Usurping the Mongols: My Father-in-Law is Genghis Khan

After sending Lu Zibu and Xin You to the grassroots level for experience, Zhao Shuo did not lead troops on expeditions in the following year, focusing all his attention on staying in his fiefdom, developing internal affairs, and training soldiers.

A year and a half passed quickly, and it was early summer again, the season when the grasslands of Hulunbuir were at their most lush.

"Reporting to the Consort and Princess, the Black Cavalry should have 800 men, and 800 men are present. Please inspect!"

"Reporting to the Consort and Princess, the Balu Battalion should have 1,087 men, and 1,086 men are present. Please inspect!"

"Reporting to the Consort and Princess, the Night Owl Guard should have 160 men, and 160 men are present. Please inspect!"

......

Now, it has been more than a year and a half since Zhao Shuo returned from his expedition against the Tumat people.

Zhao Shuo specifically held this military parade with Hua Zheng to inspect the results of training during this year and a half of peace.

Now, the Black Cavalry has been expanded to 800 men, all riding black steeds.

As the saying goes, the Jin Kingdom can easily produce 10,000 sets of armored cavalry equipment now, but it is absolutely impossible to produce 10,000 Iron Pagoda soldiers.

Zhao Shuo captured a large number of Western Xia armors, but he could only expand his Black Cavalry to 800 men.

The upper body wears Western Xia scale armor, while the lower body and horses wear complete armor.

In fact, the Iron Pagoda of the Jin Kingdom and the Iron Falcons of Western Xia have only minor differences besides the scale armor.

Firstly, the Iron Falcons of Xia would use hooked ropes to connect people and horses together, so that even if a warrior was injured or died, they would not fall off their horses.

Secondly, the armored cavalry of the Jin Kingdom had a "parasite," which was a broom-like thing placed on the horse's tail that curved upwards, which could strengthen the protection of the knight's back. The Western Xia people believed that heavy cavalry should only move forward bravely, so why protect the knight's back? Therefore, they canceled the "parasite" and added a "throat guard" to the horse's neck instead.

Zhao Shuo didn't care about those things and equipped them all with "hooked ropes," "parasites," and "throat guards." He even had his workshops add a mask to each set of armor.

In this way, the Black Cavalry warriors only had their eyes exposed, maximizing the protection of the Black Cavalry soldiers.

Originally, the Black Cavalry soldiers' weapons, because Zhao Shuo was short of money, the main weapon was a wolf's tooth club. That is, selecting a wooden stick, with the head shaped like a jujube pit, and nailing iron nails on it, resembling wolf teeth, hence the name wolf's tooth club.

Now, this troop has undergone a complete transformation, replacing their weapons with weapons containing more iron—the iron caltrop mace.

There was no way around it. This era was different from the Tang Dynasty. Whether it was the Song or Jin Kingdoms, the output of steel was too high, and their cavalry or infantry had a high probability of wearing heavy armor.

Therefore, if the Black Cavalry wanted to be devastating, the main weapon must be a heavy weapon: heavy cavalry lance, iron mace, heavy axe, iron hammer, or wolf's tooth club. The heavy cavalry lance was still too light. After thinking about it, Zhao Shuo chose the iron caltrop mace, which had the title of "armor-breaking king," as the main weapon for this troop.

The secondary weapon was a Western Xia cold-drawn steel scimitar made with Western Xia sword craftsmanship, and a Qing bow.

In addition, a miniaturized version of Sun Wei's God Arm Bow was hung on the side of the warhorse, creating a repeating crossbow. Although it still could not be loaded on horseback, it could fire seven crossbow bolts at a time.

Now, after continuous collection, the sinew and feather armor on the grassland has reached 5,400 sets.

But like the problem encountered by the Black Banner Army, there were not enough brave warriors. Now the Flying Eagle Army has only expanded to 1,500 people.

The Balu Battalion, which originally had about 2,000 people, after continuous replenishment and attrition, especially after experiencing the brutal Battle of Keyi Gate, now only has a little over 1,000 people left. After thinking about it, Zhao Shuo trained them into a mounted heavy infantry unit, specializing in attacking fortifications.

The special forces were officially renamed the Night Owl Guard, which not only had eighty Tumat people who were good at jungle warfare, but also selected eighty warriors from Zhao Shuo's original subordinates who were suitable for special operations.

Special operations not only require good skills, but also special talents. Some are particularly good at recognizing roads, and some are good at imitating the calls of various animals and birds. Some have extremely strong eyesight or extremely strong hearing…

Zhao Shuo let these people with strong skills and special abilities be assigned to small teams according to the principle of complementarity.

The 160 members of the Night Owl Guard were divided into sixteen teams.

Among the various armies under Zhao Shuo, the Night Owl Guard had the highest treatment, even above the Black Cavalry. For the warriors who joined the Night Owl Guard, this meant unparalleled glory.

Each of them can call themselves "Night Owl."

In addition to the "Flying Eagle Army," "Black Banner Army," "Night Owl Guard," and "Balu Battalion," Zhao Shuo also has 3,000 ordinary troops, half wearing iron armor and half wearing leather armor.

Zhao Shuo made the greatest military exploits in the war against Western Xia, and he also received the most spoils of war. It wouldn't be impossible to replace all the ordinary soldiers with iron armor, but he needed light cavalry wearing leather armor that was the most flexible.

A year and a half had passed, and Zhao Shuo's workshops were developing more and more rapidly, with craftsmen and their families reaching 2,800 people. Those repeating crossbows and Western Xia cold-drawn scimitars were all products of Zhao Shuo's workshops. In addition, the workshops also added two blockbuster products: soap and glass.

Soap was fine, but glass was a great weapon for making money.

Moreover, with glass, would telescopes be far away?

It's just that the current glassware has just been successfully developed and has not yet been sold to the outside world. Zhao Shuo only sent some samples to the close Mongolian nobles.

Zar Dushter Amir has been missing since he agreed to Zhao Shuo's request to search for the techniques of smelting Alama and Damascus steel. I don't know how his progress is going.

Lu Zibu is doing well among the grassland herdsmen. Although his skills in riding and shooting arrows are still not as good as ordinary Mongolian warriors, he is still decent and no longer a scholar who is powerless. He not only learned Mongolian, but also mastered the Mongolian script created by Zhao Shuo.

Usually, Lu Zibu not only teaches the children in the tribe to write Mongolian characters, but also writes letters for the herdsmen and resolves disputes for the herdsmen. He has accumulated a lot of prestige within a radius of two or three hundred miles. An old shaman even had the idea of passing on his mantle to him.

Xin You participated in the Mongolian caravan, and it was not very smooth at the beginning because of the language barrier. However, with his super learning talent, he not only learned Mongolian and Naiman, but also mastered some Khwarazmian and Persian, and began to thrive.

However, compared with his goal (to achieve extraordinary achievements within two years and impress Zhao Shuo), there is still a considerable gap.

Tolui's eldest son, Mongke, who is also the Mongolian Khan who died in Diaoyu City in history, was also born. He is three months older than Batu.

In short, in this year and a half, apart from a malicious diplomatic incident, nothing major happened in Mongolia.