Wangjiazhuang's teaching ground is located in the south of the city three miles, covers an area of more than one hectare, the teaching field was built in the Yongle period, in the past it was the place where the officers and soldiers of the whole institute of the hundred households would perform autumn exercises. But now that the years have passed, the church has been dilapidated everywhere, and several management officers, including Wang Weizhen, have no intention of repairing it.

At this time, on the teaching field, it was already full of dun troops in Wangjiazhuang, and the chief flag officers Liu Yu and Sun Mingyuan stood at the front of the team, looking at Liu Yan on the high platform.

In March, the weather is still very cold on the eastern coast of Daming Mountain, and the humidity is mixed with the cold wind, blowing on the body, which makes people extremely uncomfortable. And today there is even a trace of small snowflakes falling, and when the north wind blows, it makes people tremble.

Liu Yan stood on the high platform and looked at the many dun troops of Wangjiazhuang below, although those dun soldiers were wrapped in thick cotton jackets and leather jackets, but at this time, most of them shrunk into a ball, standing there rubbing their hands and stamping their hands and feet, not looking like a dun army at all.

What's even more sighing is that there are two hundred and twenty-three people recorded in the Wangjiazhuang military register, but Liu Yan looked at the dun army in the field and didn't know if there were one hundred and fifty people.

And among these people, half of them are still old and weak, all of them are covered with tattered military uniforms, many of them have yellow faces and thin muscles, and they are wearing thin military uniforms, shivering in the cold wind, and even the weapons in their hands are rusty, and they have not been maintained at first glance.

When these people came into contact with Liu Yan's gaze, their expressions were numb, and there was no expression in their eyes or faces.

The only ones that are better are the family members next to the chief flag officer Liu Yu and Sun Mingyuan, each of whom has eleven or two people behind them, most of them are young and strong, and their armor and weapons are quite complete, but their array discipline is also sparse, a typical rabble.

These families are placed in Dapanbao, they are all unqualified dun troops, and they are placed in Wangjiazhuang and Daming guards, but they are already the most important combat force.

On the high platform of the martial arts hall of the teaching field, Liu Yan glanced at the Wangjiazhuang dun soldiers under the field, his face was ugly, the corruption of the Wangjiazhuang army was greatly beyond his expectations, can these soldiers fight? Liu Yan was deeply suspicious, and it was no wonder that several times before, Wang Weizhen had to pull out dozens of his own family members, and these dun troops were indeed useless.

Liu Yan was wearing iron armor, which attracted a lot of attention from the audience, and he was the new management officer inspecting the parade horses, and there was a lot of discussion below. Beside Liu Yan, the chief flag officer Xu Ming and the chief flag officer Miao Shao also stood with their swords.

Xu Ming had a straight face, a face that had not changed for ten thousand years. Miao Shao was draped in iron armor, showing his tall and burly figure, at this time he was also ugly, his eyes swept over the dun army in Wangjiazhuang from time to time, and at the same time frequently looked at the dun army on the side of Dapanbao, and then a smile appeared on his face.

The soldiers of Dapanbao are the real good soldiers, not only are they young and stout, but especially the discipline is the most rare, they are wearing armor, and they only stand with their blades in the cold weather, and there is no confusion to see.

At this time, the sentinel soldiers led by Miao Shao lined up in three horizontal formations, each flag was a row, no matter which aspect it looked at, it was a straight line, and the three newly promoted small flag officers were Wu Xingzhou, Lu Ying and Tian Zhenbei, all three of them stood in front of each flag, wearing armor and standing tall, and their faces were also wearing the pride unique to the Dapan Fort Army.

Although the cold weather and the Wangjiazhuang Dun army next to them were all shrinking, these soldiers of the Dapan Baodun Army exhaled a thick white breath in their mouths, but they were motionless, letting the snowflakes float on their bodies, all with serious expressions and looking ahead.

This kind of military discipline and military appearance made the Wangjiazhuang Dunjun next to him feel terrified when they saw it, especially some people who participated in the battle to exterminate the bandits some time ago, and their expressions were even more awe-inspiring.

Liu Yu took his team of family members to stand on the right, looking at the Dapan Fort soldiers next to him, and he felt very uncomfortable. Liu Yu is a team of family members who have wasted their strength and spent many years to raise, but the combat power of this army is far inferior to the dun army that has been roughly trained for several months in Dapanbao, how can this not make him feel a deep sense of frustration in his heart?

