Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 247 How to Temper
The drill lasted for less than half an hour and with a command, the team instantly returned to its original appearance. Everyone lined up neatly and stood straight, exuding a tough aura.

"Good! It's good!"

Seeing this, Zhu Shenzhui clapped his hands and laughed. He didn't expect that Lao Jin and the others would have trained all the people in just half a year. You have to know that half a year ago, except for a few core members like Wang Jinwu, the rest were basically just peasants. Although most of them were military households before, they had never been soldiers since they were born, let alone fought in a battle. They couldn't even read a single word. Let alone being unable to do this at the beginning, they couldn't even stand in a line properly.

And now, each of the forty-eight people in these four teams looks like a real soldier, and seems to be stronger than the students who have completed military training in later generations. How could Zhu Shencui not be happy with such a change?

Immediately, Zhu Shenzhui rewarded Lao Jin and the other two generously. Lao Jin and the others were naturally happy after receiving the reward. Wasn't this their purpose? Moreover, Zhu Shenzhui's attitude also proved his original promise. His hard work over the past few months was not in vain.

"Thank you, Sixth Master, for the reward!" Lao Jin and the other two were happy and quickly thanked Zhu Shenzhui.

Zhu Shenzhui said cheerfully that it was nothing. Since they were invited here, they would be rewarded if they did a good job. Isn't that natural? Moreover, he was not a stingy person. As long as they could continue to help train the soldiers and bring out an elite team that was no less than the Qi family army back then, let alone the mere silver, he could afford any more generous reward.

Lao Jin and the other two were even happier after hearing this. They exchanged glances with each other, and each of them understood that they had met a noble person who truly valued them. Over the years, although the three of them had no worries about food and drink in their hometown, they had been soldiers for most of their lives, especially fighting with the Qi family army and making a name for themselves in the country. However, they had to return to their hometown and retire because of injuries, and the loss in their hearts always existed.

And now, the three of them were actually being reused one day, and they personally led such an army. Although it was just a small group of people, less than 50 in total, it was just the beginning, right? And with this good start, the future was even more exciting for them.

Although he was happy, Lao Jin did not forget his responsibilities. He told Zhu Shenzhui that the current training had only achieved initial results and it was still far from being successful.

Even though these people seemed to be well-mannered and fought well during the exercise, the problem was that an exercise was an exercise and going to the battlefield was a battlefield, which were two completely different things. Not to mention that they still had many problems in coordination and formation changes. It seemed good to outsiders, but in the eyes of the three veterans, some problems were far from being solved.

According to Lao Jin, these people cannot be called a real army yet. If they want to become a strong army like Qi's army, they must not only continue to train, but more importantly, they must be tempered in battle.

Going into battle is not an exercise, it is a real fight with white knives going in and red knives coming out, full of blood and violence.

No matter how well you practice in training, it is not as good as fighting with real swords and guns. Soldiers can only be called soldiers after they go to the battlefield and go through the baptism of war and such tempering. But at present, they are still far from it. No matter how good they look, once they go to the battlefield and face the real life and death situation, their hands will tremble and their feet will be weak. They will be lucky if they can use 30% of their skills. This is what the silver-plated spear head means.

"That's true..." After listening to Lao Jin's words, Zhu Shenzhui nodded silently. Lao Jin was right. Seeing blood and not seeing blood are completely different. Having killed someone and not killing someone are even more different.

Zhu Shenzhui clearly remembered the scene of his first murder. It was when he first led his brothers from Wangjia Village to smuggle salt.

When the knife hits the opponent's body and the spear pierces the opponent's body, causing the skin to be torn and blood to fly everywhere, the person's psychology and feelings are completely different.

The first time Zhu Shenzhui killed someone, he led his brothers to defeat the opponent in one breath, but the situation at that time was because the opponent was too weak, or Zhu Shenzhui's force was too strong. In fact, Zhu Shenzhui was a little scared afterwards, because after the attack, his brain was completely blank for a moment, and all his actions were formed by his habitual and conditioned reflexes from his daily martial arts training. Fortunately, the opponent was not strong. If he had met a few real masters, it is not certain who would be lying in the end.

Moreover, after killing the man, Zhu Shenzhui suffered a certain physical and psychological shock. The man who was alive and well the moment before fell in a pool of blood the next moment, his eyes wide open as he stared at him, and the broken teeth in his half-open mouth were foaming with blood like cavities, as if he wanted to say something...

The air was filled with the unpleasant smell of blood. His hands and body were stained with the opponent's blood. The strong fishy smell hit his nose. Zhu Shenzui couldn't help but vomit while holding the tree trunk. Even the other brothers in Wangjia Village were not much better. Although they won, their faces were pale and they also squatted on the ground vomiting.

