Chapter 34: Raising Arms With Thirty-six Sets Of Heavy Armor
Which age group of people is most easily incited?
Undoubtedly, it is the young people.
They are inexperienced in the world, full of longing for the future, and eager to make a great career in this turbulent world.
They act impulsively, with a fearless spirit that fears neither heaven nor earth. Once they set their minds on something, they easily get hot-blooded and charge ahead regardless.
They have not yet been swayed by worldly habits, nor influenced by the adults’ calculations of pros and cons.
They are full of energy and passion, with few worries holding them back. In many aspects, they do not haggle like adults or deliberate carefully before making decisions.
Therefore, when Li Xiao selected people to follow him in attacking Hou Village, he chose only young people under twenty years old.
Li Xiao believed that although such a group of young people might have individual combat strength not matching adults, once their collective power was unleashed, the destruction caused would be quite terrifying.
And this group of young people would also be the prototype of the new army that Li Xiao envisioned for the future.
After Li Xiao finished the mobilization meeting for these one hundred and twenty-four young cavalrymen, everyone began to eat breakfast.
It was still salt-boiled horse meat.
However, after a night of killing, with so many unprocessed corpses around, some youths could not eat anything.
They even wanted to vomit.
For this situation, Li Xiao did not force them, but just had people cook several pots of millet porridge.
Then, while eating, he held a meeting with these youths.
The previous one was a mobilization meeting; what followed was the real combat conference.
More than one hundred and twenty people might sound like a lot, but when gathered, they only formed a large circle.
Everyone ate while listening to Li Xiao speak.
“Hou Village is about forty li away from us. With three horses per person, we can arrive in a little over half a shichen.” Li Xiao said in a deep voice.
“Everyone rest in the morning, depart in the afternoon, break through Hou Village before evening, and rest in Hou Village at night.”
In this battle, the spoils of the Four Fort Allied Army were extremely impressive.
Including over fifty thousand sheep, more than two thousand cattle, and over seven thousand horses, plus numerous copper coins, sheepskin, cloth and silk, daily necessities, and so on.
Therefore, the Four Fort Allied Army had no shortage of horses at all.
They even had to worry about where to keep so many cattle and sheep after bringing them back to the village.
After arranging the timing, Li Xiao continued to discuss tactics.
“Hou Village has about six or seven hundred people, among whom more than a hundred are surnamed Hou.”
“Like our fortresses, Hou Village is also surrounded by moats and walls.”
“Therefore, forcibly attacking Hou Village is absolutely not a wise choice. I won’t do that, nor will I use our brothers’ lives to test it.”
Li Xiao said this to give a reassuring pill to those youths who were not familiar with him.
It showed that he was not the kind of ruthless commander. Since he was taking them into battle, he would certainly bring them back intact as much as possible.
“To attack Hou Village, we must use a clever approach. I already have an idea, which I’ll explain after we arrive at Hou Village.”
“Now there is one important matter, which is the issue of team leaders.”
After Li Xiao finished gnawing the horse meat in big bites, he wiped the grease from his hands on the ground and looked at everyone as he spoke.
“We have a total of one hundred and twenty-five people.”
“Too many people means it’s impossible to directly convey orders to each of you during battle,” Li Xiao said softly.
“So, I plan to temporarily divide us into five teams.”
“The people from Hexi Fort will be divided into two teams, with one team led by me personally as team leader.”
“The people from the other three forts will each form a team, and you will elect your own team leaders.”
Li Xiao’s meaning was simple: to organize the originally scattered crowd into five small teams.
Everyone instantly understood and began discussing with people from their own fortresses.
Soon, four team leaders were selected.
The team leader from Hedong Fort was naturally Luo Meng, and the team leader from Tazhai was Li Xiao’s Aunt’s son, named Zhao Dabao.
As for the team leader from Gushan Fort, it was naturally Li Xiao’s Second Uncle’s cousin, named Qin Xiong.
For Hexi Fort, there was no surprise: it was Da Hu.
From their statuses, one could see the reason for their election.
After all, in this feudal era, the Fort Master held high authority in their respective fortresses.
This authority and status could also be inherited by the next generation.
These children of Li Xiao had higher prestige among their peers from birth.
Therefore, when everyone elected team leaders, no one could compete with them.
“Good, the team leaders are decided. After finishing the meal, everyone go back to rest, and gather here in the afternoon.”
