Chapter 336

"General, please wait a moment. Can the old man discuss with the elders in the village? There will be a conclusion that can convince the general."

Wei Ran shook his head and said, "you just saw that many troopers of the Tubo army fled back. If you delay another quarter of an hour, it will also lead to unpredictable results. You'd better hurry, sir. Ben will only have half a cup of tea. "

The old man hurriedly took the young man and discussed with the only few ethnic elders in the village. There was a fierce quarrel in the middle, but it seemed to mention the villagers killed by the Tubo army and the girl who had just been nearly humiliated. She seemed to be the granddaughter of a senior ethnic elder.

The stubborn clan elders finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked the old man to intercede with Wei Ran.

"General, if you are willing to escort us to Shancheng, we are willing to work for Hexi army!"

Wei Ran couldn't help laughing and said, "there are many civilian men in our army. We shouldn't need people anymore."

Moheng shook his head seriously and said, "general, our village in Mingyue township is built in the mountains. On weekdays, we only cultivate terraces, but we can't feed the whole village. Therefore, the whole village will work as carpenters, blacksmiths and cobblers to make a living by selling while the silk road is prosperous. All the people you see, men and women, young and old, are craftsmen who are good at manual work. General, are you sure we are useless to the Hexi army? "

Wei Ran was surprised and said, "the old man didn't lie?"

"The time is tight in the wilderness. I can't prove myself. It depends on whether the general is willing to believe it."

Wei Ran carefully observed the hands of the villagers. Those who have been doing manual work for a long time are most likely to wear their thumbs, index fingers and middle fingers, resulting in calluses. Pure farmers tend to have rough palm skin, but they don't have such a thick cocoon.

After Wei Ran observed, he found that everyone in the village, even some teenagers, had the same hands. It seems that what the old man said is likely to be true. Even if not all the villagers are craftsmen, as long as half of the adults are craftsmen, it is also a very exciting thing.

If these craftsmen fall into the hands of the Tubo people and make city guarding instruments for them, the threat to the Wuwei army is much greater than the pure Tubo cavalry.

Without saying anything, Wei Ran gave up his current task and escorted the villagers to Shancheng.

Several Tibetan nomads attacked the road, all of which were annihilated by Wei Ran and his troops. The fighting effectiveness showed amazed the people in Mingyue township.

Moheng's grandson, that is, the brave young man named Moheng, even asked Wei Ran whether all the Wuwei troops were so effective.

Wei Ran naturally introduced them to Fenglin army and intended to attract these craftsmen. If you are willing to take refuge in yourself in the future, the benefits will only be more or less.

After returning to Shancheng, Wei Ran led Moheng and his family to meet Zhao Xuanqing. Knowing that they were all craftsmen, Zhao Xuanqing immediately set out to test them and asked them to cooperate with the whole village to make a siege bed crossbow in one night.

Wei Ran was curious at night. He came to the place where they made the bed crossbow. He saw that they finished a good bed crossbow in only half a night and conducted a test firing. It was very perfect. Its power was even three points greater than those in the army. It should be an improvement in the subtle structure.

When the work is finished, most people look for a place to sleep. Only Moheng, with his grandson and two younger generations, is using some leftover materials to make models, but they are cloud ladders, arrow towers, stone catapults and so on.

When they saw Wei burning coming, they all got up and saluted. Wei Ran motioned, so he sat with them, picked up the models and looked at them.

They are all military shapes, but many changes have been made in details, such as the ladder. Protective boards are arranged around the base and covered with raw cowhide. People cart inside, which can reduce many casualties.

The main ladder is changed from one section of fixed type to two sections of folding type, which is connected by rotating shaft, and the angle can be adjusted more freely. The auxiliary ladder at the top controls the angle with a pulley, which can more concealed and safely buckle the city head to fix the parking space.

Wei Ran looked at the catapult again. This has not been greatly changed. It is the same as the structure of laborious lever and the method of manually pulling rope to throw stone bullets.

"This catapult can be improved. For example, by using the structure of string slingshot on the crossbow, it can be made into a small catapult for field operations. It can also be made in this way. By adding a counterweight at the front end of the throwing rod, lengthening the throwing rod, and making a winch rope pulling structure at the bottom, it can be made into a huge catapult for attacking the city. "

As Wei Ran spoke, he squatted on the ground and drew a simple sketch with a wooden stick. The former type of catapult was invented and used in Greece, while the latter is a famous recoil gun.

After reading it, Moheng said to Wei Ran with great admiration: "I didn't expect that the general is also a person who knows the art of tools. I admire him."

Wei Ran said with a smile: "next, go to Chiling and attack Tubo. There will be a series of Fortress offensive and defensive wars. It is inevitable that you will not think about some siege equipment. I can't compare with you real craftsmen. "

"The general flattered me..."

"General Wei, are you a subordinate of the female general?"

Before Moheng finished, his lively grandson Moheng asked in a hurry.

"Our Fenglin army is indeed under the command of General Zhao."

"So general Zhao's command is as powerful as your Fenglin army?"

Wei Ran proudly said, "under the banner of Wuwei army, except for the tooth soldiers of saving envoy Zhao Shuai, there should be no strong army that can compete with our Fenglin army."

The Fenglin army under Wei Ran's name has already become a rare elite in the world after training and integration, and through various battles in Hehuang. Even compared with Zuo Shence, it's just poor in equipment.

Moreover, in a series of previous battles, Wei Ran has repeatedly made meritorious contributions and incorporated several more capable villagers' regiments for training. The army has expanded to 6000.

Because the next war will be very cruel, although Wei Ran's army expansion was not reported to Zhao Xuanqing in advance, Zhao Xuanqing still recognized it and gave it to him as usual.

Only in terms of military pay, it is still only paid according to the amount of 3000 people, and only according to the standard of infantry. Cavalry horses only have the most basic forage. Wei Ran has to buy beans himself, which is very stingy.

At present, except for the 3000 infantry soldiers, Wei Ran himself pays all the military salaries to the corporal soldiers, and the deposits deposited in a Li can only cover half a year if the loss of supplies purchased in this battle is included.

If he learns from other generals and develops the style of drinking soldiers' blood, eating empty pay, or paying only half of the pay, he can last longer. However, I'm afraid the combat effectiveness of its troops will also be reduced by half.

Therefore, Wei Ran plans to use the land deeds he has in hand to develop some incentive strategies for distributing land to fill the loss in military pay after the battle.

However, this also requires Wei yanneng to officially control xiakuo state and Hezhou. After all, the nominal owner of the two states is Zhao Xuanqing, and Wei Ran only controls a Jishi juntun castle.

Mo Geng said in surprise, "it turns out that general Wei's name is the real elite army. Unfortunately, general Wei doesn't allow me to join your army."

Wei Ran laughed and looked at Mo Geng, but his goal was mo Heng. He wanted to bring Mo Heng into the Fenglin army system. He might as well start with his grandson first.