"Starting the cannon?" Zhang Ji shook his head. The cannons in this era were stone cannons, but in fact they were trespassers. How did these two large iron pipes fire? Zhang Ji couldn't figure it out and was too lazy to think about it. After walking in the snow for a long time, he just wanted to find a campsite as soon as possible.

Not long after I walked, I saw the fence surrounded by trees and heard the neighing of horses in the heavy snow.

Du Zhongxiao said to Zhang Ji: "There is the horse land ahead, and there are several houses that are lived by the Wranglers. The governor can rest with me, and the entire army camped nearby. There is a small river not far from here, because it flows out from the ground and does not freeze, so you can get water."

Zhang Xiao nodded and ordered his generals to investigate the surrounding terrain with Chen Qin's people and prepare to camp. There were only a few houses in the ranch, and hundreds of people in Zhang Xiao's troops still had to camp outside.

Seeing two rows of thatched huts appearing in front of you, which are particularly conspicuous in the wind and snow, Zhang Ji breathed out. Unexpectedly, after a year when the Volcanic Army came, there had been such a big change here, even a special horse-dressing land was built, and a house was built.

They dismounted one after another, and Du Zhongxiao asked Zhang Ji and his party to enter the hall and ordered Shisanlang to take people to prepare hot tea.

Looking at Shisanlang's departure back, Zhang Ke said, "What a big man. If he is in the army, he must be a powerful general."

Du Zhongxiao said: "This man is Shisanlang. He was originally a farmer under my rule when I was an official in Suzhou. Seeing him bravery, he took him by his side."

Zhang Ke nodded and praised repeatedly. He was born in a humble background. He was elected as a general of Ya because of his courage. He made many military achievements in the battle with Dangxiang. He was promoted to deputy concierge and served as the chief supervisor. Because of his experience, he had a particularly good impression of a fierce general like Shisanlang.

After decades of establishment of the Song Dynasty, there were many generals who were promoted from small soldiers to high positions. Zhang Ji was the same. Now, Di Qing was deployed in Zhending Road. It is not uncommon among the imperial guards. This is related to the military system of the Song Dynasty. In terms of system, the Song army paid more attention to selecting generals based on military merits. In the world, all tall, brave and powerful people were selected into the imperial guards, and the imperial guards were selected again, and the outstanding ones entered the Supreme Fourth Army. The Supreme Fourth Army was the first elite. The so-called first battle was used to participate in many battles. The minor soldiers, as long as they made meritorious on the battlefield, were promoted to small officers and promoted one after another. Half of the current generals of the military were promoted from small soldiers like this. This is a characteristic of the Song army.

Sometimes Du Zhongxiao thought that the selection system of the Song army was very reasonable in the previous life. Famous generals did not care about their origins, and as long as they dared to fight and fight, they had the opportunity to stand out. And there was no ceiling, and they could go all the way to the top in the army. However, the biggest problem was that the imperial guards won small battles and lost big battles. For one or two thousand people, the imperial guards were mostly at the upper hand, whether against the Khitan or the Dangxiang. However, most of the imperial guards would be defeated by the decisive battle of hundreds of thousands of people. For the elite imperial guards, combat effectiveness is not a problem, and the ability of organization and command must be a big problem. This is a fetal disease passed down from the Five Dynasties warlord period. They pay too much attention to personal courage, military merits and killing the enemy, and they pay insufficient attention to organization and command capabilities. When the times changed, they changed from warlord melee to national warfare in a great unification dynasty, and they were not adapted to it everywhere.

During the Five Dynasties, warlords wanted to survive. The big leader had his own elite soldiers, and the small leader also had his own elites. They were carefully selected and the leaders had absolute authority. When they fought together, as long as the leaders above and below were in concert, they would be disciplined and invincible. If their opinions were different, the war would often not be organized at all. In the unified dynasty, such small groups were restricted and the entire organization would be dispersed.

