Do you know: I am Yuan Wenshao

Chapter 9

On the northwest border, in the mountains and forests thirty miles west of Minshan Fort, there is a camp. Seven or eight soldiers wearing brown leather armor are patrolling the mountains surrounding the camp.

A sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy in armor sat on a stone in the camp, with a guard standing behind him.

The captain of the scout team had a flattering smile on his face and said: "Captain Yuan, this is a mountain forest. Climb high and look into the distance. You have a broad field of vision. If any Xixia cubs come over, they can be spotted from a distance."

Yuan Wenshao was noncommittal, and said lightly: "Really? Then tell me, what is the mission of the scout?"

"This..." The scout captain's expression changed, and a lot of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Say!" Yuan Wenshao said coldly.

It has been two months since he told Yuan Weichang last time that he wanted to join the army.

Although the Yuan family was in decline, they still had some connections in the Northwest Army.

Yuan Weichang asked someone to find connections, spent some money and found him an imperial martial arts captain from the eighth rank.

Yuan Wenshao got the appointment document from the Ministry of War, bid farewell to his family, took Zhang An, and came to the northwest.

The commanders of the northwest armies have always been members of Duke Dingguo's lineage, and among them, the Yong'an Army is the elite among the elite, and is powerful throughout the world.

It's a pity that the first emperor, regardless of dissuasion, forcibly launched a war against Xixia. Most of the entire Yong'an army died in the battle, even the old Duke Ding died in the battle.

The current Duke Dingguo took over the position of commander of the northwest army. He always wanted to revive the Yong'an Army and avenge his father. He naturally looked down on Yuan Wenshao, a son of a lord who relied on connections, so he sent him to guard Minshan Fort.

In the first battle, the Northwest Army suffered heavy losses, and its combat power was not as good as before. Facing Xixia, they could only take defense.

Seeing that Zhou Dynasty was avoiding fighting, Xixia became more and more arrogant and often sent troops to attack and plunder.

In order to contain this situation, Dingguo Gongsun Qi ordered people to build many fortresses in some important places outside the border city.

With the fortress as the center, scouts were sent out to prevent the small Xixia army from plundering.

Minshan Fort is one of them.

Sun Qi looked down on Yuan Wenshao, so naturally he would not be assigned to a more important fortress.

The area that Minshan Fort is responsible for is a small trail. In the three years since its establishment, no Xixia army has ever passed through it.

After Yuan Wenshao figured out the situation of Minshan Fort, he smiled bitterly.

He could more or less guess what Sun Qi was thinking, and arranged for him an unimportant position, neither worried about his accident, nor worried about his incompetence and what might happen to him.

Perhaps because nothing had happened, after arriving at Minshan Fort, Yuan Wenshao found that the soldiers stationed there were very lax.

After taking over, Yuan Wenshao did nothing at first and secretly learned about the situation of the garrison in Minshan Fort.

After figuring it out, they began to train the soldiers, finding various reasons to replace some low-level officers and promote new ones.

After a lot of effort, Minshan Fort was basically under his control.

After finishing these tasks, Yuan Wenshao began to inspect the situation in the scout camp.

The existence of Minshan Fort was to temporarily block the Xixia's marauding troops and buy time for the defenders behind to prepare.

The role of the scout battalion is to detect the enemy in advance, so that Minshan Fort has time to prepare.

Everyone in Minshan Fort was so lazy, and they didn't have much hope for Yuan Wenshao, who was out in the scout camp.

After some inspections, it was indeed the case.

These scout battalions did not send anyone to conduct reconnaissance and inspections at all. They all stayed in the camp and dawdled.

Seeing Yuan Wenshao's anger, the leader of the scouts quickly said, "Lieutenant Hui, the task of the scout battalion is to investigate the enemy's situation and prevent the small Xixia troops from looting."

"Detecting the enemy? You didn't even notice when I touched the edge of the camp. If there were really enemies, you wouldn't have noticed them before they would have caught me."

Yuan Wenshao was really angry. Although he was assigned to Minshan Fort at first, he was very dissatisfied.

He came here just to perform meritorious service. Minshan Fort is safe, but there is no chance to perform meritorious service.

But he soon adjusted. Since Minshan Fort could not achieve any merit, he would improve the quality of the army. If this reached Sun Qi's ears, it would also make Sun Qi change his view of him a lot.

However, in addition to his training these days, he is also learning about the situation in the Northwest.

In the past few years, as more and more fortresses were built, Xixia's small group of looting troops suffered small losses, and it was difficult to bring any losses to Dazhou.

Yuan Wenshao worried whether Xixia would change his strategy and take some mountain paths.

The reason why Minshan Fort was established is because there is a small road here. Although it is difficult to walk, small groups of troops can still pass.

It was precisely because of this concern that Yuan Wenshao came to inspect the scout team not long after he took control of the army.

According to the current laziness of the scout team, if Xixia really went this way, maybe one day when he was sleeping, the Xixia army had already broken through Minshan Fort.

Da Zhou did not kill civil servants, but there was no rule against killing military officers. If something happened, even if he saved his life, he would not be reused in the future.

"What Lieutenant Yuan taught me is that my subordinates must arrange for people to patrol carefully in the future and not dare to slack off." The scout captain quickly assured.

"Whoo~"

Yuan Wenshao took a deep breath, and said lightly: "In the future, I will make unannounced visits from time to time. If I touch the camp next time, I won't be able to find it. The Beacon Tower doesn't even have firewood. I will punish you severely!"

In ancient times, communication was inconvenient, so a small beacon tower was built in the scout camp to light the beacon to warn of emergencies.

However, he looked at the beacon tower in the camp, and there was no firewood. If there were enemies, they wouldn't even be able to warn them.

"Yes." The scout captain's face turned bitter.

He originally thought that he would just deal with it, but now that he heard Yuan Wenshao's advice, he would make frequent secret visits in the future, and he couldn't help but complain in his heart.

"Let's go!" Yuan Wenshao stood up.

"Captain Yuan, it's almost noon. Why don't you have a meal at the camp before leaving? I'll ask someone to hunt some game for Captain Yuan to try," the scout captain said flatteringly.

"No, I want to go to other camps to check out." Yuan Wenshao refused.

The scout captain tried to persuade him to stay, but when he saw that Yuan Wenshao had decided to leave, he personally sent him out of the camp.

"Gong... Lieutenant, is it possible that this is the end of the matter?" Zhang An asked doubtfully.

Yuan Wenshao shook his head slightly, and said, "Otherwise? Replace him? Look at the lazy look of those scouts, so what if they change?"

"Just transfer them back to the fort and bring over another batch of scouts." Zhang An suggested.

Yuan Wenshao smiled bitterly and said: "It's not that simple. Although these scouts are lazy, they are very familiar with the surrounding area. It will take time to get familiar with them if they are replaced rashly. In addition, it is not good to kill without teaching. I have given him a chance this time , if he doesn’t have a long memory, don’t blame me.”

Although he has never read military books, the original owner has read military books a lot.

It's not good to lead troops too hard.

He has visited several scout camps, and the general situation is similar. Is it possible to punish them all and then replace them?

There are 200 people in Minshan Fort, and there are five scout teams, a total of 50 people.

These people account for a quarter. If they are all punished, they will definitely have complaints in their hearts, and it will be difficult to lead the team by then.

"But if there is no punishment, these people may not have a long memory." Zhang An said.

Yuan Wenshao sneered and said, "I just need an early chicken to respect the monkey."

All punishments do have a great impact, but if someone violates the rules openly and secretly, he can just kill the chicken to scare the monkeys.

(End of this chapter)