Chapter 302 I have always underestimated myself, on the eve of the invasion

Although the battle is over, the workload of post-war work is huge.

This round of battle lasted for ten days and ten nights. The soldiers of the Renaissance Army gained almost no other spoils, but they did gain the corpses of hundreds of Qi Refining Realm Demon Kings.

They also harvested tens of thousands of monsters of all levels that were killed when the soldiers of the Firearms Battalion used concentrated fire attacks.

The most numerous among them were the third-level peak monsters, and they were also within the scope of Li Dingguo’s order to kill.

The combined weight of all the monsters is at least tens of millions of pounds.

Especially those demon kings in the Qi Refining Realm, the weight of each one ranges from tens of pounds to tens of thousands of pounds.

Monster meat has always been a very valuable resource for cultivation. The higher the level of the monster, the greater its value.

For example, there are nearly a hundred level five demon kings, and every part of their bodies, including their fur, is equivalent to level five natural treasures, and has huge value to practitioners in the Qi Refining Realm.

All of these killed monsters, big and small, need to be decomposed and processed as quickly as possible without any waste.

In order to reduce the workload of the logistics camp soldiers, Hongmei simply let all the warriors and soldiers participate in the post-war cleanup work.

The craftsmen accompanying the army, with the help of several thousand-man teams of warriors, went to the nearby mountains to cut down a lot of trees and made a large number of large carts on site to facilitate the transportation of large amounts of processed monster materials and dried meat.

Even the flesh and blood of a first or second level monster is a treasure to ordinary people.

The ratio of ordinary people to warriors in the Renaissance Army is much smaller than that of other forces because it has opened up a universal training mode, giving all people who are qualified to practice an opportunity.

However, due to the limitation of their qualifications, the number of ordinary people still accounts for more than 80% of the total number of soldiers and civilians in the Renaissance Army.

Even the various low-level monsters that are hunted cannot be wasted and need to be processed and transported back.

This battle against various monster tribes lasted for more than ten days, and too many monsters were hunted.

All the soldiers participating in this Northern Expedition worked together, and it took a full day and night to finally deal with them all.

A large amount of roasted monster meat of various levels was packed and sealed in large wooden barrels made by military craftsmen, filling up tens of thousands of large carts!

These large carts were connected in a long line and tied securely to the back of large horse-drawn carriages, making it convenient to tow them during marches.

After all the preparations for the return journey were completed, the soldiers, who had eaten and drunk their fill, began to head south following the order given by their leader Hongmei.

The huge team stretched for dozens of miles across the vast grassland, looking very spectacular.

The soldiers were all smiling and very happy.
Once all of this amount of level three, level four, and level five monster meat is utilized and distributed according to military merit, it is certain that tens of thousands of soldiers will be able to achieve breakthroughs in their cultivation.

In the world of cultivators, the breakthrough of a cultivator’s cultivation is undoubtedly the most important thing.

After returning, Li Dingguo will use his own natal divine weapon, the big cauldron, to refine the large amount of Qi-refining realm monster furs that have been preliminarily processed into third-grade top-grade magical weapon armor sets in batches.

The large amount of Qi Refining Realm monster furs harvested this time filled thousands of large carts, which was enough for all the soldiers of the Fusion Army who were above the second level of martial arts to change their clothes collectively.

When these soldiers have finished changing their uniforms, the combat effectiveness of the Fusion Army will undoubtedly be raised to a higher level.

After all, as long as the soldiers wearing the third-grade top-grade magic weapon suit are careful on the battlefield, their ability to survive will at least double.

This time when the army returned, Li Dingguo, as before, did not accompany the army. Instead, he rode ahead on a golden eagle. It only took him two days to return to the island in the middle of the lake, the base camp of the Fuxing Army.

This time, the expedition to the north eliminated most of the Qi-refining realm monsters on the Dongtao Plain in one fell swoop, which was equivalent to eliminating the beast tide crisis that might occur in the next few years.

This made Li Dingguo feel relieved.

As there were still a few days before the army returned, Li Dingguo simply began a rare period of seclusion and cultivation under the five-colored sacred tree on the island in the middle of the lake.

No matter what, one’s own level of cultivation is the most important thing.

All crises come from lack of strength.

If he and the Restoration Army were strong enough, no matter how the enemy came to cause trouble, they would be destroyed.

