Although Li Yanqing's extremely harsh training conditions made it difficult for everyone to adapt, in the end, Gao Yu still accepted Li Yanqing's plan, since he had said it first, it was not good for him to go back on his word, and he also hoped to train an elite army.

At the ensuing meeting on the closed-door deployment of the army, Gao Yu fulfilled his promise and divided the army into 300 small battalions, each of which would be served by Li Yanqing's own soldiers.

This arrangement was made, and everyone understood the true commander of this army.

"Does Li Fuyin feel that there is really no hope?"

In the big tent, Li Gang was still a little unwilling, if the command of this army was not in his own hands, he would still be a little angry, and he couldn't explain it to the prince when he went back.

He was even more worried that once the official family retreated south, it was very likely that this elite army that had just been trained would be taken away.

Li Yanqing knows what the problem is? The problem is that Li Gang didn't know that Gao Yu had secretly pledged his allegiance to the prince, and he also thought that Gao Yu was a loyal lackey of Zhao Ji, the son of heaven.

Li Yanqing took a sip of tea and said with a slight smile: "Taiwei Gao has already pledged allegiance to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. ”

Li Gang was stunned, "What did you say?" ”

"Captain Gao handed over his sword to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and I am the middleman."

Only then did Li Gang understand what Li Yanqing meant, and he was immediately overjoyed, when did this happen?

"Just yesterday morning, I personally handed over his sword to His Royal Highness the Prince, this matter is relatively secret, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince doesn't want too many people to know."

Li Gang suddenly breathed a long sigh of relief, "Why didn't you tell me earlier, I almost didn't sleep all night last night about this matter." ”

"It's not too late for you to know!"

Li Yanqing's heart also became brisk, he casually said before that he would let Cao Yan be the ruler of the capital, but now it is impossible to think about it, Cao Yan is now responsible for the safety of the entire family, and all kinds of affairs in the family have to be done by him himself, how can he have time to hang this nominal title.

But this is only a subjective reason, and the more important objective reason is that Gao Yu is unwilling to give up the position of coach, which is not to say that Gao Yu is unwilling to give up power, but he is afraid that delegating power will cause the suspicion of the officials, which is undoubtedly a fatal blow to him.

Therefore, Gao Yu would rather secretly take refuge in the crown prince Zhao Huan, and also maintain his loyal position in the hearts of the official family on the surface, which is also the real reason why Gao Yu agreed to Li Yanqing's personal soldiers to enter the camp, and it is impossible for him not to give up any benefits.

In the afternoon, the first large-scale actual combat training began on the martial arts training ground, and I saw that the dust on the martial arts exercise ground covered the sky and the sun, and 2,000 soldiers were fighting on the martial arts field with wooden knives and guns in hand, and dozens of cavalry were refereeing in the crowd, constantly clearing out the soldiers who had been 'shot' or 'stabbed'.

On the temporary wooden platform next to it, a group of high-ranking officials were next to the first actual combat drill, Gao Yu was quite satisfied, these soldiers were very hard, one by one they were desperately fighting with each other, in his memory, he had not seen such a wonderful drill for many years.

"How does Li Fuyin feel?" Gao Yu asked Li Yanqing next to him with a smile.

Li Yanqing was a little unimpressed by the drills of the two armies, and he could see that these soldiers were deliberately acting as a majority, and they were not fighting to defend some kind of honor.

Once the high-ranking officials who watched the battle have left, it will be a question whether these soldiers will be interested in fighting.

The reason for this is that Li Yanqing also knows in his heart that these forbidden soldiers are all veterans, far less simple than the township soldiers, and it is estimated that it is enough to simply defend the collective honor, and perhaps only by relying on heavy rewards and incentives can we mobilize the enthusiasm of the soldiers.

"Li Fuyin has any suggestions, just say it!"

Gao Yu saw the hesitation in Li Yanqing's eyes, and he knew in his heart that this hesitation was actually dissatisfaction, but people didn't point it out because they took care of their face.