It is precisely because of this that the hostility towards Liu Yan in Liu Yu's heart gradually evolved into hatred.

After looking at the audience for a long time, Liu Yancai said in a deep voice: "General Yue, why is the military affairs in Wangjiazhuang so dilapidated? ”

Although Yue Ming was not in charge of Wangjiazhuang's battalion drills, the army was so corrupted, and Yue Ming was the person designated by Wang Weizhen for transition before leaving, so of course Liu Yan wanted to ask Yue Ming.

Yue Ming clenched his fists and said in a deep voice: "My lord, training soldiers and horses requires money and food, and the grain and rice in the 100 households in Wangjiazhuang are insufficient, and the lower officials and the previous Lord Wang are also powerless!" ”

The dun army must carry out basic exercises, at least coarse grains every day, otherwise they will be weak and weak, even if they run around the teaching field a few times, they will easily be exhausted and comatose. If you want to increase the amount of exercise, you should also add some meat every day, otherwise you will soon die of blood in the urine.

Wangjiazhuang is indeed dilapidated, and the hundreds of households are indeed depleted of money and grain. In this way, it seems that at this time, it is indeed difficult for a good woman to cook without rice.

But does Wang Weizhen really have no silver and no food?

Liu Yan knew very well how much grain Wang Weizhen had in his hand, but Wang Weizhen regarded the silver as his own private property, and it was okay to use it to train his family, but it was impossible to use it to train the soldiers and horses of the imperial court and develop Wangjiazhuang.

Liu Yan said: "Then why are there so few officers and soldiers in Wangjiazhuang? ”

Yue Ming said in a deep voice: "My lord, the military households in Wangjiazhuang are constantly fleeing, and the officers have to support their own families, and the subordinate officials are powerless!" Such a situation is a common thing in Wangjiazhuang all over the fire road pier and tunbao, of course, Dapanbao is an exception, and adults also know it. ”

The Daming border town guard has always been seven points of tun species, three points of city guards, called the drill officer army. After the garrison was collected, part of it was handed over, and part of it was used to support the officers in the fort and these officers. The rest of the miscellaneous officers and troops and the cantonment army were cultivated with labor.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the military camp could almost completely meet the needs of the whole army, so the soldiers were strong and the soldiers were at ease. However, since the year of Xuande, a large number of guards have fled, and a large number of garrison troops have been requisitioned and transferred to garrison garrisons, and the original tun land has been transferred to Yu Ding for cultivation. Things change over time, and in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it has been generally filled with the army, and Yu Ding has been dialed up.

At this time, the officers and soldiers of the guards in various places continued to flee in large numbers, not to mention, the rest were mostly in vain, and it was rare to practice for a few days a year, and their minds were just busy with their own homes and fields. Even if there are young and strong, they are reluctant to serve as a regular army, but let the old and weak in the family replace them.

Moreover, in order to support their families, the officers of the local guard posts not only deducted food and salary, but also encouraged the existence of this phenomenon, so that they could take advantage of it to eat empty salaries.

To put it simply, it is nothing more than two words: food.

After listening to Yue Ming's words, Liu Yan has been groaning, and after he asked those Wangjiazhuang Dunjun to perform the formation and martial arts again, there was no expression on his face, but he just said to Yue Ming: "Yue Zongqi, you give the order, from tomorrow, I will inspect all the forts and all the fire road piers under my control!" ”

From the next day, Liu Yan asked Miao Shao to lead a team to accompany him at night, and Xu Ming led the cavalry post to stay in Wangjiazhuang, and then took Yue Ming, Liu Yu, Sun Mingyuan and others to brave the cold and inspect the subordinate forts one after another.

In addition to the two places of Dapanbao and Huangshan Pier, there are also eight fire road piers and Tunbao under the jurisdiction of Wangjiazhuang, such as Wind Volcano Pier, Shagou Pier, Xujiadun, Chedieshan Pier, Zhaojiaying Fort, Beixian Ditch Pier, Xiaotan Pier, Haiwangzhuang Fort.

