Five Hundred and Fifty-Seven: Drought, Refugees (3)

The people did not know about the death of Princess An Yina. Even if they knew, it was just the death of a royal family member.

However, this news was enough to stir up the situation in the whole north when it fell into the ears of sensitive people.

Jiang Pengji asked about the recruitment of soldiers and the training of new recruits with a calm face.

Because of the drought in the north, many low-level members of the Qingyi Army or the Red Lotus Sect felt that they could not make a living, and they left the organization and became refugees. Fengyi County was an oasis in the desert for these refugees, reducing their desire to get close.

Jiang Pengji asked people to screen them carefully and select those with higher quality to enter the recruit camp.

Thanks to the household registration policy of the women's camp, the recruitment work was quite smooth, and many women who were forced by life also wanted to come in, but Jiang Pengji raised the threshold of the women's camp and only selected women with stronger bodies, agility and determination to ensure the combat effectiveness of the women's camp.

In this era, population growth can only rely on female reproduction, but the female camp stipulates that only after retiring at the age of 24 can they marry and have children. If too many women enter the female camp, the population of the territory under her rule will inevitably be affected, which is what Jiang Pengji does not want to see.

In addition, war is not about who has more people to win, the overall quality is also very important.

She would rather the number of women in the female camp be half that of the men's camp, but the combat level must not decline.

Soldiers are more valuable than quantity!

Jiang Pengji asked solemnly, "How is the iron ore mining?"

Feng Jin said, "The blue-clothed soldiers captured before have been sent to mine. The iron ore veins are quite rich, but the smelting... is not enough. I am afraid that we need to carefully look for craftsmen with good craftsmanship. This is not a difficult task, Jin can find a way to solve it."

The territory has iron ore, which means that they do not need to buy it outside at a high price, which can save a lot of money.

Last year, Jiang Pengji bought thousands of sets of simple infantry equipment, which made her heartache. It was a waste of money.

Even if the money was contributed by the prodigal women in Northern Frontier, it was her money once it entered her storehouse!

Feng Jin added, "It's just... just like this, I'm afraid it's difficult to deal with the cavalry in Northern Frontier..."

To deal with Northern Frontier, they must face their cavalry.

According to previous understanding, the armies of the three tribes in Northern Frontier are generally composed of infantry and cavalry,

the ratio of the two is about 1:2.

More than a decade ago, the three tribes in Northern Frontier sent troops to attack Shangyu County in Chongzhou, mobilizing 100,000 troops, of which 60,000 to 70,000 were cavalry!

After one battle, they were unstoppable and took down six cities in a row.

If it weren't for the quick response of the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion, if it was delayed for more than ten days, I'm afraid the entire Chongzhou would have been taken down by them.

The three tribes in Northern Frontier are nomadic peoples who deal with horses all year round. To put it bluntly, their seven or eight-year-old children can ride horses and gallop on the flat ground of Northern Frontier. If the nobles of Dongqing didn't have the help of stirrups, they couldn't even climb on the horse's back.

Stirrups had just appeared in this era, but they were not popular. Only a few nobles would equip their horses with simple stirrups. Riding a horse was not easy these days, but many people with strong riding skills did not like to use stirrups. For example, Li Yun often rode a horse without stirrups, so he was teased by the audience in the live broadcast room, praising the young man for his unparalleled waist strength and saying dirty words like "I will have a good wife in the future".

Stirrups can be further improved to assist cavalry in horseback combat, and even people who are not good at riding can quickly learn to ride a horse.

However, in terms of cavalry, even if Jiang Pengji starts preparing now, it is difficult to surpass Beijiang in quality, let alone quantity.

Unless——

She trains cavalry while training special arms that can restrain cavalry.

Jiang Pengji's eyes darkened and her brain began to work. Feng Jin saw that she was in a state of contemplation and involuntarily put her ten fingers together. He knew that his master was thinking of a way, so he did not make a sound to interfere, but just waited for her to finish thinking.

"It's not impossible to deal with cavalry--"

For Jiang Pengji, no army is invincible.

Even the genetic special forces formed by the Human Federation are not invincible, and they can still encounter "natural enemies".

Similarly, the simple light cavalry like the three tribes in the northern border is even less likely to be invincible.

Feng Jin asked, "I wonder if the lord has any ideas?"

Jiang Pengji said, "I want to train an army specializing in horse beating. Dongqing's horse farms are all in Cangzhou, and Cangzhou is the territory of the Meng family. They are not on the same side as us. If you want to buy enough war horses through this channel, I'm afraid you will go bankrupt. If the northern border goes to war, they will also keep a close eye on the whereabouts of the horses. It's unrealistic for us to expand the cavalry at the last minute."

Zhang Ping on the side said, "Does the lord want to play to his strengths and avoid weaknesses, avoid competing with cavalry, and instead develop ways to restrain cavalry?"

When it comes to horse battles, the entire Kyushu Five Kingdoms, even Zhongzhao, the strongest country, dare not say that it can beat the northern border.

Instead of competing with each other in cavalry, it is better to find another way and study special forces that can restrain cavalry.

This is indeed an idea.

Jiang Pengji nodded and said, "Warhorses are another life of cavalry. Once they are gone, cavalry will be as fragile as a snail without a shell. We can now produce iron by ourselves, make long swords, and make heavy shields. If different types of soldiers cooperate, for example, some soldiers specialize in holding heavy shields to resist the first wave of cavalry charge, and other soldiers stab and kill warhorses with long swords or spears..."

This is just a hypothesis, and the actual implementation still needs to be tested.

For example, how strong is the cavalry charge, what kind of heavy shield and force can stop the enemy and protect the rear formation from chaos.

Jiang Pengji added, "Huaiyu has seen the penetrating power of the bed crossbow before, right?"

Bed crossbow?

Use bed crossbows against cavalry?

Feng Jin nodded and said doubtfully, "But the bed crossbow is heavy and difficult to move. I'm afraid it won't be able to deal with the cavalry."

Zhang Ping shook his head and said to Feng Jin, "Huaiyu is wrong. My lord, what I mean is that if the bed crossbow can move like the cavalry, how much damage can it cause to the cavalry. The bed crossbow can be placed on the chariot. , it is naturally easier to move. Of course, you can also put wheels on the bed crossbow, but the bed crossbow has great tension, and once the arrow is fired, it will drive the entire body to move..."

The thinking of a technical nerd is faster than that of normal people, so Zhang Ping's thinking is naturally different from Feng Jin's.

"This is worth a try."

Feng Jin recalled the penetrating power and range of the bed crossbow, and felt a little more confident.

Jiang Pengji poured a basin of cold water on it and said, "Adding wheels to the bed crossbow or placing it on a chariot can indeed make the bed crossbow more flexible, but compared with the cavalry, it is still too slow. If you want to rely on this to deal with the cavalry, , it’s a fantasy, at best it can catch you by surprise and threaten the first wave of charges. Once the enemy reacts, this move won’t work.”

Jiang Pengji added, "Although the lethality of the improved crossbow is not as good as that of the bed crossbow, its mobility and flexibility are far better than the latter. If a unit is established to specifically restrain the cavalry, the soldiers can use improved crossbows. Such soldiers can be called Crossbow infantry.”

Feng Jin could understand that it was equivalent to the previous steps, which amplified the number of people ten times.

Jiang Pengji's words opened up new ideas for him.