Eternal Life: My Lifespan Increases Daily

Chapter 599: Chapter 407: Taking Office as Grand Marshal! (Double Length) (Part 2)

As for the task of rebuilding the Nineteenth Army, now that the battles have ceased, it is a time of recuperation, so it is not so urgent.

Hu Tomb has given him a requirement to restore basic military strength within five years.

This timeline is quite generous, so Song Changming is not in a hurry; he will slowly and orderly select talents and build up the army bit by bit.

In this aspect, he is not without experience. After all, when he first assumed the position of Commander, he also started from scratch to assemble a new recruits team.

Outside the station of the 41st Army, beside a carriage, Su Qingqing was holding a white horse, dressed in a suit of white formal armor, with an outer armor skirt naturally hanging down and a sword at her waist.

Her long hair was tied up in a high ponytail, revealing a delicate swan neck. Her petite and pretty face, combined with a sharp eyebrow, made her look very capable, with a heroic and valiant demeanor, like a true female general.

When Song Changming walked out, Su Qingqing only then showed a bright smile.

"Sir."

"Everything’s settled, let’s go, let’s take a look at the original station of the Nineteenth Army." Song Changming nodded and invited Su Qingqing to board the carriage together.

Rongjiang continued as usual to serve as Song Changming’s coachman.

He was not surprised by Su Qingqing’s appearance.

Since Su Qingqing’s return, she had been persistently pestering Song Changming, wanting to join the army for training.

However, at that time the demon race was invading, the situation was critical, and with great demons rampant outside, even Song Changming was not confident to protect Su Qingqing’s safety, so he did not agree.

After the Black Obsidian ended and the demon race retreated, seeing Su Qingqing’s determination not waning, Song Changming finally relented a little.

It was not until recently, when Song Changming was appointed Commander of the Nineteenth Army, and was in need of manpower, that he agreed to let Su Qingqing become his first recruited new soldier under his command.

Currently, her position is similar to Rongjiang, a personal guard.

There were women serving in the army; after all, there were many powerful women among martial artists, but truly willing to serve in the military were very few.

Therefore, there were not many women in the army, and there was not a single female general in the Military Department of Cui Bai Dao.

However, it’s heard that in other regions, there are some quite renowned female war gods, but to meet them, one must leave Cui Bai Dao.

The carriage went all the way out of the city and quickly arrived at a military station outside the city, which was exactly the previous garrison of the Nineteenth Army.

The station was located on a plain east of the city, not too far from the 41st Army’s garrison outside the city.

In the future, once a large army is built, occasional friendly matches with the 41st Army could promote exchange and mutual progress.

The station in front looked large, even bigger than Wang Tianshuang’s garrison of the 41st Army.

In terms of historical status, the name of the Nineteenth Army stands far above the later established 41st Army.

The Nineteenth Army once had its moments of glory.

But now, after a wave of demon race invasion, not only was the entire army annihilated, but even this large station did not escape disaster.

The walls, fortresses, watchtowers, barracks, warehouses, many of the buildings in sight had all become ruins.

It was evident that this place had been visited by the demon race before.

"Sir, this..." Su Qingqing dismounted the carriage, looking at the ruins before her, momentarily at a loss.

"It seems the reconstruction must start from here." Song Changming smiled.

To this, he wasn’t surprised.

The demon race rampaged outside the main city for three days and nights, it would have been strange if these military stations remained intact.

In fact, it wasn’t just the Nineteenth Army’s station that suffered, other Cuiqi Army garrisons outside the city didn’t fare much better.

However, compared to the 41st Army’s garrison, the Nineteenth Army’s station was more thoroughly destroyed, looking as if a carriage couldn’t even enter.

Rebuilding this would likely be a significant engineering task.

Suddenly, a batch of officials hurriedly walked out of the station, repeatedly saluting Song Changming.

"Marshal Song, your presence here in person, I failed to meet you from afar, please forgive me." The leading old official cupped his hands, lowered his brow, and spoke respectfully.