Not to mention the efforts of the commanders in various places, according to the situation that Liu Yan saw, the situation of the fire road piers and tun forts everywhere was very bad, the tun fields were abandoned, the ploughing cattle were thin, the military households in the piers and forts fled in large numbers, and there were fewer and fewer young people everywhere. Seeing these situations, Liu Yan couldn't even frown.

Two days later, Liu Yan led a group of people to the Huangshan dun, and Shen Tuo, the head of the Huangshan dun, respectfully greeted Liu Yan and his party.

The terrain of the Yellow Mountain Pier is important, but there are potholes everywhere inside and outside, and there are mostly some dilapidated buildings such as earthen houses and thatched huts in the pier, and there are mostly men and women in ragged clothes who shiver all over the body on the road.

The best building in the pier is the general flag official hall, although Shen Tuo has the ability to lead the troops, but he is shy in his pocket, even if the pier army of Huangshan Dun is much stronger than the dun army elsewhere, but in Liu Yan's opinion, it is still far inferior to the dun army of Dapanbao.

At this time, Shen Tuo couldn't take out anything good to entertain Liu Yan and his party, so he killed a pig to greet these big people from Wangjiazhuang.

For Shen Tuo, Liu Yan smiled and encouraged, and then when he was eating with everyone, he overheard Shen Tuo mention an important message.

"Shen Zongqi, what are you talking about, there is an iron mine near Tiepu Mountain in the north of Huangshan Dun?"

Liu Yan is now most concerned about the iron ore that can make weapons and armor in the territory, so he immediately asked.

Shen Tuo groaned: "There is one, I have heard some people in the north say that it is still a hanging stone mine, and the quality is also quite outstanding, but it is inconvenient to mine." Only some villagers from the north go there to dig some ore for use, and they are usually popular! ”

After listening to Shen Tuo's words, Liu Yan's mood suddenly became happy, and he said, "You take me over to have a look!" ”

"Now?"

"Yes, now."

So in everyone's surprise, Liu Yan was led by Shen Tuo and went to Tiepu Mountain.

According to the estimation of the entourage, the local hematite reserves in Natiepu Mountain are nearly 2 million tons, and the iron content is 30 to 40 percent, and this ore can fully meet Liu Yan's needs after being mined.

Even if mining is a little inconvenient, as the head of a family, Liu Yan can still smelt a large amount of steel as long as he dispatches manpower and has enough money and food.

After these days Liu Yan inspected Wangjiazhuang and Huangshandun, he estimated that there are 70,000 or 80,000 acres of cultivated fields and wasteland in the territory, and this is a land that is completely dominated by himself.

Calculate that in June and July of this year, Jiannu will be in the Kou, and now Liu Yan only has three or four months to prepare, and the time is urgent.

Liu Yan remembered the description in history, Chongzhen's eleventh year of entry into the Kou, Huang Taiji mobilized more than 100,000 Eight Banner soldiers to attack the Ming, captured 179,820 people and animals of the Ming Dynasty, and Jiannu returned with plunder.

This is a large-scale invasion, counting the time left is not much, when the time comes, the Jiannu army will definitely send troops to plunder everywhere, and how many people will appear in various parts of Shandong, especially in Wangjiazhuang? A thousand, or ten thousand?

Liu Yan didn't know that even if there were not many Jiannu soldiers and horses who rushed into Shandong in history, and there was no record of going deep into the southern part of Shandong, no one could say what the real history was!

Whether it is a rogue, or a Hulu, Liu Yan hates them from the bottom of his heart and looks down on them from the bottom of his heart! Whether it is in the past, present, or future, he will not consider the idea of surrendering from a thief, and when the soldiers are in the city, it is a big deal to die in a vigorous battle, and it is better to be broken than to be complete!

But how can you be willing to accept your fate? Since he came to this world, he has been working hard, from a general flag officer who everyone looks down on, to the current position of a team officer, with thousands of strong troops in his hands, and the base of Dapanbao has been built by himself, even at the last moment, Liu Yan will never give up.

Liu Yan is ambitious, and plans to make full preparations for the battle before the arrival of the Qing army this year, and will plan to predict the worst, if the money and food are not enough, he will rob it! At present, the Ming Dynasty is in turmoil, bandits are all over the ground, kill them, one can calm the people, and the other can raise the army, if they don't die, it will be their turn to die.

Looking at the direction of Tiepu Mountain, Liu Yan exhaled, and after this period of time, it was time to find someone to come over and manage it.