai didn't say much and directly asked the five hundred people to stand back.
"You all recognize me clearly. My name is Xiong Tingbi, and I am the emperor's newly appointed military governor of Kuandian. This time, the five hundred of you, as well as the two centurions, must follow me to Kuandian Liubao to take up your posts! I am a very straightforward person. As long as you follow my orders, I will not miss a penny of your salary, your clothes will not be an inch shorter, and you can eat whatever I eat! But if you don't listen to my orders, I may kill you!"
After saying this, Xiong Tingbi stretched out his hand, and his attendant from the capital quickly handed him a bow and a feather arrow. Then Xiong Tingbi skillfully bent the bow and put the arrow towards the Liaoyang city wall dozens of meters away. With a "bang", in a flash, the arrowhead of the bow and arrow was firmly inserted into the brick crack of the Liaoyang city wall.
If the eyes of these military households were as empty as before when Xiong Tingbi was giving a speech, after this civil servant showed off his archery skills which were considered decent by the military, the eyes of the military households showed a little color.
"When I do things, I always emphasize rewarding meritorious deeds and punishing faults. Today, you all came in good order, so I will give each of you fifty copper coins. In addition, everyone, listen to my command, throw away your swords! Take off your clothes!"
The five hundred soldiers were a little hesitant when they heard the order, but someone finally took the lead, first there was the uneven clanging sound, then the sound of people stripping off their clothes.
Compared with his support for Sun Chengzong, Zhu Youdong really invested a lot of money in Xiong Tingbi's visit to Liaodong this time.
Let's not talk about other things, just the entourage. Sun Chengzong's entourage consisted of a few servants hired by Sun Kaiyang himself, plus fifty Taicang warehouse guards and one hundred civilians sent by the Ministry of Revenue to escort the silver. On Xiong Tingbi's side, there were fifty cavalrymen sent by Zhu Youdong from the four Tengxiang guards through the Imperial Horse Administration. As for the others who escorted the silver, in addition to the civilians, there were also twenty Jinyiwei!
Of course, this difference, on the one hand, is that Liaodong is much more important than the southwest, and Zhu Youdong cannot help but pay attention to it. On the other hand, Sun Chengzong went south from the Grand Canal and then directly turned to the Yangtze River to enter Sichuan. The whole way was by water, which was relatively fast and safe in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, although the escort force was very different, Sun Chengzong did not express dissatisfaction.
"These are the weapons and clothes that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince made for you at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's estate after His Royal Highness the Crown Prince reported to the Emperor and with His Royal Highness's approval. Now start changing your clothes!"
After the accompanying Jinyiwei opened dozens of boxes and took out the contents, not to mention the hundreds of ordinary military households, even Li Yongfang, Mao Wenlong and even Li Rubai next to them all widened their eyes and took a breath unconsciously.
The underwear was made of fine and soft cotton yarn, and the outer layer was a blue and white coarse cotton coat. Then there was the whole body armor that was polished to a shine. This set of clothes, let alone military households, even officers at the level of lieutenant general in Liaodong, could not hope to get such clothes and armor!
In addition to clothing and armor, the other boxes were filled with weapons. The moment the waist knife was drawn out, it was chilling, and the reflection of the person on the blade was clearly visible. There was no need to test the knife, anyone in the army knew that this was definitely a good knife!
The tip of the spear was shining brightly, and the entire body of the spear was made of the finest white wax rod.
The most amazing thing is the bird gun. Although there are only fifty of them, they are of exquisite design. The most important thing is that there is no place to tie the fuse on the entire gun body!
In a few breaths, the five hundred soldiers who were just like beggars had completely changed after upgrading their weapons. Except for the smell on their bodies, they were completely transformed. Judging from their appearance, they were definitely much better than those big generals who were just pretending to be good.
"Hiss~~Master Xiong, are these all produced in the Crown Prince's Honghe Manor?"
"Of course, Zizhen, your Li family is fully responsible for the protection of Honghe Manor. Don't you know that?"
"I knew, but I didn't expect these things to be so sophisticated! Wow, this is incredible. If these guys go out and say they are generals, people will believe them! Uh, this, Mr. Xiong..."
"I know what you are going to say, but the Crown Prince is only the Crown Prince after all. It is not okay for him to make armor and weapons privately. All these things were produced under the supervision of the Crown Prince and the Imperial Horse Administration, the Eastern Depot, and the Jinyiwei. Every set of armor, every waist knife, every spear head, and every musket is engraved with the worker's name and product number. The Jinyiwei accompanying my team also have to register the whereabouts of these things. So, if you want to ask for these things, you can't go through me. It's better to write to Honghe Village directly."
"Oh, oh, I understand."
Li Rubai left in dismay. Xiong Tingbi turned around and nodded to the two centurions with bright eyes: "You two, I will rely on you a lot in the future. Here are two boxes, specially for you, open them now."
"Yes, I will obey your command!"
Due to time and production capacity constraints, Zhu Youdong actually only gave Xiong Tingbi five sets of the so-called "general armor" this time. He originally wanted Xiong Tingbi to give it to Li Chengliang, Li Rubai and others to establish a good relationship. But what kind of temper is Xiong Tingbi? He would rather give the general armor to two small centurions than give it as a gift - you, Li Chengliang, don't work under me, Xiong? I don't care about you, go to hell?
The so-called general armor is of course also plate armor. But compared with the straight flat plate of ordinary soldiers, the general armor has many more decorations and patterns with ethnic characteristics. Its grade is indeed much higher than that of ordinary plate armor.
"Thank you very much, Lord Xiong, for your generous gift! I will definitely work hard for you!" Nowadays, a good set of armor is enough to make an ordinary warrior prostrate himself with gratitude, not to mention such a plate armor that is obviously not ordinary. So whether it is Li Yongfang or Mao Wenlong, they both half-knelt and saluted Xiong Tingbi sincerely.
"I am the most straightforward person in my work. As long as you work hard, I will never let you down. All right, now pass the order! All troops, assemble and march!"
The five hundred soldiers who had just seemed to be half asleep were now full of energy and roared loudly under the leadership of the two centurions: "Yes, sir!"
