Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1222 Epilogue : The Princess Who Can Ride a Horse and Fire a Gun

In the suburbs of megacities, there are not many farmers growing staple food.

Most of them grow vegetables, fruits and flowers because they have higher economic value.

Military exercises may cause trampling of the land, so nearby farmers harvest their vegetables in advance and can receive compensation for the young crops from the Ministry of War.

There are tents everywhere on the mountains and hills, simulating camping in the wild during war.

The emperor visited the camp on the first day of the military exercise.

Xie Yan followed the little emperor, either leading or riding a horse, and patrolled the camps with many guards and dukes, and met with and comforted the soldiers in each camp.

The little emperor's canopy, ceremonial fan and other belongings were all left outside the military camp.

This is a tradition that has existed since the reign of Emperor Taizong, that is, when the emperor arrives at the army, everything is done according to military etiquette and no nonsense is involved.

"See Your Majesty!"

Whenever the little emperor arrived outside a military camp, the soldiers in the camp would gather in advance and then salute the emperor in unison.

The military salute is to hold the weapon in the left hand and hold the right fist across the chest.

People of the same rank could salute each other on horses or chariots. If a subordinate faced a superior, he had to dismount from his horse or chariot before saluting.

No kneeling is allowed.

This was also the military ceremony established by Emperor Taizong, which was once destroyed and changed to kneeling on one knee before the emperor. It was not until Emperor Dingtai reorganized the army that it was restored.

The young emperor had military experience, and was extremely calm at such a young age. He rode his horse calmly and leisurely in front of the soldiers.

He was riding an underage military horse, and his guards helped to lead the horse in case the horse suddenly went crazy.

Xie Yan was also observing the imperial guards.

When I read novels before, the imperial guards in the books were all just for show. Whether it was the Song Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, the imperial guards gradually became rotten after a few decades of founding.

But these imperial guards in front of him seemed to be in high spirits.

This was of course the result of Emperor Dingtai's reorganization of the army. At that time, more than half of the imperial guards had already become rotten.

The main reason is that there has been no war for many years, and most of the imperial guards have never seen blood. Even daily training is not guaranteed, with only one or two days of training a month. In addition, some people eat empty salaries and suck the blood of soldiers, which leads to very low morale of the army.

Emperor Dingtai sent a telegram to recall 4,000 border troops, paid them full military pay, and raised their treatment to the same level as the imperial guards. The loyalty of those 4,000 border troops instantly increased.

The next year, Emperor Dingtai held another large-scale military exercise for the imperial guards in the two capitals. The four thousand fierce border troops directly shocked the one hundred thousand imperial guards.

The descendants of Zhang Guangdao and other founding heroes surrendered in the face of 4,000 border troops and did not dare to rebel.

"Long live! Long live!"

The soldiers of the imperial guards shouted in unison, and the little emperor's blood was boiling: These are my troops, the elite soldiers left to me by my grandfather!

The young emperor suddenly wanted to go to war and wanted to find a country to try his hand.

He had heard too many stories about Taizu, Taizong and Dingtai Emperor since he was a child. As a child, he had no feeling about benevolent government and loving the people, but he had a deep memory of his ancestors' repeated conquests and defeats of the enemies.

This year's exercise is an annual rotation exercise, with only 10,000 troops participating in the Luoyang military exercise.

After the young emperor finished camping, the 10,000 imperial guards were divided into two armies, each continuing to build fortifications.

Army A built simple small fortifications, somewhat similar to bastions.

Army B dug a Z-shaped trench and advanced.

The next day, the battle officially began.

Xie Yan, together with the dukes and princes of different surnames, stood on the hillside, observing the offensive and defensive battle of the imperial guards through a telescope.

There were constant gunshots and smoke everywhere.

The bullet of the paper shell ammunition was replaced with a cork bullet, and the amount of gunpowder was very small. To put it bluntly, it was a blank bullet.

They even used low-powered bombs and threw grenades everywhere.

