Chapter Twenty-Five: There Is an Army

  After lying in bed for two days, Wang Hengyue was barely able to get out of bed and move around.

  Thanks to Zhao Xi, he invited famous doctors to diagnose and treat him, and took a large amount of tonic medicine, which was fed to Wang Hengyue like food. Moreover, although Wang Hengyue looked badly injured, in fact, he had not been hurt in vital parts.

  For the past two days, many people have come to visit Wang's official residence, but in order for Wang Hengyue to rest quietly, they were all turned away. They were only told that once Mr. Wang has recovered from his injuries, he will naturally thank everyone.

  Out of the house, Wang Hengyue hadn't breathed in fresh air for two days and took a deep breath, seeing Pete walking over just in time.

  At first glance, he was very curious. There was a bruise on Pitt's face, and Wang Hengyue stretched out his hand to let him come over: "Pitt, you also fought with someone?"

  Seeing Wang Hengyue, Pete was like seeing a lifesaver: "Lord Wang, it's pitiful to be a foreigner. The British man Opiyon was beaten by you, the American Pete was..."

  Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly saw Yang Fangyun and Liu Sihai's faces reveal a "ferocious" expression, with a threatening tone in their eyes, and the poor man swallowed his words back.

  "Can adults come out now?" Seeing Wang Hengyue coming out, Li Yifeng who was walking towards him was very excited.

  "It's nothing serious." Wang Hengyue waved his hand: "How has the recruitment of soldiers been going for the past two days?"

  "As for recruiting soldiers, Li Yifeng was even more excited: 'Reporting to the lord, it went very smoothly. The applicants were endless, and according to the lord's requirements, we carefully selected 280 people from among them...'"

  "So many?" Wang Hengyue was taken aback, greatly surprised.

  Xu Mu said: "Not only that. After the governor beat up the foreigners, the news spread everywhere. Now it's not just Rong County where people are flocking to join the army, but also Leshan, Yibin, Zigong and other places have heard about it and are rushing over."

  Wang Hengyue was overjoyed, and Xie Shui, who had not spoken until now, said: "Sir, these 280 people are all carefully selected strong men, and no one is willing to give up anyone. But my team's organization has a fixed system, including clerks, attendants, cooks, heralds, barbers, and laundrymen... there are still 80 or 90 extra people..."

  With more people, there are also more troubles. Wang Hengyue frowned slightly and had an idea: "Don't waste any of them, investigate those who have connections with the Jianghu gangs, and organize them into a separate team... like this one, this one... militia... wait, 'militia' doesn't sound good, not majestic enough, let's call it...

  "After some thought, a clever idea struck him: 'Just call it the "Rong County Armed Guards", and when speaking to outsiders, just say that this armed guard is organized by the people of Rong County themselves, in order to counter the bandits and rebels. Anyway, you can figure out the specifics yourselves.'"

  "Yes!" Everyone thought the name "Armed Guards" was extremely refreshing.

  Yu Lei pulled Wang Hengyue to one side and whispered, "The superior wants to assign those with factional backgrounds to the armed guard unit. Originally, Sheng Yuan understood what this meant. But Sheng Yuan thought that was not enough. He wanted to also assign those who had read books, could recognize characters, especially those who had been in contact with revolutionary party propaganda and had dealings with the revolutionary party, all to be assigned to the armed guard unit."

  Wang Heng immediately understood the meaning of Yu Lei's words, and indeed, Yu Lei continued to say: "The adults have just started, everything is difficult, and it is most important to control the first team. For now, the armed guards can only be used as auxiliary forces. Being a soldier means being a soldier, you must treat your superiors as your parents who provide for you, do what they say. Soldiers should not have their own thoughts, having thoughts is terrifying! The adult's team can only be loyal to one person, the adult."

  He added indifferently: "The first team can only be the adults' first team, not the imperial court's, even less the revolutionary party's."

  Wang Heng remained silent, Yu Lei's words were somewhat too absolute, but in this era, they were not unreasonable. As for how the army would be transformed in the future, that was a matter for later.

  Without hesitation, he turned around and said to his subordinates: "The first team's salary will still be paid according to the previous agreement. Three months' worth of full pay will be issued first. For the armed guards, one month's worth of full pay will be issued first. Everything else will follow the standard of the first team. As for weapons, priority will be given to supplying the first team, and I'll think of another way for the rest."

  Speaking of silver weapons, it is also a great worry.

  This man suddenly had it, but the silver weapon had reached a point where it could no longer be solved. The remaining few thousand taels of silver in his pocket were probably not enough to last for long!

  Set aside this idea for the time being: "Xie Shui Xiang, first row leader; Li Yifeng, second row leader; Xu Mu, third row leader; Liu Sihai, fourth row leader. Yu Lei, clerk. Yang Fangyun, armed guard commander; Deng Xia, deputy commander of the armed guard."

  "What about me? What about me?" Pete suddenly became anxious.

  "Who?"

  Wang Hengyue looked at Pete with his eyes: "Appoint you as the first team's first row's first shed's shed leader!"

  "Objection!" Pete cried out, having stayed in China for some time and naturally understanding that this was just a class monitor: "Why are they all high officials, but my class monitor? This is unfair!"

  Big officer? Even the team leader is a big officer? Wang Hengyue smiled in his heart: "Since you think the official position is too small, I'll give you an even bigger one, concurrently serving as the instructor of the first row."

  Pete was a bit confused, also serving as an instructor? Is this a big position?

  Deng Xiachun jokingly said: "Pete, think about it, among the four rows, you're the only instructor, that's a big official!"

  Pete thought for half a day with his head tilted, feeling reasonable and suddenly became happy.

  Although he had not yet seen his own soldiers, he finally had some semblance of order. Once the issue of weapons was resolved, everything would be on track. Thinking this way, Wang Hengyue felt a sense of joy in his heart.

  At this moment, seeing Zhao Xi walking in, Wang Hengyue was about to greet him, but Zhao Xi quickly stepped forward: "Lord Wang, stop, stop!"

  Quickly walking up to Wang Hengyue's face, looking him up and down: "Lord Wang's body is sturdy, originally thought it would take a few more days to get out of bed, but didn't expect you to be able to move around so soon!"

  Then he bowed deeply: "Lord Wang has won honor for our county of Rong, and I have especially come to thank Lord Wang on behalf of the elders of Rong County!"

  "Mr. Xiang is too polite!" Wang Hengyue hastily said.

  It seems that my reputation has really spread, and in the future, doing things will likely be much more convenient.

  "Originally those gentry were also going to come visit, but I thought Lord Wang's injuries were severe and it was inconvenient for him to receive guests, so I came on behalf of the gentry elders."

  "Thank you, thank you." Wang Hengyue bowed his hand, and the wound hurt again.

  Zhao Xi was invited in and as soon as he sat down, he said: "Your Excellency's righteous actions are truly magnificent! The people of Sichuan are hot-blooded, how can they bear the humiliation of being trampled by foreigners? Fortunately, thanks to Your Excellency, who has bravely fought against the foreigners and brought glory to our county. We have no way to repay you, so we especially prepared a small token of our appreciation to help Your Excellency with military training!"