Chapter 133: Hidden Dragon Out to Sea, God-given Opportunity
"Xiangzi, your Qinglong Camp has made a great harvest!"
"Our White Tiger Camp also achieved similar results. There were enough wild beasts to fill up all the carts we brought. Unfortunately, there were only a dozen or so demon beasts."
In the temporary base in the small valley, Tang Guangqiang smiled to Cao Yongxiang who had just returned with the soldiers of the Qinglong Camp, "The Xuanwu Camp and Qilin Camp, who have not yet returned from hunting, should be in a similar situation."
As for the Suzaku Camp?
Well, Tang Guangqiang doesn't want to compare.
The soldiers of the Suzaku Camp, who had returned to the small valley base first, were constantly unloading huge monsters of various sizes from the heavily loaded large carts.
Among them were two ground bears, which were extremely huge, weighing at least 1,500 kilograms each!
There were even twenty or thirty adult armored cattle, each weighing more than a thousand pounds.
It is no exaggeration to say that in this hunting trip alone, the soldiers of the Suzaku Camp obtained all kinds of monster meat, which was enough for thousands of soldiers to eat for about a month.
"Ha ha……"
Cao Yongxiang smiled indifferently and said, "We just need to do our best. Don't compare ourselves with the Suzaku Camp led by the commander-in-chief."
"Hunting a large number of wild animals is also one of our main tasks in the three days of hunting. Even if we don't get many monsters, it's fine as long as we get a large number of wild animals."
"Most of our Fuxing Army now consists of soldiers from the logistics camp. We need to stockpile a large amount of wild animal jerky to meet the food supply requirements for the upcoming expedition outside the Great Wall."
Cao Yongxiang knew that Li Dingguo was leading the soldiers of the Suzaku Camp to head for that secret small spiritual place today.
It is normal that the soldiers of the Suzaku Camp have gained more than they could have imagined today.
But it won't be like this tomorrow. The ratio of monsters and wild beasts hunted by Suzaku Camp is estimated to be similar to that of the other four camps.
Tang Guangqiang was not aware of the secret. He nodded and directed his soldiers from the White Tiger Camp to unload the wild beasts of all sizes from the cart.
From the direction of the valley entrance, there was another noisy sound of people.
He and Cao Yongxiang looked up and found that it was the soldiers from the Xuanwu Camp and the Qilin Camp who had returned from a successful hunt.
Soldiers from the five combat battalions, together with a large number of soldiers from the logistics battalion, quickly sorted and unloaded today's spoils of war onto the parade ground.
The soldiers went out hunting today, and most of them knew that all the grain and other food originally stored in the valley base had been consumed.
This afternoon, all the soldiers of the army went out hunting together and obtained a large number of wild beasts of various sizes and quite a few monsters, which immediately resolved the imminent food crisis.
By the time everyone had finished unloading all the spoils, the cooks from each recruit camp had already prepared dinner.
For dinner today, since there is not much food left, we will have barbecue and broth.
After dinner, the soldiers could not rest yet. Under Hongmei's command, they began to make various dried meats.
In order to preserve the dried meat more conveniently, Hongmei ordered hundreds of warriors to cut down non-toxic trees nearby and make large wooden barrels with lids.
The various types of roasted dried meat are classified, packed into large wooden barrels and sealed, making them convenient for carrying with the army and long-term storage.
Hongmei had anticipated this day long ago, and a few days ago she went to Dingbian City to find a large merchant from another place and purchased a large amount of salt reserves.
As for the future soldiers of the Fuxing Army, will they lack salt outside the Great Wall?
On the prairie outside the Great Wall, northeast of the source of the Wuding River, there is a huge salt lake with a radius of over a thousand miles and is famous far and wide.
This inexhaustible great salt lake is now occupied by two large Tartar tribes on the east and west sides of the great salt lake.
This large salt lake had long been designated by Li Dingguo as the main target that must be captured in the future.
It won’t be long before Li Dingguo will be able to successfully break through to the Qi Refining Realm.
By then, we will have enough confidence to gradually erode the Tatar tribes one by one outside the Great Wall, and quickly develop and strengthen the new force of the Fuxing Army.
There were so many wild beasts and monsters harvested today that thousands of people were busy working until midnight when they finally finished.
Three teams of sentries were left to take turns on guard duty, and all the remaining soldiers and civilians returned to the large wooden sheds to rest.
……
Three days passed in a flash.
Early this morning, when the sky was just getting light, the whole valley was already bustling with people.
Today is the day when all the soldiers of the Fuxing Army will migrate to the outside of the Great Wall to settle down.
The bustling crowd, under the personal command of Hongmei and a dozen core generals, was busy but not chaotic, and was busy in an orderly manner.
As the weather has started to turn cooler, soldiers in both the combat and logistics camps have already changed into clothing made of various animal skins.
This newly formed Restoration Army has a total of thousands of young men and women, many of whom have fathers who are from various artisan families.
They all know, more or less, some secret recipes handed down from their ancestors, and have some skills passed down from their ancestors, including the procedures for processing the furs of various monsters and wild beasts.
There are even more than a hundred people who can make various kinds of leather armor, leather clothes and even leather shoes.
With their collective wisdom, they came up with a complete production process in a short period of time through some research and experiments.
Li Dingguo, who has memories of his previous life, will certainly not forget the assembly line, a production model that can greatly improve work efficiency.
Under his personal participation and guidance, the uniform leather uniforms and combat uniforms of the Renaissance Army have been equipped to all soldiers in the army.
There is strength in numbers, and that’s no joke.
The large-scale working mode under highly unified command can easily produce a chain reaction. In addition, with the participation of a large number of warriors and soldiers, it is not difficult to do these things after finding ways to solve some problems.
