At two o'clock in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo did not stay in the Lord's Mansion, but accompanied by Ge Hongliang, Director of Military Affairs, and Song San, Director of Military Intelligence, went to inspect Friendship Town on the other side of the Friendship River.
At the ferry in Shanhai Town, the ferryman is still old Zhang. Of course, the simple wooden raft that Ouyang Shuo personally built has long since been honorably retired, and now he is using a high-end fishing boat, somewhat similar to a black awning boat.
Sitting on the black-covered boat, looking at the sparkling river, Ouyang Shuo was filled with emotion. Before I knew it, half a year had passed. Back then, he brought Shi Wansui to the Lianzhou Basin alone, overcame all obstacles, and established Shanhai Village. At that time, Shanhai Village was full of waste, and the talents withered.
In less than five months, the small village that once had nothing has turned into Shanhai Town, which covers an area of 1,000 square kilometers and has a population of nearly 30,000. It has become the unshakable number one player territory in China. It's just that if you don't advance, you will retreat if you don't advance. Today's Shanhai Town will appear so insignificant in the future struggle for hegemony.
At the wharf of Friendship Town, Zhou Haichen, the chief officer of Friendship Town, and Zheng Lin Yi, the cavalry battalion stationed in Friendship Town, led a group of civil servants and generals to wait early to welcome Ouyang Shuo and his party. This is the Lord Lord's first visit to Friendship Town for inspection, so naturally he must not be sloppy.
After the Wupeng boat docked, Zhou Haichen and others greeted him enthusiastically, and said with a smile, "Your Excellency is welcome to visit Friendship Town for inspection."
After Ouyang Shuo walked out of the cabin, smiled and waved goodbye to the boatman Zhang, he turned to Zhou Haichen and said, "It's just a simple inspection, why bother so much?"
Zhou Haichen's expression froze, knowing that the adults don't like such a scene, he would be wrong this time.
Ouyang Shuo didn't want to embarrass Zhou Haichen too much, so under the introduction of Zhou Haichen and Lin Yi, he nodded to all the civil servants and generals.
The administrative structure of Friendship Town is similar to that of the base camp, but somewhat different. Among the four major administrations, the Military Affairs Administration is only available in the base camp, and the subsidiary territories are not regarded as permanent institutions. Only a logistics support department such as the Combat Readiness Department is retained. In addition, like the relatively special Yantian Division, it is also a unique department in the base camp.
Of course, the configuration of civil servants in Friendship Town cannot be compared with that of the base camp. But among the grassroots government officials, they are also among the best, otherwise they would not have the opportunity to be sent here to preside over the government affairs of one department and one department. Ouyang Shuo only hoped that this group of people could grow up as soon as possible.
As for the generals, they are all old acquaintances. The five squadron leaders of the cavalry battalion, including Hu Yibiao, the leader of the garrison of Friendship Town, were all single-handedly appointed by him, so naturally there was no need for pleasantries.
After a brief stay at the pier, the group rushed back to Friendship Town. From a distance, you can see the tall city wall of Friendship Town and the magnificent south gate.
Fortunately, Zhou Haichen knew how to measure, and he didn't arrange for the common people to join the crowd to welcome him. Walking into Friendship Town, Zhou Haichen began to introduce the situation of Friendship Town to Ouyang Shuo.
Friendship Town currently has a population of more than 2,600 people, and it is about a week before it is promoted to a second-class township. Of course, the cavalry battalion stationed outside the city is not included.
In order to guard against the nomads in the north, the agriculture in Friendship Town is basically concentrated in the south, next to the Friendship River and the Swimming River. Some industries that need to be built outside the city, such as brick kilns and pottery factories, are basically built on the east and west sides, surrounded by the moat.
Because it is located in a plain area, Friendship Town is extremely short of basic resources such as wood, stone and iron ore, and basically relies on the base camp and Shuishui Town to transport them. The coordination in the middle is naturally the credit of the Material Reserve Department.
Of course, Friendship Town is not without its own advantages. Not to mention the animal husbandry that will be developed in the future, even in the field of agriculture, it also has its unique geographical advantages.
The south is located at the confluence of the Friendship River and the Yushui River. The water resources are abundant and the land is fertile. The reclaimed farmland is much better than Shanhai Town. In this area, 20,000 mu of fertile farmland has been reclaimed, all of which are planted with rice. In the future, Friendship Town will become a grain production base second only to Shuishui Town.
At the same time, in order to form the unique advantages of Friendship Town and not be inferior to the two subordinate territories of Beihai Town and Yushui Town, Zhou Haichen racked his brains to vigorously develop the forging and textile industries. These industries are all preparations for future transactions with nomadic tribes. This shows Zhou Haichen's ambition and anxiety.
It can be said that whether the trade routes of nomadic tribes can be opened up is related to the positioning of Friendship Town. If the trade routes are opened up, Friendship Town can be transformed into a commercial city magnificently and become the link between the base camp and the hinterland. If the trade route cannot be opened, Friendship Town will be trapped and completely degenerated into a military fortress.
Therefore, Zhou Haichen had great expectations for Ouyang Shuo's arrival.
Since the completion of the moat project, Zhou Haichen has sent people to try to contact the nomadic tribes in the north, and has made some progress. However, what kind of strategy to adopt for these nomadic tribes still needs to be decided by Ouyang Shuo, the lord himself.
