Chapter 14 (Part 1) Tao Yingwu Has an Army

  The timing of Tao Ying's recruitment was indeed not very appropriate. Xuzhou had just experienced war and population reduction, the population base had greatly reduced, and it was also during the busy spring season, with few strong men in the countryside entering the city. In addition, Cao Jiao had started recruiting ten days in advance, selecting almost all qualified soldiers, leaving little room for Tao Ying to choose from. After waiting for four days at the small school field in the east gate, Tao Ying was able to recruit less than three hundred qualified soldiers.

  What made Tao Ying even more disappointed was that despite his personal presence at the recruitment point to mobilize the people to join the army, his great reputation in Xuzhou did not help much with the recruitment work. The reason is that the people of Xuzhou are not fools; although they are grateful for Tao Ying's efforts to save Xuzhou, joining the army and going to the battlefield is no trivial matter. A incompetent general can also kill thousands of soldiers. The bodies of tens of thousands of Xuzhou soldiers who were slaughtered by Cao's army in the Si River have not been fully cleared until now. With these lessons from history, those who are eager to join the army in Xuzhou would naturally prefer to join Cao Bao's more stable team, and they look down on Tao Ying, who has just come out of his shell.

  After all, Tao Ying's name as a bookworm is still there, and even if he sacrifices himself to save Xuzhou, it won't change the impression of the people of Xuzhou towards him.

  It's okay, Tao Ying still has the reputation of being the second son of Xuzhou to rely on. Although Tao Ying is too embarrassed to ask for help, after hearing that Tao Ying was having trouble recruiting soldiers, many officials and local gentry in Xuzhou took the initiative to offer assistance to Tao Ying, either by sending their own servants or by spreading the word among their tenant farmers to recruit young men to join the army. Cao Bao, the chief general of Xuzhou who had already recruited 4,000 new soldiers as planned, also did not hold a grudge against Tao Ying for refusing his marriage proposal and personally selected 600 experienced veterans from the Xuzhou army to present to Tao Ying, helping him build a new army directly under Tao Yan's command - at least in name.

  Xuzhou's largest landlord, Chen Gui and his son Chen Deng, sent 300 new soldiers to Tao Ying, composed of their servants, slaves and tenant farmers' sons. Tao Ying was very happy to accept the help of Chen Gui and his son, but he did not accept all 300 people. He only accepted young men between the ages of 15 and 20, and returned the rest to Chen Gui and his son. Chen Gui and his son didn't say much, just smiled and took back their slaves who were left behind by Tao Ying.

  For other Xuzhou aristocratic families who sent new soldiers, Tao Ying also handled them in the same way. He only chose to keep the young men between the ages of 15 and 20, and returned all the others with various excuses. The only exception was the two hundred slaves sent by Xu Zhou's richest brothers, Zan Zhu and Fang Zhu, none of whom were accepted by Tao Ying, who claimed that he had already met his recruitment quota and returned them all.

  Tao Ying naturally understood the consequences of doing so - greatly offending the Mi brothers, leading to further dissatisfaction from the already ill-intentioned Mi brothers towards Tao Ying, and deepening their estrangement. However, Tao Qian had no other choice, as the Mi brothers were almost openly siding with Liu Bei, and the soldiers they sent over would not dare to be used by Tao Ying even if they did not have the task of secretly monitoring him, let alone entrust them with his newly developed equipment. Therefore, Tao Ying had no choice but to offend the Mi brothers once.

  Tao Ying's distrustful attitude naturally didn't escape Cao Zhen's eyes. After leading the two hundred slaves away from the East Gate barracks without a single change, as soon as they were far away from Tao Ying, Cao Zhen immediately turned to his brother Cao Fang with a cold smile and said: "It seems that we have underestimated this young Tao Ying somewhat. He was actually able to prevent us brothers from planting spies in his troops, not bad at all."

  "What's he going to do? A naive and foolish little brat!" Mei Fang had always looked down on Tao Ying, coldly snorting: "Not to mention that Tao Ying is a young child, even if it were Old Man Tao Qian, he wouldn't dare to do anything to us brothers! If they really want to turn against us, first of all, the remaining defeated soldiers in Old Man Tao Qian's hands may not be a match for our Mei family's private army. If Old Man Tao Qian dares to take action against us brothers, Lord Xuande will immediately have an excuse to start a war!"

  "An open spear is easy to dodge, but a hidden arrow is hard to defend against." Zou Jue shook his head and whispered to Zou Fang: "Be careful, my brother can send more people to secretly monitor Tao Yingxiao, carefully observe every move of Tao Yingxiao, especially to figure out the strength of his new army, how they train, how they fight. If there's any unusual movement, report back to me immediately."

