Chapter 21 Training Plan

  The pasture now raises war horses, with a scale of over 500 horses.

  Apart from a few foals born in the pasture, almost all of them were counted as hunting trophies. The hunting team led by Kamo had almost wiped out the entire wild horse herd that lived in the northern part of the pasture for dozens of miles around.

  Fifty horses were selected, and the ones that stood out were naturally all good horses. Previously, they were almost all kings of horse herds, each one tall and sturdy, with extraordinary spirit. Of course, compared to the Green Armor War Riders, there was a gap.

  Jian Nu Luo and Bai Lang brought ten fine horses, so Li Zhong and the others had to temporarily suppress their urgent hearts and start putting armor on these ten warhorses.

  These ten war horses are far inferior to the Qingjia War Riders in overall quality, and may be trained as heavy cavalry elsewhere, but here with Li Zhong, their service direction can only be light cavalry.

  With the quality of a normal heavy bike, serving for light bikes, at this point, it has opened up a big gap with ordinary light bikes, which is an advantage.

  Of course, in Li Zhēn's mind, war horses were far from being true war steeds. But now with limited resources on hand, there were only a few war steeds available, and he couldn't just leave the armor to gather dust and rust, so he had no choice but to make do with what he had.

  In less than half an hour, these ten war horses were fully armored.

  At a glance, ten lightly armored cavalrymen clad in leather armor and seven metal monsters shone together, truly stunning and breathtaking.

  "My lord..."

  Zhang Shan rubbed his hands together, eager to give it a try.

  Li Zhēng smiled and waved his hand, saying: "There are only seventeen warhorses in total, not everyone is qualified to ride them."

  "Somebody is definitely qualified!"

  Zhang Shan stood up and accepted the challenge without hesitation.

  Li Zheng nodded, Zhang Shan's skills can be considered the first under Li Zheng's command: "You count as one." He said, turning to face Nu Luo and Bai Lang: "Physical strength and power are the basic qualities of heavy cavalry. While light cavalry requires exceptional archery skills and extraordinary riding skills."

  The full-body fish-scale metal armor and helmet of the heavy cavalry, together with the standard long spear, weighed over thirty catties. Although there were war horses to share the pressure, it was still a huge burden for ordinary soldiers.

  The light cavalry was responsible for harassment, luring the enemy and pursuing, mainly with bows and arrows, and supplemented by horse knives, emphasizing flexibility and mobility. If one's riding and archery skills were not up to par, they naturally could not perform their duties.

  "Now the number of war riders is just that many, you three tigers will have to hold back for now and wait until there are more war riders. Li Zhēn turned to speak to Wáng Lǎo Hǔ and others: "Including me, Dà Shān, Nú Luó and Bái Láng, the four of us have already taken up four spots. There are still thirteen spots left, you three go to the war soldier camp immediately to select suitable ones to come over, starting today, we will train war rider tactics together!"

  Several people exchanged glances and nodded silently.

  Wang Lao Hu and his three men were somewhat reluctant, but this was the reality. The three of them were originally physically disabled and basically could not go to the battlefield. Even if they were assigned war horses, it would be useless, purely a waste.

  After Zhang Shan and the other two left, Li Zhong discussed the new recruit training plan with Wang Lao Hu and others again.

  Since then, Li Zhong has been familiar with Wang Lao Hu's training methods.

  In the original world, many people thought that ancient military training methods were backward and far inferior to those of this era. However, after watching Wang Lao Hu and others train new recruits, Li Zhong instantly overturned that notion.

  Due to the background of the times, perhaps the way of training soldiers in this era has some defects, but there are a few that far exceed those of that era.

  The first is physical training!

  Because in this era, there were no cars, no airplanes, and no motorcycles. Once a war broke out, most of the time it relied on the soldiers' two legs. This is the first point.

  Secondly, the weapons of that era were far more laborious to use than those of this era. Holding up a few kilograms or ten kilograms of weapons and constantly running and chopping on the battlefield would consume a lot of physical strength! And long-range bowmen, every time they drew their bows, also consumed a lot of physical strength, even the most elite bowmen could only draw their bows one hundred times at most in each battle before being completely exhausted.

  It is precisely because of this way of warfare that there are absolute requirements for human physical strength. Therefore, in this era, the training of soldiers puts physical fitness first!

  Wang Lao Hu and others' physical training for new recruits can be described as cruel. If it weren't for the abundant food supply in the grasslands, including the nutrient-rich red jade bird eggs provided to the new recruit training camp, Li Zhēn believed that within ten days, someone would definitely vomit blood or even die from exhaustion!

  No wonder, in this era, those who can be called elite will have such strong combat power! Often with tens of thousands of heroic deeds!

  This is the result of rigorous training in peacetime.

  But precisely because of the cruelty of training, the high requirements for food and equipment, and the huge investment, elite troops are extremely rare and have a good reason.

  The second is training in the use of weapons.

  Wang Lao Hu and others trained new recruits, mainly using long guns, so they only trained two moves. One was to thrust, which is the middle-level gun. A chest-piercing gun that no one can block, an unstoppable middle-level gun.

  Another is the parry, this move requires more finesse and is harder to practice - using the elasticity of the spear to deflect possible attacks. In Wang Lao Hu's words, this comes from the combat skills of the knife shield soldiers. Used here, it is actually paving the way for the possible emergence of knife shield soldiers in the future.

