Chapter 10: Wu Ji Practices Military Tactics (Part 2)

  No matter where, people who are upright and selfless always gain the goodwill of others. Wu Jie's cancellation of the return of Yi Bing is a first in Song Dynasty history, no praise is excessive.

  The soldiers, after a brief shock, loudly cheered and regarded Wu Ji as a clean and impartial official. In their minds, only such an official would cancel the return of goods and not embezzle money for personal gain.

  "Wu Zhihui, don't worry, I'll definitely take care of it! Definitely!" Shang Yuan knocked his head several times before scrambling to get up. He ordered Wu Zhihui to drive away the horse carriage and mule cart, and told him to change into military uniform and report back. As for himself, he brought a few men with him to go and settle the matter with Huiyi.

  "Wu Zhihui is our great leader, we must follow Wu Zhihui and work hard!"

  The soldiers whispered to each other and encouraged one another.

  Wu Jia came before the gunman, looked at Li Mingchu and asked: "Li Mingchu, where is your gun? Where is your armor?"

  "Wu Commander, it's all because of the little one, it's all because of the little one! The little one sold his gun a few days ago." Li Mingchu smiled apologetically and spoke carefully: "Wu Commander, you know that I'm so poor I can barely survive, I had no choice but to sell it! And we're still having kids!"

  He was poor, Wu Ji saw it with his own eyes, sold the equipment to exchange guns and make a living, which is not worth mentioning. Wu Ji looked at these gunmen again and asked: "Have you all sold your guns and armor?"

  "General Wu, you are brilliant!" The soldiers hesitated for half a day before answering, each with a bright red face, looking very embarrassed, hanging their heads low, wishing they could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

  Wu Jie swept his gaze over them once more, taking in the knife-wielding and bow-holding soldiers. Their faces were all flushed red, none of them daring to meet Wu Jie's eyes, instead dodging and weaving like guilty children afraid of being scolded by an adult.

  It seems that selling equipment is not just Li Mingchu alone, nor is it just the Gunner this one soldier, but the entire Guixin Army.

  "Alas!" Wu Jie sighed and grumbled: "Why didn't you sell yourself?"

  "Wu Zhihui, I also want to sell myself, but our military reputation is too bad, no one dares to buy us." Li Mingchu hesitated for a moment and then spoke up.

  Weapons are a soldier's second life. A soldier without weapons is a big joke, but now, it was presented in front of Wu Ji, and he had to accept this reality.

  The law does not blame the masses. Moreover, the soldiers' feelings can be excused, and Wu Ji had no way to severely punish them. He asked: "Where are the weapons in the warehouse?"

  "Wu Zhihui, you don't know this, but the warehouse is empty, there are no weapons, they were all sold to He Wanquan." The accountant was stunned for a long time before speaking out.

  "Is that all?" Wu Ji's head spun again, and he felt another wave of weakness, staring blankly for half a day before coming back to his senses.

  "A thousand truths! A thousand truths!" The chief clerk hastily replied, extremely certain.

  Even re-issuing weapons couldn't be done, Wu Ji truly felt how severe the Song army's corruption was. However, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as Wu Ji had the Wu family's military industry and was planning to make a big deal out of it; the garrison troops would definitely be his first target for sales. Without weapons, as long as there was the Wu family's military industry, they could rearm themselves once again.

  "Hmm! With Wu Shi's military industry, everything is not a problem!" Wu Ji saw the good side of bad things and was still very promising: "Let me see your martial arts!"

  "Commander Wu wants to see our martial arts skills, brothers! Don't let Commander Wu down! Cheer up and show your best moves!" The soldiers heard this and couldn't help but feel invigorated, their morale boosted.

  The spirit is good, looking at their appearance, there should be several brushes, Wu Ji couldn't help but look forward to it again.

  "Brothers, I'm the first one up! Look at me!" Li Ming was excited like a crowing rooster, stretched out his big hand to a soldier with a gun, snatched the gun from his hand, gripped it tightly, took a deep breath, and strode out: "Which brother will help fetch a basin of water?"

  "I'm going!" A soldier responded loudly and ran quickly to fetch water.

  "Li Mingchu, how's your marksmanship?" Wu Jie blinked his eyes and looked at Li Mingchu with an excited expression, couldn't help but feel quite expectant: "If you do well, there will be a reward!"

  "Wu Zhihui, don't worry! As for this shooting technique, hehe, I'm not bad at it either!" Li Mingchu grasped the middle of the gun handle with both hands, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly: "Begin!"