Unfortunately, what Zhou Haichen didn't know was that Ouyang Shuo's visit to Friendship Town this time was just a cover for his inspection. His real purpose was to aim at the green clam horses on the grassland. It has been two months since the establishment of Jiafang Division, and the first batch of fifty sets of Mingguang armor has been built. It's a pity, because they didn't have suitable war horses, they still couldn't be deployed to the cavalry battalion. How could this not make Ouyang Shuo anxious.
In the meeting hall of Friendship Town, Ouyang Shuo dismissed all the civil officials including Zhou Haichen, leaving only the generals to hold a military affairs meeting.
"Director Ge, tell me, what progress has Qingfu Ma made during this time?" Ouyang Shuo asked.
This trip to Friendship Town was originally facilitated by Ge Hongliang. With Ge Hongliang's cautious character, if there is no breakthrough, he would not rashly bring Ouyang Shuo here.
Ge Hongliang nodded and said, "My lord, the Military Intelligence Department has obtained important information. Five days ago, the small tribe on the west side of Youyi Town just got more than a hundred fine-bred green clam horses and stallions from the Tianju tribe. , ready to expand the breeding scale of the tribe’s green clam horses. This is a god-sent opportunity!”
Ouyang Shuo's heart skipped a beat, but on the surface he said calmly, "Oh, what do you mean?"
"The subordinate's meaning is very simple, the opportunity must not be missed, and the loss will never come again. Simply, we will not stop and loot this small tribe. If possible, we can also blame it on the medium-sized tribe located directly north of Friendship Town. Further alienate the relationship between the medium-sized tribe and the Tianji tribe." Ge Hongliang said calmly, as if he had no idea what kind of bloody sea of blood would be set off if he did what he said.
"How many people and warriors are there in that small tribe?" Ouyang Shuo asked cautiously.
The intelligence in this regard, of course, is answered by the Military Intelligence Division. Lei Xun, the leader of the Second Military Intelligence Group, who is responsible for collecting information on nomadic tribes, stood up and said, "My lord. The Military Intelligence Division has already found out that this small tribe has a grazing area of less than 500 square kilometers, and only more than 800 tribesmen. More than three hundred people."
Ouyang Shuo turned to look at Lin Yi and asked, "Are you sure?"
Lin Yi naturally knew what his lord meant with certainty, and said, "It's not difficult to destroy their main force, but the difficulty lies in how to keep no survivors. These nomads, both men and women, can ride horses. If you don’t pay attention, there may be fish that slip through the net.”
This time, Ouyang Shuo was going to swing the butcher's knife for the sake of the green clam horse.
"What is the opinion of the Military Affairs Administration?" Ouyang Shuo looked at Ge Hongliang again.
Ge Hongliang was already prepared, and said: "Surprise raids are the most effective in order to be clean and tidy. In addition, in order to guard against the situation that General Lin just said, in addition to the main assault tribes, guards should be arranged on the periphery to kill fish that slip through the net."
Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "The strategy is good. However, there are 300 nomadic cavalry on the opposite side. The cavalry battalion is barely able to attack from the front. How can we arrange for the surrounding troops to intercept?"
"My lord is right. With the existing troops in the territory, it is difficult to complete this raid mission. The only solution is to expand the number of troops again." Ge Hongliang said.
Ouyang Shuo had a headache, and said, "Is it appropriate to expand the army again before being promoted to the first-level county seat? Don't forget, there are still a thousand elite fighters from the Shanman tribe, waiting for us to receive them?"
Ge Hongliang obviously had considered everything, and said confidently: "My lord, the Military Affairs Administration has a plan for reorganizing the army, and I ask you to make a decision!"
"speak!"
"The idea of my subordinates is this. The base camp will receive 500 of these 1,000 mountain barbarians to form a second heavy infantry battalion. The remaining 500 people will be divided into 300 people to Yushui Town. The two garrison squadrons in the city will form the city defense battalion of Yushui Town. The last 200 people will be assigned to Friendship Town, and another hundred people will be recruited in situ and transferred to cavalry to form the city defense battalion of Friendship Town. In this way, the overflow of the number of troops , it’s not too serious. Similarly, for this operation, one cavalry squadron from the city defense battalion of Swimming Town and two cavalry squadrons from the city defense battalion of Youyi Town can be dispatched to participate in the operation together.”
Ouyang Shuo's eyes brightened. In this case, except for the cavalry battalion and infantry battalion, the recruiting ratio basically did not exceed the ratio of one out of ten recruits he set at the beginning.
"Okay, let's do it according to this, and all the ministries will step up their preparations immediately." Ouyang Shuo made a decision directly, and then announced the appointment and dismissal of military personnel, saying: "The Military Affairs Department sent me an order to appoint Zhang Daniu as the commander of the city defense battalion of Yushui Town, and Hu Yibiao as the commander of the friendship camp. The commander of the town defense battalion, appointed Shi Hu as the commander of the second infantry battalion."
"Yes!" Ge Hong nodded and said.
Zhang Daniu, the head of the fire who competed with Zhao Sihu at the beginning, was finally promoted to Yingzheng, and he was once again on equal footing with Zhao Sihu. Hu Yibiao was more fortunate. He was promoted to Yingzheng in one fell swoop after being stationed in Youyi Town for just over a month, one step ahead of his predecessors.
As for the second infantry battalion, the reason why Ouyang Shuo promoted Shi Hu from the second squadron of the infantry battalion instead of Wang Feng, the leader of the first squadron, was due to his considerations.
The promotion of a stone tiger is conducive to gathering the sense of belonging of the mountain barbarians and showing them the principle of employing talents in Shanhai Town. Second, Ouyang Shuo has other long-term arrangements for Wang Feng.