A thousand years ago, Qin relied on military merit and the rank system and the calculation of merits by the head to form one and six countries, which gave future generations many illusions. The success of Qin should be attributed more to its strict discipline and strong organizational capabilities, followed by soldiers with a strong fighting spirit. The middle and senior generals of the Qin army rarely selected from ordinary soldiers, but paid more attention to generals. Organization and command capabilities are more important factors in senior leaders than personal courage.

Even if the defeat of the Dangxiang War was not short of powerful generals in the Song army, but there were no people who could command large-scale battles. There was no more knowledge for a thousand years, which Du Zhongxiao felt intuition that he was unreliable when facing the Song army. Now, some generals in charge of the army, not to mention their family background, cannot be on the battlefield at all. Even if they are promoted by military merits, many of them can only stand on their own and cannot coordinate the overall situation. In the words of their previous lives, there were many good company commanders and regiment commanders, but they did not have good commanders and commanders.

Du Zhongxiao likes Shisanlang very much, but before he learns to organize wars and command battles, it is better to be a follower.

Sitting in the hall, Zhang Keqi said, "Hey, it's as warm as spring."

Du Zhongxiao said: "There is no shortage of charcoal here. Fire channels are built in the house and stoves are burned outside, so it is naturally warm."

Zhang Ji was happy after hearing this: "Since there is no shortage of charcoal, you can send it to the army and let the soldiers roast the fire. They went down the mountain from the snow and the road was frozen badly. After roasting the fire, boil some hot soup and live a peaceful night."

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "The chief minister didn't know that carbonite has a stench and used to roast the fire. If you accidentally get poisoned, you will die of poisoning. You can only light some fire outside the tent to let the soldiers burn the fire, and then put them in the tent to rest when they are hot."

There are coal everywhere on Hedong Road. There are legends when the fire may be poisoned in winter. Zhang Ji also heard about it and did not insist. He ordered his personal soldiers to organize the fire outside the tent and take turns to be on duty. They brought food, set up the tent, and buried the pot to cook.

Du Zhongxiao said: "There are sheep raised in the pasture. I will choose ten of them here, slaughter them and hand them over to the army. Although the mutton is not enough, it is also good to cook it into soup and give it to the soldiers. In this weather, drink a bowl of hot soup and rest warmly for a night."

Zhang Ke has never seen this way of eating, so he said something troublesome and did not insist. Eating in the army has always been simple and fast. If there is a meat, it is either cooked in large pieces or roasted, so it will take a lot of effort.

Du Zhongxiao was used to calculating carefully. He slaughtered a sheep, which was from fur to bones, and it was not wasted at all. In a few months, mutton soup had been popularized in the volcanic army and was almost everywhere. Where there were more people, some people specialized in selling mutton soup. People with more wealth at home cooked yellow rice and went outside to buy a bowl of soup and poured it on the rice. It was both easy and nutritious.

After warming up, Du Zhongxiao ordered wine and said to Zhang Ji: "The Volcanic Army is barren and does not produce rice and wheat. In the past, rice and wheat were brewing wine, which was expensive. In the past few months, I learned the Central Plains method here and used sorghum, buckwheat and other coarse grains to make wine, which was much cheaper. This wine is powerful and suitable for drinking in this weather. I will try it."

Zhang Ke picked up the bowl and tasted it, and repeatedly exclaimed: "Good wine! Good wine! Use sorghum and buckwheat to make wine. Why haven't you heard of this method? I have tasted white wine from the Central Plains, and it is no different from the border areas."

Du Zhongxiao smiled and said, "My family originally sold wine. This method was originally a secret method of my own, and it gradually spread. Sorghum is abundant in the north, and it is really not worth it to make wine with rice and wheat. This method is not as good as this method. This area is barren, and many places can only grow sorghum and corn, saving rice and wheat to eat."

Zhang Ji was amazed when he heard this. However, he was a general and did not bother to ask Du Zhongxiao about his specific method.

Chen Qin arranged the matter for the garrison. When he returned to the hall, he arranged for the herds to bring a large plate of cooked mutton and said with his hands: "Official, what dishes should I use tonight? I prepared cooked mutton, but it was cold. I just killed the sheep and there was still some snowflake mutton, so I don't know how to clean it up."
Chapter completed!