Chapter 58: Hu Ben (1)

  Hu Hai's slap awakened the soldier from his daze. The soldier's face was pale, but he was no longer as frightened as before. He seemed to have been appointed or something. First, he slightly bowed to Zhang Han, then turned to Hu Hai and said: "In response to Your Excellency's question, my name is Zhu Er Niu, and I was the one who shot those arrows."

  Although many of the Imperial Guards who followed Hu Hai on his eastern tour had seen him before, it just so happened that the several Imperial Guard soldiers guarding the entrance to the large camp had never seen Hu Hai and naturally did not know that the person in front of them was the Emperor.

  Zhu Er Niu had already resigned himself to his fate. As a small soldier, he had offended the Lang Zhongling and almost got himself killed. He didn't think Zhang Han would let him off either. The reason he responded to Hu Hai's words was simply because he saw Hu Hai and Zhang Han coming together.

  Just then, a horseshoe sound came from afar and approached, Wang Qian led his men over.

  "Wang Qian didn't know that the Langzhongling Lord had arrived, and he hoped for mercy!" Wang Qian turned over, dismounted his horse, and knelt on one knee. As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Qian saw Hu Hai standing not far from Zhang Han.

  Wang Qian's face was very colorful at this time, first stunned, then surprised, then puzzled, and suddenly came to his senses, his face changed as he shouted loudly: "You...!"

  "Hu Hai saw Wang Qian's movement and hurriedly coughed twice to interrupt Wang Qian's words, saying: "General Wang has a good way of governing the army." As he spoke, he gave Wang Qian a wink.

  Wang Gan was taken aback by Hu Hai's words, but immediately saw Hu Hai giving him a signal with his eyes, and quickly understood that this was the Emperor not wanting him to reveal his identity. Although he didn't understand in his heart, he still cooperated and said: "Your... Majesty is too kind! Please come inside."

  He had been in the habit of calling out "Your Majesty" and now he inadvertently called out "Your Lordship". Hu Hai thought to himself, why didn't you call him "Old Man Bi"?

  "Let's wait for the elderly person to catch up and then go in together."

  "Ah!"

  Before long, Dun Wei and the Twelve Imperial Guards arrived in a horse-drawn carriage.

  Wang Gan had met Dong Ruo before, but he wasn't surprised at all by Long Ba and the others. In his opinion, Long Ba and the others were definitely palace maids serving Your Majesty, while the other eight burly men were obviously palace guards.

  Before entering the big camp, Hu Hai smiled at Zhu Er Niu and said: "You're pretty good, hmm, your archery skills are even better."

  Zhu Er Niu also knew through Wang Qian's performance that the person in front of him was absolutely a high-ranking official, and even Zhang Da Ren was very respectful to him. At this time, hearing Hu Hai's words, he smiled awkwardly and foolishly.

  "Haha, don't worry, no one will punish you for what happened before. Do a good job!"

  Hu Hai smiled and got on the carriage with Tong Wei, this time Wang Qian drove the carriage instead, Zhang Han was released.

  Arriving at Wang Gan's large tent, before Wang Gan could speak, Hu Hai had Wang Gan take Dun Ruo to rest. After all, Dun Ruo was older and was extremely exhausted from the journey so far.

  In the big account, only Hu Hai and Zhang Han were left, and Long Ba and others guarded outside the big account.

  "Zhang Ai Qing, tell me about the current military system of the Forbidden Army."

  Although he didn't know why Hu Hai asked about the military system of the Imperial Guard at this time, Zhang Chen still replied immediately.

  "I obey your orders! Your Majesty, the current organization of the Imperial Guard is the same as that of our Great Qin military system. Our Great Qin army is currently divided into four types: infantry, cavalry, charioteers and marine soldiers. However, there are no marine soldiers in the Imperial Guard at present, only infantry, cavalry and charioteers."

  The great Qin military system, from low to high, is divided into six levels: five men form a squad, with one squad leader; two squads form a company, with one company commander; five companies form a battalion, with one battalion commander; two battalions form a regiment, with one regimental commander; five hundred men form a brigade, with one brigade commander; one thousand men form a division, with one division commander, who can also be called 'thousand-man commander'.

  In wartime, the infantry was organized on the basis of these six levels, with two additional levels: five thousand men formed a "qu" (曲), which had one military marquis; five qu formed a "bu" (部), which had one colonel; several bu were led by one general, and above the generals were the grand marshals appointed by the emperor.

  Each level of military commander also has a personal bodyguard. For every 500 troops, there are 50 guards for the commander of the main force, and 500 guards for the commander-in-chief.

