Taking advantage of the fresh peach incident, Shi Zhongkui quickly obtained a large amount of ordnance from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry.

Wanping Dusi Xue Jinping and Daxing Dusi Yan Guixiang, together with their officials, inspected the last batch of thousands of spears, two hundred one-stone war bows and ten thousand arrows.

He entered Shi Zhongkui's tent with a joyful expression, bowed his hands and said, "Sir, we have these three thousand spears, three thousand swords, four hundred strong bows and fifty thousand sharp arrows.

Even if the rangers on the grassland sneak into the periphery of Gyeonggi Province after the beginning of spring, Xiaguan and others are confident that they can hold on to this valley for more than a year."

Shi Zhongkui nodded noncommittally, but he never thought about sticking to it.

Since there is a famine on the grassland, no one would foolishly besiege a valley that has little oil and water and is waiting for help.

Moreover, in terms of the merit of killing the enemy, a thousand soldiers are not as good as a commander of thousands or even a centurion.

However, no matter how good the tactics of guerrilla warfare are, they cannot do without ordnance and war horses.

It's okay to say that spears and swords are not difficult to obtain from the Ministry of War as long as you have connections.

But four hundred one-stone bows and fifty thousand sharp arrows are not that easy.

As for the heavy helmet, Shi Zhongkui never thought that auxiliary arms such as field soldiers were not even eligible to apply.

In ancient times, no matter which dynasty it was, in the management of ordnance and civilian weapons, the first thing prohibited was heavy armor, and the second thing was strong bows and crossbows.

On the contrary, the management of spears and swords is not as strict as imagined.

On the one hand, the peasant soldiers with swords and spears in their hands could not resist the charge of the heavily armored cavalry or elite warriors.

Once the front row is praised, it will inevitably cause widespread panic.

At that time, all you need to do is drive away the rebels, and the rebels themselves will be defeated by themselves.

And with these four hundred one-stone bows and arrows, it will be much easier for me to fight guerrillas in the future.

As for the horse, Shi Zhongkui was not too anxious at this time.

The hybrid war horses in the Space Ranch were growing steadily at this time. Even the longer the Prairie Rangers went south, the more the war horses grew.

If the war situation does not occur until after spring, the second batch of 38 war horses can also catch up with the war.

As for the horses that the nobles used to trade, there is no need to guess that they will not be their best.

And judging from the current shortage of horses in the Great Zhou Dynasty, it is unrealistic to obtain a large number of war horses from nobles.

Compared with the mixed-breed horses that are constantly growing in space pastures, there is no comparison at all.

However, Shi Zhongkui finally thought about it and accepted the more than a dozen horses provided by the nobles, in order to find a decent reason for him to suddenly have dozens or even hundreds of horses in the future.

Since he can accept the horses provided by the nobles of the capital, it seems normal for him to trade horses with people outside the capital.

And if you control the number of war horses to a hundred, or even two to three hundred, you don't have to worry about someone taking the opportunity to impeach you.

Shi Zhongkui stayed in the field camp for three days, personally watching Xue Jinping and Yan Guixiang select 400 people from the 6,000 field soldiers to practice bows and arrows.

He also put all the horses he acquired in the camp and asked people to teach the 400 people how to ride horses.

When necessary, he can select thirty or fifty elites from these 400 people to follow him and twenty personal soldiers, and they will go out to fight guerrillas on two horses.

However, Shi Zhongkui was more worried about the source of the intelligence at this time.

The war is about national power and intelligence. To a modern person, it is not a secret at all.

If the battlefield is chosen in Changping, you can also get information from the land and mountain gods.

But if the battlefield is chosen outside the Great Wall, the source of intelligence will be a problem.

And how to find the enemy and how to accurately penetrate the enemy's weak points is even more difficult.

So Shi Zhongkui didn't think about it for long and decided to get a flying bird as a pet.

The best is a raptor like a golden eagle, but it’s not that easy to get one in a short time.

Shi Zhongkui couldn't help but focus on the foreigners and nobles again.

After returning to his home in the capital, Shi Zhongkui quickly asked his housekeeper Yu Shun to bring fresh peaches to the Jia family, Wang family and several other families who had contributed to ordnance matters.

However, in order to stabilize the price of fresh peaches, we did not give away too many.

Each family only had 20 kilograms of fresh peaches, so after thinking about it, they agreed to ship another 200 kilograms of fresh peaches after the new year.

Jia Zheng's problem was solved in one fell swoop.

After all, being able to determine the quantity of fresh peaches, Jia Zheng could also calmly deal with old relatives and family friends.

He even took out some fresh peaches from home and gave them to those families having birthday banquets at home, without having to worry about not having enough things at home to distribute.

Moreover, this transaction can be regarded as mutually beneficial, and future cooperation will definitely be smoother.