The little golden dragon who was sleeping soundly on the five-colored sacred tree has not woken up yet.

It seems that this sleep may last for several years.

Once the little golden dragon wakes up, it will most likely have reached level six cultivation.

In that case, it would undoubtedly be of great help to Li Dingguo.

He sat cross-legged beside the huge roots of the five-colored sacred tree, gathered his mind, and returned to his calm state of mind. He practiced his main technique, the Zhoutian Xingchen Sutra, and soon entered into a deep level of practice in which he forgot both himself and the world.

……

“Wei Jinfan, He Guang!”

In the meeting hall of the military building, Li Dingguo said to the two leaders of the Military Intelligence Department, “From now on, you must intensify your intelligence work on those big Shanxi merchants.”

“Once we find a suitable opportunity, we will eliminate them first.”

Li Dingguo’s tone was grim and his eyes were cold. “Do they really think that our Fuxing Army can’t do anything to them?”

“In the past, our strength was insufficient, so we just had to endure it.”

“Now that the Fuxing Army has grown stronger, some big Shanxi merchants have not learned their lesson and have come to cause trouble again and again. This is undoubtedly courting their own destruction.”

“Since I can destroy the Fan family’s lair in Jiexiu City, I can also destroy all their core members!”

“Now with the introduction of a large number of refugees from the interior, we have to add at least tens of thousands of warriors every month, so we have sufficient manpower.”

“Your Military Intelligence Department will recruit another 20,000 warriors and provide them with professional training. Once they have completed their training, together with the current 10,000 intelligence personnel, you will expand the Military Intelligence Department to 30,000 people!”

“Then you will do your best to explore the trade routes of the caravans of the big Jin merchants outside the Great Wall. I will completely block their trade routes from the three northwestern provinces to the outside of the Great Wall!”

“Three months later, your intelligence department will hunt down and kill all caravans that pass through the three northwestern provinces for trade!”

Li Dingguo was filled with murderous intent and continued, “Once the military intelligence department’s expansion is officially completed, we will have to send at least 10,000 more intelligence personnel to the interior of the country to ensure that our large-scale immigration work in the interior of the country proceeds smoothly.”

“No matter which forces are blind enough to come and stop us and destroy us, we will destroy them all!”

“We, the Renaissance Army, now have enough capabilities to safeguard our own interests.”

“I hope the various forces in the three northwestern provinces will not provoke me. Otherwise, I don’t mind marching into the country next year!”

After a ten-day-long battle with massive monsters, Li Dingguo finally realized that he had underestimated the current strength of the Fuxing Army.

With the advantages of cavalry and firearms battalions, the ability to capture the northwestern province within the Great Wall is sufficient, if nothing else.

Anyway, the Ming Dynasty will eventually perish, so it is better to destroy it in our own hands so that the Han people will suffer less and can live in peace as soon as possible.

In his previous life, Li Dingguo was just an ordinary citizen and had no experience in doing big things. Since he traveled through time and space and was reborn, although he had a lot of history to learn from, the actual situation was very different from what he had imagined.

This requires a lot of practice to verify in order to become a qualified leader of a force.

It can be said that the biggest gain from the previous ten-day battle with the monsters was that he finally recognized himself clearly.

He also realized that the current Fuxing Army already had the strength to establish a dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty, which had become extremely corrupt, was declining, but his own revival army was growing rapidly.

The gap in strength between the two is getting smaller and smaller.

Currently, the Fuxing Army’s advantage in firearms is unrivaled in the world.

Even though there is still a little lack in active attack, there is no problem in defending one’s own territory.

As long as you arrange the protective formation in advance, no matter how many enemies come, they will not be enough to kill them.

Having completed the regularization of military and civilian affairs, they have already formed their own routine and established development model, and they will just need to implement and expand it step by step in the future.

After hiding outside the Great Wall for three years, it is time to take action and show one’s claws to the outside world.

“Yes, Commander-in-Chief!”

Upon hearing that Li Dingguo had decided to expand the size of the Military Intelligence Department to three times its current size, Wei Jinfan and He Guang could no longer suppress their joy and immediately accepted the order solemnly.

The two men then left excitedly, and began a massive round of personnel screening and training for the Military Intelligence Department.

