I want to be emperor

Chapter 43 Expanded Cavalry Preparations
An Yongduo reported to Luo Zhixue with a serious face: "The outposts we stationed on the outskirts found many spies from officers and soldiers wandering around, and they even asked the mountain dweller Orion to ask for a guide. The mountain residents who the officers and soldiers had contact with learned that these officers and soldiers were asking about the conditions of the villages in the Funiu Mountain area."

When Luo Zhixue heard this, he noticed something strange: "The officers and soldiers are asking about the situation of each village, instead of directly asking about the situation of the bandits or our Sanshui Village?"

An Yongduo shook his head and said: "It's strange to say that these officers and soldiers didn't ask too much about some thieves. They mainly asked about the situation of each village, such as how many people there are, and where are the specific locations."

"What do these officers and soldiers want to do?" Luo Zhixue was a little confused about the routines of these officers and soldiers.

Luo Zhixue's first reaction was that the officers and soldiers realized that they were still staying in Funiu Mountain. It might be that Sun Jiancheng made a mistake. , resulting in leaked information.

So the officers and soldiers rushed towards Funiu Mountain again.

But, judging from the content of the inquiries of these officers and soldiers, it doesn't look like it.

If they came here after people like themselves, they would mainly ask about the situation of the bandits, or even directly about the situation of Sanshui Village.

However, these officers and soldiers did not delve into the topic of thieves too much, but instead focused on the situation of each village.

In particular, they also asked how many people there were in each village.

No matter how you look at it, it is not normal.

Officers and soldiers went into the mountains to suppress bandits, so why would they pay attention to the population of mountain people in the villages in Funiu Mountain?
This is not normal.

No matter what Luo Zhixue thought, he never expected that Huang Guangmao and Wang Jida decided to come to Funiu Mountain again. It was not because their tracks were leaked, nor was there any mistake on Sun Jiancheng's side, it was simply because they wanted to enter the mountain to harvest Polon grain.

Although Luo Zhixue didn't know what the officers and soldiers were going to do again, it was a fact that the officers and soldiers' sentries appeared again in the outskirts of Funiu Mountain and continued toward the depths of Funiu Mountain.

Naturally, Luo Zhixue could not remain indifferent to this.

Immediately, Luo Zhixue sent people to look for Sun Chengli, and informed Sun Chengli of the discovery of officers and soldiers on the outskirts of Funiu Mountain. At the same time, he sent people to ask Xu He to closely monitor the situation of these officers and soldiers, and promised that if these officers and soldiers were found, they would continue Go deep, and after there are signs of coming towards Sanshui Village, you can decisively attack and kill it.

No matter what the purpose of the officers and soldiers is, Luo Zhixue will not let the sentries of the officers and soldiers approach Sanshui Village.

Not to mention Sanshui Village, even the dozen or so villages around Sanshui Village cannot get close.

Because these villages had contact with the thieves in Sanshui Village, Luo Zhixue and the others had recruited new soldiers and collected food in these villages before.

As long as the sentries of these officers and soldiers arrive at these villages and ask casually, they will know that there is a group of rebels nearby, and then they will be able to find Sanshui Village by following the clues.

After the order was given, Luo Zhixue did not do anything else, but went to the supply battalion to train the soldiers in person frequently, and went into battle in person, using his half-knowledge to guide the artillerymen in the artillery team to conduct training.

If the officers and soldiers really entered the hinterland of Funiu Mountain, they would have to fight the officers and soldiers.

Since we want to fight, the supply battalion under our hands must be fully prepared.

Looking at more than a hundred soldiers undergoing various trainings in the large open space ahead, Luo Zhixue looked serious.

If the officers and soldiers attack in large numbers, can these people stop the officers and soldiers from attacking?
Even if Sun Chengli and the others rushed back in time, Sun Chengli now led only more than 60 troops out, and among them, only more than [-] cavalry were able to fight.

As for the other two hundred ordinary soldiers, before they were taken out by Sun Jiancheng, they hadn't trained for a long time. After going out, they spent most of their time on the march and had no free time for various training.

Therefore, their training level is actually far inferior to that of the soldiers of the supply battalion staying in Sanshui Village.

The training time for the hundreds of soldiers in the supply battalion varies. For example, the last batch of soldiers was recruited after the autumn harvest. Their training time was less than half a month, and now they are barely able to line up.

However, the soldiers recruited in the first two batches have been trained for a long time, and the first batch of 30 soldiers has been trained for more than two months.

In the past two months or so, these people have been doing all kinds of training basically every day except for the temporary fall to help with the autumn harvest.

Now it is possible to line up neatly and follow orders to make some basic tactical actions.

As for whether he can fight, to be honest Luo Zhixue has no idea.

In Sanshui Village, in addition to the supply battalion under Luo Zhixue's command, there is also the right army led by the old farmer Xu He. There are four cavalry soldiers in this department. There are about 60 newly recruited soldiers, and about 30 of them have been training for a month. , the remaining thirty people were also recruited after the autumn harvest.

