Chapter 303: February , the Dragon Raises its Head

“I’ve met the commander-in-chief!”

“Commander-in-chief, we have just prepared a feast, and it is a good time for you to come out.”

“The Spring Festival is in three days, and we are discussing how to distribute the big gift packages for the New Year this year.” …

Li Dingguo and Wan’er returned to the hall of the mansion and saw Cao Yongxiang, Wei Jinfan and Chang Liyun there.

Seeing Li Dingguo coming out of seclusion, the three of them hurriedly surrounded him and greeted him.

The five people gathered here are from the Fuxing Army. Except for Li Dingguo, there are only five people who are qualified to enter and exit the Lake Island.

In order to continuously improve their own cultivation, Cao Yongxiang, Wei Jinfan and Chang Liyun often returned to the island in the middle of the lake to live and practice with the help of the inexhaustible special life energy emitted by the five-colored sacred tree. On their free days, Cao Yongxiang, Wei Jinfan and Chang Liyun often returned to the island in the middle of the lake to live and practice.

This mansion is very large, with a super-large courtyard layout, dozens of large rooms, and a full range of daily necessities.

Several months ago, Li Dingguo granted these people the benefit of coming here to live and practice, so that they could maintain the momentum of continuous improvement in their cultivation.

The end of the year is approaching, and the military has announced that there will be three days off before and after the New Year. Except for soldiers on duty, all military and civilians will have six days off to celebrate the Spring Festival.

Cao Yongxiang, Hongmei, Wei Jinfan and Chang Liyun, who rarely have free time throughout the year, have naturally returned to their homes on the island in the middle of the lake.

Anyway, this courtyard is so big, and it will be more lively if everyone lives here.

“As for the New Year’s goods, just refer to last year’s.”

Li Dingguo thought about it for a while and made a decision. “It’s settled. Hongmei, go and inform Zhao Hong, the head of the logistics department, today to implement it as soon as possible.”

The New Year gift packages distributed to all military and civilians during the Spring Festival last year were already very good and there was no need to increase them further.

Now, after a year of large-scale immigration work, the number of soldiers and civilians of this restoration army outside the Great Wall has reached tens of millions.

Although there is no shortage of various supplies and we are completely self-sufficient, we cannot be extravagant and wasteful and we should still save what we should.

“Okay, Commander-in-Chief.”

Hongmei nodded and agreed.

At this time, Wan’er went to get a jar of unbranded wine and said mysteriously to Hongmei and others, “Sister Hongmei, Brother Xiangzi, Sister Jinfan, Sister Liyun, can you all guess what kind of wine this jar of wine in my hand is?”

After saying this, she blinked her big eyes at Li Dingguo a few times, signaling him not to reveal the answer.

Three months ago, when Li Dingguo was communicating with her, he specifically mentioned that he saw that the spiritual fruits on many spiritual fruit trees on the island in the middle of the lake had ripened.

In order to avoid waste, he used his knowledge as a junior alchemy master to research a recipe for spiritual wine.

After the experiment was successful, this extremely delicious and nutritious wine was named “Hundred Fruit Wine”.

This Hundred Fruit Wine, as the name suggests, is made from hundreds of kinds of spiritual fruits by extracting their essence through alchemy techniques.

This is a third-grade premium spiritual wine, its medicinal effect is even better than that of a third-grade premium elixir, and most importantly, it is extremely delicious.

Li Dingguo spent three days picking all the ripe spiritual fruits on the island in the middle of the lake with the help of the storage function of his natal cauldron. He went to the craftsman camp to get enough exquisite wine jars and carefully brewed eight hundred jars of ten-jin fruit wine.

After being brewed, these fruit wines are stored in a large wine cellar under the compound.

Li Dingguo has already said that the wine cellar can only be opened after Wan’er returns.

No one would have thought that when Wan’er came back from Lingshan Island a few days ago and saw that Li Dingguo had not yet come out of confinement, she went to find the big wine cellar by herself and even drank a jar of fruit wine on the spot.

Now, Li Dingguo looked at this greedy girl, who was acting mysteriously. He felt amused and speechless, and he didn’t know what to say to her.

Although he had anticipated that Wan’er would be unable to hold back and look for fruit wine to drink after returning to the base camp, when he actually saw this situation, he could only shake his head.

