Luoyang was founded as the capital when Duke Zhou founded Luoyi. Later, King Ping of Zhou moved eastward and officially became the capital.

In the later Han Dynasty, Guangwu Zhongxing built the South and North Palaces, but they were destroyed by Dong Zhuo's rebellion.

After the establishment of Cao Wei, Emperor Wen and Emperor Ming successively built Luoyang, and built Taiji, Zhaoyang and other halls on the old site.

The Sima clan succeeded the Wei Dynasty, and Luoyang was still the capital.

Luoyang is not big.

It is seven miles from east to west and nine miles from north to south. It has been almost the same size since the Han Dynasty. It is not comparable to the huge Luoyang City in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

There are twelve city gates on all sides, namely Daxia Gate, Xuanyang Gate, Kaiyang Gate, Shangdong Gate, Pingchang Gate, etc.

There is Jinyong City in the northwest corner of Luoyang City, which was built during the Cao Wei Dynasty. It is divided into three parts and connected into one, so it is called Jinyong Three Cities, also known as Yongchang Palace.

The purpose of building Jinyong City was to "prepare for the unexpected". This habit should have originated from the Cao family's construction of the Tongque Santai in the northern section of the western wall of Yecheng.

The defense facilities of Jinyong City are very complete, and together with the Baichi Tower in the northeast corner of Luoyang, it serves as the commanding heights of the city. However, here, it has become a detention place for deposed emperors, deposed queens, and convicted clan members.

During the Han, Wei, and Western Jin Dynasties, there were many buildings outside Luoyang City, where a large number of people lived, and even officials and nobles lived here. For example, the Taiwei Mansion was located in the south of the city, and there were the residences of Wu and Shu in the east of the city.

As far as the southern area of ​​the city where Shao Xun and others had just arrived, Lingtai, Mingtang, Piyong, Taixue and Guozixue should be the most conspicuous "landmark buildings".

The one they settled in was Piyong.

Piyong is the place where the children of Gongqing learn etiquette, elegant music, dance, poetry, riding and archery and other skills. This meeting has been discontinued and it happened to be vacant.

To the north of Piyong is Guozixue, to the south is a group of private houses, and to the west across Kaiyangmen Street (north-south direction) is Mingtang.

This place is not far from Sikong Mansion, and the place is quite spacious, making it suitable for a large army to be stationed.

The guests and servants of Panyuan who arrived early gathered here, making a scene in a noisy manner.

To be honest, Shao Xun was slightly disappointed. Obviously, Concubine Pei did not get them into the city.

But you can understand it if you think about it carefully.

Luoyang City is either a royal palace, offices, warehouses, military camps and other official facilities, or it is a real wealthy family and the residence of the prince. Ordinary houses are not available, but you must at least be the first batch of residents when Cao Wei built Luoyang City.

Without the dividends of this era, it would be a bit difficult to live in it - how could the sergeants enter the city without receiving the holy mandate and with messy mud legs? Especially in a tense situation, people are still worried about not having enough food to eat.

I have no choice but to rely on myself.

From the first day he arrived, Shao Xun began to observe the nearby terrain, buildings, and roads.

Fortunately, he found that if the enemy came, they could still fight in the streets.

In addition, from a military point of view, if they are stationed outside the city, they can interact with the garrison in the city and support each other, making the enemy unable to use their hands and feet, or even attacking from both front and rear. This is still very good, provided that the garrison in the city is really good.

Support them - is it possible? Hard to say.

"Now there are three things." Shao Xun looked at the five people surrounding him: Li Chong, Huang Biao, Zhou Ying, Zhong Badger, and Wu Qian, and said: "The first is to repair Piyong's outer wall, and the second is to hoard

Military supplies and equipment, and the third is to find out the situation of neighboring troops."

After saying that, he looked at Wu Qian and said: "You will do the work of building the wall. The required labor will be recruited nearby."

"Uncle, there are many nobles and wealthy officials nearby, how can we use them to move them?" Wu Qian cried bitterly.

"I will discuss this matter with the owner of the building. Just be prepared." Shao Xun said: "It's already this time. If you still want to show off, I have nothing to say."

"Nuo." Wu Qian was relieved. As long as someone came forward, he was just a person who was ordered to carry out errands. It would not be difficult.

While the two were talking, there was a sound of horse hoofbeats on Kaiyangmen Street.

Everyone looked for the sound and saw hundreds of horsemen riding their horses, passing by like lightning.

"Here - riding on a war horse, is there an emergency military situation?" Li Chong, who was born in the Su Wei Army, said with a solemn expression.

Generally speaking, it is strictly prohibited in the army to ride a war horse without a good reason, and you will be whipped if caught.

Because the physical strength of the horses is very low, they can travel for up to two hours a day. At other times, they either rest or eat horse feed to replenish their physical strength.

If you are riding a war horse on the road and suddenly encounter an enemy, the enemy has sufficient horsepower and can fight repeatedly, but your horse is running exhausted and sweating profusely. How can you fight?

The hundreds of cavalrymen in front of them obviously had no riding horses for the journey, only war horses, but they still moved forward at lightning speed. There must be an urgent military situation.

