However, Wu Shuangren has now officially given out the quota for personal guards, and he has also equipped all of them with a set of light lamellar armor!
Wu Shuangren currently has over 680 sets of light lamellar armor that are usable, but about 100 sets need to be repaired before they can be used.
Besides giving more than two hundred sets to the cavalry battalion, he distributed another two hundred and ninety sets of the remaining four hundred and eighty sets to the personal guards of the rest of the men.
Apart from the first, second, and third battalions, the battalion commanders and deputy battalion commanders of the other battalions were all greatly shocked. They did not expect Wu Shuangren to bring out so many iron armors for them!
Such important equipment would naturally be prioritized for distribution to one's own trusted subordinates.
Even if Wu Shuangren were to equip all the armor captured from Mount Liang with the First, Second, and Third Battalions and his personal guard, the rest of the men would simply take it for granted.
As a result, Wu Shuangren not only equipped them with a set of heavy armor, but also equipped their personal guards with light lamellar armor.
This truly shows they consider them one of their own!
Moved by the experience, everyone felt an even greater sense of belonging to the Yi Province Militia.
Wu Shuangren had nearly two hundred sets of light lamellar armor left, which he gave to the First Battalion.
The First Battalion has a group of veterans, many of whom have been with Wu Shuangren since the very beginning. Aside from the Personal Guard, the First Battalion has always been the strongest fighting force.
Therefore, Wu Shuangren prioritized equipping the first First Battalion with the best armor. Although the other battalions envied this, they had no complaints.
Finally, Wu Shuangren prioritized distributing the leather armor in his hand to the first, second, and Third Battalion.
At this point, he had a personal guard battalion, a cavalry battalion, and three battalions under his command, achieving a 100% armor coverage rate!
Although armored vehicles only accounted for 20% of the total, for a local militia, such equipment was already considered luxurious!
Next, Wu Shuangren transferred more than 150 people from various battalions to supplement the crossbow battalion.
Because 137 powerful crossbows were seized from Mount Liang this time, the number of crossbowmen can be increased by 137.
Some more people were transferred to supplement the cavalry battalion.
Finally, the crossbow battalion was expanded to 335 men, and the cavalry battalion had 202 men.
Wu Shuangren's personal guard brigade was expanded, and a number of veteran soldiers were withdrawn. The personal guards of the battalion commanders and deputy battalion commanders of each battalion were also withdrawn.
With the addition of personnel withdrawn from the archer and cavalry battalions, along with the casualties from this battle, the various battalions of the Yi Province Militia are no longer at full strength.
The battalion commanders and deputy battalion commanders of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and Seventh Battalion soon came to visit.
Fifth Battalion Commander Shi Chen said to Wu Shuangren, "Commander, we can still get a few hundred more men from Qulin County. Just give me your approval, and I'll send men back to get them!"
The other battalions gave similar explanations, claiming that they had originally left some men in their respective counties or villages.
Wu Shuangren nodded in agreement, agreeing to send people back to recruit new recruits, but only on the condition that they meet the requirements for Militia Private in Yi Province Militia.
Young, strong, and with a clean background, they were mainly tenant farmers.
That afternoon, Wu Shuangren issued another order—
A group of people were selected from the more than 1,000 warrior monks of the Mist Hidden Temple who had been captured earlier, and they were dispersed and incorporated into various camps.
Most of these prisoners were captured after the two villages at the foot of Mist Hidden Mountain were breached, and some were captured by Wu Shuangren after he climbed the mountain and entered Mist Hidden Temple.
These people have been locked up in the prisoner-of-war camp for more than a month, and all they do every day is work and eat.
During this period, Wu Shuangren had already arranged for Luo Heng to lead the people of the Flying Feather Hall to secretly observe, interrogate, and screen them.
Most of these warrior monks were sent to the Mist Hidden Temple to become monks because their families were too poor to support them when they were young. They learned martial arts from a young age and were trained by the Mist Hidden Temple to become warrior monks.
Compared to local militias, village militias, or newly recruited tenant farmers, these martial monks, who had practiced martial arts since childhood and received training, undoubtedly had a better foundation and could exert greater combat power.
