Faced with Zhang Xiaomei's request, Wang Xu thought about it and finally decided to agree.
However, he had a request. He could keep these soldiers and horses, but Zhang Xiaomei could not leave. She had to stay with him to serve as his staff.
The staff must be fake. Wang Xu is interested in Zhang Xiaomei's strength.
The new army was trained to conquer the barbarians in the south. There were countless masters among the barbarians, but Wang Xu alone could not support them alone.
In addition, there are many sixth-level masters in the world. How could Wang Xu let Zhang Xiaomei run away?
Zhang Xiaomei did not refuse because she had nowhere to go.
However, Zhao'an's matter cannot be solved with a few words, it requires a lot of operations.
Wang Xu first wrote a letter, stating that the believers of the White Lotus Sect who captured Tianshui County had no offense against the people and were just a group of poor people. Now that the White Lotus has been determined and the world has returned to its heart, it is unavoidable to kill them in vain. It is better to put them in peace, which will reduce the number of killings.
It can show Zhou Gong's heartfelt wishes for the world to return to its heart.
"Eighty thousand white lotus elites are also a considerable amount of power. The big bosses of the Ministry of War should not refuse. With the support of the Ministry of War and the support of teachers, the emperor should be happy to see the results. It is rare to know how to keep these elites in the new city.
Army, rather than being divided up by others."
Wang Xu wrote the letter to the court and his teachers, and then began to think about who could come forward and integrate these 80,000 elites into the new army.
After thinking about it, a name came to mind, today's emperor's younger brother, King Zhongyi, Wu Tao.
Wu Tao is the younger brother of the current emperor, but he is much younger than the emperor. He is only in his early forties this year.
When the emperor ascended the throne, King Zhongyi was too young to pose a threat to the throne, so he was not involved in the struggle for the throne.
After the emperor ascended the throne, the royal bloodline withered away. In order to show that he was not a mean and ungrateful emperor, he had no choice but to deal cruel blows to the princes who were competing for the dragon, so he was very kind to King Zhongyi.
King Zhongyi's fiefdom was in the north, but the emperor never drove King Zhongyi out of the capital, but allowed him to go wherever he wanted.
The Northland is not as fun as the capital. Of course King Zhongyi doesn't want to leave. He spends all day carrying cages and playing with the birds. He feels so carefree.
If King Zhongyi can come forward, there is a high probability that 80,000 white lotus elites can be retained in the new army. Since King Zhongyi spends money like water, loves money and sex, as long as he has enough money, it will not be difficult for him to intercede with the emperor.
Similarly, a loyal king who never returns to his fief all year round and only wants to bully men and dominate women all day long and act as a free prince is more likely to say this than the ministers in the court.
"King Zhongyi is so extravagant that there is no shortage of money. Three hundred thousand taels of silver should be enough to impress him."
Wang Xu wrote another letter and asked the steward of the Wang family in the capital to bring his letter and banknote to seek help from King Zhongyi.
After doing these two things, all that's left is waiting.
Three days later, the imperial court agreed to Zhao'an for this group of White Lotus sect believers, and in the name of strengthening the new army, Zhao'an's 80,000 White Lotus sect elites were incorporated into the new army camp.
Seeing this, Wang Xu breathed a sigh of relief, but judging from the tone of the imperial edict, it was known to the higher-ups that he had asked King Zhongyi to come forward in order to keep these White Lotus elites.
Otherwise, the tone of the imperial edict would not be bland, and there would be no mention of how to reward people.
You know it, it's worth the emperor's displeasure to exchange for a master like Zhang Xiaomei and Bailian elite. Anyway, the emperor doesn't like him for a day or two.
With Zhao'an's imperial decree and Zhang Xiaomei's secret support, the reception of the surrendered troops went smoothly.
Statistics show that there are 87,000 followers of the White Lotus Sect who have been recruited and surrendered, of which 50,000 are elite soldiers and 27,000 are fanatic followers of the White Lotus Sect.
Among these people, the soldiers are basically Taoist soldiers who have reached higher levels. Not only is the fifth-level master Nantuo Jingzhu, there are also several fourth-level generals. The remaining three-level captains, two-level team leaders, and one
There are even more warriors of this level.
Wang Xu was ecstatic about this. Only an army that has reached a higher level can be called an elite. It would take three to five years to train such an elite army.
Take the current new army as an example. It has only been three months since they joined the army, and the queues are not evenly aligned. Without the influence of external forces, they cannot defeat these elites three to one.
Return to the camp and disperse these veterans. The veterans will lead the new recruits, and combat effectiveness will be easily formed.
After accepting the elite members of the White Lotus Sect, Wang Xu left only the fighting soldiers and none of the fanatic followers. They all paid their travel expenses and disbanded.
Fanatic believers are different from soldiers in that they have firm beliefs.
Wang Xu was also afraid that if he took these people back and secretly promoted the White Lotus Sect's ideas, he would lose the rice.
There were 200,000 soldiers when they came and 250,000 soldiers when they left. The army started back the way it came.
In the following time, no more accidents happened.
Farming and training troops became Wang Xu's main work.
Three years later...
Time flies. This year, Wang Xu is twenty-eight years old, and the new army has been trained.
The 550,000 new troops, under Wang Xu's full efforts, became mostly first-level elites in three years, and the price was two-thirds of the tax revenue gained from border trade, which fell into the bellies of these people.
If you want to build a strong army if you are poor in culture and rich in military affairs, in addition to suitable military tactics, food is the most important thing.
Wang Xu ordered five meals a day, including chicken, duck and fish, and coupled with high-intensity training, all the soldiers became top-notch warriors.
