Chapter 62: The Power of a Strong Army
During the two days that Lin Changfeng took over the Tianwu Left Camp, Zhu Cilang lived directly in the camp officer's office in the Xinpukou Camp, and personally discussed solutions to current military problems with a group of officers from the Palace Army.

The reform and finalization of the military system must be done with extreme caution. It is not something that can be decided with just a few words, nor can it be resolved by punishing a few generals. It is a systemic issue that affects the entire body.

Not only that, even the chief minister of the cabinet, Minister of War Li Banghua, led a group of officials from the Ministry of War to the "New Pukou Camp". This was a rare opportunity for reform. How could Zhu Cilang let it go?

It should be noted that in such a huge system, there are vested interests of the original system everywhere, and everything you do needs to be justified, otherwise there will be a lot of resistance.

One of the most important reasons why Zhu Cilang has not yet carried out drastic reforms to the bloated bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty court is that he does not have enough reputation.

Time soon came to the third day. Zhu Cilang led Li Banghua, Chang Denggui and other civil and military officials to the parade ground in the middle of the camp, preparing to personally review the army of the Tianwu Left Camp.

The entire officer system of the Tianwu Left Camp was not destroyed. Under the personal command of Zhu Cilang, Lin Changfeng, with a dozen trusted aides of the Imperial Guard, quickly took over the entire camp.

Now, as the gongs and drums of the army assembly sounded, more than 1,500 soldiers who received the order to participate in the drill quickly took their positions.

A black and red team was quickly formed on the parade ground. The square in the middle was composed of six rows of infantry, with sword and shield soldiers and spearmen from front to back. Several shiny tiger squat cannons were deployed in front of the formation, and there were several rows of musketeers in red cotton armor on both wings.

These more than 1,500 soldiers were arranged in neat rows, with bright clothes and armor, standing solemnly like pine trees. Behind the formation, there were dozens of cavalrymen wearing silver-white chain mail supporting the formation. They looked vigorous and full of momentum!
During these two months, the soldiers of the Tianwu Left Camp received very strict military training, the intensity of which had far exceeded that of the Ming Dynasty's border troops of that era. With sufficient logistical support, they basically reached the standard of a small exercise every day and a large drill every three days.

At the same time, in order to enable these soldiers to adapt to marching under various conditions, wearing armor weighing more than 40 kilograms, and carrying various weapons to fight, the soldiers of Tianwu Zuoying paid special attention to improving their physical fitness during training, and even had a night march every half a month.

Now, the only thing the army lacks is sophisticated equipment. The arsenals of the various prefectures in Nanzhili are simply not enough for Zhu Cilang to build an all-round elite force with both offensive and defensive capabilities.

To this end, Li Banghua also gathered thousands of craftsmen in Nanzhili to form the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau", which had already begun to forge weapons and armor, which was also one of the goals of Zhu Cilang's inspection trip.

Zhu Cilang, Li Banghua, Chang Denggui, Lin Changfeng and others stood in the center of the platform, looking at everything in front of them. Including Zhu Cilang and Li Banghua, everyone had a satisfied expression on their faces.

Li Banghua stood up straight with his head held high. After glancing around, he nodded and then clasped his hands towards Zhu Cilang and said:

"Your Majesty, the most important thing for an infantry army is a strict formation. The Tianwu Left Camp can maintain a unified formation of thousands of soldiers. Even if they are pitted against cavalry in the future, I'm sure they will be no less powerful."

"It seems that the training during this period has achieved considerable results, otherwise I would never let Zhao Guanhu off so easily," Zhu Cilang nodded in agreement.

"Lin Changfeng, let the soldiers begin the drill!"

After hearing this, Lin Changfeng immediately bowed and saluted, then turned around and gave a few instructions to one of his generals, who immediately began to command the formation below.

Upon receiving the order, the thousand-man formation on the parade grounds immediately demonstrated a battlefield attack formation. Soldiers from two thousand headquarters, four divisions, and twelve bureaus formed a spectacular and imposing front. The soldiers at the front, clad in fine armor, wielded swords, shields, and spears, with bows and arrows slung from their waists, marched in perfect order, their steps in unison, their expressions etched with determination.

The red musketeers on the left and right wings of the armored soldiers demonstrated rotating shooting cover. They will be used to attack the approaching enemy cavalry or the enemy charging in the front from a long distance, disrupting the enemy's harassing and attacking formation.

In battle, the "Tianwu Left Camp", which was basically trained in accordance with the "Military Training Records", had clear and strict discipline and tactical groupings, with a mixed squad of twelve people as the most basic combat unit, consisting of a squad leader, two sword and shield soldiers, four spearmen and archers, four musketeers, and one auxiliary cook.

The main training of the Tianwu Left Camp was still the flexible, yet very complex Mandarin Duck Formation. However, Zhu Cilang did not completely follow Qi Jiguang's original requirements, and made significant simplifications and improvements to the soldiers' equipment and training.

After all, the future battles between the Palace Army and the Qing army will not mainly take place in the hilly areas of the southeast coast. They will mainly have to deal with the highly mobile Qing cavalry and well-equipped heavy armored infantry that are also capable of fighting in formations. Naturally, the tactics and equipment will have to change accordingly.

Li Banghua looked at the soldiers of the Tianwu Left Camp who were advancing while maintaining their front line, and couldn't help but feel emotional. He hadn't seen such an army for a long time. This formation was much better than the Beijing Camp that he had trained for more than a year.

Not only that, he even felt that if these soldiers in front of him were trained for another half a year, they would be comparable to the elite troops of the Nine Frontiers back then, which was far from comparable to the Southern Army.

Thinking of this, Li Banghua couldn't help but feel extremely regretful. If he had been able to recruit 10,000 boatmen to supplement the Beijing Camp and train them strictly, the Beijing Camp would probably not have performed as well during the "Yi Si Incident".

Lin Changfeng looked at the thousands of troops training in front of him and felt that these soldiers were better than the original Beijing camp. He had felt this when he took over the army the day before. These soldiers were not trained enough and were far inferior to the elite troops of Liaozhen.

Having fought for so many years outside the Great Wall and spent several years in the Beijing camp, he could tell at a glance whether a military force was strong. And after personally training them, he could also roughly estimate how strong they were.

In fact, even if he didn't understand military affairs, he could still make a basic distinction. Because a strong army and a weak army give people completely different feelings, I'm afraid any normal person can see the difference.

Although these soldiers had only trained for more than two months, they had a good foundation and the training intensity was twice that of ordinary border troops. They were already very familiar with basic drill manuals and formations. The results they performed were naturally not comparable to those of ordinary armies.

If the previous training had not been so rough and did not follow the established requirements, I am afraid that the performance of these soldiers would have been even better.

Soon, with the sound of drums, the demonstration of the attack formation of the Tianwu Left Camp finally ended. Looking at the rows of soldiers in front of him, who were as strict as a wall and standing solemnly like pine trees, Zhu Cilang immediately stepped forward, nodded, and said loudly:

"Well done! This is what my frontline troops should look like!"

After that, he gave another order: "Lin Changfeng, pass on my military orders. Have the archers fire one round of arrows and the musketeers fire one round of live ammunition at targets fifty and seventy paces away, respectively. I want to test their strength."

 Thanks to the book friends "Yuekenlu Dazhuang", "Ah, little lady, don't run", and "Liehuo Xiangfang" for their rewards.

  
 
(End of this chapter)

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