Chapter 9: The Quiver and the Sour Plum Soup (Part 1)
The bow and arrow can be said to be one of the most important weapons in ancient warfare, especially in the era before the invention of firearms. The bow and arrow held an irreplaceable position in long-range attack weapons.
The remote strike weapon, apart from the bow and arrow, is another kind of crossbow. The crossbow was developed on the basis of the bow and arrow, and its attacking power is undoubtedly stronger than that of the bow, but it requires precise technology, is difficult to manufacture, and costs several times more than the bow and arrow. Like Cao's army now, they are basically in a state of poverty, without skilled craftsmen or enough money and ironware to make crossbows. Therefore, the bow and arrow can be considered the only remote strike weapon in Cao's army.
Cao Jun is not wealthy at present, so the bows used by these soldiers are just ordinary hardwood bows. As for arrows, a skilled archer can have up to five arrows with iron arrowheads, and the rest are just primitive wooden arrows sharpened to a point. Due to the simplicity of their weapons, this puts even more emphasis on the accuracy of the archers, and what Cao Zhi is seeing now is Le Jin teaching a group of archers how to shoot more accurately.
Cao Zhi stood outside the school field, listening attentively to Yue Jin's explanation of archery techniques not far away, while his eyes remained fixed on the nearby bowmen who were practicing on their own.
However, what made Cao Zhi somewhat disappointed was that these archers shot ten arrows, but only about seven of them hit the target. After watching for so long, Cao Zhi still didn't see anyone who could hit the red heart.
Two of Cao Zhi's attendants, seeing him stop, immediately became anxious. One of them said: "Fourth Master, aren't we supposed to go to the main tent to see the general? Let's hurry up."
Cao Zhi pretended to be unaware and instead pointed at those archers and asked: "Are you skilled in shooting?"
"Uh..." The two of them didn't know how to respond.
Cao Zhi turned his head and looked at the two of them, asking: "Can't you?"
When Cao Zhi saw this, a hint of disdain flashed across his eyes. One of the soldiers couldn't help but respond loudly: "Fourth Master, we are the personal guards who protect General Cao, and we are skilled in all aspects of combat, including sword fighting, archery, and horse riding. The bowmen trained by General Cao are just beginners, how can their marksmanship compare to ours?"
Seeing the success of the swift arrow method, Cao Zhi's face revealed a hint of a smile, and he nodded, saying: "Oh? Then you're so formidable, out of ten arrows, how many can hit the target?"
That soldier who followed Cao Zhi replied with a proud expression: "All hit!"
"What about the red heart?" Cao Zhi asked persistently.
"This...” Hearing Cao Zhi's inquiry, the soldier hesitated for a moment before responding weakly: "About one in twenty." He continued to argue: "I'm not a divine archer, but on the battlefield, it's not required that every arrow hits a vital spot. As long as the arrows hit the enemy and there are many of them, that's enough."
"Is that a large number?" As soon as he heard this, Cao Zhi's gaze fell on one of the archers who was shooting arrows. Coincidentally, an arrow suddenly dropped from his quiver and hit the ground with a "thud".
Cao Zhi looked down and pointed at the quiver, saying: "When you go to battle, will your arrows fall to the ground like this?"
The two soldiers behind Cao Zhi nodded in unison, and the man continued: "It's always like this. Our quivers can usually hold twenty arrows, but after marching, when we get to the battlefield, we can use at most fifteen arrows, and sometimes as few as ten arrows. So on the battlefield, our bows and arrows are actually not very useful." At this point, both soldiers looked worried.
"Is it not that the consumption of arrows before the war accounts for one-third of the total arrow consumption?" Cao Zhi silently calculated in his heart and came to this conclusion. At the same time, Cao Zhi's gaze fell on Yue Jin's quiver behind him, finding that its structure was no different from that of ordinary soldiers, except that Yue Jin's quiver was made of more precious leather.
The corner of his mouth twitched upwards, Cao Zhi beckoned with a small hand and said: "Let's not watch anymore, let's go to the headquarters."
Two attendants heard Cao Zhi was going elsewhere and said with a worried expression: "Fourth Master, didn't we agree to go to the main tent to see the general? Why are you going to the vanguard army instead?"
Cao Zhi glared and raised his empty hands, saying: "You don't want me to meet the general with empty hands, do you?"
"This..." Cao Zhi asked this question, and the two of course could not answer "yes", so they reluctantly nodded and led the way forward. This time Cao Zhi did not look at them again, but instead walked ahead with his head down, silently pondering, and soon arrived at the Houtu Army.
What is called the "Hao Tou Jun" is a place responsible for the food of the entire army. At this time, it was still in the afternoon and had not yet reached the time to start cooking, so when Cao Zhi arrived, the vast majority of soldiers were resting under nearby trees or in military tents.
A slender figure, a childlike face, among the hundreds of thousands of Cao's army, there is no one else who can be compared to Cao Zhi. In the past few days, Cao Zhi's move to stop Cao's army from massacring the city has spread throughout the army, and all the soldiers are quite impressed that Cao Zhi dared to persuade Cao Cao face-to-face.
It is worth noting that these Qingzhou soldiers were all unruly and unyielding, and after being incorporated into the army, they only obeyed Cao Cao's orders. This was not only because Cao Cao was fair in his rewards and punishments, but also because he had a reputation for being an honest official when he served as the governor of Jinan, which made the people live without worries. As Jinan was an important town in Qingzhou, Cao Cao's reputation there was so great that the people of Qingzhou also admired him.
The previous year, the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou rebelled and invaded Yanzhou. Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, was unable to resist them and requested Cao Cao's assistance. In reality, he also wanted to borrow Cao Cao's reputation in Qingzhou. The so-called Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou were actually ordinary civilians before they rebelled. When the Yellow Turbans rebelled, both Cheng Yu, one of Cao Cao's advisors, and Jia Xu, who was far away in Chang'an, suggested sending Cao Cao to quell the rebellion, also taking into account Cao Cao's reputation in Qingzhou.
Cao Cao did not disappoint the mission, recovered ten million yellow scarves, and compiled 3 million young men into Qingzhou soldiers. In the first year of surrendering to Qingzhou Yellow Scarf, Cao Cao bit his teeth and fulfilled his promise to let them have a full meal, which made the loyalty of Qingzhou soldiers to Cao Cao skyrocket.
These unruly ones usually don't obey anyone, only obeying Cao Cao. Today they actually showed appreciation for Cao Zhi, which is quite unusual.
When Cao Zhi arrived, one of the lieutenants of the Huo Tou army came up to him with a smile and asked: "Fourth Master, what wind has blown you here?"
Cao Zhi smiled and showed his small tiger teeth, cupped his hands and asked: "General, is there any black plum here in your barracks?"
When he saw Cao Zhi, he called himself "sir", and the school lieutenant was somewhat frightened: "Fourth Master, sir is not worthy. My name is Li Cheng, Fourth Master can call me by my humble name. The Chinese plum is not a regular food in our army, but a few days ago some soldiers were idle and saw that there were Chinese plums in the nearby forest, so they picked some back. If the fourth master wants it, I will go get it for you now."
Cao Zhi smiled and said, "This is very good. Li Cheng, have someone help me build a stove and bring over the Chinese plum, hawthorn and sugar. I have an important use for them."
