Aunt Chen is back from the world of cultivation

Zheng Yuannai's eyes were red, and he shouted:

"Somebody come!"

The guards on both sides immediately stepped forward to obey the order.

The deputy general Fan Dayong who had been following him noticed that his expression was not right, frowned slightly, pulled Zheng Yuannai aside, and asked in a low voice:

"What do you want, General?"

"I will arrest all those thousand households, confiscate their property and interrogate them!"

Zheng Yuannai said with gritted teeth.

Fan Dayong reminded seriously:

"General! You don't have the authority to question them. You must hand it over to the Commander-in-Chief."

Zheng Yuannai was stunned, but still did not change his mind:

"Then arrest these people first, and then write the test book!"

Fan Dayong sighed silently at the young master's naivety, but this was also one of the reasons why he followed him.

"First of all, the settlement allowance for the military households was reduced to five taels after layers of corruption, and it was not done by just one of the thousand households. If you expose this matter, you will offend many people. Look at this kind of thing in all dynasties, which general would dare to touch it?"

"Don't say that the master is only a third-rank general. Even if he is the Duke of Dingguo, he would never care about such things."

Zheng Yuannai was stunned when he heard this.

He had not thought so deeply about it before. He only learned from his soldiers how those thousand households exploited them. In his rage, he even forgot how many people were involved in the military pay and resettlement fees.

This is indeed not something that the Zheng family alone can handle.

"Then it should be ok to just deal with these thousand households, right?"

In this way, fewer people will be involved and there won’t be so much resistance.

Zheng Yuannai believed that even if only these thousand households were dealt with, the lives of the military households would be much better.

However, Fan Dayong still shook his head:

"Whose power do you think these thousand households rely on to be so arrogant? They are all dogs raised by the commander-in-chief. Every year, they have to pay a lot of tribute to the commander-in-chief. Even if you beat a dog, you have to look at its owner, Master!"

"What good will it do us if we offend the commander-in-chief?"

The commander-in-chief is the direct superior of the two men.

If you offend him openly, it means that you will be restricted everywhere in the garrison and will not be able to accomplish anything.

Zheng Yuannai was not the kind of person who would not listen to advice, but he was still very unwilling in his heart:

"Then we can only let those thousand households continue to do evil?"

Fan Dayong nodded:

"That's right. We can't move them, so it's best not to do anything. Otherwise, giving up halfway will only damage your prestige and make them even more arrogant."

Zheng Yuannai had to admit that what Uncle Yong said made sense.

If he rashly arrested these thousand households, he would be able to relieve his anger for a while, but these people were protected by the commander-in-chief and it was impossible to deal with them.

When he was forced to release these people, they would experience for themselves that he could do nothing about them, and would only become more arrogant.

For the military households, it gave them hope and then disappointed them, which was not conducive to rallying people's hearts.

After realizing this, his expression suddenly became much more depressed:

"This world is really ridiculous. It is only natural to punish corrupt officials who oppress the people, but it seems to be against the will of the world."

Fan Dayong knew that his young master was young and full of vigor, and that he must be feeling very uncomfortable at the moment, so he patted his shoulder comfortingly:

"Master, this is not something we can solve. Rather than bringing trouble upon ourselves and accomplishing nothing, it is better to do what we can first."

Zheng Yuannai's eyes were filled with confusion and pain:

"What's the point of doing what you can do?"

Fan Dayong said categorically:

"Of course it makes sense. Have you forgotten what the master told you?"

When the abbot of the temple was mentioned, Zheng Yuannai became excited.

Yes, and there is also the master of the temple.

The master of the temple is an immortal who possesses powerful strength that is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

As long as he completes the task assigned by the master well and turns these people into a combat-ready army, the master will definitely not abandon them.

By then, if he could win a great victory with the help of the temple master, he could take the opportunity to apply to his superiors to form an independent battalion of soldiers, so that they could completely break away from the jurisdiction and exploitation of those thousand households.

In any case, this is a good idea.

With Fan Dayong's persuasion, Zheng Yuannai regained his composure.