After solving these troubles, it became easier to say that I wanted a golden eagle again.

Jia Zheng even had someone come to his door and tell them that he would ask the villagers of Ning and Rong in the north to help find a pair of golden eagles.

When the golden eagle eggs are available, they will be delivered directly to your door.

Although Jia Zheng looks like an old master at this time, when he was young, he was also a playboy who walked his dog and played with the eagle.

When Jia's mother blamed him for beating Jia Baoyu, she also revealed how Jia Zheng was beaten violently by his own father when he was young.

Therefore, Jia Zheng knew very well that only when the young golden eagle hatches and opens its eyes, the first thing it sees is Shi Zhongkui, and the breath it smells is also Shi Zhongkui's, can this kind of raptor be truly tamed.

However, when Jia Zheng agreed to help Shi Zhongkui find the golden eagle, he also wrote a letter to advise him not to focus on having fun.

Shi Zhongkui smiled and shook his head after reading the letter. Jia Zheng also knew that for a leader of the Sixth Yuan Dynasty, the rhetoric used to persuade his children to study hard was useless, and he was not qualified to preach on this matter.

The words of advice in the letter were extremely euphemistic, and there was no hint of the elders teaching the younger ones anything between the lines.

So much so that Shi Zhongkui had to reply seriously to a letter, saying that he wanted the golden eagle in order to guard against the possible southbound army that might appear on the grassland.

With this reply, I will rely on the golden eagle to hide and look for the rangers in the future, and I will have the root cause.

The only thing that made Shi Zhongkui funny was that he didn't need to go to such trouble to find golden eagle eggs.

If you take an adult golden eagle into a space pasture, it can be easily tamed.

But it’s hard to say this clearly.

Fortunately, even a golden eagle cub can grow up in half a day, and can then stay in the space ranch to absorb spiritual energy.

The more spiritual energy it absorbs, the more powerful it will become in the future, and may even evolve towards the direction of a spiritual pet.

So Shi Zhongkui didn't worry too much about this matter.

The days calmed down again. Shi Zhongkui rode to the field camp during the day and rode home in the evening, which was no different from his daily work at the Hanlin Academy.

He can also use the opportunity of running more than 100 kilometers every day to train the riding and shooting skills of the twenty soldiers.

Even if the time is short and it's a bit temporary, it's still better than no training at all.

To put it bluntly, in mounted shooting, fire coverage is actually more important.

There are not many people even on the grassland who can truly ride on a running horse and shoot at the enemy.

And those who hit the target with 100 shots are even rarer.

Time passes slowly, the New Year's Eve is getting closer and closer, and information from the grassland is constantly coming back.

The emperor even specially asked him to go to the morning court several times to listen to the opinions of his confidant who was the first to discover and warn.

Shi Zhongkui wanted to be like Huo Qubing and lead eight hundred cavalry straight into the depths of the grassland to find the royal court. Unfortunately, this was not realistic at all.

Because the biggest difference between the Great Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty was that at this time, the Great Zhou Dynasty had long lost its ambition to attack the grasslands.

If Shi Zhongkui dared to do that, he would be going deep alone in the true sense.

If there is no way to defeat the Han Dynasty and have a large number of troops to contain the main Xiongnu cavalry, then the entire grassland will be the enemy.

Just asking for help from the pursuing troops and encircling cavalry, this lone army could not do anything.

And they didn't dare to engage in battle, because every time a cavalry died, their strength would be weakened, while the prairie cavalry didn't have to worry about troop strength at all.

Even the longer the riot lasts, the more cavalry will be encircled and suppressed.

Therefore, every time he went to court, Shi Zhongkui could only help with suggestions to strengthen border guards and reserves of grain, grass, and ordnance.

As the situation became increasingly tense, Shi Zhongkui spent more and more time at home with his two lovely wives.

Trying to gather an army in the middle of winter is simply a fool's errand.

The biggest problem was not that Shanyu Wangting could not assemble a large army, but that after the army was assembled, there simply was not enough food and grass.

Once tens of thousands of people gather together but don't have enough to eat, the Mongolian and Yuan armies themselves will break into chaos before they reach the front line of the Great Wall.

Even fighting to survive is not impossible.

Therefore, before the snow on the grassland melts, it is the most stable period.

However, after the spring began, a large number of herdsmen, cattle, sheep, and horses were starved to death, and then the army gathered together to go south in search of life. The motivation was extremely strong and determined.

If the Great Zhou Dynasty cannot hold on, it is likely to be the beginning of a transition from prosperity to decline.

------

Shi Zhongkui stayed at home every day, and of course he was happiest with Baochai and Yingchun.

However, since Ying'er, Xiangling, Amber, and Pearl have not been brought into the room yet, there is no need to abide by the rule of sleeping in the concubine's room four days out of every ten days.
To be continued...