The teaching field of Datong town is located in the south of the city three miles, covers an area of more than seven hectares, the area is quite extensive, the teaching field is built in the Yongle year, in the past it was the place where the officers and soldiers in the main city of Datong town will perform autumn exercises.

By this time, the years had passed, and the teaching hall was in dilapidation.

At this time, on the teaching ground, it was already full of large and small sergeants in Datong Town.

At this time, the weather in the north of Daming was already very suitable, but tens of thousands of horses and horses had been crowded on the teaching ground for a long time, and anyone would be sweating profusely and irritable.

Liu Juntao, accompanied by Xue Tong, stood on the stage and looked below, only to see many sergeants in Datong Town constantly swaying left and right, either wiping the sweat beads on their foreheads or fanning themselves, and they didn't look like sergeants at all.

What is even more sighing is that there are nearly 39,323 people in the military register of Datong Town, except for the soldiers guarding the castles and piers in various places, the soldiers and horses in Datong Town should be more than 30,000.

However, after Liu Juntao asked his soldiers of the Tiance Army to count according to the army structure, it would be good if there were 20,000 soldiers in the field.

It is among these people that a small half of them are still old and weak, and the mandarin duck jackets on their bodies are all tattered, many of them have yellow faces and thin muscles, and even the weapons on their hands are rusty, and they have not been maintained at first glance.

When these people came into contact with Liu Juntao's gaze, they all looked numb, and there was no expression in their eyes or faces, in Liu Juntao's opinion, these soldiers and horses were already useless.

The only ones that are better are the family members next to the generals, the number of these family members is uneven, but most of them are young and strong, and their armor and weapons are quite complete, but their array discipline is also sparse, and they are all typical rabble.

On the high platform of the martial arts hall of the teaching field, Liu Juntao glanced at the sergeants of Datong Town and City under the field, his face was very ugly, the corruption of the garrison of Datong Town City was already greatly beyond his expectations, can these soldiers fight?

Originally, when the Wara army went south, although the soldiers and horses of Datong Town had been on the defensive and did not have the strength to counterattack, they would never fall to this?

According to Liu Juntao's estimate, if these soldiers and horses in front of them had resisted the 300,000 Warat army led by the first in those years, then Datong Town would have fallen a long time ago!

At this time, Liu Juntao looked at Xue Tong beside him, and saw that Xue Tong's face was also ugly, full of shame.

"Let the Governor see a smile!"

"Mr. Xue has nothing to say?"

Xue Tong sighed and said: "Qiqi Governor, the soldiers of my Datong Town have been attacked several times by the Wara army in the past few years, and the soldiers of each department have suffered heavy casualties, and the army has not recovered. Although these few times they repelled the attack of the Warat army, the money and grain allocated by the imperial court were not enough at all, and Datong Town needed to spend silver everywhere, but the last general did not have so much silver......"

When Liu Juntao heard this, he understood: "So you eat empty salaries and use the money and food you have intercepted to feed the army?" ”

Xue Tong's face was even more unbearable, and not saying a word was a tacit acquiescence.

Liu Juntao shook his head slightly, although Xue Tong's approach is not worth advocating, and even violates the law of the Ming Dynasty, but this is also an expedient measure that is forced to be helpless.

"From you down, all generals will be fined for half a year!"

"Order!"

At this time, there was a buzzing sound in the teaching field, and the soldiers of the various departments in Datong Town also noticed the soldiers of the Three Thousand Tiance Army next to them at this time, and they couldn't help but start discussing, these soldiers were all drawn from the Long Xiang Army.

These soldiers are good soldiers, they are young, stout, and especially disciplined, they are dressed in armor, and in the weather at this time, they only stand with their blades solemn, like tall pines and cypresses, standing still.

This kind of military discipline and military appearance made the soldiers of Datong Town next to them all fearful, especially many people had fought side by side with the soldiers of the Tiance Army before, and they knew the strong combat power of the soldiers of the Tiance Army, so the expressions of these soldiers were even more awe-inspiring.

Then, Liu Juntao also had a good understanding of the situation of the soldiers and horses in Datong Town at this time, so he asked those Datong Town soldiers to perform the formation and martial arts again, and in the process of watching, Liu Juntao's face still had no expression, but at the end of the time he said to Xue Tong: "General Xue, you pass the order, from tomorrow, the governor will inspect the forts under the rule of Datong Town!" ”

Since the second day, Liu Juntao has asked the guerrilla general Zhou Quan to lead a thousand iron cavalry to accompany him, and Xue Tong, the chief military officer of Datong Town, accompanied by a group of generals of Datong Town, and everyone has inspected the forts under Datong Town one after another.

In addition to the main city of Datong Town and the four forts on the left, there are eleven forts under the jurisdiction of Datong Town, such as the settlement, Zhenchuan Fort, Zhenhe Fort, Hongci Fort, Weilu Fort, and Xujiazhuang Fort.

