Early in the morning, when the door of Shen's mansion opened and Shen Hao walked out wearing a black camp robe, he looked up and saw many people waiting on the street in front of his house.
The first few people were all familiar faces, but they had not been seen for more than two years, and there were some slight changes in their appearance.
Wang Jian, Wang Yiming, Tang Qingyuan, Lin Chen, Chen Sheng...
In fact, these people had been waiting outside Shen's mansion before dawn, and they did not knock on the door. They silently waited for Master Shen to see him as soon as possible when he went to work in the morning.
"Subordinates, please see the Commander-in-Chief!"
The sound was uniform and loud enough that people in half the street could hear it clearly. The stall owner who originally set up a stall not far away was so frightened that he pushed his stall further away, swearing in his heart that he would never show up here again no matter what.
Looking at the subordinates kneeling on one knee at the door, Shen Hao smiled and waved his hand, signaling everyone to get up, and said: "Let's go to the Yamen."
After that, Shen Hao spent the entire morning in the meeting hall of the Black Flag Camp's command office. The deputy commanders of the Black Flag Camps in various places have a lot of things to report to Shen Hao. During this period, there will be some secrets that Wang Jian will stand up to explain further.
"My subordinates and others are not doing things well, please punish me severely!"
It is actually reasonable for these people in front of them to plead guilty. After all, for them, what was Black Flag Camp like when Shen Hao left? What will Black Flag Camp be like when Shen Hao comes back now? The contrast is simply not too great. Moreover, the Black Flag Camp has never had a culture of making excuses to shirk responsibility. No matter what, if something is not done well, it is not done well. The attitude of apologizing must be consciously displayed.
Shen Hao, who was sitting in the first place, frowned deeply when he saw the people kneeling on the floor in the hall below. The current situation in Black Flag Camp was far worse than he had previously guessed. It can even be said that the current situation of the entire Xuanqing Guard is much worse than he expected.
Tan Bin previously said that Xuan Qingwei's staff had been reduced by 20%. In fact, it is about 35%. And because the casualties were too high, 90% of the replacements were ordinary soldiers, and they were still new recruits. They were not drawn from the army as in the past. As for the supplementary monks, they barely accounted for the remaining 10%. They were all at the beginning of the Qi Refining Realm, and most of them were casual cultivators. They were lacking in both spells and combined attack techniques.
Combat power? That’s down by at least half from two years ago.
The Black Flag Camp was even more intolerable to look at than the Xuanqing Guards. Except for Blackwater, an intelligence organization that does not participate in front-line operations, the Black Flag battalions in various places have almost lost half of their blood. Some were sacrificed, some were forcibly transferred to the Xuanqing Guard Qianhu Station, and the rest, apart from the new rookies, were injured remnants.
Do you really want to be punished? Looking at Tang Qingyuan who was missing an ear, Lin Chen who was missing an eye, and Wang Yiming and Chen Sheng who were looking messy and obviously suffering from internal injuries, Shen Hao couldn't even scold him. What's more, he has not been here for the past two years. To put it bluntly, Black Flag Camp is a child without a father. As long as he does not starve to death, he can support himself. How can he expect his parents to be tall and strong?
"Get up. The crime of unfavorable performance will be reserved for now. If there are any omissions in the future, they will be punished as well." He waved his hands and asked everyone kneeling on the ground to get up and sit down again.
After a pause, Shen Hao asked again: "What is Panda's attitude now? The Xuanqing Guard has such a huge gap in personnel and the evil monks are so rampant. There should be countermeasures, right?"
After Shen Hao finished speaking for a moment, Wang Yiming stood up. As the person who was promoted to "acting deputy commander" by Pang Ban during this period and was responsible for coordinating the Black Flag Camp, it was up to him to answer this question.
"Sir, Mr. Pangda has thought of many ways. For example, increasing pensions, providing better salary packages, and increasing the number of talismans and magical equipment. But both the military and casual cultivators are interested in participating in the recruitment of Xuanqing Guards. He behaved very coldly. There were even clear actions within the army to resist Xuan Qingwei's recruitment.
As for the casual cultivators, their attention was distracted by the sect. In the past year or so, various low-level and middle-level sects have suddenly opened up their gates, recruiting many casual cultivators, and established an "outer sect system" to place the casual cultivators who have exceeded the number of recruits at the foot of the mountain, and nominally return to the sect. Disciples, but in fact they only enjoy some basic magic teachings, but there are still many people who go.
Under such circumstances, Da Pang Ren could only settle for the next best thing, to obtain the right to recruit a certain number of soldiers, and then assign some old men to take charge of training to make up for the frontline casualties. At the same time, we have to shrink the front line in which Xuanqingwei participates little by little, and have basically given up on all villages and towns far away from the big city..."
boom! He subconsciously beat the armrests of Shen Hao's chair into pieces. Wang Yiming's narration was also interrupted, and there was silence in the entire hall.
"What are the military and sect doing?"
No one below can answer Shen Hao's question. They are not qualified enough to come into contact with this level of things. Of course, Shen Hao was also upset and yelled subconsciously.
I can't understand. The army obeys the orders of the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of War obeys the emperor's will. Why did they do something that obviously delayed the Xuanqing Guards' retreat and delayed the war? Doesn’t the emperor care? Coupled with the previous reduction of Xuanqing Guard personnel, Shen Hao was completely confused about the emperor's position on this matter.
In addition, the sects also jumped out to join in the fun. Haven't you always looked down upon casual cultivators? Now, in order to blackmail Xuanqingwei from recruiting people, they have made an exception to relax entry restrictions, and even created an "outer sect system" to provoke Xuanqingwei in this way. Who gave them the courage?
Although one of these two incidents was caused by the military and the other by the sect, they seemed unrelated. However, Shen Hao dared to use his own head to guarantee that there was definitely a connection. The purpose was to hold back Xuan Qingwei. . It was even holding back the entire Jingjiu Dynasty's actions against the evil monks.
"From now on, I will take back the command of the Black Flag Battalion. After you wait, start shrinking the troops in your hands, and give up all areas outside the big city. If you want to shrink, then be more thorough, just watch the big city, and treat it as repairs. Follow-up I will make other arrangements for you. Everyone, please go down."
Everyone below also had a flash of surprise on their faces after hearing Shen Hao's order, but no one raised any objection. Now that Master Shen is back, they have a backbone for the first time in a long time, so they can think less about things that shouldn't be their concern. Moreover, the soldiers on the front line below have long been extremely tired. As Master Shen said, it is time to withdraw and repair.
After everyone left, Shen Hao did not go back to the public house to ask Wang Jian about the situation of Blackwater alone. Because after listening to what happened this morning, Shen Hao discovered that Black Flag Camp's own problems, or the entire Xuanqing Guard's problems, were not the focus. The real focus is on the level above Xuanqingwei and Pangban.
He walked straight outside the Yamen and ordered as he walked: "Prepare the car and go to the imperial city."
