After rebirth, I became a national teacher

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.