Li Dingguo only gave them three months, so they had to hurry up and complete this round of major reorganization of the Military Intelligence Department.

……

Three days later, the main forces of the four legions that were heading south had returned to the base camp at the source of the Jialu River. After the soldiers rested for a few days, they immediately received an order from the military headquarters that each legion would leave half of its soldiers to guard the base camp, and the other half of the warriors and soldiers would rush to the Wuding River Basin to officially start the rotation mode.

The soldiers were rotated every six months to carry out a comprehensive cleanup of all the remaining Tatar tribes in the Dongtao Plain.

Those soldiers whose turn it was to stay behind in the base camp were naturally not idle either. While they were practicing hard every day, they also had to train in various basic military formations and military killing formations.

The focus is to train in siege and defense warfare.

As long as the generals of each legion who learned of this matter were not stupid, they would be able to guess what the commander-in-chief’s next plan would be.

These generals at all levels were immediately energized as if they had been injected with chicken blood, and they all shouted loudly with excitement!
I have been forced to leave my hometown for so long, and now I am finally going to return home?

The morale of the soldiers in each legion was therefore high.

When it was their turn to fight, the soldiers cleared out the large and small Tatar tribes entrenched in the Wuding River basin at an increasingly rapid speed.

They didn’t want to worry about the safety of the base camp outside the pass once they entered the pass.

Wouldn’t we be safe as long as we destroy all the Tatars entrenched in the Dongtao Plain?

As for whether you are worried about some powerful enemies attacking from afar?
What a joke!
Isn’t one of the main purposes of the massive expansion of the Military Intelligence Department to deal with this kind of situation?

Trying to hide the truth from tens of thousands of military intelligence professionals scattered outside and come to attack their own base is simply a joke.

As long as the enemy dares to come, we will fight them with soldiers and build earthen fortifications when water comes.

Now that you’re here, don’t go back.

……

“Duh!”

Li Dingguo, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, cast a treasure-collecting seal towards the cauldron, his natal divine weapon, in front of him.

Dozens of third-grade top-grade magical weapons and armor ejected from the mouth of the cauldron. Guided by his spiritual thoughts, they fell into a large warehouse nearby and were neatly stacked.

“call……”

After completing the refining of this batch of magical instruments, Li Dingguo let out a long sigh of relief.

This round of alchemy and refining work lasted for three months, which was the longest time Li Dingguo had been in seclusion so far.

This was the preparation he had to make before leading his troops into the pass.

The purpose is self-evident: it is to equip all generals at all levels with new third-grade top-grade magical weapon armor sets, and to replenish sufficient reserves of various elixirs for the logistics department of the Renaissance Army.

The island in the middle of the lake has grown to a radius of a thousand miles. Because of a large spiritual vein and the five-colored sacred tree, the large number of various spiritual plants that were transplanted to the island have now multiplied on their own.

Even the five monster-luring grasses that were transplanted to the island three months ago have produced a patch of seedlings that are growing rapidly.

At most after a year, there will be a lot of mature monster-luring herbs that can be picked and used to refine a lot of bloodline pills.

At that time, the various spiritual beasts in the Renaissance Army will undoubtedly usher in great good news, and will have a large wave of upgrades and evolutions, and will be able to leap to a higher level without any surprises.

“Wan’er said a month ago that she would come back to celebrate the New Year. I wonder if she has come back yet?”

“If I remember correctly, the New Year’s Spring Festival will arrive in three days.”

“The time has finally come to the sixth year of Chongzhen. The Ming Dynasty is running out of time.”

Li Dingguo suddenly thought of the girl Wan’er and a smile appeared on his face.

During this retreat, a large amount of alchemy and equipment was refined. In order to improve efficiency as much as possible, Li Dingguo specifically instructed that no one was allowed to disturb his work unless it was an essential emergency.

I guess I will be extremely busy for a long time to come, and it will be difficult for me to have enough free time to carry out the long-term work of refining medicine and equipment.

In order to make medicine and refine weapons while practicing at the same time, Li Dingguo did not leave the island in the middle of the lake, but instead secluded himself in the backyard of his own mansion, which was covered by the branches of the five-colored sacred tree, to carry out the work of refining weapons.

More than three months have passed since I last returned to the base camp outside the Great Wall.

