Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 135 The Mob

Zhou Ye understood that this was actually Du Keyuan's good intention.

Although the senior disciples at the martial arts school are exempt from tuition fees and receive a small stipend for their positions, it seems they don't earn much money. But they have many junior disciples! They can easily build a vast network of connections.

Furthermore, in recent interactions, Zhou Ye vaguely realized that Du Keyuan had indeed aged. He had also lost his former vigor.

Judging from the current situation, Du Juan will definitely marry into the prefectural governor's mansion, and she will no longer be able to show her face in public. She won't even be able to run the Fenglei Martial Arts School with Song Zhongqi like she did when she married into the Song family.

In other words, Du Juan will at most own the Feng Lei Martial Arts School in the future, but the operation and management will definitely be entrusted to others. This will become a relationship between the owner and the manager.

Furthermore, martial arts schools have their own unique characteristics. The inheritance of Fenglei Martial Arts School will definitely fall into the hands of the school owner (that is, the manager).

Given this, Du Keyuan had already begun looking for candidates. Therefore, he made a certain hint here—Zhou Ye might also be a strong possibility!

Alright! Zhou Ye simply played dumb about this hint. He had absolutely no interest in the Fenglei Martial Arts School; he'd rather leave it to his kind-hearted third senior brother, Han Guang!

Or perhaps we could simply let Du Juan have several children, and then choose one to inherit the martial arts school.

That's just how the old man is. He has too many ideas and likes to arrange things perfectly for others.

However, not long after Du Keyuan left, Zhou Ye was summoned to the gate of the military camp and received two graceful young women wearing veils.

"Senior Brother Aye, why are you so mean? Hmph."

"Well?"

"Hmph! You've kept this from Miss for so long! I never imagined you were a Ming Jin master! I always thought you were just a good-for-nothing. Miss was hoping to take better care of you. Confess honestly, were you just pretending to be pitiful?"

"Stop! Xiao Cui, aren't you a useless piece of trash too?"

"I'm different. I'm just a lowly maid!"

"Huh? This little maid seems to think she's quite proud of herself?"

Amidst laughter and chatter, Du Juan handed Zhou Ye two small bottles: "Senior Brother A Ye, these pills are for you."

Zhou Ye took a look and saw that it was actually a high-grade Qi and Blood Pill, worth about 1300 taels. He quickly declined, saying, "Junior Sister, it's too precious. Actually, the old man has already sent 500 taels."

Xiao Cui, who was standing nearby, complained, "Actually, the old master had already instructed Miss not to come, for fear that the young prefect might misunderstand. But Miss insisted on coming, saying she must apologize to you."

"What's there to apologize for? You didn't do it on purpose." Zhou Ye waved his hand with a smile. "By the way, we've heard back from Zhang Hu."

"Is that right?"

"Still no. But when the butler saw us off, he gave us a hint, telling us to prepare for the marriage."

"That's good."

"Senior Brother Aye, please keep the pill safe. If you encounter danger, do not be reckless. Run away and save your life first. If anyone comes after you, I will ask Tiger for help."

"Yes, yes."

In the end, Zhou Ye couldn't resist the two girls' enthusiasm and accepted the two bottles of top-grade Qi and Blood Pills.

However, upon returning to camp and seeing the soldiers assigned to him, Zhou Ye was speechless. What kind of rabble was this?

Zhou Ye's deputy was named Niu Meng. He was a centurion in his thirties, without any real authority; he was just a senior, low-ranking officer. He also had two squads of ten men each directly under his command. These were the real officers and soldiers.

That is to say, there were only about 20 qualified soldiers in total.

Logically speaking, Zhou Ye, as a commander of a thousand men, should be leading one thousand-man unit and ten hundred-man units, totaling approximately 1000 men.

Several officers and soldiers.

But in reality, Zhou Ye only had three teams of 100 people each? And the teams weren't even at full strength. The smallest team had just over 70 people, and the largest had around 80 people.

Furthermore, one of these three hundred-man teams is directly under Zhou Ye's command, with him also serving as the team's commander. The other two hundred-man teams are staffed by martial arts instructors recruited from martial arts schools, who also serve as their commanders and deputies. Each hundred-man team consists of three individuals, mostly at the late or mid-stages of the Qi Refining realm.

Besides, almost all the soldiers were from refugees. Although they were selected and appeared relatively strong, their clothes were tattered, and many didn't even have cotton-padded coats. They were huddled in tents, shivering, wearing only thin shirts and trousers riddled with holes. They also reeked of a foul stench, as if they hadn't bathed in a long time.

Good heavens! They're basically a bunch of refugees? Forget about marching and fighting, shouldn't they at least be fed and clothed?

Fortunately, after two days of rest, the army still distributed a large amount of supplies.

First, there's the matter of weaponry. Giving each person a sword or spear is certainly achievable. After all, Fufeng County is known for its strong martial spirit, so this most basic...

