Chapter 1037 Shangsi performs martial arts
On March 3rd, the Shangsi Festival, the Shayuan grassland located southwest of Shangyang Palace was filled with flags and people.
March in spring is sunny and sunny, which is a good time for outing. Since last year's Shangsi Festival, when Tang Gong gathered his knights from various prefectures for a military parade and military skills test, which received a warm response, the Shangsi Festival is no longer just a festival for fasting, worshiping evil spirits, and outings, but has also added a bit of bravery and majesty. Atmosphere.
This year's Shangsi Festival is the same, and because of the preparation and experience from last year, the scale has become larger and the rewards are more generous. If the sergeants who participate in martial arts competitions perform well and come out on top, they will not only be rewarded with rich gold, jade, money, and goods, but also receive honorary awards.
Although the honorary officers do not have specific duties, they can be used as a reference for qualifications when conferring military positions in the military. Those with the same rank and the highest honors will win. With the establishment of the meritorious officer system, it means that even ordinary soldiers with no background will have an institutionalized standard and channel for promotion in the military based on meritorious service.
Therefore, all the military knights are full of enthusiasm for the martial arts competition on the Shangsi Festival, because as long as they can perform well, they will not only get financial rewards, but also bring about an improvement in status. Naturally, the knights are interested in this. Opportunities abound.
Because the Shangsi Festival martial arts performance is not a formal parade and hunting, there are not many large-scale military battle drills. It is mainly a team and individual competition among sergeants, so the public is not prohibited from watching. However, people participating in the ceremony need to stay within the fixed viewing area and are not allowed to move at will to avoid violating the camp ban.
So on the day of Shangsi Festival, in addition to the soldiers from various military mansions who had already gathered here at the Shayuan Campus in Weibei, there were also many people from time to time who poured into the venue after the opening of the viewing venue, waiting for the martial arts competition. Start.
In the morning, Tang Gong and a group of dignitaries from the government arrived at the sand garden under the protection of three guards. The atmosphere at the scene immediately boiled, and the cheers of the soldiers and civilians resounded through the sky and lasted for a long time.
"Your Majesty, there are thirty-six prefectures and 76,000 warriors participating in the martial arts training this spring. All prefectures have submitted their records here and are waiting for your inspection!"
As Tang Gongyi arrived at the center of the school grounds, Gao Le, the leader who was responsible for convening and reorganizing the soldiers from all provinces, and Lu Teng from the Ministry of War strode forward to greet them, and presented the list of soldiers from various provinces participating in the martial arts performance this time.
In the past two years or so, although the Western Wei Dynasty's hegemony focused on recuperating and adjusting internal affairs, it has never slackened in its military construction. In particular, the military mansion, which is mainly composed of conferring land knights, has been expanding. Its traces have spread all over Guanzhong, Longyou, northern Shaanxi, Hedong, Shannan, Hanzhong, Bashu and Jingxiang.
The largest of these military mansions is the Hussar mansion, with soldiers often ranging from three to five thousand. The smaller one is the Chariot and Cavalry Mansion, with between one and two thousand soldiers. The total size of the large and small military mansions has reached more than fifty, and the number of registered knights in each mansion has reached over 150,000.
Most of these knights have completed the land conferment, and their lives have been basically guaranteed. At the same time, their military status is affiliated to the military government. They are no longer subordinate to a certain general's private department, but are directly under the control of the overlord.
Of course, this is not all of Kansai Fubing. At the same time as the military government conferred land, the original organizational method of recruiting soldiers to recruit Haoyou tribe was not banned, and it was still developing in some newly occupied areas. However, the original core ruling areas such as Guanzhong and Shannan were affected by the conferment of land by the military officials. The increase has occupied the original quota of government soldiers.
Up to now, under the entire Western Wei regime, the total number of armed forces such as military officers, right-wing soldiers, and state and county soldiers has reached more than 300,000. Compared with the Yuwen clan's domination period, it not only fully recovered, but also greatly outperformed it.
The Shangsi Festival martial arts performance is not a regular military parade, and those participating in the martial arts performance are mainly the core areas of Guanzhong and the military officers currently participating in the garrison and guarding Guanzhong. Even so, the number of soldiers participating in the martial arts exercise reached more than 70,000, which shows the strength of Guanzhong's standing armed forces.
After Li Tai reviewed the military book, he did not continue to review it in depth. Instead, he moved his hand towards the various camp formations, and then shouted loudly: "Let the martial arts performance begin!"
Following his order, the sound of drums and horns suddenly sounded around the school grounds, and several elite cavalry teams carefully selected by various military offices rode into the camp, kicking off the martial arts performance.
The nature of the Shangsi Festival martial arts performance is a grand sports meeting, but the content of the competition is mostly related to military affairs.
The first thing that started was the wonderful equestrian performance. Each of the six knight teams were divided into one team according to the color of their horses. After riding their horses into the arena, they not only vividly demonstrated the changes in the cavalry's maneuvering and clutching, but also mixed in the wonderful personal skills. Performances include penetrating a horse under the belly, hanging from the side of the saddle, or leaping to change horses.
