Chapter Sixty: Ronglu Inspects the Wuwei Army

  Ronglu and his entourage, led by Ye Zhiwei in person, soon arrived at the Lutai Wuyi military camp. Before entering the camp, Ronglu saw two huge spherical objects placed in front of the drill ground at the main gate of the camp. The spheres were covered with large nets, and sandbags were tied to the lower edges of the nets to prevent the spheres from rising up.

  Rong Lu curiously asked: "Is this thing a hydrogen balloon from the Martial Arts Academy?"

  Ye Zhi Kui smiled and flattered, saying: "Lord Rong is indeed knowledgeable and insightful. However, after this object has been improved by the Machine Manufacturing Bureau, it has become even easier to operate. Please wait for a moment, sir, and observe carefully."

  Ye Zhiwei finished giving orders, and soon after, soldiers came forward to remove the sandbags. Then five people entered the gondola of each hydrogen balloon. The ropes of the balloons were slowly released, and under the watchful eyes of Ronglu and his entourage, they slowly rose upwards. Ronglu was watching with great interest, but unexpectedly, when the balloon had risen to a height of over ten zhang, it suddenly stopped moving.

  Rong Lu was somewhat perplexed, looking at Ye Zhi Kui, who made a slight calming gesture, indicating that he should shift his gaze to the balloon. Rong Lu was actually a bit curious about what Ye Zhi Kui was up to, as it was just a short distance away, what could be done?

  Suddenly, two objects were thrown out of the two balloons, which turned out to be two red banners about 10-20 feet long. The red cloth slowly fell in the air until it was not far from the ground and stopped descending with the balloon. Ronglu took a closer look and saw that on the red cloth there was written in white: "Warm welcome to Minister of War Rong to come to Wuwei Army for inspection, Wuwei Army expresses its highest respect to you."

  Rong Lu's face suddenly lit up with a smile like a chrysanthemum, and he scolded Ye Zhi Kui in a soft voice: "From Yun, what is this? How can I say you are good?"

  "Your Excellency, this is merely a humble expression of my respect for you. It is the only way I can express my true feelings towards you."

  "Come! Bring chairs and hot tea for Lord Rong and the fellow officials from the capital. Are we going to let our honored guests from the capital stand here while watching the performance of our Wu Wei military?"

  On the other side, I had long been prepared. As soon as Ye Zhi Kui gave the order, I hastily led a large group of people to move forward, asking about their well-being and moving chairs to pour hot tea. They were so enthusiastic that it was almost fatal! The entourage of Rong Lu, who had just arrived from the capital, immediately felt a strong warmth, and the cold wind in the air dissipated a little. Each of them secretly admired Ye Zhi Kui for being a good person.

  When the time came, I personally carried over a flower-carved wooden armchair with thick sheepskin on it and presented it to Rong Lu, saying: "Lord Rong, please take a seat."

  Seeing the official, I hastily introduced myself: "I am a humble man from Japan, who admires the great Qing dynasty and has specially joined General Ye's army as a small soldier. Today, I have the honor of meeting you, which is a blessing for three lifetimes and an accumulation of good fortune from my ancestors."

  Ronglu and Cixi were the same, a bit fond of saving face. As soon as they heard that Ren Shiyou was from Japan, they immediately felt self-satisfied. Although the Qing dynasty had declined, it was still the Celestial Empire. They nodded in approval and sat down. Seeing Ren Shiyou standing cleverly behind Ronglu, waiting for orders, he stepped forward to complete them.

  Ye Zhi Kui handed over a cup of tea from beside and said: "Sir, please drink slowly! Please also take your time to appreciate!"

  Rong Lu took a satisfied sip, and saw that the balloon had new movement. The soldiers in the gondola soon retracted the banner, then continued to rise upwards while drifting towards a large empty space far away from the camp gate. On this empty space, many scarecrows were placed at some unknown time.

  Ye Zhi Kui handed over a telescope and said: "Sir, please take a look. Our heavenly soldiers are about to start attacking from above."

  Rong Lu took a closer look and indeed, the soldiers on the gallows began to throw explosives downwards. The explosives fell to the ground and started exploding violently, blowing up the straw men placed in the open space into pieces. Of course, some of the bombs missed their targets, and some exploded before they even hit the ground, but overall, the effect looked quite good.

  Rong Lu smiled and said, "This heavenly army of Yun is indeed formidable, but unfortunately, their numbers are a bit too few."

  Ye Zhui took the opportunity to say: "The heavenly soldiers belong to the artillery team of our army's engineering corps, but unfortunately they have not been formed for a long time, and the officers and men are not very familiar with them. Moreover, the silver spent by the heavenly soldiers is too much, and the funds allocated by the court at present are far from enough, so there are only two hydrogen balloons in our army."

