Chapter 170 Yangzhou, I’m coming back!

"Gong Fu, Huaiyin County is now handed over to you."

Huang Gai had just gained trust and was about to serve. He bowed and said without objection, "Yes!"

Jin Mao stated his request: "I will divide the navy into two parts, and deploy another 2,500 promoted recruits to form a navy of 5,000 again."

"Your task is heavy. You must defend the Huai River area and prevent the Yellow Turban bandits from crossing the river, even to Xia Pi!"

"Yes!" Huang Gai responded readily, "I will definitely live up to your trust!"

Jin Mao nodded and asked, "Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin are going to lead the other half of the navy. Who do you think can be your adjutant?"

Huang Gai was very familiar with all the generals present, but they were not outstanding and could only assist Huang Gai in daily work but could not share the pressure.

He has to defend such a vast river, so he will not have much time to waste on land, and this all needs to be handled by his adjutant.

However, there are too few people who can both fight in wars and govern the local area. He Qi is one but he is in Guangling, and Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin cannot be used.

Dong Xian, Ling Cao and others were in Yangzhou, which was too far away.

Huang Gai had an excellent candidate in mind, but he didn't dare to say it, because that person made a big mistake. Who knew what his lord was thinking.

Seeing Huang Gai's hesitation, Jin Mao seemed to have guessed what was going on, so he said, "Just tell me!"

Huang Gai then plucked up the courage to say: "I think Guan Yu Guan Yunchang is quite suitable to be my adjutant, but he..."

Jin Mao waved his hand and interrupted, "Then let Guan Yu be your adjutant!"

"Someone, call Guan Yu to discuss matters!"

Huang Gai couldn't help but secretly admire his master's magnanimity. How could he know the little tricks in Jin Mao's mind?

...

Since the last incident, Guan Yu wanted to resign and leave several times, but he felt it would be difficult to repay Jin Mao's kindness, so he gave up the idea.

But doing nothing all the time is not Guan Yu's character.

While he was struggling, Jin Mao summoned him to discuss matters.

Guan Yu could not help but ask the messenger, "What did the envoy call me for?"

The messenger said enviously: "Congratulations on your promotion! The lord wants to promote you to Deputy General of Governor Huang."

Guan Yu's eyes suddenly widened in shock.

How is this possible?
It's only been one day and the envoy has changed his mind and wants to use him again?
"This must be a test for me!"

Guan Yu could only understand it in this way.

As the messenger arrived at the central army tent, Guan Yu knelt on one knee, clasped his fists above his head, and said, "Guan Yu greets you, envoy."

Jin Mao stood up, walked over to Guan Yu, helped him up, patted his arm and said, "Yun Chang, I didn't intend to give you this important task."

"But Gongfu strongly recommended it, and I couldn't resist, so I called you here to ask for your opinion."

These two sentences, firstly, explain Jin Mao's attitude that he couldn't get over the last incident, and secondly, they want to ask what Guan Yu thinks about it.

Guan Yu was already thirty years old, so how could he not understand? He knelt down again and said, "I am willing to sign a military order. If I do it again, please chop off my head!"

Jin Mao helped Guan Yu up with relief, "I knew I was right about you."

He pulled Huang Gai over and put their hands together.

"If Yunchang has any questions, please ask Gongfu for advice. You two should work together to protect the Huai River area."

"If someone sabotages secretly, you two should discuss it and don't need to report it. Just kill them first and report later!"

"If you encounter something big or difficult, you cannot hide it, you must tell me everything."

Huang Gai couldn't figure it out, so he asked, "My lord, what do you mean by a big or difficult thing?"

Jin Mao gave examples: "For example, Chen Shi of Huaipu, Zang Hong of Sheyang, Zhang Chao, the governor of Guangling County, and so on."

Huang Gai and Guan Yu were both ashamed. With all the prominent families, celebrities and prefects gathered together, this was not much different from a rebellion. It was indeed a very difficult task.

"Is there anything else you don't understand?"

The two did not dare to ask any more questions and shook their heads together, "No."

Jinmao was very satisfied, but he also had his own selfish motives.

He not only wanted to keep Guan Yu in Xuzhou, but also wanted to keep Zhang Fei in Xuzhou.

What Liu Bei did in Wujun had long been heard by him, and he had to punish him.

Naturally, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei could not return to Liu Bei, otherwise, would they be punished in front of them?
This time, Jin Mao will send Liu Bei to a place far enough away. What should he do if Guan and Zhang plead for him then?

After arranging Guan Yu, the next one is Zhang Fei.

"Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin will form the Second Naval School, with the original 2,500 men plus another 2,500 new recruits, for a total of 5,000 men."

"The Second Naval School is responsible for the security of the Yangtze River Basin."

Jin Mao pointed out: "In this case, the position of Yandu County garrison commander is vacant, who can recommend himself for the position?"

Zhang Fei was very smart and stepped out immediately, saying, "Sir, I can do it!"

Jin Mao originally wanted to go around and call on Zhang Fei again, but unexpectedly, he jumped out by himself.

"Where is Wu Ning?"

Wu Ning was not yet qualified to enter the account. He entered the door and bowed after hearing the message: "Greetings, my lord."

Jin Mao pointed at Zhang Fei and asked, "How many people do you two have under your command?"

Wu Ning replied: "Two hundred new recruits."

"In that case, I will assign another 200 main forces, and 600 new recruits to you two."

Jin Mao said, "Zhou Tai has cleared the obstacles. You two just need to defend Yandu. It will be a great achievement if there is no chaos." Zhang Fei was overjoyed and said, "Thank you, sir! I will make sure Xie Xiao never returns!"

Jin Mao shook his head. If this reckless man was allowed to take charge, bad things would definitely happen.