Over the past few months, his own spiritual root, the Five-Colored Divine Tree, has been growing more and more rapidly.

Today, its canopy covers an area of ​​three thousand feet in radius, which is much higher than the highest mountain on the island today.

Fortunately, because of this innate divine tree, it has completely taken control of the protective formation of the lake island and evolved it into an upgraded version of the five elements formation, which can completely hide the true appearance of the lake island from the outside world. There is no need to worry about outsiders discovering the unique scenery and big secrets here.

Hongmei has a life-saving artifact, the Earth Emperor Stone, and can now use the nine-zhang square space inside it.

Every one or two days, she would come and transport the large amount of elixirs, magical weapons and armor refined by Li Dingguo to the outside of the island in the middle of the lake and send them to the logistics headquarters near the headquarters building of the Fuxing Army for storage.

She also brought Li Dingguo a large number of processed Qi-refining monster skins and furs, as well as spiritual herbs and roots used to refine various elixirs.

This allowed Li Dingguo to concentrate on refining medicine and weapons in seclusion, greatly improving his work efficiency.

It can be said that the various magical instruments he refines every day are enough to match the total number of magical weapons refined by all the great craftsmen in the entire Ming Dynasty.

This is the greatest help that Li Dingguo has received from his natal divine weapon, the Great Cauldron, the Human Emperor Cauldron.

If he had not obtained this life-saving divine artifact, the cauldron, it would have been impossible for the Renaissance Army to develop into its current prosperous state.

It is estimated that the Fuxing Army is still playing cautious hide-and-seek with the Tartar tribes on the Dongtao Plain.

Yes, to put it nicely, it’s hide and seek.

To put it bluntly, it means hiding from place to place.

There is no other way. If we don’t do anything, we will probably be destroyed by the Tartar army.

It can be said that the acquisition of the Human Emperor Cauldron, this innate divine artifact, is definitely Li Dingguo’s greatest gain so far, and it truly helped him to activate the cheating mode.

This batch of third-grade top-grade magical weapons and armor that had just been refined was the last batch of monster skins sent by Hongmei.

As for the mature spiritual herbs and roots on the island in the middle of the lake, he basically consumed them all.

For such a large island in the middle of the lake, the amount of various mature medicinal herbs produced is absolutely astronomical.

The same is true for the large number of Qi Refining Realm demon beast furs that were harvested.

Tens of thousands of third-grade top-grade magical armor sets and millions of various elixirs were successfully refined by Li Dingguo within three months using the cheating mode of batch refining using the Human Emperor Cauldron.

After finishing this round of retreat, Li Dingguo circulated his main skills for a full cycle and recovered to his peak state.

With the increasingly rich special life force on the island in the middle of the lake absorbed in large quantities, he had been refining medicine, refining equipment, and meditating for the past three months, and his own cultivation had improved significantly.

He had just broken through to the middle stage of level five four months ago, and now he had reached the peak of the middle stage of level five.

As long as I can stabilize my energy and spirit for a while, I might be able to go into seclusion and make a breakthrough.

After feeling his own peak state, Li Dingguo nodded with satisfaction, stood up, walked to the door of this large secret room, pushed it open and walked out.

“Big brother!”

“You’re finally out of seclusion!”

At this time, a figure leaped over from the five-colored sacred tree.

When the voice came, Li Dingguo didn’t need to look up to know that it was Wan’er, who was riding a big beast from the southeast coast to return home for the New Year.

“Brother, I’ve been back for three days.”

Wan’er flew to Li Dingguo, raised her rosy little face, and said with a smile, “When I got home, Sister Hongmei said you were in seclusion, refining a large number of pills and weapons, so I didn’t disturb you.”

“I have been observing the little golden dragon these past few days, and finally I know what a real dragon looks like.”

“That little golden dragon was able to grow so fast even while sleeping. It is now at least 20 to 30 feet long. The aura it exudes has reached the peak of level 5. It is much stronger than me.”

“If it wakes up and fights me now, I will definitely not be its opponent.”

When the girl saw Li Dingguo, she was so happy that she kept chattering. It was obvious that she was a little bored in the past few days.

“Ha ha……”

As he did before, Li Dingguo rubbed Wan’er’s little head with his big hands, chuckled, and then walked slowly with her towards the living room of the mansion.

(End of this chapter)