Gao Yu called Xu Ning, Dong Ping and Zhang Qing up again to listen to Li Yanqing's suggestion.

Li Yanqing smiled slightly and asked, "These brothers, have you ever drunk blood?" ”

The three of them glanced at each other, their faces were a little unnatural, and among the three, only Zhang Qing followed Gao Yu to fight Liangshan, but he was still defeated.

As for Xu Ning and Dong Ping, they are both in their early stages, although they also have human lives on their hands, but it is not the same thing as what Li Yanqing said about drinking blood, and people ask whether they have ever been on the battlefield.

Even Xu Ning and Dong Ping have never been on the battlefield, not to mention these soldiers, Dong Ping wants to save face, he is still thinking about how to answer, but Xu Ning is a cheerful person, he shook his head and said: "No, these turtle sons all grew up drinking the water of the Bianhe River, and they are very moisturized, where have they drunk blood?" ”

'Drinking the water of the Bianhe River to grow up' is a kind of self-proclaimed name of the people of the capital, just like the people of the capital in later generations said that they grew up with the roots of the imperial city.

Xu Ning's words made Dong Ping's eyes flash a trace of unhappiness, although the three of them are all in control, but in terms of official rank, it is Dong Ping who obeys, and Gao Yu's introduction before also started with Dong Ping, in fact, this is the subconscious telling Li Yanqing that this army is headed by Dong Ping, and Dong Ping himself thinks so, and the official level crushes people to death.

Officialdom has the rules of officialdom, and the army is also a part of officialdom, who should speak, who should speak, all pay attention to the dignity and inferiority of the main and secondary, Gao Yu respected Li Yanqing and called the three of them together, but it does not mean that the rules must be ignored.

Li Fuyin asked about the soldier's situation, he Dong Ping hadn't opened his mouth yet, but Xu Ning next to him snatched the talk, obviously breaking the rules, which made Dong Ping extremely dissatisfied in his heart, although he tried to restrain himself as much as possible, but a trace of dissatisfaction in his eyes was still revealed, but it was seen by the extremely shrewd Li Yanqing.

Li Yanqing smiled slightly, his eyes turned to Dong Ping again, Dong Ping felt a little more comfortable in his heart, don't look at people who are young, but they know the rules better than some people who have lived for dozens of years in vain.

Dong Ping said unhurriedly: "Although none of them have ever been to the battlefield, their parents, wives and children are all in the capital, and I believe that at a critical moment, their blood will definitely burst out!" ”

'High! This is called Gao Ming! Li Yanqing secretly praised, the same meaning, but Dong Ping can say it more satisfactorily, although Dong Ping also admitted that these soldiers have not been on the battlefield, but he can fill this loophole, his parents, wife and children are in the capital, isn't it to protect the family and defend the country?

Xu Ning was a little disappreciative in his heart, Dong Ping just said it nicely, the war was really tragic, and it was really uncertain whether these turtle sons would take off their military uniforms and flee home.

But Xu Ning also wants to save face, he can't belittle his subordinates too much, and he can also understand the dissatisfaction of the person next to him! He just snorted coldly in his heart and said nothing.

Li Yanqing smiled and nodded, "When I go back, I will arrange for craftsmen to build a training wall in the barracks, so that the brothers can conduct training in defending the city." ”

At this time, Zhang Qing, who had been silent beside him, suddenly said, "Can we use Lao Biancheng to train?" ”

Li Yanqing's heart moved, this is indeed a good suggestion, he didn't expect that one of the biggest problems in his training program is to build a simulated city wall, which will take at least ten days and half a month, if the amount of work is large, it will even take more time, if there is a ready-made city wall, of course, it is the best.

The old Biancheng mentioned by Zhang Qing is located twenty miles northwest of the capital, only ten miles away from their current camp, and it was originally a peripheral defense military city in Tokyo, but it had been abandoned twenty years ago.