  A gun barrel spun around like a kite, and a big gun flower appeared, whistling and making a loud noise.

  "Hurray!" The soldiers erupted into a chorus of cheers and applause, their eyes wide with excitement, as if they were watching a magic show.

  "This is your marksmanship?" Wu Ji was somewhat incredulous, his eyeballs almost popping out of their sockets.

  "Haha!" Li Mingchu was very confident, haha smiled: "Wu Zhihui, this has just begun, exercising muscles! You wait and see, when the water comes, I guarantee that the water will not come in!"

  Just as Li Ming was boasting, the soldier who fetched water brought it over. Li Ming loudly shouted: "Pour! Pour! Pour harder! If a single drop of water gets on my body, I'm a coward! Commander Wu, watch closely!"

  Suddenly, a branch of the gun sprang up with even greater force, and the wind roared loudly, as if a blower was operating. The soldier scooped up water and splashed it fiercely at Li Mingchu, creating a huge curtain of water that enveloped him.

  "Whoosh!" After a burst of water sound, the water curtain no longer existed, and the gun was smashed into water droplets, splashing everywhere.

  "Good! Good! Good!" The soldiers cheered in unison, as if they had won a great victory, their voices shaking the sky.

  "Come on! Come on!" Li Mingchu shouted, his energy rising. The soldiers continued to splash water, and Li Mingchu wielded his spear with all his might until he was slightly out of breath, at which point he stopped, dry from head to toe, without a single drop of water on him.

  He put down his gun, raised his head, puffed out his chest, and looked extremely pleased with himself, just like a victorious rooster, sizing up Wu Ji. That's to say, praise me, hurry up and praise me!

  "It's not easy to get water in, indeed. But can you kill a Liaodong dog by playing tricks like this?" Wu Ji had no smile on his face, and was solemn: "The key to gun technique is not to play tricks, but to thrust and stab! It must be fast, accurate and ruthless, one shot to kill!"

  Wu Ji had never been to the battlefield, nor had he ever served in the military. However, it was clear that Wu Ji had also seen that the Song Dynasty's army training was not up to par. For example, this spear was not trained like this, no matter how well it was wielded or how big the spearhead was, it was useless if it couldn't even withstand a splash of water.

  What nonsense!

  "But I've always practiced like this!" Li Mingchu was somewhat disbelieving - he had put in so much effort, yet Wu Ji didn't even praise him.

  "This is how you use a spear!" Huang Fu stepped forward, holding the spear with both hands, and thrust it out. The spear flashed like lightning, bringing up a whistling wind sound, very powerful, and shattered a boulder into several pieces.

  "Good marksmanship!" Wu Jie exclaimed loudly.

  "Wu Zhihui is right, the gun techniques used on the battlefield are mainly stabbing and thrusting! You have to stab fast, you have to stab accurately, you have to stab fiercely! Fancy footwork is not suitable for battlefield combat, that's for street performers! From today on, I'll be teaching your gun techniques!" Huang Fu accepted the task with Wu Ji's consent.

  Huang Pu's martial arts skills are something Wu Ji has witnessed before. With him here to teach spear techniques, the gunners' combat strength will surely not be weak.

  Next, Wu Ji continued to review and concluded: First, the training of the Song army was not proper, with many unnecessary things, and a new training method needed to be formulated.

  Secondly, the way of fighting is single, gunmen only use guns, archers only use bows, swordsmen only use swords, and others will not.

  On the battlefield, if the enemy rushes in close, the archer has no choice but to wait for death. When the enemy is still far away, the swordsmen and spearmen can only stand by idly, wasting the opportunity to shoot arrows. When the enemy charges, if the swordsmen and spearmen are skilled in archery, they can also shoot and kill the enemy.

  Three, equipment is insufficient, specifications are inconsistent, quality is uneven, and a batch of equipment needs to be replaced for the Song army.

  This is what Wu Ji can easily solve. With the Wu family's military industry here, it's easy to handle and also the most urgent. Without equipment, how can you train?

  Fourthly, the organization is cumbersome, people are floating on top of things, military orders are not clear, and transmission is too slow. This only needs to simplify the organization and reduce non-combat personnel to be completed.

  After Wu Ji's reform, the Gui Xin garrison finally got on the right track and started training.

  A military training session unlike any in the Song Dynasty began in the Guixin Army, with far-reaching impact.

  Later generations praised him as "Wu's Military Training Method", and was highly respected by the great literary master Lu You.