Chapter 109 Super Spear Formation
On the banks of the Danshui River in Nanxiang, as another batch of supplies arrived, more than 300 Cai prisoners were selected.

The hair was shaved near the dock. Now the soldiers who cut hair are becoming more and more skilled.

These Cai captives first washed their hair by the water before they began to shave their heads one by one.

As before, hair of good quality will be collected.

Merchants in Xiangyang would buy this, but now these soldiers who cut their hair will keep it for themselves to process.

Pin the strands of hair to the headpiece in a similar fashion to embroidery.

For example, at this moment, he used the hair he had obtained before to make wigs and started selling them to these Cai's followers.

The later a prisoner is released, the higher his status will be.

At the dock, Heiyun came to the transport ship with an empty bag and lined up. The empty bag in his hand was passed to the ship.

The soldiers on the boat loaded rice together with Cai's soldiers. After tying the bags tightly, Bag No. B containing two stones of rice was placed on Heiyun's shoulders.

Heiyun caught it steadily and walked along the long and slender team towards the rows of suspended bamboo basket granaries.

Rice is piled up in the transport warehouse.

The captain in charge of the ship looked at the White Goose Thief... and was amazed at the grain bags used by the Tiger Tooth Army, and found them very convenient.

Traditionally, when transporting grain by ship, one has to prepare for a loss of about 10% each time.

This loss is either due to natural loss during transportation, or being eaten, but more often due to being scattered during loading and unloading.

This cloth bag can be recycled many times, reducing waste by 10% each time and also speeding up loading and unloading efficiency.

In order to avoid entanglement, the Cai family transported 20% more supplies than the amount on the books!
The captain also noticed the many advantages of the grain bags and planned to propose them to the current head of the family, Cai Zan, after returning.

The arrival of this fleet also brought Gan Ning's letters and servants.

The only role of the messenger is to ensure that the contents of the letters are not leaked, and to destroy the paper letters at critical moments.

In the military camp on the bank of Xishui River, Black Bear was reading a letter in which Gan Ning reported on his gains during his garrison in Caizhou.

Gan Ning was a man who spent money lavishly, and all the benefits he extorted from the Cai family were basically distributed among the officials and soldiers under his command.

Black Bear didn't take it seriously, as this army was originally Gan Ning's troops.

As long as there are no more than two thousand people, Gan Ning can do whatever he wants.

Previously, in order to invite Black Bear to send troops to defend Caizhou, the Cai family had given him 300 pieces of brocade and silk, as well as 500 gold. One gold was equivalent to a gold cake weighing one jin, the size of a Wangwang snow cake.

Gan Ning mainly reported the results of his efforts to win over and instigate several fellow villagers to rebel. Lou Fa and Shen Mi, who had risen up in rebellion together in response to Liu Biao, one was stationed at Jiangling Shazhou and the other was stationed at Huarong Road, both rejected him.

However, a fellow townsman from Yizhou named Li Yi responded to Gan Ning's instigation and was willing to lead more than 200 people to the north.

Gan Ning promised Li Yi that he would send more soldiers to fill up a battalion when they arrived in Nanxiang.

His original army had 800 men, and he recruited some more men during this period, but there were only more than 300 men.

So I hope Black Bear can allocate about 200 soldiers to fulfill his promise to Li Yi.

Black Bear folded the three pages of paper, picked up a pen and wrote "A letter from Gan Ning in Nanxiang in June of the seventh year", tied it up with a string, and put it in the wooden box he carried with him.

After he arrived in Guanzhong and established a stable base, he planned to archive all kinds of letters and official documents.

Sometimes, you have to rely on this to settle old accounts.

After doing all this, Black Bear took a small piece of bamboo slip, picked up a goose feather pen and wrote on it: I have seen the letter, and you are allowed to come soon.

Including punctuation marks, there are five simplified characters in total.

Zhen Mi can recognize simplified Chinese characters after thinking about them for a while. This is an instinct and inheritance that transcends time and space.

The higher your cultural literacy, the easier it is to recognize it at a glance.

Especially the commonly used characters in daily life, he believed that Gan Ning could recognize them.

