Tiger Guards

Chapter 7: Gathering in Jiangyi
To go north to Jiangyi, you have to cross a mountain road.

To the west is Ji Wang Mountain and to the east is Zijin Mountain. This road is an important transportation route from east to west and from north to south in Hedong.

The Pei family lived together at the foot of Jishan Mountain, in a fortress as large as a village.

Even when the Baibo Army passed through the border, they did not invade the Pei family fort.

This time, he enlisted as a Hu Ben and headed north to Jiangyi to assemble. He did not bother the Pei family when passing by. Pei Mao, the highest-ranking official of the Pei family at that time, had been appointed Shangshu and was highly trusted by Emperor Ling.

Even now, Pei Mao is still a Censor serving the emperor, accompanying him on important matters.

Even though Li Jue and Guo Si were attacking each other, Pei Mao was able to maneuver between them and was not persecuted.

It is one thing for the poor people in Hedong to actively enlist as the Tiger Guards and defend the emperor and die for the country, but it is also an important factor for them to cling to Pei Mao.

Zhao Ji had a horse for transportation. There were more than twenty people in the county who volunteered to be the Tiger Guards and had horses, so their families were considered to be relatively well-off.

In order to take care of the walking Huben, the mounted Huben had to dismount and walk from time to time.

By the time we arrived in Jiangyi, it was already dark.

In order to resist the invasion of small groups of Xiongnu bandits, Jiangyi set up a military camp with a garrison of a thousand people.

As long as the mountain pass between Jishan and Zijinshan is blocked, the large group of Xiongnu bandits will not be able to attack the Hedong government.

As for the Huns who plundered and disturbed the people, they were naturally illegal bandits in the Hun tribe and could not be regarded as regular Hun armed forces.

This kind of looting behavior is defined as banditry, and is of the same nature as the bandits in various counties.

It is not appropriate to delve into the role played by the Xiongnu nobles.

There were ready-made earthen barracks in the military camp in the southern suburbs of Jiangyi. Under the light of torches, Zhao Ji's ten-man team was allocated a barracks.

There were no beds in the barracks, only a bundle of hay given to each of them.

After a busy moment, the hay was spread out in a row. There was no talk of washing feet, and many people curled up on the straw mats and slept in their clothes.

Zhao Ji and his squad leaders Lu Chun and Yang Ji closed the door and went to the house opposite with torches.

As they arrived, three squad leaders, seven sergeants and a clerk under the name of Wenxi County Military Cao Shi Hu Ban, and the county soldiers' sergeants all gathered together.

Hu Ban sat against the wall, and everyone else sat around him. There was new hay under their butts, and the hay here was thicker.

"The officers and men are tired from the journey, and you all have horses, so I will trouble you to keep watch all night."

Hu Ban spoke softly, outlining the issues that needed to be addressed. "Tonight's duty shifts are divided into three groups: Pei Xiu in the first, Zhao Ji in the second, and Wei Xing in the third. Each group consists of three people, each assisted by a county soldier. I have two requests. First, no noise. You all know that making noise at night is a serious offense in the camp."

Seeing no one objected, he continued, "Second, feed the horses. At night, neither feed them too little nor too much, and don't alarm the herd. If anyone steals a horse, shoot them with a bow or crossbow. There's no need to say anything, and there's no need to arrest them."

Volunteered soldiers from several nearby counties have already arrived at the military camp, and it will take another seven to ten days to complete the assembly.

While Hu Ban was speaking, Zhao Ji noticed that Wei Xing, the squad leader from Beixiang, was looking at him sideways, as if he were a horse thief.

Pei Xiu was the first to speak: "Commander-in-Chief, is this a misunderstanding?"

"The camp is under strict nighttime surveillance. How could there be any misunderstanding?"

Fearing he might show mercy, Hu Ban emphatically warned him, "I won't hide it from you. Last night, the Linfen team lost two poor horses. Sima Wang has already issued an order: those who violate the rules will be executed without guilt!"

Pei Xiu understood and bowed: "Yes!"

Everyone followed suit and saluted Hu Ban. Hu Ban said, "I will make a pot of hot soup to warm you up and replenish your energy while you keep watch. That's all. Everyone, go back and prepare."

"Here."

The meeting ended, and Zhao Ji bowed his head and walked out of the low door of the house. Yang Ji, who was following him, went to get the torch standing in the corner and whispered, "Captain, should we drink some hot soup or go to sleep?"

