Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

There were noisy flags and drums inside and outside the school grounds, and the scene was so lively that it seemed as if the parade had officially begun.

However, no one present would have such a misunderstanding. After several days of publicity, few people who had arrived at Baishui knew what was going on today, and everyone was looking forward to it. When the day was agreed upon, The leaders of both parties have not yet arrived, and the spectators, led by their respective commanders, have already taken their seats and are ready to watch and cheer.

In the stands in the school grounds, Yu Jin's face was gloomy, with black lines on his head, and all the unhappiness in his heart was written on his face.

As the main organizer of this parade, it would be damned if he was in a good mood if something like this happened unplanned. In addition to maintaining order at the venue, various subsequent finishing touches are also a headache.

There were more than a dozen people in the stands, all Han and Hu generals who had arrived at Baishui. However, they were not as troubled as Yu Jin, and they were all happily waiting to watch the show.

The sound of galloping horse hooves was heard from one direction outside the school grounds. Everyone followed the sound and saw a cavalry brigade galloping towards them. The ordinary sergeants only watched the excitement and made a few strange shouts and cheers from time to time, but the expressions of the commanders and generals became envious and jealous.

A rough look shows that there are at least more than 2,000 people in this cavalry team, and a considerable part of the mounts are Hexi horses with excellent bones. Without special channels, even a general who has been in charge of the army for many years will be difficult to assemble so many horses. Become an organized armed branch.

Li Tai brought most of the troops to Baishuiyuan today, and weapons and weapons were distributed to the soldiers without any reservation. In order to consider the mentality of the people watching the battle, he did not use too many pack horses to transport armor, only one man and one rider. And there are more than two hundred idle horses in the team for replacement and to carry some feed.

Even so, his team was very eye-catching when they appeared on the stage. There was no need for the scouts in front to clear the way. The crowd of spectators outside the school field had spontaneously avoided a wide road.

"How can Li Boshan's song be so majestic? Not to mention how to recruit soldiers, how can he bear the consumption of these horses and materials?"

Some generals in the stands couldn't help but asked in surprise when they saw the size of Li Tai's army.

Someone next to him replied with envy: "This son is an unusual minister of the Taifu. He is responsible for the defense of various cities. There are no strong bandits outside to disturb him. There are many Buluojihu people in the defense area for him to drive and enslave and support these people." It’s not too difficult for him.”

There is no shortage of horses in Kansai. Yuanzhou and Xiazhou are all pastoral areas with excellent water and grass. In recent years, the Taiwan government has set up official herding horses in Sanfu prefectures and counties, and imported horses from Longyou. Generally, Fan has the power. As long as the collectors search carefully and are not too picky about the quality of the horses, it is not difficult to gather them on a large scale.

It's one thing to gather them together, but it's another thing to be able to support them. Without the convenience provided by the position, it would be impossible for one household to support such a large number of people.

Therefore, to judge the strength of a general, one must not only look at his official rank, but more importantly, whether he has served as a governor of a state or county in recent years.

Without the hidden benefits brought by these powers, no matter how many subordinates we had before, they would all be scattered within two or three years. There are only a few loyal subordinates who share the joys and sorrows and never give up at any time, and even if they have always followed But there was not enough material supply for a long time, and they starved to death.

When Li Tai led the crowd into the school grounds, the expressions of the generals in the stands became serious.

Before, they had many thoughts of treating this as a farce. They just felt that Li Tai was relying on the favor of Daxingtai and provoking the veteran to show off his power. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong way and would probably end up becoming a clown. . But now it seems that they thought it was simple.

After entering the school ground, seeing that Zhao Gui and his subordinates had not arrived yet, Li Tai crossed his hands to signal to a few familiar people in the stands from a distance, and then led his troops to a corner of the school ground to form an array and rest, without rushing forward.

Not long after, the sound of horse hooves also sounded from another direction on the plateau, and the sound was even louder than that of Li Tai and his party.

A huge flag fluttered in the wind, complete with leopard tail and banners. In addition, the cultural relics of armor and staffs issued by Kai Cao of the Taifu were arranged. This appearance alone was much more grand and solemn than before.

Zhao Gui rode a mighty black horse and came here surrounded by soldiers and honor guards.

His ceremonial guard alone numbered nearly a thousand people. This scale far exceeded his official status and treatment. Excluding the possibility of blatant violation of rules and regulations, it can only mean that his team was at least accompanied by generals of the same level.

This is indeed the case. Not only are there two members of Zhao Gui's team who have the same etiquette, there are also many generals of fifth rank and above who have the title of governor.

They were either Zhao Gui's disciples or subordinates, or generals who were freed from slavery. They may no longer be under Zhao Gui's control, but when the old master's dignity was challenged, they would lead their own troops to gather together to attack Fight back at the provocateur.

Based on Luoshui and the three defense cities, Li Tai raised more than 2,000 private soldiers. He was already quite powerful, but compared with Zhao Gui, a senior military leader who had been around for many years, he was still far behind. .