Anyway, since the quantity of these spiritual wines is not large, it would be a drop in the bucket if we gave them to the soldiers to exchange for their military merit points.

He won’t release it until it can be mass-produced.

Since it’s kept for her own drinking, Wan’er can drink it however she wants.

“Ha ha……”

Seeing Wan’er’s mysterious look, Cao Yongxiang couldn’t help but laugh and said, “Wan’er, don’t keep me in suspense.”

“Since we can’t guess what the wine is, why don’t we drink it and find out?”

He, Wei Jinfan and Chang Liyun received Li Dingguo’s order only two months ago and officially moved into the island in the middle of the lake.

Therefore, it is not known that Li Dingguo developed and brewed a very magical wine.

The magical wine that was rumored to exist does exist. It was brewed by the aristocratic families and royal gentry in the Ming Dynasty using various grades of magical rice.

However, those spiritual wines are not available on the market.

Because spiritual wine is both delicious and nutritious, it is the most precious resource for cultivation. They don’t even have enough for their own drinking, so of course they can’t sell it.

Those small and medium-sized forces will never see such treasures.

Only those large forces and top dignitaries are so wealthy that they have excess spiritual rice of all levels to consume in large quantities.

Even the top dignitaries and aristocratic families generally would not serve wine to their guests.

This is one of the best resources for cultivation, and of course it should be kept for your own use.

Li Dingguo’s Fuxing Army destroyed so many forces, but never seized any jar of spiritual wine.

It is conceivable how valuable the spirit wine is.

The effect of various levels of spiritual wine in assisting practitioners in their cultivation is not even inferior to any elixir of the same level refined by Li Dingguo.

“whee……”

Wan’er said with a smile, “I won’t play riddles with you guys anymore. This is the fruit wine brewed by my eldest brother. It’s a third-grade premium spirit wine that none of you have ever tasted!”

“Although I have never seen the other spirit wines mentioned in the rumors, I can guarantee that this Hundred Fruit Wine tastes better than any spirit wine in the Ming Dynasty, and its effects are unmatched by those spirit wines.”

She used her clever strength to shake the mud seal on the wine jar, shaking off all the mud without leaving a single grain. She then used her spiritual power in time to catch the mud and threw it out of the gate, where it landed precisely under a spiritual fruit tree.

The whole process was as smooth as flowing water.

From this, it can be seen that Wan’er’s use of mental power is now smooth and her foundation has been honed to be very solid.

She then moved her mind, and the wine jar in her hand hung in the air, as if held by an invisible giant hand, and filled the six large jade bowls on the dining table one by one without spilling even a drop.

It has to be said that masters of the Qi Refining Realm with profound cultivation can do many things that seem incredible to ordinary people, and they are pleasing to the eye.

“This wine tastes so good!”

“Indeed, the aroma of this wine makes people feel refreshed. Even the mental strength and blood strength in the body become more lively.”

“Come on, let’s all have a bowl first!”

“Drink! Let’s drink together.”…

Everyone at the scene raised their jade bowls, drank the fragrant fruit wine in one gulp, and praised it endlessly.

The six people gathered here are all fifth-level martial arts masters. Even though the Hundred Fruit Wine contains a lot of spiritual energy, they can still withstand it as if nothing happened.

If any other practitioner in the Body Refining Realm drank a bowl of the wine in one breath, he would immediately practice his skills to refine and absorb the surging energy contained in the Hundred Fruit Wine.

A month ago, Chang Liyun and Wei Jinfan respectively retreated under the Five-Colored Sacred Tree and broke through to the initial fifth level of martial arts, becoming great masters who could rule a region.

At this point, the top-level forces of the Fuxing Army are comparable to any thousand-year-old family in the Ming Dynasty.

The biggest shortcoming in the past no longer exists.

This was also a major reason why Li Dingguo had the confidence to decide to lead his troops into the pass and capture a province.

This feast made everyone very satisfied.

In particular, the miraculous effect and delicious taste of the Hundred Fruit Wine made people praise it endlessly. Originally, Li Dingguo also planned to brew several kinds of spiritual rice wine, but because the spiritual rice harvest of the Fusion Army was only enough to supply the warriors and soldiers, and even lacked, he stopped this idea.

