Grace Yue's Silent Strength: The Pillar of Henry Yuan's Guar Chapter 196

Under the pretext of suppressing bandits, Hou Ming began to recruit soldiers on a large scale in Yunnan, and a lot of military funds were squeezed out of the local elders, gentry, wealthy businessmen and nobles through coercion and inducement.

At the same time, according to Simon Yan's instructions, tens of thousands of people living under Yazui Mountain were forcibly relocated. Although the people were harassed by mountain bandits all year round, the land was their life and the only thing they depended on for survival. Especially in the spring when it was sowing season, few people were willing to obey orders. But no matter how they resisted and begged, they were eventually forced to leave with their families under the threat of swords.

Simon Yan stood on the city wall of Zhongqing and looked at the long migrating team. He couldn't help but think of the time when the imperial court gave up the seven states of Liaobei and he was forced to migrate south from Taining with his family. It was such a miserable time. That was also the beginning of the tragedy of his life.

Ants, ants, your lives are worthless.

In just a dozen days, more than 20,000 new soldiers were recruited. Simon Yan, through Chen Yu, placed Leo Yuan in the camp to train the new soldiers. Leo Yuan used to be just a gangster and could not lead troops in battle, but after following Ethan Feng for three years, he learned a lot of skills and could now stand on his own. Of course, Simon Yan's biggest intention was to gradually replace the people around Chen Yu with his own. When he found an opportunity, he would quietly transfer Qian Feitong and Hou Ming away or simply get rid of them, so that Chen Yu would eventually have to rely on himself.