Chapter 32 The Final Practical Training

  The training camp was located in a remote mountain valley, but to prevent the news from leaking out, most of the 1,000 new recruits were trained separately for most of the time and rarely gathered together.

  It's freezing cold today, even hunters who often enter the mountains to hunt rarely come out to move around. It's a good time for intensive training.

  Zhou Jian led Dian Wei and Jiang Qin in a swift gallop, hastening for a whole hour before arriving at the mountain valley.

  In the vast valley, hundreds of tents were set up, surrounded by wooden fences on all sides, resembling a simple military camp.

  Outside the barracks, a thousand soldiers were practicing military formations under the leadership of twenty attendants. One hundred pirates were scattered among the soldiers, each leading ten people, with very strict discipline.

  The newly recruited soldiers have undergone more than half a year of training and have already shed their vagabond nature, each one with strict discipline, strong will and style, can be said to be well-trained, what is lacking is only the baptism of war.

  An army that has not been tempered by fire is not yet a true elite force.

  Zhou Jian spurred his horse and rushed into the valley, while Zhou Wu had already seen him from afar and came to meet him.

  The young master has arrived.

  Zhou Wu took over the reins of Zhou Jian's horse and led several people to a hill in front of an empty field.

  Zhou Jian climbed up the mound, took a glance at the new army that was training, nodded and said with satisfaction: "The training is not bad, it's somewhat decent. However, to become truly elite, it's still far from enough."

  "Your training method is still quite formidable, most of these soldiers have never killed anyone before, and it's not easy to train them to this level. As long as they go through one war, these thousand new troops will be transformed."

  Jiang Qin and others nodded one after another. It was indeed not easy to train a group of refugees like this.

  The army attaches most importance to discipline; an army without discipline is absolutely incapable of becoming a fine fighting force.

  To say nothing of the others, the discipline of the new army of one thousand is still quite strict.

  Twenty followers have been trained by Zhou Jian since childhood, and they have almost developed a habit of following discipline. The discipline of the newly trained army is naturally not bad.

  Zhou Jian waved his hand and said, "No matter how good the training is, if you can't keep your life on the battlefield, it's useless even if you win. We must find an opportunity to let them see blood, otherwise when they go into battle, their hands and feet will be soft, and they will pay a terrible price."

  Zhou Wudao said, "There are no large-scale bandits within our borders, but in Liangguo's Ningling County, there is a group of bandits with over a thousand people. If we were to cross the border and attack them, we would have enough troops, but I'm afraid it would cause trouble."

  Zhou Jian paced back and forth, secretly guessing the time of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. If they were to make a move, it should be at the beginning of spring, or at the latest, during the spring-summer transition. Any later would mean autumn and winter would arrive in an instant, making it unfavorable for their cause. He suddenly said, "Can't worry about that much anymore, Ningling is adjacent to our territory, we can get there overnight by traveling under cover of darkness, just be extra cautious."

  "Obeying orders."

  Zhou Wu hastily responded with a sound and began to consider how to conceal his traces.

  Zhou Jian thought for a moment and said, "Send someone to investigate their behavior. If they only rob the wealthy and don't harm the poor, then let it go. After all, they are just desperate people; but if this group of bandits harms even the poor, then there's nothing more to say, take them out and use them as practice for our soldiers."

  Dianwei and Jiang Qin, who were from poor peasant backgrounds, showed approval on their faces, while Xu Chu's face was expressionless.

  Zhou Wu responded with a sound and immediately dispatched two attendants to Ningling County to gather information.

  On the third day, news arrived.

  There are about 1,500 mountain bandits in Ningling County, hiding in the deep valleys and dense forests, making a living by looting. They not only rob the rich, but also spare no poor people, they are truly evil to the extreme.

  Even poor ordinary people are harmed, so there's nothing good to say about it. It can be considered as eliminating harm for the people.

  Zhou Jian immediately took advantage of the night to lead his army away from Ji Wu, with each person only bringing three days' worth of dry rations. By dawn, they had already arrived within the borders of Ningling County.

  Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, although the population in the Central Plains was dense, the total population of Yan and Yu states combined was only a few million, far less than one-tenth of that in the 21st century. Moreover, forests had not been extensively cut down, with many high mountains and dense forests, and many places were rarely visited by humans. It would still be easy to find a secluded place to hide a thousand people.

  Zhou Jian led his troops to hide in the dense forest on the mountain slope and sent out scouts to investigate. An hour later, the scout horse brought back news.

  The bandits lurking in Ningling County are just a short distance from here, twenty miles away in a dense forest.

  "Sir, why don't we act at night? This way, we can conceal our tracks to the greatest extent."

  "We don't need to, one thousand people are not comparable to two hundred people, and it's more inconvenient to act at night. This time we're going to strike the bandits, we want to have a head-on collision, even if there are casualties, we must let this group of refugees truly understand the cruelty of war, only then can they quickly change their ways, otherwise it will not be enough to cope with the impending crisis."

  Zhou Wu did not say much more and immediately passed down the order. One thousand new troops quickly set off in a hurry, rushing northward.

  The Central Plains lack war horses, and war horses are the most important strategic materials. Even if you have money, it's not necessarily possible to buy them.

  Zhou Jian had only more than 20 war horses in his hands. Except for the scouts, only Zhou Wu, Jiang Qin, Dian Wei, and Xu Zhu had horses to ride. Even several followers couldn't get a horse and could only run on foot.