Xie Yan didn't understand this, he just knew it was a lively fight. As the attacking party of the Ming army, he naturally won the final victory.

The offensive and defensive battles were fought in the morning, and the battles were fought in formation in the afternoon.

There is also the Ming Dynasty-style firearm version of the Mandarin Duck Formation, which is a reserved item. We cannot forget Taizong’s great martial arts.

Some cold weapon troops were also retained to deal with weather conditions that were not conducive to firearms combat. There were not many cold weapon troops participating in the military exercise, only a few hundred against a few hundred, but the viewing experience was full, and the fighting was intense.

On the third day, there will be cavalry battles, as well as individual martial arts competitions and displays.

Horseback archery, spearmanship, musketry, artillery... were performed one after another, and Xie Yan exclaimed that it was wonderful.

There were also more than 20 outstanding military academy students who were selected to demonstrate military skills, and Xie Yan saw Yang Boyan among those students.

"Who is that man?" the little emperor pointed at Yang Boyan and asked.

When the people around him were about to ask, Xie Yan said, "Your Majesty, his name is Yang Boyan, a descendant of Yang Zaixing, the founding county lord."

The little emperor praised: "You are indeed the descendant of a great general who founded the country!"

There's no way, Yang Boyan's performance just now was too eye-catching.

All the students who were selected to participate in the drill were top students in the military academy, and Yang Boyan completely crushed the other twenty or so students in terms of horseback archery, horse fighting, and foot fighting. Even when firing a musket while standing, he could still rank among the top five among those students.

Empress Dowager Ye suddenly asked, "Does Liu Lang know this Yang Boyan?"

"When I was on the train to Beijing, I had a few words with the descendant of this fierce general." Xie Yan roughly recounted what happened.

Empress Dowager Ye nodded in approval: "After graduating from the military academy, such a brave general should be sent to a border town for training. Although the barbarians in the forests around Beihai have long since submitted to the Ming Dynasty, they always go south to plunder sporadically. There are also the Karluks in the mountainous areas of the Qihe border, and the Yellow-headed Shiwei in the mountains of northern Andong... They are all not very worrying."

The Ming Dynasty, with its vast territory, naturally had more troubles than what Empress Dowager Ye mentioned.

For example, the Seven Rivers Protectorate, whose jurisdiction stretched from the western part of the Ili River Valley to the northern part of the Aral Sea, stretched 1400 kilometers from east to west. The core of Ming's rule there was entirely dependent on more than cities of varying sizes, as well as military fortresses at key nodes.

The farther away from the cities and fortresses, the weaker the foundation of Ming's rule, and like Mobei and Tubo, they belonged to tribal autonomy. However, those tribal leaders and religious leaders had to obtain the recognition of the Ming court and pay tribute to the Protectorate regularly.

From time to time, there were tribal rebellions.

The difference is that the Qihe tribes mainly practiced desert religion, the Tubo tribes mainly practiced Buddhism, and the Mobei tribes mainly practiced Nestorianism and Shamanism. The capital city of the Qihe Protectorate was the Husiwoerduo left by Yelu Dashi, which was more than 100 miles east of the capital of Kyrgyzstan in later generations.

Now the entire basin, as well as the surrounding mountains and grasslands, have been renamed "Chuhe Prefecture".

And Hu Siwoerduo was renamed "Suiye City"!
Throughout the Chu River Basin, the Han population accounts for more than 60%, including the mixed-race descendants of the Han people, as well as the Khitan, Uighur, and Turkic peoples who have been assimilated into the Han people.

The further west you go, the smaller the proportion of Han people becomes.

……

The fifth day of the military exercise became more entertaining.

The soldiers were divided into large and small teams, and drove prey around the mountains and forests according to military orders, making it easier for the powerful to hunt wild beasts.

Even the cool older sister Wu Lingfeng came along with her father and father-in-law to join in the fun.

Yuan Huaiyi, who entered the cabinet as a military general, personally taught the young emperor how to use a musket: "First, bite open the shell, shake a little bit of gunpowder into the primer, and then put the paper shell bullet into the barrel like this..."

