Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

Gao Shen and Zhang Lan exchanged a glance, and then Gao Shen cupped his hands and said, "Since the lord asks, then this humble general will speak frankly. General Yan and General Zan are indeed well trained, but they treat their soldiers like human beings, and the training is not rigorous enough."

"Old Gao is right. Soldiers like the Northern Army Battalion and the Jia Battalion are only considered to be slightly capable soldiers in the ranks. They are not considered strong and elite troops. They would collapse at the first touch when fighting against the elite Tang army."

"In your opinion, how should we train them?"

"The training is still the same, but the soldiers must be made to completely lose their cowardly and hesitant nature. In the face of battle, they must obey the orders of their commander-in-chief. Even if the commander-in-chief orders them to go to their deaths, they will not hesitate and will move forward without hesitation. Only in this way can they be called strong soldiers."

"Is it trained exactly the same as that of assassins?"

"That's somewhat true, but it's not as brutal as training suicide squads. This kind of training can't last long either. After about twenty days of continuous training, we need to give the bastards a break, otherwise they'll go crazy."

"Yes, what you said makes a lot of sense."

"The two of you will be responsible for training the more than 500 newly purchased Beikou soldiers, using your usual training methods."

"This subordinate obeys!"

"When you are training your troops, let General Yan and General Zan observe so that everyone can learn from each other and improve together."

"promise!"

"My lord, I see that many people in our camp are making charcoal. It's really good. Could you send someone over to teach the people in Bozhou? It would make the winters much easier."

"Of course you can. Once you learn how, you can make a lot and sell it. In Xuanzhou, you can earn eight hundred strings of cash a month just from burning charcoal."

"Eight hundred strings of cash? My goodness, that's a huge profit?"

"Everyone can use this stuff. It can be used for cooking and heating. The main thing is to sell it in large quantities. And according to our method, it produces high-quality charcoal. We can sell it for six copper coins a pound in Xiangzhou and ten copper coins a pound in Xuanzhou. Because of this charcoal-making recipe, we even accomplished something big in Xiangzhou."

Li You told Gao Shen and Zhang Lan about the purging of the monk Yuanjue, and the two were amazed.

"In my opinion, among those stinky monks, very few are enlightened; most are just swindlers who cheat people out of their money."

"Old Gao is right. I wonder what those Buddhists are actually worshipping all that?"

"Tell us what difficulties you are facing in Bozhou, and we will send you whatever our mountain stronghold has."

"Very well, this humble general thanks you on behalf of those brats!"

"We're all family, no need for thanks."

"My lord, your method of boiling salt is excellent. Send someone over to teach them as well."

"Alright, that's easy. I'll have Dou Jun send a few men over there."

"My lord, I noticed that many of the armors in our camp are made of wild boar hide?"

"Yes, you need some too?"

"No need for that. There are wild boars in the mountains of Bozhou, and we have hired people to make leather armor. But I've looked at the leather armor in our camp, and it doesn't seem to be as good as the one made by Old Master Li... Old Master Li is a leather armor craftsman from Bozhou."

"Oh, that's great. Call your old man Li over here to give our Huang Chao army some guidance."

"Okay, I'll go there myself tomorrow and bring him over."

Communicating with others is a great habit; many ideas are generated through communication.

Huang Chao's army and Bozhou's army each have their own strengths, which can complement each other's strengths and make up for each other's weaknesses.

"My lord, I see we have quite a few more men now. When are we going to raise the flag and rebel against them?"

"There's no rush to start an army. Let's prepare for two years first, and when we have more troops, we'll be more confident."

"Alright, I've been looking forward to fighting those Li Tang soldiers again. Those battles twenty years ago were really frustrating."

Gao Shen sighed and said, "Why talk about the past? Our Hebei soldiers only know how to fight to the death, and they are no match for us."

Those who use their brains. Liu Shuai's losses in those two battles back then were not unjust.

The Liu Shuai that Gao Shen mentioned was none other than Liu Heita.

This man was originally a subordinate of Dou Jiande. After Dou Jiande was defeated and killed at Hulao Pass, the entire Hebei was brought under the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty. However, at the beginning, the Tang Dynasty adopted very harsh policies in Hebei. The fierce people of Hebei were dissatisfied and elected Liu Heita as their leader, and rebelled again.

At the beginning, Liu Heita fought very well and gained great prestige.

However, Li Shimin led his troops to confront Liu Heita calmly for more than sixty days. After finding an opportunity to cut off the supply lines, he launched a water attack, causing Liu Heita to flee in disarray, with only two hundred or so cavalrymen escaping into the Turkic territory.

After gaining support from the Turks, Liu Heita launched a counterattack. However, Li Jiancheng arrived with his troops, but they did not engage in much fighting. Instead, Li Jiancheng appeased the people of Hebei and reduced taxes. Liu Heita's forces collapsed without a fight, and he was eventually defeated and killed.

At this point, Li Youfa asked, "Gentlemen, in your opinion, what exactly makes the Tang army so strong, and why are they so adept at fighting?"

"The Tang army has too many famous generals and many strategists who can use their brains. Our strategic planning is indeed inferior to theirs."

"Besides their strategic planning, the elite troops of the Li Tang dynasty are more hardworking than us. They are like wild wolves, relentless and persistent, able to pursue for days and nights without giving up."

Zhang Lan still felt lingering fear when she talked about this.

He escaped the Tang army's pursuit by burying himself in a pile of corpses; it was a very tragic story.

With their intelligence and ability to endure hardship, it would be strange if the Tang army wasn't strong.

Li You chatted with Gao and Zhang for another hour before they parted ways late at night.

……

Starting from the second day, Gao Shen and Zhang Lan began training the 500 soldiers they had acquired.

Li You named this group of new recruits the "Wild Wolf Battalion," hoping they would be as fierce and resilient as wild wolves.

Ten days later, Li You's second class at "University" was held as scheduled.

There were many attendees, and Gao Shen and Zhang Lan also put aside their training to come and listen to the lecture.

Course topic: World Map.

To prepare for this lesson, Li You drew a very large map and revised it five or six times before he was satisfied.

"This map represents the entire world we live in."

"The Great Tang Dynasty is right here."

"To the east of the Tang Dynasty lies a vast sea, and in the sea there is a small country called Dongying."

"The countries to the north of the Tang Dynasty were Xueyantuo and Goguryeo, and to the west of Xueyantuo was the Western Turks."

"The large country south of the Western Turks was called the Sasanian Persian Empire, and the series of smaller countries were collectively known as India. The stronger country in the India region was called the Harsha Dynasty."

"The plateau country surrounded by India, the Western Turks, and the Tang Dynasty is called Tubo."

"Further west of the Sassanid Persian Empire, there were two more great empires: the Arab Empire and the Byzantine Empire, which surrounded an entire ocean."

"My lord, that's... a sea?"