  People often blindly think that some moves from later generations are very ingenious when brought to this era, but in fact, the ancestors had already applied them with unparalleled mastery. The birth of martial arts originated from survival and fighting against nature. Later on, the true application of martial arts was on the battlefield!

  Having gone through countless wars, can't you still come up with a clever way to kill and defeat the enemy?!

  Ranked third is Zhen Rang!

  The tactics of war were something that Li Jing was completely at a loss about. But watching the training of Wang Laohu and others, Li Jing only understood one thing, which was the flexibility of warfare.

  As long as they are familiar with the battlefield, under the command of officers, soldiers can change formations flexibly according to orders and switch between offense and defense at will.

  This is quite profound, and of course, the requirements for soldiers are also very high.

  If there are a few people in the army who are not familiar with the battle array, and make mistakes during the transition, it may lead to extremely serious consequences!

  So, although the tactics are subtle and ingenious, they also have a high threshold.

  To be honest, Li Zhong has no reason at all to point fingers in these three aspects.

  In his view, the three aspects of training methods have been fully matured and reached their peak in the Han army. No wonder the Great Han Dynasty has a strong reputation, isn't this just proof?!

  The only thing that can really make Li Zhong improve is discipline.

  Wang Lao Hu and others' training process seems to have a low requirement for military discipline. Li Zheng completely disagrees with this point.

  Discipline is the most basic guarantee of a military's combat effectiveness. Winning without being arrogant and losing without collapsing requires discipline.

  By observing the training methods of Wang Lao Hu and others, combining his own insights, and discussing with Wang Lao Hu and three others, Li Zheng basically had a clear plan in mind, and he would soon come up with a formal training program.

  "That's it!" Li Zheng said to Wang Lao Hu, "Discipline must be taken seriously from now on, and put on the same level as physical training! I'll write a plan later and give it to you, just follow it."

  Not mentioning the Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention, Li Zhuang still knew some of the Seventeen Articles and Fifty-four Killings.

  Of course, he won't copy mechanically, but will select and modify some according to the actual situation, laying a foundation. As for saying it's not comprehensive enough, this needs to be gradually improved in future practice.

  In Wang Lao Hu's opinion, the things Li Zhuang emphasized were completely unnecessary. War is about winning, everything else is secondary. Although he didn't quite understand why Li Zhuang placed such importance on discipline, as a house slave and subordinate, he had to obey unconditionally.

  Just as they were talking, Zhang Shan and three others arrived with thirteen soldiers.

  Li Zhēng took one glance and found that all thirteen soldiers had bruises on their faces. After a moment's thought, he understood what had happened - they must have gone through a fierce struggle!

  Among these thirteen people, Li Zhēn surprisingly discovered that seven of them were actually Han Chinese! The number even exceeded the other six former Qiang people, who are also Han Chinese now.

  It makes him somewhat unbelievable.

  His soldiers, except for the White Wolf gang, were mostly selected from the recruited refugees. As refugees, how many of them are strong?

  Although I've been in the pasture for a while now, eating and drinking to my heart's content, shouldn't it take some time before I can catch up with that group of people led by White Wolf?

  But the fact is before his eyes, and Li Zhong can't help but sigh that the Great Han nation has a lot of talent!

  Next, after Zhang Shan's explanation, it turned out that the way these thirteen people were selected from three hundred soldiers was nothing but direct combat aside from competing in archery and horsemanship!

  Who wins will go up!

  What an honor it is to become a war knight! Under the command of General Cao, hundreds of soldiers are eager to ride on the green armor war horse!

  So each one strives to win, and even good brothers on ordinary days don't show any mercy, relying solely on their own abilities.

  Apart from physical strength, horsemanship and archery, among these thirteen people, four were assigned to the Qingjia War Rider column, while the remaining nine were assigned as war horse light cavalry.

  Thus, Li Ding's most elite armed forces were born.

  Seven green armor war horses, ten battle steeds lightly armored.

  Li Zheng, Zhang Shan, Nuo Luo and four others were heavy cavalrymen in the Qing Jia troops. Bai Lang and nine others were light cavalrymen for war horses.

  Li Zheng is in charge, in command of everything. Zhang Shan assists him, in joint command of the heavy cavalry, and White Wolf assists in command of the light cavalry.

  Wore fish-scale armor on his back, put on a helmet, held a standard long gun in his hand, and mounted the green armored warhorse.

  Wearing light armor, wearing a leather helmet, with a horse knife hanging from the waist, holding a longbow, with an arrow quiver on his back, he stepped into the stirrups and mounted his warhorse.

  The seventeen riders were divided into two columns, with the heavy cavalry in front and the light cavalry behind.

  "Hmm..."

  Li Zhēng'áng puffed out his chest, straddling the broad back of Qīngyún, and let out a mouthful of turbid air. He felt an urge in his heart that he couldn't help but vent!

  He grasped his long spear and pointed it forward, letting out a loud shout: "Charge!"

  "Kill!"

  Behind him, all the men shouted in unison, heavy cavalry held long spears with both hands, pointing directly at the front, light cavalry hung their bows on the saddle buckle, drew out their horse knives, and followed Li Zhong to launch the first group charge of Shen Zhou Caochang!