Chapter 34: Raising an Army with Thirty-Six Suits of Heavy Armor

Which age group is most easily incited?

Undoubtedly, young people.

They are inexperienced in the world, full of longing for the future, and eager to do something big in this turbulent world.

They are impulsive in doing things, with a fearless spirit. Once they set their minds on something, their blood easily rushes to their heads, disregarding everything else.

They are not yet swayed by worldly habits, nor influenced by the weighing of pros and cons in the adult world.

They are energetic, passionate, and hot-blooded, without so many worries for the future. In many aspects, they won’t haggle over every detail or think carefully before making a decision like adults do.

Therefore, when selecting men to follow him to attack Hou Village, Li Xiao chose all young people under twenty.

Li Xiao believed that such a group of young people might not match adults in individual combat power, but once their cohesive strength was released, the destruction caused would be quite terrifying.

And this group of young people would also be the prototype of the New Army envisioned by Li Xiao.

After Li Xiao finished the mobilization meeting for these one hundred and twenty-four young cavalrymen, everyone began to eat breakfast.

Still boiled horse meat with salt water.

It was just that after a night of slaughter, with so many unprocessed corpses around, some youths couldn’t eat anything at all.

Even wanted to vomit.

Regarding this situation, Li Xiao didn’t force them, just had people cook a few pots of millet porridge.

Then, he held a meeting with these youths while eating.

Before was the mobilization meeting; next was the real combat meeting.

More than one hundred and twenty people sounded like a lot, but in reality, they just formed a large circle when gathered.

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 about an hour.” Li Xiao said in a deep voice.

“Everyone rest in the morning, set off in the afternoon, breach Hou Village before evening, and rest in Hou Village at night.”

In this battle, the spoils of the four-fortress coalition were amazing.

Including more than fifty thousand sheep, more than two thousand cattle, and more than seven thousand horses. Other items like copper coins, sheepskins, silk fabrics, daily necessities, and so on were also abundant.

So, the four-fortress coalition didn’t lack horses at all.

They even had to worry about where to raise so many cattle and sheep after bringing them back to the village.

After arranging the time, Li Xiao continued to discuss tactics.

“The number of people in Hou Village is about six or seven hundred, among whom more than a hundred are surnamed Hou.”

“Like our fortresses, Hou Village is also surrounded by dug moats and walled battlements.”

“So, forcibly attacking Hou Village is definitely not a wise choice. I won’t do that, nor will I use the lives of our brothers to test it.”

Li Xiao said this also to reassure those youths who were unfamiliar with him.

Showing that he wasn’t that kind of ruthless commander. Since he took them to fight, he would definitely bring them back intact as much as possible.

“Attacking Hou Village requires wit. I already have an idea; we’ll talk about it after arriving at Hou Village.”

“Now there is another important matter, which is the issue of team leaders.”

After devouring the horse meat in big mouthfuls, Li Xiao wiped the grease from his hands on the ground, looked at everyone, and said.

“We have a total of one hundred and twenty-five people.”

“Too many people; it’s impossible to convey orders directly to each of you during battle,” Li Xiao said softly.

“So, I plan to divide us temporarily into five teams.”

“The people of Hexi Fortress will be divided into two teams, with one team led by me personally as the team leader.”

“The people of the other three fortresses will each count as a team, and you will elect your team leaders yourselves.”

Li Xiao’s meaning was simple: to organize the originally scattered crowd into five small teams.

Everyone instantly understood what was going on, so they began to discuss with people from their own fortresses one after another.

Soon, four team leaders were elected.

The team leader of Hedong Fortress was naturally Luo Meng. The team leader of Ta Village was Li Xiao’s aunt’s son, named Zhao Dabao.

As for the team leader of Gushan Fortress, it was naturally Li Xiao’s cousin from his eldest uncle’s family, named Qin Xiong.

When it came to Hexi Fortress, there was no surprise either; it was Dahu.

From their identities, the reason for their election could be seen.

After all, in this feudal era, fortress lords had high authority in their respective fortresses.

This authority and status could also be inherited by the next generation.

Children like Li Xiao had higher prestige among their peers from birth.

So, when everyone elected team leaders, no one could compete with them.

“Good, the matter of team leaders is settled. After eating, everyone go back and rest. Gather here in the afternoon.”

“One last thing.”

Li Xiao’s gaze turned to the crowd, especially landing on those strong and robust youths.