If you want to drink homemade spiritual rice wine, you must obtain a large spiritual land with a large spiritual vein and greatly increase the output of spiritual rice of all levels.

According to secret investigations by intelligence agencies, the Kang family, one of the largest grain merchants in the interior of China, has a secret large spiritual land near Luoyang in the Central Plains.

Although this large spiritual land has not yet reached the lowest level of blessed land, it is also one of the three most famous spiritual places within the Great Wall.

The remaining two known large spiritual places belonging to the Ming Dynasty are located in Zijin Mountain in Jinling City and Yuquan Mountain in the northern capital, both of which are occupied by the royal family.

However, in the past hundred years, these two large spiritual places have begun to degenerate rapidly, and the concentration of spiritual energy in them is now only slightly better than those of the top-grade spiritual places.

Some people say that this is because the imperial fortune of the Ming Dynasty was unable to suppress the dragon veins of the two capitals in the north and south.

This kind of rumor that is circulated secretly will not be brought to the surface with great fanfare. Only some people who are interested know about it.

After eating and drinking, everyone sat down to rest for a while. Wei Jinfan said, “Commander-in-chief, the reorganization of our Military Intelligence Bureau was completed ten days ago.”

“Among them, ten teams of thousands of elite personnel have begun sniping and hunting all the caravans that travel between the borders of the three northwestern provinces and trade with the Tartars.”

“Each of these ten teams of 1,000 people has two level 4 warriors, all of whom are composed of the monstrous geniuses who have stood out this year.”

“Among the nearly ten million people our Restoration Army has added this year, we have already recruited more than 400,000 new warriors. Together with the original hundreds of thousands of soldiers, we now have a total of 600,000 new and old soldiers.”

“Among them, there are about 30,000 talented warriors, and hundreds of evil geniuses have also appeared.”

“So far, there have been more than a hundred monstrous geniuses who have broken through to the fourth level of martial arts.”

“Because of their outstanding performance, they were all assigned to various legions and served as generals at various levels.”

Wei Jinfan’s words were filled with joy. “However, because the number of new warriors has increased too much, our training resources have once again been constrained.”

“At least in the next one or two years, the number of regular troops in our Renaissance Army will be limited to one million.”

“Unless you follow your plan, Commander-in-Chief, and march into the country after the New Year to capture a province, this problem can be fundamentally solved.”

“Even among the three northwestern provinces, Qin, which has the smallest population and the most severe natural and man-made disasters, has a population of at least hundreds of millions.”

“The reason why people don’t have enough food is not because they can’t grow it, but because of various natural and man-made disasters.”

“If we can capture it, with the routine development planning model that our Fuxing Army has formed, we can completely solve the food problem of the people in Qin Province in less than a year.”

“We can even capture one of the two large spiritual sites deep in the Qinling Mountains. This will easily solve the shackles of our current cultivation resources and allow us to achieve another round of rapid development.”

“Our military intelligence department has already found out about the two large spiritual sites. One is occupied by a group of white-fronted golden-winged tigers, and the other is occupied by a group of nine-colored peacocks.”

“That group of white-browed golden-winged tigers has more than 300 individuals, and they are a top-level demon beast group. And that group of nine-colored peacocks, which only number more than a hundred, are top-level spirit beasts.”

She was the intelligence chief of the Fuxing Army and knew very well that Li Dingguo had already made a plan to lead his troops into the pass after the new year.

Although the plan is still being further improved and has not been announced to the public, the high-ranking officials of the Renaissance Army present here all know what is going on.

For all the major forces in the world today, the supply of various cultivation resources is the biggest factor restricting their development and growth.

In any spiritual place, the recycling and regeneration of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth has a limit and it cannot be developed and used indefinitely.

In that case, not only will the output of various cultivation resources fail to increase, but there is a greater possibility that the spiritual land will be ruined.

The number of various training resources consumed by the current 600,000 warriors of the Renaissance Army every month is an astronomical figure.

This is only possible because Li Dingguo has set up the Five Elements basic spirit gathering array and protective array in various spiritual places of all sizes to ensure a stable output of various cultivation resources.

If it weren’t for this, the revival army outside the Great Wall would have been able to maintain only 200,000 warriors and soldiers, which would have been its limit.

It’s not just the Renaissance Army, all the major forces in the world are like this, they are all limited by cultivation resources, it is impossible for them to get millions of soldiers out of thin air and then rise rapidly.