This can also make up for the current deficiency of too few martial artists in the Yi Province Militia.
The leaders among these monks had already been beheaded along with Hong Zhanming, and most of the remaining ones were ordinary monks from the lower ranks.
After being screened by the Flying Feather Hall, Wu Shuangren selected a group of honest and obedient monks and scattered them to various camps.
Of the more than 1,000 monks, nearly 700 were ultimately selected. The rest who were deemed unsuitable were kept to continue doing manual labor as a form of labor reform. Wu Shuangren would consider releasing them after a few years.
With nearly seven hundred more warrior monks, the vacancies in each camp have basically been filled.
The various battalions were excited upon seeing this, because Wu Shuangren had previously agreed to continue recruiting people from all over Yi Province to join the Yi Province Militia.
This means that once the new recruits from various regions arrive, the Yi Province Militia might have to expand again!
Adding an extra battalion creates many new positions, which is an opportunity for many to climb the ladder!
Besides the prisoners from Mist Hidden Temple, Wu Shuangren now has nearly three thousand Mount Liang prisoners in his hands.
However, he did not rush to deal with these prisoners. As before, he assigned them to work every day, while Luo Heng sent people from the Flying Feather Hall to observe and interrogate them secretly.
That evening, Luo Heng found Wu Shuangren.
"Commander, our spies from the Flying Feather Hall have just sent word."
Luo Heng's expression tightened. "A troop of men, numbering over six thousand, including more than a thousand cavalry, is heading towards Yi Prefecture City. They are flying the banners of the Shannan Army!"
It's finally here.
Wu Shuangren nodded, instructing Luo Heng to send the Flying Feather Hall people to continue keeping an eye on things and to report any intelligence to him immediately.
Luo Heng responded and turned to leave.
Wu Shuangren then summoned Guo Jiwang and informed him of the arrival of the Shannan Army.
Guo Jiwang had previously predicted that since Mount Liang had chosen to divide its forces to attack Yi Province, the Shannan Army would inevitably do the same.
However, the Mount Liang could directly pass through Rong Province to Yi Province, while the Shannan Army needed to take a detour, so they arrived a few days later.
"If you plan to lead troops to Rong Province next, it would be best to use the name of the Shannan Army Shannan Army, so try your best to establish a good relationship with them this time."
After listening to the information Wu Dongrong provided, Guo Jiwang spoke.
Wu Shuangren's eyes lit up.
If he were to go to Rong Province directly under the guise of the Yi Province Militia, it would indeed be too presumptuous and too conspicuous!
However, if he could go to suppress the bandits in the name of the Shannan Army, many problems would be easily solved.
The next morning, outside the west gate of Yi Prefecture City.
Wu Shuangren was watching the morning exercises of the various camps from the high platform when suddenly a scout on horseback came galloping from the east official road.
The scout rode all the way to the foot of the platform where Wu Shuangren was, and dismounted.
"Commander, the Shannan Army has about six thousand men, and they are less than ten miles from the city!"
Wu Shuangren immediately ordered all battalions to cease training, and sent his personal guard and cavalry battalion into the city with all their warhorses, as well as all those wearing iron armor.
The remaining battalions lined up in formation and waited in place.
More than an hour later, a cloud of dust rose from the end of the official road.
The first to appear were cavalry, all clad in black armor, riding tall horses, and marching in orderly ranks.
Next came the foot soldiers, who also marched in relatively neat formation, full of energy and high spirits.
This Shannan Army stopped about two miles from the east gate of Yi Prefecture City and occupied the open space on both sides of the official road.
When the entire team came to a stop, there was no chaos. The flags fluttered in the wind, and the words "Shannan" were embroidered on them.
At the center of the ranks, two men stood side by side on horseback; they were Xu Rong and Zhang Liao.
Xu Rong frowned slightly as he looked at the quiet Yi Prefecture City, its gates tightly closed.
He had sent out dozens of scouts beforehand to scatter in all directions and gather information.
The news he brought back puzzled him.
There was no fighting near Yi Prefecture City.