  The new army, although not having been on the battlefield, was trained in a completely modern 21st-century special forces training mode. In terms of physical strength and endurance, they were still very tough, covering twenty miles in just over half an hour.

  The scout responsible for reconnaissance rode forward on horseback, pointing to a mountain pass and said to Zhou Jian: "Young master, after passing this mountain pass, it is the bandit's lair. This group of thieves has low vigilance and did not arrange any scouts."

  Zhou Jian's eyes were stern and his face was set in a fierce expression. He waved his hand and gave the order: "Advance directly and break into the bandit camp."

  "Obeying orders."

  The attendants responded with alacrity and immediately urged on their horses and departed.

  A thousand new troops formed a neat and tidy formation, without any disorder, quickly rolling forward on the mountain road.

  Mountain paths are difficult to traverse and are unfavorable for war horses to run.

  Zhou Jian left a few soldiers to guard the war horses and led the main army into the mountains.

  The new army, although inexperienced in battle, should have no problem dealing with a mere thousand mountain bandits.

  The mountain path is extremely difficult to walk, and there is a section of the mountain ridge that is particularly steep. Only three people can pass through at a time, with cliffs hundreds of feet high on both sides. If one falls from above, even if they have iron-like bones, they will still break their bones.

  A thousand new troops formed a column, forming a long snake array and passing through slowly.

  Such a strategic location, as long as it is defended with danger, one man can guard the pass and ten thousand men cannot open it.

  Fortunately, in the depths of winter, government troops would never come to suppress bandits, and mountain thieves did not even arrange sentries.

  Otherwise, wanting to cross this mountain ridge is also a big trouble.

  Crossing over the mountain ridge and turning past a deep valley, the terrain suddenly opens up.

  Between the two mountains is a fairly flat valley, which can accommodate tens of thousands of people without any problem. In the withered and yellow dense forest, many simple wooden houses and earth-sheltered houses have been built, with smoke rising gently into the air and drifting away in the wind.

  "The government troops have arrived!"

  A terrified scream pierced the tranquility of the valley, and suddenly someone discovered that the government army had just entered the valley. Immediately, dozens of robust mountain bandits rushed out of the nearby wooden houses and earthen huts.

  These mountain bandits were holding wooden swords and hoes, rushing out in a tumultuous manner, standing at high places to observe.

  "So many!"

  "He's really an officer."

  The mountain bandits caught sight of a dense forest of iron armor and suddenly gasped in unison.

  Only to see the coming official army wearing black iron armor, with neat and tidy military appearance, strict discipline, thousands of people rolling into the mountain valley like a steel torrent, not chaotic at all. Just this momentum made the mountain bandits' hearts involuntarily tremble.

  Even a blind person can see that this government army is completely different from those we've encountered before.

  The government troops I met before did not have such uniform black iron armor, nor did they have such neat military appearance. Moreover, there were many old, weak, sick and disabled people among them, which was not much better than these mountain bandits.

  But the current government army is completely different.

  Not only are they clad in uniform black armor, but their military bearing is also impeccable, with no room for criticism.

  More bandits poured out of the houses, most of them were half-naked, with a vegetable color on their faces, and the weapons in their hands were varied, stone knives and wooden swords, only a few bandits held rusty cavalry sabers.

  "The imperial army is coming to kill us, brothers charge!"

  "Kill them, wipe out this group of government troops."

  "What's there to be afraid of? Brothers will always be brothers."

  The mountain bandits suddenly let out a loud shout, and one of them, about thirty years old with a sinister scar on his face, seemed to be the leader. He waved his arm and shouted loudly, leading more than a hundred bandits in a fierce charge out of the mountain stronghold, killing their way forward.

  More mountain bandits were rushing out of the wooden house one after another, making a loud noise and causing some confusion.

  Zhou Jian's mouth curled up with a cold smile, what a motley crew! It's really hard to say whether these mountain bandits are brave or foolish. Before they even figured out the situation, without gathering their men, over a hundred of them actually dared to launch a charge.

  Dian Wei, Xu Chu, Zhou Wu and Jiang Qin were expressionless, treating the rushing mountain bandits as if they didn't exist.

  Zhou Jian's body was clad in a heavy fish-scale armor, but it seemed as light as nothing. He let out a loud shout: "Form ranks, charge!"

  The two fifty-man squads in the front row immediately changed formation, following the special training method of combined attack. The shield-bearing soldiers held up their shields and rushed forward with big strides, while the long spear-wielding soldiers followed closely behind, preparing to make a sudden thrust under the cover of the shield-bearing soldiers.

  Zhou Jian did not charge forward, but instead commanded from the center with Dian Wei and Xu Chu.

  A true general is forged in battle; one who merely reads military texts and has never experienced war will forever be a mere armchair strategist.

  Although Zhou Jian is the king of soldiers, he is only good at training special forces. Despite having a vision that transcends this era, his understanding of the cold weapon era's battlefield battles is limited to military books and lacks real combat experience.

  No matter how good the drill is, without experiencing the test of war, it will always be empty talk.

  For Zhou Jian, in the large-scale Cold War, he is now just a rookie. To become a real general, or even a famous general, there is still a long way to go, and it is necessary to continuously lead the army to win one victory after another.

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