The little emperor was very excited. He was one year older this year and was allowed to swim in the summer and use muskets in the autumn.

Xie Yan also followed and learned.

The flintlock rifles used by the two men were works of art, inlaid with gold, silver and even gems. This kind of rifle made by skilled craftsmen was almost impossible to explode unless it was used too many times.

Of course, the paper shell bullets that the little emperor was given had less gunpowder and were not very powerful.

He learned to fire a few shots, and became more and more happy.

A bugle call suddenly sounded, and the deer were being driven over here.

The generals and guards escorted the little emperor forward.

boom!
The little emperor shot in vain.

Two guards bent their bows and shot arrows at a startled deer at the same time. The poor deer was hit by two arrows but neither of them was vital. It tried to escape but was driven back by soldiers farther away.

"Your Majesty, aim for the injured one. It can't run fast anymore."

The little emperor actually didn't want to ask others for help, but he also knew that he was a beginner and had to do this because of his poor skills.

boom!
Another shot, and the bullet flew two feet past the injured elk.

Still missed the target.

The elk escaped again, but was soon driven back by the soldiers.

The guards and generals protected the little emperor and pretended to chase prey. They ran very slowly for fear that the little emperor would fall off his horse.

Empress Dowager Ye observed from afar with a faint smile on her face.

She enjoys watching her son progress.

boom!
The elk, unable to run due to excessive blood loss, was finally shot down by the little emperor.

The little emperor jumped off his horse, ran to the elk and shouted, "I hit it! I hit a prey!"

"Your Majesty's power!"

The generals and guards congratulated in unison.

The young emperor asked his guards to take the game away, and he rode back on his horse: "Uncle-in-law, I have hunted a deer. You are new to using a musket, so go and try it out."

"Yes, sir!" Xie Yan rode forward cautiously.

Although Xie Yan ran away, the emperor's call of "brother-in-law" was remembered by many civil and military officials.

Your Majesty is very close to Prince Consort Xie!

Zhu Tangxi rode his horse to catch up and got a flintlock rifle from somewhere.

Xie Yan asked: "Sister, can you also fire a gun?"

"When did I say I can't do it?" Zhu Tangxi said proudly, "My father taught me how to use a gun. But I haven't hunted much in the past few years, so I don't know if I can still aim accurately. Go!"

Xie Yan hurriedly rode his horse to catch up. Although the slope was gentle, his horsemanship was so poor that he dared not ride fast.

"Woooooo~~~"

The horn sounded again, and this time what were driven over were a few wild boars.

The wild boars began to flee in all directions, but they heard the sound of gongs in the distance, and were driven towards the direction set by the army.

Wu Lingfeng and his wife followed here at some point.

Although her husband came from a military family, he was weak and looked more like a scholar, and he was always timid in front of her, and it was obvious that he was afraid of his wife.

"Princess, Prince Consort, you come first." Wu Lingfeng said.

The horse was moving up and down, so Xie Yan had to dismount. He felt that the wild boar was too far away, so he bent down and approached it on tiptoe.

"boom!"

Just then, a gunshot rang out.

Zhu Tangxi was riding on horseback at another place and fired a shot, accurately hitting the wild boar's waist.

The wild boar ran away in pain, and several hunting dogs pounced on it to chase it.

Xie Yan turned his head and praised: "Sister is amazing!"

Zhu Tangxi held his head high, put his flintlock rifle on his shoulder, and said with a proud smile: "If it were before, I would have been able to hit the wild boar's head."

Xie Yan was only concerned with admiring the beauty.

Today's princess is so beautiful, wearing a hunting outfit, her long legs are particularly attractive. And she is carrying a musket on her shoulder, and her heroic appearance is another style.

Of course, Wu Lingfeng is even more awesome. He uses a bow and arrow directly, and shoots arrows while galloping on horseback.

Xie Yan likes this sport. Whether he can catch prey is secondary. The most important thing is to have beautiful young ladies to please the eye.

(End of this chapter)