Chapter 411: The Fengchen Camp

Among the imperial army of the Eastern Capital, when it came to the elite quality of soldiers and the ferocity of combat power, none could match the various armies under the Palace Command.

The Palace Command's cavalry, the Tieqi Army, numbered ten thousand riders, gathering the finest of the Great Han's horsemen, and had long been renowned for their valor and fierceness.

Among the infantry under the Palace Command, there were three armies: the Longqi Army was the old unit Liu Chengyou had built his fortunes on; the Xiaodi Army had the strongest combat power, having been formed during the first military reform under Gaozu by selecting the young and healthy from the entire army, and after the Imperial Guard Command was split off, it underwent another round of cutting the weak and reinforcing the strong; the Inner Palace Guard, slightly inferior, had also only been formed through rigorous selection.

Of course, within the imperial city of the Eastern Capital, the ones with even greater combat power had to be the renamed Inner Palace Army. This army was originally the Konghe Army, which Liu Chengyou had been ordered to form by selecting elite cavalry and infantry from Hedong when Liu Zhiyuan first proclaimed himself emperor.

After arriving at the Eastern Capital, it had continued to be built up as palace guards. The "Imperial Forest Army" of the early founding was by no means a mere showpiece. In the winter of the first year of Qianyou, during the military reform when the Palace Command was established, "Konghe Army" was used as the infantry army designation. Liu Chengyou later renamed the palace guards the Inner Palace Army, making them "Inner Palace attendants," and the troop strength was raised to four thousand. The five hundred guards at Xuanwu Gate were under the Inner Palace's command.

The original commander was the emperor's maternal uncle Li Hongyin. After Liu Chengyou removed him from office and stripped his power, Liu Chengyou replaced him with his trusted general Gao Huaide, adding what he considered the final layer of insurance within the palace. Of course, this was Liu Chengyou's own self-assumption.

However, after Gao Xingzhou was transferred to the Eastern Capital to serve as commander of the Imperial Guard, discordant voices began to emerge in the court, saying that the Gao father and son, one commanding the Imperial Guard, the other commanding the palace guards, held too much power.

This was a disturbance, and it originated from the inner palace. Liu Chengyou detected it in time and contained it within a small scope. Though he felt somewhat displeased inwardly, Liu Chengyou had to admit that since the Gao father and son were relatives of the imperial family by marriage, it was indeed inappropriate for them to serve simultaneously as commanders both inside and outside the palace. This was not a good thing for either side.

Therefore, Liu Chengyou decisively removed Gao Huaide, appointing Zhao Yanjin as Commander of the Inner Palace, while his brother-in-law Gao Huaide was transferred to the Longqi Army as Commander of the First Army.

This time when Liu Chengyou came to Xuanwu Gate, besides inspecting the gate guards and checking on Li Jian, his main purpose was still to inspect another army: the Fengchen Camp.

Right beside Xuanwu Gate, separated by two walls, there had originally been an open square, later converted into a military camp. The place was not large, but it was exceptionally mysterious, containing many novel training facilities, all designed with the personal participation of Emperor Liu Chengyou himself.

A year earlier, Liu Chengyou had issued an edict to once again select brave warriors from the imperial armies of both commands, to form a single independent camp.

This time, compared to before, there were obvious differences. In the selection criteria alone, an extremely high threshold was set.

Soldiers to be selected all had to be under thirty years of age, six chi in height, able to lift three dan of weight, skilled in horseback archery, proficient in hand-to-hand combat, with at least three years of military service...

With all these rules and regulations, from among the hundred-plus thousand soldiers of the inner and outer imperial armies, only a thousand were selected. A thousand soldiers formed the camp, and these thousand could be said to be the cream of the three armies. Most of them already held military ranks. It could be said that if these soldiers were placed in outside armies, the least they could be was a squad leader.

When the Fengchen Camp was first established, Liu Chengyou personally attended, gave an impassioned speech, and set a goal for all the soldiers. That goal was for the Fengchen soldiers to become the most elite armored warriors of the Great Han—climbing mountains to capture fierce tigers, plunging into seas to subdue flood dragons, fearless, all-around warriors.

