Chapter 227: Chapter 153: Top-notch Peak_3
Translator: 549690339
Regarding various policy projects, Lu Yuan basically just nodded his head, provided the funds and let Sun Siwen do the work. He himself acted as a hands-off proprietor, not interfering too much.
However, apart from these matters, Sun Siwen brought up another issue that required his assistance.
“With the destruction in the counties, there are no county soldiers or militia now. When Brother Lu was here, he could maintain order with his troops. But if Brother Lu leaves, the area will be empty.
So, I want to follow the example of Shaoyang Prefecture and establish a system of prefecture and county soldiers militia in Luyang Prefecture. We will rebuild the prefecture and county soldiers in each county within the prefecture and establish a militia in towns and villages.
However, the population is currently devastated, especially the adult men who were captured or coerced by the enemy army.
I need Brother Lu’s help to establish the prefecture and county soldiers militia,” Sun Siwen explained his request.
Luyang Prefecture is a poor mountainous area with a small population of only about two hundred thousand.
Previously, when the Miao People rebelled, they killed many local Yue people. Later, when the government suppressed the rebellion, they killed many Miao people. As a result, the population dropped to around 170 to 180 thousand. During the Seven Star Sect rebellion, another 30 to 40 thousand people were taken away, almost depleting the area of adult men.
Now the area is full of women, children, and the elderly. Sun Siwen wants to recruit soldiers from these groups, which is quite a difficult task.
Lu Yuan thought for a moment and nodded, saying: “That’s easy to do. In our barracks, we have captured many enemy prisoners. Most of them were coerced by the Seven Star Sect rebels and are not deeply involved in their crimes.
There are about 14,000 of them, and I will have someone select qualified men to serve as prefecture and county soldiers.
The rest can be organized into militias and released.
Additionally, there are three thousand volunteer soldiers who are not very strong. They might as well be reorganized into militia prefecture and county soldiers on the spot.”
Before arriving at Changning County, Lu Yuan had captured 8,000 prisoners. Later, he captured over a thousand more when he wiped out the local warlords who refused to obey orders in Luyang Prefecture. During the battle for Luyang City, more than a thousand were killed. But after conquering Linwu County, he captured another 3,000 prisoners. In the following days, 7,000 people defected from Yue City in Luyang Prefecture.
In total, he had more than 18,000 prisoners in his hands.
However, among these 18,000, more than 4,000 were from Linwu County.
Although these people had surrendered, they were deeply involved in the rebellion. Releasing them to the local area could potentially cause more trouble.
So Lu Yuan didn’t plan to release these Linwu County prisoners but to continue to organize them into a First Camp and manage them with military law.
Anyway, he didn’t know where he would be fighting in the future. Instead of using his elite soldiers as cannon fodder, it’s better to use these enemy soldiers and turn waste into something useful.
With that, the matter of rebuilding the prefecture and county soldiers militia system was settled.
After discussing these matters, Sun Siwen didn’t have any other business.
He chatted with Lu Yuan for a while and reminisced about their friendship. Then, he got up and left to attend to his own affairs.
To rebuild order and the government system from the ruins, Sun Siwen had a lot to do.
It was easy to imagine that for the foreseeable future, or even several years, this friend would have no time to rest.
Sun Siwen arrived in a hurry and left in a hurry, staying in the barracks for only one day before returning to Pingyang County Town in the rear.
Since Luyang Prefecture City had not been taken, the Prefect had no choice but to work from Pingyang County Town.
After he left, Lu Yuan called Zhou Qing and told his disciple about the matter of rebuilding the prefecture and county soldiers before waving his hand to let him handle it.
According to the imperial system, there should be a total of 2,000 soldiers in Luyang Prefecture, with 1,000 prefecture soldiers and 1,000 county soldiers.
Now, with 17,000 volunteer soldiers and released prisoners prepared to be disbanded, selecting 2,000 qualified soldiers from them wouldn’t be difficult.
His subordinates had experience in handling such matters, so they could simply leave it to them.
However, after selecting 2,000 elite men, the remaining people were of varying quality. Keeping them would be a waste of food, so Lu Yuan decided to simply give them some money and disband them all.
As Sun Siwen needed manpower to restore Luyang Prefecture’s production, it was just the right time to release these people and provide an ample workforce.
After this streamlining, only 10,000 main force soldiers and 4,000 Linwu
County’s First Camp prisoners remained in Lu Yuan’s camp outside the city.
Although the number of people has decreased, their combat power hasn’t decreased but has increased a lot.
After all, managing more than 20,000 prisoners takes a lot of effort. So by disbanding the surplus personnel, keeping only the elite and some cannon fodder, the burden on the army is reduced.
At the end of February in the fifth year of Hongdao, Luyang Prefecture wrapped up its chaos and welcomed the warm spring of March.
However, at the beginning of March, Lu Yuan received some bad news.
After two months of silence, the Miao People in the three prefectures south of Dongting County finally made a big move.
After much deliberation, these Miao People did not dare to face Lu Yuan’s sharp army and chose to invade the already empty Shaoyang Prefecture City by moving up from Luyang Prefecture. They gathered 70,000 soldiers, while the
Wuling County headquarters of the Five Poisons Sect in the north also gathered 50,000 soldiers. It is said that the leader himself led the troops, cooperating with the Miao People from the three southern prefectures to jointly attack Shaoyang Prefecture.
Judging by their posture, these Miao People planned to capture Shaoyang Prefecture, establishing a short direct channel between the four Miao People prefectures.
Apart from sending troops to Shaoyang Prefecture, the Miao People of the three southern prefectures also assembled an army of 30,000. They did not launch an active attack, but stopped at the junction of Shanyang Prefecture, Jiuyi Prefecture, and Luyang Prefecture.
It seems that their plan was to station a large number of troops along the border to contain Lu Yuan’s forces and buy time and opportunities for their main forces elsewhere.
As the urgent report of Shaoyang Prefecture’s plight flew in like snowflakes, the prefecture and city governments were asked to send help.
However, they couldn’t send any troops either, except for letting Hengyang Prefecture, which had already been stabilized, send 5,000 prefecture and county soldiers militia to support and let Shaoyang Prefecture defend on its own.
In any case, Shaoyang Prefecture had already established a complete prefecture and county soldiers militia system under Lu Yuan’s guidance. Even facing the Miao People’s massive invasion, they could still gather 20,000 to 30,000 troops to defend the city.
With the help of Hengyang Prefecture’s 5,000 soldiers, they can at least hold on for a while.
Amidst this confusion,
On the morning of March 7th, Lu Yuan, who had been in seclusion for half a month, finally broke through to the pinnacle of the first-class realm and completed the training of the Red Sun Mental Technique after taking five Pure Water Profound Pills and unblocking his sixth bizarre meridian.
After struggling through 15 years of cultivation, he finally reached the supreme level beneath the Inborn realm..
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