Mao Wenlong sent the three brothers of the Lijia family to Yunzhou Mansion to form a sea fleet to prepare for future development. At present, the Central Plains region is still full of wars, and trade in the interior is obviously not able to be carried out, but it is different at sea.

And to build a strong enough sea caravan, it is obviously impossible to complete it for a while and a half, and Mao Wenlong is also aware of this, so he is so anxious to let the three brothers of the Lijia build it first.

In addition to building a fleet, Mao Wenlong urgently needed to continue to expand his army, and in order to keep Henan and the newly occupied Shaanxi, he had to double the number of his original army.

The west of Xi'an was cleared out by Mao Wenlong as a school field, which can accommodate 3,000 soldiers to practice at the same time. At present, there are 20,000 troops stationed in Xi'an, and these 20,000 can take turns to train here.

Today, early in the morning, Mao Wenlong took the initiative to invite Hong Chengchou to come to the school to watch the drills of the soldiers.

Hong Chengchou didn't say much about Mao Wenlong's invitation, although he didn't want to interfere in any of Mao Wenlong's military arrangements. But just accompanying him to watch the drill, he couldn't refuse.

The carriage departed from Maofu and headed directly to Xicheng, which only took half an hour to arrive. Before the carriage reached the school grounds, the slogans of the soldiers during the drill could be heard a few hundred meters away.

Listening to the majestic shouts of the soldiers, it suddenly lifted people's spirits, and the sound of war drums was even more exciting.

Hong Chengchou followed the voice, and there was a look of nostalgia in his eyes, two years ago, he spent every day in such a slogan, almost never interrupted. Now, two years have passed in the blink of an eye, and such a slogan has only been heard again after two years, and a sense of nostalgia fills my heart.

"What? Nostalgia for the past? Mao Wenlong glanced at Hong Chengchou and said something.

"Yes, I haven't heard such a slogan for two years." Hong Chengchou was also frank, and directly admitted what he thought in his heart.

"And are you interested in going back to the old days?" Mao Wenlong hesitated for a moment, and then cautiously tested.

Hong Chengchou retracted his farsighted gaze, turned his head to look at Mao Wenlong, shook his head and said softly: "The past can only be regarded as a memory, and I don't want to go back to the old days." ”

Mao Wenlong looked at Hong Chengchou and made sure that he was not saying polite words, so he didn't say more.

Hong Chengchou saw that Mao Wenlong stopped talking, and he also fell silent. The carriage was quiet again, and only the horseman's whip kept whipping the horses and galloping forward.

It is Chengzuo who is responsible for supervising the training of the soldiers in the school field, and Chen Jisheng and others have not yet arrived. For the time being, Cheng Zuo is in charge of the whole army, and the recent expansion of the army has been informed, and all cities in the entire Henan have begun to recruit troops step by step.

After receiving the report and learning that Mao Wenlong had suddenly arrived, Cheng Zuo immediately hurried to wait outside the school gate, and when he saw Mao Wenlong's carriage stopped, he hurriedly stepped forward: "Subordinate Cheng Zuo, welcome the general soldier!" ”

Mao Wenlong and Hong Chengchou got out of the carriage together, glared at Chengzuo, and said angrily: "When did you become so civil, do you have a wife now, and the manhood you used to have is gone." ”

Cheng Zuo's face was full of bitterness, and recently because of Zhuang Yexiang's arrival, the two of them didn't know when some rumors came out. said that Cheng Zuo was afraid of his wife, and was suppressed by Zhuang Yexiang, and belonged to the people who were 'strict with his wife'.

Maybe the person who said this should have no malicious intent, but when this matter reached the army, it was looked down upon by the soldiers, saying that Chengzuo had lost face for the Dongjiang army. For this reason, Cheng Zuo is very helpless, but Mao Wenlong doesn't know whether it is intentional or unintentional, he will always talk about this matter from time to time, and he will always squeeze a few sentences before talking about business when he has the opportunity.

As Mao Wenlong's subordinate, Cheng Zuo did not dare to protest to Mao Wenlong, and after two failed protests, he also learned some skills. As long as Mao Wenlong mentions this, he will admit it directly, and then Mao Wenlong will have nothing to say.

"The subordinates are guilty, and they will not dare next time!" Chengzuo immediately knelt down.

Mao Wenlong glared at him again, his expression was quite helpless, as Cheng Zuo expected, Mao Wenlong really didn't continue to talk about this matter.

Cheng Zuo was secretly happy in his heart, got up after getting Mao Wenlong's permission, and walked towards the school field for Mao Wenlong in front: "Why did the chief soldier suddenly come to the school field today?" ”

He knew that Mao Wenlong never got up early, it was only early in the morning, according to his previous habits, Mao Wenlong should still be sleeping?

Mao Wenlong did not answer the question: "How is the drill going, how is the implementation of the matter of bringing some officers up to bring new recruits to you a few days ago?" ”

Cheng Zuo obviously didn't expect Mao Wenlong to come over early in the morning to ask about this, and after a long hesitation, he saw him and said, "Subordinates should die, these things haven't had time to be done." ”

In fact, it's not that Chengzuo doesn't have time to do it, but that he is only temporarily in charge of military affairs, and things like this need to go through Chen Jisheng's hands, and he can't overstep his authority.

Mao Wenlong glanced at Chengzuo, and seemed to understand his difficulties, so he didn't blame him, but said again: "It's okay if you haven't done it yet, when Chen Jisheng comes, you can discuss it again." ”

Cheng Zuo immediately breathed a sigh of relief and happily thanked Mao Wenlong for his grace of not punishing.

At this time, the three of them had already arrived at the school ground, and 3,000 officers and men of the Dongjiang Army were sweating on the school ground, practicing the formation.

Mao Wenlong was silent for a moment, and suddenly pointed to the soldiers who were practicing on the field and asked Cheng Zuo beside him: "Do you think the army trained in this way can have the strength to fight with the Tartars?" ”

Cheng Zuo didn't even want to think about it, and said immediately: "Without the strength of a battle, most of these people are new soldiers, and some of them have not been on the battlefield yet." Relying on such drills alone has no possibility of fighting the Tartars. ”

Mao Wenlong nodded after hearing this, and said in a cruel voice: "Then there is no need to continue training like this, apply our training methods in the Yexian Army directly to them, train according to the minimum requirements first, and eliminate those who can't adhere to it." ”

Cheng Zuo's face immediately changed when he heard this, Ye County's training method was that even the veterans of the Dongjiang Army had to endure a lot of hardships before they gradually adapted to it.

If that hellish training method was directly applied to these recruits, Cheng Zuo didn't dare to imagine how many of these people would be able to survive in the end?

"Chief soldier, this is not appropriate!" Cheng Zuo exclaimed on the spot.

"Why not?" Mao Wenlong immediately asked in a deep voice.

"These are all new recruits, and there are not many people who can adapt to them." Cheng Zuo told the truth.

"I want an elite soldier who can compete with the Tartar army!" Mao Wenlong said fiercely.