The various thrilling actions were breathtaking and dizzying, and thunderous cheers erupted from outside the venue from time to time. The people watching outside the school were not only sweating for the knights performing on the field, but also felt deeply comforted and proud to have such athletes guarding their country.
"Watch and enjoy!"
As the wonderful equestrian performance came to an end, Li Tai stood up on the high platform, drew his bow and shot an arrow at a tent piled up in the shape of a mountain in the field. The knot on the top of the tent was broken by an arrow, and immediately the curtains were hung around. It rolled down, and a golden mountain suddenly appeared in front of everyone.
"So many golden treasures!"
The onlookers around them all stared and exclaimed when they saw this. It turned out that the curtain was covered by a tall wooden frame with several sides. Each layer of the wooden frame was covered with gold cakes. In this brilliant scene, Under the sunlight, it looks like a golden mountain.
All the knights in the school field were overjoyed when they saw this, and they all crossed their hands and greeted Li Tai on the high platform: "Thank you, Duke Tang, for the reward!"
Then all the knights rode forward, each picked up a gold cake and returned to camp with the gold. A mountain of gold was quickly divided up.
When the onlookers saw the knights receiving this reward, they were all envious. While clapping their hands and praising them, they did not forget to teach the children around them: "Open your eyes and see that Duke Tang treats the strong men so favorably. In the coming year, you boys should also learn your skills." , sell to the court!”
In a good world, there is no need to shout slogans, stir up emotions and wipe away tears. If you want to advocate something and make people pay attention to something, the best and most practical way is to throw money! The value and dignity of an individual never depend on any emotional feelings. Most of the time, money means dignity!
Li Tai has never been stingy with rewards for his soldiers. Even if he had no money, he would never treat his soldiers poorly even if he borrowed or robbed them. Loyalty and righteousness are the requirements for high-ranking officials and powerful people. The first demand of ordinary soldiers is to have enough food and clothing. If even this cannot be satisfied, there is no need to talk about other things.
After several wonderful performances, the martial arts competition officially began. These competitions include not only single-player confrontations such as fighting, fighting, riding and shooting, etc., but also various group confrontations. Among all the competitive sports, the most entertaining and the most popular is polo.
Polo has a long history and has been a form of military entertainment as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty. With the development of the times, skills and rules are gradually maturing and improving. It's just that in the Western Wei army in the past years, due to factors such as skills, mounts, and venues, it never became popular on a large scale.
However, in recent years, as the number of high-quality war horses in the Western Wei Dynasty has skyrocketed, coupled with strong official support, especially the Bafu's previous regulations, all military camps and military mansions with more than 500 people must provide polo fields, horse racing and other venues. For training and competition for the soldiers. The sergeants are also very enthusiastic about this kind of activity that is both educational and entertaining, and at the same time high-intensity competitive competition. Therefore, the army quickly cultivated a group of skilled polo players.
Li Tai is also very enthusiastic about polo competition, and he formulated various policies in Bafu to promote this sport. The reason why he did this was of course not the entertainment aspect of polo, but the fact that the popularity of this sport could subtly provide a large number of qualified knights.
Of course, developing martial arts and strengthening the army is a comprehensive task, and we cannot expect that the popularity of one sport will directly improve national strength. After all, many emperors of the Tang Dynasty since Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty were polo enthusiasts, and some even They are fanatics, but the result is that the military, especially the Central Forbidden Army, is becoming increasingly poor.
Therefore, in the final analysis, everything from regulations and systems to folk customs and atmosphere, including resource allocation, must be carefully constructed and reasonably adjusted in order to maintain a brave, martial, prosperous and confident world in the long term.
Thanks to past promotions, every military mansion can now recruit a polo team with good skills to participate in the competition. In order to give the polo teams in each province an opportunity to showcase their skills, polo matches are divided into two modes: competition and performance.
The former is a two-by-two match-up, with the winner scoring points and advancing through points. There is a formal schedule and rewards. The latter is a challenge initiated by the teams, and any opponent can be selected to initiate the challenge. It is a new competition format added this year, in order to allow some players who have lost the game due to mistakes and are unhappy to regain their place. It's better than having a fight in private.
However, when the game officially started, the arrangement of this competition seemed to be a bit contrary to the original intention. Because almost all the Junfu polo teams have temporarily given up on the points competition, and instead chose the challenge competition, and all the letters of challenge were unanimously issued to the three-guard polo teams.
Sure enough, no matter what age, the second-generation people are a group of guys who are hated by gods and ghosts. Anyone who gets a chance wants to be beaten and taught a lesson.
Li Tai was very happy to see this result, and he also ordered the three guardsmen not to evade the challenge in order to avoid chaos in the world. As a leader of the hegemony who had overcome all difficulties and made a fortune from scratch, he also really wanted to see these second-generation men on the playing field. The scene of being beaten and taught a lesson.
Just after the game started, there were numerous galloping horses galloping all the way from Tongguan to Shangyang Palace. The urgent military situation from the front line did not allow Li Tai to stay and appreciate the miserable situation of the three guardsmen, so he had to quickly return to Shangyang Palace to deal with it. military affairs.