Outside the north gate, there was a large camp with nearly 10,000 troops already lined up, but they were not flying Mount Liang banners; instead, they were flying banners with the character "Wu".
Their force took a detour to Yi Province, and would arrive a few days later than the Mount Liang forces.
Previously, Mount Liang had captured Rong Province City and Ya Province City in just a few days, but that was only achieved when all of Mount Liang's best fighters gathered together.
Now that Mount Liang has divided its forces to attack Yi Prefecture City, Xu Rong and Zhang Liao both think that Yi Prefecture City can at least be defended for a few days.
Upon arriving in Yi Prefecture City, they were surprised to find no battle taking place, leading the two to suspect that the Yi Prefecture City had already fallen into the hands of Mount Liang.
However, the flags on the city walls were not changed to the "Acting on Behalf of Heaven" flag, and tens of thousands of troops were stationed outside the city gates, not under the Mount Liang banner.
"Wu banner, who are these people?"
Xu Rong turned to look at Zhang Liao beside him.
Zhang Liao gripped his iron spear and said in a deep voice, "Perhaps it's a feint by Mount Liang? Let's send someone to the city walls to inquire first."
Xu Rong nodded and sent a personal guard on horseback to the east gate.
The guards looked up and shouted towards the city wall:
"Listen up on the city wall! We are the Shannan troops, sent by the imperial court to relieve the siege of Yi Province!"
There was a moment of silence on the city wall, then a voice came from the gate tower. "Wait!"
After a while, a basket was lowered from the city wall, and the people on the wall gestured for the guard to sit inside.
The guard hesitated for a moment, then got into the gondola and was swayed and pulled up to the top of the city wall.
On the city wall, several Militia Private led him through a passageway, down the city wall, and through several streets and alleys, finally taking him to a courtyard not far away.
In the courtyard, Wu Shuangren was standing under a tree, with Xu Yu and several guards standing behind him.
Wu Shuangren was not wearing armor, only a black fitted outfit.
Xu Yu and several of his personal guards, however, were all wearing infantry armor.
After the guard was brought in, he looked around. When he saw Wu Shuangren, he was clearly taken aback.
If it weren't for Xu Yu other guards dressed in infantry armor surrounding Wu Shuangren, and Wu Shuangren being the only one sitting,
The guard simply couldn't believe that the person in charge of the city was so young!
The guard first saluted Wu Shuangren: "I am a personal guard of General Xu of the Shannan Army. I have come on orders. May I ask who is in charge of the city now?"
"I am now in charge of the defense of Yi Prefecture City."
"Could you perhaps be the military commander of Yi Province?"
The guard looked at Wu Shuangren uncertainly, feeling that a provincial military commander shouldn't be so young.
Wu Shuangren shook his head. "I am Wu Shuangren, the commander of the Yi Province Militia."
The guard paused for a moment, then asked, "The Yi Province Militia? The head of the militia?"
Before he could finish processing this, Wu Shuangren asked directly, "What mission does the Shannan Army have here?"
The guard hesitated for a moment before speaking, "The Mount Liang rebels have invaded Yi Province. The Shannan Army, ordered by the imperial court, has rushed to Yi Province to relieve the Yi Province."
Wu Shuangren looked at him. "The Mount Liang forces have been driven back, and the siege of Yi Province has been lifted."
The guard's mouth Zhang Da, and he couldn't close it for a long time:
"The Mount Liang forces have been driven back?! When?"
Four days ago.
"Who drove them away?"
"I led the Yi Province Militia and defeated them."
"..."
The guard's throat moved, but he didn't know what to say for a moment.
If it weren't for Xu Yu and several other guards standing solemnly behind Wu Shuangren in their infantry armor, he would have thought this young man was joking with him.
If the local militias were so powerful that they could directly repel the Mount Liang forces, why would the imperial court need to send their Shannan Army?
"May I ask, Militia Commander Wu, what is the story behind the Yi Province Militia?"
The guard asked.
"Take this message back and have someone else come to see me."
Wu Shuangren had no intention of explaining too much to a mere soldier.
The guards looked at Wu Shuangren. Although he was young, he exuded an imposing aura as he sat there, no less than their own general!