That’s not reality, that’s a dream.

Everyone knows the benefits of a national cultivation model, but it is basically impossible to actually put it into practice.

As long as you have money, territory and people, you can find a way to train tens of thousands of soldiers.

But with millions and millions of soldiers, even if your family has a large enough base of cultivators, you cannot provide so many resources for consumption over the years.

If you want to support millions of soldiers for years, you must be a super-large force at the national level.

With the development model formulated by Li Dingguo, coupled with various means of cheating, it is now impossible to support millions of warriors for years, let alone other major forces.

Only national superpowers like the Later Jin Tartars and the Ming Empire can do it.

“Ah.”

Li Dingguo nodded after hearing this, with a cold look in his eyes. He looked at everyone and said, “I have decided to march into the pass on February 2 next year!”

“Within three years, we must capture a province in Qin and hold it firmly!”

“We chose Qin instead of Jin because we don’t want to touch the most sensitive nerves of the Ming Dynasty and force the court to start a decisive battle with us.”

“Jin Province is located in the core hinterland of the Ming Dynasty. Once we choose to attack Jin Province, the Ming Dynasty will definitely be completely furious and will use all its national strength to counterattack. That is a foregone conclusion.”

“We are only launching a massive offensive against the Qin province. There is still some room for buffer between us, so as not to put too much pressure on the Ming Dynasty, leaving the court no time to breathe and having to dispatch troops from all over the country to fight us to the death.”

Li Dingguo explained to everyone why he chose Qin as the first choice for his army to enter the pass, and then said, “However, the province of Qin is now under the jurisdiction of Hong Chengchou.”

“This means that our Fuxing Army will soon face off against Hong Chengchou.”

“Hong Chengchou is a man with outstanding military and political abilities. He can be said to be one of the top five talents in the Ming Dynasty.”

“But there is a saying that a good cook cannot cook without rice. You have all heard it.”

“No matter how talented Hong Chengchou is, he can’t create countless money and food supplies and millions of elite warriors out of thin air.”

“I guess if he could find a way to gather 500,000 elite troops, that would be his limit.”

“With the current strength of our Renaissance Army, we will not be afraid of any elite human army if we are equal in number!”

“Besides, our Fuxing Army suddenly marched into the country in large numbers, and it would be impossible for us to be fully prepared for Hong Chengchou.”

“If my estimate is correct, once our army enters the pass in large numbers, we will be able to capture the entire Yansui Town within a month and gain an initial foothold!”

“Then we will divide our troops into three groups and capture more than half of Qin territory in one fell swoop before the imperial court dispatches a large number of reinforcements. We have more than a 90% chance of success.”

Li Dingguo’s eyes lit up, and he continued, “By then, even if a large number of reinforcements from the imperial court arrive, we can use the natural defenses of Qin to firmly hold on to the territory we have acquired.”

“Once we have gained a firm foothold and have completely stabilized the newly occupied territory, it will be time to launch a second offensive and capture the entire Qin province in one fell swoop.”

“In this initial round of war that began with our entry into the country, as long as our initial massive offensive is fast and fierce enough, it shouldn’t be difficult to achieve our first strategic goal.”

“The Ming Dynasty is facing increasing internal and external troubles. In the early stage, our Fuxing Army only occupied the northwest border. It is impossible for the imperial court to counterattack with all its strength.”

“Once we have completely established a firm foothold in the interior of the country, we will not be afraid of them even if the imperial army launches a full-scale counterattack.”

“In terms of cavalry, our Renaissance Army has a huge advantage. Nowadays, it is common for soldiers to march a thousand miles a day. Any of our five main battle corps can easily do it.”

Li Dingguo is right.

In today’s world, the Fusion Army has firmly established itself as one of the most powerful forces in terms of long-range assault capabilities.

This is also the biggest confidence that made Li Dingguo decide to lead his troops into the pass.

This world is so vast that without an elite cavalry army, you simply cannot win a quick battle or capture cities and territories quickly.

Don’t forget that the Fuxing Army is outside the Great Wall and has a powerful navy armed to the teeth.

It is entirely possible to solve logistical problems through the mode of advancing both by land and water, and provide strong support for the army’s rapid advance.

(End of this chapter)