Valley Emperor

Even though Li Xuan didn't pay much attention to traditional bandit leaders or warriors like Li Zhaizhu and even Fang Dongquan, it didn't mean that he didn't want to get a real general to share his pressure on military affairs.

Today, in the Tang Dynasty, there are many generals, all kinds of generals, participating generals, thousands of households and the like are countless, and Li Xuan himself can't remember how many such nominal official systems were awarded.

However, among such a large number of generals in the Tang Dynasty, there were actually no truly qualified generals.

Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and even Wang Danxu, although they have already served as captains in the new army, and have commanded the Tang Wangshi many times, they are still essentially bandit leaders. It's not as good as the dozen and a half officers that Li Xuan is training.

At least those half-elders who were born in the Guards and are currently serving as deputy captains, corps leaders, etc. have undergone a whole year of training before, and they were taught by Li Xuan in the last month.

When Li Xuan taught them, in addition to teaching them some basic knowledge of astronomy, geography and mathematics, he also taught them some limited military knowledge that he knew.

Although the military knowledge Li Xuan himself knew was messy, it was still much better than the bandit fighting methods that Fang Dongquan and the others rushed up to.

However, these half-sized officers are still too young, and the military knowledge they have learned is messy. If there is no long-term experimentation and accumulation of combat, these people are still unlikely to directly serve as senior officers.

I couldn't find any qualified generals here, so it's not surprising that Li Xuan put his idea on Zeng Ziwen. Even though this Zeng Ziwen is an aborigines, he has systematically studied many ancient military books, and he is a family of generals. Born, he has never eaten pork and seen pigs run.

Considering that the Ming army in this era was a combination of cold weapons and hot weapons, Li Xuan felt that his new army would be easier to train with Zeng Ziwen's help.

Moreover, Zeng Ziwen was originally a senior general of the Ming army. He was very familiar with the fighting habits of the Ming army. With his help, the new army of the Tang Dynasty could better understand their enemy: the Ming army.

It's just that although Zeng Ziwen never resisted after being captured, he never gave in. In the past six months, Li Xuan has persuaded him several times to no avail.

Considering that the last time he personally persuaded him was before the Ming army entered the mountain, and it had been two months, Li Xuan wondered whether this person would change his mind.

If he changed his mind, it would be a good thing. If he still didn't change his mind, then Li Xuan would have nothing to lose, and he continued to be locked up.

Anyway, this person can't be released, and if he kills it and wastes it, just keep it like this, and it's not bad for him to be alone.

When Zeng Ziwen heard that the guard said that Li Xuan was going to summon him, his bearded face changed several times in a short time.

The guard frowned as he looked at his beard and the clothes on his body were tattered!

It didn't take long for someone to come in with a basin, not only the basin and other toiletries, but also a new set of clothes. After the guard put these things down, he didn't say much, just let him wash for a while and then went out.

Zeng Ziwen watched the guards go in and out, but still did not speak, but silently shaved his beard with a knife, and then put on the new clothes sent by the guards after grooming.

When he reappeared in front of the guard, the guard gave him a look, and then showed a satisfied expression: "That's right, or else before your Majesty, His Majesty thinks we are abusing you!"

Zeng Ziwen still didn't speak, but silently followed the guard towards the wooden house 'Palace'.

But although he didn't speak, his mind stopped turning. When he heard that Li Xuan wanted to see him, he guessed that Li Xuan might be thinking of him again and wanted to recruit him.

Then the guard brought him new clothes and let him freshen up, which further confirmed his conjecture.

I thought that when Li Xuan persuaded him a few times before and wanted to recruit him to join Datang, this was the case without exception.

The last time I saw Li Xuan was two months ago, and in the past two months, too many things have happened, and these things have loosened Zeng Ziwen's original insistence.

The reason why Zeng Ziwen rejected Li Xuan's solicitation was because he believed that the so-called Tang Dynasty would be defeated, and the court officers and soldiers would easily defeat these pseudo-Tang thieves.

But the last time he was taken with him to Longhua Town, he saw something that he thought was impossible, something that was enough to change his original intention.

These things are not because the Master Wang of the Tang Dynasty did not fight, but he robbed all of Longhua Town, and it was not because the Master Wang of the Tang Dynasty brought back thousands of people when he returned to the division, and it is not because the Ming army was completely lost because of Longhua Town. the danger and actively withdraw from the mountain.

It was the performance of the Guards!

Strictly speaking, it was not the entire Guards, but the performance of the twenty or so musketeers in the Guards that shocked Zeng Ziwen.

At the beginning, Zeng Ziwen was still a prisoner, but when Li Xuan had to stay by his side and follow the army, he saw with his own eyes the musket team of only 20 people, shooting through the musket, and cooperating with the bayonet charge. The spearmen routed hundreds of officers and men.

When he saw these musket teams in actual combat, what he saw was not more than 20 musket soldiers, nor did they defeat a mere hundred or so Ming troops, and most of them were young and strong.

