The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 201 War preparations
Little did Wu Chengyu know that because of him, a real "Red Maiden" had appeared in this world, just like the "Red Maiden" of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, who was also a leader of the rebel army.

During these three months, he did more than just sit idly by at the rebel army's base. First, he repeatedly persuaded the rebels to change their current course of action.

There were a thousand soldiers in the rebel army's camp. Half of them were the elite troops that Yan Chunyu had brought out to ambush the Jin cavalry that day. If you only look at these people, they deserve the title of elite troops. However, the other soldiers who stayed in the camp were either disabled veterans or child soldiers who had just become capable of carrying knives.

If these men were sent to fight against the Jin cavalry, and the commander made a mistake, the Jin cavalry could easily wipe them out with a single charge, leaving only one in ten alive.

Even if you include all the rebels in Shaanxi, they only number a few thousand, while the Jin cavalry number in the tens of thousands. With Yan Chunyu in command, they might win many battles, but they absolutely cannot afford to lose even one. They simply cannot withstand the cost of defeat.

However, the current rebel army, from its leader Yan Chunyu down, all have a blood feud with the Jin Kingdom. They are all thinking about when they can fight the Jin dogs. As long as they kill one more person, they consider it a gain, completely disregarding the consequences.

Even though they had already established themselves as mountain kings and had relatively safe bases, these people still thought about going to fight on the plains outside the Qinling Mountains every day, without ever considering the principle of being outnumbered by the enemy.

Although Wu Chengyu did not have a deep understanding of history, he knew to some extent that the Jin Dynasty was still at the tail end of its peak at this time. Although the upper class was corrupt, the army below was still strong. Previously, when Han Tuozhou led the Song Dynasty to launch a northern expedition, he was still defeated by the Jin Dynasty.

It wasn't until the Mongols fully rose to power and decisively defeated the Jin army on the battlefield with cavalry against cavalry that the Jin dynasty's strength plummeted.

It is now the first year of Jiading, which is 1208. The Mongol-Jin War began in 1211. Initially, it was mainly about plundering. However, in 1215, the Mongols captured Zhongdu, the capital of the Jin Dynasty, and Emperor Xuanzong of Jin moved south to Kaifeng, which led to the expansion of the war.

However, it wasn't until 1232 that the main force of the Jin army was destroyed, and the Jin dynasty fell two years later.

Therefore, before 1232, the rebel army was no match for the Jin army, but by then, these rebels would probably have all died.

In short, the time is not yet ripe to confront the Jin Dynasty, so what the rebel army really needs to do now is to accumulate strength, rather than constantly depleting its existing forces.

Wu Chengyu repeatedly discussed the matter with Yan Chunyu, Lu Zhiyi, and others, emphasizing that it would be foolish to knowingly go to one's death when the enemy was unbeatable. He even quoted Zhu De's saying, "Build high walls and store plenty of grain," without daring to suggest delaying the declaration of kingship. Only then were these rebel troops barely appeased.

Later, Wu Chengyu discovered that although the rebel army was small in number, it had a broad mass base throughout Shaanxi. As long as it gradually accumulated strength, it would be enough to develop into an elite force of tens of thousands of people in a few years.

The premise is to train troops well without depleting existing strength, and temporarily abandon the confrontation with the Jin Kingdom.

Yan Chunyu was skilled at training troops. After Shi Miyuan's death, the descendants of Yue Fei's army in Jiangnan felt that the court was increasingly wary of them. After discussions among Lu Zhiyi and others, a large number of Yue Fei's descendants moved to the Dasanguan area.

Only Lu Zhiyi chose to return to Jiangnan and lie low in order to help the rebel army raise food and supplies.

The Yue Family Army that remained in Shaanxi was led by Sister Niu. Although these people were not highly skilled in martial arts, they, like Yan Chunyu, had obtained part of the Yue Family Army's training methods from their ancestors. With them training the troops, it was equivalent to obtaining a large part of Yue Fei's military manual.

They even knew the training methods of the Beiwei Army by heart.