“One last thing.”
Li Xiao’s gaze swept over everyone, especially lingering on those strong and sturdy youths.
He said in a deep voice: “This time we will bring twenty sets of heavy armor to Hou Village. During the battle, we will temporarily form a small unit of armored cavalry.”
“All those who think they are strong enough to wear heavy armor, come find me later.”
“After passing the test, you will become a heavy cavalryman.”
The greatest gain from the Battle of Sanhe Fort, besides the tens of thousands of cattle, sheep, and war horses, was the thirty-six sets of heavy armor.
The nomadic people’s armor wearing rate was pitifully low; most used leather armor or a small amount of iron armor to protect vital parts.
But in the Battle of North Mountain, the Geluolu allied army once fielded a heavy cavalry unit that swept across the entire battlefield, greatly shocking all the tribes in Jin Prefecture.
These nomadic people certainly knew the benefits of armor; it was not that they did not want to wear it, but they did not have it.
The vast majority of tribes could not even gather one set of armor.
Even these Han villages had none.
Yet the Geluolu People had somehow assembled over a hundred heavy cavalry.
This left the numerous tribes in Jin Prefecture in great panic.
Fortunately, not long ago while clearing the Sanhe Fort battlefield, Li Xiao and the others found a total of thirty-six sets of heavy armor.
Exactly one-third.
The other dozens of sets of heavy armor were probably in the other two tribes.
At that time, Li Xiao was also glad that he had chosen a night attack.
The Geluolu People had no time to put on heavy armor; otherwise, even if the Four Fort Allied Army won, it would inevitably be a pyrrhic victory.
Armored cavalry means man and horse both armored.
Almost full heavy armor protection.
Ordinary bow and arrow, war saber, and spear do negligible damage to armored knights.
Besides using maces and other blunt weapons to strike hard, the best way is to use light cavalry to slowly wear down the heavy cavalry.
However, this method is almost ineffective when facing an enemy with a large number of light cavalry.
Therefore, having heavy armor protection is equivalent to having several extra lives on the battlefield.
Hearing Li Xiao’s words, these youths instantly became excited.
“Me me me me~”
“Me~”
“I’ll try too!”
Those young people who considered themselves strong rushed toward Li Xiao with faces full of ecstatic joy.
Which man has not fantasized about wearing heavy armor? Safety aside, the most important thing is the prestige.
Li Xiao had still underestimated the appeal of heavy armor to these young people.
For a moment, he was overwhelmed by their noise, and at a glance, at least fifty people had signed up.
However, looking at some of their builds, they might not really be suitable as heavy cavalry.
After all, wearing heavy armor consumes a lot of stamina in prolonged combat.
Moreover, without enough strength, they could not even wield a spear.
“Alright, stop arguing first.”
Li Xiao shouted loudly: “We’ll use the simplest method to compete: whoever can lift the heaviest stone wins.”
“Only select the twenty strongest ones.”
“But I must remind you, these heavy armors are only temporarily lent to us.”
“As for the final allocation, it will be decided after you return to your respective fortresses,” Li Xiao said loudly.
Just like those tens of thousands of beasts, these thirty-six sets of armor naturally belonged to the Four Fort Allied Army in common.
Hexi Fort had the strongest strength, contributed the most men, and killed the most enemies.
They would definitely get the lion’s share, probably fifteen or sixteen sets.
The other three forts could each get seven or eight sets, depending on how they argued later.
However, Li Xiao had already suggested to the Old Master and the other three Fort Masters that after dividing the armor, they should not distribute it.
Instead, treat it as public property of the fortress, belonging to all herdsmen in the fort.
Select the strongest herdsmen as users, but ownership remains with the fortress.
This way, the heavy armor could play its due role, rather than becoming a personal heirloom.
In the end, after a competition, the twenty people with the greatest strength were selected.
But to everyone’s surprise, fifteen-year-old Li Xiao and thirteen-year-old Er Hu were also among these twenty.
Li Xiao aside, after all, he had killed over forty Geluolu People, so his strength was definitely formidable; he was absolutely a fierce warrior.
But unexpectedly, Er Hu, at such a young age, had strength almost catching up to Li Xiao, stronger than most of the twenty.
This made everyone sigh in admiration: as expected, brothers like dragon and tiger, with strength and bravery inherited in the family.