"Are you the officials of the Nineteenth Army?" Song Changming asked.

"Indeed, I was the head record keeper under the former Commander of the Nineteenth Army, this is the one responsible for logistics management, and this one for armament coordination..."

The head record keeper named Di Qianyu introduced the officials around him one by one.

The soldiers of the Nineteenth Army perished, but the group of civil officials remained.

Of course, considering the previous commander of the Nineteenth Army was from the Zhao Family, Song Changming did not accept these officials blindly.

Even before receiving the list of remaining officials, he had already screened it and removed more than half, leaving only a small portion.

Which are now only these seven or eight people before him.

If he is to rebuild his own army, it naturally needs to be thoroughly rebuilt.

These seven or eight people are not from noble families and have no significant past ties to the Zhao family.

They are considered to have clean backgrounds, good character, and principles in their work, which is why Song Changming kept them.

"Alright, Di’s Record, the situation of the remaining military materials I asked you to tally, how has it been going?" Song Changming asked.

Di Qianyu sighed wryly, saying, "Sir, I truly lack manpower; it’s very difficult to search and tally in this vast ruin..."

In the end, he only presented a small portion of the results that were tallied.

Song Changming glanced through and found that the usable military materials beneath the ruins were more than he had imagined.

Evidently, the massive demon beasts merely destroyed this place without looting.

Perhaps only flesh and blood could attract them.

And this is good news for Song Changming.

Every army, under the military department, has a budget they can control.

As long as he excavates these materials from the ruins, taking over the Nineteenth Army won’t start from scratch.

However, before this, he needs to recruit some people to come in.

Otherwise, relying solely on a few civil servants, it might take until next year to clear this ruin.

And this, he had already arranged.

Soon, a team galloped from within the city and arrived here.

"Sir, I’m late." Song Ping’an dismounted and spoke.

"No worries." Song Changming nodded, looking past him at the team accompanying him.

The number wasn’t small, all were robust men, each surging with qi blood, proving they were at least body-refined martial artists.

"A total of 557 people, as per your request, these individuals have clean backgrounds, and their martial arts cultivation is all above the Seventh Realm of Body Refining." Song Ping’an reported.

A month ago, when Song Changming heard the decision of the military department, he had already instructed Song Ping’an to start looking for reliable recruits.

At this moment, as the Black Obsidian just ended and the demon race just retreated, the main city inside and out was still crowded with people, refugees from various places hadn’t left. It wasn’t too difficult to filter a batch of high-quality recruits at this time.

"Greetings, Marshal!"

Apparently, Song Ping’an had already briefed this group that they were here to meet the Military Commander.

Upon seeing Song Changming, they immediately dismounted, without hesitation knelt on one knee before Song Changming and bowed their heads in salute.

Even though Song Changming at this moment was just a commander without an army, the Military Commander was still the Military Commander; to ordinary people, he was a big figure among big figures.

In martial arts, he represented the military department and the Prince’s Mansion, an undisputed top powerhouse!

Ordinary people hardly had any chance to meet him.

No wonder many of them were quite excited.

Song Changming swept his gaze across them, the entirety of their martial arts cultivation apparent.

Indeed, as Song Ping’an said, they were all above the Seventh Realm of Body Refining, and on average, they were not old, capable talents.

Moreover, among these more than five hundred, there were over a hundred whose bodies had already formed qi vortexes and flowed with inner qi.

No wonder Song Ping’an took a month to carefully select these; the over one hundred Qi Cultivation Realm martial artists could be directly used as elite soldiers, not just simple reserves.

Yet, this was not the greatest result of Song Ping’an’s efforts this time.

Soon, Song Changming’s gaze fell upon a few people in the front row.

A total of nine people.

These nine, whether in cultivation or martial artist demeanor, were notably superior to the others by far.

Even Su Qingqing beside him noticed these nine.

...