After Transmigration: Building a Kingdom in Turbulent Times-Chapter 585 - 579: Drill

Zhao Hanzhang was leading a large army to charge at Beigong Chun. As they met on the gentle slope, the Xiliang Army separated her from her men during the clash.

Both Zhao Hanzhang and Beigong Chun wielded long spears. After exchanging more than a dozen moves, Beigong Chun, showing no mercy, turned and thrust his spear again. Zhao Hanzhang blocked with her long spear, narrowly avoiding the attack...

However, Beigong Chun used the force from her block, slapped the spear shaft with his right hand, causing his spear to spin away. With his left hand, he gripped the spear and thrust it forward fiercely...

The spearhead, wrapped in cloth and smeared with ash, struck her in the chest.

The force was great, and Zhao Hanzhang fell from her horse. Fortunately, she reacted quickly, kicking out as she fell. Her body flew out, she held her head and rolled on the ground twice.

Fu Tinghan, who was watching from halfway up the mountain, took two steps forward. When he saw her pat her clothes and get up unscathed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Beside him, Zhao Erlang was very excited, waving his own long spear and shouting, afraid that others wouldn’t know, "Sister lost, Sister lost, Sister lost again!"

Fu Tinghan chuckled, tapping him on the head, "Be careful, or your sister will beat you. At least she has beaten General Beigong once and tied once, she’s barely got a fighting chance, and you?"

Fu Tinghan said, "The troops you led hadn’t even reached General Beigong before they were wiped out by the Xiliang Army."

Zhao Erlang didn’t care about the fact that he lost, "I’m naturally no match for General Beigong."

Zhao Hanzhang ignored Zhao Erlang and ran over to Fu Tinghan, "Did you record it?"

Fu Tinghan nodded, "Even if you don’t lose in a solo fight, the Zhao Family Army still loses to the Xiliang Army afterwards."

Zeng Yue came over in a sorry state, having also been badly beaten.

Most of the soldiers held long spears without spearheads, resting them on their shoulders as they came over in groups, chattering, "It doesn’t handle well without the spearhead."

"If it were a real spear, could you still get up? Clearly, you were dead, yet you got up to disrupt the drill."

"How did I disrupt it? I wasn’t aware I was dead; after I realized, didn’t I lie back down? You Zhao Family Army even stepped on my hand, it’s too much!"

"Bah, someone saw you deliberately putting your hand under people’s feet; the foot hadn’t even stepped down yet, and you tugged on it."

"Alright, alright, stop arguing, someone’s watching and taking notes, merits and demerits will be discussed later. Stop clinging together, and stand apart quickly."

Zhao Erlang squatted nearby watching his sister and brother-in-law replay the game with the Go board. He didn’t understand Go originally, but now he vaguely understood some.

After all, he watched the entire battle just now.

Zhao Erlang pointed to a spot, "Is this Sister and General Beigong?"

Zhao Hanzhang looked at it and nodded, "Yes."

"And this, is this Zeng Yue’s squad?"

Zhao Hanzhang looked at Zhao Erlang approvingly, "Not bad."

Zhao Erlang pointed to a few places, "Here, here, and here, if you block them, wouldn’t Zeng Yue’s squad be surrounded?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Zhao Hanzhang asked, "Where would you borrow soldiers to encircle them?"

Zhao Erlang pointed to a place, "Here."

Zhao Hanzhang smiled, "Smart, but it’s not worth it to destroy Zeng Yue’s squad. If I’m not wrong, this formation mainly targets me, separating my men until I’m alone. If General Beigong can’t capture me, they would borrow soldiers from here to attack, pincer attack from front and back, I would have no chance."

Beigong Chun glanced at the board and nodded, "Not bad."

He looked at Fu Tinghan and said, "This Go board isn’t as intuitive as the clay models Grand Young Master used previously, Go has too many constraints, no such thing as borrowing soldiers."

Not knowing the rules of Go, Zhao Erlang directly took a few white stones from the board and stacked them elsewhere, surrounding the black stones, "Sister, now you’ve won, right?"

Zhao Hanzhang patted him on the head, "Win what? This is qi, the foundation of the stones staying alive, you can’t place stones here, and in Go, you place one stone at a time..."

Seeing Zhao Erlang’s puzzled eyes, Zhao Hanzhang stopped speaking, shook her head, "Forget it, when we go back, have Tinghan build you a sandbox, it’s more intuitive, then simulate today’s battle on it."

She also wanted to know if she could win against Beigong Chun if they went through it again.

Actually, Beigong Chun felt that the drill and sandbox simulation didn’t have much significance because, "On the battlefield, things change rapidly, influenced by various factors like supplies, weather, morale, and the soldiers’ obedience to their commander, not to mention the terrain differences. Rather than drills, it’s better to take them directly to the battlefield, as only war is the true method of training soldiers."

He said, "Our Xiliang Iron Cavalry all trained against the Xianbei."

Zhao Hanzhang disagreed, "Drills still have their use. At least I know their coordination is far inferior to the Xiliang Army. I can’t just drag them to the battlefield and wait for them to die before training, can I?"

Zhao Hanzhang felt that the current approach was fine. The Xiliang Army was a battle-hardened troop, with many deaths. When one died, they replaced them, and many Xiliang soldiers died on the way.

Thus Zhao Hanzhang didn’t want to drag new soldiers directly to the battlefield. Ordinary soldiers needed drilling, practicing the most basic military formations;

Elite soldiers were selected from ordinary soldiers. They didn’t need to do farming like ordinary soldiers, nor were they occasionally taken for construction work. They trained daily, ate better, and had better equipment.

Of course, if there was a war, they’d be the first to go to the battlefield as well.

These people were nurtured by Zhao Hanzhang at great expense and effort, and each loss would pain her.

Moreover, honestly, she learned a lot from the match with Beigong Chun.

The three were still studying the Go board when Fan Ying rode up the hill, "Miss, documents from all places have arrived."

Zhao Hanzhang, without lifting her head, said, "Handle them first, I’ll review them later."

The new County Magistrate had arrived in Guy City, and Fan Ying had returned from there, continuing to work beside Zhao Hanzhang. She glanced quickly at Beigong Chun before whispering in Zhao Hanzhang’s ear, "A letter has arrived from Xiliang as well."

At the mention, Zhao Hanzhang immediately looked up, "Let me see."

Fan Ying promptly handed her the letter.

Scanning through the letter quickly, a smile appeared in Zhao Hanzhang’s eyes. She handed it to Beigong Chun, "Huang An and the others have reached Xiliang, and Governor Zhang is magnanimous. He agreed to let the families of the Xiliang Army move to Luoyang."

Beigong Chun reached out and took it, visibly relieved after reading, he couldn’t suppress the smile on his face, "The lord has always been generous."

If it were someone else, perhaps they would be unwilling to let their families leave to control their Xiliang Army in the Central Plains, but not Zhang Gui.

In this regard, Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t help but nod. She might not have been able to do this.