"Down with the city first?" Zhou Ping was a little dizzy by Chang Zongtian's words, so he could only smile bitterly and said, "Then I will go to the King of Dushi first to see if it's OK!"

"Okay, you have to hurry up this matter!" Chang Zongtian hesitated for a moment and whispered: "Zhou Jianguan, I, Lao Chang, is a rough man. I have something to say if I don't listen to, and you must forgive me if I don't listen to it!"

"What do you say!"

"Right is not in charge of wealth, but kindness is not in charge of soldiers! The general should be more tough, be good to yourself and the men below. You are good at custody, but you are a little soft-hearted. If you go to our Western Army for two years, you will be a good man."

Looking at Chang Zongtian's departure, Zhou Ping couldn't help but smile a bitter smile on his face. Since he traveled through time, he had no less than hundreds of lives in his hands. He thought he had fully adapted to this era, but he didn't expect that the veteran in front of him still felt that he was too soft-hearted. But compared to the Jingkang period, the current two years of Xuanhe was still a peaceful season. Is he really strong enough to deal with the next days of blood and fire?

"Strong, or destruction!" Zhou Ping couldn't help but clenched his fists and murmured to himself.

When he came out of Wang Ziwu's yamen, Zhou Ping felt much better. As Chang Zongtian said, when Wang Ziwu heard Zhou Ping's request to recruit civilians and demolish houses within thirty meters of the city wall, he agreed readily, and all the reasons for Zhou Ping to prepare in advance were lost. Zhou Ping couldn't help but laugh in his heart. I'm afraid that this is a blessing for the rumor that Fang La had treated the captured officials. This scared the prince's chief. As long as he could protect the Xiuzhou City, there was nothing he was unwilling to do.

What surprised Zhou Ping even more was that there were 5,000 scattered copper coins. When Chang Zongtian asked him, he realized that this was a pre-issue reward. This was a custom in the Song army. Not to mention beheading, trapping the battle, and seizing the flag, you will immediately receive cash rewards. Even the archers bend their bows and shoot archers. When fighting, the officer stood next to the archer with copper coins. The archer shot an arrow and threw the money of the archer at the foot of the archer.

The price tag is marked, and it is not on credit. This "advanced" incentive mechanism made Zhou Ping stunned. In his memory, even Carthage, which is famous for its mercenaries, and Italy during the Renaissance, did not refine the salary system to this level. No wonder the Northern Song Dynasty would rather give Liao 500,000 silver coins every year than fight. Judging from this way of fighting, let alone 500,000. Even if it is 5 million, it would not be possible to afford to spend a few battles.

"Can this work?" Zhou Ping asked hesitantly.

"Of course!" Chang Zongtian replied: "The country has been fighting like this for more than a hundred years. Even in the previous dynasty, they would have to pay for pickles, clothes, money for battle before going to war. Only when they get the reward money, as long as the reward money is given. Don't mess with the above. Let's win seven battles against the Western thieves!" He saw Zhou Ping's puzzled look and had to continue explaining that although this reward system in the Northern Song Dynasty sounded strange, the money was not so easy to get, and the selection and training standards for soldiers were very strict.

Taking the standards for selecting folk archers in the first year of Jianyan of Emperor Gaozong as an example: the best is one stone or one dou of step or nine dou of horse shooting, the medium is one stone or eight dou of step or nine dou of horse shooting, the low is nine dou of step or nine dou of step or seven dou of horse shooting, and the selection criteria for the imperial guards are to hold one stone and five dou of stone, sixty steps, and three shots. One stone in the Song Dynasty was 92 kilograms, equivalent to ten dou of ten dou of stroke. In other words, even ordinary militia archers, their selection criteria required that they could use at least eighty-three kilograms of strong bows in step. As for the standards for the imperial guards, the standards for the imperial guards were even stricter, requiring them to use a strong bow of more than one hundred and twenty-four kilograms, with three targets in six shooting distances of about ninety meters. This strict requirement was even the most common Northern Song Dynasty, which was launched in the Northern Song Dynasty, which was very common, and could become a soldier of the imperial guards.

The founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty should consider establishing this military system to support first-class heroes with high treatment. In addition, the Central Plains provided military armor far exceeds the technical level of neighboring countries, and defeat the enemy on the battlefield. This can also explain why in the early Northern Song Dynasty, the cavalry did not have the advantage in the wars between the Liao and Western Xia, they liked to fight field wars so much. First, they chose elite soldiers and sharp military armor, so they naturally liked field wars; second, the emperor spent so much money to raise these heroes, so they could not let them hide behind the city walls and eat military salaries for free. Of course, with the arrival of peace, this strict standard would definitely be loose.