  "What use are the eight hundred new troops? Why must you bother with such trivial matters, brother?" Mei Fang curled her lip in disdain for her brother's fussiness. It wasn't until Mei Zhu glared at her that she reluctantly replied, "Alright, don't worry, brother. I'll make sure to assign more men and keep a close eye on Tao Yingxiao."

  Meng Zong hummed coldly, barely satisfied with his brother's answer. He turned back to glance at the Dongmen Xiaoxiao military camp behind him, and his mind was filled with doubts. "This Tao Ying Xiao'er, is he really stupid or pretending to be stupid? If he's really stupid, how could he think of building an army and leading troops by himself? If he's pretending to be stupid, why did he only assemble such a small force? With just 800 people, what use can they be?"

  Tao Ying was on guard against the Mi brothers, and for Cao Jiao, the chief general of Xuzhou, who had once again offered his good intentions, Tao Ying hesitated for a moment before finally nodding to Cao Jiao, thickening his skin to accept Cao Jiao's kindness and deciding to select soldiers from Cao Jiao's troops to supplement his own.

  Jian Tao nodded, and Cao Jiao, who was eager to get along with Jian Tao, let out a sigh of relief. He hastily ordered the 600 elite soldiers he had brought with him to form up on the small drill ground, then pointed at the troops and smiled at Jian Tao: "Second Master, please choose as you like. These 600 brothers were carefully selected by me from the main force in Xuzhou, they are all crack troops among the crack troops, and most of them are veteran soldiers who survived the bloody battle of Si River."

  "No, I don't need the veteran soldiers." Tao's words were astonishing. Without even looking at the Xu state veterans brought by Cao Jiao, he shook his head and said: "General Cao misunderstood. You brought these veteran soldiers, but I don't want a single one of them! What I want is to select soldiers from the new recruits you have enlisted, specifically from the 4,000 new recruits that Uncle has newly enlisted."

  "Second Master, you only want new recruits?" Cao Jiao first widened his eyes, then suddenly realized - like Tao Ying who was so engrossed in reading books that he became a bookworm, what would he understand about the importance of old soldiers?

  "Second brother, how can you be so foolish again?" Tao Ji also cried out in dismay. "Do you really understand military tactics? You have experienced veterans and elite soldiers at your disposal, yet you want to use new recruits instead? Without the guidance of veteran soldiers, when will these new recruits ever become battle-ready?"

  "As expected, a fool! A bookworm who knows nothing about the military!" Lin Qing, who had delayed his return home for three days before reporting to the army, muttered to himself and tried to hide behind other new recruits.

  "What do you know?" Tao Ying glared at Tao Ji and said coldly, "Don't look down on new recruits. They are blank sheets of paper without any marks, uncarved jade. I can train them to achieve twice the result with half the effort! Old soldiers have already formed their own combat styles, retraining them would only be twice the work for half the gain."

  He scolded his deputy, Tao Ying's younger brother, and then turned to Cao Jue, cupping his hands: "Uncle Cao, I know you mean well, but I have my own plans. I only want the new recruits that Uncle has newly recruited. Moreover, our Xuzhou army has just suffered a heavy blow from Cao Ze, and its vitality is greatly injured. If I take away the elite soldiers under Uncle's command again, it will inevitably affect Uncle's plan to rebuild the Xuzhou army. So, please lead me to those new troops and select some soldiers to come over."

  "Good nephew, don't blame your uncle for relying on his age." Cao Jiao changed to a serious expression and said solemnly: "A family with an elder is like having a treasure. In the troops, there are old soldiers who can help new recruits quickly get familiar with the army, but if it's all new recruits, I'm afraid your team won't be easy to train."

  "Thank you, Uncle, for your kind intentions. I naturally understand this principle, but it's not necessary." Tao Ying shook his head and smiled, saying: "As the younger generation is willing to recruit new soldiers for Uncle, there must be my own plans. I hope Uncle will not hesitate to help me achieve them."

  Tao Ying's attitude was so resolute that Cao Jiao, who had good intentions but received no reward, had no choice but to nod in agreement with a sigh. He led Tao Ying to the Beimen Dajiang camp where the main force of Xu State's army was stationed, and let him select soldiers from among the 4,000 newly recruited new soldiers. Meanwhile, Cao Jiao secretly wondered, "Could it be that Second Master is really an idiot? Why would he reject the veteran soldiers who were delivered to his doorstep and instead choose a bunch of new recruits who have never been on the battlefield or seen blood?"

  "Idiot!" Tao Qi and Lin Qing simultaneously cursed at Tao Ying's back.