In the past few days, all the soldiers and civilians have gone out for hunting and obtained enough furs of monsters and wild beasts, which can be used to equip all the soldiers and civilians.
The soldiers who have completed the collective change of clothes are now all wearing leather armor, leather jackets, leather pants and leather shoes of the same style. They look pleasing to the eye and no longer as messy as before.
Just looking at the soldiers' attire, there is a huge difference between them and the various rebel armies today.
The sanitation and cleanliness work that Li Dingguo focused on was enough to crush all the government troops.
Now all the soldiers of the Renaissance Army, including those in the logistics camp, were clean and tidy, with ruddy complexions, and their mental outlook was completely different from before. At 3:30 pm, all the soldiers from the new recruit camps and the logistics camp had lined up in the big square.
"set off!"
Li Dingguo stood on the high platform with a solemn expression. He looked around and waved his hand forward fiercely. This huge and powerful team began to move in an orderly manner.
The Qilin Battalion and the Scout Battalion, led by Liang Hetang, took the lead and marched towards the valley entrance in the west, followed by one team after another.
Li Dingguo and the soldiers of the Suzaku Camp acted as the central army.
Cao Yongxiang led the soldiers of the Qinglong Camp and was responsible for the rear guard and protecting the safety of the soldiers of the logistics camp.
Almost all the soldiers, their faces flushed with excitement, marched forward with their heads held high.
Although the destination of this trip was to settle down far outside the Great Wall, there was no panic in their eyes. Instead, they were full of fighting spirit and had an invisible aura that was fearless.
For these orphans and beggars, most of them had never thought that they would have such a glorious day.
Now this newly-formed renaissance army looks very scary just in terms of momentum.
This kind of neatly dressed, large and well-organized team would be shocking to the rebels, bandits and the like, not to mention the likes.
I guess even the government troops would be stunned if they saw this.
The soldiers of the Restoration Army marched in good order, even their steps were basically the same, and their formations were neat and tidy, which was very different from the way all the armies of this era marched.
In the eyes of Li Dingguo and Hongmei, who attach great importance to military rules and discipline, no sand will be tolerated.
Anyone found deserting their duties or being slack and negligent will be severely punished.
Under the strict promotion and implementation of various rules and systems, these orphans and beggars, who were originally like a blank sheet of paper, were trained into a new army with strict discipline and rules and regulations.
"Brother Dingguo, should we go directly through the city, or go around the perimeter of Dingbian City?"
Hongmei rode on a spirit beast warhorse, and she and Xiao Douya walked on Li Dingguo's left and right, and asked softly.
She knew very well that a large army marching in broad daylight would make such a big noise that even if they tried to hide their whereabouts, it would be difficult to avoid being discovered by outsiders.
In this case, it would be better to just march along the official road openly.
Anyway, with the strength of their new army, apart from the elite troops of the imperial court, they have nothing to fear in this area very close to the border.
If there are people with evil intentions who dare to come and stop the army from advancing, it will be a good opportunity to make an example of them and deter the local people.
"Just go straight through Dingbian City."
Li Dingguo thought about it and immediately decided to give the order, "Our time is precious and we cannot afford to waste it. This will save a lot of marching time."
"The precious time saved will allow us to be more fully prepared before the severe winter arrives and facilitate the implementation of some military operations."
This revival army that he founded personally has undergone tremendous changes compared to a month ago.
Li Dingguo now has the confidence to destroy some ignorant enemies.
In Yansui Town, there are actually not many generals in the Qi Refining Realm. Now, most of the elite soldiers and generals have left with Hong Chengchou's army.
The few remaining elite government troops will not be dispatched at all, and it will be good enough if they can take over various towns.
With Li Dingguo's current foundation, with the help of a military killing formation composed of hundreds of talented soldiers, he may be able to fight against a master of the fourth level of martial arts.
There are more than one hundred talented young men in the Renaissance Army, all of whom have undergone military killing training.
In the past month, Li Dingguo would personally train them whenever he had time.
Although the Seven Star Bagua Formation practiced by these talented young men has not yet reached the mastery level, they have reached the proficiency level. They have no problem cooperating with Li Dingguo to form a military killing formation to fight the enemy.
"Well, that's fine too."
Hongmei nodded and agreed with Li Dingguo's decision.
Since Hong Chengchou's army left, Dingbian City has not yet welcomed a new county magistrate and garrison, and is now an unguarded and chaotic county town.
The scout team sent out two days ago reported that there were no soldiers guarding the four gates of Dingbian City.
The Restoration Army passed directly through the city without any problems.
"The Commander-in-Chief."
Hongmei suddenly thought of something and said to Li Dingguo, "Since Dingbian City is now in a rare vacuum period, we might as well recruit a large number of refugees and orphans in the city to expand our manpower."
"It has been a month since the Eighth King left Dingbian City. I believe a large number of refugees, orphans and beggars have gathered in the city."
"This is a rare and excellent opportunity for us to expand our manpower before we leave the country. It is estimated that there will be no more situations like this in the future for a long time."
Her wicked intelligence immediately came into play. After a moment's thought, she came up with an idea, which made Li Dingguo's eyes light up.
He didn't even think about this question.
Just as Hongmei suggested, the current situation in Dingbian City is indeed an excellent opportunity to expand the Fuxing Army.
It would be a pity to miss it.
"Hongmei, your suggestion is very good and timely."
Li Dingguo made the decision immediately and said to Hongmei, "I'll leave this matter to you!"
"Immediately send someone to notify the soldiers of the five major battle camps, especially the vanguard led by Liang Hetang, to execute the latest orders after the soldiers enter the city!"
A moment later, Hongmei personally led several officers from the Suzaku Camp, rode on spirit beast war horses, left the central army, and flew quickly towards the vanguard soldiers in front...
(End of this chapter)
