Chapter 136: Using fighting as a substitute for training, a pragmatic foundation
"Great Commander!"
"As we traveled, we encountered many refugees along the way. Without any surprise, most of them followed our team and were very eager to join our Restoration Army."
"It's only been three days, and the logistics battalion has already increased by more than 10,000 people!"
In the busy pattern of the large army marching during the day and resting at night, three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Early this morning, Hongmei found Li Dingguo and reported to him.
Li Dingguo was sitting at a large wooden table, holding a pen and paper, perfecting the action plan that was about to begin. Hearing this, he looked up and said, "Under the current circumstances, even if tens of thousands of refugees come, we can accept them."
"Anyway, the third batch of warrior selection plans has almost been completed, and more and more soldiers are becoming warriors."
"The scale of the fourth batch of warrior selection will be more than doubled to speed up the selection of warriors."
"The more people who join the Restoration Army, the better it will be for us. Even if our food reserves are insufficient, we can send soldiers from each battalion to hunt along the way, so as to fight to support the war and replenish our large reserves of dried meat."
"Since we have followed you, we should accept all the refugees we meet along the way."
He also knew that the natural disasters and man-made disasters in the northwest region of the Ming Dynasty were too severe this year, and there were large numbers of refugees fleeing everywhere almost every moment.
As long as our team has not yet left the border, it is not surprising to encounter a large number of refugees along the way.
Anyway, we have already recruited so many people, and it won’t be a big deal to recruit a few tens of thousands more.
The most important thing is that all the elite troops of Yansui Town will soon follow Hong Chengchou into Jin.
To be honest, without the threat of Hong Chengchou's elite army, Li Dingguo was not afraid of any hostile local forces here.
These local forces were lucky enough not to be attacked by the rebels. How could they dare to provoke such a large rebel army?
"Oh, by the way, yesterday I asked Liang Hetang to go to the front of the road and ask if there are any notorious landlords. Go ask Wei Jinfan if he has sent back any news."
Li Dingguo thought of something again and said to Hongmei.
"Okay, I'll go find Wei Jinfan right away and ask her if the intelligence department she's in charge has completed its work."
"We don't have a professional intelligence department right now, which is really inconvenient. Even for information like this, Liang Hetang has to do it himself. It's too difficult for him!"
This expected predicament made even Hongmei, a genius with great patience, unable to help but complain, which shows that it is urgent to establish a qualified intelligence team.
But there is no way around it, because the Renaissance Army was just established not long ago, and each department has just built a framework, and there is still a long way to go before it can operate normally.
Li Dingguo arranged for Liang Hetang to go out in person to gather information. The main reason was that he wanted to wipe out a few notorious tyrants on the way to the outside of the Great Wall and replenish the various supplies in his team.
Even though a large amount of supplies were purchased before setting out from Dingbian City, those supplies were not enough to last long compared to the huge scale of the Restoration Army.
With more than 100,000 people, the amount of food and other supplies consumed every day is a huge number.
Moreover, among the current Renaissance Army, there is a severe shortage of things such as books, spiritual beasts and war horses. Before going out, it would be better to replenish as many as possible.
He even specifically instructed Liang Hetang to check around to see if there were any low-level evil spirits lurking along the way.
If nothing unexpected happens, it won't be long before he leads the Fuxing Army to select a place on the Dongtao Plain to start a farming model in order to achieve self-sufficiency in various food crops as soon as possible.
Only in this way can we eliminate the biggest obstacle to the rapid development of the Renaissance Army and embark on a fast track of rapid development.
Only if we are able to be self-sufficient in storing large amounts of food and fodder will we not have to find ways to purchase them from all directions in order to meet the needs of the increasingly large-scale expansion of the Renaissance Army in the future and avoid being strangled by others.
Since the inner elixirs, spirit stones and magic cores of demon beasts are difficult to obtain, soul beads become his first choice for setting up the Five Elements Spirit Gathering Formation.
For him, without sufficient soul beads reserves, he would not be able to truly start the self-production and self-sales model of cultivation resources.
From now on, finding ways to obtain a large number of soul beads will be one of the most important things.
Just after Hongmei left for a while, there was a burst of hurried footsteps coming from far away.
Li Dingguo looked up and found that the person coming was the guy Liang Hetang whom he had been thinking about just now.
"Commander-in-chief! I'm back!"
"I just came back and came straight to you without wasting even a moment!"
Liang Hetang looked a little excited, and hurriedly reported to Li Dingguo, "I rode on a spirit beast warhorse and advanced about a hundred miles."
"Then I inquired about what you told me in several villages and towns along the way."
