Zhu Youxiao has not been to the military camp for a long time, so he specially took a day to visit the military camp today.
Today's Yulin Army is already very large. There are 30,000 elites in the four major battalions alone. The main force of the four major battalions is composed of Zhejiang soldiers, Sichuan soldiers, Jingying soldiers, Tongzhou soldiers, and Xiaoling guards. It can be said that
Zhu Youxiao has basically combined the Ming Dynasty's ace armies (Zhejiang soldiers and Sichuan soldiers) with the mobilized elites who dare to fight.
The auxiliary barracks expanded to nearly 50,000 people. With the Jingying soldiers and Tongzhou soldiers as the skeleton, more than 10,000 young men were recruited. With full recruitment, the Yulin Army now has 80,000 soldiers on its roster.
This is the largest military force that Zhu Youxiao can gather at this stage, and it is also the last elite force of the Ming Dynasty. Soon, Zhu Youxiao will personally lead them out of the border to fight.
Zhu Youxiao was very relieved when he saw how hard they were training. Each one of them was as powerful as a dragon or a tiger. This is what a strong army looks like.
"How's the training going at the Knight Rider Camp?"
The cavalry of the Xiaoqi Battalion is a combination of the cavalry of the original Three Thousand Battalion and Xiaoling Guard. They are all carefully selected. Not to mention the masters of cavalry and archery, there is no problem in going out to fight, at least it is better than the so-called in history.
Guan Ning's cavalry is stronger by more than one level.
Li Songping, the general of the Xiaoqi Battalion, quickly stepped forward and said:
"Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong with the five thousand men of the Xiaoqi Camp. They only need to wait for your Majesty's order to come out and compete with Jiannu."
Zhu Youxiao did not tell anyone about his plan to go to the grassland. The generals of the Yulin Army thought that he was going to Liaodong to kill slaves.
"I'll go take a look!"
As soon as Zhu Youxiao entered the racecourse, he saw straw men covering half of the racecourse. This was his own order. He used straw men as imaginary enemies, and then arranged these straw men into formations of various arms. Then the sergeants of the Xiaoqi Battalion figured out what to do.
Break the formation.
These formations were carefully studied by Zhu Youxiao every day. They are the most commonly used formations by the Mongolian army and the slave army, in order to exercise their ability to adapt to changes on the battlefield. There is only one way for cavalry to fight, and that is to be fast.
As long as you are faster than your opponent, you have already won half the battle.
Zhu Youxiao saw a group of people wearing frontier armor next to him and asked:
"Aren't these just things that come from all over the country and are not collected at night?"
Li Songping bowed and said:
"Your Majesty, that's right!"
"Your Majesty, they are all elites. Even the ministers admire their riding and shooting skills. They also have a deep understanding of the customs and fighting styles of the grassland people!"
Li Songping's ability was personally tested by Zhu Youxiao. His personal ability and leadership ability are both top-notch. For him to praise him so much, I think the Nine-Bian Army generals at this time are still afraid of the imperial power and dare not act casually.
Send some trash to Beijing.
"Select 200 people from the Knight Rider Camp and follow these Ye Bushou to learn their investigative techniques."
"I accept your order!"
"How many war horses are there in the Valiant Cavalry Camp now?"
"Your Majesty, there are a total of 8,765 horses and more than 4,000 mules and horses!"
There were too few war horses, and the requirements for one person and two horses were not met. They could not compare with the highly mobile Mongolian cavalry on the grassland, and they would suffer a big loss.
Zhu Youxiao thought for a while and looked at Zhang Weixian:
"Old Duke, what is the price of war horses on the market today?"
"Your Majesty, if we obtain it directly from the mutual market, the best Mongolian horses will be about eight taels, the middle ones will be more than seven taels, and the low-grade horses will be less than six taels."
"And if you want to buy it from the private sector, the lowest price for a low-grade horse is more than 20 taels!"
Horses are really expensive. Cavalry is not so easy to raise. One cavalryman can support a dozen infantrymen.
If you want to get war horses from the mutual market, you can only get four to five thousand horses a year, and this year's mutual market has not started yet. It seems that this year's mutual market should start early.
"Old Duke, I have an errand for you. I will give you one hundred thousand taels of silver. With Shuntian Prefecture as the center, we will buy good war horses from the northern provinces. Three thousand will be enough. If you have the remaining money, buy mules."
You can buy as many horses as you want, but don’t destroy the balance among the people.”
"I obey the decree!"
Zhu Youxiao went to Taishan Camp to observe again. Taishan Camp was a heavy armored force. According to Zhu Youxiao, the three thousand sergeants in Taishan Camp had to wear heavy armor and train every day, and they also had to carry ten kilograms of weight.
All have to run.
The sergeants of Taishan Camp carry fifty kilograms of weight every day. For their physical fitness, Zhu Youxiao ensures that they have meat for every meal. Each person has a piece of meat in the morning, a full meat tube at noon, and broth in the evening. This is the Yulin Army
The food is the best among them, not even comparable to the cavalry of the Xiaoqi Battalion.
Even in this deep winter, the sergeants of Taishan Camp were sweating profusely and everyone was wet, but the effect was indeed remarkable.
The Huben Battalion was a conventional infantry force, with nearly half of it composed of Zhejiang and Sichuan soldiers. Zhu Youxiao divided half of the soldiers to learn from Qi Jiguang's Qi Army, which was coordinated by chariot camps, crossbows, firearms, spears and other arms.
The others are conventional soldiers with shields and swords. These soldiers are used to cooperate with other battalions in combat.
Seeing this lively training, Zhu Youxiao became more confident in conquering the Chahar tribe. After all, they only had cavalry, and apart from the cavalry, they were useless.
The Shenji Battalion basically moved the Shenji Battalion from the Beijing Camp. After all, the requirements are lower than those of other arms. As long as you are proficient in handling firearms, you basically meet the requirements. However, Zhu Youxiao still screened, and in the end only
Less than 4,000 men were left, and sergeants were transferred from other battalions and auxiliary battalions to make up the 5,000 men.
Zhu Youxiao asked Qi Jin to specially inspect the firearms of Shenji Camp, and eliminated a large number of poor quality, severely damaged, and aging equipment. According to his inspection, Shenji Camp actually still has firearms produced during the Jiajing period, and there are still some.
In use, it must have been fifty or sixty years ago, and all the people in school Zhu You were dumbfounded.
No wonder the Ming army was so afraid of firearms in history. Zhu Youxiao was afraid just by hearing about them, let alone the people who used them. It is estimated that the enemy would be fine after firing a shot.
This was true for the Beijing camp, let alone other armies. The corruption in the late Ming Dynasty was too serious, and the Ming Dynasty fell at its own hands.
"Blow the assembly horn!"
Soon, the 30,000 sergeants gathered in the large playground. The Nanhaizi venue was too small, and these 30,000 soldiers were very crowded.
The auxiliary barracks outside the military camp only has a simple camp, and even the playground is temporarily built.
It seems it's time to dismantle the Beijing camp.
"The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and everyone has been training hard for more than three months. I have decided to give the entire army a three-day holiday starting from the 27th!"
"The whole army will be rewarded with two taels of silver during the Chinese New Year, and they will have plenty to eat and drink on New Year's Eve!"
However, the Yulin army did not become restless. They all knelt down and shouted loudly:
"Long live your Majesty!"
It can be said to be majestic and a well-trained army is different. Zhu Youxiao looked at this powerful army that was beginning to take shape and thought, I wonder if you can see the resurgence of the Ming Dynasty.