What he saw were hundreds or even thousands of these musketeers. These musketeers were lined up in tight formations on the battlefield, and then marched forward with their muskets, firing rounds at a distance of about 80 paces. , and it is a continuous shooting.

A musket that was 14 millimeters away from the last shot, even if the opponent wore light armor, it was enough to cause a certain amount of damage.

As for bows and arrows, the lethality is much less at this distance!

It's just that at this distance, whether it's a musket or a bow, the hit rate of a single shot is basically zero, so the mode of coverage shooting will be adopted instead of precise shooting.

But if it reaches a distance of 80 meters, the power of the musket will be greatly improved. The 14mm medium-caliber musket equipped by the Datang New Army can easily punch a hole in the iron armor.

If it is 50 meters away, even if the opponent wears double thick armor, it is basically a hole punched, and there is absolutely no reason to escape.

If it's just power, the effective range is longer, but compared to bows and arrows, muskets suffer too much in terms of firing rate. If someone's archers rush to a distance of 70 to 80 meters to shoot, the musketeers will be 100% crushed.

Even if the archer shoots at a large angle, especially the British longbow, the musketeer will suffer if he shoots at a distance of 100 meters!

In other words, the rate of fire and the range of fire, in fact, the musket is not really cheap.

But the musket is powerful, and this alone is enough to make up for the shortcoming in the rate of fire, not to mention that the effective range of the musket is farther than the ordinary bows and arrows widely used by the Ming army.

However, the power of the musket still did not let Zeng Ziwen pay attention to it. Those big-mouthed fire guns in the Ming army were also powerful enough. Don't say that ordinary armor can't stop one shot, the whole person can be smashed to you. But I haven't seen these fire guns completely replace bows and arrows.

Therefore, the power of the musket is great, and even the effective range is longer. These Zeng Ziwen did not pay attention to it. What really made him care is that these musketeers have only been trained for half a year from beginning to end, and they are not the ones that the professional army often trains. kind.

How long does it take to train an archer? It takes ten or eight years to say the least. Most archers start to practice archery from a young age, so that they can become qualified archers when they are adults.

However, these musketeers can be pulled out to fight after a few months of training, and their performance is not much worse than that of archers!

What does this represent? This means that if the Tang Dynasty has enough population, it can pull out an army of musketeers in a short time.

Because the training of musketeers is extremely simple, as for the production of muskets, it is not difficult if there are enough craftsmen, at least it is much easier than making bows and arrows.

Earlier, Li Xuan told him that when the Tang Dynasty could rely on these musketeers to rise, Zeng Ziwen still didn't believe it, but now, the persistence in his heart has loosened a little.

Maybe, there is such a possibility!

Thinking of these things in my mind, I unknowingly arrived at the 'Palace'. This time, Li Xuan still met him in the conference hall, but this time Zeng Ziwen didn't find anyone else present, only Li Xuan and a few guards were there. .

Why are Liu Bagou and the others not here?

Zeng Ziwen was a little puzzled. When he saw Li Xuan several times before, Liu Bagou and the others were all on the side.

But if they weren't there, no one would force him, Zeng Ziwen, to bow down to Li Xuan.

At this time, Li Xuan above also said, "Mr. Zeng, how have you been recently?"

Hearing Li Xuan's words, although Zeng Ziwen didn't bow down, he was not as arrogant as before, saying something that would irritate people, but said lightly: "I'm worried about work, it's okay to be down!"

When Zeng Ziwen spoke, he didn't say what he called Li Xuan, because it was inappropriate to call him emperor. He couldn't get past the psychological level if he called Li Xuan the emperor or other similar titles of respect. Or derogatory, it is estimated that the guards next to him will directly cut him with a knife.

So he simply doesn't call him anything!

And the self-proclaimed officer has also changed from the previous official to the subordinate. This is not because he is humble, but a month ago, when UU read www.uukanshu. com, he learned that he had been 'dead'.

At that time, the newly captured Ming army prisoner clearly told him that he had been honorably 'killed', and the government even sent people to his home to express condolences.

Everyone else is 'dead', so naturally this official can't be considered.

Li Xuan did not delve into the question of the title in Zeng Ziwen's words, but continued: "I've been busy this month, but sometimes I haven't had a good chat with Mr. Zeng!"

At this moment, Zeng Ziwen looked up and saw Li Xuan walking down from the dragon chair!

And listened to him as he came down and said: "Recently, my new army in Datang has been formed, and I just fought a group of bandits a few days ago. I think Mr. Zeng also heard about it!"

Zeng Ziwen nodded and said, "I heard a little!"

Li Xuan said: "I wonder if Mr. Zeng is interested in accompanying me to see the training of the new army?"

After listening to Zeng Ziwen, he did not answer immediately, but pondered for a while, and finally nodded: "Dare to obey!"