On May 31, Wu Ming flew back to Shushi on his sword.
After a month away, he found that the Inspection Department's old base had been completely transformed. Not only had plenty of brand-new military equipment been added, but there were also far more soldiers on patrol than before.
Most importantly, the plaque that had once read "Southwestern Patrol Division" above the base's new gate had been replaced with one reading "Southwestern Garrison Headquarters."
Wu Ming was not surprised by the changes. Although he had spent the month patrolling the waterways, as Garrison Commissioner, he had kept close track of developments within his jurisdiction and even directed operations remotely.
In truth, this base was only serving as their headquarters temporarily. It was simply too small: a mere 600 mu, enough for only a few thousand people to live and train there at most.
After this expansion, the authorized strength of the army under Wu Ming's command had reached fifty thousand. Although not every soldier would necessarily remain at headquarters, it still needed to comfortably accommodate at least ten to twenty thousand under normal circumstances.
According to his plan, after all, these fifty thousand soldiers would not all be scattered across the region. At most, thirty thousand would be stationed in various cities, taking over the duties of the former local Inspection Branches and handling ordinary disasters.
Of the remaining twenty thousand, ten thousand needed to be stationed near key waterways throughout the Southwest to guard against and repel attacks by aquatic monsters.
Although Wu Ming had already patrolled the waterways once, time had been too tight, and he had only hurriedly dealt with the monsters in the main rivers.
He had also killed plenty of mutated creatures, but compared with their enormous numbers, those losses were nowhere near crippling. As