He handed the bamboo slips to Gan Ning's messenger and said, "Hurry up and have your meal. When the Cai family fleet returns, you will go back with them and give this to Xing Ba."

"Here."

The personal soldier bowed and stepped forward to carefully take the bamboo slips from Black Bear's hand. He then stepped back seven or eight steps and walked out of the barracks before turning around.

Outside the barracks, a large banner with the words "Tiger Tooth General" was hung.

The large banner has a white background with a red border, black embroidered text, and is decorated with a five-colored ribbon a foot long.

On the other side of the door is Black Bear’s long flag.

The pole is made of a lance, and the top is a fist cast in pure copper.

The junction between the spear and the fist is a fluffy and flamboyant red, blue and white tassel.

The colorful tassel is three feet long, with red, blue and white in equal proportions.

When standing at the door, a slight mountain breeze blew, and the three-colored tassels became fluffy and fluttered in the wind.

Rows of thatched huts were built along the river on both sides of the upstream of Danshui Wharf.

The people sent by the Cai family were settled here one after another, including today's batch.

Regardless of gender, age, or craftsman, everyone had to wash their entire body in a pond mixed with wood ash before entering the camp.

The pond is right next to the Dan River and is covered with bamboo and wood.

After being used during the day, river water will be diverted to flush it at night; the water outlet will be sealed when it is used next time, and a large amount of wood ash will be put into the pond again.

Then, everyone can get a set of newly made short clothes after bathing.

In other words, babies in swaddling clothes do not need to go into the water, but they can still get half a piece of coarse silk and give it to their parents to make their own clothes.

Pan Jun led three scholars from the same county to take notes and create the most basic household registration files.

In order to efficiently integrate the new population, the 100-household system was temporarily implemented, divided into civilian households and artisan households. Each household's information was written in triplicate on an extended 2-foot-2-inch bamboo slip, one copy was given to the household head, one copy was kept in the 100-household office, and one copy was handed over to General Huya's mansion.

Wang Can's more than 300 scholars also needed to eat. Some of them brought servants and families to work temporarily for Hei Xiong to fill their stomachs and then take some rice back. This became the choice of most people.

What's more, Wang Can also encouraged this kind of self-reliant behavior, and in the chaotic times, the scholars were gradually adapting.

As long as they are provided with clothing, food and shelter, the vast majority of people can settle down.

They were not free people in themselves, but tenants, retainers, slaves of the Cai family, or temporary transactions of the Cai family.

They are accustomed to various arrangements and have a strong sense of obedience. Those who were born as slaves are even more accustomed to collective life, know how to coordinate and cooperate, and are quite like fish in water.

After meeting their basic living needs, we will assign jobs based on gender tomorrow. Once they start working, their jobs will be temporarily stable.

As a small leader of temporary clerks, Pan Jun did not need to copy the documents himself. His only job was to compare the three bamboo slips to confirm that the numbers and text contents were correct.

The household registration slips cannot have any errors, as they are related to the distribution of food and supplies, as well as the mobilization of labor.

Just as Pan Jun was concentrating on comparing the text, someone beside him said, "Chengming, look, the woman is here."

Pan Jun looked in the direction of the sound and saw Zhen Mi, dressed in blue and wearing a white gauze scarf, arriving at the small camp downstream by carriage. There were two small camps of a hundred households between them.

There, Zhen Mi stood on the car and looked at the women in the camp, searching for a suitable woman based on her general body shape.

At the camp gate, four temporary clerks were weaving these long bamboo slips. When they saw Zhen Mi coming, Sima Zhi, the leader, stepped forward and bowed, "Madam."

"Are there any girls over fourteen?"

"There are only five girls of twelve or thirteen here, and including those who are ten, there are eight in total."

Sima Zhi pointed at the bamboo slips and said, "Most of those over 14 are married."

Zhen Mi glanced around and saw that the thin girls who were watching curiously had all changed their hairstyles and had become women.

He said to Sima Zhi: "Please inform the new families that I am collecting female guards and maids."

"Yes, I will notify everyone once everyone is settled."

"Mr. Thank you."