As soon as the command flag is raised and the army forms together, the army is like a dragon. Then brave men will act as generals. No matter how you are a Taoist arhat, you will still drink hatred when you enter the army.
If Wang Xu was in charge personally, with the blessing of his literary light and poetry, he would not be afraid of the gods and bodhisattvas coming.
If three or five come, that's fine. But if there are one or two, it's not certain who will kill whom.
No wonder Huo Qubing, as a fifth-level warrior, was able to kill sixth-level demon gods in succession. In addition to his extremely terrifying strength, the blessing of the military formation was probably also a factor.
When Wang Xu fights alone, he can compete with one demon god, but not two or three.
There is a military formation, and two or three demon gods are not afraid. If one of them is not good, there is even a risk of being slaughtered by him.
It's just annoying that Wang Xu's right route army was completed, but Jingzhou's left route army and the central route army were still incomplete in three years due to lack of money and food.
Wang Xu went to inspect the camp and saw that nearly half of the soldiers and horses of the left army had not yet entered the army.
The Central Army is better, but it still has one-third of its troops, which is not enough to be among the elite.
After some calculation, it will probably take two years for the Left Army and the Center Army to become elite divisions.
Another two years passed. This year Wang Xu was thirty years old and had reached his thirties.
After years of preparation, nearly two-thirds of the barbarian territory has been marked on the map.
Similarly, large areas of mountain forests were cut down in the past five years because of the aggressive purchase of charcoal by merchants, a kind of charcoal made from the fern-aluminum tree unique to the barbarians.
The charcoal made from the iron-aluminum tree has a faint fragrance and is better than the human charcoal. This is just an excuse for the merchants.
The real purpose is to eliminate the mountains and forests within the barbarian territory. When the mountains and forests are gone, the methane gas will be gone, and the barbarians will also lose the natural barrier they rely on for survival.
At first, the barbarians did not agree, because the main food of many barbarians was berries in the mountains and forests.
The merchants had their own countermeasures, and soon under Wang Xu's instructions, they began to teach the barbarians to move mountains and build roads, and to return forests to farming.
The barbarians were overjoyed. Of course, the berries were not as delicious as corn, and all fools knew this.
Even some shamans believe that if the barbarians learn the farming techniques of the humans, they can greatly enhance the strength of the tribe.
But in fact, is this really the case?
The answer is no. When the barbarians running like flying in the mountains and forests start working in the fields, they will no longer chase wild animals.
The best example is the Liao Kingdom in history. The Liao Kingdom was a Khitan people. The people on horseback were brave and good at fighting.
They quickly defeated the Northern Song Dynasty and established their own dynasty.
However, the Khitan nobles yearned for Han culture very much and believed that the people on horseback were barbaric.
It's funny, the Khitan conquered the grasslands on horseback and defeated the Northern Song Dynasty. In the end, they disliked the life on horseback and began to build their own cities and convert pastures into cultivated land.
Later, the nobles of the Liao Kingdom, who could not ride horses and could only ride in sedan chairs, were completely defeated militarily by the rising Jin Kingdom.
It’s more fun here. Wanyan Aguda, the founder of the Jin Kingdom, also admired Han culture very much. After seeing the luxury of Liaodu, he couldn’t miss Shu. He even relaxed his offensive against the Southern Song Dynasty and began to switch from nomadic herding to farming.
What was the final result? The Jin Kingdom was over after a short period of time. Just like the Liao Kingdom, the Jin Kingdom's fierce generals who could not ride horses were trampled to pieces by the Mongolian cavalry.
It can be seen from this that you should not change your national characteristics easily.
The one covering his chest may not be Xi Shi but Dong Shi. When the barbarians roaring in the mountains and forests become a farming nation like the human race, what they may get is not a prosperous life, but the beginning of destruction.
The most obvious change is that the barbarians in the past had to learn gladiatorial combat from an early age and go into the mountains to hunt at the age of twelve.
Now, the twelve-year-old barbarians have to learn to take care of the crops, because they don't need to hunt, as long as they take care of the crops, they can have enough to eat.
Five years is enough to influence a generation.
Today's barbarians, few of whom are under the age of twenty, are willing to chase wild beasts in the mountains and forests.
Once upon a time, those who could fight tigers were considered warriors and could marry three wives.
Now, if you can plant rice with your eyes closed, you can marry five, and you don’t have to fight wild beasts anymore, so you don’t have to worry about when you will die.
If you were a barbarian, what would you choose?
The nobles of the Liao Kingdom and the Jin Kingdom gave up riding on horseback, and today's barbarians have also given up fighting with ferocious beasts.
The strength of the barbarians is weakening, which is visible to the naked eye. They have cut down large tracts of forests, turned the trees into charcoal and sold them to the humans, and turned the forest land into cultivated land.
The young people went from learning bows and arrows and gladiatorial combat, and how to survive in the mountains, rivers and jungles, to learning how to take care of the fields.
This is true for young people, but what about adults?
They sold the burned charcoal to the caravans in exchange for large amounts of wine, silk, cloth, condiments, and even luxury goods to improve their quality of life.
The people who have the best relationship with the barbarian leaders are no longer the human erudites, but the playboys who have no knowledge and skills and only know how to enjoy themselves.
They taught the leaders how to enjoy themselves, and taught the leaders' descendants what it means to walk a bird in a cage, what it means to fight with crickets, and what it means to have sex.
It's not that there are no sober people, it's just that these sober rulers will soon be wiped out by other tribes, or their warriors will seize power and kill them.
Five years is enough time to change a lot of things, too much for you to handle.
When Wang Xu heard that the leaders of the barbarian tribes wanted to invite humans to teach the ways of Confucius and Mencius, he knew that the time was ripe to destroy the barbarians.