Although there were no twists and turns along the way, it still took a lot of time to return because it was against the current, and it was already December when the fleet arrived at Chongqing Fucheng. Yang Bangxian has never been out of Banzhou since he was a child, and he was very surprised by the scenery along the way. After entering the western Sichuan Plain, he saw that both sides of the river were open plains, and the plains were full of flat fields. However, there is not much arable land in the Banshu area, and most of it is fragmented fields reclaimed from the slopes of the mountains, which is really not comparable to the fertile plains. However, he found that although both sides of the river were green, the grass in the fields on the east bank was deep and sparse, and there were horses and sheep grazing in the distance, while the fields on the west bank were all green wheat seedlings, which were growing very gratifying, and he couldn't help but ask curiously. Ouyang Xuan stared at the sheep on the east bank and muttered, "How can you allow the Tartars to sleep soundly next to the couch, one day I will take back the land east of the river." ”

Ouyang Xuan is married, and it is no longer suitable to live with a group of military men. Li Shuang had already ordered someone to build a small courtyard for him and his wife in a secluded place on Hexin Island, and considering that there would be children in the future, he built a few more rooms. Ouyang Xuan asked Yang Bangxian to move in with him, on the one hand, he was going to let him be a trainee staff officer in the staff department first. Xia Xiaogen has finished his studies and is also interning in the General Staff, the two are of the same age, but they can also promote each other. On the other hand, Yang Yan is not at ease with Bang Xian, and feels that it is only at ease to live together. As for Ran Zhong and Cui'er, they lived in Chongqing Mansion on the other side of the river. On the one hand, the island in the middle of the river is small, and the headquarters of the Thunderbolt Army is located here, so there is not much space. On the other hand, they live in the city, which is also convenient for handling the affairs of Nanyang Company.

Yang Bangxian's 100-man guards did not stay in Chongqing Mansion, but went to Hengyuan Fort to be incorporated into the garrison brigade. At the moment the garrison brigade has only one guard battalion and one teaching battalion. After returning from Banzhou, at Ouyang Xuan's suggestion, the military-political joint conference decided to add a second teaching battalion. The 2nd Teaching Battalion consisted of five companies, and Bangxian's Guard was the first company. In the next step, the trainees sent by the Banzhou Army and the various tribes of Miaojiang will form the second to fourth companies, and the fifth company will be composed of cadets from the Weimao, Diaoyan, and Dajian Furnace regions.

After Yu Zhu took 1,000 elites to Liuqiu Company, the Thunderbolt Army quickly replenished the personnel of each brigade according to the establishment, and the current strength in western Sichuan is still 5,500 people, and if you add the second battalion of the training battalion, there are 6,000 people. Compared to the 300,000 people under the rule of the Thunderbolt Army, this force may seem like a small number, but in fact it is very burdensome and very heavy. The Perak army took the route of elite soldiers, and these 6,000 men were all elite soldiers, while the combat support was in charge of the basic militia. What's more, these units are equipped with new firearms, which costs a lot of money. According to Li Shuang's calculations, the cost of equipment for an infantry company can be worth a battalion of second-line troops, while the cost of equipment for a heavy artillery company is five times that of an ordinary infantry company. Of course, these expenses are not worth mentioning compared to the naval brigades, the cost of the warship is not expensive, but the artillery loaded on it is extremely expensive.

Ouyang Xuan proposed to set up a second battalion of teaching, and the Thunderbolt Army was responsible for all the equipment, food and clothing costs, this cost was really not a small amount, but everyone did not have the slightest objection, which made him a little surprised. In this regard, Huang Dagen explained that during his time in Banzhou, the northern and southern lines of the Ancient Tea Horse Road were found to be small-scale military operations of the Mongolian army. In the direction of the archery furnace, 500 Mongol cavalry broke through from the steppe into the river valley, but there was no way to take the stone fortresses along the way, and its advance was blocked under the city of Lizhou. Zelang and Qian Bao sent people to attack everywhere, frequently throwing grenades from high places. With heavy casualties, these Mongolian troops had to retreat.

In the direction of Weizhou, there was also a 100-man Mongolian scout cavalry from the western steppe. Because of the previous big losses at the Widow's Cliff in the direction of Maozhou, this Mongolian army was extremely cautious in its march. The Thunderbolt caravan and Weizhou soldiers who were ambushed here did not attack successfully, but only killed more than ten Mongolian soldiers, so angry that the Weizhou soldiers scolded. According to the existing agreement, the horses will go to the Thunderbolt army, and the rest of the captured and prisoners of war will be the spoils of war of the Weizhou soldiers. Seeing the white silver fly, they were very angry.

Except for two attempts to sneak attack from the Tibetan region, the Sichuan Ximeng army did not launch a major military operation against the Thunderbolt army because the main force fought against the Jiading army in the direction of Jingyan, but took advantage of the autumn and winter when the water was dry to frequently send rangers to attack and disturb. Although the Kinma River has not been silted up due to man-made floods, there are still many sections of the river that can be crossed by flooding due to the reduced incoming water. Although the navy's river patrol boats thwarted dozens of attempts by the Mongols to smuggle the river, several reconnaissance teams still crossed the river because the river was too long and the Mongol cavalry was highly mobile. However, these small groups of cavalry were quickly driven back.

The General Staff's judgment of the current military situation was that because the Perak Army firmly controlled the river, the Sichuan Ximeng Army did not dare to cross the river to attack. Since the Mongols often used the mobility of the cavalry to use the "Han belly" strategy, the Thunderbolt army should pay more attention to the attack from the Tibetan region. The most economically feasible way to prevent the Mongol army from invading from the Tibetan region is to support local forces and establish early warning and buffer zones. The General Staff Department saw this problem, and the other high-level officials of the joint meeting naturally saw this problem, so they had no objection to Ouyang Xuan's proposal. In fact, in addition to the above military purposes, Ouyang Xuan's formation of the second battalion was mainly considered from a political perspective. Most of the soldiers sent for training in Miaojiang and Tibetan areas are grassroots officers or children of families, and they will become the backbone of the local military and government in the future. After the training of the training camp and the advanced nature of the Perak Army, they will naturally become a pro-Perak political force.

This is also the reason why Ouyang Xuan strongly promoted the training of agricultural technology, medicine and education talents for the Fan District and Miaojiang for free. At present, most of these places are slash-and-burn farming, the people lack medical care and medicine, and there are very few literate people. In the same vein, for science and technology to take root in these places and contribute to higher levels of productivity, local seed talent needs to be trained. These people also belong to the local elite class and have great influence on the local people, and of course they deserve to be vigorously cultivated by the Thunderbolt Army.

Of course, the Thunderbolts do not teach the skills of the Thunderbolts, but selectively or hierarchically. Agricultural technology and medicine, which are related to people's livelihood, can be arbitrarily selected, but mining, blast furnace steelmaking, cement production and other technologies should be distinguished. For example, Banju and the Perak Army are allies and marry, and can learn mining, blast furnace steelmaking, and cement production, while the rest of the tribes and the Tibetan region can only learn mining and cement production. On the one hand, it is necessary to observe and evaluate the relationship between allies in depth, and on the other hand, these technologies are very complex and require a systematic knowledge reserve, which cannot be used without an industrial foundation. The Joint Military-Political Council has made a clear decision not to disseminate the desired firearms manufacturing and related supporting technologies unless they voluntarily join the Perak Army's system.