"They didn't come so quickly." Shao Xun comforted: "At most, they were just some enemy cavalry that acted as vanguards. This cavalry team should have been driven out of the city. Or, before the enemy troops came, they were deployed outside. Battle in Luoyang

, in fact, the main battle is on the periphery."

Li Zhong nodded silently.

"It's just a wandering ride, that's fine."

"Youqi is also scary. Xianbei or Wuhuan? Or the Xiongnu?"

"We can't get out of these three houses. The group of cavalry that just left are probably Xianbei people, but they are just the Forbidden Army."

"The King of Chengdu should have a lot of cavalry under his command, right? What should we do?"

"The only way is to fight hard and count the ball to the death."

Everyone was talking and talking.

Shao Xun frowned. He found that these people were very afraid of cavalry. This was not a good sign. After all, they would have to face overwhelming cavalry in the future.

"I ask you, if you encounter enemy cavalry in the plains and wilderness while marching, what should you do?" He turned around, looked at everyone, and asked.

There was some silence for a while.

"Uncle Governor, maybe you can learn from Ma Xiping's old wisdom and use bows and crossbows and chariot formations?" Li Chong was the first to think of this because he was from the Imperial Guard after all and was familiar with military affairs.

"Why is this method effective?" Shao Xun asked.

"The formation of vehicles is connected end to end, which can prevent the enemy from charging into the formation. There is a baffle on one side of the carriage, and the archers stand on the vehicle and shoot outward, so they can kill the enemy calmly." Li Zhong replied.

"Did you hear that?" Shao Xun looked at everyone and said.

"I heard it."

Shao Xun leaned down on the spot and drew a picture on the dirt with a dagger to explain.

In fact, the core is to create obstacles to prevent the cavalry from rushing over directly. It does not have to be a sidecar. In an emergency, a baggage and grain truck can be used. You can even use antlers that a soldier can carry alone and throw them on the ground during battle.

It’s not like no one has used it before, and the effect is quite good.

Of course, sidecars are definitely the most professional.

There is a baffle on one side to block enemy cavalry archers' arrow rain, and there are shooting holes on the baffle so that our own infantry archers can shoot calmly without interference.

Considering that the stability, accuracy, range, rate of fire, and power of mounted archery are not as good as those of the walking bow, and the target is still very large (with a horse), the mounted archer suffers a lot during the shooting and cannot hold on at all.

With the protection of the sidecar, the infantry can take turns to rest, regain their physical strength and energy, and be able to fight continuously. In the end, the cavalry may be more tired than the infantry.

Malone used this trick and created a miracle.

"But this method also has flaws, who can tell me?" Shao Xun suddenly asked after drawing the schematic diagram of the car formation.

"Uncle, if the enemy has brave infantry, the chariot formation will be dangerous, right?" Huang Biao thought for a moment and said.

"That's right." Shao Xun glanced at him approvingly and said, "Huang Biao answered very well. If you think about it again, are there any flaws?"

"Is it dangerous to shoot with rockets?" someone asked.

"No, fire protection is easy to do. Think about it again." Shao Xun shook his head and said.

"Cut off the grain road, and this formation will collapse without an attack." Someone said.

"What if you brought enough supplies? Ma Long brought enough supplies with the army for three years." Shao Xun denied and continued to encourage: "Think again."

"Dig the road."

"It is easy to fill in the road, but this is not a good idea. It can only delay the traffic flow, but not stop it."

"The most important thing is to select elite infantry. Ma Xiping's 3,500 people back then were all elite soldiers who could use all kinds of weapons and were by no means a mob." Li Zhong sighed and said: "Actually, the grassland is also

Not everyone has it

Horses and war horses are also very valuable. Those who can become cavalry must be the best of the best, and will not be just a few. On the other hand, infantry has inferior hair-rooted wooden spears. It is easy to panic when facing a battle. Once they flee, it will cause chaos.

The morale of the entire army collapsed."

"Very good!" Shao Xun patted his shoulder heavily and said with a smile: "That's right to the point. A while ago I asked everyone to learn archery, but many people didn't think so. Now do you know the benefits?"

To put it bluntly, the threshold for infantry is too low, anyone can get into it, and under the world military system, the quality of most infantry is worrying and their training is very inadequate.

On the other hand, in the cavalry, because of the preciousness of horses, there is a natural threshold, and people with low skills are not eligible to be selected.

How many horses are there in a country?

During the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, there were more than 700,000 horses in the official ranch and inn.

The horse administration of the Liao Kingdom was very good, but there were only over a million horses in the country.

It is not economical to raise horses, and herdsmen may not necessarily like to raise them. Moreover, a large number of herdsmen do not own horses. They are herd slaves and have little personal property. They usually ride the nobles' horses and help the nobles herd cattle, sheep, horses and camels, that's all.

In the Middle Ages, the personal qualities of cavalry and infantry were naturally unequal, so there were many myths of cavalry defeating infantry. But if you encounter elite infantry with the same personal quality as cavalry, although they are still passive, their disadvantages will be greatly improved.

.

"Archery is too difficult, and I won't be famous in just a few years of practice." Li Chong mused: "In fact, in the country where the grassland leads to the bow, the shepherds rode sheep when they were young, and then rode horses when they were older. They also held collective hunting activities every year.

In these two aspects, their foundation is very good. Once they take control of the Central Plains, they will become increasingly difficult to deal with."
To be continued...