Along the way, not to mention the efforts of the generals of the fortresses everywhere, according to the situation that Liu Juntao saw, the situation of the fortresses everywhere is very bad, and the soldiers and horses stationed everywhere are not even as good as the soldiers and horses in Datong Town, seeing these situations, Liu Juntao can't think of frowning.

On the fifth day, Liu Juntao led a group of people to Zhenchuan Fort, and Chang Zhengwei, the garrison of Zhenchuan Fort, respectfully greeted Liu Juntao and his party.

The terrain of Zhenchuan Fort is important, it is located on the pass road leading to Datong Town in the south of Yanghewei, the fortress is built on the hillside, and the west is the Taihe River, and the terrain is dangerous. The circumference of the fortress is one mile and two hundred and sixty steps, not covered with bricks, there are more than 400 soldiers stationed in the fortress, and there are four piers under its jurisdiction.

There is only one street and a few alleys in the fortress, and there are dozens of households living in the fort, perhaps Zhenchuan Fort is located in the hilly and alpine area in the north of Datong Town, and the people in the fortress have less arable land, and they are generally poor.

Liu Juntao saw that the so-called street in the fortress was just a wide dirt road, full of potholes, on both sides of the street were mostly some mud houses, thatched huts and other dilapidated buildings, and the road was mostly ragged and shivering with cold.

There are only two shops in the fort, selling some grain, rice and miscellaneous goods.

The best building in the fort is the garrison official hall, and Chang Zhengsheng couldn't take out any good things to entertain Liu Juntao and these officials, so he killed a pig to greet these big people from Datong Town.

Liu Juntao didn't pay much attention to Chang Zhengsheng's respect and sycophancy, but just asked Chang Zhengwei: "Chang Shoubei, I heard that there is an iron mine near this Zhenchuan Fort?" ”

In later generations, Zhenchuan Township was famous for its grapes and apricots, and its water resources were also abundant, but Liu Juntao was most concerned about the iron ore that could make weapons and armor in the territory.

Chang Zhengwei groaned: "There is one, located more than ten miles to the north, or a hanging stone mine, and the quality is also quite outstanding, but it is inconvenient to mine." Only some villagers go there to dig some ore for use, and they are popular on weekdays! ”

Mu stone ore is hematite, and the appearance is mostly reddish-brown.

After listening to Chang Zhengwei's words, Liu Juntao became happy and said, "You take me over to have a look!" ”

According to the estimates of the entourage, the local hematite reserves are nearly 2 million tons, with an iron content of 30 to 40 percent.

Mining is a little inconvenient, but Liu Juntao, as the governor of Shanxi, as long as he dispatches manpower and has enough money and grain, he can still smelt a large amount of steel.

Liu Juntao, who was in a happy mood afterwards, accompanied by Xue Tong, Chang Zhengwei and others, visited the mountains northwest of Zhenchuan Fort.

The forest here is evergreen and lush in all seasons, and wild animals such as Huet and Masako can be seen everywhere, and the strange rocks on the mountain are gorgeous, the scenery is beautiful, and there are a large number of forests and grasslands. In the future, I will raise horses and collect medicines, and it is an excellent base.

After Liu Juntao's inspections and various places in Zhenchuanbao these days, he estimated that there were 270,000 to 80,000 mu of cultivated fields and wasteland in the territory, and this was a piece of land that was completely owned by himself, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs could completely develop it on a large scale in the future.

Looking at the beautiful scenery on the mountain, Liu Juntao's heart swelled with pride, he can govern Shandong Town well under extremely difficult conditions, and he can also govern the entire Datong Town, and even Shanxi Province, and gain his own foothold in the world.

Calculating the time, Liu Juntao estimated that it would not be long before the Tatar army would go south to enter the Kou, but he was pressed for time.

Whether it was Warat before or Tatar at this time, Liu Juntao hated them from the bottom of his heart and looked down on them from the bottom of his heart!

Liu Juntao, no matter in the past, now, or in the future, will not consider any thoughts of dealing with these Tartars, the soldiers are coming to the city, and it is a big deal to fight a vigorous battle, rather than for the broken jade!

Liu Juntao recalled the experience of these years, since he came to this world, he has been working hard, from the penniless poor boy of Yushanji, to the current position of governor of Shanxi, all by his own desperate work, even at the last moment, Liu Juntao will not give up.

Liu Juntao is ambitious at the moment, and plans to train the soldiers and horses of Datong Town and even Shanxi Province into a strong army before the arrival of the Tatar army. At present, the Ming bandits are all over the place, kill them, one can calm the people, and the other can raise the army, even if the soldiers and horses in Shanxi are not as strong as the Tiance army, they must be stronger than the ordinary Ming army soldiers and horses.

On the way back, looking at the looming Datong Town, Liu Juntao exhaled, his future starts here.