"Drink some soup and then rest. It took more than an hour, but I couldn't sleep well."

Zhao Ji paused as he spoke, and when Pei Xiu came out, he asked, "Aji, what's the matter?"

"I find the second shift handover tedious. Why don't the three of us stay with Brother Seven to keep watch?"

"Okay, come with me to get some millet."

Pei Xiu agreed, leaning over and extending his arm to the newly emerged secretary. The secretary was a poor county scholar, his family too poor to have a horse. Tired from a day's walking, he dragged himself ahead, leading the two men to the empty barracks where the grain was stored. He whispered, "Give each horse three liters of beans and one liter of millet tonight. No more, no less. For the hot soup Corporal Hu mentioned, you can take five liters of millet and three he of salt."

At this time, Wei Xing also came in, but he didn't dare to bring the torch in, so he stood at the door.

He came up to help Zhao Ji hold up the sheepskin bag, and Pei Xiu used a bucket to take out the beans and millet.

He filled four and a half bags in a row before stopping, and then measured five liters of millet into the wooden basin, while the clerk also measured three he of salt.

After taking out the grain, the cautious clerk tied the door with a straw rope, made a rather complicated knot, and then left yawning.

Wei Xing didn't want to stay any longer, so he took away a bag of half a horse's feed without saying anything more.

The right to distribute horse feed lies in the hands of these three squad leaders. If Zhao Ji and Pei Xiu feed their own teams more bean feed, Wei Xing will also feed his own team more.

Except for millet which can be put into the pot directly after being pounded, beans are not easy to cook through, and corn is not even shelled.

Pei Xiu was not the kind of person who would embezzle this little bit of horse feed, and Zhao Ji had no such intention either.

We quickly lit the campfire, hung up the clay pot and started cooking the soup.

Every half hour, a team of five people would patrol outside the small camp with torches.

Under the strict curfew, there was no need for Hu Ban to repeat the order again and again, as they were all good family men who enlisted as Tiger Guards and knew the severity of the curfew.

Especially now that we are in the assembly stage, Wang Zhi is suffering from the lack of opportunities to establish his authority.

If you dare to make noise during curfew, Wang Zhi will kill you to establish his authority and enforce military discipline.

In the twenty counties of Hedong, there are no more than a thousand good-family children of their age.

Without them, it will take another seven or eight years for the next generation of population to grow up and fill their vacancies.

The new recruits that are about to be assembled in Jiangxian County are almost the best source of troops in Hedong.

The Sanhe Knights who were urgently mobilized to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion were this group.

The situation is special, otherwise so many people would not have responded to the recruitment.

The county magistrate Wang Yi could not recruit many soldiers of their level even if he spent money.

Even so, no one dares to be negligent or slack.

The emergency response and formation of the Huben troops in Hongnong County serve as a lesson for us.

This was a group led and organized by the Yang family, and there were also many brave men from various families, but weren't they killed by the generals in Guanzhong and only a few were left?
After feeding the horses, the millet soup also began to boil.

Pei Xiu and the other two ate and drank a little, then returned to the barracks to sleep.

The county soldiers who were assigned to the night watch had no horses and were not afraid of thieves stealing their horses. They ate and drank a little and then fell asleep on their sides facing the campfire.

Zhao Ji arranged for Yang Ji to lie down and take a nap, while he took out the arrows and selected them under the light of the fire. This time, his family had replenished his arrows, a total of two pots and sixty arrows.

In addition to the arrows, he was also given two bags of quivers so that he could make his own arrows in the future.

Except for a dozen special arrow clusters, the rest are common military conical arrow clusters.

It was a humid spring, and some of the arrow shafts were slightly bent and deformed, so he baked and corrected them.

In addition, there are two crossbows, one is a heavy crossbow with a step-on mechanism, and the other is a light double crossbow.

He really wanted to test the amplifying effect of 'Cutting Through Thorns' on the crossbow. The third level amplification was 24%, which was already very powerful.

For long-range striking weapons such as bows, crossbows or short spears, range is power!
Especially when using a crossbow, you can accurately measure whether there is an amplification.

If the amplification is effective, the flying speed of the crossbow arrow will also increase, which means the hit rate will increase.

He was confident that he could shoot through the opponent's chest within thirty steps just by stepping on the crossbow.

If you wear armor, even two layers of armor, the arrows can still penetrate the armor and scratch the flesh.

For middle and low-level officials, if the skin and flesh are broken, they will basically be disabled if not killed.

(End of this chapter)