  Cavalry is divided into three riders as a group, three groups as a column with one Shi (a low-ranking officer) in charge. Thirty columns of 100 cavalrymen are set up under the command of one Baijiang (a mid-ranking officer), and can also be assigned to six war chariots; formations of over 100 people all follow the same pattern as the infantry.

  Now the infantry, cavalry and chariots of our Great Qin are all divided into armies. In battle, these three armies fight together. If only chariots fight alone, then every eight vehicles form a row (i.e., a line), two rows of sixteen vehicles form a group, and four groups of sixty-four vehicles form a team.

  If infantry and chariots fight together, then one chariot with three armored soldiers and eight foot soldiers form a unit, six units form a group, and eighteen units plus one command chariot form a team. If chariots and cavalry fight together, then one column consists of six war chariots!

  "Your Majesty, this is the current military system of our Great Qin. I don't know why you suddenly asked about this matter?"

  Zhang Han spoke in great detail, but Huhai listened with a confused expression.

  "Zhang Ai Qing, the Forbidden Army and the convicts who are about to become soldiers, I think of abolishing the chariot troops, what do you think?" Hu Hai thought for a moment.

  "Your Majesty, at present the chariots in our Great Qin army are already very few. The cost of manufacturing chariots is high, I think this can be done. I don't know how Your Majesty wants to arrange the soldiers driving the chariots?" Zhang Han obviously didn't think much of chariots either and straightforwardly agreed with Hu Hai's opinion.

  "All charioteers were converted into infantry and cavalry, and all horses used for chariots were used to equip the cavalry."

  "Long live Your Majesty!"

  Originally, Hu Hai wanted to change the military system to the battalion, company, regiment, brigade, division and army system of later generations, but after hearing Zhang Cuo's introduction, he thought about it and didn't say anything. Now if all the military systems are changed, it may cause chaos.

  After all, this reform would turn many low-ranking officers such as company commanders, platoon leaders, squad leaders and battalion commanders into ordinary soldiers overnight, which was not conducive to his control over the army. So he decided to wait and see.

  "Your Majesty, although our Qin cavalry is now an independent army, the cavalry mainly cooperates with infantry and chariots using bows and crossbows in battle, and cannot charge alone. If Your Majesty wants to increase the number of cavalry soldiers, you should think thrice before acting."

  And my Great Qin infantry is the most powerful under heaven, even before the six nations were destroyed, the Wu army of the state of Wei was far inferior to my Qin army infantry. My Great Qin infantry has a unique heavy armor infantry that swept across the six nations and no one can match." Zhang Han thought for a moment and said to Hu Hai.

  "The matter of the cavalry I have considered, in the future the cavalry will certainly be a sharp blade for my Great Qin. Chancellor Zhang, you need not worry. But what is this heavy infantry? Is it among my Imperial Guards?" Hu Hai asked, his heart stirred by Zhang Han's words.

  When Hu Hai attached such importance to cavalry, Zhang Han was puzzled in his heart, but he didn't dare ask more questions.

  "Your Majesty, the heavy infantry of our Great Qin can only be manned by robust men over eight feet tall. They are all capable of lifting thousands of catties and have boundless strength. Their heads, faces, and entire bodies are covered with fine iron armor, which weighs over a hundred catties. Each of them wields a giant blade that is over 13 feet long. I only have 10,000 heavy infantrymen in my Imperial Guard!"

  Upon hearing Zhang Han's words, Hu Hai suddenly envisioned a large contingent of infantrymen clad in black heavy armor, wielding two-meter-long greatswords, charging recklessly across the battlefield.

  This hundred or so jin of heavy armor, ordinary people would probably be crushed to the ground if they wore it, and even if they managed to put it on, they probably wouldn't be able to move. Not to mention wielding a 1-2 meter long greatsword to charge into battle and kill enemies.

  Where can you find so many physically strong and powerful men?

  "Zhang Ai, although the heavy infantry is advantageous, its requirements for soldiers are also too high. Just this heavy armor, I'm afraid not everyone can wear it, let alone go to battle." Hu Hai said to Zhang Yan.

  "Long live Your Majesty!"

  "This heavy armor infantry is rare, but I think there should be no shortage of people in the Great Qin army who can wear such heavy armor. You will need to pay more attention to this in the future, my dear minister. Today, I have another decision that I would like to hear your opinion on first."

  "Your subordinate obeys the order!" Hearing Hu Hai had not given up on the heavy infantry of Zhang Han, he was overjoyed.

  "I will confer the name 'Hu Bao' to the Imperial Guards in the next few days. From then on, the Hu Bao Army will be the personal army of all emperors of our Great Qin dynasty and will be the first army of our Great Qin. What do you think, my dear minister?"