Li Yanqing said happily: "This is a good idea, so that you don't have to wait for the city wall to be repaired before training, and you can pull the army over for rotation training tomorrow." ”

Gao Yu also agreed to this plan, and he immediately asked the three commanders to formulate a detailed rule, which he could implement after reading it.

In the afternoon, Li Yanqing returned to the capital with Li Gang and Gao Shen, along the way, the three of them were relatively silent, and when they arrived at the new Fengqiu Gate, Li Yanqing asked Gao Shen, who had been silent today, in a low voice: "The city lacks large weapons to defend the city, and I heard that the inventory is also insufficient, how can this be solved?" ”

Gao Shen smiled slightly, "You don't need to worry about this, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince mentioned this issue two months ago, the current inventory of large trebuchets is fifty-two, and there are only ten cannons, and the Ordnance Supervision Commission has built one hundred and fifty large trebuchets and one hundred cannons in three months, and there are also some large defensive weapons on the side of Yingtianfu, and the Privy Council has issued an order, so it should arrive in a few days." ”

"When will Uptown be installed?"

"I'm going to ask Li Shilang about this."

Li Gang also heard their conversation, and he said: "When the defensive weapons of Ying Tianfu arrive, we will immediately install them in the city, and the installation will be completed in ten days at most, we have been planning to train the current 30,000 Xiang troops as the controllers, responsible for controlling these city-defending weapons, but ...... Ay! I can't command this army! ”

Li Yanqing smiled slightly and said: "It's a good way to let the Xiang army be responsible for manipulating large siege weapons, according to my experience, they can be proficient in three days of training at most, so I suggest maintaining the status quo for the time being, as I said before, get everything ready, once the situation changes, you can immediately take advantage of the situation, and there is no time at all." ”

Li Gang nodded, "Speaking of preparation, in terms of firearm preparation, I am really a little lacking. ”

"Oh! What is the shortage of firearms, is it not enough raw materials, or is it ......"

"The raw materials are enough, the key is the firesmith, and the ordnance supervisor also made iron fire thunder, but when I tested it before, I tested five, and none of them exploded, and now I am still looking for the reason, I am afraid that it will freeze or find the reason, and the iron fire thunder will be too late."

Of course, Li Yanqing knows that the difficulty of making iron fire thunder is much greater than that of earth-shaking thunder, the key is to find that delicate balance, if the medicine is less and the iron is thick, it will not explode, and if the medicine is more and the iron is thin, there is no lethality, and his success rate in Jiayu County was also extremely low, and it was not until he went to Jingzhao Mansion that he completely broke through, and the best craftsmen who made iron fire thunder were all in Jingzhao, including four gunpowder craftsmen and ten blacksmiths.

Li Yanqing groaned and said, "That's it! I will send a letter to Jingzhao City early tomorrow morning, and in seven days at the latest, the best craftsmen who make iron fire and thunder will come to the capital. ”

Li Gang was immediately overjoyed, "Then I'll wait and see!" ”

Li Yanqing did not go back to Cao Mansion to rest after entering the capital, but came to Kaifeng Mansion, he didn't care much about what would happen in Kaifeng Mansion, he only cared about whether his two staff members could successfully replace him to play the function of the staff, this was Li Yanqing's idea a long time ago, he didn't have time to ask about the trivial matters of Kaifeng Mansion, so he wanted to decompose the responsibilities and powers of Kaifeng Mansion Yin and hand them over to his two staff.

Li Yanqing came, in front of the gate of the Kaifeng Mansion, he turned over and dismounted, walked quickly to the mansion, just walked into the backyard of the Plum Blossom Hall, only to see Cao Ying greeted him with an anxious face, and said to Li Yanqing urgently: "Mansion Yin, something happened!" ”

Li Yanqing waved his hand lightly, "Don't worry, let's talk about it when we enter the room!" ”