We can still guarantee the cheapest weapons. As for armor? Don't even dream about it.

Secondly, there's the food. The military rations they were issued were enough to feed them at least 80% full. But seeing the satisfied expressions on the soldiers' faces, it seemed like being 80% full was a dream come true?

Finally, there's the matter of keeping warm. Each group of five was given a blanket. There were definitely no cotton-padded coats or trousers. Let these soldiers huddle together for warmth!

Of course, the army wasn't completely without options; they distributed piles of dried black grass. Stuffing the dried grass into clothes and shoes provided at least a little bit of warmth.

Besides, as Zhou Ye requested, a large amount of hot water has been boiled over the past few days so that everyone can wash their hair, face, hands, and feet, and dry their bodies—but washing clothes is out of the question. Most soldiers simply don't have spare clothes! Are they supposed to run naked in the snow?

That day, Zhou Ye and Niu Meng were chatting in the tent.

"General Zhou, you don't need to worry about it. These refugees are desperate. They're already fighting tooth and nail to have food and lodging in the camp and survive this winter. Take me for example! I arrived a few days earlier than you, and in just those few days, four of our thousand-man squads have died."

"Huh? So many people died?"

"There's no other way! If we don't recruit them, even more will die. Just this winter, at least half of them froze and starved to death. You have no idea, when we were recruiting, a huge, dark mass of people showed up. If it weren't for our kind-hearted prefect trying to cram as many soldiers as possible into the camp, we wouldn't have that many new soldiers."

"Then why can't we hire more?"

"We want to too! But where will the money and supplies come from? They're all stuck in the warehouses of wealthy and powerful families. This is really disaster relief; we'll save whoever we can! Sigh—!"

"oh oh!"

"General Zhou, so these past few days I've organized the troops into squads, selecting several ten-man squad leaders and deputy leaders. I haven't been able to focus on other training or anything like that. As long as they can recover their health..."

"Then how will we fight the war? Are we just going to rely on these soldiers?"

"Don't worry! We won't be going to the front lines. Wouldn't that be feeding the rebels? We'll just serve as auxiliary soldiers, doing odd jobs for the regular soldiers who are fighting—"

According to Niu Meng's introduction, Zhou Ye learned that in direct confrontation, the government's army actually had a clear advantage, but it was hampered by insufficient manpower and could only fight rout battles, not annihilation battles.

That's why this new army was formed. They will be deployed to secondary battlefields to wear down and contain the rebels. To put it more bluntly: this new army is essentially cannon fodder.

"Old Niu, according to you, we might encounter enemies, right? We still need to practice; at the very least, we can't just collapse at the first sign of trouble, can we?"

"That works too. Anyway, our thousand-man unit will definitely be reinforced. There's still plenty of time; I'll arrange for them to do some drills."

66

Zhou Ye was a complete novice when it came to military affairs such as training troops, marching, and fighting.

That's why the New Army assigned deputies like Niu Meng, allowing these experienced officers to take specific charge.

Since that's the case, Zhou Ye wouldn't let an amateur direct an expert, so he simply assigned all these tasks to Niu Meng.

Finding that Zhou Ye wouldn't interfere recklessly or try to seize power, Niu Meng didn't cause any trouble. The two maintained a relatively harmonious relationship.

"By the way, Lao Niu, how did you end up assigning us to the new army?"

"Alas! I failed to break through to the Ming Jin level twice, and I have no future. I'm also getting old, and I don't even have a wife or children. So my old general took care of me and arranged for me to come here. Once this battle is over, I will be transferred to be the commander of the military garrison."

"Military settlements?"

"General Zhou, don't you know? Even those refugees go to the military farms. Our thousand-man unit will never be disbanded. Otherwise, without pay and no future in the army, why would they be so eager to join? It's because they can be allocated land in the military farms to farm and settle down completely."

It turns out that in the government's plan, there was a lot of land outside that was left uncultivated.

Therefore, after the new army was formed, those soldiers who performed well would be added to the regular army. The others would be reclaimed from the wasteland and used to build military settlements.

In this way, the problem of displaced people was solved. Production could also be restored, providing a steady stream of money and provisions for the government and the army.

Furthermore, the guards of the military settlements could be considered—militia, right? They possessed some fighting ability, thus becoming an auxiliary force to the army.

Not to mention, it also plays a very important role in disaster relief.

This made Zhou Ye look at him with new respect. He hadn't expected Zhang Qianshun, the new prefect, to be so capable, and even willing to do practical things, seemingly wanting to make a difference.

Therefore, human nature is very complex. Perhaps Zhang Qianshun was a good official and a good general, but his and Zhang Hu's methods of manipulating Du Juan are best left unmentioned!

Just then, a messenger rushed in: "General Zhou, Deputy General Niu, summon all commanding officers for a meeting. A new military order is about to be issued."

"???"