Lin Hai didn't believe that Xin Yuetu came alone. In fact, except for the legendary martial arts masters, no one could cross the Shiwan Mountains alone with only a sword. Xin Yuetu must have stationed people near Qitian Village and Qinghe County.

These spies were unable to enter the heavily guarded iron mine and Qinghe Industrial Zone, but the black smoke rising from the huge chimney of the steel blast furnace could be seen from miles away. Lin Hai felt that this was the real reason why Xin Yuetu believed in the steel production in Qinghe County.

Therefore, in order to conceal his tracks, to achieve large-scale rotation of defense, and to test the results of the army building during this period, Lin Hai organized a large-scale military exercise.

Of course, from the outside, it looked like the bandits from Qitian Village had finally launched an all-out attack on the iron mine. As Xin Yuetu wrote in his memorial, "Whether motivated by economic interests or their own safety, the bandits from Qitian Village strictly adhered to the terms of the agreement. Three days after I left the village, they launched an attack on the iron mine and large blacksmith shops in Qinghe County. The battle was brutal. Spies observed from afar that both sides suffered heavy casualties, and a significant number of bandits and Qinghe militiamen were captured. Ultimately, however, under the personal charge of King Zhentian, the fearful Qinghe County militia could no longer withstand the attack and ultimately retreated to the heavily fortified county town."

For Lin Hai, who had been following the progress of the entire exercise in the directorate, this live simulation performance was far from his expectations.

When the scouts announced that Xinyuetu's spies had gone far away, Lin Hai sat down, unfolded a piece of paper, and carefully wrote down "Several Opinions on the First Actual Combat Exercise of the Armed Forces in the Qinghe Area"...

...

Both the Qinghe County militia and the Qitian Village militia ignored the role of terrain...

The main forces of both sides were focused on the tug-of-war in the river valley, and no one thought of infiltrating through the ridge area...

Overly reliant on armored infantry for defense, lacking overall mobility...

Neither side had much of a solution to the strong field fortifications, and both were more willing to engage the enemy in field battles...

Neither side has carried out large-scale long-range strikes, which has a lot to do with the current lack of effective long-range weapons in our army...

The commanders on both sides were militia commanders with no battlefield experience. They lacked the ability to respond on the spot and only blindly sent more troops to the front line...

The fighting spirit of both sides was questionable. Many soldiers believed that this was just a show for the government, and that all they needed to do was wave their swords and shout a few times...

At the summary meeting after the exercise, Lin Hai read out his opinions aloud in front of his brothers and the militia commander, and asked for the document to be archived and the content to be discussed.

"It's undeniable that we've built something from scratch in a short period of time. Such a thing is something to be proud of at any time, except now."

"Our soldiers still think of themselves as traditional officers, feeling they are just soldiers who get food and think thinking is the officers' job, while officers think thinking is just their job."

"With the successive commissioning of steel mills, glass factories, and cement plants, our industrial output will soon exceed our consumption. Our only outlet is export sales, but we still lack the armed forces to protect our trade routes."

"The work of absorbing refugees and integrating bandits cannot stop. The continuously increasing population is one of our motivations."

"There are several tasks at this stage that require everyone to complete together."

"The first thing is to rectify our thinking. Many people know about our cooperation with the Khmer. We need to make it clear to the soldiers and the people. This is just a delaying tactic to resist the Khmer invasion. The Khmer are still unwilling to give up on us. Shangba County was destroyed by the Khmer. Everyone here is a survivor of the Khmer invasion and has a blood feud with the Khmer. We must not let anyone forget this."

"Secondly, our agricultural production. The development of composting technology, led by Yang Xiong, has been too slow. The county government needs to invest more resources and develop various composting formulas simultaneously. Don't worry about failure. The requirement is simple: maximize soil fertility and increase grain production while being cheap and easy to promote."

"The third is our industrial production. After Shi Zhen'er focused on glass and cement production, Dong Ji, who was in charge of the steel plant, was unable to manage both production and R&D. Therefore, Dong Ji's position was adjusted to the head of production at the steel plant to ensure safe production and meet output targets. Ma Si was appointed as the head of R&D for the new alloy steel. His primary task was to develop a matching alloy steel for the new crossbow, which required a range at least 50% greater than that of the standard crossbow."

"The fourth issue is trade routes. Cement factories currently don't have the capacity for large-scale production, but steel, a bulk commodity, and glass, a luxury good, require continued research and development to sell existing products. Nineteenth Brother Lu You will be responsible for sales to Cambodia, and the trade routes will be protected by the Shanzhai militia. Meanwhile, Thirty-third Brother Jiang Jucai will be responsible for developing a trade route to the Tran Dynasty, which will be protected by the newly formed Third Battalion of the Qinghe County Militia."

"Finally, there's the issue of intelligence. Forty-second Brother Zhang Zaijiang will be in charge of this for the time being. The first batch of trained intelligence personnel will follow the trade routes and begin expanding into the Chen Dynasty and Cambodia. At the same time, we need intelligence personnel stationed in Jinguan City behind us. We can't afford to be blind."

......

The meeting lasted from morning to evening.

In Wang Liang's words, "I've never seen Xiao Linzi so serious. We think we've done well, but he always sees the problem at a glance and raises questions we haven't even considered. Sometimes I feel like his experience is even deeper than the old captain's. I don't know where he learned all this."

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!