Adding up the two ministries, the defensive force in Sanshui Village totaled more than 180 people.

Among the more than 180 people, there are not many who can fight. Only the four cavalry soldiers under Xu He's command and the seven cavalry soldiers under Luo Zhixue's command are really elite. people!

These 12 people were all from the cavalry of the Yulin Frontier Army. They could ride and shoot. They were definitely not ordinary thieves, and they could be compared with infantry.

And these people are undoubtedly the absolute main force.

At the same time, when Luo Zhixue intercepted Tatianhu's group of thieves who had strayed into Sanshui Village, he had assembled seven cavalrymen under his command to form a temporary cavalry squad for combat, and Luo Zhixue found that the effect was quite good.

Luo Zhixue, who was worried about the attack of the officers and soldiers, once again called up the cavalry under his command who had already served as the commanders and artillery, and prepared to use them intensively.

Luo Zhixue thought that breaking up these elite cavalry and incorporating them into ordinary soldiers, being a chief or captain was not worth the loss.

Those who hold official positions such as captains are just small bosses who can fight a little bit.

But if they gather together, they can form a cavalry squad.

This cavalry squad can definitely play a more important role on the battlefield than the existing [-]-man supply battalion infantry.

Regarding Luo Zhixue's conscripting them into the personal army, Er Yongduo, Zhao Hongshu, Ding Chuwu, and Ma Dapao were still a little puzzled at first, and even had some small opinions.

After all, the four of them have gradually become superintendents in the past two months or so, and their subordinates are in charge of people anyway.

If they were all brought together and treated as ordinary cavalry, they would naturally be unhappy.

But when Luo Zhixue said that this time they were asked to come over to be cavalry commanders, and that they were selected from among them to be cavalry commanders, all of them burst into smiles.

If this is a senior who can be a cavalry, it is not much better than a senior who can be a recruit infantry.

But they are also curious, where are the cavalry under their hands?
An Yongduo asked: "Sir, if the seven of us count as seven Wu, what about the cavalry under this hand, come?"

Luo Zhixue said: "Select people from the prisoner-of-war camps."

As soon as Luo Zhixue mentioned the prisoner-of-war camp, these people came to their senses. Zhao Hongshu said, "Sir, are those old thieves who plan to recruit Ta Tianhu?"

Luo Zhixue nodded slightly and said: "That's right, although these people are all from thieves' backgrounds, they have all been in the army for many years, and many of them can also ride and shoot, so let them be wasted as coolies."
"I intend to select those who are loyal and good at cavalry as auxiliary soldiers of the cavalry team to enrich the cavalry team."

Ma Dapao said: "If that's the case, then our cavalry team won't have too many problems."

Except for a few casualties, all the rogues who strayed into Sanshui Village before chose to surrender, and were thrown into the prisoner-of-war camp by Luo Zhi and became coolies with the former rogue prisoners.

However, Luo Zhixue later discovered that these people were all backbone bandit soldiers who had been bandits for many years and had a lot of experience fighting with officers and soldiers. Besides, there were actually quite a few of them who were former officers and soldiers.

Well, there is no need to doubt, in fact, many of the elite backbones of many thieves these days are from the ranks of officers and soldiers.

Some were deserters, while some simply turned into thieves because of the collective mutiny of officers and soldiers.

That's what Li Tonglin and the others did before!
It is a waste to use these experienced soldiers directly as coolies.

So Luo Zhixue thought about how to recruit these people, and then enrich his own strength.

As for saying that these people are all thieves, they burned, killed and looted in the past, and recruiting them would ruin the atmosphere of the team...

This is purely overwhelmed, because Ernst and Young had a few more of them, and they burned, killed and looted under the leadership of Li Tonglin in the past, so no one should blame anyone.

Moreover, what the soldiers did was more of just obeying orders or blindly following orders. If you want to criticize, you have to criticize the leading generals.

Luo Zhixue firmly believes that as long as the military law is strict enough and the military stick is thick enough, even a soldier can become a loyal soldier.

If you encounter a stubborn person who refuses to change life and death, you can kill him with one knife...

In order to recruit these people, Luo Zhixue threw them into a prisoner-of-war camp and worked as a laborer with the former rogue prisoners.

The purpose is to let them experience the miserable life of being a prisoner of war, and then hone their character, at least to wear off some of their gangster spirit.

During this process, there were also people who were dissatisfied and tried to resist, but most of these people had already become ghosts under the sword.

And after such a period of suffering, coupled with the threat of officers and soldiers attacking, Luo Zhixue felt that it was time to choose someone from among them.

Hearing what Luo Zhixue said, An Yongduo and the others showed smiles on their faces.

Luo Zhixue knew that these old thieves were not ordinary thieves, and Er Yong and a few of them also knew that if they could choose suitable auxiliary soldiers from these people, the cavalry team would almost be able to be formed.

After a little discussion, Luo Zhixue took them to the prisoner-of-war camp on the spot to prepare for selection.

(End of this chapter)