The first batch of soldiers recruited totaled 55,000 and was organized into 10 battalions, plus the three battalions left over from the original reorganization, and the Nanjing Town Army had 13 battalions, with a total scale of about 65,000 people.

The musket battalion that Cao Yue brought from Datong had been broken up in half, leaving only about 2,000 people in the first battalion, and the other 3,000 people were charged to the other battalions as backbones. The next training will also be led by these backbones.

Cao Yue hoped that through such integration, an army with a certain combat effectiveness could be trained as soon as possible.

Although Jiannu suffered a crushing defeat under the city of Datong, most of the losses were the Han army, the Korean army, and the Mongols, and the Jurchen strength basically did not have any losses, that is to say, Jiannu's elite men and horses were still there, and they still had the ability to invade the south on a large scale.

In this battle, although Cao Yue defeated Li Yan's men and horses, and then several Ming armies also stopped Li Yan and Liu Zongmin from moving north, but they did not eliminate many Liukou. It can be said that the power of the rogues is very large.

Although the Datong army won a great victory in the just-concluded campaign, it also paid a heavy price, more than 10,000 soldiers were killed or lost their combat effectiveness due to injuries, and most of the rest were taken to Shaanxi and Henan by Sun Chuanting to suppress the chaos.

The north, especially the Datong area, will not be guarded by elite border troops, and if Jiannu attacks again, no one can predict what the battle will be. Beijing's defense is also empty. The people and horses that Sun Chuanting brought to Shaanxi and Henan are still combative, and the remaining Ming officers and soldiers, except for Hong Chengchou in Liaodong and some combat-effective armies under Zu Dashou, are all rabble.

As far as Cao Yue knows, the number of rogues now has hundreds of thousands of horses, and it can be said that the situation in the world is very unoptimistic.

If you want to eliminate the Liukou and defeat Jiannu, you must train an elite team of men and horses as soon as possible.

Cao Yue knew that this was a lofty goal, and now it could only be regarded as a dream, and now he could only hope that the situation could be temporarily balanced, and that the Ming army could block the attacks of the Jiannu and the Liukou, so that the situation would not deteriorate too much.

Cao Yue knew that if Sun Chuanting's war in Henan was unfavorable, the power of the Liukou was likely to grow, and it was very likely that the history of Beijing would repeat itself. Jiannu will definitely not let go of the opportunity for the fisherman to make profits, they will take advantage of the growing power of the Liukou to send troops to give Daming a hard blow, he must train the army as soon as possible, so that when the situation is critical, he can save the emergency, and not give the Liukou and Jiannu a chance.

In other words, what Cao Yue needs to do most urgently now is to train an army that can cope with the situation.

With an army with combat effectiveness, he can control the current situation, and maybe he will be able to dominate the world. At least, it can also leave a way back for himself and his family, so that he can only flee in the end like a lost dog, without the ability to resist.

Because of many urgent reasons, Cao Yue strictly ordered the soldiers under his command to train with the strictest attitude and become an army as soon as possible.

A battalion of soldiers he brought from Datong was the most elite in the Datong army, and his military quality was far from being comparable to that of ordinary Ming officers and soldiers. They were enriched into other battalions and trained with these people as the backbone, and Cao Yue believed that they would soon achieve results.

The special guard battalion now has only 280 members, and it has sacrificed a lot in several battles, and now it is ready to continue to select and select troops in this recruitment, which can best expand the special guard battalion to about 1,000 people.

Cao Yue's report to Xiang was that he was preparing to recruit 100,000 horses, and this plan was approved by Emperor Chongzhen, and Cao Yue of course continued to recruit soldiers, and the conscription order he issued was valid for a long time. In order to select better soldiers, he expanded the recruitment to the Zhejiang area. At that time, the Qi family army was mainly from Zhejiang, and Cao Yue sent his cronie Cao Neng to recruit soldiers in Zhejiang. He instructed Cao Neng to only pick young adults who are excellent in all aspects, he doesn't need more, just fine.

Wang Ning, the supervisor sent by Emperor Chongzhen, is Wang Chengen's cousin, and Cao Yue, through Wang Chengen's relationship and his own bribery, has made this eunuch sent by Emperor Chongzhen to monitor him become his right-hand man. Through Wang Ning's help, Cao Yue got some things that were difficult to get, and of course, the most important thing was to let Emperor Chongzhen delegate more power and give him more autonomy.

When Cao Yue was in Datong, he bought a lot of machines from the Portuguese to make firearms and hired many Western craftsmen.

Now, he has come to Nanjing, and these machine and skilled workers can also begin to fulfill their mission.

There were many firearms manufacturing workshops in Nanjing, and after Cao Yue came to Nanjing, he took over all the firearms workshops through Wang Ning, and built a new firearms workshop covering a wide area. Although it was said that these machines were bought at his own expense, and the craftsmen were also hired at his own expense, and now a new firearms factory was built in the name of the government, Cao Yue did not care in the slightest, he knew that since he came to Nanjing, the imperial court had been difficult to control him.

In the end, everything will belong to him, including the army he has newly trained.

Becoming a feudal official, Cao Yue's mind has been completely opened, he knows that if he wants to solve the current crisis, everything must be overturned, relying on the current ministers in the court, if he wants to create a rich and powerful Ming, it must be a fool's dream.

It's just that Cao Yue has no clue about how to make the situation develop according to his own thoughts, but he knows that he can take advantage of the competition of various forces and finally reap the benefits of the fisherman.

This is also a reluctant purpose for him to let go of the peasant rebel army led by Li Yan, and of course he also wants to win over Li Yan's men.

At present, while stepping up the training of soldiers and horses, he is also closely concerned about the situation in the world, especially the movements of Sun Chuanting's headquarters.

Before Sun Chuanting was released from prison, Wang Qiaonian, who was promoted to the governor of the three sides, presided over the suppression of the peasant army. During the three years that Sun Chuanting was imprisoned, Xiong Wencan and Yang Sichang suffered successive defeats in the war to exterminate the Liukou, and Li Zicheng opened up the situation in Henan with hundreds of thousands of troops. It was also when Sun Chuanting and Cao Yue led the army to fight to the death with Jiannu in Datong, the peasant army and Wang Qiaonian's men and horses also fought a big battle, and on the way to Sun Chuanting's fire rate army, Wang Qiaonian was defeated, and he was also executed by Li Zicheng after the defeat.

After Sun Chuanting was arrogant and led the army, he entered Shaanxi and took over the matter of exterminating the Liukou. After he arrived in Shaanxi, he killed the fleeing general He Renlong, and then promoted his subordinate Gao Jie, the deputy commander-in-chief, to replace He Renlong, preparing for an all-out war with Li Zicheng.

Gao Jie was originally Li Zicheng's subordinate, and later fornicated with Li Zicheng's wife, and after the incident, he abducted Li Zicheng's wife to surrender to the official army and became a loyal eagle dog of the official army. He and Li Zicheng are enemies of life and death, and Sun Chuanting has his own set of people in employing people.

But Sun Chuanting still has a lot of worries, and Cao Yue also knows this, he doesn't believe that Sun Chuanting can finally win this battle.