  With the 4,000 new soldiers led by Cao Jiao as a foundation, Tao Ying's room for selection suddenly became much larger. As a result, Tao Ying's taste also became more refined overnight. Many new soldiers who had actually reached Tao Ying's previous standards were ruthlessly eliminated by Tao Ying, and only those who met the new selection criteria proposed by Tao Ying could join the team of Tao Er Gongzi.

  Tao Ying was having a great time, but Cao Jiu and Tao Ji, who were both experienced in military affairs, couldn't understand what he was doing. Tao Ying's new standards were too strange: the age of the recruits had to be between 15 and 20, they had to have long hands, bright eyes, and could have slightly knock-kneed legs, but absolutely no bowlegs; they shouldn't like to talk too much, and those who spoke with a lisp were absolutely not allowed. For this reason, Tao Ying even asked Cao Jiu to order the new recruits to be free to move around, so that he could observe them.

  What's even more absurd is that Tao Ying actually asked about the new recruits' family background, and only those with a clean record could be selected. Those who had committed crimes or had a bad record were not allowed to join! Especially those known as "wandering knights" - those idle young men from the countryside, Tao Ying absolutely did not want them!

  Dozens of strong new recruits who were favored by Tao Ji were brushed away one after another because they did not pass Tao Ying's political examination. Tao Ji finally couldn't hold back and directly questioned Tao Ying: "Second brother, are you selecting soldiers for the battlefield or students to read books? What's wrong with those people I liked? They fought in the countryside, injured people, and were wandering sons - what's wrong with that? This proves they're brave! Second brother, do you know or not, wandering sons who join the army are all elite soldiers everywhere!"

  "My younger brother is right, I am selecting students." Tao Ying's response made Tao furious, "What I want are people with organization and discipline, not a loose sand, nor individual heroism!"

  "Second Master, Cao Jiao is again relying on his old tricks." Cao Jiao also couldn't help but remind him, "A soldier who only listens to orders and can't fight on the battlefield is useless."

  "Cao Shu said it's right, but never mind." Tao Ying smiled and replied: "My father let me recruit 800 close relatives, originally to cultivate them as close relatives for use. Usually protect my father's car, help my father drive a few hunting objects during the hunt, and the opportunity to go to the battlefield is slim. Uncle thinks that I should choose new soldiers who like to listen or new soldiers with empty strength but not listening?"

  "Protect the charioteers and drive away the prey?" Cao Jiao heard this and rolled his eyes, thinking to himself that Tao Ying's recruitment of soldiers was actually for hunting, indeed a hopeless case.

  "Second brother, if your troops are not prepared to go into battle, then please give the order and let me return to General Cao's command!" Tao Jie shouted angrily.

  Tao Ying naturally understood that his third brother didn't want to get involved with him, and Tao Ying wasn't particularly keen on keeping this useless younger brother who was of no significance in the history of the Three Kingdoms. Unfortunately, Tao Ying was currently lacking in talented subordinates, so severely that apart from Tao Ji, he didn't even have a reliable deputy. Therefore, Tao Ying absolutely couldn't let his unfortunate younger brother go, but he also didn't open his mouth to persuade him or make concessions, and merely looked at Tao Ji with an icy gaze.

  "Second brother......" Tao Ji was stared at by Tao Ying, making him a bit hairy, and he also remembered that Tao Ying had always been his elder brother and had done great things that made himself extremely admire. So Tao Ji shrank back a few times, and finally still lowered his head in defeat, abandoning the transfer application. Tao Ying didn't pay attention to him either, turning around to continue selecting new soldiers.

  Tao Ying certainly understood what he was doing, and even more so did Cao Jiao and Tao Ji repeatedly oppose him. It wasn't that they deliberately opposed him, but rather they were truly sincere in their good intentions for him. However, Tao Ying also had his own difficulties and plans. Tao Ying's difficulty was that Xuzhou was a land of four battles, surrounded by enemies on all sides, with a vast and open terrain, almost without any natural barriers to defend against. If he used Cao Jiao and Tao Ji's method to build an army, then Tao Ying would at least need to assemble 500,000 to 600,000 troops in order to secure the five counties of Xuzhou and defend against enemies coming from all directions.

  After a long time of thinking, Tao Ying suddenly discovered that there was an army in history that seemed to be particularly suitable for the terrain and environment of Xuzhou. With very few troops, it could defend Xuzhou's peace and even have some offensive power while defending its hometown. Given the productive forces and technological forces of the Three Kingdoms era, it is highly possible to imitate this army. Therefore, from the beginning, Tao Ying set his goal to imitate this army, and to do so, the first important requirement was that he must have a batch of soldiers with strict discipline.

  It takes a batch of highly disciplined soldiers, Tao Ying naturally wouldn't want those who have been mixed into the army for a long time under Cao Jiao's command, nor would he want those wandering knights who are idle and brave but cannot be controlled.