The surrounding imperial guards may not be worthy of their reputation, but the Western Army, which had fought with the Xixia people for decades in the northwest border, still maintained quite strong combat power. Compared with the Song army, the Xixia country had a much smaller population. After civilization, it was naturally impossible to select enough soldiers at such a high standard. The soldiers were not as equipped as the Song army, so they naturally won fewer and lost more when fighting. It was only because the command system of the Northern Song Dynasty that stacked beams limited the power of the army. The Western Xia could maintain a relative balance, so after the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty, he once asked a Han officer from the Western Xia: "Which is brave or the Song people?" The officer replied: "The Song people are brave, but the top and bottom are different, so they cannot win."

Chang Zongtian saw Zhou Ping frowning and pondering, thinking that the prison guard had never seen the world, and suddenly he was confused when he saw so many rewards. If he made too much money, he annoyed the red man below (a despicable name for the soldiers), it would be bad when the thief came and he hurriedly persuaded in a low voice: "Zhou Jian Guard, according to the convention, half of the officers here are officers. You can take one-third of the officer's share. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if you don't work hard in the battle. Magistrate Tong has always been generous. As long as he suppresses the thief, the cheating points he does will cover up the lower ones."

Zhou Ping was stunned and realized that Chang Zongtian was reminding himself not to look too ugly. He wanted to kill him and went to other channels to catch him after the war. As long as he was not too overdoing, Tong Guan would definitely support him. He couldn't help but feel embarrassed for a while. He didn't expect that he was misunderstood just now, so he quickly coughed twice and said, "Then follow the customs. I will also move the deal to the camp and tell the men that there are those who seize the flag and kill the generals and reward them!"

"Here!" Chang Zongtian responded, looked up and secretly looked at Zhou Ping's face, and lowered his voice: "In custody, it would be great if you take half of it. Otherwise, if you don't get a single point, it would be difficult for other officers to get it, otherwise it would be bad!"

"Okay, just do what Chang Yuhou said!" Zhou Ping nodded with a blushing face. He had not led the soldiers, but after all, he was not as clear as the old military gangster like Chang Zongtian, who was very mature and unspoken rules within the Western Army. It was okay to command the battle, but he was confused when he encountered these things of sharing the spoils and rewards. However, this kind of thing was closely related to the combat effectiveness of the army. There were many things in history that were less meat from the food given to soldiers before the war, sour wine, shorter clothes, and thinner things, resulting in mutiny, and a mess. If he didn't know, he wouldn't even know when he had a big mess.

"Chang Yuhou!" Zhou Ping called out to Chang Zongtian, who was about to walk away: "Divide one of the shares I deserve in half, and half to the soldiers who have made meritorious seals. Seal the half, don't tell others. If there is no one in the king's affairs, take it out privately as coffin money."

Chang Zongtian's eyes lit up, and there was a look of respect on his face. He bowed and said, "Sir, please follow the military order!"

Six days later, that is, the first month of the third year of Xuanhe (1121 AD), Fang La, who called himself "Shenggong", led a 60,000 army with the general Fang Qifo, headed north to attack Xiuzhou. For a time, where the army went, dark clouds covered the sun, and it was as if it were flattened Xiuzhou and reached the Yangtze River.

Xiuzhou City. Apart from the south gate, the other three city gates have been closed, the houses outside the city have been demolished, the wells have been filled, and the trees have been cut off, so as not to be used by the enemy outside the city. Even the Xiaoshao Canal, which communicates with Shaoxing, Hangzhou, more than one mile away from the west gate of Xiuzhou City, has sunk more than ten large ships filled with stones to prevent Fang La's army from moving north through the canal. On the official road, the fugitives who had been crowded into the city a few days ago were hard to find, and it looked like a scene of a war coming.

The prefect yamen.

"Zhou Jianguan, so, the army led by the King of the Kings fourteen days ago has arrived in Guangling?"

Wang Ziwu, who looked worried, asked in a low voice.

"That's right, the army led by the King of the Kings arrived in Guangling fourteen days ago!" Zhou Ping replied respectfully, but the muscles on his cheeks twitched a few times. The reason was very simple. It was only half an hour after lunch. This was the fifth time that the Wang Tongjun in front of him had asked him the same question. As a guest and subordinate official, Zhou Ping had to pretend that he had not noticed the opponent's disobedience at all. But deep down, he had already begun to doubt that he had defended Fang La's attack. It was not that he felt that Fang La's army's combat effectiveness was high, but that he had already begun to doubt whether the Wang Tongjun would lose his chain at critical moments. For example, when Fang La's army besieged the camp outside the South Gate, if this Shangguan suddenly closed the city gate and the morale of the army was in chaos, it would be over.

Perhaps he felt that his performance was a bit too much. Wang Ziwu smiled bitterly and said, "Zhou Jianguan, it's not that I am afraid of it. This Jiangnan land has not been in war for many years. In the past, there were not many defenders in the city. But there were enough thieves in the food industry, and there were enough millions of people!"
Chapter completed!