The situation in the world has changed, and preparing for war in Qingzhou has become the main direction of work.

The soldiers of the new recruits have been added to the front-line field camp, and the establishment of the Yuyuan camp is also progressing smoothly.

There are indeed many people in the imperial guards who are not attached to the stable life in Jiangnan (not to mention that they are not stable now), and agree to join the Qingzhou army.

For example, Lin Chong and Xu Shiyang saved his wife once in Jiangnan. In addition, with Lu Zhishen, the good brother, encouraged him, Lin Chong has a strong habit of martial arts, and it is natural that those who hate superiors in Jiangnan will choose to stay.

In fact, he has nowhere to go without leaving him.

Another imperial guard officer, Xu Ning had much more choices, but in the end he chose to stay.

It’s not because it was seen that the Xu family didn’t want to release them at all, but because Xu Ning thought he was a warrior and he really wanted to really try his skills with the Tartars.

There is one thing he never said, when Xu Shiyang was in Jiangnan, the gate of Lin'an City shocked the Tartars and later burned the Duting Post Office, Xu Ning was at the scene.

Seeing the two great momentums of Han people, Xu Ning felt that the Tartars were not as powerful as the rumors, and there was no need to be afraid of them.

Xu Ning believed that if he could fight the Tartars in Jiangbei, he would be more famous than those who went back to Jiangnan to fight Fang La.

Most of the imperial soldiers had similar ideas to Lin Chong and Xu Ning.

Some people felt that they could not go back after being incorporated into the marriage brigade team, and they could not escape the blame for the marriage brigade team being robbed, so they simply stayed in Jiangbei.

Others are confident in their skills and think that militia can fight the Tartars, so of course they should compete with the Tartars!

Therefore, more than 2,400 people voluntarily left behind by the five thousand imperial guards!

In Xu Shiyang's view, this proportion is very high. After all, the Imperial Army is a professional army of the Great Zhou Dynasty, especially the officers. Under the influence of many wealthy families in Jiangnan, nearly half of them can stay voluntarily under the influence of various reasons. This is not easy.

As for those who are unwilling to stay... Xu Shiyang certainly did not intend to let them go easily.

Since they are unwilling to join, they are still imperial guards rather than Qingzhou troops. In this case, Qingzhou has no reason to provide them with supplies. Therefore, the other 2,000 imperial guards who have to go home should pay their food, accommodation fees, and travel expenses in Qingzhou themselves.

It’s actually okay to have food and accommodation, but the shipping fee for going home is not cheap. Xu Shiyang asked them to sign a six-month contract. During these six months, the imperial guards who wanted to go home should obey Qingzhou's orders and serve the Qingzhou army.

Short-term service is used as the cost of food and accommodation during his stay in Qingzhou and the expenses of returning to Jiangnan.

During this period, Qingzhou would not order them to carry out mortal tasks, nor would they let them fight the Tartars. If the Tartars went south within six months, Xu Shiyang would send a boat to send them away.

Xu Shiyang plans to use this team, plus some militia teams, to deal with Yanzhou to the west of Qingzhou and some forts in Laizhou to the east, to expand Qingzhou's control area and increase population and reserves.

Originally, this task should be from the New Army, but the training task of the New Army was too heavy, and it was almost gone through many battle formations. Although the battle was not very fierce, the physical and mental strength of a person was ultimately limited and it was impossible to continue to squeeze in infinitely.

Xu Shiyang planned to let the new army soldiers take vacations in batches, take some rest and get some rest before entering the next stage of training and war work.

Anyway, more than two thousand imperial guards are enough to deal with local fortress owners. These people are well-equipped and have good physical fitness. They used to be professional soldiers. If they could not even deal with non-productive militias, it would be better to kick them back to Jiangnan as soon as possible.

In the new army, with more than 2,400 former imperial soldiers joining, almost all the battalions have exceeded the rank of the ranks. On the basis of the original 600 people, the infantry battalions have added 100 ranks of the ranks of the ranks.

This caused the eight infantry battalions to expand to 700 people. Since there were many people who could ride horses in the imperial guards, the Jingyuan battalion, which mainly carries horse infantry, also expanded to 700 people.

The Zhiyuan Camp, composed of regular cavalry, expanded to 500 people.

The new army instantly expanded to a total force of 6,800 people, which did not include the army that maintained the 300-man unit, the instructor group of new soldiers who could use the imperial guards to make up the number, and the military tutors that could be used to maintain military discipline.

In addition, Xu Shiyang drew out a hundred old soldiers from the imperial guards who were very good at horse stance and Lin Chong, and formed his own direct guard.

While the new army's troops expanded rapidly, various problems also emerged, the most important of which was the insufficient number of veterans.

Veterans who had participated in the war against the Tartars and had confidence in victory were diluted several times, but few of them could be listed on the front line now.

This problem is almost impossible to solve, because the experience of war and the confidence to defeat the Tartars can only be obtained from the battlefield, and no matter how good the training is, it will be useless.

Another problem is that although the horses in Zhiyuan Camp have expanded to 500, there are still only 200 qualified war horses. Not to mention the regular cavalry and two horses, even two horses cannot do it.

Only one horse can be carried out for every three people and horses, and horse riding training will be carried out in turn. In wartime, except for the two hundred people who can go to the battlefield, the rest can only be used as ordinary vanguard selection soldiers.

This problem is also difficult to solve, because Jiangnan itself lacks horses. Even if you have money, you don’t want to buy horses from Jiangnan, let alone qualified war horses.

If Xu Shiyang wants to obtain a war horse, there seem to be only three ways to go:

First, find a way to contact Tartars and smuggle war horses - this is not impossible. Although horses are strategic materials, Tartars cannot come up with better things to exchange for Han real estate products, and sometimes they have to agree.

In the past, when the imperial court was able to maintain the northern defense line, the tea-horse trade has always been an important source of war horses for the country and it can also bring high benefits to both smuggling parties.

Second, the battlefield was seized.

Needless to say, this depends purely on the amount of spoils.

As for the third one... Although it takes a long time, it is indeed a good idea.

That is to cultivate your own breed, raise your own horses, and train your own war horses!

At the end of August of the 13th year of Jianxing, a Pars brig sailed into Rizhao Port.

I don’t know if it was to open up the way, the Pals merchant who signed a war horse purchase contract with Xu Shiyang at Shuangyu Port brought twelve best Pals stallions to Xu Shiyang in one breath!

These horses are small and pretty, with bright eyes, and look extremely intelligent; their backs and waists are short but powerful, their limbs are slender, their tendons are developed, their height is over 145 cm, and their weight generally exceeds 400 kilograms. They are obviously a very good war horse!
Chapter completed!