Zhen Mi also bowed, and Sima Zhi returned the greeting, watching Zhen Mi get on the car and turn around to head southeast downstream.

Sima Zhi watched the carriage go farther and farther away. As an older single scholar, he really enjoyed communicating with the elegantly-spoken Zhen Mi.

There are many women in wealthy families who manage the family business, and it is not uncommon for women to become rich through business.

Zhen Mi came out to inspect the new population just out of curiosity, and it also meant to declare her sovereignty.

The female guards and maids she wanted would naturally be screened initially for her by the various centurions who had taken office one after another.

She drove to the Xishui Floating Bridge, walked across the bridge and returned to the two-story wooden building on the shore. She walked up the steps outside the building to the second floor, and then climbed the wooden ladder to the roof.

There were four female soldiers on the roof who were selected a few days ago. They were watching the busy scene, with bows, crossbows and whistling arrows beside them.

Zhen Mi looked up and saw that at the end of the upper reaches of the Dan River, many people were cutting bamboo and wood on the mountains on both sides.

Bundles of bamboo were transported from the mountains to Danshui and floated down the Danshui River.

These bamboos were used as the main material to build various huts, suspended granaries and fences.

The best quality long bamboos will be collected and stored.

She turned her gaze to the north and saw training taking place in the expanded Qingzhou military camp on the east bank of the Xishui River.

A spear array is being trained, and in order to optimize this spear array, many craftsmen are now organized to make a lightweight bamboo and rattan woven shield.

There are only two types of shields used everywhere now. One is the standing shield in the front row of the battle formation, and the other is a small curved shield used for fighting.

This well-established bamboo and rattan woven round shield has a diameter of three feet and is hung on the spearman's arm when in use.

Almost all the Qingzhou soldiers were converted into spearmen, and were using straight green bamboos instead of spears to practice square formations.

The Qingzhou soldiers now have a regular life and schedule. They jog out of the camp in the early morning, then eat and practice spear formations. They take a lunch break and eat, and practice spear formations in the afternoon. Dinner is presided over by a Taoist priest, who leads the Qingzhou soldiers in repentance, and then they go to sleep.

Only the Qingzhou soldiers who sincerely repent will have their hair shaved off by the Taoist priests with a sharp razor during their lunch break, to show that everything is starting anew from now on.

Zhen Mi looked at the spear array and felt worried.

There is more and more intelligence coming out of Guanzhong. For example, the Qingzhou soldiers currently in training are training so hard that the people in the south are already trembling with fear.

However, various intelligence from Guanzhong showed that the Guanzhong heroes and Qiang tribes were best at advancing with spear infantry phalanxes.

This is a tactic that came from the far west. When Sanming of Liangzhou recruited Western Qiang to suppress Eastern Qiang, this tactic was tested on the battlefield, known to the people of Western Zhou, and also spread among the existing Qiang tribes.

The other side had been practicing spear formations for a long time and was very experienced, and had also accumulated enough extra-long spears for use.

The maximum length of a spear in the army was 18 feet, and this kind of spear was called a lance.

The brave generals in Guanzhong have super-long lances that are ten feet longer than the infantry lances.

She didn't understand military tactics, but she could see clearly that when infantry spears clashed against each other, the side with longer spears would definitely have the advantage.

There is a severe shortage of extra-long lances now, so we can only use three-meter-long green bamboo instead.

On the battlefield of Jingzhou, Liu Biao's side had already used this super-long infantry phalanx.

It cannot be said that there were no results, because this group of spearmen collectively became Sun Ce's results.

When Sun Ce attacked Huang Zu, Liu Biao sent Liu Hu and Han Xi with 5,000 spearmen to assist.

Huang Zu also thought that this group of spearmen was very capable, so he fought a field battle with Sun Ce, with the entire army using these 5,000 super spearmen as the vanguard.

As a result, the Jiangdong army fired bows and crossbows at close range, instantly destroying the super-long spear formation composed mainly of 5,000 people from Guanzhong.

The army then attacked and annihilated the spearmen, beheading more than 20,000 of them and capturing more than 10,000 people.

(End of this chapter)