If these people join forces and endure for several years, they will strengthen their forces and their strength will surely increase significantly. They will no longer be like they are now, seemingly brave but actually in a precarious situation.

Wu Chengyu was ignorant of military affairs; this was the only solution he could think of. Even knowing that the rebel army's strength couldn't stop the irreversible tide of history, he knew that even with tens of thousands of elite troops, they couldn't possibly contend with the Mongol army, considered the strongest in the era of cold weapons. Unless he actually invented firearms in the future and used their power to change the course of warfare in this era.

However, it is impossible to persuade these rebels to give up their rebellion, so accumulating strength and waiting for the right time is the only thing the rebels can do now.

In addition, Wu Chengyu also proposed a way to counter the Jin cavalry. In the absence of the conditions to develop firearms, the most successful counter to cavalry in history was the Tang Dynasty's Mo Dao (陌刀) formation.

To wield the Mo Dao (陌刀) and become invincible on the battlefield, one must select strong and tall soldiers; ordinary soldiers cannot wield it.

According to Tang Dynasty records, a standard Mo Dao (陌刀) was seven feet long, about 2.1 meters, with a blade three feet long, a handle four feet long, and weighed about 9 kilograms.

Therefore, wielding the Mo Dao (陌刀) requires soldiers to be tall enough; otherwise, they simply cannot wield it.

In addition, wielding a 9-kilogram long weapon requires at least several hundred kilograms of strength, as well as formidable endurance.

The selection of materials alone is extremely difficult. It would be optimistic to say that only one in a hundred can be selected. There were not many Mo Dao soldiers even during the most prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty. Fortunately, we are now in the world of martial arts.

After a month of seclusion, Wu Chengyu gradually created a training method specifically for cultivating Mo Dao soldiers by combining the first five levels of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill and the first two levels of the Ox and Horse Stance with the help of bamboo slips. Wu Chengyu named it: Tiger Warrior Battle Body.

The first level of cultivating the Ox and Horse Stance is like Wu Chengyu back then, cultivating oneself to be as tall and strong as an ox and as robust as a horse. Even if resources are not as good as Wu Chengyu's back then, it is not a problem for the average person to grow to about 1.8 meters tall.

The second level of the Ox and Horse Stakes, Qi Chong Dou Niu, and the first five levels of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill can greatly enhance the strength and endurance of soldiers.

In addition to the Iron Shirt and small-scale battle formation methods previously passed down to Yue Fei's army, the Mo Dao soldiers trained in this way are definitely a powerful weapon on the battlefield. They can directly resist cavalry charges and reproduce the supreme glory of "It is easier to shake a mountain than to shake Yue Fei's army".

This Tiger Warrior Body has two major flaws. First, it takes time; it will take at least ten years to complete. This aligns with Wu Chengyu's strategy of temporary recuperation and development.

Although the number of rebels is small now, there are a great many orphans whose fathers died at the hands of the Jin soldiers. If these highly loyal orphans are organized and trained in the Tiger Warrior Body from a young age, there will be at least several thousand tall, strong, and incredibly powerful Mo Dao soldiers in ten years.

The role played by thousands of elite Mo Dao soldiers on the battlefield was no less than that of tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers, and they often produced astonishing results.

As for the second drawback, it was the resources required for cultivating the battle body. The resources consumed by several thousand Mo Dao soldiers far exceeded expectations. Wu Chengyu became a hands-off manager and handed these matters over to Lu Zhiyi and others to solve.

The Qinling Mountains in ancient times were teeming with wild animals, which could provide some meat. As for other food, they had to rely on the wealth that Lu Zhiyi and his team had accumulated over decades of business in Jiangnan.

Lu Zhiyi and others also expressed that they could take out the Beiwei treasure left behind to restore the Han people's rule. If they didn't use it now, when would they?
Once everything was arranged, Lu Zhiyi and the others proposed to get married as soon as possible, and Wu Chengyu hurriedly fled the Qinling Mountains.

(End of this chapter)