After solving the problem of the construction of the Dayi military base on the spot, Ouyang Xuan rushed to Qiongzhou non-stop - Ouyang Xuan really rode there. Since the introduction of war horses, the relevant personnel of the Thunderbolt Army have learned to ride horses. Ouyang Xuan practiced for about a month, and although he was not proficient in riding, he was able to ride long distances. His trip to Qiongzhou was to witness the establishment of the first cavalry unit of the Perak Army. The Perak army captured 230 war horses from the Mongols, plus more than 400 war horses captured and purchased by armed caravans from the Tibetan region, and there were more than 700 war horses at this time, all of which were grazed in the cool mountains of Qiongzhou. With these horses, the Thunderbolts were to form a cavalry battalion of 500 men - to be precise, a cavalry infantry battalion. The battalion will be equipped with ultra-light Tiger squat guns and new muskets, and will quickly reach the battlefield on horseback before dismounting. Due to equestrian reasons, this team will not be able to attack on horses for a long time. The remaining horses were allocated to other units, mainly for reconnaissance, confidential communications, and mounts for senior commanders.

Due to the stable environment brought about by the expulsion of the Mongols and the suppression of bandits, and also because of the preferential reclamation policy and effective publicity, a large number of displaced people have gone to the cities and cantonment sites from hidden places to register, and even refugees from Pengzhou, Meizhou, Yazhou and other places have heard the news, which makes the demographic results of the jurisdiction greatly unexpected by the top brass of the Perak Army - there are actually 150,000 people, and if you take into account the hidden population, the number of people in the jurisdiction should reach about 180,000. This figure is not surprising when you think about it, these more than ten counties are all located in the core area of the western Sichuan Plain, and until the Mongol invasion in 1142, they were all first-class Wangxian counties, each with at least tens of thousands of people, and the total number of people was more than two million. What made Ouyang Xuan even happier was that most of these people were young and middle-aged men and women - because the old, weak, sick and disabled could not survive in this chaotic world. With this population in hand, the Thunderbolt Army hierarchy determined the size of the expansion. In fact, despite being known as the Thunderbolt Army, due to population base limitations, the Thunderbolt Army never had more than 2,000 regular soldiers.

After the Battle of Yokohara Fort, in view of the needs of the war, Ouyang Xuan proposed a plan to expand the army, which was also approved by the joint meeting of the military and government. However, since it is not possible to have an accurate estimate of the population under future rule, the scale of the expansion has not been determined. Under agricultural conditions, the ratio of population to army is at most 10:1, and exceeding it leads to economic collapse. Although the economy of the Thunderbolt Army is now divided equally by industry and agriculture, commerce will also account for 3 points in the future, and it is theoretically possible to raise more troops. However, out of the need for development stamina, Ouyang Xuan did not approve of the expansion of the army on too large a scale. Li Shuang, Yu Zhu and others also believe that "there are not many soldiers, but fine". Therefore, Ouyang Xuan proposed to expand the army to 5,000 according to the population registration data, and this number was only Cao Ergou was too little, because he knew that the focus of the expansion of the Thunderbolt Army must be the naval army. In this case, his field camp will definitely not be able to expand by many people.

Proposed by Ouyang Xuan, the military-government joint meeting approved the new military strength plan of the Perak Army. The new plan stipulates that the original field battalion, naval battalion, garrison battalion, and internal guard battalion will be expanded into field brigades, naval brigades, garrison brigades, and internal guard brigades. According to the plan, the field brigade consisted of two infantry battalions and one mounted infantry battalion, each with 500 men, which made Cao Ergou extremely satisfied. In addition to a significant increase in numbers, the combat effectiveness of the field brigade will skyrocket because of the availability of horses. In terms of establishment and configuration, each infantry battalion has five companies, including a light artillery company and a heavy artillery company, which are equipped with two light field guns and ten heavy field guns, each of which has a gun carriage on wheels and is dragged by mules and horses; Two companies of heavily armed pikemen, armed with rattan armor and steel spears up to seven meters long, would cut off the Mongols' desire to charge; The last company is the Sword and Shield Company, which, in addition to using the giant shield to prevent damage from the bow and arrow, will also be responsible for hand-to-hand combat with the enemies who rush into the formation. The field brigade was stationed in Chongqing, with Cao Ergou as the brigade commander and three deputy brigade commanders as the battalion commanders. In addition to Chen Hu and Tang Xiangwei serving as infantry battalion commanders respectively, the most surprising thing is that Zhou Jianshen has newly joined and become the cavalry battalion commander. Among these three, Chen Hu was the fire captain of the original grain conscription team, Tang Xiangwei was an officer of the Chongqing Mansion Xiang Army, and Zhou Jianshen represented the new annex army group of the uprising, representing the three important forces within the Perak Army. Of course, the internal balance of power is only secondary, and the real employment of people must be able to win battles. In fact, although there was no political problem in the old department of the original grain requisition team, after all, they were all commanders and soldiers engaged in miscellaneous work, and their military quality was still much weaker than that of regular officers. Of course, Ouyang Xuan's practice of employing people without suspicion and suspicion also greatly appeased the surrendered group of new annexed troops, and these people accounted for a lot of the number after the expansion.