Zhao Gui's own troops may not be able to keep Li Tai far away, but the troops he indirectly controls and influences far exceed Li Tai. When the honor guard gradually arrived at the school grounds, including the spectators around the school grounds, at least nearly ten thousand people were raising their arms and shouting: "Zhongshan Duke will win!"

Although Li Tai led nearly 10,000 troops, most of them were not even qualified to gather here and participate in the review, let alone other aspects such as combat effectiveness and loyalty.

There were nearly 20,000 troops from various regions and prefectures gathered inside and outside the parade ground, more than half of whom were cheering for Zhao Gui. They might not have any direct relationship with Zhao Gui, but in the conflict between Zhao Gui and Li Tai, they were obviously biased towards Zhao Gui.

Li Tai looked at Zhao Gui's arrogant appearance and was extremely indignant.

Zhao Gui's ceremonial relics were organized and supplied by him in the armor department, and a considerable part of the materials consumed by the cheering soldiers inside and outside the parade ground were supplied by his Dushui Administration.

It seemed that Zhao Gui's appearance today was almost entirely created by Li Tai. On the other hand, Li Tai himself only had a team of Taifu guards to fill the scene, but they were taken away by Yuwen Hu before the fight.

This is totally not on the same level, Li Tai was angry in his heart. No matter what the outcome of this fight was, when the review was over, he would have to get a new skin. What do those soldiers who were watching the excitement know? They just support whoever is awesome. He is still one set of ceremonial clothes away from being awesome.

After Zhao Gui entered the field, the crowd in the stands were no longer just indifferent or gestured from a distance. They walked down the stands to greet him. In addition to polite greetings, there were also people who turned back and pointed at Li Tai and others in the other direction of the parade ground, smiling and encouraging Zhao Gui to beat Zhao Gui and not to weaken their prestige.

Although the crowd was enthusiastic, Zhao Gui did not feel relieved at all. He could not tell how many of the smiling faces in front of him were gloating. It was not glorious for a veteran general of the country to be challenged by a rising star. Winning was a matter of course and not worth boasting about, but if he lost, it would be a big loss of face.

If there was a choice, Zhao Gui would certainly hope to be able to stand in the stands and watch others fight, so he just casually responded to various calls, dismounted directly and came to Yu Jin, clasped his fists and said: "Since both parties have arrived, please ask the general to start and settle this matter as soon as possible, and don't delay the preparations for the review." Yu Jin groaned after hearing this, and it seems that you know that this is causing trouble. He raised his hand to signal his subordinates to call Li Tai, and he returned to the stands with the crowd to prepare to announce the details of the martial arts performance. Li Tai came in after putting on his armor neatly. He wore a piece of fine scale armor that was not very eye-catching but had good protection. He was mainly worried that Zhao Gui might be angry and might do something evil, and arrange a fool to shoot him directly, so there would be no need to fight. The general private soldiers' fight was nothing more than arranging a venue for everyone to bring their men and horses to fight, which was just more tactical than street fighting. But today's incident has alarmed the government and attracted the attention of the masses who were reviewing the army around Baishui. Of course, they can't just fight casually. They must show their style and characteristics.

Yu Jin went on stage to briefly explain the content of the fight. The competition was divided into three rounds. The first was the training of travel and formation. Both sides chose a place to build a camp and practice the formation. The side that took the shorter time and had a more orderly formation would win.

The second round was to attack each other's camp. Each side had one hour to conduct a positional battle, one attack and one defense, and conduct a comprehensive assessment of offensive and defensive operations.

The third round was a field battle. Each side was given a flag. The one who took the other's flag first without losing his own flag was the winner.

In addition, in order to ensure that both sides would not kill each other and cause a large number of casualties due to real fire, the participating sides could only use bamboo and wooden swords, sticks, armor and shields to participate in the battle. Long spears, large spears, bows, crossbows, and sharp knives were all prohibited. And if either side suffered casualties, the other side would be responsible for compensation.

In other words, if Li Tai crippled Zhao Gui, he would be responsible for his retirement.

After listening to the content of these rules and decrees, Li Tai looked at Zhao Gui twice more and couldn't help saying: "Old people don't rely on their muscles and bones. Even if Zhongshan Gong doesn't enter the battle, I and the masses will not laugh at Zhongshan Gong for being cowardly and losing courage."

He sincerely advised Zhao Gui not to show off his ability. If he really crippled someone with such a high official rank, how much money would he have to pay for the pension subsidy? Don't let a good fight end up as a fraud.

Zhao Gui didn't understand his good intentions. After hearing this, he just snorted coldly: "Don't be arrogant, boy. After three battles, I will tie you up and bring you here to pay homage to you gentlemen!"

Li Tai curled his lips after hearing this. This strong desire to win is really bad. Even if he wants to brag, he won't say too much. If he really sees that the situation is not good, won't he jump out of the battle formation and come back to raise the flag to surrender? Will you be embarrassed at that time?