Chapter 294: Chapter 176: Growing Ambition_3
Translator: 549690339
That’s why the court seemed to have divided two prefectures, but in reality, the loss of money, food, and population may not even be a tenth of the total. It’s not a big deal at all.
Lu Yuan thought that among the nine prefectures of Da Yue, the four Jianghu Grandmasters could each occupy one prefecture. The court could just defend the five core and prosperous prefectures.
Only then would it be considered fair.
Of course, all of the above are just Lu Yuan’s temporary thoughts. Whether they can be done or not, they still have to see how the situation changes.
Nothing in life is certain, and anything can change.
Until that moment, he didn’t know what the outcome would be.
However, even so, it doesn’t prevent Lu Yuan from gradually strengthening his strength according to this plan.
At this time, the cultivation of Li Liang is such a case.
As for the results…
“Master, don’t worry, the disciple will diligently practice and strive to break through to the top rank as soon as possible and join your sect.” Li Liang, after being encouraged by Lu Yuan, knelt down immediately, his expression extremely excited.
Becoming a top-rank would actually not be too difficult for Li Liang.
After all, he has already practiced to the eighth standard meridian, and only needs to cultivate the remaining four standard meridians and one bizarre meridian to break through to the top rank.
Just five meridians in total, even if he doesn’t rely on external forces and just diligently trains on his own, it will only take 15 years to break through to the top rank.
However, the reality is clearly not the case.
Not to mention that Lu Yuan occasionally grants Rejuvenation Pills or other Divine Blood Elixirs to disciples who have made achievements in order to cultivate their strength.
Even in private, Li Liang and other disciples would actually buy Rejuvenation Pills from Zhou Qing on their own initiative.
In this day and age, most of those who can practice martial arts have wealthy backgrounds.
Though many of Lu Yuan’s named disciples were promoted from the bottom and didn’t have rich backgrounds, there are still some who come from wealthy families.
Among the forty or so named disciples under him, half come from poverty and half from wealthy backgrounds.
Generally, the strength of disciples from wealthy backgrounds is better than those from impoverished backgrounds.
After all, they have practiced martial arts since childhood, have a solid foundation, and are willing to spend money on medicines to improve their cultivation. It’s normal for them to outpace their poorer fellow disciples in terms of cultivation progress.
Interestingly enough, Li Liang belongs to the category of those with wealthy backgrounds.
Though his family is not as rich as a nation, it is still quite affluent.
Spending three to five thousand silver tales for Li Liang to buy medicine for cultivation should not be a problem. Coupled with his own income, being able to afford one bottle of Rejuvenation Pills every month is not unattainable for him.
And in comparison to these investments, if he could break through to the top rank and join Lu Yuan’s sect, then everything would be worth it.
With the identity of a top-ranked expert and an Inborn teacher, aren’t they afraid of making money?
At this point, Li Liang had already decided that as soon as he returned, he would persuade his parents to sell most of their family assets and use the proceeds to buy Rejuvenation Pills to aid his cultivation.
Wealthy prospects are right in front of him, and if he doesn’t take the risk now, he’ll undoubtedly regret it in the future.
“I’m very pleased that you have such ambition; I look forward to the day you become my second true disciple.”
Lu Yuan is very fond of Li Liang’s attitude and then continues, “In some time, I will send more people to recruit soldiers, and there should be 20,000 new recruits joining the camp.”
I’ll leave their training to you.
I don’t expect you to train them well in a short period, as long as they can be deployed into battle formations and fight after a year, that’s fine.
You can do that, right?”
Having been enticed by Lu Yuan’s words, Li Liang wouldn’t refuse at this point. He immediately took up the Military Order and said, “Master, rest assured, the disciple can swear under the Military Order; if I fail to train the soldiers within a year, let military laws punish me.”
Lu Yuan nodded with satisfaction, “In that case, it’s a done deal.”
After that, he didn’t continue speaking with Li Liang. He turned his head and continued to watch the training drills of the soldiers below.
After inspecting the army, Lu Yuan stayed in the barracks again.
Although there is no need to fear the threat of an Inborn Grandmaster for the time being, the training of the army must not be neglected.
Moreover, due to his cautious personality, Lu Yuan chose to stay in the barracks, overseeing the training of the new recruits, and at the same time, it was more convenient for him to handle military affairs such as expanding the army.
Recruiting 20,000 soldiers is related to Lu Yuan’s strategic planning, so on the second day after his return to the camp, he had already sent personnel to recruit soldiers in other areas.
However, with continuous wars, every corner of Da Yue is now exhausted. It is difficult to find the required recruits.
Places like Linhai County and Yuzhang Prefecture, after the court conscripted hundreds of thousands of troops, hardly have any qualified recruits left.
Even the few remaining recruits in Yuzhang Prefecture were taken away by the people Lu Yuan had sent earlier. According to disciples who had gone to recruit soldiers, there are no more brave men left in Yuzhang Prefecture. Seeing this, one can imagine what the situation is like there.
As for Dongting, it’s even worse than Yuzhang.
In order to recruit soldiers, Lu Yuan had no choice but to go further afield.
He sent two teams of disciples through Yuzhang Prefecture to Jianan Prefecture and South Sea Prefecture in a long detour to recruit soldiers from these places.
Although Jianan Prefecture and South Sea Prefecture have experienced war, they have been at peace for three years.
After three years of recuperation, their vitality has been restored to a great extent, and the population has been well preserved.
Recruiting soldiers from these two places will still yield considerable gains.
Considering the future, Lu Yuan even specifically instructed that if there are more qualified soldiers in these two places, they can recruit more and not be limited to 20,000 troops.
Nowadays, in times of chaos and strife, the population is decreasing, and elite soldiers are becoming fewer. In the future, it will become more and more difficult to recruit qualified soldiers.
So why not take advantage of this time to recruit more and later not even know where to conscript?
As for how to support more recruits…
“With soldiers and horses, what’s there to fear about finding money to support them?”
Lu Yuan wrote his own recruitment documents as the Pingxi General, handed them over to the waiting disciples down below, and thought to himself.
In times of chaos, having soldiers means being able to rob territory and money. With territory and money, you can naturally support your troops.
Even if they can’t rob the territory, it doesn’t matter.
While trying to grab territory, they can consume the excess troops they can’t afford, thus reducing expenses and allowing them to support their remaining forces.
At the same time, through continuous warfare, they can eliminate the weak and leave behind experienced soldiers through natural selection.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s acceptable to Lu Yuan – either way, he won’t lose, and it’s a surefire win-win situation.
This logic is sound and unproblematic..