The trolls are also the focus of the expansion. The newly formed naval brigade has 1,500 men and is also composed of three battalions. Each battalion consisted of two companies of light artillery and one company of heavy artillery ships and two companies of escort ships. This company of frigates is mainly equipped with a large number of special equipment to prevent the enemy from jumping into gangs or from approaching the gunboats, such as fire ships. These three battalions were stationed in Xinjin City, Sandu Shui and Cai Du respectively, all of which were at the throat of the waterway and easy to defend and difficult to attack, and after the next step was to build forts, wharves and ship repair yards, they would become the core points for controlling the Jinma River and the Nanhe River. Huang Dagen is still the commander of the naval brigade, and the three deputy brigade commanders are also battalion commanders, namely Le Quanan, Liao Loach, and Yu Laodu, all of whom are proficient in water warfare. Surprisingly, Xia Dagen, who was only 15 years old, was promoted to a platoon commander of the escort boat company of the Liao Loach Battalion because of his courage in the battles against Pengshancheng and the Sandu Shuimeng Army.

Although the regular troops of the newly established garrison brigade have only 1,000 people, they have the largest number of reserve personnel. According to the idea of "all the people are soldiers and all the people are trained in the army", there are about 70,000 men of school-age in the area under the jurisdiction of the Perak Army, and 700 companies of militia can be organized. In accordance with the policy of the Perak Army, the squad and platoon commanders of the militia companies were organized into 70 non-full-time backbone companies. The cities and cantonment points of the Perak Army were guarded by these backbone companies. After military assessment and background investigation, the elite of the basic company was selected to form a guard battalion of five companies under its jurisdiction, and the training and military equipment of the guard battalion were the same as those of the field troops, except that their task was to lead the basic company to guard Guankou Village, Pujiang City, Baizhang City and other fortresses and important military and civilian important places. The other detachment of the garrison brigade is the training battalion, which consists of four non-commissioned officer companies and one officer company, which train non-commissioned officers, squad leaders, company platoon commanders, and other officers respectively. Yu Zhu is still the commander of the garrison brigade, Shi Zhongshu, the commander of the second company of the former field battalion, and Zeng Yong, the commander of the teaching battalion. This Zeng Yong was originally a centurion of the Han army in Wang Dechen's department, and because he could not bear the brutality and bloodshed of the Mongolian army, he traveled thousands of miles from Lizhou to join the Perak army. He is a descendant of Zeng Gongliang, a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, and has won the essence of the military book "General Essentials of the Martial Arts" written by his ancestors. Ouyang Xuan asked him to serve as the commander of the teaching battalion, not only because he was proficient in the art of war, but also because he knew the weaknesses of the Mongolian army.

Although the Internal Guard Brigade has only 1,000 personnel, it has undertaken a very large number of tasks, so in addition to the original guard company, counter-espionage company, and traitor company, a confidential company has been added, the reconnaissance company has been expanded into a battalion, and a new special battalion has been established. There has been no change in the personnel and establishment of the guard company, the counterintelligence company, and the anti-traitor company, and the confidential company is responsible for transmitting, summarizing, and analyzing important information. The reconnaissance battalion consisted of three reconnaissance companies, also equipped with a modest supply of horses and small boats. The special battalion is composed of elites selected from the whole army according to Ouyang Xuan's requirements, adopts high-intensity actual combat training, and is also equipped with the best weapons and equipment, which will become the tip of the sharp blade of the Thunderbolt Army. Dong Hu is still the commander of the internal guard brigade, Wu Qing, the former commander of the reconnaissance company, and Yu San, the commander of the third company of the former field battalion, is the deputy brigade commander and commander of the special battalion.