As for the training of the Fengchen Camp, it could be described as harsh and complex. Besides tempering the soldiers' strength, training in cavalry combat, infantry combat, naval combat, individual combat, and formation combat was all present without exception. Swords, bows and crossbows, and mounted archery all had to be mastered, and education in culture, military strategy, loyalty, and moral character was also of paramount importance.

A fully equipped Fengchen soldier's standard weapon loadout consisted of two sturdy horses, one crossbow with fifty bolts, one bow with thirty arrows, one sword, one long blade and one short blade, plus a shield, short spear, axe, short hoe, woodcutter's knife, rope, and so on.

The Fengchen Camp, in name, was an army gathering the elite of the Han army. In reality, Liu Chengyou treated it as a cradle for cultivating military officers.

The training plan was rich and demanding, combined with an elimination system that kept all soldiers from daring to slack off. Over the course of a year, more than two hundred soldiers had already been weeded out. Among these people, some could no longer improve in mounted archery or sword techniques, some could not meet the requirements in formation coordination, some could not adapt to naval combat, and some had simply violated military discipline...

And those who came out of the Fengchen Camp, when assigned to the imperial army, unless they had broken the law or violated discipline, were promoted at least one rank, and quite a few were promoted two or even three ranks.

To build such an army, the money, grain, and energy invested were more than ten times that of an ordinary imperial army unit. It could only be cultivated on a small scale, and the training costs alone were astonishingly high.

For the Commander of the Fengchen Camp, Liu Chengyou chose a man named Wang Yansheng. This man had been quite famous in the original course of history. Setting aside his character flaws, when it came to valor and martial prowess, there was nothing to criticize. He had risen from the ranks, possessed astonishing physical strength, and had rich combat experience. He was a close friend of Luo Yangui, who had brought his troops to defect to Liu Chengyou at Xiangzhou, and later followed him to surrender. With this connection, he had registered himself on Liu Chengyou's radar.

Wang Yansheng himself was also a ruthless man. When the Fengchen Camp was first established, he was appointed Commander. Because he did not know how to swim, and in order to win over the troops, Wang Yansheng forced himself to soak in the water for several days. It was said he nearly drowned before learning to swim. By now, he could be described as a good swimmer.

The Deputy Commander of the Fengchen Camp was named Shi Yanchao, a former subordinate of Guo Wei, exceptionally fierce. Among Guo Wei's old subordinates, no one surpassed him in valor. In the camp, colliding with Wang Yansheng, the two refused to yield to each other.

The Fengchen Camp was divided into left and right. Generals Wang and Shi each led one camp, competing against each other while also spurring each other on. At the monthly grand competition, which served as an example for the entire army, the first to face off were Wang Yansheng and Shi Yanchao.

Liu Chengyou had come quietly, originally intending to slip in unnoticed, but that proved utterly impossible—before he even approached the camp gate, he was spotted.

He did not have anyone announce his arrival or prepare a welcome, letting everything proceed as usual. Entering the camp gate, under the guidance of a Fengchen officer, he went straight to the training ground.

The training ground was still quite lively. Apart from the soldiers on sentry duty, a full nine hundred men were scattered about in pairs, groups of three, and formations, wielding solid wooden swords and shields, engaged in combat training—this was small-formation combat drill.

However, what interested Liu Chengyou more was that at the edge of the training ground, about forty soldiers, bare-chested, were scattered about holding horse stances, some with bruises on their bodies. Wang Yansheng, holding a whip in his hand, paced back and forth among the ranks, cursing angrily without pause, kicking soldiers in the backside one after another.

There was no holding back—each person was kicked to the ground, falling in a way that looked painful just to watch, yet none dared to complain. They got up and continued holding their stances.

"Your Majesty, these are the soldiers who performed poorly in today's formation combat drills from each squad! General Wang is administering punishment!" the officer beside him explained to Liu Chengyou.

Liu Chengyou nodded, said nothing more, and did not feel that corporal punishment was inappropriate. This was not an era that talked about human rights, especially not in the military.

The Fengchen Camp enjoyed the highest treatment in the entire army, and correspondingly, it should also endure the same pain and tempering.