After everyone present heard Li Qin utter the words "Jurchen cavalry,"...
Many people present changed their expressions.
They had been stationed on the border for many years, and before Wanyan Jian unified most of the Jurchen tribes, they had fought against some Jurchens and knew that those guys were really fierce and brave.
They hunt tigers in the mountains and fish in the sea, living year-round in the white mountains and black waters. If they weren't healthy, they would have been eliminated by nature long ago.
The rest were all extremely tough and fearless guys.
However, they originally had a fatal flaw: they were scattered, disorganized, and extremely lax.
They didn't resemble an army at all; they were just a group of powerful, scattered soldiers.
Moreover, their equipment was extremely poor; many of their arrows were made of stone or animal bones.
Don't even think about armor or anything like that.
But with the arrival of Wanyan Jian, all of that came to an end.
Wanyan Jian, a Jurchen, voluntarily submitted to the command of Li Chengliang, the then governor of Liaodong.
Furthermore, he shamelessly changed his surname from Wanyan to Li and claimed to be the adopted son of Li Chengliang.
Although it seemed extremely humiliating, his gains were also exceptionally significant.
That is, he learned from the Liaodong army a series of methods for building an army, from organization to training.
After returning, he created his own system for training his Jurchen tribe, based on the training methods of the Liaodong army.
That is the Meng'an Mouke Niulu system, which organizes ten households into a Niulu, thirty Niulu into a Mouke, and ten Mouke into a Meng'an.
These Mouke and Niru organized production in peacetime and organized the army in wartime.
When it comes to combat, orders can be relayed directly through the ranks, mobilizing everyone.
Some people have said that Wanyan Jian partially referenced the Fubing system when he established this system.
He transformed his Jurchen tribe into a military camp, where all the Jurchens focused on only two things: production and warfare.
Other Jurchen tribes had a tribe with an army, but Wanyan Jian's Jurchen tribe had an army that comprised a tribe.
Especially after Wanyan Jiancheng became Li Chengliang's adopted son.
Li Chengliang, with the idea of nurturing bandits to enhance his own importance, relaxed the blockade against Wanyan Jian's tribe.
This allowed Wanyan Jian to overcome the Jurchens' last weakness: equipment.
After the blockade against him was lifted, he immediately used fox fur, ginseng and other specialties of the Jurchen people to exchange for a large amount of silver from Wu merchants.
Then he made a decision that shocked everyone: he did not, like other Jurchen or Mongol tribal leaders, exchange for luxury goods to enjoy.
They also did not use the silver they obtained to smuggle weapons and other resources that the Jurchen tribes lacked most.
He actually sent people to various parts of Wu with the precious silver they had obtained to poach craftsmen at high prices.
He explained this to the people in the tribe at the time.
They lived north of Liaodong in the Wu Kingdom, a region with vast land and abundant resources.
Even if they used that silver to exchange for resources like copper and iron, not only would the sheer quantity be enormous and attract attention, but there would also be losses if they were to forge them into weapons.
However, as long as we can bring over the artisans from Wu, and given their vast territory, we can improve their skills.
They could easily mine, smelt iron, and forge sturdy and sharp weapons themselves.
In addition, during the same period, the Wu Kingdom, under the rule of Zhu Qizhen and with the assistance of Wang Zhen, was getting worse day by day.
The lives of those artisans also began to decline steadily, and many people began to live in poverty, not knowing where their next meal would come from.
I often go hungry.
At this time, someone offered them a large amount of silver and promised them a good life, so they followed them without hesitation.
Of course, many of them were deceived, because when Wanyan Jian was recruiting people, he never said that he was a Jurchen.
Instead, he told the craftsmen that their employer's workshop was short of workers.
They were lured to the vicinity of the border and then sent one by one to the Jurchen tribes.
It was thanks to these craftsmen that Wanyan Jian's Jurchen tribe directly achieved technological dominance over other Jurchen tribes.
Coupled with the previous suppression of his organizational power, he successfully began the process of unifying the various Jurchen tribes.
During the process of unifying the various Jurchen tribes, he was extremely obsequious to Li Chengliang in Liaodong.
In the letter, he referred to Li Chengliang as his father.
Furthermore, during the conquest of the various Jurchen tribes, he cut off the heads of the dead men from the defeated Jurchen tribes and sent them to Li Chengliang, instructing him to seek credit from the emperor of Wu.
Li Chengliang was well aware of Wanyan Jian's actions, but he needed to create a major enemy in Liaodong to maintain his own power.
This way, he could make the imperial court indispensable to him, and thus expand his power in Liaodong.
Therefore, they turned a blind eye to Wanyan Jian's actions.
During his tenure, the previously scattered Jurchen tribes were gradually integrated into two forces.
That was Wanyan Jian, who already possessed 40,000 Jurchen cavalry.
Furthermore, in the north of Wanyan Jian, the remaining Jurchen tribes who opposed Wanyan Jian formed an alliance due to his threat.
They also had about 20,000 Jurchen cavalry, and they also received support from the original owner's father, Li Chengliang, and acquired some weapons.
In the south of Wanyan Jian, Li Chengliang commanded 80,000 Liaodong infantry, 30,000 cavalry, and 8,000 elite retainers, totaling nearly 120,000 troops.
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