“I didn’t expect that the harvest would be quite big.”
He took a breath and quickly calmed down, then continued, "The two things you told me about have now been resolved." "Let me start with the first thing: there is a notorious manor of a wealthy and evil family forty and sixty miles away from our team."
"It is said that these two evil gentry families have an unclear cooperative relationship with the Tartars outside the Great Wall. Every time the Tartars enter the Great Wall to plunder the grass and grain, they do not harm them at all."
"Their misdeeds are far more than this!"
"Most of the dozen or so villages along the way have been harmed by them. They have committed usurious acts, plundered people, and raped women. There are too many evil deeds to mention!"
"Nine out of ten, these two manors are the accomplices of the Tartars outside the Great Wall, providing them with real-time intelligence and helping them sell stolen goods, and trading large amounts of military supplies!"
"From the fact that both of their caravans are equipped with hundreds of spiritual beasts and war horses, and they always return with full loads after leaving the customs, we can guess what's going on."
At this point, he paused and continued, "As for the places covered by the Yin energy that you emphasized, I have also found out about two of them."
"There is a very terrifying place, right at the station of the Dingbian Camp, a powerful elite force of the imperial court."
"I heard that in that place, the Dingbian Camp, which was originally doing well, suddenly lost all 30,000 soldiers overnight! Then their base was shrouded in a large area of dark yin energy!"
"Later, several Qi Refining Realm masters went in to investigate, but none of them returned. Gradually, it became a forbidden place that people passed on by word of mouth!"
"However, the former Dingbian Camp was built right next to the Great Wall, about 150 miles away from here."
"And near the original station of Dingbian Camp is also the checkpoint where we will leave this time."
"We definitely can't afford to provoke this kind of forbidden area right now. We have to avoid it."
As he said this, he felt a little frightened in his heart, and quickly changed the subject, talking about another place shrouded in yin energy, "The other target is more suitable for us to clear out."
"That area is located in a small town that was massacred by evil spirits 80 miles ahead."
"The tens of thousands of people in this small town all died overnight."
"But this incident didn't happen long ago. It happened more than 20 days ago."
"The one who discovered the abnormal situation there was a martial artist at the peak of the third level of martial arts. He went in alone to check it out, but escaped with serious injuries. Only then did the news gradually spread."
"Since the evil spirit there could not be killed on the spot by even a martial artist of the third level of martial arts, and it escaped, it is enough to prove that the large number of evil spirits entrenched there are not as strange as those of a master of the Qi Refining Realm."
"Since there is nothing strange in it, the town occupied by evil spirits, even if there are more evil spirits in it, will not be a match for our Renaissance Army soldiers."
"If we successfully eliminate all the evil spirits entrenched there, we can not only obtain a lot of soul beads of various levels, but also harvest all the useful materials of a small town."
"By then, the total amount of various materials we harvest should be comparable to what we gain from conquering a wealthy family."
After saying this, he stared at Li Dingguo, waiting for his decision.
If things go as expected, there will be three major battles waiting for him, so Liang Hetang is looking forward to it.
He has personally trained the Qilin Camp for such a long time, but has never experienced a real battle!
Now that I finally have the chance to indulge in this craving, how could I not be eager to try it?
"Well, you've worked hard this time."
Li Dingguo made up his mind without hesitation, "Don't worry, all five camps will participate in this battle."
"However, every time I lead the Suzaku Camp and take turns attacking with your four major camps!"
"You also know that we are still carrying so many logistics battalion personnel. It is impossible for all five battalions to go out at the same time. At least two combat battalions must be left behind to protect these hundreds of thousands of people and continue on our journey."
"In this way, our five battalions of soldiers can take turns to conduct actual combat training without delaying the daily travel time of the main force."
"We are still 150 miles away from the border. It will take at least four days for all the soldiers of the Renaissance Army to reach the exit."
“At that time, we may need to take a detour to exit the country.”
He brought so many people out of the pass this time, so naturally he would not think of fighting with the Ming border soldiers guarding the pass.
If that happens, the impact will be too great and it will likely attract the government's attention, which will be detrimental to the overall situation in the future.
So this time when he went out of the border, he tried his best to avoid the government troops and try not to have direct conflict with them.
"Okay, Liang Hetang, go explain the situation to Hongmei and Wei Jinfan first, then go and notify the commanders of the major camps to prepare for the operation that will begin in a day!"
"In the next three actual combat trainings, we must achieve victory while minimizing casualties among our soldiers."
He gave Liang Hetang some instructions, asking him to notify Hongmei and Wei Jinfan as soon as possible and start preparing for the five major combat camps to take turns attacking.
(End of this chapter)