In the following days, Zhu Shenzhui could clearly see the appearance of the person he killed as soon as he closed his eyes. He didn't sleep well for several days and couldn't fall asleep all night. Even his self-hypnosis was not very effective.

This situation lasted for a long time, and it did not ease until the second time he killed someone. Later, he killed more people, and several people died at Zhu Shenzhui's hands. Zhu Shenzhui finally recovered his mentality and was no longer troubled by this.

Zhu Shenzhu had experienced all this himself, so he naturally understood that what Lao Jin said was right. Training soldiers is not only about training the basics, but also about training courage, and courage cannot be trained in this kind of training. It must go through real wars to transform. Otherwise, the trained soldiers may look fine on weekdays, but they will be useless once they are on the battlefield. But how can we train soldiers through war? Although this army is small in scale, it is the seed of Zhu Shenzhu, and his army can be said to be a private army, not belonging to any system of the Ming Dynasty, even though Zhao Wuling is nominally a hundred households of the guard.

In addition, the Wei Suo were local troops, not frontier troops. Frontier troops were stationed on the border and often had to fight with the Mongols, not to mention Liaodong. The war there had been going on for several years. The Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Jiannu had been fighting each other. The scale of the war was getting bigger and bigger, and the losses on both sides were also not small.

If, as Lao Jin said, we should pull these soldiers to the battlefield for training when necessary and use actual war to train the army, it is true, but it is not easy to do so.

Send them to the border troops? It's impossible. The border troops have their own system. Even if this team is in the name of the guard, it won't work. How can it be done if the two are not in the same system? As for sending them to Liaodong, don't even think about it. Liaodong is a meat grinder, and these less than 50 sentries will be eaten by others. Not only will they not play any role, but they may even cause trouble.

Zhu Shenzui couldn't help but think for a moment. After thinking for a moment, he called Wang Jinwu and Lu Yishen and asked them if they had heard any news about bandits or robbers today.

"Bandits? Bandits?"

Wang Jinwu and Lu Yisheng looked at each other, not knowing why Zhu Shenzhui asked this.

"Sixth brother, I haven't heard of any bandits. The world has been relatively peaceful in the past two years. Except for the last gust of wind, there are no strong men in Shanxi. Even if it was a gust of wind, this old guy would have been rotten to the bones long ago. Why are you asking this?" Wang Jinwu asked back, scratching his head.

Lu Yisheng frowned, thought for a long time, and then shook his head, saying that he had indeed never heard of any bandits or robbers, and that the surrounding area was very peaceful.

Even if there were some people hiding in the mountains, they were not bandits or vagrants. At best, they were refugees who had lost their land and fled to the mountains to keep warm. There were not many of them, and they would usually just beat up those who were alone. They could not be called bandits or vagrants at all.

After hearing their answers, Zhu Shenzhui was slightly disappointed. He originally planned to use these people to train his troops and let them see blood. Since he wanted to train his troops, it would be best to start with a small group of bandits. However, Wang Jinwu and Lu Yisheng gave him such an answer, so this idea was not feasible.

What Wang Jinwu and Lu Yisheng said was right. The local area has been relatively peaceful in the past two years. Not to mention Shanxi, even in Shaanxi there have been no major incidents. Forty-eight years before the Wanli reign, there were a few disturbances in the local area, but they were not serious and were quickly quelled.

After the death of Emperor Wanli, Emperor Taichang ascended the throne, but he also died after 29 days in office. After him came the current Emperor Tianqi.

After Emperor Tianqi ascended the throne, although the Ming Dynasty could not be said to have had good weather in the past two years, the weather was relatively stable, and the court's policies toward local areas became much more relaxed, so the lives of the people were actually better than before.

For ordinary people, there are not so many extravagant demands. They just want to live a good life. As long as they can eat and live to pass on their family line, it is enough. Unless they are forced into a desperate situation, the people of the Ming Dynasty are still very law-abiding.

Being a bandit or a vagrant also requires a mass base. Without a mass base, there is no way to cause trouble. In the past two years, there has indeed been no rumors of bandits or vagrants. The reason why Zhu Shenzhu asked Wang Jinwu and Lu Yisheng was simply to find out from them. What if there was news that he didn't know?

Who would have thought that the answer they gave was the same? This made Zhu Shenzhui's idea of ​​training his troops with the help of bandits and robbers impossible. But if there were no opponents to train with, how could this army be truly trained? For a moment, Zhu Shenzhui was a little embarrassed.

"Sixth Master, why are you asking this?" Lu Yisheng couldn't help but ask when he saw Zhu Shenzui frowning.

Zhu Shenzui sighed, and did not hide it from them. He immediately told them his original plan. After listening to Zhu Shenzui's words, Wang Jinwu and Lu Yishen finally understood Zhu Shenzui's idea. It must be said that Zhu Shenzui's idea was not a problem. It was a pity that there were indeed no bandits for the troops to practice on.

(End of this chapter)