"Wu Ning is the commander-in-chief, Zhang Yide is the adjutant. Wu Ning should take the lead in everything. You should think more and not be reckless."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Fei became furious: "Sir, how can you get it all wrong? This guy was originally my adjutant, how come he became my boss?"

"No." Jin Mao said calmly: "Yide, please be patient. Wu Ning will be in charge of politics and make decisions. You will be in charge of military affairs and be responsible for charging into battle."

"I understand!" Zhang Fei clapped his hands, beaming with joy: "Sir, then all the achievements will be mine, right?"

Jin Mao smiled and nodded.

At this time, Wu Ning stepped out and said, "My Lord, I am too young to handle government affairs. Please choose another person to govern."

Considering that Wu Ning was not well educated and indeed not qualified to be in charge of a county, Jin Mao looked at Xi Zhicai and asked, "How is Jin Yang?"

Xi Zhicai stood up and replied: "Jin Yang is dull and can learn less than one tenth of what I taught him."

"That's enough." Jin Mao was already very satisfied. "Let Jin Yang assist Wu Ning and handle government affairs together."

"Wu Ning, discuss everything with Jin Yang. If you can't make up your mind, let Yi De vote together and make the final decision. The minority shall obey the majority."

Wu Ning thought it made sense and agreed.

As for Guangling County, Jin Mao decided to station Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin's navy there.

He Qi, the general originally stationed in Guangling, was not punished last time due to the urgency of the matter. This time, he happened to go to a remote area with Liu Bei to open up wasteland.

Everything was arranged properly, and the next step was to count the results of the Luomahu battle and reward the meritorious officers.

At Jin Mao's signal, Xi Zhicai began to report.

"Because there was no major battle, there were no beheadings or prisoners."

"We have seized a lot of items, including armor, weapons, and food."

"We seized 813 sets of full armor, 1,015 sets of cloth helmet armor (helmets made of cloth), and 2,321 sets of half armor (iron chest and back armor tied to the outside of cloth armor with ropes)."

"Five hundred longbows, fifty strong crossbows, and two hundred short crossbows."

"Six thousand one hundred long weapons, forty thousand three hundred short weapons, one hundred and twelve iron shields, twenty five hundred and seventy-three wooden shields, and five hundred and forty-one sets of horse armor."

"Twelve thousand and thirty-one dan of grain and fodder, five hundred and fifty-three war horses, and eight hundred and eleven donkey carts."

"We seized one Mongolian warship, one large civilian ship, and 127 small wooden boats."

"Another 645 people want to follow Dian Wei into the army."

Join the army?

Jin Mao wanted to refuse, but Xi Zhicai's next words made him change his attitude.

"My lord, these people are excellent riders. Their ancestors were the Three River Knights. With a little training, they will become an elite cavalry."

Jin Mao pondered and said, "They can join the army, but do they know the rules of our army?"

Xi Zhicai said with certainty: "I have already informed you of this matter. Those who retreated have already followed Zhang Miao back to Chenliu County."

Jin Mao then nodded and said, "Okay! Then let these people train with the new recruits who have not yet been promoted."

"When the competition is passed, a new cavalry team will be formed."

As for how Zhang Miao and others should return to Chenliu, they would definitely have to walk back.

Do you still want to say farewell?
After counting the spoils, Jin Mao also had to thank Zhang Miao. Chenliu was indeed a prosperous county.

Although the armor is not as much as that in Guangling County, there are more war horses!
Jin Mao now has nearly 6,000 sets of full armor, more than 7,000 sets of cloth armor, and nearly 10,000 sets of half armor, enough to equip half of the soldiers.

There are more than 40,000 weapons, which can almost cover the entire army.

But there were very few war horses, and together with the spoils seized by Zhang Miao, there were less than 1,700 of them. There were quite a lot of horse armors, with more than enough for each horse.

Among the 50,000 troops, there are less than 1,700 cavalrymen, and most of them are even trained halfway through their careers!
You can completely ignore the cavalry and treat the entire army as pure navy and infantry.

Jin Mao did not expect his cavalry to be able to ride and shoot like the Huns.

Just don't be cowardly when charging; when acting as a scout, you can still escape even if you are discovered by the enemy.

And I will be satisfied.

After calculating the spoils, the next step is to distribute weapons and equipment according to the merits of each unit.

Ten thousand naval troops do not need heavy armor, and they can be quite combat effective if they are equipped with archers and crossbows.

In addition, the navy’s armor was too thick, so if they fell into the water, they would sink no matter how good they were at swimming.

They deployed two thousand soldiers in full armor, two thousand in cloth armor, six thousand in half armor, and equipped another two thousand with bows and crossbows, which accounted for almost half of the entire army.

The one thousand soldiers in Yandu were all dressed in cloth armor and, at Zhang Fei's request, were also given a hundred war horses to serve as a mobile team.

The navy needs to be expanded, and the main force must also be expanded.

A fifth battalion was built on the basis of the original four battalions, and the number of people in each battalion increased to two thousand!
The position of fifth battalion commander is temporarily vacant, waiting for someone who makes great contributions first.

The new recruits camp and the fourth part of county soldiers can be put on the agenda.

Jin Mao decided that the next competition would be a watershed. Those who passed would stay in the recruit camp, while those who were eliminated would be sent to various counties to be stationed permanently.

Currently, there are nearly 30,000 recruits in the new recruit camps in various places. Jin Mao has released a target: "In the next round of competition, half of them will be eliminated and used as county soldiers!"

Suddenly, more than 40 generals in the tent became nervous. Most of them were officers in the recruit camp, and they might have to be demoted when the time comes.

Therefore, everyone tried their best to practice well.

(End of this chapter)