Chapter 413

The next day, at noon.

Several swift horses left Xishan Village, respectively heading for Yunan City and the Qian Family.

In the afternoon, the Chen Clan Troops and Qian Yong and Wu Bu Yong, two brigades under Qian Fugui, all arrived at Xishan Village.

They will here undergo cavalry selection and training; Yunan City will temporarily have soldiers dispatched by Yang Tiejiang to garrison, and after the selection of these two brigades under Qian Fugui concludes, they will rotate.

Chen Wuji personally presided over this matter.

After the warhorses came down from the mountain, he personally supervised the selection of each soldier.

Whether horsemanship involves talent, Chen Wuji couldn't say for sure, but some quickly grasp the technique while others are clumsy and can't even get on a horse after half a day.

This entire selection process lasted for several days.

Chen Wuji, from among over nine thousand troops, managed to gather over eight hundred.

But when it came to choosing who would be commander, he found himself in a dilemma.

If a cavalry commander cannot ride, leading troops in battle is out of the question.

But embarrassingly, among Chen Wuji's commanders, only Yang Tiejiang and Chen Wu Yin are skilled riders.

Yang Tiejiang needs no further explanation; he can no longer lead cavalry.

Chen Wu Yin, having always dealt with livestock, rarely rides horses but often rides donkeys and mules, so his horsemanship is still fairly good.

But he still currently leads a brigade, and has only just managed to get it in order.

After careful consideration, Chen Wuji had no choice but to merge Chen Wu Yin's brigade with Chen Baojia's Chen Clan Troops, placing Chen Baojia in full command, thereby freeing Chen Wu Yin to lead the cavalry.

Chen Wuji also knew clearly that among Chen Wu Yin's squad leaders, none could currently serve as brigade commander, and they lacked sufficient merit for promotion.

Merging the troops is currently the best solution.

After this merger, Chen Baojia's forces now rank second only to Yang Tiejiang, numbering two thousand; although nominally a brigade commander, he actually commands the strength of two provincial soldier captains.

After the cavalry selection ended, Chen Wuji left some warhorses in the village for everyone to practice with in their spare time, and sent the rest back to the mountain pastures.

Having reached this point, Chen Wuji's tasks were also completed.

Chen Wu Yin's cavalry unit was also sent to the temporary camp outside Yunan City, to be trained by Yang Tiejiang.

Regarding cavalry training, none of Chen Wuji and his associates could offer an opinion; only Yang Tiejiang could. After all, letting one sheep go or two is the same; we might as well let Yang Tiejiang bear the extra hardship.

After sending the newly minted cavalry over, Chen Wuji, to avoid meddling and hindering Yang Tiejiang's work, didn't even glance at it, and the War God immersed himself entirely in armor design.

The armor of the Dayu Dynasty somewhat resembles the Wei-Jin period's liang dang armor; this armor is easy to wear, protects vital areas, benefits the physical activity of cavalry and infantry, and does not restrict limb flexibility.

But there is still great room for improvement.

Chen Wuji, relying on those vague impressions in his mind, began to ponder moving toward the design of bright armor.

Bright armor is famed for integrating defense, utility, and artistry into one, representing the pinnacle of armor in the Huaxia cold-weapon era; Chen Wuji does not expect to fully reach that level, and achieving six or seven tenths of it by copying the tiger after the cat would be satisfactory.

For this major undertaking, he began to retreat into seclusion.

Each day he did not go out the front gate nor step through the second gate; he merely devoted himself to writing and drawing, taking breaks to play with his lovely wives and concubines, and exerted all his effort to fulfill Huo Sanniang's cherished endeavor to bear children.

Each time he completed a version, Chen Wuji would summon his personal troops together to ask for their opinions.

How a set of armor is, only those who have worn it are qualified to evaluate and comment.

And these battle-hardened veterans are undoubtedly the best candidates.

Combining the opinions of hundreds, Chen Wuji repeatedly revised, going through dozens of versions, and only after more than ten days did he finally produce the final version, which he handed over to Chen Li.

This armor forging was overseen by Chen Li, whose ancestors forged the Chen family's horizontal sword, assisted by Yang Tiejiang's two nephews, gathering seventy percent of the blacksmiths that could be found in Yunan City, as well as nearly three hundred sturdy youths.

Although this scale is already not small.

But whenever this happens, Chen Wuji cannot help but sigh, 'The scarcity of talent.'

The Chen Family remains a family with deep foundations; thereafter he also won over Yang Tiejiang, a true great general, yet even with such a cadre, they are still perpetually short of personnel.

Chen Wuji truly does not know how those ancient self-made magnates actually rose to prominence.

……

While Chen Wuji was resting and recuperating on this side, busy rushing the production of various armaments and training new troops, Hezhou finally received news.

Gu Wenjie smoothly took over Hezhou, also formally stepping out from behind the scenes of the Gu family to the forefront, being appointed by Lu Ping'an as Prefect of Hezhou and General Who Pacifies the East.

The Prefect of Hezhou was within Chen Wuji's expectations, and also reasonable.

Since they already occupied Hezhou, as long as Lu Ping'an isn't foolish, he will certainly be given the post of prefect.

But the post of General Who Pacifies the East almost made Chen Wuji laugh out a goose's call.

Under Lu Ping'an, the rank of general suddenly became cheap, as if anyone with a few thousand troops could scheme for a generalship under him.

"Does Gu Wenjie have any other movements for the time being, or any plans to mobilize troops?" Chen Wuji set down the sealed letter in his hand, and with a big hand lightly patted the buttocks of Qin Zhahong sitting in his arms.

This sealed letter is the result of Qin Zhahong's recent training.

The information came from her two subordinates whom she had sent to Hezhou earlier.

This was also the first real combat for those young women.

"Not for the time being," Qin Zhahong said.

"The Gu family has buried many nails in Hezhou, but Gu Wenjie hasn't encountered many hard nails; he has taken over Hezhou quite smoothly. However, Hezhou is not like Yunan; there are many deeply entrenched families there, and a pile of soft nails almost prevented him from gaining a foothold in Hezhou."

"In the short term, he probably has no plans to mobilize troops; the internal affairs of Hezhou should be enough to keep him occupied with a jug of wine."

Chen Wuji's palm gently stroked the soft, fluffy feel, "Tell me more about the soft nails."

"The Hezhou city that Gu Wenjie occupies is an empty shell—no officials, no money, no grain, and even the city's defensive equipment has been destroyed seventy‑eighty percent." Qin Zhahong said.

"Soon after, nearly everything in the city began to rise in price; the populace, forced to desperation, stirred up trouble, making Hezhou's streets each day resemble a battlefield, with disturbances everywhere. Gu Wenjie nearly scattered his troops to every street and alley, forcibly suppressing them with military might, which barely kept the situation under control."

"This matter hasn't subsided; mutinies have begun to erupt one after another in the barracks, with someone bribing Gu Wenjie's subordinate officers, and merely targeting Gu Wenjie for assassination has already occurred several times."

Chen Wuji chuckled lightly, "This is the method he uses on others; superior influences inferior, so naturally others can also use it against him. Once a subordinate dares to kill his superior, once that breach appears, countless such incidents will follow."

"That scoundrel Gu Wenjie has actually given us all a bad start."