Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 322: The Giant Begins to Awaken (I)
"Get ready~"
"Fire~!"
"Bang~Bang~Bang~"
In June, the temperature in Beijing has reached over 25°C. In the bright sunny weather, even in the training ground with no obvious obstacles and a breeze blowing from time to time, the officers and soldiers participating in the training are still sweating profusely.
"This general greets you, Marshal!"
"No need to be polite."
Thirty miles southeast of Beijing, at Hongren Bridge, was the garrison of the newly formed Fourth Regiment of the New Army. The new commander of this regiment was Man Gui, the former commander of the Henghai Guard.
In October 1616, Zhu Youdong made up his mind to expand the new army on a large scale. By March of the following year, 60,000 strong men who performed well in the work-for-relief program and 60,000 relatively reliable military households from the nine major towns of the Ming Dynasty gathered around Beijing. Then Zhu Youdong sent out all the officers of Henghai Guard of Cao Wenzhao, Youth Guard of Li Chunzhong, and the military academy of the Ming Dynasty. Seven new towns were quickly built.
After these seven towns, the new army of the Ming Dynasty also reached ten towns, with a full strength of 150,000 people. So Zhu Youdong stipulated that the new army would be numbered from the first to the tenth town. What was a little special was that the first three towns had their own unique names in addition to the numbers. The first town was of course called Henghai, while the officers and soldiers of the second town chose Kuandian as their exclusive name, and the third town chose "Jinwei".
Starting from the fourth town, there are only numbers but no exclusive names. According to Zhu Youdong, if you want your own exclusive name, you can fight for it on the battlefield!
In the process of military expansion, the one that suffered the greatest losses was of course Henghaiwei: who made you one of the oldest new military towns, while Kuandian Town was far away in Guangdong?
In short, after the new army was expanded, Man Gui, Ma Shilong, Zhao Lujiao, Huang Degong, Du Hongyu, Ma Ran, the son of Ma Lin, the former Liaodong lieutenant general, and Ma Gui's nephew Ma Chengen served as the generals of the fourth to tenth regiments respectively.
Of course, the new army was built, but such an army certainly could not be used to fight on the battlefield. Therefore, in the past three months, the entire area around Beijing was filled with the rumble of gunfire, and all towns were working hard to intensify training.
"I just came down from the State Council meeting. The latest news I received is that in the south, the Siamese pirates were unable to besiege the Changsha Shipyard and have been forced to retreat. According to the speculation of Mr. Yuan, the Governor of Southeast, the pirates in Qiongzhou Prefecture may also retreat by then. As for the east, hum~" Man Gui pulled his mouth with disdain: "Korea has been penetrated !"
"Hahaha, Marshal, what else can those North Koreans do except run away? We may have to fight them back in the end."
"That's right, Marshal. Although Korea has been very submissive to our dynasty over the years, these guys are really useless. Moreover, the Japanese pirates were only defeated by our Liaodong Town. Now, if they face our new army, they will be even more vulnerable! In fact, it would be better to send us to the south in the future to have a good fight with those Siamese pirates who dare to occupy our Ming mainland."
"Humph, what's the use of what you're saying now? If our new recruits aren't trained well, His Highness won't let us leave Shuntian Prefecture. How can we even get to choose our opponents?"
"Please rest assured, Marshal. Our men have not been lazy at all these days. The formations, shooting, assassination, scattered attacks, etc. have all been carried out in an orderly manner."
"Well... speaking of shooting training, do we have enough ammunition?"
"Marshal, speaking of this, I am a little worried. The current stock in the warehouse is only enough for each soldier to shoot thirty times."
"What? Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"Marshal, I told you yesterday. You said at the time that you would ask the Ministry of Industry directly for it at the State Council meeting today."
"Uh..." He lowered his head for a while, then Man Gui jumped up again: "You are still talking about this! At the meeting today, His Highness hit me on the head with a table hammer, and my head is full of lumps! It took me a long time to explain why I snatched ammunition from the Ministry of Industry with that brat Huang Degong a few days ago. How dare I ask the Ministry of Industry for ammunition in front of His Highness?"
"Ah? No way. Marshal, isn't Marshal Huang a little too shameless? It was agreed that the two towns would each send out 100 new soldiers to fight in a group fight, and the winner would get 100,000 bullets. They lost the fight and couldn't get any, but they dared to complain afterwards?"
"No, no. Although I have never been fond of that brat Huang Degong, it is not something Huang Degong would do to lose face after losing the battle. Well, it was mainly because of the fight last time. In the end, everyone got angry and used benches and door panels from the nearby villagers... In the end, the matter was reported to Shuntian Prefecture, and then Wang Shaozheng from Shuntian Prefecture was transferred to the Ministry of War..."
After finishing these words with a sigh, Man Gui touched his head with lingering fear, but soon became happy again: "Although I was beaten up by your highness, Huang Degong was even worse off. His soldiers took the initiative to challenge him, but he still lost in the end. Your highness directly arranged for that guy to be beaten with a stick in the court! Although it was only ten sticks for the sake of courtesy, I saw those little eunuchs hit Huang Degong's buttocks with loud slaps when they dropped the sticks. I think it must have been uncomfortable."
"Hahahaha~~ Marshal, I feel relieved, really relieved! Huang Degong has been eyeing our town all day long, trying to compete with us. Hmph, how did he end up?"
"Hey, everyone, it's fun, but we have to hurry up with the training. We are the fourth town! There's no need to mention the first three towns. Among the seven newly built towns, the first one to have its own independent name must be us!"
"Of course, please rest assured, Marshal!"
"Okay, if the ammunition is insufficient, we will start with formation and bayonet training. I will go to Eunuch Wei in private to come up with a solution."
"Oh, yes, Eunuch Wei now controls all the craftsmen in the palace. The commander is indeed wise."
…
Among the many new town generals in the Ming Dynasty, Man Gui was definitely the best in terms of riding skills. However, when Marshal Man rode his Western horse to Wei Zhongxian's outer house outside the palace, he was surprised to see old acquaintances such as Huang Degong and Ma Shilong.
"Hiss~ What are you doing here?"
"Hey, Man Manzi, what you said is interesting! Why, you can come, but we can't?"
"No, this, hey! Mr. Huang, you just got caned in court! How come you can come here in person?"
"So you don't understand, you idiot! As for the court stick, the louder it hits, the better! It's just a superficial wound, just apply some golden wound medicine."
"Hahaha, brother Man, don't listen to this idiot pretending here. This guy was just lying on a stretcher, carried here by his own guards."
"Hahaha~~ Huang Degong, you have come to this day!"
