"Hmph!" Magistrate Niu said disdainfully without even thinking, "A silver-plated spear head, only good for show but useless."
"County Magistrate Niu, isn't that too arbitrary? How do you know the First Army is a silver-plated spearhead? You know, it's the team led by Zhang Tianshi."
County Magistrate Niu shook his head and said, "These rumors about the Heavenly Master are just rumors. I don't agree with them."
"Zhang Shixun has a heavenly book in his hand that can summon heavenly thunder and even bring down the fairyland..."
"General Liang, those are all illusions. You have all been deceived by him."
"Illusion?"
"Magic has existed since ancient times, such as walking on fire and blades, planting melons and moving wells, and breathing fire from the mouth; there are also drawing on the ground to make rivers, sucking soil to make mountains, breathing to make cold and heat, and coughing to make rain and dew..." County Magistrate Niu pointed and listed many strange magic techniques in one breath.
"County Magistrate Niu, is everything you said true?"
"Liang Taiwei, these are not fabricated by me, but recorded in ancient books, written in black and white, clearly."
"Tell me more details. What book did you read it in?"
"Many books contain records of magic, such as Liezi, Book of the Later Han, Yiyuan, and Records of the Investigating the Supernatural. There are countless such records."
General Liang looked at him thoughtfully, "Do you really think that Zhang Shixun's magical powers are all illusions, as recorded in these books?"
Magistrate Niu patted his chest and said, "I guarantee with my life that Zhang Shixun's so-called supernatural powers are nothing but illusions."
"Then... can you break his illusion?"
"He makes his living by performing illusions. If he can be easily exposed, how can he continue to deceive people? But I believe that there must be an expert in the world who can expose his tricks."
Taiwei Liang thought for a moment and said, "Since you are so sure, why not write a memorial and submit it?"
Magistrate Niu smiled and said, "To be honest with you, Commander, I have already written the memorial and submitted it."
General Liang nodded and turned his gaze towards the city.
The First Army had finished its rest and resumed their "circumnavigation".
"The man riding the black horse must be Zhang Shixun, right?"
"The commander's eyes were as sharp as lightning. That man was none other than Zhang Shixun."
Taiwei Liang squinted his eyes and watched for a long time, until the First Army disappeared from his sight, then he said, "Let's go back to the county government office."
Although the First Army was away on a campaign, they still did morning exercises at the designated time.
Zhang Shixun attached great importance to running exercises.
The Song Dynasty was short of horses, and the army basically relied on their two legs to march and fight.
Without a horse and unable to run, he could only passively take the beating.
This is also what Zhang Shixun is worried about, so running is an inevitable choice.
In future wars, horses will be necessary. This problem is a pain point for the Song Dynasty and cannot be solved by Zhang Shixun, at least not now.
Only by using cavalry to fight cavalry can we win the war against the northern nomadic peoples.
The Song Dynasty had established a comprehensive horse policy since the time of Emperor Taizu, and it can be said that the government attached great importance to it. However, there were no large-scale natural horse farms in the Song Dynasty. Those natural horse farms during the Han and Tang Dynasties were not in the hands of the Song Dynasty. For example, the Longyou and Yanyun areas were all natural horse farms.
Therefore, Taizu had been obsessed with the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun from the beginning, and even built a sealing pile warehouse for this purpose. Unfortunately, things did not go as he wished, and he died before he could fulfill his ambition.
After his death, Emperor Taizong was ambitious but incompetent. Not only did he fail to take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, but he was defeated by the Liao people. He was also shot in the buttocks, which left him with a chronic illness.
From then on, taking back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun became a luxury for the Song Dynasty court.
In short, the lack of horses was a chronic problem in the Song Dynasty, and the failure of the horse policy was inevitable. There were innate reasons for this, not because the Song court did not pay attention to it.
Due to the lack of horses, the Song army could not escape after a defeat, and could not catch up after a victory. It was very tragic.
This is why Zhang Shixun forced his soldiers to run every day.
Even the armed parade around the city had a purpose, which was to train the soldiers' marching ability and strengthen their physical fitness.
And they are fully armed.
The soldiers' load was not much heavier because they wore leather armor, but the officers' load was much heavier because they wore iron armor.
In this era, iron smelting technology was backward, and armor was thick and heavy, with a set of armor weighing dozens of kilograms.
Such heavy armor was originally designed for riding and defending cities, and is not suitable for running at all.
Zhang Shixun didn't care about this and required officers to wear helmets and armor, and also made it a strict rule that they were not allowed to ride horses during morning jogs.
This was a tough time for the pampered military officers like Gao Yanei. The daily morning exercises were like purgatory for them and were extremely painful.
Zhang Shixun showed no mercy and insisted on not losing even a sliver of the five-kilometer distance.
This distance was calculated by later scientific researchers.
If you run less than five kilometers while fully armed, you will not achieve the effect of exercise.
If you run more than five kilometers, you will easily become exhausted and faint.
After morning exercises that day, a soldier came to report that Diao Wu's sister had arrived.
Early in the morning, she came to the gate of the military camp and knelt on the ground with her head lowered.
The officer guarding the door asked for a long time before finding out that it was Diao Wu's sister.
Zhang Shixun got the news and came to the door.
The little girl was about fourteen or fifteen years old and was thin.
Zhang Shixun walked up to her, squatted down and asked, "Are you Diao Wu's biological sister?"
"Um!"
"May I have your name?"
"Diao Xiaolian."
"Xiao Lian, what do you mean by kneeling here?"
"I beg you, sir, to release my brother."
Zhang Shixun shook his head. "Your brother is a wanted criminal of the imperial court and cannot be released."
Xiao Lian raised her head and protested, "My brother has never killed anyone."
"Although he didn't kill anyone, he followed Heavenly King Yang in a rebellion and broke the law."
"Yang Tianwang didn't rebel. He just led the poor to kill a few bullies, robbed their property, and distributed the property to the poor."
Zhang Shixun knew what was going on as soon as he heard it.
Throughout the dynasties, the pattern of peasant rebellions has been roughly the same. The ruling class has been too oppressive, and the landlords and powerful people have been rampant in the countryside, bullying the people and making them suffer terribly.
If the pressure is too harsh and the people have no way to survive, they naturally cannot sit and wait for death. They have to rise up in resistance and kill the rich to help the poor.
"Whether they were rebelling or not is up to the court to decide. I have no say in that. But your brother followed Heavenly King Yang and did something bad. Three of them surrounded my cousin, and your brother hit him from behind with a club, putting a big hole in his head."
"I don't believe it. My brother never hits good people. It must be your cousin who did something bad."
"No, he's skinny and short, his arms and legs are as thin as firewood, he can't even kill a chicken."
"Then..." Xiao Lian's dark eyes rolled around. "No fly bites an egg without cracks. My brother hit him with a club, so it must be your cousin's fault."
The girl insisted that her brother was not wrong and that it was everyone else's fault.
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