  Rong Lu nodded and said in one breath: "This official thinks that the heavenly soldiers' power is very great, and it's better to pay more attention to them from now on. As for the expenses, I will personally petition the imperial court to allocate special funds."

  Ye Zhi Kui was overjoyed and said: "Honorable Rong, you truly have exceptional vision. With a person like you holding down the fort in the imperial court, it is indeed a blessing for the imperial court. We need not worry about being unable to train the new army, but please, Honorable Sir, also watch the performances of my other Thunderbolt Brigade teams, they are not bad either!"

  Rong Lu smiled slightly and looked ahead, Wang Shi Zhen demonstrated the engineering team's set-up of water mines, landmines, stepping stones and various weapons one by one. Rong Lu was amazed and exclaimed that Wu Wei Jun could rival the armies of Western countries.

  After Ronglu finished watching the performance of the engineering team, it was the turn of the infantry, cavalry and artillery teams to practice. The infantry phalanx marched in neat steps, shouting loud slogans, passing by the drill ground, and after arriving below Ronglu, the adjutant gave an order, and the officers and men stopped advancing. The adjutant then loudly ordered: "Salute to Mr. Rong!"

  The entire infantry squad, with a uniform motion, faced the direction of Rong Lu and gave a German-style military salute, shouting loudly: "Greetings, Lord Rong! Lord Rong has worked hard!"

  A loud and clear voice shook Rong Lu's ears, making them buzz. Rong Lu stood up from his seat, his face filled with excitement, looking at the eager eyes below him, his heart surging with emotion. He opened his mouth to say something but didn't know what to say. Ye Zhi Kui reminded him from the side: "Lord Rong, you can say that the soldiers have worked hard."

  Rong Lu waved his hand up and returned a salute, saying loudly: "Good gentlemen! Gentlemen have worked hard!" Ye Zhi Kui was secretly covering her mouth to prevent herself from laughing.

  After the infantry and cavalry passed by, Ronglu had not yet recovered from the shock of just now. Ye Zhikui could not help but remind him again: "Lord Rong, the next to pass is our artillery team. The artillery team in the new army is different from that in the old army. The old army's artillery team was scattered among various battalions, while the new army's artillery team was completely organized according to the latest German Army system, forming a separate army. This way, we can concentrate firepower and destroy the enemy in an instant."

  Rong Lu came to his senses, and today was probably the day he was most distracted. After thinking for a moment, he said: "This formation is not bad, but it consumes a lot of ammunition, I'm afraid the imperial court can't afford it."

  Ye Zhiyuan sighed: "If the imperial court can manufacture new-style artillery shells on its own, our army will have no worries about replenishment."

  Ronglu remained silent, waiting until the three armies had finished their inspection. Then he began to inspect other parts of the military camp. Ronglu's first impression of the Wuwei Army camp was that it was clean and tidy. His second impression was that there were slogans everywhere. Just now on the drill ground, he seemed to have seen: "Sweat more in peacetime, bleed less in wartime; use me in the first battle, and I will surely win."

  Arriving at the cafeteria, I saw: a grain of rice, thinking that it's not easy to come by; half a thread, constantly mindful that it's hard to maintain. I couldn't help but be curious and asked Ye Zhui, "What are these used for?"

  Ye Zhui replied: "These can remind the officers and men to introspect themselves at ordinary times, and silently observe them under the influence of subtle changes!"

  Rong Lu was somewhat skeptical and asked: "Is this method really effective?"

  Ye Zhiqi was very powerful. Brief answer: "Very effective!" Ronglu implemented it throughout the army without hesitation.

  The group of people walked to the military medical office, and the director of the military medical office was actually that old military doctor from the Qing dynasty. The old doctor saw someone coming in, and with a slight tremble, he stood up, his eyes fixed on Rong Lu, standing still. Rong Lu felt inexplicably strange, but fortunately, Ye Zhi Kui whispered to him, "This old gentleman is skilled in medicine, and understands observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking. Now the old gentleman is using 'observation'!"

  Rong Lu stood still, the old military doctor looked at him for a while before speaking: "How strange! You have kidney deficiency syndrome, just need to nourish your body and you'll be fine, no need to come to my humble clinic. But since you're here, I also have a way to treat it, please wait for a moment."

  It turned out that he had taken Rong Lu as a patient to see the doctor, and Rong Lu was so angry that he couldn't help but cry. However, after the old military doctor grabbed the medicine, he quietly walked forward and said: "Old sir, please grab double the dose of medicine." Ye Zhi Kui turned his face away, pretending he hadn't heard anything.

  ……………

  There is still one more chapter at midnight! Looking forward to your support, brothers!