He did not argue with the thousand households anymore, but instead asked people to buy some oilcloth and distribute it so that the military households could build some temporary sheds and put their less important belongings and luggage in the sheds to slightly improve their living environment.

Then he forcefully summoned all the new recruits and went to the Songhu camp for training.

The thousand households naturally reacted strongly.

The new military households that we had acquired at such a huge cost were snatched away by this general again!

But no matter how the thousand households make a fuss, this matter is Zheng Yuannai's bottom line, and he will never give in.

Now in the garrison, the original soldiers have become one with Zheng Yuannai, and the captains have been basically sidelined.

The new arrivals were leaderless, so they naturally subconsciously obeyed the orders of the generals with higher ranks.

Therefore, once Zheng Yuannai became powerful, the centurions had no other way to deal with him except to complain to the commander-in-chief.

The commander-in-chief also stood on Zheng Yuannai's side in this matter.

Although Zheng Yuannai wanted to do practical things, he knew the rules and knew when to advance and when to retreat.

Apart from asking for people, don't bother with anything else.

He gave the money for training new recruits, and if it was not enough, he would pay for it out of his own pocket. He never caused any trouble for him.

Naturally, he would give certain support to such a sensible subordinate.

Therefore, Zheng Yuannai's expansion of military training went relatively smoothly.

It is now February, and the Japanese pirates may land at any time starting from mid-April. In order to make the new recruits able to fight before then, he and Fan Dayong came up with many ideas.

He also set training goals for the new recruits. For example, the overall arm strength and running speed of a flag must reach a certain level, and everyone in the entire flag can gain one or two pounds of weight every day.

The assessment is held every half a month, and each of the top ten flag bearers will receive a reward of 200 silver coins.

Each flag has eleven people, and the one with the best physical fitness is selected as the flag.

In the military formation drill, each of the ten flags with the best performance will be rewarded with one or two taels of silver.

Each qualified flag bearer will receive a reward of 100 coins and 30 kilograms of rice.

For those who fail the test, their food standards will be downgraded for the next half month, from having oil and meat every day to only eating meat once every seven days.

The new recruits were short of money, so he turned the money that was originally intended to be used as a subsidy for their settlement into bonus money during training, which greatly increased their enthusiasm for training.

After a month, some results have been achieved.

March is a busy farming season, with rice being planted and wheat and rapeseed being harvested, and the military settlements need manpower.

The thousand households felt that the opportunity to take back the soldiers had come, so they jointly proposed to Zheng Yuannai to interrupt the training and withdraw all the soldiers back to the garrisons to focus on farming.

Zheng Yuannai refused without hesitation and invited the commander-in-chief to come to the Songhu camp for inspection.

"Sir, training soldiers is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat. After the busy farming season, the Japanese pirates may land at any time. If we interrupt the training due to farming, causing the soldiers' combat effectiveness to decline, it will be a loss of the greater for the smaller."

"Besides, this year we have over 1,300 new military households. The remaining men and their families are more than enough for farming, so there is no need to mobilize regular troops."

The commander-in-chief was very satisfied when he saw the more than 2,000 regular soldiers below the stage, who were well-trained and had rosy faces and neat military appearances because of Zheng Yuannai's care.

"That makes sense. I'll follow your idea. This year, we'll prioritize training, and the remaining men and their families will take over the farming duties."

"Thank you, sir!"

Zheng Yuannai said gratefully.

The commander patted his shoulder:

"Yuan Nao, when it comes to training, I will give you money and manpower if you ask for it. Don't let me down in this year's defense against Japan!"

Even the soldiers were only given one-third of their monthly rations, and the monthly training allowance for more than 2,000 people was only two hundred taels. This is also called giving money when you ask for money and giving people when you ask for people.

Zheng Yuannai felt it was ironic in his heart, but he did not show it on his face and just responded respectfully.

He has tried his best in training the soldiers, but the training time is still too short, and the outcome when facing the Japanese pirates is unknown.

If we want to achieve outstanding results in the fight against the Japanese pirates, we have to rely on the master of the temple.

I hope that the training results of these soldiers will satisfy the master of the temple.