He said in a deep voice: “This time we will take twenty suits of heavy armor to Hou Village. During the battle, a small unit of armored cavalry will be temporarily formed.”

“Anyone who thinks they have a strong physique and can wear heavy armor, come find me later.”

“After passing the test, you will become a heavy cavalryman.”

The biggest harvest of this Battle of Sanhe Fortress, besides the tens of thousands of cattle, sheep, and warhorses, was the thirty-six suits of heavy armor.

The armor rate of nomadic peoples was pitifully low; most used leather armor or a small amount of iron armor protecting vital parts only.

But in the Battle of the Northern Mountains, a unit of heavy cavalry had appeared in the Karluk coalition, sweeping across the entire battlefield directly, greatly shocking all the tribes in Jin Prefecture.

These nomadic peoples certainly knew the benefits of armor. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to wear it, but they didn’t have it.

Most tribes couldn’t even scrape together a single suit of armor.

Including these Han villages, they also didn’t have any.

But the Karluks actually produced more than a hundred heavy cavalry unknowingly.

Making many tribes in Jin Prefecture terrified.

But fortunately, when cleaning up the Sanhe Fortress battlefield not long ago, Li Xiao and the others found a total of thirty-six suits of heavy armor.

Exactly one-third.

Presumably, the other dozens of suits of heavy armor should be in the other two tribes.

At that time, Li Xiao was also rejoicing that he fortunately chose a night raid.

The Karluks simply didn’t have time to put on heavy armor. Otherwise, even if the four-fortress coalition won this battle, it would inevitably be a pyrrhic victory.

Armored cavalry, both man and horse armored.

Almost all-round heavy armor protection.

The damage of ordinary bows, war sabers, and spears to armored knights could be said to be minimal.

Besides using blunt weapons like wolf-tooth maces to smash, the best way was to use light cavalry to slowly drag the heavy cavalry to death.

But this method was almost ineffective when facing an opponent who also had a large number of light cavalry.

So, once protected by heavy armor, it was equivalent to having several extra lives on the battlefield.

Facing Li Xiao’s words, these young people instantly became excited.

“Me me me me~”

“I’ll do it~”

“Let me try too!”

Those young people who considered themselves physically strong showed wild joy one after another, crowding around Li Xiao.

Which man hadn’t fantasized about wearing heavy armor? Safety aside, the most important thing was the majesty.

Li Xiao still underestimated the attraction of heavy armor to these young people.

For a moment, his head grew big from their noise. Looking around, at least more than fifty people signed up.

But looking at the physiques of some of them, they really might not be suitable to be heavy cavalry.

After all, wearing heavy armor and fighting for a long time consumed considerable stamina.

And without enough strength, one couldn’t even wield a spear.

“Alright, stop arguing for now.”

Li Xiao shouted loudly: “Use the simplest method to compete. Whoever can lift the heavier stone wins.”

“Only select the twenty people with the greatest strength.”

“But I want to remind you, these heavy armors are only temporarily lent to us for use.”

“As for the final ownership, it will be distributed after you return to your respective fortresses,” Li Xiao said loudly.

Just like those tens of thousands of livestock, these thirty-six suits of armor were naturally also jointly owned by the four-fortress coalition.

Hexi Fortress was the strongest, sent the most people, and killed the most enemies.

They would definitely get the lion’s share; fifteen or sixteen suits should be expected.

The other three fortresses could also get seven or eight suits each; it depended on how they argued then.

But Li Xiao had already suggested to the Old Master and the other three fortress lords that after these armors were distributed, they shouldn’t be handed down to individuals.

Instead, they should be treated as public property of the fortress, owned jointly by all herdsmen of the fortress.

Select the strongest herdsmen as users, but the ownership remains with the fortress.

In this way, the heavy armor could also play its due role, rather than being a personal heirloom.

Finally, after a round of competition, the twenty people with the greatest strength were selected.

But what surprised everyone was that Li Xiao, only fifteen years old, and Erhu, only thirteen years old, were also among these twenty people.

Leaving Li Xiao aside for now—after all, being able to kill more than forty Karluks meant his strength was definitely formidable, absolutely a fierce man.

But unexpectedly, at a young age, Erhu’s strength was almost catching up with Li Xiao, stronger than the majority of the twenty people.

This forced everyone to lament that indeed, dragon brothers and tiger brothers, the bravery of strength ran in the family.

(End of this chapter)